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TheRoyalEmpoleon · 01-19-2023, 02:02 PM

As a new user to the site and someone that just got drafted into the SHL, I've decided to take a look at the current status of each team, where they may be in 5 seasons, who plays a key role, etc. Keep in mind I am writing each individual section in order, and I will no basically nothing about the next team I'm writing about at the time of writing each section, and there may be some inaccuracies, just due to me using pretty much the Index/Analytics tool

Pacific Divison:

Edmonton Blizzard

The Edmonton Blizzard were a very average team last year, at third in the pacific, and a point percentage slightly below .500, at .492, and looking at their roster, you can definitely see where some of their problems are in terms of their current success, Having only 2 players above 1200 TPE, they are really lacking that superstar power that we can see in some of the other teams, especially in the pacific division at the moment, however, looking at the age of this team, edmonton has a very strong young core, with 8 players in the class of 65 and 66, with some standout young stars in Banjamin Surkhi-Ze'ev and Luke Laraque, both in the class of S65 and decently far away from regression, and at above 1100 TPE, as well as Having Jack St. Clair and Dusty Rhodes, From the class of 67, and both at 700+ TPE, and both looking like they will be very strong additions to their already young core, Edmonton is definitely set up for success in the upcoming seasons, especially with teams like Seattle in their division reaching the end of their competing window, opening up space in the playoffs for up-and-coming teams like the blizzard.

San Francisco Pride pride

The San Fran Pride are a team that are very clear on their goal, and a simple look at their roster proves that this is a team that is undoubtedly looking to rebuild, With no players above 1200 TPE, and only 4 Above 1000 TPE, it is evident that the pride are focused more so on the future than they are the present, last season they just barely finished last in the pacific, with 34 points, and a point percentage of 0.258, for a whopping 19th place in the league out of 20 teams, the Pride are in a rough state for next season. San Francisco only had 3 picks in this last S69 draft, however they were able to take full advantage of their picks, selecting at 4, 6, and 17, all in the first round, and they also traded away the 19th pick in this draft which they could've used to push their already strong draft even farther, but regardless the 3 picks they made were all strong picks, who all will most likely prove to be strong additions coming up, a lot of their current roster unfortunately consists of Inactives, but a strong young player that they have, and who will most likely end up as their biggest star, is member of the S65 draft class, Sophie Bordeleau, Sitting at 1134 TPE as of the writing of this, they will be a big part of San Francisco becoming competitive sooner, and even though they are missing many prospects from S67, their S68 prospects are very good earning players, and in 3-4 Seasons, with some younger additions, I think San Francisco, along with Edmonton will be very competitive in this Division.

Seattle Argonauts

What is there for me to say about the Argonauts that has not been said 1000 times already, the Argonauts are an absolute wagon to say the least, as the 2 time defending Challenge cup champions, this team has very clearly accomplished what they have set out to do in these last few seasons, and looking at their frankly absurd roster, it's not hard to tell why, 2 players over 1900 TPE, 11 over 1200, and only one IA player on their roster, this team is completely absurd, and the scariest part is that they probably still have a window of 1-2 seasons to keep winning based on age and regression, which is just insane, however it will be very interesting to see what happens to this team after some of their stars start regressing and retiring, because to say that their prospect pipeline is dry would be the understatement of the century, with unless the analytics app is screwing up which I'm pretty sure it is, as it says Georg N'zola is their only prospect, which is definitely not correct because I know Georg N'zola is a prospect of the Los Angeles panthers, So I believe that the Argonauts do not have a single prospect (which again could be incorrect), but their management is obviously very capable, and it will be very interesting to see how they fix their franchise which will obviously be in a tough spot in a few seasons, Overall, I still believe Seattle is still set up to compete and even possibly Threepeat next season.

Calgary Dragons Dragons

The Calgary Dragons are in a very tough position at the moment, because they are a team that is very clearly good, and in a similar position to the Seattle Argonauts, and is in a strong position to compete, however, they are just not as good as the Argonauts, with 1 player over 1900 TPE and 6 players over 1200 TPE, with their roster currently being headlined by Grogu Mandosson at 1932 TPE and Duncan Mackenzie at 1893, they are a very clearly good team, however they just haven't been able to be better than the Argonauts in recent, however unlike the Argonauts, they actually have a decent amount of prospects in the pipeline, Headlined by Axel Kirby, and Chuchichaschtli Zopf, both in the S67 Class, So it is gonna be a very interesting time to see if Calgary needs to commit to a rebuild, or if they are gonna try to stay competitive even with the amount of up and coming teams in this division. Calgary's GM is definitely not in a position that I envy right now.

Los Angeles Panthers

Los Angeles is the Third team that I have discussed in the pacific division that is in a hard rebuild, yet they still have a star, in Yannick Svoboda at 1702, however his serious regression is going to start soon, at which point this team will be in a pretty rough spot, as I mentioned earlier, this team is in a rebuild, which goes hand in hand with having a whole plethora of strong young players, After making the third pick in this draft, they got Georg N'Zola who is currently the #1 player in the S69 Class in TPE, also picking up 2 goalies in the draft, including the highest TPE goalie in the Class in Grzegorz Brzeczyszczykiewicz, which is obviously going to help a lot, including a whole bunch of other prospects from the last 3 classes, including my own player Ray Alexander. The young roster players that headline this team are for sure the 2 from the S65 Class, in Reed Kobo at 1097 TPE and Aleki Kettu at 927, both of which will most likely become main star pieces in this team when they return to competition, unfortunately being in such a rebuilding division it is undoubtable a difficult position for a team like the Panthers.

Overall, in terms of the Pacific Division, this is a division that has a clear current hierarchy, with Seattle at the top, Calgary below, and the other 3 relatively interchangeable. If I rank these teams in terms of all criteria, i can't put 2 time defending champions Seattle Argonauts at anywhere other than 1, Edmonton who I feel is the closest team here to ending their rebuild is at 2, San Francisco at 3 with a phenomenal pipeline from this class specifically, Los Angeles at 4, who I feel is the farthest away from competing out of the rebuilding teams, and finally Calgary at 5, because I feel like they are not quite in a definitive role, and are probably the farthest away from being a team who could genuinely make a run at first in the division or the cup.

Central Division:

New Orleans Specters

The New Orleans Specters are a team that are obviously very strong, and have a fantastic roster, with 2 players over 1900 TPE and 9 Over 1200, being headlined by Patya Perevalov at 1927 TPE, Atticus Hale at 1918, and Videl Valor, at 1832 TPE, who are Right Wing, Center, and Left Wing respectively which may be nastiest first line I have seen, and with a TPE distribution rivaling the TPE distribution of the Seattle Argonauts, which makes it even stranger to me how they have been performing as of recent, as last season they were only third in the central, with a point percentage of barely over .500, at .523, and looking at their current team I'm hard pressed to figure out why they are performing so poorly, ranking sixth in the league in terms of average TPE, yet finishing 11th in the league last season, this upcoming season is going to be a very important one for the specters, as if they underperform their expectations this season once again, this could be a big red flag for their management, and may be a precedent for some big moves. In terms of prospects, they actually have a very decent pipeline, Headlined by a Defense pair of Filip Lund - LD at 571 TPE, and Lester Oiduser - RD at 540 TPE, both in the S68, and who I can already tell will be a phenomenal pair when they reach the league. New Orleans is in a tough spot cause they clearly have the talent to compete, but last season showed that they may not realistically able to, so it will be interesting to see what happens for New Orleans in this season, Undoubtedly one of the biggest question Marks in the league coming into S69.

Minnesota Monarchs

With being the first overall pick in the S69 draft, Minnesota is very obviously a team that is currently in a rebuilding state, however until looking at their roster I didn't realize how bad of a spot this team is in currently, 2 players above 1000 TPE, and no depth, including a plethora of inactives, it isn't very hard to tell why Minnesota is Rebuilding, this team honestly barely looks better than a SMJHL team which is definitely concerning, however up to now, this team definitely has the best prospect pipeline I have seen thus far in the writing of this article, where if we exclude the 1 inactive, they have 12 prospects, including S69 first overall pick Luca Pane, and SMJHL scoring leader Alexi Piastri, So Minnesota definitely is going to be a strong competitor for a title in 3-4 seasons, especially with a large majority of their prospects being from the S68 class, they will be a big threat when all of those guys get to make the leap into the league.

Chicago Syndicate

The Chicago Syndicate are a team that is definitely in an interesting position, as they are an extremely deep team, with 13 players over 1200 TPE, and only 2 players below 1000 TPE, with the only real giant hole is their 250 TPE backup goalie, other than that this team is kind of ridiculous, however looking at the age of this team, you can tell that this team is a dynasty that is coming to an end, as almost their entire active core of 1200 TPE players being from S59 or before, and with a completely lackluster prospect Pipeline, Chicago is a team that will be able to compete for 1-2 more seasons at most, and then really have to start figuring out what happens when their entire core either retires, or declines into nothingness, I was definitely surprised looking into this team and the ridiculous amount of depth on this team, and it's no wonder that they have the 3rd most overall depth in the league, but their entire future is definitely a big question mark for this team, but will definitely be making another strong run or 2 in these upcoming seasons.

Texas Renegades

The Texas Renegades are a team in a similar shape to a team like Minnesota, missing a lot of high TPE depth, however Texas does have 1 player, in Dirty Boots, at almost 1700 TPE, however he is their only player sitting at over 1000 TPE, however, even though they are lacking a lot of talent at the current moment, a lot of their highest TPE roster players are relatively young, and they have one of the most expansive prospect lists in the entire league, headlined by Hodor, at 754 TPE from S67, and Chris Valentine at 559 TPE, from the S68 Draft class, who are both in the top 10 of TPE from their draft class, which is definitely looking very good for texas' future, however they obviously don't have the skill to compete right now, which is reflected in their standing placements as of recent.

Winnipeg Aurora Aurora

According to the analytics spreadsheet, this Team is first in average TPE in Offense and Defense, and second in Goaltending, and looking at their roster, it is immediately apparent how strong this team is, with only 3 players on their roster below 1200 TPE, with one of them being at 1132, including 4 over 1800 TPE and 1 over 1900, and the most impressive part is that almost their entire team is relatively young, a large majority of their core being from S59 or sooner, they are set up to continue to run the division in the upcoming seasons, and even though they only have one prospect in the system, it is the 5th overall pick from the S69 Draft, and one of the top 3 earners in Petr Vrana, who is pretty much everything you could ask for at that point in the draft, but Winnipeg unfortunately has not been able to get over the hump in the playoffs, with an untimely second round exit to Chicago last season, the only step Winnipeg is really needing to take is to make that move in the playoffs, which they very much so need to do because when their window expires, they will be in a very tough spot, however they clearly have the talent to win, and this could very likely be their season to do it.

Overall, in terms of the central division, there are a lot of questions when it comes to teams like New Orleans and Chicago, but ranking all of these teams, Winnipeg is 1, as I feel they are set up the best, possibly in the league to win a championship, if New Orleans can play the way I believe they are capable of, I'll put them second, Texas is 3, strictly because I believe they are close enough to finishing their rebuild, and they regardless are set up very well in terms of prospects, Chicago at 4, I only have them so low because I believe that in 2-3 seasons everything is gonna fall apart for them, however they are still a very strong team right now, and Minnesota at 5 because they are the farthest away from competing even remotely.

Atlantic Division:

Atlanta Inferno Inferno

The Atlanta Inferno at the current moment are the best team in this division, with a third place in the league finish last season, and looking at their roster it isn't hard to tell why, while obviously not being as strong of a roster as a team like Winnipeg or Seattle, they rank fourth in the league in average TPE, and you can really tell how strong this team is, as they were the S66 challenge cup champions, after going on a totally dominant run, not going to 7 games once, and looking at their team, you can tell that this team is one that is reaching the end of it's era, with a majority of their core being from Season 58-62, and while like Seattle, I do believe that they have a couple seasons left in the tank, in a few season this team is going to be in a pretty tough spot, especially with a lack of real high quality prospects, with their best being Alexis Texas, who is ranked 27th in his draft class in TPE, and while that will be a problem in the future for Atlanta, I feel like that isn't gonna be their main concern, and they are gonna try very hard to pick up some assets in order to give their core one last run at the challenge cup.

Baltimore Platoon Platoon

Baltimore is clearly another team that is in the middle of a rebuild, a super expansive prospect list, entirely composed of players from the S68 and S67 class meaning that they will be most likely hitting the ice soon, and that Baltimore is hopefully reaching the tail end of the rebuild, with a prospect list headlined by Isaac Fourty-One from S67 and Erik Bergmark from S68, but the easily largest issue I am noticing in both Baltimore's prospect list and active roster is that there is a very high amount of IA players in both lists, 9 IA players, and 6 IA prospects, which is a very high number for both lists, the biggest question mark for Baltimore is definitely gonna be how they are gonna be able to breathe some activity into the team, but Baltimore is overall set up very well to compete in the coming seasons.

Philadelphia Forge Forge

The forge are in a tough spot, because they are a relatively recent addition to the league, and have basically always been a good team for their entire existence, however they have been unable to find their footing in the playoffs, with always being a first round exit, which is a little bit crazy, because they have never missed the playoffs in franchise history, while also never having made the second round in history, and looking at the team, they definitely have the talent to go somewhere in the playoffs, with 1 player over 1900 TPE, and 10 over 1200 TPE, which just makes it more interesting on how this team has never made it out of the first round, and they are quite clearly trying to break that sooner rather than later, with a basically completely depleted prospect pipeline, the interesting part is that even though they are lacking a quantity of prospects, they have Cale Salad and Nathaniel Barca, who are second and seventh in the S68 class in TPE respectively, which is defintely going to be very powerful for them however their team is still very young, and it is definitely not out of the picture to say that they can make a couple of runs still with what they have left in the tank.

Tampa Bay Barracuda

Tampa bay is in an interesting spot, because with the 2nd, 11th, and 12th pick in the most recent S69 draft, they are obviously in a rebuilding spot, and their absolutely stacked prospect list, they are clearly not focused on winning right now, however, with 2 players of 1200 TPE or higher, and 5 above 1000 TPE, so they are definitely not as bad as a lot of rebuilding teams, however a lot of that can most likely be displayed by their large amount of IA's in their roster, with 8 on their main roster, and 3 in their prospect list as well, which is obviously a large hole, however the Barracuda are more than able to make up for it with a very good prospect list, headlined by goaltender August Von Hecht from the S67 class, ranking 11th in the class in TPE and first in goalies in the class, and defender John Brown, ranking 6th in the class in TPE, and 4th in Defenseman, with a very high amount of prospects from the S67 and S68 classes, the Barracuda are definitely a team that will be able to be competitive in the league relatively soon.

Manhattan Rage Rage

The Manhattan Rage are a very interesting team, because statistically they are barely above average in the league when it comes to average TPE of the roster, even having the worst goalie tandem in the league, consisting of 2 430 TPE Inactive goalies, with the rest of their roster having 9 1200 TPE or better players and no 1900+, with having decent depth at best for this team, yet they have somehow managed to make it to back-to-back Challenge cup finals, being stopped by the Seattle Argonauts both times, having taken them to 7 games in the most recent playoff series, which is very interesting just because there are definitely better teams statistically than the Rage, however this team has to have some unparalleled drive or something because this team just has been exceeding expectations time and time again, and to be honest I would not be surprised to see this team make another run at the cup, their team is also relatively young in terms of being competitive, but this team will have to start figuring out their future soon, because to say that their prospect pipeline is dry would be an understatement, as this team has a total lack of high quality prospects

The Atlantic Division is in a very competitive spot right now, The Inferno in my opinion are the team in the best position as one of the top teams in the league, with Manhattan and their magic team in second, Tampa and Baltimore basically tied for 3rd, both in a very similar spot, with Tampa being slightly better in my opinion, and Philadelphia who has had some playoff difficulties and a lack of prospect quantity, despite their 2 very strong prospects from S68, this division does feel like it will be the least interesting in terms of each teams variety, and I feel like there is a pretty clear order for this division

North-East Division:

Hamilton Steelhawks

Hamilton is a team that is in a different spot from a lot of the other tanking teams that I have gone over so far in this league, as their prospect pipeline is relatively depleted, being lead by Bobby McGinnis who is tied for sixth most TPE in the S67 draft class, and their team is 18th last in the league in average TPE, however they have gotta be the youngest team on average, with a very large amount of their team being from the S66 or S65, and a bunch of those players being active, and some of the highest earners from their respective class, and to me Hamilton feels the closest to completing a rebuild out of every team so far in the league, which considering they were relatively competitive 5 ago, Hamilton has definitely figured out how to get a rebuild done quickly, I could easily see them competing in 2 seasons, which is very good for a team in a TPE state that Hamilton is in.

Montreal Patriotes

The Montreal Patriotes are obviously a very strong power, with the second highest average TPE in the league, however they have had a pretty disappointing last few seasons, last season they had an 8th place finish in the regular season, and were a first round exit in 6 to the Buffalo Stampede, and in S67, they were barely in the playoffs finishing 13th in the league, however they managed to make a pretty deep run, taking the Manhattan Rage in the semi finals to 6 games, before finally being eliminated from their cinderella run, in terms of their team, they are actually extremely young, most players being from S60 or more recent, and the oldest player from the S57 class, which is very impressive, however you can tell that they have gone all in buying in an attempt to win a championship, as their prospect pool is very depleted, but because this team is so youthful and active, it isn't even that large of a problem, because this team most likely has 3-4 seasons left in the hard competing tank, which is going to be interesting to see if Montreal can find their footing, because while being very strong on paper, this team has definitely not been playing up to the standard that could be expected from a team of their caliber, and if they can't perform, some moves may need to be made to switch things up inside of the team.

Buffalo Stampede

Buffalo is a team that is stuck in an unfortunate spot, and a spot that I consider to be the worst spot a team can be in, which is mediocrity, they are 11th in the league in TPE, and have a team that is good, but not great, and it is a difficult spot, however their last season was a quite impressive season, with a 5th place finish, and a conference final appearance, which shows that they are a team that has enough pieces to make a run, but also can't really afford to ship out picks or prospects because they have not been a consistent enough team in the season for it to be worth it, this season is going to be a very important one for the stampede, because this season will really show if they have what it takes to win, or if they need to sell a little but because I think that they may be able to make a serious run, but this season is gonna most likely be what commits them to how their next few seasons will be

New England Wolfpack

New England is another team that is pretty good on paper, however they have not been performing in the league, with a 12th place finish in S68, and a 14th place finish in S67, and being a first round exit in both, I'm not quite sure why this team is performing so badly in the league, they have the best goalie in the league in terms of TPE, in Olof Karsikko, and even given their backup is a 180 TPE inactive, the weighted average TPE gives them the highest average TPE goalies in the league, which does make sense because the next highest goalie is roughly 100 TPE lower, the rest of the team is no slouch as well, with only 2 skaters with a TPE of less than 1000, which just adds to my confusion and concern for the team on why they have not been able to perform at the level they should they are also lacking any real quality in their prospects, they aren't awful, but there's no real standouts which just adds to the real need for this team to start performing how they should, because if not they may be in need of a shakeup, this team is however very very young, so in a couple seasons we could see a large rising of this team right to the top of the league

Toronto North Stars Stars

And the last team left, the Toronto North Stars who feel like the exact polar opposite of the wolfpack, who I just went over, because while the North stars are 9th in the league in average TPE, but last season, they finished 4th, and were an untimely second round exit, and in S67, they were all the way at 2nd in the league, while being a second round exit as well in S67, and on paper, their team is definitely not spectacular, but they must also have some crazy drive because this team overcame expectations for 2 straight seasons, and it will be interesting to see if they are able to continue what they have been doing, because there is absolutely nothing spectacular about this team, their prospects are completely lackluster, with only one mediocre at best prospect, they have some good depth, and the 5th ranked forwards in the league, but there are definitely better teams in the league than Toronto, beyond that, they're about average when it comes to how old the team is, and their activity is pretty good with only 3 IA players, even given that they are 1100+ TPE IAs, but this is one of those teams that is going to be very interesting to see how they perform this season

The North-East division is probably the division that is the biggest wild card so when it comes to how each team is gonna perform in the upcoming season, my standing predictions are Montreal at 1, New England at 2, Toronto at 3, Buffalo at 4, and Hamilton at 5, but it's very hard to analyze how this division will play out when the season comes, and some teams will have to underperform just due to how strong of a division this is, but this is probably my #1 most interesting division this upcoming season, and I'm excited to watch not just this division, but the entire league this upcoming season, because as a new gen and just having been drafted for the first time, this will be the first season I follow the SHL, but this season is looking like a very interesting one, and I'm looking forward to it

5036 words, ready to grade

Randominoe · 01-19-2023, 02:28 PM

Good write up here and I appreciate the shoutout in the Aurora section!

vbottas17 · 01-19-2023, 03:02 PM

This is great. Nice write-up!

***luke*** · 01-19-2023, 03:33 PM

Code:
I'm not quite sure why this team is performing so badly in the league

We were in the hardest division + Our overall team was about 11th in tpe in S68 and 14th in tpe in S67. We were not good, we are coming out of a rebuild. Now we are 9th(maybe 8th with the TOR trades) in average TPE. So we will be doing a lot better this season

From starting the rebuild of NEW, we are on schedule for where we are suppose to be.

***boom*** · 01-19-2023, 06:19 PM

SFP is pretty much spot on. Good stuff. Jax and I gonna play until we drop.

TheRoyalEmpoleon · 01-19-2023, 06:22 PM

01-19-2023, 03:33 PMluke Wrote:
Code:
I'm not quite sure why this team is performing so badly in the league
We were in the hardest division + Our overall team was about 11th in tpe in S68 and 14th in tpe in S67. We were not good, we are coming out of a rebuild. Now we are 9th(maybe 8th with the TOR trades) in average TPE. So we will be doing a lot better this season

From starting the rebuild of NEW, we are on schedule for where we are suppose to be.

Says you're 7th in average TPE as of now, and thanks for clarifying

*slothfacekilla* · 01-19-2023, 06:28 PM

Great stuff here

***luke*** · 01-19-2023, 06:31 PM

01-19-2023, 06:22 PMTheRoyalEmpoleon Wrote:
01-19-2023, 03:33 PMluke Wrote:
Code:
I'm not quite sure why this team is performing so badly in the league
We were in the hardest division + Our overall team was about 11th in tpe in S68 and 14th in tpe in S67. We were not good, we are coming out of a rebuild. Now we are 9th(maybe 8th with the TOR trades) in average TPE. So we will be doing a lot better this season

From starting the rebuild of NEW, we are on schedule for where we are suppose to be.
Says you're 7th in average TPE as of now, and thanks for clarifying

Of course, great article!

JNH · 01-19-2023, 07:10 PM

sad

JNH · 01-19-2023, 07:10 PM

but also good work! love to see quality media Smile

***HabsFanFromOntario*** · 01-19-2023, 07:17 PM

Good media from a new user :D

***Caleb*** · 01-19-2023, 07:20 PM

Great article!

!rollpride

***notorioustig*** · 01-19-2023, 07:32 PM

Can confirm Seattle does not have a single prospect

[Image: 28f.jpg]

***aleks*** · 01-19-2023, 10:19 PM

please edit to give me a shoutout thanks

**leafsftw1967** · 01-19-2023, 10:36 PM

This was a great read and very well researched! However I can promise you Chicago will not be anywhere near the bottom of the central division any time soon and should be nowhere near close to Minnesota. It's been the same narrative for the last ten seasons about how Chicago is old with a heavily regressing core but we're built different and know that management will continue to bring in talent via trades and free agency to keep us as one of the top teams in the west like they have in the past.

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