07-15-2020, 03:46 PM(This post was last modified: 07-16-2020, 07:52 PM by leafsftw1967.)
Attention All SMJHL Prospects- Why The Newfoundland Berserkers Is The Best Team For You!
Double Media – Draft Article – 4351 words, research - Ready for Grading
Do you have what it takes to play for the one of the most successful franchises in today’s SMJHL? Do you want to be a part of a team that knows how to dominate on the ice and have fun off the ice? Do you want to play in a country like Canada which is considered the center of the hockey universe where fans idolizes you like celebrities especially in the Maritimes region which produced hockey superstars like Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon? If so then the team you want to play for is the Newfoundland Berserkers! During this time of the year teams are usually in the midst of their scouting process and trying to put together their draft boards. Often SMJHL prospects are trying to impress juniors teams and show their true worth as to why they deserve to be drafted while trying to improve their draft stock as much as possible.
At the same time I think it is important to highlight to new members of the site and recreates heading into the season fifty five SMJHL draft that the Newfoundland is the place to be and the perfect team to play for in the SMJHL. So here is a little history lesson on the Newfoundland Berserkers and a list of major reasons why Newfoundland is the best place for pretty much all upcoming draftees!
(Fun fact: Newfoundland has some of the most beautiful landscapes in all of Canada along the coast of the Atlantic ocean)
Newfoundland Berserks Team History in the NWJHL/SMJHL
The Berserkers’ franchise history dates back all the way to season one of the league when the juniors use to be called the NWJHL (North Western Junior Hockey League) where there were only four teams in the juniors (fun fact: the junior championship trophy is call the “Four Star Cup” to memorialize the first four teams in the juniors). At this time in season one the Newfoundland Berserkers were formerly known as the Lethbridge Lions. Lethbridge would relocate after the first four seasons of the NWJHL to the Chicago Cougars for season five until relocating again to find a more stable home as the Washington Patriots from season six until season nine where the team was disband after having many seasons of lack luster performances on the ice and in the Washington community.
After a span of forty one seasons of not having a team, the historic Lethbridge Lions were revitalized as an old franchise made brand new and brought back into the juniors for season forty five. Under the management of @DanbyRem and @Justice, the Lions had a string of mediocre season performances having an under five hundred record of ninety three wins, ninety four losses and thirteen overtime losses and a couple of playoff appearances but were unable to win a Four Star Cup during the time span of season forty five to season forty eight.
In season forty nine @JNH took over as the head general manager and one season later brought in an assistant general manger, @SDCore. JNH and SDCore have been running the team over the last five seasons and have done a great job improving the franchise into a contender in the SMJHL. This present day management group wanted to set their mark on the franchise and moved the team from Lethbridge and relocated, as well as, rebranded as the Newfoundland Berserkers in season fifty two. The present day Newfoundland Berserkers had some incredible drafts over the past couple of seasons and have built arguably the strongest season fifty three and season fifty four core in the juniors. Heading into next season this core will be hitting their prime in the SMJHL and should definitely make the Newfoundland Berserkers a favorite to win back to back Four Star Cups.
(JNH had a lot of work to do when he took over a rebuilding Newfoundland franchise back in season forty nine and has definitely steered the ship in the right direction getting the Beserkers back to being cup contenders.)
Reasons Why Newfoundland is the Best Place to Play In The Juniors
1. One Of The Most Dedicated SMJHL General Manager Groups In The SMJHL
While I recognize I may be biased as a current member of the Newfoundland Berserkers, I truly believe that nobody is more dedicated then JNH and SDCore to building a dynasty in the juniors. During their tenure in Newfoundland they have worked tirelessly in creating an exciting winning environment that is contagiously fun and sparks your interest in the SHL. As a member that was away from the league for five years and came back to it completely changed I was kind of skeptical about things like a discord locker room or the idea of people often playing four seasons in the SMJHL.
However, JNH and SDCore have so far made my experience with the Berserkers the most enjoyable and most memorable in my twenty five seasons being a part of the SHL. During my time in Newfoundland I have witnessed them stop at nothing to help develop your player into a superstar. Both general managers along with the team’s leadership group have continuously providing build advice to many players, kept track of player’s every single training opportunity and notifying teammates if they are about to miss out on a opportunity to get better. The general managers also regularly update the team on opportunities to get more involved in the SHL and go out of their way by recommending their players for jobs when they apply to help Berserkers to get job experience in the SHL and help them keep a sustainable amount of money for training. They also have done a great job helping new members or recreates that have been away from the SHL navigate different aspects of the site and are practically always available to answer your questions.
In addition, the Berserkers management is very generous with contract signings. For example, they gave me five million in my rookie season and have given contracts of up to six and a half million to guys like Matias Birdstrom ( @BlackLabelBird ) to help with training. In addition, they maximize their head office bonuses to provide the most financially to help with their team’s player development. JNH will also regularly make flashy hockey signature graphics with the Berserkers colors to welcome new members to the team. I could go on and on with many examples of how JNH and SDCore go above and beyond their duties as general managers. In short, the way JNH and SDCore run their team really makes you want to give it your all for them and your teammates in Newfoundland.
(The Beserkers are not afraid to spend money to compensate their players in order to help them improve.)
2. Great SMJHL Drafting In Recent History And Elite Ability to Find Talent In Free Agency
Building a great team on and off the ice all starts with a management team brining in the right type of people. JNH and SDCore have done an awesome job brining in quality guys that get along well, share similar interest, have had great histories together in the SHL which has enabled us to build a genuine brotherhood within the team.
JNH and SDCore have done their homework and put a ton of time into developing Newfoundland’s current roster through the draft. For example, in the season fifty two SMJHL draft the Berserkers hit on six of their eight draft picks picking up future first liners Harrington and Timonen with their top to round picks, while also make a lot of underrated later round picks landing present SMJHL all-stars Patric Twist and Ryuuji Minamino, as well as, a one of a kind goal scorer Clean Andrei Kostitsyn and an important depth piece in Mattias Birdstrom.
Newfoundland Berserker management followed up a great season fifty three draft with a just as good season fifty three draft taking arguably the best defenseman in the present day SMJHL with PBJ Souppan in the first round and then getting the reigning SMJHL goalie of the year and former rookie of the year goaltender Cale Amundsen. The Berserkers also got some great value with their later round picks, taking Tinke Jutila, Jack Klompus, and Niccolo Livius whole have all made solid contributions to the present day Berserkers. To top it off the Berserkers went out and made some pivotal free agent signings brining in three centers with all star Matthew Forrester, Guy LeGrande and Mats Marner. All three of these centers have become important parts of the franchise down the middle. In addition, the Berserkers also signed two key depth defensemen who rounded out the Berserkers top six with Elias Kierkegaard and Renji Atake.
In season fifty four with most of their roster filled out the Berserkers traded away many of their selections for future draft picks for when their core will graduate and were left with two selections taking right winger Liam Slate first overall and promising goaltender Júnior Guarda. In addition, the Berserkers arguably signed the most coveted undrafted free agent who had first round potential with Lassi Suhonen. With a couple of players moving on in the season fifty five offseason with the expansion draft and call ups there will need to be some spots that need to be filled so we need you season fifty five SMJHL prospects!
(In season fifty three Newfoundland's draftees really stole the show, none more then Cale Amundsen who ended up winning the goaltender of the year and rookie of the year award at the SMJHL award show.)
3. Most Active Team And Locker Room In The Juniors
In season fifty four we had a team completely full of actives with all twenty Berserkers in the line up updating on a regular basis and contributing to our welcoming, vibrant and fun locker room which is a rarity in the SMJHL. It would not be out of the normal to have around four hundred message daily in our locker room and I found myself back reading through some hilarious conversations from time to time. To put things into perspective we have a bot in Newfoundland’s locker room that quantifies people’s activity within the discord thread and there were over fifteen thousand messages from our team this season throughout the locker room.
In addition, we got a great group in Newfoundland that likes to watch the live sims daily and cheer on the success of our teammates, play video games together (for any of you guys/girls with a PlayStation), talk hockey (especially with the NHL playoffs right around the corner) and just shoot the shit. If none of that floats your boat and you are more of the artsy type then you will still fit right in with our teams games of skribbl (which is like Pictionary) or even take a shot at creating your own game day song (it will be hard to beat @Clean Andrei Kostitsyn Andrei’s “DANCING CLEAN!” remix of “Dancing Queen” he wrote for us as a playoff song to get us amped for our games). There is never a dull day the locker room and the players in Newfoundland will be there for you during the ups and downs of real life as someone is almost always available to talk (we got the early morning crew and the late night crew, people from all over North America and even a few from Europe).
(Marner signing "DANCING CLEAN" at the top of his lungs after scoring a goal in the season fifty four SMJHL playoffs.)
With most of our roster coming back for season fifty five and having a strong active support from Berserker alumni, I can guarantee if you are drafted to Newfound it will be one of the most fun and vibrant locker rooms you will ever be a part of. Furthermore, with a lot of high-end talent and harder workers in Newfoundland, it can be a contagious atmosphere to motivate rookies to do their best to improve their game each and every day. At the end of the day, the locker room environment in Newfoundland makes players want to win for each other and create an unmatched team environment as fourth liners to first liners are made to feel like they have an important role to play in the team’s success.
4. A Strong Commitment To Ensuring You Get All The Help Possible To Earn the Maximum Amount Of TPE
In Newfoundland we take a team approach to earning tpe and work together using advance statistics, graphs and test sims to help get the best chances of earning extra training points for tasks such as season predictions, primetime games, 3 on 3 showdowns, SMJHL pick ems, SHL casion bets, etc. Our send downs and alumni also come from a wide variety of teams in the SHL so we can also help you on getting those extra points for mock drafts. In addition, we have easy to find pages in the locker room to notify you of all current training opportunities for your player and even have the infamous “JNH constructive yelling channel” where JNH will notify players if they have not completed a training opportunity that is soon to expire. This is a great and efficient way to keep track of your player’s opportunities and make sure you are not missing out on any opportunities to get better. I can guarantee from personal experience that if Newfoundland drafts you we will ensure that your player has every training opportunity to get better and succeed on the ice.
5. A Team That Posses A Wealth Of Experience From Veteran Members Of The SHL
Members of the Newfoundland Berserkers easily have over two hundred season of experience in the SHL combined. We have members who were a part of the original site and an owner of the SHL like Lassi Suhonen @teztify who interestingly enough has an SHL trophy named after his player named the Cole Reinhart trophy awarded to the Western conference playoff champions. Also Berserker players like Liam Slate @Tylar and Jack Klompus @Toast have been around the SHL dating all the way back to before season seven when the league was in its infancy stages. Another plus about the Berserkers is that we have one of the SHL commissioners SDCore as the assistant general manager who could be a really helpful person in getting you situated in the SHL. Many Berserker members have also previous been in general management positions both in the SMJHL and SHL. In addition, there are currently four hall of famers on Newfoundland. With all this to say, there are many different people within the Newfoundland locker room who know what it takes to build a successful player, navigate the SHL site, have a large network of SHL connection and possess a wealth of SHL knowledge who can help you get off to a strong start in your virtual hockey career.
6. Innovative Analytics Team And Active Contributors Within The Media
Have you ever wondered how certain attributes will impact your player’s performance on the ice or what role of line mates you may work best with? Well in Newfoundland we have a dedicated analytics team who spend a majority of the off season helping you perfect your 350 and 425tpe builds for sophomores and third year SMJHL send downs while also helping recently drafted SMJHL rookies with what attributes may help them excel the most on the ice. We do this by completing countless test sims which are mock simulations of the upcoming SMJHL based on the current league file to see who plays well with what players and with what specific attributes allocated to their player’s build. After completing all of these tests we track how successful certain players do in certain roles, with certain attributes and line mates and compare these analytics to other test sims. In addition, we have the ultimate analytic gurus with @Nhamlet , @NeonLime and @Smalinowski7 . They are our go to graph, stats and probability guys who help look into probabilities for all of the stats related point tasks and helping with maximizing the probability of Newfoundland winning alongside our ultimate lines maker assistant general manager @SDCore. I have been thoroughly impressed with their use of advanced statistics in their media pieces, as well as, to help maximize the success of the Newfoundland Berserkers.
Speaking about media, we have some great writers on the team that are a part of official SHL media teams such as Smalinowski7 and Nhamlet who writes articles for the “Simulation Junior Hockey Network” and the “Simulation Hockey Network” even having their own Corsi Corner segment (they make some of the best quality media articles you should definitely check out). In addition, there are Andrei’s legendary podcasts - Hockey Night in Newfoundland (feel free to check out the latest one here: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=107537 ). There have also been a lot of great articles written by @Tylar and @Toast (feel free to check out his latest write up going through game by game of the Berserkers last season: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=107984 )
(The Beserkers have been known to be a vocal group in both the SMJHL and SHL media)
7. Passionate, Supportive And Involved Alumni Group
We got a great alumni group in Newfoundland who are active in the locker room starting with committed advisors @Carpy48 and @KlusteR who are a big help and are positive influences in the locker room. Another two alumni who have each had a meaningful influence in the Berserkers locker room is @ スウェグキング and @ByrdeMan. Furthermore, I am sure the two newest alumni who all of the current Berserkers have had the honor of playing with will have an unmatchable positive contribution to the team next season. The first being our former captain who used up all of his SMJHL eligibility and will be making the jump to the big leagues for the Texas Renegades @Rindiee. The other newest alumni is our assistant captain and perineal all star @Smalinowski7 who was taken away from us by the Rage too early and will be missed on the ice but should still have a huge impact off the ice for Newfoundland. The team really rallied around Jukka and did everything in their power to try and keep him down in the SMJHL for one more season. Overall, the Newfoundland Berserkers alumni have a deep widespread presence across the SHL with SHL general managers, SHL head office, a commissioner, and SHL super stars as part of the Newfoundland family that will be here to provide you guidance and to help you become the best player you can be.
8. A Team With A Ton Of Recent On Ice Success
In season fifty four the Newfoundland Berserkers were one of the strongest if not the strongest team in the SMJHL. They finished first in the eastern conference with thirty four wins, thirteen loses and three over time losses for a total of seventy one points. This was good enough to have Newfoundland tied for first in the SMJHL during the regular season. They were a high flying offense with the second most goals for with one hundred and eighty (only three off first for goals for) and also had the second least goals against with one hundred and nineteen providing them with the best goal differential in the league. On top of this the Berserkers had the highest point producer in the juniors with third year winger Ryuuji Minamino who incredibly averaged over a point a game racking up fifty three points in fifty games. Overall it was arguably the franchise’s most successful regular season.
Heading into the post season the Newfoundland Berserkers were seen as the team to beat and were touted as the Four Star Cup favorites. After beating the former season fifty four Four Star Cup champion Detroit Falcons in the first round of the playoffs, the Berserkers lost a do or die game seven heartbreaker in the eastern conference finals to the Carolina Kraken who would go on to win the championship.
The game of hockey can really test you mentally at points and can absolutely crush your sole and this was one of those times after game seven of the eastern conference finals. Internally with in the Newfoundland locker room after beating the previous cup champs with Detroit and having a huge nine to one win against the Kraken in game four of the series we felt as though the cup was our to lose and that we were pretty much guaranteed to win. It goes to show that the best and most skilled hockey team does not always win as was the case with the Berserkers against the Kraken.
While the energy in the locker room was pretty down and frustrated following that game seven against the Kraken, the mood quickly shifted to one of hope and positivity for next season. You may ask why is that and it is because this team is no where near reaching their full potential last season! The Newfoundland Berserkers have their best seasons a head of them as this team is still young and will be heading into their prime during season fifty five and season fifty six. A lot of the teams in the juniors are going to be hurt by players moving on to the SHL next season. However, the Newfoundland Berserkers are only going to be losing two players with SLATT Potts and Jukka Timonen, who were huge contributors to our team but their departures will allow Newfoundland rookies and sophomores to take on bigger roles. In addition, our management have ensured us that they are doing everything they can to make sure they do not lose anybody longer term to the expansion draft. Even if the expansion general managers try to keep someone from the Berserkers I am sure they will demand a trade back to Newfoundland.
(Potts and Jukka are going to be missed on the ice dearly next season, they were two heart and soul players for Newfoundland)
Just imagine playing on a team mostly filled with maxed out 425tpe players in their third and fourth years in the SMJHL with the most developed roster in the juniors who will have the best goaltender in the league alongside the reigning point leader in the SMJHL with a roster from line one to four with an insanely deep skill set. If you do not believe me here is how our talented roster will look for season fifty five in terms of the send downs coming back to the SMJHL:
Berserkers’ Centers:
Matthew Forrester (425 tpe)
Guy LeGrande (425 tpe)
Mats Marner (425 tpe)
Lassi Suhonen (350 tpe)
Berserkers’ Defensemen:
Tinke Jutila (425 tpe)
PBJ Souppan (425 tpe)
Jack Klompus (425 tpe)
Elias Kierkegaard (425 tpe)
Renji Atake (425 tpe)
Berserkers’ Goalies:
Cale Amundsen (425 tpe)
Junior Guarda (350 tpe)
(You know its going to be a big year in Newfoundland when you got the most deadly offensive line in the SMJHL coming back with the Twist, Minamino, Forrester line getting even better for season fifty five).
As you can see above the Newfoundland Berserkers should have the most stacked roster in the SMJHL for this upcoming season. With one forward and one defenseman spot open on the team, you could be the final missing puzzle piece to our championship caliber team here in Newfoundland! We as a team are going to keep getting better every day to prove to the league that we are the best and that nothing will stop us from winning the Four Star Cup in season fifty five. So make sure you check out Newfoundland’s season fifty five Interested Prospects Thread here: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=108025 and do not forget to fill out Andrei's season fifty five Interested Prospects Thread as well: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=108026
I hope to speak with some of you SMJHL prospects soon and feel free to reach out to anyone from the Newfoundland family! Lets go Berserkers
Great article, very informative. I don't know if I'm part of the morning crew or the late night crew (probably both?), but since I've been in the LR for a long time now I can definitely say it's the most active one I'm in and full of wonderful people.
I found a minor thing here: "record of ninety three wins, ninety four wins and thirteen overtime losses"
07-15-2020, 04:32 PMDonutDefender Wrote: Wow, I never realized you guys were so stacked.
Wow, I never realized you were back in the league.
My first linemate when I joined the site! How're you doing Phil?
Hey man! I suppose changing names would do that haha.
I still remember having a ton of fun on the Impact. I've been good though. I take breaks every now and then for school, but I always come back. What about you?
07-15-2020, 04:32 PMDonutDefender Wrote: Wow, I never realized you guys were so stacked.
Oh dam Phil I didn't know you were still around the SHL! Its been so long since our Impact/North Star days how have you been?
Scherbluk! Is that how you spell it? I have no idea but I miss talking Leafs with you man. I've been good though, I've grown up quite a bit since then haha. And how have you been?
leafsftw1967![[Image: SMJHL-Berserkers.png]](https://simulationhockey.com/images/SMJHL-Berserkers.png)
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