As both a hockey fan and a dratchet fan, @mercuryw1tch got me thinking about a hockey au and the muses possessed me. I had to just get the ideas out 😂 I’ll put it below, it got… long… and ramble-y
So like basic set up: The different NHL teams are various factions or crews, like there could be a deception team and an autobot team, but also could be a wrecker team, etc. and the decepticons are infamous for being really aggressive and rough with lots of fights and penalties, with a well known rivalry with the Autobots.
It goes back before even Megatron and Optimus were on the two teams, but after they joined it ramped up from being a fairly minor, friendly rivalry to being extreme, with brawls breaking out between fans and players being threatened by fans, setting records for most fights in a single game, most penalties in a single game, etc.
with OP and Megs: Before, they were on the same team. But OP got scouted by the Autobots, the best team at the time, and Megatron didn’t. He thought Op would reject the contract so they could join another team together. Op thought he could join and put in a good word for Megs so he could be drafted later. Megs feels betrayed and joins the Decepticons. Their drama is what made the rivalry so much stronger. It stays strong as they become the captains of the teams, and later the coaches.
OK! Now for Dratchet!!! Ratchet used to play pro for the Autobots as a goalie (idk that’s the vibe I get) but got injured, and while he could have kept playing, it would’ve been a short career and worsened the injury. Ratchet was also always interested in medicine/sports medicine outside of hockey, so he took the opportunity to go into medicine.
Drift/deadlock was a player in a small town, the laughing stock of the league. The game that’s their final chance before the team gets shutdown and disbanded is against one of the best teams in the league, and they lose. He ends up over doing it on a bender; this is where Ratchet finds him, having been celebrating the other team’s win with Optimus (another pro) and Bumblebee (who’s on the other team). New medic Ratchet saves drift, and goes with him in the ambulance to the hospital. Ratchet tells him he’s got real skill, and if he keeps playing, he’s sure to get scouted.
So he does keep playing, until one fateful game where one of his teammates, Gasket, gets really badly hurt, like career-ending life-threateningly injured. The opponent who did it gets in trouble but gets off fairly easy. and Drift loses it. He starts a massive fight. Gets thrown out of the game. But the next day, he’s approached by a Decepticon scouter who was at the game. Since the Decepticons value good fighters so much, Drifts fight caught their eye. Him being a good player anyways is also a plus.
Cut to years later, Ratchet is a fully certified sports medic and works for his old team, the Autobots, and Drift, now Deadlock, playing for the Decepticons.
There’s a Autobot v Decepticon game. Everyone knows there’s going to be some brutal fights and at least a few players thrown out of the game. Deadlock gets badly hurt in a fight, and Ratchet is the medic who tends to him. He lectures him about how if he keeps playing this way, the decepticon way, Deadlocks going to get hurt bad enough that his career is ended— he’s speaking from experience. If he wants a chance to keep playing for more than a season or two longer, he’s needs to get on a different team that treats their players like more than just punching bags that hit back.
While on leave to heal from the injury, Deadlock ends up ending his contract with the Decepticons, and leaves the public eye for a while.
He does some inner healing and growing, eventually comes back to play pro. Maybe for the Wreckers?
Oh, the Olympics! Drift gets on the team and Ratchet is hired as the team medic. The team is basically the lost light crew, with Rodimus as captain, Ultra Magnus as alternate captain and Megatron as either another alternate captain or coach
Cue some underdog, “beating the odds when everything goes wrong” plot.
I thought about making Ratchet have to step in to play as goalie but I don’t think that could ever happen,,, but the idea of him playing for the first time in years to win them the gold but sacrificing every being able to skate/play ever again for it???? Especially if it goes to a face off/shoot out with Drift being the last chance to make a goal??? Where Ratchet is too worn out to block the next shot?????? Hell yeah.