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[2x First Media] SMJHL Draftee's Lottery Team Prospectus
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ElMerchantoRegistered Member
Hello everyone and welcome to my team prospectus for SMJHL potential draftees. First off, as a brand new player to the SHL, I was keen to get an impression of each team that has qualified for the lottery for hte first pick from a purely statistical standpoint. I thought it would be entertaining and perhaps illuminating for fellow rookies to write up a little bit on the stand out details for each of these Juniors team, but this does of course come with some caveats.
First off, I'm not privy to which players will be called up to the SHL. This analysis is based purely on last season statistics, so some teams star players & strengths may be disappearing over the offseason. Plenty of my assumptions may (read: will) be wrong! I'll mention that where I think it's likely, but generally speaking I'll be giving an overall impression of each team and how they may fare as a landing spot for new players. I'll be doing these in reverse order of regular season finish, as a means of giving an impression of overall performance. 1.  St. Louis ScarecrowsComing in dead last in the regular season were the St. Louis Scarecrows. As is often the case with bottom spot teams, it can initially be hard to see a glaring positive. Thankfully scratching the surface of St. Louis reveals a different picture, which we'll get to in a moment. First off, it's only fair and just to say that statistically the Scarecrows' season was as disturbing as their branding. St. Louis posted a stat line of 13W 53L which is just about where the horror begins. Scoring 130 goals during the season and conceding 294, that puts both categories at a league worst ranking. Most concerning here is the Goals Against, which sits a staggering 47 Goals conceded ahead of the second place Vancouverites. So you might be looking at this and crossing your fingers that St. Louis looks elsewhere on draft night, but you'd actually be wrong to do so. If you love an underdog story, the Scarecrows are undeniably entering next season with a huge chip on their shoulders. Unfortunately for them, their talent was absolutely raided at the end of Season 68 in call ups to the SHL. The simple fact is this - the Scarecrows fielded the worst team in the SMJHL this year. Their two players above 300 TPE were an RD/LD pairing of David Doug & Heath Nicol. This puts their TPE leaders and average far, far behind the majority of the field. This turns the already spooky team into something potentially scary - a young team rapidly developing their talent. The SMJHL functions as a talent development pool for the SHL, while also being it's own fierce competition. Every season, players who have developed enough to step up to the big stage leave their Junior teams and head for the bright lights. The Scarecrows are in a position where they are likely to have little to no call ups for the new Season. That leaves their coaching staff with a known entity to build off of in the draft. Good scouting is going to be key for the Scarecrows to avoid another disaster season, but if you like a challenge and want to join a rapidly improving young team with a stable core. They look like they could be a surprisingly great landing spot for a talented Rookie. Make no mistake, in all likelihood next season will be rough too for the Scarecrows, but in even two seasons time, they could be a force to be reckoned with. Positional Needs: C, Everything else. 2.  Yukon MalamutesFrom an eerily threatening Scarecrow, to a cute dog. Things are looking up already! Reality is that once we are past the desperately-find-nice-things-to-type area of St. Louis, we immediately get to greener pastures. Now, that's not to say the Malamutes didn't have a rough season, because oh boy they did. But we're talking about a -99 Goal Differential as opposed to St. Louis' -164, to put things into context. It's also at this point we begin to be able to assess teams strengths and areas of need a little clearer. In the Malamutes case the deficiency is pretty clear. They have a similar Goals Against to the Nevada Battleborn who were knocking on the door of .500, so what went so wrong? The answer is this - the Malamutes aren't scoring with the puck. Their power play is weak, and their shots and goals rates are weak to follow. Lack of an elite player at centre underpins this, but thankfully for Yukon they have a young pairing of centres in Don Aven & Doumakis who hopefully will continue to develop well, and it will be a different story this upcoming season. In fact, their roster is dotted with young, talented Wingers who should be getting the job done come Season 70. Although unfortunately there is some positional imbalance, and they need further depth at Left Wing. With it being fairly likely they lose top Dman Shea O'Connall to a call up, they look to build depth on the wings & the back while developing their talented young Centres. Positional Need: LW, Offensive/two-way D 3.  Vancouver WhalersNext up we have the lottery winners! Holding the 1OA pick, the Whalers are in a great spot with their pick of the bunch heading into the draft. The Whalers had an interesting stat line this season, we're above .300 for the first time in this list, and at a reasonably ok-ish .386 at that! How did the Whalers get there? Well, by largely by finding the net a little more than the two teams under them. We're not out of the woods yet however, with a goal differential of -82 in the regular season, the Whalers certainly had problems keeping a clean sheet, as their 2nd-highest 247 Goals Against highlights. That's not quite defensive-disaster territory, but it's also not far from it, standing on the precipice perhaps. So how does their roster stand? Not bad, honestly. They may lose a couple of top Defenders in call ups but that remains to be seen. Should it happen though, the problem compounds immensely. With several young great wingers like Lewis, Addams & Simmons, and Centre talent in Ashford & James; the singular focus for the upcoming draft must be clear to the Whalers. They need Defence. It is not entirely unfeasible that due to call ups that they stand to enter Season 70 without an active RD on the roster. So Vancouver, if you need a dynamic RD, perhaps one with a British accent and a namesake from a 90s japanese RPG, let me know, I think I know a guy. The Whalers have the young talent in place to be an immediate threat if they nail this draft, but they have to up their defensive performances to do so. Scout well and scout hard Vancouver. Positional Needs: Defense, especially RD. LW to back up Addams. 4.  Regina ElkStaying in Canada but this time moving over to Saskatchewan, we land on the Regina Elk! Now Regina are one of my primary picks at a glance for a dark horse contender. They have a whole host of players entering their second or third seasons, developing well and forming into what looks like a powerful offensive core for the Elk. I expect Centre McGritterson, alongside wingers "e e" (who stands a monstrous 6 foot 11 by the way) and Oliver Ozols to lead the charge for Regina. Behind them is a bunch of great young depth talent, Jae Hyuk Choi has started his career strong and looks to develop into a great threat. Honestly, there isn't a single area where Regina are lacking talent. It's just clear to me that S69 was the season they were "getting there", and we could well see them begin to fulfill their winning potential in Season 70. The one area that visibly could stand to benefit is continued Defense development as well as potentially picking up some depth, especially at LD should they lose Cocker. I expect to see Regina pick up a left dman early in the draft, but after that I'm fairly comfortable sticking them at "best prospect available". Positional Needs: LD, Best Prospect on the Board. 5.  Colorado RaptorsWe are rapidly approaching .500! The Raptors ended their regular season at .447, and actually that could be read in to as being extremely harsh given their performance. The jump up here is immediately obvious, as the Raptors posted a Goal Differential of only -4, in fact they even scored more goals at 219 than the two teams ahead of them, although slightly less than any team who ended with a positive record. Their Goals Against wasn't ideal, and actually was almost as high as the teams below them (except St. Louis, sorry Scarecrows), which immediately highlights a clear reason for their disappointing season. Unfortunately for the Raps, it might get a little worse in this regard. Two of their top players are the Defensive Duo of Forty-One and Zopf, both of whom look primed to be called up to the SHL. After that, their Defensive Depth falls off fairly quickly. Nyckel profiles as a promising player early in their career, and Manius looks to provide an anchor at LD. After that though, the depth stops existing. If they are lucky enough to retain Bergmark for a 4th season, their wings look to be of a good depth, and their offensive prowess shouldn't be too deterred. Similarly if retained, Ozerova and O'Rugg look set for an excellent season at Centre. With a better developed Defensive backbone, the Raptors could immediately contend. But they need to get there before their excellent Wings / Centres depart the team. Positional Need: RD, LD 6.  Nevada BattlebornOur final team that qualified for the lottery are the Nevada Battleborn. the Battleborn performed admirably throughout the season, posting a .492 win rate by the end. Unfortunately for the Nevada team, they were sunk by an abysmal 8-24-1 record when playing on the road, something they'll be desperate to not repeat in Season 70. Set to lose their star Centre, Alexi Piastri, how will the Battleborn fill the void in the new season? They'll be banking on a strong sophomore season, and absolutely no slumping, from Centre Alekss Ivanova to be sure, and may need to pick up some depth behind him in order to not lose the two way battle on the ice. On the Wings, both Bender Junior & Mr. Gray T White posted excellent seasons statistically, and look to follow this up by providing the main offensive firepower for the Battleborn come the new season. Nevada's season looks to be a story of how they recover from the loss of two star players, the aforementioned Piastri and star Dman John Brown, also the likely subject of a call up. Positional Needs: C, RD, RW depth So there you have it, my initial reads and thoughts on the draft targets of the bottom 6 teams of Season 69. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below - if you'd like to see this for the Top 8 closer to the Draft too that's something I may well write up. The S71 Draft Class looks to be home to a tonne of promising rookies & recreates alike. So ultimately the players personality & dedication is far more important that positional bias for the most part. Of course this is based purely on a positional read of the teams prior season so this isn't accounted for! Good luck to all in the upcoming draft and may your new home be a welcoming one.
39alaska39IIHF Federation Head Not a Commissioner. Shh!
Very nice work
Alex Winters (retired) Matej Winters (retired) Dominik Winters S45 Jesster Trophy Winner Challenge Cup Winning Goal Club: S52
HabsFanFromOntarioSHL GM S30 Cup Champion Never Going To Win A Cup
Great first media, love the new user effort
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Operation IvyRegistered Posting Freak
Great read! Regina could definitely use a better left defenseman than myself, that much I know.
Best of luck to you in the draft! ![[Image: 51LSJnR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/51LSJnR.png)
RainDelayRegistered Posting Freak
Psyched to be in the same draft class as you bro! Cheers on the first article :D
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AnthiqueSHL GM Quebecer trying to make goalie TPE matter in Texas
Yup though season in STL, we had a good roster, but things didn't worked out so we traded all our best players.
Full rebuild process. We'll see if you'll be part of that process  Good first article! S66 IIHF | CAN | Silver Medal
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