Simulation Hockey League

Topic 1 -After an unpresidented run of prosperity which includes making the post season in 20 of the last 21 seasons, the Calgary Dragons dealt Joe Kurczewski and Roman Augustus in a series of draft pick trades wiping 3400 TPE off the roster. Is this the end of an era? Put your pundit cap on and let us know whats in store for the Dragons moving forward?

When Esa sold his soul to the devil so the Dragons could find success, the devil only granted them 20 seasons of it. The time has come to collect. Without the devil behind the scenes to help them win, Esa knew they wouldn't be successful on skill alone so they finally decided to start the rebuild. Trading away Joe and Roman are the first steps in that. I'm sure there will be more moves to come and the draft picks will pile up. Esa will need to hit on those picks or face a long, long rebuild. Or, he could find another soul to sell since Calgary can't really find any success on their own.

In all seriousness, the time was here to finally start the rebuild. Esa needed to unload the first of many pieces. You can't rebuild without draft picks and he should accumulate many of those. A few seasons outside the playoffs should be acceptable to a fan base that has seen lots of success. It shouldn't take too long for Calgary to get back in the playoff chase, but they'll need to bite the bullet and be on the outside looking in for a bit. Expect more trades with veteran players going out and draft picks coming in.

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Topic 2 -Were more then half way through the S45 season in whats been an historic rookie class in the SMJHL, put your pundit cap on and let us know which players are beginning to make a name for themselves on or off the ice and why... as our highly anticipated SHL draft approaches:

The player I'm looking at might not be on the tip of everyone's tongues, but flying under the radar is just what goalies do sometimes (not that that is a bad thing necessarily.)
He plays for the Anchorage Armada, and his name is @Tomasnz.
Last season Anchorage tried to address the leaky back end by drafting a new goalie, and whilst Stinky was active for a minute, it just hasn't been good enough and warranted a new addition. Enter Tomas, and enter Anchorage's newest wall. Even at rookie TPE levels, he's been an absolute monster in the net, with some excellent displays and even a shutout or two. Very impressive for a new build, and even more impressive with his media posts, accompanied by his activity both on the site and in Discord. Taking experience from some of the most experienced goalie builds in the history of the SHL, and you have a recipe for a fantastic addition to our fine forum.
I have no idea where he will stand at the end of the season, but at the current standings he is playoff bound for sure. Whoever needs goalies should definitely be looking into his stock...

Task 3: The Onoprienko is honestly lacking at times. I do appreciate that it isn't always handed out, but it is something I feel we haven't explored deeply enough. As a former winner myself, I'm honored to be a part of this group but there are others I believe deserve similar praise, and believe deserved it before me.

Starting off, if you look at the winners, it's the commissioner and simmer award. Jack and I under the simmer category, Leafs, Spangle, Krever, Bojo, Tez and Eggy as commissioners. You know who's a former commissioner who did a fantastic job, has held many positions across the league over his entire history with this site and was a major force in getting the SHL to the point it is today? xDPark. In fact, he recently returned and seems to be back to going as strong as ever. He created great players, he helped foster an incredible community. He worked so many different jobs, and by the end was a great commissioner we all loved. I would think it would be a travesty if he never gets some honor from this.

Now outside of that angle, I do think this league was built on community. A key to the community is the personality of said community. People have been major factors in the SHL for creating great players, making media regularly, and performing the jobs that nobody wants to do. While this next person is a great friend of mine, I recognize that he was instrumental in this league being alive in it's infancy and was a key contributor in the first 30 seasons of the SHL whether it be as a GM, a confidant for many leaders and commissioners, a discussion leader or however. JayTee is easily someone that I feel deserves the honor as well, and is easily one of the greatest people to ever be on the SHL.

There are so many who will eventually get this position. I assume ArGarBarGar will, he's been incredible in media and league history as a whole. I assume Wasty will for his graphics and GM dedication. I assume Esa will, whereas he doesn't have as much pull in other areas like the others I've listed doing updates, graphics, media, etc, his long career as a GM could prove valuable to the proper committee. There are so many that are coming along who will fill this list as well like TDZ's continued ability to rise through this league, or luketd with his focus in media. However, at this point, there aren't that many worthy of it just yet. We could easily put forth some of our very best historically.

And yes, I could just keep listing things off. At some point, I would have to set a barometer for what gets in and what doesn't, so as to not dilude the award, and I understand that. It would be an interesting discussion at the least.

Word Count: 501 (man, I went for it eh?)

Topic 1 -After an unpresidented run of prosperity which includes making the post season in 20 of the last 21 seasons, the Calgary Dragons dealt Joe Kurczewski and Roman Augustus in a series of draft pick trades wiping 3400 TPE off the roster. Is this the end of an era? Put your pundit cap on and let us know whats in store for the Dragons moving forward?

What is in store for the Dragons depends on which store they go to if I'm being honest. There is a lot of difference in variety with store brands and they'll likely have their pick of a large number of stores such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Aldi, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Wal-Mart, Target, Albertson's, Food Lion, ACME, Wegman's, and that's just to name a few. So predict what will be in store for them is definitely a tricky question but they have two fewer mouths to feed now at least and they will likely save a bit in gas transporting about 400 pounds less weight than they previously had to. Unless they got some other players in which case they may have more mouths to feed and be losing money on gas which would definitely be bad news for them.


Topic 3 -The Vidrik Onoprienko award is an accolade given out to a member for there lifetime of dedication on the site. an award so prestigious that only a handful of people have ever won! It's been 5 seasons since our last winner so theirs reason to believe one will be chosen soon..... If the decision was yours to choose our next member... who would you choose and why?  -> *tag member*

I would choose @karlssens for his extreme dedication to ruining Blizzard discord atmosphere by trading me for disgusting inactives or whatever smut magazines Minnesota sent him for me. No one has put in as much work into stabbing me in the back as Karl, either, and to this day he is still twisting the knife around in there somehow even though I am now in Minnesota and he is in Edmonton. Also Karl is dedicated to letting other teams win the cup even when he thinks Edmonton should be the winners and so despite his shortcomings as a friend and general manager he is a very charitable and good person to other teams in the league allowing them to beat Edmonton in that way.

NSFL/PBE: speculadora

Topic 1 -After an unprecedented run of prosperity which includes making the post season in 20 of the last 21 seasons, the Calgary Dragons dealt Joe Kurczewski and Roman Augustus in a series of draft pick trades wiping 3400 TPE off the roster. Is this the end of an era? Put your pundit cap on and let us know whats in store for the Dragons moving forward?

The Dragons are always going to be a notable team and tend to do things big. In the near future, Calgary is going to make the Portland Admirals fall look like a minor piece of history. I picture major changes to city and name change. Perhaps moving somewhere like the booming metropolis of Wood Buffalo. Fear not though Calgary faithful, the team is going to turn it around eventually with a major draft and the signing of an emperor.

Topic 2 -Were more then half way through the S45 season in whats been an historic rookie class in the SMJHL, put your pundit cap on and let us know which players are beggining to make a name for themselves on or off the ice and why... as our highly anticipated SHL draft approaches -> @

Luke Thomason is just tearing it up amidst the strong rookie class of the San Francisco Pride. The guy has come into the season with his skills already incredibly well developed and he’s been making a big difference for his team at the SHL level. As a rookie, he’s leading his team in points and goals and is second in assists. It’s clear how big of a difference that Luke is making to his team and is starting to show that the huge draft of a couple seasons ago is going to mean big things for this San Francisco Pride team.

#1
After an unbelievable run of 20 playoff appearances in 21 seasons are the Calgary Dragons finally going into a rebuild? The Dragons Joe Kurczewski and Roman Augustus for assorted picks. Some are left scratching their heads with these moves. With these two vets gone the Dragons have lost more than 3000 TPE on their roster. Obviously, in normal circumstances, for any team that would be a serious blow to a team's success. However, with the strength of the most recent SMJHL draft, those picks have a lot of potential to bolster the team in the coming years. Granted the Dragons may have a few down seasons while they wait for the young one to develop in the SMJHL but the future could be bright. There are quite a few rookies that have been packing on TPE at break neck speeds. I've only been a member of the league since October but the media page has been updating like crazy since the newest drfat class. The newest members are dedicated to the league. Will they stay this way? No way of knowing but it is safe to say that a decent amount from the historic draft class will remain and having those draft picks in their pocket will help Calgary get back on track after this retooling.

Topic 1 -After an unpresidented run of prosperity which includes making the post season in 20 of the last 21 seasons, the Calgary Dragons dealt Joe Kurczewski and Roman Augustus in a series of draft pick trades wiping 3400 TPE off the roster. Is this the end of an era? Put your pundit cap on and let us know whats in store for the Dragons moving forward?

It was a dark day when Esa announced that Joe Kurczewski was being traded, however, it was no secret that Joe was going to put his hat into the race for an expansion franchise, and with how great a member Joe is to the site, and how much he brings, that he would be on the short list. So Esa struck while he could, and got a first round pick in one of the deepest drafts since S20. While the short term it knocks the Dragons down a peg, it adds a decent shot at a great piece for the future. Same with Roman Augustus, with Joe already moved, and just hanging on to the playoffs, it made sense to more Roman for another top 20 pick in this deep draft. That being said, the Dragons currently have 4 picks in the top 20 of this monster draft, all of who should be ready to contribute in the next 3 seasons. The current Dragons roster is being anchored by Mike Izzy, despite what some on the site say, he has no intentions of leaving the best franchise in the league. Izzy, who got off to a historically terrible start this season, recently got paired with the son of one of his old running mates, Nicky Pedersen Jr. Since "babyPeds" as we call him, moved to the top line, Izzy has exploded for 12 points in 4 games. We fully expect Izzy to continue to be the premier power forward in the league. Having a superstar of that caliber allows younger players time to develop. Players like Hunter Jones, Scooter McGavin, Brock Nuck, Ostap Makisov, Otis B. Driftwood, and of course the stonewall Kata Vilde will continue to develop and be the next wave of Dragon Superstars, like Randy Randleman passing the torch off to Joe Kurczewski, and then off to Mike Izzy. Of course this "rebuild" will not take as long because Esa is fantastic at what he does. Playing for this team is a pleasure, and every time someone comes to this team, they all say the same exact thing. Throughout the run the dragons have been on, there has been one constant...Esa. Players turnover, management plugs the holes, Esa is masterful at this.

@Steelhead77
@Mike Izzy
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I fully expect because of Calgary's shining reputation and the current GM tandem they won't be on the bottom for long. Adding 2 new expansion teams adds some overall intrigue to the situation, but really at the end of the day, as long as the current tandem stays at the helm, not only will they draft fairly well/ trade well but they have a huge ability to always draw free agent talent towards them, due to legacy, location and stability.

I give it a total of 5 seasons MAX before they are considered a top 5 power house again. If Calgary is still trying to fight it's way into the playoffs by Season 49 it will be the cause of really only a few things.

1) The GM tandem is replaced by new people who don't GET it like they do
2) They can draw zero FA's when its time to compete
3) Something drastically changes with the league landscape with the new teams stepping into the fold.

The Calgary Dragons’ reign of terror over the SHL’s Western Conference looks to be over after trading their two best and most valuable players in Joe K and Roman Augustus. They are two of the franchise’s cornerstones along with Mike Izzy and the retiring Alex Mack. So far, Calgary is shockingly in the race for a playoff spot with 36 points, good enough for third in the West. I think what Esa is going to do is kind of simple: keep the gang together for one last run this season, then blow it the f*** up next season. The Dragons have some viable young prospects, like Hunter Jones, Shooter McGavin, and the newly-acquired Paddy O’Sullivan, but they need more top level young prospects. I predict them to make a splash at the draft, trading reputable names like Mike Izzy and Adam Kaiser for draft picks in order to store more youth. It should be a couple of down years for the Dragons, which I think the league wants to see, as it means more parity in the West.

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@LonnyBohonos16

The Calgary Dragons have been one of the top teams in the league for a long time. The practices they have done are what many other general managers have hoped to emulate in their own franchises. A lot of this success was built upon a core group of players that put team success above individual accolades and contracts season after season, resulting in a series of successes. The era of Joe K going on tears and doing damage in the playoffs with the rest of the gang are definitely at a close. Mike Izzy is still in Calgary but for how long will that be? However, I do not see this as end of an era as much as a turning of the page and beginning of a new era. Assuming the Dragons do not have a management change I think they will be back in the fold of top teams in the league in no time. Steelhead took it upon himself to make the hard business decisions that few teams are willing to do to stabilize his team quickly and get them back into competitive mode as soon as possible. Calgary traded away most of the their remaining top pieces knowing that their window has likely come to a close, rather than hold onto them too long and get nothing in return. No Calgary has more assets to draft the next wave of stars that will put them back into contention in 4 or so seasons.

I don't think this award has to be given out very often, every 10 seasons even seems like a lot, since it's really meant to be reserved for a few people who've gone way above and beyond to make the league a better place. While there are many members who are trying to help and work together on making the site more appealing to new players and a better experience for everyone, I don't think we have someone who currently should get the award. If I was forced to give it to someone I'd give it to @Eggy216 again. That guy does so much for this site that people don't even realize. He's absolutely the backbone of this community despite the flack he sometimes gets for HO decisions and such. Now I also don't think someone should get the award twice, so maybe this is just a cop out on answering the question.

The Dragons looked at their roster and decided it was time to retool not rebuild. In dealing both Joe Kurczewski and Roman Augustus, the Dragons went into full retool mode. Especially with such a core, they decided to let these players walk because it was in due time that they were going to most likely lose them to the Expansion draft anyways. Instead of losing such valued members for nothing, you have to make a move now to try and recuperate something back for them. Looking at the upcoming draft, getting some draft picks, hell any amount of draft picks, were going to be a win. Being able to draft from such a deep draft class is only going to help Calgary in the long run, yes they lose out on this season, but instead of losing out on seasons to come, I expect a quick turnaround for Calgary in their “Retooling” season and back at it next year.

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