Season 58 had been a bit of a write off for the Maine Timber, unless you’re talking in terms of getting the best odds at the 1st overall pick in next seasons draft lottery, as they are currently sitting on just 15 wins with 41 losses, with the playoffs coming up very soon. This Timber team was one that had just shy of a .600 win percentage the previous season, which is interesting, so for my second Deep Dive I will be delving into just exactly why Maine’s season has gone so differently to the one just gone, and why they’re doing badly (not looking to trash anyone btw).

So straight away, if you are judging why a team is doing poorly in a league such as the Simulation Major Junior Hockey League, where players stay with their team for such a short period of time, you simply have got to look towards the players they brought in the offseason just gone, come forward, the draft. When looking at all these Maine figures, I will be using my own team, the Quebec City Citadelles, for reference, as we are 59 points ahead of the Timber and at the opposite end of our shared division.

In the draft, the Timber held the 5th overall pick as their first pick, as well as various others. They used this 5th pick on a center by the name of Miguel Hefeweizen, who, at the time of writing this is the proud owner of 264 TPE. When you compare this to the Citadelles, they have two players, Shane Duffy Jr. and Kappa Kappa, who equal or better this total, but it’s by an average of 0.5 TPE each so clearly Hefeweizen has been doing his part for the team. Their 5 other picks also average out to 240.8 TPE each, which when you consider QCCs picks average out to 250 (albeit there’s only 3) it becomes clear that their draftees are not really the problem for the Timbers, and in fact they could be a force in a season or two when they begin to hit the 425 TPE cap. Maybe the sim just doesn’t like players at those lower TPEs.

However when you compare the stats between seasons for the Maine Timber, the root of the issue becomes somewhat clearer. During their solid year last season, the Timbers top Point Scorer was Left Winger Alexander Oscarsson on 54. He was followed closely by Center Walton Stromberg (47), Right Winger Jesse Sappanen (40) and Left Defenseman Adrik Baranov (38). Of those 4 players the Timber returned exactly 0 of these, losing them all presumely due to call ups. This season their top scorer has been Center Dogwood Maple who registered 38 points, tied remarkably with last seasons LD and 4th highest scorer on the team. They also lost goalie Ethan Smith who sported a .926 SV% last season, better than any current Goalie for MET, albeit playing just 11 games last season.

After “analysing” this data, I have come to the conclusion that Maine have simply gotten fucked over with losing players and are strapped for older talent at the moment, but should be back stronger in a season or twos time.

Approved, +5 TPE @LB3737