1963 OFFSEASON

APEX Hockey Joins Zeal in the Hunt for THL Supply Dominance



The new season also brought in a new competitor in the supplier market, APEX Hockey, a division of Apex Apparel started by Billy Adkins and based out of Portarra. Apex made a year-long courtship of the Whales but were ultimately denied by Whales owner Seymour Duval who said he wasn't interested and they would continue to service their uniforms and apparel in-house. Apex then turned to the upstart Yubay Falcons who also turned them down, stating they desired to wait it out longer before deciding on a supplier. Billy Adkins was finally able to convince Don Giordano to hand over the keys to the Isle of Kirk. Apex decided to make a big statement with their new marquee client and created an entirely new logo to replace the Coliseum logo they'd been using. After seeing Kirkenport signed, Lecayne followed suit and inked a deal with Apex.

1963 KIRKENPORT CAPTAINS IDENTITY




The first thing APEX did was focus on designing a new logo for the Captains that better suited their identity that didn't just borrow from the Kirk Coliseum. With other teams in the league also featuring nautical themed identities, the process took a long time. The new logo is a navy captain's cap shape with a hockey stick built into the outline and featuring a new secondary logo parch that combines a ship's wheel with the shape of a hull and incorporating the iconic Coliseum logo. Off-White was upgraded to tertiary status and the logo and front jersey numbers were both given outlines. With the time crunch from the lengthy logo design, other than removing the stripe on the pants, the rest of the uniforms were left intact.

One fan* who heard about the redesign stated, "It can be anything in the sea that's not a whale or an anchor. You know, they can have their brick on brick, we don't need traditions that deep. Just as long as it's hard-nosed, brawling style Kirk Boys hockey, we're good."

* a real quote from a Captains fan

1963 LECAYNE SAINTS IDENTITY



With little time to work after the late deal with Lecayne, Apex focused on cleaning up the current design, removing some of the heavy outlines and scaling the oversized logos to more classic sizing to produce a more concise look.

Marcotte Lays Down The Law

Just before the beginning of the official 1963 offseason, Commissioner Marcotte placed a moratorium on the international player pool, after he discovered under the table deals with being made by the Anchors and Whales with Russian mobsters for the services of coveted Polish goalie Ernie Bukowski, still in his early teens, and standout Icelandic winger Peter Isaksson. The vicious dealings caused Marcotte to axe the whole pool and placed sanctions on Port Alrene and Portarra. A tough blow, particularly to Portarra, who desperately needed to upgrade their second lines on both ends after a tough year. Marcotte placed a waiver order on potential signings, worst-to-first which further rankled the brass in the Big Three, especially Kirkenport whose roster is aging rapidly.

Player Signings

The Saints, now with first dibs of a shallow local pool, signed 18-year-old forward Pierre Goble from Hyletville to bolster the middle of their second line. Yubay immediately jumped on solid 23-year-old defenseman Shane Galbraith from Snobon to bring some help to the blue line after veteran Connie Milliken struggled to stay healthy.

Trades: Burt Wentz Heads to Portarra, Tyson Sallee to Yubay

With the moratorium on, teams decided to get creative with trades and signings. Yubay traded the elder Wentz brother Burt and second liner Alex Harter to the Portarra Whales for budding star winger Tyson Sallee. Meanwhile, Portarra convinced forward Adam Keenan to leave his independent league team and join the Whales to help Marlin Parr on the top line. The 29-year-old Keenan is a premier talent but a long pro career since age 16 has put too much wear and tear on his body. He can shoot well but his skating is slow at best. Yubay brought in veteran netminder Larry Boudreaux to replace Burt Wentz. Kirkenport, unable to bring in any help for their second forward unit, elected instead to sign defenseman Herman Ellsworth from Port Alrene to even further increase the size and toughness of their blue line. With pairings of Rikhard-Corbitt and Hillis-Ellsworth, their backlines will be tough to beat.

Marcotte Looking for Independent Affiliates

Commissioner Marcotte also announced that he was in the process of orchestrating a deal with several local independent teams to form an affiliate league system that would still allow some flexibility to the independent team owners. Players from the THL would most likely be on loan and the professional clubs would not own or operate the semi-pro or indy league teams, only have exclusive affiliations. It is unknown when the arrangement will be finalized, but with a growing number of prospects with professional experience unsigned, it has become paramount to create a prospect system along with an approaching draft system.


C&C appreciated!

Last edited by Steelman (7/26/2019 4:23 am)

1963 REGULAR SEASON



The “Year of the Moratorium” as the team owners derisively dubbed it, was a tale of two halves. The first half belonged to Port Alrene as they again paced the league in goals scored behind a furious Gary Wisniewski, still stinging from their inglorious exit in the 1962 Finals. The retooled Falcons were red-hot with new addition Tyson Sallee forming a bond with Geno Pasternak on the top line. Portarra was playing solid hockey with a healthy roster and Chasonne's goaltender Nat Marchant was reminding the league why he was a 2-time all-star.

The second half played out much differently as the Anchors suddenly forgot how to score goals even though Ferdy Haight was playing out of his mind all the way to another Top Goalie award and a first-ever League MVP trophy for a goaltender. Gary Wiz dealt with several lower body injuries, including an unusual abdomen tear that slowed him down to the point of being unable to skate well as the Anchors slipped to third place. His availability for the playoffs is unknown and will hamper the Anchors hopes to returning to their 4th-straight Finals.


Instead, the Chasonne Heralds rocketed up the standings behind a monsoon of scoring by Lou D'Angelo and Ingmar Frisk with more offensive output from defenseman Paul Kauffman. D'Angelo was awarded Best Forward. Just behind the Heralds, the Whales kept pace behind a resurgent performance from goalie Maxwell Blunt and potent scoring with their top-line of Parr-Keenan-Dooley. Coach Stan Massey was again honored for his consistent efforts in leading the team to the top of the standings. The Heralds are poised to repeat as champions.

The Falcons outplayed the Captains down the stretch to earn their first playoff berth, and first by a team not in the Big Three or Four to do so. Young star Geno Pasternak blossomed alonside Tyson Sallee and rookie defenseman Shane Galbraith gave the Falcons a new energy on the blue line that earned him Best Rookie honors. Things in Kirkenport slowed down as predicted, with the aging of their roster, particularly up front. Forward Byron Peachey earned an all-star berth but appeared much slower than usual. Outside of rising defenseman Lauri Rikhard, the team desperately needs to add some speed to their skating.



The Lecayne Saints kept pace in the scoring department behind Stefan Ostrowski and vintage-performance seasons by F Marc Hutcheson and D Chauncey Lombard. The net was a problem as Reed Darling and Alan-Edgar Fortier disappointed.

Playoff Preview

Heralds vs Falcons
The big story is the upstart Falcons and their newfound success in bringing fresh blood to the playoffs. The reigning champions, however, are a formidable foe, and outside of major injury, seem destined to the finals again. Can the young Falcons make a name for themselves in this series?

Whales vs Anchors
As close and ferocious as this matchup has been in their history, the Anchors are badly crippled without Gary Wiz and the Whales have new life with Adam Keenan on the front line and Burt Wentz backing up the net. Can the Anchors overcome their injuries and book a berth to a 4th-straight Finals?

Chasonne vs Yubay
Hey, good for the Falcons, but it stops here. Heralds are the best team in the league and taking momentum into the playoffs. This one can’t go more than 6 unless the rookies on the Falcons start looking like vets in their first appearance in Big 4 territory.

Portarra vs Port Alrene
Most eyes will probably be on this series given the history. Whales have the upper hand in the standings by a whole 1 point so most would think it would be tight, but recent performance inconsistencies can’t be overlook. A team can only depend on a goalie for so long, Anchors depth has to step up. There is also the question of the Wiz even being able to play. The gap between the two is much more than 1 point going into this series and if the Whales score first this could get ugly quick. Portarra in 5.

Portarra vs Chasonne
This one is hard to call both are hot and both can score. It seems it will come down to which goalie is there to outshine the other and all signs point to Blunt and the Whales in 6.

I'm really hoping my Falcons can pull something of here but I'm not too confident.

Last edited by Section30 (8/01/2019 11:51 pm)

I had to add some of my own commentary. The upset by Yubay against Chasonne is one of the single greatest upsets in the history of all of my years of simming fictional leagues. The Falcons had absolutely no business even making it close against the Heralds. When I was simming the series my jaw was literally on the floor the whole time. Then when the Heralds tied it up for a Game 7 I thought for sure they'd take care of business. Nope. Just a truly amazing series that will be a true all-time classic!