15 Thoughts on 15 Seasons

1. One championship final in Year 15. Not bad — but around here, no one’s pretending that’s the end goal.

2. Two overtime penalties that still sting. You win and lose championships on margins that small, and the Monarchs learned that the hardest way possible.

3. Three wins from an emergency backup — Fredrik Bergvik — in 2022-23. Then he got hurt, too. That season turned into a survival test, with six different goaltenders dressing at various points. (Sometimes you don’t build depth by choice.)

4. Four-year plan. That’s what management sold when John Tavares arrived in free agency. Year one: second round. Year two: conference final. Year three: Continental Cup final. If you believe in trends — and hockey people always say they don’t, until they do — Year Four could be something.

5. Five names show up again and again when you dig into the franchise record book for game-winners: Alexander Ovechkin, Sebastian Aho, Artturi Lehkonen, Jack Eichel and Tavares. That’s not accidental.

6. Six minors and one major in just four Cup Final games for Aaron Ekblad — part of a playoff run that ended with a league-leading 33 PIM. The interesting part? He’d been disciplined all year (1.6 PIM per game in the regular season, 1.5 through three rounds). Then the final hit, and everything escalated.

7. Seven forwards. The infamous number used in elimination games by the Monarchs. The short bench became part necessity, part identity.

8. Eight? No — Ovechkin. Sometimes the number doesn’t matter as much as the name. And if you’ve watched this team at all, you know why.

9. Nine individual awards is what some inside the organization will tell you they should have. Officially, it’s eight. (There are still people who haven’t let go of the 2024-25 MVP vote involving Eichel.)

10. Ten combined regular-season and playoff records held by Ovechkin. At some point, you stop counting milestones and start measuring eras.

11. 2011. The first draft pick in franchise history: Jordan Binnington, fourth round. A fan favourite from the start — and a reminder that sometimes foundations begin quietly.

12. 2012-13. Still talked about in certain circles as the single greatest season in SICHL history. When people say “rewrote the book,” this is what they mean.

13. Thirteen playoff appearances in fifteen seasons. Consistency like that doesn’t guarantee championships — but it gives you chances.

14. Fourteen assists this past postseason for Mason Marchment. Controversial acquisition at the time, no question. Less controversial now.

15. Fifteen seasons down. And if you ask anyone in the organization, they’re not thinking about the past number — they’re already betting on the next fifteen.