This year was a great year. A true offensive breakout if you will. Just a season ago, McMahon was sitting with just 7 points and a putrid -23. That is a big yikes and it really summarized the year that Vancouver was having. This season was the year. An offensive explosion of 7 goals and 23 assists for 30 points. McMahon got top line minutes with team veteran William Hartmann. It is certainly a year to build off of. Next season will be another with top line minutes and a chance to really prove that he has what it takes in this league. This will be the last year in the J and so it has to be a good one. The team is ready and so is McMahon. If there was a goal, it would likely be getting to 40+ points in the season. That would be a great cap to SMJHL career.



Expansion draft is always exciting. New teams coming into the league and players being moved to head the fresh franchise. It is always a toss up as to what teams will do about protections. We all have seen what happened with Vegas in the NHL and how they took the expansion draft and ran with it, getting to the cup final. It will be harder to do that in this league but do not count out the new teams just yet. Lots of talent will be available to them with how the protection system will go. They will likely find themselves in possession of a couple top 6 forwards and a top 4 defenseman. Goalie will always be the hardest because every team will protect their star netminder. The two teams will likely not have enough depth at the start to truly compete for a title but they certainly could turn some heads with the emergence of new stars in the league.


dunk


In the World Junior Championship there are a ton of solid teams. Having a few solid classes will do that to the tournament. Some teams are more well equipped than others. DACH really has only one more chance at the gold with a majority of their core moving on up to IIHF next season. Team USA looks like they have a solid core up front but their goalie situation will have them come up short. Defense can only get you so far in this game. A team that could surprise a few people is Finland. They did go 6-5 last time around but they likely can make a hefty jump in the standings and will be fighting for that first seed. Of course I have to talk about the British Isles. Second to last in the standings yet they made it all the way to the final and earned themselves a nice silver medal. The roster has only gotten better so be on the look out for them this season.


b. Home field advantage can play a huge role in the moral of the players. Having the crowd behind you in the game can give you a huge boost. The cheering, the chirping, the chants. It all culminates into fuel for the fire in the home team. As far as the sim goes, it doesn't seem to really make too much of a difference so who knows.
c. Having an aggressive mindset could be the difference maker in this series. Checking leads to turnovers and space for offense to move. Fights can help boost morale and get the boys fired up. You gotta put the body on the line to win sometimes and having that gut to go out there and toss it around will certainly help.
d. Eko Van Otter is pretty cool for a name. It has a cool abbreviation in EVO and is also unique in that you rarely see "van" type names in the league. Plus it literally means "Eko of Otter" which is really cool. Sure you have funny names like Poopity Scoop but that's a name for childish minds.
e. Otters easy. Otters are like some of the coolest animals. They are basically water foxes which makes them even better than actual foxes. They hold hands when they sleep which is just the most adorable thing ever. But best of all is that these little buggers are tough as nails and will do some crazy stuff to protect themselves and their families. Best animal.