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JHS · 08-20-2015, 11:19 PM

After the draft, I was asked a few times what I thought of each teams' draft and how they would stack up. I figured, after reading BeanSobie's fantastic article located here, that I would share my opinions on the draft for all you SMJHL'ers out there, because you might be interested in a GM's take on the matter. When it comes to being a GM in this league, you really have to size up your competition, and especially come playoff time, know what line tweaks you'll have to make to gain the upper hand. So without further ado, lets get this thing started.

Whalers

Vancouver Whalers Whalers

There is a golden rule in GM'ing: To know how to defeat the other teams, you have to know your own. Heading into the draft, there was a singular thought on my mind: My team needed defense. With my first 4 picks, I originally had a strategy: If Danny Tanner or Conall Macleod fell to 5, I'd take them, otherwise my 2 first rounders, second rounder, and third rounder would be devoted to defense. Tanner seemed set to drop, but he was taken at 4, so I had a decision to make. As it turned out, the decision was easy, because somehow Wyatt Wolker fell to us. I mean, everyone knew that this would be a defense heavy draft, so they all went about scooping the few talented forwards they could before it was too late. I, on the otherhand, didn't need to bother with that, so I was able to pick up the premier defensive talent right away. I can safely say that Wyatt Wolker, Cody Black, and Alexei Orlov have a chance to be the best rookie Trifecta in the entire league (thats right, im looking at you DT). I was hoping we could nab Seth Trollins to make it 3 originally, but I ended up having to go with Benza, who I was less familiar with but who I now realize might have even greater upside. We ended up with Fuller, who rounds out our core of defenseman, and he's on the lower end of active but still a solid pickup. At the end, we picked up an inactive who is friends with Hoover IRL and might come back, and an inactive backup goalie.

We ended up rounding out on the offensive side on the puck with Patrick McEichel, Rick James, and Valentin Makarov. Though underrated, these 3 are nice, active additions to the team, and will be very important on the lower lines. The secret to winning in the SMJHL is depth, and when you have this kind of talent on one of the lower lines, you're guarenteed to win a ton of hockey games. I was extremely suprised and proud at how my drafting turned out, especially after that debacle last year, and I have a feeling that we'll be challenging for the 4 star cup once again.

At the end of the day, I accomplished my goal of solidifying my defense and then some. Although losing Zach Hoover was a unexpected blow, I got Patrikov Bure and VLAD Mczherl back, both of whom I was expecting not to recieve. In that, the loss of Hoover and Ballard was pretty much washed away, and even defeated. I expect Geoffrey Allen to have a breakout year, and I think the top line might end up leading the league in scoring. I see almost no holes on our lineup, and despite a bit of a weakness at goalie, No Nerves has been solid thus far in the preseason and it might lead to a deep playoff run if he stays solid. At the end, this is the draft I was hoping for.

The Competition

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COLORADO

If the Mammoths had this kind of draft in their second or third season in the league, they'd be cup contenders. To TDW's credit, he pulled off one of the best strategies to making a expansion team competitive fast: drafting recreates. With Byrd, 44, jason, and astorino, Dog, Stud, and Giova, as well as my boy Dan, this is a fantastic way to build a competitive team fast. TDW is going to become the new me, people are going to call him out for getting the GM spot "above people who are more worthy" and call him a scrub just like they did to me. However, I silenced them by winning a cup, and if he keeps on like this, he'll soon do the same. They're balanced on both sides of the ice, and they added my expansion addition in Volchenkov, who will be a huge defensive piece for them just like he was for us. Treat him well TDW

Tactical Breakdown/How to play them

Like any expansion team, the Mammoths' weakness in their first season in the league will be their depth. Although they may exit this period faster than others as a result of this draft, they will not be able to do anything about it for this season at least. Their other weakness lies in their management. While this last draft shows that TDW and Laflamme are capable at least in the building department, neither have much experience in the sim and therefore will be easier to outmanuever.

Because of this, my advantage lays in my superior depth. I think it's safe to say that with this draft, the Whalers could arguably be considered the deepest team in the league. With their GM's relative unfamiliarity with the sim, they likely will unable to know how to read their opponent's lines and change theirs accordingly. McZ being on the second line is already an extreme scoring threat to a team that lacks depth, but if I wanted to I could switch Paska Jakaitis to the third pairing and let him boost that line offensively, or I could give the 2nd line a bit more time and try to catch their third pairing sleeping.

HALIFAX

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The Raiders, fundamentally, have the same problem as the Mammoths: their lack of depth. However, they lack one thing the Mammoths posses: a solid base in their LR to work off of. While Bottas's moves proved he's no slouch, his locker room doesnt seem to posses the type of character that Colorado will be starting off with. Conall McCleod was a terrific pick, perhaps the most talented non-recreate to come out of the draft. thus far. Petr Kolesnikovs could turn out to be a decent pick on their end, however I think for someone who was formerly semi-active I think BeanSobie overrated him in his writeup. Jamie's been inactive for a while, so I doubt she'll regularly update her player, but if she does good for them. With the shit that her and Alex put the league up with, it doesnt seem like people will want to go to Halifax for a while. That being said, Bottas seems shrewd in his ability to make trades, so i'm sure his talent will come in handy in building this team for the future. Although they aren't developing at as fast of a pace as Colorado, they seem to be on an average course for an expansion team and will soon be competitive. And honestly, I wasnt crazy about Bottas picking Flacko as co. Don't get me wrong, Flacko's a good guy, but there's a ton of guys around the SHL who are waiting for their shot, and I wouldve given it to somebody who's been here longer. I guess he has his reasons, though.

Strategic Breakdown

Pretty much the same as COL only slightly easier.

Knights

KELOWNA

God, this is schadenfreude in it's highest form. Very subpar draft for this team, and the Veenstra trade made it even worse. Jedi is a fantastic GM, and although this is probably the very lowest point in his GM'ing career, he still has a core to rely on. As rivals, I love seeing this team when they're down, but because the Knights are the Knights, dont let their appearance of weakness fool you. They'll be back and better than ever shortly. As for now though, this weak draft sets the Whalers up for a better chance to make the finals yet again, and that is good enough for me. I do have to say that lil's player was someone I really coveted as a late round pick. I was actually about to take her tbh

Strategic Breakdown

Although their subpar draft leaves them weak on the lower lines, their top lines are too dangerous to move down any important pieces. We have enough of an advantage as it is on the lower lines, so I'd probably just stick to my guns on this one.

In particular, the return of Randy Randleman might just be the saving grace for this hockey club. He, like McZ, is a 2nd time send down from the Dragons. A scoring threat, he'll get to team up with 2 talented forwards in Vilhjalmsson and Koviev to lead a still dangerous top line. That first line, and Maria Maximova on the first pairing, show that they arent entirely weak. If Whooves keeps up the type of numbers she's been having in the preseason, expect her to have a breakout year.

Their weaknesses are apparent pretty much once you go down from the first line and pairing. While these kind of holes can usually be negated by a good goalie, they will be forced to work with an unproven rookie in net. Their second pairing is very weak, and despite a decent send down in Tony Flow anchoring that second line, it really isnt too dangerous. Their lower two pairings are, unfortunately, almost non existant, and it seems that teams will have no problems exploiting this defensively. Too many question marks on the lines in terms of draft picks makes me think this was a bad draft for them.

:impact: MONTREAL :impact:

With his final act as Montreal GM, ArGar did his best to help set this team up for the future. Karpotsov, Grundmanis, Mack, and Andersson will be a solid core for Bloobs to build this team around. It remains to be seen if he can repeat the success that Argar had, as he took this team to the brink of once again becoming a force to be reckoned with, and Bloobs could either make this reset or he can complete it. He has the pieces, but if it's gonna happen it's going to happen this season. I'd say at this point in time, the Impact are looking like the biggest threat to our repeat chances.

In terms of their draft, they had a decent draft, and took some good recreates along with some promising rookies. Mack is a question mark, since he scrapped his player after a season, so they'll have to hope he's happy enough with his output that he wont want to change it all around again. Josh and Grundmanis will be great additions to the LR, and while andersson might not be a great LR addition (unless he drops the gimmick in the LR, idk) he'll be a solid backup tendy to Ciarelli. All in all, it was a good draft for Montreal.

Strategic Breakdown

I'm going to go with what worked last season. Just stick to our lines and good things will happen. That being said, I think there are a few things I might tweak should we have the opportunity to play them once again in the finals, however I'd like to keep that close to my chest and let Bloobs sweat about it Tongue

Their lines are extremely stacked, looking at it now. Flacko will be an absolute stud this season, and working with a veteran like Josh (Karpotsov) might turn him into a points king this time around. Jesster is looking like one of the most dangerous players in the league, and in my opinion Falk and Welch are two of the most underrated players in the league. A casual observer might not be privy to this, but that first line would make any GM sweat. Reacher is an iffy active on that 3rd line, Mack recreated I think and I dont know much about zunino, but it seems to be a decent line all in all.

That being said, I'm immediatly drawn to their defense as their big question mark. They went into the draft needing it almost as bad as we did, but we managed to fill the need more than they. Morenov and Wolff arent pushovers, but its after that where I see where the Whalers would take the advantage. They have to double shift Morenov on both the 1st and 3rd pairings, and with his endurance stat only on a decent level he'll be tired and commit a lot of penalties. That means playing against the Impact, our awesome powerplay will be able to work its magic, and as a result I have a feeling we'll win some hockey games.

They have the advantage in the goalie department, I'll give them that. Ciarelli was an absolute stud last season and continues to improve, and while I'm not a huge fan of Andersson's gimmick he'll be a solid goalie for their future.

Scarecrows

ST LOUIS

A combination of shit luck and poor judgement left Cuffy and co not very happy over in STL. Don't get me wrong, I respect the hell outta Cuffy, but you were on their no sign list you fucker, use your brain. You ended up having to deal and got a whole lot less than you had, and yet all of this could've been avoided with common sense. You and I are friends so I know you wont take this badly, but still, damn dude. Also, the whole steve french thing was fucked and you know it. Since he's your player, he's obviously going to be good, but damn dude, you fuckin blew it twice in one offseason. You're a good GM usually, but you pulled a JHS on this one.

Your one outstanding pick was taking Keenan (Clayton Goode) but I'm still butthurt that he had the Whalers last on his rankings despite us playing on team USA together so it's cool that he didnt come here. Troy was another solid pickup, he probably won't be a star but he'll be a reliable piece, which I guess will work for ya. You're going to have to pull off a great draft next season or your ass is grass.

Strategic Breakdown
How the fuck do you STILL not have your lines up?

Falcons

DETROIT

I'm excited to play against Schmitty, honestly. I love the guy, it's so great to see he got a job when he so truly deserved it. c is good at keeping a team active and energized, but imo Schmitty has to keep him in check a bit, as Michael can get a bit too passionate and say/ do things he shouldn't (A bit like me, but more in a team related way). I like Clards though, don't get me wrong.

Many people dont know this, but for a long time Schmidt has been running an intra squad series for the platoon during the offseason. Because of this, I know that he is pretty familiar with the sim, and not a force to be taken lightly as others might view him. Schmidt and c seem like they'd work well together, so the GM'ing is not really an issue for them

Schmitty did well with what he had for this offseason, but it doesn't seem to be enough to make this team as dangerous as it's been in the past. As much as I want to see TIm Tebow take this team to the Superb Owl (Yeah guys, I actually did listen to the podcast) I cant see any team that has Salabanzi on its second pairing win a cup. They'll have some picks to work with next season, which is a start, and McLaren is a piece I've tried to trade for in the past and really covet, so thats a good move for them, but aside from Buckner and Stromberg I dont really see any value in their picks. I like Mitchell, but theres a good chance he goes inactive again. The Tebow, Bowden, and Subban trades gave a lot for a little, and that killed any chance for a better rating from me

Strategic Breakdown

Is it just me, or have their offense send downs been here for a long ass time? Their center position is weak, but Schmitty has mixed his lines together well and based it on player type chemistry instead of TPE levels, telling me that this team really isnt to be taken lightly.

However, a master GM can only do so much when he's missing pieces. And on the defensive side of the puck, Schmitty's missing a lot of them. Jasper Clayton is a stud, but there isnt a lot of depth behind him, and so Detroit will have to lean a lot on Lemeiux, and only time will tell if that will work out. I'd liken their goalie situation to ours at this point, only we're much better defensively.

There's two things that will end up killing this team: the lack of a proven scorer and a subpar Penalty Kill Unit. Despite having a decently deep forward corps, they'll have to rely on players who arent specialized in scoring, which will likely lead to a scarcity in goals. On the PK end, inactive Gow is on the first pairing, which means Clayton has to lug that pylon around with him if he wants to stop the PP from scoring. Any team with a half decent unit will run rampant on this PK unit.

PGF

The firebirds are, historically, the shittiest SMJHL franchise in recent history. And with this draft, it doesnt seem like this will be changing any time soon. Honestly, Rublic is my least favorite GM to deal with, he's not very active around the boards and honestly he's not as talkative as the rest of the GM's around the league are. He was very condescending when I was a rookie GM and that is a huge reason I dislike him. And I used to like Lunaro until he went on a rampage in the Expansion thread, after which I dont know how I feel about him.

Everything was looking up for the firebirds, I was impressed with the Veenstra trade, as Jedi doesnt seem to lose trades all that often and PGF gave so much less than he was worth. However, they pretty much negated that by trading Chleb along with Pelligrino for Lewis and picks. For a team I originally thought might surprise some people, I was almost immediately proved incorrect. PGF pretty much grasped defeat from the jaws of victory on this one.

I do have to say, they grabbed a pair of very talented defensemen with Macgregor and Robertson. if the Whalers got the best class of defensemen, PGF are definetly 2nd place

Strategic Breakdown

The main thing you have to worry about is their first line. Webb, Fleming, and Nyquist are all very talented players offensively, although Nyquist doesnt really have the endurance for the type of minutes he's getting, and Flemings build has some real flaws in it, but in the SMJHL raw TPE overpowers bad builds in most cases, so it'll probably be an issue he doesnt deal with until he gets to the SHL. I'd run with the same top pairing and defensive unit, maybe even move Paska up to play with Brayne if its early in the season until Wolker gets more TPE. THeir lower lines lack any real bite, so moving our two highest TPE defensemen together wouldnt be any real risk.

Robertson and Macgregor will be a good first pairing next season, and Cynthia will be the star that powers this offense, but the second pairing seems to be very weak and every line after the first is extremely weak. If their first line has trouble scoring, they'll lose hockey games guarenteed, which is why stacking my first pairing would be a bona fide strategy. I wouldnt end up moving any scorers down to lower lines either, because i want McZherl and James to exploit that 2nd pairing hole.

In the end, as long as you're able to put out the fire that is their first line, you should be able to beat this hockey team. It's too bad Kyle Prince is inactive, or they might actually be competitive once again.

I hope you all enjoyed this article! Cheers

jason97 · 08-20-2015, 11:22 PM

interdasting

stud · 08-20-2015, 11:24 PM

this is actually what he meant.
Mammoths: We give up, we can't beat mammoths they will win the cup

RehnX · 08-20-2015, 11:25 PM

OK, I don't mean this confrontationally, and just wanna know; why does everyone keep saying the Knights had a weak draft? All of our picks are active, and drafted a recreate who's previous player is like, top 50 all time(Miller, based on the career stats page).

It's a good article, but I just don't get the constant attacks on our class this year, given the late round gems Jedi and Kelly got.

JHS · 08-20-2015, 11:32 PM

Quote:Originally posted by RehnX@Aug 20 2015, 07:25 PM
OK, I don't mean this confrontationally, and just wanna know;  why does everyone keep saying the Knights had a weak draft?  All of our picks are active, and drafted a recreate who's previous player is like, top 50 all time(Miller, based on the career stats page).

It's a good article, but I just don't get the constant attacks on our class this year, given the late round gems Jedi and Kelly got.

Well from my point of view, there's too many question marks and not enough value. You, before this draft, had been inactive/semi active for a very long time, so there's a very good chance that could happen again. Makinen was a steal for sure, and Bjornsson was an alright pick, but besides those two you didnt really get anyone that I think will make a decent impact

***micool132*** · 08-20-2015, 11:37 PM

Quote:Originally posted by RehnX@Aug 20 2015, 11:25 PM
OK, I don't mean this confrontationally, and just wanna know;  why does everyone keep saying the Knights had a weak draft?  All of our picks are active, and drafted a recreate who's previous player is like, top 50 all time(Miller, based on the career stats page).

It's a good article, but I just don't get the constant attacks on our class this year, given the late round gems Jedi and Kelly got.

RehnX · 08-20-2015, 11:37 PM

Quote:Originally posted by JHS@Aug 20 2015, 10:32 PM

Well from my point of view, there's too many question marks and not enough value. You, before this draft, had been inactive/semi active for a very long time, so there's a very good chance that could happen again. Makinen was a steal for sure, and Bjornsson was an alright pick, but besides those two you didnt really get anyone that I think will make a decent impact

Understandable I guess, well, I disagree with the premise, but it's so far a well done article, and I'll read the rest when it's finished, and I look forward to proving you wrong Cheers

(Just note; I'm not going inactive again Tongue

)

**Rich** · 08-20-2015, 11:42 PM

Good read. I think you left something out here though.

Quote:Originally posted by JHS@Aug 20 2015, 09:19 PM
I do have to say that lil's

Something about how lil is a great pick probably. Wink

Dangles13 · 08-20-2015, 11:45 PM

Quote:Originally posted by Rich701@Aug 20 2015, 09:42 PM
Good read. I think you left something out here though.

Something about how lil is a great pick probably. 

She certainly was one of the actives in the rookie LR.

JHS · 08-20-2015, 11:48 PM

Quote:Originally posted by Rich701@Aug 20 2015, 07:42 PM
Good read. I think you left something out here though.

Something about how lil is a great pick probably. 

Thanks for reminding me, I meant to fix that Tongue

**Rich** · 08-20-2015, 11:50 PM

Quote:Originally posted by JHS@Aug 20 2015, 09:48 PM
Thanks for reminding me, I meant to fix that 

It's all good. Wasn't sure if you noticed or not.

ORIGINSZ · 08-20-2015, 11:59 PM

JHS going balls the the wall here saying hell stick to his guns on the lines, and his strategy to put Mczherl on the second line Tongue

Jedi · 08-21-2015, 12:00 AM

Noted.

Alucard,Apr 14 2016, 03:33 PM Wrote:May the harvest be with you, young spud.

enigmatic,Aug 26 2016, 10:05 AM Wrote:Jedi could have 1 TPE and still improve any team

First ever Norwegian IIHF Goal!!

Code:
2. Team Norway , Jackson Rodgers-Tanaka 1 (Isabella Esparza-Osvaldson, Aleksander Andrezjeck) at 5:50

Special Thanks to Count Chocula for the Hugo G sig <3

Kevin Juice Bieksa · 08-21-2015, 12:24 AM

Quote:Originally posted by ORIGINSZ@Aug 20 2015, 07:59 PM
JHS going balls the the wall here saying hell stick to his guns on the lines, and his strategy to put Mczherl on the second line

It worked 4 me Tongue

All-time New England Wolfpack scorer
[Image: Derisraka.png]

Kevin Juice Bieksa · 08-21-2015, 12:25 AM

Quote:Originally posted by RehnX@Aug 20 2015, 07:37 PM

Understandable I guess, well, I disagree with the premise, but it's so far a well done article, and I'll read the rest when it's finished, and I look forward to proving you wrong 

(Just note; I'm not going inactive again )

2 weeks later

ANNNND HES GONE

Jk hope you stay around man Smile

All-time New England Wolfpack scorer
[Image: Derisraka.png]

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