The most unexpected event in SHL history was the final season of STHS. It was wild and had it all. You had a loaded New England team miss the playoffs in favour of a deliberately tanking Toronto team. Toronto would finish near the bottom the next season, while New England won the league. You also had a wild finals, one that was very atypical, with two teams who never went the distance finally getting there. San Francisco - with their solid defence who was never able to get it done until then, and Manhattan - who was steadily building and peaked around that season 52 mark. The Rage won, and that ended up being a one hit wonder, as the next 8 seasons saw a Great Lakes team win the majority of the time. The rage winning wasn’t super surprising, as they had several 2K forwards, a great goalie, and good roster composition, but even then, they weren’t as loaded as other teams like Hamilton or New England.