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Mazatt · 11-04-2023, 04:16 PM

As inspired by my king Roddy (@Benpachi) doing an overview of Rodrigo Banes career, I feel inspired to look over my first real SHL career for a fun little deep dive. This will cover some time in Tampa Bay who I did write an article on, but that’s future outlook and I feel there isn’t any real overlap with the peices, so we should be chill. Regardless, let’s take a quick little look.

Peak
Alright, tough look to start with a players peak right off the bat but without a doubt that’s where Foley peaked. Just a quick overview and we see why; rookie season cup champion (shoutout Conner Hutton, GOATed partner). 2nd season, 3rd place Agante vote-receiver, 3rd season, 3rd place in MVP voting and winner of the Agante trophy for best J defensemen. It’s an easy 3 seasons that highlight a strong J career that ended up being cut short by another deep playoff run with Edmonton in lieu of a real 4th season.

Quick other highlights, 150 games, 82 points. For a d-man, feels pretty good. This of course cuts out some DFA work where Foley got 1 assist through 9 games. I don’t really want to count that one as I need to beef my rate stats wherever possible. Only had 26 penalty minutes despite averaging around 20 minutes a game. One of the other stats I’m generally proud of is a positive TA-GA differential in every full-season. As a real life defensemen I think it’s big on the last man back to be able to strip players of the puck, and push it forward quickly without getting picked off. Really, I feel a bit lucky to get recognized for the strong defensive play to get the Agante. Of course points go a long way, but I always went with a defense first build and with good GM work that pushed forward strong DGR and +7% CFrel and FFrel. In reflection I always wanted Foley to come across as an analytic inclined player that wouldn’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet. So again, credit to GM work that was able to make Foley play at above .5ppg across his J career. Funnily enough in hindsight the stats in S55 look better than S56 with 62% CF and FF, but what can you do.

Everything After the Peak
Oops. Foley didn’t exactly fall apart after coming up to the SHL–I mean hey as a rookie getting 24 points in 66 games is slick–but it wasn’t as illustrious of a career as expected from a DotY. Really there’s 3 “careers” for Foley across 15 seasons in the SHL. There’s good Edmonton, rebuild Edmonton, and Tampa Bay.

Good Edmonton is easy to spot–it’s when Edmonton was good.The easy way to spot this is in Foley's +/-, positive every year until S62, then only one significantly positive season. The other way to track it is the weird progression in advanced stats. Strong, 50+ possession stats but lower rel%'s up until S61, S61 is still positive, then tanks to 44% in S62 despite getting up to 2.4% CFRel (highest to this point). So from S57 through to ~62, a good 5 seasons on top. Hard to complain.

To me this era of a career is where I enjoyed myself the most. It was a new experience in the SHL, there was a consistent threat to win the title–never on the tier of Hamilton/Buffalo but we pulled out some good seasons in there. It’s an experience that makes me wonder about how other people view competitive windows as when Edmonton was winning, Foley wasn’t elite. He was 3rd pair 2 years, got up to 2nd pair, and presumably ended up being approximate to top pairing down the line. But it was the most fun just being on a fun team regardless of personal accolades.

Then Edmonton had the expected downturn of being an older team that saw some prominent players head out and hit the rebuild Edmonton stage. Couldn’t quite find success, and this is where I fell a little bit out of the league. I was still active and pushing updates, but my activity was tied to being an updater more than a player which sucks when hitting 2k TPE. Because after that point, there’s not as much passion for following player success when you’re further removed from their performance. There’s a shift in personal goals from being a successful player to instead hitting number marks for TPE, seeing how you did on milestones, and that’s about it. Really the only strong connection that can be drawn for myself to this era was sticking it out as a good player on a team losing pieces with the hopes of being a one team player for a whole career.

Of course, that falls apart when there are changes in leadership and the new GM rightfully want to go fully in on the rebuild. Being asked if you’d be open to a trade isn’t bad, but it makes you reflect on how willing you are to stick it out for a whole career. And with the option on the table to keep being a “team player” and let the team recoup assets on you, why not? That broke the last real bit of connection with Foley I could have–no longer a one-team career, haven’t been following personal/team success with some fall-off, and despite going to a great spot in Tampa, there wasn’t a lot brewing for me.

Just looking through numbers, Tampa Bay was a hugely successful spot for Foley to start. If I had maintained good strategies for league engagement, without a doubt I’d have been going strong there today. Came in 1st year in S65 with 33 points. Every year in Tampa outside of Y1 was a 69+ DGR year (nice). Ended up with positive TA-GA again. I was really put in advantageous positions, but it’s through a period of inactivity which sucks for the team. I really wish I was able to stick it out and have more to say. I personally haven’t even looked at the net impact of the trade to Tampa because I feel the amount given up was way more than what was worth it for what I gave as a user despite good player results.

Retrospect
Well, there’s already a lot of retrospective talk in this career deep dive but really, looking back I don’t think I have anything to be ashamed of. Foley was a defensive defensemen who got to play 1000 games with over 100 goals. Got to see some deep playoff runs, and got to retire to a nice South Florida beach house. It sucks to have the accolades and team success come early in a career, but that’s a learning moment of where to tie interest in the league. It’s important to care about player and team success instead of just caring about a job or how to maximize earnings. Would it have been nice to end up pushing for awards at the SHL level? Of course, who doesn’t want a HoF career, but that doesn’t define a successful career.

Benpachi · 11-04-2023, 06:28 PM

Great career from a great dude! Big love!

chetib · 11-06-2023, 04:12 PM

Approved @Mazatt @CptSquall

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