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[BHN] Reverse History of the Edmonton Blizzard
#1
(This post was last modified: 12-04-2020, 01:15 AM by Mazatt.)

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So, you’ve come stumbling on into the media section and see “reverse history,” and just had to check it out. Intriguing, isn’t it? What exactly does it mean? I won’t keep you waiting too long, this is a project I oddly have a lot of passion for. I have done it in the past for NHL teams like the Calgary Flames, or the Pittsburgh Penguins. Essentially what I do is I look at all the impactful trades in team history and cover them in chronological order. So for the Flames, I went back to 2001 to see the Flames select Chuck Kobasew following a draft day trade. Now imagine instead I go all the way back to the expansion draft in S2 of the SHL to tell you how the Blizzard got a current player. That’s what I mean by impactful trades, by the way, trades that, at any point, produced a player that down the line was involved in the acquiring of a current Blizzard roster player. And of course, it is done chronologically. And since it gets complicated, I am going to be bringing some graphics help along! (the graphics help is me at 2 AM, by the way). To make sure things are as easy as possible, I will also be italicizing all picks/players that come back later, and bolding current Blizzard players.

In order for this project to be taken on, I have to give thanks to Luke for his fantastic trade tracker. I would have no spot to start if not him tracking most every transaction up to the very first SHL season. Another thanks goes to the Bojo Box, but also fuck the Bojo Box. It is too useful. I thought I had finished this in November and had to add in an entirely new section, but I’ll outline that as I come to it. It is a super useful tool and contributed to 25% of the work done. Finally, I understand that this is going to be long and not super interesting to a lot of people, especially since it’s based on my team and doesn’t delve into the impacts of these trades for other teams in the same depth. But! I am open to doing this for other teams, maybe not the huge writeups but the graphic part is something I genuinely enjoy doing and if there’s demand for it I’d love to supply some teams with their own history, pending how the holiday season goes of course. I’d figure I get that in before I write however many words this would be.  As well, if anyone wants to see the completed version of the chart is is here and if you want to see it via the on-site preview scroll down to the bottom of the article and I will paste it in, but it is going to be quite large and I want to avoid it pushing the article itself down.

Also want to give thanks to Agent Smith for looking through and editing/giving uggestions on formatting for this article, he helped big time in making it easy to the eye, and found some very small errors I 100% would've missed going over it myself.


S2
Here we have a look at our first transactions made and it has taken us all the way back to the origins of the Edmonton Blizzard. For the purpose of formatting as we go down, I am going to talk about the S2 moves from right to left. So we start off with the acquisition of Jay McDonald: the first GM in Edmonton Blizzard history, though they were the Comets at the time. McDonald was drafted the year prior in season 1 to the Winnipeg Jets at 4th overall. This was actually in a move where the Dragons and Jets swapped firsts, with Calgary selecting 1st overall, Ryan Jesster. I don’t know a whole lot about Ryan Jesster, but in relative scale Jesster has an award named after them and McDonald doesn’t, so I assume one has a greater impact than the other on the site. Unfortunately for Winnipeg, their 4th overall pick had bigger and greater things to attend to and selected himself in the expansion draft to helm the Comets through their highly successful formative years.

The second transaction, seen in the top left of the image is another ‘draft’ move, just one we are more accustomed to as sports fans. Edmonton sends their S2 first to West Kendall, and in exchange they move 3 spots via a WKP 1st, and pick up a WKP 6th along the way for the same season. They also get a comp pick that comes in the 2nd round, and honestly, fuck if I know how that came to be. If we look at the 1st Edmonton traded away, West Kendall picks up Brandon Holmes who plays three seasons with the Platoon, while the Blizzard move back to select Mikey Broomfield, who would manage a total 7 SHL seasons which seems like a record in the olden days, however they would be spent over various other teams. For the sake of interest, the comp pick turns into Richard Metcalf, another player who sticks around for limited (4) seasons, and the 6th becomes Kato Baron. Kato Baron does not show up on Bojo Box. I can only assume Kato Baron wasn’t a steal.

S4
Let’s jump ahead two seasons. Here’s where limitations come in. As you can see, the Comets selected Josh Botelho in the first round of S4 using a Manhattan pick. Via looking at the S4 draft I can confidently tell you the Comets got that pick in a trade with Toronto that most likely included Edmoton moving up 5 spots to 8th overall, however this transaction isn’t anywhere to be found. So here we just have… Botelho.

Fun fact! Josh Botelho is the first time I have seen a player have a successful enough career to play 9 SHL seasons, take 4 years off, and set a career high in goals in S17! What’s even crazier is he set his career high in the SMJHL in his debut season at 31 years old! Crazy how nature do dat.

S5
Yeah. We jump up another few years and it’s the same thing. This time, it’s a Calgary 6th which makes this a much more intriguing deal I know nothing about. The Comets draft an impactful player in David Borsuto. By useful I don’t mean he plays good, he scores 8 goals over 244 games played, but he is later flipped for assets that become useful, so he is impactful to us! I am now realizing that phrasing is very misleading.

S6
Right back to the bread and butter. Remember all the way back in S2 when the Comets traded back, and they got Broomfield who I mentioned had a relatively long SHL career? Yeah, well he got traded to Hamilton halfway through season 6, so most of his career is going to be spent elsewhere. Oops. The return is a Hamilton 3rd round pick for the draft later that season, which is traded back to Hamilton and they draft this dude named Tom Corcoran. Hopefully this weird incestuous chain of trading for the same piece between teams stops there. Edmonton also picks up a life-long Comet in this deal, Matthew Sullivan. Matthew Sullivan only played 22 games after the completion of this deal. That third piece though, Matt Kruze, is possibly one of the more intriguing pieces to this deal. A 3rd round pick that, spoiler, plays 726 SHL games? Sign me up. While Kruze doesn’t appear to be an impactful piece on the ice in the slightest he has the impact to play for 15 SHL seasons, including 1 SMJHL season thrown in there, which is apparently a thing players just did back then, I guess.
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How are we holding up so far fellas? Everything easy to follow? I sure hope so. I promise, this current tree is the most complicated and after this we’re gucci. Bad news, this trade tree also goes on for the next 4 decades of SHL hockey, oops.

S7
I really hope we’ve been holding up alright, because I’m throwing in a second concurrent trade tree. But don’t worry, this one is easy to follow, it’s a straight draft day trade between two teams; a straight up deal where Minnesota hops up from 7th to 3rd overall, and all they have to give up is a 2nd, and that’s on top of them getting a 3rd back in the deal. Well, it’s not like there’s a potential superstar available at the 3rd overall pick… David Winter gets picked. This is a sidebar, completely irrelevant to the trade tree, but the last thing I expected was to see RomanesEuntDomus getting picked in S7. It was actually his article outlining the Wild Wild West of SHL hockey in the olden days, as well as the name “Winter,” that got me to verify that this was him, and yeah, it was. Not much else to say other than Minnesota undoubtedly made a good move. Speaking of familiar names, Edmonton drafts Gabriel Johansen 7th overall. I don’t know this person at all, but fuck Gabriel Johansen off of principle for that name. Johansen won’t have the illustrious career of Winter, only playing three seasons, however Edmonton does pick up Jordan MacArthur who would go on to play 15 seasons in the SHL with the 2nd they got, so who’s the real winner here? It’s still Minny, they got RED.

Time to call back to years prior with the other trade from Edmonton this season. Josh Botelho from season 4 is out the door to West Kendall, and in return the Comets collect two seconds, one for this year and the WKP S8 2nd as well as Mikhail Svendson. This is a trade that makes sense to the eye. Botelho is coming off of his second SHL season and has 70 points in ~80 games, while Svendson is a 1st round pick from S6 that is stuck behind the Platoon’s cup-winning roster. Unfortunately, Svendson doesn’t have the same career as other 1sts and flames out after 3 seasons with Edmonton, hitting 250 PIM’s in 153 games as he goes. For now that’s all to look at as the S7 2nd doesn’t become impactful

S8
Before we can see the results of the 2nd that Edmonton acquired, we have to look at what they do with their own pick this season. And this is a big one, the Comets are sitting on 1st overall, AND 2nd overall. They opt to pick Antero Salmelainen, and it’s a good pick. Sure, they’re only going to get 10 points in their rookie season but they’ll also get 54 their sophomore season, and play until S19! Man, what could go wrong.

Edmonton… hits(?) with the WKP 2nd from last seasons trade. They get a player who is going to play 15 seasons, but it seems to be in a similar vein to Kruze with lackluster production in all years, and is a filler that gets depth minutes. Oh well, someone has to fill them. That player? It’s Danglee Ciddzz. Nope. I got nothing else to say about them

For those of you that cheated and looked ahead, yeah, there’s a trade. Antero Salmelainen gets 2 games with the Blizzard before being shipped to WKP alongside Borsuto. So that whole 54 point season, and the following 315 career points? They aren’t with the Blizzard. They got 2 out of the 379 scored by Salmelainen. Questionable. This return is also weird, Patrick Pelletier had 13 points over 2 seasons prior to the move and, spoiler alert, only puts up 18 over 2 seasons with Edmonton. I’m genuinely confused by this one tbh. The sweeteners of a S8 5th, and a S9 4th are also very lackluster given the 1st overall pick is going the other way.
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S9
Now we get a whole page dedicated to S9, because this is our first time with consecutive trades! To jog your memory, that “EDM S9 4th” connects back to Gabriel Johansen (fuck you Gabe). That’s important because they are being packaged together to go to Winnipeg for their S10 1st an entire season before the draft. Man hopefully they have big plans for that pick.

They traded the pick. Not only the pick, but Matt Kruze, Danglee Ciddzz, and a S9 2nd to LA! When you think about it, they kind of traded Johansen, Kruze, Ciddzz, a 2nd, and a 4th in exchange for LA’s S9 1st, Seattle’s S9 3rd, and LA’s S10 2nd. When looking at value, it feels like a lot for those three picks, but the players themselves aren’t great in terms of earning from what it seems. Kruze is proven lackluster, Johansen plays 1 more season after this move, and Ciddzz, while valuable, produces less than Kruze. Regardless, using that new 1st from the Panthers, the Comets pick up Teemu Nurmi. As a rookie D, Nurmi puts up an alright 12 points, but has longevity for 10 seasons playing in the SHL, hitting as many as 42 points in a single season as a defensemen! Maui wowie that’s good.
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S10
Here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for, the moment trees converge. But first we have a “who the fuck,” trade. So, Nick Fisher, guy has to be valuable, right? He’s getting traded for a 1st, it has to be like that. Well then where did he come from? According to Bojo Box his rookie season was with Toronto in season 5, and he was in fact drafted in season 5 to Toronto in the second round, yet there is no recorded trade where he comes to Edmonton (who are finally the Blizzard from here on out). And judging by the bojo box stats it was midseason so some FA shenanigans doesn’t make sense, Fisher just dipped to Edmonton mid-season somehow, and for that, he gets to play 4 seasons there before being traded to Minnesota for a MIN S10 1st. Fisher also produced great for Edmonton in his time here, so him not being recorded anywhere possible to find is enigmatic. Comes out of nowhere, goes nearly PPG with Edmonton and plays another 6 seasons with Minnesota, Hamilton, and New England. Crazy stuff.

Ok, here is the moment you’ve waited for! The moment trade trees converge! The Minnesota 1st from last trade, Teemu Nurmi from S9, and Patrick Pelletier all the way from the Salmelainen trade in S8, and an Edmonton 2nd for S10 are moved to Toronto for Christopher Raymond, a S10 1st, and a S10 2nd. Raymond is a throwaway yet the one piece we want to focus on here. He’s coming into his second season and had 0 points with Toronto the year prior. So he comes into Edmonton and puts up 2 points over 49 games, #progression. He’d only play 3 more SHL seasons before leaving the league. The Toronto picks, by the way, have stories. The 1st is trade alongside a 3rd to trade up to 1st overall with NEW (NEW and a 1OA trade, never heard that one before), while the 2nd is used to draft a goalie, Michael McKorsy Jr. who played 3 seasons in the SHL. What’s interesting about McKorsy Jr. is that McKorsy Sr. played 4 seasons in the SMJHL in seasons 45 -> 49. Something about that doesn’t seem right, but it happened.

S11
We wanted to focus on Raymond because he is, of course, the owner of the “impactful” piece moniker. And he’s involved in a weird trade. So remember, 2 career points and he plays for 4 total seasons. He gets traded for 4 pieces from Hamilton. Well, not just him but an EDM S11 2nd, but 4 pieces. Kevin Lebacon, who is a 5 year vet of the league and is coming off a 43 point season that is soon to be followed up by a 44 point season in his debut Edmonton season. Despite that, I feel wrong about this deal because Edmonton is taking Kevin fucking LeBacon from HAM. That should be illegal. The other pieces are the incestuous Tom Corcoran as outlined earlier in a throwaway joke, Ronan O’Keefe who is a 50+ point player at this point in his career, as well as Edmonton’s S12 3rd coming back to them from a different deal. What’s crazy is they trade this pick again before next season!
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S12 Pt. 1
Here we have the first portion of S12. Let’s open up a new portion of trade trees with an Edmonton and LA deal, another deal where Edmonton solely deals picks. They deal the 1st and 2nd round picks they naturally own from the draft in exchange for Mike Honcho, Zach Dooley, Ideen Fallah, and, oh you gotta be fucking kindding me, the S12 3rd AGAIN? Apparently Edmonton loves that pick so much they keep trading for it. Let’s go over the pieces they get back. This is actually Edmonton’s second time getting Honcho after drafting him back in S2, and trading him to Toronto mid-season 6. He put up consistent .950+ seasons via sv%  with Edmonton until that Toronto trade, and it only got worse after going to LA where he was considered expendable with his .852 sv%, so Edmonton brings him back! Dooley was a hard nosed, physical player who hit 272, and 276 hits in S9 and S10 respectively. That number dropped in S11 to a measly 179, however that was offset by his career-high 69 point season after a previous career high of 27 points. That seems sustainable, and 40 points the very next season points to it being semi-sustainable, but only for 3 more seasons before retirement. That’s upsetting to see. Fallah had been a strong producer for years with LAP, as a S3 draftee they’ve hovered between 50-30 points each season since S5. With a 49 point in S11 things are looking to repeat, until S12 has Fallah scoring 11 points with Edmonton year 1, and scoring 0 year 2 before being moved to Manhattan where they score 10 points over 58 games before stepping away from the game. That EDM S12 3rd had to have been good, though, right? Well it became Stamkos Steven who never played a game. I don’t know why they wanted it so much, but fuck that pick in particular. Also fuck Gabe, you’re never safe.

The next trade in S12 part 1 is Mike Honcho being moved off before even stepping on the ice with Edmonton again. Literally 3 days after getting Honcho, he and a LAP S13 2nd with questionable origins are sent to Toronto, you know, the team Honcho struggled with and got traded from. They want him back, and in return they give Edmonton a WKP 2nd for this season, and Viari Latypov. Latypov is a career backup, really nothing interesting to say there outside of them having an 8-31-4 record as their one year as the starter, which interestingly came after being traded from Edmonton. They really couldn’t get enough of trading for their former players back in the day. That 2nd round pick acquired is interesting though, as it’s used on Nathan Wong who is going to follow the careeth path of many great players in this trade tree before; long career, shitty stats. Nearly 600 games, 69 points, nice.
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Calming Break
You may be wondering why I have split S12 into different sections. I didn’t want to give this one header under S12 too much meat, and that is a genuine reason. The next section is just one traed, and I wanted to take this section to have a break, let you grab some coffee, read the morning papers, relax, the whole 9-yards. Did you know people put hot sauce on Kraft Dinner? I didn’t until today, but TommySalami does. Kinda gross if I’m being honest with ya. But yeah, this next section is one trade, and it is really, really big, and I have a story with it. A couple nights ago I was sitting down to write this and I thought it was done. There was a player in a S13 deal I figured came out of nowhere since another player traded alongside him is mysterious in nature. With my graphic chart all filled out and put onto imgur for the purpose of being uploaded here, I came to the thought I could track the players movement through Bojo Box. So I went through, and saw that a deal dated to 2014 in the trade tracker was actually posted in S12 (2013). And I had thought of this prior, and was thankful I didn’t have to talk about it because it was absolutely massive. But after going through Bojo Box and tracking that the years with Edmonton didn’t lineup with a whole year spent with the team, I re-verified the big trade and realized I had to talk about it. In fact, everything before this was leading up to this one trade and was added for this one player coming to Edmonton. I think everyone had a chance to brew their tea or do some sudoku puzzles, so let’s get to the bane of my existence.


S12, 3-way
Yup. It’s a 3-way trade, why wouldn’t it be? For the point of simplicity I recoloured each asset in the trade to the colour of the team they were on prior to the trade. For example, Onoprienko goes from HAM -> TEX based on them being in the “To TEX” section with Hamilton’s blue/grey colour. So without further ado let’s get into the return.

Remember 10 seasons ago, in the first section, when Edmonton got their first GM Jay McDonald? This is the reason I mentioned it, because He, alongside recent draftpick Nathan Wong, are going to Texas from Edmonton. The return to Edmonton is all Texas, and it’s big. Markus Dahl is a recent draftee that made his rookie debut 2 seasons ago with great success (40 points) and followed it up with an even better season (49), but after struggling to start the deal he was included in this and wouldn’t come close to even 30 points until his final season in the league. Zach Cuff is the player I mentioned in the little break we just had. Following a solid career in Winnipeg, Cuff went to TEX in the S12 offseason and entered to… lackluster stats. 9 points in 22 games didn’t put him near the 43 in 50 he had last year, so he was expendable in this deal. Frank Fencepost is another player not to get your hopes up over. Had a great rookie campaign with LAP with 17 points, and then he’d get passed around the league every other season or two. This return for Edmonton was capped off by getting a 3rd in next seasons draft. Overall, eh.

For the sake of consistency let’s look at the other teams. Hamilton is easy, they get a 1st and they get Kevin LeBacon, cause they are just so incestuous in trading for former players. They must’ve realized the mistake of the ham name being traded from HAM. For Texas, they get the retiring McDonald, the young Wong, the tail end of enforcer-esque player Vyacheslav Onoprienko, who has an award named after either them or Vidrik, that is unclear to me. Possibly the biggest get in this trade is Logan Valentine, a S10 rookie much like Dahl was, but their production is consistent. 15 seasons played in the SHL and each season other than season 13 being a lock for 30+ points, massive get for Texas here. Did I just say Valentine was the best get, because Partlow gives them a run for their money. Same entry, S10, same exit, S25, but with similar consistency and a much higher peak. Every season they produced 30+ points, but they hit above 40 fairly consistently and ticked the 50 point mark here and there. That, alongside a 2nd so they are essentially moving a round, and a draft back, makes this a massive get for Texas and makes me wonder why any other team did this move with them either giving up wild quantity and quality for quantity, or giving up some quality for some quantity type pieces with low quality.
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S13 and 15
With the 3-way trade done, the net impact is Zach Cuff being moved to New England, alongside Robert Paulson in exchange for Dickie Adua and a MAN S15 1st. I think I’ve been very clear on my opinions with Zach Cuff, so I’m going to talk a bit about Robert Paulson, because I’m not sure how they exist. They weren’t drafted--I searched through every single draft prior to S14 and he was not drafted. He just… existed with Edmonton. I assume it was a FA signing somehow? Regardless, he played 0 games with Edmonton and went to play 44 games for New England in S14 for a combined 1 minute in 44 games. He’d take a year off and return in S16 to Seattle, cementing the idea that he was an inactive, especially with 15 points over two seasons being his Seattle production, until Toronto and Minnesota found a way to make him relevant in S18 and S21 respectively. He’s an enigma. Unsurprisingly, with Cuff and Paulson being two eh, possibly inactive guys, it’s only natural Adua is also IA. Adua fluctuates between 11 and 0 points for his Edmonton tenure that is surprisingly long, getting 7 seasons without even scratching 40 points in total.

This is a quick addition to this section since the S15 move is a singular piece and doesn’t need it’s own header. Two seasons after the trade, Edmonton still holds the Manhattan 1st and selects Riko Muerto, the second instance of a current users lineage of players being viewable in this trade tree, except this time it is a result of the trade tree instead of a fun note that vaguely plays into a piece related to the tree. Unsurprisingly, the user behind the current Winnipeg Jets team was no slouch back in the day, spending most of their career with the Blizzard. Despite a rough two seasons, they were followed up by 30+ point seasons for the rest of their tenure, sans a 29 point season. Most of this was seemingly done as a 1st line option (playing 40% of all available minutes in games, equivalent to ~24 minutes a game). Certainly a good value pickup considering the pieces traded to get the pick.
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S22
Following an extended break with Muerto enjoying success with Edmonton, including b2b cups, we get to open up a new trade tree before the eventual exodus of Riko. We open up with the classic “Edmonton gives up picks and gets back x and y” that we’ve seen time and time again. Going to Toronto, there is CGY’s S22 1st, and EDM’s S22 2nd. The former of these picks is enigmatic, no one really knows where it came from, there’s no record of where it could have come from despite my best efforts going through the trade forums. I just can't. The return in this deal to Edmonton is TOR S22 3rd, and Yousuf Scherbluk. Scherbluk was a long time, top producing player for Toronto, and the capitalized on the older players value with this deal getting back some top picks. For his part, Scherbluk was effective at scoring through 3 seasons with Edmonton, getting 34 and 53 points in 52 games, before picking up 16 in 26. It’s odd to me how he played half of the available games and had good production? That’s a mystery for another day, unfortunately.

Shortly after getting the Toronto S22 3rd, Edmonton packaged it alongside their own S22 2nd, and the FA rights to Ondrej Ravchitikov, a FA D they signed in S21 on his path of playing for a fuckton of teams, to send to LA. In exchange, Edmonton received Gabriel DuJardin, Giovanni Mortellaro the second, LAP’s S23 3rd, and LAP’s S25 1st. That’s a hefty return, but it makes sense given the quality of picks going LA’s way. What LA did with those picks was questionable, taking Jigsaw McGraw, a player who would go on to play 4 SHL seasons in his big league career, and trading that 2nd round pick (as far as I can tell). DuJardin is a great player coming to Edmonton in this deal. As it happens with a lot of these STHS deals, sometimes a player puts up 30 points and then goes to a new team and puts up half of that for the rest of their career, which is what happened with DuJardin in his single season with Edmonton. Mortellaro II is another interesting case. Comes into the league after their first player, Mortellaro the 1st, flamed out after 2 seasons. Despite that, they end up playing 14 seasons. As a S10 draftee, Edmonton is getting Mortellaro II at the very end of their career when it’s clear they have very little left in the tank. Over 100 games they put up 13 points with Edmonton before calling it a career. That LAP S23 3rd is also shipped off before the draft and is unimpactful.
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S23
Season 23 approaches us with a bombshell move off the bat with a big trade. Riko Muerto, the long-time Blizzard 1st liner who won back to back cups with the team, is being traded alongside Gabriel DuJardin and an Edmonton S25 2nd to Hamilton. The return for a disappointing player, an aging vet, and a 2nd? It’s what you’d expect in all honesty. Frederich Muller, and Nils Wahlstrom. Muller is another player in the vein of Robert Paulson, he existed somewhere, can’t find him in the draft, and he doesn’t exist in the BojoBox. For all intents and purposes, he might as well not exist apart from this trade and I’d have no idea. Nils Wahlstrom isn’t much better. He doesn’t even play a game with Edmonton. Why they traded for him, I don’t know. He had 0 points the season before, and next season, well…

Next season isn’t spent with Edmonton for Wahlstrom because he is almost immediately flipped alongside a 1st round pick to West Kendall for Aviad Ratzon and a BAP S25 2nd. First, let’s finish the story on Wahlstrom. He plays 1 season with West Kendall and never plays again, and has 10 career points in 63 career games over 2 seasons in the SHL. The premium of the 1st round pick given up makes sense with this deal. Wahlstrom is IA, and is going to play 1 season max after this, while Ratzon has 11 seasons in the tank. In his 5 seasons with Edmonton, Ratzon posts 20-35 points consistently. The 1st round pick they give up does turn into Michael Burch, but he was a hot n’cold player who rarely produced above 20 points until his last 4 seasons. What hurts for Edmonton is that he produced until S38, but given they got an equally good player in the deal, it doesn’t sting as much.

S25
We get to skip a season as we come to S25, where all current deals converge into one for the time being. In fact, this marks the last time we will have two concurrent trade trees that contribute to the same player going on simultaneously. Yay? I guess that’s mostly exciting for me having to write about them, so let’s just get into it. Using the LAP S25 1st acquired in S22, and the BAP S25 2nd used this past year, Edmonton does another draft day trade with Toronto. What do you get when you trade a 1st and a 2nd? You get a 1st and a 2nd back! Yup, the Blizzard jump up 7 spots to draft 7th overall, and in exchange they move back 10 picks overall. The second round pick Edmonton gets is spent on Frederik Zavstrom. He plays 8 seasons as filler, scoring 0 points in 150 games with Edmonton before moving on to Portland. With the 1st round pick, Edmonton selects Ivan Koroviev. I’m going to assume that everyone who was around back in the day knows the Koroviev name. 10 seasons spent with the Blizzard, and he gets 1st-2nd line minutes for most of them. When playing on the 2nd line, he puts up 30-40 points for three seasons. On the first line? 35, 56, 38, 40. Those numbers are pretty good. I feel like there’s zero chance Edmonton gets hurt by who Toronto selected with their picks but let’s see how it goes for them. Using the LAP 1st, Toronto gets Cynthia Taylor. Taylor has a long career, much like Koroviev, but never reaches the heights that he does, with a much more consistent ~30 points each year, but those are great numbers for a defensemen and a pick Toronto is very happy to make. With the 2nd round pick, Toronto hits it big by taking Adam Falk, who, at his peak is a 54 point player. Add that on to some good longevity with 10 seasons spent in the league, and this trade looks really good for Toronto.
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Decade off fun talk
After this trade, Koroviev is the only active player that impacts things down the road. We’re more than halfway through this article and we still haven’t seen any active Blizzard, isn’t that crazy? It makes sense when you think about it, current players on the Blizzard span from S43 to present so until we get there we won’t see anyone active, but there is a player currently on the Blizzard who is the sole-player linking this franchise to some of its very first moves as a team. Without them this is an article where we start at S43, cover the active Blizzard players, and we’re done. So for all the effort put in, big thanks to Zach Cuff for being in that three way trade all those years back, I’m willing to take the bullet of reformating my paint sheet to include 18 more transactions that took place prior to S13 if it means we’ve got to spend a lot more time together. Isn’t that sweet? No? You just want to get that head, get that bread, then leave, peace out? Ok, that’s enough break talk, let’s go back to this trade tree after the entire decade we skipped.

S36
Right back into it, we all remember Ivan Koroviev, Blizzard got em half a decade ago but it really was just a page ago for us, possibly under a minute since the trade happened. Let’s take a look at where Koroviev ends up after 10 years. The transaction is: Koroviev to Minnesota for a S39 3rd, and a S38 2nd. Alright… Koroviev still has 5 seasons left in them so that return seems underwhelming to say the least. Especially when they put up 54 points the very next season as a kind of “fuck you” to Edmonton. This was a mid-season trade as well, so Koroviev had 8 points in 13 games for Edmonton and they decided to move them for late picks. Especially weird when 5 of those 8 points were goals. Koroviev putting up 46 in 38 with Minnesota feels like a definite “FU” though, that’s a higher ppg than any other season in their career.

S38
Two seasons after the fact, we get some payoff from this trade in the form of Yannick Berger being taken in the 2nd round by Edmonton this season. Berger just played their last season in S50 funnily enough, so we are approaching the new era of SHL hockey with every passing move. I don’t want to talk up Berger too much for the purposes of this article though, they only play 1 season with Edmonton where they get 13 points, so things could be better.

S42
So about Berger, he got traded. He’s going to Manhattan for… a CGY S43 2nd? That’s a weird move. Trade a 2nd round pick that you hit big on for a 2nd round pick? That’s just weird. I don’t know how else to put it. Now I think it’s right to cover the rest of Berger’s career. They play 8 seasons with Manhattan with 5 straight seasons of 30+ points through to S47. They fall off after that, but for a 2nd round pick that seems like solid value.

Back to Edmonton, they waste no time in using that CGY S43 2nd, and their own S44 1st, to get some assets from Winnipeg. Coming to Edmonton is Isaac Cormier-Hale, another player from someone who is actually in my draft class, Joguurta. Cormier-Hale was a solid defenseman for the jets, dare I say even a star for them with back to back 40 point seasons in S39 and S40. Well, they had 39 points in S40 but that’s pretty much 40 points, alright? They’ll end up playing two seasons with Edmonton with back to back mid-twenty point seasons. Kind of disappointing, but in S41 Cormier-Hale put up 26 points so this fall back down to earth was expected.
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S43
I may have spoiled what happens with Cormier-Hale already, saying they play 2 seasons and all. No pussyfooting it, they get traded to Seattle after the S43 season concludes in return for Ensio Kalju. No way around this one either, Kalju puts in work. 37 points as a defender the season before coming to Edmonton, and while that production dips getting 20 points with plenty of hits from a d-man is nothing to scoff at. Kalju would even get back to the 30 point mark with Edmonton, actually, they broke the 40 point mark at their peak with Edmonton! People might recognize this name as the player who got unceremoniously dropped by NEW after… questionable comments from the user behind them, but that doesn’t take away from their production at their peak.

Surprise! Second move! You may be thinking, ‘didn’t he say that there are no more concurrent trade trees to add onto this move?’ Well I did, but this an entirely separate move that has no relation to anything with the ‘Kalju - Cormier-Hale’ trade tree. Hell, it’s hardly a tree. With their pre-owned S43 2nd, the Edmonton Blizzard select Tony Pepperoni at the draft! This is a major dub for the Blizzard, with Tony (or Tommy, depending on how I feel) as the acting Co-General Manager of the Edmonton Blizzard organization. This is a move that you get familiar with Edmonton, a player who had a former player, falls to them and they come out big time. In Tommy’s case, the entire reason we know him as Tommy is that his first player was Tommy Salami, a player with little impact on the league. Making their return in S43 though, Edmonton saw it fit to take a chance on Pepperoni in the 2nd round and it paid off dividends. A 2 time cup champion with the Blizzard, Tommy has had an immeasurable impact both on and off the ice, as the Blizzard’s long time #1 centre, as well as a great individual in the locker room. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the one behind everyone in that room having FHM6, as they have bought it, unprompted, mind you, as gifts for two current members of the Blizzard. This is a massive dub for the Blizzard in the 2nd round, as well as the 1st current Blizzard member appearing in this article.

S44
The next deal on the chopping block is the 1 for 1 trade of Halfdan Thorstein for Xavier Paquette. Paquette was the 1st round pick of the Blizzard back in S41 and are making their debut season at the time of this trade. Paquette is going to go on to live until S52, putting up 20-30 points up until S50 where they land in Toronto and put up 50 points, followed up by back to back 40+ point seasons. I think the Toronto water needs to be tested for roids. Thorstein, on the other hand, is on a tear coming into this deal. After 9 seasons in Minnesota of consistent 30+ point seasons, including many 40+ point seasons, Edmonton is getting a gem. After 28 points in 34 games for Minnesota, this mid-season trade lands Thorstein in Edmonton where they finish the season off with 12 points in 15 games for an Edmonton team that eventually made the 2nd round that season.

S45
A season after the 2nd round loss to the Jets, Thorstein is getting flipped to Toronto. They’ll play 3 more seasons before hanging them up, posting 23, 36, and 39 points in their final three seasons respectively. In return, Edmonton gets Toronto’s S48 2nd, and a HAM S46 24th. So a couple futures for the guy they got as a playoff addition late in the season, seems fair enough to me. Not much else to add in all honesty, not a huge trade.

S46
Did I say it wasn’t a huge trade? Fuck that, that Hamilton 4th is super impactful. Y’know why? Because current SHL media grader, assistant captain, and 1500+ TPE forward James Truong was selected here. With a 4th round pick, that’s an absolute steal. A Montreal Militia alumni, (Kraken represent, baby!) Truong was called up after three seasons to play 17 minutes a night including some work on the powerplay. They were only ever to max at 30-ish points in the STHS era. In the FHM era, Truong has seen a lot more production with three 40+ point seasons including a peak of 18 goals and 46 points in S55. Playing even minutes between the 1st and 2nd lines, Truong is a huge add from the 4th round for Edmonton.

Another huge add came in the addition of former-GM, Karl, drafting themselves in the 7th round of the S46 season. With the freedom to take themselves anywhere, Karlstrabe Scholz was literally the last pick of the S46 draft. Currently, Scholz is the top d-man for Edmonton at ~1900 TPE entering the season. In the past, Scholz  has hovered around the 30 point mark in STHS with a peak of 37 points in S51. In their first FHM season, Scholz put up 41 points and set another career high with 11 goals. S54? 41 points again. Going one more season ahead blows other seasons out of the water. 12 goals and 54 points as a d-man, absolutely insane. Last season was more in-line points wise with expected production with 42 points, but another career high with 16 goals was set. Scholz is one part of the projected Edmonton top pairing that we are supposed to see come into their relative peak this next season. Having a best d-man of the year award doesn’t hurt Scholz’ resume either, with Scholz getting a Bojo and a Stevens for their work in S55.
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S47
Now we’re just getting a ton of picks in a row without trades. Makes this whole thing a lot easier to follow, doesn't it? Without further ado we have Edmonton’s first round pick, the first and only bovine player in the league, Julio Tokolosh. A terrific add to the team, and another residing assistant captain. Tokolosh is a big goal scorer that has worked their way onto the first line in Edmonton. A hot topic-fantasy pick now, Tokolosh is another player that exploded in FHM, seeing a 5 point boost from S52 -> S53, before putting up 65 points as Edmonton’s offensive driver the following season, with 32 of that total being goals which I’d say is pretty good. The next season was a down year for Tokolosh who saw a fall back to 43 points, until they went ahead and put up 60 again in S56. This time, they even put up 33 goals alongside their 29 assists.

S48
Trades are back on the menu. First up, let’s call back to Ensio Kalju. I spoiled a couple sections back that they find their way to New England before being cut a couple years down the road. The return for a prime defender is NEW S49 1st, Mattias Enqvist, and Jacob Geza. For Geza this would be his last season in the SHL, so it’s a throwaway part of the trade. Same with Enqvist, actually. They don’t have any stats beyond S48 in Bojo Box so I can only assume they retired, which makes it an odd return for Edmonton, but hopefully that first is worth it, since Kalju is going to contribute in New England’s quest for the elusive challenge cup.

Another trade comes this season as well, with a draft day deal between the Stampede and Blizzard. Buffalo wants to move up to 11 from 14, and Edmonton obliges with an add of a S49 2nd. Using that new pick, the Stampede selected Satoshi Zigzagooney. Zigzagooney has been a successful defenceman that has had the pleasure of playing behind the likes of Alexander Selich and Cassius Darrow for much of their time in Buffalo. They liked playing behind Darrow so much they followed them to Seattle after the expansion draft to play behind them and Tig Murphy! For Edmonton, this trade works out big time with the picks they acquire. For moving back 3 spots, they are afforded the ability to pick Barrett Blackwood, a nominee for the Most Improved Player award just this past season. After having just two seasons of third line minutes in STHS, the move to FHM was once again a big boon for the Blizzard forward. After 17 points in S52, Blackwood posted 20 goals in S53 en route to 40 points. The following season, Blackwood adjusted their game to include playmaking, putting up 42 points with 29 apples. Some saw season 55 as a “fall back to earth” moment for the winger, as they managed just 26 points, but I already told you that they picked up a nod for the MIP after they got a career high in goals, assists, and points to the tune of a 22/34/56 split.

S49
Who wants more draft picks turning into active players? The Blizzard definitely do, because they keep picking ‘em. They enter the draft with two second round picks and two firsts. Which to talk about first… i know, how about a trade! The New England S49 1st they had this year is used by Edmonton, alongside a S52 2nd, to trade up from 6 -> 4 with West Kendall. For WKP, they end up taking “Cody” 6th overall who doesn’t play a single game in the SHL, whereas Edmonton opts to pick up FR Finn-Rhys 4th overall. In a move that was lauded at the time for being a player they could’ve picked up later, it turns out was one of the few big “hits” in the 1st round. Finn-Rhys, for those that forgot, was another Blizzard player up for awards picking up a nom for Top Defensive Defensemen of the Year, which is a rare feat for someone to do on a winning team. He is Scholz’ other half on the top pairing, and they make up one of the top NW division pairings by TPE. With a solid two-way game, FR has been putting up 20-30 points consistently across their career alongside solid defence. A good grab at 4 for the Blizzard. And with this, it’s the end of the S2-S49 trade tree that half of this article covers. No joke all of that was for FR, there are 33 transactions leading up to Finn-Rhys being drafted, while the rest of the team takes 18 transactions to be formed.

Speaking of those other transactions, let’s get to those 2 seconds that Edmonton had. With the first one, they select Jean-Paul Boivin. Nokazoa, the user behind Boivin is the acting Co-GM of the Nevada Battleborn, the favourites to win the cup this upcoming SMJHL season as they boast the most TPE in the SMJHL. Boivin is also not the captain of the Blizzard in case anyone was wondering. Boivin is best known for being a lanky boy that is insufficient for weight lifting--that being they are insufficient as the weight that is being lifted by teammates. They opened their career with Edmonton chugging on the 3rd line, showing great goal scoring prowess as they scored more goals than assists their first two seasons in the league. With that potential being recognized, Boivin moved into the top 6 in an attempt to show them being selfish with goals isn’t the answer. That message wasn’t learned until this most recent season, with Boivin continually scoring more goals than assists, or breaking even on the differential. In S56, they took a step back with 18 goals, not cracking 20 for the first time since entering the top 2 lines, but it was offset by a career high 28 assists to finish one point below their career high.

The final pick of this draft is made using the Buffalo pick acquired in the Blackwood deal a season ago. I’ll keep this one quick, Conor Tanner is taken as the last pick of the 2nd round. He literally had to be, since GM Keygan is the one behind Conor Tanner. When you think about it, the trade wasn’t about getting Tanner, the Blizzard already had a 2nd they could use on Tanner if need be, but by getting a later 2nd, it opened the Blizzard up to be able to take Boivin which is a good move, so I’ll say Boivin and Blackwood are the result of that Buffalo trade for fun. Onto Tanner, he started his career off as a centre, however the positional needs of the team determine Tanner should shift back to the point. This was due to a mix of strong young talent in the forward core/behind Tanner in the prospect pool, as well as a lack of defensive depth that needed to be filled somehow. Tanner’s production actually increased after being moved to the backend, only seeing a 2 point decrease from S54 -> S55, before seeing a career high 27 points from the back-end this past season. I can’t give too much credit on the location of this pick, since getting a productive second rounder is kind of easy when you’re picking yourself, the GM.
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S52
Let’s open up S52 with a signing. This is the first FA move we’re seeing come into play here and we open it up with Emiko Spector. After not feeling it with Tampa Bay, Emiko opted to literally move across the continent to the furthest possible team location away from Tampa; Edmonton. Since S54, Spector has been the standalone starter for the Blizzard, though they played heavy backup minutes to Tommy Tuck in their singular non-starter season with Edmonton. Since taking over the net, Spector has had a baseline of 28 wins each of the last 3 seasons, hitting a peak of 33 wins. With Edmonton’s defence getting thin the past few years with a lack of bottom-pairing options, being able to put up a .909sv% with Danila Zhernov and Denver Wolfe in front of you for a third of every game is pretty impressive.

The other move made this season is a big trade between Minnesota and Edmonton. Going Minnesota’s way is Marc Hagan, a EDM S53 2nd, and an EDM S54 2nd. So a couple mid-picks that carry good value as the league grows, and Marc Hagan. Hagan was a 2nd round draft pick back in S47. They have largely been impactful, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t really active. They consistently put up 0.4 point per game numbers with the Blizzard which is good, but it also makes you expendable. After going to Minnesota they’ll hit 25 points, 20 points, and then get cut before S54 marking the end of their career. In return for this package, the Blizzard get their current top centre-man via TPE, Jon Forty-One. Jon was drafted back in S48 by Minnesota, and had just completed a good sophomore season in the top 6, putting up 26 points. However, it wasn’t meant to be and 41 came to Edmonton where they continually improved their game, honing the playmaking side of the puck, hitting 30 points without even cracking double digit goal marks in their first three seasons with the Blizz. Once they could comfortably set up their teammates, J-41 turned to goal scoring and put up 19 in S55, and 18 in S56 to go along with 46 and 48 points in those seasons respectively. Coming into this season by passing Tony Pepperoni’s TPE count makes Jon the 1st Blizzard option down the middle, and we should expect to see some good things from him this year!

S53
We get another couple seasons off here as we go into the S53 season and closer to current day SHL hockey. Opening up S53 we have a draft-day trade. As with most draft-day trades, one team wants to move up, one team wants more picks, and a draft trade is born. In this case, Manhattan sees Jukka Timonen available at 10 and trades their 1st that season, and S54 1st to the Blizzard to jump up the 6 spots necessary to snag them. The Blizzard then opted to take William Hartmann 16th overall, despite concerns they are getting in the way of the election which is a scummy thing to do. Boom, the user behind Hartmann, is following a similar path to Nokazoa by being the acting manager of the reigning 4-star cup champion Vancouver Whalers. They don’t get a ring, because Hartmann was called up the year prior to make their Blizzard debut. In their rookie season, William put up a respectable 23 points, and a whopping 99 shots. A bizarrely low Sh% of 5% held back Hartmann from putting up more points, but with the proper adjustments in offseason training they are poised to come back and improve their production this upcoming season. Hartmann has a bright future ahead of them as one of the Blizzard’s top prospects

S54
Another Blizzard top prospect joined the team around this time, also from a Manhattan pick. In fact, it was the Manhattan first acquired the year before that was used to select Daniel LaForest out of Kelowna. LaForest came into the season as the 3rd natural centre for the Blizzard, and he had a season that was close to a RotY nomination in my mind. With limited powerplay time and production, they posted 32 points. What’s crazy about that is they had 3 goals despite 101 shots on goal. A sub 3sh% massively cut into their potential production, as even common 10% sh% puts them as the top producing rookie this season. LaForest proved themselves a capable goal scorer in the playoffs with 5 goals, and 15 points in 19 games giving Edmonton hope for the rookie to figure out their twine-tickling touch in their sophomore season. LaForest also has the best bench press of any Edmonton player, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that.

Alongside LaForest, the Blizzard also made an impactful 3rd round pick in Kyle Sutton who is set to make their rookie season appearance in S57. Sutton has been a mainstay on the Maine Timber through some of their worst years, but in S55 when they made a run to the finals, Sutton was a potential playoff MVP alongside teammate Leo Bloomfield. While they didn’t end up taking home the award, their production was out of this world and part of why Maine was 2 games away from winning it all. Thus far in preseason, Sutton popped the goal cherry early by scoring in their first time donning an Edmonton uni, and they hope to get their first regular season goal over with equally quick.

S55
First move of S55, Edmonton signs Eddy Ask Jr.! That’s awkward… RIP Eddy Ask Jr.

Second move of S55, Edmonton drafts Axel Foley! This is less awkward, but it still is awkward because it is me and I have to talk about myself for a bit. I’ll just give you the straight stats. Foley won the S54 challenge cup with Carolina as a rookie, finished in the conference finals to the eventual champions in Newfoundland in S55, and finished second in the conference finals to the eventual champions in Vancouver in S56. In S56 Foley put up 42 points as a defensemen, alongside + defense. Foley received a vote for DDotY in the SMJHL, was a finalist for league MVP both via the player and awards committee, and won the Agante trophy for best defensemen as the Kraken captain. He is now on his way to Edmonton to make his debut season on a d-line that grew much stronger this past season.


S57
Now we just have a few signings. In relation to the unforeseen disappearance of Eddy Ask Jr., the Blizzard needed to sign a new goalie, so they went out and got Monty Montgomery. I don’t have much else to say about him, he’ll backup Spector and hope to be good in 12 games.

Next up is Chico Smeb, the only other inactive on the roster, if you assume that Monty and Eddy occupy one spot, since only one of them plays while the other is suspended for an entire season. They are good, and have 600+ TPE on the old option of Danila Zhernov, so they’re a big add for the Blizzard.

Finally, we have Eric Vanderberg. Vanderberg has spent a majority of their 8 season career with Buffalo in the bottom half of their defensive core, with a 2 season stint with Winnipeg thrown in the middle there. With their retirement already announced, they were expecting to peacefully rest until Edmonton reached out and asked for their services. Vanderberg agreed, and are bringing their cup-winning pedigree to the Edmonton Blizzard this upcoming season!
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9427 words + graphics
As promised, here is the complete graphic;
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#2

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Hell of an article!

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norway                             IIHF Team Norway                          norway
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#3

This is amazing!

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Thanks to @sulovilen, @the5urreal, and @sve7en for the sigs!
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#4

holy shit

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Signatures by Vulfzilla, Jepox, Jess, rum_ham, Ragnar, and myself
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#5
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2020, 09:09 PM by teztify.)

This was a fun trip down memory lane! Cool to see all these old trades again.


Poor @kit not getting credit for Muller's cup winning goal in the bojo box :(

Something happened on the day he died. Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside.
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried. I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar.

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 a bottomless curse, a bottomless sea, source of all greatness, all things that be.
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#6

holy shit....

what a monster of an article

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Czechoslovakia PROFILE || UPDATE || RAGE. Rage 
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#7

WTF @Mazatt Do you ever work?  Great article buddy and @Nokazoa  you heard it here first ...I bench da most lol

oh and its 32 pts not 30 ok no problem I still forgive you. oh and veins...there now we even lol

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#8

This shows the amount of respect I get in that LR. Hitting that FA market in three. Smh


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#9

12-03-2020, 10:18 PMNokazoa Wrote: This shows the amount of respect I get in that LR. Hitting that FA market in three. Smh
Maybe if you weren't a Pinocchio-body having head-ass you wouldn't have to leave, smh

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#10

12-03-2020, 09:12 PMluketd Wrote: holy shit....

what a monster of an article
It's the start of the BHN takeover

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#11
(This post was last modified: 12-04-2020, 04:11 PM by kit.)

12-03-2020, 09:09 PMteztify Wrote: This was a fun trip down memory lane! Cool to see all these old trades again.


Poor @kit not getting credit for Muller's cup winning goal in the bojo box :(
The absolute disrespect put on my name. First ballot hall of famer called a “disappointing player” smh

Good article tho and clearly a lot of work put in

https://simulationhockey.com/boxresult.php?id=816

Bojo box screws up the last name cuz it had umlauts in it but here’s the page

Nvm I can’t read. wasn’t called disappointing

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#12

bruh what a monster article

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Credit to Wasty
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Credit to Sulovilen


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#13
(This post was last modified: 04-01-2023, 10:49 AM by Cuffy. Edited 1 time in total.)

Cuff was never inactive js :p awesome read tho!

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