[Critch]

2033/34 Regular Season

Lines
Forwards
1st Line - LW Lucas Karmiris (4.5), C Jordan Gavin (5.0), RW Emil Hemming (3.5) - It's the way we ended last season, Podkolzin dropping down to the second line for Emil Hemming
2nd Line - LW Urho Mattila (3.5), C Oskar Vuollet (3.5), RW Vasili Podkolzin (3.0) - Vuollet and Mattila are the quiet stars of the team, both underpaid really. Then there's Podkolzin who's past his best and overpaid.
3rd Line - LW Jeff Martin (3.0), C Kaden Pitre (3.0), RW Jorgen Palm (2.5) - Jeff Martin may be the rookie hope for the future (although worryingly the Anchorage scouts dont like him as much as the national concencus) but he's a hitty boy so he's on the third line. Podkolzin re-signing got in the way of his ascension to a top 6 forward. Pitre and Palm have been staples on the third line for a couple of years, but they're both on expiring contracts and looking to be paid in the summer.
4th Line - LW David Prudek (2.5), C Nicholas Mouldenhauer (2.5), RW Peter Hrovatin (3.0) or August Pettersson (3.0) - Prudek moves to his prefered left wing, Mouldenhauer could be replaced at any moment if I had anybody, and right wing is two rookies splitting time waiting to take Jorgen Palm's place when he realizes he's not getting a new contract in the summer.

Defense
1st Pair - LD Weston Knox (3.0) RD Henry Mews (4.0) - our set top line.
2nd Pair - LD Easten Turko (2.5), RD Jiri Mendl (3.0) - Turko gets a chance to step up to more minutes on the second line, Mendl returns from a year in Moscow and has never lived up to his reputation. If things go wrong, it'll be because of this pair.
3rd Pair - LD Matthew Paranych (2.5), RD Jackson Gillespie (2.5) - The leftovers. I'm not sure how, but Gillespie always churns out a solid +/- and a high assists/60 mins.

Netminders
Evan Maillet (3.0), Lucas Wall (4.0) - They're both seriously underpaid on 750k each, Maillet expires after this season and Wall after next. My cunning plan is to leave Maillet as starter this season, let him walk in the summer and then offer Wall an extension in the hope that he will sign for cheap because he's never been a regular starter. He may have better ratings but he's only 21 and Maillet always performs at least as well. Money is going to be tight next offseason (Gavin, Karmiris, Pitre, Matilla, Knox all expiring and looking for payrises), so we need Wall to sign on the cheap, Maillet is already looking for 6mil per year so he's priced himself out.

Preseason
Preseason ends with a 4-3 record and with a couple of moves. RW Jakob Karlsson goes to Boston for a low prospect, and C Dylan Nolan is picked up from Buffalo to challenge Nicholas Mouldenhauer for the 4th Center spot. Spoiler, he doesnt, he's even worse. Karlsson went because we're overloaded with RW, I'm not sure if it's realistic with real world hockey, but our RW seem to be less adaptable than other forwards. Most Left Wing can play Right Wing too, most Centers can play left and/or right wing, Right wing can play Right Wing and nothing else, so he's not a good adaptable backup that can fit in where needed, so he's surplus.

Regular Season
For the regular season itself, it's a weird one. Anchorage start slowly, a quarter of the way through the season they're in 8th place in the 9 team division and have a losing record. The only good thing is nobody is dominating, nobody is getting too far ahead of us. It's parity gone mad, everybody hanging close to each other except for the terrible Anaheim Ducks falling away in last place. It's not until the end of December that Anchorage finally break into the top half of the division and in the playoff hunt, but with nobody dominating 'in the playoff hunt' means 'not far off the top of the division'. A solid run messed up a little by injuries (a run on left wingers means we play a few games with a defenseman in left wing) and Anchorage are safely tucked into the playoff positions and challenging Calgary for the Division. Coming into the last two weeks, Anchorage are top of the division by 3 points and seem to have it all locked up, but they lose 5 games in a row to finish the season (not helped by Henry Mews being out injured) and drop into 2nd, Calgary clinch it. It was strange, it didnt feel as dominant as last season but still ended with over 100 points for the 4th season in a row, 49-30-3 for 101 points.

Jordan Gavin was, as usual, the star. 35 goals, 40 assists for 71 points, a little off last year's pace but still team leader. Kaden Pitre showed he wanted a new contract by scoring 30 from the third line, the first Anchorage player other than Gavin to make 30 in a season. It's the usual core from then on, Emil Hemming with 43 points, Lucas Karmiris with 50, Oskar Vuollet with 40, Henry Mews with 38 despite missing 22 games. New names carrying the team are Jeff Martin (bounced around all over the lineup to cover injuries but still managed 12 goals, 31 assists in 81 game, plus lead the team in hits) and David Prudek (40 points as a bottom 6 forward).

Vasili Podkolzin took his 6.5 mil salary and got down to the business of retiring on ice, he's dropped off massively and only managed 6 goals all season. The only season nearly as bad was Jorgen Palm, and that wasnt his fault. He missed almost all of it with a fractured skull, he'll be missing the playoffs too.

For the Pacific Division, Calgary won with 103 points, Anchorage 2nd with 101, Seattle 3rd with 100. Both the wildcard will come from the Pacific too, Edmonton and Vancouver both with 96 points. Bad news for San Jose, their 95 points was only good enough for 6th place and no playoffs. LA Kings fell off a cliff and went from champs to 8th.

Elsewhere Nashville got 114 points to win the Central division and the President's Trophy too. They'll be joined by Chicago Blackhawks (first playoffs of the dynasty) and Atlanta. In the East the division winners were Toronto and it's finally the return of the post-Ovi Washington Capitals. Yay!

First round of the playoffs, Anchorage will have home advantage against Seattle. The defense of the championship is still alive.