1) - 3 TPE
Jon Toner had about the kind of season he expected going into S55. Toner was traded last offseason to the Edmonton Blizzard from the Los Angeles Panthers, where he had played his entire career to that point. With Toner being a bit long in the tooth being one of the oldest players in the league, he expected to come in to a very strong Blizzard team and slot in as about a #4 or #5 defenseman, which is exactly what happened. While Toner brought his strong defensive game to the table, he also put up solid offensive numbers with 25 points, despite not receiving any powerplay time throughout the season. Overall he was happy with his personal play throughout the year. Unfortunately the high flying Blizzard squad that was projected to compete for the cup fell just short, dropping game 7 to the New Orleans Spectres and finishing just one goal away from a finals berth.

3) - 2 TPE
My personal opinion is that I don’t think foreign based SHL/SMJHL teams would be a good idea for the league. While I think it could allow for some creativity with new locations, team-names, and maybe even jersey design, I think it scraps some of the realism aspect that the league works strong to maintain. A multi-continental league isn’t super feasible in terms of travel and what that would cost, both financially (especially for a junior league) and in terms of the toll that amount of travel would take on the players. Maybe some day we might get to the point where an overseas team is feasible but right now I think there are plenty of great options in North America for future expansion.

4) - 2 TPE
Although I’m biased I really think the Edmonton Blizzard were the best team to miss out on the Challenge Cup Finals. We tied Buffalo for this years Presidents Trophy, we had fantastic depth on our team, some of the best players in the league (Pepperoni, Scholz, Morgan, Tokolosh), great coaching, solid goaltending, the whole works. We were actually even confident that we had a good chance to beat Buffalo were we to make it to the finals, but unfortunately the New Orleans Spectres just had those few extra bounces go their way and they managed to eke out a win in game 7 of the conference finals.

6) - 2 TPE
He may be retired now, but I think if Mike Izzy made a TikTok account he could probably build himself a solid following of fans. He was an immensely popular player during his time in the league and he always had a big personality which I think would lend itself well to becoming a social media star. He already has experience making video’s and clips for the Dragons in the past so I can’t imagine it would be too hard for him to make the transition. Maybe he could go on there and start a virtual campaign to make sure he gets into the HOF (not that it matters, cause he will).

13) - 4 TPE
a) I think that both teams are extremely even defensively. Buffalo has THREE 2k TPE defenders in Darrow, Scoop and Selich, giving them the slightly better top end. However I think NOLA had ever so slightly better depth than the Stampede. However, I think the real difference comes in the goalies, with Cain being a little bit better than Doyle.
c)While New Orleans does have slightly better physical attributes than the Stampede, I don’t think that it will end up making too significant of a difference. Buffalo is a team that has won cups and been a top team the last few years. They aren’t the type to get too phased by physical play.
d) For favorite name in the series, I’d have to go with Boris “The Beast” Poroshenko. This guy sounds like the type of old school Russian dude that would show up to the rink 15 minutes before game time, smoke a massive cigar, skip warmup, and then STILL beat the shit out of you on the ice. Plus the guy’s nickname is “The Beast”. How can you not love it.
e) I think there are two clear animals out of this group that are way ahead of their peers, sloths and otters. Otters are cute as shit (although they stink) but sloths are cool as shit and one of the chillest looking animals out there, so I gotta go with them.


16) - 3 TPE
verification: tpe