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By-Tor · 07-19-2022, 11:59 AM

Just one pack?

I've seen these in written media, podcast, and discord formats and wanted to do my own. My post is nothing groundbreaking, but it helps me (and hopefully y'all as well) learn more about the past of SHL. As someone who joined the SHL in S59, most of the players on these cards are totally foreign to me. I see in discord and whatever, "Dude! You got a ___ card. Nice!" and my mental response is "Who even is that 69 rated player." Even if the cards we pull have newer players on them, sometimes even the veteran players don't know who they are. My goal for this piece is to bring some light to some of the less known players or enlighten some of the newbies to who the goats are. Please feel free to let me know in the comments if I missed some key/fun part of info about any of the players.

Let's get into it!

Pack #1, Card #1:

[Image: 2587.png]

Aleks Blixstrom

I've seen this name around. It is very possible I have pulled this card before or saw the name on fantasy or something. Blixstrom is a Season 59 player who has played for Carolina in the SMJHL from S58 - S60 and Los Angeles in the SHL from S61 - present. In the junior league, Blixstrom played as a forward, switching to defense upon being called up to LAP. While in Carolina, Aleks had a decent junior career, putting up 105 pts in 198 games. The rest of their stats weren't super, fairly middling, although they did improve every year which is the important thing. During this time, Carolina was a mid-tier team, also improving over those three seasons. After getting called up to LAP, Blixstrom filled a depth, defensive defenseman position, playing between 13 - 16 minutes a night. His hits and blocks did increase from his junior career, indicating buy-in for the defense position swap. Blixstrom did have a breakout year in Season 64, tallying 36 points in 66 games as a defensive defenseman. Most other seasons see Aleks tallying around 20 points. Aleks is approaching membership in the 100/100 blocks hits club and was fairly close the past two seasons. Corsi and GA/TA ratio hasn't been great in their SHL career, but might be representative of being on a good LAP team. In the S59 draft class, Aleks Blixstrom is 19th overall, and the 9th highest defenseman at ~1400 TPE. Although they are a depth defenseman, they now have a S65 Challenge Cup to their name in addition to a S60 WJC Silver medal with Sweden. Blixstrom is the first player for user Exilate.

Pack #1, Card #2:

[Image: 1393.png]

Jakob Aittokallio

Just by existing on the SHL site, I have come across the name "Aittokallio." There have now been four iterations of the Aittokallio clan, this one being the OG great-grandfather. Created in season 13, Jakob is (fun fact) actually JayWhy's second player. Playing in the development league for two seasons in Detroit (S12) and St. Louis (S13), Jakob Aittokallio was a staple of the Edmonton Blizzard for S14 - S30. In his junior career, Aittokallio posted an underwhelming 19-29-5 record for some bad rival teams before being drafted #8 overall to the Blizzard. From there, he never looked back posting ten straight winning seasons and 16 of 17 winning seasons in his SHL career. He carried Edmonton to 3 cups over his tenure as starter in S15, S16, and S28. That time period between cups two and three might be close to the SHL record for time between cups for one player at 12 seasons (somebody check me on that). Jakob regularly posted top 5 goaltender numbers in the league throughout his career, winning the John McBride trophy (Best G) in S15 AND the Ron Mexico (MVP) in S15. He has various other awards including IIHF Gold for Finland in S30, multiple silver and bronze, All-star selections, and franchise records. Jakob Aittokallio was inducted to the SHL and Edmonton Blizzard Halls of Fame in S32. Probably the best Aittokallio if we are being honest. While I don't have TPE comparisons this far back, JayWhy notes Jakob as 1700 TPE, which is pretty darn good being this old. JayWhy had a heck of a player here.

Pack #1, Card #3:

[Image: 3390.png]

Robert Black

Being close to Robert Black's S59 draft class myself, adding in the fact he is a Newfoundland legend, I absolutely know who this is. Robert Black is grimreaper's most recent player, their first since S31. Grimreaper is a HOF legacy user with seven Challenge Cups, two Hall of Fame players, and a bunch of other accolades. They went silent after S31 and came back in S59 in the form of Robert Black. Black was drafted to Newfoundland in the third round, #25 overall. He ended up playing 4 seasons in Newfoundland (S58 - S61), being Newfoundland's top scorer in S60 and S61. Also in S60 and S61, Black was among the top 3 in points in the SMJHL (71 and 81 points, respectively). In S60, he won the Ideen Fallah Trophy as the award committee's season MVP. Even before the end of Black's career, grimreaper started to have activity issues. Black's last three updates total 571 TPE of Black's 975 total TPE. In S59, he was drafted to Manhattan 19th overall, signed a three year contract, had 69 (nice) points in 198 games, and is currently an IA free agent. If we are talking about stars, Robert Black is super bright, but short lived.

Pack #1, Card #4:

[Image: 2359.png]

Chet Hillier

Chet Hillier is a retired first creation of really inactive, but weirdly active, user Stadacona. Hillier went undrafted in the SMJHL, but played five seasons in Anaheim as a winger from S53 - S57. Hillier tallied 70 points in 258 games with Anaheim. In his final season, he played as a tough guy, accumulating 187 hits in 66 games, good enough for fourth in the league. Twice in his SMJHL career he made the cup final with Anaheim, losing both (To Carolina in S54 and to Anchorage in S57). He was never able to secure a junior cup despite being so close. Drafted by the Minnesota Chiefs in S54, 52nd overall, he was never signed by the club. After a few seasons of being a free agent, Buffalo signed Hillier to a one year deal for S62. Part of the contract stipulated a change to defense. As a depth defenseman who only played 14:49 per game, Hillier tallied 14 points in 66 games in the regular season, but an astounding 7 points in 9 games in the playoffs. Unfortunately for Buffalo, they were kicked in the second round by Hamilton, so Chet never got his cup in the SHL either. While not particularly great at anything, Chet Hillier almost tasted victory multiple times.

Pack #1, Card #5:

[Image: 3551.png]

KEKW Kekkonen

I've seen this player pretty much everywhere, but I only realized now that he belongs to our almighty commissioner, WannabeFinn, when I did this research. Drafted 3rd overall to Colorado in the S58 SMJHL draft, Kekkonen is the fourth in the Kekkonen dynasty, but the fifth player for WannabeFinn. While I never had the pleasure of interacting with WF, his influence throughout the league is undeniable. As for the player, Kekkonen played three seasons (S58 - S60) in Colorado before being called up to WF's Buffalo Stampede. While in Colorado, KEKW's continually improved, posting more and more offense each year as a winger. He was one of the best players in Colorado and was able to finish fourth in leaguewide goal scoring (30) is S60. Unfortunately for his triple-gold aspirations, Colorado was only able to win one playoff round while he was there. After being called up in S61, Kekkonen stepped right into the declining powerhouse Stampede, filling a role of a top 2 center. KEKW played a physical, offensive type game that saw a lot of points, a decent amount of hits, and an ample amount of shots. So far in Buffalo, KEKW has recorded 260 points in 333 games. Once again unfortunate for his cup aspirations, KEKW arrived one season too late as Buffalo's last cup came in S60. Despite his SHL hardware disappointments, he has won IIHF Gold twice and Bronze once with Finland. Kekkonen currently sits 14th in his draft class in TPE with 1550, and is projected to peak around 1900 TPE. A lot to say about this player still on the rise.

Pack #1, Card #6:

[Image: 3670.png]

Asclepius Perseus Flitterwind

A.P. Flitterwind is a retired winger who played for Colorado (S53-S55) and Anaheim (S56-S57) in the SMJHL and Minnesota (S58-S64) in the SHL. Flitterwind DFA'd in Colorado and ended up being drafted by Colorado 30th overall. He had a decent junior career with 61 points in 100 games with Colorado and 89 points in 117 games with Anaheim. The closest he got to the Four-Star cup was a Finals loss in S57 with Anaheim (with our good friend Chet Hillier). After being drafted 47th overall in the S55 SHL draft by Hamilton, he was traded to Minnesota with a 1st round pick for Devin Basher, a 1st round pick, and a 2nd round pick. In Minnesota, Flitterwind thrived, posting multiple ~50 point seasons as a top line winger. While they enjoyed decent personal success, during his tenure, Minnesota was rarely higher than 15th in the league. In fact, his team won one playoff game in three appearances during his 8 year stint. Latvian born, there wasn't much international success either. Flitterwind peaked at around 1500 TPE. Flitterwind was a later creation of user CaptainCrazy, a long time user of the site, now recreated.

I don't know how much I expected to learn coming into this, but I can honestly say I learned a lot more about these players than I thought I would. Now when I see their name, I can at least have an idea of what they did in their career (or what they didn't do in some cases lol). I think I generally agree with the card grades, although I think I would rate KEKW Kekkonen a little higher now, maybe an 82 or 83. I hope any of you readers who made it this far got something positive out of my work as I did. I hope to do some more packs in the future because I really enjoyed this!

@Exilate@JayWhy@grimreaper@Stadacona@WannabeFinn@CaptainCrazy

Credit to enigmatic, Merica, tweedledunn, and jaypc8237 for sigs

*Carpy48* · 07-19-2022, 02:33 PM

Nice format. You should do more of these.

Stadacona · 07-21-2022, 08:51 PM

07-19-2022, 11:59 AMBy-Tor Wrote:
Pack #1, Card #4:

Chet Hillier

Chet Hillier is a retired first creation of really inactive, but weirdly active, user Stadacona. Hillier went undrafted in the SMJHL, but played five seasons in Anaheim as a winger from S53 - S57. Hillier tallied 70 points in 258 games with Anaheim. In his final season, he played as a tough guy, accumulating 187 hits in 66 games, good enough for fourth in the league. Twice in his SMJHL career he made the cup final with Anaheim, losing both (To Carolina in S54 and to Anchorage in S57). He was never able to secure a junior cup despite being so close. Drafted by the Minnesota Chiefs in S54, 52nd overall, he was never signed by the club. After a few seasons of being a free agent, Buffalo signed Hillier to a one year deal for S62. Part of the contract stipulated a change to defense. As a depth defenseman who only played 14:49 per game, Hillier tallied 14 points in 66 games in the regular season, but an astounding 7 points in 9 games in the playoffs. Unfortunately for Buffalo, they were kicked in the second round by Hamilton, so Chet never got his cup in the SHL either. While not particularly great at anything, Chet Hillier almost tasted victory multiple times.

damn right

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