This is going to be a new weekly (attempted) segment that focus’ on the Armada but also the wider junior league in general. I am hoping to include a mix of written media as well as podcasts and would like to include people that wish to be interviewed or as a guest on a podcast. 

Coming off of the back of a Four Star win in season 51 hopes were high for an Anchorage team that had finished the previous two regular seasons in second place. However much like the calamitous 49 season a strong roster was not enough to overcome Simon shenanigans and we ultimately finished a disappointing ninth place. This landed us a first round matchup against the newly relocated Newfoundland Berserkers. Despite the poor regular season the flat trade market had ensured that we kept all of our players through the trade deadline and we were still pretty confident that we could get past Newfoundland with the team that we had. 

As is often the way with pre series testing pretty much the opposite of what we were expecting happened. The team struggled to get shots on net and somewhat unbelievably we conceded three short-handed goals in consecutive games which handed the Berserkers the momentum in the series. The main turning point coming where we gave up the game tying goal with 30 second remaining in the third game and ended up going on to lose in overtime. Even though we won game 4 to tie the series 2-2 it never felt like we recovered from the set back and ended limping out in six games.

At any rate the Berserkers were easily dealt with by Detroit and in my opinion it would have been a fitting end to the Simon era if Colorado and Detroit had faced off in the finals seeing as neither has managed to lift a cup since I became the GM of Anchorage nine seasons ago. It was not to be and Anaheim really showed their resilience in lifting the cup for the second time in their eight season history after their back of house difficulties in the off season. 

With the ending of the season though we can finally wave goodbye to Simon Tremblay and enter the exciting yet uncertain world of Franchise Hockey Manager. I expect the first season at least to be a total crap shoot and I for one am looking forward to seeing how it plays out at both the SMJHL and SHL level while the meta is more or less unknown. 

The finale of the season also comes with a few departures from the Armada at both the player and management level. Augustus Wang, Daniel Bischoff and Ian Venables all depart having reached the end of their waiver bypass eligibility. Wang overtook Kalevi Karhunen for the franchise lead in points by a defenseman and did it in fifty games less which is an incredible achievement. Bischoff lead the Armada in points in the last two seasons and played a big role in bringing the cup to Anchorage for the first time as did Ian ‘budgie’ Venables who tied the franchise record for shutouts with legendary goaltender Peter Larson. All three have proven to be great servants to this organisation who will be badly missed, we wish them all the best for the future of their playing careers. 

With the transition to a new system the back of house at the Armada has moved around. Dionyz Vyskoc has stepped down into a more scouting focused role with Ian Venables and Chad Johnson also joining to provide support to the upper management. Thus Max Brannagan has accepted a number of applications to join him at the head of the organisation with a new Co-GM to be announced shortly. 

As the offseason moves into full swing and the players enjoy their summer break before pre season starts the back of house team begins their efforts to find and draft the superstars of tomorrow. With the draft appearing to be scheduled for the coming weekend the expectation is that prospects will start to declare imminently. With a new system at play it's a possibility that we see a stronger class than usual but this shouldn’t be a cause for alarm as the current crop of general managers appear more than capable of handling the influx comfortably. 

Primary points of interest for most GM’s if you are a greenhorn will be completing all the rookie paperwork (First PT, rookie survey, activity check) as well as attending the team interviews (interested prospects) and a willingness to attend media events (writing media, podcast, graphics). Anyone putting themselves out there can expect their services to be in high demand but its important for rookies to remember that draft position is not that important in the overall scheme of things. After all success in the SHL is a marathon and not a sprint. 

Seeing as it is off season it will be just a short recap this week but the draft is pretty much every GM’s favourite time so we will see if we can get some soundbites for next week’s report.