I did absolutely terrible again this year and it's starting to whittle away at my confidence.

I guess I can say that I improved, but I'm still disheartened at what I accomplished. I only score 9 goals and put up 7 assists (for a total of 16 points) in my 50 games... but I feel like I could do so much more. I know I'm only averaging about 13 minutes a game with almost no power play or short handed time, but I feel like a waste of space on the ice.

At least I can say that I did better than last season, which isn't hard considering I only put up 2 points in 26 games.

Next season I'm going to work on honing out my skills. I worked hard this season to try and be a balanced player, but next season I need to get down to the nitty gritty. I know I can do it in Carolina with this amazing leadership team.




Expansion drafts are absolutely insane. It's so weird to see who's protected, who's left to dangle, and who's even auto-protected. It really hits home that depending on when you started your career, it could look radically different.

I think the Seattle Argonauts have done a great job with team branding, and I'm very interested to see where that team goes. I think that tig has done a great job of promoting the team and getting people hyped for it. I know that once I saw the jerseys and the drive for it, I was interested in the team.

I think Seattle will have a leg up, but it's hard being an expansion GM. You know that you're likely not going to compete in your first few seasons and we've seen that in SHL history. Your job is to get people interested and excited about the future so they want to stay and build. It's tough, but they can do it.





I think with our vast group of SHL'ers, we could see a team branching out into Europe. As a user who once played for a Japan based team, I was up and down on the idea. I enjoyed that I knew the team mascot (the Chocobo) but I had zero clue about where Sapporo was. I had zero connection to the city and had no idea what to write about. As a stater, I know about the other states and can come up with some basic information. But it's a lot more work to come up with something about a country I've never been to or done any 'research' into.




The obvious answer here is the Edmonton Blizzard. We knew that the Western finals would come down to the Blizzard and the Specters, but the Blizzard had a bit of an edge. They had 3 of the top 6 point getters on the regular season in Pepperoni, Morgan and Kane, but couldn't put it together in the playoffs. New Orleans had depth scorers, but I'm still very shocked that Edmonton didn't make it to the finals. I think the emergence of Mika Mayfield put the nail in the coffin for Edmonton, and Spector didn't do as good in net as he needed to.





The New Orleans Specters and Buffalo Stampede have decided to come together to create the "Ghost Riders" fundraiser. This fundraiser is set up for children with pediatric cancer. The teams have all decided to let the fans bid for different types of cars that the kids will get to 'ghost ride' in. The kid will select a player to drive them around a race track at high speeds. The kids will have their own steering wheel to feel like they're the ones in control.

Along with this, there will be special incentives for all individuals to donate their old cars for tax breaks. All proceeds will go to researching childhood cancers.

There will be zero issues because these two teams know that it's more about the kids and fans than the sport itself. We're all here to have fun and play the game, but we need to use our platform to speak of for those who cannot.





Pumpkin