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canes2112 · 02-01-2021, 09:47 PM

(2x Double Draft Media)

I will be analyzing each team’s picks in the S58 SHL draft shamelessly to capitalize on double draft media to inflate my not as large as I’d like bank account. Some housekeeping things to start, I will denote rounds and picks in the following notation: Pick 2.20 to indicate the round picked and the overall selection number.

Atlanta Inferno Inferno

Selections: 1.9 - Pavel Jeziak, 1.11 - Puddles O’Duck, 2.29 Paul Binder

After finishing their second season in the league, Atlanta added three names to their already lengthy prospect list. The Inferno had a decently successful season, reaching the quarter finals after upsetting the Calgary Dragons in the first round. This draft added two wingers and a defenseman. Jeziak comes from a long time user Leppish to help bring some veteran presence to the locker room in the future. Puddles O’Duck and Paul Binder come from new users who have earned at decent rates and help to balance out the forward and defense prospect pool. In the upcoming drafts, look for Atlanta to potentially take a goalie as there is not one in their prospect pool. Having a decent young goalie in Samat Beibitzhanov lessens the concern of a missing goalie prospect.

Baltimore Platoon Platoon

Selections: 1.3 - Mew Two, 1.4 - Noel Blanchet, 2.30 - Roboute Guilliman

It was a disappointing season for the Platoon as they finished last in the Eastern Conference and next to last in the league. Picking up a trio of forwards in this draft brings the team up to 8 total forward prospects as opposed to a single defender and goalie. With picks 3 and 4 overall in the draft, they must have felt very confident that these forwards are worth passing on a quality defenseman. There are a lot of young defenders on the main Platoon roster so the need is not pressing but with the aging Nat Emerson, it will definitely be a point of interest to grab a couple of defensemen next draft.

Buffalo Stampede

Selections: 1.7 - Bean Beanman, 1.16 - Billy Brooks, 2.34 Leon Athanasios

A consistent contender for many seasons now, Buffalo fell short to the eventual winners in Chicago in a tight 7 game series in the semifinals. With only two prospects coming into the draft, Buffalo was armed with two first round picks to resupply their prospect depth. Bean Beanman headlines their pickups and had an excellent season in Anchorage, winning the 4 star cup in their rookie season. Buffalo has lost a few key free agents to teams like Hamilton so bringing in new users to help get them engrained to the Buffalo system could pay off down the road if they choose to stay with the organization. Look for Buffalo to pick the best player available in the next draft to further strengthen their prospect pool.

Chicago Syndicate

Selections: 2.21 - Nike Kickz Jr, 2.25 - Leon Schweingruber, 4.72 - Cole Carter

No team was able to match Chicago in the playoffs as they walked away with the ultimate prize, surprisingly defeating Hamilton by a margin of 4 to 1. As contending teams tend to trade away their draft picks, Chicago also only had two prospects prior to this draft. With their first pick in the second round, Nike Kickz Jr is selected who is a long time user who will bring depth to the wings. It is always noteworthy to call out Mr. Irrelevant as the final player drafted and that honor belongs to Cole Carter, who won the 4 star cup with Anchorage this offseason. With a not old but aging defense on the main roster and no defensive prospects, keep an eye on Chicago to target defensemen with their upcoming picks.

Hamilton Steelhawks

Selections: 1.5 - Dogwood Maple, 3.38 - Austin Smith

After winning the Challenge Cup in the previous season, the Steelhawks fell short in the finals against the Syndicate, losing a 5 game series. Unlike Buffalo and Chicago, Hamilton had four prospects instead of two. With the recent blockbuster trade that sent Gabriel Johnson to Seattle, the Steelhawks had the 5th overall pick and used it to select the SHL’s most popular twitter person, Dogwood Maple. Despite this high pick, Hamilton is not in dire need of a lot of prospects as their team is surprisingly young for their success in recent years. This is due to Hamilton being the most popular destination for big name free agents chasing a cup. As long as they can keep some high quality prospects around to step in, they’ll be in a decent spot. The prospect pool is smaller, but well rounded.

Manhattan Rage Rage

Selections: 1.18 - Tomas Lind, 2.31 - Yan Dolff, 3.48 - Ako Zile

Earning a first round bye only to meet Chicago and lose in a tight series was probably a disappointing result for the Rage. With only a single prospect prior to this draft, the Rage decided to draft several forwards. Manhattan has several aging forwards on the team that these selected players can come in and replace in a few seasons when they are ready so this timeline makes a lot of sense for the Rage. Three newer users also gives them the opportunity to develop their locker room culture going forward. Going forward, the Rage could select a couple of defenders to further balance the prospects available to them.

New England Wolfpack

Selections: 1.17 - Jonny Tsunami

New England was able to sneak into the playoffs but were handled in 5 games by the Buffalo Stampede. This was the expected result, considering finishing with only 53 points in the regular season. The S57 draft was the class New England chose to build around by selecting five players from that class, leaving them to only make a single selection this draft. Considering the other prospects they already acquired, it was surprising to see New England not take a defenseman and even then it would be their only defensive prospect. This may not be disastrous though since the roster is fairly young so if they felt Tsunami was the best player available it makes sense. The plan might be to let this younger roster grow together and not rely too heavily on prospects for the time being.

Tampa Bay Barracuda

Selections: 1.1 - Luc Blouin, 1.8 - Finn von Murphenstein, 2.20 - Hunter Sharpe

The rebuild continues for the Tampa Bay Barracuda as they miss the playoffs and finish as the third worst team in the league. Somehow, they have won the first overall pick again which certainly is exciting for them and probably only them. Selecting one of the owners of the site seems like a surefire bet for success and grabbing one of the higher TPE defenders only 7 picks later gives them some great prospects to add to their already solid group. Not having a main roster player older than S50, they have the luxury of losing no TPE to regression. Seems the strategy is take the best players and hopefully continue to get better each season.

Toronto North Stars Stars

Selections: 2.27 - Jesse Trudeau

Unfortunately, Toronto was not able to make the playoffs, finishing with 74 regular season points. Adding Trudeau was great for Toronto because he instantly becomes their best prospect...and their only prospect. Toronto’s team is not quite as young as Tampa Bay’s or New England’s but they still only have a couple of players just entering regression. Trudeau will be a little lonely for the time being but keep an eye out for Toronto selecting either forwards or defensemen in the upcoming drafts, just no goalies as they have two very good ones.

Calgary Dragons Dragons

Selections: 1.10 - Richard Lafleur, 2.28 - #A-Rye Izzy

Calgary was upset in the first round of the playoffs by Atlanta, falling in a 6 game series to the underdogs. #A-Rye Izzy is quite the obvious pick at that point in the draft because he’ll end up in Calgary anyway with the GM drafting rules. At pick 10, Calgary hopes to have found #A-Rye’s partner of the future with junior teammate Richard Lafleur. As the core of the Dragons continue to age, these drafts become more and more important and if this defense pairing pans out, it’ll be a solid draft. These defenders join three forwards in the Dragon prospect pool that hope to replace some successful players currently rostered down the line.

Edmonton Blizzard

Selections: none

Well this is awkward. I can honestly say that Edmonton did not make a poor selection this draft. They have four prospects currently for the upcoming seasons. That’s about it for Edmonton. Good luck with the cap penalty.

Los Angeles Panthers

Selections: 2.32 - Golden Face

Losing in the first round to the Winnipeg Jets(now Aurora), Los Angeles had to be disappointed with how the season finished after trading for a couple of players at the trade deadline. With only a selection in the second round, they chose Golden Face from the Carolina Kraken. They would make the eighth prospect for Los Angeles, a decent number. Not a young or old roster, Los Angeles, like many other teams, probably took the player they liked the most at this point in the draft. Poised to lose several players to regression at both forward and defense, they will look to add across the positional board over the next few drafts.

Minnesota Monarchs

Selections: 2.22 - Danny C, 3.40 - Travis Konecny

Minnesota missed the playoffs and finished the season with only 45 points. Despite missing their first round pick, the Monarchs decided to bring in a pair of left wingers from the Kelowna Knights in Danny C and Travis Konecny. Both of these players could prove to be steals and revitalize a recently struggling Minnesota should they pan out. Lacking a star defensive prospect, it is slightly surprising that the Monarchs did not want to grab a defenseman at some point in this draft. Perhaps that will be the priority for next draft, which as a rebuilding team, will still be very important to their long term success.

New Orleans Specters

Selections: 1.6 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, 1.12 - Nikolaj Boyle, 1.14 - Ole Olson, 2.36 - Jean-Locke Zidane

A big draft year for the Specters as they bring in four prospects as it seems they will commit to a rebuild following selling at the trade deadline and getting bounced from the playoffs in a round one loss to the Chicago Syndicate. Two wingers and two defenders make for a balanced draft and being able to pick three of those players in the first round is very exciting for the future of this team, even if the next few seasons will be rough. With a decent amount of older players, I expect these draftees to be called up sooner rather than later.

San Francisco Pride pride

Selections: 1.2 - Gregory Goode, 2.19 - Zarboza Manyhands, 2.26 - Bjorn Jakobsen, 2.35 - Greg Davies, 3.37 - Gerry Atrick

The race to the bottom of the standings did not yield the number one pick that San Francisco probably hoped for, but second overall is not too bad either. Grabbing Gregory Good is a nice consolation prize that brings a HOF user to San Francisco to assist with the rebuild. Speaking of rebuild, the Pride now have 16 prospects following this draft. The quantity strategy continued into this draft as San Francisco hopes that by drafting so many players, some are sure to pan out. It will be interesting to see where San Francisco heads following this draft as paying the prospects and having a competitive roster will become a challenge very quickly.

Seattle Argonauts

Selections: 2.23 - Daryl Urquhart, 2.24 - Bryan Devenport, 3.41 - Kermit Murphy

Currently the less successful of the two expansion teams, Seattle finished outside the playoffs in their second season of competition. Their biggest acquisition was not in the draft but by getting Gabriel Johnson from Hamilton. Kermit Murphy is the second instance of a GM getting drafted to their team so this pick does not require much analysis. This draft added to the well rounded prospect pool that Seattle boasts.

Texas Renegades

Selections: 1.13 - Basil Sivart

Despite being the 6 seed in the playoffs, the Renegades fell to the Stampede in the quarter finals in 5 games. A single selection of Basil Sivart with the 13th overall pick meant Texas got to go home early on draft day. Pumping out a couple of significant media pieces, Sivart will be a good addition to the team when he arrives. They make the third prospect for the Renegades which indicates that Texas should start to ramp up their drafting over the next couple of seasons. Without a goalie in the system, it might be a good idea to investigate in the coming drafts.

Winnipeg Aurora Aurora

Selections: 1.15 - Zayne Rotzbua, 2.33 - David S Pumpkins, 3.54 - Max Muller, 4.69(nice) - Fufu Fufunci

The newly rebranded Winnipeg Aurora were certainly the most surprising team in the playoffs, making it all the way to the semi finals as the 9 seed before losing to Hamilton. One of these picks is not like the others and I’ll let you detectives figure out which one it is. The other three picks add two wingers and a defenseman to the prospect pool of Winnipeg. Despite the recent playoff success, Winnipeg should continue to look to build in the future and these players help them take those steps by furthering their depth at their respective positions. With a few roster openings coming up over the next few seasons, look for these players to step up.

Congrats to every team on completing the draft and hopefully your selections will yield results in the future!

DeletedAtUserRequest · 02-01-2021, 09:56 PM

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