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**leafsftw1967** · 09-10-2020, 03:44 PM

Attention All SHL Prospects- Why The Calgary Dragons Are The Best Team For You to Play For

Double Media – Draft Article – 7327 words, lots of research

Do you have what it takes to play for the one of the most successful franchises in SHL history? Do you want to be a part of a team that knows how to dominate on the ice and have fun off the ice? Do you want to play in a country like Canada which is considered the center of the hockey universe where fans idolizes you like celebrities especially in the province of Alberta where you have had the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Jarome Iginla, Al MacInnis, and Theo Fleury worshiped like gods in the past. So do you think you have what it takes to be the next hockey hero in Calgary Alberta? If so then the team you want to play for is the Dragons! Last season I wrote up an article for the SMJHL draft about the Newfoundland Berserkers and it was quite the hit with over two hundred and fifty views and twenty replies getting a lot of traction so I thought I might as well do the same for my SHL team, the Calgary Dragons.

During this time of the year SHL teams and general managers are usually in the midst of their scouting process and trying to put together their draft boards. Often SHL prospects are trying to impress teams with their rookie tpe count, posting media pieces to get the attention of SHL members and sitting down with SHL teams one on one to show their true worth as to why they deserve to be drafted while trying to improve their draft stock as much as possible.

At the same time I think it is important to highlight to first generation members of the site and recreates heading into the season fifty six SHL draft that the Calgary Dragons is the place to be and the perfect team to play for in the SHL. With three picks in the top thirty six selections of the season fifty six SHL draft this can be a big draft year for the Dragons if they hit on all three selections and will be crucial for the team to pick up some elite prospects for the future of the franchise. With that being said, here is a little history lesson on the Calgary Dragons and a list of major reasons why Calgary is the best place for pretty much all upcoming draftees!

(You can see the stunning Rocky Mountains in the back drop from the city of Calgary and they are just a short drive outside the city where you can take in all the beauty of the turquoise colored water, snow covered mountain tops and tall ever green trees)

The Calgary Dragons Team History in the SHL From Season One to Season Fifty Five

So you may ask yourself what is a Dragon? Let me tell you a little bit about what Dragons (Calgary’s logo) is all about! Dragons are wise, Dragons are fierce, Dragons are agile. Dragons are hoarders of treasure! With Challenge Cup championship trophies being are treasure! Dragons are hungry for wins and are pretty hard to defeat. Dragons hunt down pucks and then carefully aim shooting straight from their mouths and noses, setting fire and flames to those who oppose their victory and superiority on the ice. In short the Dragons are some of the strongest and most versatile creatures in all of the hockey world that should be feared by the rest of the SHL. Now that you know more about how cool Dragons are let us take a look into the Calgary Dragon’s team history.

The Dragons’ franchise history dates back all the way to season one of the league when Waldo Cezar created the team and was taken over by Nathan D'Angelo in season two. Calgary is one of the very few remaining original teams that have never under went a name change or a franchise relocation. The franchise as a whole did not have a ton of team success in the first couple of seasons in the newly formed Simulation Hockey League (SHL) as they missed the playoffs for four of the franchise’s first five seasons and had never won a playoff series at that point. Despite the lack of team success, the Dragons had their first two players inducted into the hall of fame with Nathan D'Angelo and Tony Falone in season six.

The Dragon’s team fortunes began to change in season six as they won their first playoff round. Then under the new management of Aidan Richan as the head general manager and owner of the team, the Calgary Dragons would go on to win their first two Challenge Cups in back to back seasons in season eight and season nine. These championship teams would have the likes of SHL legends, Nathan D'Angelo, Ron Bolt, Ryan Jesster, Kain Webb and Erik Chisling on them who would all go on to be enshrined in the SHL hall of fame. Looking back at these two cups, I do not think there were ever that many hall of fame player all on one championship team. In these two season Ryan Jesster also had arguably some of the best goaltending performances of all time. For example, in season eight Jesster won a record breaking four individual trophies along with leading his team to the Challenge cup. He took home the John McBride Trophy (which is awarded to the goalie deemed to have the best regular season), the Sarmad Khan Trophy (which is awarded to the most valuable player to their team during the regular season as voted by the players of the SHL), the Mike Honcho Trophy (which is awarded to the goalie who gives up the least goals in one season) and the Anton Razov Trophy (which is awarded to the most valuable player to their team in the playoffs). Ryan Jesster would go on to have an encore performance in season nine where he increased his win record to thirty wins and fourteen loses, as well as, had improved his goals against average to 2.11 in forty five games on the road to another Dragons championship. I could go on about other incredible performances such as Kain Webb’s Anton Razov Trophy worthy playoff run or Erik Chisling huge first year statistically in Calgary. Overall, it was a great time to be a Dragon as they were only the second team in SHL history to ever win back to back Challenge cups at this point in SHL history.

(Fun fact, Ryan Jesster was the first overall pick ever in season one of the SHL as Waldo Cezar traded up to select the first face of the franchise. After that the rest was history as Jesster went on to become one of the best SHL goalies of all time and even has a trophy named after him now.)

In season ten, Dragons legendary goaltender Ryan Jesster took over as the team’s new head general manager and owner, hoping to lead Calgary to be the first team to three peat in the SHL. The Dragons were off to a great start being crowned the President's Trophy winners, having the best regular season record in the SHL with an impressive forty one wins in fifty games. However, they ultimately fell short of another championship in a heart breaker in the western conference finals losing to the Winnipeg Jets. In season eleven under Jesster’s management the Dragon would be crowned the western conference champions and make it back to the challenge cup finals for the third time in four years which is quite the impressive accomplishment. However, they would fall just short to the Hamilton Steelhawks of winning another Challenge Cup once again.

Season twelve would mark another management change as another Dragon’s alumni and legend Kain Webb would take over as the owner and head general manager of the Calgary Dragons. However, his time as the leader of the Dragons management team would be short lived as Kari Bärköv would take over the reigns in season fourteen after the team had multiple first and second round playoff exists. With the appointment of Bärköv the Dragons would get some more stability to their management core. Bärköv’s stint in Dragon’s management would be a time where the Dragons had all but two winning records in the regular season however they would often end in first round exits as the team made it to the second round two times during his ten season tenure. On the other hand, Bärköv was also known for his incredible drafting abilities selecting the likes of Hunter Wong who is the all time Dragons goalie in wins leader and a first ballot hall of famer, Michael Boychuk who is the all time dragons leader for points among defensemen and many other future Calgary superstars. However I think the most notable move that marked Bärköv’s time with the Calgary Dragon’s franchise is his selection of arguably the greatest forward to ever play in SHL history with Esa Anrikkanen taken fourth overall in the first round of the season eighteen SHL draft. Esa would go on to become the all time points leader in SHL history among all the teams in the SHL and also practically holds every single Calgary Dragons franchise record.

(Fun facts Esa became the first player in SHL history to reach over two thousand tpe, the first to score over five hundred goals, and was awrded the Vidrik Onoprienko Award for Lifetime Dedication to the SHL and has gone down as the greatest Dragon in franchise history.)

Following Bärköv’s departure in season twenty four the current owner and general manager of the team, Calgary’s young prodigy at the time Esa Anrikkanen took over management duties just as he was beginning to hit his prime on the ice. If you can believe Esa has been managing the Dragons for an incredible thirty two seasons which makes him the still active longest tenured general manager in the Dragons history and the second longest tenured general manager ever in SHL history only behind Wasty who has been managing the Panthers since season fifteen. There are only few members of the SHL who are still around the league that can remember a time when Esa was not running the Dragons franchise. During his time as the general manager Esa has built an absolute dynasty in Calgary as the most consistently successful team in the SHL during his tenure as the Dragons general manager and one of if not the most highly respected general managers in the entire SHL. While the Calgary Dragons last Challenge Cup Championship was in season fifty, Calgary looks like they are once again primed to make a run at the cup with the veteran roster they possess.

Overall Calgary has been one of if not the most successful original franchise in the SHL’s history having not missed the playoffs since all the way back in season forty five and have only missed the playoffs an astonishing total of ten times in the fifty five seasons of the league’s existence. To put this stat into perspective, the Calgary Dragons have won eight Challenge cups which is only two less than the amount of times they missed the playoffs in the franchise’s history. Anyways there will be a lot more to highlight about the Dragon’s team success over the seasons in the next section of this article explaining all the reasons why Calgary is a great place to play!

Reasons Why The Calgary Dragons is the Best Place to Play In The SHL

1. Having the Opportunity to Play for The Most Successful General Manager in SHL History

As discussed above, Esa Anrikkanen (@Steelhead77) is one of the longest tenured general managers in the SHL and has had a ton of success since stepping into the management role in season twenty four. Esa has built a Dragons team that has made the playoffs for a whopping thirty of his thirty two seasons while in management. In addition, Esa is tied for winning the most Presidents Trophies by a general manager with four (season thirty, season thirty five, season thirty six, and season forty nine). Furthermore Esa has impressively built six different Dragons teams that have won Challenge Cup Championships in season twenty seven, season twenty nine, season thirty two, season forty, season forty two, and season fifty which is best all time amongst SHL general managers as no other SHL general has gotten more then five Challenge Cups.

Esa also helped manage the Dragons to nine Challenge Cup finals appearances and two reverse sweeps in the finals while only having two losing seasons of more losses then wins during a regular season. Under Esa’s guidance the Calgary Dragons have never really seemed to be fully rebuilding during his thirty plus season tenure and almost always seem to be a playoff contender that can make some noise. With a couple of seasons under his belt of learning the ins and outs of the new FHM sim engine, Esa has begun to maximize his players’ efficiency on the ice and the Dragons are once again poised to go on a championship run for the next couple of seasons as one of the best teams in the Western conference. As far as the discussion goes for the greatest general manager in SHL history goes, pretty much every metric to measure a general managers level of overall success points to Esa being the best of the best.

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(It does not get much better then the dynamic duo of Esa and Izzy in terms of current management in the SHL.)

In addition, assistant general manger Mike Izzy (@Mike Izzy) was brought in to help run the Calgary Dragon in season fifty one and has played an extremely important role in the team’s success. He has been a long time Dragon, after being drafted by the Edmonton Blizzard in season thirty five and traded to Calgary one season later in season thirty six. Having been sent down back down to the SMJHL after being drafted for one season, Izzy has only ever played for the Calgary Dragons in the SHL winning multiple individual trophies and accolades for his one ice performance and has been a leader in the locker room in Calgary. Izzy knows what it takes to win championships and has been a part of the Dragons last three Challenge Cup championships in season forty, forty two and fifty. He has recently been voted the most liked member in the SHL in season fifty four and has built quite a positive reputation for himself around the league on and off the ice. In my opinion Izzy is one of if not the best assistant general managers in the league and will continue to help make Calgary a successful franchise for many seasons to come.

2. The Only Team in the SHL To Have Their Own TV Channel and Regularly Promote Their Team Through Video Content

The Calgary Dragons have become synonymous with Dragons over the last ten or so seasons as the team has created unique one of a kind montage videos to highlight all of the Dragon’s players. Calgary is the first franchise to own its very own television network called Dragons TV. Essentially Dragons TV is an SHL subscribed television network that is owned by #Video Izzy productions based at the Big Parm arena in Calgary Alberta. In addition, to live and recorded coverage of Calgary Dragons games, broadcasting includes Calgary team video highlights, team videos, player interviews, video podcasts, player highlight clips and much more created by the Dragons assistant general manager Mike Izzy. You can take a look at some of the previous amazing published content in this thread: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=104287 as well as from Izzy’s previous digital media from season forty five to season fifty here: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=92799

The video productions from Dragon TV have to be some of the best originally produced graphics in the SHL and is a unique way to highlight players. Whether it be Mic'd Up video from in game performances, milestones that Dragons players reached, Calgary players’ charity work, highlighting significant game moments from previous seasons, announcing block buster trades, or showcasing the Dragons SMJHL prospects, Dragons TV does it all to help their players gain recognition through the media like no other team. Just think maybe you will be part of the next Dragons TV media blitz on draft day! All members of the Calgary Dragons and alumni are kept up to date with all the new Dragon TV content through the locker room as the graphics and videos for the channel has its own thread in the locker room.

(The screams of the Dragon is a signature of Dragons TV! Assistant general manager Mike Izzy has put a lot of time and effort into creating professional grade videos for the one and only Dragons TV.)

3. Calgary Has One of the Best Home Arenas in all of the SHL

There is no question that the Calgary Dragons have the best home ice advantage out of the entire SHL. A lot of this success in Calgary has to do with playing in the most exciting arena, The BIG Parm, which has become the hardest place for opposing teams to play in the whole league. The Big Parm is pretty much everything the Dragons franchise, the city of Calgary and their fans could ever have dreamed of in an arena. First off opponents usually get pretty annoyed and thrown off their game with the loud screeches of the Parm Pigeon mascot that gets on the nerves of opposing players whenever the home town Dragons score a goal or in moments throughout the game when the mascot tries to energize the Calgary crowd.

Next the Calgary Dragons have some of the craziest fans in the league that will do pretty much anything to get in the heads of their opponents. For example, there are the infamous Erogenous Parm fans that sit beside the penalty box and behind the away bench to taunt opponents when they are penalized with some wild tactics of smearing chicken parm sandwiches all over their shirtless bodies in a creepily sexual way to distract them from the game going on. Trust me when I saw you will never see anything else like that in the SHL.

The third reason why the Dragons have the toughest arena to play in the league is the giant replica of a chicken parm that dominates the roof of the arena in Calgary. According to the Dragons management the life like and mammoth replica of the chicken parm even smells like an actual chicken parm due to a space age polymer invented by NASA scientist. This is another tactic to thrown off opponents for the Dragons to get a home ice advantage as its purpose is to make opposing teams hungry with the mouth watering smell of a fresh chicken parm sandwich throwing them off their game forcing them to think about food rather then what is happening in the game. In addition, the smell of chicken parm gets through the vents of the stadium and is purposely funneled into the away locker room to distract them within the intermissions of the game. Even better, the Big Parm has its very own free range chicken farm attached to the roof of the stadium that is regularly attended to. This is a truly unique hockey atmosphere to play in and if you love chicken parm then this is the team for you and the place to be! Feel free to check out the full article outlining all of the details of the Calgary Dragons Big Parm stadium here: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....e+big+parm

(The famous BIG Parm is definitely a one of a kind stadium in the SHL)

4. The Rich History of the Calgary Dragons in the Hall of Fame and All Time Stats Leader boards

With a deep hockey history in the SHL as one of the original teams dating back to season one, Calgary has developed a ton of SHL hall of fame players and helped many people have successful and fulfilling careers in the SHL. Throughout history many great players have suited up for the Calgary Dragons and the select group has impacted the franchise in incredible ways that have been deservedly honored in the Dragons Hall of Fame here: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=103616 . Looking at the Dragons Hall of Fame, most of the players have played over three hundred games for the Dragons and collected many individual trophies and accolades, posted extremely impressive numbers and some even won some championships with the Dragons. Looking through this list of deserving players, it is quite clear that Calgary has one of the most talented alumni in all of the SHL. The Dragons consistent team success and the success of individual players reminds me a lot of the storied NHL Detroit Red Wings of the 1990s and 2000s.

A total of thirteen Dragons have been inducted into the SHL hall of fame over the years including: defenseman Eric Chisling (season twelve), left wing Ron Bolt (season thirteen), general manager Nathan D'Angelo (season thirteen), left wing Pavel Skvoznak (season fourteen), goaltender Ryan Jesster (season fifteen), left wing Kain Webb (season sixteen), left wing Christoph Klose (season eighteen), goaltender Hunter Wong (season forty), goaltender Mike Verminski (season forty two), left wing Nicholas Pedersen (season forty six), left wing Esa Anrikkanen (season forty eight), left wing Randy Randleman (season forty eight), and left wing Dani Forsberg (season fifty two).

Of these thirteen legendary players, Esa Anrikkanen holds the records for most goals and points scored all time in an SHL career. In addition, five active or former Dragons (Esa Anrikkanen, Joe Kurczewski, Nicholas Pedersen, Randy Randleman, and Mike Izzy) are in the top twenty scorers of all time in SHL history, making up twenty five percent of these top twenty. In addition current Dragons forward Mike Izzy holds the record for the most hits ever recorded by an SHL player in their career. On the goalie side of things, Calgary Dragons great Hunter Wong is in the top five for all time goalie wins with three hundred and sixty seven, second all time in shutouts with forty six, and in the top twenty five all time for goals against average with 2.64, as well as, has the second most Challenge Cup championships all time amongst goalies with three. As you can see from all of these stats above, a bunch of the best players in SHL history have donned the red, white and black proudly representing Calgary on the all time leader boards. Finally, as of seasons fifty five out there are just over thirty players who have reached the two thousand tpe mark during their playing careers, eight of them are current or past Dragons (Esa Anrikkanen, Maxime Bouchard, Randy Randleman, Joe Kurczewski, Mike Izzy, Brennan Kennedy Jr and Barry Batsbak) exemplifying the hard working nature of the Calgary Dragons leaders. So just think maybe you could be the next great Calgary Dragon that can lead the team to victory and make your mark in SHL history!

("Captain Joe" Kurczewski was a staple in the Dragons line up during his career as a three time Challenge cup winner for Calgary and was recently traded back to Calgary to sign a one day contract before retiring from the SHL to finish his career where it all started as a Dragon.)

In addition, the Calgary Dragons have @kikish18 in charge of all the Dragon’s team history in terms of records, individual player stats and team stats from season to season which goes on to highlight people’s accomplishments. Kikish18’s Calgary’s all time list set up in google excel spread sheet is super in depth with lots of detail down to every hit, faceoff won, shot blocked, take away and give away a member of the Dragons have ever recorded. He has got lists for the top Calgary players that are leading the way in pretty much every statistical category that was tracked in STHSS and in FHM for both skaters and goalies along with a separate tab for all the active skaters and goalies on the Calgary roster to highlight the stats. Overall Kikish18 has done an incredible job keeping track of the Dragon’s statistical history. I am sure the Dragons history archives will continue to grow and improve under Kikish18's guidance.

5. A Strong Commitment To Ensuring You Get All The Help Possible To Earn the Maximum Amount Of TPE and Build The Most Effective Player.

In Calgary we take a team approach to earning tpe and work together to help everyone get better. The Dragons management has made it super easy to find out what point tasks are currently available to complete and when the deadline for them are by making a specific thread in the team locker room and notifying all team members when new point tasks are available and ones that are ready to be claimed. This is a great and efficient way to keep track of your player’s opportunities and make sure you are not missing out on any opportunities to get better. In addition, the locker room has been very good with providing advice for fantasy draft selections and both Esa and Izzy have also been a big help providing one on one advice for predictions point tasks, giving feedback on potential player build upgrades. Finally, in the offseason Dragons management spends a lot of time working hard on perfecting line tactics, completing test sims and trying out different combinations with in FHM so that the team can play as effectively as possible come the regular season. From my personal experience, the Calgary Dragons organization does a great job of taking care of their players and helping them reach maximum earning. So I ensure you that if your player is drafted by Calgary I ensure you that your player will be reminded of every available training opportunity to get better and management will do everything in their power to help you succeed as a player on the ice.

6. A Team That Posses A Wealth Of Experience From Veteran Members Of The SHL

Current members of the Calgary Dragons easily have over two hundred seasons of experience in the SHL combined. Over the seasons, Calgary has become synonymous with drafting experienced recreates who have spent multiple years on the site. Guys like Mikael Choybuk ( @DollarAndADream ), Kata Vilde ( @BarnabasCollins ), Nicky Pedersen Jr. ( @mstuk41 ), Otis B. Driftwood ( @Slappydoodle ), Leopold Lockhart ( @ej27 ), Oliver Klozoff ( @Alex Mack ), and Chris Goodname ( @kikish18 ) who have all been a member of the SHL since 2015 and have spent five or more years in real life being a part of this site along with myself (Mats Marner). In addition, some Dragons players such as Barry Batsbak ( @Katth ) currently hold a management position in the SMJHL, while other members of Calgary have previously held management positions in the SMJHL or SHL (with myself being included). Esa and Izzy are also one of the longest tenured general managers tandems currently running a team in the SHL. With this being said, there are many different members with in the Dragons organization who know what it takes to build a successful player, navigate the SHL site, have a large network of SHL connection and possess a wealth of SHL knowledge who can help you transition from a promising prospect to a successful full time player and super star at the next level in the SHL.

(Otis B. Driftwood, on the far left, is one of the oldest players on the Calgary Dragons but that does not stop him for still partying like an eighteen year old.)

7. A one of a kind tight knit locker room

During my two seasons since being drafted by Calgary, one of the most pleasantly surprising aspects of my time with the Dragons has being a part of their locker room. First off, a lot of the main core guys on the team got their own personally designed emoji to use in our discord chat that is creatively designed by the best assistant general manager in the league, Mike Izzy. Whether it be the famous Izzy couch emjoi, Barry Batsbak’s bat emjoi, Maxime Bouchard’s tarantula emjoi, Cale Amundsen crush emjoi, Esa Parmborg’s chicken parm emoji or any of the other twenty plus emojis Izzy has created, they all add a unique feel to the locker room. This may seem like something very small but it is really cool to learn about the back stories behind these creations and how everyone is initiated into the team with a unique emoji, as well as, looking back at the “ghosts of cups past” emojis from old Dragons alumni who are still part of the team locker room.

The Delicious Food Thread Channel
Another great thread with in the Calgary Dragons locker room is the delicious food thread where our teammates and Dragons alumni show off their amazing cooking skills and share with the group what they have been cooking up on any given day. I got to say I have never been on a team with such talented chefs before. They have really inspired me to try new foods and my hand at cooking some new recipes. If you are a sucker for barbecued food we got it all from steaks, hamburgers, sausages from around the world, to marinated pork chops, ribs, lamb and pretty much any other meat dish imagine.There are also lots of great colourful vegetable dishes posted in the thread! Members of the Dragons also post pictures of lots of great home made special recipes including made from scratch meatballs, different kinds of bread, pasta dishes, shrimp n grits, chocolate soufflés, chicken mushrooms broccoli alfredo and much more. Last but not least this delicious foods thread is a great place to discover amazing beers from all over the world as Dragon members and alumni love to share what they are drinking on any given day specially in these summer months. I promise you one thing, if you are drafted by the Calgary Dragons and welcomed into our locker room, looking through this channel of food and drinks will leave you drooling and hungry for some tasty food!

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(The Dragons have been doing a lot of barbecuing during the summer weather. This is just one of the many mouth water pictures of food the Dragons have been cooking up.)

Dragons Twitter Thread
Another thing Calgary Dragons management is great at is making sure all members of the Dragons whether they be super stars on the top line of the big club or prospects in the SMJHL who have yet to crack the main roster get recognition throughout a given season on milestones they have reached both on and off the ice on the official Calgary Dragons Twitter page. While this is something small, it feels great to have your tpe millstones recognized or a stellar performance you had in game or overall throughout the regular season or playoffs be talked about. For example, many times through out the season the Dragons Twitter channel promoted the historic season Mats Marner had in the SMJHL as the league’s top goal scorer and point scorer. Along with the twitter posts, usually comes a stellar graphic. I do not think many other teams in the SHL do as good of a job of publicly and internally recognizing their players accomplishments on a regular basis as the Dragons do. Players can stay up to date with the Dragons Twitter posts published to the SHL hastage in the twitter thread and it allows everyone to conveniently stay up to date with their teammates have been doing on the ice with their play and off the ice with their training. Feel free to check out the Dragons unique Twitter page here: https://twitter.com/CalgaryDragons1/stat...9938877441

Pets Thread
This is another one of my favorite threads in the locker room where teammates share pictures of there pets. There are so many beauties in this thread from @ej27 cute dog Sadie, to Nimblerod’s cute cats and many others!

The Party Room
This has to be the best part of the Calgary Dragons locker room! The party room has consisted of many great celebrations in the past couple of seasons with a whole day of team locker room celebrations for a prospect currently in the Dragons system. Players like Bradley Barkov last season and Mack Daddy this season have some of the most unique team appreciation days I have seen on the site. Maybe you will be featured in next season’s prospect appreciation day in the Calgary Dragons locker room! In addition, we also have celebrations for special occasions like team members birthdays or something as random as a power outage donation drive when Esa lost power to his home after a bad summer storm this year. Calgary player’s favourite fan, the infamous Linda has also made quite a few appearances in the party room and lets just say she never disappoints. You will have to join the team to find out more about her haha.

(Above is the infamous Izzy couch! It has had its fair share of wild times and experiences in the party room that will forever stay disclosed with in the Dragons team locker room.)

The Area of Winners- Dragons Poker Night
This part of the locker room is the designated area for the trophy case for all the winners of the Dragons poker night. Mike Izzy does an amazing job creating graphics for the winner and their unique trophy names for the tournaments such as “The BK Tourney of Delicious Endeavours”, “The #Bully Izzy Bulldog Food Classic” or “The Shweddy Balls Comeback Extravaganza”. To go along with these unique tournament names and trophies, it is always a fun night of chatting with Dragons alumni and teammates while playing some Texas hold’em. We have had some great chats about which movies and tv shows are better, mouth water food people have made, learning about people’s hobbies, talking hockey, etc. Pretty much poker night is always a fun time!

(Here is one of the trophies hanging in the area of winners from one of the Calgary Dragons poker night tournament winners from over the summer.)

8. A Team With A competitive Roster to Win Now and A Bright Future with Solid Prospects

Looking over the Calgary Dragons roster, they were one of the top five teams in the SHL in terms of tpe per player in their line up during season fifty five. Heading into season fifty five the Dragons had six players with over one thousand five hundred tpe to start the season (Esa Parmborg, Brennan Kennedy Jr, Barry Batsbak, Leopold Lockhart, Maxime Bouchard, Kata Vilde) and they only got better as they kept on improving from their through out the season with a special shout out to Brennan Kennedy Jr and Barry Batsbak who both reached over two thousand tpe by seasons end joining an elite club.

In particular Calgary’s center position was quite strong with two players over one thousand eight hundred tpe with Barry Batsbak and Esa Parmborg to create a very strong one two punch. They also got some great center depth with their prospects with Mats Marner a season fifty four first round pick who went sixth overall and is already around six hundred and twenty five tpe, as well as, the steal of the draft at the end of the second round of the season fifty five draft with Mack Daddy who is already over five hundred tpe at the end of his second season in the SMJHL. On the wing the Calgary Dragons are led by their team captain Maxime Bouchard who has been a power house offensively on the ice for the Dragons throughout his time with the team and is just as strong off the ice in the team’s locker room being a positive leader and helpful voice.

On the back end Calgary’s defense is quite impressive with six of their defensemen this year being over one thousand one hundred tpe (now five after losing Smeb in the epxasion draft) and having one of the highest tpe pairings in the league with Brennan Kennedy Jr and Leopold Lockhart each over one thousand eight hundred tpe. Calgary’s defense is truly one of the top in the SHL and was a big part of the reason why they finished third place in the western conference and were one less goal away from having the best goal against in the conference. The Dragon’s prospect pool on the back end has two really promising players with Bradley Barkov, a season fifty three draft first round pick, who is going to be officially called up for the season fifty six season and slotted in on the third paring in place of a defenseman Smeb who was taken in the expansion draft. Barkov should be around eight hundred tpe at the start of his rookie season in the SHL. Another first round defensive prospect the Dragons have is the super star defenseman from the Kelowna Knights with Chris Goodname. He is already around five hundred tpe at the end of his second season in the juniors and has also made a huge positive contribution for the Dragons off the ice.

In net Kata Vilde has been a reliable goaltender for the Calgary Dragons for many season already after being drafted all the way back in season forty one. As one of the oldest players on the team Vilde is still at a solid one thousand six hundred tpe and had decent numbers in season fifty five with a 0.915 save percentage, four shutouts, a 2.53 goals against average, and twenty six wins in forty four games. Another star in the making in net is the prospect prodigy Cale Amundsen who is the heir apparent to Vilde and a former SMJHL goalie of the year and most valuable player in the SMJHL. As a season fifty four second round pick, Cale made his Dragons debut this season and posted an impressive four wins and one over time loss with three shutouts, a 0.59 goals against average and a 0.958 save percentage. Internally with in Calgary Cale has been deemed "the prodigy" for the next generation of Dragons as he has been near perfect in the games he has played so far for the Dragons.

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(Kata Vilde has been a reliable goalie in net for the Dragons for over ten seasons! He should be a shoe in for the Dragons hall of fame down the road once he decides to hang up the skates.)

In terms of the expansion draft the Dragons lost Chico Smeb one of their bottom pairing defensemen who is inactive and will shortly be beginning regression while also losing Alexei Rykov, a depth forward who previous to being taken in the expansion draft had not made a player update since May first over four months ago. While no team benefits from losing players for free in an expansion draft, the Calgary Dragons should not be significantly impacted by these loses. However, losing two players should free up some cap space and I would not be surprised to see Calgary make a big splash in free agency to add more depth at the forward position. I would expect in season fifty six for the Dragons to improve on their previous season’s record of thirty one wins, thirteen loses and six overtime losses and continue to climb up the standings in the western conference.

Overall, I think the best way to describe the Dragons is that they got a good competitive team right now and will have a bright future where prospects will be able to seamlessly transition to the big club without there having to be a big rebuild in store any time soon. General manager and Dragons legend Esa Anrikkanen said it best when describing what the Calgary hockey franchise is all about saying how as a management he and Izzy have worked hard over the years to create a great atmosphere in Calgary and are very proud of our players and the team experience we have to offer. Members quickly feel connected to our organization and we treat them incredibly well. Our goal is to provide a fun team experience with a friendly group of people who support each other while working hard to win championships. We are always looking to add new members to the family as we keep Calgary one the premier places to play in the SHL.

With one pick in the first and second round, and the first selection in the third round, the Dragons have a decent amount of picks heading into the season fifty six draft that can land active players so you could be the next missing puzzle pieces to the goal of winning another championship in Calgary! Esa and izzy have also proven over the last couple of drafts that they are not afraid to trade up or acquire more draft picks for players they really want to get so make sure you check out the Calgary Dragon’s season fifty six interested prospects thread here if you would like to become a Dragon: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid2895739 . Also feel free to reach out to @Steelhead77 @Mike Izzy for any additional information and feel free to reach out to anyone from the Dragons family! I look forward to helping welcome some of you SHL prospects to Calgary on draft day on Saturday night! Let’s go Dragons! Dragonite

BarnabasCollins · 09-10-2020, 04:49 PM

Straight fire bro, btw the ribs were damn tasty

Dragonite

Katth · 09-10-2020, 04:53 PM

Loving this.

Dragonite

S50 Challenge Cup Finals Game 7
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Steelhead77 · 09-10-2020, 05:05 PM

Wooo!! This is absolutely awesome @leafsftw1967 Ahh

Can't wait to use that new deep fryer in the party room!

Dragonite

---> ParmBorg Highlights <---

#1 All-Time SHL Goal & Point Scorer
- First 2,000 TPE Player in SHL History -
- First 400 Goal Scorer in SHL History -
- Only 500 Goal Scorer in SHL History -
- First GM to Win 5 & 6 Challenge Cups -
Esa Anrikkanen Award - SMJHL ROY - Est. S34
Vidrik Onoprienko Award Winner - S45

Dragonite

DeletedAtUserRequest · 09-10-2020, 05:47 PM

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damienj10 · 09-10-2020, 05:55 PM

yes

ACapitalChicago · 09-10-2020, 05:56 PM

What an amazing article Dragonite

S66 Damian Littleton

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***WannabeFinn*** · 09-10-2020, 06:05 PM

Don’t forget all of the great AARP benefits

Katth · 09-10-2020, 06:30 PM

09-10-2020, 06:05 PMWannabeFinn Wrote: Don’t forget all of the great AARP benefits

I guess we should relocate to Florida too now that I think of it.

S50 Challenge Cup Finals Game 7
[Image: gNFVjT6.png]

StadiumGambler · 09-10-2020, 08:24 PM

"Kata Vilde has been a reliable goalie in net for the Dragons for over ten seasons!"

I feel like over half those seasons have been both sims just shitting on him for no reason despite him being good though.