Vorian Atreides Analyses Possible Destinations

After being drafted to the Colorado Raptors in the S49 SMJHL Draft the season went fast and now it is already time for the next step in the careers of the Season 50 rookies. This time around, I won’t even cause a fuzz or where I want to end up, I will leave it all in the hands of the draft gods, which is probably a relief to some of the managers, as with both my previous SHL drafts I did cause some drama to end up where I wanted to. Some fights with the Edmonton Blizzard in my first draft as I wanted to end up on the Buffalo Thunder which were soon to be known as the Hartford Hydras and are now known as the New England Wolfpack. While in my second draft I had to refuse to play for at least Texas and Hamilton to fall in the hands of the Wolfpack where I wanted to play my entire career with Xander Green, which did happen, just not with any success for the franchise, so it’s great seeing them on top of the conference again this year.

Even in my SMJHL draft I had asked Kelowna to not select me, as I had my heart set on Colorado Raptors and despite our early playoff exit, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. But for the SHL 50 draft, it will be different, I will not make any demands for the teams, if they want me they can draft me and I will start my career with them. So instead of making demands, i’ll just have a look at all the teams where I could end up. I will be looking at both the management in place and how deep the teams are on naturally created centers. If they have wingers with high face off skills, this team analysis might be worthless, but it atleast has given me some more insight in the options. Management guys: if you read this, feel free to contact me if you have questions or a certain plan in mind for my player if you would draft me.



The Buffalo Stampede management has already one familiar face for me, Tomen. In my time as a Prince George Firebird I recall him being around as well and at time he was a great guy to have around , really active and helpful, so it is great to see he got a management role in the big leagues. Buffalo has recently won some cups which is great for the franchise and I’m quite sure I would fit in their winning ways. Question is if they can remain competitive by the time Atreides is ready for the big leagues.

Position wise they are really deep on center at the moment. They have still young and upcoming centers in Monkey D. Luffy and Bobby Sharp, who are 4 seasons younger as Atreides, so they will likely be in front of him his entire career. So position wise this might not be a good match. Even if you take the older guys in mind, they still could hang on for some seasons more meaning Luffy and Sharp would have the line 3 and line 4 position covered if Hippo Passamuss (season 43) and Dermot Lavelle (season 38) keep on playing. By the time Atreides would be ready to be called up I would expect Oliver König who was the co-gm for Colorado this year as well, to be regressed into oblivion, so I don’t think he will be there. But, as I said, that’s still 4 players that are likely playing in the spot where Atreides wants to end up. The Stampede might have a plan in mind, but I’m not sure if I will be in that plan considering the logjam of the position. They do not have any centers in their prospect pipeline yet, so there is always an outside chance.



The Chicago Syndicate is a new franchise for me that wasn’t here the last time I had a player (or that I was actually active with that player).Management wise I’m familiar with Velevra and O4L as names, but not really as persons. I never really conversed with them so have no idea how they are in the locker rooms and such, but that might not have to be a bad thing. The Syndicate have yet to win cups since appearing in Season 46, so that would be a fun accomplishment if we could try and reach that goal together.

Let’s see how they are looking in the Center position.At a first look it’s not as big as a logjam on center for the Syndicate as they only have three natural centers on the rosters. But compared to the Buffalo they do have three centers which are just a few years above Atreides in age, so unless some of them move, it might be hard to crack through the line up. The youngest of the three centers in Martijn Westbroek and since he is from a player agent that I know well, I know he will likely not slow down easily. JNH always have made reliable players as far as I have known, so he will be one to not move aside easily.

The next center on the list is Daniel Smeb, a season 46 player so four seasons older as Atreides. He will with no doubt still be there once it’s time for Atreides to move up as it’s another player agent I recognize and it’s Kylrad. With him either beign Velevra’s older or younger brother ( i still don’t know after 7 years ) he will remain loyal to the Syndicate for sure.

The third one will already be a bit more in regression territory, but it will still be early seasons of regression, so I don’t think Season 40 player Mikkel Haugen will make room just yet for Atreides and that would leave him on the fourth line for now. Not a position you want to be burried on the depth chart, but it might be the only option with how deep the SHL is these days. There however is room on this franchise, so only be keeping up the activity and grow into a better player Atreides might be able to take over more spots, so Chicago could definitly be an interesting project for him.



The next up are the Hamilton Steelhawks, a team where I have played with my first player before. In a time where Joe McKeill was still the GM this was a great team to play for and I sure had fun being on the same team at that time as my wife was with her player Jareth Sto Helit. However when my contract was due they traded me away to West Kendall where I finished up my career. While I will always see the Steelhawks as the franchise they used to be, they are definitly different now. With my last player it actually was a place where I didn’t want to end up, as all I seen the GM post at that time was immature bullshit and I didn’t think I would fit in there. We are now some time further already as Green was a S34 prospect, but the GM is still in place. Haven’t seen much bullshit going around for him this time around, barring people creating some trade drama, but I haven’t read up on that enough to see both sides of the story. Atleast I noticed he can now communicate normally as seen in the fantasy managers discord, so thats atleast a plus for him compared to about 2 years ago I think?

But lets move on to the players on the team. This is the first team where there might be more options to move in to the line up, their two highest centers for this season where Yuri Bojka Jr. (who I think retired by now?) and Robert Phelps. While Phelps is currently still going strong he will have a harder time to keep up with regression as he is a S35 player. The other two players on the roster are Samee’s player Zivan Zidek, who has 500 something TPE as a S45 player. With no offense to Samee, if that is the pace he is on since creation, I will be able to catch up to his player eventually and take his spot on the line up. The other center already on the roster might prove a harder bump to pass as Aaron Wilson, from member Aaron Wilson. He is a S47 player on his way to the 800 mark, which seems to be the pace for most S47 guys at the moment. So it looks like he will be out of reach.

With just looking at the roster it looks like it would be a good match and that Atreides would fit in the roster quite well. But the Steelhawks are also the first team that have a center prospect in the pipeline and this is S49 prospect Skao Anazibf (that took me a few tab switches to get the name spelled right), he is one season older and naturally has a lead over Atreides in terms of TPE. So if he keeps on earning he might be one step ahead the whole time, so it will be up to the Hamilton management to see if it would be worth picking me up for the future.



The Manhattan Rage is another team where I have a history playing for, I think diamond_ace was the manager at that time and I had the best cute icebear avatar possible back then. Now the Rage is in hands of JayWhy, who was the goalie for the Edmonton Blizzard in the year I won my only cup in the SHL. He already had reached out himself to me, instead of another team that just sent a scout towards the prospects for an initial intake, so I really appreciate that extra bit off effort from the management part. The co-gm they have I don’t really know, so no idea about him, but time could tell right.

When looking at the Rage roster I could see a clear chance for becoming a second line center there in the future, as it will likely be impossible to push off Jax Aittokallio from the roster as he is the GM player. One nice surprise I saw here was Auston Matthews, a guy who was quite unknown at the time that Xander Green got drafted and a lot of people pondered if Wasty had made a good pick there, so it’s great to see the pick indeed paid off and that Matthews is still going strong. He will however, likely be gone due to age at the time Atreides will come up to the ranks. Also gone by then will be Yannick Berger, as a S39 with just 700 something TPE left, he will not pose a threat to my player as I can jus gain without having to worry about regressing. So from the base roster, it’s only Season 43 player Aittokallio standing in the way. Then I figured that there were probably some prospects in the pipeline, but that is also empty, this would make Manhattan based on the results this far, definitely a favorable location for Atreides to play.



The New England Wolfpack are a familiar face for me as I created this franchise together with Ace and was responsible for acquiring the old logo (not even knowing that the person who I got the permission for the logo from, had the logo from others himself) and making the franchise. But due to the move and the whole situation with the old Hartford GM at that time I wanted out and away from the drama. So despite helping create the franchise I never suited up for it with Willems. That was something that I wanted to fix with Xander Green later and I played there until inactivity and regression got the best of me and they preferred using the roster spots on younger players. Ace honored the agreement I had made with the previous management there and kept his word and did not trade me. The green would be the only color worn in the career of Xander Green. Despite having the plans to to step into Nathan Russels shoes, this was just too much to fill. Inactivity got the best of me again (which is not an exception in the SHL as I wasn’t around much for the end of Willems his career aswell) and I never got to be the legend I hoped to be for the franchise. Did not win a cup here and did not break my curse. But it was fun being here, that’s for sure.

Position wise it is not so glorious for Atreides to return here. The true centers in the team are all S46 and younger, so it won’t be easy to pass them in the ranks.The oldes of them is S46 prospect Gordie Boomhower and with him being on the way to 1000 tpe steasily he will remain the centerpiece of the offense for years to come. The same can be said for Slap McShotty, with just one year younger as Boomhower he is on a steady pace to become the number two center for the franchise. The only one that has a lesser pace then these two seems to be Boris ‘The Beast’ Poroshenko, but with still a 600 tpe behind his name, he has a comfortable lead over Atreides that wouldn’t be passed anytime soon. While there are no further true centers on the roster, they do have Jakub Brucheveski as a S49 center who is currently playing for the St. Louis Scarecrows. With so many young players down the middle, positionwise the Wolfpack will not be the best fit.



After covering teams that I knew a lot of, had a history with or atleast knew the management, I know there are a lot of teams that don’t fall in this category and the first of that are the Tampa Bay Barracuda. JSS and Jepox I have seen around the boards so far, but not a real interaction with (as I feel there is way less interaction on the forums anyway compared to how it was in the past, probably due to the addition of discord). So there’s not much to see, but it’s great to see Tampa Bay finally got their franchise as at first we were not allowed to put the Hydras in Tampa Bay, which was the original plan we had for the franchise. They are doing quite well at the moment, so it will be nice to see if the logjam at center is as big as I would expect from a competing team.

The first center I checked on the roster was S41 player Alex Andani who has recently retired, so that is already a relief, as with the right activity Andani could have remained a stand in the way for the first few seasons that Atreides would be called up. The next one on the list is S45 prospect Nickolas Klaus, a season 45 draftee with almost 800 tpe. While he is likely behind on some of his class mates, he is still miles ahead for Vorian to surpass him on the depth chart. I think Noble is also still active so he would also keep gaining tpe for seasons to come before he even starts to think off fighting regression. Season 46 prospect Matt Kholin seems to be the biggest competitor for the 1st line spot and will definitely be the hardest one to pass for Atreides. He is ahead of Klaus and a year younger, so it’s a spot that won’t free up soon. With Andani gone he will remain the #1 center for the Barracuda for years to come. Looking at the roster the only questionmark for me is Van Morrison, he has no tpe amount listed, he has no update thread, so he looks like an inactive roster filler. So there will be atleast someone Atreides can easily surpass. That being said, just from the roster alone, it would look like third line would be the best possible outcome for Tampa Bay. But that is without looking at the prospects, and that is where further trouble comes in. As S47 center Espen Knutsen Jr. from the Detroit Falcons is one of their prospects. With being some years ahead of Atreides, it will be just the fourth line spot after all that looks reachable.




The Toronto North Stars are up next and their management is confusing, both Nobody and ml002 are their managers, but if nobody is the manager, how can ml002 be? Needless to say I don’t really know much of either of them, but I know that ml002 has a podcast and recently brought his girlfriend into the shl, which i think is cool, as my wife also started out as my girlfriend who joined the league a short while after I had created. (Even though I believe in this case its a longer time), but needless to say, it was a fun thing to do and everyone should have couples goals like this.

Looking at the roster I have confidence that I could become a number one center here, the centers they have now are all S44 or older and do not go above 702 TPE. The season 44 guy is from Kevin ‘Juice’ Bieksa and I remember him from the past, but no so well that I can remember how active he was. I think he was the player agent of Kevin Hamilton in the past? His player now atleast is Shaquille Derisraka and has 673 tpe right now while being 6 years older as Atreides, so this doesn’t show an activity high enough that he will stay in front of me. The same thing goes for Kevn Kazarian, who is one year older even and he is (to no ones suprise as i mentioned the specific number) 702 TPE. Carter Maning at 677 is already regressing a lot and the final center Jill Jealybeanov is someone who already regressed to a part where any new signup in the SHL would be better. This is a great outlook for Atreides for his single position, but will Toronto be able to build back up if these are the kinds of players they currently have.

So far you would say it’s a great fit for Vorian, but that was written without looking at the available prospects in their pool. In here we find 4 different centers all ranging between S47 and S49. So between S47 center and Colorado teammate Ja’Aj Coitus-Wagg, S48 center Mika Kandinsky and S49 centers Jan Zacha and Jared Lammi, there is alot of competition of people who currently are all likely to have more TPE as Atreides. A tricky situation and Toronto could use some recruits in the other positions more.



That brings us to the last Eastern conference team and the team I spent most of my time on during Willems his career, the West Kendall Platoon. Glad to see this team is still going strong as it is one of my favourite SHL franchises. JR95 and Wongy don’t really ring a bell right now, but while I’m writing this it’s still early so it could be due to lack of sleep, my apologies if I did know you after all. The West Kendall Platoon also features in my favorite SHL story of all time as my wife once acted as my player agent in contract negotiations and the Platoon wanted to sign me after they traded for my rights. She made Syckez (at that time the gm) include in the contract that they should write a yearly pony related story about the team for as long as the contract lasted. I’m proud to say that they honored it, even when the new gm at that time took over. So thanks syckez and bojo for the great memories.

But let’s go back to present day to see if Atreides will fit in the Platoon roster. And in a blink of an eye, I see a lot of potential for my player. Currently on their roster they have three centers. The main ones being a S44 center with around 600ish TPE and S41 center with over 1000 TPE. With Colt not being the fastest earner he will look like an easy obtainable target for Atreides. And while Ralchankinov has a harder obtainable amount for now, this shows a potential top six role for Atreides. Especially since the third center is just an inactive that already is outearned by me.

In the minor system they have one center, Josef Novotny and with 340 tpe at the moment and being 2 seasons older, it’s someone Atreides will likely catch up with. This makes the West Kendall Platoon also a really favorable organisation to end up with.



That brings us to the Western Conference and yes, i’m already burned out from writing this, but let’s continue for the sake of having a complete article, so the Calgary Dragons are up next.I certainly remember steelhead77, he came into the league as a rookie when Willems was already a seasoned player and nobody could think about how much impact this new player would have on the league and mostly the Calgary Dragons. It would be an understatement to say it would be nice to play for him, because this guy really shows dedication in building a team and I believe the Dragons are somehow always in the top rankings in the league. I might be mistaken as i’ve not been here for a while, but they sure do have that stigma.

So let’s check how Atreides fits within this franchise. The three centers on the roster are steelheads new player Esa Parmborg, a season 47 center. So counting a similar career as Anrikanen, it would take until Atreides his , hmm i give up, I will never catch up with this guy. The second center on the roster is also still a young and active player in Barry Batsbak, as probably the only Canadian player who plays for Austria with a Dutch name. Batsbak also will be a player that might be impossible to catch for Atreides. The first slot that looks obtainable would be that of third line center, as they have Vital Kravtsov there who is already surpassed in TPE. Sure they will likely have some wingers playing center, but for the sake of this article these don’t count. So without looking at the prospects a solid third line spot will be obtainable here. And with looking at the prospects, this view actually stays the same, as there are no other centers in the pipeline, making the Dragons a good fit for Atreides.



That brings us to the Edmonton Blizzard, my love / hate relationship in the SHL. While having a fierce rivalry with my first player in his early years, we managed to lay down the fights and join them for S15 in free agency. After they put in a massive effort in trying to convince me to join, I ended up winning my only SHL cup this far with them. While it also was my first and last season in the Western Conference, I’m still 1 for 1 in the West and 0 for about 30’ish in the East, but that might change with Atreides. Keygan sounds familiar to me as a member, but only because I think he actually might be Keegan from my early years here. I’m not sure about it, but in that case I atleast recognized the name. TommySalami is a name I saw pass in some discords im in now, but dont know much about him. So lets just look at what Edmonton can offer for Atreides positionwise.

And just when I thought each franchise would be full about now and that it would be hard to break into the league, Edmonton also gave me a shine of hope from looking at the roster as only two centers appear here. Shame for Atreides that he will be buried behind them on the depth chart as with S47 center Marc Hagan having almost 800 tpe and the gm player Tony Pepperoni having 1400ish tpe as a S43, he wont move up the ranks quickly. But since there is no one on the third line yet, this is an excellent starting spot.

But when looking at the prospects, a dark cloud looms as not only do they have one of their GM’s as a center, but the other one is right behind him as a prospect. With two GM players down the middle, it will proof hard for Atreides afterall to land a spot here.



And that brings us to Los Angeles and the manager in the Western Conference I’m most familiar with. I’ve played in a management league that was run by Wasty and even though I’m not sure if he’s still doing that, I had a great time in that but had to quit due to time restraints. Go Quebec Huskies! Anyway, Wasty is like a dinosaur under the gm’s by now and he is still holding strong with the Panthers. Never been able to play for him, so that could be a nice change of scenery as well. His co-gm, I have no idea about, so i’ll just move towards the roster part of this article.

And damn, it looks like Los Angeles just got all available centers the last years. We have S46 Max Rockatansky at 441, Borromini Cannellini from S46 as well at 971. One year older we have Kenji Yoshimura at 618. Another year older is S44 center Shouta Aizawa at 728 and it doesn’t stop there. S43 has his own player Max Mauldin at 1301 , while S42 have another center in Mason Brown (but luckily inactive). For a change of pace we can skip a year but see another center from S40 in Florence Clijsters at 991. And if that wasn’t enough, Stavros Halkias in the prospects is also a center. This shows an impenetrable wall to climb for Atreides, making the Panthers likely one of the least good options for Atreides as a player. The choice is up to the managers though, so not excluding it either way, they might have a plan to clear up some space though.



So the Minnesota Chiefs are up next. From what I’ve heard recently they are awesome at making trades for three 1st round picks at once. Which is funny as I had people offering 3 first round picks for my player in the VHL (as 1st overall) and it was declined. But jokes aside, both Shmurpf and Leppish are unknown to me so it is hard to give any information about the management side of the Chiefs.

Moving forward to the roster we see four centers but plenty of opportunity. The youngest center on their roster is from Season 45, Ty Hoover. Hoover is currently sitting on 625 TPE so it’s not a pace that is impossible to catch up on for Atreides. More opportunities can be seen with the rest of their centers as they are aging a lot. S38 is the next center on the list and that is Artemi Berezin with 970 TPE, when Atreides will be out of the juniors he will have regressed some more and he should be over him in terms of active points then. The season 37 center is just a joke likely, as Sam McGrizzley is below the starting point of any VHLM rookie, nothing to be worried about here. The last center on the list is GM player Eric Pelletier, who will also have regressed below Atreides his future starting point, making him believe that based on the pro roster alone, Atreides could become a 1st line center early in his career here. If only they hadn’t moved their pick though. In the prospect department, we see a lot of further chances for Atreides as there are no other centers in the prospect pool. In terms of chance for Atreides, the Chiefs would have been a good fit.



Up next are the New Orleans Spectors, after taking a few days to figure out why they were abbreviated a NOLA (which I still think is weird as no other team uses their state as an abbreviation in the SHL), but that is not the point. The point is to see how Atreides will fit in. Jkortesi81 and TheDangaZone are the management of this team and even though the names do seem familiar, I wouldn’t be able to tell from where I have meet em. And since it is hard to talk about people you don’t even know (we will see this for the upcoming teams as well) it’s better to just switch to look at the position depth at center for the Specters.

The first thing that you see when looking at their roster is that there currently is only one true center on the roster in Soren Kierkegaard. This Season 42 draftee doesn’t even have that much TPE so should not be too much competition. But if there is no competition at center, then how would it look for the competition at this position. And unfortunately I have not covered that in my research this far, as I was just looking at the natural secret. But since they have no proper centers, they must have wingers filling in the slot down the middle. But no idea which ones it are and how much of a competition this would be. In the prospects we find two right wingers and two defenseman, so there is no real competition here. Next to the great logo this franchise has, it also seems a great fit for Atreides in the future. It will be interesting to end up here and see how the situation down the middle will handle itself, perhaps that some wingers will redistribute their face offs when they regress to much.



Grapehead and Tweedledunn, while writing this article I wish I had been more active in the SHL that I actually had stories to tell in this article, but I just don’t know anything to say about them besides them being the management of the San Francisco Pride. So these management pieces are getting shorter by the team. So without to much dragging on, let’s see how the San Francisco Pride looks on the depth of the center position.

Knute Knurtson is the first center we find on this list and is a center that will be hard to pass on the depth chart for Atreides. Being only from S46 and nearing 1000 tpe, there are no signs of slowing down yet. The next center in their line up will also proof to be difficult to pass for Atreides. Steven Moyer is a Season 43 player and is standing at 1130 TPE. There is no way in hell Atreides will hit that anytime soon. So the two of them already feels like Atreides would be buried on the depth chart. Luckily though, it stops there as there are no further pure centers on the roster. With the prospects though it shows it will be even harder. Bo Kane was a top pick in last seasons draft and he is their prospect at center. With him being a year in front of Atreides he should always remain the advantage. This shows the Pride as not a favorable location for the future, but as with any team, things change all the time so we have to see what their management has planned.



Then we reach the Renegades, one of the franchises that were not fond of my previous player at draft time as he refused to play for them for wanting to go to New England and New England alone. Think they are under new management by now with Dankoa and Jearim, but once again I don’t know anything to share here. Hope that they don’t hold it over me as it wasn’t anything personal the last draft, but that it was just a clear case of it being a player that I wanted a full career on New England on. So back to the part that matters, the center position.

We notice that the Renegades have several centers on their roster, but when taking a closer look, none of them seem to be posing as a threat for Atreides. Season 49 prospect Gotta Love Honors Bio is already on the roster and not even a prospect. But with 190 tpe, Atreides has already past this player. The next center we see Kristers Dzelme from Season 44, this player is also only at 285 TPE, an amount where Atreides is almost at already. Mikey Pickles is the last center from Season 43, but this player is only at 160 TPE.

In the prospects department we see two centers, so that is a bit of a downside for Atreides as the Renegades looked to be in a perfect spot to land at. The first player is S49 prospect Jake Primeau who is currently at 385 TPE, a solid lead over Atreides now that only can be passed if Primeau starts missing out on his trainings. Season 47 prospect is even further ahead with 475 TPE, so despite their main roster being a center graveyard, with the prospects in the pipeline it still would only be a third line spot for Atreides.



The Winnipeg Jets are the last one to cover. With Stadiumgambler as their new manager we have finally someone that might rebrand the franchise. It doesn’t need to move out of Winnipeg, but the name Jets needs to go as it’s still the only non-original team in the SHL. While at first the franchise was named after the old Jets, since they had returned to the NHL the name has not been changed. It’s about time it gets switched around and I have faith that their new manager will do this. I’ve seen him around in the Colorado locker room and all has been positive there, so got nothing to complain management wise. So now its time to check how they are looking position wise and if this would be a potential fit.

The first center on their roster is Season 44 prospect Mister McCarty who poses no threat to playing time at all, with just 200 tpe he has already been surpassed on the depth chart. This can’t be said for their Season 43 center, Goku Muerto. Muerto has been really active since he was drafted and has amassed 1235 TPE. This is definitly a player that will stay ahead of Atreides for years to come. The third center on their roster is a player that is so old, he was there when Lincoln became president. Jason Visser is a S31 draftee and has been holding down the fort in Winnipeg for an eternity. While he is getting older it will be harder and harder for him to keep up and eventually time will catch up to him. By the time Atreides is ready, I expect Visser to have moved over. With no other centers in the pipeline, the center spot might be one they want to fill, and with them having the 1st overall pick, it would not surprise me if they would draft a center. I’m not saying Atreides is the best choice, but it might be the best position for them, so it might as well be Ryan Shepard pulling off the double 1st overall pick here.


Conclusion

So this bring my article to an end, with this I have looked at every situation I could possibly land in and while I do have personal preferences for some of the teams, I will be open to playing everywhere, I just do hope that the general managers will speak to me first and tell them what their plan is for the long term with Atreides, even if it is just as trade bait i’m fine with it, but please let me know what plans you have. So also for this reason, I have not filled in any interested prospects threads, but if there’s certain info you want to know before considering me as a selection, just let me know. Hope you all enjoyed this analysis of the teams. See you at the draft.




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