Prompt 6: (4/8 TPE - 200+)

This season was pretty miserable for Weston Windsor. After being drafted, he had a lot of expectations on him: it was expected that he would come out of the gate guns-blazing, ready to make a real difference on the Newfoundland Berserkers blueline. Instead, his offense-focused game found no real purchase, and he didn't so much as make the team's power-play for most of the year.

In the end, Windsor finished with 9 goals and 16 assists for 25 points, a marked downgrade from his rookie season and a rather meagre helping of points for a player who was advertised as an all-offense defender. It goes to show, in part, how much more difficult offensive play is for defencemen in the new SMJHL -- but it also indicates how poor defense can rob a team of offensive opportunities.

Going into the off-season, Windsor has indicated that he intends to take the defensive side of the game much more seriously going forward. Always a smooth skater, he intends to use his speed and agility to lock down opposing players even without the benefit of size and physicality. If he can make the transition to really playing the full length of the ice, then maybe -- just maybe -- he'll make next season the kind of success he'd promised for this season.

If not, then his path to the SHL is going to be rougher than anyone anticipated.

Prompt 11: (8/8 TPE - 200+)

If I was made dictator of the SHL, the first thing I would do is modify how point tasks are conducted to provide a 'free space' option for weeks where the prompts really don't feel right to you. This does present issues, like making it easier for cheaters to generate their answers, but the same could be said for some of the more comedic or referential prompts. Having an option to just ramble about a topic you enjoy in the SHL, almost like a miniature media post, might help some players complete their tasks if they simply aren't interested in the wackier or more comedic prompts that sometimes get provided -- while preserving those prompts for the people that enjoy them!

The second thing I would do, and I recognize this would be unpopular amongst coaches and general managers -- is I would allow players to swap their own roles, rather than leaving it up to the manager. I feel that players should be the ultimate decision-makers on how they want their own players to play. Instead of making a rushing defenceman and finding he's being played as a quarterback, or making a sniper only to have them be labelled an up-and-down winger, let the players themselves set their role through the portal. Maybe you have to limit changes to prevent overload on the simmers, but in the end, having players in control of the characters they create seems more rewarding than treating them like game pieces for coaches to play with as they like.