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Armada S49 draft, how did it pan out? - golden_apricot - 11-15-2019
So I decided to take a look back at my draft class with the armada from the S49 draft (S50 players). So this was the last reddit draft and that is where I an a bunch of the other rookies from this class came from. Since there are a lot of people in the class I decided to only look at the Armada players and do a write up on those who have actually stayed active or somewhat active.
Going into the draft the combine thrown by the Armada staff was a really great way to get some players engaged in the league and allowed us to talk to each other outside of the regular S50 draft class discord (which most people I am sure have muted by now). From what I can tell Anchorage needed defensemen bad. When I came in they had two active defenseman and two inactive who did have updates and stuff but were not at the cap and were not actively updating. That being said if you feel like a guy was going to be active they were going to take that over a flyer. I think the combine did help them with that for the early picks as well as them picking up some later round steals. But going in I think management was almost dead set on getting defensemen.
About an hour before draft time the Armada made a trade to move down from the 7th pick so their first pick was at 14 and their second was 15. I think most people expected the double defenseman pick here. And with that short intro lets begin going through the Armada’s second round picks.
Pick 14 – D Augustus Wang
Wang was Anchorage’s clear cut first guy on the board. He was the highest rated defensemen and with that being such a need for their roster it was clear that Wang would be off the board at this pick. Coming in the TWD made his mark in the LR well before he actually stepped foot on the ice. Ferda, in his first night with the team quickly cleared over a few hundred posts in discord. Ferad’s activity dropped off a bit on discord to where he is now only clearing a hundred or so messages a day on discord (a low amount on average I am sure), but with that he is still highly active in the armada LR. On the ice, Wang has been an impactful skater, playing first pair minutes in his first season in the J for Anchorage along side Gabe Johnson (this dude is highly over rated to be honest, Hammy needs to trade his ass). In terms of production, even for a near bottom Armada team, Wang was able to put up 17 points in his rookie season and be a positive plus minus player with a +3 total. Of his 17 points, only 3 came on the powerplay as he saw his minutes on the man advantage drop off as the season progressed. That said he had more goals than the scouts thought he would coming in with 5 in his first season.
Despite his strong showing, it was likely his powerplay minutes and poor team performance that saw his draft stock fall a bit further than most would have thought when the SHL draft finally came around. On draft day it looked as though Wang was the 2nd or 3rd rated defenseman on the board for most teams (after a defenseman taken after him in the previous SMJHL draft who happened to go 1 OA) and with that ranking it looked as though he would be a top 10 pick. After some shock picks in the draft, Wang was there at six overall, when the Stampede picked him up. This is one of the picks of the draft I think. Buffalo got what they needed, in a young top earning defenseman who will have time to develop in the Anchorage system. I think the Armada management was excited to see Buffalo take one of their guys, as typically that means at least two more season in juniors for those players. Ferda should do big things when moving up to the big leagues and this is one to look out for moving forward.
In the S50 season, Wang was primed for a break out, with more time to develop and a full season at 325 TPE. Again he saw first pair minutes all season, but this time spent the majority of the season on the powerplay unit, as most of the Armada defensemen were much more defensively minded than Wang is. With these minutes you really saw the breakout of Wang this last season. Although his play in the Armada end of the ice slipped a bit with a -8 plus minus for the season, his offensive stats saw huge growth. Some of this growth can be attributed to the increased power play time, as 19 of his impressive 40 points came on the man up, but with that being said he had more points on the man up this last season then he did the entire S49 year. Wang had 9 total goals and 31 assist this season, which led the Armada defense. Although he put up a good number of points, his physical side did not come out to the extent that some scouts expected with only 15 hits on the year. With the S51 season upcoming, look out for Wang to be up near 50 points and close to 20 goals. I think he should be able to be around those numbers but only time will tell.
Pick 15 – D Samuel Michuad
So this pick was somewhat controversial in the LR. Management was split between two defensive prospects but a larger portion of the room (read louder) wanted Michaud. At 15 in a reddit draft you expect good scouting to get you an active and as it turned out both of the players that the Armada were looking at here turned out to be actives in the SHL, both highly active player, both high earners in TPE and SHL bucks as well. This cannot be said for other defensemen taken early in the draft as the reddit defensemen taking prior to Wang, Michaud and the un named third player not on the Armada went inactive during the S49 season (RIP). Michaud was not as active as Wang was in the LR to start off, but as time went on he became one of the top 10 commenters in the LR of all time. His presence is somewhat not wanted with some controversial timing on some things like his classic cellyotter comment and improper use of other emojis. I don’t think the Armada staff regrets this pick too much but there might be more on that later in this article.
On the ice Michaud was known to be more defensive minded coming out of Bantams and that is more or less what the Armada got. The team did struggle a lot in S49 and Michaud was a part of that with a -13 plus minus which is close to the worst on the roster. He got minutes on the lower end of the scale for the Armada playing 3rd pair and only sparingly on the penalty kill. Despite these problems, he did produce offensively more so than people thought, with 14 points and 13 assists, all coming from 5 on 5 play. There could have been much more from him this season and to be fair it showed when the SHL draft came around.
Like his partner, Michaud had some scouts placing him in the top 10 of the SHL draft, come draft day I don’t think many believed what they saw as Michaud fell out of the first round entirely. Some of this is reported to be lack of scouting from later round teams as they expected him to be gone early. Other reports have some teams looking to trade up as far as pick 12 to pick up Micahud, but a lack of GMs being willing to move down meant he had to sit longer than expected on draft day. When the 18th pick came around the Steelhawks had to scoop him up. Despite not scouting him at all, former teammate Gabe Johnson put in strong words for drafting this guy and I don’t think the Steelhawks regret any part of this pick or the trade that allowed them to steal Michaud from the grips of the Barracuda. Interestingly, the lack of depth in the Steelhawks system means that Michaud could have moved up as a true rookie, but the staff knew that he needed time to develop a bit more in Juniors so they sent him down for a year. This next season (S51) expect Michaud to be playing in the big leagues, with some okay minutes per game as we have seen his offensive game develop massively over the last season and this offseason so far. Hamilton is excited to have this guy be a staple on their blue line as long as they give in to his demands of a 10x10 that he is expecting to be asking for coming when his contract ends.
In the S50 season Michaud played second pair for the Armada and first pair PK time and his stats show great development. He had almost 30 points from 28 assists and 1 goal and saw his plus minus rocket up to a +9 in his final season in juniors. He took far too many penalty minutes, maybe a sign that he has a bit of a temper. His hit and shot block numbers went up a good deal too. Some of these stat increases are just due to the Armada having a much better season, finishing 2nd in the standings. According to Michaud he loved his time in Juniors and would love to spend time with some of the boys as his and their careers move forward in the SHL, and will do what he can to play with them as time goes forward. He did spend some time in the big leagues already, being called on by the Steelhawks after his team was eliminated in the four star cup. Michaud might even have the record for least time between consecutive eliminations in SHL history as he was eliminated from the playoffs twice in the same day.
The Armada did not have a third round pick as they traded that away, but they did have two picks in the fourth and were looking for a goalie at one of these slots as their goalie at the time was a bit of a no show, popping in only once or twice a season and not contributing much at all.
Pick 33 Ian Venables
So Venables was the Armadas top rated goalie prospect after the combine and I think they killed it with the scouting this time too. There were two goalies taken prior to Venables in the draft, both of which did not pan out for their teams, while Venables is a rock in the back for the Armada, starting 44 games a season over the last two years. Interesting too see him still there as once goalies start to go, typically a bunch go as teams try not to let their guy fall to someone else. “Budgie” has been an active member of the LR, not as much as the players picked around him for the Armada, but his cool head is always around and active when you need him. We will see his activity change with school as is expected to be honest, but his consistently clear and cool head is always great to talk too. Also the lack of spam from him does help clean out the locker room chatter. This is looking like a great pick for the Armada, as they will get their 425 goalie this upcoming season and maybe for the next.
In the S49 season, Vanables had an okay year. Not the best statistically as he was a rookie getting major minutes, but he was effective, with the team getting about a point in all of his starts. He had a save percentage of 0.867, which is not great by nay means and a GAA of 3.13. These were a bit lower than expected but a few bad games really hurt him numbers. Interestingly he did have 4 PIMS in this season which lead all goalies for the Armada. This season was one to forget for him, but as a rookie there were low expectations and he did surpass those which is always a plus for a team. Development was the key factor for if this pick would turn out in the future and Venables did develop nicely in this season.
In the draft Venables was the first goalie on any board that needed one. A great addition to any room this was no surprise to anyone, it was just a question of when someone would jump on him. That turned out to happen in the first round as the Pride took him with the 13th pick in the draft. This one might be the value question when it comes to drafting. Yes you get your guy, but could you have gotten more value for the pick. This was an early pick to take a goalie for a reddit draft and would it have been possibly to trade down to the low teens and pick up an extra pick and still get your guy? These questions always pop up come draft day analysis but to be fair, at times if the pick pans out who gives a rats ass. SFP got a great pick here and I don’t think in four season when Venables is putting up elite numbers, anyone will care about the possible value in the 13th pick goalie.
In the S50 season, with most of the games being played at the second year cap, Budgie played a total of 47 games, with 44 starts for the second year in a row. He won 24 of these starts which means his team was over a point per game he started in which helped the Armada shoot up the standings from one season to the next. He recorded a 0.883 save percentage and a 3.16 GAA which is a respectable stat line. What is most impressive looking at the stats is the fact that he had 5 shutouts this season saving the armada in a few of those shutout when the offense didn’t show up. His PIM numbers also went down as he finally regained the calm head that he was known for in the bantam ranks.
The Armada expect big things from the now third year starter. Expect him to be at or near the top of the league in all major statistics and for his Armada team to make some noise again this season.
Pick 35 Daniel Bishoff
So as many of you might know, this pick was… an interesting one to say the least. In the fourth round of this draft Anchorage was really looking to just get an active player after they got their goalie at 33. In the midst of a mad scramble to try and get anyone active, someone said “Draft this Bishof guy, he’s been talking a lot today.” And that is how the story of Dylan began in the Armada locker room. After night one all seemed relatively normal. Dylan was the third top poster for all rookies behind Budige and Ferda, but oh how things change. Dylan is the king of commenting on discord. If you think he talks a lot in general chat, or the WJC chat, or well… any other chat you are in with him, my god you should see him in Anchorage. We had the day where Dylan threw himself a party, where he made as many comments as he could (read one a minute) so that he could move up the ranks in our chat. I muted the server that day because I was getting notifications and the random ping every few minutes with all the talk. He has been muted more than one time (I too have had the pleasure of being muted from Anchorage) and even left the server for a week at one point. Despite all of the apparent shortcomings Dylan is actually great to have in chat. Ya, it can be annoying at times but it is kinda funny to some degree. He also isn’t a POS which is a plus. That being said, he did tell me I needed to write 5000 words just about him so we will see if I get anywhere close. I think this was a slam dunk pick to be honest. He is active in chat and overall he cares about developing his player. He will be seen bitching about doing PT tasks but in the end he gets them done and helps the team where he can. I kinda think some of it might be an act but who the hell knows with people on the internet. Now onto some hockey talk I guess.
In his first season with the Armada Bishoff was absolute junk on the ice. He really didn’t do much positive out there as shown by his -17 rating and 11 minutes of ice time a game. He struggled at both ends of the ice too, only recording 7 points (4 goals and 3 assists). As you can probably tell from most of these write ups, the S49 season was a dark season in the Armada locker room, not much positive went on which is somewhat expected with as many rookies as they had, but still you would hope that some of them at least showed a bit more promise. Daniel did manage to stay out of the box to some extent though which is a good sign for a guy who claims to love fighting skill in his updates. There was a lot of hope that he would be much better in his second season, but with the returning players from this season getting a boost, there was the possibility that they would over shadow him again.
Draft season was an interesting one for Dylan. He was a very active member of the site, but that does not always mean he is being active in the correct way. The comment chains in the main discord between him and Leppish are why most people have the general channel muted I am sure. If you take a look at most mocks, the majority of people had Bishoff falling to somewhere in the second round or early third. This is a fair assessment in my opinion of where he was at that time. After falling out of the second and into the third Minny decided to pick him up with their pick. This is interesting to me, I mean it makes sense that he would go to a team with Leppish after their back and forths but I figured someone would pick him up at some point. To me this is a really good pick. Minny got an active in the third round. Yes it was a reddit draft and you should expect this with some good scouting, but there were a good number of people who are not IA taken prior to Dylan. You knew with Dylan that he was going to stay active, the question was would he earn his TPE and actually do stuff on the site, which to this point looks like will be the case as he has already purchased max gear for the S51 season, which will place him at or with in the top 10 for TPE in the class. For a third round pick you really could not have asked for more. It was a high risk high reward type of pick and at least to this point, looks like it has payed off really well for the Chiefs.
Oh boy was the S50 season a breakout for Bishoff. Coming into the season he was looking to make the jump from the 4th line to the 1st line and also take some minutes on the powerplay. A big jump in time but that also means that the expectations are a bit higher than they normally would be. With 20 goals and 24 assists on the year, he for sure lived up to the hype. He was a major player on a line that had one of the SMJHLs leading scrorers. The play in the offensive end of the ice also translated over to the defensive zone, where his +14 rating shows that he was a large asset to the team at both ends of the rink. One thing he might look at fixing next year is his low checking stats, with only 43 hits he came no where close to the team leader (143 hits from Stan the Man) but that might be trying to poke holes in what was a great season for the dude. Anchorage is looking for him to make a large step next season, again taking up a spot on that first line. We will see what he is able to do but the expectations are over 50 points for sure form Bishoff and I think he has the ability to do that with ease.
Pick 45 Jay Reeves
We are now getting to the shorter write ups. I like Jay in our limited interaction. She is active, but not at the same level as the others in the LR. Do I blame her? Nah this place is tough to learn to like and can be really annoying at times, but she is a valued member of the squad and will likely be back for the next two seasons.
In the first season Jay played on the fourth line with Bishoff and as was said before, this line really struggled. Seven points and a -5 rating is not going to cut it and really it had to be better and just wasn’t. She did stay out of the box however, only recording 10 PIMS on the year while still managing 34 hits, which is not bad for a first year rookie, but still there were higher hopes and the entire Armada squad did not live up to the hype that was brought on them for the S49 year.
In the draft Jay fell to the third round which I felt fair. She is not a top earning player and there were questions there. Toronto picked her up which makes sense if you know the story behind her player which is think will be good and keep her active in the league for a good bit of time. TOR knew they were not getting the next 2k TPE player in Jay but it was a safe pick that will be serviceable in a season or two and then will be able to soak up minutes for a number of seasons after that. I like the pick and think this worked out well for both team and player.
In the S50 season, Jay received a large ice time boost and performed really well under those circumstances. Jay had 19 goals and 18 assists on the year which is a huge improvement. This was nice to see. I didn’t have the highest of expectations for Jay this season but if I am honest that was because I didn’t check update threads for people much this last season. Defensively there was room for improvement as the -5 for a team at the top of the standings is a bit too low for my liking. We will see where her development goes as time progresses. I think she is solidly a second liner for the Armada this year and a first liner the year after that. If she develops well, she could be the next 60 point scorer for the Armada and then make some noise in the SHL, but we will see how this plays out for her.
Picks 55 and 59 Rhett Ward and Justin Roy
So these guys were a shot in the dark to be honest. I think they were in the scouting channel and said a thing or two but not as much as the previous picks that the armada had. This showed as after showing up for a day they both seemed to fall away and never really show up again. There were some ramblings that maybe they would come back. Lots of discord pings to them were sent by many in the LR, myself included, but it was to no avail. Picks like these might bring into question how stable management is and how their scouting staff works. You do expect some in actives to come from a draft, but to have two in a round seems a bit strange to me. These guys were hardly productive in S49 which is in part to management prioritizing actives on the rosters (good on them by the way with this) and by the start of s50 half of this pair was gone and the remainder was there just as a roster place holder (had about a minute of ice time a game). So long to these guys, not the best picks but you are bound to have some duds. Very glad we could pick up some UDFAs in this class to help make it a better class from the Armada, but these picks were absolute dog crap.
(double draft media, over 4200ish words)
RE: Armada S49 draft, how did it pan out? - Leafs4ever - 11-20-2019
Hey, just a heads up, double media bonus applies to articles written about the Season 51 SMJHL Entry Draft, so unfortunately this article doesn't qualify for the bonus.
RE: Armada S49 draft, how did it pan out? - Waters - 11-20-2019
Michaud bad
RE: Armada S49 draft, how did it pan out? - golden_apricot - 11-20-2019
11-20-2019, 05:17 PMLeafs4ever Wrote: Hey, just a heads up, double media bonus applies to articles written about the Season 51 SMJHL Entry Draft, so unfortunately this article doesn't qualify for the bonus.
ah all good my dude thought if it was related to the team in the J it would.