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Deep Dive 2: Nevada Battleborn || Then, Now, Future - Beavie - 01-03-2025
DEEP DIVE #2: Nevada Battleborn || Then, Now, Future After finishing fourth worst in the SMJHL last year, the Nevada Battleborn find themselves in the midst of an up and down season on and off the ice. As we enter the last week (IRL) of the regular season, I want to, for ya girl’s second deep dive, to look at where we were before Nevada decided to draft Claude L’Castor fourth overall, to where we are now, and where I hope we will plug in holes for the future where I feel our window for contention may open up properly. This is not just for the TPE as I really DON'T NEED THE CASH, but to learn a bit about how a team can develop from year to year.
S79:
As the final horn sounded on the regular season for the Battleborn in season 79, they ended with a 23-37-6 record for 52 points. Looking at some of the other stats on the team, we had a goal differential of -96. 215 goals for with 311 goals against. As a whole, the team struggled. But there were some bright spots on the team.
Forwards:
I will give a nod to both Drew McIntyre and Mick Geno. Two of them were rookies last season and they tied the team lead for 64 points. Nearly a point per game in a rookie season on a struggling team is relatively impressive. Speaking personally, Drew McIntyre may be a name I’ll bring up again for notable players this season and the future and I think New Orleans may have gotten a steal with the Scottish Power Forward in the second round of the S80 draft.
Slava Kasyanenko and Aurora Borealis also I’ll give some attention to. With slightly less stats than Drew and Mick, they still provided some respectable offensive punch with 58 and 56 points respectively. However, the team was not in much of a strong position to produce.
Defense:
Of the six players for the Battleborn in season 79, three of them I consider inactive. Tony Bologna who even now is at 155 TPE, Hugh Eackman, also at 155 TPE, and Mikko Madeiskiy who has not grown TPE in the course of their career, sitting at 209, and now 205 TPE, and seems to be a forward convert to D. Half of our defensive core in the previous season was considered inactive and were of low TPE. I will not complain about it currently as a goaltender after seeing this. But let’s look at the ones who are active.
Kiwi Soderberg-Snooks and Hip Hurts were at the 350 cap for year 1-2 players last season but are not designed to pitch in offensively. Instead, they live up to the position and play defense unlike the IRL locker room cancer Tony D’Angelo. Good luck speaking Russian, buddy. Hurts finished last season with a 68 DGR, 72 blocked shots, and 169 hits. He made others hurt. Kiwi, on the other hand, finished with a 76 DGR, 169 blocked shots, and 152 hits. These two were a big reason the goals against average was not the worst in the league.
As for Arvinder Singh, the rookie defenseman was clearly built to be more offensively minded with 43 points last season and only 37 blocked shots. These three individually are types of players you would want on your defensive core. Two who can take pressure off your goaltending with one who can also pitch in offensively and on the power play. While a great starting point, the lack of support was apparent.
Goaltending:
Nevada ended up having three goaltenders last season. First the ones not relevant to now, Gregory Eriksson ended up being in net for 16 games for the Battleborn, with an 0.869 sv%, and a rough 5.08 goals against average. He was gone by the a certain goaltender from Laval was drafted.
Akira Suzuki, on the other hand, fared slightly better over a 48 game stretch with 4.26 goals against and a save percentage of 0.891. Overall, it is actually respectable. However, Akira is sadly retired and the user is inactive with a negative balance.
As for the man with no last name who is currently tandeming with me, he had an okay rooking campaign, finishing in the middle of the others. 0.874 for his save percentage, 4.90 goals against. However, this was at only 207 TPE in 22 games played. They chose to stick with him, and given where the others went, seems to be the right call.
S80:
With hopes and dreams, the Nevada Battleborn got off to a hot start in the pre-season with a 5-1-1 record and early on, were in contention for the Southern lead, but have since fizzled out with a bad losing streak and we are hovering around .500 with a 22-23-2 record. With us at 46 points in 47 games played as of the time writing this, we are on pace to do better than last season. Though we ended up losing a high TPE player due to “Off-ice conduct,” all I will say on that grim situation, there’s some positives and areas of improvement. As of now our +/- stands at -37, slightly inflated due to some high scoring affairs against the stupidly good Quebec City Citadelles (50 shots against Claude, all I need to say), there is a positive trend.
Forwards:
After a strong rookie campaign last season, Drew McIntyre has been performing well, already on pace to smash his points total from the previous season with 56 points in 47 games, and is in the league’s top 10 in assists. Badger Hennessy is also above point per game with 51 points. The production seems to also be fairly steady. Though, in comparison to last season, Mick Geno has not taken as much of a step up in production as McIntyre, currently sitting at 24 points, but with his TPE at the same total as last year, there is a fear he is going inactive.
I’ll give a nod to fellow rookie, Wednesday Shrinetime who has 30 points right now in 47 games. Then the users for Ryan Fishman and Connor Berdard have been fun waiver pick-ups who are active in our locker room, #FishingSeason, and I hope with a full season and some development can be fun parts of the team. The arrival of the forward core is a nice welcome and I think it really pushed ourselves up the standings during that hot stretch.
Defense:
Tell me if this is familiar: Only three true defense with inactives around them? But as of now, not all are inactive.
Starting with the core three, they are performing similarly as last year. Kiwi and Hip Hurts both being in the top ten for blocked shots this season. I appreciate the help… SO MUCH. Kiwi’s DGR sits about the same at 74, but Hip has taken a step up with a very impressive 78. As for our offensive defenseman, Singh, he has 29 points as of now and his game ratings sit at similar totals with a better +/- than last season. Really the main difference apart from Hip’s jump is the fact they all have better TPE and with Kiwi and Hip at the 425 cap with one season to go, they are at the point they’re expected.
As for the “D” around them, Tony and Mikko are still around with Mikko performing decently well as their TPE is at an okay total. The difference is Adam Daniels. Adam Daniels is a rookie like me, who was active. He’s primarily a forward though. For a rookie forward convert, he’s doing alright with 18 points as a D, a game rating in the 60’s. The big “What if” though is that he has been a bit quiet in the discord, not sure if he’s still in it, has a negative balance, and last update was before Xmas. Here is hoping he’s just on a holiday break.
Goaltending:
This is probably the biggest change of the team as we have gone from a rotating cast of goaltenders to a proper tandem. An active one at that. Jack had an impressive start to the season, at one point being over .900 for his save percentage. However, after our team’s rough stretch, he has gone back down to a similar save percentage as last season. But for positives, his goals against average has gone down to 4.33, and he’s at 12 wins. He’s been a good guy in the locker room, and I think with some media posted to get his bank account up, and his cap increasing next season, he’ll be fun to work with.
Now, me. Claude “The Dam” L’Castor. I’m not going to call myself the best performing rookie goaltender because I’m not. However, on a team with a “weakness” for defense who are sitting about .500, I’m exceeding my own modest expectations (Which weren’t modest for like, one week before our team did an uno reverse). Right now Claude sits at 0.890 for his save percentage, just hovering below .900 which for the high scoring J is solid. My GAA is 3.63 and my game rating is 67, I wish it was two higher. In an odd turn of fate, the lower TPE goaltender is performing slightly better. I give thanks to the Justin Time Theorem. And with my bank account now at about be about 62 million as a first gen, I’m excited to develop L’Castor.
S81?:
We’re a team that is highly likely to have many returning players, just now at a higher TPE. Players like Drew McIntyre, Arvinder Singh, and Aurora Borealis (At THIS TIME OF YEAR!?) will be getting to a 425 cap, and some of our rookies like yours truly will have a chance to get to our first cap of 350. With that, we’re in a spot where we can compete next season, our window potentially opening. But we’ll need some improvements, most importantly, defense.
With our forwards and goaltending stable, the main challenge will be to get at least one or two more active defensemen to give us a proper D-Core. That task is easier said than done. With only so many draft picks (We traded our first away) and defense sometimes coming in at a premium, it will come down to either a saucy trade or some strong scouting to properly fill it up.
Thanks for listening to my Beav Talk <3
WORD COUNT: 1749
RE: Deep Dive 2: Nevada Battleborn || Then, Now, Future - Aleris - 01-03-2025
Love it
RE: Deep Dive 2: Nevada Battleborn || Then, Now, Future - Ara - 01-03-2025
@Beavie Approved and very well done I might add!