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Memento Mori · 06-13-2021, 12:27 PM

I’ll start by addressing the elephant in the room. Yes, I am entering the S60 SMJHL Entry Draft with my player Jay Sink. GMs: When you’re asking yourself whether prospect X is likely to reach the juniors cap, remember: there’s a player who’s declared for this draft who has already reached it. There’s literally zero risk. The only excuse is if you’re a rebuilding team who doesn’t want to contend with the idea of losing a player to an SHL call-up so soon, as Toronto GM ml002 begged me to come up as a true rookie and I said no. He cried. It was really awkward. HO: Your “rulebook” means nothing to me. You think a google doc can control Jay Sink? I can write anything in a google doc and call it a “rulebook”. It's meaningless.

SMJHL teams, if you want to draft Jay Sink, just do it. No one can stop you. I welcome it. What other player who’s declared for this draft has over 550 TPE already?

Anyway, as a prospect in the upcoming S60 SMJHL Entry Draft who is short on money, I thought I’d do the done thing and release a last-minute draft destinations article.

With that slightly unhinged section out of the way, it’s time to review which teams are most likely to be patting themselves on the back after drafting hot prospect and hotter man Jay Sink in today’s draft. We’ll start with the team picking first overall per the draft thread (I don’t know if all the most recent trades have been input), the Quebec City Citadelles:

The Quebec City Citadelles is brimming with users I know from the ISFL, including multiple former teammates. While I’m not sure I’ve spoken with GMs Evok and Faelax personally, they both have players in ISFL and Evok’s player Sam Sidekick was in my draft class. Most notable among the former teammates on their roster is Teyon, who I was really hoping my team at the time in ISFL, the Philadelphia Liberty, would draft. After he was selected by the Baltimore Hawks, I started campaigning for us to trade for him, and we were eventually able to. He’s also an alumni of the team I GM now, Orange County, and he still chats in the locker room from time to time. Katarn22 was another user we didn’t draft that I was a huge fan of as a prospect, and NamelessNate, Guriinwoodo, LB3737, xTri, zeagle1 and LimJahey are all people I recognise with varying degrees of familiarity.

The rumours are that they traded up to first overall in order to select Tomen’s recreate, though, so unless I fall far enough for them to snag me later Quebec seems like an unlikely destination.

The Nevada Battleborn pick second, and are a team I know relatively little about beyond some awful things I’ve seen one of their (former? I don’t know when people age out, has S56 aged out?) players say during one of the charity drives that made it into ISFL. I saw one of their GMs go third overall in the SHL draft last night and he seemed like a good guy on stream – I wish him the best of luck – but this looks like a weird fit given the roster and one of the current players/alumni. I know Noka used to GM this team and I love Noka, but the only names on the current roster I recognise from other leagues are Huskies and Beebob, who both appear to be IA.

Armada

The Anchorage Armada is a team I could see drafting me, but I believe they’ve traded away third overall since the order was last updated. One of their GMs (the worse one) is a player on the team I GM in ISFL, and in Rev and Bean they have two more Otters players. Cory is a recently departed OCO player, and GM'd me back in the DSFL. It's easy to imagine I'd fit into the locker room given four of my alternate-universe teammates play there, and I was briefly teammates with Nictox some time ago. I was teammates with BoloBill back in the DSFL – Cory actually drafted us both in the same class – and I’m familiar with lots of the other players and alumni too. They don't have very many draft assets, though, which will be the biggest barrier to me finding my way to Anchorage. The team has gone back-to-back-to-back in terms of making cup finals, and is retaining almost the entirety of their S59 roster – one question mark will be whether or not they retain Jay Sink or if another team drafts him in the upcoming SMJHL Draft in a literally unforeseen, never-happened-before tpe move. I guess you’ll have to tune in to find out. If you ever want to truly find out if your team values you, force them to have to draft you twice. That is dedication right there.

Kraken

The Carolina Kraken are listed as picking fourth and fifth overall, so I’ll deal with those two picks together. Carolina is another team full of ISFL guys. Sve7en’s ISFL player is running back Madison Hayes, and his co-GM Mazatt is also in ISFL but under a different username. In ISFL he is TheRealMazatt, which strikes me as a strange choice given that as far as I can tell, he is the only Mazatt in the league. This seems an unnecessary distinction. Anyway, they have – and for dramatic effect you should imagine me clearing my throat here – Revolution5, r0tzbua, Amidships, Dewalt27, Blasoon, wumaduce, Pat, Exilate, 124715 and negs77 that I recognise from ISFL. Blasoon is the other GM of Orange County, and one of my favourite people in sim leagues. Unfortunately, his character Daud Ramza is an unsavoury individual who’s attempted to defame Jay Sink and there could be some issues on and off the ice if Carolina were to draft me. Rev is a former OCO GM, and recently retired a player who’d spend his entire career with the team. 124715, or Numbers, has had a Hall of Fame player in ISFL and I was a teammate of his second player. He went first overall in a recent draft and is just generally great. r0tz is great and recently impressively completed a stint as ISFL Simmer, which is worthy of respect too. I’ve shared GM chat with Pat, Dewalt and Amid for the last few seasons and positive experiences with them all, and while I’ve spoken with wuma, Exilate and negs less than the others I’ve heard nothing negative about them. It’s just a shame Blasoon plays for this team (love you Blas).

Raptors

Sixth is another pick of the Nevada Battleborn, who we’ve already discussed, so let’s move on to the team picking seventh: The Colorado Raptors. The Raptors are GM’d by Jumbobone19 and Ruggsy, who I can’t say I’ve heard of previously. I recognise micool132, Atlanta’s pick in the S59 SHL Draft who I’ve interacted with a few times. Qwest is a former ISFL teammate of mine, who’s player won the MVP award last season. WannabeFinn also used to play for Orange County, and his player definitely didn’t win MVP last season (haha WBF sucks etc.). Beyond that, I don’t recognise many people here. When I was in the draft back in S59, I had a nice chat with their GM at the time – Lord Birdman – but I feel it’d be surprising if Colorado picked me.

Falcons

Picking eighth are the Detroit Falcons, another team with two GMs I don’t know. Sorry guys. There’s lots of names I recognise, but quite a few of them appear to be inactive. Bigbluex02 was a teammate of mine several seasons ago in ISFL, but has since unfortunately gone inactive in both leagues. He was a very friendly guy and made some cool graphics. 24redcrayons also fits into this category. He was really active and accumulated over 1000 TPE in ISFL (more impressive in ISFL than it is here), but has gone IA in both leagues. DrunkenTeddy and notorioustig give us two more inactive ISFL players, but they’re both much more active here. Teddy’s IA player has played his entire career with OCO, though, which is something. I recognise gaby’s name but they don’t have an ISFL player, so perhaps I interacted with them here at some point. I don’t remember. I recognise podzilla111, Podan Podanovic, but I think that’s mostly because of his name. BenDover is a big ISFL guy, and was one of the steals in my draft class as he bizarrely fell to 74th overall. There weren’t character issues or anything, it was just a really deep class. But he still shouldn’t have fallen nearly that far. Jpach is former ISFL HO and former ISFL Simmer, but his activity has waned in ISFL and in SHL he has 155 TPE. I’m afraid that I might follow the trend of going IA in ISFL if I’m drafted here, and I’d rather not do that. So hopefully I get taken before this pick or Detroit falls in love with another prospect.

The St. Louis Scarecrows pick ninth, having acquired this pick in the trade Quebec made to move up to number 1. Blitz, a teammate of mine in Toronto – or future teammate seeing as I haven’t been called up yet, draft me while you still can SMJHL GMs – is one GM while Sparky is the other. Blitz is great, and was someone I wanted to draft when he created in ISFL but he was taken before our pick in round two. I’m not sure I’ve ever spoke to Sparky besides one or two messages in a discord server we share, but it’s impossible not to be aware of him given how active he is in this league, and he’s active in ISFL too. They’ve got several more ISFL users too, but not all are active. iStegosauruz is ISFL HO, but appears to be inactive here. Asked Madden is really active in both leagues, and neatly is fourth in his draft class in TPE in both the ISFL and SHL. bjkman, Urq660, gucci, Jackers41, fever95, Mooty, Tonzy, Void and Faded all have ISFL players of varying levels of activity. Gucci is a teammate of mine in Toronto, Mooty is one of the best people in ISFL and another user from the UK, Tonzy microwaves salads and that’s fucked up, Void and Faded both played for the DSFL team I did (though there was a rebrand in-between me playing there, Faded playing there and Void playing there). That was a mouthful. I’m less familiar with the others, but aware of their players. This locker room would be very familiar to me, but their S60 draft class is huge and they’ve several decent earners from S59 too. This seems like a team that might be building to compete in a season or two, and that timeline might not match up too well with Jay Sink’s career. They might prefer to draft someone younger with their first pick.

At tenth is a team that makes a lot of sense, the Newfoundland Berserkers. Nhamlet plays for Orange County in ISFL (thanks for tampering him Jeff), and signed Jay Sink as a post-TDL create back when I created in SHL so I’ve played for Newfoundland before. I even got an assist in the playoffs as the underdog Berserkers made it into the second round in a rebuilding year. Newfoundland is gearing up to make a run at the Four Star Cup this season after being defeated in the semi-finals in S59, and another capped player named Jay Sink could only help. As well as Nham, I’m familiar with Juke from when I played there as a post-TDL pickup, and I even come back to the LR sometimes to wish them luck when we play them. If Newfoundland drafted me, they wouldn’t even need to bother sending me a LR invite as I’m already there. The players drafted S58 and earlier were there when I played there – as well as Randominoe and RenoJacksonHS, who also signed after creating post-trade deadline, but I want to draft specific attention to Simo because I love him. GoonerBear has created two 1000+ TPE players in ISFL so I’m certainly aware of him, and I recognise frijolhead, santej29 and visceralpotamus from the S59 class, although frijolhead’s activity appears to have waned a little. I’ve heard great things about their S60 pick Evil AllBran, and TubbyTim was one of the GMs who drafted me in ISFL over a year ago now. Newfoundland will be one of the contenders to win it all in S60, and perhaps Jay Sink could help tip them over the edge.

Outlaws

The penultimate pick in round one is held by the Anaheim Outlaws, and I hope what I say here can be controversial enough for them to spam in the replies to the extent that my article doesn’t get paid for weeks because it’s consistently one of the most-recently-commented on. Their GM, Ace, is in the ISFL and plays for my former team, the Liberty – but our time there didn’t overlap. They were a middle-of-the-pack team in S59, finishing with 30 wins and 30 losses in regulation. This was enough for 8th in the standings, making a mockery of the chumps in the media section who thought they would be slightly worse than they were. A real shock. Anyway, fellow Toronto S59 draftee and all-around great guy Raven plays there, so the locker room can’t be that bad. So do ISFL users WildfireMicro, Dagumpa, Valor and Highhaschdi, Wildfire being another Philly player. Highhaschdi is another ISFL GM and while he’s quiet in GM chat, I’ve heard nothing but good things and he seems to be universally loved in Berlin. S60 draftee Inf1d3l went first overall in the SHL draft last night so they may be good at developing players, but as arguably the best player the SMJHL has ever seen this is not much of a concern for Jay Sink. Maybe Jay Sink is what Anaheim needs to turn them into a contender.

Knights

Four Star Cup winners the Kelowna Knights hold the last pick in the first round, but unfortunately for them I’ve remained active after earning 425 TPE and so I might get called up before I age out. This will drastically reduce my draft stock in their eyes. I don’t want to be too mean though, so I will say Naosu has seemed nice when I’ve interacted with them, and they also have Matty on the team and he’s great. If he was allowed to punt the puck Kelowna may have won the finals even more convincingly. It would probably be very bad for parity and league health if Kelowna were to add Jay Sink to the roster, as it would necessitate the Knights continuing to win championships until I am called up. I’d rather not fall to the second round though, so hopefully I am taken before this and Naosu and trashae don’t find themselves forced to make that decision.

Whalers

If by some sick, weird, twist of fate I end up still on the board heading into round two, picks thirteen and fourteen are (or appear to be) owned by Nevada and Carolina, already discussed above. The next team that’s not been mentioned so far is the Vancouver Whalers, who pick at fifteen. Vancouver has two more GMs I don’t know, which is their loss if we’re being honest. They have some users from the ISFL I like, such as Zayn and yonggarius, and Arkz and Kenny have players there too. Kenny also did a interview series with the Anchorage draftees in the season I was drafted there, which is really welcoming and a good way of distributing some cash to them. The piece he wrote about me was great. Unfortunately, this team also has Frost on it. Y-I-K-E-S. For that reason alone, let’s hope I don’t fall this far. Thankfully he’s IA, but I’m concerned he might still hang around the locker room and I don’t know if I could deal with that.

Timber

Maine appears to be the only team I haven’t talked about, and to put it bluntly, if I fall to Maine at 25th overall then the other 22 SMJHL GMs should probably resign. In fact, Gabe should resign even if I don’t. Maine has lots of cool people on it. Toast was really nice when I spoke to him, and SouthPaw was a successful development league GM in the ISFL so I trust him in charge of a team. People like Uber are great, but I’m aware he’s just retired and recreated. It’ll be interesting to see if his recreate makes it back to Maine, as elite prospect Jay Sink’s surprise late entry into the draft could see him shoot to the top of Maine’s draft board. Dogwoodmaple is fantastic, as are Zoot and Z-Whiz. tMuse has cool tattoos, but I have serious concerns about any team willing to spend draft picks on “that Angler kid”. Maine would be far from the worst landing spot, but there’s no chance I fall to 25. Maybe if the other Gms are really confused by my late (re-)entry into the draft process they can trade back into the first or second and take advantage of the situation. Otherwise, they’ll have to watch Jay Sink celebrate when the team that does draft him tastes victory over the Timber.

This is a truly unique moment in SMJHL history. Many players have been drafted once. Some were never drafted. How many players have been drafted twice in the SMJHL? My entirely inexhaustive research suggests zero. This, ladies and gentlemen, is history. Be the team to draft Jay Sink a second time. Win the Five Star Cup. The Four Star is beneath you. This player is an absolute behemoth, and the user behind him, judging by this article, is some sort of deranged lunatic who has clearly had their brain fried by the COVID-19 vaccine. But that's another topic, one that would take far more than 3,000 words to discuss. (3031 words)

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DeletedAtUserRequest · 06-14-2021, 06:55 PM

Very nice!

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BenDover · 06-15-2021, 03:29 PM

06-13-2021, 12:27 PMMemento Mori Wrote: BenDover is a big ISFL guy, and was one of the steals in my draft class as he bizarrely fell to 74th overall. There weren’t character issues or anything, it was just a really deep class.

I am clearly a LR cancer smh my head

Ruggsy · 06-15-2021, 04:02 PM

You'd probably only know me cause I was your wjc gm last season... Which is a completely legitimate thing to never realize lol. Nice write up though

Memento Mori · 06-16-2021, 04:26 AM

06-15-2021, 03:29 PMBenDover Wrote:
06-13-2021, 12:27 PMMemento Mori Wrote: BenDover is a big ISFL guy, and was one of the steals in my draft class as he bizarrely fell to 74th overall. There weren’t character issues or anything, it was just a really deep class.

I am clearly a LR cancer smh my head

My bad, I'll be sure to recognise this next time I mention you.

06-15-2021, 04:02 PMRuggsy Wrote: You'd probably only know me cause I was your wjc gm last season... Which is a completely legitimate thing to never realize lol. Nice write up though

Whoops, I don't pay much attention to international hockey.