Beast Unleashed: Tylor Michel

Tylor (right) in Sweden

Before the Beast announce more player signings tomorrow I wanted to get up a bio on Tylor Michel.

Tylor is a 29 year old centre who is from Sudbury, Ontario.

Tylor started his career in the Mid-Western Junior Hockey League which was a Junior B level league. It is now a division in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (as of 2007). Tylor played for the Owen Sound Greys for both the 2002/03 and 2003/04 seasons.
In his time with Owen Sound he scored 54 goals, 77 assists and, 221 penalty minutes.

After his time in Owen Sound was over it was off to school for Tylor. He attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. During his first 3 season at the university (2004/05 to 2006/07) he scored 17 goals, 21 assists and, 39 PIM over 86 games.

2007/08 was a little different for Tylor. He played 37 games for Wayne State (22 points and 94 PIM) and ended up signing with the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL. He played 4 games in the regular season (2 assists, 6 PIM) and went on to the playoffs where he played 6 more games and got 4 PIM.

In 2008/09 the Condors gave Tylor a full season to show them what he is made of. In 64 regular season games he scored 8 goals, 16 assists and, 60 PIM. The Condors would again make the playoffs and in 4 games Tylor played 4 games and got 4 PIM.

For 2009/10 Tylor headed off to the United Kingdom to play in the Elite Ice Hockey League for the Cardiff Devils. He spent both 2009/10 and 2010/11 with the Devils and scored 47 goals, 65 assists and, 283 PIM in 121 regular season games. Both seasons the Devils went to the playoffs. in 8 playoff games Tylor score 4 goals, 3 assists and, 6 PIM.

In 2011 Tylor moved to Sweden to play for IF Bjorkloven.
This was an interesting situation as the team he was moving to was ready to be promoted to division 1  in Sweden for the 2010/11 season but, due to financial issues the team had to declare bankruptcy. As a result of this the Swedish Ice Hockey Association relegated IF Bjorkloven to the 3rd division. Going into 2011/12 the team was finally allowed to move to division 1. So Tylor was joining a team that jumped up 2 divisions for 2011/12. As for Tylor, he scored 29 points and 110 PIM over his 36 games in Sweden. He was also the most penalized player in the league. In the Kval, a round robin tournament in Sweden to determine what division the clubs play in the next season,  Tylor scored 2 goals, 3 assists and , 6 PIM over 5 games.

2012/13 brought Tylor back to the U.K. and the Eilte Ice Hockey League to play for the Sheffield Steelers. In 59 games he scored 24 goals, 27 assists and, 139 PIM. The playoffs only brought 2 games for Tylor but he scored 2 goals, 1 assist and, 4 PIM. This year the Steelers also competed in the Challenge Cup. It is a side tournament that the EIHL hosts. In 6 games there Tylor scored 3 goals, 3 assists and, 38 PIM.

Tylor is coming back home for 2013/14 to play for the Beast and hopefully can mesh well with a player like Jason Pitton who also spent time in the EIHL.

Michael Couch

As the days and weeks continue to pass, the roster continues to fill out for the Brampton Beast.
The Beast added Michael Couch recently. Couch is a 30 year old defenseman from Hanna, Alberta who stands at 6'4".

Mike started his career in the QMJHL with the Halifax Mooseheads. Couch spent the 2000/01 and 2001/02 seasons with Halifax and played 102 games with the team, scoring 4 goals and 13 assists and added 181 penalty minutes. During the playoffs Mike got in 15 games with 2 points and 6 penalty minutes.

In 2002/03 he was traded to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and he also spent 2003/04 with the Huskies. Over those 2 seasons he played 133 games and scored 47 points. He also amassed 250 PIM. He also had a chance to play in the playoffs both years, a total of 15 games with 7 points and 35 PIM.

After his time in major junior was over Mike headed to St. Thomas University and played 2 seasons in the CIS while majoring in economics. His 2 years in Fredericton, New Brunswick (where the university is located) saw him playing 55 games and scoring 12 points and 24 PIM.

With his time in university completed Mike headed over to Italy to start his professional career. He played for the no longer existent club HC All Stars Piemonte which was a tier 2 club that was created to develop younger players in the Turin area. He spent 1 season with the club in which he played 21 games, scoring 2 goals, 8 assists and, 42 PIM.

Mike came back to North America after that season in Italy and signed with the Mississippi Sea Wolves in the ECHL for the 2007/08 and 2008/09 seasons. In 81 games with the Sea Wolves Mike scored 21 points and received 168 PIM. Unfortunately the Sea Wolves only made the playoffs in 2007/08 but in those 4 games Mike scored a goal and ended up with 10 penalty minutes.

At the end of 2009 the Sea Wolves folded and Mike signed on with the Gwinnett Gladiators. He only spent 11 games with the Gladiators (no points, 18 PIM) before being moved to the Johnstown Chiefs. He had much better luck with the Chiefs playing 60 games during the 2009/10 season. He scored 1 goal, 10 assists and, 84 PIM.

The Chiefs packed up after the 2010 season and moved to Greenville, South Carolina but Mike did not make the move with the team. It was at this point which he signed on with his first Central Hockey League team. The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs. During the 2010/11 season he played 54 games and totaled 1 goal, 6 assists and, 55 PIM. The Mudbugs went on to the CeHL playoffs and in 21 games he ended up with 8 assists and 22 PIM. The Mudbugs won the league championship that year (the Ray Miron President's Cup)! Strangely enough, 2 weeks later the Mudbugs would cease operations.

Mike signed on, along with 2 former Mudbug team mates, with the Rapid City Rush for 2011/12. A 58 game season consisted of 5 goals and 16 assists. Add to that 53 penalty minutes. The team played 6 playoff games which saw Mike obtain 1 assist. This was his highest scoring year as a professional and as a result the Rush offered him a contract extension for the 2012/13 season. During the '12/13 season Mike scored 2 goals and 12 assists with 34 PIM. The Rush went back to the playoffs and again lost in 6 games. Mike also ended up with 1 assist.

Hopefully the reunion with coach Mark DeSantis (who coached Mike in 2011/12 in Rapid City)  will mean big things for the Beast this year.

Get Use to It.

"Get used to it".

That's the words uttered by TFC President Kevin Payne on Wednesday night. To be fair, the exact quote was "They should get used to it. We're gonna play these games. I don't think it's a detriment". This was the response to TSN's Jason DeVos and his questions at half time regarding the fact that the TFC supporter's groups were strongly against this friendly game being played against AS Roma of the Italian Serie A.

Look, I get it. Bring in the big club to sell tickets to people who might like the big name teams from around the world but don't necessarily like MLS. I also get that you want TFC to play these games (as opposed to getting 2 big name teams to come in and just selling tickets to that game). You want the people who wouldn't normally buy TFC tickets to see the team and think "yeah, maybe I will check out a TFC game after all".

The problem is this: you can't just tell a whole group of people (who make up most of your season seat holders by the way) "too bad, it's happening, deal with it" and expect them not to be upset. The team has never made the playoffs and outside of 1 season, hasn't even been close. There has been many rumors about behind the scenes issues and plenty of mismanagement. Not to mention there have been plenty of players that have been mediocre at TFC but once they moved on, they seemed to preform much better. TFC is a club that is a complete mess. No other way to describe it. So to tell your dwindling season ticket base to "get used to it" is just detrimental. Here's, in my humble opinion, the worst part. This game was jammed in the middle of a short week for TFC. TFC played this past Sunday and will play again on Saturday. To boot, TFC is on a little 2 game win streak in MLS (though as a fan, it feels like much more than a "little" win streak) and I'm worried that the messed up training schedule and the loss to Roma might take the wind out of their sails.

End of the day, these are going to happen. It's an attempt to get more people to come out to the park and watch MLS games. I think that's not going to change anytime soon. I have "gotten used to it". I just don't go because I like to watch MLS, Canadian Championship or, Concacaf Champion's league games. Kevin Payne, I've gotten used to it. All you needed to admit that this could have been scheduled at a better time. I hope you "get use" to less and less people coming to games because a stupid comment like that will not help your case.

The Next 4

Last night MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that MLS will expand to 24 teams by 2020.
So that begs the question: which 4 cities will it be? Let me first say, I'd love to see Canada (the likelihood is that it would be Ottawa) get another team but I highly doubt that will happen. I also think San Diego is a great market for MLS, but I'm confidant that Chivas USA will end up there. Hopefully with new ownership and a complete re-brand. So those 2 market are off the list.
With that said: Here is the 4 markets I think MLS should expand to.

Orlando: Orlando City FC have been a success in the USL since their entry in 2010. The club has loyal supporters, they've been good on the field and, the ownership has been trying to get a 20,000 seat soccer specific stadium build in an attempt to get to MLS. MLS also folded their Florida state teams in 2001 and have been wanting back in the state and this market is the closest to being ready for MLS in Florida.

Atlanta: Since 1995 the Silverbacks have been in Atlanta. So right off the bat, like Portland and Seattle, there is a proven history of being able to sustain a franchise in the market. In 2006 the Silverbacks built their own stadium (currently 7,500 seating)  that has been designed to expand seating up to 15,000. The complex includes a several international sized practise fields, a club house, pool and, fitness center. So they are all ready to go for MLS they just need to expand the stadium. Another side point is that Atlanta is the biggest media market without an MLS team.

Minneapolis-St. Paul: It's been a little bit of a weird history in Minneapolis for soccer. In 1990 the Minnesota Thunder were founded and played in the USL-1 (which was teir 2 at the time) when the USL was shutting down and making way for the new NASL the Minnesota Thunder folded. Luckily, NSC Minnesota (a completely different franchise) came to be. in 2011, the team was going to be operated by the NASL (as opposed to the National Sports Center). 2012 saw the team name change to the Minnesota Stars and they became NASL champions. Most recently the team has been sold to private ownership and has been renamed Minnesota United FC. There is no soccer specific stadium large enough in the area at this time, which might be a problem for MLS but it's clear that since 1990 tier 2 soccer has been in the area and I'm sure that MLS would do well in the twin cities.

Carolina: Another city that has proved they like soccer. The Railhawks have been playing since 2007 and have developed rivalries with the Rochester Rhinos, Atlanta Silverbacks,Charleston Battery and, Puerto Rico Islanders. Their home field, WakeMed Soccer Park, is a 10,000 seat stadium that could easily be redeveloped into a larger stadium for MLS. All the ingredients are there.

That said, David Beckham has been rumored to  be taking meetings in Miami about the possibility of getting an expansion club in Miami (Beckham was promised that he could have an MLS club when he retired as part of his MLS contract) so I wouldn't be surprised to see a club in that market either.

Possible MLS Locations