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hewasajazzman · 05-06-2023, 03:06 AM

With the s71 SHL Draft on the horizon, Carolina Right Winger Alexej Kastrba takes to the media of his own accord to discuss what he has to offer and what he expects of the teams in the SHL…

… aaaand that’s about all the RPing I’ll be doing in this article. Really, I just wanted to be pretty open and transparent about some things, things I’ve already put out there to the teams who have scouted me thus far. I figure this way I don’t have to write it out however many different times and teams can just approach me with any additional questions or details if they so choose. I hope to touch on just about everything I can when it comes to the personal aspects of my career so that there’s really no question on where I stand.

First and foremost, while I don’t expect that I’m atop the boards for teams, I really don’t wish to be picked high. This class is filled with some great talent, big name recreates you know you can trust along with some promising first gens. I’d especially love to see some of them fresh faces get a shot since I know how exciting it can be to get picked high, what better way to cement some interest and retain a great new player? While I fully believe that to be true… I will be honest, there’s a bit of an ulterior motive to putting it out there. I feel pretty terrible that Manhattan wasted a first round pick on my last player in s61. Though it looks as if they’ve got along fine without me, who knows how much better they would look if I stuck it out or they picked a different, quality player at 11 overall. The second Kastrba iteration only made it to the 500 tpe range and after just a few seasons I was completely IA. At that point in time life got in the way and the little bit of time that I had for this sort of thing went into trying to help keep a couple different leagues, and teams in said leagues, afloat. Currently, I don’t have that sort of workload and I don’t see myself taking on any major jobs in other leagues as I’m more interested in simply existing as a player in them… all of which are “casual” leagues with very little time commitment. I am also awake until the wee hours of the morning with not much else to do, so I have more than enough time to keep up with things here… right now. And that’s sort of my point, I have no idea what things will look like down the road for me or when they will change. Though, as I recently wrote in my Deep Dive of my previous effort’s IA career, I sort of have this new found clarity of not worrying too much about falling behind and instead doing what I can, when I can. I have made it a point to treat this new career in this regard, just taking things day by day and not pressuring myself into feeling like it’s all or nothing. To try to sum up my point here, I’d say in my mind… I could be a high risk, I could be a high reward, and I could be literally anything in between.

When it comes to the team I’d like to play for I answer with a firm “Any”. Legitimately, any team, it does not matter to me. Manhattan was a great place to be and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience as a first-gen. I'd obviously welcome the idea of coming back should they have me… but I wouldn’t say I want that any more or any less than experiencing a different team. The caliber of team matters not, I would be just as excited to join a rebuilding team to help establish it as I would be to join a team already in contention. Generally, I am as loyal as can be when it comes to my drafting team… but in the spirit of taking things as they come, I have been actively trying to do things that I wouldn’t normally do. While I’m not saying this for sure what I would do, a career journeyman could be kind of fitting for the type of player I envision Alexej to be.

Speaking of that vision, let’s talk about my build for Alexej. Left to my own devices I would go for a Grinder build focused more on making life as tough as possible on the opposition than being overly physical, someone who is known more for what they do without the puck than what they do with it. Alexej would be hard on the puck in the dirty areas and tough as hell to strip the puck from until he could move it to his highly skilled teammates, with just enough talent to get by elsewhere. I know this role in real life is mostly seen in the bottom 6 of a lineup and that is completely fine by me, it’s what I expect to be quite honest. That all being said, I am fully prepared to take on whatever role a team needs from me. I am completely open to changing things up and doing what I can to fill whatever slot a GM sees fit for their team. Of course, that should come with the knowledge that I don’t exactly have the funds to reallocate much TPE so whatever my eventual playstyle ends up being will come with a bit of residual grit. I know what I’m going for to be a dying role but, if I’m being honest, it shouldn’t be. Build parity makes things fun and exciting, uniqueness is not and should never be a bad thing. One thing I loved about the Rage back in the late s40s and early s50s is that we seemed to be this sort of rag-tag group, doing our own thing but still part of a bigger picture. Excuse me for rambling a bit but I’ll always reminisce about David Vent fighting the opposing teams star players during the s52 finals, taking them out of the game was a huge part of our success. Point is, I’ll always love those less sought after role player types and would be sad to see them disappear.

That’s about everything I can think of for now. I am simply open to pretty much anything and don’t have many, if any, expectations. All I can say is that everything else from here on out is in the hands of the scouts and GMs of the SHL teams. I look forward to hearing from some more of you!

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