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(GRADED)Deep Dive #2 - The Long Career of Steelhead77
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(This post was last modified: 08-26-2022, 11:22 AM by CptSquall. Edited 1 time in total.)

The Calgary Dragons is an interesting team. They've been around since season 1, yet have had very little turnover in general management. They've won 8 Challenge Cups total, shared between only 2 General Managers. They've had several logo updates but have kept the same name since inception. They're basically the posterchild of a simulated hockey dynasty, and no one has led the team for longer than Steelhead77.

Steelhead77 was a Calgary General Manager for about 35 seasons. Taking over for O4L, Steelhead77 became the GM prior to season 24. He kept the previous Co-General Manager c00kies on the payroll who accompanied him for 28 seasons, being replaced by future-GM Mike Izzy for the last 7 seasons of Steelhead's tenure.

Up until his takeover, Calgary had some mild success with a brief dominance around season 10. In seasons 8 and 9 Calgary won the Challenge Cup under the brief management of xDPark, though I'm sure NathanAD, the previous GM, had a hand in setting up the window for that success. In seasons 10 and 14, Calgary won the President's Trophy and frequently made the Conference Finals. When Steelhead77 took over the team was on a steady decline, reaching a new low of 12th in the league and failing to qualify for the playoffs 4 seasons in a row.

Immediately upon taking over the team, long-term improvement began to take effect. For 21 seasons straight Calgary never failed to achieve a win percentage of at least 0.500. During this time, the team fluctuated from between 1st and 7th in the league and qualified for 19 of the 20 playoffs. The Dragons also won 5 Challenge Cups during that period. Though none of the wins were back-to-back, in its own way the spread-out nature of the wins lends credence to the long-term viability of the team and its management.

The remaining 14 seasons of Steelhead's tenure was less successful, though it was nothing to scoff at in the slightest. The Dragons still qualified for the playoffs in all but 1 season, and still managed to capture 1 President's Trophy and 1 Challenge Cup. Just this period alone would be a mark of pride on a General Manager's list of achievement. This period also saw the switch from the STHS sim engine to the FHM sim engine, the introduction of league conferences, the switch to a 66 game season, and a rebranding of the dragon logo.

After Steelhead77 stepped down, Mike Izzy moved up from the Co-GM position and took over. Since Steelhead's time as the manager, Calgary has been struggling more on average to rank up the season standings and to make it farther than a round or two in the playoffs. There's no doubt that Steelhead's reign covered many of the high-points of Calgary's legacy, not to mention just a numeric majority of the seasons. Very few managers can boast such a long and successful career. Some can claim longer, such as Wasty leading the Los Angeles Panthers, but the combination of longevity and success is a rare gem for a team to have.

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Approved, +5 TPE to @bbjygm

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