TASK 1: (Written, 3 TPE)

The team I want to talk about is this seasons cinderella story, the Colorado Raptors. And this Raptors squads story actually begins almost three seasons ago, at the S42 SMJHL Entry Draft. Colorado had an amazing draft, hitting on almost all their picks and picking up multiple super valuable pieces with their later picks, including their current GM duo. It looked like the team was poised to win a cup eventually, or at least go dep into the playoffs, but fast forward two and a half seasons and these plans never came to fruition. Despite great individual development from the players, a series of GM changes and a weak S43 draft derailed the franchise on their quest for the cup and when the S44 trade deadline rolled around, GMs Alex Winters and Andrew Martin found themselves sitting outside of the playoffs and faced with a difficult decision. Should they keep the team together for one last run before the remaining S43 players are called up to the SHL next season, or should they rather sell now and pick up pieces for the future to build on an already strong S44 class. Well, it turns out you can do both. The Raptors traded almost all of their veterans away at the deadline for a big collection of draft picks, and yet the Raptors would still make it not just into the playoffs, but through the first two rounds and into the finals as well, where there magical journey was ultimately stopped by the St. Louis Scarecrows.

TASK 3: (Written, 3 TPE)

I hope this counts as hockey-related because my highlight probably was the trade deadline. It wasn't so much a highlight in that it felt great, but in that it was the most exciting and interesting moment of the season for me. After almost 40 seasons in this league, it marked the first time that one of my players was traded in juniors and it also was what eventually allowed me to win my very first Four Star Cup as well. At the same time however, it was really tough to leave my old team, the Colorado Raptors, behind. And the way the trade deadline went was just incredibly exciting and sometimes gut-wrenching for everyone involved, which was basically the entire Raptors-team - the GMs, veteran players and rookies alike. At the end of the day, half a dozen of us were traded away to different teams who looked more like contenders, after much deliberation about whether to even be a seller at the deadline or not. And ultimately it all culminated in a crazy playoff final series for me, where my new team got to meet my old team and, sadly I might say, ended their Cinderella run.

In 150 words or more write about the top highlight of your season. whether it be your first goal, your first hat trick, first shutout, clinching playoffs, getting a career high in something, etc. Must be hockey related.

TASK 4: (*CASUAL MEMBER SPECIAL* Send answer in PM, 3 TPE)

Done

TASK 6: (Written, 3 TPE)

The team I'm looking at will be the Anchorage Armada, who fell short to the Vancouver Whalers in a very close 7 game series. Now to be fair, the Armada don't exactly fall into the "teams who could have performed better" category. They were one of the outsiders going into the playoffs with quite a few holes in their rosters, so it's admirable that they even made it all the way to seven games. This is especially obvious when looking at their defense, as the team had no active goaltender and no defensemen over 300 TPE. I would leave the defense relatively unchanged hower, only swapping Karl von Wittelsbach and Jacob Geza to reward the active rookie with a bit more of a prominent role compared to the inactive vet. Vegeta Muerto could have moved up to the first as well for the same reasons, but he is needed to anchor the second paring and this way we also have one righ- and one left-shooter on each pairing. The 3rd pairing will remain unchanged with Stolp Skottson and Tucker Baloo, but receive more limited ice time than in the original version of the lines. I have already exceeded the word count so I won't talk about the forwards any more if that's okay, but just attach the lines below. One more not though: I don't believe using 4th lines or pairings until you have actual active players on them, so they are irrelevant in my proposal and set to 0%. However, I do think it is still important to NOT double-shift and mix your top-players into any of these lines, so your 4th line should either be filled with IFAs or by re-using one of your existing lines there, but set to 0%.

Xena - Mayfield - Bouchard / 35%
Colt - Bust - Niemi / 35%
Yoshimura - Dimmadome - Arsenich / 30%
Yoshimura - Dimmadome - Arsenich / 0%

Lockhart - Geza / 40%
Muerto - von Wittelsbach / 40%
Tucker Baloo - Stolp Skottson / 20%
Tucker Baloo - Stolp Skottson / 0%

Hank Scorpio
Larry Atta

Task 8: (Written, 3 TPE)
Pick up to 3 topics below to write about! Each topic is worth '1' TPE. Each answer must be 50 words or more.

1. Between both rosters, create an all Challenge Cup starting lineup! (D, D, F, F, F, G) and in 50 words or more explain alittle about your selections.

Zach Evans - Pietra Volkova - Dani Forsberg
Jon Ross - Ludwig Koch Schröder
Beaujeaux Biscuit

The SCOR(E) Line - All players who made an impact in the now defunct SCOR racing organisation, and a damn good lineup in the SHL although a bit on the older side at this point. There were a ton of great forwards to choose from so a few very deserving people had to miss out, whereas it was a bit tougher on defense as not a lot of blueliners from these two teams had found their way into racing.

4. Choose 1 young player from each team (either on their roster or a prospect of theirs) who you believe will be there teams next great player and why?

I would choose Troy McClure but does he even count as young player anymore? It feels like he just left juniors even though he is a S42 player and all but done with his ELC in this point. In fact, with the way he still hangs around SMJHL locker rooms and considering how little of an impact he has had for his SHL team so far, he reminds me of that weird guy who still keeps hanging around at his old school years after graduating. But I'm sure his... interest in todays youth is just his leadership qualities, right? Right?? Anyway, Troy is awesome and we all still have to call him Captain because reasons so that's cool.

5. You want to buy tickets, hotel stay and airfair for one of the games in this series and you have to decide between a trip to West Kendall or Winnipeg.. what city did you choose and why?

It's not the most exciting location but I have to go with Winnipeg here, simply for the fact that it isn't West Kendall. I'm sure everyone who knows the actual story behind the teams location will understand why. West Kendall might have better weather and a franchise that is quite tough to dislike nowadays, but I will still go with the more traditional hockey market in Winnipeg and its crazy fans.