This is part four to my SHL History for Dummies series where I take a quick look at each season of the league and figure out who GM'd what team and what everyone's records were that year. The warning in the first part of the series still stands, this might be boring for a lot of you so apologies but I want cash and need to learn.
We are now into our 4th decade of the SHL. The last one saw the league experiment with a 52 game schedule before going back to 50. It also expand to 14 teams but also sustain a high level of committed GM's. This is going to be the last full decade on the old sim engine so let's see how it played out:
Season 31 to 40
Season 31
League
League remains the same since S25 expansion.
Teams
Buffalo Stampede (17-28-5)
Calgary Dragons (32-16-2)
Edmonton Blizzard (28-16-6)
Hamilton Steelhawks (14-32-4) - Hallsy joins Dangles13 as GM
Los Angeles Panthers (27-22-1)
Manhattan Rage (20-26-4) - Jorec is no longer GM leaving Kez as the sole GM
Minnesota Chiefs (30-19-1)
New England Wolfpack (32-13-5)
Portland Admirals (21-27-2) - Cuffy replaces JumpierPegasus as GM
Seattle Riot (26-20-4) - Abdeezy takes over GM duties from Gifter of Bikes
Texas Renegades (30-15-5)
Toronto North Stars (32-16-2)
West Kendall Platoon (28-19-3)
Winnipeg Jets (13-31-6) - Atlas takes over as GM from founder Leafs4ever who was the last remaining GM from season 1. He steps down tied as the GM with the most championships with 4 (at this point in history).
The New England Wolfpack repeat as champions. This is their franchises 3rd cup (S23, S30, and S31). Leafs4ever actually stepping down after 30 seasons as GM and the team takes a hit for it with a struggling season. A few new GM's finally get a shot as this season sees the most management changes in almost ten seasons. Alonzo Garbanzo wins his 2nd career award for best goaltender.
Calgary Dragons win the cup this season giving the franchise their 5th championship and putting them only 1 back of the record set by Edmonton with 6. The Portland Admirals had a season to forget winning only 7. The expansion franchise from S25 has still not been able to pull itself out of the bottom of the league even with new management. Brett Broadway takes the MVP and his second consecutive best goalie award.
Buffalo Stampede (24-24-2) - ThatDamnWalrus takes over as GM from founder Brandon
Calgary Dragons (30-14-6)
Edmonton Blizzard (30-16-4) - JayTee(Based Minkus) and Allegiant take over as GM from Jedi. I'm not sure what the user "Based Minkus" in brackets as to do with JayTee but assuming he GM'd this is his 4th stint (previous GM for Panthers S7, Platoon S9-S10, Chiefs S21-S25).
Hamilton Steelhawks (20-24-6)
Los Angeles Panthers (29-16-5)
Manhattan Rage (22-22-6)
Minnesota Chiefs (20-26-4) - Baelor Swift takes over from ArGarBarGar as GM
For the 3rd time in 4 years the New England Wolfpack win the cup. I believe only the Edmonton Blizzard achieved this feat that is considered to be the marking of a dynasty. This is the teams 4th championship (S23, S30, S31, and S33). Finally the Portland Admirals are on the right track after nearly a decade of struggles. Overall the league looks much healthier (despite the New England dynasty) with no team winning less than 20 games this season. Theo Kane takes home his second career MVP trophy while Alonzo Garbanzo collects his third as the best defender in the game.
The Manhattan Rage win their second championship in franchise history, S22 was the last time. It is a nice change of pace seeing a different team take the cup. Maybe I judged the expansion system too soon? Portland Admirals looking like those early draft picks are finally paying off. Expansion sibling Buffalo however is still floundering after some competitive seasons. Individually Bubba Nuck obtains his 2nd career award for best defender.
The Toronto North Stars are finally champions winning their first ever cup after 35 seasons. Finally some more teams are able to experience the joy of winning. No team really bombed this season, at least not worth pointing out. A new team winning the championship, and all new players taking home the top awards. League is growing nicely now and giving more people a chance to shine.
Still no changes since S25. Edit: Grapehead has informed me in a post below that the Portland Admirals did not re-locate until next season so I am revising this to show that
Teams
Buffalo Stampede (28-19-3)
Calgary Dragons (31-15-4)
Edmonton Blizzard (19-29-2)
Hamilton Steelhawks (18-26-6)
Los Angeles Panthers (24-22-4)
Manhattan Rage (24-24-2)
Minnesota Chiefs (26-17-7)
New England Wolfpack (26-17-7)
Portland Admirals (14-32-4) - Grapehead takes over as GM from Wally.
Seattle Riot (28-15-7) - probablydrunk is no longer GM leaving mpc as the solo GM
The Texas Renegades win the championship adding to their franchise a 4th cup (S14, S20, S21, and now S36). A variety of teams winning lately can only be good for the league. The Portland Admirals struggled while the league had a mostly competitive season. Bubba Nuck wins best defender once again, giving him that award 3 times this time with Manhattan rather than Calgary.
We have our first re-location since S15 when the Las Vegas Kings moved to Seattle. The team moving is the Portland Admirals moving to the city of San Francisco and re-branding to the Pride.
Teams
Buffalo Stampede (25-23-2) - WannabeFinn replaces ThatDamnWalrus as GM and is our first current GM listed (therefor the longest current tenured GM in the league)
Calgary Dragons (25-19-6)
Edmonton Blizzard (16-27-7)
Hamilton Steelhawks (21-24-5)
Los Angeles Panthers (25-20-5)
Manhattan Rage (22-25-3)
Minnesota Chiefs (28-17-5)
New England Wolfpack (24-24-2)
San Francisco Pride (16-30-4) - Grapehead re-locates and re-brands the Portland Admiral into the San Francisco Pride
Seattle Riot (35-12-3) - Abdeezy returns (S31-S34) for his second stint as GM of Seattle by replacing mpc
Texas Renegades (27-19-4) - Phobospwns replaces Allen as GM
Toronto North Stars (25-21-4) - Symmetrik replaces Cynthia as GM
The Winnipeg Jets win their 5th cup, S1, S7, S19, S25, and now S37. This puts them within one cup of Edmonton's 6 for tying the record. While other teams get their cups in bunches, Winnipeg has continued to win one periodically, like the turtle in the race against the rabbit. Getting a decent amount of turn-over at the GM position. Also seeing our first GM that is still running the team so we are getting closer to the end of the series. Randy Randleman wins his second consecutive MVP award, a significant feat considering it has only been done once and that is by Ron Mexico himself back in S5 and S6. Alonzo Garbanzo takes home the best defender award once again making it his 4th win.
The Manhattan Rage win their third championship, S22, S34, and now S38. After a slow start, the Manhattan franchise is getting some championships under their belt. The San Francisco Pride really turned things around in a hurry. Went from 16 wins to 35 in one season. Jeff Kirkstone must have been the reason why winning both the MVP and best goaltender award.
The Minnesota Chiefs win the championship. It is the 3rd one in franchise history, S10, S12, and now S39. Good to see other teams getting wins. Expansion seems to help add more competition, just takes time for it to work. We now have our second GM that is still currently in the role with JayWhy. Individual awards, Timo Haas wins both the MVP as well as his second award as best goaltender.
The Calgary Dragons return to form and win another championship. This is their 6th championship which ties them with Edmonton for most championships by a franchise. They won it in S8, S9, S27, S29, S32, and S40. The Seattle Riot struggled only managing to get to 9 wins. Alonzo Garbanzo gets his record breaking 5th trophy for best defender beating Darian Scherbluk's 4 career wins.
This decade was another really stable 10 years. One one team re-location and that was the Portland Admirals becoming the current San Francisco Pride. There was a bit more GM movement this period and we now have 3 GMs listed who are still running those teams.
The complaint that I had in the last series was that not enough teams won the cup and that it was the same handful of teams. Well thankfully that complaint was well addressed as there were 7 different teams winning the championships in 10 seasons.
I'm looking forward to the next decade because the change of sim engines happen so it is a big moment in league history.
10-09-2021, 07:12 PMGrapehead Wrote: I did take over Portland in S36, but we didn't play in San Francisco until S37. I'm loving this article series!
OK, thanks for the update, I will fix the article to reflect that. The source I am going off of has had a couple of mistakes that I've noted in case whomever is in charge wants to fix them.
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