The Big S56 Draftee Survey

After skipping most of the previous seasons, It’s time that I finally get my hands on some of that sweet double media money for draft related stuff again! Instead of writing a bunch of scouting reports of reviewing the picks after they are made, which lots of other members have already done in some very good articles, I have instead decided to do something different and survey this season’s prospects about their experiences with the draft! To do that, I sent out a questionnaire to everyone who was selected in the draft and who isn’t a GM. It’s possible that I missed some people and if you are one of them I apologize, but I did my best to include everyone I could find and to include prospects from every team, given that they had picks.

To be transparent and to make my methodology is clear, this is the full questionnaire that I sent out:

Hello recent Draftees!

First of all, let me congratulate you on having been drafted to an SHL Team, I hope you enjoyed the process and are happy with where you ended up and if not, well... this is your chance to talk about it !

I am planning to write a big article on the draft that isn’t so much about the picks themselves but about what you, the draftees, thought about the process. So I have set up a quick Draftee Survey and it would be nice if you could answer me a few questions for it. A lot of them just require you to pick a number on a scale from 1 to 10, but feel free to add your own text answers wherever you see fit as they help me to understand your mindset more and they are always a good thing to add to the article as quotes.

I promise to treat your data with as much anonymity and discretion as possible. Throughout the article I will not use player or member names or any individual data that would make it possible to link individual players to specific teams. I am mostly planning to aggregate the data and analyze it in bulk to find out which aspects of the draft players were happy with and which ones they didn’t like so much, this is not about calling out teams for their selections or anything of that kind.

So if there are certain aspects of the whole thing that you weren't super happy with, be it the scouting process or your destination, this is your chance to talk about it openly under the guise of anonymity. So please be as honest as possible with your answer and don’t hype up things or hate on them needlessly.

Thank you for reading and for participating in this! And now, to the questions...

How much did you enjoy the scouting and drafting process in general?

(On A Scale from 1 (Didn’t Enjoy at all) to 10 (Loved It), feel free to add an open text answer if you want to elaborate)

How happy are you with your draft destination?

(On A Scale from 1 (Hate It) to 10 (Love It), feel free to add an open text answer if you want to elaborate)

How happy are you with your draft position/spot?

(On A Scale from 1 (Very Unhappy) to 10 (Very Happy), feel free to add an open text answer if you want to elaborate)

Did you expect to go higher or lower?

(On A Scale from 1 (Lower) to 10 (Higher), feel free to add an open text answer if you want to elaborate)

How much contact did you have prior to the draft with the team that ended up selecting you?

(On A Scale from 1 (None at all) to 10 (We talked all the time), feel free to add an open text answer if you want to elaborate)

How many teams would you estimate you talked to directly prior to the draft?

(Open Answer)

Has your opinion of the team that drafted you changed over the last few days, since they picked you up?

(On A Scale from 1 (Not at all) to 10 (complete 180), feel free to add an open text answer if you want to elaborate)

How many more seasons do you plan to spend in juniors?

(Open Answer)

If your player magically gained enough TPE over night to be a good SHL-performer right away, would that change your previous answer?

(Open Answer)

Which other team(s), aside from the one that selected you, would you have liked to end up on?

(Open Answer)

Which other team(s) are you happy you avoided?

(Open Answer)

After the first few days, how does your SHL teams LR compare to your Juniors LR?

(Open Answer)

And lastly, it would be great if you could give me a quick summary of the information on your player so that I don’t have to look it up individually for every questionnaire I get back!

(User Name)
(Player Name)
(Position)
(Draft-Position)
(Junior Team)
(SHL Team)
(First-generation player or recreate?)

Thanks again for participating!

A total of 20 people replied with their answers, with a significant portion of them not just doing the ratings but adding a written portion to a lot of answers as well, so thank you for that. It did make my work on this a lot easier and more enjoyable to get this kind of insight from you!

Alright so what did people think about the scouting process, the draft or their new team? Let’s find out...

How much did you enjoy the scouting and drafting process in general?

Our first questions asked how much the draftees enjoyed the whole process in general. Overall, most of them were quite happy with how it all went showcased by a very good median rating of 7,25.



Only a single person gave it a rating of 3 or lower, pointing to the low interest in his player as the reason. “I know I wasn’t the best prospect and there was no chance of me being drafted in the first round with the quality of this draft”, the player said, “but still, I didn’t expect to be contacted by only one team outside of the one that drafted me.” A few other draftees were underwhelmed as well and for similar reasons, citing what they believed was a certain laziness among GMs that led to them not even being contacted by a lot of teams.

Most draftees were quite happy with the process however, with a majority of participants giving it a rating of 7 or above and five perfect 10’s among those ratings. A first-generation player, who gave it an 8, noted that “it can be a little chaotic at times, but overall a satisfying experience”. Another first-generation player gave the same rating but echoed some of the criticism mentioned above about the number of GMs who reached out to him - a common theme throughout this survey even with people who were generally satisfied with how it all went down.

Overall however, 13 out of 20 players rated the process a 7 or higher so we can probably rate it a success still - as even those who rated it lower usually didn’t hate it.

How happy are you with your draft destination?

If the last question was already a reason for us to be happy with the draft process, this one came with an even more positive outcome and should have us be almost ecstatic: Most draftees absolutely love the team they ended up on! The median rating of 8.35 is by far the highest in this entire survey, with more than half of the participants, 12 to be exact, giving their new team a perfect 10 out of 10. Some examples for peoples reasoning for their perfect rating are:

“I really wasn't set on one specific destination and this team has some familiar faces and I'm excited in the direction.”
“I was surprised to be drafted by this team since I didn’t hear from them previously, but I’m excited!”
“Excited to be part of a new team, especially one of the few that seemed to take a genuine interest in scouting me leading up to the draft.”

and...

“Cause I’m stuck with [name redacted]”

Of the people that didn’t give a 10, half were still generally positive towards their new team and only 4 people voiced indifference or even unhappiness. “There is nothing really bad about the team that I ended up on, it wasn’t where I wanted to go necessarily but it wasn’t a place that I didn’t want to go to either”, said a player from a newer brand team in the league who gave his destination a 5.

Another player was quite generous in giving his new team a 4 on the other hand, because in his explanation he went quite in depth about how the atmosphere in the LR rubs him the wrong way sometimes, and how he was disappointed by how long it took to even get him access to the LR in the first place. Interestingly enough, that very same team also received a 10 from another one of it’s newly acquired prospects, which only goes to show how different peoples opinions on these things can be sometimes. “A very active LR. Bunch of good guys on the team and I can see myself staying here a long time”, that player said. Sadly, the only person to answer this question with a 1 rating did not give a reasoning for his answer.

There also was a perfect 50/50 split between first-gens and recreates in the not-so-happy category, so unlike I expected this wasn’t a case of recreates being pickier in their choice of team. Or maybe they were, but they had been more active in telling certain teams to not pick them up early on to avoid those situations.

How happy are you with your draft position/spot?

I admit that his question probably wasn’t perfectly formulated, as I got the feeling that some people interpreted the rating scale differently or didn’t quite know how to answer, so I would read the numbers for this question (and the next one as well, sadly), with some caution. Overall we ended up with a median score of 7,45 which is quite good and only a relatively small number of people voiced their unhappiness because they thought they had been drafted too low. “Most mocks I saw had me going quite a bit earlier”, one of them, a first-gen who gave a 4 rating, told us, “but I guess this now gives me a chance to prove to my team that they got a decent steal.” A recreate who gave a three had much the same to say, telling us “I really expected to go first round and thought that I was rated higher than I ended up going.”

Another recreate tied his not-so-excitedness directly to one of his previous players: “Would have loved to be drafted higher than my first player, but if being drafted lower means I'm back with my old team then it isn't too bad.” A sentiment that was echoed by another recreate by the way, who ended up still giving a 7 rating however. Previous players were a common theme in this question, another recreate gave a rating of 6, telling us that “it felt like the failures of my last player were held much more strongly against me than it was against some other recreates.”



An interesting factor when it comes to this question were goalies, who regularly told us that they weren’t super thrilled with where they had been picked, but that they knew that this was part of the goalie game and therefore were not really disappointed by it.

A significant majority of players were very happy with their draft spot however, mentioning that they felt that they were drafted where they thought it made sense or where they expected it, or that they were excited to have made it into the first round. One player was apparently quite pleased with going first overall as well. Another player gave a rating of, 9 mentioning that he had fully expected to be a 2nd round pick and didn’t mind at all, but that he still subtracted one point because “a little part of me wanted to go in the first round…”

Did you expect to go higher or lower?

Just like with the question before I would advise to treat these numbers with a bit of caution, especially since they worked a bit differently than for the previous questions, where 1 usually meant bad and 10 meant good. This time, 1 meant that a player had expected to have been drafted much lower than where he ended up and 10 that they expected to go much higher.

I found the results of this question quite interesting, even if they have some weaknesses. Generally speaking, ratings were quite strongly grouped around the middle of the scale and near the median of 6,2. A lot of people gave it a 5 or 6, essentially saying that they thought they were picked right where they belong. Nobody was cocky enough to claim that they were an absolute steal that should have gone much higher by giving it a 10 rating. There were also just a handful of 9’s and none of those really were confident enough to provide a reasoning.

However, apparently the players who participated in this survey, and probably most draftees in general by extension, like to see themselves as “slight steals”. Ratings in the 6-8 area where by far the most prevalent ones in this category, on the other hand almost nobody thought of themselves as “overrated” or having been drafted too early, which would have been represented by a rating below 5.

In my opinion It’s quite an interesting look into the mindsets of not just these draftees but all of us who have gone through an SHL Draft in general. People just seem to like to think of themselves as the underdog, as slightly but not extremely underrated and in a position to prove some people wrong without feeling completely slighted by the whole league and becoming bitter over it. It reflects what most of us have probably seen around the boards, where you can quite regularly see people talk in draft threads or in their articles about how they thought they slipped too far in the draft and how they now have something to prove, whereas you will quite rarely see someone come out and say that they never expected to have gone that early and that they aren’t quite sure if they even deserve it.

Oh and lastly there was one player who gave a 5 and told us “I knew I was going [x]th. The team didn't tell me but everybody told me they heard I was going there.” Don’t really have much to say about that, I just found it kinda funny.

How much contact did you have prior to the draft with the team that ended up selecting you?

Now this was a question that saw a lot more variation than most other ones. The median was pretty close to the middle with a 5,75 but answers were quite spread out, with 6 out of 20 players determining that they had a lot of prior contact with the team that ended up drafting them (8-10 rating), whereas 5 players had rather little (rating below 5).

One thing that is interesting to look at here is the correlation between the answers to this question and the happiness people expressed with their draft destination. Are players that had a lot of contact beforehand with the team that ended up drafting them happier with their destination than those who barely talked to their new team or were picked completely blind?

The answer is yes, kind of. There are some exceptions to the rule, like one player who told us that he had absolutely no contact with the team draft that ended up drafting him (rating 1), but that he was absolutely excited to be there nonetheless (rating 10). Generally speaking though, most people who didn’t have a lot of contact with the team that picked them up were less happy with their destination than those who talked to said team a lot beforehand. Of the people who had no contact to their team beforehand (rating 1), one loved his new team as we just talked about (rating 10), one hated it (1) and one was largely indifferent (5).



That last person also elaborated on his thought process a bit, saying that “it would've been nice to know that the team who drafted me at least showed a bit of interest beforehand”, but also acknowledging that “I understand that scouting is difficult and time-consuming so I can't be too disappointed.” He specifically pointed out how the lack of communication influenced his opinion of his new team too, saying that while he hadn't been around enough to form opinions about many of the teams, his rating of his new destination “would probably be higher if I was able to talk to the team beforehand.”

Of the people who had some contact but not a lot (rating 2-5), only two claimed to be very positive about their new team (ratings 8 and 10), whereas the three others were okay with it but not overly excited (4,5 and 7). One of them reported that the team “had sent me a pre draft questionnaire but that was about it“, while another pointed out that he didn’t really have any direct contact, but was already in the team’s Discord anyway.

On the other side of the spectrum, even slightly higher than average contact with their new team (rating 6 and above) meant that people were very likely to love their new team. 12 draftees fell into that category and 10 of them gave their new team a perfect rating of 10, and even the two that didn’t gave an 8 or 9 respectively.

This only goes to show how important and active scouting effort is for both a team and the league as a whole. Active GMs who talk to as many prospects as possible prior to the draft give their team an advantage because they gather more info and because the players they do pick up are likely to have a more positive opinion of the team from the get go. They are also more likely to be able to identify people beforehand who might not be a good fit and therefore avoid personality clashes.

At the end of the day this isn’t just good for their team but for the league as a whole as it strengthens retention and overall makes people feel more welcome and engaged, so I’d encourage every GM to engage in this as much as possible, even if it can become boring and repetitive after you have done it for a few seasons in a rew and the questions and answers start repeating themselves. Maybe get other people from your team involved in the process if that happens, build up a scouting squad and split up the prospect-outreach so that multiple people can share the workload, or have it rotate between people from your management group each season.

How many teams would you estimate you talked to directly prior to the draft?

This category was pretty straight forward, with most participants simply writing down the number of teams they have estimated to have talked to, with not much additional information provided in most cases. On average, people talked to about 5-6 teams which I think is a surprisingly low number and just goes to reinforce what I just talked about: GMs need to make a bigger effort to talk to as many draftees as possible before the draft. A significant portion of the players surveyed were contacted by only about a third of the teams or less.

This is in line with my own draft experience with this player in S43, when only a handful of teams reached out to me. I chalked this up to being a recreate and most people having made up their mind about me already, which is somewhat reinforced by this survey. Broadly speaking, recreates were contacted by fewer teams than first-gens, the average number of teams that first-gens talked to was 7, whereas for recreates it was just slightly over 4. Due to the small sample size I wouldn’t read too much into these results, but some findings still look quite significant.

There were a total of four players who were contacted by 2 teams or less, all four of them recreates. The lowest number of teams any first-gen was contacted by was 4, and even that only happened to two of them, with every other new member talking to at least 6 teams. Almost half the first-gens were contacted by 8 teams or more, a mark reached by only two of the recreates. The highest number of teams any prospect claimed to have talked to was 11, which was by a first-generation player who went in the second round.

So we can cut teams a little slack here. The average number of contacts was dragged down by the recreates and it is somewhat understandable that GMs are less inclined to talk to some of them than they are to talk to first-gens, since more information is publicly available about them already. However, does this mean that we are okay with the draft essentially being a less engaging experience for recreates than it is for first-gens? The numbers show that first-gens enjoyed the overall draft process more than recreates (7,8 satisfaction vs 6,5). I’ll leave it up to you to decide how much of this can be attributed to the fact that your very first draft is probably always more exciting than subsequent ones no matter what, and how much is due to the fact that GMs seem to engage with first-gens more than they do with recreates.

Another interesting tidbit is that while recreates reported fewer team contacts and lower overall satisfaction, they scored the same as first-gens on satisfaction with the team that did pick them up and the amount of contact they had to that specific team. Apparently, recreates are generally approached in a more targeted way, but once they find a team they seem to be just as happy with their destination and the pre-draft conversation they had with their teams as the first-gens.

One thing we shouldn’t forget about as well is that not all teams have picks in all areas of the draft and some might not even participate in a given year altogether. So it is absolutely understandable that some GM do not reach out to specific players because they already know that they won’t even have a chance to pick them. I still believe though that while the number of contacts looks a bit better for first-gens than for recreates, it should generally be higher throughout the board. Having more than half of draftees sit there at just six contacts or less is not a great look.

Has your opinion of the team that drafted you changed over the last few days, since they picked you up?

This turned out to be a rather boring question because generally, the answer is no. The few days since the draft where understandably not enough to change most people's minds on the teams that drafted them. The median answer in this category was a mere 2,75, first-gens scored a tad higher whereas recreates were more entrenched in their opinion, with not a single one giving more than a 3.

None of the new members had a complete 180 either (rating 8-10), but a few of them reported moderate changes in their opinion about the team with a total of five ratings in the 5-7 area. “I didn't really have an opinion on the team other than I thought their name and logo were kinda dumb”, one of them admitted, “but now that I'm there I'm happy.” For another first-gen, the change was actually in a negative direction: “I went in trying to be super neutral and although there has been some positives my opinion of them is getting worse”

A recreate who says that his opinion didn’t really change (3 rating) still elaborated a bit on how it was to be put into the new situation and environment that is an expansion team: “By virtue of being drafted to an expansion team, I think it has to change a little bit. There weren't rookies, now there are. Even just a week ago, the team didn't even have players, lol. But it's been good change.”

Overall however, most players reported little to no change of opinion. Some of them were excited to go there and still are happy, others didn’t even have expectations going in and some recreates had already been in their teams LR’s beforehand, giving them a pretty good picture of what to expect.

How many more seasons do you plan to spend in juniors?

Over the course of the SHL’s history, peoples junior careers have gradually expanded and nowadays, most of them prefer to stay down in the SMJHL significantly longer than players of the past, often getting close to or even reaching the maximum allowed amount of seasons which is 4.

This is reflected in the results of this survey, the average amount of etra season this year's draftees plan to spend in juniors is pretty much exactly 3, with many of them also considering the full 4. The number is a little bit lower for recreates and a little bit higher for first-gens, but overall the differences between the two groups aren’t really significant.



One exception is the amount of people who are set on spending the complete 4 seasons in juniors instead of going for something more broad like “three to four seasons”. There is only one recreate who is planning to do that right now but four first-gens with the same plan. Four is also the number of players in total who are currently planning to spend just two more seasons or less in the J.

By the way, a lot of the people planning for a very long junior career are on the two recent SMJHL expansion franchises. Apparently going through a rough first inaugural season or two will make you even more determined to buy into the teams long-term plan and be there for as long as possible when the teams competing window opens.

If your player magically gained enough TPE over night to be a good SHL-performer right away, would that change your previous answer?

The question of how strong of a bond players feel towards their SHL team compared to their junior teams is one that I have thought about and talked to other people about quite a bit lately, and I tried to tackle it some more and gather some data with this question. The general thought process behind it was this: If we removed the factor TPE and competitiveness, meaning that someone’s player would be just as good in the SHL as in the SMJHL, would that change their opinion on their amount of send-down seasons? Or, put more simply: If they had the choice would they rather play in the SMJHL or the SHL early on in their careers?

The results on this are a bit harder to quantify. Basically I grouped all answers together into the categories “Yes”, “No” and “Maybe”. Overall it was a pretty mixed bag, 9 people answered No, 6 said Yes and another 6 answered with some form of maybe that could swing more into the one or the other direction depending on the exact wording (“possibly”, “most likely”, “not necessarily”).

In general I would say that I was a bit surprised by these results. In the previous question most players expressed a pretty strong bond towards their junior team, saying that they want to spend close to the maximum amount of seasons down to the SHL. I did not however expect so many of them to be open to re-visiting that decision if TPE were removed from the equation. Nine of them still answered with a categorical “No”, but more than half of the participants said that this would definitely change their opinion or at least would make them think about it again. Apparently TPE and SHL-readiness play a bigger role in the current thought process that leads people to stay down in juniors that log than I would have anticipated.

Which other team(s), aside from the one that selected you, would you have liked to end up on?

&

Which other team(s) are you happy you avoided?

This is where things get spicy… Where I basically asked draftees which teams they liked and which ones they weren’t very fond of going into the draft. Now let me preface this by saying that quite a few participants refused to or weren’t able to answer these two questions that I grouped together here in my analysis, telling me that they don’t know enough about the league yet to be able to comment on that, or that they wanted to keep an open mind no matter what. Which are completely fine reasons, but luckily other people were a bit more willing to throw shade or talk about their preferences ...

Let’s start with the teams that people liked, which could not include their own team as the question was only about which other teams they would also have been happy to be drafted by.

And the most popular team among Draftees was…

…

Well, actually there was a three-way tie, and a surprising one if I may say so. Three times received fives votes each and those teams are the New England Wolfpack and… the two expansion teams, the Seattle Argonauts and Atlanta Inferno! Apparently being part of something completely new was very enticing for people, even if it included the prospect of a slow start and a few seasons as a bottom-dweller before the team could be competitive.

The only established team that could keep up with that was New England, who currently are in sort of a re-tool but still are a middle of the pack team. It’s tough to say whether they were so popular because of their current approach, their new GM or the teams history, but they were an extremely popular team among the first-gens whereas recreates were rather lukewarm on them. The same is true for the expansion teams by the way, but it is also worth to point out that first-gens on average named a lot more teams in this category than recreates did.

After this top-three, the drop-off comes rather quickly. Calgary (4 votes) and Los Angeles (3) also proved to be very popular destinations, and they are the first two teams that scored about equal among first-gens and recreates. Toronto and San Francisco were also decently popular with 2 votes each. Outside of those seven teams in total, nobody else received more than a single vote however.
Baltimore, Buffalo, Manhattan, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Minnesota only had one person that would’ve liked to go there. And Chicago, Hamilton, Tampa Bay, New Orleans and Texas apparently didn’t look very attractive to anybody.

Now just like with some questions before, I have to point out that some of these teams didn’t have a lot of picks, so they either weren’t very active in terms of communication or the draftees excluded them from their lists of desired destinations because they didn’t deem it realistic that they could end up there.

So I don’t think that these results should be overinterpreted, I do think however that they could still give some GMs a feel for how well they did with the players that they didn’t end up drafting. This, along with the next question, could give you some valuable, if uncomfortable, information on how well you represented the team during the drafting process, or how the team represents itself around the boards.



So now to the even spicier part… The teams that the draftees didn’t like or, how I put it in my questions, the ones they were happy to have avoided! This is probably gonna hurt for two teams in particular, but more so for one than the other. Because the leaders by quite a margin in this category were…

The Tampa Bay Barracuda with a staggering 7 votes! This means that a third of all participants listed them as an undesired location, a number no other team even got close to. Especially recreates seemed to harbor a strong dislike for them, some of which could be attributed to the deep rebuild they are in right now, but other teams with similar trajectories and even the expansion teams didn’t fare nearly as bad in this category.

I don’t want to get up in their business too much but I think this should lead to some soul-searching in TBB and shouldn’t be brushed aside too easily, as might be the first reflex. Being the team that the fewest people wanted to go to (0) and that most people (7) disliked is by far the worst result in this category and a concerning sign for a franchise that will have to rely on youth and draftees on it’s way out of the cellar. Throughout this survey I also heard some additional concerns voiced from people both on and off the team about the atmosphere in the locker room, and public controversies like the ones that have taken place in the Media section recently might not be a huge factor, but probably add to the problems as well. Overall, people who participated in this survey who were drafted by Tampa Bay were very split as well - for example, they received both a 1 and a 10 on the “how do you like your new team” question.

Hamilton came in second with 4 people not wanting to go there, but while this still is a somewhat concerning number (especially with the 0 people naming them in the first question), it will probably be much easier for them to swallow given their successes of late, the win-now mode they are in through FA-signings and trades and the fact that they have pretty openly embraced the role of enemy of the people.

Outside of those two, no other teams were really that unpopular even though a couple of the received two votes each. Those teams are Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, New England, Edmonton, New Orleans and San Francisco. One vote went to Calgary, Los Angeles, Minnesota and Seattle. And the teams that nobody disliked at all were Chicago, Toronto, Texas and Winnipeg, congrats to you guys!

Now to close this category out let me talk some more about a few specific teams outside of the two I already mentioned. If I mixed the the two categories together, subtracting the negative votes from the positive ones, the two most unpopular teams would be the aforementioned TBB (-7) and HAM (-4). The most positive score would be to Seattle with a +4, followed by Atlanta, Calgary and New England with a +3 each, with every other team coming in somewhere between +2 and -2.

Two teams I particularly want to highlight are Texas and Chicago because they didn’t receive a single vote in either category. Nobody particularly wanted to go there and nobody hated them. Maybe it has something to do with their somewhat similar and not overly flash black-centric color schemes? Or could it be their status as middle of the pack and somewhat-but-not-super-competitive teams? Or was it a lack of pre-draft communication? I don’t have an answer, but both teams did have a couple of picks in the first three rounds, so it certainly wasn’t due to them not being involved in the Draft.

A theme of this draft class seemed to have been that people prefer to build something for themselves instead of joining the winning teams. The top-teams of the day like Hamilton (-4), Buffalo (-1), Manhattan (+1), Edmonton (-1) and New Orleans (-2) were all not particularly attractive to people. The expansion teams as well as some middle of the pack squads like New England (+3), Calgary (+2), Los Angeles (+2) on the other hand did quite well, as did one rebuilding team (Toronto, +2) and outside of TBB, no other bottom-feeder was particularly unpopular.

After the first few days, how does your SHL teams LR compare to your Juniors LR?

For my last question I went with something less controversial and just asked people how they would compare their new SHL locker room to their junior LR, kinda going back to the previous questions aimed at exploring peoples bonds to their J-teams and SHL-teams. A lot of them didn’t have to much to say about this yet given they short time they have been in their new LR, but generally most people were pretty happy with their SHL locker room, even while pointing out some differences to their junior LRs, that nobody had to say a bad word about.



This question is probably best answered through some quotes so I will leave some of them here…

On the topic of timezones:

“The SHL team is slightly more North America centred and as such more activity later for a European like myself. J is more evenly distributed so more discussion in my afternoon.”
“Pretty similar I have to say, both are mature, friendly and active. The SHL has a bit more activity in EU friendly times, my J LR with less EU/night people naturally has more messages coming in later during the day.”

On activity in general:

“The Juniors LR seems a bit more active, but it is the offseason.”
“A little less active than the juniors LR. Still nice overall.”
“They’re both really active and I’m happy to be a part of both teams.”
“They're both extremely active. Love them.”
“SHL LR seems more active than Junior LR I'd say but it's kinda similar”

On the overall atmosphere:

“Similar vibe initially, very welcoming to the new prospects.”
“There's definitely a different vibe, in that it's mostly guys in university, as opposed to juniors where there's both genders and more of an array of ages, but I wouldn't say that one is better than the other.”
“A bit of a tough question, going to an expansion team. I think the SHL team's LR is still finding its identity as a community right now, whereas I've been talking to my juniors teammates for two months now. Check back in a year”
“More active, but kind of the same vibe. A lot of alumni and players from my junior team are also in there which was nice to see.”
“It seems about the same in terms of high activity and a lot of older names I recognize. Having alumni helps and I'm enjoying both.”

On preferring one over the other:

“There’s definitely parts in my SHL locker room that I really enjoy, but I definitely feel more comfortable in my junior locker room”
“I definitely like my junior LR better but I'm not sure if that's just because I've been there longer and know the community there or if it's truly a better LR.”
“I feel more at home in my junior locker room but my SHL LR has been very friendly so far. I think it will get more and more natural for me to post there as time goes on.”

And lastly, it would be great if you could give me a quick summary of the information on your player so that I don’t have to look it up individually for every questionnaire I get back!

The last question was about demographics so I before I release you back into the world after reading this monstrosity of an article, I will leave you with some general aggregated information about the data I have gathered.



A little over 60 questionnaires were sent out and I received 20 replies. Not the greatest participation rate but I only gave people a few days to answer and didn’t send any reminders after the original message went out, so it kinda was to be expected. Most North Americans probably received their message in the morning as well when they might not have been in a situation where they can fill it out right away, and over the course of the day they might have then forgot about it.

Also, a lot of draftees are probably tired of filling out questionnaires at this point and simply might not have wanted to participate, especially with nothing really in it for them. Also, while I did promise the people who answered privacy and anonymity, some of these questions still required them to share information that they might not want to share. Maybe some of those more critical towards their team or certain other aspects of the process were also hesitant to participate for fear of being found out by their team. Although this really happened a lot so if you are a GM planning to start a witch hunt over something that someone said about your team then trust me, it isn’t worth it.

Out of the 20 players that participated, 4 were goalies, 5 were defensemen and 11 were forwards, 4 of them Centers. The junior team with the highest number of participants was Quebec City, so shout out to you guys and thanks for the great participation! Nevada also had a lot of people taking part of this, looks like expansion teams are going strong both in the SHL and the SMJHL! The number of SHL-teams that had players participating was 13, which is a great spread considering the relatively small number of participants.

This survey had a pretty nice spread of draft positions, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the amount of later pick-ups that participated, with over ⅓ of participants (7) being drafted in Round 3 or after. The top of the draft was a bit underrepresented, with only three top-10 picks participating, and overall the majority of participants were drafted somewhere between the late 1st Round and late 2nd Round. And lastly, as we already touched upon earlier, 11 of the participants were first-generation players and 9 were recreates.

Thanks for reading everyone! Feel free to leave any feedback, questions or additional information in the thread!

Words: 7200 (x2 Draft Media)

This is awesome, thank you for conducting the survey and writing it up! Good to see some player feedback.

Magnus Liljeström | D | Tampa Bay Barracuda | WPG | DET | SWE
Ornskoldsvik, Sweden | 6' 1" | 199lbs
Achievements:
S56 IIHF Bronze Medal
S55 Ryan Jesster Nomination for Best Rookie of the Year
S55 SHL All-Rookie Team
****S53 Four Star Cup Champion***
S53 WJC Silver Medal
S52 WJC Bronze Medal
S52 Nominated for Zach Miller Trophy - Most Dedicated Player
------------------------------------------------------------
SHL Season Statistics
S61 | TBB | 66GP | 17G | 28A | 45P | +22
S60 | TBB | 66GP | 6 G | 19A | 25P | +6
S59 | WPG | 66GP | 7G | 22A | 29P | -18
S58 | WPG | 66GP | 16G | 25A | 41P | -3
S57 | WPG | 66GP | 11G | 22A | 33P | +11
S56 | WPG | 50GP | 3G | 8A | 11P | -13
S55 | WPG | 50GP | 3G | 22A | 25P | +8

Fantastic work! Really cool to see some of my direct quotes in there and also to learn more about what everyone else's opinions are within the rookie class.

Thanks to @enigmatic, @Matteo, @sulovilen, @zeagle1, and @TheOPSquid for all the sigs!

S76 C || Ylib Kove || YUM || 425+ TPE
Seasons (Regular | Playoff | Playoff Round (Missed -> Cup Win))
YUM | S75-S76 | 132GP 24G 54A 78P | 12GP 4G 3A 7P | 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0
WOR | S75-S75 | 12GP 2G 5A 7P | 3GP 0G 0A 0P | 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0
CZE | S76-S76 | 12GP 2G 3A 5P | 0GP 0G 0A 0P | 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

History
S75 | YUM | Drafted 9th Overall
S75 | YUM | Pupper Award
S76 | MAN | Drafted 4th Overall

Portal Player ID: 1380
SMJHL Player ID: 2466
SHL Player ID: ----
WJC Player ID: 1566
IIHF Player ID: ----


S56 W || Kev Kevens || Retired S75 || 2075 Peak TPE
Seasons (Regular | Playoff | Playoff Round (Missed -> Cup Win))
QCC | S55-S58 | 232GP 43G 84A 127P | 46GP 9G 16A 25P | 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1
SFP | S59-S67 | 594GP 211G 272A 483P | 66GP 23G 24A 47P | 0, 7, 1, 1, 0, 0
CHI | S68-S75 | 528GP 211G 376A 587P | 79GP 26G 35A 61P | 0, 3, 4, 1, 0, 0
CAN | S56-S58 | 36GP 5G 13A 18P | 4GP 0G 1A 1P | 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1
CAN | S61-S74 | 168GP 40G 69A 109P | 23GP 3G 7A 10P | 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1

History
S55 | QCC | Drafted 79th Overall
S56 | SFP | Drafted 46th Overall
S56 | QCC | Jack Cross Trophy Nominee
S56 | CAN | WJC Gold Medal
S57 | QCC | Laurifer Trophy | 107 points
S58 | QCC | Voted Alternate Captain
S58 | QCC | Four Star Cup
S60, S66 | SFP | SHL All-Star
S60, S65 | SFP | Pride of the Pride Award
S61, S64 | SFP | Geronimo Otto Award
S62, S64-65, S67 | SFP | Voted Alternate Captain
S64 | QCC | First player entry drafted by Quebec City to reach 2000 TPE
S66 | SFP | Voted Captain
S66 | SFP | 3rd Team All-Star
S66 | SFP | Kelly Rivet Award
S68 | SFP/CHI | Traded from San Francisco to Chicago
S69 | CAN | IIHF Gold Medal
S74 | CHI | 18th player in SHL history to reach 1000 points (1049GP, 400G, 600A)
S75 | CHI | 11th highest all-time points total at time of retirement (1070P)

Portal Player ID: 16
SMJHL Player ID: 572
SHL Player ID: 1464
WJC Player ID: 262
IIHF Player ID: 1353 & 191

Good read, and thanks for running this. It absolutely comes back to some things I was saying on HTT last week that I still stand by: GMs absolutely don't put as much effort into scouting and rookie interaction as they could or should.

Jimmy Wagner || Seattle Argonauts || Carolina Kraken || RW || S53 || 1002 cTPE || 2295 pTPE (7th all time)
6'1 || 190 lbs || Perg, Austria || Swedish passport
S52 SMJHL Draft - 6th Overall - Carolina Kraken
S53 SHL Draft   - 5th Overall - Los Angeles Panthers
- - - - - -
SHL Season Stats
Szn |Team | GP |  G |  A |  P | +/- | Sht | PM | TOI
S56 | LAP | 50 |  6 | 16 | 22 | -10 | 108 | 24 |1023 // A /
S57 | LAP | 66 | 16 | 25 | 41 | -13 | 167 | 24 |1508 // A /
S58 | LAP | 66 | 15 | 31 | 46 |  -3 | 173 | 12 |1485 // A /
S59 | LAP | 66 | 22 | 26 | 48 | -19 | 208 | 12 |1576 // A /
S60 | LAP | 66 | 25 | 31 | 56 |  13 | 214 | 10 |1380 // A /
S61 | LAP | 66 | 19 | 35 | 54 | -10 | 251 | 16 |1436 // C /
S62 | LAP | 66 | 38 | 48 | 86 |  12 | 330 | 14 |1481 // C / MVP Nominee, Breakout Nominee, 2nd Team All-SHL
S63 | LAP | 66 | 20 | 40 | 64 |   5 | 292 | 22 |1442 // C /
S64 | LAP | 66 | 32 | 38 | 70 |  40 | 256 | 16 |1387 // C /
S65 | LAP | 66 | 18 | 27 | 45 |  25 | 209 | 10 |1310 // C /
S66 | LAP | 66 | 31 | 28 | 59 |  24 | 183 | 38 |1198 // C /
S67 | SEA | 66 | 21 | 39 | 60 |  32 | 194 | 24 |1120 //   /

S68 | SEA | 66 | 30 | 37 | 67 |  46 | 146 | 22 |1176 //   /
S69 | SEA | 66 | 21 | 38 | 59 |  42 | 147 | 28 |1188 //   /
S70 | SEA | 66 | 14 | 23 | 37 |  13 | 134 | 32 |1154 //   /
S71 | LAP | 66 | 21 | 55 | 55 | -17 | 142 | 22 |1267 //   /
- - - - - -
Challenge Cup Playoff Stats
Szn |Team | GP |  G |  A |  P | +/- | Sht | PM | TOI
S56 | LAP |  5 |  1 |  2 |  3 |  -6 |  11 |  0 | 111 // A /
S57 | LAP |  6 |  1 |  1 |  2 |   1 |  21 |  0 | 137 // A /
S58 | LAP |  6 |  2 |  2 |  4 |   2 |  11 |  4 | 142 // A /
S59 | LAP |  6 |  1 |  4 |  5 |  -2 |  21 |  2 | 150 // A /
S60 | LAP |  6 |  1 |  1 |  2 |  -3 |   8 |  0 | 123 // A /
S61 | LAP |  5 |  1 |  3 |  4 |  -4 |  15 |  0 | 113 // C /
S62 | LAP | 17 |  8 | 12 | 20 |  13 |  63 |  2 | 390 // C /
S63 | LAP | 22 |  6 | 13 | 19 |   3 |  74 |  0 | 502 // C /
S64 | LAP | 12 |  6 |  6 | 12 |   6 |  59 |  2 | 274 // C /
S65 | LAP | 20 |  3 | 15 | 18 |  19 |  50 |  0 | 413 // C / ⟅ⅬⅩⅤ⟆ CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPION ⟅ⅬⅩⅤ⟆
S66 | LAP |  9 |  2 |  2 |  4 |   1 |  17 |  2 | 173 // C /

S67 | SEA | 23 |  5 | 15 | 20 |  20 |  53 |  6 | 409 //   / ⟅ⅬⅩⅤII⟆ CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPION ⟅ⅬⅩⅤII⟆

S68 | SEA | 21 |  6 | 13 | 19 |  16 |  48 | 10 | 418 //   / ⟅ⅬⅩⅤIII⟆ CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPION ⟅ⅬⅩⅤIII⟆

S69 | SEA | 16 |  1 |  7 |  8 |  20 |  28 |  4 | 310 //   /

S70 | SEA | 13 |  3 |  1 |  4 |  16 |  33 |  4 | 221 //   /

S71 | LAP | 12 |  3 |  4 |  7 |   3 |  29 |  4 | 235 //   /
- - - - - -
SMJHL Season Stats
Szn |Team | GP |  G |  A |  P | +/- | Sht | PM | TOI
S52 | CAR | 50 |  6 |  8 | 14 |  +5 |  63 |  6 | 569 //   /
S53 | CAR | 50 | 10 | 20 | 30 |  -2 | 125 |  8 | 916 // C /
S54 | CAR | 50 | 24 | 29 | 53 |  20 | 171 | 12 | 943 // C / MVP, Scoring Leader, 1st Team All-SMJHL
S55 | CAR | 50 | 17 | 26 | 43 |  30 | 145 | 10 | 876 // C /
- - - - - -
Four Star Cup Playoff Stats
Szn |Team | GP |  G |  A |  P | +/- | Sht | PM | TOI
S52 | CAR | 11 |  0 |  1 |  1 |  -1 |   8 |  2 | 118 //   /
S53 | CAR |  4 |  1 |  1 |  2 |  -3 |   7 |  0 |  75 // C /
S54 | CAR | 20 |  5 |  9 | 14 |   3 |  60 |  4 | 419 // C / FOUR STAR CUP CHAMPIONS
S55 | CAR | 11 |  5 |  5 | 10 |   4 |  28 |  4 | 203 // C /
- - - - - -
WJC Stats
Szn |Team | GP |  G |  A |  P | +/- | Sht | PM | TOI
S51 |PRWR | 19 |  4 |  8 | 12 |  -6 |  45 |  4 | 357 // M / Andani Award Nominee
S52 |DACH | 15 |  1 |  1 |  2 |  -2 |   8 |  2 | 100 // M /
S53 |DACH | 13 |  4 |  3 |  7 |  -2 |  21 |  0 | 186 //   /
S54 |DACH | 13 |  1 |  1 |  2 |  -3 |  16 |  0 | 219 //   /
S55 |DACH | 13 |  5 |  4 |  9 |   3 |  28 |  4 | 221 //   /
- - - - - -
IIHF Stats
Szn |Team | GP |  G |  A |  P | +/- | Sht | PM | TOI
S54 | AUT | 13 |  0 |  1 |  1 |   2 |   3 |  4 | 121 //   /
S55 | AUT | 13 |  1 |  1 |  2 |   0 |   7 |  2 | 124 //   /
S56 | AUT | 12 |  1 |  3 |  4 |   2 |  13 |  4 | 218 //   /
S57 | AUT | 12 |  3 |  2 |  5 |  -8 |  30 |  2 | 220 //   /
S58 | International hiatus
S59 | International hiatus
S60 | SWE | 14 |  8 |  6 | 14 |   5 |  43 |  6 | 221 //   / IIHF BRONZE
S61 | SWE | 13 |  5 | 10 | 15 |   1 |  55 |  0 | 228 //   /
S62 | SWE | 13 |  0 |  3 |  3 | -11 |  33 |  2 | 192 // C /
S63 | SWE | 13 | 12 |  8 | 20 |   7 |  56 |  0 | 229 // A / TOP FORWARD AWARD
S64 | SWE | 15 |  7 |  6 | 13 |  11 |  39 |  0 | 239 //   / IIHF SILVER
S65 | SWE | 12 |  2 |  4 |  6 |  -3 |  21 |  6 | 183 //   /
S66 | SWE | 15 |  5 |  4 |  9 |   2 |  33 |  2 | 182 //   /

S67 | SWE | 15 |  3 | 10 | 13 |  11 |  22 |  0 | 200 //   /
S68 | SWE | 15 |  7 |  3 | 10 |   7 |  21 |  6 | 198 //   / ⟅1st⟆ IIHF GOLD ⟅1st⟆
S69 | SWE | 15 |  5 |  2 |  7 |   4 |  19 |  6 | 198 //   / IIHF SILVER
S70 | SWE | 13 |  1 |  1 |  2 |   2 |  16 |  6 | 163 //   / IIHF SILVER
- - - - - -
Accolades
S51 - WJC   - Alex Andani Award Nominee (Top Rookie)
S52 - CAR   - Jordan Nugent Hall Award for the Most Dedicated Player
S52 - CAR   - Alonzo Garbonzo Award for the Top Rookie
S53 - CAR   - Named Captain
S53 - SMJHL - Eastern Conference All Star
S53 - CAR   - Kain Webb Award for Team Leadership
S53 - CAR   - Cristoph Klose Award for the Top Forward
S53 - CAR   - Michael Fitted Award for Team Values
S54 - SMJHL - Eastern Conference All Star
S54 - CAR   - Kain Webb Award for Team Leadership
S54 - CAR   - Cristoph Klose Award for the Top Forward
S54 - CAR   - Kurtis Hunter Award for the Team's MVP
S54 - SMJHL - 1st Team All-League
S54 - SMJHL - Jared Hanson Award (Scoring Champ)
S54 - SMJHL - Ideen Fallah Trophy (Committee MVP)
S54 - SMJHL - Zach Miller Trophy Finalist (Most Dedicated)
S54 - SMJHL - Elias Armia Award (Commisioner's Award of Excellence)
S54 - SMJHL - ★★★★ FOUR STAR CUP CHAMPION ★★★★
S55 - SMJHL - Eastern Conference All Star
S55 - CAR   - Jordan Nugent Hall Award for the Most Dedicated Player
S55 - SMJHL - Zach Miller Trophy Finalist (Most Dedicated)
S56 - LAP   - Named Alternate Captain
S58 - SHL   - Damien Littleton Winner (Most Dedicated)

S60 - SWE   - Bronze Medal
S61 - LAP   - Named Captain
S62 - LAP   - Phillip Winter Award (Team MVP)
S62 - SHL   - 2nd Team All-SHL
S62 - SHL   - Aidan Richan Award Finalist (Most Improved Player)
S62 - SHL   - Ron Mexico Award Finalist (MVP)

S62 - SWE   - Named Captain
S63 - LAP   - Western Conference Champions
S62 - IIHF  - Top Forward Award

S64 - SWE   - Silver Medal

S65 - LAP   - Western Conference Champions
S65 - LAP   - ⟅ⅬⅩⅤ⟆ CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPION ⟅ⅬⅩⅤ⟆

S67 - SEA   - Western Conference Champions

S67 - SEA   - ⟅ⅬⅩⅤII⟆ CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPION ⟅ⅬⅩⅤII⟆

S68 - SEA   - Western Conference Champions

S68 - SEA   - ⟅ⅬⅩⅤIII⟆ CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPION ⟅ⅬⅩⅤIII⟆

S68 - SWE   - ⟅1st⟆ IIHF GOLD MEDAL ⟅1st⟆

S69 - SWE   - Silver Medal

S70 - SWE   - Silver Medal

Chris Conner || Carolina Kraken || General Manager
- - - - - -
S54 | CAR | Coach | 32-13-5 | 69 pts | 3rd in reg season, ★★★★ FOUR STAR CUP CHAMPION ★★★★
S55 | CAR | CoGM  | 37-12-1 | 75 pts | 2nd in reg season
S56 | CAR | GM    | 31-17-2 | 64 pts | 2nd in reg season
S57 | CAR | GM    | 26-32-8 | 60 pts |
S58 | CAR | GM    | 26-39-1 | 53 pts |
S59 | CAR | GM    | 32-30-4 | 68 pts |
S60 | CAR | GM    | 36-26-4 | 76 pts | Division title
S61 | CAR | GM    | 42-20-4 | 88 pts | Division title
S62 | CAR | GM    | 41-20-5 | 87 pts | Division title
S63 | CAR | GM    | 39-26-1 | 79 pts |
S64 | CAR | GM    | 22-36-8 | 52 pts |
S65 | CAR | GM    | 29-32-5 | 63 pts |
S66 | CAR | GM    | 20-40-6 | 46 pts |

S67 | CAR | GM    | 24-36-6 | 54 pts |

S68 | CAR | GM    | 43-22-1 | 87 pts | 2nd in reg season, postseason under protest

S69 | CAR | GM    | 37-26-3 | 77 pts |
S70 | CAR | GM    | 30-31-5 | 65 pts |
S71 | CAR | GM    | 34-28-4 | 72 pts |
- - - - - -
S56 | LAP | Offseason Interim GM

S68 | CAR | GM of the Year Nominee

Fantastic job! Fascinating text to read.

Great article!

Free agent
Updates

“ This only goes to show how important and active scouting effort is for both a team and the league as a whole. Active GMs who talk to as many prospects as possible prior to the draft give their team an advantage because they gather more info and because the players they do pick up are likely to have a more positive opinion of the team from the get go. They are also more likely to be able to identify people beforehand who might not be a good fit and therefore avoid personality clashes.

At the end of the day this isn’t just good for their team but for the league as a whole as it strengthens retention and overall makes people feel more welcome and engaged, so I’d encourage every GM to engage in this as much as possible, even if it can become boring and repetitive after you have done it for a few seasons in a rew and the questions and answers start repeating themselves.”

Louder for the people in the back.

Zach Evans[/b] | Player Page | Update Page
Nikolai Evans | Player Page | Update Page
Zach Evans || Forward || Winnipeg Jets
Name: Zach Evans
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 195 lbs
Number: 18
------------------------------------------------------------
SHL Career Statistics:
S32 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 9, A: 5, P: 14, +/-: -1, PIMS: 12, H: 59
S33 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 8, A: 15, P: 23, +/-: 3, PIMS: 49, H: 106
S34 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 14, A: 14, P: 28, +/-: 7, PIMS: 46, H: 96
S35 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 22, A: 26, P: 48, +/-: -4, PIMS: 23, H: 113
S36 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 28, A: 30, P: 58, +/-: 23, PIMS: 51, H: 140
S37 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 24, A: 27, P: 51, +/-: 2, PIMS: 36, H: 220
S38 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 27. A: 38, P: 65, +/-: 12, PIMS: 45, H: 158
S39 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 15, A: 32, P: 47, +/-: 11, PIMS: 43, H: 85
S40 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 22, A: 31, P: 53, +/-: 11, PIMS: 15, H: 49
S41 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 27, A: 35, P: 62, +/-: 26, PIMS: 34, H: 82
S42 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 16, A: 29, P: 45, +/-: -3, PIMS: 15, H: 6
S43 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 16, A: 29, P: 45, +/-: 11, PIMS: 27, H: 15
S44 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 14, A: 31, P: 45, +/-: 3, PIMS: 17, H: 17
S45 (WPG): GP: 50, G: 15, A: 34, P: 49, +/-: 4, PIMS: 2, H: 27
CAREER: GP: 700, G: 257, A: 376, P: 633, +/-: 105, PIMS: 415, H: 1,173
------------------------------------------------------------
SHL Playoff Statistics:
S34 (WPG): GP: 5, G: 2, A: 1, P: 3, +/-: 0, PIMS: 4, H: 7
S36 (WPG): GP: 6, G: 0, A: 3, P: 3, +/-: -1, PIMS: 0, H: 16
S37 (WPG): GP: 18, G: 11, A: 14, P: 25, +/-: 19, PIMS: 12, H: 81
S38 (WPG): GP: 13, G: 6, A: 9, P: 15, +/-: 5, PIMS: 4, H: 32
S39 (WPG): GP: 13, G: 5, A: 6, P: 11, +/-: -2, PIMS: 6, H: 31
S40 (WPG): GP: 14, G: 5, A: 4, P: 9, +/-: 1, PIMS: 13, H: 7
S41 (WPG): GP: 13, G: 8, A: 6, P: 14, +/-: 3, PIMS: 9, H: 26
S43 (WPG): GP: 17, G: 4, A: 9, P: 13, +/-: 11, PIMS: 2, H: 4
S44 (WPG): GP: 18, G: 4, A: 15, P: 19, +/-: 7, PIMS: 0, H: 3
S45 (WPG): GP: 4, G: 1, A: 2, P: 3, +/-: -1, PIMS: 0, H: 2
CAREER: GP: 121, G: 46, A: 69, P: 115, +/-: 41, PIMS: 50, H: 209
------------------------------------------------------------
SMJHL Career Statistics:
S30 (DET): GP: 50, G: 16, A: 12, P: 28, +/-: 8, PIMS: 10, H: 44
S31 (DET): GP: 50, G: 15, A: 23, P: 38, +/-: -2, PIMS: 35, H: 84
CAREER: GP: 100, G: 31, A: 35, P: 66, +/-: 6, PIMS: 45, H: 128
------------------------------------------------------------
SMJHL Playoff Statistics:
S30 (DET): GP: 5, G: 0, A: 1, P: 1, +/-: -1, PIMS: 2, H: 0
S31 (DET): GP: 13, G: 5, A: 7, P: 12, +/-: 3, PIMS: 0, H: 9
CAREER: GP: 18, G: 5, A: 8, P: 13, +/-: 2, PIMS: 2, H: 9
------------------------------------------------------------
IIHF Statistics (Russia):
S30: GP: 11, G: 1, A: 0, P: 1, +/-: -1, PIMS: 0, H: 7
S32: GP: 13, G: 1, A: 1, P: 2, +/-: -4, PIMS: 4, H: 17
S33: GP: 11, G: 3, A: 6, P: 9, +/-: 5, PIMS: 4, H: 12
S34: GP: 11, G: 6, A: 2, P: 8, +/-: 2, PIMS: 2, H: 10
S35: GP: 13, G: 5, A: 4, P: 9, +/-: 4, PIMS: 18, H: 22
S36: GP: 11, G: 4, A: 3, P: 7, +/-: -3, PIMS: 2, H: 5
S37: GP: 10, G: 1, A: 1, P: 2, +/-: 0, PIMS: 0, H: 8
S38: GP: 13, G: 3, A: 10, P: 13, +/-: 8, PIMS: 4, H: 5
S39: GP: 10, G: 6, A: 6, P: 12, +/-: 1, PIMS: 2, H: 11
S40: GP: 10, G: 1, A: 2, P: 3, +/-: -6, PIMS: 2, H: 8
S41: GP: 11, G: 4, A: 5, P: 9, +/-: 0, PIMS: 2, H: 7
S42: GP: 10, G: 5, A: 9, P: 14, +/-: 5, PIMS: 0, H: 1
S43: GP: 13, G: 4, A: 7, P: 11, +/-: 6, PIMS: 0, H: 0
S44: GP: 10, G: 4, A: 8, P: 12, +/-: 1, PIMS: 0, H: 0
S45: GP: 10, G: 6, A: 1, P: 7, +/-: -13, PIMS: 0, H: 2
CAREER: GP: 167 G: 54, A: 65, P: 119, +/-: 5, PIMS: 40, H: 105
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Transactions and Awards:
Drafted 25th overall by Detroit, S30 SMJHL Entry Draft
S30 Vyacheslav Onoprienko Trophy Winner
Drafted 5th overall by Winnipeg, S31 SHL Entry Draft
S32 Oriens Trophy Winner (Co-GM, Detroit)
S32 IIHF Bronze Medalist
S36 SHL Second-Team All-Star
S37 Challenge Cup Champion
S38 Sergei Karpotsov Trophy Winner
S38 SHL First-Team All-Star
S38 Sarmad Khan Trophy Winner
S38 Jeff Dar Trophy Winner
S38 Damian Littleton Trophy Winner
S38 IIHF Gold Medalist
S43 IIHF Silver Medalist
S44 Challenge Cup Champion
Inducted into SHL Hall of Fame, S47
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Two things are infinite.

Nikolai Evans || Defenseman || HAM/TBB/TEX
Name: Nikolai Evans
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 210 lbs
Number: 19
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SHL Career Statistics:
S47 (HAM): GP: 50, G: 1, A: 10, P: 11, +/-: -4, SB: 39, H: 32
S48 (HAM): GP: 50, G: 5, A: 9, P: 14, +/1: 6, SB: 57, H: 37
S49 (TBB): GP: 50, G: 9, A: 14, P: 23, +/-: -22, SB: 78, H: 51
S50 (TBB): GP: 50, G: 7, A: 20, P: 27, +/-: 4, SB: 64, H: 39
CAREER: GP: 200, G: 22, A: 53, P: 75, +/-: -16, SB: 238, H: 159
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SHL Playoff Statistics:
S48 (HAM): GP: 5, G: 1, A: 0, P: 1, +/-: -1, SB: 6, H: 3
S49 (TBB): GP: 12, G: 0, A: 5, P: 5, +/-: 0, SB: 20, H: 8
S50 (TBB): GP: 19, G: 5, A: 7, P: 12, +/-: 1, SB: 29, H: 6
CAREER: GP: 36, G: 6, A: 12, P: 18, +/-: 0, SB: 55, H: 17
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SMJHL Career Statistics:
S45 (MTL): GP: 50, G: 7, A: 13, P: 20, +/-: -1, SB: 60, H: 25
S46 (MTL/HFX): GP: 50, G: 7, A: 20, P: 27, +/-: -1, SB: 47, H: 68
CAREER: GP: 100, G: 14, A: 33, P: 47, +/-: -2, SB: 107, H: 93
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SMJHL Playoff Statistics:
S45 (MTL): GP: 6, G: 2, A: 3, P: 5, +/-: -1, SB: 7, H: 4
S46 (HFX): GP: 13, G: 3, A: 2, P: 5, +/-: -4, SB: 18, H: 14
CAREER: GP: 19, G: 5, A: 5, P: 10, +/-: -5, SB: 25, H: 18
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IIHF Statistics (Russia):
S45: GP: 10, G: 0, A: 1, P: 1, +/-: -5, SB: 12, H: 2
S46: GP: 12, G: 0, A: 1, P: 1, +/-: -2, SB: 11, H: 2
S47: GP: 12, G: 2, A: 7, P: 9, +/-: 2, SB: 17, H: 12
S48: GP: 12, G: 2, A: 4, P: 6, +/-: -6, SB: 22, H: 0
S49: GP: 15, G: 6, A: 6, P: 12, +/-: -6, SB: 25, H: 7
CAREER: GP: 61, G: 10, A: 19, P: 29, +/-: -17, SB: 87, H: 23
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WJC Statistics:
S44 (World): GP: 15, G: 6, A: 7, P: 13, +/-: 8, SB: 18, H: 13
S45 (Russia): GP: 22, G: 2, A: 10, P: 12, +/-: -13, SB: 33, H: 14
S46 (Russia): GP: 28, G: 9, A: 15, P: 23, +/-: 0, SB: 26, H: 14
CAREER: GP: 55, G: 17, A: 32, P: 48, +/-: -5, SB: 77, H: 41
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Transactions and Awards:
Drafted 1st overall by Montreal, S45 SMJHL Entry Draft
Drafted 1st overall by Hamilton, S46 SHL Entry Draft
Traded to Halifax Raiders during S46 SMJHL season
Traded to Tampa Bay Barracuda prior to S49 SHL season
S48 Fantasy Global Champion
S50 Mathias Chouinard Trophy Winner
I'll finish updating this at some point
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The Russian Prince

Zdenko Beranek || Winger || Quebec City Citadelles
Name: Zdenko Beranek
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 175 lbs
Number: 27
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SMJHL Career Statistics:
S55 (QCC): GP: 50, G: 6, A: 15, P: 21, +/-: -22, PIMS: 6
S56 (QCC): GP: 50, G: 10, A: 27, P: 37, +/-: 9, PIMS: 20
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Transactions and Awards:
Drafted 1st overall by Quebec City, S55 SMJHL Entry Draft
Drafted 18th overall by Seattle, S56 SHL Entry Draft
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Le Petite Chèvre

Great Read once again!