Login

King · 10-08-2018, 06:40 PM

It's pretty crazy to think that the SHL draft happened exactly six weeks ago today. With the regular season having concluded and with a few weeks left till the next SHL draft we stop to look at the progress made by the Pride's massive S43 draft class. I'll tackle this list in reverse draft order.

Eero Mäkinen @mcgriddleluver - 58th OA pick - via Falcons

- 200 TPE -> 259 TPE

The Detroit falcons centre has been quite the surprise for the San Francisco Pride. He's quickly made himself a locker room favourite with his light and supportive character. When a pride player needs a team mate to talk to Eero is readily available to lend a hearing ear. Makinen has been steadily building his TPE, having yet to miss an update in a given week. Currently Makinen's TPE has him as the teams future 4th line centre, but the road to the SHL is a long one and given Eero's activity nobody would be surprised to see him be a consistent long term earner who turns into a top 9 forwards who could slide into the top 6. Definitely a pick the Pride would gladly make again.

Petr Vrana @"Marc Bradford" - 51st OA pick - via Militia

- 273 TPE -> 393 TPE

The Pride lucked out with the numbers game for goalies this past draft. The SHL draft had five available goalies and luckily there wasn't exactly five teams who would descrive goaltending as a position of need last draft. Of the five goalies Leitner was taken first, followed by Robinson, then Cain and Vrana slide his way to the Prides pick at 51. The goaltender has been an excellent team mate and has really embraced the idea of taking any role the team has and working his way up. He's repeated many times that he's happy to stay in the J for some time, take the back up role after that and just to continue improving until he can steal a job, expecting nothing to be happened to him. This type of tone is contagious and spreads in a locker room. Vrana has been an incredible earner since the draft and currently stands as the highest TPE goalie from the class.

Carlo Russo @Beaty - 44th OA pick - via Whalers

- 261 TPE -> 370 TPE

I think I made it fairly clear at the draft how happy I was with this pick, and nothing has changed since. Beaty has been an active contribute in our locker room and a steady earner since the draft. His enthusiasm for San Francisco is contagious and his energy is always motivating in the locker room. I spoke about Beaty at ends in my draft busts and steals article earlier so I'll leave this one at that.

Richard Metcalf Jr @Lazyeye - 35th OA pick - via raiders

- 251 TPE ->374 TPE

Mectalf has earned the 20th most TPE since the day of the draft. His bank is growing, his TPE is growing, and he has long term experience in the SHL. He shows no signs of slowing down and projects to be another 1st/2nd line talent. The playmaking ability the team will have available to it with Metcalf, Luke and Goku hopefully will be fairly impressive. Richard is another player I spoke about in my aforementioned article so I'll also keep the discussion on him brief.

Sean Stevenson Jr - @Obsidian311 - 33rd OA pick - via Armada

- 247 TPE -> 349 TPE

The only and one defensemen the Pride drafted last year will likely be joining the Pride blue line next season. Obsidian has grown steadily through out the season, cracking 100 TPE earned. He will look to slot in immediately into the Pride top 4 and should be able to get considerable minutes for a player one year removed from his draft. Obsidian has been earning points and spending them wisely, he has a well planned build laid out, and so far his planning has been producing solid results in the sim.

Vince Rieper - @ViN - 31st OA pick - via raiders

- 257 TPE -> 374 TPE

What can I say about Vince which I haven't said already? Vince was one of my first friends I made when I joined the SHL. Him and I hit it off immediately in the Halifax locker room and we continued that friendship into the UK locker room and into the San Fran locker room in the future. He's earned nearly 120 TPE since the draft. He's a player who would certainly been taken higher if a redraft were to happen today. He likely has a couple more seasons in him in the J before he makes his big move to the Pride but will be another fixture in the Prides offence for years to come.

Stephen Moyer - @CanadianDuck - 29th OA pick - via Scarecrows

- 259 TPE ->369 TPE

The Pride are likely deepest on the wings, but there centre depth is nothing to scoff at, and Moyer is part of the reason why. Moyer has been a steady earner building up over 100 TPE these past six weeks. Moyer is is a quite and friendly guy, one who may not always be chatting in the LR but will always reply when spoken to. At his current pace he looks like he'll have the TPE of a top six centre in the SHL, which will give the Pride many different looks they'll be able to try down the middle. Moyer has also made it abundantly clear that he values winning over anything and wants to win in San Fran, a team who clearly wanted him and persude him hard after the draft.

Jeff Brogen - @Flowseidon - 26th OA pick - via :milita: - 271 TPE ->390 TPE

The Pride new they would have a long wait between there third and fourth picks, and the franchise had their eye on using there fourth pick to draft Jeff Brogen before the draft. So needless to say they were enthused to see him be available at pick 26 and the Pride didn't hesitate to snatch him up. Flowseidon is a mature and active voice in the locker room and provides a great supportive presence on the forums. Jeff has an impressive TPE on draft day and has continued to earn at a high end pace earning nearly 120 TPE since the draft. Jeff is another player who will give the Pride many different dangerous line combination options and currently sits as the clubs second highest TPE wing prospect.

Goku Muerto - @Muerto - 5th OA pick - via Scarecrows

- 278 TPE ->415 TPE

After there first two picks of Luke and King, the Pride new they would be getting large presences of the new generation of SHL players, well, with Muerto they get one of the most respected veterans to join that group. Muerto is, in the SHL world, as old as dirt, and with that comes immense experience which is absolutely invaluable to a young team. Having someone like Muerto to help with players build, and encourage players through luls will really show it's fruit down the road. In terms of TPE Goku has been as good as expected. Cracking 400 TPE early in his draft plus on season and will likely close in on 500 by next season when he makes his SHL debut.

Luke Thomason - @"luketd" - 3rd OA pick - via Whalers

- 293 TPE -> 438 TPE

The top 3-5 picks were really a toss up this draft, and any of them could of easily gone 1st over all, actually even leading up to the draft there was discussion on whether the Pride should of drafted Luke 1st OA and grab King at 3rd or take King 1st and Luke at 3rd. The hope for the Pride was to somehow get both and they did. Luke has done it all outside of the sim, he has an incredible bank account, he consistently posts high quality and interesting media, he's the first to welcome new members, engage in all forum discussions, has a great podcast he hosts with a dead-weight co-host, is already one of the top posters all time in the Pride locker room, and has eaten up any TPE that he can. Luke has also been a great friend, someone I've been fortunate to become much closer with irl and a stud who will be carrying more than his share of the load when the Pride become contenders.

King

Hasn't busted yet, hopefully he won't. (Tired of writing about my player)

With another draft on the horizon where the Pride will have a top two pick, will be auto drafting Tweedle, and potentially grabbing another prospect through trading for picks, the momentum is slowly building in Bay area. Roll Pride.

1490 Words