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Rublic · 06-10-2019, 12:48 AM

2X SMJHL Draft Media

We are a day away from the season 48 SMJHL draft and I thought this was a great time to talk about the upcoming draft and what I believe the SMJHL currently is. My goal is to help make the SMJHL what it could be and that is the driving force behind making the SHL the most competitive and enjoyable simulation hockey site out there. I am hopeful that my reflections and thoughts will help continue the discussion to improve on the ultimate goals of the site and the two leagues.

Since I am about to enter my first season as a send down with my new player I wanted to reflect a little and look into my experience as a rookie and with the SMJHL in general. I have experienced the SMJHL as a player, brand new to the site and as a recreate as well as having been an SMJHL General Manager. Having created my first player back in season four I must say the SMJHL has changed a lot over the years. From having players spending one to two seasons in the SMJHL to now it stretching to four seasons at max. I find the SHL uses the SMJHL as both a farm team and a junior league which I believe hurts the SMJHL. Because the SMJHL is not defined in either role it becomes mediocre at being a farm team and a junior league.

I would like to start off by saying I have yet to be an SHL General Manager( I definitely would like to be one at some point) so a lot of this is based on observation/speculation. But in my opinion it is more difficult to be a General Manager in the SMJHL than it is to be an SHL General Manager and here is why. As a SHL General Manager you can build for the future. You can stockpile draft picks and know you will have a solid core in a few years and can build on that core to hopefully develop a championship caliber team. You have the benefit of seeing how the Rookies interact with the site and its members over a full season before you pull the trigger to draft a player. You get to decide if you are calling up players to fill roster spots or if you allow them to develop for another season. As an SMJHL it becomes difficult to plan for your roster without knowing what the SHL General Managers have planned for their players and send downs. There is also the issue with members treating the SMJHL as just a stepping stone and not giving it the credit I believe the SMJHL deserves.

In my opinion the goal of the SMJHL GM’s in the build a competitive team in a 2-3 year window. Because of the aggressive roster turn over really building a successful team can be challenging because you are not planning for the foreseeable future but instead the new few seasons. Because of this you see a lot more outlandish balls to the wall trades just to win that one year even though it cripples the franchise for the next 5 seasons. I would also like to see GM’s have contracts so you don’t have GM’s crippling franchises so they can win then swiftly leave the team in shambles.

Currently I believe the SMJHL is being geared towards send downs as it is very rare for a rookie to get top 6 minutes. Because of this you are developing stacked teams of 10-12 send downs who all demand ice time leaving the rookies to fill the roster with what is left over. Having the majority of your SMJHL roster sitting at the cap also limits the production of those 155-200 tpe rookies as they are usually grossly outmatched by the send downs. This causes rookies to go inactive because they don’t have the instant gratification to keep them active and motivated on the site. This last season my player amassed 4 points over 50 games and if I hadn’t already experienced the joys of this site I don’t know that I would have been motivated to remain active. I also believe that having send downs spend 4 season in the SMJHL causes them to lose steam as well as they are not allocating their hard earned tpe to their players causing them to see no development and focusing more on player build structure.

Building your team with players that no longer belong to you is a tough pill to swallow. Once drafted to an SHL team I find a lot of players begin losing interest in their junior teams because it just turns into a stepping stone for them. This requires open communication with your send downs and the send down’s general managers as to what the plan is for their development. I have had experiences with General Manager’s where they were very direct and to the point about their plans for their send downs and some General Managers who are unsure of what their plans are for their send downs making it difficult to plan ahead.

I believe keeping first year rookie players interested should be the major focus of the SMJHL. I’d like to compare it to advertising. In a TV ad an advertisement has 30 seconds to sell you their product. Because of this they are required to make things flashy and eye catching to draw the interest of the viewer. The SMJHL tries to function like the SHL in rewarding players for commitment to the site. So each season your player will develop more and you will be reward with more ice time and hopefully more points. When rookies are playing around 8-12 minutes a game and putting up little to no points it is not encouraging and will lead to a lot of first time players to go inactive. This is evident in how SHL drafts rarely go past the second round any more with active players to draft. There is nothing more rewarding on this site than seeing a first gen rookie you helped develop go on to be an SHL superstar.

I find a lot of recreates don’t care about the SMJHL and because of this I was always more inclined to draft new players as there is still a sense of wonder in the SMJHL. Recreates have been known to not really participate in SMJHL locker rooms and discord as they only care about the SHL and getting back there as fast as they can. I believe recreates can be a fantastic tool for developing rookies into SHL superstars and I have always been an advocate for my send downs to be mentors to the rookies. Because of this I have always opened up my locker room to alumni to help mitigate this problem and really provide the rookies with a sense of family. Ways I have achieved this in the past is introduce a buddy system in the locker room where I pair up everyone on the team with another player that plays a similar position. This is the player they will be bunking with when on the road. They are required to keep their roommate motivated and assist them any way they can. I would usually try to pair a send down with a rookie so they can also act as a mentor for the first gen user.

Overall I believe we as a community need to define what we would like the SMJHL to be and stick to that as opposed to being mediocre at both. I really want to give the upcoming SMJHL draft class a nudge in the right direction so we can limit players going inactive and help get first gen players turn into first gen superstars and recommend the site and this community to others. I have and always will love and cherish my time in the SMJHL and I hope others will learn to love it too as we enter our 48th season in the SMJHL.

total words: 1340

~~PenKnight~~ · 06-10-2019, 01:20 AM

Nice Write Up!
That Signature is Eye Popping!!
I honestly think it is my favorite so far!

Steelhead77 · 06-11-2019, 11:39 AM

Good insights Rublic!

Cheers

---> ParmBorg Highlights <---

#1 All-Time SHL Goal & Point Scorer
- First 2,000 TPE Player in SHL History -
- First 400 Goal Scorer in SHL History -
- Only 500 Goal Scorer in SHL History -
- First GM to Win 5 & 6 Challenge Cups -
Esa Anrikkanen Award - SMJHL ROY - Est. S34
Vidrik Onoprienko Award Winner - S45

Dragonite

awils13 · 06-11-2019, 07:57 PM

Good read

Initially I wanted to get to SHL asap but then SMJHL really grew on me because with a 350 tpe cap your build makes a huge difference whereas in SHL I'm guessing all players look more or less the same after a certain amount of tpe. SMJHL is like GOMHL but bigger and more active, I guess?
I'd like to have a hall of fame career with my current player but honestly after that I might just stay down and recreate every 4-5 seasons. It's kind of a perfect league for casual players.

Also I don't think rookie production is really that important. Sure I would've liked more points in my first season but what really kept me from going inactive is an active LR and knowing that my player will be good when I reach 350 tpe. When I joined people told me that my stats would probably be terrible for a while, and that was fine, I was focused on earning more tpe.
Now if someone expects to be a superstar without putting in work, honestly they would probably just go inactive later.

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