1. It was a weird season for Kaarlo this time around. Texas making a move to add a superstar player like Piotr Czerkawski at the start of the season meant that my role was more limited than I had expected, playing down on the third line. Even as a role player, he still managed to trend in the right direction, improving on last year’s totals in goals and assists and tallying 26 points on the season. This is definitely a little on the low side but given that the team had more depth this season and managed to get further in the standings, I’m not too disappointed in how things played out when all things are considered. I think if I’d been playing on the second line I could have been able to break the 30 point barrier, but there’s no point in speculating so we’ll just have to see if Kaarlo gets it done next season. I’m hoping for a bigger role as I’m getting to a fairly high TPE level, so hopefully good things are ahead.



2. I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to this season's expansion draft. As someone who is exposed, the prospect of leaving behind all my teammates in Texas isn't something I'm particularly excited about, and even if I don't get picked, there will be two teammates of mine lost from the fold which will again be a sad prospect. We've really put a good group together these last few seasons, so losing anyone is far from ideal, but I think the GMs have done a good job of keeping as many of the team's main pieces together as possible. In terms of how things will go for the expansion teams, I can see the Argonauts picking first in the expansion draft and adding a player like Cassisus Darrow to their team. That kind of veteran experience will be a huge add for the team, and it's going to be a boost for a brand new team to add that kind of presence. From there on, I have no idea but it'll be exciting to follow for sure.



3. It’s probably the more boring way of thinking for some, but I prefer having just North American based franchises. There’s a lot of large markets in North America that the SHL hasn’t used for franchises yet, and as a league that looks to mirror the NHL, it makes sense to put teams in some of those before we go overseas for team locations. I loved Atlanta as a location for a team, but it meant that we as a league are still without a franchise in potentially the biggest hockey city in the world in Montreal, so let’s get a team there before we start looking at random spots in other countries.



4. The best team to not make the finals was the Edmonton Blizzard. They took the western conference finals to seven games and really made it look like they’d be able to beat New Orleans, but unfortunately they came up short when it was all said and done. They also were pretty dominant in the regular season, being tied for the best record in the league. I’m not sure how things are going to shake out in the next couple seasons for the team with some big names hitting free agency this offseason, but they had a great season and were unfortunate to not be able to go further



5. I'm not going to miss an opportunity to pump my own team's tyres here, so I'm going to try and convince you that Team Finland are on the verge of a huge season. After making some strides last season, we're primed and ready for another big tournament from our young team. Guys like Josef Kubinec have stepped into the elite TPE range, Bjorn Leppanen and Kaarlo Kekkonen have continued their development to the point that they should be legitimate threats in this year's tournament, and young guys like Jukka Timmonen are entering the tournament with uncapped builds that should really let them play to a more complete level. It's tough to say exactly how well I think the team is going to do, but I really see us as being threats to make it to the medal rounds and cause some disappointment for other teams. In terms of an overall tournament winner though, it's hard to look past Canada. They've got an incredibly strong team and after seeing how they put it together last season, it's going to be interesting to see the way they go about looking to repeat.



16. Verification word: verified