04-04-2022, 12:28 PMsköldpaddor Wrote:

04-04-2022, 11:34 AMFuzzSHL Wrote: Even with Newfoundland, their focus wasn't and isn't on winning. Their winning is a byproduct of their focus on their culture, locker room environment, and helping out first gens as much as humanly possible. Their focus on development is the key reason they are winning the way that they are. I do think you'll see a team here and there go a bit too "all in" in pursuit of winning, but 9 times out of 10 you aren't going to see that in the J.

suuuper agree with this. I see people all the time referring to Newfoundland as "hamilton junior" or whatever and I really think that has the incredibly undesirable side effect of making it seem like they are identical situations because of a similar symptom (oh no, one team is winning everything all the time and it's not fun for the rest of us). imo, Newfoundland is dominant because they are both good at FHM and extremely good at the other GM stuff like drafting well, signing free agents, and keeping those players active and engaged. This is one of my pet peeves here too because that second set of stuff is the stuff that should factor in heavily when it comes to a team being dominant. Equating the HAM/NL situations is detrimental to having a productive conversation about either league.

just a rancid take. what exactly do you think hamilton is doing?