You may recall in S45 and S46 Helsinki and Calgary met in the finals, Helsinki winning both times obviously. That was the start of a so far 3-finals-in-4-seasons run for the Titans, while the Wranglers were on couldn't make it 4-in-4 in S47, choking in Game 7 to New York and going into a rebuild. That seemed to be that for that little rivalry, especially when Helsinki traded Draper and yours truly, thus signalling a rebuild.
But no, the S49 draft looks very good for both Helsinki and Calgary. I'm liking Calgary's strategy of trying to rekindle some of that S44 magic with Jala, Cuffy, and Caillean. Tsbagsuph and Ventas are also nice sleeper picks. Helsinki though are probably European favourites for the final, especially since Stockholm has finally imploded. There's now a good mixture of old S45-S46 Helsinki, with Strauss, Faux and still the exact same four defencemen who won the S45 cup*, along with Cole, Dadonov, Odinsson, and Gow. Things are looking up.
In fact, everyone's looking quite good going into this season. I was concerned about Davos and Riga but their teams are actually shaping up quite nicely now. The only team with a bleak future at the moment is Stockholm, but then is anyone surprised?
*seriously, that's ridiculous