One of the best teams that I have seen in the SHL was the Calgary Dragons in the late S20s. I joined the league in S27 and during that season the Calgary Dragons became the Challenge Cup champions. Then in my second season in the SHL playing for the Hamilton Steelhawks we lost the cup finals to the Dragons in 7 games.

The Dragons were such a successful team that we will he taking a deep dive into the team and the players who made it up and helped it do what it did!

The captains of the team in this time were Sachimo Zoidberg and Kriss Labsvards. These players were both defenseman who played a tough game and they were very important pieces in their team winning the cup. Labsvards retired after the cup win in S27 which left the door open for Zoidberg to lead the team on the next time around.

The teams featured a lot of famous players who have been recognised as the SHL’s best in their career! These include Randy Randleman who had been the first overall draft pick in the S25 season. He was getting started in his career in S27 but in S29 he would have been one of the best players on the team and the future MVP was very important in helping his team win the second cup in 3 seasons!

The Dragons also had the SHL’s all time leading scorer on their team at this time. Esa Anrikkanen is thought of by some people as being the greatest SHL player ever and he was able to win many cups with the team but it was during the S20s that Esa was at his most dominant and was able to help the Dragons be the best team during the late S20s. The wins in the S20s were the first of 5 cups that Anrikkanen would win with the team in a unbelievably successful career.

The goaltender that the Dragons had during these seasons was also someone who is thought of as one of the greatest of all time. Hunter Wong is a hall of fame player who won a lot of awards during his time with the team as well as 3 cups, but these were also the first of his successes with the team and his strong play helped carry the team all the way to the cup! Goalie play is so hard to get right during a run to the cup but Calgary were very lucky to get the kind of play they did from Wong!

The Dragons had a great team during the S20s and I think that they should be remembered as one of the all time bests. They also won the cup again in S32 and many more times after so they had the foundations for greatness in place. They really did get it done when they had to so congratulations to them for their success and it has been very interesting to look into some of the players who were on the team back then. I have bad memories of losing to the team in the finals it is made easier by the fact that they were such a great team.

Approved! +5 TPE @treant