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Tomasnz · 04-26-2019, 05:18 AM

(Ready for grading about 1450 words)

Peter watched eagerly as Erik Chisling made his way around the rink meeting and greeting with players, coaches and parents. This is the legend himself, the most famous danish hockey player, ever. The first Great Dane to not only play in but to dominate in the early days of the SHL, over too short a career.

Peter had just been playing in an exhibition game held to showcase some of the next generation of danish ice hockey talent. But his game had been ruined when the coach had told him that their goalie was sick and since Peter had practiced as goalie a few times to help out the senior teams, would he mind playing there again today. His chance to impress a great defenseman evaporated right there. He'd done okay in goal, exhibiting increasing comfort in those huge pads, and for his for game as a goalie he had only let two goals in, and held off a last minute PK to give the second team a surprising 3-2 win.

But that was an hour ago, right now he was about to come face to face with a great Dane...

Erik Chisling: Hey great game in goal, someone said it was your first game?
Peter Larson: hi, yeah, I normally play defense, like you.
EC: hahah, don't worry kid, you did great, I thought you were one of the most impressive players on the ice, that's why I already heard it was your first game in net. You showed great positioning and instinct from where you needed to be, probably from all that defensive play.
PL: uh, thanks.
EC: you know, you should consider making the change permanent, I can see there are some good defenders on your team, and you might find that you get more ice time and the chance to develop into a great goalie with that time to hone those instincts of yours and some focus on skills.

...And just like, he was gone, talking to the next player, and whether he meant it or not, Peter was now set on the path to becoming a great goalie....

For me as a new player and member of this website one of the biggest positive impacts for me has been the culture of mentorship prevalent in the SHL. As a new member of this amazing community, I have been surrounded by great vets and GMs all happy to share their knowledge and provide paths for success to follow. I am going to call out some of the great people that have helped me so far as SHL mentors.

@Acsolap // Max Branagan - okay. This guy is actually my best mate. But there I am at a London NFL game, chatting to one of my mates, and he is telling me about some online hockey thing that he had just joined. Six months later I'm like, okay, let's give this a try, yup I'll be a semi active, okay goalie you say, great. Holly crap, who knew this would be fun. He helped me sign up, kept me hyped for the upcoming draft by texting me prospect tourney results, drafted me, welcomed me into his team, encouraged me to do prediction threads, commented on my media pieces, and showed me the ropes of using the website - how to update, why equipment was worth buying, and helped field questions and kept me excited for my first few weeks of taking part. I legitimately would not still be active, or would be far less active without the encouragement and environment that Acsolap provided for me. He was also there to help me with my first jount as a WJC GM, made me feel not completely in the deep end.

@JayWhy - Jakub Aittokallio, ol' hof goalie - he has been my true mentor, my starting build was one he gave Acsalop to give me. And I followed that to surprising success. He was available to field questions from me later in the season as I started to flesh out my capped build. And then in the ultimate show of faith he traded up to draft a goalie! Always happy to give advice and discuss SIM theory from his (years of) experience, but never too forceful nor treating you like an idiot for asking questions.

These next two are former ANC/PGF GMs and probably mentors of my mentor. But their presence in the locker room and welcoming approach to new players and helping foster a positive locker room has been amazing to be around. Both are now SHL co-GMs and were fantastic to talk to and understand how the draft process would work and what jobs on the site entail. @Tomen - Otto Selich, the ANC/PGF historian and former GM, always available to help and give advice on questions and give context to situations that the team finds itself in. And @ml002 - Robert Lokitonov, the GM that moved the team to anchorage and whose night shift job has been an amazing asset to being online to answer questions, ML was particularly helpful to me in understanding line Strategies.

Okay, and one last person, @Jenny , Olivier Cloutier. Jenny has been the role model for who I want to be as a team mate. Jenny was drafted first round same class as me, and she has been nothing but an amazing example for how to act as a player and a team mate. She already knew everyone, knew the SIM, so I was totally intimidated at the start, that faded quickly. I challenge you to find a classier and more professional member of our community than Jenny, and I have been privileged to have such an amazing team mate to learn from and to follow as an example. She is also my team world teamie, another key advisor my first season as a GM, and we have two medals so that is cool too.

There have ofcourse been others and definitely @Pris and her team deserve a shout out here in terms of helping to foster the site wide culture of mentorship to support rookies. Thank you to everyone who has given advice freely when asked and been a great example for new players to first try and copy, then learn from.

Mentoring for me is the act of sharing experience to show possible paths that can be taken and mentors act as a example of how things can work out. And is incredibly useful to Rookies. Going forward though, once you have learned the ropes and are on a path that you have chosen, generally through plenty of discussion with your mentors, the time is for the true coaches to step up. I see caching as helping players achieve their goals, maybe often beyond the skills of that coach themselves. So for me and maybe other new players just starting to shed that rookie perspective I am looking for the people who are going to help me continue to figure out the SIM and my role in a team, and find ways to keep this league being a fun place to visit. And maybe, I can follow the example of those before me and start being a mentor and role model for the players joining the league now. I am looking forward to my next stage of development in the league.

Over the years Peter managed to keep in touch with Erik Chisling, starting with sending emails about how the season had gone and his goalie stats. Erik actually replied and kept the correspondence going, occasionally emailing game film of a great goalie performance he had seen.

It was Erik that reached out to Peter, when he was struggling in his first professional contract in the European leagues, and suggested he put his name forward for the SMJHL And so it was a great pleasure for both to have the opportunity to meet and chat again face to face during the SHL draft process after Peter's stellar rookie campaign. Erik is now the general manager for the New England Wolfpack and talked at length with Peter about what his ambitions were now that he had made it this far, as well as feeding back what it would take to succeed at the next level. Continuing as they had since that fateful rinkside meeting as Peter's first mentor.

We know the story, and Peter ended up at one of the Wolfpacks chief rivals Manhattan, but sitting at that table talking shop and discussing eing a goalie for the SHL was for Peter Larson, the icing of the cake of an amazing first season.

Only time will tell if Peter will be able to become the greatest Dane, but for now he enjoys being able play for a team in the best league in the world.

@Ace cheers for letting me use Erik Chisling, for the nice chat pre draft, and banter on who was the greatest Dane that started this article off.