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+---- Thread: My Advice to Rookies: Part 1 (/showthread.php?tid=61262)
- Pandar - 02-23-2016
So you’re a bright-eyed bushy tailed youngster, about to go through your first SHL draft. You’re probably experiencing excitement, and possibly some trepidation. What if no one takes you? What if you’re not taken where the mock drafts place you? Does that make you a bust? What should you do to get drafted?
Well, let’s start with the last bit first. At this point, you’ve already done most of what you can do… if you’ve been consistently training and maybe building a bit of a bank roll that’s a great start. A lot of people go off of how much TPE you have when they’re building their draft lists, so that’s a good thing to have in your back pocket. The more cash you have, the less that your future team has to pay you, so that’s another thing some GMs look out for. Your bankroll is also a proxy for your activity level… the more money you’ve got, the more articles or sigs you’ve done (which also has the benefit of getting your name out to the masses). Furthermore, be active in your Locker Room. We’ve all still got permissions to view our SMJHL LRs, so even if we’re not saying much, odds are that at least one player from each SHL team can see you in there. Be a good LR presence, and it’ll do wonders.
Now, most of this is stuff that it’s a little too late to get started on, so what can you do now? There’s this magic thing called the “interested prospect thread.†Each team will post thread where they’ll ask you some questions. Look at each team, look at their members (you can see the list of members in the roster section (they’ll be the topic starters)), you might even consider their place in the standings. Do you want to be on a team where you’ll play a big part early in your career? Then look to the bottom of the standings. Do you just want to win? Look to the top. More than anything though, what I hear over and over again is that people come back to this site on a daily basis because of the relationships they build in their LRs. Look at the people. Look for people that you like from your experience around the site, and look at what teams they play for. Make sure that you do a really good job on your interested prospect reply to these teams. Now don’t get me wrong: you shouldn’t misrepresent yourself… but take the time to give it a good response.
COMING UP NEXT: Managing your expectations leading up to and on draft day
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