All numbers for this were pulled from https://www.shltracker.dreamcraft.digital/all_players on 7/18/21 at around 1:30 pm eastern time. Apologies if some of them are a bit off, I think this site is up to date but I am not 100% positive. In this Deep Dive I’m going to take a look at the best division in the SMJHL, the North West. To do this first I am going to break down the teams as they stand into tiers. In tier 1, the “elite” tier, we have: Newfoundland. That’s it. That’s the whole tier. They are currently in a league of their own, but the next tier is not far behind them. Tier 2, “contenders”: Anchorage and Vancouver. These two are clearly the next best teams in the SMJHL, much farther ahead in the standings than CAR but far enough behind NL to be put in their own tier. Tier 3, “missing a piece” is made up of: Carolina, Colorado, Quebec City, and Anaheim. These are the rest of the teams that are positive in the points category as not much separates them here. Next we have tier 4, “firmly out”: St. Louis and Detroit. Just a bit below the positive line in the points category, but it’s late enough in the season to say that these teams are out of the championship running. Tier 5 is our second to last tier, “bad bad boys”: Maine and Kelowna. I mean just look at them, they are nearing triple digit negatives in points, these teams are just bad right now. Finally, we have tier 6 also known as “Nevada”: Nevada. You may have guessed it, but Nevada has a whopping lead (lead? Deficit? Who knows, it’s bad) in the negative points department at -159! That’s bad! Anyway, now that we have that out of the way, you may think that just because Newfoundland is the only team in the elite tier, their division is probably the “best”. Well, not in my eyes. In my eyes, the best division is the North West! This is because they have both teams in the tier just barely below Newfoundland’s tier, and the 3rd team in their division is just slightly at the top of tier 5. It’s pretty simple if you just look at the points in each division actually. The South West comes in at 21+5-159 = -133. Thanks Nevada! The South East clocks at 31-22-25 = -16. Not too shabby. The North East ends up with 139+21-99 = 61. Our first positive division! And finally, we have the North West with 98+83-93 = 88. This gives the North West a somewhat sizable lead on the North East by 27 points, and absolutely blows the other two divisions out of the water. I think at this point in the season it would be a very safe bet to put money down on Newfoundland to bring home the trophy, but if they somehow have to go through a series against both of the teams in my second tier (Anchorage and Vancouver) then watch out because those are both tough series to come out ahead and could easily end up being the gauntlet.
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@Sebster GRADED! +5 TPE