S49 Anchorage Armada Rookie Review
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dylanjj37
Registered Senior Member
(Draft media x2)
S49 Anchorage Armada Rookie Review In the S49 SMHJL Entry Draft, the Anchorage Armada selected 7 rookies, who all showed great promise and were expected to become essential members of the team. For some, this did happen but for others, things didn't work out. We also had new members join the team throughout the season. In this article, we will offer a thorough review of all the rookies on the team and also look at where they have been drafted in the S50 SHL Entry Draft and why they went where they did. Augustus Wang - Defenseman S49 SMJHL Draft: 14th (Round 2) S50 SHL Draft: 6th (Round 1) to the Buffalo Stampede Augustus Wang is the best defenseman on the Anchorage Armada and he is probably also the most talented young defenseman in the entire SMJHL. Wang was drafted in with the fourteenth pick in the second round of the draft. He was the Anchorage Armada's highest pick and he therefore had the most expectation on him to do well. So far, Augustus Wang has lived up to this expectation. He arrived in Anchorage, Alaska with a sponsorship deal already set in place with SHLKush.com and his very own promo code - WANG20. If you have not had the chance you should definitely remember to check it out if you would like the latest and greatest recovery out there. Wang got off to a great start with 23 points in the preseason which was higher than some players who were not rookies, these players being Brock Emmerton with 6 points and Spencer MacLean with 21 points. He was also tied for points with Jonas Larsen who was in his third season with the Anchorage Armada. Augustus Wang was already putting up enough points for someone who is not in their first season for the SMJHL and this was still before the regular season had even started. He was even the joint fourth highest scoring rookie of all the teams during the preseason. In the regular season, Augustus Wang once again was leading the rookie point scoring race for the Anchorage Armada with 17 points. In fact, with 17 points he had more points than Brock Emmerton for a second time but he also had more points than our newly elected Asscaptain, the defenseman Darnell Johnson who only managed to achieve 10 points for the team and somehow didn't manage to score any goals at all. Augustus Wang even managed to score the game winning goal at one point in the season in overtime against the Halifax Raiders. Unfortunately, Augustus seemed to stop taking his WANG20 when it came to be time for the playoffs. Wang only managed to get one assist during the entire playoffs and was the lowest point scorer on the whole of the Anchorage Armada. Even Brock Emmerton managed to score more points than Wang this time around. Thankfully, Augustus Wang's talent at fantasy hockey seems to have been a bonus for him and perhaps along with his dedication to training hard and being able to buy the best equipment due to his sponsorship deal with SHLKush.com (remember to use the promo code WANG20) he remained one of the highest rated prospects leading up to the S50 SHL Entry Draft. Wang was drafted with the sixth pick to the Buffalo Stampede, the home of former Prince George Firebirds player Oliver Konig and also the home of Otto Selich, the general manager of the Buffalo Stampede who had been spending so much time around the Armada team that everyone was expecting him to pick one of our players. The Buffalo Stampede were eager for Augustus Wang to stay up and play for them in the SHL this season, but Wang, being the great teammate that he is and all ferda bois, did not want to leave the Anchorage Armada with only one competent defenseman, the captain Darnell Johnson, so he asked to be allowed back to play in the SMJHL. Despite being sent down, the Buffalo Stampede still signed Augustus Wang to seven million dollars in the first year and four million dollars in the second year for a total of eleven million dollars over two years giving him the best contract of all the Anchorage Armada rookies who have signed so far. In the future, I can see Wang becoming a top pairing defenseman if he isn't already and perhaps he should spend some of that contract money on buying a trophy cabinet. Samuel Michaud - Defenseman S49 SMJHL Draft: 15th (Round 2) S50 SHL Draft: 18th (Round 2) to the Hamilton Steelhawks Samuel Michaud was drafted in the SMJHL Draft with the fifteenth pick, being taken after Augustus Wang. Considering he was only taken one pick after Wang, we could have expected to see a lot more Michaud but unfortunately this didn't happen. A rumour from inside Anchorage suggests that the alternative was to draft Adam Barron, who you will know by now as the recent first overall pick in the SHL Draft. Perhaps on reflection, Barron would have been a better choice for the team but we will never know now. Samuel Michaud had a strong start with the Anchorage Armada. In the preseason he only scored one goal but he also managed to get 14 assists, the second highest of all the rookies on the team. Unfortunately, Samuel Michaud managed to get only 13 assists during the regular season, even if he did also manage to get a goal. His lack of penalty minutes shows that perhaps he isn't as dedicated to the Anchorage Armada as the rest of his teammates, or that he is perhaps just a terrible defenseman. He did, however, slightly pull it together during the playoffs where he managed to get 6 assists in 13 games. He still did not score another goal though and he is possibly the reason we didn't make it past the Detroit Falcons. One of Samuel Michaud's proudest achievements is having never got into a fight in his career. However, after further investigation, it has been discovered that he has previously won a fight against Dick Trickle of the Majors during the S49 rookie tournament while he was playing for the Bighorns. He also tied a fight during the preseason after joining the Anchorage Armada. Altogether, Samuel Michaud was one of the top TPE earners during the season. Samuel Michaud should have been one of the top prospects for the S50 SHL Draft but instead he fell all the way to 18th, where the Hamilton Steelhawks were persuaded to finally draft him by his teammate Gabriel Johnson, who you may know as the best player on the Anchorage Armada, although this has now changed. Had it not been for the Steelhawks picking Samuel Michaud, he would have probably fallen even further off the board, perhaps even going undrafted. In fact, Michaud was the only Anchorage player that was drafted in both the SMJHL draft and the SHL draft to have fallen in pick number between the two drafts. This is evident in the fact that Samuel Michaud only signed 2.5 million for three years, hardly the contract expected of a top defenseman in the draft. Given that the Steelhawks already have top defenseman Gabriel Johnson on their roster, I find it unlikely that Samuel Michaud will be getting called up for the foreseeable future. Ian Venables – Goalie S49 SMJHL Draft: 33rd (Round 4) S50 SHL Draft: 13th (Round 1) to the San Francisco Pride Ian Venables, or as I like to call him, Budgie, was one of the most important draft picks for the season for the Anchorage Armada. Given that their current goalie, Colt Beckett, was probably not going to be re-signed at the end of the season, the Anchorage Armada needed to find a new goalie and they needed to find it fast. Because of this, the Armada decided to draft Ian Venables in the fourth round, using their thirty third pick to secure their goaltending future. In fact, as it turns out, Ian Venables was probably the only decent goaltender in the entire draft, as the others such as Mitchell Maverick who was drafted by Montreal Militia did not pan out as they were expected to. Venables, who was already great friends with the Armada's new star player Daniel Bischoff after playing with him in the rookie showcase, began the season with a bang. During the preseason he split the starts almost evenly with veteran goaltender Colt Beckett, playing 28 games. Venables managed to get 11 wins which was equal to the number of losses he had, although he did also have one overtime loss. Venables had a save percentage of 0.864 and a goals against average of 3.23 and also managed to get his first shut out and had the second highest penalty shot percentage with 0.941 on 17 penalty shots attempted. Given that the only goalie higher, Shiqa Vitalievich, only had 3 penalty shots attempted it is clear that Ian Venables was the obvious winner here. When it came to the regular season, Ian Venables was soon promoted into the regular starter when he took over from Colt Beckett whose lack of training had really been beginning to show. Given that the entire season was tough for the Anchorage Armada and that the blame can hardly be placed entirely on the goalies, Venables had a respectable nineteen wins in forty four games played. He also had a save percentage of 0.867 and a goals against average of 3.13 which is not bad for a rookie in his first season. In fact, he had the tenth highest save percentage in the league and the eighth highest goals against average in the league. Venables also had his second shut out and once again he maintained his excellent penalty shot percentage by coming fifth in the league with 0.821 in twenty eight penalty shots attempted. During the playoffs, Venables played all thirteen games and had six wins. He also had two overtime losses but unfortunately these do not really count for anything during the playoffs. He had a save percentage of 0.899 and a goals against average of 2.93 which gave him the fourth best save percentage and the fifth best goals against average of the entire playoffs. He was even joint third for number of wins despite the Anchorage Armada only playing for two rounds. He has even been selected to play goaltender for Canada in the upcoming World Junior Championships. In the draft, there were some teams that were clearly in need of a goaltender and being that he was the only good goaltender to come out of the draft in S49 and that there was only one other real goalie in the draft, the free agent Markus Tegernako of the Lethbridge Lions, Ian Venables was sure to go early on in the draft. As it happened, Venables managed to make the jump from fourth round in the S49 SMJHL Draft to the first round in the S50 SHL Draft, being picked at thirteenth by the San Francisco Pride, the same team that will be calling up an Anchorage Armada locker room favourite, Jonas Larsen, this season. Ian Venables signed with the San Francisco Pride for three million dollars each year for three seasons for a total of nine million dollars and he already has a no trade clause this early in his career. Daniel Bischoff – Center S49 SMJHL Draft: 35th (Round 4) S50 SHL Draft: 34th (Round 3) to the Minnesota Chiefs Daniel Bischoff is by far the best player on the Anchorage Armada despite being only a rookie. No other players could possibly compare to him. From the recommendation of the all-time Anchorage Armada great, Eko Van Otter, he was taken in the fourth round of the draft with the 35th pick which was only two picks after Ian Venables and yet somehow he turned into the best player on the team. Right from when Daniel Bischoff showed up in Anchorage, Alaska, he was clearly the best rookie. During the preseason, Bischoff scored an incredible five goals, the highest of every rookie on the team. He also managed to get five assists, a shocking amount for such a young rookie. He was also named the Preseason MVP in the Anchorage Armada Preseason Awards. His talent showed no bounds and in the regular season he scored four more goals, and with three assists for a total of seven points, it was clear that the preseason results were not just luck but pure talent, hard work and dedication to the team. In the playoffs, Daniel Bischoff scored yet more points with three more goals and two assists for a total of five points. Despite the instability of the team's lines, Bischoff performed well in any spot, both on the third line and the fourth line. Daniel Bischoff is even capable of playing in any position as shown by the fact that he recently went to the IIHF Championships to play for the best country ever, Switzerland. During the tournament he played right wing instead of center and yet he was still unbelievably good. He scored two goals and had one assist despite only playing twelve games at a position he had never played before. When it came to be time for the draft, Daniel Bischoff had a plan however to tank himself and it worked. I am sure you know the saying “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, well, Bischoff achieved this by ending up on the same team as Geoff Moore. Daniel Bischoff was taken in the third round of the SHL Draft with the thirty fourth pick by the Minnesota Chiefs who were so dumb that they traded up to be able to pick him and fell right into his plan. The Chiefs have, however, now got an excellent player who will do very well on their team if they ever decide to actually give him a contract. Jay Reeves – Right Wing S49 SMJHL Draft: 45th (Round 5) S50 SHL Draft: 38th (Round 3) to the Toronto North Stars Jay Reeves was a great choice at pick 45. Reeves was recommended to the Anchorage Armada GM Max Brannagan by the Season 42 Aidan Richan Trophy and the Season 48 Jeff Dar Trophy winner Mikhail Lokitonov. Lokitonov spent two seasons playing for the Prince George Firebirds and his father who was the general manager of the Prince George Firebirds was responsible for rescuing the team from the dump that was Prince George and moving them to the much more likable city of Anchorage, Alaska and renaming them the Anchorage Armada. All of this means that when Jay Reeves was recommended by Mikhail Lokitonov, it was an obvious choice to draft Reeves as he was still available in the fifth round. Reeves scored four goals during the preseason which was only one goal less than the leading rookies on the team, Rhett Ward and Daniel Bischoff. Reeves managed to get an extra five assists as well for a total altogether of 10 points during the preseason. During the regular season, Reeves only shot one goal and helped to get 6 assists for a total of 7 points which is respectable for a rookie. The playoffs were where Jay Reeves really shined, getting 2 goals and 2 assists in only 13 games. Reeves is not the most consistent trainer and there was a period of time before the draft where Reeves was apparently training in secret without anybody knowing. Perhaps this was a draft tactic so that Reeves would be drafted by Robert Lokitonov and his Toronto North Stars. If it was then it certainly worked as Jay Reeves was taken in the third round with the Toronto North Stars pick at thirty eighth overall. Reeves was signed for three years for three and a half million each year, for a total of ten and a half million over the entire contract. If Reeves can keep the training up, it could be a steal for the Toronto North Stars who are currently so bad that they could not even tank properly. Rhett Ward – Right Wing S49 SMJHL Draft: 55th (Round 6) Rhett Ward was a disappointing draft pick for the Anchorage Armada. Despite being taken in the 5th round with the fifty fifth pick, he had shown signs of promise and he could have been something great. Unfortunately, things did not pan out well with Ward and he started distancing himself from the team after just a few practices. He stopped training and would only show up for games. At the start of the season this was okay. During the preseason, Rhett Ward scored 5 goals which was the joint highest for rookies on the Anchorage Armada. He also had 6 assists for a total of 11 points. This is where things started to go downhill as Rhett Ward only scored 3 goals during the regular season which was the lowest points of anyone on the team. He scored no assists, another sign that he is not that interested in being on the team. He is only interested in himself. In the playoffs, Ward did even worse as he only got one goal and one assist. Rhett Ward was not chosen in the S50 SHL Entry Draft and it is not hard to see why. He would probably be more of a hindrance than a help to whichever team would have taken him. Justin Roy – Right Wing S49 SMJHL Draft: 59th (Round 6) There is not much I can say about Justin Roy. Roy was taken in the 6th round and was more of a shot in the dark than any real strategy. As it turned out, Justin Roy managed to accept his contract and attend the team training camp but he disappeared at the end of the preseason. He performed well in the preseason as he scored 3 goals and had got 8 assists for a total of 12 points, not bad for a rookie who put in no effort. He had not been training properly throughout the preseason and was scheduled to be a healthy scratch for the whole regular season but the way he just disappeared was, well, rather odd. I have not heard from him since and neither has anyone else on the team as far as I know. Justin Roy did not get drafted in the S50 SHL draft and this is probably because he disappeared and is unlikely to show up to play for whichever SHL team would have drafted him. Andrei Petrikov – Left Wing S50 SHL Draft: 45th (Round 3) to the Toronto North Stars Andrei Petrikov is a Russian left wing who managed to completely miss the SMJHL Entry Draft and instead had to enter free agency to try and find a team on his own. Thankfully, Andrei Petrikov is the son of the legendary Mikhail Petrikov who happened to play in the SMJHL for the Prince George Firebirds, the team who moved and became the Anchorage Armada. Andrei Petrikov arrived just before the start of the preseason allowing him to have plenty of time to settle in and get to know the rest of the team. Andrei Petrikov player around half of the season on the third line with his fellow rookie Daniel Bischoff at center but also received a lot of games on the top line, a great accomplishment for any rookie. In the regular season, Andrei Petrikov scored a total of 6 goals and he got 9 assists making him the second highest scoring rookie on the team after Augustus Wang. Petrikov's production appears to have slowed down during the playoffs however as he only scored 2 goals and no assists although both of these two goals were scored on the power play. Andrei Petrikov has also been invited to play for Team Russia in the IIHF championships and despite not having scored yet it is an amazing achievement for a rookie in his first SMJHL season. When it comes to the S50 SHL Entry Draft, Andrei Petrikov did not go as high as he deserved to go because there were rumours that he could one day just disappear, much like his father Mikhail Petrikov did a few seasons ago in the SHL. Andrei Petrikov fell all the way into the third round where, much like Samuel Michaud, it was proven that it pays to know the right people. Petrikov was taken by the Toronto North Stars which is the team that Mikhail Lokitonov currently plays on. Lokitonov had previously played with Andrei Petrikov's father Mikhail Petrikov on the Prince George Firebirds and they are clearly good friends. Perhaps Andrei Petrikov could have gone higher if his father hadn't left such a bad legacy but we shall never know. Petrikov signed with the Toronto North Stars for three and a half million each year for two years in a contract that surely would have been three years had his father not ruined his life for him. Khal Valhalla - Center S49 SMJHL Draft: 94th (Round 10) by the Lethbridge Lions I don't know who this guy is but he is on our roster now so I included him anyway. He is apparently new but I wanted to make him feel included as he will probably be an important part of our team next season. Valhalla never actually got to play for the Lethbridge Lions and for whatever reason he did not play in the rookie showcase either so we have really no idea what to expect from him if he manages to actually play a game. I don't expect Khal Valhalla to be doing any training at all next season and he will probably not improve at all but right now he is at least filling a spot on our roster. Valhalla was yet another rookie that did not get drafted in the S50 SHL Entry Draft but given that he has absolutely no experience at playing actual high level hockey and that no one has seen him for an entire season, this is not unexpected. Conclusion This brings us to the end of the S49 Anchorage Armada Rookie Review. Overall, it appears that Anchorage has been very successful in their drafting this season despite having a few players who taken later in the draft who did not out quite as expected. I think it is fair to say that Augustus Wang was a steal even if he was only taken in the second round. The other two big steals were Daniel Bischoff and Ian Venables, both taken in the fourth round, who turned out to be amazing players. And of course there was Samuel Michaud who has done well too. Jay Reeves and Andrei Petrikov round out the list of top Armada rookies. Altogether, nearly everyone had a very good season and I hope to see such a great rookie crop again after the upcoming SMJHL draft. (Word count 3834, and draft media x2) @golden_apricot @Ferda @"toirekari" @mdubz @jays_cloud
Budgie
Registered Senior Member 09-25-2019, 02:50 PMdylanjj37 Wrote: Daniel Bischoff is by far the best player on the Anchorage Armada despite being only a rookie. No other players could possibly compare to him. From the recommendation of the all-time Anchorage Armada great, Eko Van Otter, he was taken in the fourth round of the draft with the 35th pick which was only two picks after Ian Venables and yet somehow he turned into the best player on the team. Right from when Daniel Bischoff showed up in Anchorage, Alaska, he was clearly the best rookie. During the preseason, Bischoff scored an incredible five goals, the highest of every rookie on the team. He also managed to get five assists, a shocking amount for such a young rookie. He was also named the Preseason MVP in the Anchorage Armada Preseason Awards. His talent showed no bounds and in the regular season he scored four more goals, and with three assists for a total of seven points, it was clear that the preseason results were not just luck but pure talent, hard work and dedication to the team. In the playoffs, Daniel Bischoff scored yet more points with three more goals and two assists for a total of five points. Despite the instability of the team's lines, Bischoff performed well in any spot, both on the third line and the fourth line. Daniel Bischoff is even capable of playing in any position as shown by the fact that he recently went to the IIHF Championships to play for the best country ever, Switzerland. During the tournament he played right wing instead of center and yet he was still unbelievably good. He scored two goals and had one assist despite only playing twelve games at a position he had never played before. When it came to be time for the draft, Daniel Bischoff had a plan however to tank himself and it worked. I am sure you know the saying “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, well, Bischoff achieved this by ending up on the same team as Geoff Moore. Daniel Bischoff was taken in the third round of the SHL Draft with the thirty fourth pick by the Minnesota Chiefs who were so dumb that they traded up to be able to pick him and fell right into his plan. The Chiefs have, however, now got an excellent player who will do very well on their team if they ever decide to actually give him a contract. Don't you know that it's ILLEGAL to toot your own horn?? Sigs by @Carpy48 and @tweedledunn
golden_apricot
IIHF Federation Head Trade Me
frithjofr
SMJHL Intern Senior Member
I don't see anything about me or Gabe. Shit list, shit you. Get off the site you hack.
P.S. Go Bills!
Ferda
Bank Manager Posting Freak
dylanjj37
Registered Senior Member
Weretarantula
Registered processed. 09-25-2019, 04:48 PMdylanjj37 Wrote:09-25-2019, 03:42 PMfrithjofr Wrote: I don't see anything about me or Gabe. Shit list, shit you. Get off the site you hack. I was specifically promised that my player, Rex Kirkby, would be written up to hell. Where the hell is my write up?
dylanjj37
Registered Senior Member 09-25-2019, 05:00 PMWeretarantula Wrote:09-25-2019, 04:48 PMdylanjj37 Wrote: It's a rookie review. You aren't rookies. As I explained, this is a rookie review. Rex Kirkby is both not a rookie and not your player.
WannabeFinn
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golden_apricot
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dylanjj37
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