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spidey · 05-15-2023, 06:10 PM

Winners and losers rarely get settled on the draft day itself. It is tough to see what each player will be like in 2 – 3 seasons as they potentially reach the SHL, and once there do they have the drive to continue to develop? Will they retire early costing a team a great pick? Can they work their way to the top of the line up and stick with a team long term, or will they run away during free agency as they start to peak in performance. There are so many potential futures and what ifs that could happen and players who can fall off and never reach their full potential. General Managers do their best to read into early success and find trends to see whom would be a long term fit for their organization and a contributor to their locker room.

That is all in the future and someone else problem, today let’s look at the winners and losers of the season 71 SHL Draft!

This draft was chock full of talent from the top right through the third round. A lot of returning users and active new players showed up this year to work along side a number of recreates. With so much talent how could one miss out, well some did. To start with let’s look to the winners of this draft.

WINNERS:

1. San Francisco Pride: pride

The Pride came into the draft top heavy loaded with 3 picks in the first 5, they made some big deals to get in a position to make these picks, but for a team building around their current youth and a cupboard full of top tier prospects moving out a few picks in the next few seasons was no big deal.

They managed to land 1st overall in the draft lottery! And they knew exactly who they wanted to draft. Grabbing Levin Schattenaxt, this was their number one target from the start of the off-season. They followed it up by picking up two more top tier players Logan Webb and Dominik Winters. They could have tried to move their second round pick for more picks at a different draft but with a stocked future they just chose to pass moving forward with no other needs at this time.

2. Toronto North Stars: Stars

Losing out on the first overall pick might have hurt at the draft lottery, but they made a quick move to capture the player they were looking for and picked up Mercedes Bayle! A talented winger at 2nd overall, and when you are drafting second, but you get your top pick it must be considered a win. Bayle has all the makings of a future Hall of Famer and there is room for her to take a top spot in Toronto when she is ready.

They followed up with Bayle with five more picks with and most of them could be considered late first round picks in most other drafts. Also how the hell did Aumy Jr II slip all the way to the 38th overall pick for Toronto, that could be the steal of the draft right there! Toronto took advantage of picking a lot in the second round and walked away from season 71 with one, maybe two franchise pieces and 4 talented compliment pieces to build around.

3. Tampa Bay Barracuda:

They walked away from second overall for third overall, they walked away from third overall for 8th overall and they still struck GOLD with Max Carnage. One of the best forwards in this draft class, even after walking backwards 6 picks. They also managed to restock their picks this season and over the next few seasons to guarantee a strong draft class moving forward.

They managed to pick up 4 more active players through this draft with one being star Filip Svatos and steady defenders David Anderson and Silly McTartersauce. Finally grabbing Crazy Tomato way down in the way down in round 5! Just a reminder this is a player that has as much TPE as some of the players picked up in the second round! Just a HUGE win for Tampa Bay.

4. Edmonton Blizzard:

Got to hand it to the Blizzard, they had their target and were doing everything possible to make the trade to get to him. Picking up the TPE leader Furious Chicken was a great move, there is an obvious connection between HFFO and Chicken and now the two of them will grow their players in two locker rooms together and develop at the same time motivating both of them.

We all knew Theodore Svatos was going to Edmonton so picking up two franchise pieces will really help stabilize the future in Edmonton congrats to them for being bold enough to make a quick move to geth the person they valued above all others, arguably the best player in this draft as well.

5. Goalies: Stfu

Often considered a right off whether that is wrong or right, Goalies are typically an after thought at most drafts. This was no exception as many players put them on their Mock Drafts having the first one to be selected in the 3rd round.

Well Net Man and Scary Jerry both managed to beat the expectations and get picked up in the second. A huge jump considering most had them waived as an afterthought. Not only that, but a third and fourth goalies were picked up in the 3rd round adding to their own historic draft for netminders.

LOSERS:

1. Seattle Argonauts:

They are being placed here because of a lack of need to draft anyone. Skipping over the draft entirely and passing as early as the second round and beyond. There was a lot of talent, even if you didn’t need it, you could have moved picks to get something at a later date when the need was to arise.

I am sure there is more behind this and why they just passed, just feels like a missed opportunity to me.

2. Atlanta Inferno: Inferno

This has nothing to do with Bear Trapp, I think that is a great pick in the second round. But with a late start to the draft and a few players out earning Trapp I am surprised this was the choice. Atlanta obviously picked the person they feel will develop the best, but we need to judge things on how they currently are.

They also picked up ANOTHER young goalie, the hope is Ally can be ready to take over the crease as soon as possible. This will be their third goalie in 8 years and second in 2 years. Hopefully this is their franchise netminder they have been desperately looking for, but you have to wonder about their ability to draft goalies as the other two have gone inactive.

3. Calgary Dragons: Dragons

It looks like Calgary is going to be forced into a rebuild sooner rather then later, moving out a ton of talent during the offseason. That is normal these things happen over time. What hurts was having only a few picks this year and no first rounder. Calgary made the most of it, but right now they only have three prospects to build their future around, none can be considered a franchise piece at this time, but they could all develop into solid complimentary or even core pieces for the future.

And there you have it, the winners and losers of the Season 71 SHL draft. Now with another draft in the books, ignore everything I have said and go out there and create your own destiny in the SHL world. GOOD LUCK TO ALL!