1. Trivia word: helstrom

Quote:2. Written, 3 TPE, What if...? (150 words min.)

Pick a moment in SHL history to change. It could be something large, an expansion draft, sim engine change, or something smaller, like a trade or team punishment. Change something about this moment in the SHL and explain the impact the difference would make in how the league developed since that moment. (think Butterfly Effect)

It's Game 7 of the S55 SHL finals between Buffalo and New Orleans. Both teams have been given the night off to test tactics, with visions of the Challenge Cup dancing in their heads. Even though Buffalo won Game 6 6-1, the next morning's rubber match is a tightly-fought battle and it goes to overtime tied 2-2. In the extra frame, Specters forward Nicholas Williams gets a breakaway, but is robbed by Stampede goalie Elizabeth Doyle. Buffalo goes on to win the game and the championship, but it's not until after the game that the drama really starts. New Orleans is revealed to have submitted a roster with eight of nine forwards having the Aggressive Forechecker role, and five of six defensemen having the Two-Way Defenseman role. While this was after a similar incident with the Goon role had already led to a rule change limiting the number of these "special" roles that could be used, this sparked a huge debate over player agency and GM freedom versus HO regulation of strategies. This fight was bad enough in a series that NOLA lost, but in an alternate universe where Doyle doesn't stop that breakaway it could have been nuclear. As well, if these strategies aren't outlawed, who knows how the next few seasons would have played out? The meta would have further dropped to this, and perhaps we might have even looked into changing engines again if it ruined parity.

Quote:3. Written, 3 TPE, Draft Kings (150 words min.)

Pick a draft class in the SHL that you believe had the most impact on the SHL. It can be a consensus pick, like S36, 31, or 53, or an off-the-board one (S41?). Explain your reasoning to why this draft class impacted the league; Could be in a good way, or a bad way.

I think S53 will end up being one of the most significant classes in the league when it's all said and done. First off, the draft class has produced several 2000 TPE players already with more likely on the way, and several players are already racking up significant accolades. However, the true impact of this class has to come through their off-ice contributions to management and other areas, particularly through the first-gen players. @roastpuff is the IIHF commissioner and helping to make it an event people get excited about. @sve7en and @Faelax give us the weekly scoop on league happenings through their podcast and 7 does a great job as the Events Team head to make our drafts cool. In management, Sve7en, @mastersheep, @LordBirdman, @reid, @Nhamlet, @juke, @EricNCSU, @Zomp, and myself are all users who have been and/or currently are GMs for a wide variety of teams, driving activity in locker rooms and turning out winning rosters. Reid, @Patty and I help(ed) keep the league going with our tenures in HO, and @Zombiewolf does a great job as updating head. In addition to being one of the best rosters on the ice, we've gotten high-level people into so many positions, to the extent where at one point over 1/4 of the SMJHL GMs were S53 first-generation players. I don't know if there's any other class that can claim to have produced this many on- and off-ice gems, and I'm looking forward to our peak year. Go S53!

Quote:Prompt 6.b: Almost ten seasons ago, in S53, Hamilton enjoyed a 40 win season while Texas mustered a measly 9 wins. Now these two teams sit atop the season standings, and the playoff standings. Which is more impressive, to stay good for a decade, or to complete the rebuild and finally achieve greatness?

I would argue that staying good for a long time is more difficult. Over the past few seasons, we've seen teams such as San Francisco, Tampa and Baltimore become good in a short period of time by blowing up the entire team for picks and young players and starting over with a young core whose primes will all align to build a super-team. Hamilton, meanwhile, has continually drafted, developed and acquired players to keep their dynasty going for the entire lifetime of FHM so far.

12: Milestones +3 TPE

Quote:13. Written, 3 TPE, Parody (150 words min.)

There has been some discussion on the forums but its always good to hear more opinions: Parity. Going back 6 seasons including this one there have been 4 teams in the finals: Buffalo, Chicago, Hamilton, and Texas. If you add New Orleans you can go back 8 seasons. 5 different teams for 8 straight finals. Is this an issue? Does it need to be fixed? Can it even be fixed? I'm interested to hear opinions, approaches, or just doom and gloom on whether you think this will change, or if we will still be talking about the same teams making the finals over and over in 5 seasons.

Parity is a very interesting topic and I don't think there's necessarily an easy solution here. One of the leaders in figuring out the "meta" of the sim has unsurprisingly been Hamilton, to the point where when I looked at the tactics before Round 2 this season, almost every team who made it to the final 8 was running some variant of the Hamilton strategy with almost the same sliders and only minor changes to the global tactics. It's tough to really create parity in a league where money doesn't necessarily mean as much because the top players don't necessarily get paid commensurate to their talent level. Players with high TPE and comfortable bank accounts are fine to take less money to help get better players on the margins elsewhere, and I can't say that Edmonton isn't part of that as well. I think it might get to the point where the only ways to enforce parity will either be to instill an even harsher salary cap structure that isn't linear (perhaps, say, a 7 or 8 million dollar minimum for players over 1800-1900 TPE), reducing the salary cap to force teams to make difficult decisions, or even switching engines to a new one that stops testing.

TPE: 14 + trivia/16