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***hhh81*** · 01-18-2020, 11:15 PM

Looking back on the S49 Reddit Draft

In the aftermath of another successful r/hockey draft, I thought it was time to look back and reflect on one of my earlier drafts as GM, the Reddit draft in S49. Knowing this draft was coming, I hired @Sleepy for this day, knowing he could lead the team through the draft while I had IRL work stuff kicking my butt. He performed admirably, and I’m proud of my first Co-GM hire. He laid a strong foundation for @ and I to work with, and I wish you could have been more part of seeing the payoff of your hard work.

The question is: just how good was our S49 draft? Let’s reflect!

1st Round, 2nd Overall: C Vorian Atreides @OrbitingDeath
We flirted with a number of players at the top of this draft (notably including @Naosu), but we felt very confident in drafting OrbitingDeath. We had a need for scoring talent at center ice, and Green is a veteran player builder, who also had a great deal of interest in joining the Raptors to bond with his dinosaur-loving son. As we talked with him, it was clear this was the perfect fit at the time. It continues to be a good move on our part.

Atreides played three years for Colorado, scoring 26-49-75 (including 10-12-22 on the power play) in 150 regular season and 15 points in 30 playoff games. He also took 334 shots in the regular season. He will start the next steps of his career with Los Angeles in S52, leaving big shoes for other players to step into. I don’t regret this pick for a second. His 625 TPE ranks 13th in his draft class, and is likely a large part of him being drafted 8th overall in the SHL Draft.

2nd Round, 12th Overall: D Lee Samson @Kingslayerlh
Fun fact: if left to his own devices, sleepy was going to pick Samuel Michaud here. @golden_apricot impressed the hell out of him and other members of our management team, myself included. However, I saw something in my multiple conversations with Kingslayerlh that I wanted to take a shot on at 12 overall. I thought he would fit our team well and loved what SHL was, so he’d stick to it longterm. Boy, was I wrong.

I own that, so far, I’m notorious for doing two things: making great picks on old recreates in the 2nd round (NONAME, @jason97) and equally awful first gen defensemen picks (Mikelis Ozolins, Lee Samson). I don’t understand it, so I hope this isn’t foretelling for the S52 class, but I see it!

While Samson was mired on our 3rd pair with another S49 rookie defender (more on him soon), fellow rearguards Samuel Michaud, Adam Barron, and Augustus Wang all also went in the 2nd round and went on to starring roles and first-round SHL pick status. We goofed this pick, and I honestly expected one of those other guys to also be there at 22. I was very wrong!

Samson has continued to live out his life as depth filler for Detroit, playing 1778 minutes on the third pair scoring 2-20-22 in 100 games the last two seasons.

3rd Round, 22nd Overall: RW Patrick Miller @BayJingT
I really liked talking to this guy. He shared he wasn’t really looking or needing to be a superstar, he was happy to play a smaller, defensive role to help the team. Whatever the team needed, he would do, just like he did in real life on his basketball teams. Sleepy and I were both high on the guy at this pick. I loved the energy and humility he brought! He was an active and vocal member of our LR… until he wasn’t. Things happen, and he didn’t end up panning out due to real life. We wish you well, BayJingT, and hope you come back to the SHL someday.

3rd Round, 28th Overall: F Nathanial Voltguin @voltguin
We thought Voltguin was going to be a great steal. No one else was talking to him, and he was a Penguins-loving desk job guy who seemed to be a solid option in the draft. In hindsight, we were wrong. It hurts more to put it into context of the next ten picks. In that range Ursin Zimmermann (29), Kalevolaripaavo Kaspertommevisnapuu (31), Ian Venables (33), Tom Fiddler (34), Daniel Bischoff (35), and Ricky Bobby (37) were all selected. Those are some of the leading players in the SMJHL this past season. Voltguin is not.

Voltguin appeared in 25 games in S49, scoring 3 goals and 5 points in spot duty. After he was cut at the end of that season, he sat out the S50 campaign before being signed as an IFA by notorioustig and the Falcons for S51. He played 401 minutes as a filler fourth liner, registering 1 assist.

5th Round, 41st Overall: D Daniel Kuster @kuschy
I can’t recall what went into this pick. I don’t remember talking to him and I don’t see anything about him in our chats, but we took the shot, and he’s stayed active! Usually when users aren’t very vocal in the locker room, they don’t tend to stick around. Kuschy bucks that trend, having only 27 posts in three seasons in Colorado! The silent rearguard has consistently updated, leading him to be drafted by the Toronto North Stars in the 2nd round, 25th overall. He currently ranks 27th in his class with 513 TPE. He’ll be suiting up for his likely final SMJHL season in S52 as a top pairing defender. I’m pumped to see what he’ll do!

In three seasons, Kuster has recorded 14-60-74, +1 rating, 146 blocked shots, and 3,107 minutes played. Pretty solid numbers that he’ll only improve upon in his fourth season with the Raptors. He’s decently likely going to pass Cassius Darrow’s 100 point plateau, which is no small feat (bojobox would help me answer more on this, but alas).

6th Round, 52nd Overall: LW Henrik Lekberg Osterman @Thatguy91
This was a great pick on our part. Whenever you can find a four-year active player in the 6th round, you’ve won a big win. I want to give credit where credit is due. This pick was 98% due to the hard work and relationship building by Knute Knurtsson @Ason94 for finding and advocating for this fellow Swede. The other two percent is me being smart enough to listen to him.

From the very moment he joined the locker room, Henrik was a vocal and positive presence. The dude jumped in right away as one of the SMJHL Head Office interns, and has been a fixture in Colorado’s scouting and management team, and saw himself rise to the 3rd overall pick in the S50 SHL Draft. His teammates also recognized him in S51, voting him captain of the team. Someday he’s going to be a superb GM for a team, and while I will miss thatguy91 on my team, I’ll be proud to see him stretch his wings and do great work for the SHL.

Enough about the user (who I can’t say enough good things about), and onto HLO. HLO has been a weird player for the Raptors—his effect on our team doesn’t always come across in the scoresheet. From the start, HLO wanted to be a strong possession winger, carrying the puck and protecting it. He embodies the unselfish, two-way winger mold. In 150 games over the last three seasons, HLO has recorded 33-45-78, a -12 rating, 169 hits, 345 shots, 2649 minutes played, 7-17-24 power play points, 6 game winning goals, one game tying goal, and 119 minutes on the penalty kill. He’s never been relied on to carry a unit, but rather to be a complimentary player on the (usually) tough HLO-Atreides-Hariken Urawa line. He was happy to fit in as a passer for the two snipers. In S50, with the abnormally deep forward core of the Raptors, Lekberg Osterman accepted a reduced role so other players could get more playing time. Never once have I heard a complaint from this guy (other than cringing about his choice to put TPE into checking).

I think HLO will join other beloved players like Cassius Darrow and Bo Kane (well maybe just the latter) as two-time Raptors captains in S52.

6th Round, 58th Overall: First-Name Last-Name @gurbs
Thank the world this man got online when he did. After missing almost all of the pre-draft scouting, gurbs got online in rookie chat during the draft. Someone on my management team noticed, so we took a flier on the forward. After a season or two mired with a smaller role in the bottom six as a winger, FNLN was able to step into the spotlight in S51 with a 13 goal, 34 point season flanking Bo Kane and Hariken Urawa and playing almost 3 extra minutes per game (13.84 to 16.61).

FNLN, while being a fun meme name, also has earned 420 TPE, good for 36th in his class; Edmonton took a flier on him in the 3rd round of the S50 SHL Draft, 43rd overall. He’ll suit up for Edmonton in S53. Until then, he’ll be the de facto first line center for the Raptors in S52 and look to add to his career 72 points. The user was fairly quiet as a rookie and has slowly warmed up and taken on a more vocal role in the room. He was voted by his teammates to wear an A last season, and may do the same this season.
*note, two other notable players from Round 6 of this draft were Halifax’ Karl Krashwagen and Vancouver’s Francois Breton. One of the other players from the class amounted to much.

7th Round, 62nd Overall: D Georgy Gorbachenko @The BreakBot
I feel confident saying we knocked it out of the park for Rounds 5-7 of this draft. Gorby is the last cog of that. Considering our draft board is gone now (trade secrets from a friend—he took no chances lmao!) and he’s not mentioned in chat, I’m going to assume someone talked to him, thought he was cool and decently likely to stay active, and then still there at pick 62. He was another quiet one, asking a few questions here and there. He started a new job, which slowed down his updating, but he was a solidly consistent, mid to low-speed updater. Every team needs one to help round out your team. Unfortunately, it looks like real life got the best of another promising youngster. He at some point in the last season left the Colorado locker room.

Before then, he put up a strong stay-at-home defender role, with 10-30-40, -5 rating, 115 PIMs, 126 hits, 2519 minutes played (292 of those on the penalty kill). His updating was good enough to be drafted by New England in the 3rd round of the S50 SHL Draft (46th overall). In 30 playoff games, he recorded 3-8-11, 23 blocks, and a +8 rating in 483 minutes played. Most notably to Raptors faithful, he was half of the dominant shutdown possession pair in the S50 run to the Four Star Cup Finals with Heat Siecker. Carolina’s forwards took some advantage of them, and he finished the series with a -2 rating (after being a double-digit plus player in the previous series versus St. Louis and Detroit.

8th Round, 72nd Overall: C Axel Caderoth @caderoth
This late, we really didn’t see much available. I saw room for one more forward, so we took a chance on Caderoth. He never joined the locker room or updated, so he was filler for part of the S49 season before being cast off. He has not been signed by another SHL team.

Overall
Looking back, I think we did a good job. While our three picks between Rounds 2 and 3 busted hard, we found four very good picks after that in Kuster, Gorbachenko, Last-Name, and Lekberg Osterman. Any time you can get four 425 capped players in a single draft, you’re doing pretty well. Outside of Montreal/Carolina’s legendary draft class and Anchorage’s very strong draft that just earned them a Four Star Cup, Colorado arguably has the third best draft crop from S49. If only we could have gotten the S50 Cup to join them in the record books.

Quote:2000+ words (haven't rechecked after adding tags/formatting) + several hours of research sans bojobox. Draft media 2x bonus!

*Vandy* · 01-18-2020, 11:59 PM

ChrisFromRMNB · 01-19-2020, 12:16 AM

Hopefully we'll be reading this again in another few seasons but with only good things haha!

Raptors

MarlinManiac4 · 01-19-2020, 01:03 AM

"I’m notorious for doing two things: making great picks on old recreates in the 2nd round and equally awful first gen defensemen picks (Mikelis Ozolins, Lee Samson). I don’t understand it, so I hope this isn’t foretelling for the S52 class, but I see it!"

Seems like I have a trend to buck! Ill try not to let you down boss! lol

Raptors

Ason94 · 01-19-2020, 03:46 AM

OrbitingDeath · 01-19-2020, 04:33 AM

I'm on your management team? I informed you guys for FN LN hehe. Great read though ♡

***hhh81*** · 01-19-2020, 11:04 AM

01-19-2020, 04:33 AMOrbitingDeath Wrote: I'm on your management team? I informed you guys for FN LN hehe. Great read though ♡

I forgot! Sorry, and thank you for your help! During drafts, I read nothing in our LR because I'm reading the draft board and what's going on in GM chat. If people are on VC, that's about the only way I find out what's going on in the LR.

Would you like me to edit to give you corrected credit? Smile

***gurbs*** · 01-19-2020, 12:41 PM

Appreciate the love in the article! I will forever be grateful for the Raptors on taking a chance on me! What a ride it has been but it’s not over yet... one more run to the cup hopefully!
Raptors

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