It was a ho hum draft for the Edmonton Blizzard faithful this season as the S58 draft kicked off with nary a pick for the Blizzard in the first three rounds. With little fanfare or hoopla to deal with, most Edmonton faithful spent the first few hours of the draft drinking Labatt and swapping stories about what could have been had last season’s playoff run not ended with a tough series against the Winnipeg Jets (ahem, now renamed the Winnipeg Aurora for those that are new to the Simulation Hockey League). With not much else to talk about during the first stages of the draft, some conversations for the truly devoted fans of the SHL turned to the conduct of the first round and the young prospects being selected from far flung minors teams.

Prognosticators across beer halls and restaurants mumbled their mock draft selections through face masks so that their picks were partly inaudible. One drunk hockey fan (there were plenty others) swore “Tampa Bay is going to take select Mew <mumble> Luc Blouin with the first pick of the draft” as the young Blouin was taken with the first overall pick from the Detroit Falcons.

Any avid follower of the minors hockey system, which clearly Drunky McDrunkerston with his drunken prediction was not such a person, knew going to in this draft that Luc Blouin was as much of a “sure thing” as a prospect can be. A rangy French defenseman, Blouin was a top 4 defenseman for the Falcons, earning 6 goals and 21 assists while also garnering a respectable 37 hits and 39 blocked shots. Blouin is clearly the type of player that a team can build around, and that is exactly what Tampa Bay needed coming into this draft. While it may take a few more seasons of minors hockey experience before Blouin makes his debut in the pros, don’t expect him to do anything short of develop into one of the very best the league has to offer.

Just minutes after Tampa walked away from the podium the next team, the lackluster San Francisco Pride, announced their new addition to the Bay Area, Gregory Goode. To the cheers of a few travelling Silicon Valley types in the local Edmonton watering hole, Goode was welcomed to a team in desperate need for a fresh start. In Goode the Pride likely selected a game changer that will help shore up an atrocious defense. Another rangy, tall defenseman like similar in build to Blouin, Goode was a bit of a surprise to a few as his play last season for the Anchorage Armada was marked more by his offensive prowess than his abilities on defense. That said, however, it is hard to pass on a defensive prospect that had a +36 plus minus rating and tallied 39 points on 7 goals and 32 assists. While his defensive statistics were not very impressive, the Tulsa native has the build and the pedigree to become a capable defenseman at the next level and will likely develop into one of the best.

The next two picks came courtesy of the Baltimore Platoon. The beleaguered franchise from Charm City made good use of their two back-to-back picks selecting Mew Two and Noel Blanchet respectively. Mew Two, the feisty gargantuan from Kanto, Japan, brings another level of toughness to the Platoon franchise. At 6’7” and 269lbs, this right winger made waves and turned some heads last season playing for the Quebec City Citadelles. Tallying 18 points for the top ranked Citadelles may not, on the surface, turn many heads, the fact that Mew Two accomplished this while garnering less than nine minutes of ice time a game is incredibly impressive. Add in the frame that Mew Two provides and Mew Two’s potential just skyrockets and fully justifies taking him with such an early pick.

With the very next pick, Baltimore again came to the podium and selected Noel Blanchet… at least that’s who walked up to the podium and put on a Platoon baseball hat and sweater. I honestly couldn’t hear over the guys at table 7 cat calling the waitress. Blanchet, who had a look of dismay while walking up to the podium (this probably had more to do with the days old bean dip in the green room than because of his selection by Baltimore), is a high caliber center with a lot of upside. The native of Lyon, France brings a sophisticated style of play to the rough shod Platoon and he is the type of player that makes others better. Earning 7 goals and 24 assists last season for the Colorado Raptors, Blanchet was, frankly, a surprise to drop to the fourth pick and easily could have been first overall.

Fast forward a few picks to the tenth pick of the draft and the arch rival Calgary Dragons were up to the plate for their draft selection. To little Edmonton fanfare, Calgary’s management walked up, and as they did so one restaurant goer, who preferred to remain anonymous due to his living in Edmonton but being a Calgary Dragons fan, lamented on the failure of the Dragons to do much of anything fruitful the past few seasons.

“Beyond Esa Parmborg and those amazing chicken parmesan promotions, I think that we need to make good use of that number 10 pick. We were so close last season, and we have some good prospects, but if we aren’t able to pick a ‘name’ player then I think I may just have to put a paper bag over my head.”

Thankfully for both the Dragons and this poor fan of theirs stuck in the sea of Edmonton faithful, Calgary actually selected a pretty good player in Richard LaFleur. A solid defenseman who played last season for the Kelowna Knights, LaFleur will add a level of grit that Calgary needs and will likely develop into a top 4 defenseman in fairly short order. Tallying 10 goals and 20 assists and garnering a +24 plus/minus rating, LaFLeur has a chance to make a name for himself and bring Calgary back to relevance when it comes to the Edmonton-Calgary rivalry.

Fast forward a little more and, finally, after hours of waiting, the beloved Edmonton Blizzard finally made their way to the podium to announce their first pick. In the fourth round, Blizzard general manager Keygan leaned into the mic and with all the Edmonton faithful leaning forward in their seats while watching on tv selected “Pass”.
“Pass, who the hell is that? Is he like one of them soccer players with one name?”

“No moron, we waited this whole time and we didn’t pick anyone. We pass with our selection.”

“Well, F@$#!!!! We sat here for hours and they didn’t pick anybody?! Well… I guess it isn’t all bad. I am pretty buzzed and I still love my Edmonton Blizzard.”

And with that, the Blizzard faithful started to standup and walk out of the local watering hole as the rest of the draft continued.