Leaderboard

Final Leaderboard @Streetlight - 10 @solas - 10 @Phil - 10 @JardyB10 - 8 @Velevra - 8 @jRuutu - 6 @evrydayimbyfuglien - 6 @Beketov - 6 @der meister - 4 @Kendrick - 4 @Smarch - 2 @gorlab - 2 @Green - 2 @boom - 2 @Banackock - 2 The Following people can claim 5 TPE: Streetlight, Solas, Phil 4 TPE: JardyB10, Velevra 3 TPE: JRuttu, evrydayimbyfuglien, Beketov 2 TPE: der meister, Kendrick 1 TPE: Smarch, gorlab, Green, boom, Banackock

Beaver Beaverton – Rookie Profile Full Name: Beaver Beaverton Position: RW Age: 18 Birthplace: Winnipeg, MB, Canada Junior team: Penticton Vees Last season stats: 56GP 53G 49A 102PTS (BCHL) Year Team League Stats (G-A-PTS) 2013-2014 Winnipeg Warriors WBAAA 50G 39A 89PTS 2014-2015 Penticton Vees BCHL 24G 22A 46PTS 2015-2016 Penticton Vees BCHL 53G 49A 102PTS Beaver Beaverton, a Penticton Vees prospect out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, comes into the draft as a highly touted offensive dynamo. After registering a 102 point campaign in what many scouts predict will be his last season in the BCHL, he is exhilarated to take the next step in his career. Many scouts that I have talked to proclaim that this guy will be a hard-nosed sniper who is a threat to score on every shift once he reaches his full potential. “[He] is a player that embodies the worn out cliché, ‘good Canadian boy’ on and off the ice.” -Former teammate – Tyson Jost Serving as an assistant captain in the 2015-2016 season, Beaver Beaverton cemented himself as a key player in the Penticton Vees journey towards a league championship. Along with being a main contributor in the teams’ leadership core, scouts were very pleased to see a jump in production in his second year in the league. This jump in production saw Beaver accumulate 56 more points than his rookie campaign, where this year 57.8% (59pts) of his points came at ES. “His qualities that stick out the most are his sneaky quick release that he can fire off the rush and his ability to find open space, he’s going to be a good one.” -Anonymous VHL scout Strengths Scoring: Whether he’s finding a dead spot in coverage on the powerplay, crashing and banging for those garbage goals or sniping one past the goalies ear on the rush, Beaver just finds a way to put the puck in the back of the net. This multi-dimensional right winger is not afraid to put the pucks on net, in fact, he amassed 224 shots in 56 games during the 2015-2016 season with the Vees. If he were to fire the puck at that rate during an 82 game season, he would have racked up 328 shots, fantasy hockey players rejoice. Passing: Although at first glance he may seem like a shoot-first kind of player, Beaver definitely has some underrated passing abilities. While many teams overplay his shot on the powerplay, he uses it to his advantage and is able to find those open seams that get created because of this. He thrives off of the cycle game to find an open man in the opponents’ zone, but he is also great at finding his uncovered teammates off the rush. Leadership: “I remember one game early on in the year where I was skating into the corner to retrieve and puck and got hit pretty hard from behind. After collecting myself, I looked up and Beaver already has his gloves off going after the guy that hit me. That’s all you need to know about his leadership abilities.” – Tyson Jost Weaknesses Strength: Standing at 6 feet 2 inches and 210 lbs, Beaverton will have to fill out his frame a bit more to withstand the hits he’ll be facing in the big leagues. Although his game doesn’t rely on him delivering the big blows, he will have to put on more strength if he wants to continue driving the net like he did in juniors. Skating: I wouldn’t say skating is one of his biggest flaws, in fact he has above average top end speed, but Beaver will have to work on his first couple of steps if he wants to activate on the rush at the pro level. His lateral movement will have to be refined as well which will benefit his overall defensive game. Defense: Although he has exceptional work ethic in his own zone, he does sometimes get lost in his coverage. Whichever team drafts Beaver will have to sit him down and run through some game footage to show him some areas he can improve on. The good thing is, you can teach defensive coverage but you can’t teach heart or the god given talent to put the puck in the back of the net like this guy. Shoutout to Tyson Jost for the kind words.

Essian Ravenwing, center for the new look New York Americans, cannot seem to stop smiling. "It's a rare opportunity to get a fresh start without having to change teams," Ravewning told reporters following last night's draft. "The draft saw us get a generational prospect in Phil Shankly, and a blue chipper in Grigory Kopralkov in round one. Top notch guys that I can't wait to lace up the skates with." A scene from one of many local restaurants having a VHL draft party Despite Ravenwing's obvious skill, the big Welsh pivot has yet to see much statistical success at the VHL level. Many pundits expect that to change very soon. "Shankly's almost definitely going to be on Ravenwing's line, and I think their styles are going to compliment each other really well," one North American scout said at the draft. "They both have big frames, 6'2", a little over 200 pounds, and while Essian doesn't really play a physical game, Phil will mix it up in the corners a little bit. His biggest weakness is probably that he needs to add a lot of muscle to win more of those wall battles, but I think the two of them are going to be magical for the Americans for years to come." Ravenwing was one of a few Americans players to be on-hand for the official team draft party in New York and had nothing but praise for his presumptive linemate. "I've seen a few highlight packages from the kid, and yeah, you can see the talent just starting to burst through. He's got a solid shot, and I think we'll be able to push each other on and off the ice to bring out the best in each other." A ferret, owned by Cathy [not appearing in this article]

@Kendrick ಠ_ಠ

Welcome to VHFL Group C! This is the draft thread where you will all make your picks. Please tag the next player after you make a selection, and remember, this is a snake draft. If you have any questions about the rules, they can be found HERE. If you wish to see the fantasy points earned for each player last season, they can be found HERE. The draft order has been randomized. Here it is: @boom @evrydayimbyfuglien @STZ @solas @Streetlight @Kylrad boom F - Thor Odinsson F - Max Molholt F - Pietro Maximoff D - Black Velvet D - Biggu Kyanon G - Ariel Weinstein evrydayimbyfuglien F - John Sleeman F - Jack Kraken F - Max Von Hohenzollern D - Felipe Rodriguez D - Maksym Barnyashev G - Jakab Holik STZ F - Unassisted F - Tyson Kohler F - Tom Lincoln D - Bobby Digital D - Titan Kronos G - Sandro Clegane solas F - Shawn Muller F - Sir William Covington III F - Joel Jarvi D - Jeff Hamilton D - World B. Free G - Greg Clegane Streetlight F - Zach Parechkin F - Diana Maxwell F - Bogdan Podarok D - Phil Hamilton D - Guntis Petenis G - Dmitri Dadonov Kylrad F - Aleksi Koponen F - Theo Axelsson F - Niels Skovgaard D - Shayne Gow D - Pavel Komarov G - Apollo Skye

Last week I wrote an article talking about the three things that I’m most interested to watch during the off-season and one of the things that I wrote about related to the Seattle Bears acquiring the free agency rights to two elite defensemen in Hamilton and Kyanon and how I wasn’t necessarily sure it was the best move. My reasoning behind that statement was that I felt that the teams that I had seen in the past focus a lot of their spending on defensemen wound up not being as competitive as many people thought, but upon further reflection, I realised that I was stating something as close to fact even though I had done limited research to make the point in that manner. So, what I decided to do was look into the matter for myself and see if I was correct in my assumptions that teams who spent the most on defense wound up struggling to compete as well as their team’s TPE count would indicate. *To make it clear, I’m only going to be using teams that were at least looking to make it into the playoffs. Using teams that obviously weren’t going to try to win anyway would make the whole thing fairly pointless. Also, this will only cover from Season 35 onwards as, while I was able to grab the defensemen salaries for championship winning teams prior to the closure of the oldvhl.com site, I hadn’t gathered the data for teams who spent the most on defensemen* Season 35 – Seattle Bears Lineup Forwards Keiji Toriyama Mikey Blade Sebastian Ball Jr. GIYGAS Henrik Larsson Defensemen James Lefevre Karsten Olsen Zack Sound Edwin Encarnacion Goalie Steven Smyl Salary Spent on Defensemen: $12.9M Percentage of Total Spending: 41% Season Outcome: Missed Playoffs Salary Spent on Defensemen by Champions (Meute): $8.75M We kick this off with the team that I had the most reservations of adding to the article. While Seattle had a solid group of players, I think at the time they were probably considered a fringe playoff candidate at best, but looking at the fact that their TPE counts at the time were like those of the players on the Davos Dynamo (who did make the playoffs), that they had 70 points (which we have seen make playoffs in other years) and they had a .500 record against the EU Conference Champions (Titans) led me to believe that their inclusion in this article wouldn’t be a bad thing. With three of the top eight defensemen in the VHL on their roster, you would have thought that teams might have found it more difficult to shoot against the Bears than it was, as the Bears allowed the fifth most shots in the league. That combined with an expectedly underwhelming performance across the season from rookie goalie Steven Smyl (ninth in save percentage) and a low shot count (at least seven shots per game less than all the teams who made the playoffs) saw the Bears miss the playoffs by a rather comfortable margin in the end. The championship winning Meute team that season used a two defensemen strategy rarely used in the current VHL, but was most recently used successfully by the S51 championship winning Reign side. Season 36 – HC Davos Dynamo Lineup Forwards Sergey Brovalenko Davey Jones Odin Tordahl Matteo Gallo Jarkko Olsen Thomas Landry Defensemen Matt Bentley Shane Baker Mario Linguini Lars Lessio Goalie Lennox Moher Salary Spent on Defensemen: $10.5M Percentage of Total Spending: 33% Season Outcome: VHL Champions Just as a side note, this was one of the more difficult seasons to track defensemen spending as, somewhat bizarrely, the financier at the time (CowboyInAmerica) must have gotten muddled with the salary cap rules for traded players, as they were all the wrong way around. So, for example Edwin Encarnacion was traded from the Bears to the Express, but he’d have the Bears paying most the salary. Our first example of a team to spend the most money in the VHL on defensemen but still win the championship, the Dynamo managed to win the Continental Cup despite being listed as having the joint-fifth best overall rating in the VHL. One of the factors that allowed them to spend as much as they did on their defensemen was their young roster, with five of their players still on their initial rookie contracts. Unlike most teams that spend the most in the VHL on their defensemen, the Dynamo didn’t really have an elite defenseman as, while Matt Bentley would go on to have a Hall of Fame career, he was only seventh in overall rating for a defenseman at this point of his career. The big risk that Davos took in their run to the championship was sticking with second year player Lennox Moher as their starting goalie, however the young goalie held his own in the playoffs and put in comparable performances to some of the league’s best goalies in Skylar Rift and Remy Lebeau when it mattered. Next time, I'll be looking at Seasons 37, 38 and 39.

Thanks for putting it together! I choose: Aleksi Koponen @Green

SHENANIGANS! but not bad for me I guess?

Hello friends, Here are your points for completing the tracker this season. If you feel that I mis-counted, shoot me a PM. Friendly reminder that these points can only be applied to the VHLM player the tracker was filled out for. @Mr. Hickey - 8TPE @evrydayimbyfuglien - 18TPE @Kylrad - 13TPE @jRuutu - 10TPE @Phil - 15TPE @Mr. Power - 20TPE @STZ- 20TPE @YEAH!stlemania - 20TPE @Tylar - 10TPE @gregreg - 9TPE @Smarch - 19TPE @Molholt - 12TPE @Wasty - 20TPE @RomanesEuntDomus - 13TPE @.sniffuM - 15TPE @Toast - 9TPE

I've talked to the admins and we've agreed it's completely unacceptable that I've been using not one, but two New York legend's numbers throughout my entire career with the team So we've decided that the most appropriate way to solve this issue is to not hang Reencarnacion's banner in the rafters, but instead hang it up in the penalty box.

. @Toast

Que G needs a back up. He passed the 200 TPE minimum but it wasn't processed so I thought I'd just get my post count up. VHL better watch out for 8 games in Season 52! @YEAH!stlemania

Trying my hand at something else again...

@evrydayimbyfuglien

In particular, I'm excited to look over all the drafts after they are done and see the differences. Maybe one pod had someone take a goalie early and everyone else started taking them, while in another they didn't start going until round 7. In Groups A and C, the only two I've looked at so far, John Sleeman was taken second in both. While he has been a strong fantasy player since switching from defense to forward, I don't think he is traditionally considered one of the best players in the league. Will there be a player taken in the top three rounds somewhere and literally go unpicked elsewhere? I'm not exactly sure what direction I plan on taking my team, but I don't think it matters all too much how well my draft goes. I'll be diligent on the waivers, optimizing my team each week. Historically, I have been one of the better VHFL players. I've already seen Velvet and Sleeman picked in my group, and I pick fifth. It may be possible that I go full New York pride here and try to pick only teammates for my fantasy team. I don't know yet. for Maxwell

What if QUE G gets injured?

I've traded two top picks to acquire four later picks, which is something I am very happy to have done. There are a lot of players available in this draft who I would be happy to end up drafting, and now I can, even if I sacrifice a bit on quality. I don't have expectations that I can compete this season, but hopefully I can have an active locker room and team that can have a good time even if we aren't the best. I have nine of the first 26 picks; there are 26 players in this draft who I would be glad to add. Sounds good to me. I may be recording a podcast during the draft. I won't stream it live or anything, but I'll record it live with the draft and then post it after. It'll have more of the insight on my plan and my thoughts as the draft is going on. More likely, however, is that I just type up my thoughts as it goes on, rather than speak them. Or maybe I just won't have time; though recording a podcast while I'm drafting could show how hectically I'll be working. I don't make my first selection until 8th overall, so after that point I'll have to be quick. The VHLM Draft is scheduled for Wednesday night at 7 pm central time.

Edwin Threencarnacion? More like EIGHTWIN Threencarnacion! BOOM! *Drops the mic* *Sets a building on fire*

Devil beat you to it

lol me I edited it to fix my mistake.

lol I would actually laugh so hard.

Nope. You must make you pick within an hour!!!! (jk that's fine)

@Victor sign up damn it @Phil get @Knight to come back and join this for this purpose only IDC if he does go inactive again after this we just need more participants

Ill do the Waitlist.

Silly Phil, Cologne never dies. We stay right in the middle

o shit another cup

You sure know a lot about them Sabres!

Riga selects Kaylan Noffke! @Daniel

Stockholm is pleased to select LW - Die Domi @Molholt

Stockholm is very pleased to select LW - Conrad Jenkins! @Kylrad

@Draper is suspected to be drunk, he keeps referring to Cologne as Colgna and keeps bellowing "God Bless America" on stage

@Frank wants higgins to hurry up and make a pick so he can "shower"

@Higgins is the only GM to not post an image with his selection announcement, meaning he is either a failure or will win the next 3 cups

@Higgins quote, "This draft is rigged worse than the election"

With the third overall selection the Quebec City Meute are proud to select from the Saskatoon Wild, Fabio Jokinen! @jRuutu

@Higgins "Draper can I have more time for my pick? I'm watching 2 girls 1 cup."

The Stockholm Vikings are proud to use the second overall pick to select G - Rhett DeGrath! @STZ

Device posted his pick but didn't tell the chatroom, resulting in total chaos. Higgins demands that Device loses his lottery pick for this atrocity

@Draper and @Frank are now revealing to the press that they've had an affair, and Draper assures the press this will not impede their professional relationship

I couldn't harm either Frank or Big Banana. All my players have been whores, so why switch now?

oh man... @Frank gonna get home and take his post-work shit and then get on the VHL just in time for the draft and shit himself again.

Hey, it's good for brain activity. Kickstarts things if you know what I mean! Also, people hating on this draft clearly don't recognize that Shankly is going to be the greatest forward drafted 1st OA since O'Malley. @Phil

Thanks for giving me epilepsy.

Frank is a fucking wildcard

Review (I guess): - At this point, probably pointless to say "feel better" because you better be. - but feel better @der meister - It will happen next season for Ravenwing!! - Tensions are no longer high. Toronto couldn't four-peat. - Yea, Website looks way better! And I have it bookmarked now! - You've finished one of the kids books? Awesome! I learned new somethings! - lol Glad you're liking this slow-paced league atm. - Wow long days - You'll be paying close attention next season - I remember that you liked Big Trouble in Little China aha! - The Extended Edition of the Two Towers is much much better... goes deeper into the actual Story. Though it should at 4 and a half hours - Yay CoA! Well done! Exposure is goood! -Mackenzie eh? - Good Poddy!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. WE FUCKING DID IT. Great series Toronto. adding another final appearance after three cups just furthers your place in history. Man, this first Continental Cup was well worth the wait.

Yeah, only when it suits me. LIKE TODAY MOTHERFUCKER WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! #CHOOCHOO