Claimed: Federov ranks elite [1/2]

[Banackock 8,143]

Now, your first thoughts are likely disagreeing with the topics title. When you look at Federov's numbers, he is a far cry from terrible and bad. He's not your mediocre defender in the Victory Hockey League and actually ranks in as one of the better ones in the game today. In fact, one could make the argument that management, strategy and teammates could be a reason why Federov is a little more behind when it comes to our expectations for him. Say you put him on a solid, caliber roster a couple seasons ago and place him with some contributing members outside of the select couple and I think you'd see a huge increase in play and offensive numbers. One may even go as far as guesstimating that he would have potentially won defender of the year.

 

Now another season approaches the Seattle Bears and Aleksei Federov and it's another opportunity for him to climb the ranks and show to the league what they've been expecting this entire time. For a quick little blurb, in his rookie campaign he was playing on the weakest of all Bear seasons and it showed in his numbers. While the numbers aren't too poor, they weren't what was expected from someone scouted so highly. He had 25 more points than anyone, but finished with a mediocre and disappointing 43 points through 82 games. During his sophomore season, we actually witnessed what a lot of players know as the "sophomore slump". Federov found himself being surrounded by the same caliber of team as the following year and his numbers really took a hit. 36 points through 72 games, magically 18 of them were goals from the back end. Hopping over to Season 56 and his 3rd season, Federov had a fair amount to prove and thankfully, a little more help this time around. This season, you really started to see a reflection of his true character. The Bears barely missed the playoffs, finishing out by 8 points and the team seen a larger overhaul in the off-season that helped bring in some offensive weapons. Federov had a  44 point improvement (which blows my mind he actually wasn't up for player improvements awards) and managed 80 points in 72 games. For the first time in his career, he was happy with his performance. Heading into his 4th and most recent season, there were huge expectations on Federov, Mcallister and the rest of the Bears organization. They even managed to get off to a hot start while other teams legged behind, but as the season grew on, teams caught up and the Bears started to fall apart at all seams. They went from one of the better and meaner teams, to a team that lost by 10 points despite having a pretty attractive record of 42-26-4. On the season, Federov finished with 79 points. What blew people away this season above Federov was that he only had 13 goals on the year.

 

Now that the short blurb is over, we look forward to another season as the off-season is in it's final stages of finishing up. The Bears look attractive, but a lot of team have made moves to strengthen themselves, to we feel it's safe to say that it likely still will be a battle. For Federov, his thoughts may be the same.

 

It seems for the first two years, I hit a wall. I was in the 35-45 point range and couldn't escape. I think we can all agree that's not where my playing level was at, but due to circumstances - that's where I was. The following 2 seasons up to recent, I capped out around the 80 point mark, which I'm fine and happy with but it's a little disappointing considering I want to break the 100 point plateau. I think this season is going to be the year that I do that and I really hope that I started to pitch in more for the boys. 13 goals last season wasn't something I liked and is something I want to change about my game. I need to hit the net more and set that lamp off. 

 

DOUBLE - 12 for Federov (1 week)

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

Review:

"another season approaches" - damn, we really need some committed reviewers.

Federov really has been improving and potentially will have a cup to his name soon. Great career thus far.