Um... I'm a bit taken aback at this thread. Everything I shared with you yesterday night was honest @DollaBill. I said I didn't think we would be in a position to draft you in Seattle, and it turns out we weren't. None of it was blowing smoke, so I'm a bit hurt and frustrated by your choice of words, regardless that I understand and empathize with the anger you are feeling. I'm not sure I think it's fair to include Seattle in your list of teams you felt slighted you.

I cannot speak for any other team but Seattle, where I'm part of the war room but final decisions are not mine. We traded up and got the top earner (currently 336 TPE) in the class at 5th overall after not having a first round pick this year. The player made it clear to a lot of other teams that he loves the city of Seattle and wanted to play for our SHL team; we did what I think was a responsible thing and made moves to get a first gen SHL player, like yourself, who was a top earner and deadset on joining the Argonauts. The alternative was to have a user who knew where he wanted to be potentially leave the site/become unhappy with another team for a few seasons, or to see if he'd fall all the way to 26th where we picked first and have the rest of the league feel bitterness at us getting a top prospect midway through the 2nd round. I don't feel any of that is a slight to you.

I think you can ask anyone else in SEA management that from the second they drafted you in Colorado, I was ringing the pro-Sota bell in Seattle. That continued into this weekend, even as I knew Daud Ramza was the guy at the very very top of my GM's draft board.

While I empathize with you, I want to point out a few things to make sure the facts are clear. You are currently ranked 18th in the class in TPE earned at 297, tied with Eero Makela and Robot Sunfish. That's a great clip earning in a very solid class. 11/17 earners ahead of you are recreates who had at least one player prior to their current one. Some of these were long-time successful players; others like Kenitoh, gucci, Randominoe, gaby, and micool, fell short of their goals on their first players, and may have caused some concern that they'd repeat not being a max earner on a new player (this is pretty common). Recreates come with more track record/relationships (and sometimes get a small leg up in early TPE at the trade deadline) but also sometimes more baggage which scares teams off. At my quick glace, I think only 10 recreate players were drafted in the top 24 of the draft (the picks preceding you joining SFP at 25). There were even 1-2 recreates with higher TPE earnings who fell into the mid 2nd or even later, and a few recreates whose personal choices led them to being undrafted.

I think the more interesting and important trend is that 10 of the first 24 picks were used on defensemen, including the first four picks of the draft. 15 total dmen were taken in the first two rounds, which continues to highlight there is a real need at the SHL level for defensemen. I think it's fair to say at this point with everything that's happened over the last 5-8 seasons, high earning first gen defensemen are probably the most valuable prospect category in the league. All else equal, a lot of teams will take a dman over a forward. This is something you probably didn't know as a new user; I wasn't familiar with the needs and ebb/flow of the SHL when I joined, either! It took me a little time to get my feet wet.

Teams consider a lot of different things as they are building their draft boards. I tried to mention in passing in the LR that on-ice production as a rookie isn't something that really gets factored into the draft value for most teams/GMs. Coming in for the first time, I absolutely see how that could be confusing or even frustrating! I'd be happy to talk more about my experience and what I've seen SHL teams focus in on over my 15 season career, if you would be interested.

I hope this doesn't discourage you away from the site. I meant what I said to you yesterday, and think you can continue to have a great career and be an awesome member of Colorado and the site.

I would love to talk more with you; my DMs are open if you want to chat. I understand if you won't want to, especially right now. Best of luck in San Francisco.