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(GRADED)Deep Dive #2 - How Kaarlo Kekkonen Got Started
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(This post was last modified: 03-02-2023, 12:18 PM by CptSquall. Edited 1 time in total.)

For my second deep dive of the season, I thought I'd stick with the theme of writing about a topic that's close to home and discuss the first phase of the career of the most recent player that I brought into the league. It was the longest and most successful career I was able to put together, but I feel like it's interesting to focus in on his initial time in the league; his tenure in the SMJHL and first couple of seasons in the SHL.

Kaarlo's career began late in the SMJHL season of S49. I created him after retiring my previous player early in the season in order to trade him to another team for a playoff run, and Kaarlo was intended to be a long term piece to add to the Texas team I was GMing at the time. Immediately, Kaarlo signed as a temporary free agent with Detroit, a team that I had previously managed and still had very close ties to. This time in Detroit was useful for finding my feet again in the SMJHL, and it would secure my place as a first round draft pick of the Falcons that following offseason, joining the team after they deemed Kaarlo worthy of the 8th overall pick. His time in the SMJHL would surpass the expectations that anyone had before hand, with Kaarlo scooping a highly impressive 5 individual awards during his time in the league, including both of the available MVP awards. During his final season with the team, Kaarlo was able to complete his time in the league with the best possible outcome, being a part of a Four Star Cup winning side that broke a very long cup drought for the Falcons.

Immediately following his cup win, Kaarlo was called up to play with the Texas Renegades. Texas had recently endured a very long and very painful rebuild that had seen the team suffer a long run of bad results, but had also allowed the team to load up on premier young talent, with Kaarlo considered to be a large part of this. The first season he played in the league wasn't the best individually, but it was the first time that Texas had challenged for a playoff spot in six seasons and it began to show the fans that the team had something about them. The following season saw some steady growth for Kaarlo, improving on is previous seasons point tally by 10 and playing a role in getting his team into the playoffs for the first time in recent memory; although their season ended with a quick exit in the first round, Kaarlo and the team had shown that they clearly had the capability to make it into the postseason.

The next couple of seasons would continue this trend of steady growth and improvement for both Kaarlo and the Renegades. By his fourth season in the league, Kaarlo was able to score at a rate of a point per game, and the Renegades improved their performance in the postseason to the extent that they were able to win their first playoff series in a decade. Belief in the team started to creep in, although a long way was still to go before the team was able to really compete with the big guns of the time. Kaarlo's career really took off after S67, but I do look back fondly on those initial seasons in his career and what he was able to achieve during that time.

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Approved, +5 TPE to @dankoa

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