With S54 in the books we are all turning our attention on the S55 draft. It looks to be a big one for the J, but since the prospect pool is still filling out I’m going to focus this article on the SHL draft. While the J is a huge crapshoot, the SHL draft is generally a bit more measured and we can pick out some of the top contenders based on their 1st season performance, rate of acquiring TPE, media generation, jobs, and general locker room and forum presence. I’m sure a lot of people will be doing a much more in depth-analysis of who may go where due to team needs but unfortunately I haven’t been able to follow the SHL as closely this past season so any analysis I do there would be quite unfounded.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ll do plenty of unfounded analysis here too because I am VERY broke and need all the cash I can get. Anything seen below is simply me trying to milk every dollar possible out of this article so don’t read it as a view from Texas at all. I’m just going to ramble as much as I can and will probably make a lot of inaccurate statements at the same time. It has also taken me longer than I expected to write this (shocker!) so probably wont come out until after draft. I’m not going to edit anything I wrote pre-draft because that would just take more time and frankly - no one cares. Enjoy my musings, however wrong they may be.

I also didn't get nearly as much written as I wanted and might come back to fill this out more before double draft media is done, but let's be real, I won't. If I didn't get to you and for some reason that upsets you, just remember I worked down the TPE list so you just gotta earn more. Play like a champion!

I’m using @”RedCapeDiver”‘s Player Analyze 2.0 document for my numbers here so if anything is wrong lets all blame him.

For S55 SHL draft we have 74 eligible players coming up to a big league team. I remember the SHL draft being a ton of fun and lots of things going on for recruiting and talking to a ton of GMs and watching these posts to see where I fell. I’m simply going to work through the players based on TPE. It’s pretty common to see high TPE players go early in the draft, but it is not a given that things will work out in that order. Teams have their own priorities for positioning and gap fill and the player personality goes a long way. Recreates generally have a leg up on the competition as well, but first time users do go early as well.

Without any further ado let’s get into it:

First off we have Colin Lambert coming from a defensive role with the St. Louis Scarecrows. @”rum_ham” is an old timer around here and is known in the SHL community. Sitting on top of his class with 320 TPE, this 5 foot 11 inch tall left offensive defenseman put up 25 points for STL with a stellar +15 on 21:51 average Time On Ice. That’s pretty huge for a rookie d-man and he was able to pull in some good power play and penalty kill minutes as well. On the earning front, Lambert is sitting on a huge 104 million dollar bank account. With that kinda cash he can afford weekly training and seasonal personal training for like 3 whole seasons! Watch out all, we got a 1%’er here.

Next up in the TPE charts is the Anchorage Armada’s own Austrian left winger, Theo Kondos. @”ohtaay” is another recreate whose account is sporting 3 challenge cups, 2 four star cups, and a league MVP trophy. Surely he’s gonna be near the top of many of the lists with a resume like that. 5 TPE behind Lambert, Kondos has collected 315 TPE in his short tenure with the boats. He’s a wiry young guy at 5 foot 10 inches tall yet only 165 pounds. That’s pretty small for a professional hockey player. You need to add a bit of cheese in your diet sir! Kondo’s got an average on ice time of 11:22 with only minimal power play and penalty kill time during his rookie season, but was still able to put up 14 points. Hopefully his defensive game can grow a bit next season as he was sporting a -7 +/-. From an account standpoint, Ohtaay has over 86 million in the bank so he should be a top earner for trainings for quite a while yet and will be a big pickup for whoever is able to grab him in the upcoming draft. Well now that the draft is over we see that Kondos has made his way to the big leagues in Texas. Welcome to the the Great State of Texas Ohtaay! We are excited to have you as part of the rene’s crew!

Third on our list is none other than Terrance “Big Terry” Smith from the Colorado Raptors. @”Puljujarvi98” is a right defender hailing from the United States and is tied for second place in the TPE standings with 315 TPE as a first create user. As the first non recreate Big Terry is standing out from the crowd. Standing a towering 6 foot 7 inches tall and 210 pounds, he’ll be a full head taller than some of his opponents as well as many of his Raptor teammates. As a non-offensive defender the stats sheet likely does not show his complete value to the team. Big Terry is holding a very respectable 62 DGR which is quite good for a rookie. With 16:19 Time On Ice he’s likely pulling some 3rd pair duties, but that’ll pick up more and more as he picks up more TPE and pulls ahead of others. He’s also sitting on a 20 million dollar bank account which is amazing for a rookie. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go very early in the draft. One more thing - I can’t go on without also pointing out that he’s sporting 2018 Stanley Cup winner Devante Smith-Pelly’s render. Good call Big Terry. Go Caps!

From here we hit @”tylar”’s recreate of Liam Slate. Tylar has been around quite a while in the SHL scene so it is no surprise he’s as high of an earner as he is. Currently sitting only one TPE back at 314 he’s showing he needs no help to be “good at SHL” as he is forever asking to be in the Texas discord channel. Hailing from Newport, Wales Slate is a 6 foot 1 inch 185 pound right winger currently signed to the Newfoundland Beserkers. While Liam’s build is clearly favoring the offensive stats, it’s overall quite balanced as a two-way forward for such a low amount of TPE to play with. They say defense wins games and Slate is buying into that strategy. He put up 7 goals and 9 assists in his freshman year in the juniors and kept a positive +/- with a +4. While only getting less than 10 minutes on the ice per game he’s able to contribute to the 200 foot game. Tylar also has more than 65 million dollars in his account so I’m sure whoever grabs him will get a team friendly deal as he’s not hurting for the cash.

Rounding out the top 5 is no other than @”CaptainCrazy”’s Asclepius Perseus Flitterwind at 311 TPE. It seems that his goal here was to create a player that no one will ever state the full name of and go only by Flitter. Jokes on you, I need word count so you are getting the full name treatment here today. Coming to Colorado from way over in Latvia, Asclepius Perseus Flitterwind is a 6 foot 3 inch 213 pound right winger that’s all about those points. With a score heavy build, Asclepius Perseus Flitterwind is bound to make some waves on whichever team he lands on. Asclepius Perseus Flitterwind put up a monster 96 shots last season and was able to find the net 12 times with 7 assists for a total of 19 points. For CaptainCrazy himself, he took a 14 month hiatus from the SHL but has come back strong in S54. With 57 different posts in the forums and a healthy 30 million dollar bank account he’s shown he’s serious about coming back and is looking to prove he’s a serious contender in the upcoming draft.

Now on to player #6, we hit the Maine Timber’s first player on the list of Rikard Bjerg with 311 TPE. @”AgentSmith630” is another new user who is really showing up strong in the SHL community. The Sweedish defenseman is 6 foot 3 inches tall and a healthy 215 pounds which will come in handy when throwing his body around on the ice. He’s got a well rounded build with both offensive and defensive talents and appears to want to play anywhere needed on the ice. With 19:42 minutes on the ice per game he’s able to solidly pick up the 2nd pairing early in his career. Holding a healthy 64 DGR (does anyone really know how that’s calculated? I feel like this number is random…) he’s looking to get in front of pucks and has 74 hits in S54. AgentSmith, clearly a Matrix fan, has over 4.5 days on the site and over 29 million dollars. He’s also interested in each IIHF’s country dishes (that’s the thread he was reading when I checked his profile) so there may be a foodie in there. What’s your favorite cheese Bjerg? Be careful with your answer here as your draft ranking will tank significantly if you answer poorly. I’ll be your judge and jury here so I would like you to think about it a bit before answering. (I’ll give you a hint - it’s not ok for it to be Kraft Singles pasteurized dairy product). I’ll give you some bonus points because you chose 2018 Stanley Cup winner Burky as your render.

Following Berg we have Carolina Kraken’s top rookie earner @”mazatt”. With 309 TPE, Canadian born Axel Foley is another recreate playing Left Defense at 6 foot 3 inches tall and 229 pounds. His 200 foot build shows he is in it to be a team player and can be used in many versatile areas no matter what the game calls for. In 50 games, Foley put up 4 goals and 11 assists for 15 points in his rookie season with the Kraken. As for Mazatt himself, he’s rocking another big bank roll of 50 million dollars flat. He’s had 2 years to accumulate that cash and hopefully he can keep it going throughout Foley’s career.

Next up is @”zema”’s recreate named Alexander Oscarsson hailing from Sweden. Coming in at 6 foot even, his right winger hit the scales at 200 pounds.

And I’m burnt out. Got a whole 7.25 of them done so that’s something right? But we all know that the double draft media is all about getting that extra money so there is a lot of the same stuff out there. I’m positive that I didn’t add anything new here that is really worth reading, but if you got this far then kudos to you.