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Valpix · 01-21-2023, 04:47 AM

Things can change really, really quickly in the SHL.

When the Toronto North Stars made Louise St. Martin the 14th pick in the Season 64 draft, I was a relatively unknown commodity who'd only spent half a season in the J. The Toronto team that drafted me was under new management and had just kicked off a major rebuild. Hell, they'd go on to pick four players in the first round of that draft, and five more in the second.

While I spent that season balling out in my first full J season, making first team all-J and winning the Light Award for Most Improved Player while placing second in scoring by defenders, the Stars were...terrible. But the building blocks were being put in place for the team I'd start my career with. True, Harry Carpet and Yuuto Kira Cloudera Jr were already there, but besides that it was mostly prospects (and Ruslan Zaporozhets who, while he retired before I graduated to the SHL, was still contributing in his final seasons and was a strong LR presence).

Then, the front office got wheeling and dealing, and put together a truly great group of people. Jimmy Larkin-Conway (and Shane Duffy Jr) came in from Winnipeg for picks. A slew of even more picks got shipped out to Hamilton to bring in Dogwood Maple and Ty Murphy. Another pick to the Patriotes for a fellow prospect in Connor O'Byrne. (And I'd be remiss if I excluded Jimmy Slothface, who was retiring but had his swan song with the Stars.)

Those guys would finish out a pretty dismal season (just 19 wins and a first round demolition in the playoffs at the hands of the Baltimore Platoon), but started to build the foundation of the team we became.

More picks shipped out that offseason, acquiring Lemo Pihl from Texas (who, while I never got to play with him as he left for Philly right as I was coming up, was instrumental in establishing our locker room culture), Videl Valor from Edmonton, and Magnus Liljeström from Tampa. And of course, the return of Ryosuke Sato via free agency.

By the time I got promoted to the SHL, the North Stars were not the punching bag they were S64. They'd just come off a season where they'd won a pretty solid 38 games and had won their first playoff series since S58. And while I found my footing, the team blossomed.

47 wins. Winning the division by 23 points. One of the best offensive teams in the league thanks to many of the guys we had added, namely the JLC/Maple/Murphy troika and Valor. Even the IAs chipped in, as did new pickup Stan Din'desque. The vets held down the blueline and provided leadership for me and Luca Hunziker, both rookies fresh from the J and fresh off of IIHF gold medals with Switzerland, and Ben Der, a teammate and former d-pair partner of mine with Quebec City.

Unfortunately, we ran into a white hot Montreal team in the second round, who took us down in 6. In hindsight knowing what was to come, perhaps that season was the chance for that group, because S68 saw the gap close a bit.

That gap wasn't really closed by us being worse - despite trading Valor before the season, a few new forwards in Long John Donair, Rock Strongo, and rookie Faust Faker picked up the slack in the aggregate, and I saw my role and ice time increase. We only dropped off by a couple points, but the window had shrunk a bit with guys getting older. As opposed to the previous year, where we cruised to a division title, Buffalo closed the gap big time.

In the playoffs, for me personally, I clicked in a way that I hadn't since my biggest season in QC - season 65 - and we got through New England with relative ease. But Buffalo came out flying in our second round series and, once again, we fell short. The front office now was in a weird spot - we were good, but kept falling short in the playoffs, and with a few guys getting older and zero prospect and draft capital there wasn't a way to replenish that talent pool.

I always prided myself on being a team player - in QCC, with DACH at WJC, and with the Swiss national team. And sometimes, putting the team first means being put on another team.

And with some hard discussions and one waiving of a NTC, I packed my bags and boarded a train from the home of the North Stars to the big league's northernmost team. The Stars got an absolute bucketload of capital back, and I know the front office is going to use it well. I couldn't have asked for a better first squad to welcome me to the league... my only regret is not being able to win a Cup for Carpy. My gratitude towards Toronto - the team, the front office, the fans - cannot be understated. But for now, it's eyes to the future - both for them to their rebuild project, and for me for the new team and new city.

Edmonton may be a city I don't know much about, but I'm familiar with a few members of the team. Obviously, I wasn't the only one sent to the Blizzard in this deal, as the Stars also gave up Hunziker. But I was teammates with both goalies and Rylie Versi in Quebec City (as well as Jack St. Clair, who has another year left in the J), Emil Egli with the national team, and Julian Eaglesong and Patches the III with DACH at the WJC. In my first preseason games for the team, so fresh off the train that most of my stuff was still in boxes in a hotel room while I sorted out an apartment, I put up four points in two games. I'm determined that that playoff run is my new normal and things have clicked for me at this level. And that can only spell good things for the Blizzard.

Brace yourself, other SHL teams...there's a storm coming.

***Wally*** · 01-21-2023, 08:35 AM

Crying.

I <3 you.

Grapehead · 01-21-2023, 09:19 AM

You will be missed

***HabsFanFromOntario*** · 01-21-2023, 06:50 PM

Beyond ecstatic to bring you in and such a well written piece Blizzard

***Seany148*** · 01-21-2023, 07:05 PM

GO BLIZZARD!!!

Evok · 01-22-2023, 01:46 AM

The only nice thing about this is that Louise get to stay in #BleedBlue Lets gooooo
Hope the QCC jersey will still fit in many years cause i feel its gonna be hard to put it with all the future rings

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