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jRuutu · 02-18-2020, 09:02 AM

The jump to SMJHL was tough at first for the obvious reasons, new country, and new teammates, so getting to the same page was not something that came right away. On top of that, the speed and overall skill level in the juniors was a lot higher compared to a similar level back in Finland. One area that blew me away was the shooting, almost everybody knew how to shoot well, learned real fast what it means for a defender to have an active stick.

Every game was a battle, when I made a mistake the coaches had no trouble in making sure I heard about it, but that is how it goes, every team wants to win and players you play with want to show the scouts that they are the best player.

In a way the biggest pressure to do well did not come from the coaches, it came from the players you played with, if you can't keep up - that does not look good on you, but luckily I managed to pick up on things fairly quickly. I ended up in a position where I could use my strengths and that way help the team to win games and also showcase my own talents to the scouts in the stands.

Alex Mack · 02-18-2020, 09:43 AM

Oh If I could go back and remember all the Hijinx and fun times from my time in the SMJHL, I started as a Detroit Falcon and I was indeed the proudest Falcon there ever was, my teammates were amazing… Bubba Nuck, Nicholas Pederson, Esa and I had the time of our lives. Learning my way around the game and how the Detroit Falcons liked to play was a bit of a learning curve since I was fresh out of college with some new skates and a tube of chapstick. My favorite memory was probably while we were out on the ice one day and for my initiation, I was brutally attacked by my teammates with hockey sticks and pucks being shot at my face. I thought to myself wow this is what It’s like in the junior leagues? Then I realized I wasn’t being hazed at all, I had inadvertently slept with one of the players’ wives, lesson learned…I was taught early on never to “poach from local waters”, it was a lesson my teammates had fun teaching me. Now I make sure I bed down only the wives of my greatest enemies, such as WannaBeFinn’s wife, even if I have to ask her to put a bag over her head.

**OrbitingDeath** · 02-18-2020, 10:00 AM

Ahhh the SMJHL, the first time Vorian Atreides was actually able to play the game of hockey. Despite not being very experienced he always wanted to discover Colorado and due to that he contacted their management early on, trying to sell himself to the franchise. This worked out perfectly when they indeed decided to draft him 2nd overall. His time with the Raptors was great, in the first season they actually came close to winning it all. And while this success did not improve over the years, Vorian had a wonderfull time there which he wouldn't have missed in the world.

For him it's only 3 years in a 10000 year+ lifespan, but it were three nice years that he wont forget. It was the team that helped him structure himself as a player and it was the team that put him on the map for the SHL teams, so without having played for the Raptors, no SHL team would have gone for him, so he is eternally thankfull for his time at Colorado.

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*takethehorizon* · 02-18-2020, 10:05 AM

Taking the jump to the SMJHL from juniors was an easy jump for me. I was able to meet up with our captain of the Knights', Ryan Shepard some time before the start of the season and was able to receive the debrief on everything I needed to know. He supplied me with a room in downtown Kelowna which made for easy commutes to the rink. Having a player help out like that for the new guy meant the world, this opened up opportunities to meet the other guys on the team. Being the backup also meant you got to mess around more with the team without more of the consequences. I love joking with the guys to keep everyone chipper for the game. I guess you can say i'm quite the joker off the ice. I once put a fake dog shit in Luca's helmet before a game in Detroit. He played with it until a tv timeout halfway through the first before he even noticed. Or the time I filled Erikkson's gloves with baby powder and told the team I thought I saw Erikkson doing coke in the parking lot before our game. The locker room is great in Kelowna and helps us clear our heads before and even during games. Making the jump to the SHL when the time comes should also be an easy transition. Having spent a few seasons in the SMJHL was able to give me more confidence both on and off the ice to allow myself to focus on my game and help my team win games.

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nour · 02-18-2020, 10:34 AM

Skao Anazibf's time in juniors, though not overtly successful in terms of cups or personal awards, was still a memorable and exciting one. He started off his career with Jagger Fouqette and they've been teammates ever since, so the bond they've formed that started in juniors has been really important to him. The Falcons were plagued with a lot of disappointing playoff runs that didn't pay off the way they had hoped but he gained valuable post season experience in those runs that have contributed to the playoff pushes he's made thus far with the Steelhawks during his SHL career. All of that under his belt, his most memorable season was his final one, where he saw a massive jump in his production and provided a lethal 1-2 punch with Fouqette to dominate the regular season, and finish 2nd all time in Falcons scoring.

**First GM in SMJHL history to win 3 Four Star Cups back-to-back-to-back**

Mika_Kandinsky · 02-18-2020, 12:53 PM

The only thing that could make my time in the J better was if we had won the Four Star Cup. We were so close on the Scarecrows a couple times, but we just couldn't get it done. We did win the laurifer trophy a couple times which was great. I had the best time being an assistant captain of the team and hanging out in the locker room with all the guys there. Management was fantastic and kept things lively and everyone was bought into the team culture. I got to make great friends with my linemates @MrStennett and @esilverm and teammate and fellow assistant captain @Huck24 I scored a lot of points and had a lot of fun in St. Louis and I wouldn't trade any of that experience for the world, or even a Four Star Cup. We would always tell every player who came and went through that locker room, once a crow, always a crow. That still holds up. Scarecrow noises!

LightningDragon · 02-18-2020, 02:24 PM

Nystrom was a first round pick out of Sweden's junior system. Obviously that came with big expectations, both on and off the ice. When Nystrom was drafted by Kelowna, he was excited to be a first round pick and all, but the first thing he did? He went on to Google Maps and looked up where Kelowna was exactly. The journey from Sweden to western Canada takes him on 3 planes, with 2 stops (1 in Europe, 1 in Canada). Jumping into a new country, a new culture, and overall a new environment was quite the experience for the young Nystrom. Still, with his elite hockey sense and responsible, physical play, Nystrom has made a name for himself in Kelowna and the SMJHL as a whole. Now the question is when and how Nystrom makes the jump to the pros. If Nystrom can continue the play he has shown here in British Colombia, expect big things on the big stage for Nystrom in the future.

ej27 · 02-18-2020, 03:26 PM

Leo Lockhart was drafted second overall by the Anchorage Armada in the Season 44 SMJHL Entry Draft. He played 3 season with the team before being called up by the San Francisco Pride. He was named as an alternate captain his rookie season, and served as captain for his last two seasons on the team. Juniors were a great time in Leo's life both personally and professionally. Professionally, he had some pretty good seasons in Anchorage. He got a lot of special teams minutes,and had the scoring touch on the Power Play. Though they never won a cup, he felt like he was playing some really great hockey at that point in his career. In his personal life, not only did he begin to develop his relationship with future Pride teammate Dom Montgomery, but he also had a really great support system in Anchorage. He roomed with his best friend Olivier Cloutier during his last season on the team and still looks back on that time as one of the most fun times of his life.

5ympathies · 02-18-2020, 04:14 PM

I was not drafted into the SMJHL. Instead, I signed with Kelowna as a free agent, securing my place on the same team as Guy Zheng, and it was not collusion. I found the transition pretty easy to be honest. I started off on the 4th wing, pretty standard, and within a week or two I was up to the third line and I think I even ended the season up on the second line. Made it into the Kelowna record books for rookie goals or something, not a big deal. Our first year we were doing great! If my memory serves me correctly we even made it to the finals! Unfortunately St. Louis had our number and we lost to them. The next year, we also did really well. This time, we made it to the finals again, and this series was much closer. Unfortunately it was St. Louis again, and they took us to Game 7 OT, and unfortunately they beat us. After that, I went up to the SHL, and that's where I'm thriving now.

Thanks to JSS for the signature

StadiumGambler · 02-18-2020, 05:14 PM

Nick was not expecting to be drafted early at all, as he had a chaotic situation before the draft. Nick had been shuttled around from team to team in Bantam before ending up with the Grande Prairie Gryphons. While there, he got a game-winning goal in OT of the provincial championship game against the archrival Calgary Kingfish, but he was seen as an outsider pick in a stacked draft class. Things escalated further after a rough Prospect Showcase where Nick Brain was targeted by infamous referee Tom Pole for personal attention and given 19 penalty minutes in a single playoff game.

Despite all this, the character and potential Nick exhibited lead to Colorado taking a 3rd round flyer on him in the SMJHL draft. Nick struggled his rookie year with 7 goals and 6 assists in 50 games. However, Nick turned things up towards the playoffs, finding himself on a great line with Knute Knurtsson and Michael Scarn that proved fairly effective in series against Anchorage, Lethbridge, and Detroit. Nick also was on a good line in the SHL Draftee Showcase for Team World, alongside Scarn and Detroit forward Kit Smeb. All of this led to the surprise pick of Big Dick Nick 11th overall in the SHL draft, and the rest is history......

Tate · 02-18-2020, 05:47 PM

I had a very positive and fun experience moving to the SMJ, initially I was contacted by a number of different teams and I really had no idea where I would end up going in the draft. I was selected by the Colorado Raptors and I cannot say enough good things about the team, both the players and management are top notch and you get treated like gold. I did what I could while I was with the team but was unable to stay down in the SMJ for the years I had intended to due to the need in the SHL with the panthers. Because of the cap in the SMJ I was only able to apply so much TPE so I was limited in what I could do for my build. I did however learn quite a lot through my management team as well as by listening to other vets in the league. For me, my SMJ experience was truly about development.

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JSS331 · 02-18-2020, 05:55 PM

The jump into professional hockey, albeit not yet in the Simulation Hockey League was a big one. It is a crazy experience going from lugging your own bag and equipment around rinks all over the place to now being part of an organization. I have so many small memories from those first couple days with the Detroit Falcons but one definitely stands out to me. The roar of the crowd in Detroit, or in our case it would be better to say the SKREE of the crowd. Up to that point, the most people I had played in front of was maybe seven thousand. A large crowd but nothing like what we had for that first game. I never thought it would be so exciting to hear the crowd while waiting in the tunnel to go out on the ice. Once you hit the ice it was like an explosion which was so cool.

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FreakinAnime · 02-18-2020, 06:57 PM

When the Raptors drafted me I had been talking to their GM and he seemed super nice. It has been a very good time, Colorado even made the finals. I have not done so well in juniors but maybe it will turn around with the new sim. My first year was particularly rough as I did not play a lot of minutes and barely scored at all, not even assists. I'm getting more time now and doing a little better now but in terms of stats things have not gone quite as well as I had hoped. I think that I have just not had a lot of luck and that has been the main issue, I have been getting better as a player and have got to meet a lot of cool people. Overall I still like my team and hope that we can get a Cup together before I go up to the pros.

*CptSquall* · 02-18-2020, 11:05 PM

karlssens · 02-18-2020, 11:18 PM

Karlstrabe entered the SMJHL on quite the high note. As several dominating seasons at the college level scouts took notice of the young defenders offensive ability and Kelowna was willing to take a chance on him scooping him up with the second overall selection in the S46 draft. Fortunately for Kelowna management and fans alike the young Luxembourger lived up to the hype and delivered a strong performance in his rookie season that garnered some rookie of the year discussion. He'd follow that up with a strong sophomore season and played a significant role on Kelowna's trip to game 7 in the four star cup finals. Sadly they'd lose. In his last season he built upon his performance yet again. On top of being traded to Lethbridge to help bolster a potential playoff surge he'd also find his name in to the defender of the year discussion and earned a nomination.

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