PBE Welfare (3 TPE): http://probaseballexperience.jcink.net/i...ntry213998

Trivia (3 TPE): streetsbehind

1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?
Mitchell van der Heijden's sophomore season couldn't have gone better. The young Swiss center, fresh off winning a cup with the New Orleans Specters, was traded to the New England Wolfpack and quickly blossomed into a solid top 6 center, something he likely would not have done on a stacked Specters roster. The change of scenery was big for his good season. His goal for the season was just to break 20 points. It was his goal last season, which he missed by two points (when you're a third liner, you have low expectations). This season he absolutely smashed his goal, scoring 34 points to finish third on the Wolfpack in scoring, signalling a potential break out year next season as he'll be playing first line minutes due to Eko van Otter leaving via trade. His other goal was to improve his defensive/physical game, and with 70 hits, 22 takeaways, and 48 blocked shots, van der Heijden did just that. It was a season of much improvement for van der Heijden and he should break out next season as long as he continues to improve both offensively and defensively.

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2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)
This offseason will be extra exciting, as it features the rare expansion draft! Write about how you think the expansion draft will play out, either for one or both of the expansion teams or from an SHL team's perspective.
I'll be taking the role of the New England Wolfpack for expansion, seeing as I'm on the team (and I applied for GM as well). Looking at our protected and exposed list, we aren't really leaving any big names exposed. Except for three: (Clean) Andrei Kostitsyn, Igor Volkov, and Mike Hroch. (Clean) is a great LR presence who is universally beloved, and we love him in New England. Since he is active and a young player (S53), I sadly expect him to go. He's had experience with both expansion GMs (He's in the NEW lr where hotdog still is, and Tig was a potential teammate in HAM before he was traded) so I expect one of them to take him. The other has a choice between the controversial defenseman Igor Volkov or active backup goalie Mike Hroch. That's a pretty easy one considering Volkov's recent controversy and attachment to New England, so whoever doesn't take (Clean) takes Mike Hroch to fill the backup goalie seeing as Volkov has tanked any chance of him leaving New England (whether it's for better or for worse is yet to be seen). The Wolfpack are losing 2 players with 500+ TPE, so you'd think they would be small losses, but losing an active, young forward and your active backup goalie is pretty sucky if you ask me.

13. Written, up to 4 TPE Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.
a. Both of these teams have stacked defenses - which team do you think has the defensive advantage in this series?
I think Buffalo's more offensively inclined defense takes the cake for me. Both teams have all of their defensemen above 1k TPE, but Buffalo's deeper, younger blueline featuring both grizzled veterans like Poopity Scoop and young guns like Augustus Wang and Nicholas Owens is the better defensive corps in my opinion.
b. In the two regular season matchups, each team won once at home. Do you expect the results to reflect a home ice advantage in this series?
I do not think so. Home ice advantage won't happen because New Orleans didn't need home ice to win the Cup last season, defeating Hamilton twice in Hamilton to take the cup via a sweep. I don't think home ice will matter in this series as well since both teams are good enough to play well both home and away.
c. Based on FHM player ratings, New Orleans has higher average ratings in bravery, aggression, and fighting? Will that toughness have any impact on this series?
I honestly don't see that happening either. Sure, NOLA has tough guys like Darnell Johnson, Lil Manius, and Boris Poroshenko. But Hamilton was the tougher team last season and that had no real impact on the series as the Specters swept them on the way to the cup. It's always good to have tough players but I really don't think it will matter much.
d. There are several animal names in this series - which of these animals is the coolest? sloth, hippo, otter, monkey, fox, kirby.
I think we all know that sloths are too slow, hippos are too smelly, and kirbys are just video game characters. To me it's down to the monkey, otter, and fox. I have to go with the otter on this one. The otter for me is just the epitome of chill (even chiller than sloths, sorry @slothfacekilla) as it glides down a river, sea, or ocean. Plus otters are cute as fuck so that has to do something with it too. I honestly love otters.