|
(GRADED) [Deep Dive #2] - 8 Years Later, SMJHL Team Review
|
FourFourRegistered S20, S21, S51, S53 Challenge Cup Champion
In March of 2013, a young man by the username of O4L recruited me to this website, somewhat as a method of recruiting other individuals during the time we shared in my GM Connected league. Back when I joined the league I say as an old man (in reality a kid just entering high school) we only had 6 SMJHL franchises, and it stayed that way for quite some time. The only major change out of the SMJHL was the Chicago Hitmen relocating to St. Louis to become the Scarecrows. Now 8 years later we have expanded to 14 teams, but only a few remain from the original six that I came into the league with. The Detroit Falcons, Kelowna Knights, St. Louise Scarecrows and the Vancouver Whalers. You may be asking, whom were the other two and where are they now? Well the Montreal Impact have turned into the Carolina Kraken, and the Prince George Firebirds have turned into the Anchorage Armada. Were these changes necessary? Perhaps they were. Montreal Impact are a MLS team so it made sense for them to finally move or rebrand, which they did once to the Militia but in all honesty the Kraken just are a better fit. Luckily enough, Montreal finally got its own SHL team. One of the main arguments of the SMJHL back in the day was that since it was a developmental league it should be referenced against some other major junior leagues in the world such as those in the CHL. With that in mind, the cities teams would be located in would not be major places, but smaller cities and towns that are hockey crazy, and maybe that is why Prince George stuck around for so long. While they did have a brief move to Regina between S18-24, the team returned back home where it sat for many seasons. Now with the move to Anchorage, I do believe that this criteria is still met, as Anchorage is yes the capital of Alaska but is not a well known hockey city and is relatively small compared to many other places.
Now we look into some of the major expansion teams, the Anaheim Outlaws which have been around since S45 do not really fit this mandate of the SMJHL, a big name city but the team has had strong success within the league since joining which is due to fantastic management through the years. The Colorado Mammoths, I mean Raptors are also not a very good use of the location, but a franchise that is run very well. I also do not know why they changed the name to the Raptors which is confusing considering the Mammoths scheme and logos were great but not my call. Nevada up until a couple years ago also would have been a very good location to use, but due to the presence of hockey in Nevada now I do not think it works the best. Out of the remaining expansion teams, they all fit the criteria of operating in smaller markets, maybe not Quebec City as they would die for a team in the big leagues but it fits the bill for now. Now only one can hope and see what happens to the league in the next 8 years, eventually will we hit the 30 team mark? Hopefully so. (558 words)
Opera_PhantomRegistered Senior Member |
|
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »
|
| Users browsing this thread: |
| 1 Guest(s) |
