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JHS · 03-16-2020, 04:00 AM

*Posting to save while I continue working on this*

Now that the S53 SMJHL Draft has came and went, the rookies finally having received a new home and spending some quality time with their teammates, it is time for us soulless leeches in the media to attempt to jump into the minds of those who are far more qualified than us to be managers and determine whether the teams had good drafts. At least I used to be a GM so I kind of know what I'm talking about. Some will be praised, others will be ripped apart, and almost nothing of consequence will actually be stated in this article. Now, without further ado, lets spew some bullshit:

ANAHEIM OUTLAWS

[Image: xiYLqW6]

Draft class: D Emilia Bergman 17th, D AJ Patella 35th, LW Etan Merauk 47th

Due to trades and an unfortunate forfeited 10th overall pick, the reigning SMJHL champions had only 3 picks in the top 50, and these ended up being the only picks that they used. D Emilia Bergman, an 185 TPE new create, was a good choice to replace the loss of their top defensemen, and thus was a pretty quality pickup by the Outlaws in the second round, assuming the player stays active. Interestingly, this player so far has all of their earned TPE banked, meaning I'm not exactly sure what the end goal for their build is. This was likely planned in order to apply TPE wherever it would work best in their management's favor, a fairly selfless act and one that certainly increases their value for the squad. LW Etan Merauk, though not projected as a replacement for any particular player, shores up the 3rd LW position. This piece just created yesterday, and is therefore certainly a project, though as a 5th rounder there's pretty low risk for this potentially high reward player. AJ Patella, a defenseman, was taken 35th overall, and not much is known about this player either, though his build suggests a speedy defenseman with little to no shooting stats, positioning, or shot blocking. I'm actually incredibly interested to know how a player built like this would behave, in-sim.

Still though, because of their tampering punishment and lack of picks, the team were unable to really replace the talent they have lost. Granted, it was basically impossible to ask of them given their loss of picks, but I'm surprised that the team did not trade for more picks in an attempt to keep their success alive for a while longer. I just don't think that a team with only 3 picks, only 1 of which came in the first 3 rounds, can really be given a high draft grade. They did decently for what they had to work with, but they weren't able to really take any surefire pedigree players, and it is to be determined if these guys will pan out.

You heard it here first, tamper equals bad.

Grade: D

Anchorage Armada

[Image: search?view=detailV2&ccid=V8WUHHIR&id=C2...TP6oc3DvYw]

Draft Class:
2: Anchorage Armada - RD Mathew Sawful – Sawful
12: Anchorage Armada - G Scoochie Stratton – Honkerrs
22: Anchorage Armada - LD Alexei Petrikov – mdubz
32: Anchorage Armada - RD Bork Lazer - Frick_Nasty
42: Anchorage Armada - RW Corey Rigler - cdr99

The Anchorage Armada, having lost only 3 players from last season, though also coming off a 9th place finish the season after the 4 star cup, seemed to have a particular drafting focus on defense. And in this strategy, they were fairly successful: Mathew Sawful was certainly turning heads around the league thanks to activity and media, and I believe I'd seen mdubz's name on the site before, and its always good to get at least one recreate in the draft. Meanwhile, having lost their starting goalie, and the projected starter being in the 200's in TPE, it was the right move to go with a promising young goalie in Scoochie Stratton at 12, though it must've been a tough move choosing between he and Cale Amundsen, who went 13th to the Newfoundland Berserkers. Personally, I'm not sure who I would've picked, though the recreate is usually a safer move than a new create, but there's a chance of a nice reward if Honkerrs ends up working out. Finally, I believe that Corey Rigler is one of the brightest stars of the later rounds, having been projected pretty high on many mocks. He was noticeably active in many of the rookie group chats, and he's got a nice balanced build that GM's love to bring into their team, though he's got to get that strength up to be effective. Lazer is a fairly new player that I do not really know enough about to make a comment on, one way or the other. I think Sawful was not widely expected to go 2nd, though he wasn't a bad pick, and I think there's some high risk high reward choices here that makes this draft class not very easy to read right away. Overall, I think this class is pretty average.

Too bad they have to go to Basically Russia just to play hockey.

Grade: B

Carolina Kracken

[Image: CarolinaKraken.png]

Draft Class:
LW Dwight Knight 21st, - Hockeyiscool
LW Vitek Vitecek 30th, - Megaskuci
LW Panda Panico 39th, - peej2189
LW Stein Nilsen 49th, -Bordon23
RW Ryan Hunt 59th,
LW Joey Gabo 69th

Jiminy Christmas boy that's a hell of a lot of wingers taken in one draft. After losing 5 of their wingers and 3 of their centers at the end of last season, the Kraken decided to go fairly one dimensional in terms of their draft strategy by replacing the wingers they lost and then some. The Carolina Kracken traded for the 21st and 30th overall picks in the draft in exchange for future picks in reddit drafts, as well as a free agent they had signed and traded. With the 21st pick, they took Dwight Knight, who's update thread has apparently not been moved to the team's area, but who created almost a month ago and has almost certainly accrued some TPE by now. The 30th overall pick, Vitek Vitecek, is a crafty winger with high speed and low physicality that has a nose for getting open and picking corners. There may be some concerns about lack of defensive of physical skills, but certainly not his activity, as he has certainly been noticed in rookie discord. The 39th overall pick, Panda Panico, is basically the opposite of Vitecek: He's a little ball of hit who specializes in physical play, specifically when it comes to hitting other people's bodies with his. I'm not really sure what to say about the build: a lot of TPE into mental ratings, low offensive read, passing, agility, acceleration, high checking, stamina, strength. Interesting build, we'll see how it plays out. Neilsen seems to be a good pick at 49th, though he missed AC 304, he has 184 TPE as of right now, and has a balanced build that could probably pan out into something.

They seem to have picked up 3, possibly 4 solid wingers in this draft, which I can give them credit for. However, they failed to replace any of the centers that they lost over the course of the offseason. Having only two on the roster could be a big uh-oh if FHM rewards pure centers the way I heard it does. If this is true, the Kraken better hope a solid center FA joins the site, and does it soon. They better pursue this guy aggressively, and hope that he chooses to sign with them. Otherwise they're in big trouble. Luckily, it seems like they've done a good job in fixing their winger issue, so shoring that last bit up would certainly contribute to a solid squad. A team deserves props for landing 4 solid picks in any draft, but when there's still a big need left unaddressed, its hard to say that it deserves a high grade.

Defense wins championships, but maybe Wings get Rings.

Grade: C

Colorado Raptors

[Image: YpFgQPQ.png]

Draft Class:
RD Aumy Jr. 6th, - St4rface
RW Randen Skog 28th, - HemskyisSic
RD Sheen Beckett 38th, - Shaun1574
RW Kyle Browning 48th,
C Jean-Uthred Ragnarsson-Tremblay 58th

The Colorado Raptors did a pretty good job of replacing lost assets in this draft, especially through drafting a pretty highly touted recreate in Aumy Jr 6th overall. This seems to be a pretty well regarded decision by the majority of users, as Aumy's first player was around for a while and, if I remember correctly, pretty good. He seems to have created a new account, though he has Aumeisters in his profile so I assume it was his player? He was in the SHL for 13 seasons, though never really had great stats. Regardless, the new Aumy's build has to be one of the most well rounded of all defensemen in the league, a good sign for a rookie expected to fit into some pretty big shoes. Randen Skog, taken 28th, also has a solid build, and it actually reminds me a lot of my own - very responsible, all around but focusing on the little things like positioning and read over skill stats. Sheen Beckett, the 38th overall pick, is definetly more of a skill player, and an offensively minded one at that, though his D-read is high enough to set a pretty good base for improvement of the rest of his defensive stats, should he choose to hone them. Their last two draft picks seem to be inactive, unfortunately, but the hope is that they will eventually return to the site and start updating and making the team better.

A stud defenseman in the first round, and two solid later round picks make this a decent haul for the Raptors. They didn't particularly have a wealth of active draft picks like some other teams did, but they didn't exactly need a ton of them because of the depth that their team already had. Overall, I think this was a pretty solid draft for the Raptors, not really anything to write home about besides the 6th overall, but not something that anyone would be disappointed by. This is the epitome of the GM's doing their job on draft day.

I got to talk to hhh, he’s a pretty cool guy.
I way preferred the mammoths tho.

Grade: C+

Detroit Falcons

[Image: u0cFTnH.png?1]

Draft class:
D Joseph Fantobens 8th, - Fantobens
C Anders Svendsen 40th - TubbyTim69
C Wang Liqin 41st - Gooney

This one will be pretty short. Being the proud owners of a pretty #deep team, the Detroit Falcons followed the time honored Bill Belichick tradition of trading away picks they didn't need, since they only lost 1(?) player and were already pretty highly rated. I am going to give them bonus points for trading away that 21st for a time when they have less returning players. Meanwhile, I believe Fantobens was an excellent pick, a solid defenseman and someone who seems to be a pretty great guy in the rookie locker room. They somehow also got an SHL media grader 41st overall which was either a pretty big oversight on the part of the other GM's, or the guy doesn't have a very great track record with players. I think I might've seen him in an old Riot LR back when I was barely active? Not really sure. Either way this is a quality over quantity draft for a team that needed exactly that, though their middle guy has never done an activity check. Overall, solid draft.

Liqin Wang and drinkin Bang

Grade: B didn't need much, did what they needed, cut the excess and saved it for a needier day. Solid work by nour and stig here.

Kelowna Knights

[Image: 4yCHA8l]

Draft class:
RW Simon Takshak 4th, - Geck
C Daniel Laforest 7th, - Snoopdogg
RD Devin Williams 14th, - MrRuihu
LW Rotticus Scott 24th, - Rotticus Scott
RW Justin Keahi 34th, - MylittleHexx
G Frankie Holtz 44th,
D Robert von Wertz 54th

Ok so either i'm a MF Dumbo baby or they took the green out of their colors which is very #notswag. This is my very least favorite SMJHL franchise so its very hard to be positive about them especially when they draft two of my favorite fellow draftees in Simon Takshak and Daniel Laforest and not me :( they lost me 8 million to Geck and i'm salty about it. Please do not @ me.

Alright, with that out of the way, this along with Maine is my very favorite class of the draft. You have 5 (yes, 5) actively updating draftees, and if their new goalie draftee becomes active, they will have replenished every single one of their lost players with active replacements. That's an incredible feat to even get close to in a draft, particularly if you're losing 5 players, and I need to praise their GM's here for excellent work in drafting. I think this is a very promising group of players, and it's hard not to be excited about that team. Simon Takshak has such a fun physical build, with checking hitting bravery screening and aggressiveness all relatively high, he seems like he'd be the most annoying person of all time to play against in real life. And there's a reason i'm not surprised that Daniel Laforest was taken before me in the draft, despite being new: he's a first time member with an asston of media, 95 forum posts, and only 7 less TPE than me to his name. Our builds are pretty different, with his specialization in the speed stats but being pretty average everywhere else, but it's definetly a better choice to take a new guy who doesn't have a history of going IA or pissing people off like yours truly. Devin Williams hasn't actually put any TPE into his base build yet but he seems to be going for a well rounded, shoot first player which a lot of teams like in their wingers but admittedly is a little skewed for a D-Man. I'm sure this is something his GM's will iron out, though. Rotticus Scott has an entirely specialized build of passing, reads, stickchecking, and skating skills, though I'm sure this'll also be changed, but man it would sure be interesting if it wasn't. Keahi's build at 202 TPE is hella interesting as well and honestly reminded me that you can update your player to fractions of a stat. So thank you for that. Seems to be going for more of a PWF two-way vibe, Lucic style, which I can totally get behind. Honestly this is just super solid, the other two players are IA but you cant win them all.

Praising the Knights is like kissin your sister. It really should be illegal, but some inbred degens find it strangely appealing.

Grade: A

Seriously just the closest you can get to a perfect draft as a GM, realistically.

Maine Timber

Draft class:
D Mikkel Asmus Sondergard 1st, - RabidSponge
C Konrad Danke 11th, - JHS
C Patrick Shepherd 18th, - Cobbenstein
G Leo Bloomfield 19th, - bloomyGB
D Will Windsor 29th, - Allegiant
RW Kyle Sutton 37th - CrazyMojito

Bias time! I fucking love this draft, baby! Shoutout to CoA and Cement for getting the job done. Replacing Abel Skinner with the consensus number one pick and spongemuffin of the year Sondergard. Getting myself, Konrad Danke, considered by many to be a top 3 pick, in the second round. As of the draft, it is worth mentioning that these were the two highest TPE players available, by the way. I do not think that in my memory a team has ever pulled off getting both of the two highest TPE players in the same draft. The goalie at 19th without an update thread is admittedly a risky move, however two centers over 200 TPE with myself and Patrick Shepherd is a huuuge pickup for a team with no natural active centers to speak of before now. Kyle Sutton was also a steal of a pickup, having been pretty active in my experience in the rookie LR. And potentially getting a good recreate, Allegiant, back into activity or semi-activity is a good chance at improvement.

Overall, if that goalie works out, it is fairly difficult to find any big flaws within this draft. The first 3 picks, in particular, are likely the best top 3 in the draft in terms of TPE. You've got players experienced with the league at the top end, with pretty much guaranteed results in terms of building and activity, and at least two active and bright-eyed rookies in Cobb and Mojito ready to step up and kick some ass. Overall, the builds for the rooks will improve as they're offered build help in the locker room, and Sponge and I have some pretty solid builds. I don't wanna be the guy who does an in-depth analysis of his own guy and how great he is, but I am pretty sure that this is on par with Kelowna's draft. I actually really love Sutton's build, a lot of 8's 10's and 11's everywhere, with no real particular focus just yet as he enters a new team atmosphere and gets aquainted with the league and sim for the first time, though we are all getting used to FHM too. I personally think it's a smart idea to not put all the eggs in one basket with this new sim, to wait it out and see what works before really putting balls on walls, and I think Mojito, despite being a new guy, caught onto that quick.

Maybe the most unnecessary rebrand of all time but fuck every league needs a team decked out in poop brown.

Grade: A When you lose only one guy, and gain 4 new actives, I'd call that success. 2 highest TPE players in the draft - Crazy Success. All that PLUS accomplishing all your pre-draft goals? Near perfection.

Newfoundland Berserkers

D PBJ Souppan 3rd, - voicelesscreator
G Cale Amundsen 13th, - wally
D Tinke Jutila 20th, - snussu
C Gavin Wallace 23rd, - spontaneous combustion
D Jack Klompus 27th, - Toast
RW Red Arrow 31st, - RedArrow12c
LW Niccolo Livius 33rd, - bbp
G Matvei Stevlaco 43rd, - Mstevens911
D Mike Rotchburns 53rd,
C Dumpstr Chukstr 63rd

This was an interesting draft from Newfoundland. I thought for certain they would take a center at 3, either myself or Snoop, and they surprised me by doing neither, and taking Souppan. I had Souppan as one of the higher defensemen on the board, for certain, but certainly not 3rd overall. Also, just as a sidenote, I had no idea that @Toast was in the draft, since that guy's a serious OG, but his new player Jack Klompus went 27th overall. If he gets active again, just having Toast in the Locker Room is steal enough. They also nailed their 20th overall pick, Tinke Jutila, who probably fell even farther than I did from their projected place on most mocks. And as I was writing this, I noticed they got bbp's new player, a old Rene GM who will also be a vet presence in this old boys club LR. I'm also pretty sure bbp once threatened to leave the Renes if Deener signed me. Probably a pretty good pick.

But aside from these guys, they've got that goalie they took 43rd who updated, which is nice quality from such a late draft choice. That wasn't even the only goalie they got, either: they got wally, another quality recreate. I think if there's one common theme among the Berserkers' draft, it was quality. An overall great draft from @JNH and co. Spontaneous Combustion, Gavin Wallace, is another name I had been seeing around the boards and discords lately, and I'm stoked for him that he gets to go to a team so chock full of experienced members. This Red Arrow fella also seems to be updating, so good for him! That's an awesome draft for Newfie. Congrats guys!

The more i look up how to say Newfoundland the more I hate it and everything it stands for.

Grade: A

Saint Louis Scarecrows

Draft class:
RW William Lockwood 9th, - Lockwood
G Richard Majors 15th, - Hefe4711
RD Elwulf Jericson 25th, - Jericson
C Grapefruit Lizard 26th - Frostbite

StL had a small class in this draft, but it was a quality one. Made up of 4 names that I've noticed many a time in the rookie discord, I have a feeling this will be 4/4 in activity retainment, meaning that none of these players will go inactive. Through writing this article, I have come to realize that spending the time to break down people's builds is basically useless because we know nothing about FHM and how the stats are going to reflect on in-game performance. What matters is how engaged people have been, both with their fellow rookies and with the site as a whole.

Personally, I've been high on William Lockwood from the jump. Very nice, active guy on the rookie discord, a solid winger that STL really needed and he kinda just seems like a Scarecrow kind of guy. Not sure why, but this seems like a great fit. Jericson seemed to slide under some radars, but I think he was a great pick by the crows, he has been active and updating and always talking on the discord. Asking questions, being attentive, etc. And I think Grapefruit Lizard was potentially a fairly new user, could be wrong, but he's been pretty active and posting about builds in the discord, seems like a good guy as well. And I am a big fan of players with weird names, and this is a great one. 10/10 love it. Did a great job getting that goalie they really need if they're actually losing their starter, which I heard from Nictox they weren't but maybe they are after all? Hef seems to be fairly active so that is, regardless, good for the goose and thus good for the gander. That doesn't really make sense in context, I just wanted to say it.

What the hell is a grapefruit lizard?

Grade A-

Vancouver Whalers

Draft class:
G Cal Covid 5th,
D Ryosuke Sato 16th,
D Slimey Snail 36th,
LW Luffy Richard 46th,
RW Sean Clark 56th

Ah, Vancouver. A team I graced, at different times, with my presence, GM'ing skills, cups, and shitstorms. Now, on the outside looking in at the franchise I once made great and then promptly ruined, I see a promising group of rookies looking to carry on the traditions of greatness that come with the most storied franchise in the SMJHL (Yes, Kelowna, I said it. THE MOST STORIED FRANCHISE). Cal Covid, owner of both a fantastic name and a fantastically high draft slot that surprised very many of us in the rookie chat, was their 5th overall pick. He's active and a cool guy, please do not get me wrong, but was certainly not above all the other goalies on the mocks. Was a little shocked for sure, but happy for the lad. After all, they lost White Goodman at the end of last season, and needed a quality replacement. They're hoping he'll be an effective heir, and because i'll always be a secret Whalers fanboy, so do I.

Ryosuke Sato, a RD who I don't even think is named after an anime character but regardless speaks to my secret weeb in my heart of hearts, will be teamed up with also fantastically named Slimey Snail in the hopes of replacing that big old defensive group that also had to bounce after the end of last season. Big time names up here in Vancouver this year, the British Columbians must be thankful to have something to laugh about while they're brutally decimated by the 'Ronies. I don't think those two wingers of theirs have updated, at least I am unable to find their update pages, and so although Luffy is a great name I am forced to assume they aren't active and will be docking points accordingly.

3 solid players, but no real boost to an offense that wasn't exactly dangerous last season.

Never forget that I won as many cups as VAN GM in 3 seasons as the Toronto North Stars have in their entire existence.

Grade: B

*Zoone16* · 03-16-2020, 06:55 AM

Wrong Knights logo.
This is the correct one:

[Image: KEL-cut.png]

st4rface · 03-16-2020, 09:09 AM

Good article! Yes, Aumeisters was my player. I just made new profile, because I forgot password to old one. He wasn't really good statistics wise, cause he never got that opportunity to play higher than 3rd line. He was ~1300 TPE and was 3rd liner on SHL and was pretty decent watching how high he was drafted on both drafts (SMJHL & SHL). Aumy Jr. is like a son to that fella and this is my re-create. Good luck to you this season!

JHS · 03-16-2020, 12:48 PM

03-16-2020, 06:55 AMZoone16 Wrote: Wrong Knights logo.
This is the correct one:

ty

MegaSkuci · 03-16-2020, 01:44 PM

Great article! Finally got to read something about my player.

Rabidsponge21 · 03-16-2020, 02:30 PM

Not even close.

Maine with the clean sweep A++

***sve7en*** · 03-16-2020, 02:32 PM

Posting here so I can find it at the end of S54

Nokazoa · 03-16-2020, 02:57 PM

Wow

GeckoeyGecko · 03-16-2020, 03:16 PM

@JHS

BDonini · 03-16-2020, 03:35 PM

certainly an interesting grade

JHS · 03-16-2020, 03:46 PM

03-16-2020, 03:35 PMBDonini Wrote: certainly an interesting grade

I mean, its hard to keep it all relative, but if I were gonna give other teams a high grade I had to make a realistic scale. Couldn’t just give all the teams high grades because then i’d just be playing tummy sticks

BDonini · 03-16-2020, 04:26 PM

03-16-2020, 03:46 PMJHS Wrote:
03-16-2020, 03:35 PMBDonini Wrote: certainly an interesting grade

I mean, its hard to keep it all relative, but if I were gonna give other teams a high grade I had to make a realistic scale. Couldn’t just give all the teams high grades because then i’d just be playing tummy sticks

Just weird to apply quality over quantity for some teams but not others

JHS · 03-16-2020, 05:07 PM

03-16-2020, 04:26 PMBDonini Wrote:
03-16-2020, 03:46 PMJHS Wrote: I mean, its hard to keep it all relative, but if I were gonna give other teams a high grade I had to make a realistic scale. Couldn’t just give all the teams high grades because then i’d just be playing tummy sticks

Just weird to apply quality over quantity for some teams but not others

Quality over quantity, in my view, is more important when you’re losing less players. For teams only losing one or two important pieces, they need to do less replacing and thus have the luxury to focus that way. This is just my two cents though, and if I were a GM reading this I would certainly take issue with it too.

For example, Yall lost i think 4 of your highest TPE players while DET and STL each lost I think one or 2? I think, to achieve a higher draft grade, you’d need to have more picks to achieve the same replacement result. But since I cant predict how well the players will turn out, I cant just base it on the players themselves, especially new creates in later rounds.

*CementHands* · 03-16-2020, 07:24 PM

Our goalie is active and has an update page Smile

Snoopdogg · 03-16-2020, 07:47 PM

Nice article @JHS

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