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TheFlash · 06-08-2021, 10:00 AM

Last night the SHL hosted their S60 expansion draft, welcoming the Montreal Patriotes and the Philadelphia Forge to the league. The two teams had their first chance to fill out their roster, each selecting 17 players from the league's unprotected list. Two clear strategies were followed in the draft. Philadelphia put the onus on drafting youth, while Montreal putting a larger focus on winning out of the gate. In this article, I'll break down both rosters and attempt to make sense of some lines for opening day. Of course, I'm far from an expert, so don't take this too seriously. Also for forwards, not taking into consideration whether or not there a winger or center. With re rolls coming due to the scale, some players could easily become centers if need be. Solely ranking them based on TPE.

Starting off with the Forge, Philly had the first pick in the draft and their strategy was pretty clear from the onset. Of their first ten picks, they only took one player who was older than Season 53 (S50's First-Name Last-Name). This draft was chalk full of talent, so despite these players being on the younger side, they still have a lot of talent. Overall, they only have three players in regression (and one of them is their GM player, Rex Kirkby). So while they might have a season or two where they find themselves losing more than winning, their core is going to be together for awhile and the majority of their players are 4-6 seasons from regression. Good chance that you see this team have a multi season window as a contender, somewhere around the mid-early 60's. The only thing that might prevent this is the fact that 12 of their picks are free agents this off season, so their success will really depend on locking up the majority of those players.

First-Name Last-Name 50 (1377 TPE) - Justin Keahi 54 (1323 TPE) - Patrick Sheppard 54 (1150 TPE)
Frederick Wanesly 53 (1094 TPE) - Luca Veccelli 50 (984 TPE) - Zelman Zuntnere 55 (952 TPE)
TURG TURG 55 (916 TPE) - Alexis Vermette 56 (914 TPE) - James Kimanje 55 (889 TPE)

Bork Lazer 54 (1440 TPE) - Rex Kirkby 43 (1388 TPE)
Adam Friedland 54 (1099 TPE) - Nathan Thomas 55 (1053 TPE)
Leopold Lockhart 45 (988 TPE) - Rintarou Okabe 50 (945 TPE)
Oliver Klozoff 46 (658 TPE)

Schoochie Stratton 54 (1272 TPE)
Peter Larson 46 (1034 TPE)

As you can see, a few really good, young forwards. The update scale makes this team super interesting, as they do have a few players that, before this year, might not make a huge impact. I could really see that third line being special for them, and in seasons to come, I expect those three players to really lead this team. On defence, I love their core of Lazer/Friedland/Thomas. Three really solid players for their future on the backend. Their goaltending tandem of Stratton and Larson should work out really nicely for them.

Moving onto Montreal. They went a different direction with this draft, taking a shot at some regressing veterans and hoping to have a stronger team from the get go. That's not to say that they didn't take any young players, as they did manage to grab some solid players who I could see taking the torch in a few seasons. They really stocked up on forwards, taking 12 total, which leaves their management with some tough decisions over the next few weeks.

Kaarlo Kekkonen 51 (2027 TPE) - Barrett Blackwood 48 (1431 TPE) - Bobby Sharp 46 (1638 TPE)
Nick Connolly 48 (1406 TPE) - Boris Poroshenko 47 (1388 TPE) - Taylor Johansson 53 (1393 TPE)
Mack Daddy 55 (976 TPE) - James Truong 46 (1360 TPE) - Alex Marshall 55 (966 TPE)
Simon Takshak 54 (907 TPE) - Lassi Suhonen 55 (962) - Jarmo Kekalainen 57 (737 TPE)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic Jr 51 (1833 TPE) - Abel Skinner 51 (1656 TPE)
Joorgustraad DuBolk 55 (1198 TPE) - Tony Ford 47 (1017 TPE)
James Leblond 54 (839 TPE)

White Goodman 51 (1388 TPE)

So looking at the roster, the difference between the two teams is clear. Outside of Kekkonen and Johansson, Montreal's current top players are all veterans who are multiple seasons into regression. The team should be fairly successful from the beginning, and if their younger players can continue to earn, they'll be able to take over in a few seasons. Their defence shapes up nicely too, with Ibrahimovic and Skinner forming a formidable top pairing. Look for the team to sign an IFA goaltender to play the minimum games behind Goodman, who finally re earns the starting role after losing it to Cavanagh in Texas back in S57 (mind you, his numbers since then have been a combined 43-10-1 with a 1.93 GAA and a .924 SV%, so the team is in good hands).

Overall, both teams had a really nice draft and have appeared to put together two really solid teams. It'll be really interesting to look back in five to seven seasons and see which strategy seemed to work better. With the new scale, it's really a crap shoot how teams with a lower end TPE total will do, so this could be similar to the expansion draft in the NHL. There we have seen Vegas really take advantage of other teams "scraps" and really make an impact quickly, as opposed to previous expansion teams that have taken 3-4 seasons to really start to compete and see winning records.

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