In the east, I like both Buffalo and New England as the top teams in S54.  Buffalo doesn’t have too many players fighting regression yet, they just made a trade to pick up Matt Kholin, and Elizabeth Doyle will make her debut in net next season.  New England just acquired Benjamin Blue as well and while Wagstrom and Kirkby are now both regressing, they are still going to be near the top in TPE while others are still climbing.

In the west, I think New Orleans and Calgary will be the top teams.  Calgary’s defense has a couple of years before regression and most of the forwards are still quite young so they should be up near the top again next season.  New Orleans is almost a mirror image of Calgary in this respect and I think they both do well next season.

A dark horse that I think will disrupt things is a bit of a homer pick: the Baltimore Platoon.  They are supposed to be transitioning, but this team won a great deal of games down the stretch after acquiring Geoff Moore from Minnesota and will be debuting forwards Indigo Trevino and Henrik Lundqvist Jr, who are ready to make the jump now.


I have to pick Gabriel Johnson of the Hamilton Steelhawks for this as the best defenseman.  As the current S48 class leader in TPE and now co-GM of the Steelhawks, he is clearly the prime candidate to receive some major accolades soon.  He already has terrific offensive skills and with a few more seasons, will be much more of a well-rounded defender.  Because of that, I believe he will win the Scott Stevens Trophy for the best defenseman in the league in a few seasons as he approaches his peak and could also win the Lance Uppercut Trophy as part of the best GM duo if the Steelhawks continue draft well and continue their winning ways.


With the addition of advanced statistics, I think an award for the player who is considered the luckiest player in the league should be given. Giving this to the player with the highest PDO for the season is a bit boring though and instead a player with a very high PDO and perhaps a low Corsi or even a low Corsi relative to the rest of his club would be a great candidate for this.

A player to award it to would be Rintarou Okabe of the Buffalo Stampede and as the first recipient, I would also consider naming the award after him. Okabe had 16 points this season, but much of that appears to be luck as the team faced more shots while he was on the ice than anyone on the team except Aron Hernadivic and also had the fewest shots on net than anyone else. It seemed that the netminders would step up while he was on the ice and therefore a lot of what occurred may be considered luck.


Unfortunately, I’m going to pick the boring answer here and say that the popular and high TPE teams like the USA and Canada will do very well at this even compared to before.  With the randomness of STHS gone, the big hockey powers are likely going to squash the other teams.  However, it may really come down to tactics and FHM can sometimes favor the smaller club with the better tactics and with one game per round anything could happen.

I believe that the USA this season has a very good shot at winning this season and will look to build off of their bronze medal finish last season.  Rosters aren’t finalized yet, but likely back are a terrific top line in Lil Manius, Cameron Carter II, and Nicholas Williams, with top pairing Otis B. Driftwood and Slip McScruff leading the way.  Goalie Aleister Cain who may win an award for best goaltender of the year will be in net and is the highest TPE goalie in the league and could steal a game or two.


Tony Pepperoni is my candidate for best player in the finals.  He has the most points so far in the postseason racking up 3 goals and an incredible 12 assists in 11 games and is such a huge part of the Edmonton run.  FHM likes him too putting his game rating at a league best of 80 in the postseason.


Tony Pepperoni, Flacko Lagerfield, Aaron Wilson, Tig Murphy, Karlstrabe Scholz, Geezus Kryyst

With this lineup I get the better of the two goalies by almost all measures and the stats back this up.  Murphy and Scholz complement each other very well.  Murphy has great balance, strength, and passing, while Scholz has an elite shot and can skate like the wind.  My forward group is just an incredible mix of talent.  Pepperoni can just about do it all and be the playmaker of the group.  Lagerfield would be the sniper and Wilson would be the one bullying his way to the net.


thesheep

Total TPE: 16/16