(ready for grading - 3255 words - 2x media for draft coverage)

The St Louis Scarecrows matched the Kelowna Knights with three straight Four Star Cup victories in a row, falling short of the four-peat this past season when they lost in seven games to eventual Cup winners Anaheim. In looking at the Scarecrows run in comparison to Kelowna's, it was quite impressive in seeing how the minds of @JKortesi81 and @TML99 built the Scarecrows roster to be competitive for multiple seasons in a row without selling off the future. In this article we take a look back at the Scarecrow's run, their success in drafting, and we will attempt to take a look into the future to see whether @Nictox can help TML in sustaining the Scarecrows after such a long competitive run.

S43
S43 was quite successful during the regular season for St Louis, who finished second in the league with a 27-17-6 record, 11 points behind Laurifier Trophy winners Vancouver. This season saw a plethora of rookies on the roster getting decent time, rookies who would soon find themselves as the core of the Scarecrows team that would start the dynasty. Antonio Calculon, Airi Yamaguchi, Roger Baston, Bernard Freeman, Brock Nuck, and Jerry Larry all saw time in their rookie season, all of which posted between 7 and 13 points in their debut campaigns. Netminder Aleister Cain flourished in his second season, going 22-15-6 in his appearances that season. While this season ended in heartbreak fashion, losing in 5 to Vancouver in the 4 Star Cup Finals, this season set the tone for the upcoming season. This team knew what they could accomplish, and they weren't planning on letting up.

S44 Draft
St Louis saw them trade a few picks to Anchorage, moving themselves back into the second and third rounds, where they picked up Samuel Jalopski and Slip McScruff, who would eventually captain the Scarecrows squad en route to the S45 Four Star Cup. Despite only picking two people in this draft, St Louis made sure both picks were hits. Jalopski stayed for two seasons before his eventual departure, same with Slip McScruff. McScruff was the big steal here, as he anchored the blueline for boththe Scarecrows and Team USA's WJC squad, where he was a captain for both in the S45 campaign. While Team USA didn't make it out of the first round of the medal round that season, the Scarecrows relied on his presence to take the cup.

S44
While St Louis nailed the draft, they also made just the right moves during the regular season to help them finish second in the league for the second season in a row, going 28-15-7, 7 points behind rival Detroit, who took the Laurifier Trophy that season. With the departure of Lil Manius to the SHL, St Louis traded for wingers Philipp Winter and Alex Winters from Colorado. Philipp posted 10 (3 G, 7 A) points in 12 regular season games for St Louis, and 47 (22 G, 25 A) points in 50 total games, while Alex posted 7 (3 G, 4 A) points in 12 games for St Louis, and 35 (11 G, 24 A) points in 50 total games. St Louis also managed to snag some key players who missed out on the draft that season, signing the likes of Nicolas Fleming and Ty Hoover, names you will hear again later in this article. Aleister Cain improved slightly in his third season, posting a record of 24-12-4 during the regular season and an 8-3 record in the postseason.

St Louis ended up facing an unexpected opponent in the Four Star Cup Finals this season in Colorado, who had 4 rookies averaging over 17 minutes a game in the playoffs. St Louis took revenge on Vancouver in the semifinals for last season's Cup Finals, knocking out the defending champions in 7 games. In the finals against Colorado, St Louis made easy work of Colorado, sweeping the Raptors in 4 games. Nicholas Williams and Bernard Freeman took over the playoffs, posting 14 (6 G, 8 A) and 13 (5 G, 8 A) points respectively throughout the 11 game run.

S45 Draft
The S45 Draft is the most recent Reddit draft, and saw every team have a chance at a high volume of new and generational players. St Louis savored the opportunity to hit on nearly every draft pick they made this season, drafting players that became a high powered core in record time. St Louis first traded up to the 6th pick from the 8th, opting to take Tyler Tougard with that pick. The very next two picks were Borromini Cannellini and Jimmy Slothface, so it could be argued that without the move, St Louis might have been in just as good of a position while also having their second round pick. However, hindsight is always 20/20, and the move didn't do anything to hurt St Louis's chances at a repeat this season. Without a second round pick, St Louis had to stand by and watch as the likes of Guy Zheng, Eric Vanderberg, and Collin Gibbles were drafted in this round. St Louis picked up newcomer Michael Fox with the 27th overall pick, another eventual captain of the Scarecrows. Their next pick, 33rd overall, was used to take Basil Magnicotta, a quiet defenseman who is still holding down the blue line. The real steal of the entire draft though came in the 9th round, when St Louis took winger Gordie Boomhoover with the 87th overall pick. Gordie was arguably the Scarecrows most important player in their S46 cup run, but more on that later.

S45
In terms of league standings, the Scarecrows took a massive step back, falling to 6th in the league with a record of 28-21-1. Arch rival Detroit yet again took the Laurifer with a record of 31-17-2. However, St Louis tied for 3rd in goals for and was 1st in goals against, and had the league's top penalty kill unit, as well has having the best combined PP+PK percentage. The underlying numbers painted a much better picture of how the season went for St Louis than the wins and losses did, so St Louis felt confident heading into the playoffs, and they should have. Tyler Tougard had a stellar rookie campaign, posting 29 points (11 G, 18 A), good for 7th in rookie scoring and only 3 points behind the rookie points leader. Gordie Boomhoover and Michael Fox also had good rookie seasons, posting 25 (12 G, 13 A) and 17 (8 G, 9 A) points respectively. Aleister Cain continued his solid junior career with another decent season despite having two backups to split time with.

The playoffs saw a new format come along with expansion with every team making the playoffs this time around. Despite dropping in the standings, St Louis did well enough to not have to participate in the play-in round. St Louis instead drew Kelowna, sweeping them in four while every other series took 6. Next up was a familiar foe in Vancouver, meeting for a second season in a row in the semifinals. While this series didn't go the distance like the previous season, the end result was the same: another trip to the Four Star Cup Finals for St Louis. Who else did St Louis meet in the finals but their rival Detroit, who was coming off of a 4-2 series victory against Colorado. St Louis made it two cups in a row by knocking off the Laurifer trophy winners in 6. While some of the Scarecrow rookies dropped off in terms of scoring compared to the regular season, Michael Fox and Gordie Boomhoover cemented their marks in the organization and the cup by leading the team in rookie scoring with 12 (2 G, 10 A) and 11 (6 G, 5 A) in the 16 game run. Aleister Cain again cemented the net with a rock solid save percentage en route to his second cup.

S46 Draft
The Scarecrows made quite a few picks in this draft, and while the latter half of the draft was somewhat of a miss by the Crows, they hit home runs with their first two picks, landing Filip Zadina and Charlie Serpe, both of which became two of the highest earners in their draft class. Serpe ended up serving as an assistant captain in his sophomore season before his early exit from the SMJHL, having recently been called up by New Orleans.

S46
St Louis returned back to their former curse, finishing second in the league standings yet again, with a record of 31-18-1. Kelowna ended up with this season's Laurifer trophy, finishing 6 points ahead of St Louis in the standings. St Louis's S45 rookies took massive strides in their game this season, namely new captain Michael Fox, who was 1 point from doubling his rookie point total. Aleister Cain, taken first in the SHL expansion draft, left St Louis prior to the beginning of this season. Billy Sorokin, still shortly off of his full develoopment, was handed the reigns as starting netminder for St Louis. Sorokin ended the season with a record of 28-14-1, not bad for a goalie who hadn't fully reached his junior potential. Charlie Serpe led this rookie class in scoring with 20 points (1 G, 19 A) while first rounder Filip Zadina ended with a respectable 14 points (7 G, 7 A). The playoffs was where this team truly let their colors show though, and the S45 draft class for St Louis led the way towards their eventual three-peat. Gordia Boomhoover led the team in playoff scoring with 14 points (6 G, 8 A) while Michael fox (3 G, 10 A) and Tyler Tougard (7 G, 4 A) were shortly behind.

After taking the first two playoff series in 6 games each, St Louis found themselves matched up with Laurifer Trophy winners Kelowna in the finals, the second season in a row where the Scarecrows met the regular season champs in the finals. While this series went to seven games, the Scarecrows yet again showed that regular season results don't matter as they took game 7 in close fashion, a 4-3 victory for the visiting squad. The threepeat was official, and the Scarecrows didn't stop to think about comparing themselves to the early 40s-Kelowna. All they cared about was celebrating their third trophy in as many seasons, and it was well deserved. No selling off the future, just good drafting, worthwhile trades, and good scouting to find those free agency steals.

S47 Draft
This draft saw to test just how well St Louis could do with Nictox at the helm. Sure, TML was still around and they were without JKortesi in S47 as well, but St Louis missed on some picks in S47, and whether or not they could hit on more than one pick this season would be a true tell of how well they could draft. Oh did St Louis live up to the test, drafting stud center Mika Kandinsky with the 10th pick and Lyle Odelein III with the 19th pick. Both of these players ended up getting drafted fairly high in the S48 SHL draft, and both look to play huge roles in St Louis in S48.

S47
S47 saw St Louis post their best regular season record throughout this entire stretch, ending the regular season with a 33-14-3 record, capturing their first Laurifer Trophy in their recent run. The Scarecrow offense was one that was feared throughout the entire league, as they led the league in scoring by a ridiculous margin, with the next closest team 29 goals behind them. Nicolas Fleming led the team in scoring with 46 points (23 G, 23 A) while captain Michael Fox was a close second with a career best 43 points (10 G, 33 A), with those 33 assists good for second best in the league behind fellow New Orleans prospect Osbert Whacker.

The postseason was not so kind to St Louis this time around. St Louis met Detroit in their first matchup of the playoffs, and made sure to remind them of who was the better team in their storied rivalry, with the Scarecrows taking the series 4-2. The next round saw St Louis match up with recent expansion team Anaheim, who was the 5th seed in the playoffs. Anaheim managed to take the series to seven games, and ended up shocking the league and taking game 7 from St Louis in St Louis. St Louis shouldn't have felt too bad about that loss though, as Anaheim did go on to win the Four Star Cup in only their 3rd season of existence.

S47 Aftermath, S48 Draft
The St Louis Scarecrows look to be gutted of the majority of their roster heading into S48, losing key players to the SHL such as Michael Fox, Gordie Boomhoover, Tyler Tougard, Filip Zadina, Charlie Serpe, and Nicolaj Muller. Jerry Larry ages out as well, leaving a lot of vacancies in the forward group of St Louis. For the first time in recent memory, all three captains were leaving the squad to join their respective teams in the SHL. With an announcement likely being put out in the coming hours, St Louis will likely have to turn to their recent group of rookies to find a new set of captains for the upcoming season.

The gutting of the Scarecrows roster that was a huge part of their postseason success in recent years came probably a season too soon for the liking of St Louis management, as outside of the 8th overall pick, the Crows did not have another pick in the top 25. They would need to hit the nail on the head with their first pick and then hope that certain players fell to 32 to give them another good choice. Whether pick 40 would even be used was still yet to be seen, but it was starting to look bleak for the Scarecrows.

The S48 SMJHL draft was underway before everyone knew it, and picks were being sent in like it was the end of the world. “Now on the clock….St Louis Scarecrows.” Every other team almost seemed to have known exactly who was getting picked and when and who they would be taking, but the Scarecrows took their time with this pick. Their roster was near depleted, they need to nail this pick, they couldn’t slip up. “With the 8th overall pick in the S48 SMJHL Entry Draft, the St Louis Scarecrows select…...from <inaudible> High School from Wisconsin, defender Noah Brusky!”

And with that, the Scarecrows had their man. Brusky was a very solid defensive prospect, having one of the best defensive awarenesses of any prospect heading into this draft. His shortcomings were in other aspects of his game, but St Louis seemed confident that since he had his defensive game locked down that the other aspects of his game would soon follow. Brusky immediately made his mark in the locker room and has been quoted saying “Fuck Detroit” without prompting or question. We reached out to former captain Michael Fox about his thoughts on Brusky, and he responded with his vote of confidence: “Brusky? He’s gonna do just fine in St Louis. Fuck Detroit.”

St Louis didn’t have another pick until 32nd overall. There were rumblings about possibly moving up into the second round in a trade with Kelowna, but Kelowna withdrew their picks from the block before a formal offer was made. Throughout the second round and early third, prospects that St Louis had their eye on were being taken one after another. At 32, another decision was to be made, and defenseman Brennan Griggs was selected. Griggs was not in attendance at the Draft and was not able to be reached by phone either, but had a well rounded skillset for a selection this late in the draft. The Scarecrows are still holding out hope that Griggs attends minicamp.

The draft started to die down, and the Scarecrows found themselves on the clock again at 40. They were in a similar situation as they were at pick 32 with a very limited selection of prospects available. With the 40th pick, Theodore Sober joined the squad. A near mirror image of Griggs, Sober is a winger with a very well rounded skillset, not really excelling in any one category. It is unknown whether Theodore Sober fell off the wagon or whether he will join the Scarecrows for minicamp as well.

Looking Ahead
The Scarecrows find themselves in a peculiar position heading into this season. A team riddled with uncertainty, the only certain thing they have is the right minds in management to extract the best possible results from the roster they have. Will this team end up contenders for the Cup again? Or will they find themselves on the post-dynasty drought that Kelowna had for a number of seasons? These questions will be answered in due time, but for now, all St Louis fans can do is place their trust in the Scarecrow management.