---

My name is Joseph Weston, and I am an up-and-coming member of the SMJHL 49 Entry Draft. As of editing I have been drafted by the Montreal Militia, but this will still be focusing on my first impressions as a brand new rookie. I will get to stats in a minute but for a little bit about me, I am a young player from the Chicago suburbs, who is interested in being the best possible player I can be for this league. My main goal is to score a lot of them. While that seems obvious, it is going to be a simple feedback loop of score goals, get money, improve, score more, repeat. So to start that off, it is time to look at the numbers. 

For raw numbers, I have the following ratings:
CK = Checking: 40
FG = Fighting: 25
DI = Discipline: 62
SK = Skating: 60
ST = Strength: 50
EN = Endurance: 60
DU = Durability: 50
PH = Puck Handling: 60
FO = Face Offs: 40
PA = Passing: 45
SC = Scoring: 70
DF = Defense: 70
PS = Penalty Shot: 40

Some things should immediately stand out, with the strength of Scoring at 70, a strong Defense of 70, and a Discipline of 62. After that, notable standouts are Skating, Endurance, and Puck Handling, all at 60 apiece for now. This should give a clear image of high potential and very offensively-minded approach. My aim is to be in the right place at the right time, and to use that speed, skating, and shooting, to win those games for my teams. In the Prospect Showcase this ironically turned out to be only somewhat true. At time of writing I have nearly double assists to my goals, with nine and five each respectively. While this is only a Prospect Showcase and it is not meant to be taken as complete be-all end-all sort of scenario, this indicates positive trends and clear success when on the ice. 

However, of course this comes with some trade-offs. First and foremost, I am not out there to fight. I will hold my own if necessary, but I am not looking to pick a scrap on the ice. Checking, Faceoffs, and Penalty shots, are all weak areas, at first glance. But do not let them or that low Passing fool you, I want to improve and I am going to. I have already dumped a ton of early TPE into improving my Passing stat. Currently the plan is to keep my Scoring, Skating, and Passing in a clear balance. Right now the advice I'm following is to make sure my Passing is never more than 10-13 points lower than Scoring, and that my Skating is somewhere in the middle of those two stats. Ultimately, I want to make sure I get my Scoring to at least 80 and that I keep the rest of the stats rolling high whenever possible as well. 

It is a tough road ahead and no stat can be lacking, so I am going to do everything I can to make those numbers higher to contribute to those W’s. Most of all, I am always willing to take advice and learn whatever I can to succeed. There is no easy way to the top, and I will take all the advice, tips, and suggestions I can get. 

As I said in the beginning part of this is going to be some first reactions to the site and the systems in place, as a new player. It never hurts to get a fresh perspective on things after all. I would like to say straight off the bat that I do not know how some people here, judging by the pictures and screenshots, love dark mode so much. It looks clean on the site, I will admit, but frankly some of it leads to unclear divisions in the writing and text displayed. Yes, crucify me, I am not 100% down with dark mode. Also, an indent button for writing would be much appreciated. 

In terms of actually more meaningful evaluations, some of the guides become incredibly hard to follow after a few minutes. The Comprehensive Rookie Tutorial is daunting to say the least, with how much information and exposition is necessary to get a handle on the system. All of the information is absolutely necessary, but I could definitely suggest a few things. Some standardization on photos would help, currently there is a disconnect between where captions or explanations of photos go. With some instances, such as Part #2, PT Step 2: Withdrawals, the photos go below the caption, some captions lack a photo, and some captions are below the photo. See the attached picture.



What I would suggest for this applies to a lot of things on the site, clearer distinctions for the information. The bold and underline that exists for some is good, but I would propose bullet points and standardizing the photos and captions. Each heading should be a new bullet point with subheadings for each line, and all captions should go above the photo since people will need to see the context of what they just read.

Along with clearer distinctions, so much information and so many acronyms are thrown at new players right off the bat that it becomes hard to focus and keep track of. There are the SHL, the SMJHL, TPE, TP, PT, the IHF, PT Cap, the PS, and so on. A list of terms at the top of the Rookie Tutorial is already somewhat present in explaining the basic player template, so below that an additional box just explaining each would be appreciated. It could be something as simple as a two by whatever necessary grid to explain each term just for quick reference, maybe with each name having a short description. This would look something like:



And so on and so on with as many acronyms as necessary. In fact, I would go even further to keep all of these handy tips in one specific location, instead of all over the place. Under the Getting Started forum list, a third bullet point could be labeled something along the lines of “Quick Links” or “Terms and Links.”

However, at this point I must admit that most of this is nitpicking. When it comes down to it, this site and experience truly has been thrilling already, and it has only been five days. Creating a player, talking with GM's, watching the sims, experiencing the draft, all of these have made hours into minutes somehow. Heck, somehow I do not even dislike writing as much as I normally do writing for the SHL. The site works fine as is, and the way that everyone is incredibly helpful only adds to that experience. I am beyond excited to think about the seasons to come, and I could not be happier with my decision to join this sim league. Of course, I am always open to advice, even if it means pointing out glaring flaws I missed in this article or better directions to take my build in. I have enjoyed every moment interacting with fellow players, the GMs, and everyone in the SHL, and I cannot wait to see what else the future holds on this site.

---

Total Words, minus the words from the stats list and the paragraph at the top: 1,163

Let me know if you think of any ideas or ways to improve!