Thursday 6 September 2018

Fall Season - Week One - September 7th

To kick off the season the previews for this week will give a brief review of each team coming out of the draft:

Haya (grey):

Positives:
- Best defensive depth in the entire league: Luqman Arshad, Salman Khalid, Adeel Awan and Sadat Malik
- Offense already has chemistry going from Salaam Cup, Cambridge Days and other East-End leagues: Waqar Khan, Yasin Admani, Sufyan Shaikh (Note: We had Erfan Bhanapatel pegged as a top ten draft pick which they were able to pick up in the 5th pick… he should contribute to the goal scoring production as well)
- TMT core has been brought back: members of the Haya 2017 I-Slam Cup Winning Team are returning: Samad Hamidi, Adeel Awan, Salman Alvi, Waqar Khan, Yusuf Kapoor (Playoff MVP), Mustafa Shahbaz, and Salman Khalid

Biggest Weakness:
- Beyond the first line there is not enough offensive depth

Projection: I-Slam Cup Finals


Emaan (orange):

Positives:
- Best defensemen hands-down in the entire league: Zubair Wahid
- Veteran Team: Most of this team is 30+ in years which means they will be playing smarter not necessarily harder; expect this to be a good ball movement team
- The entire “Hussain” family playing on one squad (Azhar Hussain, Mazhar Hussain, Muddasar Hussain, and Yasir Hussain) they will know each other’s games inside and out.

Biggest Weakness:
- Really slow team and a lack of offense. Can these guys last the entire game?

Projection: Miss the playoffs


Ridha (blue):

Positives:
- Offensively highly skilled: Abdul Rahim Manjra, Fahad Panchbhaya, Yusuf Ingar, Yahya Ingar, Ammar Panchbhaya, and Mohammed Kazi
- This is a quick fast running (young) team
- The “Malton” connection should help this team build team chemistry real quick

Biggest Weakness:
- This is a team that mostly plays in a gym league, how will they adapt to the challenges of the arena?

Projection: Will Make Playoffs


Ikhlas (green):

Positives:
- Highly talented offensively in all three lines: Emmad Khawja, Aazar Zafar, Hani Soliman, Arif Khan, Zahid Panchbhaya, Abdul Wahab, Mehmed Rizvanovic, Salman Syed and Ibrahim Khan- This team is a very quick team and could probably match team Ridha in speed
- This is an I-Slam product team: This suggested GMS Haris Mallick and Mehmed Rizvanovic went for the best guy available in the draft by passing any regional or Salaam Cup past associations

Biggest Weakness:
- Attendance issues… ATTN: Aazar Zafar, Hani Soliman and Umair Ashraf. Your attendance issues might come back and bite your team!

Projection: Attendance issues will cause this team to miss the playoffs


Ihsan (teal):

Positives:
- Most felt that GM Huzaifa Manjra drafted the best team
- Faraz Alvi, Tayyib Khan and Abdur Nafea Zuberi will make this the deepest team in the entire league
- Threats from long distance: Faraz Alvi, Idris Deen and Huzaifa Manjra can all blast it from the point

Biggest Weakness:
- Not much is known about their goaltender, Mohammad Kasuji

Projection: Will Make Playoffs


Shukr (red):

Positives:
- Re-united and it feels so good! The dynamic duo of Arslan Mian and Humza Chaudhry will be looking to create havoc in the offensive end (Note: Last season Humza Chaudhry suffered a season ending knee injury. With Chaudhry out of the lineup Mian’s game is severely impacted)
- Solid veterans that know how to play the game and bring a calming presence to a team: Zuhair Fancy, Aamir Hanif, Belal Hafeez, Kashif Taquddin and Saajid Bhayat
- Less stress and more success: expect Sulmaan Azmat and Zaid Majoo to create an easy-going environment. Sometimes you just got to stop over-thinking things, relax, trust your instincts and play the game

Biggest Weakness:
- Their back-end defensive pairing is a little bit on the slow side.

Projection: Unknown… hard to predict which Arslan Mian we will see over the next four months. The Mian from last year, well this team misses the playoffs. The Mian that is on fire when Chaudhry is in the lineup, this team will comfortably qualify for the playoffs.


Sabr (yellow):

Positives:
- The best gm pairing in the league: Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal
- Championship Experience (Ridha 2017 Winter Champions): Ahmad Ibrahim, Ali Khwaja (Playoff MVP), Abdu Sharkawy, Shehryar Khan, Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal
- Similar to Ihsan this team also has a lot of depth: Taqi Ahmed, Razi Ahmed, Rizwan Malik, Ali Murtaza, and Shuaib Shaikh

Biggest Weakness:
- They lost Farrukh Khan from last year’s team. He was a big part of their blue line. This is a hole in their lineup they will feel throughout the season.

Projection: I-Slam Cup Finals


Yaqeen (white):

Positives:
- Will score a lot of goals: Maaz Haq, Arif Bijabhai, Farooq Sani, Saleem Malik and Arssal Shahabuddin
- One of the top three goaltenders in the league: Fahad Mohammad
- Dedicated GMs (Maaz Haq and Fahad Mohammad) that guys like to play for

Biggest Weakness:
- Maaz Haq and Fahad Mohammad have yet they can carry over their regular season success to the playoffs. Also lacking defense (other than Taha Azhar and Arssal Shahabuddin)

Projection: Will make the playoffs


Taqwa (black):

Positives:
- Fastest Player in the league: Humza Ali
- Sound Defense: Mohammed Hamoud, Riaz Lasania, and Humza Hussain
- Dangerous First Line: Humza Ali, Dawood Ciombar and Huzaifah Panchbhaya

Biggest Weakness:
- Beyond the first line the offense does not go much beyond that.

Projection: Will miss the playoffs

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