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***Aleris*** · 03-01-2025, 05:18 PM

Hello fellow SHLers, I was chatting in the Chicago locker room and we of course got on the topic of spreadsheets. The SHL is basically run on these things right? If you’ve ever held a job on this site, it uses Google Sheets. So I told Chicago I would just start putting information into a spreadsheet and see what happens. What I ultimately decided to do list all of the Challenge Cup Champions, as a start. Now, there are many more excel wizards on this site who know how to scrape data and make massive TPE graphs and actually write thoughtful, well planned reports on why a specific class gets absolutely screwed with regression changes. This is not one of those. I’m okay with Excel. I made it pretty colors and that's about it. But I wanted to do it as (one a distraction from the sucky real world) a celebration of the potential teams coming to the SHL, but also to look back at the history of the SHL and speculate where maybe some of the real life parallels to real life hockey.

Overall, I would say the SHL has done a very good job, not only mimicking hockey simulation with TPE and the engines used (while still allowing people to literally imagine pokemon or cats for players), but truly it seems to match the history of the early NHL. The SHL started with 6 teams in S1. The Calgary Dragons, Hamilton Steelhawks, Toronto North Stars, West Kendall Platoon, Winnipeg Jets, and Wisconsin Monarchs. It's quite the spread of teams to be honest. The NHLs original six teams are all concentrated in the industrial centers of the US and Canada at the time. Detroit, Boston, Toronto, New York, Montreal, and Chicago. The SHL is all over. Hamilton and Toronto are less than an hour away in zero traffic and speeding. The next closest team is Wisconsin, which honestly does feel like the odd team out here, but we will get to that. Then Winnipeg and Calgary in the frontiers of Canada (it should be noted that Wisconsin is closer to Toronto/Hamilton than Winnipeg is to Calgary, western Canada is massive). Then there is West Kendall, for those of you who had to look it up. It's Miami, Florida, basically. I guess every league needs a team in paradise. Now a big difference between the NHL and SHL O6 teams is only 3 of the SHLs O6 stand today. Calgary, Hamilton, and Toronto have updated logos, but never moved or changed branding, West Kendall has moved but kept branding, Winnipeg is rebranded in S58 and Wisconsin no longer exists (moved and rebrand a record number of times and it was fast).

Overview of the growth of the SHL

Light green - expansion
Red - Team lost
Brighter green - replacement/relocated team

Yellow - Branding change

The SHL quickly expanded to 8 teams in Season 2. The Edmonton Commets (now Blizzard) and the Manhattan Rage joined. In Season 3, hockey would leave Wisconsin and never return. Vancouver would get an SHL team (on top of having a SMJHL Original 6 (5?) team) as Wisconsin Monarchs became the Vancouver Wolves. The newly added Edmonton would win the first back-to-back cups in S3-S4. S5 would see 2 more teams added in the USA. Los Angeles Panthers and Minnesota Chiefs. The league would stay this way until Season 10. With only rebranding occurring between Vancouver Wolves to the Vancouver Nightmares and the Commets in Edmonton becoming the Blizzard we know today.

Seasons 1-9 in the SHL

Season 10 brought a pretty big change to the SHL. Two more teams and in 10 short seasons, the league had now doubled in size. It would stay this way for the next 15 seasons. In Season 8, Vancouver closed up shop again (I guess they had trouble competing with the already established Whalers) and moved to Las Vegas. They rebranded back to their Wisconsin Monarch roots and became the Kings (very Vegas, wow). Then the league added the Hartford Hydras and Texas Renegades. The fun fact about the league by the end of Season 10 is that every team except the two new (S10) expansions AND Toronto North Stars and Hamilton Steelhawks had won a cup. Even the Minnesota Chiefs and LA Panthers from Season 5 expansion had won a Challenge Cup. Leaving the largest population in Canada without a cup. Hamilton would break that and bring the first cup to the area in Season 11.

The league stayed 12 teams for 15 seasons. By Season 18 the now Seattle Riot (formly Las Vegas Kings, changed in Season 16) had won a cup, leaving only the Toronto North Stars as the only O6 team without a cup. Season 20 - Season 23 saw Texas win the cup back to back (the 2nd team to do so, they won it in S14 too) and Manhattan Rage and New England Wolfpack (Hartford Hydras rebrand, not *really* a relocation, sorry I know people will get mad at that) each won a cup. Leaving only the Toronto North Stars as the only franchise to never win a Challenge Cup. Season 25 saw the Portland Admirals and Buffalo Stampede added to the league. Speaking as someone who was a J GM in the 14 team era of the SMJHL. Its pretty awkward. 14 just isn’t a good number. But the league was at 14 teams for 21 seasons. Season 27 - Season 33 saw a period of dominance between Calgary and New England, both winning 3 cups. Calgary would have caught heated rival Edmonton in cup wins, but Edmonton won the Cup in S28 giving them a commanding 6 Challenge Cup lead (at the time). But by Season 37 rivals Winnipeg and Calgary would close the gap with 5 Challenge Cups each.

But now we get to the moment you’ve all been waiting for. In Season 35, the Toronto North Stars won the Challenge Cup. Now every O6 team had won a cup. Toronto broke a 34 season drought of no cup.

Seasons 10 - 37

It took much longer for the S25 expansion teams to find success in the SHL. Seasons 40-45 saw the Calgary Dragons catch (and pass briefly) Edmonton in Cups, but Edmonton would always catch back up. By Season 50, both teams had a league leading 8 Challenge Cups. If you wanted successful hockey, you wanted to be between Calgary and Edmonton. I know these two cities already are big rivals in real life, but Calgary/Edmonton in the SHL is equivalent to Toronto/Montreal in real life (And Toronto is the Sens, sorry I had to make that joke or maybe Wisconsin/Las Vegas/Seattle/Tampa Bay is the Sens). But there was a storm brewing. An O6 team had decided to awaken and was bringing a cold dark winter with it (spoiler: it's not Toronto).

Seasons 38 - 50

First some housekeeping, Portland moved south to San Francisco and became the current day Pride and in Season 46 saw some major shifts. Seattle moved to Tampa Bay and became the best branding in the league with the Barracuda. And the New Orleans Specters and Chicago Syndicate (shoutout to the short lived Chicago Hitmen in the SMJHL) were added to the league, finally bringing the league to a nice even 16 teams. On top of the added teams, the first S25 expansion won a cup with Buffalo Stampede winning the Challenge Cup in Season 46 and Season 48. But as said before, after Season 50 the SHL would change forever.

In 50 seasons, Hamilton had won 3 cups. Not amazing, not bad, but their last one had been in Season 26 and they were behind *most* O6 teams as Winnipeg had 6 and West Kendall had 5 at that point. That would change drastically and the Steelhawks would upset the Edmonton/Calgary cycle of the league. Between S51 and S63 (what I will refer to has the Great Hamilton Winter) the Hamilton Steelhawks won the Challenge Cup almost every other season. They were champions in S51, S53, S56, S58, S61, and S63. Not quite Gretzky and the Oilers of the 1980s, but pretty damn close. The teams winning between them was nice a varied too. Manhattan got their 4th cup. New Orleans was the first S46 expansion team to get their cup. Chicago not far behind though getting it in S57. But not since the Clagary/New England dominance of S27-S33 had we seen one team be so dominant in the league. Hamilton became the Challenge Cup leader with the S63, becoming the most successful SHL franchise with 9 cup wins. (if you want to know why sim testing in banned, uh, I’ve heard this is why)

The Great Hamilton Winter

Obviously as teams are added, winning a Challenge Cup gets harder. So that said, Hamilton’s winning is equally impressive because the SHL added Seattle Argonauts and Atlanta Inferno in S56 and the Philadelphia Forge and Montreal Patriotes in S60. We also saw 3 teams change brands (or location). I guess Tampa Bay pushed West Kendall out of Florida to Baltimore. The Minnesota Chiefs decided to not be racist and rebranded to a throwback of their long gone neighbor the Monarchs (of next door Wisconsin), and in a dramatic lawsuit between the NHL and SHL, the Winnipeg Jets were forced to be rebranded to the Aurora. And finally in S64, Hamilton stopped winning.

Now we enter the current/modern period of the SHL. The SMJHL has 14 teams and the SHL has 20. We see Atlanta and Seattle win their first cups ATL in S66 and Seattle back to back in S67 and S68 (the first back to back cups since New England in S30-S31). The Forge are the first S60 expansion to win the Cup in S69 (I was on this team, nice) and Edmonton finally ties Hamilton in total cups won at 9 in S73 (I was also on this team lol). New England has climbed the standings as well with 3 Cup wins (S70, S74, S77) They are tied for 3rd with Winnipeg with 7 Cup wins each.

Season 76 did bring something special. The rebranded Portland team from Season 25 finally won a Cup as the San Francisco Pride, snapping the second longest cup drought streak in the SHL. They’ve also gone on to be 1 of 5 teams (Edmonton 3-4, 15-16/Texas 20-21/New England 30-31/Seattle 67-68) to win back to back cups in Season 79 and Season 80, creating a modern day SHL dynasty.

Season 64-80

Listing all the cup winners allowed me to look at who has the worst Cup droughts in the SHL. And that title goes to O6 team Wisconsin Monarchs Vancouver Wolves/Nightmare Las Veags Kings Seattle Riot Tampa Bay Barracuda, which really makes their most recent Challenge Cup loses even more heartbreaking as they haven’t won a cup in 61 season, since Season 18 when they won their only Cup as Seattle. The only team without a Cup in Montreal Patriotes, they haven’t been as successful as their expansion counterpart, but they look like they’re finding their footing in Season 81. Behind the (now broken) SF Pride streak of 51 seasons. LA Panthers had the 3rd longest drought from season 17 to 65 (48 seasons)(insert some joke about bum California surfers). Toronto and Minnesota are closing in on that 48 seasons though as both have active streaks of 45 and 41 seasons, respectively. (Poor Toronto, only team on their twice)

Worst Cup Droughts in SHL

So in terms of a tier list or something I could break the teams down into some categories I think.

SHL Royalty (tied for 1st in Cup wins) - Hamilton Steelhawks

, Edmonton Blizzard

Generation Jumpers (mix of past of recent success) - Los Angeles Panthers

, New England Wolfpack

Calgary Dragons Dragons

(only here cause they are second with 8 cups win actually)

Mostly Always Good (past success but only one cup recently) - Winnipeg Aurora Aurora

, Buffalo Stampede

New Kids On The Block (first time cup Winners recently) - Atlanta Inferno Inferno

, Seattle Agronauts Argonauts

, Philadelphia Forge Forge

, San Fransisco Pride pride

:harold: (good recently in the past) - Chicago Syndicate

, Texas Renegades

ELO Hell (a few cups, but haven't since before S55) - Manhattan Rage Rage

, New Orleans Specters

, Baltimore Platoon Platoon

Pain (send help, please win cup soon) - Tampa Bay Barracudas

, Minnesota Monarchs

, Toronto North Stars Stars

, Montreal Patriotes

Here is the whole table \o/

I think that’s about all I have. I leave you with the total table and a nice little graph of total cup wins. Doing this spreadsheet has really let me look at the SHL as a whole, how special this site is and what a unique experience it is that over a decade of work has gone into this league and site from thousands of different people and its *feels* like a real, breathing hockey league when you look back at it, and even mimics the NHL and its history in a few ways. (I’m not sure who Gretzky was in the Hamilton Winter but maybe someone can comment on it). I think it's also fun to have a look at this as a player/manager. Where could you as a user be a hero and bring a cup to a location for the first time or break a bad streak. But it was fun writing and doing this. I will probably do the Js at some point. Based on all this (abridged) history now, where do you want an expansion for the SHL? I think there’s been a lot of talk of Ohio, which I can see. I do worry about 22 teams cause thats an ugly number like 14 (sorry its probably just a me thing). Also drop your predictions for the next 20 seasons of the SHL.

Pretty Graph

***HabsFanFromOntario*** · 03-01-2025, 05:22 PM

Amazing media Aleris, love all the work you put in and the charts! Super cool to have a visual representation of cups per season!

***jaypc8237*** · 03-01-2025, 05:26 PM

Holy Shit this was amazing! Great job!

I never realized that Hamilton had such a dominant era there!

Great writing, and all the spreadsheets and graphs is wicked!!

*Rojjter* · 03-01-2025, 05:28 PM

Woah

***luke*** · 03-01-2025, 05:30 PM

oh Toronto. Being on the list twice

Great media @Aleris very cool to read

***ThisSeemsFishy*** · 03-01-2025, 05:51 PM

Yeah I agree with the findings in this report. MTL plz win the cup this season. Patriotes

***Magenta*** · 03-01-2025, 05:53 PM

Great job!

***sköldpaddor*** · 03-01-2025, 07:33 PM

this awakened some old trauma

charlieconway · 03-01-2025, 11:30 PM

This was a great read, thank you for putting it together.

Does anyone know off-hand why some of the relocations/rebrandings happened? Specifically I'm asking about the following:

Why did the Wisconsin Monarchs move to Vancouver?

Why did the Vancouver Nightmare move to Las Vegas?

Why did the Las Vegas Kings move to Seattle?

I'm especially interested to know why the Portland Admirals became the San Francisco Pride, and why the Seattle Riot became the Tampa Bay Barracuda. I always loved the Riot branding though their move was before my time.

I'm also surprised to see that the Specters and Syndicate are so recent. It's that thing where the things that were here when you joined/started paying attention seem ancient and everything after that seems new and recent. Like me thinking hotdog has been on the site forever even though he joined the SHL a few months before I did.

***luke*** · 03-01-2025, 11:49 PM

03-01-2025, 11:30 PMcharlieconway Wrote: This was a great read, thank you for putting it together.

Does anyone know off-hand why some of the relocations/rebrandings happened? Specifically I'm asking about the following:

Why did the Wisconsin Monarchs move to Vancouver?

Why did the Vancouver Nightmare move to Las Vegas?

Why did the Las Vegas Kings move to Seattle?

I'm especially interested to know why the Portland Admirals became the San Francisco Pride, and why the Seattle Riot became the Tampa Bay Barracuda. I always loved the Riot branding though their move was before my time.

I'm also surprised to see that the Specters and Syndicate are so recent. It's that thing where the things that were here when you joined/started paying attention seem ancient and everything after that seems new and recent. Like me thinking hotdog has been on the site forever even though he joined the SHL a few months before I did.

Short answer: New GM's wanting to make their stamp

Why did the Wisconsin Monarchs move to Vancouver? Leafs4Stanley became GM of the franchise in S3 moving them out of Wisconsin

Why did the Vancouver Nightmare move to Las Vegas? When MacDaddy took over Vancovuer in S6 he changed the name to Vancouver NIghtmare. Then when Shutout became GM of Vancouver in S8, moved them to Las Vegas.

Why did the Las Vegas Kings move to Seattle? 2 Seasons after Gifter of Bikes became GM of LVK. He moved them to Seattle. Here is the Seattle Riot decision

I'm especially interested to know why the Portland Admirals became the San Francisco Pride, and why the Seattle Riot became the Tampa Bay Barracuda. I always loved the Riot branding though their move was before my time.

Portland Admirals -> SFP. After @Wally's controversy in Portland. And @Grapehead came into being GM of SFP. Moved them to San Francisco. Though I'm sure they can give more accurate tale

For Seattle -> Tampa Bay. @JSS shortly taking over Seattle. Moved them to Tampa

charlieconway · 03-02-2025, 12:38 AM

03-01-2025, 11:49 PMluke Wrote: Short answer: New GM's wanting to make their stamp

Why did the Wisconsin Monarchs move to Vancouver? Leafs4Stanley became GM of the franchise in S3 moving them out of Wisconsin

Why did the Vancouver Nightmare move to Las Vegas? When MacDaddy took over Vancovuer in S6 he changed the name to Vancouver NIghtmare. Then when Shutout became GM of Vancouver in S8, moved them to Las Vegas.

Why did the Las Vegas Kings move to Seattle? 2 Seasons after Gifter of Bikes became GM of LVK. He moved them to Seattle. Here is the Seattle Riot decision

I'm especially interested to know why the Portland Admirals became the San Francisco Pride, and why the Seattle Riot became the Tampa Bay Barracuda. I always loved the Riot branding though their move was before my time.

Portland Admirals -> SFP. After @Wally's controversy in Portland. And @Grapehead came into being GM of SFP. Moved them to San Francisco. Though I'm sure they can give more accurate tale

For Seattle -> Tampa Bay. @JSS shortly taking over Seattle. Moved them to Tampa

Thanks for the thorough reply. Bowdown

I really hope GMs continue staying away from full on relocations in the future. It can be disheartening to have a team that you have tied to your player's identity just up and move away.

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