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**leafsftw1967** · 04-27-2020, 07:09 PM

What Mats Marner Can Bring to Your SHL Team

With the shl and smjhl regular seasons wrapped up and the playoffs about to get underway, scouting season for the upcoming shl draft should begin to ramp up into high gear over the next little while and I wanted to get Mats Marner’s name out there. Rather than ranking shl team preferences like other people have been doing I wanted to instead sell and explain to shl general managers what Mats Marner can bring to the table on and off the ice, as well as, describe what qualities Marner is looking for in his ideal shl team.

Having been away from the shl for five year there are a lot of new faces and a ton of turn over in terms of new shl superstars, management teams and players across the league since I was last around. It has been a long time since season twenty nine when my last player Darian Scherbluk was still chasing the dream of helping the Toronto North Stars win their first Challenge Cup. It has been nice seeing that there are still some older veteran members of the site still hanging around and at the same time there are a lot of teams that I am pretty unfamiliar with in terms of their makeup of the team members or roster and the activity of their locker rooms. Ultimately, I would be open to playing for pretty much any team, making new friendships and playing with new teammates.

With that being said I would be lying if I did not have a top preference of joining the Chicago Syndicate. JNH has been my number one on the site going back to old times when I was around with my first player and would be thrilled to be teammates once again with my new player Mats Marner. I remember mentoring JNH when he first joined the site, convincing Toast we needed to draft his first player Taylor Nugent-Hall, playing together on the Manhattan Rage when we tried to build a stacked team through free agency and turning what use to be Montreal Impact general manager reigns over to him. JNH was the one who reached out to me multiple times since he came back the site to try to bring me back to the shl as well and he finally convinced me to recreate during quarantine. He helped reignite my passion for the league through my time with the Newfoundland Berserkers so it would be great to continue my next chapter of my shl career as teammates with him once again.

[Image: 3206ccff1f274a67a924110d6f64ad95.jpg?wid...&auto=webp]

(Mats Marner stat line for the season includes sixteen points, a plus eight, forty one hits, fifteen takeaways and forty nine blocked shots in forty four games as the fourth line center for the Newfoundland Berserkers)

In addition, I have played with and gotten to know Kylrad and Velevra during my time with my last player so it would be cool to reunite with them to. It has also been nice getting to know Corey (SDCore), the assistant general manager of the Berserkers and whom I found out in our locker room chat the other day is the commissioner of the league haha. I would be thrilled to continue playing with my Newfoundland teammate Ryuuji Minamino (Nhamlet) who is also a part of Chicago’s roster. It would also be cool to have a chance to play with some veteran SHL members on Chicago that I know of in general but have never been teammates with like BDonini and O4L.

Overall the Chicago Syndicate are the team I would be most familiar with, know that I would get along well with and be a good fit. However, I am also open to a new experience in the SHL and would be super grateful to be drafted by any team. Since most members who have not been around the SHL for over five years are probably pretty unfamiliar with me, I wanted to outline what I can bring to your team if they draft Mats Marner.

1. Elite work ethic

When I commit to something, I always stick through it and give it my all, which is why I left the site after retiring my last player Darian Scherbluk since I lost passion for the SHL as I began my undergraduate degree in a new city away from home and had shifting priorities and commitments. Ultimately, at the time I did not want to recreate a mediocre player and now having finished my undergraduate degree and having more time in my daily life I felt ready to make a comeback. Having returned to the SHL in S54 after having my passion for the league reignited I intend to be one of the hardest working members in my draft class as I aspire to once again have a hall of fame career.

(Mats Marner has been putting in a lot of work off the ice to get better everyday)

While my tpe count is relatively low in comparison to a lot of other fellow SMJHL draftees, it is not because a lack of effort but rather because I joined the juniors near the end of the first week of the regular season which caused me to be behind the eight ball in terms of training opportunities. Nevertheless, since joining the site I have not missed a point task opportunity, completed all the possible post game show points available to me as quick as possible and have been writing weekly media articles. Even though I had a late start to my development, Marner has gotten up to two hundred and forty four tpe and surpassed some of my fellow junior players who got drafted in the SMJHL this season. In the last three weeks since re-joining the site I have gained just as much tpe as some of the other top rookies in the juniors.

If you take the time to look back at SHL history you will find that my track record from my previous player Darian Scherbluk can exemplify my dedication and work ethic to be the best. Scherbluk was one of the first defensemen to surpass one thousand two hundred and fifty tpe in an era of the SHL where seven hundred tpe players could be deemed as super star franchise players and put up a ton of great stats. It interesting to look back at those days where a three hundred and fifty tpe rookie could play in an SHL team's top four like I did with the Hamilton Steelhawks. Anyways, with my last player I consistently worked hard to be one of the top tpe earners of my draft class and retired as the all time points leader amongst defensemen at the time and intend on following the same path with Mats Marner in terms of productivity and training.

2. Desire for career longevity and success

I am a type of person that likes to really get the most out of my player which showed with Scherbluk’s twenty season career in the SHL. I intend on doing the same with Mats Marner and aspire for another long and illustrious career with the aim of fighting off regression for quite some time and at least getting in twenty seasons in the SHL. Furthermore, with the new fhm sim engine I have been trying to get a feel for what stats will be important to work on to really get the most out of a two way forward build and have been looking for advice from teammates who have the sim engine on how to allocate my training points and to help test out different builds in the sim engine. I am hoping to replicate what my last player was able to do winning multiple Stevens trophies as the best defenseman in the SHL except this time around as a two way forward.

3. Willingness to play anywhere on the ice and develop into a role that your team needs the most

At the end of the day I am willing to play wherever my team needs me to have the most on ice success as possible as a group. It does not matter to me if Marner is a fourth line player or a first line forward, playing at center or on the wing. I understand that it will take many seasons to develop into a superstar in this new era of the SHL where players are reaching two thousand tpe so I want to be as valuable to my team as possible by fulfilling a role they lack. Ultimately, I am completely open to meeting the needs of the team that drafts me and develop my player according to the team management’s vision for me.

For example, I joined the Newfoundland Berserkers and became a centre because that was the one spot left open that was needed to be filled on a roster with a completely active forward group. I embraced the role of a fourth line two way center on a team full of rookie centers and focused on improving all of my defensive stats first because that is what was needed from me for the Berserkers. It was at the point where I had such minimal offensive stats that I no goals and only four shots on net at the half way point of the regular season but had good take away and give away numbers, hits, plus minus, and shots blocked and the Berserkers were doing great in the smjhl standings so that is all that mattered. In addition, even though I currently have more tpe than two of the other three centers on the Berserkers I am happy to continue to make a positive impact on the fourth line in a limited role because we have found chemistry in our forward lines and would not want our team to mess with things going into the playoffs.

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(Marner celebrates with his Berserkers teammates after scoring of one his seven goals this season)

4. Positive active influence in the locker room

I am a pretty laid back easy going person and love to talk sports being a huge hockey fan (diehard leafs fan) and played football for a long time (I am going to be helping out my alma mater University of Ottawa as graduate student assistant with in season video scouting/game prep in the fall) and am a big colts fan. I like to be a vocal person in the locker room and a positive influence for my teammates anyway possible whether it be writing media articles to recognize their stellar play, cheering on the team during the live sims, chatting about life or just shooting the shit. I have never really had any problems with anyone on the site and am open to building new friendships with new teammates in the shl.

Anyways, there are also some qualities that I am looking for in a team that would help Mats Marner grow throughout his career and have a positive shl experience which include:

1. An active locker room

While the live sim aspect of the new era of the shl has really been an exciting change since coming back, what really got me into the league again and increased my interest were the teammates and alumni I am currently sharing a locker room with on the Newfoundland Berserkers. In the new shl I am seeming to spend more time on discord then the actual site and it has been a blast chatting with guys like SD, JNH, ByrdeMan, Carpy48, KlusteR, Teztify, Keygan, Smalinowski7, Rindiee, NeonLime, BlackLabelBird, Patty, Clean Andrei Kostitsyn, Nhamlet, thevoicelesscreator, Wally, Snussu, SpontaneousCombustion, bbp, Toast, RedArrow12c, Steve, Justice, Count Chocula, Tylar and Jogurtaa. I don’t know if it is because of the coronavirus quarantine that people more time on their hands then normal but I have honestly never been a part of such an active team before with such a great group dynamic. It makes you want to stick around and win together for many season to come. I am excited to grow with this group with a lot of whom are rookies and see if we can become a dominant smjhl dynasty over the next couple of seasons.

Similarly I think my interest in the league would stay peaked if I am a part of an active shl locker room that has a good group dynamic that I fit into. Overall the social aspect of the locker room is just as important as the sim aspect to me on the site.

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(You know you got a good thing going when the Berserkers get a spontaneous game of limbo going on the ice after a hard faught win)

2. A team that has someone on it with the fhm sim engine and willing to help with Marner’s development

Another quality that I really liked about playing on the Newfoundland Berserkers this season was getting advice and having regular conversations with management and some of my teammates on how to build my player to be the most effective. I was super familiar with the old sim engine but am still getting use to fhm so it has been nice seeing the testing out of different builds and getting people’s feedback before adding more points to Mats Marner’s build. I hope that this can continue once I make the jump to the SHL to help maximize Marner’s potential and continue testing different build strategies.

3. A team that would let Mats Marner develop with the Newfoundland Berserkers for a couple more seasons unless it is absolutely necessary to play for the big club early on.

By this point in the article it is no secret that I have enjoyed my time in Newfoundland as it has probably been the most fun I have had on the site as a player. The best part is that with Newfoundland’s young core we should be able to stick around and dominate as a team for the next couple seasons and would love nothing more than to win a four star cup with the group we got right now. I have enjoyed the experiencing the ups and downs of the season with the Berserkers and am not ready to move to the big leagues at least for the next couple of seasons. Unless the SHL team that I am drafted to is in dire need of a 400-500 tpe forward over the next few seasons I would prefer staying down in the juniors with Newfoundland.

With that being said the playoffs right around the corner and I am super excited to see how far the Newfoundland Berserkers can continue their underdog story. At the same time I am already looking forward to the shl draft as it is one of my favourite parts of the season and am curious to see how things play out. While the S54 shl draft is shaping up to be a strong one with lots of great hard working prospects, mark my words that I will be giving it my all so that down the road Marner can become a superstar in the SHL. I want to reiterate that I would be open to playing on any team and having a new experience in the shl. Hopefully when it is all said and done Marner can have as successful as a career like my old player Scherbluk and maybe even win a challenge cup or two this time around.

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