What's next for Chicago?

[solas 1,951]

The Chicago Phoenix are nearing a crossroads. After building up through the draft from the start of the franchise, the team capitalized on their young, developing core by making more aggressive moves to supplement the team and capitalize on their window of competitiveness. It worked, as the team reached the pinnacle by winning the Continental Cup in Season 76. But after being on the wrong end of two playoff sweeps in the following seasons, it appears that the aforementioned window could be starting to close. 

The first sign of this was S76 free agent acquisition Kyl Oferson hanging up the skates. It was expected given he was at the eight-season mark, but could also be a challenge for Chicago as it was quite possibly the team’s first major retirement in its six-year history. It certainly won’t be the last, and that was truly hammered home with the recent announcement that forward Robin Winter, a trade deadline acquisition from Davos in S76, would be retiring and not playing his eighth season in S79. It makes things interesting for the Chicago front office now - the team now has only three forwards under contract going into next season (Mingle, Xin, and Marimoto). Meanwhile, the signs are still on the horizon that the end of an era is looming - the core players from the S73 and S74 draft classes are nearing retirement. What will the team do in this important offseason? How much time is really left for the Phoenix to compete? Only time will tell.