In the SMJHL Entry Draft, the Malamutes picked up a few new pieces. The S73 draft was all about getting new faces on the Wings and on defense and the S74 draft has ended up being a toned-down version of that. The Malamutes were looking to replace a few key departures as well as strengthening the existing core. Let’s dive into the picks.
 
1.     Slava-Ukraini Heroyam-Slava, Center, who is a recreate from a long-time user. Slava-Ukraini Heroyam-Slava sits on a bank of $191 million, by far one of the largest in the draft class. His strengths include Getting Open (14), Passing (13), Puckhandling (13) and Balance (13). Despite being listed as a center, they have put none of their TPE into faceoffs (5) and is expected to start as a winger as Yukon has a plethora of experienced centers down the middle. However, as a versatile, strong player, Slava-Ukraini Heroyam-Slava may find a lot of work on special teams.
 
2.     Elly Snow-Leopard, Left Wing, newgen from a very active new user. Elly comes from Japan and this snow leopard was recruited by the last 1st Overall selection in the SHL draft, Frøya Solberg. Their strengths are Getting Open, Puckhandling, Off. Read, Def. Read and Checking (all 12). Elly has already shown themselves to be a team player by not doing anything. I mean that in the nicest way. They have banked all of their TPE beyond the initial 155 just so that they can perfectly sculpt themselves to help the team that would draft them. This pick in the second round could prove to be one of the biggest steals of the draft. Let’s just hope the Yukon locker room does not run out of strawberry milk.
 
3.   Wellerman, Left Wing, Recreate by a wild personification of chaos. Wellerman will be coming in as an extremely well-rounded player with 12’s in 13 areas across the 3 major categories and should slot in nicely onto line 3. While Jordan Tanner had a disappearance for a few months that still has a murky explanation, we are hoping that this time around, our Florida Man stays with us as long as possible.
 
4.     Ólafur Gunnleifsson, Goalie, newgen, and the first of the quieter players to join the Malamutes comes from Iceland and has the beginnings of a positioning stalwart (13) with a good sense of rebound control (13), recovery (13) and reflexes (12) built in.  Ólafur Gunnleifsson plays a game very similar to Cam Ward in the NHL and has a decent bank after the rookie contracts came through.
 
5.   Rocket Deke, Right Defense, newgen from the United States. This player already has the early signs of a defensive mastermind with a defensive awareness of 15. However, the biggest and most interesting draw of this player is the fighting level of 12 along with a strength of 14. With hitting also at 13, I pity any player who underestimated Rocket Deke physically or mentally.
 
It is expected that one of these rookie wingers (Likely Slava-Ukraini Heroyam-Slava) will be slotted into line 1 of the Malamutes, playing alongside the long-named duo of Florian Soderberg-Molta and Langston Hardison-Laurent. With this line expected to carry on the scoring legacy of Theodore Svatos, it will be interesting to see how quickly the line with link together. Florian Soderberg-Molta had the second most points on the team last season, while Langston struggled to hit 40 points. Meanwhile, the other winger (probably Elly) will likely be on line 2 with Squidwardo Tentacles, who had a fantastic regular season for Yukon, and Brady Tkachucky, who had a rough year on the output. In both cases, the rookies will be in a prime position to develop and achieve great heights this season. Wellerman is expected to come into line 3 to round out the rookie with veteran lineup. It unknown yet who might get the chop, but it might be Playoffs performer Tony Blundetto. Meanwhile, Rocket Deke will be on the third pairing, able to learn for the future while Kaarlo Koivunen will go into Furious Chicken’s old spot. Finally, the new goalie Ólafur Gunnleifsson will help out Jim Wen and the aging Ryker Johnasson between the pipes.
 
There was a lot of excitement around these prospects according to the scouts for the Malamutes and they are looking to shore up their line up with a lot of first-generation rookies alongside some reliable recreates. There is a lot of excitement up north, but also uncertainty with the departures of three large team components. The Yukon Malamutes will be losing their star goal scorer RW Theodore Svatos who has been called up to the Edmonton Blizzard. Svatos tallied an immense 142 goals, 157 assists for 299 points in his junior regular season career. While unfortunate to just miss out on 300, it is time for Svatos to move on. Also called up is LD Furious Chicken to the Edmonton Blizzard after 4 full seasons in the SMJHL plus 5 games. This large bird garnered 122 points with a plus/minus of 48. Chicken thrived as a top pairing defender for the Malamutes with ice time averaging well above 22 minutes in both of the last two seasons. Last, but not least, major locker room guy LW Jordan Tanner has decided to hang up the skates. We wish all three players luck in their journeys ahead. (We begrudgingly give that luck to Svatos, but we do it nonetheless.) Also, it should be noted that Wellerman will serve as an instant, though younger, replacement to Jordan Tanner.

All in all, the Malamutes should walk away from this draft feeling pretty good about what they picked up.
 
Reporting irregularly in Yukon by Tapper Ib-Arelinoher, The Yukon Duwitt News “Woof”


WC: 1036