OOC Note: It's the worst-kept secret ever that I'm recreating after the season, so I thought I'd write this piece kind of detailing how my new player ends up in the SMJHL draft. This piece is set around winter of S74.
I should clarify that I am slightly retconning a detail that I wrote about two years ago in Choices, where I mentioned that players are eligible to declare for the SMJHL draft after their 17th birthday. In-universe, Ana will be 15 when I create her as a player for the J, so for simplicity I'm just gonna say players can be drafted into the J at 15 since that's when they can be drafted in the real-life CHL.
Combined index of my stories is here, though I'll re-jig it and make a new one with just the chapters from this player. Enjoy!
~~~
Ana was sleepless. The events of the meeting earlier today with the scouts played in her head, along with the future dreams she'd been having since she was twelve ever since she'd gotten back from Quebec City two years ago.
"We like your decision-making in the net," the scouts had said. "Your skill set looks like it can translate really well to hockey played over here, and you'll have access to great coaching."
The young goalie hadn't quite shed that look of wide-eyed wonder at hearing what she might have a shot to do. Could she really do that well overseas - not just on the ice, but living life in North America? Routine was everything for her with how her mind worked, and she'd miss her family being so far away from home. Ana had been taking English classes since she was a little girl, since it was taught to everyone in school, but she was a lot more comfortable speaking her mother tongue with her family and her English could still be a bit broken sometimes.
On the other hand, she had a much better shot at making it to the big leagues someday like her idols if she played in North America and got used to their style as early as possible, and the miracle of technology meant she could still keep in touch with her friends and family back home. After all, that was how she'd managed to keep in touch with her virtual penpal Grace, the goalie she'd competed against in the tournament final in Quebec City. Even separated by an ocean, they'd realized they had a lot in common - after all, nobody could understand how goalies think quite like another goalie - and got along quite well.
"Thank you, I am curious about playing in North America", she'd managed to get out to smiles and nods from the scouts. "Where would I be playing?"
"You'd go into the SMJHL draft in June just like the Canadian and American players do, and wherever you get drafted would be where you'd play, they'd hold your rights. You'd be eligible for the major-league SHL draft after playing for one season in the SMJHL, and if you play like we know you can you'd have a pretty good shot at getting picked up by a team there," the scouts explained.
Ana thought about it. School would be a complication, as she'd have to find out how her Swedish classes would transfer across the pond, and she'd have to enroll somewhere that she could juggle with an SMJHL team's travel schedule, but on the bright side she'd be able to finish out the school year with her friends at home since the scouts had said that most European players her age didn't travel to the draft in person.
The scouts finished their spiel and left, and Ana was sitting in the room with her coach.
"Thoughts?" her U14 team coach asked, using the language he knew she was more comfortable with.
"It'll be scary for sure. I've gotten used to the autism supports that my school provides me, and I've been finally able to make good friends, so it would be difficult to let go of that," Ana admitted. "But this is what I've always wanted. I want to play pro hockey, and I was always going to have to make that jump at some point," she resolved.
It was an emotional dinner that evening when Ana told her parents about her plan. They'd known this could be a possibility for a while and were fully on board with their daughter following her dreams, and there were many tears of joy that night. "We're so proud of you," her father said. He'd been her champion, her first goalie coach, a presence at just about all of her games since she was a kid. "You're going to do great over there." That was all he could manage to get out before another emotional hug.
The scouts came to my practice. They said I can come over, Ana had texted Grace. It might have been weird for an upper-stage kid from the middle of nowhere to have a best friend from another country that they'd only met in person once, but something about their friendship just worked. They'd share goaltending tips, marvel at the differences and similarities between their school experiences, and generally got along like a house on fire.
That's great! Can't wait to see where you end up, the response came back almost immediately. Ana didn't have much of a sense of scale for distance since everything she'd been used to growing up was so close together, but she pulled out her phone and started looking up the locations of SMJHL teams. Just a few more games to go with her U14 team, and then she could truly lose herself in her grand dreams.
boom
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