1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

Reflection on your season - how did your player fare on the ice this season? Did you meet or surpass your individual player goals or did you come up short? Whether you excelled or disappointed - what can you attribute that to? What will you try to do better next season?

Overall, it was a pretty positive season for Hartmann. In his final season in the SMJHL, he set career highs with 19 goals, 22 assists and 41 points while skating on one of the more underrated top lines in the SMJHL with Daniil Nikiforov between Hartmann and Bryce McMahon. When all stats were taken into account as well as the role he played, the SMJHL's "Game Rating" system that evaluates players statistically based on the role they play, Hartmann had the second-best number in the entire SMJHL with a Game Rating of 72/100, behind only Quebec City Citadelles centre Alexander Roach. The playoffs were rather disappointing though, as the Whalers' top line was largely neutralized in the first-round series against the St. Louis Scarecrows with only 2 points and 6 shots in the four-game sweep. While the depth carried the team through to the second round, Hartmann faced a different obstacle against Carolina: puck luck. Hartmann had 18 shots in the four-game series, including 8 in Game 1 and 6 in Game 3, but could only score a single goal on Carolina Kraken goalie Blunt Man, which came on a breakaway late in Game 4 on his 18th shot. The two huge missed opportunities to score in this series came on a scrambling chance in Game 3 where Man fully extended to rob Hartmann on the doorstep, and another breakaway earlier in Game 4 which was stopped. Both of those games ended in a one-goal margin, so there was a huge missed opportunity to tie the games on those chances. In the offseason with a call-up to the Edmonton Blizzard looming, Hartmann has been training harder than ever to improve on his skills in all areas of his game.

2. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min.)

This offseason will be extra exciting, as it features the rare expansion draft! Write about how you think the expansion draft will play out, either for one or both of the expansion teams or from an SHL team's perspective.

Since I don't know how Tig or Hotdog will approach this draft in terms of what players they'll pursue, so I'm going to try to go team by team to see who they'll lose. Starting alphabetically with the Baltimore Platoon, it's not a great start as there's really nothing on the roster that anyone would actually want to take as they're all inactive, but Kristoffer Svensson can at least provide some immediate depth to a team as an inactive player with decent TPE who isn't too far into regression yet. Moving on to Buffalo, things get really interesting as there is some real quality on the roster, but with Eko van Otter the Stampede only need to lose one player and it'll likely be Cassius Darrow, who seemingly asked to be exposed. Moving over to the Western Conference, Calgary has mostly aging options for the picking, but Oliver Klozoff and Chico Smeb are decent TPE options on defense who are just hitting regression, as Alexei Rykov is inactive and Otis B. Driftwood and Anders Christiansen are too old to be much use even at their high TPE. Chicago, back in the East, is another team without much to choose from with Cameron Carter II getting further into regression, but Patric Twist is a young prospect who couldn't be protected by the Syndicate and Nolan Sawchuk has a decent amount of TPE for a player who started regression last offseason. With the Edmonton Blizzard, they were rather in a pickle because of their deep roster and pending free agents, but someone like Bo Kane or Theo Morgan would be a huge acquisition if they can be convinced to sign with an expansion team. My guess is the other pick will be Carlos Brown, a young S53 who was a late create in his draft class but has been earning very nicely. 

The Hamilton Steelhawks, the only other team who is only losing one player, don't have a ton to pick from, but someone like Akashi Sixnine on defense has a pretty decent amount of TPE, is active, and only regresses this offseason. Next up are the Los Angeles Panthers, of which the only big exposed prize is Oliver Cleary, who wanted to hit free agency. Like Kane or Morgan, if he can be convinced to sign he'll be a huge acquisition. The other name worth mentioning is Nolan McMahon, who is somewhat inactive but is one of the few decent goalies left exposed. Everyone else on the Panthers' exposed list is either inactive or retiring at the end of the season. Moving on to Manhattan, the name that pops out is Samat Beibitzhanov, who is one of the only active goalies being dangled in this expansion draft and could be on the move. This won't hurt Manhattan too much, as Name Redacted is a faster-earning prospect who will come up to the Rage next season, but the other name will likely be either a decent forward in Luca Veccelli with a few seasons until regression, or a veteran defenseman in Geoff Moore or Reginald MacIntyre. Minnesota is next up, and apart from a moderately earning goalie in Separa Borro and a recently returned inactive in C.T. Carragher there's really nothing on the exposed list that teams will be jumping to draft. New England is another team that has exposed mostly old guys or inactives, but the names that pop out are Maximilian Egger, an aging but still-decent defenseman, and Andrei Kostitsyn is a young but enigmatic prospect with some value. The New Orleans Specters have the chance to be a part of a historic (see what I did there?) moment, as Aleister Cain was exposed with New Orleans opting to go with the young option in Olli Saarinen Jr. If Cain is picked up, which he easily could be due to the dearth of goalie options on the market, he'll be the first player to be selected in two expansion drafts. For the other pick, I'm going with Boris Poroshenko, a 1500 TPE centre who hasn't hit regression yet. 

With the San Francisco Pride, there's not much on the list as they begin their hard rebuild under the gun of a $12 million cap penalty, but there are still some names. Kriss Darzins is looking to hit free agency but his negotiation rights could be picked up in expansion, and Steven Moyer is an aging but talented centre. Other than that, it's basically all inactive players. Tampa Bay also doesn't really have anyone who is a major expansion target, with the recently returned Fred Wanesly being a possibility. Moving on to Texas, the Renegades were unfortunately unable to keep everyone, but have two huge talents exposed in Kaarlo Kekkonen and Alexander Wachter. Toronto has Keith Lee exposed but only inactives beyond that, and to finish out the list of teams Winnipeg has only inactives to take.

Task 3, 2 TPE (100 words min)

Travel doesn't really exist in FHM, so a major issue is out of the way there, so the big question for introducing a cross-oceanic SHL team comes down to market interest. A common candidate in the NFL is London, and a ISFL team already exists there, but Britain isn't as much of a hockey hotbed, so I think the main destinations in Europe where a SHL team could succeed would be Stockholm or Helsinki, places where hockey is already a huge winter sport. Sweden has a rich history of hockey players and would be a great addition. The main issue would be finding divisions that make sense. Let's say Stockholm gets a team, and for the sake of balance let's also go with Frith's Mexico City idea. The Pacific Division in the Western Conference would be Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Calgary and Edmonton, and now we're stuck. There's no easy way to break up the Great Lakes division to have just five teams in it, as ideally Minnesota or Winnipeg stay together. This would have been so much easier if Hotdog put his team in Columbus or somewhere near the Great Lakes instead of Atlanta.

4. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min.)

Which SHL or SMJHL team was the best team to not make the finals this season and why?

I'll say it right out: the Carolina Kraken were the best SMJHL team to not make the Four Star Cup finals, and it's not even really their fault. The top line of Jimmy Wagner, Linus Grimstad and Vitek Vitecek was absolutely lethal and a big part of the sweep of the Vancouver Whalers in the second round. They had depth up and down the lineup on forward and defense with players like Dwight Knight, Panda Panico and Kwame Dakari on the second line chipping in, along with a deep defense led by Ambacas Cuddles. In net, the Kraken had Blunt Man, who was massive in the playoffs. It's possible that the first-round series goes very differently if Man didn't make two huge saves on William Hartmann in Games 3 and 4. And due to a wonky playoff format with no reseeding after the second round, Carolina's reward for looking great in a series sweep was getting to play the first-seeded Newfoundland Berserkers in the semifinals, where they lost to a more talented team. Honourable mention goes to Anchorage, who had a very deep defense and a historic season by Scoochie Stratton wasted by blowing a 3-1 lead with home-ice advantage and losing in seven games to Maine.

Task 13 (1 TPE, 50 words min).

e) It should be obvious from my avatar that the otter is the coolest animal in this series with names. Sea otters are incredibly cute and also very smart, being one of the few animal species that uses tools, since they use rocks to break open food. Also, mother sea otters carry their pups around on their chests like little life rafts to keep them out of the cold water, and will wrap them up in kelp when looking for food to stop them floating away. 

Task 14 (written, 100 words min, 2 TPE):

For the series MVP, I'm going with Elizabeth Doyle. I know I tend to be somewhat biased towards goalies, but Doyle clearly deserved it here. In 17 games, she only allowed 32 goals, with 17 of those coming in the finals. In particular at home, Doyle was locked down in the clutch, winning three one-goal games in the finals, including two in overtime, capped off by a dramatic overtime victory in Game 7 featuring an overtime breakaway save on Nicholas Williams that would have won the Cup for the Specters. You need great goaltending to go far in the playoffs, and a 1.86 GAA and .927 save percentage is certainly the way to go there.

Task 16:

Trivia word: snuffulufagus

TPE: 14 + trivia/16