SHL True Hollywood Story.

The Rise and Fall of the San Francisco Pride Dynasty.

It was a team with a destiny. The season 43 Draft provided the Pride with a wealth of talent and a strong recruiting corps of young members to bring in even more talent. This team was destined for greatness sooner rather than later and teams were taking notice. The Pride were a young group of players Jack Tanner, LeShaun King, Luke Thomason, Dakota Reid, Charlie Schieck, Goku Muerto, Jack Kennedy, Jeff Brogen, Vince Reaper, Steven Moyer, Richard Metcalf Jr, Sean Stevenson Jr, Ray Bork, and Xena. This team looked like it would challenge anyone at any time from about S48 until they all died to regression. But then the Expansion draft happened. LeShaun King, feeling alienated started the bleeding. He felt that he wasn't appreciated enough for the work he did and eventually he burnt out and hit a wall. "It was like LeShaun just hit a wall and stopped working" We tried to get an interview with LeShaun but he was skating around with a blank stare on his face like he couldn't even hear us. After that the team started to spiral, the GM's made moves to try to improve the team that alienated young defenseman Stevenson Jr, then at the S45 Draft the unthinkable happened. The team quit on Sean Stevenson Jr. Having pick 1 and pick 5 in the draft the Pride seemed prime to plug the hole left by the mental check out by LeShaun King and continue to build their dynasty. But there was a problem. The Expansion rules dictated that the team could only protect 3 defensemen. This meant that one of Isak Odegard, Jack Tanner, Charlie Schieck, or Sean Stevenson Jr would have to be exposed. The Pride started the offseason by picking 2 defensemen in the draft in Lockhart and Montgomery. Then in FA they brought in Fedor Shirobokov to help out in the top 2 pairings. With this they now had 7 Defensemen signed and Stevenson Jr could see the writing on the wall. He stopped applying the training he was getting and seemed to coast at very low minutes for the season. "You could see the depression on Stevenson's face, he just seemed like he wasn't wanted and he knew his GM was pushing hard for him to get selected in the expansion draft which made the whole season really awkward. Stevenson got quiet and seemed to accept that he wasn't going to be a part of the Pride's long term plans." Then it happened. Expansion night hits and the picks went as expected. Jack Kennedy to the Syndicate and Sean Stevenson Jr to the Specters. This as we already explained didn't hurt the defense any as his replacement was drafted in the season 45 draft. But losing Kennedy hurt in both the forward depth and in the locker room. Then the unthinkable happened. The heir apparent to LeShaun King's mantle as team savior was traded to the Manhattan Rage for some draft picks. Early season results are mixed due to the remaining members of the Pride potential dynasty but it is clear now that they aren't as far ahead of the pack as it looked like they would be back in Season 44.