I was gonna write about Kou Saotome's life, but instead I'm gonna be petty and talk about how the most surprising event to me in SHL history was not one, but two high earning players going undrafted in the SHL Draft last season. Like, I understand some teams not wanting to deal with potential locker room issues, but that was something else. Even real life teams draft locker room cancer if the player is good and in the SHL you can literally just not bring them into the locker room. If they're wiling to stay out of your locker room, then draft them for the player on the ice, ya know? I mean, this was a situation that's led to conversations about constrictive roster limits and expansion when it should also be considered from a human perspective. Think about how people feel when you tell them they're not wanted. All this fanfare every year for BellLetsTalk, but apparently there's enough people who don't want to confront the idea that they might be the ones who are perpetuating harmful environments.
So yeah, the most surprising thing was for that to happen to two high-earning users at the same time. And also almost happening to me twice, Rocky was drafted so low that other teams had passed on their pick instead of taking her. The fact that this happened to me twice, something should be done to prevent it from happening that often.