Dear Grader my first reply is apart of this character count sucks (also first gen media bonus pls?)
Hello SHL and SMJHL people! If you do not know me my name is baz and I made this little article here about the history of the SMJHL. Now this is not the full history of the SMJHL, as the index isn’t fun to read before season 52 haha and that would be a much longer article which if you would want to see just let me know and I may do it for my next article. With that lets get into the basics. When looking at the teams we have 14 SMJHL teams, 10 of which that existed from season 53 to now and four of which joined later. This would be longer but character count got me...
The original 10 teams are the Detroit Falcons, Kelowna Knights, Anchorage Armada, Carolina Kraken, Maine Timber, Vancouver Whalers, Colorado Raptors, Newfoundland Berserkers, St. Louis Scarecrows and Anaheim Outlaws (Yukon Malamutes). The teams added in the season 55 expansion were the 55 battlehorns (Nevada Battleborn) and the someone else (Quebec City Citadelles). Then in season 61 we see the addition of the Great Falls Grizzlies and Regina Elk.
There are some stats I did averages for which were Wins, Losses, OT/L (Overtime Losses), W/L Ratio, Goals for and Goals Against. The rest were sums for each team so teams like Regina and Great Falls fall behind in some of the sum categories.
Let's start by looking at the wins on average a season.
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 37.71 Wins Per Season
- Quebec City Citadelles - 34.53 Wins Per Season
- Maine Timber - 34.14 Wins per Season
- Nevada Battleborn - 33.58 Wins Per Season
- Colorado Raptors - 32.90 Wins Per Season
- Anchorage Armada - 31.86 Wins Per Season
- Carolina Kraken - 31.62 Wins Per Season
- Detroit Falcons - 31.14 Wins Per Season
- Vancouver Whalers - 30.81 Wins Per Season
- Regina Elk - 30.62 Wins Per Season
- Kelowna Knights - 30.19 Wins Per Season
- Yukon Malamutes - 29.81 Wins Per Season
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 28.38 Wins Per Season
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 25.48 Wins Per Season
When looking at the league average over the seasons, the league average wins per season was 31.63 which puts 6 teams currently above the average wins per season with one team on the cusp being the Carolina Kraken. The two noticeable teams on this list are the Scarecrows and the Berserkers. The Berserkers have had very dominant with 11 total seasons over 40 wins which is easily the largest amount and with their most wins in a season being 58, with a 57 and 56 tagged onto that. The Scarecrows however have been a tad unlucky despite finding success in recent seasons, they have had 8 seasons with 20 or under wins. The most wins in a season was the Detroit Falcons with 59 wins in season 65 and the least wins was also the Detroit Falcons with 5 wins in season 62.
Now let us look at the average losses of teams this does not include overtime losses. When ranking teams by the least number of losses on average per season, it goes
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 21.19 Losses Per Season
- Maine Timer - 25.19 Losses Per Season
- Colorado Raptors - 25.38 Losses Per Season
- Quebec City Citadelles - 25.79 Losses Per Season
- Nevada Battleborn - 26.37 Losses Per Season
- Anchorage Armada - 26.81 Losses Per Season
- Carolina Kraken - 27.29 Losses Per Season
- Detroit Falcons - 27.57 Losses Per Season
- Kelowna Knights - 27.71 Losses Per Season
- Vancouver Whalers - 28.19 Losses Per Season
- Yukon Malamutes - 29.24 Losses Per Season
- Regina Elk - 30.31 Losses Per Season
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 33.00 Losses Per Season
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 34.46 Losses Per Season
When looking at the average per season we see an average of 27.75 Losses Per Season so 9 teams are currently doing better than that is a great number! There were not many changes in regards to the comparisons of wins and losses unfortunately the Grizzlies are last in this category.
Now we move on to Overtime Losses and I like to think of this as who was the most unlucky team! We have a shocking change at the top!
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 3.15 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Maine Timber - 3.62 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Yukon Malamute - 3.90 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Vancouver Whalers - 3.95 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Quebec City Citadelles - 4.00 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Carolina Kraken - 4.05 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 4.05 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Detroit Falcons - 4.24 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Anchorage Armada - 4.29 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Nevada Battleborn - 4.37 Overtime Losses Per Season
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 4.49 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Colorado Raptors - 4.67 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Regina Elk - 5.00 Overtime Losses Per Season
- Kelowna Knights - 5.05 Overtime Losses Per Season
The league average was 4.20 Overtime Losses Per Season good job SMJHL, this puts 7 teams doing better than the league average. The standout is the Grizzlies who average 3.15 Overtime Losses A season which is a great stat line for them as the other expansion team sits at 5.00 OT Losses Per Season. No team has had double overtime losses yet, the most is 9 by multiple teams.
Now lets skip over win loss ratio as it will be a lot of the same info and lets skip to Goals for and Goals Against Per Season! Goals for rankings are as follows
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 233.52 Goals For Per Season
- Quebec City Citadelles - 224.84 Goals For Per Season
- Nevada Battleborn - 222.21 Goals For Per Season
- Maine Timber - 217.14 Goals For Per Season
- Colorado Raptors - 216.38 Goals For Per Season
- Regina Elk - 213 Goals For Per Season
- Detroit Falcons - 208.33 Goals For Per Season
- Carolina Kraken - 206.38 Goals For Per Season
- Vancouver Whalers - 203.38 Goals For Per Season
- Anchorage Armada - 200.38 Goals For Per Season
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 199.15 Goals For Per Season
- Yukon Malamutes - 194.90 Goals For Per Season
- Kelowna Knights - 191.81 Goals For Per Season
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 181.90 Goals For Per Season
This one is pretty close to what the win rankings per season looks like but there is one key standout imo! The Regina Elk have a wonderful 213 Goals Per Season despite being ranked 10th in wins per season on average. Regina is a very efficient team on offense so its a bit curious how they fall so much. This gives the Regina Elk a fair boost in their overall history despite the past rankings. Something that should definitely be noted though is teams 2 and 3 are both expansion teams! It is wonderful to see expansion teams doing well especially when it can be tough to start out with an expansion team. Both of the teams continue to be towards top of the rankings in multiple categories. Then Newfoundland continues their dominance with their 3rd 1st ranking. The most goals in a season is held by the Maine Timber with 340 goals in season 72. The fewest goals in a season is held by the Vancouver Whalers in Season 54 with only 84 goals.
Moving on to Goals Against! What teams tend to be the best defensively!
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 181.33 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Maine Timber - 194.86 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Anchorage Armada - 202.05 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Kelowna Knights - 203.43 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Detroit Falcons - 203.95 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Vancouver Whalers - 207.62 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Colorado Raptors - 207.86 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Quebec City Citadelles - 208.95 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Yukon Malamutes - 210.33 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Carolina Kraken - 211.05 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Nevada Battleborn - 211.58 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Regina Elk - 225 Goals Allowed Per Season
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 227.05 Goals Allowed Per Season
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 237.46 Goals Allowed Per Season
Wow can everyone guess who got first again… yeah its Newfoundland by a good amount but the Maine Timber also have a very close statline in this case to them. Some surprising ones here with the Battleborn at 11 being the main one. They seem to be a very offensive first team lets worry about defense after haha.
Next lets move to point differential! This was by far my favorite one, this is point differential over all 21 seasons.
- Newfoundland Berserkers - +1096
- Maine Timber - +468
- Quebec City Citadelles - +302
- Nevada Battleborn - +202
- Colorado Raptors - +179
- Detroit Falcons - +92
- Anchorage Armada - -35
- Vancouver Whalers - -89
- Carolina Kraken - -98
- Regina Elk - -156
- Kelowna Knights - -244
- Yukon Malamutes - -324
- Great Falls Grizzlies - -498
- St. Louis Scarecrows - -948
These point differentials are pretty scattered with the closest team to being even is the Armada which they could easily get to next season. Anyways as always there are two main outliers being the Berserkers and the Scarecrows, to anyones surprise? No, probably not. The true standouts are the Battleborn and Citadelles ranked 3rd and 4th again despite being an expansion team.
Now lets move on to record at home since 51. First we will start with wins then losses then over time losses.
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 438 Wins
- Maine Timber - 398 Wins
- Quebec City Citadelles - 386 Wins
- Colorado Raptors - 380 Wins
- Anchorage Armada - 368 Wins
- Vancouver Whalers - 367 Wins
- Nevada Battleborn - 367 Wins
- Carolina Kraken - 366 Wins
- Detroit Falcons - 363 Wins
- Kelowna Knights - 361 Wins
- Yukon Malamutes - 358 Wins
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 300 Wins
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 218 Wins
- Regina Elk - 217 Wins
Home Losses
- Regina Elk - 172 Losses
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 188 Losses
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 190 Losses
- Quebec City Citadelles - 191 Losses
- Nevada Battleborn - 203 Losses
- Maine Timber - 224 Losses
- Colorado Raptors - 232 Losses
- Kelowna Knights - 240 Losses
- Anchorage Armada - 248 Losses
- Carolina Kraken - 250 Losses
- Vancouver Whalers - 258 Losses
- Yukon Malamutes - 261 Losses
- Detroit Falcons - 267 Losses
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 319 Losses
Overtime Losses are next!
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 21 OT Losses
- Detroit Falcons - 31 OT Losses
- Quebec City Citadelles - 34 OT Losses
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 35 OT Losses
- Vancouver Whalers - 36 OT Losses
- Maine Timber - 39 OT Losses
- Regina Elk - 40 OT Losses
- Nevada Battleborn - 41 OT Losses
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 42 OT Losses
- Yukon Malamutes - 42 OT Losses
- Anchorage Armada - 44 OT Losses
- Carolina Kraken - 45 OT Losses
- Colorado Raptors - 49 OT Losses
- Kelowna Knights - 60 OT Losses
Looking at these we can tell the strongest teams at home are easily the Berserkers and Timber, with the Citadelles/Raptors close behind. The worst team at home has to be the Scarecrows with a combined record of 300-319-42. The unluckiest team at home has to be the Kelowna Knights, having 60 overtime losses is insane and is the biggest gap in this particular list unfortunately. Anyways onto what the best teams away are.
Away Wins
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 354 Wins
- Maine Timber - 319 Wins
- Colorado Raptors - 311 Wins
- Anchorage Armada - 301 Wins
- Detroit Falcons - 291 Wins
- Vancouver Whalers - 280 Wins
- Carolina Kraken - 278 Wins
- Kelowna Knights - 273 Wins
- Nevada Battleborn - 271 Wins
- Quebec City Citadelles - 270 Wins
- Yukon Malamutes - 268 Wins
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 235 Wins
- Regina Elk - 181 Wins
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 151 Wins
Away Losses
- Regina Elk - 222 Losses
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 257 Losses
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 258 Losses
- Nevada Battleborn - 298 Losses
- Quebec City Citadelles - 299 Losses
- Colorado Raptors - 301 Losses
- Maine Timber - 305 Losses
- Detroit Falcons - 312 Losses
- Anchorage Armada - 315 Losses
- Carolina Kraken - 323 Losses
- Vancouver Whalers - 334 Losses
- Kelowna Knights - 342 Losses
- Yukon Malamutes - 353 Losses
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 374 Losses
Away Overtime Losses
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 20 OT Losses
- Regina Elk - 26 OT Losses
- Maine Timber - 37 OT Losses
- Carolina Kraken - 40 OT Losses
- Yukon Malamutes - 40 OT Losses
- Nevada Battleborn - 42 OT Losses
- Quebec City Citadelles - 42 OT Losses
- Anchorage Armada - 45 OT Losses
- Vancouver Whalers - 45 OT Losses
- Kelowna Knights - 46 OT Losses
- Colorado Raptors - 49 OT Losses
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 50 OT Losses
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 52 OT Losses
- Detroit Falcons - 58 OT Losses
Now lets figure who the best team away is! If we want to go by pure wins and losses its newfoundland again and in that case we may need to ask which SHL team do we need to relegate and move Newfoundland into their spot. I need to know if this has ever been considered lmfao. Though thinking more about it the best team away is most likely Maine (outside of Newfoundland)! Maine has a wonderful win loss at 319-305-37 and is one of only 3 teams with more wins than losses away, not counting OT losses, if we count OT Losses its only Newfoundland god damn it. WHY IS NEWFOUNDLAND SO GOOD, though this is also Newfoundlands first time being in the bottom half of a ranking.
Now lets move onto who is the best at shootouts, starting out with shootout wins
- Yukon Malamutes - 64 Shootout Wins
- Vancouver Whalers - 57 Shootout Wins
- Colorado Raptors - 55 Shootout Wins
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 55 Shootout Wins
- Nevada Battleborn - 54 Shootout Wins
- Maine Timber - 53 Shootout Wins
- Carolina Kraken - 51 Shootout Wins
- Kelowna Knights - 50 Shootout Wins
- Anchorage Armada - 49 Shootout Wins
- Quebe City - 47 Shootout Wins
- Newfoundland - 42 Shootout Wins
- Detroit Falcons - 40 Shootout Wins
- Regina Elk - 37 Shootout Wins
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 33 Shootout Wins
Now Shootout Losses
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 24 Shootout Losses
- Regina Elk - 37 Shootout Losses
- Quebec City - 42 Shootout Losses
- Maine Timber - 45 Shootout Losses
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 49 Shootout Losses
- Anchorage Armada - 50 Shootout Losses
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 51 Shootout Losses
- Nevada Battleborn - 52 Shootout Losses
- Yukon Malamutes - 53 Shootout Losses
- Anaheim - 53 Shootout Losses
- Carolina Kraken - 54 Shootout Losses
- Detroit Falcons - 54 Shootout Losses
- Colorado Raptors - 60 Shootout Losses
- Kelowna Knights - 65 Shootout Losses
So looking at shootout losses there is a clear winner of who is the most dominant in this category being the Yukon Malamutes with a 64-53 record in shootouts! However some teams like the Grizzlies and the Timber are close behind and could pass them in the following seasons. The worst team when it comes to shootout is the Kelowna Knights unfortunately with a 50-65 record in shootouts but the Detroit Falcons are close behind with a 40-54 record!
When looking at the best regular season team I think we see a clear winner in the Newfoundland Berserkers they are a dominant team who scores a lot of points and an opponent that teams have definitely feared for many seasons. If I had to rank teams in the regular season these would be the rankings
- Newfoundland Berserkers
- Maine Timber
- Quebec City Citadelles
- Nevada Battleborn
- Colorado Raptors
- Anchorage Armada
- Carolina Kraken
- Regina Elk
- Kelowna Knights
- Detroit Falcons
- Vancouver Whalers
- Yukon Malamutes
- Great Falls Grizzlies
- St. Louis Scarecrows
Now you think the article ends there? It does not I have playoff success as well!
Games Won
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 176 Playoff Wins
- Quebec City Citadelles - 121 Playoff Wins
- Maine Timber - 119 Playoff Wins
- Anchorage Armada - 105 Playoff Wins
- Yukon Malamutes - 103 Playoff Wins
- Kelowna Knights - 85 Playoff Wins
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 84 Playoff Wins
- Carolina Kraken - 82 Playoff Wins
- Vancouver Whaler - 79 Playoff Wins
- Detroit Falcons - 79 Playoff Wins
- Nevada Battleborn - 78 Playoff WIns
- Colorado Raptors 55 Playoff Wins
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 33 Playoff Wins
- Regina Elk - 29 Playoff Wins
Games Lost
- Regina Elk - 49 Playoff Losses
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 51 Playoff Losses
- Vancouver Whalers - 75 Playoff Losses
- Nevada Battleborn - 78 Playoff Losses
- Detroit Falcons - 87 Playoff Losses
- Kelowna Knights - 88 Playoff Losses
- Colorado Raptors - 90 Playoff Losses
- Carolina Kraken - 91 Playoff Losses
- Anchorage Armada - 93 Playoff Losses
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 95 Playoff Losses
- Maine Timber - 103 Playoff Losses
- Quebec City Citadelles - 107 Playoff Losses
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 108 Playoff Losses
- Yukon Malamutes - 112 Playoff Losses
Playoff Series Wins
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 38 Series Wins
- Maine Timber - 25 Series Wins
- Quebec City Citadelles - 24 Series Wins
- Detroit Falcons - 17 Series Wins
- Anchorage Armada - 17 Series Wins
- Yukon Malamutes - 16 Series Wins
- Vancouver Whalers - 15 Series Wins
- Kelowna Knights - 13 Series Wins
- Carolina Kraken - 13 Series Wins
- Nevada Battleborn - 12 Series Wins
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 12 Series Wins
- Colorado Raptors - 8 Series Wins
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 5 Series Wins
- Regina Elk - 3 Series Wins
Championships
- Newfoundland Berserkers - 6 Championships
- Maine Timber - 3 Championships
- Detroit Falcons - 3 Championships
- Quebec City Citadelles - 2 Championships
- Vancouver Whalers - 2 Championships
- Anchorage Armada - 1 Championship
- Kelowna Knights - 1 Championship
- Carolina Kraken - 1 Championship
- Nevada Battleborn - 1 Championship
- St. Louis Scarecrows - 1 Championship
- Yukon Malamutes - 0 Championship
- Colorado Raptors - 0 Championship
- Great Falls Grizzlies - 0 Championship
- Regina Elk - 0 Championship
Well everyone guess who the best playoff team is… with a 176-108 record it is none other than the Newfoundland Berserkers again… Tho Maine and Quebec City are also quite good, Newfoundland just finds themselves in a different tier. Some teams that have not been as lucky in the playoffs are the Raptors with a 55-90 record in playoffs and then the Battleborn who have been very good in the regular season but only find themselves with a 78-78 record in playoffs.
Ranking teams in the playoffs it goes
- Newfoundland Berserkers
- Maine Timber
- Quebec CIty Citadelles
- Detroit Falcons
- Anchorage Armada
- Vancouver Whalers
- Kelowna Knights
- Nevada Battleborn
- Carolina Kraken
- Yukon Malamutes
- St. Louis Scarecrows
- Great Falls Grizzlies
- Colorado Raptors
- Regina Elk
When looking at all of this combined its great to see expansion teams like Quebec and Nevada seeing success while it may not be immediate for Great Falls and Regina we hope that does change soon. Overall this was a really fun article to write as it shows highlights of each and every team and what the future may hold. Undisputedly the best team in the past 21 seasons has been the Berserkers but teams like the Timber are quickly on the rise and look to challenge them!