04-04-2021, 01:58 AMDollaBill Wrote:

04-04-2021, 01:48 AMJNH Wrote: Hey, I was super disappointed after my first SMJHL draft so I get what you're coming from.  I was on tilt. 

However, I don't want you to misconstrue what people have said.  Success as a player in the sim at the J level in your rookie season doesn't matter as much because rookies get uneven levels of playing time and roles on their teams, in addition to the fact that was mentioned before which is that the player build that you'll join the SHL at (~800 TPE) is vastly different than the one you're playing with at ~250 TPE during the J regular season.  It's really hard to correlate a good player from a rookie SMJHL season to their entire SHL career.

Once you get to the SHL level, success as a player in the sim obviously matters a lot more to your value but year 1 is less about on-ice success and more about your development as a member overall.  To be honest, I had you pegged as a mid-late first round talent.  You've written some really strong media pieces and have built up an impressive bank account. 

It happens every year, players fall.  Some GM's do go safer with their friends who have less TPE however that's not a you problem - that's a them problem.  If they're going to potentially handicap their team then let them.  Your team steals you in the early second AND gets someone else in the first round who's also first round calibre.  Great, now you're set up really well for the future.  Toronto had this a couple seasons ago getting SFresh & Tylar who are two of the top earners in their class in the early first & second respectively.  They came 2nd in the heaviest division in the league last year. 

It's been a long night and my brain isn't working nearly anywhere it should be.  I don't know if any of what I wrote makes sense.  End of the day, what I'm trying to say is that yes the league has an on & off-ice component.  As a known commodity, some GM's favour recreates as inherently safer because you'll know vastly more about them than anything you can gain from a week or so of scouting new prospects.  However, this doesn't stand for all GM's (as Keygan's pointed out) & this means literally nothing.  You have an entire SHL career ahead of you to read media articles about how 'you're the biggest steal of the S59 draft' and how they 'can't believe you slipped to the 2nd round'.  Pretty dope shit.

The "drafting friends" bit still bothers me, (as a competitor), but I get it. I appreciate your response. Priority of player performance in the sim matters to me. I keep referring back to my intent when joining the site. I was to play well in the sim and win championships. I value what happens in the LR, but it is all secondary to me in this game.

Yeah I get that how that could be frustrating for sure.

I guess my response to that would be that on top of familiarity for assurance of success, to a lot of people this site is a great place to de-stress with friends when you get home from school or work or whatever. People naturally want to play with their friends and that gives people who they're familiar with an extra draft stock bump. Chicago's certainly done that in the past but we've also gone for our share of first gens (all 4 of our picks this year were first gens).

Everyone joins and continues playing in the SHL for different reasons, sometimes they align with yours and sometimes like tonight they don't exactly.

Best of luck man