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tomtommen · 12-17-2024, 01:38 PM

Late night gobble from an old player nearing the end of his career, but who still has a lot of dreams to fulfil. We will start with the young years of the SMJHL.

Back in late S64 I created my user. In real life time that would be Wednesday, 4th May, 2022. Luckily you can check these things on the forum. Quite handy to be honest. I did not know jack shit about sim leagues. This one was my first ever. I always thought I saw a Reddit post on r/SanJoseSharks by the user Assorted-Jellybeans. But it isn’t something I have been able to prove or anything. But I am quite sure it was a Reddit post at least. When I first joined I just wanted to see if it was something I would find funny. I thought long and hard about what kind of player I wanted to create. Contemplating creating a forward or a defensive player. I ended up creating a left winger with the render of Dan Boyle named Tom Pedersen. It was finding middle ground between what I dreamed about creating. Dan Boyle was/is one of my favourite players and he was a joy to watch. Especially that coast to coast goal. It was epic. Tom is my real name and Pedersen is both my mother’s maiden name and my girlfriend's last name. So I liked the sound of it. Since I was a first timer and didn’t know anybody in SHL I was a bit nervous about getting drafted. It isn’t all groups like this that’s very welcoming, but soon before the draft messages started popping up in my Discord. Many General Managers, Co-GMs and scouts contacted me. And I tried to answer as best as I could on all the weird questions I did not know all the answers to.

When the S65 draft came Tom Pedersen was drafted 17th overall and 3rd in the second round by the Colorado Raptors Raptors

. I joined their Locker Room which I am still a member of, but I haven't spoken there for a long time. I do have a Colorado Raptors t-shirt which I use when I work out at the gym. Coming into the Colorado Raptors team was very fun. I immediately started working hard to earn as much as possible and even though I had wanted to create a left winger with a knack for scoring goals and making heavy hits, that was not what Colorado needed the most. They had several wingers, but lacked some pieces at center so Tom Pedersen had to play there in the beginning. But I enjoyed it so much that I asked for permission to turn Tom Pedersen into a center permanently and shifted focus on the build and went into the direction of a playmaking center. Emphasising on passing, getting open, puck handling, face offs and stamina. Koty Kochan was the main piece from that draft and Tom Pedersen would just slot in behind him in the pecker order. If I am not mistaken Tom Pedersen used to play a lot with Hynek Heidinger and Talan Bacalso in the first season. That entire line was a defensive liability and had a negative +/- during the regular season, but at least Tom Pedersen managed to get a +/- of 0 in the playoffs.In the regular season Tom Pedersen scored 8 goals and made 20 assists. 28 PIMs, 76 blocked shots and 120 hits. Colorado Raptors finished second in Wollker division. Beaten by Quebec City Citadelles and Tom Pedersen’s nemesis Shylo Moxii. Why Shylo Moxii became the nemesis no one remembers. Perhaps it was as easy as him being one of the best centers in the SMJHL and natural target for Tom Pedersen. Colorado also finished second in the Pacific conference behind mentioned Quebec City Citadelles. In the playoffs Colorado swept Kelowna Knights in the first round and was swept by Nevada Battleborn in the second round. It was a hard and abrupt ending to the playoffs. Everybody hoped for so much more. Tom Pedersen was nominated and won the Jack Cross award for the most underrated. Tom also played for Finland in WJC and won the Alex Andani award for top WJC Rookie. Tom Pedersen finished 9th on total points with 12. 3 goals and 9 assists. Only beaten by MVP Lesgo Brandon in assists. Tied with several though. Including Sophie Bordeleau who he would play with later on in the career and the famous Mads McBride. Finland managed to get to the playoffs as the second worst team to qualify from the regular league. In the first round of the playoffs DACH was too strong and sent Finland home. DACH went on to win that tournament. Both Godwin Lupercal and Evan Winter of the Colorado Raptors played on the DACH team, but also famous players like Julian Florsch, Isaac Forty-One, Emil Egli, Louise St. Martin and Ivan Lacksamus.

The next season started with the S66 SHL draft. And again I was contacted by a lot of scouts, General Managers and others. Not all teams were interested but the feeling was that either Calgary Dragons or Edmonton Blizzard would pick Tom Pedersen. I do remember being asked specifically if I would have anything against being drafted by the Calgary Dragons Dragons

. I did not and to everyone's surprise they spent their 4th overall pick on drafting Tom Pedersen. Making everybody's mock drafts go sideways. Not that it bothered Tom Pedersen, who was just happy a SHL team wanted him. Colorado Raptors was placed in Bergen division and won a very tight fight against Yukon Malamutes. 93 vs 92 points total. But 9 points behind Nevada Battleborn in the Atlantic conference. This season Tom Pedersen played center on the third line between Carl Ray Jetson and Casper Nilsson. Hydek Heidinger was playing alongside Ged Sparrowhawk as the defensive pair on that third line. It was a very fun season. Tom Pedersen bagged 36 goals and 38 assists. 74 total points. Faceoff percentage of 59. 31 blocked shots and 101 hits. That made him 9th on the leaderboard for goals. 12 behind Shylo Moxii. 4 behind Benjamin Surki-Ze’ev. He was leader of the shot percentage with 23,84 and leader of power play goals with 17. This made Tom Pedersen nominated for the Alex Light award for the most improved player, but he didn’t win. This season Tom also played for Finland in WJC. Ended with one goal and seven assists for a total of eight points in 12 games. Again defeated by DACH in the first round of the playoffs and again DACH winning everything.

Season 67 had the Colorado Raptors back in the Wollker division together with Vancouver Whalers, Great Falls Grizzlies and Newfoundland Berserkers. Vancouver Whalers won the division with 78 points and the Colorado Raptors only two points behind at 76 points. Great Falls Grizzlies and Newfoundland Berserkers were far behind with 45 and 35 points. In the leaderboard Tom Pedersen was 9th in points. One point behind fellow Colorado Raptor and line mate Jolmi Koivu who had 76 points. Tom Pedersen was also 5th on assists with 51. Still playing with Casper Nilsson who scored 39 goals from a gaspering 256 shot attempts that season. Chuchichäschtli Zopf and Isaac Forty-One were the defenders. The playoffs ended hard after dropping a 3-1 lead in matches against Yukon Malamutes. The last match ended 3-4 as well as it was a weird series where Colorado Raptors hammered Yukon Malamutes and then got hammered in two straight games before the final one that was a close affair. This season saw Tom Pedersen getting a new team in WJC. He got moved away from Finland to Team World against his will. He managed to get 9 points in 12 games playing with Pawter Meowski and M’Baku Olubori. Tom Pedersen really doesn’t want to talk that much about that WJC season as it was a total fluke and didn’t want to participate at all. He did get to debut for his beloved Norway in IIHF and played center on the fourth line with Pawter Meowski and Bork Lazer. He got 4 assists in 12 matches. And one assist in the playoffs. Norway went ahead and won against Russia 2-1 in the final. After the celebration that lasted for weeks ended Tom Pedersen received a call from the Calgary Dragons GM and was called up to play with the big bois one season early and therefore not playing his final year in the SMJHL. Very sad to leave Colorado Raptors, but very happy to begin a new chapter in his career Tom Pedersen moved to Calgary and started playing as center on the third line in season 68.

To be continued..

Words: 1458

Muerto · 12-17-2024, 04:54 PM

:cellyotternorway:

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