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Cobbenstein · 11-19-2023, 10:35 AM

The S73 SMJHL Draft: Start of the Story

At the start of the S73 offseason the teams of the Simulation Major Junior Hockey League all began planning and plotting their draft strategies to make sure S74 was better than the previous year. A fresh new crop of players were waiting eagerly for draft day to learn where their hockey destiny lay. In the class of players there were nine goaltenders. Nine users who were ready to put themselves between the puck and the ultimate prize of the back of the net. Nine users who were ready to take FHM 8 and its questionable simulations head on. When draft day came around those nine users all found new homes. The first of the goaltenders selected was Yves D’Odeur going 29th overall to the Great Falls Grizzlies. This pick seems to have warped the SMJHL GMs tactics and led to a run on goaltenders. The next 3 goaltenders would all go off the board at picks 34, 35, and 39. These picks would be Stun Gun to the Anchorage Armada, Gewmba Stolemamoney to the Maine Timber, and Tanner Pitts to the Colorado Raptors respectively. There was then a brief lull in the goaltender action before two more were taken in quick succession. At pick 53 the Vancouver Whalers selected Joulu Kuusi and at pick 54 the St. Louis Scarecrows took MR Plow. As the draft rolled along and began to wrap up our final three goaltenders were selected. Yerik Akmetzhanov at 67th to the Nevada Battleborn, Dako Nanokov at 72nd to the Detroit Falcons, and finally Fergus Stewart at 89th to the Quebec City Citadelles. With the stage all but set the nine new fresh faced netminders reported to their various teams training camps and began prepping for their first year of professional hockey. These nine goaltenders weren’t our only pieces going into the S74 class. There were still two more keepers waiting in the wings for their chance to join a team and have their professional hockey dreams come true. The first of our undrafted goalies would be joining the Nevada Battleborn after their recent selection wasn't working out. Just Perfection was added mid season and would take over as their starter shortly after being added. The other was Denebor Milasch who joined the Carolina Kraken after their veteran goaltender didn’t seem to be able to carry the load on his own. The final draft positions for our initial eleven goalies looked like this:

[Image: S73_SMJHL_Draft_Positions.png?ex=656c88d...0c4b88d06&]

[Image: S73_SMJHL_Draft_Positions.png?ex=656c88d...0c4b88d06&]

The S73 Regular Season: Standouts and Backups

With all eleven goalies now with their respective teams, let's take a look at how everyone did in their first year of professional hockey.

[Image: S73_Games_Played.png?ex=656c88db&is=655a...548c7c71b&]

[Image: S73_Games_Played.png?ex=656c88db&is=655a...548c7c71b&]

Looking at the S73 regular season start chart we can see a clear divide in the goalies usage in their first year. Two of the goalies clearly stepped in as day one starters for their teams. Tanner Pitts for Colorado and Stun Gun for Anchorage. Those two would end up playing nearly twenty more games than the next closest on the chart. Next tier of goalie are those who split the crease last season. The next six on our list all played between 35 and 28 games serving as somewhere between a split starter and a very active backup. Finally the last three spent their first season as their teams back up goalie only seeing limited action.

First and foremost, let's take a look at how everyone performed in the games they played.

[Image: S73_Regular_Season.png?ex=656c88dc&is=65...3c0983e72&]

[Image: S73_Regular_Season.png?ex=656c88dc&is=65...3c0983e72&]

Beginning with our two bonafide starters we can really see the tale of two seasons. Stun Gun had what can only be described as a dominant season behind a suffocating defense in Anchorage, while Tanner Pitts struggled behind a weaker Colorado Raptors team. Stun Gun was likely the best regular season goaltender in S73 hands down let alone when compared to the other rookie goalies. Over significantly more games, he was second in Goals Against Average, first in shutouts, and posted a 0.913 save percentage which was good for third best in the class. On top of all that, he was not pulled a single time all season. Tanner Pitts on the other hand had a hard time finding his groove on a young Raptors team, but he did come away with shutouts. After those two we come to the split starters category. Rather than discuss all of these players individually I want to focus on the four goalies who would go on to be drafted into the Simulation Hockey League at season's end. While Yerik Akmetzhanov and MR Plow had serviceable seasons in their own right, they were both skipped over in the draft and we may be seeing an end to their professional hockey careers in the near future. That leaves us to look at the other four and see how they fared. Overall this whole group put up serviceable to great stats in their split playing time. The standout is Joulu Kuusi of the Vancouver Whalers who had just eight losses and led the entire group in both goals against average and save percentage. Finally we come to our bonafide back up group. Out of these three only one of them is moving onto the next level of play and that would be Yves D’Odeur. In his limited play time he had a rough go of it behind his Great Falls Grizzlies squad. Playing in twenty-six games he only came away with three wins, but did put up a respectable 0.901 save percentage. The highly picked netminder will need to continue to improve and remind people why he was the first goalie off the board going forward.

With the total number of games played being so skewed with our rookies lets take a look at some stats per game metrics to get a better idea of how they all fared relative to each other.

[Image: S73_Regular_Season_Statistics.png?ex=656...5d7e1158a&]

[Image: S73_Regular_Season_Statistics.png?ex=656...5d7e1158a&]

In this chart there are two metrics I really want to hone in on as possible indicators of how well a goaltender played despite their respective stats. Those would be shots per game and goals saved above average. Shots per game is a good indicator of how much help a goalie had from their defensive play in front of them. If a goalie gives up five goals a night then their goals against average will be five and that's not a great look for any netminder, but if you look at shots faced and see that they are facing significantly more shots per game then a higher goals against average can be justified. When we look at this metric a few things stand out. One being that most SMJHL teams allow roughly thirty shots against any given night. It is surprisingly consistent actually on how most of these goalies ranged in the twenty nine to thirty three range in shots against per night. There are two outliers in this group. That being the Quebec City Citadelles and the Carolina Kraken. The Citadelles and their backup Fergus Stewart only faced on average 27.56 shots per night. Stewart put up promising numbers by only allowing 2.95 goals against and a 0.918 save percentage. Those are both nearly class leading statistics and it really shows how a good defense can bolster a goaltender. That statement isn’t meant to take anything away from Stewart though. You have to stop the shots that make it to you and he did. Remarkably efficiently as well. On the other side of that though is the Carolina Kraken and Denebor Milasch. The Kraken averaged 38.21 shots against per game. Nearly five more shots on average than any other team. With the increased workload Denebor had a goals against average of 3.66 which was the fourth worst in the class over the regular season, but he posted a save percentage of 0.912 which was good for fourth best in the class. Once again it really goes to show what a smothering defensive scheme can do for a goalie and why goals against average is not a be all end all metric for goaltenders. The other stat I want to highlight is goals saved above average. This is a metric that attempts to show the value a goalie brought relative to all the other goalies in the league. On a basic level it's how many goals did a goalie prevent compared to where the league average goalie would allow. So a positive number means you are better than the league average goalie and a negative number means you are worse. This stat provided three absolute standouts in this class; Stun Gun, Jouluu Kuusi, and Denebor Milasch. Stun Gun led the league in GSAA posting an insane 24.97, Jouluu Kuusi had a very strong 15.17, and Milasch posted a 13.52. These three goalies were not only good, but had a significant impact on their teams season. Giving up one or two or three additional goals in a season can have massive impacts on the standings of a team, let alone giving up an additional twenty five. While GSAA isnt a perfect stat it is a good indicator of goaltender importance to a roster. Much like the skaters PDO that is a relative indicator of luck, GSAA is a relative indicator of who was playing hot this year. So while it may not be directly correlated to luck, it is something to watch because it could be an indicator of “false stats” meaning a goalie who looks dominant could suddenly have their GSAA standardize and suddenly look pedestrian despite other statistics.

S73 Playoffs: Batttles and Champions

With the regular season in the books it is time to move on to the playoffs and see how our rookies fared in high stakes situations.

[Image: S73_Playoffs.png?ex=656c88dc&is=655a13dc...54c496aee&]

[Image: S73_Playoffs.png?ex=656c88dc&is=655a13dc...54c496aee&]

As you can see from the playoffs chart, many teams chose to turn to their more veteran goaltenders once the games really mattered. Of our eleven goalies only four would appear to have been given the starter nod in the playoffs. First up would be a matchup between the Anchorage Armada and the Great Falls Grizzlies. Stun Gun would start all seven games while Yves D’Odeur would only appear in two. Unfortunately Yves would lose both of his starts, but his Grizzlies would win the series overall. Stun Gun played well, but not as well as his regular season would make you think. While putting up 2.86 Goals against and a positive GSAA he only had a save percentage of 0.889 which was the worst of the playoff starters group. It goes to show that you have to stop the pucks that come at you no matter how few that may be. The next series of interest is between the Nevada Battleborn and the Carolina Kraken. This series features two of our four starting rookies in Just Perfection for Nevada and Denebor Milasch for Carolina. Looking at the stats, this series truly was a goaltending duel between the two. Just Perfection and the Battleborn would come out on top. After the first round we wouldn't have a head to head match up between any of our rookies again. Nevada would go onto the second round and unfortunately fall to the Yukon Malamutes in seven games. The only goalie we havent talked about yet is Gewmba Stolmamoney and the Maine Timber. We haven’t discussed them yet because the Timber came into the playoffs with a first round bye and would go on to win it all with Stolemamoney between the pipes. When we look at playoff stats relative to games played it really paints a picture of just how dominant Gewmba truly was on this run.

[Image: S73_Playoff_Statistics.png?ex=656c88db&i...6d6709378&]

[Image: S73_Playoff_Statistics.png?ex=656c88db&i...6d6709378&]

Keying in on the same two stats we looked at in the regular season we can see that the average number of shots faced decreased across the board as teams got tighter in their defensive ends during the playoffs. The number of shots faced is a little wonky on this small of a sample size and with players getting pulled before the end of the game so we will focus on the four starting goaltenders. So we once again see an outlier in the shots faced per game category. While the other three starters faced between twenty five and twenty seven shots on average, Denebor Milasch and the Kraken faced 34.71, nearly 10 more shots per game than the others. This is reflected well in the goals against average of all four goalies with everyone being roughly 3.00 and Milasch putting up a 3.44. When we move over to Goals Saved Above Average we can see that all four of our starters helped their team by posting a positive GSAA. The biggest swing was from Stun Gun who went from a jaw dropping 24.97 in the regular season to a 1.79 in the playoffs while Gewmba went from a GSAA of <5.75 to a league leading 15.79. Getting hot at the right time is truly what matters with goaltending and Gewmba Stolemamoney is a prime example of that.

S74 SHL Entry Draft: Picks and Finales

As the playoffs wrapped up, our rookies got to look forward to another draft process. This time finding out who their “Big Club” was going to be in the Simulation Hockey League. They all spent their downtime training and getting ready to impress SHL brass. Now would be a good time to check up on TPE totals for the class.

[Image: S73_TPE_Totals.png?ex=656c88dc&is=655a13...1b6706aa3&]

[Image: S73_TPE_Totals.png?ex=656c88dc&is=655a13...1b6706aa3&]

Looking at these numbers you can see the correlation between top performers and goalies who are starting to fall off. There are a few notable performances though such as Joulu Kuusi and Just Perfection who both performed extremely well despite their lower TPE gains. As SHL teams began scouting and coming up with draft boards it became apparent that the goalie positions in the big league were few and far between. Only a few teams were actively seeking a future starter and only a handful would be looking for a stable backup. This means that not all the goalies were going to be drafted and even the ones who are would be deprioritized to later rounds of the draft. As the draft began the entire first round went by without a single goalie being taken. In a class this large and with so many high quality prospects it's not surprising that the goalies were all still on the board. As the second round started there was still a real possibility that no goalie would be taken, but at pick twenty nine the Toronto North Stars would make a trade to move up and grab Denebor Milasch. With the first goalie off the board, this would start a run on goalies as GMs began to get nervous they would miss their guy. At pick thirty five the Los Angeles Panthers would select Stun Gun and at pick thirty nine the Philadelphia Forge would select Gewmba Stolemamoney. Out of our four playoff starters, three of them were off the board by the end of the second round. As we moved into the third round the Atlanta Inferno would select Tanner Pitts with pick fifty one. Pitts would have certainly been a fifth starter in the playoffs had Colorado made it. Just two picks later at pick fifty three the Chicago Syndicate would select Just Perfection. By the end of the third round there were still six of our rookies left. In the fourth round with the sixty fifth pick in the draft the Toronto North Stars selected Yves D’Odeur bolstering their future roster with a second netminder who played well in his limited starts and is earning at a fantastic rate. Finally in the fifth round at pick eighty two the Montreal Patriotes selected Joulu Kuusi. This would be the final rookie goaltender selected and unfortunately likely mean the end for four of our rookies from the start. The final draft order worked out as such:

[Image: S74_SHL_Draft_Positions.png?ex=656c88dc&...e0072ec26&]

[Image: S74_SHL_Draft_Positions.png?ex=656c88dc&...e0072ec26&]

With the draft wrapped up and our rookies graduating to their sophomore seasons we will have to see how their careers play out. Who will become future stars in the Simulation Hockey League and have their names go down in the history of the league? Only time will tell, but first all of our post rookie goaltenders will return to their respective junior teams to continue getting better and competing for an SMJHL title until the day comes that their SHL team calls them up to play in the big times. Thank you for reading and I hope to write an article like this after every season and see where these players end up over their careers, see what horrors FHM 8 subjects them to over time and what storylines develop throughout their careers. Goaltenders are a strange breed in FHM 8 and these players' stories will surely not disappoint.

Word Count: 2808 Without the Charts