I mean before any redistribution and even after I'd expect the same teams to be the top ones yet again. I believe that New England and Hamilton will yet again dominate a fairly weak overall eastern conference along with the likes of Manhattan as well and probably Buffalo but those 2 a lesser extent then New England and Hamilton. On the western conference side I think Edmonton, Calgary, and Los Angeles will again be pretty strong overall and then New Orleans and San Francisco will be the ones yet again battling for that last playoff spot, though NOLA will be getting stronger overall moving into next season and should have a better season. After redistribution and everyone has had a season to get used to FHM I do think some of the standings will change around slightly but overall the top teams from both sides should stay the top teams as TPE discrepancy has a much bigger effect with FHM than it ever did with STHS.

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I think the move to FHM will probably affect IIHF more so than it did the SHL or SMJHL in that the top teams will be even more noticeable. Since IIHF generally has super teams much like Canada, USA, and Czechia with how they've been built recently. Those 3 should be clear cut favorites above the rest. They will be able to role 4 lines and 3 D pairs of high TPE players to help dominate the entire competition. The issue that I actually see from this is that the smaller nations are going to be absolutely decimated with the move to FHM now. It's very difficult for smaller nations to "rebuild" like an SHL team can through drafting and while they can bring in transfers that's not always an easy feat to be able to convince people to leave a nation or transfer in from unassigned. And I think it'll be even more so of a problem now with FHM to convince anyone to transfer to a nation that they have no chance of winning with for quite some time while you have to wait for more transfers over time. More so with a transfer limit. As for Ireland I expect us to get slaughtered because of the TPE differences between teams. It'll be like high end SHL teams beating down the tanking ones though the one's aren't trying to tank because there's no reward for that in IIHF.

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A. It's a tough choice to choose the best player in the final with so many great choices. While you could argue that stats could be the final determination I do believe that stats don't always tell the tale so to me the best player is Tony Pepperoni. He has all the tools and does so well all the time on top of that anyways. But he's also a great person so he has the all around it factor.

B. Well as Hamilton has people that know the sim more than anyone else and they did win I'm going to go out on a limb and say the balance and strength advantage mattered the most. HAM was able to best many great teams on the way to their cup and I assume they had the better builds to be able to do it.

C.
F- Robert Phelps - Had a tremendous year on top of leading his team to a cup. Great all around leader on and off the ice.
F- Tony Pepperoni - Also a great player overall and a great leader. Being able to be great on and off the ice is a big factor.
F- Jean Paul Boivin - Might not have the overall stats of others but he's getting there and will continue to grow. He's a tremendous LR presence as well.
D- Karlstrabe Sholz- Huge defensive presence with veteran leadership.
D- Brady McIntyre - Been a huge Dman for a long time and knows how to come up big in big situations. Again that veteran leadership.
G- Emiko Specter - Young guy who's hitting his peak and will be great for a while.

D. I love snow. I live in a hot state that has seen "snow" like twice in my lifetime and while both times it definitely snowed it didn't even stick to the ground because it was still too warm.The few times I've been able to visit somewhere more northern in the winter and seen snow I've absolutely loved it. Though I guess the caveat is that I've never been in a huge snow storm or haven to drive in it so I guess those could change my mind.




Well like most people who did not win the challenge cup I would love to imagine a timeline that did see New Orleans actually make it to the cup and win it. I think first things first would be a timeline that our coaches did not input illegal lines and one of our top Dmen did not have a bunch of illegal training's that absolutely screwed us in the end. In that time line we're actually able to figure out what works and get the right chemistry going to beat LAP and then EDM to make the finals. We did push LAP to 7 games even with a 370 tpe dman in for 5 of those games. I'd like to think what could have happened with us having a 1200 tpe dman instead. Then of course we'd probably go on to get beat by HAM in the finals because that's how it works. We also can't go to a game 7 against anyone or we're guaranteed to lose. Thus is the NOLA life.

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