‘The Portland Pirates came into the 2010-11 season with high hopes centered around an influx of new talent, including eventual Rookie of the Year winner Luke Adam, former Michigan State star Corey Tropp, and a duo of defensive stalwarts in Alex Biega and Nick Crawford. They overachieved by winning the Atlantic division and reaching the conference semi-final, in large part because of the play of AHL defenseman of the year Marc-Andre Gragnani and a team first attitude that was infectious all season long.’