I present the first chapter in a 4 or 5 part series which will follow the story of the Halifax Raiders from the bitter struggle of season 41 to the new era of rookies which has put on the black and gold.


The dark days of Season 41

The new look Halifax Raiders are eighteen games into their first SMJHL preseason tonight. At the end of last season the Raiders were a team which could only sell its fans on its future. The Raiders finished dead last in the SMJHL, 13 points behind the second last Prince George Firebirds. To put that into perspectives, the gap between the Raiders last place finish and the Firebirds second last place finish is two points bigger than the gap between the Fires birds and the eventual cup champion Kelowna Knights. The team struggled offensively, 124 goals all season good for last, 171 goals allowed all season, also the worst, and obviously the worst goal differential by a country mile. The Raiders goal differential of -47 is worse than the 2nd last Firebirds (-16), 3rd last Montreal Militias (-16) and 4th last Detroit Falcons (-5) combined. We would keep going but after after Detroit the next worse goal differential was +12 for the Colorado Raptors, so yes, no matter how you cut it the Raiders had a worse plus minus than any other combination of teams combined. Shoot McGavin and Quinn Cullen carried the team last year, along with goalies Freddie Laflame and Geezus Kryyst. Shooter McGavin registered 20 goals and Cullen registered 18, good for 31% of all the teams scoring. Those two combined for 271 shots, the entire rest of the forward group has 439 combined. Another blow came at the end of the season when all-start starting goalie Freddie Laflame announced he'd be leaving the SMJHL to begin his SHL career. Nonetheless, Halifax being the hockey crazy market, still sold out every game, but the energy and life of the building continued to fade as the season went on.

The dawn of a new era, the Season 42 SMJHL Draft



The Raiders took to the draft floor and made a splash before the draft even begun. Announcing a huge draft deal to move up and grab another top 5 pick.

To :
1st (4th OA)

To :
2nd (9th OA)
5th (33rd OA)
9th (65th OA)

Archer pulled off the deal, packaging their 5th and 9th round pick to move up from 9th to 4th OA. Twitter lit up and Raiders fans were even further to the edge of their seats waiting to see what other top talent their team was going to take. Before the phone could be put down the Raiders came up on stage to announce another trade.

To :
8th (58th OA)

To :
10th (73rd OA)
11th (81st OA)
12th (89th OA)

A much less exciting trade, but another move where Halifax was able to take advanatage of the plethora of picks they have at their disposable to move up.  Then the draft floor hit and the Raiders took to the stage to make their impressive ten picks. The draft had a clear consensus top six, every mock draft had the same six names, be it in different orders. Jax Aittokallio, Leshaun King, Max Mauldin, Crush Cile, Goku Muerto, Eero Niemi. With two of the first four picks the Raiders would have their choice of the top rated prospects of the class. After the first pick was announced to be Jax Aittokallio, the Raiders took to the stage to announce their first draft pick, the C from the United Kingdom, Leshaun King. Leshaun King is likely the prospect most ready in his draft class to step into the league and play big minutes, he has a mature game where he can play all situations. Leshaun is a strong two-way C, capable in the faceoff circle, dangerous on the rush with his speed and shot, and smart in his own end. Leshaun would step into the Raiders roster as their new number one centre immediately. The following pick saw Max Mauldin go to Vancouver, and the Raiders would go up again, this time taking bruising scorer, Crush Cile. Crush is big, is nasty, and can burry the biscuit. He's impossible to knock off the puck on the cycle, plays with an edge, and has a real mean streak. On top of that Crush is smart in his own end, so will be able to contribute on the penalty kill as well. And just like that the Raiders locked in one third of their future top six. After Goku and Eero both got drafted to St. Louis and the Armada respectively the Raiders had back to back picks, and didn't hesitate on who to take."With the 7th and 8th picks in the S42 SMJHL entry draft the Raiders select, the brothers, from the Czech Republic Kristof and Oliver Kovacs!" Both brother took to the stage together and recieved their jerseys. With these two picks the Raiders essentially locked in another top six line. The two brothers have been playing together since they could skate, and it shows in their chemistery and playing style. Kristof is a heavy centre, with a lot of speed and is great faceoff man, his brother Oliver is the speedy playmaking winger, the perfect compliment to Kristof. The two together will be magic. And by the end of the first round the Raiders had formed the core of their future top six.

Round 1 : The core of the top six
- Leshaun King 2nd OA
- Crush Cile 4th OA
- Kristof Kovacs 7th OA
- Oliver Kovacs 8th OA

The teams took a breather and it was on to rounds two and three. The Raiders again had back to back picks at eleven and twelve and would then pick again in the thrid round at twenty-one. After grabbing so much offensive talent, the Raiders turned their attention to addressing their desperately thin blue line, and they knocked it out of the park with their next two picks, taking another pair which will likely be seeing a lot of each other, defensemen Pierre-Laroche Durocher and Maximillian Egger. Now the two may not be brothers like the last pair of picks, but they do seem made to play together. Pierre, also know as the"Rock Stone-Boulder" by his opposition, is a punishing, physical defensemen. The biggest, nastiest, strongest blue liner in the draft. A player who opposing forwards dread to go into puck battles with. A player who will shut down opposing top lines and be a formidable penalty killer. His potential partner in crime is the Austiran Maximillian Egger. Max is a small, speedy, pucking moving defensemen, one to jump into the play and quarter back a power play. Egger is a gifted playmaker, his passing skills will be on full display this season to all the young forwards the Raiders have at their disposal. And again, with back to back picks the Raiders filled another major need, a first pairing. With the top six core in place and their Raiders first pairing together, they now turned their attention to the back bone of every championship squad, the shut down anchor and penalty killing third line center every team needs, and drafted Mr. Faceoffs. Mr. Faceoffs is a team favourite, every knows you can't win with out killing penalties, you can't win with out winning faceoffs, and you can't win with out shut down opposing first lines, but nobody wants to do those things, well Mr. Faceoffs does, and he does it exceptionally. And just like that one two three, down the middle, the Raiders are set for the future.

Round 2 & 3 : The top pairing & the shut down center
- Pierre Laroche-Durocher 11th OA
- Maximilan Egger 12th OA
- Mr. Faceoffs 21sr OA

The teams took a break then returned to finish the draft. The raiders sat out rounds four, five and six with out any picks, but came back into the action in rounds seven and eight, with picks 49, 57 and 58, the Raiders have a thing for back to back picks. Well, with what they had drafted to date, the Raiders had addressed multiple glaring needs and could now start putting finishing touches on a great draft. With pick 49 the Raiders were able to address the next biggest need and that was filling out the rest of their d-core, and picked up another blue liner who will be between the 1st and 2nd pair, with Thomas Speardane. Speardane is a swiss army knife defender, who should be able to comfortably play with Egger when the team needs a goal and with Laroche-Durocher when the team needs to shut it down late game. He's a good passer, a good defedner and very mobile. An excellent fit in the club. Then with their third set of back to back picks, the Raiders grabbed some much needed scoring for their third line with Snipperri Baardownen. An all out offensive spark plug who can run wild up and down the ice while being anchored to Mr. Faceoffs and then grabbed a needed back up goalie in Nathan Cosco. With Kryst the clear start Cosco has time to develop behind him and eventually take the reigns as Raiders starter. And with that, the Raiders concluded what will likely be considered the teams strongest draft in Raiders history.

Round 4 to 10 : Finishing touches
- Thomas Speardane 49th OA
- Snipperri Baardownen 57th OA
- Nathan Cosco 58th OA

The new era Raiders left the draft floor and were greeted by the teams staff and former players, as the group bonded and prepared for the start of the season they were unaware that their young squad was about to get some new additions.

New pirates aboard, signing free agents



The Raiders gathered for their first practise as a new team, reporters and fans came to watch what the new guys were capable of first hand. Then, in the middle of practise over age blueliner Greg Connors was called off the ice, he was being shipped with a draft pick to back to back champion Kelowna Knights.

To :
$6,500,000 in Cap Space

To :
2nd, S43
(D) Greg Connors

With no looming contracts needing resigning, and plenty of cap space to sign their new draft class, the city was again a buzz, why the move for more cap space? Who was coming? Well, three big names were ready to join a loaded Raiders Roster.

"I'm pleased to announce the signing of Free Agent Defenseman Craig Finley. I'm thrilled to be bringing Finley in with our recent draft class and adding to our promising young blue line in the process. He should be an integral part in helping our defense out and getting the Raiders on track to win many championships." - Archer, GM of Halifax.

Craig Finley is a dangerous offensive defensemen out of the United States. Finley takes the offensive load from the blueline off of just the shoulders of Max Egger by being another excellent offensive defencemen. Craig can move the puck up ice swiftly, can pass, can shoot, and is getting better in his own end. Finley is the perfect touch to round out what is an exciting future top four consisting of himself Speardane, Egger and Laroche.

"Oh we were ecstatic to hear about the signing of Craig. I'd seen him play before and he's such a gifted player in the offensive zone, he's just a guy who makes plays and generates offence. Between him and Egger I think we're going to have no trouble moving the puck up ice and feeding it to our skilled forwards." - Pierre Laroche-Durocher @lespoils

Craig Finleys contract was announced at 3 million, which is the max, but also begged the question, why trade away Greg Connors? The team had 3 million in space already. A question that stopped begging with the announcement of the second free agent. Another american, the sniper Vince Rieper.

"Halifax is thrilled with yet another FA signing as we bring in Vince Rieper to wheel, snipe, celly for us this season! Adding yet again to our already incredible draft class and really rounding out our team nicely to compete for a long time. " - Archer

Vince is a big boy, and a lethal sniper. Vince will be an excellent addition to the teams powerplay and turns the Raiders from a team with a solid top six who can roll three lines to a team with a solid top nine that can potentially roll all four lines.

"When Vince stepped onto the ice for his first practsie I was floored, the guy can really shoot, and I'm just sitting their thinking with Leshaun, Crush, Sniperri, Kristof and now this guy we have some serious guns on this team. As a play maker this is going to be a fun team to play on" - Oliver Kovacs @KillTheArchitect.

With this second signing it now made sense. The Raiders were locked and loaded and ready to start building the next SMJHL dynasty. All until new rookie Leshaun King bumped into another young talent while practising down with the U18 American team in St. Paul, Minnesota. At the end of the practise the team finished with a game of shinny. Leshaun was put on a line with the undrafted Richard Metcalf Jr. Well it didn't take long for the two to hit it off, Metcalf has incredible vision, playmaking and speed, but was potentially left undrafted because of how late he declared and his lack of size. Leshaun's size and defensive presence compliments Metcalfs game and the two lit it up. After the game Leshaun approached Metcalf.

"Yeah after that first game we played together I was thinking, I want to play with this guy one day, and definitely not against him. I told him that, I told him I think, maybe not right away, but if he joined Halifax the two of us could do some serious damage together. We both got excited and I headed home to talk to Archer about him." - Leshaun King

Archer met Metcalf and was also impressed by his game, and just like that the Raiders announced their third and final signing before the start of the preseason.

"We're pleased to announce the signing of yet another FA to the Raiders. This time we're bringing in an amazing playmaker to help dish out plenty of assists to anyone willing to shoot the puck. I expect he'll be lighting up that assist leaderboard for a long time to come!" - Archer

With Vince and Richard joining the club the team could really become a four line team and a power house offensively. The raiders, now 13 rookies, could look ahead at the start of the preseason.

Signed:
- Richard Metcalf Jr.
- Vince Rieper
- Craig Finley

First blood, the beginning of preseason



Now anyone who knows anything about hockey will tell you to put little weight into preseason, well how ever little you want to put, the Raiders have still come out of the gate firing on all cylinders. The Raiders decided to roll four lines, as opposed to the common three done in the SMJHL. (Highlighted is every rookie, just to show how much of the roster they take up.)

1. Leshaun King - Shooter McGavin - Quinn Cullen
2. Kristof Kovacs - Oliver Kovacs - Crush Cile
3. Mr. Faceoffs - Snipperri Baardownen - Vince Rieper
4. Hans Gruber - Richard Metcalf Jr- Aiden Elswick

1. Maximilian Egger - Thomas Speardane
2. Kyle Corbett - Pierre Laroche-Durocher
3. Roly Rollerson - Craig Finley

Over the first 18 games of the preseason the Raiders carried a league best 12-4-2 record, for 26 points, ahead of the Vancouver Whalers, St. Louis Scarecrows and Kelowna Knights who are all tied for second with 22 points. The Raiders carry the second best offensive production with 55 goals and the third lowest goals allowed with 45 good for the third best differential. The Raiders youth really has shown though, the teams jitters infront of their home crowd has shown with their 5-2-2 record at home, but when the pressure is off the young guns they're absoluting flying going 7-2-0 on the road. The Raiders top line is individually off to a great start as well lead by veteran Shooter McGavin, who leads the league with a whopping 12 goals in 18 games, a absolutely absurd scoring pace. Shooter also leads the team with 13 assists, good for 6th in the league, and unsurpsingly is tied for the league lead with 25 points. Other Halifax players to be in the leader boards to start the preseason ( http://www.smjhlstuff.wtgbear.com/S42PRE...aders.html ) include Leshaun King (9th in goals, 8th in points per 20 minutes, 4th in plus/minus, and first in rookie scoring) Geezus Kryst (who is first in save percentage, third in goals against, while also facing the most shots, and having the second most shut outs, Oliver Kovacs is 9th in RW in scoring, Mr. Faceoffs is third in Face off percentage, Crush is top 10 in hits and Oliver, Max Egger and Craig Finley are all top 10 in rookie scoring. All and all a great start for Halifax.

It's difficult not to get too excited as a Raiders fan, the old team which finished dead last has left Halifax and a new crop of 13 rookies has filled the roster, a group which will be together over the next 2-4 years, and one which looks like it may start having success much sooner than anticipated. We look ahead to the rest of the preason. We will continue chapter 2 after the quarter mark of the regular season where we'll check in again and see how our young guys in gold and black are handling the pressures of their first regular season.

3,041 words, x2 SMJHL = 6082.

List below is not included in word count, but for my own updating.

Geezus Kryyst 350
Shooter McGavin 350
Quinn Cullen 286
Hans Gruber 235
Leshaun King 215
Aiden elswick 213
Crush Cile 207
Kyle Corbett 206
Roly Rollerson 193
Tim Murda 183
Peirre Laroche-Durocher 175
Mr. Faceoffs 173
Tyler Schofield 167
Oliver kovacs 165
Kristof Kovacs 165
Max Egger 165
Nathan Cosco 165
Thomas Speardane 163
Richard Metzalf Jr. 155
Vince Rieper 155
Craig Finley 155
Snipperri Baardownen 155

Damn, this is a very good article

PROFILE || UPDATE || RAGE.  




Luke Thomason || LW || Manhattan Rage || 2143 Max TPE
Born: 1/10/98
Height: 6'0
Weight 185 Lbs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Regular season
SMJHL/SHL Stats
S42 | Van | GP: 50| G: 4| A: 8|P: 12|+/-: -10|MP: 457|
S43 | Van | GP: 50| G: 16| A: 19|P: 35|+/-: 3|MP: 951|
S44 | Van | GP: 50| G: 22| A: 31|P: 53|+/-: 9|MP: 1033|
S45 | SFP | GP: 50| G: 18| A: 19|P: 37|+/-: -5|MP: 1041|
S46 | MAN | GP: 50| G: 19| A: 24|P: 43|+/-: -3|MP: 1156|
S47 | MAN | GP: 50| G: 16| A: 28|P: 44|+/-: -15|MP: 1184|
S48 | MAN | GP: 50| G: 16| A: 24|P: 40|+/-: -13|MP: 1137|
S49 | MAN | GP: 50| G: 21| A: 28|P: 49| +/-: 13|MP: 1099
S50 | MAN | GP: 50| G: 21| A: 23|P: 44| +/-: 10|MP: 1157
S51 | MAN | GP: 50| G: 17| A: 22|P: 39| +/-: 5|MP: 1232
S52 | MAN | GP: 50| G: 24| A: 29|P: 54| +/-: 17|MP: 1193
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Playoffs
S42 Playoffs | Van| GP: 11 | G: 1| A: 2 |P:3|+/-: +3| MP: 101
S43 Playoffs | Van| GP: 10 | G: 4| A: 1 |P:5|+/-: -3| MP: 206
S44 Playoffs | Van| GP: 14 | G: 7| A:6  |P:13|+/-:-1 | MP:228
S46 Playoffs | MAN| GP: 12 | G: 3 | A:2  |P:5|+/-:-14 | MP:289
S47 Playoffs | MAN| GP: 5 | G: 3 | A:4  |P:7|+/-:2 | MP:119
S49 Playoffs | MAN| GP: 11| G: 6| A: 11|P:16|+/-: 5| MP:248
S50 Playoffs | MAN| GP: 6| G: 5| A: 5|P:10|+/-: 7| MP:137
S51 Playoffs | MAN| GP: 12| G: 7| A: 9|P:16|+/-: 4| MP:293
S52 Playoffs | MAN| GP: 19| G: 9| A: 13|P:22|+/-: 0| MP:438

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Transactions/Awards
S43 Named Assistant Captain for VAN Whalers
Drafted 3rd OA by San Fransisco Pride
S43 4 Star Cup Champion  
S44 Zach Miller Award for Most Dedicated
S44 nominee for the Damien Littleton award for most dedicated
S45 WJC Gold Medalist
S45 SHL Rookie All-Star Team
S46 Named Captain for Czechoslovakia
S45 Winner of the Damien Littleton award for most dedicated
S46 Nominee for Damien Littleton award for most dedicated
S49 Bronze Medal for Czechia
S52 Nominee for Anton Razov Trophy
S52 SHL 3rd Team


Arnost Holub || Vancouver Whalers GM/ Manhattan Rage Co-GM
S44 | W:27 | L:18 | OTL: 5 | P:59 | 3rd in League 
S45 | W:29 | L:17 | OTL: 4 | P:62 | 4th in League 
S46 | W:23 | L:21 | OTL: 6 | P:52 | 8th in League 
S47 | W:30 | L:17 | OTL: 3 | P:63 | 3rd in League 
S48 | W:28 | L:16 | OTL: 6 | P:62 | 4th in League 
Total | W:137 | L: 89 | OTL: 24 

Manhattan Rage  
S49 | W:33 | L:15 | OTL: 2 | P:68 | 3rd in League  
S50 | W:26 | L:20 | OTL: 4 | P:56 | 8th in League  
S51 | W:26 | L:18 | OTL: 6 | P:56 | 5th in League 
S52 | W:28 | L:21 | OTL: 1 | P:57 | 6th in League 
Totals | W:113 | L:74 | OTL: 13 
S49 Lance Uppercut Award
S51 Lance Uppercut Award Nomination
S52 Lance Uppercut Award Nomination

Playoffs
Vancouver Whalers
S44 | W: 7 | L: 7 | CF Round Exit
S45 | W: 6 | L: 6 | CF Round Exit
S46 | W: 1 | L: 4 | 1st Round Exit
S47 | W: 6 | L: 4 | CF Round Exit
S48 | W: 12 | L: 7 | 4 Star Cup Champions
Total| W: 32 | L: 28 | 4 Star Cup Champions

Manhattan Rage
S49 | W: 6 | L: 5 | CF Round Exit
S50 | W: 2 | L: 4 | Wildcard Exit
S51 | W: 5 | L: 7 | CF Exit
S52 | W: 12 | L: 7 | Challenge Cup Champions
Total | W: 25 | L:23 | 1 Challenge Cup

Damn, this is a very good article