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diamond_ace · 01-02-2012, 05:24 PM

At the S7 SHL Draft, many of the more successful players available to be drafted were from the Montreal Impact and Seattle Stingrays, the two teams that made the NWJHL Finals. This makes sense, as it would be assumed that the teams that advance farther into the playoffs would in general be more active teams with better players. However, when the Manhattan Rage held a total of 7 picks in the first 3 rounds of the draft and 9 picks overall (down from an initial count of 11) it was inevitable that the Rage would end up with players from both the Impact and the Stingrays.

There was already a connection with the Stingrays prior to the draft, as former Stingrays defenseman and S5 captain Mike Ochocinco, now the team's co-GM, is a second pair defenseman on the Rage. The Stingrays are also the Rage's minor league affiliate, mostly due to the fact that their previous management group included current Rage GM Quilha Agante.

After just the first round of the draft, the Rage showed they weren't opposed to taking players who right now see each other as the opposition. The 7th overall pick, Rachel Belmont, is a Stingray while the Rage's other first rounder, 9th overall Simon Aseplin, is an Impact. As there were no Junior games being held at the time of the draft, the players were there, and back in the Rage draft room there was plenty of friendly banter once the rookies got back there. At the time, it was a little one-sided, as Ochocinco couldn't resist siding with his player.

In the early third round, the 21st and 22nd overall picks saw two more Impact players join the Rage, in Yuri Kulikov and Kurtis Hunter. These two selections began to turn the draft room battle more heavily toward talk of the Impact. This would get no better for some time, as Belmont and Ochocinco remained the two Stingrays against now three Impact players.

Through the selections of Pavel Vure, Brent Wood, and Jason White, this dynamic would not change. It would be nothing more than a passing interest for these three, as their teams had already been eliminated, so they were just as likely to be focused on their excitement of joining the Rage as anything regarding the junior league. This would hold especially true of Wood, who has been the very picture of an eager young defenseman, the first one to training camp and the first one to discuss with the coaching staff their plans for him. Still, the focus of these three certainly wasn't on the junior finals, so there was still the same dynamic with regards to that as before.

When the draft reached the fourth round, the Rage selected Stingrays forward Cody Snow. While Snow was the best player available, and perhaps a steal at this point, he also had the added distinction of being the piece that would balance out the draft room banter. Well- not really. Snow has been rather quiet, although just a third Stingrays presence has balanced it out somewhat. The last pick in the fifth round was Paul Hurowitz, also a Stingrays player, also more of a quiet type. Overall, the general feel of the team is one of balance between the Impact and Stingrays, perhaps appropriate because the Rage GM, formerly a Stingrays GM, played in the Montreal Impact organization back when they were the Blazers.

Officially, the Rage are unable to favor either side; it would be unprofessional for an SHL team to openly support one junior team over another. It's also probably the only result that would sit well with all members of the team.

jason97 · 01-02-2012, 05:24 PM

hahah i was just thinking about this

Ochocinco · 01-02-2012, 05:28 PM

I don't care who wins as long as everyone has fun. :ph34r:

jason97 · 01-02-2012, 05:28 PM

Quote:Originally posted by Ochocinco@Jan 2 2012, 05:28 PM
I don't care who wins as long as everyone has fun.  :ph34r:

r u ok

diamond_ace · 01-02-2012, 05:30 PM

Quote:Originally posted by Cornelius The 3rd@Jan 2 2012, 04:24 PM
hahah i was just thinking about this

hahah i was just thinking about getting money

and this was an easy enough topic to write about so i would get money

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