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Atox · 04-23-2023, 05:28 PM

[Ready for Grading]

This is Part 2 of my SHL Prospect Pool Rankings Project. Part one can be found here, which explains the process where I created these rankings. As said in Part 1, this article has a decidedly different tone as instead of a more organized way of writing, this is more a stream of consciousness. If you've seen my media in ISFL, this is closer to that in terms of writing style than Part 1. Part 2 moreso my subjective opinions on each team's prospect pool and how that relates to the current team's roster and performance.

#20:

Seattle Argonauts - 0 Score
Season 68 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 69 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 70 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Top Prospects: None
Regardless of how I decided to create these rankings, Seattle would've ended up last as they are the only team in the SHL with no player from Season 68-70 under contract. The obvious reason why is that they don't need to be gathering prospects as they have a contending team right now. They've had a contending team since Season 63, finishing 10 top in points in all but one season in this time frame (Season 64), as well as winning back-to-back Challenge Cups in Seasons 67-68. They could begin to face problems as the team ages further with only one player Season 64 and younger, but I assume that won't be a problem for some time.

#19:

Montreal Patriotes - 156.71 Score
Season 68 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 69 Score: 156.71 (14th)
Season 70 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Top Prospects: Damien Hirano (Season 69, 493 TPE)
Montreal is another team that has a nearly bare prospect pool with only one active prospect. In fact, Hirano is the only player Montreal has the rights to active or otherwise. Like Seattle, Montreal is a team contending now than trying to build a prospect pool for contending in the future. Unlike Seattle, Montreal's window opened up recently with a much younger roster. With Hirano himself, he sits at 12.52 TPE/Week, which ranks 81st out of 117 players, and 27th out of 42 Season 69 players.

#18: Dragons

Calgary Dragons - 395.66 Score
Season 68 Score: 99.45 (13th)
Season 69 Score: 206.51 (13th)
Season 70 Score: 89.7 (15th)
Top Prospects: David Doug (Season 69, 543 TPE), Brent Turnerson (Season 68, 514 TPE)
Calgary is another team on the upswing as they currently rank 8th in points%, and have been a Top 10 team since Season 66. How old exactly I can't tell. They have like two players that are going to be playing their 20th Season in Season 70, as well as a handful of players starting regression this offseason. They however have a decent crop of high earning young players (S64-67). Their prospects are incredibly middling. Goalie David Doug's earnings is similar to Season 68's Jeff Newman who sits at 668 TPE to give some perspective. Some solace is that Doug will likely be the backup to Hank Stopper when he is called up along with Strom Chamberlain's furthering regression. Brent Turnerson only sits at 514 TPE currently and will be called up for Season 71 as his Junior eligibility will have run out. Their last prospect Kay Lee is earning at a slow pace. They sit at 300 TPE right now which is the TPE I was at during my SHL Draft.

#17:

Chicago Syndicate - 473.75 Score
Season 68 Score: 298.52 (10th)
Season 69 Score: 158.22 (14th)
Season 70 Score: 17.01 (16th)
Top Prospects: Tummy Hurts (Season 68, 777 TPE), Mr. Gray T White (Season 69, 443 TPE)
Chicago's very thin prospect pool will begin to hurt the longer it stays this way. Chicago has seven players on roster Season 56 or older, and they are really key pieces to the roster such as Jonas Kahnwald and Mats Marner. Their best prospect by far is Season 68 goalie Tummy Hurts who will start Season 71 above 800 TPE should they not go inactive. They're the 3rd highest ranked goalie prospect and will be an immediate upgrade to their 200 TPE backup, as well as taking the reigns from Season 56 goalie Mat Smith in however long that will take. Beyond that, there isn't much. White earns .34 TPE/W more than S68 Sea Jebus and therefore will be 600 TPE by Season 72 at the highest should he continue this rate of earning. The other two prospects have earned so little I feel like they will be inconsequential.

#17:

New England Wolfpack - 519.57 Score
Season 68 Score: 192.90 (11th)
Season 69 Score: 326.67 (10th)
Season 70 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Top Prospects: Pork Tenderloin (Season 69, 643 TPE), Matiss Ozolinsh (Season 68, 655 TPE)
This is somewhat unfair to New England as a large part of their roster are super young players, like Season 67 players Jacques Hammer and Sean Davies, or Season 65 player Seamus O'Slapahan. This young core aged into the SHL and kicked New England into the upswing they're in currently sitting 7th in points% as of writing. The two prospects they still have under consideration are interesting. Pork Tenderloin is 4th in the Season 69 class in TPE, and earns at a rate that would put him over 800 TPE in the S68 class. Matiss Ozolinsh is a season older and evidently earning much slower as he's only 12 TPE higher than Pork. I still think he could be a helpful piece, but obviously now as strong as Tenderloin will likely be.

#16: Rage

Manhattan Rage - 529.75 Score
Season 68 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 69 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 70 Score: 529.75 (7th)
Top Prospects: Jeff Lewis (Season 70, 426 TPE), Timo Lamber (Season 70, 402 TPE)
What the hell happened to Manhattan? I mean this as a legitimate question because I don't follow SHL as I'm still sent down and was still under the impression that they were good. They currently have 5 inactive players who are under 600 TPE, which is obviously not good. This spells a problem because Manhattan does not have the prospect pool to reload quickly with only two prospects, both Season 70. Jeff Lewis currently comps to myself which is mid 700's whereas Lamber comps between Ignacio Garza and Bastien Primeau which is a range of 691-742 TPE. Manhattan has a handful of decent picks to player with in the Season 71 and 72 drafts (3 2nds in 71, Seattle's 1st in 72), but this will likely take a while as their only players not facing regression this offseason is a S64 goalie at 400 TPE and Aksel Fiske at 1960 but is S62.

#15:

Edmonton Blizzard - 583.56 Score
Season 68 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 69 Score: 448.22 (8th)
Season 70 Score: 135.34 (14th)
Top Prospects: Antoine Beauregard (Season 69, 630 TPE), George Walsh (Season 69, 473 TPE)
Edmonton is another young team rounding into shape which is why their prospect pool is all the way down here. They have 11 active players that are Season 65-Season 67, so their bounty was then. Beauregard is a great prospect who comps to Adam Liebold in terms of earning and will be well over 800 TPE once he would be force called up in Season 72. While Walsh is earning at a much lower rate, his position as goalie offsets this as he'll be an immediate upgrade over Edmonton's current backup in Isabella Bouchard, a 425 TPE inactive player.

#14: Aurora

Winnipeg Aurora - 800.80 Score
Season 68 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 69 Score: 241.98 (11th)
Season 70 Score: 558.82 (6th)
Top Prospects: James Ward-Prowse (Season 70, 429 TPE), Sydney Shaw (Season 70, 414 TPE), Petr Vrana (Season 69, 575 TPE)
Winnipeg has been a juggernaut since Season 67, placing 2nd or better in points in every season in this timeframe. This doesn't mean that the pipeline is bare like Seattle's, as the three prospects they have comp well. James Ward-Prowse comps to about 770 TPE and Sydney comps to 740, meaning both will be at or above 800 TPE Season 73 when they would be force called up. Season 69 forward Petr Vrana lags behind somewhat at around 710 TPE when he would be forced up to the SHL. These three should help offset losses due to regression or retirement such as Ethan Duncan or Jean-Uhtred Söderberg-Tremblay in the near future.

#13: Inferno

Atlanta Inferno - 857.34 Score
Season 68 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 69 Score: 682.00 (6th)
Season 70 Score: 195.34 (13th)
Top Prospects: Billy Herrington (Season 69, 622 TPE), John Hopoate (Season 69, 540 TPE)
Another perennial contender as the Inferno have been in the top half of the league standings since Season 63. Despite this, Atlanta has a good selection of young. Unfortunately for my purposes most of that youth is already in the league such as Philippe-Eko Eel from Season 66 and Kezia MacKenzie from Season 65. Their best earner by far is Billy Herrington, who sits 5th in TPE among the S69 class and projects to be over 800 TPE by his force call up season (S72). John Hopoate sits a decent bit back at 21st but still projects to be over 730 TPE by the same time. Jiggle E. Puff and e e ones I'd say wait and see as they both earn substantially slower than Herrington and Hopoate but still earn at a decent enough rate to note be written off completely. I would be talking about Alexis Texas, the Season 68 goalie who is currently on the Inferno roster, but as of the April 15 update went inactive having last visited the SHL website March 16. This didn't change Atlanta's final ranking however.

#11:

Hamilton Steelhawks - 1053.02 Score
Season 68 Score: 336.11 (9th)
Season 69 Score: 364.14 (9th)
Season 70 Score: 352.77 (10th)
Top Prospects: Iliket Urtles (Season 70, 456 TPE), Sebastien Regazzoni (Season 68, 815 TPE)
Hamilton is an incredibly young team, with a decent prospect pool that will continue to be replenished. Unfortunately Hamilton is a victim of the same circumstances New England faced due to this, but even worse. Hamilton's roster has 14 players that are Season 65 or younger, and if I had done this project during last season players like Bobby McGinnis likely would've shot Hamilton up like a rocket. All of this doesn't discount their current prospects, with 2 of them being in the Top 15. Their highest ranked is Iliket Urtles, at 9th and sits right next to Jarrod Lakemore as said in the preface. Sebastien Regazzoni sits only a couple spots away at 815 TPE. Regazzoni should be a great add to the Steelhawks roster next season as they go on the upswing with their roster aging to their peak seaosns, along with Iliket a couple seasons afterward. The other two prospects Hamilton has the rights to in Clint Clampton and Gritty McGriterson can also become great contributors but will take a longer time, as they grade about 100 TPE behind Iliket and Sebastien.

#10: Forge

Philadelphia Forge - 1395.80 Score
Season 68 Score: 739.04 (7th)
Season 69 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 70 Score: 656.76 (4th)
Top Prospects: Cale Salad (Season 68, 853 TPE), Nathaniel Barca (Season 68, 841 TPE), Gnabe Dabson (Season 70, 445 TPE), Tony Soprano (Season 70, 445 TPE)
So this is a problem. You can tell that this system is still in need of a lot of fixing when Philadlephia has 4 Top 25 prospects, including the 2nd highest rated prospect collectively. There's probably only like 3-4 teams that I'd say is at or above Philadelphia's prospect pool in a subjective manner, and I don't what I could do as a fix that could be created by the time the Season 68 class ages out of being considered a prospect. About the prospects in particular, Cale Salad and Nathaniel Barca are earning like crazy and are already on the Forge roster because of it. Gnabe Dabson and Tony Soprano are tied 6th in the Season 70 class and project to be at or above 800 TPE by this time Season 72. These prospects inject even more elite young talent for a team that already won a Challenge Cup in Season 69 with elite young talent such as Ricky Koivu and Nibbles the Squirrel.

#9:

Buffalo Stampede - 1483.50 Score
Season 68 Score: 1051.34 (4th)
Season 69 Score: 217.92 (12th)
Season 70 Score: 214.24 (12th)
Top Prospects: Nash Topalo (Season 68, 841 TPE), Jarrod Lakemore (Season 68, 830 TPE)
Buffalo has an aging roster with 12 players on roster already facing regression, and a 13th in Zayne Dangle facing regression after this season. This roster also has inactive players at incredibly low TPE numbers, such as a Season 54 defenseman at 570 TPE, and two forwards at 970 and 660 TPE who also face regression. To plug these holes, they have multiple high-end prospects that will be an upgrade next season. Buffalo has two of the Top 10 prospects in Nash Topalo and Jarrod Lakemore. James Lutz trails behind the pair by about 100 TPE, but is still a high impact prospect who will be an immediate upgrade when called up next season. Beyond Season 68, Buffalo also has Season 70 forward Daniel Grumathan, who comps to the upper 600's to the Season 68 class. Jaegerjaquez is an interesting prospect where he can end up a complementary piece should he continue to earn at his current rate, while Savage and Ozerova both earn too low for me to think they move the needle enough.

#8:

New Orleans Specters - 1631.05 Score
Season 68 Score: 791.35 (5th)
Season 69 Score: 514.56 (7th)
Season 70 Score: 325.14 (11th)
Top Prospects: Lester Oiduser (Season 68, 854 TPE), Filip Lund (Season 68, 842 TPE)
Somewhat rough sledding for New Orleans for the past couple seasons, as they've pinged around 8-12th place for the past three seasons. Looking at their roster leads me to believe that it will get worse before it gets better as they have 13 players on roster that face regression. Of the crop on roster not in regression, a good portion of them are not earning well or are inactive entirely, such as Moritz Seider and Mikael Jakobsen who are both Season 64 players and inactive. While their prospect pool is ranked in the top half of the league, I think they have a problem where said pool is pretty top heavy. Lester Oiduser and Filip Lund are high end prospects, with both being in the Top 5 and the latter being on the New Orleans roster already. Hugh Manius is earning decently and comps to about 700 TPE if Season 68. Mu Wisconsin comps slightly behind in the mid 600's as well which isn't terrible. Beyond them, the rest earn too slow for my taste, with two of them earning <7 TPE/Week, when only 9 players fit under that category among all prospects. Edvin Kalberg is just barely out of that group at 7.08. All of this put together becomes a problem as this already old team continues to age with too few prospects and depleted draft capital. New Orleans only has 1 pick in the next two drafts that are in the first three rounds; their Season 72 1st.

#7:

Tampa Bay Barracuda - 1815.99 Score
Season 68 Score: 132.89 (12th)
Season 69 Score: 1038.62 (2nd)
Season 70 Score: 644.48 (5th)
Top Prospects: Tibuk Soonika (Season 70, 452 TPE), Jølñgüštrâädæviñçh DuBølk (Season 69, 635 TPE), Mit Wobet (Season 70, 432 TPE)
The rebuild in Florida continues in earnest as Tampa Bay's current roster is currently majority inactive players. Their hope lies in both their prospect pool and future draft picks which they have a good amount. On the latter, Tampa has all of their own picks for the next three drafts, along with San Francisco's 2nd in Season 71 and Philadelphia's 1st in Season 72. In terms of prospects, they have the 2nd best Season 70 prospects and 13th best overall in Tibuk Soonika who is only 4 TPE behind Iliket Urtles. Prospects [checks notes] Jølñgüštrâädæviñçh DuBølk and Mit Wobet are both earning in extremely well, being ranked 28th and 34th respectively and comp to the 770-790 TPE compared to Season 68 prospects. Klaes Ashford, Jonny Wagner-Severson, and FittedPrime Cuddles are all earning well if not near the top, with Klaes sitting at about 750 TPE compared to S68 and the latter around 630-680 TPE. Season 68 John Brown will at or over 600 TPE by the start of next season as he's forced up to the SHL and will be interesting to see how effective he will be if he continues earning at his current rate.

#6:

Texas Renegades - 1817.21 Score
Season 68 Score: 761.42 (6th)
Season 69 Score: 1055.79 (1st)
Season 70 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Top Prospects: Chris Valentine (Season 68, 838 TPE), James Dion (Season 69, 622 TPE), Marton Diehm (Season 68, 773 TPE)
Texas is still mediocre which is much better than what they were four seasons ago. The good thing is that this mediocrity should end soon both with the prospects they have right now along with the young talent on the roster starting to improve and shove out all of the old, regressing, and mostly inactive players left on the roster. Chris Valentine could be on the Renegades roster right now as he is currently a higher TPE than Texas' 3rd pairing defensemen (both IA too). Marton Diehm will likely replace S62 IA Alexander MacKenzie as well. The Renegades' class topping S69 prospect pool will be a massive shot in the arm as well, with 3 in the Top 15 (James Dion, Jack McCarthy, and Tiberius Kane), and a 4th in the Top 25 in Patirce Bergeron.

#5:

Los Angeles Panthers
Season 68 Score: 627.87 (8th)
Season 69 Score: 880.39 (3rd)
Season 70 Score: 443.99 (9th)
Top Prospects: Derek Martin (Season 68, 825 TPE), Georg N'Zola (Season 69, 643 TPE), (Nathan Meagher Season 68, 759 TPE)
The nuke that Los Angeles pushed onto their roster since their Season 65 Challenge Cup winning season continues with a roster that is majority inactive and the highest earning goalie is 600 TPE. The prospects coming from the pipeline will improve the team as evidenced by most of them being a higher TPE than players on the current roster (literally seven inactive players <400 TPE.) The best prospect is Season 68 forward Derek Martin, ranking 12th among all prospects and has already well passed that 800 TPE milestone. Georg N'Zola is the headliner of that LA Season 69 Draft class who is projected to hit that 800 TPE milestone this time next season as well, along with goalie prospect [checks notes] Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz, Ray Alexander, and Edzus Ozlins. LA's only notable S70 prospect is Luka Nogoalov, a goalie who's earning higher than Grzegorz and comps to about 750 TPE. You may see someone missing in myself. That's because I'm the best prospect in the league as I have turned into a fucking sentient brick fucking wall and am the best SMJHL defenseman in league history.

#4: Platoon

Baltimore Platoon - 2465.44 Score
Season 68 Score: 1443.94 (2nd)
Season 69 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 70 Score: 1019.5 (2nd)
Top Prospects: Erik Bergmark (Season 68, 844 TPE), Oliver Ozols (Season 70, 447), Adam Liebold (Season 68, 795 TPE)
To put into perspective the absolute gold mine that is the Baltimore Platoon's prospect pool, their Season 68 class alone would rank 11th between Philadelphia and Hamilton. Their Season 70 class would rank 12th. Both class separately is a better prospect pool than over 1/3 of the SHL, and they're both owned by the same team. They have prospects ranked 4th, 18th, 27th, 33rd, and 35th. Baltimore's Season 68 haul includes Erik Bergmark, who is one of seven S68 players to be over 840 TPE and is above New Orleans' Filip Lund who is already in the league, Adam Liebold who is already on the Platoon's roster, Ekaterina Valieva, and Philip Fry. Their S70 haul includes Oliver Ozols, who is ranked higher than everyone already named except for Bergmark, as well as Grisha Uskjal and Isak Sogard who comp to about 750 and 690 respectively. Not only is this prospect pool ridiculous, but they have a chance to add onto it in Season 71 with 3 1st Round picks. Baltimore's time in the doldrums will end and end soon barring absolute catastrophe.

#3:

Minnesota Monarchs - 2520.49 Score
Season 68 Score: 1109.49 (3rd)
Season 69 Score: 678.02 (5th)
Season 70 Score: 732.98 (3rd)
Top Prospects: Alexander Minaj (Season 68, 851 TPE), Luca Pane (Season 69, 655 TPE), Elena Maximova (Season 70, 435 TPE)
Minnesota hopes to exit the doldrums soon as they have a decent core of young players on roster as well as a rich pipeline for the near future. Their current roster is either high earning young players Season 66 or younger, or inactive and at low TPE with four of their current players on roster being under 600 TPE. The difference between Minnesota's top prospect Alexander Minaj and Lester Oiduser is 3 TPE and will be an immediate upgrade to whichever 3rd pairing defenseman he replaces next season. Season 68 forward Hai Nam Hoang is aleady on the roster as well and is tied 3rd on the team with Meta Knight for goals at 21. Season 68 compatriot Bastien Primeau could easily do the same as well. Jeff Newman currently sits above Minnesota's backup goaltender who is inactive and should help between the pipes in the short and long term. Outside of their Season 68 prospects, Season 69's Luca Pane and Season 70's Elena Maximova are elite prospects as well. Luca ranks in the Top 15 while Elena is just outside the Top 30 by about 3 points. Lasse Zeigler and Rikaad Metzller are interesting pieces as well; both earning at a rate that would put them in the 700's adjusted to Season 68.

#2 Stars

Toronto North Stars - 2787.14 Score
Season 68 Score: 0 (T-Last)
Season 69 Score: 154.86 (16th)
Season 70 Score: 2632.28 (1st)
Top Prospects: Rhett Carpet (Season 70, 447 TPE), Ace Lightning (Season 70, 444 TPE), Alvin Wong (Season 70, 438 TPE)
After Season 68, Toronto decided to blow up the roster to initiate a rebuild, as seen by them plummeting from 4th to 19th from Season 68 to Season 69. To put into perspective, most of their prospects who besides one player are from Season 70, will be a higher TPE than a chunk of the current North Stars roster. All but three of Toronto's Season 70 prospects are in the Top 20, with one at 21st. This includes three in the Top 15. Rhett Carpet and Ace Lightning are easily their best prospects, with Rhett being less than 10 TPE behind top Season 70 prospect Iliket Urtles. Alvin Wong sits literally 2 TPE away from being considered a Top 20 prospect as well, and Kyle Latreille 1 TPE from Top 30. Should their prospects continue to earn at this rate, Toronto's rebuild should be an incredibly short one, along with along with this completely absurd amount of draft capital.

#1 pride

San Francisco Pride - 2886.28 Score
Season 68 Score: 1565.28 (1st)
Season 69 Score: 794.22 (4th)
Season 70 Score: 526.78 (8th)
Top Prospects: Toasty (Season 68, 828 TPE), Viktor Hargreeves (Season 68, 814 TPE), Ragnar Lothbrok (Season 68, 813 TPE)
San Francisco is definitely a team that would need the best prospect pool in the league, seeing as they've been in the bottom 5 for a while. San Francisco already called up two of their Season 68 prospects in Toasty and Ragnar Lothbrok for this season, where the former leads the team in shots blocked. Viktor Hargreeves is still in the SMJHL for his final season of elligibility and will improve an offense who's scored the 3rd least goals in the league. Walter Sobchak would be an immediate upgrade as well by about 200 TPE over San Francisco's current backup goalie. This enough would be a great prospect pool, and the Pride have 2nd highest rnaked S69 prospect and 5th highest ranked S70 prospect in Peter Tingle and Willow Soderberg respectively.