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***hhh81*** · 03-17-2020, 05:40 PM

Looking back on the S52 SMJHL Draft after the S53 SHL Draft Raptors

As we enter a new season with all the excitement of new users and a new sim engine, I thought it prudent to look back on the last r/hockey SMJHL Draft for the Colorado Raptors. I’ve been at the helm of the Raptors for 6(? 7?) seasons now, and usually do a good job drafting. I thought it would be fun to see how I did in S52 and how that transitioned to the SHL Draft Sunday afternoon.

C Chris Cerullo @ChrisFromRMNB
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 1st Overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: 43rd Overall (Buffalo Stampede

)
TPE as of 3/16/20: 269 TPE (ranked 24th pre-draft with 269 TPE)

How often do you see a hockey media celebrity pop up on a community like ours? I think it’s infrequent, so when I had the first overall pick and needed our next franchise center, I felt good about that being Cerullo. His media was excellent, and we knew he liked hockey from his real job. It was risky, but I felt someone who can generate their own bank account was a fair risk to take. He updated for a bit, but was never the most vocal in our locker room. One day he vanished and didn’t answer DMs. I hope he’s doing well, as the world pandemic certainly has put pressure on his real job (can’t cover hockey if there’s no hockey season).

Many were probably shocked to see Cerullo fall so far, but it became pretty clear in the last week he wasn’t living up to the lofty draft position I gave him. Buffalo took a flyer on Cerullo—they have a deep enough prospect pool they can afford if a random 5th round pick doesn’t pan out (see them drafting @NJBadApple’s recreate despite him telling everyone he was going inactive). If he does come back… well, Buffalo has yet another forward to add to our scary crop of current and future Buffabros. Until then, I get 3-4 seasons of a decent bottom six forward build to complement my teams. You can do worse.

RW Hiroshi Ohira @Finetales
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 3rd Overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: 27th Overall (Manhattan Rage

)
TPE as of 3/16/20: 279 TPE (ranked 26th (T) pre-draft with 267 TPE)

We got our top two ranked prospects in the draft class at 1 and 3 (thanks Anaheim!) Our staff loved Finetales as a user from the first moment we talked to him. He struck us as a super friendly and engaged forward prospect. @39alaska39 loved the guy and would have 100% taken him if expansion had happened and I hadn’t grabbed him. I knew I wanted to go forwards with our first round picks, and solidified for myself pretty quickly that would be Chris and Finetales. I know other first-round, first-gen picks have had a bigger splash in the season since (Steve Harrington, Edward Williams, Valentin Kalashnikov, Jimmy Wagner as a start), but I still feel good about this pick. Let the record reflect Harrington and Williams were in discussions for that 3rd overall pick.

While he wasn’t the most vocal member of the rookie squad, he’s made up for it in recent weeks. He’s kept consistently updating and hovers in the top 30 of the class. I think he’s going to grow into a great SHL player soon; it’s not shocking that Manhattan drafted him (and I feel confident Alaska played a part in that).

D Bradley Barkov @MarlinManiac4
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 14th Overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: 9th Overall (Calgary Dragons

)
TPE as of 3/16/20: 307 TPE (ranked 16th (T) pre-draft with 277 TPE)

After some of the top defenders we liked started flying off the board, we went to the next guy up at 14th overall. From the start, I knew I wanted and needed to go defense with our second round pick. This one worked out for us, as Marlin’s grown in our locker room to be a great young player and person for our team. He’ll be our Lidstrom this next year, having to do a bit of everything to help Colorado win games. His massive 70 point update is very exciting for him to shoot up the class TPE rankings next week.
It’s no surprise Barkov went in the top 10 of the SHL Draft. I know about 5 teams were looking to trade up around this point to pick him. I wish him well.

LW Sven Svensson @LordBirdman
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 34th Overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: 15th Overall (San Francisco pride

)
TPE as of 3/16/20: 347 TPE (ranked 16th (T) pre-draft with 277 TPE)

On the day of the S52 J draft, I knew I was going forward with picks 1 and 3, and defense with pick 14, then whatever showed up for us in the fourth. I never expected to see Birdman still on the board when we picked again, so I ran to the podium.

Svensson is one of those picks that makes a GM look really smart. He was immediately a vocal and engaged member of the team, looking to help his teammates and coaches be the best they can be. I love this guy, and think he should have been a top 10 pick in the SHL. Regardless, he went at 15 to San Francisco. I knew that was his floor as @DaftRaincloud and @Grapehead really like drafting forwards I’ve developed the last few years (Knute Knurtsson, Bo Kane, Henrik Lekberg Osterman, Simothy Drunkebird…). I think they got a great pick, and easily the best Raptors prospect of this past class. He’ll hit the J cap this next week and I’m excited to see his production on the ice hopefully match how great off the ice he is.

D Glen Anders @twenty
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 43rd overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: undrafted
TPE as of 3/16/20: 203 TPE (ranked 54th (T) pre-draft)

I knew after S52 I was losing three blueliners to call ups/age outs, so I wanted to restock the cupboard before then with the future blueliners. He’d racked up over 5 hours of online time before the draft, so I thought that reflected some interest we could stoke into more for us. I’m not unfamiliar with quiet defenseman from r/hockey drafts going on to success for our team. Daniel Kuster was a mid-round Reddit pick who almost never spoke in the Colorado locker room in four seasons, and look how he’s turning out! For a bit, I thought twenty would be a similar sort of player, even as a moderate earner. He steadily earned some TPE and even broke 200, but has since not been seen in a week or two. Will he come back? Maybe. It’s hard to say. At the point in the draft, there just weren’t many available defensemen. Took a flyer, didn’t work, not gonna beat myself up over it.

C Tomas Grygera @foehammer007
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 44th overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: Undrafted
TPE as of 3/16/20: 172 TPE (ranked 74th (T) pre-draft)

Recreates are hard, especially those of users who went inactive before. @Esso2264 went hard for bringing foehammer from Czechia to Colorado. He was confident Grygera would stick it out and grow from the last player. Kelowna thought so too, or they wouldn’t have been so mad when I nabbed him in the 5th round one pick before they were going to! This felt like a low-risk pick in the middle of the fifth. I never expected him to be a Stamkos/luke/me level of TPE whore, and I hoped he’d be a moderate earner hitting at least 220-230 TPE (like First-Name Last-Name before him) around his SHL Draft. Instead, foe never really connected with our LR and had some ongoing health challenges that have stalled Grygera’s development. I hope he is well, taking care of himself during the COVID-19 crisis, and comes back to semi-activity soon if that’s what he wants. We miss him.

G Jerry Huuveri @Jerppu
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 54th overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: 23rd overall (Tampa Bay Barracuda

)
TPE as of 3/16/20: 283 TPE (ranked 27th (T) pre-draft with 266 TPE)

Goalies can be tough to peg. When we were in the Colorado war room, I was shouting about needing a goalie later in this draft. We got screwed out of drafting one in the last Reddit, and while I knew we had a pretty good option in the crease with Samat Beibitzhanov, I wanted to secure our future in net. Huuveri was the top goalie left on our board with a 4th round grade (third best in class), so I took the shot in the fifth round. Some thought it was a bit premature, but I felt confident he wouldn’t be there a round later. Considering there was a small run of goalies in the 6th and 7th rounds, that seemed likely.

I knew Huuveri was going at 23rd overall. @MCP_ reached out a few times about him to me, so I knew they were high on him as their future in net. I also heard right before the draft that he could have gone as high as 17th to Buffalo. I think it’s a great pick, and I’m super excited to see him continue to grow and push Samat to new heights. His TPE ranking doesn’t seem that impressive, but he has a 31 point update coming next week that will have him break 300 finally. He also was the biggest riser of Colorado’s class, going 31 spots higher in the SHL than the SMJHL.

C Joko Draz @BestEskimo
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 64th overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: Undrafted
TPE as of 3/16/20: 155 (never updated)

Draz never signed, never updated, never spoke again. It was a stab in the dark for a potential bottom line forward. Didn’t work, but that happens sometimes. Next!

RW Ragnar Skallagrimsson @Hazack
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 74th overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: Undrafted
TPE as of 3/16/20: 184 TPE (ranked 65th (T) pre-draft with 184 TPE)

I took a flyer on Hazack because @ProjectSaint recommended him highly. As the brother of @RedCapeDiver, there was a decent chance he might stick it out and be a late round steal. He got a few updates in and talked a little bit in the locker room but real life must have gotten in the way. I’ve messaged him a few times and would love for him to come back to the Dino Gang. At worst, he goes onto another season or two as bottom six filler for the Raptors. At best, well, he gets back into a rhythm and can be the latest steal late in the next SHL Draft!

D Fergus Callaghan @H0PPY75
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: 84th overall
S53 SHL Draft Position: Undrafted
TPE as of 3/16/20: 155 (never updated)

Along with Joko Draz, Callaghan also went unsigned and inactive.

This had potential to be a diamond in the rough. Callaghan was known from PBE by someone on my team and came highly regarded as a great fit for the Raptors potentially. I was told before the draft they’d bit off more than they could chew and they likely wouldn’t be back. Just in case, I drafted and stashed the player, because I respect the opinion of the mutual contact. It didn’t amount to much, but in the 9th round of a more shallow r/hockey draft, it’s not that big of a deal.

LW Carlos Brown @CB2212
S52 SMJHL Draft Position: not drafted
S53 SHL Draft Position: 42nd Overall (Edmonton Blizzard

)
TPE as of 3/16/20: 206 TPE (ranked 57th pre-draft with 200 TPE)

Brown was a great pre-deadline free agent signing. He’s stuck with it and been updating consistently, doing everything he can since creating. That didn’t go unnoticed, as he was drafted by Edmonton.

Carlos is great in the locker room, with a friendly, team-focused energy. I love the guy and am glad we took the chance on each other. I think he’ll have a big season in S53, led by the huge 36 point update he has on the books for this week!

D Bryce Turner @Pandakazi
S51 SMJHL Draft Position: 30th overall
S52 SHL Draft Position: Undrafted
S53 SHL Draft Position: 52nd overall (Minnesota Chiefs

)
TPE as of 3/16/20: 253 TPE (last ranked 30th in S52 class pre-S53 draft)

Turner, after being a decently high pick in S51 to Colorado (30th overall), did some updates then went inactive due to real life. Thankfully, we were able to get back in touch and help him adjust once things settled down. He’s been a moderate earner ever since as he slowly but surely works his way back as a player. I repeatedly this season pumped up his tires to SHL GMs so they wouldn’t forget about him, and thankfully my good friend @SpartanGibbles listened and drafted him. At this point in the SHL Draft, this was a low-risk option for a potential future defender lower in the lineup for the rebuilding Chiefs. I’m excited to see what’s next for Turner in FHM, especially with a minimum of a 22 TPE update coming this week (and possibly upwards of a 44-50 point update!).

Final Thoughts
And that’s it! I think, all things considered, we did a pretty good job with this last draft. It’s not as outstanding compared to our S50 Reddit class that saw three Raptors taken in the top 10 of the SHL, but it’s still very strong. We didn’t hit constant gold like Detroit, but even @notorioustig will tell you that only happens once in a career. I’m happy for him, and will be proud to argue I had the second best draft.