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***FuzzSHL*** · 05-05-2019, 05:49 PM

05-03-2019, 09:59 AMKatth Wrote: Against: The St. Louis Scarecrows have officially moved passed the Kelowna Knights as the best SMJHL team of the S40's.

Both teams have won 3 Four Star Cups in a row and both teams have appeared in 4 finals. Though Kelowna Knights still have the slight edge with 2 Laurifer Trophy wins while the St. Louis Scarecrows have had none in the same period.

BS! While St Louis recently matched Kelowna's record for 4 Star Cup wins in a row, St Louis looks primed to make yet another return to the 4 Star Cup finals this season. Despite not winning any Laurifer trophies yet, St Louis is on their way to winning their first and have had to go through two Laurifer Trophy winners in finals that they have won (Detroit in S45, Kelowna in S46). While Kelowna may own a better overall record through their 3 cup victories, St Louis has seen more sustained success and have had to take down tougher opponents en route to their cup victories. This current season is yet another point to add to this conversation, as St Louis is currently on an 11 game win streak, sits at the top of the table, and is only getting better as the season goes on.

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Calgary's Otis B. Driftwood could do the unthinkable and win the scoring title as a defenseman.

AGAINST: While Driftwood will ultimately find himself among the top scorers in the league, the lack of goal-scoring my defensemen in the league every season would require Driftwood to either break that spell (which he currently isn't doing), *or* break assist records. Combine those with the fact that Driftwood spends a considerable amount of time in the sin bin and it looks unlikely that Driftwood can win the scoring title.

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With the additions of Artemi Berezin and Sophia Bennett the best team in the SHL is now.. the West Kendall Platoon

FOR: West Kendall was already good before the additions of Berezin and Bennett. Now, they have a top-5 scorer in the league and another who is just under a point-per-game at 21 points in 23 games. With their goalie sitting at a .912 save percentage, West Kendall looks primed for a Challenge Cup run this season.

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Currently boasting a .571 winning pct.. The San Fransisco Pride will not make the playoffs.

AGAINST: San Fransisco is sitting pretty right now currently in a playoff position. To fall out of the playoffs, one of three teams with a pretty negative goal differential will need to hop them, as well as Calgary needing to hop them *again*. San Fransisco, barring a catastrophic collapse, looks like a lock for the postseason.

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The SMJHL has it right with the 350 TPE cap.

AGAINST: Players in the SHL sitting under 1000 TPE have a hard time finding themselves being consistent contributors on the score sheet, which means lower ice time for those who aren't high earners. The SMJHL serves two purposes: a development league for players to play in before they are SHL ready, and as a league to get new players acquainted with how the SHL works. With how high TPE numbers middle-six players have, it means SMJHL player's TPE banks rack up sometimes hundreds of TPE waiting to be "unbanked." This "unbank" makes updating rough since there is so much math involved in making sure no one applies more or less than they had in their bank. Raising the cap would give more time for SMJHL players to feel like they are actually progressing while they spend the same amount of time in juniors.

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By S49 the Chicago Syndicate will climb past New Orleans as the better expansion franchise.

AGAINST: While Chicago currently holds more draft picks and more prospects than New Orleans does, New Orleans has better quality prospects in the farm system and has enough "young" players to stay consistently competitive throughout the next few seasons. With Aleister Cain in net and players like Nicholas Williams and Demaricus Smyth also on the roster, and Michael Fox, Jimmy Slothface, and Charlie Serpe in the system, New Orleans looks to only get better as seasons progress.

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With 5 rookies in the starting lineup the New England Wolfpack will hold off Chicago, Tampa and Hamilton 

and make the playoffs.

FOR: New England and Chicago seem to be mirroring each other in terms of performance this season in almost every aspect except for one: special teams. This is the one aspect where New England shines above Chicago, boasting a 24% PP over Chicago's 16%. While neither team has good penalty kill units, if New England can keep up their power play success, they should sneak into the playoffs ahead of Chicago.

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Recent trades have pushed the Los Angeles Panthers out of post season aspirations until S51.

FOR: LAP seems to have realized that they are in a middle-of-the-road position in terms of the standings and had two choices: load up for a run, or sell off some assets and prepare for the future. They took the latter route, and while they may find themselves in the playoffs before S51, it seems unlikely at the moment that it will happen.

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The Best juniors player in the world... Espen Knutsen Jr. of Detroit.

AGAINST: While Knutsen is posting the most points in the league as of the writing of this post, underlying stats tell a different story. Knutsen Jr's success could very well be a product of his linemates, as Knutsen doesn't have any underlying stats that shout "elite" outside of his positioning.

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The Hamilton Steelhawks 7-13 start should not come as a shock.

AGAINST: Hamilton has 11 players at or near 1000 TPE on their roster, including their starting goaltender. To start the season 7-13 should come as a shock to a roster with well rounded talent on the upper end. We have seen worse teams start stronger, so regardless of what the issue is, their record should be a shock to those within the organization.

Aleksi Kettu

Segi · 05-05-2019, 05:51 PM

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The St. Louis Scarecrows have officialy moved passed the Kelowna Knights as the best SMJHL team of the S40's.

For. Me and my fellow S47 rookies have yet to see a different SMJHL champion. The St. Louis Scaarecrows seem to never lose enough players to stop being good. Other teams have had good and bad seasons, but the Scarecrows are always found on top.

ErM · 05-05-2019, 06:09 PM

Against: By S49 the Chicago Syndicate will climb past New Orleans as the better expansion franchise.

The New Orleans Specter have already jumped in and looked to be one of the top teams in the league right of the gate since their inception. Furthermore, they are being led by Joe K and TDZ two members with a love and passion that should get them far. The Scarecrows are consistently considered a top SMJHL team due to Joe’s work, I don’t see why it would change in the SHL.

PeanutButter · 05-05-2019, 06:54 PM

Calgary's Otis B. Driftwood could do the unthinkable and win the scoring title as a defenseman.

I don't see why not. He seems like a really good player and with him always working to make his player better it seems like he could totally be the highest scorer as a defenseman.

***Hallsy*** · 05-05-2019, 07:05 PM

With 5 rookies in the starting lineup the New England Wolfpack will hold off Chicago, Tampa and Hamilton and make the playoffs

Against, Hamilton will climb up and take a playoff spot back and make a deep playoff run this season tbh. A little adversity to add to their season tbh.

***Acsolap*** · 05-05-2019, 07:27 PM

With the additions of Artemi Berezin and Sophia Bennett the best team in the SHL is now.. the West Kendall Platoon

Pretty biased obviously but considering the tough start that we had to the season where despite becoming better as a whole we were following on from the disappointment of last season we have pulled a complete 180 after adding these two. 12 wins in a row with both Berezin and Bennett contributing significantly to boot there is little doubt that we are the team to beat this season.

Credit to Ml002, King, Wasty, Carpy, Bruins10, Rum_Ham, Turd Ferguson, Ragnar and Enigmatic for the sigs.
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**RomanesEuntDomus** · 05-05-2019, 07:32 PM

The SMJHL has it right with the 350 TPE cap.

FOR

The main purpose of the SMJHL is not to satisfy recreates or to cater to people who stay down three seasons to have the best shot at Rookie of the Year in the SHL seasons down the road. The SMJHL is for first-gens and actual rookies to show them what this league has to offer and to get them hooked, in order to do that the 350 TPE cap absolutely makes sense and should remain untouched. Progression and the value of each individual TPE is most significant at the start of a players career, so a jump from 350 to say 450 TPE would actually be quite massive, both in the actual sim and as a psychological factor. It can already be quite hard for rookies to gain quality ice-time, the last thing we want is bury them one the 3rd or 4th line even more, forcing them to go up against players with twice their TPE and creating an incentive for GMs to play send-downs more because they have become more valuable compared to rookies.

drodger91 · 05-05-2019, 08:00 PM

With the additions of Artemi Berezin and Sophia Bennett the best team in the SHL is now.. the West Kendall Platoon

A big ole For this one. I mean c'mon. Then after these transaction we go on a 12 game winning streak?! But seriously, these two deals make this West Kendall team absolutely deadly and the big team in the East now to beat for sure.

Carbine · 05-05-2019, 08:04 PM

By S49 the Chicago Syndicate will climb past New Orleans as the better expansion franchise.

For.

Chicago is becoming the Latvian stronghold that Winnipeg was known for all the way back when. That alone will give them a core that few teams will be able to rival in terms of player retention and skill.

Kmarko · 05-05-2019, 08:10 PM

The SMJHL has it right with the 350 TPE cap.

Disagree. Active users hit 350 within their first 2 seasons, and often spend 2 seasons just banking tpe. Thats boring, and people go inactive because of it. The 350 cap also limits the variety of builds you can make, which just makes things overall less interesting

JSS · 05-05-2019, 08:12 PM

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Recent trades have pushed the Los Angeles Panthers out of post season aspirations until S51.

Agaisnt. The Panthers aren't rebuilding, they're rebuilding. That's a big difference and could change a whole team's timeline depending on which route they go. It wouldn't surprise me if they were to be in the playoffs before S51 because STHS is funky and it's only a retool.

Eggy216 · 05-05-2019, 08:38 PM

By S49 the Chicago Syndicate will climb past New Orleans as the better expansion franchise.

I'm going to stand against that. I think the Chicago Syndicate are better prepared for the future, but the Spectre are just absolutely stacked. It's going to take a lot more than just a couple of seasons for the Syndicate to really come into their own - they built for more long-term success as compared to New Orleans' "glass-cannon" approach to everything.

gaby · 05-05-2019, 09:00 PM

Currently boasting a .571 winning pct.. The San Fransisco Pride will not make the playoffs.

For

Winnipeg and Los Angeles are pretty much 2 teams we can already assume will miss the playoffs as both teams are rebuilding. The last playoffs spot will go to Minnesota letting the Pride finish in 6th place

trella · 05-05-2019, 09:03 PM

By S49 the Chicago Syndicate will climb past New Orleans as the better expansion franchise.

Agree. The New Orleans Specters are build for now, but the Chicago Syndicate will definitely dominate in the future. Most of the Specters roster is old and regressing and they will fall off soon,

Thanks to @karey and @JSS for the sigs!

Former USA Fed Head, Carolina Kraken Co-GM, Tampa Bay Barracuda GM

crutch · 05-05-2019, 09:04 PM

Currently boasting a .571 winning pct.. The San Fransisco Pride will not make the playoffs.

against: I feel like the SFP has done an excellent job building their depth through drafts which makes them a hella great organization. with LAP fully tanking this season I think that SFP will make it in as either the 3rd seed or a wild card seed, but they will be in the playoffs none the less

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