Login

CrazyMojito · 07-15-2022, 11:09 AM

I joined the league all the way back in March of 2020. Manhattan had just won the Challenge Cup and my rookie season in the SMJHL was the first season the league was going to be using Franchise Hockey Manager 6, transitioning from STHS. With the dawn of the FHM8 era set to begin in what is my second players rookie season in the SMJHL, lets look back at each SHL teams success under FHM6 and how the simulation engine shaped the history of the league over the past 13 seasons.

During the FHM6 era, the league grew from 16 teams to 18 teams in S56 and then from 18 teams to 20 teams in S60. This of course changed how playoff seedings were structured. Eight teams qualified for the post season from S53 to S55, S56 through S59 12 teams would see the post season with four teams getting a bye to the second round, and then lastly from S60 until S65 16 out of 20 teams would begin the quest for the cup.

Starting with playoff streaks only three teams managed to go through the entire era with never missing the playoffs, Edmonton, Buffalo, and Hamilton. Surprisingly, and hats off to the expansion GMs, but Atlanta and Philadelphia have made the playoffs every season since their addition to the league. The Forge haven’t been quite able to get past the first round but Atlanta saw a finals appearance in S64 where they lost to Chicago. Just a small note about expansions teams, three out of the four all made the playoffs in their inaugural season with Montreal being the only team who failed to reach. That said, they did make the playoffs in S64 which means that all 20 teams made at least one post season appearance during the 13 seasons of FHM6! Minnesota, Calgary, and New England are the only teams that go into the FHM8 era having missed the playoffs multiple seasons. 13 teams will be looking to continue their success as they have put together streaks of at least 5 post season births.

There definitely were a few powerhouse teams, four teams won 11 out of 13 Challenge Cups and one team making up nearly half of those. Hamilton dominated with 5 Cups, with Buffalo, Chicago, and Texas each winning two. New Orleans and Los Angeles were the other two champions. Interestingly enough, there was never any back to back cup winners, and Chicago was the only team to have won the cup in one season and miss the playoffs completely the next. Hamilton saw themselves in eight out of 13 Cup finals, and Buffalo five times. Edmonton, despite making the playoffs all 13 seasons only saw one cup finals appearance which was the inaugural season of FHM6, two conference finals, and then first and second round exits.

The most fascinating but not the most surprising thing about this time period is the fact that Buffalo and Hamilton met each other in the playoffs a total of 11 times. This including twice for the Challenge Cup with each team winning one. The only two seasons these two teams didn’t meet are S57 and S59 where they both made it to their conference finals. In fact, at least one of these two teams made what would be the conference finals every single season. Buffalo failed to make it past the 1st round only once with Hamilton winning at least one playoff round each season. Just pure domination by these two teams.

In the end, the final playoff appearances for each are as follows:

ATL 10/10 100.0%
BUF 13/13 100.0%
HAM   13/13 100.0%
PHI   6/6   100.0%
EDM 13/13 100.0%
CGY 11/13 84.6%
CHI 11/13 84.6%
LAP 11/13 84.6%
TEX 11/13 84.6%
BAP 8/13 61.5%
NOLA 8/13 61.5%
SFP 8/13 61.5%
SEA 6/10 60.0%
MAN 7/13 53.8%
NEW 7/13 53.8%
TBB 7/13 53.8%
TOR    7/13 53.8%
WPG 5/13 38.5%
MIN 3/13 23.1%
MTL 1/6 16.7%

*CptSquall* · 07-15-2022, 05:29 PM

Approved +5 TPE to @CrazyMojito

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us