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***JKortesi81*** · 07-12-2018, 02:58 AM

Code:
4013 words, double media pay

“Man, that was a bummer.”

Those were the first words issued by me, Joe Kurczewski, the SHL’s “Mr. Everything”, when I woke up on the morning of July 4th, also known as my birthday. I was laying in my hotel room in Vienna, Austria, and Team USA had just been kicked out of the medal round the night before, losing to Latvia of all teams 4-3 in OT. I knew we were looking ahead to playing the UK or Canada on July 4th. Either of those games on that day would’ve been HUGE back home.

The reason I bring up this day is because it’s the first chance I ever get to breathe during a season. Once we get rolling, my life is non-stop. I play for the Calgary Dragons, run the St. Louis Scarecrows, and help run Team USA as well. On top of that, I help with the SHL’s banking system AND I was newly elected to the Head Office. Most people don’t even know that one, since @Eggy216 is embarrassed by me and won’t even announce it. But right after the IIHF tourney, I just get to relax for half a second.

But not this season. Nope. As is tradition, once every few seasons in the SMJHL brings us an incredible huge draft class. Our normal classes leave us about 40 prospects to scout and discuss. But on the “big ones”? We’re looking at almost 100 prospects, new and fresh faced, eager to get their careers started. They’re all looking to be the next Joe Kurczewski.

Talk about coming full circle. I don’t know when or how I got to be this grizzled SHL veteran. I’m entering my 12th season in professional hockey now. I’ve won gold medals, Challenge Cups, the Four Star Cup as a GM, and I was named the MVP of the league last season. I’ve had an incredible career that can truly only end with a Hall of Fame selection one day, I hope. I still remember being a fresh faced rookie in the SMJHL. Wasn’t that just yesterday? I was trying to be the next Theo Kane or the next Esa Anrikkanen. Some would say I hit that last goal already. Now these kids that are coming in are looking up to me, wanting to be the next me? Is that a thing?

Well, it is a thing. Its ridiculous to me, but here we are. As a result, my “vacation time” is already cut short. I have to get to know these kids, study them, and see who will be the best fit for the next generation of Scarecrows.

But before I can do that, I have to know who’s coming back. I reached out to all of my player’s GMs. I had already known that I was going to lose Gottlieb McZehrl to Buffalo and Carter Manning to Toronto. The rest were up in the air.
First I talked to Texas, since they own the rights to Paddy O’Sullivan, Nicholas Falk, and Daniel Karlsson. Falk I know was coming back since he’s so young and was just drafted. I figured I’d get to keep O’Sullivan for another season or two, since he’s represented by St. Louis GM Ryan King’s player agency. Karlsson, I assumed, would be leaving. I was wrong. Turns out that my top center was leaving. But, Karlsson was coming back for one more run. That’s swell, I can stick him back with Otis B. Driftwood and we’ll be good to go, right?

Wrong. After talking with Esa in Calgary, it seems I had gotten some signals crossed. I assumed I’d have Driftwood and Jack Daniels back for one more go at the cup. I was wrong. They’re making the jump to Calgary. Oh boy. Then I found out they weren’t resigning Friedrich Schmidt to send him down again. They did, however, reach an agreement with Michael Fischer, and he’d be back in Black, Red, and Yellow.

To make matters worse, Winnipeg wasn’t going to resign Tony Snow, meaning they couldn’t send him down to us either. In an instant, I was left with Falk, Matej Elias, Pete Walker, and Michael Fischer on offense. Defense was looking like Karlsson, Smithers, Maple, and Svensson. Not bad, but not GREAT.

While I’d usually just retool in the draft, we had traded our 2nd rounder already, and then we were fined a third round pick because of some stupid thing that doesn’t matter anymore. I needed players, I didn’t have picks, and my roster was in disarray. I needed to commit to something. So I decided to rebuild a bit.
At the time, I was sitting with the following picks: 5, 31, 39, 47, 55, 63, 71, 79, 87. Not the greatest.

Needless to say, I have a good friend in Nour Harrak. You see, Elias wasn’t a fan of the locker room atmosphere here and kept trying to force his way out of St. Louis. Shitty by him, but it is what it is. Sadly, other GMs knew this and that kept his value low. I never wanted to just move him for peanuts, that’s not how I roll as a GM. So I held tight. Nour is looking to threepeat here. Kelowna has won the S40 and S41 titles. He wants to make history. Elias has a relationship with some old Knights so I talked to Nour about adding him. Nour said he liked Elias but needed a defenseman a bit more. He asked about Karlsson, but I didn’t want to move him. Then I told him that I had Michael Fischer available. Fischer has always had a team first attitude and played Defense back in S40. He played pretty well too. After some internal debate with his Co-Gm, Nour offered me a package deal: Elias and Fischer for his S43 KEL 1st Rounder, and in the upcoming draft picks 25 and 37. Knowing that I wouldn’t get a better offer for these players, I took the deal and the rebuild was on.

Trade thought: I’m still sorry Elias didn’t like playing in STL. But I promised him that I would move him before the next season and I wanted to stay true to my word. Fischer has been an awesome Crow for 4 seasons, but this is his last season of junior eligibility, and I thought he’d enjoy chasing one more cup. I needed the picks, and getting that S43 KEL 1st was really nice, even if it has a VERY good chance at being 8th overall.

Current picks for the S42 draft now: 5, 25, 31, 37, 39, 47, 55, 63, 71, 79, 87. This is a little better. I’m still going to have to nail all of these though.

I decided to try and shop some other pieces to sell off and get some later picks. Nobody was really biting. And then Nour came calling again. “Do you have any solid players you’d want to move for cheap?” I didn’t know what Nour’s version of cheap was, but after discussing some players, he seemed to really like Pete Walker and Elias Svensson. I told them they could both be his for the right price. In my head, I wanted his two 6th rounders for them, picks 41 and 45. It was like he was reading my mind because that’s exactly what was offered. I accepted again. I love Nour. He gets me.

Trade thought: Moving Walker and Svensson, two more players in the last year of junior eligibility, to get two picks in this loaded draft was huge. I know it hurt my team in the short term, but as I was scouting the new players, I could see there was nice value in the picks. Nour gets closer to his goal, I get closer to mine.

Picks now: 5, 25, 31, 37, 39, 41, 45, 47, 55, 63, 71, 79, 87. That’s a lot of picks.

It was wrong to just have St. Louis stars like Schimdt and Snow just sitting on the sidelines with no team to play for. So I offered them both contracts to play out their final years in professional hockey for the team that loved them the most. Both were happy to accept free agent contracts with the St. Louis Scarecrows. Going into the draft, we had 3 Forwards, 3 Defenseman, and 1 heck of a goalie. If we put the right pieces around them, I think we can make the playoffs. And as we’ve learned many a time in St. Louis, a less talented team can absolutely beat a more talented team in the playoffs.

Heading into the draft, there were players I wanted for sure. I’m perfectly okay with saying that my number one draft choice would’ve been Leshaun King. King is a 6’5, 240lb Center out of the UK. He was a delight to talk to, and his media articles were top notch. This guy had star written all over him. He was definitely in my top tier of players. I had 5 that I really wanted, so I knew I was guaranteed to get one of them. My hope, of course, was that the other GMs wouldn’t think the same way, yet it seems like they really did. I had talked to Max Mauldin, another big boy at 6’5. The American Left winger could use some work on his passing, but he has star potential. When we spoke, he said he liked St. Louis, but would rather play in Colorado. I guess I understood, but if Colorado didn’t take him at #4, I’d be doing that. I don’t enjoy players trying to force their way somewhere, but I understand it. They want to be happy and comfortable.

Next, I had spoken with Goku Muerto. He’s the son of a legend here in the SHL, and you can tell the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Muerto had a ton of the things we needed. Mainly that he was a Center with a hall of fame bloodline. The Icelandic center can already skate like the wind, and his ability to distribute the puck is top notch. Crush Cile was up next. He comes from the Kyle Wahlgren player agency. Kyle is a good friend of mine, as we both got drafted to St. Louis in our rookie seasons. He’s hung up the skates after a pretty nice, albeit rocky, career. Kyle gave me the inside scoop on Crush, a big strong boy who can put the puck in the net. He’s the draft’s top power forward for a reason, and the right winger from Luxembourg can help any team immediately. Finally, my 5th “top tier” player was none other than the one with the royal bloodline. Jax Aittokallio, another Center (I needed centers, okay?) who comes from one of the SHL’s most famous families. He’s about as sure fire a prospect as one could have, and that’s why I knew I wouldn’t have a shot at him. There was no doubt in my mind he’d be going first overall.

After that, its honestly a blur. There’s just so many messages going back and forth with the nearly 100 rookies we had to scout. I know who gave me a good feeling and I know who gave me the feeling that I should avoid them. I focused mainly on the newer players who didn’t come from famous families, because all of the “next generation” superstars should be taken in the 20 picks I don’t have between 5 and 25. Right?

Well, draft day finally came. I had a touch of anxiety that was only magnified by the fact that I couldn’t get a working phone to talk to Ryan about who to take. The Dude and DeMaricus Smyth joined our war room as well, as they’re just awesome ambassadors for the Scarecrows. I value their opinions.

Once the draft started, picks started to fly off the board. Aittokallio went first overall. He was followed by Halifax taking Leshaun King. I needed a Center and two of the three I liked most were already gone. This is going to go swell. However, word leaked before the draft that Vancouver was taking Mauldin at 3rd overall. This caused some fun as Colorado then traded down with Halifax from the 4 spot. Halifax, already having their center, took Crush Cile to play with King, id assume. Things were looking up for St. Louis as we walked to the podium.

5th Overall – St. Louis Scarecrows - C, Goku Muerto (@Muerto)
Muerto is everything we need in St. Louis. You know he’s got the right bloodline/pedigree to lead the team as it’s top center, even as a rookie. He’s going to be paired with Nicholas Falk and Tony Snow right away to hopefully feed the veterans some nifty passes for some scoring. He’s big, he’s skilled, and he’s going to produce immediately.

Then a funny thing happened. We had to wait so long for our pick at 25. As the other teams were picking their players, we started to notice that everyone was trending towards the newer players, and ignoring the sons of legends. It was around pick 20 that I realized we’d have a real shot at Lil’ Manius, son of Big Manius. Or even Nicky Pedersen Jr., as I’ve played with his dad in Calgary for years now. A few more picks were made and suddenly we were on the clock, with both of these tremendous players on the board still. I knew our next pick was at 31, and I really had to decide which player with the Hall of Fame bloodline would potentially last longer? I took a gamble and went with. . .

25th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows - RW, Lil’ Manius (@Bonk) The son of Big Manius at 25th overall shouldn’t have been an option, but sometimes you just get lucky that way. Manius is only listed at 5’6, and that’s being generous. But man can this kid score. His father installed defensive responsibilities in him as well, so he’s the two way player St. Louis needed.

I gambled hard that Pedersen would fall to pick 31, mainly because that would be history repeating itself. Nicky Jr’s dad was overlooked before becoming one of the best SHLers of all time, so it’d only be fitting if his kid fell too. Sure enough…

31st overall – St. Louis Scarecrows - LW, Nicky Pedersen, Jr. (@mstuk41)– At this point in the draft, I’m just elated. We had 3 picks, and they’re all sons of Hall of Famers. On top of it, they all compliment each other so well. Pedersen can hit and score, Muerto can dish it off to either winger, and Manius can also score. This felt unfathomable when the draft started. Pedersen is a very tough, defensively responsible player who will hit you, take the puck, and score with ease. This is an embarrassment of riches for the 5th, 25th, and 31st picks.

After all of that excitement, we still had some work to do. Even with taking 3 forwards, we could only fill out two lines, so we needed a few more. Especially some centers. While defense is needed, it didn’t feel as important as getting some more help up front. This is where my scouting and intuition was really going to pay off, I hoped.

37th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – C, Dale Shootman (@amdschaefer). The 6’2 Canadian sniper sure does live up to his name. Shootman shoots, and Shootman scores. I had some really good conversations with Shootman leading up to the draft, and he’s the biggest position of need so I figured he’d be the go to guy here at 37. He needs some work on his defense and passing, but he’s a good skater with some nice puck skills.

Sort of back to back here!

39th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – C, Nikolaj Boyle (@NateAndStuff) – Going into this draft, I knew I needed two centers. One of Muerto, King, Or Aitto at 5th overall, and I knew I needed to draft Nikolaj Boyle. He was a late add to the draft, but I could tell this guy was special from the first message he sent me. He was very concerned with what he should be doing and that he wanted to kill it in this league. Boyle gave me some serious good vibes here, and had the attitude I’m looking for in my rookies. Had the Sons of HOFers not fallen, Boyle would’ve been gone to me at 25 or 31. For a split second I thought I made a mistake in taking Shootman 37 instead of Boyle, but I’m lucky I got them both. He’s going to be special. Boyle is a playmaking center that is very defensively responsible. He excels at Faceoffs and puck possession. He’s VERY eager to learn as well, which is a good thing. So far, he’s been a model Crow. Big win here.

RAPID FIRE!

41st overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – RW, Nicholas Williams (@Nictox)– I struck oil again here. Williams is a hard skating, high scoring, defensively responsible American winger who has been just a fantastic delight in the locker room. He’s very eager and is constantly looking to improve his game however he can. He’s a dark horse rookie of the year candidate as well.

Slight break, 3 picks.

45th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – D, Kiko Rytmyer (@ThatIrishFellow) – Finally, it was time to take a defenseman off the board. And what I ended up doing was most likely taking the best defenseman from the draft at 45. Kiko has been a fast learner. He’s exceptional on both ends of the ice. Not only can Kiko keep the opposition off of the scoreboard, he can put the puck in the net himself. He’s been a locker room leader already for the Scarecrows, and I’m excited to see his career unfold. He reminds me so much of Roman Augustus, one of my favorite Scarecrows ever, its scary.

FAST AGAIN!

47th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – RW, Adam Taylor (@DannyMethane) – The last time DannyMethane Inc had a player in the SHL, his agency freaked out at a midseason trade to Detroit, and they forced themselves to the SHL. It was a catastrophe, and people still remember it to this day. But what people forget about is that player was a complete stud. Seeing DMInc in the SHL was a little surprising again, but I know that their player this time has first round talent and only fell because of the sins of the past. There is no doubt in my mind that Adam Taylor is going to kill it in St. Louis. I’m happy he’s here. Taylor is an American right winger that is defensively responsible, can skate really well, and is a bit of a puck distributor. There’s a theme here, I know. Adam Taylor is going to be the guy GMs will look back on and go “Fuck.”

Finally, a regular 8 pick break. Picking so many times in a short span was the most anxiety ridden thing in my life. I can’t believe how many picks we’ve seemed to nail so far.

55th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – D, Milo Momoka (@milomomoka) – How do you not like a guy with a name like this? Momoka has been amazing in the locker room. He’s a team first guy that’s also willing to learn. Momoka has a little grit to his game, but where he excels is with the puck. He can skate, and move with the puck so fluidly. He’s going to be the anchor on the Power Play soon enough. He reminds me a lot of the player the last time St. Louis picked 55th overall, Jon Tellofsen.

63rd overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – D, Helmuts Akemelakus (@CookieMonster)– This was Ryan’s pick to a degree. He kept saying his name in my ear, and with the pressure of being on the clock combined with the fatigue of a long draft, we went with it. Helmuts is a strong Latvian defender with a booming shot from the point. He’s currently struggling with some visa issues, so he hasn’t been getting the proper training yet. Hopefully that will change soon.

71st overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – D, Ricky Weaver (@TVerhaalen) – I love when teams start passing on awesome potential players. Weaver has been a steal so far, as he’s been active and training hard. He also fits the mold of strong defender with a booming shot. Weaver still needs to improve in his skating and puck handling however. He’s a bit of a project, but I think he’s going to shock the world.

79th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – LW, Derek Moore – Moore is a strong defender, but sadly he chose not to accept our offer and instead has seemingly given up on his hockey dreams. You can’t win ‘em all.

87th overall – St. Louis Scarecrows – G, Aleister Cain (@SlashACM)– Mr. Irrelevant. We took Cain with the final pick in the draft mainly because we need to take a flier on a goaltender. With Schmidt in his final year, and (at the time) Willis Vincent’s career stagnate, it seemed harmless to just take Cain. What a great decision that turned out to be. Cain is awesome, and he’s the most active member of our draft class. He’s taken to St. Louis like a fish to water, and he’s on track to become the next starting goalie for the Scarecrows, or at the very least sharing time with Vincent. The steal of the draft here, and it reminds me of when the Scarecrows took a flier on Ronnie Westbrook at pick 92 in the S30 draft. He turned out to be one of the best Crows of all time, and maybe Cain will too.

Draft Recap: Overall, we selected a whopping 13 players in this incredible draft class. While we’ve already lost Moore, We made up for it! How you ask?

Awesome free agent signing – St. Louis Scarecrows – C, Steven Moyer (@CanadianDuck)– Moyer joined the SMJHL just after the deadline to be included in the draft, and boy are we glad that happened. After discussing why St. Louis was the best fit for him, Moyer decided that joining the Scarecrows would be the best option for him. And he’s right you know. Moyer’s biggest strength is his hands. He possesses fantastic puck handling skills and right now he may be the best passer in St. Louis. He’s going to need some work with putting the puck in the net and on the defensive end of things, but he’s already signed and in training camp to work on all of that. Another great move by the Scarecrows. So glad he chose us.

That’s how we made up for it. When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade I guess. I know its early, but it really seems like the draft class we came up with is going to end up with an A+ grade. We collected three amazing, proven players in Muerto, Pedersen, and Manius. On top of that we have future star power in Boyle, Rytmyer, Momoka, Weaver, Taylor, Moyer, and Williams. These are the guys that, in 10 seasons, are going to be who the newest rookies want to be. And I can’t forget about Cain in net. 87th overall, number 1 in your hearts. Watch out for him. I’m still a little shaky on Shootman and Helmuts right now, but with a little guidance they can be super stars as well.

St. Louis came into the draft with a feeling that we’d need to kill it in the draft to avoid having to go through a long and boring rebuild, one that I’ve battled and put off since I became the GM here. While it’s only been a few days, I’m starting to think that we did just that. I think the Scarecrows are once again playoff bound, and based on how we look so far, we can definitely do some damage there as well. There was a short time that I was a bit worried about the future, but my goodness its looking brighter than ever. Let’s go Scarecrows!

***Muerto*** · 07-12-2018, 03:09 AM

apart from the 1st round terrible pic, you did awesome in this draft!

I love to read from the GM viewpoint, reminds me of how I felt in S19 draft!

really been enjoying getting to know these guys and looking forward to playing some serious hockey!

Scarecrows

mstuk41 · 07-12-2018, 09:59 AM

Very entertaining Joe. Well Done!

NateAndStuff · 07-12-2018, 10:02 AM

Going to be a lot of fun to see where this team ends up. Everybody seems to be gelling right now and it feels like we've all been together for a lot longer than a few days.

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