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***sliceruser*** · 07-15-2023, 11:08 AM

Mock Draft Woes/ SHL draft

Hello everyone this is my first media so bear with me if it is a bit off or weird. This will be my account of the Mock and SHL draft and how I felt and my thought process going through it as a new player and heavy introvert with no experience like this.

Firstly, I would like to talk about coming up into the draft and the painstakingly large amount of work the rest of the rookie class and myself put into making our mock drafts, we spent many hours brainstorming and telling each other about our scouting meetings and contacting other rookies and GM’s to get a grasp for who would go where. Determining team needs by going through their finances and send downs, going over every single team that scouted players how long the conversations were and having the players scout the scouts for more info, we even ended up listening into WJC locker rooms to see what the GM’s in there had to say. As you might have guessed our list wasn’t 100% accurate but going into it, I frequently warned people with each iteration of our revised mock, every completed one will never have more then 20%-25% certainty to any pick. Even after we had our final mock, for the last 2 hours we all went off to our own locker rooms to determine final changes with our teams in which I came out of the Mock getting 10 of the 20 correct which surprised me as I only anticipated about 25% not 50% so I think I succeeded. So, in that regard I would like to thank all the rookies who we pooled our resources together to help us get where we reached because it was a lot of effort and I wish I could have given you my final list before the draft so hopefully you did good or even better than me. I didn’t finish my last copy till the last half hour in which we heard extra news from our GM’s and fellow rookies on Carolina as teams did last minute scouting so we went into crunch time. To say we put in work is an understatement, we ended up revising and revising the mock we had a good 100 times and had a good 15 or more rookies coming in to talk and help us as we heard more and we were still super surprised by some of the picks that ended up popping out (shout out to Billy Hill/ PapaSorin the Mock Breaker) and I couldn’t be happier to each one to join their new teams! I’d also like to give a special shoutout here, not that any scouts were bad as I enjoyed all of my conversations, but Buffalo scout Tomen left a lasting impression that everyone I spoke to about them and on myself, everyone raved about how fun he was to talk with and how they would love to play for Buffalo with someone like him there so good on you Tomen.

Onto the draft and specifically my experience with it.

So, for those of you who do not know me I joined the league late so I did not experience the SMJHL entry draft and ended up being waiver claimed by the Carolina Kraken after an interesting conversation with Frenchie, seems he saw something in me and wanted me on the Kraken. Not being able to experience the SMJHL draft I was very worried and excited to see how the SHL draft would be and man doing the mock drafts did not help with the anxiety I had xD. The question for me coming into the draft was where would I place? Going through what I knew as there was too much I didn’t, I was only ranked about 30th for TPE, I knew no one outside of my locker room on Carolina and initially had no plans on making much in the way of money or how going to a different team would feel or be like, so I began my assumptions, well that must mean I am going somewhere between 25-30, that in my mind only made sense. In short order I was told I was severely undervaluing myself by my GM Seven who pretty proudly declared I was selling myself way short and would be more likely to reach about 15-20 easily. Naturally I thought he was crazy but it soon became apparent I was the crazy one as throughout the mock draft process hearing from fellow rookies, scouts and GM’s they all seemed to agree I would be going around the 15th territory so I then had to accept I would be going higher than I thought to give an accurate mock for my fellow rookies and had to look at who scouted me and where I thought I might go.

Aurora

WPG at 17th – this pick was later traded in the draft but at the time I had a rather good conversation with them and they came back to double check with me as I assumed based off our conversation if I was going to go anywhere it would likely be here as our conversation was early and good so I had them as my main mock placement most of the Mock.

Dragons

CGY at 10th/12th/13th – I held no belief that Calgary would take me at 10 and it was known Tanner was going at 12/13(thank you Tanner and Boom). But nonetheless they scouted me, our conversation was brief and it seemed more just to check then actual desire so this never seemed likely to me.

Stampede

BUF at 20th – as previously stated the talk with Tomen was amazing, such a joy to talk to, he seemed a bit disappointed he would be able to pick me. As we both didn’t think I would drop to 20 so I felt after our conversation if I made it to 20 there was no way I wasn’t getting picks barring another higher ranked player not getting picked. I am not sure if it is true but it did feel this way but as stated I wasn’t able to mock myself being that low.

Barracuda

TBB at 5th and 18th – this was the last team to scout me during the scouting period I thought had genuine interest for me and it would be at 18th if anything. An enjoyable conversation but once again I didn’t think I would drop that low which was a weird feeling for me.

By the time the draft started a number of teams had reached out to me and I reached out to a few but most seemed customary and not out of interest. But of all the mentioned positions I am sure you are confused if you have seen the results of the S72 SHL draft, where is Chicago and how do they fit in.

syndicate

Chi 14th overall – For much of the draft I honestly believed Chicago was most likely to draft me but I didn’t want to believe I would go as high as 14th especially since they never officially scouted me during the scouting period. That is because of a chance encounter with Schwarznarr, a GM for Chicago in the main SHL discord that I had joined for the first time upon entering the league. In which a few players were upset and I with her tried to help calm them down. She immediately after struck up a conversation where she gave me an unofficial little scout session where we mostly just talked about league in a brief conversation. I felt like I left a good impression on Schwarznarr as they told me they thought I would be a good fit in their locker room at the time, this was several weeks before the draft though so it took me a while to accept that maybe I could go that high and I wasn’t being crazy for having that confidence. Honestly a really nice feeling. I was happily proven wrong in where I thought I was going and not only went in the first round, but 14th! Overall securing 3 Carolina rookies in the top 15 and later 5 in the top 30(good job Seven and Frenchie) and another home with the Chicago discord as I immediately vibed with them as I had with Carolina and we even ended up playing league right away xD.

I want to thank Seven, Frenchie, Pyro, Wizard, everyone else in the Car discord, as well as Schwarznarr and the Chicago discord for helping and accepting me. I am a massive introvert but I have had so much fun and I don’t know how I got to this point and hope to keep having fun times with you guys.

Hopefully if you get to the end that I have managed to convey my thoughts, feelings, anxiety, hope, happiness, surprise and excitement I felt during this as I wish to share the feeling.

1492 words

*Pyro182* · 07-15-2023, 11:43 AM

Great article, great locker room presence, great person. Can't wait to play 3 more seasons with you Slicer, and best of luck in Chicago. Kraken

***sköldpaddor*** · 07-15-2023, 11:46 AM

It was awesome watching how much work you put in updating that mock draft! I think Chicago is going to be a great fit, both for you and for the team!

trella · 07-15-2023, 12:20 PM

I joined this draft class extremely late but you immediately stood out as someone who is very friendly, helpful, and excited about the league. Those are 3 of the most important things in being successful here in the SHL or any sim league. Happy to see you get drafted high because as far as I can see it was well earned. Thanks for all your hard work on the mock and best of luck in Chicago! (Go kraken love you kraken fam)

Thanks to @karey and @JSS for the sigs!

Former USA Fed Head, Carolina Kraken Co-GM, Tampa Bay Barracuda GM

spidey · 07-15-2023, 12:27 PM

Congrats! Fantastic article and good luck in Chicago.

wizard_literal · 07-16-2023, 10:39 AM

Awesome article my dude. So happy I've gotten to know you in Carolina. Looking forward to playing along side you as a Kraken again this season!

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