(Draft x 2 Media 2168 Word Count + Graphic)


     IT was a dark and stormy night. In his attic bedroom Zarley Zalapski, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of his bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind. Behind the trees, clouds scudded frantically across the sky. Every few moments the moon ripped through them, creating wraithlike shadows that raced along the ground. This was the night before the SHL Season 48 Entry Draft and Zarley was frightened of landing in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes! This was his biggest fear and with many Mock Drafts it was apparent that the Evil Chiefs would haunt him all night for trespassing on ancient burial ground. At times he would nod off but either the thunder or nightmares would wake him up. It seemed he was in a cold sweat, unable to shake the terror that was inside his heart. Eventually he closed his eyes and tried to think of happy thoughts. He began to to think about the picks in order of the draft and a happy place he would fall into. Although, he had been contacted by a few teams he wasn't willing to answer the tests they provided. "I play hockey" he would say. "I'm not taking any tests for sixteen teams that end up in the trash because deep down he knew none of them had interest in a first generation rookie." The only team that he thought might pick him early was the New England Wolfpack but he figured it wasn't going to happen because of the way the system works. Friends and Family First as always and it isn't what you know or can do it is all about who you know. Instead he thought about the later picks and the second round. Actually, when this entered his mind, he started to feel the fear and anxiety start to lift away from him. This would be the perfect set up to fall late in the draft and get picked up by a team who actually could make multiple runs at the Champions Cup. As his train of thought started in this direction and got stronger, he noticed the storm clouds were passing and heard a few chirps of the nearby robins in the nest. Daylight was breaking and as the clouds were parting, the sun was slowly on the rise! Could it be Tampa or LA? Most likely not as they had not had any communication during his rookie season. The biggest roadblock in his way was the Chiefs but he remembered that the players on the team didn't seem to gel with his personality. Although it could happen he was hopeful that it would not. So who was next? It appeared we had three strong chances to land right after the Chiefs pick. It would be at 20, 21 or 22 and if that fell through he figured he would land up in H E double hockey sticks for sure as they had the 23rd pick in the draft. 

     Zarley remembered that West Kendell had showed some interest and so did New England. He vaguely remembered a NOLA email but Zarley may have offended them with a Scooby Doo reference. Many times, Zarley rubs people the wrong way, with his brash and sarcastic attitude but deep down, Zarley is only cracking wise and really doesn't mean anything nefarious by his words. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get a read on Zarley and usually, people have the wrong impression of him. First impressions are everything, they say but Zarley has always blazed his own trail and doesn't like to follow the standards in place. He prefers to be unconventional. Landing on the team of the Season 47 Champs would be a dream come true. They had a military theme that was right up his ally. However, his disregard to follow protocol would most likely be a conflict. The only way of avoiding the brutal winter of Minnesota would have to come in the way of New England or New Orleans. This was if Zarley would actually get picked up early in the second round. If not and he continued to fall in the draft who knew what would happen or where he would land!? New England can have just as harsh of winters as Minnesota but the choice was no contest as New England gave no fear to the young Russian Rookie.

     As the sun was on the rise, Zarley started to think of the theme from Scooby Doo and as he was humming along a blurry purple object was appearing in his mind. So he opened his eyes and he started to feel warm all over and to his surprise the purple object was near the window starting to come into focus. The object looked like something he had never seen but seemed familiar. Just as he was trying to jog his memory he realized that it was similar to the object that the Specters use for their logo. The Specter came into focus and lifted his arm and pointed directly at Zarley and vanished immediately. The sun was fully up now, just over the horizon and Zarley's alarm clock went off! Playing on the radio was the song: "Let the Sunshine In" by Aquarius. Zarley shut the alram clock off and as he was walking to the door, he stumbled over his slippers and cracked his noggin on the wooden bed frame. Knocked out cold, Zarley did not awake, until the ringing of his rotary phone woke him up!

     The loud ringing from the phone and in his ears was enough to make anyone get irritated. Zarley answered the phone with an unpleasant greeting. Some guy, from some team, from some league was telling Zarley that they were hoping of picking him in the draft that was to take place within the hour. They started to lay into Zarley with questions. Zarley quipped that; "these questions are for the insubordinate players. If you want to pick me up, you can pick me up. I am a professional and I will play for any team that sees value in my abilities. Although I do not want to go to Minnesota, I would even play for them and to make it even more interesting I would play for them for the league minimum. However, I pray to the powers that be that I do not end up in that city. Now, what do you get from me? Well, that is pretty simple. You get a player who is going to produce so much media that money is never a problem. You will get a player who plans on earning every TPE point available. You will also get a player who does not care about contract money. The only stipulation that I ask before signing it is to always have a no trade clause in my contract, that the team can never trade me without my authorization. For this one gesture, I will take the league minimum for my entire career, as playing hockey and winning is the only thing I care about. 500 thousand dollars per year is more rubles than this Russian has ever seen or could fathom. So that is all that is required. Now, I need to get some ice for my head, shower, shave and all that jazz. I wish you and your team the best and I can't wait to see you on the ice playing for your team or against you. It really makes no difference to me as the important thing is just getting some time on the ice!" With these last words the voice on the other end of the phone thanked him for his time and added that he felt Zarley would go in the first round and that they probably do not have a chance of picking him up but they wanted to touch base with him.

     After the phone conversation, Zarley shut off his cell phone and disconnected his landline. He headed to the freezer and cracked some ice cubes into a plastic bag. He sat that bag on his head and put on some classical music. Zarley doesn't usually take any medication but he decided on some aspirin in hope that the pounding in his head would cease. After 15 minutes of trying to get rid of this monster headache, Zarley went in and took an ice cold shower. He did all the usual things that one does for grooming purposes. It appeared that he was not going to be present at the Draft proceedings and he noticed that it was thirty minutes past the start time of the SHL Draft. So he sat back down and opened an Elsinore Beer as he flipped through the sports channels. He found the live broadcast of the Draft and got a chuckle that he had not been picked up yet. They were on the fourteenth pick and he noticed that his own Mock Draft was way off base. He thought to himself that he should of just copied and pasted another persons draft choices. This really didn't matter to him and that beer seemed to go down pretty quick. As he was getting another refreshment, he heard the Commissioner of the SHL announce Buffalo's pick. "With the eleventh pick, of the season 48th draft, the Buffalo Stampede via from the Edmonton Blizzard decide to pick...  Satoshi Zizagooney!" Zarley thought... "who in the world is that? Oh well... no big deal" he was thinking, as the current reigning champs were next up on the last pick of the first round. Zarley pounded another free Elsinore Beer and got some of his Free Peanuts that he gets every month from the McKenzie Brothers. After some time passed, the Commissioner was back at the podium and he gave the same speech as always. "With the sixteenth pick, of the season 48th draft, the West Kendall Platoon select goaltender Kasperi Braulin. "Oh, the guy who felt he was getting no respect in the mock draft process huh? Well, it would of been nice to go to the Platoon but I am happy for that guy" Zarley said to himself.

     As the 17th and 18th pick went by and nobody called Zarley's name he felt nothing but sheer terror as the Chiefs were next up. Zarley went to the freezer and got the bottle of "la vida la gotta." A pet name that his Russian family calls vodka. Zarley took a good swig and as the Commissioner did his thing, Zarley closed his eyes and heard the words... Noah Tedla! Close call but the Chiefs had another pick coming up at twenty three so he was not out of the woods just yet. He had to use the commode and as he was walking out of the bathroom he heard his name being called on the television. It was the Specters from New Orleans who had picked him up at number 20. I suppose you could argue that it was really at number 19 since the Chiefs had to forfeit the number 3 pick. Zarley broke out in the form of a Russian Traditional Folk dance! After a little amount of celebration he noticed that the announcers of the Draft show were giving Zalapski a message from the Specters. It appeared that they could not contact him and wanted him to join them on their discord channel. They further explained that he had an invite to his email and that he should immediately accept the invitation.

     Zarley did exactly just that as he fired up his personal computer. Yes he has a PC and not a MAC. So he opened the email and accepted the discord invite and to his surprise it was one of the most exciting experiences in his hockey life. Nothing but laughs and warm greetings in all directions. It had a party atmosphere and the General Manager got Zarley in a private chat. It didn't last long as they talked about a contract and Zarley made it clear that he wanted to play for the league minimum with a no trade clause. If the Specters wanted to trade him down the road that would be fine but any time Zarley was going to sign on the dotted line he had to have the stipulation that he could not be traded! Of course the head honcho was busy and Zarley went back to the virtual locker room and the party lasted into the wee hours of the morning. Zarley will be playing one to four more years in Montreal but when NOLA calls, Zarley will be ready. It appears that Zarly had a vision all along of who would actually pick him up in the draft. A few days later Zarley signed the historic contract giving up 4.5 Million Dollars in cold hard cash. His teammates applauded him of his team first mentality and Zarley has truly found a home in the Big Easy!

  

good read!

S52 "A" Alternate Captain of the Calgary Dragons
"GM" - Former Prince George Firebirds and Regina Force General Manager
"C" - Former Captain of the Halifax Raiders
S48 Brandon Holmes Trophy Recipient - Top Defensive Forward
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