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Wearingabear · 08-08-2023, 03:17 PM

Expansion Champs: SHL Edition

Now, we all know that the Simulation Hockey League has been around for over 70 seasons at this point. Every few seasons it feels like there is a need to expand the league and make room for new players who are stuck on teams played 3rd line minutes. Of course, you could put out 4th lines, but nobody wants to play on a 4th line and still be max earning. So the league must make the choice to accept buy in offers for new teams.

I'm only going to be focusing on the last 2 expansions that happened during the 50s. Right in the height on the pandemic when the user base had grown so much, it needed 4 new teams in a span of 5 season.

Season 56
Two new teams arrive. Enter in the Atlanta inferno and the Seattle Argonauts.

Atlanta, founded by the elite user, Hotdog. The Inferno, in the expansion draft took some big hitters off of the other teams in the league. Starting with Keith Lee from Toronto, Guy O'Shea from Texas, DeMaricus Smyth from NOLA, Mike Hroch from NEW, and finally Eko Van Otter from Buffalo. Now, since ATL has been a team, they've performed extremely well. They've never missed the playoffs. They've reached the Conference finals 3 teams and won the Challenge Cup once in season 66, against fellow expansion team Seattle. In their first 12 seasons they went 470-317-55 (.591%) An incredible start for the franchise.

Seattle Argonauts, founded by the NotoriousTig, came in the same season as ATL and took a few season to find their footing. In their expansion draft, they took big names such as Tig Murphy, Cassius Darrow, Abel Skinner, Kriss Darzins, Frederick Wanesly, Bo Kane, Chico Smeb. As I mentioned, the first few seasons Seattle struggled, it wasn't until their 4th season, s59, where they ended up 7th in the league and making the playoffs for the first time. Now since they got into the playoffs, they haven't left. They've been a perennial playoff performer. They've done this all with only 6 1st round picks, 3 of them in Season 61. Now, they really hit their stride in the playoffs in Season 66, where they meet Hotdog's Atlanta Inferno in the finals. We all know how that ended that season. However, it pushes them to keep performing, and the Seattle Argonauts win the next two finals against the Manhattan Rage in S67 and S68. In the Argonauts first 12 seasons they've gone 448-330-74 (.561%).

Season 60:
Welcome the next two SHL Teams, Philadelphia Forge and Montreal Patriotes.

Montreal Patriotes, founded by Dankoa, have not had the easiest ride into the SHL. GM and Founder, Dankoa, only lasted 2 seasons before having to step down and handing the reigns off to Infidel. who worked the helm for a season before current GM, CampinKiller steps in and takes over. MTLs expansion draft saw them pick up playeers like Jarmo Kekalainen, WHite Goodman, Abel Skinner, Joorgustraad DuBolk, James Truong and Kaarlo Kekkonen. As mentioned, the struggles they've had over their first 9 seasons were not easy. They only qualified for the playoffs once in their first 5 seasons, and in their first appearance lost 0-4 to the Hamilton Steelhawks. However, once they started playing to their potential in S66, they haven't missed a playoff yet. ANd in S67 they made it to the Conference Finals, ultimately losing to the Manhattan Rage, who lost to the Seattle Argonauts. The first 9 seasons of MTLs franchise went as such 219-330-45 (.407%)

Philadelphia Forge, founded by longtime Anchorage GM, Acsolap, have seen a fair amount of regular season success in comparison to their expansion mates. Counter to MTL, the Forge took these players (and more), in their part of the expansion draft: Bork Lazer, First Name Last Name, TURG TURG, Nathan Thomas, Frederick Wanesly (maybe the only player to get taken by 2 expansion teams?), Peter Larson, Schoochie Stratton, and Rex Kirkby. Now, the forge hit the ground running and made the playoffs their very first season, but lost in the 1st round to Baltimore. They would repeat this 1st round exit for the next 8 seasons. Finally they broke that 1st round curse and made it to the next round in S69, where they ended up going all the way and beating out the Winnipeg Aurora for their first Franchise Challenge Cup. In their first 9 seasons, the Forge went 314-226-54 (.574%)

It's not bad time to be an American expansion team in the SHL.

*CptSquall* · 08-13-2023, 06:10 PM

Approved, +5 TPE to @Wearingabear

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