My rookie season has come and almost went. The Impact are still in the hunt for a championship and hopefully we can bring it back to where it belongs. There is a crazy amount of highs and lows in your first rookie season, and this isn’t even the big leagues yet. My year here was focused on staying active within the locker room, and showing that I can contribute even with my player type. I feel the job I have done was enough to show the rest of the league what my player is about and where his career will ultimately end up.

The year started off very quickly for me. I joined the draft class rather late, and felt that has hurt my player in terms of development in my first season. I took a big stance on my defensive game, which you can see with a 99 rating, but was told after wards that won’t necessarily make me a great defender. So I have back tracked throughout the season to try and help that rating out by supplementing it with checking and skating stats, which seem, in the short run, to have helped my player.

Going into the year most players and teams put season expectations upon you, which was no different in my case. I could have ended up with no points through the season and still would have been happy with the defensive stats I posted, the 9 points I put up were a great bonus. With that being said, defense stats is where I really watch to see what I can improve upon, because I believe this league doesn’t see enough players like my build and how much of an impact I can make on certain teams heading forward.

All players on the team started out as just that, teammates, but those teammates have now turned into some great friends on and off the ice. Hopefully in this upcoming SHL draft I can go to an SHL team with some of these friends and start a life-long friendship. While being drafted you also hear about some teams not to go to because of locker room activity and players that just don’t like anybody, this has been as far from the truth with the Impact this season. Everybody is here to help everybody, there is never a stupid question and both general managers treat us all like humans and not just a pawn in some sim.

Soon the off-season will be upon me, hopefully with a championship, and then my focus turns to making it in the SHL draft. I plan to continue my training as much as I can to show the SHL general managers that I’m staying in fighting shape for the upcoming season. I plan to improve my player and to be a big defensive force for years to come, and to get that size up to compete with the big boys in the SHL. I don’t believe that I will be a staple on an SHL roster as soon as next season, but that doesn’t faze me, I’m in it for the long run and to help a team with their future.