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***Pythonic*** · 09-14-2020, 01:17 PM

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Whalers

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Well, another draft day has come and gone. The season fifty six draft, which occurred just one day ago on September 13th, 2020, wasn't exactly the deepest draft in the Simulation Major Junior Hockey League's history. A majority of the junior league's teams were done drafting by the fifth round, with the exception of just three teams: the Knights, the Kraken, and the Scarecrows. This isn't an overall review of the entire draft, as much as I would like to do that, and is just a review of the Vancouver Whalers picks in the draft on top of what could have been.

FIRST ROUND, SIXTH OVERALL Whalers

With their pick at sixth overall, the Vancouver Whalers elected to choose a goalie, specifically the six foot, two inches tall Austrian, Jon St. Ark (@Arkz). This was definitely the right pick for them to have made, since according to the people I've been in contact with, Colorado was, just as the Whalers were, in desperate need of a goalie and they were attempting to trade up ahead of the Whalers in order to draft this guy to their team. As we saw in the draft, this did not come to fruition for the Colorado Raptors. While he may not be the tallest or the heaviest tender to put in net, he definitely is pretty good in terms of stats. St. Ark's best strengths are definitely his positioning as well as his reflexes, both of which are rated at 12 on his stats page. Although his skating is below average, at 7, it doesn't really matter for a goalie like him who tends to stay completely within the crease of the net and rarely goes outside of it. It would definitely be an area to improve on, though, seeing as I've caught him stumbling a bit on his skates during training camp. He should also work on his stamina for sure. St. Ark is always very out of shape after the Whalers' practices, so it might hurt even more to see him near collapse during games. However, to shed some light on some positive stuff he's been working on, I can see his rebound work and blocker and glove side saves have all been improving quite steadily. Jon St. Ark currently stands at 192 TPE, and definitely seems like he's going to end up a suitable backup for Vancouver's current starter in the legendary Name Redacted. With how likely it is that Redacted moves up to the majors for season fifty seven, St. Ark is going to have a large role to fill soon after Redacted's departure. I wouldn't be too particularly worried though, seeing as many of Vancouver's players are set to hit the 425 TPE cap next season, which should give St. Ark some wiggle room in net. All in all, Jon St. Ark is definitely an up-and-comer in the crease to keep your eyes on going forward.

SECOND ROUND, SEVENTEENTH OVERALL Whalers

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From here on, all of the Vancouver Whalers' picks that were used in the draft are owned by other teams. In the second round, the Whalers' seventeenth overall pick was traded to the Newfoundland Bersekers, who used it to draft left winger Dwayne Gretzky. Now, I haven't seen much of Dwayne, but from what it seems this was a relatively good pick for what it is. The Berserkers are gonna need the depth in the coming seasons, as Mats Marner and Ryuuji Minamino are going to be moving up to the big leagues soon if they haven't already. Gretzky's currently sitting at about 186 TPE, with his stats seeming to be focused on offense and sniping, which is pretty good for someone who joined just ten days before the draft. 3lewsers seems like he's going to be a pretty active guy for the Berserkers, all he really has to do is get his bank account up a bit so he can afford training and coaching.

THIRD ROUND, TWENTY NINTH OVERALL Whalers

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With the Whalers' pick at twenty ninth overall, the Nevada Battleborn picked up a right winger going by the name of Noah Johns III. This guy apparently created Noah Johns I and Noah Johns II in season fifty two and fifty four respectively, so I feel like this guy is gonna be a fat bust. I could absolutely be wrong, but by going through his past posts it seems he's going to just wind up going inactive soon enough. His bank account sits at a little over $1,000,000. Noah Johns III also currently sits at 160 TPE. I feel like this was definitely a bad pick by the Battleborn, but he might have some use as a fourth liner at best.

FOURTH ROUND, FORTY FIRST OVERALL Whalers

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Another Berserkers pick that came out of the Whalers organization. This time, with the forty first overall pick in the draft, the Newfoundland Berserkers chose centerman Hank Spankie. Odd name for an odd fella, no offense to hank91. Mr. Spankie has yet to even make an update thread, let alone spend his free $500,000. Maybe he thought it was real money and tried to leave with it? I don't know, but this guy is definitely going to be inactive as he's still at the beginning 155 TPE. He's incredible at faceoffs, and it seems like hank91 was trying to go for a faceoff-winning playmaker with the current build I see on his player page. A shame, too. I really felt like I wanted to buy some faceoff accessories from this guy. Too bad it's unlikely we're ever going to see him again.

FIFTH ROUND, FIFTY THIRD OVERALL Whalers

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Finally, we reach the last pick previously owned by Vancouver to be used to draft a player. The Kelowna Knights used the fifth round pick at fifty third overall to draft centerman Shootsy Scores. Now, Shootsy's creator, the unaptly named SHLTutorial, hasn't been on the site since the nineteenth of August this year. Shootsy Scores seems like he's going to be stuck at an eternal 161 TPE, sadly. His name was really creative, too. From what it looks like to me, it seems SHLTutorial was going to go for perhaps a two-way build based on how he started out Shootsy's defensive and offensive balance. In fact, his passing is higher than his shooting accuracy and his puckhandling, so maybe it's more like Hepases Matescores? Dumb pun, honestly. Doesn't even really make sense. Maybe I need an SHLTutorial on puns? That one was even worse. I sincerely apologize.

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This draft may not have been the deepest, but for what the Whalers got out of it, it was a pretty good draft for them in particular. They cleared up their lack of a backup, allowing Redacted to rest, and also replace him in the future when his time in the SMJHL is up. All in all, good draft, boys. I'm proud.