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Keenan · 11-30-2020, 08:33 PM

While not winning the cup last season, the Anchorage Armada still managed to put up a very impressive campaign, finishing with a record of 29-17-4, their 62 points good for 3rd in the league. This was a team that finished the regular season both 2nd in goals for and goals against. No doubt that expectations are high for the Armada this coming season, but in order to reach those same heights some new players are going to have to play some key roles for the squad.

Roster turnover happens, you can’t help it, doubly so in the SMJHL, where you have to deal with your players being called up to the SHL, and even if you manage to find a high TPE inactive to fill your squad, they age out of the SMJHL regardless after 5 seasons. Therefore SMJHL GMs must always be planning a season or two ahead, while also doing their best to ensure that they can field a competitive team in the present. Anchorage had a good draft this past week, ending up with S58 players with 200+ TPE (tied for 1st in the league with Kelowna) which they sorely needed since 6 players from the S56 Anchorage Armada will not be returning this next season.

Pojo Biscuit and Bork Lazer are onto bigger things in the SHL, Santtu Rasanen retired, as did Chris De Siren, who aged out of the SMJHL. Taylor Gervais left to Newfoundland as a free agent and Bjorn Thornsen was traded to Detroit. That’s a big hit to Anchorage as that list includes 2 of their 3 leading scorers last season as well as 4 of their 8 players who received more than 18 minutes of ice time a game. These incoming juniors have some mighty big skates to fill.

For forwards Anchorage should be alright, losing De Siren and Rasanen hurts point production, but they have several players ready to step up to fill those spots, and should do so well. In fact, only one top 9 spot was left vacant heading into the draft, a position that we should see David Pumpkins, Paul Binder, and Cole Carter fight for in the preseason, the other two will probably fill out the 4th line.

Defensively it is a bit more curious, and will probably amount to one of the better storylines this season. With Victory, Withecheck, and Sawful, Anchorage still has a very formidable top 3, but after that it will fall to the new draftees Beanman, Goode, and Fuchs to fill the final 3 spots. Like with the forwards, I’d expect the pre-season to be a chance for the three of them to show management what they can do in hopes of earning that 4D spot, with the other two being the bottom pairing.

While we’re not really looking at goaltending in this article, it is worth noting that Chimkin Tendy will be getting the lion’s share of the starts this season, as opposed to last season when they were split almost evenly with Scoochie Stratton.

When tuning in to their team, Armada fans will be seeing a noticeably different team this season compared to last. I definitely think these new additions have what it takes to carry on the torch from last season, but no matter what it’s sure to be an interesting season for the Armada.

566 words

Approved, +5 TPE @Keenan

***luke*** · 11-30-2020, 08:35 PM

Vancouver won the cup Cheers

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