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Toivo · 10-09-2020, 10:26 PM

The Atlanta Inferno are a new team that is performing pretty well out the gate. The team has some depth issues, to be expected with the way the expansion draft works. These issues will persist through next season as well with some of the older guys aging and likely facing retirement, i.e. Nolan Sawchunk. The management will need to work its magic again in free agency and recruit some pieces to fill in some of the barren spots. For example, a center might be quite useful. Management is well aware of these needs and expect them to address them in some manner through free agency or trade in the upcoming off-season. The Inferno may push into the playoffs and if they can demonstrate they are on the verge of being a contender, may very well land some quality free agents in the upcoming off-season. There isn’t a lot broken with the Inferno, but some general areas needing improvement.

***yosh*** · 10-09-2020, 11:08 PM

While the Newfoundland Berserkers still on top of the Simulation Major Junior Hockey League’s Eastern Conference, the Berserkers are not the same juggernaut that they were last season. This decline is very justifiable, as many of their top players were called up to play under the large spotlights of the crown jewel of sim sports: The Simulation Hockey League. As of right now, the Berserkers have a great group of passionate rookies that have come in to fill in the newfound holes in the Newfoundland lineup, and the veterans are still around to lead by example. However, the Berserkers will require that their rookies can grow quickly enough to become juggernauts at their position. Otherwise, they won’t be able to repeat the success that they had in their Four Star Cup winning season. Additionally, Vaseline Podcalzone has to step up even more for his team, otherwise he may find himself playing fourth line minutes once again. He’s made the right strides in improvement, but a big sophomore season will be much needed in helping Newfoundland defend the cup.

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Jala · 10-10-2020, 01:11 AM

One thing I would fix is the Seattle Argonauts branding. I am not at all a fan of any of it honestly and I think it misses the mark on a bunch of fronts. Seattle is the hottest hockey destination so I don't have an issue with the location, but with that there's better colours to use then the Slap Shot theme that's going on now. Tap into the Northwest or ocean theme deeper, but I guess this is lower down on my list of complaints. I don't understand why they would be the Argonauts as Seattle isn't really well known for being a seafaring part of the country. I could see the Eastern coast of Canada or the US fitting the theme better, again I would've tapped into the Northwest more and go with an animal or maybe the Spartans for some alliteration. My biggest issue is the logo, it just stands out horribly against the rest of the league. The text being the dominant part of the logo and the boat makes it a harsh contrast to anyone else around, even the Dragons with their text in the logo. I would've used the actual Argonaut and maybe softened it up a bit over the boat that looks like it has a googly eye on it.

overdoo · 10-10-2020, 02:50 AM

Well, I think it has been solved pretty well, but the departures of Ben van Dijk, Ambacas Cuddles, and Conner Hutton hit the Carolina Kraken's defensive core pretty hard this season. Of course, they have top guys of Axel Foley and Adam Friedland holding down the fort, but the depth they have been running with the past few seasons has disappeared. If it was for free, another capped guy on the back end would help a lot, or even two mid level guys just to help out. However, it looks like they're doing the right thing given their circumstance in acquiring a few new free agents on the scene, and helping them develop into a stronger role for the coming seasons. Their goaltending should be set for a while still, and they've got some promising forwards from drafts to keep an eye on as well. By no means are they struggling, but if anything we to be fixed, it would be creating a stronger defense to help those goalies out.

jtam · 10-10-2020, 04:10 AM

While this season has been going relatively well for Hamilton, I feel that there are definite hard decisions coming up for the franchise. The Steelhawks are definitely in a win-now mode with a dynamic offence and stable defence (albeit offensively focused) and a goaltender that will give the team a chance to win every game. To get to this stage for the franchise was not easy, and prospects and draft picks were utilized to trade for star players onto the roster. The prospect pipeline has taken a hit, and without the 1st and 2nd round picks for S58, as well as the 1st round pick in S59, the Steelhawks could be heading into future seasons with a depleted core once contracts expire and regression hits on key players. Hefty contracts will need to be doled out and it will be difficult to construct a team with this much firepower for the Steelhawks several seasons down the road. While tough to find a fix, creative trades, hitting on the limited amount of draft picks, and the continued progression of current prospects (PRESSUREEEE!) will be crucial for Hamilton to continue fielding strong lineups such as this season’s.

**bk1689** · 10-10-2020, 05:34 AM

A weak spot for the Calgary Dragons would be... um this will be a tough one. This season, Calgary has been an absolute wagon of a team. I guess if I had to pick a weakness for us, it would be the age of our roster. Our top players in the team are max earners for their drafts but are currently in regression. Yes they can fight it off for a while, but Calgary needs to fine some prospects that will stop at nothing to get any TPE they can. Not to say our prospects aren't great, because they are, but none of them really seem to be reaching the earnings of say Kennedy Jr, Batsbak, Bouchard of even future hall of famer Mike Izzy. Calgary does have a few seasons to hopefully remedy this situation before the big boys have to take off the skates one last time and between Esa and Izzy, I fully expect this to be fixed.

***boom*** · 10-10-2020, 10:09 AM

For this PT, I'm going to discuss the Vancouver Whalers. The big thing with this team is that they are clearly in win-now mode, with at least six players leaving at the end of the season, so it's Cup or bust for the whaling crew. Let's take a look at the team's roster:

Centres:
S55 Daniil Nikiforov
S55 Wile Coyote
S56 Dee Centerman IV
S56 Rikki Petrov

This is a solid group that should all be returning for another go-round in S57, so Vancouver is in good shape here. Daniil Nikiforov is an elite talent who broke out last season and is continuing his run this year as well.

Wingers
S54 Rotticus Scott
S54 Luffy Richard
S54 Bryce McMahon
S55 Devin Basher
S55 Jacon Desrouleaux
S56 KnockedOut ByOvechkin
S56 Valtterri Kauppinen
S56 Markleesio Hopscotch

This is where the hurt really kicks in, as Vancouver will be losing three or maybe four of their top wingers by TPE to the SHL after the season. We knew this was a risk with this core to buy Scott from the Knights since a lot of them were going to need replacing, but ultimately we decided it was worth it to make a Cup push with this group and this was always going to be the peak season with myself being the only player needing replacing.

Defense
S54 Ryosuke Sato
S54 Slimey Snail
S55 Johnny Shuffleboard
S55 Lonnie O'Donoghue
S56 Sarah Burke
S56 Zebulon Leavitt

We're losing Sato and Snail to the SHL next season, but we have a very "next player up" mentality and will still have 3 425 TPE defenders next season, with Lonnie O'Donoghue hanging around as an inactive for two more seasons after this as well.

Goaltending
S54 Name Redacted
S57 Jon St. Ark

Going into the last draft, we knew we had no other holes on the team and focused on getting our successor for Name Redacted, who was in his last season. Arkz has been a great fit in our locker room thanks to previous ISFL connections on the Whalers, and on the ice Jon St. Ark has put up the best stat line in the SMJHL through the first half of the season.

Picks:
Own 2nd
NBB 3rd
Own 4th
Own 5th
Own 6th

While we took a big risk to move draft capital for a rental, it's actually not too bad looking at the retool next season. Of our departing players, Name Redacted already has his replacement on the roster, and with our defense stepping up big-time we'll still have three 425 TPE defenders even with our S54s leaving. The big issue to address will be on the wings.

JT3 · 10-10-2020, 10:27 AM

The Edmonton Blizzard currently have one of the weakest bottom defensemen pairing out of most of the top teams in the league. With the unexpected departures of McIntyre and Tuck it turned out to be difficult to fill those holes with the massive demand expansion created for defensemen. It is clearly our biggest weak spot going into the playoffs, and with the age of Jon Toner things could get even worse pretty quickly. Edmonton has a couple of options to deal with this issue. They could go trade hunting this season for a couple of defensemen to see if they can plug those holes and really make a push for the cup. With the high demand though this won't come cheap, and the Blizzard have been light on picks since the blockbuster trade a season and a half ago. However you could argue that despite this the prospect pool is still quite stocked, and maybe they can still afford to shop some picks while they may be at their peak. The other option would be FA, but it can be quite hard to land good FA's in this league. The third option would be to call up young stud Axel Foley. He is still quite raw but he has huge potential and would be an upgrade over the current bottom pair defensemen, despite his youth.

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CanadianDuck · 10-10-2020, 10:32 AM

The San Francisco Pride need to fill many holes in their roster to get back to where they once were. The team is in desperate need of strong forward and defensive prospects. The only position they are not in a desperate need to fill is in the net, but it will become a concern sooner than later. The biggest need they require is a team full of players who will stick with the team through this rebuild and come out competing as one of the top teams in the SHL. It was only a few seasons ago when the Pride were in the Finals competing for the Championship after going through a very similar situation as the one they are currently in. I will always have a spot in my heart for that franchise after the Edmonton Blizzard traded me there just days after being drafted. I can't wait to see them finally win their first Championship, but it will take a similar level of dedication and skill for that to happen.

Bongo · 10-10-2020, 11:55 AM

A weak team right now is undoubtedly my beloved Baltimore Platoon. We are most certainly not on track to make the playoffs. In order for our projection to become positive, I believe we must select the best draftees and trade options available. GMJR has done an excellent job of transforming the Platoon culture into a positive one. With all of our new rookies and sophomores, I do see a genuine difference.

Next year when Adam Friedland gets called up to assist the third defensive pairing (provided he is offered a contract, because that is obviously a necessity to assisting - and I hear he is more than willing to resign) and Afalava developing, this young squad is on the right track.

Will it be an overnight fix?? Maybe if free agency was a thing, it'd move along much smoother. However, due to the myth of free agency, Baltimore will have to depend on trades and drafts. Perhaps in the past, it was not wise to make some deals but I believe the acquisition of Afalava was an excellent decision given that he is a proven product. More calculated moves from our beloved GM and I believe the Platoon will compete in 4-5 seasons.

*thedangazone* · 10-10-2020, 12:07 PM

Well as a GM I think this is a little more on the nose about how I am feeling on the team at the current moment. Being as Fuzz and then later myself took over in Los Angeles after free agency had started it was a little rough as some of the bigger names were already signed and others from our team left as well without a new contract. It was definitely rough, especially on our defensive core. We had very little options going forward on that blue line and decided a patch work defensive line was the way to go for the season as we honestly didn't have many options other than making absurd trades on a barren market. Moving forward we need to focus on building up our prospect pool some more to prevent these situations from happening where we have no one ready to make the jump up to the big leagues to fill spots as well as potentially go after some bigger names in free agency to whomever actually makes it to free agency. The team overall is a good spot outside of the defensive depth so addressing that in the next offseason specifically will be a huge plus to the team and allows us to shore up our (in my opinion) only weak spot.

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PremierBromanov · 10-10-2020, 12:19 PM

A few weak points in tampa bay. Number one is trella, aka t-squeeps. He made us go 0-50 and for that he can never be forgiven. In order to make this better, we will give him a mustache and glasses so no one will know it is him, and thus faith in the franchise can be restored.
Additionally, our Logo is butts. Its not 100% butts, but it could use a bit a tweak. Really the colors too. I think we're all happy to be the barracuda, since it really sticks out in a world full of...whatever the hell is going on in SHL branding. But I think we can do better with the logo. Its like 70% of the way there. The colors I'm not fond of is really the deep black as on of our primaries. This works in terms of the logo but looks kinda bad in practice. I would go with white + teal + lighter green/blue, make the team more like the lightning in terms of sweaters. White for home, deep teal for away.

thevoicelesscreator · 10-10-2020, 01:25 PM

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d0lph1nb0y · 10-10-2020, 03:16 PM

The Colorado Raptors are currently having an up and down season. They have been able to win their first 6 games before going on two 6 game losing streaks. With the loss of
5 players due to being called up to the SHL, which includes Sven Svenson and Carlos Brown, thier doesnt seem to be much of any team cohesion. This lack of consitency is
needing to be found for the raptors before they enter the playoffs.

Another area of weakness for the Raptors looks to be in their goaltending. The team is 3rd in shots against but they have one of the lowest save percentage in the league. This is due to have a sophomore as starter and a rookie as the backup. There is not really a quick way to fix this as it will be best to wait it out and let the two goalies develop their skills and get better.

Mack · 10-10-2020, 04:50 PM

The weakspot of the Colorado Raptors my current team has been everyone finding their proper fit in the system. I know the Raptors are not the top talent filled roster in the league but they shouldn't be 2nd last in the West. They have had some management/lineup changes and learning how to get everyone in the right role has been an ongoing challenge. So far the management and coaches are doing a great job not being afraid to try new things. They also spend many hours testing and going over X's and O's as the season progresses. There is still half of the season remaining and Colorado has seen a few things work recently and are hoping to find the right magic and get on a roll right as we enter the playoffs. The Raptors top players need to get out of the minus column and start being better in both ends if they want to see a long season this year. We players have faith in the coaching/management team and know that they will get the most out of us.

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