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***Ohtaay*** · 07-16-2020, 06:01 PM

Theo Kondos – Draft Recap

User Perspective
The Season 55 SHL draft has come and gone, and beans have been spilled. There is no doubt about it that this was an interesting draft for many players and GMs to be a part of with Tampa controlling so many picks. Not to mention when you add in New England and Edmonton the back half of the first round was practically controlled by three teams. It made the lead up to the draft slightly less exciting than I remembered with past players. Now there could be many reasons for that, was it because people already knew what to expect from me and my players, was it because I was going to be picked before their pick, or was it just a weird draft? Now it is probably a little bit of all three, however many other draftees reported feeling the same way about this draft, hence the bean squad being formed.

Personally going into the draft for me, it was about on the same level as the junior draft. I only had a couple of meaningful conversations with GMs, and expected to hear from more even if they couldn’t draft me. In my opinion you should always reach out, and build that bridge, you never know when it might come in handy down the road. A prime example of this is the work done by the Manhattan team, they started scouting early, and reached out to most prospects from my understanding. It ultimately lead to them trading the pick, however they put in the work to get know most prospects, which I know especially first gens will appreciate the effort, and make their draft experience more enjoyable, which I think is one of the key selling points for the league.

Being drafted by Texas is an interesting one for me. During my time on the SHL with my first player I wasn’t a fan of Texas from the way it was being run to the image it displayed on the forum, not to mention them stealing Joggy from us as well. During my time with Calgary, albeit short Texas was just another team, nothing to hate, nothing to love just a solid team. This time around it was kind of the same thing, however Dankoa and I have always been in contact on and off through various sim leagues so it was definitely a positive landing location for me. Not to mention some of the other active users they have that I am not overly familiar with yet. I look forward to joining the squad, and meeting some new people! My last 2 players were pretty much lifers with the team that drafted them, so hopefully Texas ends up being the same way!

Player Perspective
My first season in Anchorage was a tough one to say the least, which I mean is to be expected to a point. Starting the season off without a point in 15 games is something I don’t think any one expects to happen. 5 games for sure, 10 games maybe, but 15 games was a hell of a reach. In the least 35 games of the season I would put up 14 points, 7 goals and 7 assists. As a team we would not have a great season, which saw selling off some of our capped players that we would be losing next season, and adding assets for the draft. With that being said we went into the playoffs and pushed the Kelowna Knights into a game 7 situation which we would eventually lose. I would finish playoffs with 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points in 7 games. It was definitely a season of growth.

Luckily your draft stock isn’t effected by how you played in your rookie season. I went through the couple of scouting messages I received and it was made clearly early on that Texas was interested in adding me through the draft, it was only further confirmed when Texas made the move to secure the 5th overall draft selection. Texas already has a good crop of prospects in the pipeline which will allow me to play a couple more seasons in the SMJHL before being called up, and allowing me to further develop some of skills, to ensure I am better suited for the SHL when the time comes!