Season 35 Draft Preview
By Chad and Fluri
Detroit Red Wings
GM: Reapz2313 (7.5 Mil)
Resign: LeCupidon (8.5 Mil)
GM Reapz decided to once again resign LeCupidon in a move that should surprise absolutely no one. Cupidon is one of the best players in this league and almost seems like a no brainer to resign him at this point, but Reap had a lot of good options. He could’ve gone with Kidmoney who finished 3rd in points last season (146 in 36 games) or an SP veteran in DirtyTrix. The only downside to this duo is their price. Combinated they are 16 million (the second highest). That’s a huge chunk of their available cap space.
Toronto Maple Leafs
GM: ExE-_-53 (3 Mil)
Resign: SA_Pliskin (5 Mil)
ExE takes over the Maple Leafs and resigns SA_Pliskin. ExE is a solid left defenseman. Adding Plisk who can pretty much play anything you need makes sense, since ExE has everything else refused. The combined price of these 2 isn’t bad either at 8 Million. This is tied for the lowest price for 2 players coming out of the resign phase this season. These 2 aren’t the most talented pair going into the draft but if they draft smart with the extra cap space they have maybe they can put together the most talented team. Time will tell.
Vegas Golden Knights
GM: FIVEpointOHHH (3.5 Mil)
Resign: shepard-88- (4.5 Mil)
Season 34 wasn’t a terrible one for Fivepoint he and his team had a solid regular season and ended up making the playoffs, Sadly for them they ran into the powerhouse Dallas Stars in round 1. Looking to build on his success Fivepoint decided to stay in Vegas and resign shepard. I like this resign for Five. Shepard is a solid shutdown right defenseman at a great price. This draft isn’t very deep so having a guy like shep right off the bat is definitely a good thing. They also have the 2nd overall pick. With that pick I think Five will probably go with one of the top forwards since he already has a blue liner with shepard.
Nashville Predators
GM: ProdigyToLegend (4 Mil)
Resign: cgiroux11 (6.5 Mil)
In my opinion, Nashville, New Jersey, Carolina and Detroit have the 4 most talented pairs heading into the draft. The thing that sets Nashville apart from the other 3 is the combined price of both players. Carolina who we will talk about later have the highest paid duo at this point with 16.5 Mil, Detroit is right behind them at 16 Mil and New Jersey isn’t far behind them either with 15Mil. The Combined price of these 2 is only 10.5 Mil. You have GM ProdigyToLegend at only 4 Mil. That is a steal for a talent like Prodigy and his resign former Vezina winner (season 29) cgiroux making his return to SP after taking a season off. These 2 have the potential to be very dangerous. Giroux had a rough go back in season 33 but he’s looking to bounce back and get back into Vezina talks in season 35.
New Jersey Devils
GM: TrueLegend07 (6.5 Mil)
Resign: chadkillz134 (8.5 Mil)
Yesc’s departure left the door open for TrueLegend to take over Dallas, and then relocated to the East. Out of all the teams to take over, TrueLegend had the cream of the crop. So many great choices to choose from here, whether he wanted a fwd, d man, or a goalie. He had some of the best options available. Choosing to resign Chad (8.5Mil) was the choice he decided to go with. Bean being at 10 mil may have been a little too rich for True’s blood, or he wanted to go play with someone else, no one knows. But either way, Chad was a good 2nd option. This gives them a top tier fwd, and a top tier goalie for 15 mil out of the gate, not the smallest amount but not the largest either. This gives the New Jersey Devils a good position going into the draft to still be able to stack the team even more if they draft right.
Carolina Hurricanes
GM: SliyumShady (6.5 Mil)
Resign: Iam_mrbean (10 Mil)
After taking over for Sedin late last season Shady led the Canucks into the playoffs getting past the Nashville Predators in round 1. Unfortunately they came up short in the 2nd round against the cup winning stars. Funny enough Shady’s resign Iam_mrbean was on that stars team that knocked him out. Now together they look to build a cup contender. We’ve talked about it a lot in this preview but these 2 are the most expensive duo heading into the draft. (16.5 M). Can Shady work around the huge contract of Bean? The 10 million dollar man is coming off a career season taking home the Hart, Art Ross and Rocket trophies meanwhile in Vancouver Shady struggled between the pipes last season. Is he going to play G this season or maybe move to defense? Maybe he just needed a change of scenery to get his game going again. We’ll soon find out.
Montreal Canadiens
GM: EL_R_O_O_K_I_E (3.5 Mil)
Resign: GrammyHands (5.5 Mil)
Rookie has elected to head to Montreal to try and build a winner. He isn’t off to a bad start with GrammyHands as his resign. Grammy is coming off a Stanley Cup win with the Dallas Stars. 5.5 Mil for Grammy is a steal. If Rookie can get a solid center to play between himself and Grammy, that forward line could turn out to be quite scary for other teams to deal with. Rookie can also play a little defense as well if they are in a pinch, and Grammy is perfectly capable of backpacking a forward line if need be. If Rookie can draft well, and fill his team with some solid D men, and land an above average C to play alongside himself and Grammy, this team could be a force right out of the gate.
Pittsburgh Penguins
GM: Visibility12 (2 Mil)
Resign: Lo-Maximus (6 Mil)
We have another rookie GM stepping up and taking a team in Visibility. He decides to go with Lo-Max in the resign draft. This is a very interesting pick seeing as these 2 are both very flexible and can play pretty much any position they need to. They are only 8 mil combined. They sit right in the middle of the draft board with the 5th pick. They have some things going for them. If they draft correctly this team could be one to watch out for. However the question is will they? Visibility being a rookie GM with only 2 seasons of SP under his belt makes me nervous. I’m not sure I trust him to make the right picks. Prove us wrong Vis! Hopefully is doing his homework and can bring success to this Pittsburgh organization.
Top 5 forwards still on the board in our opinion. The stats we are going to use are from the last season these players have played in SP
Gucci__gui (Season 33) (19 Games Played, 36 Goals, 27 Assists, 63 Points,+25)
hypey- (Season 32) (18 Games Played, 23 Goals, 26 Assists, 49 Points,+25)
TMills71 (Rookie)
Diirty_triix_13 (Season 34) (25 Games Played, 8 Goals, 24 Assists, 32 Points,+49) (Played Defense)
ROLLaBACKWOODS (Season 34) (35 Games Played, 55 Goals, 45 Assists 100 Points,+21)
Honorable Mentions
Fluri37, KIDMON3Y, and PistolPete7788
Top 5 defenseman
Royalkc85 (Season 34) (28 Games Played, 2 Goals, 50 Assists, 52 Points,+68)
Uberpwned_6969 (Season 34) (19 Games Played, 3 Goals, 18 Assists, 21 Points,-6)
Eggman–1 (Season 32) (11 Games Played, 2 Goals, 6 Assists, 8 Points,-14)
Ultimategamer940 (Season 34) (31 Games Played, 0 Goals, 12 Assists, 12 Points,+74)
ChiefTrout (Season 34) (14 Games Played, 1 Goals, 10 Assists, 11 Points,+5
Honorable Mentions
FreezeMothaSucka, CaptCanada_, DetAjax1 and Notorious250
Top 5 goalies
Ciulla19 (Season 34) (14 Games Played, 7-7, .819 SV%, 2.93 GGA, 1 SO)
RanchX41X (Season 33) (33 Games Played 20-13, .792 SV%, 2.76GGA, 2 SO)
Eye_1-2fillholes (Season 34) (14 Games Played, 8-6, .790 SV%, 2.93 GGA, 0 SO)
Wade-Belak (Season 34) (13 Games Played, 10-3, .765 SV%, 3.15 GGA, 0 SO)
SgtVandoos (Season 34) (27 Games Played, 12-15, .759 SV%, 3.85 GGA, 0 SO)
Honorable Mentions
sINGLE–G6_ and malliaman__
And there we have it, our award article has come to an end. We had a blast writing this up for you guys, and we look forward to seeing you out of the ice for SPNHL’s Season 35. Chad and I will have more coming for you in the future, we will break down weekly action, and anything else we decide to chat about! So look forward to that! Best of luck to everyone in tonight’s season 35 draft!!