There has been a pretty well established pipeline from the Anchorage Armada in the SMJHL and the Philadelphia Forge in the SHL. Of all the teams in the SMJHL Anchorage has provided the largest number of rookies to Philadelphia by almost a factor of two, however the first prospect from Anchorage was not drafted by the Forge until their fifth season of existence when I automatically drafted myself. Since then nine other prospects have been taken from the Armada and pretty much off of those have come after season seventy.
Of the other teams Newfoundland and Maine are the next up with six prospects each, Carolina just behind on five and then Quebec with four. Colorado, Regina, Kelowna and Vancouver have had two selections a piece and then finally Detroit, Great Falls and Nevada have had a single selection in the twenty seasons since the Forge was founded. Considering that Philadelphia’s biggest strength has been their ability to draft players that go on to contribute long and successful careers to the team it is probably safe to hypothesise that Anchorage, Newfoundland, Maine, Carolina and Quebec are doing something well with their prospects.
Of the players that Philadelphia has taken from Anchorage only two have failed to make an appearance for the Forge. Duke MacDonald-Gagne and Fedor Fedorov. Two of the players are no longer on the Forge roster in Red Kirkby who played 924 games for 1006 points including 381 goals and Ricky Koivu who played 792 games for 971 points including 370 goals. Both very decorated players and good enough for 3rd and 4th all time amongst Forge players.
Of the remaining Armada players on the roster 5 are in the big league and one, Barcus Juneau, is still in the juniors although he is a sure thing to be called up at the end of his eligibility. Gnabe Dabson and Tony Soprano are currently the leading players for the Forge and in the prime of their careers. Gnabe has 671 points in 590 games and Soprano has 667 in 524 games. Johnny Shuffleboard on the blue line has spent the majority of his time in the Forge playing middle pairing minutes and quarterbacking the second powerplay unit and has 225 points in 458 games. Barg Hazbite’s career is on the wind down but he is still a very useful contributor and penalty killer with 417 points in 458 games and finally the centreman of the up and coming super star line for the Forge is Ubba Lodbrok with 359 points in just 326 games.
Overall the Armada have provided the backbone of a Forge team that has proven season after season to be one of the strongest teams in the league. With Barcus Juneau looking to make the step up to become the Forge’s next Steven’s quality defenseman and the imminent arrival of Reg Kirkby from Anchorage at the start of next season it does not look like this is going to change anytime soon. What is yet to be seen is how the Forge supplement the arrivals from Anchorage with players from other teams. Will they still dip into the wells of Newfoundland, Carolina and Maine or will they eventually end up drafting more players from other teams?
Credit to Ml002, King, Wasty, Carpy, Bruins10, Rum_Ham, Turd Ferguson, Ragnar and Enigmatic for the sigs.
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