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Top Prospects Hitting the scene in S56
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Top Prospects Hitting the scene in S56
*disclaimer – these roster spots are purely speculation. I haven’t taken a look at any teams trade blocks – those are entirely their business and I intend on keeping it that way. I also haven't compaired teams protected players lists to see who might be picked there, I based the replacements based on TPE, regression year, and contract status.*

I wanted to take a look into some immediate futures and focus on S53 players who are in their final season as send downs (before going to the waiver wire). This gives us 2 things – they are for sure playing in the SHL next season, and that extra year of seasoning to bring you around 900 TPE to begin your career vs around the 700 mark is a pretty sizeable difference. These high earning players are leaving as the best in the SMJHL and entering unfamiliar territory with more teams, a lot more TPE, and 3rd line and some cases second line minutes versus being the go to top player on their Junior team.

Shl Eastern Conference Shl

Platoon Baltimore  Platoon  has a pairing currently duking it out in the SMJHL Semi Finals with s53 studs Ethan Duncan at C, and Valentin Kalashnikov on D.
Duncan - @mastersheep is more of a face off specialist setup man, posting 30 points with the Knights this season, 32 last season, and 13 the season prior. Keeping pace with the top end of earners from his class, Duncan has already amassed 855 TPE, and looks to slide into the second line for BAP next season as it is currently held by an inactive 928 Kristoffer Svensson. I’m really excited to see Duncan take that next step and see what he can do as a rookie. He will have some good ice time, and would be in the running for ROTY based purely off his roster position, let’s see what he has in store for us.
Kalashnikov – @suavemente is a hard hitting, Defensive focused stalwart. He can hit, block shots, and fight with the best of them. He’s been the top dog in Maine for as long as they have been located there, and his ruthless regiment of Russian Special Forces Kettlebell fitness keeps him in peak shape. 23 points, 166 hits and 85 shot blocks in s53 were tweaked a bit down to 17 points, 98 hits, and 88 shot blocks as Kalashnikov worked to be more team focused before blowing the doors off this season with 20 points, a +9 performance – a rarity for Maine to be north of 0, 65 shot blocks, and an outstanding 212 hits. He’s looking to be a meaner, leaner version of the defensive style that Doskocil has perfected. Baltimore will actually be seeing an upgrade on the defensive side by bringing up Kalashnikov next season as well. Their current crops have him situated at 4th overall pure TPE wise, so he should be situated on the Second or 3rd line and should see some special teams action on the PK. Based off his probable usage could be a fringe candidate for ROTY, but awards aren’t too friendly to his play style. Still a huge upgrade for the Platoon as he will most likely displace Jack Wilson’s 595 TPE (pour one out for my fellow s50 draftee)

Stampede Buffalo  Stampede  is in a very interesting scenario. They have a very good team, but they also have some very good prospects looking to make the jump. With 4 s53 send downs all active and not much roster space it will be interesting to see how Buffalo approaches this situation in the off season.
Mattias Birdstrom @BlackLabelBird might be in a waiver situation as a low earner in his final team retained send down season, but he’s still active and doing tasks and over the junior cap. This is a tough situation, because clocking in at 439 TPE I’m not sure that’s high enough for teams to take a waiver jump at him because they would have to keep him up this season, or waive him again to send down. Even with off season TPE, he probably won’t crack 500 before the puck drop in s56, so I do expect him to be wearing Berserker colors again next season.
Notorious Tree Hater Alexander Roach @Faelax is another interesting case. Holding onto an artificially low TPE due in part to being a mid season entry and mid earning for his first season leading to a lower draft pick, he has exploded since the switch to FHM and sits in the top right panel for the weekly hit stream “Hockey Talk Tonight”.  35 points on a building Quebec team, and behind the scenes as their Co-GM, Roach has a lot of added value in being useful to a head office, and very high, consistent earning which allows for continued max TPE earning. The points gap between him and the top earners is going to shrivel and he will be turning into a very good player with a good expectation on longevity. As Buffalo is pretty loaded currently on the Center slot, Roach will likely spend a few seasons as a wing, as the rest of the upcoming prospects this season are all natural wingers as well I will go through where I think they slot after.
Steve Harrington @Lime has been an extremely high earning prospect, already brushing the 900 mark – in fact he is the current earning lead from the class. He posted 38 points last season as part of an absolutely stacked Berserkers group. And has been improving his point total each season since draft. A $71 Million bank account also means that with basically 0 effort put in for the rest of his career he can be max earner just through that bank and seasonal contracts. Steve will be hitting the show next season with the most TPE out of all rookies, and he will be on one of the top teams to boot, so pencil him in as the ROTY most likely.
The final piece Buffalo has is none other than Jaska Seppala @Zombiewolf. Now Seppala has been earning at a great pace as well. The reason he can give Harrington a challenge for ROTY this upcoming season is he is currently built to be an offensive powerhouse – 49 points last season and 39 this one he is currently one of the top offensive talents in the league, but there are a lot of points to distribute when un banking, so if Steve were to un bank in that direction he should have the stats to hold on.
Now, we have 3 top tier prospects being forced into a call up situation where if any of them get waived they aren’t going to last long on the wire. Space available for the upcoming season as of now is 2 – Viktor Marius has retired this season, and Eko Van Otter is moving on to his new team in Atlanta. The popular consensus is that Defender Cassius Darrow will be taken instead of Michael Scarn at forward. If this happens there is an issue of 2 spots available for 3 players. Additionally compounding this is Buffalo would be in the market for a replacement D. Now they could target a roster filler IFA, but I imagine they would be wheeling and dealing, maybe even moving one of these pieces for a similar prospect on D? Who knows, a lot is still to happen between now and the beginning of next season.

syndicate Chicago syndicate  has 2 right wing prospects who are ready to make a splash next season. Ryuuji Minamino @Nhamlet has been keeping pace with the top of the class currently at 876, so will easily be over 900 when it comes time to puck drop. One of the primary driving forces on Newfoundland’s explosive offense, Ryuuji posted 56 points this season, 53 last season, and 36 the prior one. With point totals like this I would not be surprised if he is the franchise leader in both goals and points, maybe he can chime in down below and either confirm or deny that. Another exceptional candidate for ROTY next season, he’s on a good team with Chicago and he will be able to pack quite the rookie punch. Chicago is carrying a retired Ethan Ross, so that will open up a slot right away on the wing.

Patric Twist @Patty is the other member that will for sure be hitting the scene next season. He did have a brief period of low earning, but he seems to be back in full force similar to Roach. A similar story, Twist is a Newfoundland winger, this time in more of a role slot, so his jump isn’t going to take as much of a hit to his stats as some of the other prospects. The issue here is Chicago doesn’t really have an available automatic slot. If they decide to part ways with CCII their current lowest TPE winger, they still would have a gap of 350-400 TPE to make up, so this isn’t an easy swap. One of the expansion teams could pick up one of their exposed wingers leaving this an easier replacement for Chicago to deal with.

Steelhawks Hamilton Steelhawks  has only 1 upcoming forced up prospect, and that is none other than Rikard Hammarberg @jtam. He’s been one of the top players in the SMJHL the last few seasons, and having traded for him recently to add some firepower to the Timber for their current playoff run, I’m a big fan. Best used as a shut down center, he is very defensively responsible, but point wise he doesn’t slack either. Potting 29 points in season 53, he followed that up with 44 in 54, and 30 this season, and mind you it took the duration from the trade deadline until playoffs for him to find his footing with us, so those raw numbers are artificially depressed a little – and I’ll reiterate that raw offense isn’t his best asset. Hamilton loses Tig on D to the expansion, and Flacko Lagerfield is retiring as well, so they do have a slot ready for Rikard on forward for sure, just might not get to play in his C slot for a season or 2 as he works his way up the lineup.

Next up we have an interesting case with  Rage Manhattan Rage . Santtu Rasanen @KenitohMenara is technically inactive based on his post date, but he has visited the site more recently. Currently sitting at under 600 TPE he may end up replacing a slot lost in the expansion draft. Playing his junior career in Anchorage, he has been a solid supporting member to their team, posting 35 points this season, and 41 last season he has proven to be able to keep up with the rest of the team.


Wolfpack New England Wolfpack  has a lot of 53’s on their page.
Starting with Lucas Hellquist @NightRobin has been a staple on Maine for the last few seasons. I think he is likely to be waived as he has gone inactive and is sitting at sub 400 tpe, so not really usable for a team that picks him up, unless they are able to coax him back into activity.
Next up is Ethan Price @Zomp who has had a huge impact with his SMJHL team in Anaheim, and is in fact their new Co-GM. As a shoot first player, price has been able to post points with the best of them – this recent season potting 48, and 38 last. He is a Mid-High earner (a category I happily slot myself into) currently at 729, he will be able to make an impact on the league for a long time. They have a roster filler they can drop for Price that they picked up in the EVO trade, so Price can slot in there pretty nicely.
(Clean) Andrei Kostitsyn @Clean Andrei Kostitsyn was picked up in last season’s asset sale.  A bit lower overall than the rest of the 53 class (Clean) is in an interesting spot where he is one of the more well known names on the site. New England does have some older regressing players on the wing now in Shooter McGavin and Rafe Ulrich – if he has a productive off season he could leap ahead of both of those after regression this season. That should result in a a comfortable slot on their 3rd line for the next little bit.
Erben Kasius @Paq has been a high earning Defender. Although some of the defensive or physical stats are currently lagging, un banking will be a wonderful opportunity to even out his stats and put forth a really solid rookie build. 19 points, 17 points, 23 as a defender are all pretty solid numbers (those are reverse ordered). He should be able to slot nicely over a regressing Troy McClure III.
Michael Lee @Marlo is a similar story to Hellquist. At sub 400 I think we will see him pass through waivers and spend another season in the SMJHL

Barracuda Tampa Bay Barracuda  has so many s53 prospects I’m seriously considering just stopping.
Ambacus Cuddles @trella is a high earning D who will probably find himself on the Top line next season. He is currently Tampa Bay’s #2 highest TPE Defenseman on the roster, and looks to stay that way. He should factor in a ton of ice time and because of that I’d flag ROTY potential, but honestly the stats are going to be rough
Frederick Wanesly @Mediocre_Fred seems to have recently returned. Unfortunately for Tampa this might be an expansion lock as I believe he’s exposed. But assuming he stays put, and especially if he returns back in full force because he was a high earner until he wasn’t.  There isn’t really one specific spot for any of these call up players to slot in, other than saying there is ample room for any and all actives coming up. Part of the powerhouse Detroit S52 Draft class, Fred has been able to keep up production, including this season where he posted new career highs despite an overall down season for Detroit.
Jerry Huuveri  @Jerppu will be replacing a retired Ben Blue, but rumors spiraling that he has gone inactive may very well hurt Tampa as they will need him to unbank. He would normally be slated into taking over the starting position, but it is going to be tough if they are locked to his capped build.
Ziggy Tambo – I can’t find this profile anymore. Anyway he’s long gone IA, sub 400 TPE I don’t think he will be getting claimed through waivers if he even exists anymore.
Zoltan Topalo @Rangerjase is another member of that Detroit draft class. He has posted some excellent offensive stats in his junior career – 37 points, 24 points, 33 points He should slide fairly easily into a second or third line role. There will be a huge push from the next few classes because there are some prospects in s54 chomping on his heels.
One thing I’m noticing on Tampa is they have a lot of room, but they have a pretty nice core of young growing pieces that will slowly continue to earn and grow. They should be able to make leaps in improvement starting with s57 with a solid earning core, top line is over 1100, and possibly be talking playoffs as early as s58 or 59 – earlier than a bunch of people have been thinking.

Stars Toronto Stars  as another building team has a building team, but no active S53’s. They do have some pretty nicely progressing s54 prospects who may get a call, but nothing forced up here.
And just like that we are done the East! Stay Tuned for the West!

Shl Western Conference Shl

Dragons  Calgary  Dragons has 1 defensive prospect – Bradley Barkov @MarlinManiac4 a pretty offensive Defenseman from Colorado. With 27, 23, 15 points he got bitten with the unluck bug this last season shooting at 2%. Barkov looks to be slotting into a spot replacing potentially long tenured member Otis B. Driftwood? Basically if Calgary loses one of their Defense Barkov will be replacing that exposed slot.

Blizzard Edmonton  Blizzard  has 2 prospects – both naturally Left Wing coming up
William Hartmann @boom is a high earner with 825 TPE, and jobs as SMJHL GM as well as SHL Head Office help pump up that max earning ability. The only thing I see in Edmonton is I have no idea where he fits given the current roster. They will lose 2 spots to expansion, but it really depends on which positions. Anyways, Hartmann has had an individually successful juniors career with Vancouver putting up some nice point totals – 41, 24, 27 on a team that the last few seasons was unfortunately competing with Maine for the 1oa pick. They are looking stronger now, and Boom is a big reason for that, so Edmonton is sure to find space for this young elite prospect.
Our second prospect is Carlos Brown @CB2212. Carlos is a slower earner, but he looks to be getting involved with the site as he was recently announced Team Canada WJC GM. 18, 28, 32 points with Colorado he has been progressing through it all which you like to see. As he’s not on the high end of tpe earning and Edmonton’s tough to crack roster I am having a little bit of trouble seeing where he slides in next season, but if they lose 2 wingers to expansion that would be a nice tidy opening for him to slide in with.

Panthers Los Angeles  Panthers apparently had a bit of a will they, won’t they situation, but ended up re signing a bunch of their core. One of the more widely known names in Jimmy Wagner @sve7en architect of the HTT round table, and rookie Carolina Co-GM. His player has been very good throughout his junior career as well, recording points and award nominations, and he has made a name for himself with analysis and breakdown of SHL current events. He is also known to be a tank top aficionado, with rumors that he owns 1 for every day of the year circulating. Being able to re roster the same team and drop an Inactive roster filler to fit in Wagner Los Angeles is in pretty good status, but they may be looking in the free agency to add some meat after their expansion picks have been taken.

Chiefs Minnesota  Chiefs  has a few upcoming prospects, and a bit of an odd situation with 2 of them. Ben van Dijk @Ben and Separa Borro @Lyezech are both coming up next season. Ben recently re signed an extension and has been slowly earning his way along. Separa is a less glaring situation because he will be Tegernako’s backup next season and is replacing a 480 TPE backup in Braulin currently.
Next comes Rocco Berni @Blues. This Kelowna groomed player has had an overall pretty successful jr career playing on a good team for his tenure – 33, 47, 32 points – it seems like anything close to ppg has been really very good. Also fresh off signing an extension he is looking to be one of their premier forwards where he will meet a regressing Gibbles in a few seasons (like 5 or 6).
So, 1 D, 1 C and a G for Minnesota, here is where they slot in: Borro will take over the backup duties next season. Van Dijk will replace an inactive Mikas Bieksa or Haley Knight on D, and Berni slots in for a handful of expiring forwards – Shouta Aizawa, Thicc Cheezy, Stirling MacTavish. Probably the first though due to his heavy into regression seasons.

Specters New Orleans  Specters  has no S53 prospects on their list, but they do have a Bork Lazer who may take the leap and head up to the big leagues a season early before mandatory.

pride San Francisco  pride  is is serious full blown rebuild mode. Recent new hires for the GM and Co-GM position are looking to inject a new life into the franchise and they are beginning to collect some good prospects to get there. They have a few players making the leap.
Sven Svenson @LordBirdman is a junior GM and a devote follower of King Carl. He has been able to amass a nice little career with Colorado which saw him put up 33, 38, and 47 points in the last 3 seasons – a very nice stat line. TPE wise he is at 834 which is solidly among the high earners range of a very solid draft class in what s53 is turning out to be. Slotting in an open slot from Joe K’s pickup last season San Francisco does not have to lift a finger to make room for him to hit the league next season. He should be coming in as the 4th ranking forward on the team, so he should be able to put up some pretty nice minutes for a younger player, but lacking a highly skilled cast around him it will more than likely be a rough growing season.
Chris de Siren @Chrisda19 has gone Inactive and with only 430 TPE to his name I expect him to pass through waivers and play next season in the SMJHL.
Krišs Dārziņš @lilstifler is the other 53 winger who will be coming up. About to crack the 700 TPE mark Darzins had a pretty successful junior career with St. Louis. 27, 41, 32 points with STL in the last 3 seasons, he had some pretty memorable games, including a dominating 4 goal performance against Newfoundland earlier this season. He is a game breaking winger who has a clutch ability that isn’t common among good players. Slotting in the spot of Richard Metcalf Jr, this would replace a regressing inactive winger currently at 820, so by the time next season begins would be lower overall.


The  Renegades Texas Renegades Renegades  made their way into Playoffs this season and are a team with a huge upswing. I see them continuing to grow and get better as the seasons go on with a young well earning crop. We have 3 very high earning S53 prospects ready to make the leap into the show next season, as well as a little birdie telling me that a certain Defenseman will be making the leap as well. Now, the interesting aspect of Texas is they have a full roster, and those in regression are doing an excellent job in fighting it, so if they replace those with their high earning rookies they are going to take a tpe hit for a season or 2, but let’s dive in.
Edward Williams @Aephino has been a well known name as an anchor on Detroit. Part of that draft class that powered them to the 4 star. He’s been one of the most prolific scorers over the last 3 seasons in the SMJHL, potting an outstanding 64 points in s53, following it with 32 in s54 and finishing it off with a 37 point performance this season. Discount s53 if you will, but it takes a good player with good chemistry and support to pass the point per game mark, and he shattered it. He has a ton of potential and sleep on him if you dare. Texas only has 1 natural center and that is Ivan Maximus, so I think he would fit in replacing a massive name in Manuel Gotze who is in heavy regression, but still at 1441. If Texas is choosing to keep Gotze then I think it will be one of the slots picked.
Next up we have Bulok Sulfurgold @leviadan. Another Detroit player, and a high earning prospect he should have some natural chemistry with Williams, maybe they will be a good fit together on a line this upcoming season? He put up 31, 18, 19 over the last 3 seasons in Detroit he is much more focused on the defensive side of things, which should play really well into his rookie season – high point guys take a few seasons to ramp up where defensive first players seem to have an easier transition. I think Burlok would slot in place of Gordie Boomhover – still a relatively young player at s46, but he is at 1076 tpe and beginning regression, so Sulfurgold should be a pretty good 1-1 swap there.
The last piece is Eric Hudson @EricNCSU. A winger from St. Louis and also a SMJHL GM, his earning is snugly in the high category at 824 – should be plenty to blast onto the scene. Now as far as fit goes I’m really stumped. If we are ok saying a player like Gotze is replaced then I guess we keep that trend and replace a player like Czerkawski who is also on an expiring contract, but is sitting at 1546 TPE. That’s a lot and he is a really big name. Texas I think will have some maneuvering to do, unless the expansion teams make it really easy for them and pick up 2 forwards for these guys to slide cleanly into the lineup.
Finally the Winnipeg Jets. Closing out this article they don’t have any mandatory callus. There is a potential callup in S54 Pojo Biscuit who has been earning at a very high rate since late joining the 54 class, and it looks like there could be a spot on D for him, but my rules are to discuss s53 earning folks, so will leave that one where it is.

The 53 class was a very good one, and they are going to go on to do some big things in the SHL. In a few seasons these are going to be some household names. Some may end up on one of the expansion teams, being their anchor that they build around, some may play second fiddle to current stars for a few seasons before taking over. It was a fun article that I enjoyed doing, I hope the players mentioned here enjoyed reading a bit about their player, and I hope their teams are pumped to be pulling these guys up – even if it means a hard choice on who they need to lose to bring them in.

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#2

Ilike

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credit to amazing @Carpy48, @Ragnar @sköldpaddor, @the_paytonium & @sulovilen !
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#3

Next season, boys

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Fuck the penaltys
ARGARGARHARG
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#4

Ilike

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Thanks to @sulovilen, @the5urreal, and @sve7en for the sigs!
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#5

great read! Smile

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#6

Oh boy I'm on a list for once!

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#7

Good luck to all my fellow S53ers making the leap next season

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Jean-François Bokassa
Armada

Proud Father of Johnny Wagner-Svenson

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Sven Svenson Career Stats


Sweden Raptors pride
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#8

Beauty.

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Knights|Dragons|Austria
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#9

Neat article! Cool to see the situation around the league.

It's always weird, as a member of the SMJHL awards committee, to see players that were top dogs in juniors step into minor roles on SHL teams.

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Canada | Player Page | Grizzlies | Player Updates | Inferno
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#10

Never sleep on the sheep. Great article

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#11

Quote:he was a high earner until he wasn’t.

Yes, this describes me well

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#12

Great stuff!

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Thanks to @karey and @JSS for the sigs!


Former USA Fed Head, Carolina Kraken Co-GM, Tampa Bay Barracuda GM
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#13

Quote:One of the primary driving forces on Newfoundland’s explosive offense, Ryuuji posted 56 points this season, 53 last season, and 36 the prior one. With point totals like this I would not be surprised if he is the franchise leader in both goals and points, maybe he can chime in down below and either confirm or deny that.


Took a quick peek and if the spreadsheet in our LR is correct then I'm 2nd in goals and 3rd in points which is kind of crazy.

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