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***boom*** · 01-29-2024, 01:34 AM

[1065 words, x2 media, ready for grading]

The end of Anastasia Söderström's Swedish travel team career proved to be a rather unheralded occasion, as the team's backup goalie got more starts towards the end of the season to build some chemistry with his skaters and to preserve Ana's health for the SMJHL draft process. There were many hugs and expressions of congratulation from her teammates, along with guesses on which team she'd end up with.

"We'll miss you, but you're going to do great in the big leagues. Just don't forget where you started," her coach laughed. Ana nodded in assent as she left the locker room after her last game. Leaving the arena with her goalie bag pulling behind her, the world seemed to be just out there for her to reach out and explore, and the only thing that was certain was that nothing would be the same again.

The next two months were a return to normalcy for Ana. She was still finishing out her upper stage year at compulsory school, and while she wouldn't know where she had to transfer to until she knew where she would be moving to, she could at least get all her accommodation documents in order for when she found out. Ana had an agent now, a Marianne Maltais, whom had come highly recommended and whom had worked with another high school star in Sophie Bordeleau - it seemed the two's careers were somehow inextricably linked. Funny how that works out. For the moment, she was just trying to keep her attention on passing her leaving exams and getting good grades to take to North America, so at least for the next few weeks she was just an ordinary teenage girl again.

Draft day came sooner than anyone could have imagined, and while Ana was watching the draft via videoconference from her living room it was still a really exciting experience. She didn't know when she could expect to be drafted, but had had some good conversations with a few teams and had researched the goalie situations for each of them. Detroit seemed like the dream situation with their starting goalie graduating to the SHL this year and without a long-term plan already in their system, but being an underage European goalie meant there was really no telling what would happen. The first several picks went off the board to great fanfare, SMJHL teams getting the stars that would wow teams for several years to come before they eventually went up to the big leagues.

The moment she'd been waiting for came with the first pick of the second round. Detroit had this pick, and Ana held her breath as the general manager of the Falcons crossed to the podium. The manager stepped up to the mic and spoke up. "With the fifteenth overall pick in the S75 SMJHL Draft, the Detroit Falcons are proud to select, from Sweden, Anastasia Söderström."

The young goalie let out the breath she'd been holding and put her hands over her mouth. She'd be on a team where she'd have a shot to really show her stuff, it was a big hockey town, and they had a couple of other Swedish stars on the team that she could relate to. Not only that, she'd been the first goalie selected in the draft this year, showing the trust the team seemed to have in her to be their option. She sat back in her seat and squeezed her parents' hands, apprehensive for this adventure of a lifetime but so, so excited.

Now that she knew where her destination was, Ana could get started on the logistical side of moving to the States. With the help of her agent, the Falcons set her up with a local billet family so she wouldn't have to worry about housing for the time being, and she managed to transfer her work to an online high school program along with the supports she'd had back home. Her mind had always been pretty terrible at organizing logistics, so she was very appreciative to have the assistance in getting everything set up. Ana also needed a work visa, which thankfully the Falcons were useful in walking her through the application and sponsorship. She liked playing hockey because she could at least just focus on stopping the puck and block out everything else.

There were many tears of joy when the day finally came to head over to the United States, and there were many tears of joy and emotional farewells for Ana and her family. Outside of her one trip to Quebec, she'd never been away from her family much in her life and was nervous about how she'd do with being so far from her usual routines that she relied on, but she'd already been in contact with her host family several times and they seemed pretty willing to help her out with the adjustment where they could. The flight itself was long with a layover, but she tried to sleep as much as possible to calm the racing thoughts in her head. When she touched down, she was happy to see her host family and they headed off towards her new life.

It wasn't too long before training camp came about and Ana could finally get back out on the ice. She knew her conditioning would be a bit of a wildcard with her age and having come from a little-known origin point, but she'd tried to stay in shape as well as she could and thought she did well enough on the fitness tests. In between practices, she easily struck up conversations with Will Tomlander and Emil Karlsson, with the common language making it a little easier to deal with the culture shock. Having teammates who could relate to going so far away at a young age made Ana feel a lot better about the whole situation. School would start soon, so time management between games, practices and studying would be another challenge, but at the very least she didn't have to worry as much about fitting in with her new team, especially since the organization and Marianne were working together to try and minimize media obligations while she got adjusted. She just wanted to get between the pipes and play hockey with her new teammates, and luckily she wouldn't have to wait too much longer before her dream truly took flight.