Based on the pre-season and the results we've seen, I have a few predictions standing wise that I feel will come true this season. The first is regarding Seattle. Seattle finished the pre-season in first place in their division. Seattle famously got screwed over a glitch in the sim last season. They had a coach with horrible stats instead of their normal coach and still barely missed playoffs. I think that this will remain true this season. They will play to their ability and the addition of Michael Scarn will push them over the top. I also think that the trio of Chicago, Hamilton and Toronto will finish 1-2-3 in the Great Lakes division. Buffalo is aging and will eventually tail off. With Toronto coming into their own, the moves Hamilton has made to stay competitive and Chicago keeping alot of the same roster together, Buffalo will much like in the pre-season be the odd team out.
I think we take a step back this season as a whole and I fear that we are on the verge of imploding. I played awful in preseason and it looks like more of the same for the regular season. I’m not sure what has changed but there’s something I the area. Not looking forward to this season at all. Other than that, I think everything else will remain the same. The Great Lakes will take home the Cup once again and not even expansion will slow them down. I’d bet on another Hamilton win. I think there will be a surprise in a few divisions and I don’t think Texas is a lock to win the Southwest. Calgary and Edmonton look to continue their consistent form and I’m not sure about the Atlantic. Is anyone though? This season has already lost some of its luster with preseason on the horizon. Just going through the motions.
I think this may be a disappointing year for Wagstrom. Sure, he got some goals in the preseason, didn't look too much worse for wear, but all that regression that he endured has to catch up to him at some point. The Rage, on the other hand, have gone back to the drawing board, and the new strategies have the team clicking like never before. I'm not expecting Toronto, still riding high after defeating Manhattan in the postseason, could look to lead their division. They look like they have a good crew that can put up some points and compete with just about anyone. And of course, Hamilton always has the drop on everyone, so you can expect them to cruise to 40 wins yet again, and more than likely, whatever ups and downs the regular season has, it'll be Hamilton and Buffalo in the finals again come playoff time. My last prediction is that Karl Krashwagen is yet again in the conversation for MVP after carrying the Baltimore Platoon to the playoffs singlehandedly.
Didn't really follow the pre season, but once in the pre season, many seasons back I had a 4 goal game and JR fucked up the file and had to re-sim the day so I lost my 4 goal game. Now only the true homies know what I managed to accomplish. I'm pretty sure that 4 goal game was when I was on New England as well (the first time) so it was even more special, what I did. Oh well. Now I will hopefully go point per game in this regular season, ideally even better. Can't wait to get 150 points and go on to win all the awards and then the cup as well. Anything short of that goal is a disappointment for myself if I am being honest. In the words of my future teammate (maybe i leave in FA and he never becomes my teammate) Micool, "I am going to win the cup". Lets get it.
I know there has already been 12 games played this season and Nicholas Owens has been having a great season but.... if I were to go off of the preseason stats I would not have expected that at all. In 7 games, Nicholas Owens was only have to get a single point (1 assist) to go along with a plus minus of zero, 5 giveaways (with 0 takeaways), 18 shots blocked and 7 hits off of 21 minutes a night. That's horrendous! I'm pretty sure Owens had a better preseason outing in even his rookie season! If I were to base my season prediction for my player off this, I would have expected a career low in pretty much all stats.
As for more league related predictions, I see the great lakes once again dominating the standings. Buffalo didn't have a particularly strong preseason but the other 3 teams in the great lakes all loss 0-2 games.
Based on the way my Simulation Hockey League player (Evangelos Giannoupoulos) performed in the season fifty nine preseason, I fully expect for the Hamilton Steelhawks defenseman who was originally drafted second overall by the Toronto North Stars then later traded for 8th overall pick player Sarah Burke in a 1 for 1 deal to have a great season where we could even see him winning the Scott Stevens trophy and maybe, yes maybe be able to manage to get a vote in for the MVP voted by the award's team on this site. However, I will predict numbers for this PT as well just cause why not. For the goals category, I expect nothing less than for my player to manage to score 25 goals in 66 games. For assists, I strongly predict my player will get 45 assists. For shots blocked and hits, my player will no doubt lead all dman in the league in both of these seasons. With these stats, I think it's easy to see why I expect my player to win the Stevens. Thanks.
Now that we've completed a week of the regular season, looking back at the preseason results for my own team and player gave a pretty good insight of where we would be at this point. The rage's streak of consecutive division wins the past few seasons seems very possible to be beaten this year, as the inferno and platoon both finished above manhattan during the preseason. In fact, using preseason stats, it would be a guarantee as Atlanta finishes with a clean 66-0 record. And while Atlanta might be the favorites, the rest of the division remains a competitive race. With preseason points of 9, 7, 5, and 4 for the remaining 4 teams, the final playoff spot in this division might come down to the last day of sims once again. As for my own player, unfortunately I wish the preseason was indicative of how my season would go. With 5 points in 7 games, +2, 7 takeaways, 14 blocks, and a goals for percentage of 58%, it was looking likely that I might not be garbage for once. But luckily, the game corrected itself and returned me back to normal for the regular season, where I have 4 points in 13 games and the 4th worst goals against/60 performance in the league.
For Justin Keahi, the preseason was a huge disappointment. No fights, barely any points. He was pretty much out there as third line filler. It's not something he'd envision himself being at this point in his career. About to enter his fourth year as an SHL player, Keahi should be doing better offensively. This preseason, he was quiet on all aspects of his game. Barely any hits, no fights, no points. He was a shell of his former self. He seemed to just be going through the motions, hoping that this season he can do enough to get a big contract for next year. Many have speculated that this may be his last season as a Barracuda, with expansion looming around the corner. Based off what the preseason showed, Tampa Bay will not have to worry about Keahi being picked up by any expansion teams. They will have to worry about signing him to a deal that is worthy of his play, because it is likely that his agent will try to sign him to a contract that is above what he can produce.
Well if preseason is any indication, it is going to be a very long season for Leonids Balzams. Despite the work he put in this offseason, the New England Wolfpack are far from being contenders for the Challenge Cup. With 13 games played in the season so far, Balzams already accumulated a -11 over those games. He might rebound as the season progresses as he has a PDO of 95.1 attached to his name. He has been producing somewhat offensively with 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points. He has also been putting in the work somewhat defensibly with 18 shots blocked, and 2 hits. Hopefully he starts to rebound as another disappointing season would be a hard pill to swallow for the young defender. Overall, I do believe that the stats will eventually turn in his favour, but once the hockey gods can decide if that will in fact happen.
In his 15th season in the league, Luke Thomason is one of the oldest players in the league. A player that has been at the highest highs, winning a cup, but also being apart of a rebuilding team. Time is catching up to him, as last season he put up the lowest number of points ever in his career(out of P/GP). This season the start is the worst he has ever done. Is it father time catching up to him? Maybe. He still has a lot left in the tank, but a lot of turbulence in Manhattan has left them bare of good talent. Thomason will do his best, as its shown him playing the most TOI out of anyone in the league. With 3 assists only in 13 games, I have a feeling that it will be similair to S58, which is unfortunate. I had a great career so far, but it is getting clsoer to the end
EVO: Wait, why are we holding this much stock in the pre-season? Last time I checked, most GMs used pre-season just to tune up their strategies with their new players and finding what the best line combination and playing styles there are. That's why even though the team I love and coach, the Colorado Raptors, went 1-5-1 in the pre-season with the worst goal differention, they are still among the favourites in my opinion, especailly with the such a deep roster core of forwards and defensemen, topped off with arguably the best goalie in the SMJHL in Yanno Rosejac. Yes, contenders like Detroit and Kelowna had a good pre-season to tune up, but I know for certain that you shouldn't count out a deep team like Colorado, nor the defending champions Quebec simply because they had a bad pre-season. Those who would do that could find themselves shocked if things don't go like the pre-season predicts (Whilst will most certainly be the case).
Guy Zheng is a forward drafted in Season 46, and if preseason is anything to go by he's going to be smashing scoring records this upcoming season. In a mere 7 preseason games, the left winger for the Atlanta Inferno put in a storming offensive display. With 5 goals scored in those games, should Zheng put the puck in the net at that pace during the regular season, he would end up with an astonishing 47 goals. And it wasn't just putting the puck in the net during the preseason that Zheng showed prowess for. He also contributed 10 assists over the course of the 7 games, which extrapolates to a whopping 94 helpers in a 66 game season. The 15 points Zheng put up in preseason would translate to a 141 point season which would absolutely obliterate the current all time SHL single season scoring record by a considerable margin. Maintaining anything even remotely close to his scoring throughout the preseason would have Zheng on pace for one of the most dominant seasons ever seen in the SHL.
After the preseason Newfoundland had the greatest goal differential next to only Maine. Which I’m personally skeptical of. Maine is getting a lot better after being abysmal last season, they could be a top 6 team but I’m not seeing it right now. But Newfoundland is basically looking like the best team in the SMJHL on paper next to only Kelowna. Newfoundland’s roster is filled with maxed out players all throughout the line up or players who are only a season away from being maxed out. Going into the S59 Draft Newfoundland really didn’t have any room for any rookies except for maybe one or two and they took Evil Allbran who’s looking like an absolutely stellar pick so far! Allbran has already made a big impression in the locker room and when Newfoundland’s drafted rookie pans out as well as having a stacked roster. It’s going to be tough to take down the Zerks this season.
I think guy Zheng scoring 15 points in 7 games for the Atlanta Inferno during preseason is likely the most insane stat to extrapolate. Let’s say Zheng plays 66 games - this would equal out to about 145 points. Not to mention the Atlanta inferno finished the pre season with an undefeated record. So in this dream scenario, not only does Zheng solidify himself as the best forward in SHL hidtory, he does so on an undefeated team.
Also another cool stat which I can totally see happening is the extrapolation of KARL KRASHWAGEN goal totals. Last season, krashwagen shocked the league by becoming a surprise 1st place leader in goals for. If we extrapolate his preseason numbers, Karl KRASHWAGEN is on pace to score about 55 goals which honestly I can see happening if BAP get back to last years form and have a hot end to the season once more.
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, onwards we roll 
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