Going into the season I didn't think that I would be ending up on the first pairing with Seger. That was a pleasant surprise and I hope we stick with this as Klompus continues to develop. Overall, the season wasn't terrible. I didn't go into the season expecting to be in contention for rookie of the year and there wasn't much of a shot at that. Ending with three goals and 17 points though is fantastic and something that I attribute to constant work with Kluster trying to make everything mesh together. I'm disappointed that Klompus ended up a -30 and that's simply because of where Minnesota is at this time. I'm hoping with another few years of building, we will get where we need to be. Klompus was also a ghost on the special teams despite getting a good amount of time on the ice. Over the off-season I will work on my offensive attributes to hopefully get that better.



So once all the teams are decided for the post-season we're going to put each team's name on a paper in a hat and use that to decide the seeding instead of the regular season results because that's just boring. The team that is lucky enough to draw the 8th seed goes straight to the finals just because and then the 3rd seed draw unfortunately is immediately eliminated. With only 10 teams left playing while the 8th-seed waits at the finals, things will get messy. I propose we have a tournament between three of the five teams that advance to determine who can go to then another three team tournament to determine who makes the semi-final.



I mean if it worked in the NHL, then it's likely going to work for the SHL as well. Put the Eastern conference in Toronto and the Western conference in Edmonton and replicate the NHL's success the best that we can. It'll be tough for the players to leave their families for an extended period of time, but hopefully the team's will be able to keep everyone entertained. We'll have to limit team's to their specific floors to limit the possibility of the virus spreading. Teams will need to come up with ideas on how to pass the time. With the recent release of the next gen video game consoles, the Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 you could give each team a few consoles to keep them entertained with hit games like Bugsnax! NHL teams did things like ping pong tournaments and stuff that can easily be done here and then maybe get some player Q&As done over social media so the guys have a chance to interact with the fans who can't be at the games.



The Calgary Dragons may be my surprise of the season. On paper going into S56, it looked like Edmonton was right there with Calgary and it would be a close battle. Over the season though Calgary was able to put up 38 wins and had strong seasons from Batsbak, Bouchard and Parmborg. It's a shame that a team with 80 points didn't make it to the finals in comparison to Buffalo's 65 points but that's just a testament to how difficult it is to win games in the East versus the easy games that Calgary was able to get in the West. Overall though the Dragons had a fantastic regular season and should be in the finals in the near future.



It's hard to believe that the WJC is already over but at least there is the IIHF to help the off-season pass. I'm looking forward to this as a member of Team Japan as I think that we are really set to do well. Japan has some star power but you need to specifically look at Monkey D. Luffy to run away with the season with his monster TPE build after last off-season's error. Martjin Westbroek is another player on Japan that will likely play very well after a strong season in the SHL. The only concern is that Japan's roster is getting on the aging side. While there is some young talent on the rise with Klompus and Sato on defense, there may be a gap there that Japan will fall back during. Other strong teams in the IIHF remain the same. The British Isles look threatening and it will be interesting to see if Canada or the United States can get themselves to a gold medal. There are a lot of the teams that could steal the IIHF but there are also some dud teams in the tournament as well. I can't see Latvia making it far but I could be completely wrong.


Word: Toast
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