With the recent announcement that there would be a new era in the SHL starting next season, the 66-game FHM era, I've decided to take a look at some of the single-season records that will now be cemented in the history books. So this will be encompassing players from season 53 to season 56. The record books show the top 100, but that's way too much for me so I'm just gonna be covering the top 5 (or more if there's a tie). Without further ado, here are your top players from the 50-game FHM era.

Player Stats

Goals

1.  Theo Morgan ( LW ) - 43 - Season 56
T-2.  Ola Wagstrom ( RW ) - 42 - Season 53
T-2.  Flacko Lagerfield ( LW ) - 42 - Season 54
4.  Martijn Westbroek ( C ) - 40 - Season 56
5.  Theo Morgan ( LW ) - 37 - Season 55

It's unusual to see a player lead the league in a stat like goals in two different seasons, and it's even more unusual when that player changed teams. Theo Morgan is definitely an impressive player to say the least, as he not only accomplished this, but he also hasn't even hit his peak yet. Morgan was drafted in season 47, meaning that he will only be getting better next season as well. It will be exciting, and a little scary for his opponents, to see how much Morgan and the rest of the Steelhawks can accomplish in a 66-game season.

Assists

1.  Martijn Westbroek ( C ) - 54 - Season 54
2.  Aaron Wilson ( C ) - 49 - Season 55
3.  Tony Pepperoni ( C ) - 47 - Season 54
4.  Daniel Smeb ( LW ) - 46 - Season 55
5.  Tony Pepperoni ( C ) - 44 - Season 55

Chicago's Martijn Westbroek (couldn't have just spelled it Martin Westbrook eh JNH?) is the only player in the 50-game FHM era to go assist-per-game over a full season. If this wasn't impressive enough, he's another season 47 player, so he'll have a chance to have a big season in the 66-game era before regression starts to hit. What I found interesting about this list is that there are only players from seasons 54 and 55 on here, which seems weird. This is because the season 53 assists leader, Maxime Bouchard from the Calgary Dragons, and the season 56 assists leader, Michael Scarn from the Hamilton Steelhawks, both finished their respective years with 42 assists. The funny thing is that there would be another player between them and the 6th place spot, Hamilton's Aaron Wilson's season 54 where he got 43 assists. Tony Pepperoni is the only player to appear twice on this list, but interestingly didn't led the league in either of those seasons, being behind Westbroek in season 54, and Wilson and Smeb in season 55.

Points

1.  Flacko Lagerfield ( LW ) - 84 - Season 54
2.  Theo Morgan ( LW ) - 82 - Season 56
3.  Martijn Westbroek ( C ) - 77 - Season 54
4.  Aaron Wilson ( C ) - 75 - Season 55
5.  Tony Pepperoni ( C ) - 74 - Season 54

Five players that have all appeared at least once already on the goals and assists lists, so no real surprises here. What might be a little surprising (but not that surprising) is that three of these spots are taken up by Hamilton Steelhawks players, but all in different seasons. On top of the list is Flacko Lagerfield, for his 42 goal, 42 assist season 54. He also led the league in the season before that with a 71 point season 53. It would seem like Lagerfield retired at the top of his game, as he's nowhere to be found in the index for seasons 55 or 56, which is a legendary move.

+/-

T-1.  Aaron Wilson ( C ) - +56 - Season 54
T-1.  Hugh Jazz ( RW ) - +56 - Season 54
T-3.  Flacko Lagerfield ( LW ) - +52 - Season 54
T-3.  Bobby Sharp ( C ) - +52 - Season 55
5.  Viktor Marius ( RW ) - +49 - Season 55

Now we get to what is obviously the most important stat in hockey, +/-. When I did these lists for the SMJHL, this one was pretty dominated by defensemen so I'm surprised to only see forwards here. The top spots go to what I can only assume is the Hamilton Steelhawks' top line from season 54, then after this comes what would probably be the Buffalo Stampede's top line from season 55 (complete with Hippo Passamus at the 6th spot with a +48).

Penalty Minutes

1.  Shaquille Derisraka ( LW ) - 178 - Season 53
2.  Jake Primeau ( C ) - 169 - Season 54
3.  Noah Gallagher ( LW ) - 157 - Season 53
4.  Luc-Pierre Lespineau-Lebrunette ( RD ) - 149 - Season 56
5.  Andrej Doskocil ( LD ) - 145 - Season 53

Now we can get into some of the fun stats, with five new names and four new teams. Toronto's Shaquille Derisraka spent the most time in the box in a season, with nearly three hours (two more minutes and it would have been). After Derisraka retired priors to season 54, Minnesota's Jake Primeau took his spot as the league's bad boy, which is surprising since his teammate Noah Gallagher had the most penalty minutes after Derisraka in season 53. Primeau is still playing, now in with the San Fransisco Pride, but he seems to have cleaned up his game considerably since season 54, getting only 48 penalty minutes this season.

Hits

1.  Parker Smeb ( RD ) - 337 - Season 54
2.  DeMaricus Smyth ( RD ) - 316 - Season 56
3.  Shaquille Derisraka ( LW ) - 312 - Season 53
4.  Andrej Doskocil ( LD ) - 303 - Season 54
5.  Andrej Doskocil ( LD ) - 286 - Season 53

At the top of this list we see a second Smeb, but Parker instead of Daniel, also in Chicago. His 337 hits in season 54 means that he threw his body an average of 6.74 times per game, which has led experts to ask, how can you get .74 of a hit? Whatever the answer is, he must have been doing something similar in season 55, as he also led the league with 256 hits. There are some other familiar names on this list, but because they appeared in the penalty minutes list above; we have the PIMs leader, Toronto's Shaquille Derisraka, and his Season 53 runner up in Manhatten's Andrej Doskocil, who seems to perfectly embody the spirit of his team's name. We also have a new name from a new team, DeMaricus Smyth, who is a veteran drafted way back in season 39, and seems to have found his meaner side with one of the two expansion teams.

Fights

1. Wibbly McButternutz ( RD ) - 6 (3 won) - Season 56
2.  DeMaricus Smyth ( RD ) - 4 (3 won) - Season 56
3.  Andrej Doskocil ( LD ) - 3 (1 won) - Season 53
4.  Luc-Pierre Lespineau-Lebrunette ( RD ) - 3 (0 won) - Season 56
5.  Otis B. Driftwood ( RD ) - 2 (2 won) - Season 56

Fighting is much lower in the SHL than it is in the SMJHL which is disappointing, none of these players would even get close to the top 5 list down there. This is probably for the best however, as this list is headed up by Tampa Bay's Wibbly McButternutz. This is a legendary name for a fighter, imagine you lose a fight and look to see who just kicked your ass, and why it's Wibbly McButternutz of course. The best part of this is that McButternutz has been inactive for a long time, so he'll never even know that he was on the top of this list. For the last place spot there have been many players who have had two fights in a season, but only one who won both of them, Calgary's Otis B. Driftwood.

Blocked Shots

1.  Liam O'Callaghan ( RD ) - 294 - Season 54
2.  Mathias Seger ( LD ) - 264 - Season 55
3.  Mathias Seger ( LD ) - 238 - Season 54
4.  Nat Emerson ( LD ) - 235 - Season 55
5.  Alex Petrenko ( LD ) - 225 - Season 56

Now we arrive at who are probably the sorest players in the SHL, led by Tampa Bay's Liam O'Callaghan. He blocked an average of 5.88 shots per game, and even though he spent the last four seasons on three different teams, he always maintained a decently high amount of blocked shots wherever he went. Minnesota's Mathias Seger takes the next two spots on this list, and it shows that from the beginning of season 54 to the end of season 55, he blocked 502 shots, and that's not even including the playoffs or international play. All these players maybe chose the wrong position, they should throw on a set of goalie pads and see what happens. This also transitions us nicely to our next few stats leaders.

Goaltender Stats

Save Percentage (minimum 13 games played)

1.  Kata Vilde - 0.936 - Season 56
2.  Knox Booth - 0.934 - Season 56
3.  A Jobin - 0.932 - Season 56
4.  Frans Eller - 0.928 - Season 55
5.  Tibuk Soonika - 0.925 - Season 56

13 games played is a little arbitrary, but it's a quarter of the season and so that's the number I've decided to go with. I don't know what happened to make a bunch of goalies suddenly go off in season 56, maybe the expansion? We saw something similar last season in the SMJHL after the Nevada Battleborn and Quebec City Citadelles joined the league so that could be it. Whatever the case, we see Calgary's Kata Vilde come in at the top of this list with an unbelievable .936 save percentage in 44 games. In fact every goalie here put up these numbers in 44 games played, and that amount of consistency is crazy. Before this season, names like Minnesota's Markus Tegernako, Los Angeles' Nolan McMahon, Buffalo's Cedric Robinson, and New England's Johannes Leitner would have been on this list, but season 56 came in and swept them all away.

Goals Against Average (minimum 13 games played)

1.  Kata Vilde - 1.65 - Season 56
2.  Nolan McMahon - 1.75 - Season 54
3.  A Jobin - 1.82 - Season 56
4.  Johannes Leitner - 1.84 - Season 53
5.  Elizabeth Doyle - 1.91 - Season 54

There are a couple of familiar names here from the previous list in the legendary Kata Vilde and A Jobin, but many of the other names that I mentioned previously also have their time to shine, including Nolan McMahon and Johannes Leitner. What I find most impressive here is that these are the only five seasons of a GAA lower than 2.00. It has always been more of a team stat, which makes sense considering the players represented, but the goaltender is a big part of the team, arguably the biggest, and so this is still a great accomplishment for all these players.

Shutouts

1.  A Jobin - 10 - Season 56
T-2.  Benjamin Blue - 9 - Season 54
T-2.  Kata Vilde - 9 - Season 56
T-2.  Elizabeth Doyle - 9 - Season 56
T-5.  Elizabeth Doyle - 8 - Season 54
T-5.  Geezus Kryyst - 8 - Season 54
T-5.  Emiko Spector - 8 - Season 56

One of the most impressive things that a goalie can do is go a full 60 minutes without allowing a goal, and what's even more impressive than doing it once is doing it 10 times. A Jobin earned a shutout in nearly a quarter of the games he played this season, and in over a quarter of the games he won. I think the most impressive thing of all though is that he is was only drafted to the SHL in season 53, and this is only his second full season playing up in the big leagues. Every other name on this list is also extremely impressive, especially Elizabeth Doyle, who is the only name to appear here twice, and is also a relatively young player, being drafted to the SHL in season 51.

Game Rating (all positions) (minimum 13 games played)

1.  Esa Parmborg ( C ) - 86 - Season 56
2.  Knox Booth ( G ) - 84 - Season 56
T-3.  Lil' Manius ( C ) - 83 - Season 53
T-3.  Andreas Kvalheim ( C ) - 83 - Season 56
5.  Eko van Otter ( C ) - 82 - Season 56

Again, I'm not sure why so many season 56 players are represented on this list, and I don't know if it can be attributed to expansion this season considering one of the players plays for Atlanta. Either way, there are four players with an 81 game rating from previous seasons that are no longer included on this list. On the top is Calgary's Esa Parmborg, who got an 86 game rating this season for being solid all around, getting 61 points, and also 31 takeaways, only 21 giveaways, 48 blocked shots, and 62 hits. The three shorthanded points likely also helped. Los Angeles' Knox Booth is the only name here that has already been seen, but he obviously had a great season 56 with his .934 save percentage, 2.64 goals against average, and 2 shutouts in 44 games played. Lil' Manius is a New Orleans veteran, and in season 3 he was great both offensively and physically, getting 52 points, 119 hits, and 51 blocked shots. Texas' Andreas Kvalheim is another player that was great all around, having 53 points on the season, and 40 takeaways with only 23 giveaways, 68 blocked shots, and 121 hits. Finally, Atlanta's Eko van Otter was great offensively, with a 58 point season, and also ate minutes and could play in any situation, playing an average of nearly 24 and a half minutes including 2:48 on the power play and 2:25 on the penalty kill.

Since this era was incredibly short there are a couple teams that are not represented here, and a couple of teams that are represented a little too much if you ask me, but nonetheless congratulations to everyone who made history by being one of the players listed. I also want to wish everyone the best of luck going into the next era, it should be interesting to see what everyone can do over a 66-game schedule, especially after looking at how much some could do in just 50 games.

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