The Kelowna Knights found themselves on the wrong side of the standings in the Western Conference. While the SMJHL allows all teams to make the playoffs, finishing lower in the standings means you have to play a tougher opponent. The faced #6 Annaheim Outlaws in the first round and to the surprise of many, were victorious in a 7 game series. While the Knights were at the bottom of the West, this series win shows how good the team actual is. Of course, their victory celebrations would be checked right away when they faced off against the number one seeded Vancouver Whalers. Vancouver wasted no time showing why they were number one in a series sweep against the Knights.
With their season over and the offseason underway, Kelowna began to prep their current rookies for the upcoming SHL draft. With 6 rookies on the team, all 6 would get drafted to a team. They had 4 rookies drafted in the first round alone. Vlastislav Malik selected 4th by New Orleans, Brennan Huff 9th to New England, Cian Mcfelter 12th to New Orleans, and Robert Feltersnatch at 18th by New Orleans all in the first round and most to New Orleans. That is very exciting for these rookies as they graduate and look towards their second season with Kelowna.
The Knights lost Fleetwood Super Sonic to a call up. The Knights have a mixed bag of old and new on their roster and this call up will only affect them temporarily. As they would quickly find replacements in this draft to fill all their roster needs. They went very forward heavy drafting a total of 5 forwards and 2 defensemen. Out of those 7 prospects, 6 have already broken 200 tpe. Quite impressive. The biggest name they acquired was #A-Rye Izzy, the son of legendary Mike Izzy. #A-Rye has seen some controversy already in his young career. The 16 year old defender was a victim of identity fraud just a few seasons ago where he was forced to move out of the country with his pet tiger. Gerry Atrick is another name that was rated very high on a lot of teams’ list. The Swedish left winger is a tall standing, big bodied player with a powerful shot. I expect Atrick to be the lead rookie for the Knights and believe he will help the team for the next few seasons. Another rookie to talk about is Danny C. Mr. C is another big left winger who hails from the US of A. He appears to be more of a two way player who can throw his body when needed, but isn’t aggressive enough to seek it out. Roboute Guilliman is a Norse center who, unlike many others this draft, doesn’t throw the body as much. Instead focusing on his offensive game and his great stamina to eat minutes. Gulliman is a more traditional two way forward in the sense that he has incredible ability to read both ends of the ice.
All in all, the Kelowna Knights are set up to be contenders in what appears to be a very strong Western Conference. I expect them to end up in the upper half of the standings, as long as they can keep on developing their young talent.

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Approved, +5 TPE @Nictox