This is part five to my SHL History for Dummies series where I take a quick look at each season of the league and figure out who GM'd what team and what everyone's records were that year. The warning in the first part of the series still stands, this might be boring for a lot of you so apologies but I want cash and need to learn.
This is now our 5th decade of the SHL that we are covering. There was no expansion in the last 10 seasons but one team did re-locate from Portland to San Francisco. The league in the past has grown one decade, then the next remained the same to stabilize. This pattern has repeated itself a few times now and if the pattern holds, the expansions should be coming soon in this decade.
Season 41 to 50
Season 41
League
League remains the same since S37 re-location season.
Teams
Buffalo Stampede (26-17-7)
Calgary Dragons (31-13-6)
Edmonton Blizzard (32-13-5)
Hamilton Steelhawks (25-19-6)
Los Angeles Panthers (33-13-4)
Manhattan Rage (22-24-4)
Minnesota Chiefs (27-17-6)
New England Wolfpack (24-21-5) - Torbvo replaces Eggy216 as GM
San Francisco Pride (14-31-5)
Seattle Riot (19-26-5)
Texas Renegades (16-30-4)
Toronto North Stars (21-24-5)
West Kendall Platoon (26-18-6)
Winnipeg Jets (36-9-5) - MWHazard replaces Nereus as GM
The West Kendall Platoon win the championship. It has been awhile but this is their 3rd cup win in franchise history, S2, S5, and now S41. Fairly standard season without many extreme seasons by any team. Finally see Jason Visser show up as he was the player kalesalad and I created the graphic for in the pro/am graphics competition a couple weeks ago.
The Calgary Dragons win the cup, now their 7th win (S8, S9, S27 ,S29 ,S32 ,S40, and S42) extending the lead to 2 cups over next closest, Edmonton. This was a really competitive season with only the Manhattan Rage below 20 wins while no team had over 30 wins. Really close standings. Alexis Metzler wins his 2nd career best defender award. And we have our first father son award winner? I can't verify but the names line up. Jordin FourFour Jr. wins the same award that his namesake won in S21.
The West Kendall Platoon win the championship, their franchises 2nd in the last 3 years and 4th overall (S2, S5, S41, and S43). Another season with only one team sub 20 game wins. Despite not winning the championships, Winnipeg swept the big awards with Jason Visser getting his 2nd MVP in 3 seasons. The same achievement for Artem Zhumbayev as he collects his 2nd award for best goaltender in the last 3 seasons.
The Jets win the championship, making it their franchise's 6th cup (S1, S7, S19, S25, S37, and S44) putting them 1 behind Calgary and tied with Edmonton. Several of the basement teams have been building up draft picks, could see them make a jump in the standings in the next couple of seasons. Michael McFadden is the winner of the MVP award as well as capturing his 2nd career award for best goaltender.
The Edmonton Blizzard win their 7th championship (S3, S4, S13, S15, S16, S28 and S45). This brings them level with Calgary Dragons for most championships. The Edmonton Blizzard also won 41 games in the regular season which I believe is the most ever -- although that needs to be fact checked. I'm unsure as to who they beat up on because no team was truly abysmal like other seasons. As far as individual stats go, Tommy Tuck wins the MVP and best goalie trophy. Is Tommy Tuck related to Tor Tuck who won best defender last season? Perhaps our first brother connection in the awards? Maybe, maybe not.
This is the first time the league expands since S25. Two new teams are added in the Chicago Syndicate and the New Orleans Spectres which brings the total teams up to 16. A team also chose to re-locate and re-brand this season with the often changing Seattle Riot franchise finally switching to the current Tampa Bay Barracudas.
Teams
Buffalo Stampede (28-14-8)
Calgary Dragons (21-24-5)
Chicago Syndicates (24-22-4) - Founded by Velevra
Edmonton Blizzard (24-21-5)
Hamilton Steelhawks (27-17-6)
Los Angeles Panthers (25-20-5)
Manhattan Rage (29-18-3)
Minnesota Chiefs (28-19-3)
New England Wolfpack (18-27-5)
New Orleans Spectres (27-19-4) - Founded by JKortesi81 and our 5th current GM to be listed
San Francisco Pride (24-22-4)
Tampa Bay Barracudas (25-17-8) - JSS re-locates and re-brands the Seattle Riot to Tampa Bay Barracudas
The Buffalo Stampede win their first ever championship after being an expansion team in S25. This was a really close season with no team having 30 wins and only two teams just below 20 wins. The expansion clubs performed very well with both above .500 in their first season. All of the individual award winners were first timers.
The West Kendall Platoon win the championship. It is the franchises 3rd cup in 6 years and 5th cup overall (S2, S5, S41, S43, and S47). They had a blistering season and couldn't be stopped. Tommy Tuck wins his 2nd trophy for best goalie in 3 years and Tigole Bitties made me laugh when I read it.
The Buffalo Stampede win the championship. It is their 2nd in franchise history, S46 and S48. This was another very competitive season with only one team below 20 wins. There was also absolutely no change in GM's. Expansion looks like it was very successful. Despite a lot of teams close in points, Tampa Bay ended up sweeping the big trophies. Benjamin Blue wins his 2nd career best goaltender award.
The Edmonton Blizzard are once again champions winning their 8th championship (S3, S4, S13, S15, S16, S28, S45, and S49) and moving them one up on Calgary for the most cups. Expansion is really looking well from a distant glance. The standings are nice and close, not a lot of GM turn-over as only 2 GM spots opened up in the last 3 seasons. The league keeps on humming along it appears. Johannes Leitner with the MVP and best goaltender award.
The Calgary Dragons refuse to let Edmonton keep their cup lead and win their 8th championship (S8, S9, S27, S29, S32, S40, S42, and S50). A couple teams struggled a bit but everything looks pretty standard. Benjamin Blue wins his 3rd career award for best goaltender (in six seasons). Kristaps Ball wins their second award for best defender in 3 seasons.
Well, I guess I was confused and thought that the increase in games occurred this decade but it must be in the 50s. Exactly the reason why I needed to write these articles to figure this out. Oh well at least it gives me that to look forward to on the next one.
Overall, the league grew another 2 more teams (as we thought) from 14 to 16 and had a re-location of Seattle to Tampa Bay. It is pretty clear that at this point not many people are willing to give up their role as GM and there isn't a whole lot of co-GM'ing compared to the earlier seasons. The big powerhouse teams have all gotten their trophies out of the way (for the most part I think), so we will likely see some different teams winning in the next decade as the system is cyclical.
High Stick King![[Image: uZXUIMk.png]](https://i.imgur.com/uZXUIMk.png)
