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***SouthPaw*** · 03-23-2021, 02:15 PM

With the regular season having come to an end in the SMJHL it means that the draft is looming ever closer. The draft is a time for teams to look towards the future. To fill the remaining holes they need to push for a championship, or to start all over from square one. Teams will be coming off of disappointing endings from their playoff hopes being cut short, or from dramatic victories that provided more success than they were hoping for. Either way the draft is a time for all teams to sit down and reassess the future of their organization. With this article I hope to shed some light on the needs for all of these teams and what I expect their draft strategy to be when it comes to draft day. Now, before we jump in I want you all to know that I am new to the Simulation Hockey League and that what I am about to say could be way off base but, I hope that you all enjoy my takes on what I believe teams will be doing come draft time!

Outlaws

Anaheim Outlaws Outlaws

A new year and a new look for the Outlaws! The team is coming off a down season in which they only amassed a total of 46 points and sported a record of 21-41-4. However, it was not expected for this extremely young team to push for much this season. Now I say extremely young because out of there 19 rostered players, 12 of them came from the S59 Draft Class. This team struggled to find the net last season and only scored 147 goals last season, which was 2nd worst in the league followed by Maine. The team was led in scoring by the vetran Right Winger “Long” John Donair who hit the back of the net 15 times this past season. While Vincent Mietitore took over the majority of time between the crease and sported a solid 0.915 save percentage on his way to 16 of the Outlaws 21 wins.
So where does that leave the team moving into the next season, well we can start by looking at who they will be losing next season. That begins with their LW - James Hagan and their C - Hubert Andrews. Both of these players are from S55 and will be aging out. Hagan and Andrews accounted for 41 points for the Outlaws last season and in an offense that struggled to produce much, they will definitely need to fill those holes with some fresh blood. Another possible loss for the team is their top scoring player RW - “Long” John Donair. Now yes, I believe that losing your leading goal scorer would scare a lot of teams but Donair does not fit the timeline for the Outlaws at this point. The window for the Outlaws is not quite open next year and for those reasons I think the 852 TPE Donair will be taking his talents up to the majors next season.
Now I mentioned earlier that the outlaws have a massive amount of S59 players and these players are going to be the core of their future success. They break down into 5 defensive players, 1 goalie and 6 forwards. G - IStawp Puques (233 TPE) and G - Vincent Meititore (566 TPE) will handle the workload between the crease next season, while G - Marcel Laflamme will enjoy his final season in sweatpants. I also believe that the Outlaws have a solid defensive core in place out of the S59 class and will not be looking to add much more to it in this coming draft, at least in the early rounds. I think that C - Kaapo Kampainen will be stepping up into the spotlight next year and the Outlaws will look to finalize their rebuild with some strong forwards early, with a defensemen in the later rounds. If they manage to do that, they should be in for a solid season in S60 as their S59 players pass the 350 TPE cap.

Team Needs: Forwards that fit their rebuild timeline with at least one more defensemen to pair up and add to their 3rd line. The team is nearing their window and need to make sure that they grab players that can help them get there!

First Round Potential Targets: With a very high likelihood of having a Top 3 pick in the coming draft I feel that some of the earlier creates are going to be who they zero in on. I believe players like LW - Maverick Seabrook and LW - High Haschidi are going to be great potential early grabs for the Outlaws here.

Armada

Anchorage Armada Armada

The Armada had a very solid season on their way to a record of 36-27-3 and 75 points and finishing 2nd place in the Western Conference. Of course the team was overshadowed by the crazy success of the Kelowna Knights but, I believe Anchorage had a much better season than was was probably to be expected this year. I say this because Anchorage is still a relatively young team with 14 of their 21 rostered players being S58 or S59. That means that they were able to pull out 2nd place in their division with a fairly large chunk of their roster below the 350 TPE Cap. Moving into next season they will be able to have players like RD - Bean Beanman (474 TPE), LW - Paul Binder (405 TPE), RD - Gregory Goode (504 TPE) and D - Jean-Lock Zidane (480 TPE) unleash their full potential. I am expecting big things from Anchorage next year, as I think their window for a title push will be open.
One of the Armada's biggest keys to success last season was their defense. Now while they only finished 10th in GF last season, they finished 3rd in GA. What this means is that the Armada is stacked on the defensive side of the puck. With a lot of huge defensive players like Beanman, Zidane and Goode who I mentioned earlier. What is even better for Anchorage is that they are not going to be losing any of the guys that made their defense so great last year as the only player that is aging out is G - Kojo Murata, who spent most of his time not in pads anyways. Now even though the team does not seem to be losing much on the defensive side they have potential to lose some very key players on the offensive side. Players like LW - Lemo Pihl (848 TPE) might have played their last game in an Armada Jersey. Now I hope for Anchorage’s sake that this is not true as Pihl was responsible for 30 points last season and imo he was a huge reason players like RW - Tokkuilu Lakkamaa (428 TPE) found such great success with 38 points.
Knowing that their struggles are on the offensive side of the puck means that the Armada’s approach to the draft will be a relatively simple one. They need to find someone who can squeeze in behind players like Binder, Salvatici and Lakkamaa that will give them the depth they so desperately need to become a true title contender next year. Their defense is set for at least another season, possibly two. This means I would be shocked if any defensive players went over there way in the draft. Now one thing that could happen as G - Chimkin Tendy (TPE: 732) is heading into his final season of eligibility is for the Armada to try and sure up their future Goalie needs. Now they can do that one of two ways, they can try to bring back G - Ethan Bravo (155 TPE) from what appears to be inactivity, or they could invest in a new S60 rookie that will be the key between the crease for the following season.

Team Needs: Depth for their offensive lines. The window is open for the Armada's title push and in order to do that they need Goal Scorers! A Goalie for the future would also be nice to grab in the later rounds

First Round Potential Targets: While I do not believe that they will have an early enough pick to grab one of the highest TPE players. I believe they will go after players with a lot of promise such as LW - J. J. James. Jamerson Angler or a solid Center in Satoru Gojo. It really depends on what happens in front of the Armada come draft day.

Kraken

Carolina Kraken Kraken

The Kraken struggled to find much success this past season. They finished with a record of 26-39-1 and only had 53 points. Now the good news is they are a relatively young squad. Not as young as Anaheim or Anchorage but, still young. The team currently sits at 21 rostered players with 13 of those players being from either S58 or S59. I do not believe the Kraken were supposed to have a title contending season this year but, I do believe they expected more than the 53 points they ended up getting. As of right now it seems that the Kraken will only be losing one player as LW - Vincent Wolfe (443 TPE) will be agining out. Losing Wolfe from a statistical standpoint is really rough on the Kraken as Wolfe led the team with 30 Goals and 18 Assists this season. Losing that kind of productivity is never a good thing. They also run the risk of losing players like C - Aleksander Kozlov (820 TPE) to a potential call up. While losing either one of those players would be tough on the Kraken, losing both could leave a very sour taste in management's mouth.
Now looking at the bright side the Kraken have some serious talent coming through on the defensive side of the puck. This is good for them as they struggled when it came to not letting the puck in the back of their net. They allowed 228 goals last season which was the 4th worst in the league. In order to improve those numbers they will look to a couple of S58 defensive men that will be able to hit the 425 cap next season. These players include LD - Ole Olson (TPE 502) and RD - Finn von Murphenstein (502 TPE). Having these 2 jump up in the TPE cap could really give this team the defense they need to jump into serious title contending talks. Now on the other side of the puck they also get to enjoy a boost from players like RW - Golden Face (364 TPE) and LW - Tomas Lind (450 TPE) getting a boost from the cap increase. The team is heavily reliant on their S58 and S57 class this coming season, and I believe that we could see them definitely be competitive next year. However, I am still asking myself the question “Do they have the depth?”
The team had a strong S59 draft acquiring star players like LW - Cormac Pnaire (273 TPE) and LW - Aleks Blixstrom (278 TPE). This means that the team has already done a good job adding some depth behind the S58 and S57 guys. Going into the draft, they should not be picky. They have needs on both sides of the puck and while their defense looks to be heading in the right direction, there is never any guarantee in these sims. If I was one of the people involved in these decisions over in Carolina, I would probably focus on an offensive pick here. As trying to replace Kozlov and Wolfe would be your biggest concern before the puck drops next season. I am looking for a big developmental push from this team this year in order to compete at the level they are capable of. If they fail to do that I feel they could be in for another disappointing season.

Team Needs: Depth on both the offensive and defensive side of the puck. The team has some high quality talent that will be fun to watch but, if those players do not perform they could be in for a very long season unless they find some depth in this draft.

First Round Potential Targets: The Kraken will be looking at taking the best available player here that they believe will fit in well with their Locker Room. With that being said I see the Kraken going after D - Duncan the Walrus or LW - Maverick Seabrook with their potentially early 1st round pick.

Raptors

Colorado Raptors Raptors

Another team from the Western Conference that was overshadowed by the complete dominance of the Kelowna Knights this season. The Raptors managed to achieve a record of 34-27-5 with 73 points this past season. Overall, I believe the Raptors are very happy with the season they managed to put together. However, I expected more out of them this past season, and I expect even more out of them next year. They currently sit at 24 rostered players, and only one of them will be agining out next season RD - Terren “Big Terry” Smith (444 TPE). This means that they will have a very full lineup for next season. On top of that I do not see anyone that is a sure call up based on their TPE alone. Players like C - Josh Dolphin (623 TPE), LD - Ruggs McOoooh (629 TPE) and LD - Ren-Ekelemchi Shimizu-Okoli (603 TPE), are close but, I believe the majority of them will be down for another season which is great for the Raptor’s organization.
This team is one of the most balanced teams by far, as they do not seem to be overly invested in a certain class and have a lot of depth on both the offensive and defensive side of the puck. That showed in the way they played their games this season. There were a lot of hard fought wins and bittersweet moments for the team. Now, I appreciate depth as much as the next guy and since it is the minors and there are caps in place the Raptors are sitting very nicely. RW - Fedor Sotakov (286 TPE), RW - Sonata Diamante (358 TPE), and RW - Eero Makinen JR. (489 TPE) accounted for 51 goals last season and showed that this team has some very young and talented wingers. However, that did not seem to translate into huge offensive numbers as the team only scored 168 times last season. To put that in perspective that is less goals than the St. Louis Scarecrows had last season and they finished 2nd to last.
On paper this team has the talent and I cannot see why they should not compete for the title next year. From what I can see they have the depth, they will have a decent amount of 425 TPE capped players and they have a star Goalie in Yanno Rosejac (698 TPE). All the pieces seem to be there and anything that the team adds in this draft will just be there in order to help keep this team competitive for more years to come. This offseason the Raptors need to focus on finding that winning game plan so that all of this talent does not go to waste. Perhaps they should look at using a draft pick to bring in a star, whatever they decide to do they need to make sure that they stay focused going into the start of next season!

Team Needs: The team is very solid overall. Going into the draft their focus is most likely going to be on finding solid users to keep their window open for an extended period of time. I could see them trying to acquire some more fire power with their draft capitol this season, as well.

First Round Potential Targets: I believe that the raptors will look to move their 1st round pick in this draft. I think that their current roster has a lot of depth and moving their 1st round pick makes sense if they are able to grab extra picks or even trade for another superstar!

That will do it for Part 1! I will be breaking down the Detroit Falcons, Kelowna Knights, Maine Timber and the Nevada Battleborn in Part 2! Stay tuned and thanks again!