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ddrector · 07-09-2020, 12:06 PM

With little to do between now and the draft I figured this was a perfect time to do a little analysis on each SMJHL team so I can get a feel for each team and where I might fit in and who might be interested in me. Before I get into each minor league team I want to give a little bit more insight into me as a person. I’m from North Carolina and while I’m not a huge hockey fan when I do watch hockey I am watching the Carolina Hurricanes. I went to school at NC State and used to go to Canes games multiple times every season. I lived only a 5 minute walk from the stadium, which was awesome. Anyway, that’s why I decided to base my player off of Andrei Svechnikov. With all that said let’s look into each team in the SMJHL.

The Anaheim Outlaws are the first team up. Anaheim is a part of the Los Angeles area of California. I’ve never been to the area personally, but I’m sure the weather is almost always nice. I hear the traffic is horrendous. The Ducks and Angels are professional sports teams in the area. Anaheim is also home to DisneyLand. Not to be confused with the superior Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In case you are unaware you could fit roughly 51 DisneyLand’s in Disney World. The Outlaws have three right wings on the roster right now in John Forfeit with 273 TPE from S51, Rhys Pritchard with 850 TPE from S52, and Ethan Price with 560 TPE from S53. Now keep in mind I know little to nothing about this league, but I’m shocked that Pritchard hasn’t been sent up to the major league yet. Regardless I think the Outlaws could definitely use another right wing. Forfeit is the oldest player of these three and yet has the lowest TPE, which tells me he is probably inactive. I can’t imagine Pritchard will be staying down after this season, and Price isn’t far behind him either.

The Anchorage Armada are the next team up. Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska with almost 300,000 people. Kobo is definitely interested in the idea of living in Alaska for a few years. The cold doesn't bother him as he's already got some experience with the cold as he is from Russia. You could say it’s in his blood. Plus hockey is played on ice, so it makes sense to have a hockey team based in a colder climate like Alaska. There are actually a lot of things to do in and around the Anchorage area. There is a huge moose population in the area, which is fascinating. If you've never seen a moose in person they are truly massive. They can get up to 7 feet tall and that's only to their shoulders, not including their head or massive antlers that can get up to 6 feet wide. Moose are actually the largest mammal in North America. There are also many excellent museums in the city that Kobo is interested in visiting. Even if he is not drafted by Anchorage he definitely plans on enjoying the city when his team travels there. The Armada currently have three young right wings on the roster in Zbynek Dobrovsky with 162 TPE from S56, Taylor Gervais with 267 TPE from S55, and Thorbjorn Gunnarson with 395 TPE from S54. With this young right wing group the Armada might not feel the need to draft another one in this class. This seems like an unlikely landing spot for Kobo.

The Carolina Kraken are next on the list and boy do I have a lot to say about this team. First of all, Kraken is an awesome team name and very unique. I like that the team uses the Carolina name similar to the Panthers. It is also cool that they share a stadium with the Charlotte Hornets. I just wish the Kraken had embraced the crazy color combination of the Hornets as that teal and purple would look awesome on the ice. Charlotte is a great city that is growing rapidly with tons of fun stuff to do. Carowinds, the local theme park, has lots of great roller coasters including some of the tallest drops in the United States. The state of North Carolina on its own has so much to do and really carries South Carolina on its back as North Carolina is the superior state in every way. You go to South Carolina for a few things: cheaper gas, better fireworks, Charleston, and if you like to go to touristy beaches. North Carolina has an excellent craft brewery scene throughout the state if you are into that sort of thing. In fact, North Carolina produces the 7th most craft beer of any state. With tons of awesome breweries in the Asheville, Charlotte, and Raleigh areas you can’t go wrong. North Carolina has a little bit of everything with the beautiful Appalachian mountains to the west and the beaches and outer banks to the east. If you want to see something truly amazing go see the wild horses in the Outer Banks. Anyway, I’ve said enough about the amazing state of North Carolina and I should probably look at the Krakens current roster. The Kraken have three right wings in Moritz Muller with 180 TPE from S55, Jimmy Wagner with 674 TPE from S53, and Stan Hanson with 648 TPE from S51. I can’t imagine both Wagner and Hanson will remain on the team much longer. Wagner seems to be gaining TPE at a good pace and should be ready for the SHL soon, so the Kraken could definitely use another young right wing.

The Colorado Raptors are the next team up and another team with a fun name. Who doesn’t love Raptors? Also, a great color scheme helps this team a lot. I don’t really know much about Colorado, but I’ve had multiple friends tell me that if they could live in any state in the country Colorado would be top of the list. For some people I know the appeal of legal marijuana is probably the main reason for this, but I’ve heard there are many other aspects of Colorado that put it high (pun intended) on this list. The rocky mountains provide some of the best skiing in the country. The Red Rocks music venue is one of the premiere music venues in the country with tons of huge concerts every year. Colorado is the top state in the country for craft beer. Lots of professional sports teams with the Broncos, Nuggets, Rockies, and Avalanche. Also, one of my favorite books, The Stand by Stephen King, has a large portion of the book take place in Colorado. I’ve never personally been, and I don’t care about the legal weed thing at all, but it’s definitely a state I want to visit someday. As far as the Raptors are concerned they have an abundance of right wings with five on the roster in Juni Panda with 208 TPE from S55, Gudmundur Kristjansson with 279 TPE from S55, Asclepius Perseus Flitterwind with 302 TPE from S55, Noah Johns II with 229 TPE from S54, and Hiroshi Ohira with 351 TPE from S53. With this young group I don’t see a need for them to take a right wing in this upcoming draft at all.

The Detroit Falcons are the next team up. Even though Falcons is a boring overused team name I do quite like the logo and color scheme. The colors are very similar to the NHL team from the area, which is an interesting choice. Detroit is not an ideal place to live in my opinion. It’s downtrodden with more people wanting to leave the area than move to the area. One of my favorite movies takes place mostly in Detroit. That is the vampire flick Only Lovers Left Alive starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton. If you’ve never seen it you should really stop reading this right now and watch this incredible film. Also, one of 2018’s best video games Detroit: Become Human takes place in the city. Great fictional stories aside, I have no idea why anyone would want to live in Detroit. As for the Falcons they have three right wings on the roster in Zakkira Diporov with 265 TPE from S55, James Kimanje with 204 TPE from S55, and Burlok Sulfurgold with 642 TPE from S53. While Diporov and Kimanje will more than likely be on the roster for a few seasons Sulfurgold will probably be playing in the SHL soon, so the Falcons could definitely use a new young right wing.

The Kelowna Knights are the next team up, and I have no idea where Kelowna is, so I’m going to guess it’s a random small town in Canada. It looks like I was right. Kelowna is in British Columbia directly to the north of the state of Washington. It’s about a four hour drive from Vancouver and sits on the eastern shore of the Okanagan Lake. Kelowna means Grizzly Bear in Okanagan. Also, if you’ve never seen the coat of arms for Kelowna you should really look it up. It's got a seahorse and a grizzly bear on it. Really the team should be the Kelowna Grizzlies or Kelowna Grizzly Bears. Knights is just boring and again an overused sports team name. At least Grizzlies would have made thematic sense for the teams location. As far as the Knights roster they have three right wins per usual and they are Cam Nosreh with 195 TPE from S55, Justin Keahi with 473 TPE from S54, and Simon Takshak with 417 TPE from S54. Keahi and Takshak are both at the point where they could be called up, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Knights add a right wing or two to the roster in the upcoming draft.

The Maine Timber are the next team up and Timber is one of the more unique team names I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure where in Maine the team plays. As I mentioned earlier The Stand is one of my favorite books, so therefore in my mind the Timber play in Ogunquit, which is the town both Fran Goldsmith and Harold Lauder come from. It’s a beautiful coastal town that I’ve always wanted to visit. The only other thing I know about Maine is that good lobster comes from the Maine coast. I assume from the team name that there are lots of forests in Maine. The Timber have an abundance of right wings with Victor Ball with 247 TPE from S55, Alex Marshall with 282 TPE from S55, William Reynolds with 190 TPE from S55, Alex Oscarsson with 298 TPE from S55, Kyle Sutton with 357 TPE from S54, and Lucas Hellquist with 388 TPE from S53. With so many right wings and such a young group I double they’ll be looking for another right wing anytime soon.

The Newfoundland Berserkers are the next team up and when I hear Berserker the first thing that comes to mind is a viking that is mad with rage and killing everything in sight. It’s an interesting team name for sure. The Berserkers have a pretty cool logo and I like the dark color scheme. They could be a natural rival with the other Canadian team if they had chosen Grizzlies as the team name since the Berserker logo is shown wearing a bear headdress. Newfoundland is an island off the east coast of North America and is also the home of the massive Newfoundland dogs that were commonly used as working dogs. If you’ve never seen a Newfoundland dog in person they are truly massive. Fun fact, Lief Erikson, the Icelandic explorer, visited the island of Newfoundland back in the 11th century. Fans of Spongebob I’m sure know who Lief Erikson is. The Berserkers have five right wings on the roster with Liam Slate at 304 TPE from S55, Ryuuji Minamino with 674 TPE from S53, Andrei Kostitsyn with 488 TPE from S53, Patric Twist with 426 TPE from S53, and Mattias Birdstorm with 348 TPE from S53. The large group from S53 are approaching that call up point, so the Berserkers might look to add one right wing to the roster if they think they may be losing enough of that group to the SHL.

The St. Louis Scarecrows are the next team up, and I don’t have many nice things to say about St. Louis. Scarecrows is an interesting team name, but I like it. I did the logo as it reminds me of the Batman villain of the same name. The color scheme is also decent. St. Louis is from my experience a dirty city that’s not worth the visit. The arch is overrated and the city itself just doesn’t seem that great. I mean it's in the state of Missouri for crying out loud, and I’ve never heard a good thing about Missouri. I don’t really have much else to say so let's move on to the Scarecrows roster. They have Vladmir Petrov from S56 who is a newer create, Pavel Kharlamov with 273 TPE from S55, Young Logo with 265 TPE from S55, William Lockwood with 249 TPE from S54, Kriss Darzins with 530 TPE from S53, and Mega Tron with 509 TPE from S52. It looks like they have an abundance of young right wings to take over once Darzins and Tron are called up, so they don’t have much need for another young right wing.

Last but not least are the Vancouver Whalers. This is kind of a lazy team name and color scheme as it basically copies the old Hartford Whalers in every way. I don’t mind the reuse of the name, but at least come up with a new logo and color scheme instead of reusing the existing one. Vancouver and Kelowna can form a nice rivalry as they are a mere four hours apart. Vancouver is a pretty cool city that has lots to do. If Asheville is the cool hip city of North Carolina then Vancouver is that to Canada. One cool thing about Vancouver is a lot of the CW tv shows are filmed in the Vancouver area. The Whalers roster has four right wings in Devin Basher with 297 TPE from S55, Walito Gretzky with 268 TPE from S54, Bryce McMahon with 337 TPE from S54, and Nicholas Corrigan with 254 TPE from S52. It seems like the Whalers have a young group of right wings here, so not sure how much they would need another one in this draft.

After looking through all ten teams in the league it looks like the most likely landing spot for Kobo is one of the Outlaws, Kraken, Falcons, and Knights. Kobo would be happy to play for any of these four teams as well as any of the other six if one of those teams decides to draft him. I hope this was useful for any other right wings in the draft class that might be wondering where they could land.

***Ohtaay*** · 07-09-2020, 12:10 PM

Nice article man!

The S56 players will reenter the SMJHL draft, just for your info! Opens a couple more spots for playing time.

Enjoy the lead up to the draft!

Cheers

ddrector · 07-09-2020, 12:14 PM

07-09-2020, 12:10 PMOhtaay Wrote: Nice article man!

The S56 players will reenter the SMJHL draft, just for your info! Opens a couple more spots for playing time.

Enjoy the lead up to the draft!

Oh, that's good to know. That definitely adds a team or two to the needs a right wing list.

***SDCore*** · 07-09-2020, 12:22 PM

Rip dark mode user amirite... Also hiya ddrector

EricNCSU · 07-09-2020, 01:53 PM

NC State class of 2003, 2009. Huge Canes fan since day 1. (Still remember when College Night was only $5).

Welcome to the league!

ddrector · 07-09-2020, 02:18 PM

07-09-2020, 01:53 PMEricNCSU Wrote: NC State class of 2003, 2009. Huge Canes fan since day 1. (Still remember when College Night was only $5).

Welcome to the league!

Awesome, Class of 2012 here. I think College Night was $15 when I was in school.

EricNCSU · 07-09-2020, 02:46 PM

07-09-2020, 02:18 PMddrector Wrote:
07-09-2020, 01:53 PMEricNCSU Wrote: NC State class of 2003, 2009. Huge Canes fan since day 1. (Still remember when College Night was only $5).

Welcome to the league!

Awesome, Class of 2012 here. I think College Night was $15 when I was in school.

Yeah, things were a little cheaper in 1999. That changed after 2006.

*CementHands* · 07-09-2020, 02:58 PM

great article. Welcome to the league!

***Faelax*** · 07-09-2020, 05:31 PM

Nice article! But don't forget about the two new expansion teams coming this season.

Wearingabear · 07-09-2020, 07:50 PM

07-09-2020, 05:31 PMFaelax Wrote: Nice article! But don't forget about the two new expansion teams coming this season.

I think those two have the biggest holes at RW

ddrector · 07-10-2020, 10:20 AM

07-09-2020, 07:50 PMWearingabear Wrote:
07-09-2020, 05:31 PMFaelax Wrote: Nice article! But don't forget about the two new expansion teams coming this season.
I think those two have the biggest holes at RW

I had no idea there were two expansion teams coming this season. Good to know.

***boom*** · 07-10-2020, 12:43 PM

Nice article!

For what it's worth, left and right wings tend to be interchangeable (I think a player playing off-wing will have a bit of a period to acclimate but it won't be an issue) so playing on your off-wing isn't a big deal. Also Corrigan was deployed as our 4C last season.

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