I think the biggest unexpected surprise in my SHL life so far was definitely not a good one. It was Joe K’s final season of his illustrious career. Being from Buffalo, I always wanted to play for the Stampede (I even attempted to consider leaving Calgary to go there many moons ago) just to play for my hometown team. It never happened, considering I ended up getting my own franchise in New Orleans and as a result my player was tethered there as well. Finally, in my retirement year, I was able to play for Buffalo. It was awesome, and there was a part of me that wanted the Buffalo – New Orleans cup finals that season. Fun fact, that happened. Other fun fact, I wasn’t a part of it. I was unceremoniously dumped at the trade deadline completely out of nowhere (on my end) to SFP so Buffalo could acquire Eko van Otter (who was just awarded an expansion team at the time). I get it it from Buffalo’s end. Getting a 1200 TPE upgrade over an old member who was about to retire for a cup run made sense. It just sucked to get dumped on the league’s worst team, along with a 4th rounder, for “future considerations”. That was easily my most unexpected “surprise” ever. (217)