Login

King · 10-27-2018, 05:34 PM

Pride 5 Yr Plan - Year 1 Review

Lead up to draft night

Before the S43 draft the Pride had been in the league for six seasons and partaken in five SHL entry drafts. A detailed recap of these five drafts is available here. But the too long didn't read summary:

Quote:Draft Recap:
S38 - 6 inactives
S39 - Chris Partridge + 2 inactives
S40 - 3 inactives
S41 - No picks
S42 - GM Drafted + 1 inactive

Five season, which amounted to a depressingly poor draft record. Leaving the dark cloud that hung over the Portland Admirals and moving them to San Francisco didn't exactly start with a bang. But the team didn't have a reset date in mind, that was the S43 draft. Building up to the draft the team made a few large trades to move out roster players to acquire future picks. I discussed this in a previous articles but the essentially summary for picks related to S43.

Quote:To
S42 2nd (WPG, HAM)
S43 3rd (WKP)
Finn Larsson
S43 1st x2 (MIN, SEA)
S43 3rd x2 (NEW, MIN, SEA, WKP, LAP)
S43 4th (TEX)

To
Isaac Kaiser
Joseph Lombardi
Clint Eastwood
Jeff Kirkstone
Jed Lloren
Victor Lindstrom
Travis Kudleychuk

Draft night

Draft night was a nervous one for the San Francisco Pride. A lot of discussion had been done amongst the general managers of the Pride, the Rage and the Steelhawks along with top prospects Leshaun King, Olivar Kovacs, Luke Thomason, Tig Murphy and Goku Muerto. Discussions picked up as soon as the draft lottery was completed and continued intensely till a few days before the draft where the top 5 picks seemed to have been settled.

First of, The Luking combo (@"luketd" and @King) had said, while they would be happy to play anywhere, they would prefer to play together, and shared that with the GMs with the top picks. The only team with the picks to do so was San Francisco, so it became the target landing spot for Luke and King. The other highly touted top three prospect Olivar Kovacs @KillTheArchitect had a similiar relationship with his brother Kristof. He was also happy to go anywhere but would prefer to play with his brother. Olivar being a vocal leader and a top TPE earning forward seemed to be a natural fit in Manhattan. Who had a deep defence, but was looking to draft both high end offensive talent, but also to draft plays who bring that vocal leadership to the LR, so Olivar again seemed like a good fit. Then came Hamilton, they knew King, Kovacs and Thomson would be off the board 1, 2, 3 and had a difficult choice to make. It seemed natural than Hamilton would take a defender considering the depth and age off there roster. Which defender became more obvious as the draft crept closer. Tig Murphy @notorioustig had really begun to seperate himself from the back of deep blue liners and slide in nicely at the #4 spot. Lastly came the number 5 pick and again a natural fit emerged as the draft came up. King and Goku Muerto (@Muerto ) were good friends before the draft and had even attempted to transfer to play together internationally before, forming what would be a deadly 1-2 punch down the middle. When Goku and the GM's in San Francisco spoke, after the first discussion the fit was obvious. Goku was sold on San Fran and the exciting top six that Goku, King and Luke could form and San Fran was sold on the mature leadership Goku would bring to the team.

So even though the top 5 picks were obvious, Luke and Muerto were yet to be allowed into the San Fran locker room, since technically they could of been taken at picks 2 or 4. So come draft night it was King with GM's @Grapehead and @tweedledunn and part of the management core @Beaver who were manning the draft board. Everyone had there own personal favourite players they were hoping to draft to the team. King was no different, and was pushing to bring in a few Halifax Raiders into the San Fran mix, along with some connections from the UK. Those who San Fran didn't end up drafting I won't mention since I wouldn't want other GMs to feel I'm tampering here. In the end the three King vouched for which joined the team were @ViN @Lazyeye and @Beaty. All three have lived up to and exceeded the pre draft tire pumping from King. On top of that the management team drafted Sean Stevenson, Jack Kennedy, Petr Vrana and Eero Makinen. All of which have been active and steady earning picks.

The first season and draft #2

The goals of the first season were simple. 1. Begin to build locker room chemistry. 2. Have the prospects drafted develop well in the junior. 3. Get a high pick. The number one pick seemed to be set as soon as the draft lottery was announced, Rainbow Dash would need a disastrous season to not go #1 overall, and even then he still likely would. But there was one player that King was obviously biased towards taking, his girlfriend and Armada prospect Xena @Nickleback_lover69. The Pride though seemed pretty firm on if they were to win the lotto they'd take Rainbow Dash, and if not they'd need a defensemen. The team thought that they could potentially move up there 2nd round pick into a low 1st, and there 3rd to a low end and take Xena at the end of the 1st and Ray Bork at the end of the 2nd. But as time went on Xena kept proving herself as a legitimate top prospect, and it seemed less and less likely that the Pride could get her that late in the draft. On the front of prospects development, well things went very smoothly. ....

At the draft:
Leshaun King 313
Luke Thomason 293
Goku Muerto 278
Petr Vrana 273
Jeff Brogen 271
Jack Kennedy 263
Carlo Russo 261
Steven Moyer 259
Vince Rieper 257
Richard Metcalf Jr 251
Sean Stevenson Jr 247
Eero Makinen 200

As of last update:
Leshaun King 542
Luke Thomason 503
Goku Muerto 475
Jeff Brogen 410
Richard Metcalf Jr 397
Vince Rieper 397
Petr Vrana 393
Steven Moyer 388
Jack Kennedy 387
Carlo Russo 384
Sean Stevenson Jr 353
Eero Makinen 268

And the locker room chemistry was building steadily, some people were expected to be quite chatty but the biggest surprise has to be @mcgriddleluver who has been a non stop source of warmth and friendliness in the locker room. An amazing late pick, and one who the team hopes stays for the longer room, even for his locker room presence alone. The others came as advertised. The locker room has bonded over different subjects, some only a few relate to, some only a different few, but different connections have been made over weight lifting, pokemon, relationship advice, career challenges and school. The locker room is a more mature group (our irl ages are mostly late 20's). Most of all every member has bought into the team first mentality, and are eager to build a group who can be perennial contenders.

Coming back to the draft, the Pride did lose the lottery and had an interesting choice to make at #2. They needed defencemen but at this point Xena had really stood out amongst the pack. Then after doing some scouting it seemed that teams from 3-4 had there eyes on taking other players beside Xena, and the Pride could grab her at 5. So they swung there first deal. Moving there the 2nd and 15th pick for the 5th, 12th and 26th pick. This wold allow them to take Ray at 26 instead of 15 take Xena at 5 instead of 2 and have another pick at 12. But then the Pride began to play with fire. Apparently there hadn't been a lot of draft interest in Xena since peopled had assumed she had her eyes set on San Francisco. While this was completely false, and Xena was excited to become part of a new team, and build her own identity seperate to her boyfriend King, the rumor persisted and the Pride took a shot on her being on the board at 12. The Pride rolled the dice and moved the 5th OA pick for New 1st and 2nd in the next draft, with a conditional 3rd should the Wolf pack make the playoffs. And after some nervous moments Xena was available. The Pride walked out with the same players they hoped to grab at 2 and 15 but also loaded up some picks in the S45 draft.

Locking in some Pride

Differently players are still waiting for the right time to announce extensions, based on salary concerns and player preferences. But as of now the following players have committed to be apart of the Pride, and have contracts in place for the forseeable future

Locked up to and including S48
- Jack Tanner

Locked up to and including S47
- Goku Muerto
- Chris Partridge
- Petr Vrana
- Jeff Brogen
- Vince Reaper
- Sean Stevenson Jr.
- Leshaun King

With a few other names set to extend together in a season time.

New colours

And my personal favourite part of this last season. The introduction of the gold and purple. pride

The old colour scheme was abit of a crayola mash up of red/blue/yellow, and didn't really stand for something. The purple and gold has a sort of sophistication and elegance to it. Also purple is a colour that the SHL has desperately needed for some time. The new look reflects a new era in San Francisco, where the team has found it's identity on the ice and found it's identity in it's brand.

Season 2 goals

Two of the goals stay consistent from last year. 1. Continue building the LR chemistry. 2. Continue developing the groups prospects. Now the team looks at bringing in a few rookies to get there feet wet, and to continue having high picks in the draft. The team currently has two 1st round picks which could be top 5, then two 2nd round picks which could also be top 5 of the second round then another three 2nd round picks, an additional 3rd and all of their own after that. After this draft, and the reddit draft that will follow the team should have all the pieces in place to form there core for the next decade. For now, keep building the team, scouting well, and making shrewd moves with the assests they have. The managers have allowed players to join the inner circle of decision making, and this new age mentality of a management team will assuredly assist the Pride as they set the foundation for a decade of success.

1872 Words

StamkosFan · 10-27-2018, 05:54 PM

Jack Tanner is one of the best, if not the best, defensemen in the league, and I’m sure you’ll soon be elite in stats too Smile

rebuilding teams always come around, just keep finding the future gems

I heard the “Xena would run off to SFP first FA” from a few people in multiple teams’ administrations, so definitely a lot of people felt that was true or she would’ve gone higher