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Today, I come to the podium with a heavy heart but a clear vision. It has been a long number of seasons standing at the helm of the Malmo Nighthawks. Over the past year, I’ve worked hard in multiple aspects of my life; I’ve published my own book and have thrown myself into a writing career that is slowly taking off, I’ve gotten a promotion at work, and I’m working on being a better parent for my growing children. With all of that in mind, however, my schedule has become very crowded. After many days spent reflecting once our playoff run ended this past season, I have decided that the time has come for me to step aside and allow the team to move forward under new leadership. When I first began as a GM for Malmo, there were a lot of unknowns. The team needed a new direction. The first seasons were a bit chaotic (with one surprising run to the conference finals) but after a short rebuild we powered our way forward to a multiple Victory Cup winning team across many seasons. While we did not win any championships, I could not have asked for a better team or players to GM. You all made the job that much more enjoyable. To others around the league and other GMs, thank you for your support and for the trade talks/deals. This league would not have been nearly as fun for my GM tenure had it not been for the crazy pitches from @Banackock and @Alex along with the many productive chats from so many other GMs. There are so many names to mention that I cannot possibly list out thanks for each person individually. Know that I do remember each interaction and appreciate every single person on the team and who I've worked with in this league. Even though I’m stepping down, I believe in Malmo. I do not do this out of spite or knowing that our team lost, but purely out of a limit of time I can muster to keep the team going at the level it deserves. There were many franchise defining players that I got to GM, and I hold my head high knowing so many of my players set franchise records or will have their numbers retired one day. This is not a complete goodbye. I will still be around with my players and to chat with people in the league. Maybe one day I will return to the realm of GMing. For now, however, the Nighthawks deserve a change in leadership that can bring a new spark into the locker room. I will always cheer for the Malmo Nighthawks. As I have stated in the past…we never forget a member of the flock. I will never forget my tenure with Malmo. I know my time will be remembered, and hopefully for all my players and those I GMed it was a good time. Fly hard and fly fast Nighthawks. It is now my time to root for you from the sidelines. Thank you all.

Let’s be honest. While we all love to see elite puckhandlers methodically slicing through the opposing defense in full flight, tape-to-tape passes with millimeter (that’s 127/5000“, you’re welcome, my overseas fellas!) precision, or blue line missiles sending the goaltender’s water bottle flying, what makes our hearts pump faster and lifts our asses from the seats are hits and fights. Or is it just me and fellow cavemen? A hard hit, leading to a turnover and a counterattack the other way, can change the momentum of a whole game. But an ill-timed hit can be one of the most frustrating things to see—you go out of your way to chase a hit, but it opens a lane for another opponent to pick the loose puck at speed and leave you behind. Here in the VHL, we consider hits an important part of voting for our defensive awards—the Boulet for forwards and the Wylde for defenders. But we can only see the raw hits total. And as I’ve said, I don’t think every hit is a good play. Only those that lead to a turnover are. Last season—or was it two seasons ago?—I wrote a 2-piece media spot about the season’s goaltending. This offseason, I’m going to look into hits a bit deeper. For this purpose, with my basic knowledge and a huge help from my friend Copilot, I’ve put together a simple Python script. The script goes through all 576 game logs and searches for the phrase „is hit by (player name) and loses puck. Free puck retrieved by “and determine whether it was an effective hit or an ineffective hit, depending on what player got to the puck first. I’ll explain more in each of the following chapters, and I’ll provide the code as a file, and maybe I’ll copy it in this article as well in case I need to inflate the word count to 2k. This took hours of my life; no way I’m not milking it for as long as I can. In case you run the script and look for a Dragons player, only input „d“ as the team name. For the other teams, it’s enough to only put in the last word. I will be looking at top 6 hitting defensemen and top 10 hitting forwards. I wanted to only do 9 forwards, but there’s a 2-way tie for the 9th spot. No, the 6D and 9F wasn’t because it looks like a nice amount, but because it’s 3 defensive pairings and 3 forward lines. Total hits Just as a reminder, this is how the top 6 defensemen and top 10 forwards rank by total hits listed in the stats. Defensemen 1. Tommy Sleeves 411 hits 2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 256 hits 3. Billy Joel 245 hits 4. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 236 hits 5. Darko Alexander Malkovich 231 hits 6. YaBoi Oven 222 hits Forwards 1. Savaisk Tzesar 340 hits 2. Toby Kadachi 322 hits 3. Severus Targaryen 290 hits 4. Axle Gunner 275 hits 5. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 262 hits 6. Legacy Gaming 260 hits 7. Grimgor Ironhide 259 hits 8. Nico Belique 255 hits T-9. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 235 hits T-9. Maple Dogwood 235 hits Successful hits (SH) For a hit to even have a chance to lead to a turnover, it has to separate the puck carrier from the puck. Our players fight this by sufficiently increasing Strength and Puck Handling. I’ve already said my Python script looks for the phrase „is hit by (player name) and loses puck. Free puck retrieved by“, so, by default, it looks for successful hits. This is how the selected players rank in successful hits. I’m interested to see if the ranking remains the same. Defensemen 1. Tommy Sleeves 274 SH (66.67% of hits) T-2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 180 SH (70.31% of hits) T-2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 180 SH (76.27% of hits) 4. Billy Joel 178 SH (72.65% of hits) 5. YaBoi Oven 162 SH (72.97% of hits) 6. Darko Alexander Malkovich 159 SH (68.83% of hits) I don’t think it’s surprising that Tommy Sleeves is in the lead with 274 successful hits. With 155 total hits more that the second place, he has to be in the lead, even though the efficiency of his hits is the lowest of the group. A player who really impressed me here was Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage, who was able to tie Callum Gary Yannick Janser in successful hits, despite recording 20 fewer total hits. Forwards 1. Savaisk Tzesar 168 SH (49.41% of hits) 2. Toby Kadachi 159 SH (49.38% of hits) 3. Severus Targaryen 153 SH (52.76% of hits) 4. Legacy Gaming 146 SH (56.15% of hits) 5. Grimgor Ironhide 142 SH (54.83% of hits) 6. Axle Gunner 139 SH (50.55% of hits) 7. Nico Belique 136 SH (53.33% of hits) 8. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 127 SH (54.04% of hits) T-9. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 125 SH (47.71% of hits) T-9. Maple Dogwood 125 SH (53.19% of hits) Compared to their blue line counterparts, these forwards were not as efficient at making their hits count. I wonder if there’s a big difference in CK between the selected defensemen and the selected forwards? Maple and Jebediah are in the similar position Callum and Obuz are among defenders – the same amount of successful hits, despite the difference between their total hit amount vas almost 30. One of these puts their whole body in the hits, while the other one only does love taps, I guess. I think that’s a thing needed to take into consideration when deciding a trophy heavily influenced by physicality. Also thumbs up to Legacy Gaming for being the most efficient hitter of the group. Effective hits (EH) Now for the more interesting part. In real life hockey, the result of a hit depends on the hitter’s decision an awareness much more than in the VHL, where the puck retrieval is more of a result of the players’ stats – both of your teammates, and your opponent. For a successful hit to be considered an effective hit for this experiment, it has to be either the hitter, or their teammate to pick up the loose puck. After entering the player’s name my Python script is looking for, I enter their team as well. The script reads the rest of the sentence following the phrase it looks for, until the following full stop, and it compares the end of the sentence with the team name I’ve entered. If it matches, it’s a „good“ hit. Example: I enter player name Tommy Sleeves and team name Helsinki Titans. The script finds the phrase „is hit by Tommy Sleeves and loses puck. Free Puck retrieved by“, followed by „Maple Dogwood for Helsinki Titans“. The end of the sentence matches the team name, so the script counts it as a good hit. Defensemen 1. Tommy Sleeves 77 EH (28.10% of SH) 2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 67 EH (37.22% of SH) 3. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 56 EH (31.11% of SH) 4. YaBoi Oven 50 EH (30.86% of SH) T-5. Billy Joel 45 EH (25.28% of SH) T-5. Darko Alexander Malkovich 45 EH (28.30% of SH) Once again, no surprise Tommy Sleeves is in the lead. And once again, I’m impressed by Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage. Only 10 fewer good hits than Tommy Sleeves, with 175 fewer total hits is just insane. Obuz looks like the most efficient hitter of the bunch. Forwards 1. Savaisk Tzesar 101 EH (60.12% of SH) 2. Toby Kadachi 99 EH (62.26% of SH) 3. Axle Gunner 89 EH (64.03% of SH) 4. Grimgor Ironhide 85 EH (59.86% of SH) 5. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 83 EH (66.40% of SH) 6. Severus Targaryen 82 EH (53.59% of SH) 7. Legacy Gaming 81 EH (55.48% of SH) 8. Nico Belique 73 EH (53.68% of SH) 9. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 72 EH (56.69% of SH) 10. Maple Dogwood 71 EH (56.80% of SH) An interesting comparison between the defenders and the forwards – in case of a forward separating an opposing puck carrier from the puck, the rate at which the hitter’s team gains puck possession is much higher than in defensemen’ case. I wonder if that’s because Simon thinks forwards’ hits happen in the offensive zone, where there are 3 forwards vs 2 opposing defenders, and defensemen’ hits happen in the defensive zone, where there are 2 defenders vs 3 opposing forwards? Anyway, while I took a jab at Jebediah in the previous part, it came back to bite me in the ass with Jebediah timing their hits extremely well, so kudos. Ineffective hits (IH) Going for a hit is not always the best idea. Sometimes it can put your team in a worse position than just pressuring the puck carrier and limiting their passing options. In real life hockey, that is. If the end of the sentence my script doesn’t match the player’s name, it’s a „bad hit“. Of course this is not only in the hands of the hitter, having a good team around is paramount. But that’s just the nature of team sports. It’s always hard to isolate individual impact. In this experiment, a successful hit is always either an effective hit, or an ineffective hit. So, logically, the sum of percentages of good hits and bad hits equals 100%. Example: I enter player name Billy Joel and team name London United. The script finds the phrase „is hit by Billy Joel and loses puck. Free Puck retrieved by“, followed by „Nico Belique for Los Angeles Stars“. The end of the sentence doesn’t match the team name, so the script counts it as a „bad hit“. I’m ranking the players from the fewest bad hits to the most ineffective hits. Defensemen 1. YaBoi Oven 112 IH (69.14% of SH) 2. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 113 IH (62.78% of SH) 3. Darko Alexander Malkovich 114 IH (71.70% of SH) 4. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 124 IH (68.89% of SH) 5. Billy Joel 133 IH (74.72% of SH) 6. Tommy Sleeves 197 IH (71.90% of SH) Again, no surprise that Tommy Sleeves recorded the most bad hits. The fewest bad hits go to YaBoi Oven, who recorded the fewest total hits, it makes sense as well. But once again, I’m impressed by Obuz. Forwards 1. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 42 IH (33.60% of SH) 2. Axle Gunner 50 IH (35.97% of SH) 3. Maple Dogwood 54 IH (43.20% of SH) 4. Konstyantyn Shevchenko 55 IH (43.31% of SH) 5. Grimgor Ironhide 57 IH (40.14% of SH) 6. Toby Kadachi 60 IH (37.74% of SH) 7. Nico Belique 63 IH (46.32% of SH) 8. Legacy Gaming 65 IH (44.52% of SH) 9. Savaisk Tzesar 67 IH (39.88% of SH) 10. Severus Targaryen 71 IH (46.41% of SH) The difference between the defender and the forwards – see the previous part, just reversed. And okay, I’m officially apologizing to Jebediah for the jab earlier, they apparently rather not go for a hit, than going for a needless one, good job. Effective hits to ineffective hits ratio So how good were the selected players with their hit selection? In the end, I think the amount of successful hits and the ratio between „good“ hits and „bad“ hits are what looking for the best hitter boils down to. This one is pretty straightforward, no explanation needed here. Defensemen 1. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage 0.59 EH/IH T-2. Callum Gary Yannick Janser 0.45 EH/IH T-2. YaBoi Oven 0.45 EH/IH T-4. Darko Alexander Malkovich 0.39 EH/IH T-4. Tommy Sleeves 0.39 EH/IH 6. Billy Joel 0.34 EH/IH Looking back at the previous chapters, there is absolutely no surprise Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage leads the way. Forwards 1. Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish 1.98 EH/IH 2. Axle Gunner 1.78 EH/IH 3. Toby Kadachi 1.65 EH/IH 4. Savaisk Tzesar 1.51 EH/IH 5. Grimgor Ironhide 1.49 EH/IH T-6. Konstyantyn Shevchenko :dcd: 1.31 EH/IH T-6. Maple Dogwood :hel: 1.31 EH/IH 8. Legacy Gaming :chi: 1.25 EH/IH 9. Nico Belique :la: 1.16 EH/IH 10. Severus Targaryen :rig: 1.15 EH/IH I’m too tired already to type anything here. Conclusion Hits will always be a part of decision to award the defensive awards. But as I’ve said before, not all hits are equal, and it is always a good idea to look into the context. I think I’ve given you my insight into it. So what’s left for me to do is to name the in my opinion best hitters, all things considered. Defensemen: While Tommy Sleeves was undoubtedly a menace, the fact the team around him was...not the greatest really drove the results of his physicality down. When it comes to the results player’s hitting game brought, my top player would be Callum Gary Yannick Janser, close to a tie with Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage. Forwards: In this case, I think the pure hits total leader Savaisk Tzesar takes my vote. While I have to give huge shoutouts to Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish and to Axle Gunner, I don’t think I can argue for any of them over Savaisk. Word count: 2k+ Mentions: @Grape @Daniel Janser @Doomsday @AColdCanadian @dasboot @The goat of hockey @hylands @Steve @ROOKIE745 @comrade cat @FrostBeard @der meister @dogwoodmaple @Gaming Ringleader @Syzygy @Banackock newfile.py

We’ve known for a little bit that Toronto was going to need a new GM going into S97 after @Moon decided that his tenure of the franchise was at an end; what we didn’t know or expect was quite how much support was going to be behind one specific member. Now obviously we could ignore that support but boy the riots don’t seem worth it and I feel pretty darn confident the team shall be in good hands with its new GM at the helm so let’s officially welcome that new GM: @dstevensonjr Malmo is a bit of a different story, not because we think their pick for GM is a bad one or anything, just because it came as a bit more of a surprise when @KaleebtheMighty decided to step away. The timeline may have been a bit tighter but the candidate, we feel, is no less of a perfect choice. So, with that said, I’m sorry you never brought a cup to Halifax @LucyXpher but we’re dragging you up to the big league! No spoiler tags as we would normally have in here because they don’t work right on mobile but still, congrats to our to new GM’s and sorry to the @VHLM Commissioner team that now needs another GM this off season.

If you are one of the sane people who haven't been around forever in the VHL you might not know that ever since the beginning there has always been a holiday celebration. Usually just some TPE, maybe a scavenger hunt, but that was about it. I mean everyone loves TPE but still. That changed though a few years ago when @Banackock suggested we do some good for the whole and hold a charity drive; it has been a staple of the VHL experience ever since and the celebration around it has only grown as well. As you can see above, this year our league charity of choice will be a split between the Canadian and American Cancer Societies who will receive our charity donations. This is, of course, just our league-supported option. As always, you are free to donate your funds to any registered charity anywhere in the world and count it towards the auction and our total numbers; all we ask is a screenshot proving the donation (though please remember to redact any personal information). 100% of the money raised by the league will be donated to the two charities with a full even 50/50 split, and the VHL will not take any cut. On top of that the league has decided to once again match up to $1000 when the final donation is put in. That means if you all donate $2500 total we'll put the donation up to $3500!n) In addition to the Donation Drive, we will also kick off our Charity Auction and 12 Days of Christmas. How will it all work? Essentially the same as past years, but here are the exact details for each portion of our holiday season for 2024: Charity Drive: December 12th - 24th Starting tomorrow members can begin donating. Whether you do so through the league, by donating HERE, privately to the ACS / CCS, or any charitable foundation of your choosing (receipt proof required for donations made outside the league), it will all count towards the overall contribution from the league. From that overall contribution, the league will match donations up to $1000 CAD, and add that to the donation made through the league. Please post all confirmations of donation, including Paypals through the league, auction wins, and private donations to THIS THREAD. Any donation of $5 CAD, or more, will result in an automatic personal reward of 2 Uncapped TPE + a Full Free Week (12 Capped TPE), as well as an entry to each of the first 3 tiers of the 12 Days of Christmas Raffle. Like past years as well we will be accepting blood donations in the charity drive. Blood is in high demand all year round, but especially at this time. Give the gift of life to someone. If you schedule and follow through with an appointment to donate blood that will count the same as a $5 donation and have the same rewards outlined above and below. For proof just post a photo from during your donation, it doesn’t need to include your face if you don’t want it to, a shot of the machine or your arm or whatever is fine, we’ll take your word for it. As this is the season of giving, members may also donate on behalf of one other user. Holiday Charity Auction: December 13th-20th @Acydburn will be posting the auction items soon but for now the full rules from last year are available here, they are unlikely to change but we will update everything if they do. Go buy something fun offered up by our community members. Auction wins will count as personal donations for the purpose of individual rewards. As always there are some amazing auction items that we're looking forward to this year so it should be fun. 12 Days of Christmas: December 13th - 24th This years 12 Days of Christmas will be similar to the last two years, where there will be a daily thread to claim “tickets” into our final raffle, which will be drawn on a live stream likely in the new year. As always the raffle will contain 4 tiers of prizes, with each day contributing to your entry into each tier, as follows: Dec. 13 - 15: Post in the corresponding thread each day for an entry into the Tier 1 raffle (1 ticket gained per day) Dec. 16 - 18: Post in the corresponding thread each day for an entry into the Tier 2 raffle (1 ticket gained per day) Dec. 19 - 21: Post in the corresponding thread each day for an entry into the Tier 3 raffle (1 ticket gained per day) Dec. 22 - 24: Post in the corresponding thread each day for an entry into the Tier 4 raffle (1 ticket gained per day) Number of Winners per tier: Tier 1: 10 Winners Tier 2: 5 Winners Tier 3: 3 Winners Tier 4: 1 Winner As with all our previous raffles if someone is drawn twice they will be considered as having won the higher tier item and the lower tier will be re-drawn. Users may also claim any tier underneath what they have won if they would rather have that item. No rewards can be exchanged for cash but we will ship worldwide, even if sometimes those shipping costs hurt. Obviously we do try to make this a bit easier on ourselves when we can but we'll make it work. Rewards and Donation Milestones As previously mentioned, there will be personal rewards to those who participate in the charity drive / holiday auction, as well as stretch goals to hit which will result in rewards for the community as a whole! $500 Community Donations: 2 Uncapped TPE for Everyone $1000 Community Donations: 4 Uncapped TPE for Everyone $2000 Community Donations: PT Doubles Week for Everyone $2500 Community Donations: 6 Uncapped TPE for Everyone yet. $3500 Community Donations: 8 Uncapped TPE for Everyone + @Beketov will once again stream Zoo Tycoon 2 Ultimate and name animals after VHL members. **It is likely that other community bonuses will be added but I need to check through the things offered to confirm them before I mention it, so for now just me** **Disclaimer: Rewards may only be applied to players created on, or before, December 25th, 2024** Let's do this @Members!

Malmo Nighthawks GM - Lexie Leitner (Render - Jessica Campbell) Ever since I joined the VHL, Malmo has been my favorite team. One way or another, I wanted to play for or be involved with the management of that franchise and to be named the next GM is a VHL dream come true. And sure, the dream hasn't been alive for that long-- I only joined the league back in January of 2024, but it has truly been one of the most fun and rewarding things I have ever done as a passtime. School and planning for the future have always taken front and center, but being a hockey fan in Houston isn't always easy, and having this hockey outlet to be creative, stupid, strategic, and just plain silly, has been so enjoyable. At the risk of waxing poetic about a sim hockey league (why do I feel like I've done this before), I've enjoyed every minute of being a part of this community and all the interactions I've had with the people here-- even if things get spicy from time to time. Maybe people who've been around a while don't realize it, but we have a wonderful group of people here who are very welcoming, friendly, helpful, and kind, and supportive, and really make this community a place worth spending time in. So with that said, I am very proud and honored to be able to take on the role of the Malmo Nighthawks GM going forward. I'm a relatively simple human being-- I like what I like. When I was 5 years old, my Dad, for whatever reason, owned a San Jose Sharks jersey. It quickly became something I obsessed over, and from that point on they became my team. In the VHL, from day one, when I looked at the logos of the league, something stood out to me about the Nighthawks. I also happened to like and follow the Malmo Redhawks, so maybe that had something to do with it, but it was the people around the team that really sealed it for me. People like @tcookie who wrote wonderful feature on my player in my first season, or @scoop, @Pifferfish, and @comrade cat-- and then there's Ash Sparks @DarkSpyro... It was everything at once that made me such a fan of this team that it quickly became the place I wanted to be. So I sincerely feel lucky and honored to be able to take on this role as @KaleebtheMighty steps down after a great run of success! Congratulations on a wonderful career as a GM of Malmo, and I wish you all the success in the world as you continue your VHL adventure! While I had the privelege to GM Halifax in the VHLM for the past 4 seasons, there's certainly some regret that we never managed to win the ever elusive Founder's Cup-- something that's escaped Halifax since the team's origin in S62. That being said, I feel sad and excited for the team I'm leaving behind. I'm sad because it's such an amazing group of newer players that I was so excited to help develop and grow, but I'm excited for them because I know that they have everything it takes to continue their development to push Halifax ever closer to the ultimate prize. Whoever takes over that role, I sincerely hope you have as much fun as I did. I hope you find success with the team and finally bring a Cup to Halifax-- it's long overdue! Halifax was never at the top of my list of teams to GM or be involved with, but it will always have a special place in my heart as I continue on this VHL journey. More than that, the players-- the people-- that I had the pleasure of interacting with there will continue to be some of my favorites in this community and I hope we can meet again as teammates in some capacity! So as I take on this new role, there's so much to learn and very little time, but I feel excited and up to the task! The last few days I've been pouring over the VHL rules to make sure I understand what's expected, allowed, and forbidden, and I'm glad to have @AJW along with me for the ride this season! AJ was my first VHL GM in S92 and it's almost surreal that he's joined up as AGM in Malmo this season. I have so much love and respect for AJ as a person. He's a big part of why I stuck around in this community at the beginning and I could never have gotten to this point without him. To be able to share this first season of VHL GMing with him is an honor and a gift. I get it, it's sim hockey, but what always strikes me is that behind the players and GMs are real people. We're not merely playing against the AI or some passive, unfeeling, simulatory bot. These are real people with real lives, and to share this experience, to get to know them, and to enjoy this passtime with them has been a real joy and pleasure of mine these past 11 months. In particular, since I began, @samx was someone I looked up to and admired as the first female VHL GM. Sam also GM'd Halifax and I felt like I was following in her footsteps in some respects. You're a fun, funny, intelligent, strong, and amazing person, Sam, and I'm so glad to have found you here. You've been someone that I've admired in this community and I'm glad to call you a friend! More recently, people like @SMYLS4 and @Xhekajsleftankle have been so much fun to chat with-- and there are absolutely many more people that I can't realistically name. I hope to share many more VHL memories with you and I hope you can win it all with Halifax this season! Maybe we can team up again some day! So at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, there it all is. I'm incredibly grateful to this community for these past 11 months and for all the incredible people I've met here. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish in Malmo and I'm excited to be able to have some hand in the future of this team. Go Halifax, and let's go Malmo! ༺☽𖤍☾༻

As is reality in the offseason, the number after the S means that we have people leaving us for yellower pastures. You'd think they would have learned by this point, but oh well. I'd like to take a moment before announcing our new hires to personally thank both @LucyXpher and @JCarson for being AMAZING for the VHLM. These were two first-time GMs who we had gotten to know prior to their hires, felt very confident about, and were super happy to see them not only stick around with us for the time that they did but go absolutely above and beyond day in and day out to make the M a special place. Neither Halifax nor Mexico City will be quite the same without the leadership of these two, and they've got my recommendation in whatever else they choose to do around the league. With the understanding that Halifax and Mexico City will never be the same, we're looking for people who can take that idea and spin it positively. In searching for new GMs, we found a couple solid choices who should be able to take these teams and make them their own, and we'd love to see what happens with them. So, without further ado, please welcome yet another first-time GM to the Kings: And please welcome BACK to Pier 21: As always, if you applied and you weren't selected, we did see it, we did appreciate it, and we sincerely hope you'll keep putting your name out there and keep showing us that you're exactly the kind of special that the VHLM needs. As many know, good things come to those who wait. Let's have a great S97! @VHLM Commissioner @VHLM GM

A bit late, but here is a poster for the S96 Continental Cup Champions, The Vancouver Wolves. I'm sorry I couldn't fit everyone.

1 London United Cash Carti @v.2 RW TPE: 307 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 9 5 14 -1 69 35 71 3 S96 Playoffs 4 0 1 1 0 5 8 3 0 When you look at Cash Carti's statistics from last season with the Houston Bulls, you really don't see a prospect that screams "first overall pick." But in a draft class where six of the top ten prospects in the draft are defensemen and forward is a bigger need for London, they'd likely take the higher value forward. It doesn't hurt that Carti also comes from a member in v.2 that just had a tremendously successful career as a forward, giving the United a legitimate and much-needed star to add to their barren prospect pool. We'll likely see Carti play one more season in Houston, this time as a likely top line forward who will have a real opportunity to showcase their talents. Look for him to have a strong season in the VHLM before joining a London team on the verge of competing as a rookie in Season 98 as he proves that he's worthy of being the first overall pick of this draft class. 2 Moscow Menace Kazuma Satou @Spartan D TPE: 312 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 13 41 54 -4 143 66 129 134 S96 Playoffs 7 3 5 8 -3 15 0 17 16 Despite winning the Victory Cup in Season 96, Moscow still finds themselves with the second overall pick thanks to a trade with the New York Americans, and this really couldn't have worked out any better for Spartan, who has his own player fall into his lap second overall. Satou had a very solid season with Halifax, but he really shined in the playoffs, averaging over a point per game and scoring two game-winning goals. Although Satou has a tiny stature for a defenseman at 5'6, 160 lbs, he is lightning quick and as a result always seems to be in the right place at the right time in both ends of the ice. Furthermore, Satou couldn't have ended up in a better location, as Moscow has shown a knack for developing elite offensive defensemen lately. With a developing skill set and an elite work ethic, he'll be Moscow's latest superstar defenseman in no time at all. 3 Helsinki Titans Hugh Neutron @Corco D TPE: 347 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 4 20 24 -2 69 48 76 88 S96 Playoffs 18 2 19 21 1 39 16 46 27 It's really been a rough go of it lately for the Helsinki Titans, so it's nice to see them get some good fortune for a change as the top-rated prospect in the draft, defenseman Hugh Neutron, falls to third overall. With 24 points for Ottawa this season, he may not be as flashy as Kazuma Satou, but he is an elite, top pairing potential stay at home defenseman. His instincts and positioning are at a mind-boggling level for a prospect, but that's not the only draw to his game. Just like Satou, Neutron showed what he's really made of in the postseason, and that was showing that his offensive play has the chance to be just as elite. He scored 21 points, just three less than his regular season total, in just 19 playoff games, showing that his game has somehow gone to an even higher plane. If Neutron's offensive game continues to trend upwards like this, VHL Hall of Famer Corco's return to the league could prove to be a massive catalyst for the Titans' potential resurgence to the VHL's forefront. 4 D.C. Dragons Albin Aldgard @animal74 D TPE: 296 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 5 22 27 -4 114 38 96 91 S96 Playoffs N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A The D.C. Dragons have been building a fantastic core of forwards for their rebuild, but they're missing that stud defenseman of the future. Luckily for them, this is the perfect draft class to address that need, and at fourth overall, they get an absolute gem in Albin Aldgard. animal74 is one of the VHL's best team players, and exactly the type of addition that any GM would be fortunate to add to a rebuild. Although he's an established leader and hype man in the locker room, Aldgard is still looking for similar validation on the ice. With the Las Vegas Aces missing the playoffs, Aldgard didn't get the same chance to showcase his skills like the previous prospects, but he has shown the potential to be an excellent two-way defenseman. Although he has been indecisive thus far in the offensive zone, he's excellent on the defensive and can be depended on in any situation. This will prove to be a huge addition for the Dragons down the road. 5 Prague Phantoms Pelayo Bolivar @SMYLS4 C TPE: 274 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 16 23 39 4 129 32 87 11 S96 Playoffs 7 1 4 5 -2 18 0 5 0 With the addition of Pan Daffleck, Prague's top of their blueline is set for the foreseeable future. For that reason, VSN predicts them going a bit off the board to grab Pelayo Bolivar. Bolivar projects as a true number one center with the potential to be an outstanding standout in a truly unique class, with very few high rated forward prospects. Bolivar has had a long running podcast and has made a massive impact both on the ice and in the locker room. Last season Bolivar didn't have the best numbers, but did show some great signs of growth, namely their great playoff performance putting up 5 points in 7 playoff games! He has shon signs of growth that would hint towards a spectacular S97 coming up in the VHLM before making the jump to the VHL for S98! Bolivar will be a great fit for any team, but we see Prague taking the top center prospect early. 6 Los Angeles Stars Bubbles LaFleur @AJW D TPE: 288 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 16 26 42 -11 185 54 107 79 S96 Playoffs 12 3 1 4 -4 90 8 13 12 Los Angeles is back rebuilding and looking to build from the blue line out, and with franchise cornerstone Roger Eagles in goal, that's a good way to go. Bubbles LaFleur should develop into a true number 1 defensemen in the VHLM, since they're likely another season away from the VHL, but he's coming off a great season in the VHLM with 16 goals and 26 assists for a total of 42 points in 72 games. Their play did falter a touch in the playoffs, but that's no reason for concern, as they're progressing well and are primed for a massive breakout in the VHLM next season! Bubbles La Fleur has said that they will only play with their brother so we will have to stay tuned to see where Ricky LaFleur, the number 1 ranked goalie, eventually ends up! 7 London United Brigitta Sandstrom @Acydburn D TPE: 293 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 9 29 38 10 110 84 94 91 S96 Playoffs 10 1 1 2 -2 25 10 17 16 Brigitta Sandstrom is probably the pick in at this point with the highest floor of the draft. Sandstrom comes from the same agency as hall-of-fame defensemen Battre Sandstrom, and as a result will come in with extremely high expectations that they should be set to live up to. Sandstrom was average in the VHLM last season as they had a total of 38 points in 72 games played, which is very respectable, but we should see a considerable jump this coming season should they stay in the VHLM. Sandstrom could make the jump this season to help fill out London's roster, but that's a decision that we should see the result of shortly after the draft. London is in the middle of a rebuild right now and with adding Carti earlier in the draft, picking up Sandstrom here is just about as good as this draft could have gone for them. 8 Chicago Phoenix Dr Victor von Doom @Garsh G TPE: 274 Season GP W L OT/SOL Save % GAA SO SA GA S96 Regular Season 20 12 7 1 0.895 2.09 2 400 42 S96 Playoffs 9 6 3 0 0.908 1.86 1 217 20 With the 8th overall pick, Chicago will start to look to the future, as their roster is aging and a re-tool seems to be right around the corner. They'll start replenishing the prospect cabinet by adding Dr Victor von Doom, a top goaltending prospect that will get to learn from one of the best goaltenders in Chicago history which should set them up for success. Von Doom played in only 20 games last regular season, with just average goaltending stats, but came into a league of their own in the playoffs. In the playoffs, they posted a great 0.908 SV% and a 1.86 GAA as they played a major role in Ottawa's finals run. The future is bright for Victor von Doom and the draft should set them on the right path. 9 Los Angeles Stars Taavetti Jokinen @Ahma D TPE: 293 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 3 21 24 24 49 60 106 91 S96 Playoffs 19 3 7 10 3 20 10 25 29 Finally at 9, the slide of the most controversial pick in the draft is complete. The story behind the Jokinens is fairly well known - all players in this familial line must only play for Davos. Generally, Davos has made a semi-respectable effort to acquire a pick in the general range Jokinen could reasonably go, and they've made some efforts this season by trading up from pick 15 to 13, and now to 11. While that's still not enough for a top 5 selection in this class, it's closer than Davos was a week ago. However, it's unlikely that every team allows Davos to just pick up Jokinen for a steep discount - so enter a team with a plethora of selections this draft - Los Angeles. While GM Zach Gagnon has been outspoken about wanting to select players willing to help the Stars finally get out of its long term rebuild, they do have the opportunity to take a risk and bring in even more value while diversifying the ages of their young prospects. Davos has some assets still up their sleeve, along with roster players that could be enticing to LA. Additionally, if LA takes Jokinen to arbitration, it gives them a three season window to find a deal with Davos. It is interesting to note, a Jokinen has not played a single season for a team other than Davos in recent memory - perhaps ever. If Los Angeles is ready to play hardball, this could finally be the generation that breaks the streak. And it's up to Davos whether they're willing to pay the fair price and risk a disgruntled agency that has taken admirable efforts to send players to Davos at every chance they get. 10 New York Americans Ricky LaFleur @DarkSpyro G TPE: 281 Season GP W L OT/SOL Save % GAA SO SA GA S96 Regular Season 66 34 29 3 0.905 2.13 8 1493 142 S96 Playoffs 12 6 6 0 0.893 2.02 1 244 26 With long time goalie 32W's approaching the last few seasons of their career, it would make sense for New York to select Ricky LaFleur here at 10th overall. While the LaFleur's have been outspoken about their desire to play together, the only team with multiple draft picks is Los Angeles - and they have a franchise cornerstone in net already, making a goalie selection to LA seem improbable, if not impossible. New York though offers a fantastic destination for a young goalie, with time before LaFleur will be required to man the net as a full-time starter. The Americans also play a very goalie-friendly defensive style, and have long stood towards the top of the league in defensive metrics, especially when looking at team Goals Against. While it's not quite the destination Ricky LaFleur might have in mind with Bubbles heading over to Los Angeles, New York would be a fantastic succession plan to be part of and you never know what the future might hold when it comes to the brothers' chances of playing together. 11 HC Davos Dynamo Mikko Tuomala @flyersfan345 D TPE: 244 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 6 27 33 16 94 86 141 81 S96 Playoffs 7 0 2 2 1 4 2 10 8 The second first-gen player off the board, Davos brings in Mikko Tuomala from Halifax to address some shallow defensive depth. As of the time of writing, Davos sports two defensemen expected to retire within the next two to three seasons in Joseph Dubois and Mina. Fortunately for Davos, picking at 11th overall in the S97 draft gives them a treasure that most other classes wouldn't afford - the best first-gen defender in the class. Tuomala played second fiddle on the blue line in Halifax, but boasts an extremely high ceiling once he's given a few seasons to develop. While it'd have been nice to see him play alongside his friend, Pelayo Bolivar, the added motivation of having to compete against said friend could reap extremely positive rewards for the Dynamo. Add in the chance to play in an organization with top tier defensemen Felicia Hardy and the aforementioned Mina, Tuomala may have found himself in a great place for his development without extremely high pressure to contribute immediately. 12 Los Angeles Stars CJ Daniels @xNJDevilsFanx RW TPE: 200 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 10 19 29 -8 156 49 134 38 S96 Playoffs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 CJ Daniels is no stranger to a rebuild, having spent all of S96 on the last place Saskatoon Wild. As a playmaking winger, Daniels put up respectable numbers without significant assistance around him, but that looks to change with his selection here by the Los Angeles Stars. LA have already made two picks by this point and have addressed both defense and goalie, so it's time to address forward in a draft class where forward talent is expected to come off the board relatively quickly. Look for Daniels to make his debut in S98 after another season to develop in the VHLM, at which point he'll slot in nicely alongside the other young forward talent on LA such as UghSike and Wally Lose. LA certainly has an uphill battle ahead of them without elite talent to lead them out of the rebuild, but Daniels certainly has a chance to develop into that higher end talent. 13 Riga Reign Chad Powers @Big_Dyl G TPE: 242 Season GP W L OT/SOL Save % GAA SO SA GA S96 Regular Season 21 8 11 2 0.89 2.93 1 62 564 S96 Playoffs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Our third goalie goes off the board at 13 to the Riga Reign. Powers had the chance to play the backup role behind an MVP candidate in Jon Webber III, and he likely learned a thing or two from him despite his trademark Pit Viperz obstructing his vision. We can certainly see they aren't exactly helping his on ice performance with a mere .890 save percentage. What he lacks in talent, he certainly make up for with style though. No GM would value a trait like that more than Alexandre Leduc. Also, Red Panda is a pending UFA after S97 and is due to retire before S100. A goalie now could perfectly fit within their timeline with proper earning and engagement. Powers also is one of the last high earners in this class available and should be VHL ready within the 3 seasons left in the Panda's career. 14 Los Angeles Stars Hater Tottingham @Trunkxolotl D TPE: 209 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 18 27 45 16 196 37 114 12 S96 Playoffs 7 1 3 4 0 20 4 10 5 Tottingham is the projected 4th and final piece of the re-rebuild for LA in the S97 draft. After a very strong S96 regular season and a pretty decent performance in the playoffs, he earns a first round grade. Most classes would see a player like this in the top-10 but the defensive depth of this group of young players hold back his projected selection. Hater also does make some extra gains via trivia night at a local bar. Rumor has it Disney and Elton John are his best categories. As far as how he fits for LA, sadly they had to reset their painful rebuild and in this class they can get a 1a/1b for their future defensive core. They have no defensemen signed or in the farm system currently, so expect them to walk out of the draft with no less than two. Hater's pass first tendencies on the ice could provide a nice boost to the powerplay by getting the biscuit to the team's top player, Wally Lose. A lot of room to grow remains for the Canadian, but I'm sure the Star's GM will do everything they can to keep him engaged. 15 Seattle Bears Pepe Silvia @STZ G TPE: 189 Season GP W L OT/SOL Save % GAA SO SA GA S96 Regular Season 22 7 5 1 0.919 1.61 4 27 335 S96 Playoffs 1 0 1 0 0.778 4.51 0 2 9 Pepe Silvia may be missing a ton of mail to a crazy bar owner in Philadelphia, but he rarely misses the pucks blazing towards his net! Zaps Cat got the starting role most of this season but definitely gave some pointers to the young netminder in Silvia. Pepe managed an well above average .919 save perventage and very good 1.61 GAA. 4 shutouts in 22 games is also insanely great work. This class is stacked with goaltending talent so he falls farther than he would in most drafts. The only issue with this selection is that Seattle has a S92 and S96 goalie either on the roster or in the system, forcing the Bears into a situation in a season or two to clear up a minor goalie logjam. We just can't project a player this talented sitting until this late though. 16 Calgary Wranglers Jacob Seed @oilmandan RW TPE: 187 Season GP G A P (+/-) SHT PIM HITS SB S96 Regular Season 72 4 4 8 5 59 32 79 3 S96 Playoffs 11 2 2 4 -4 10 10 12 1 Jacob Seed isn't a highly touted prospect but he benefits from a shallow class in his position group. Sources with his current VHLM team confirm he does little more than the bare minimum weekly training and his presence within the locker room is lacking. The first round grade mostly has stemmed from his on ice play. The regular season saw little playing time and opportunity, but the postseason run however, saw Seed nabbing 4 points in 11 games played. This player is unlikely to find himself as a top liner in the VHL but could be valued as a depth piece and a powerplay specialist should he continue focusing on offensive growth. Calgary also has a ton of pending UFAs and Keegan Gamble retiring after S97, so investment in the forward core might be necessary at this point of the draft. Written by @Doomsday, @Alex, @Spartan , and @Pifferfish

Very near and dear to me, and most. My ex battled a rare aggressive form of cancer and beat it. She was incredible. My baba just passed away this September after a second battle with cancer. My sweet dog (I consider her a kid lol..) has a lump and the doctors say 50% chance it’s a tumour.. very expensive! Very scary. Not many things in life more important than her. This time of year is always so awesome, both in life and within the VHL. It’s beautiful. Festive. Positive. People come together to do so much good. Excited for this VHL Christmas events! Let’s have a great Holiday season, VHL.

I apply for Toronto only.

Thanks to each and everyone of you for being a part of the Seattle Bears! I appreciate the efforts you put into your players, the VHL, Seattle and the time you take out of your day to pop into the LR to make the experience better for all in the league. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL! 1 entry each for: @Nathan_8 @Aimee @Mongoose87 @Gustav @Hogan @Kisslinger @Mysterious_Fish @frescoelmo @qripll @xNJDevilsFanx @Big_Dyl $22 in total. I wonder if other GM's would do this? @VHL GM @VHLM GM NO PRESSURE. All in good fun and in the name of doing some good.

I thought of this media spot idea since folks were asking about how in the world I came up with “Kirbithan” and how it’s pronounced, so why not take 1,000+ words to give the VHL world an in-depth explanation? Plus I’ll also go over my player names as well! Not necessarily a write up anybody asked for, but I figured it’d be fun to have this all out there for future reference if needed. So. . . why am I Kirbithan? Better known to most as Kirby. Well, the answer is right below. Oh, how tense it is. I hope you’re prepared! Without further ado. . . Yeah. That’s it. I wish the reasoning behind my username was more complex and thought-provoking, but it isn’t and again: that’s it. One day, sometime in 2020/2021ish, someone decided they wanted to be funny and edit Kirby Dach’s Wikipedia page to say his full name was Kirbithan Dach, implying that his parents actually named him something that ridiculous. It was promptly changed back soon after. Personally, I thought it was the peak of comedy for some reason, and since I didn’t really have a username that was used synonymously across the internet that wasn’t already taken by someone else, I jumped on the opportunity. Little did I know that would become my online identity. There’s also been some questions about Kirbithan’s pronunciation so I typically just say it’s if you just combined the names Kirby and Jonathan— Kirbi-than. It sounds so silly as I’m typing all this out but hey, it works. I also am a HUGE Kirby fan (the Nintendo character) and main Kirby in Super Smash Bros., so when I joined the VHL and others started to shorten my username to just Kirby, it was easy to start going by that since it felt natural, in a sense. Previously, I used a variety of usernames and none of them really stuck, but this one has and I’ve been using it ever since. So there you have it. The simple yet amusing origins of Kirbithan. Honestly, there could’ve been an alternate timeline where I was known in the VHL as something else other than Kirby had I not found that dumb meme so hilarious, which looking back, is kind of weird to think about since I can’t imagine going by anything else. Plus, when your username is consistent on multiple platforms, it’s easy for folks to find you and not get confused, especially in the VHL since we utilize both the forum and Discord. —————————————— Onto my player names, starting with Lachlan Summers! Lachlan actually started out as an NHL 21 Be a Pro player, and I just chose a first name I was really fond of, being Lachlan, of course, and since I noticed the name was popular in Australia, I chose Australian as his nationality. As for the surname, I also wish the answer was more complicated, but I simply scrolled through all the play-by-play names that Chel offered and landed on Summers since I thought the entire name would sound great together. I guess this has evolved into a full player origin, because after I finished about two seasons of my Be a Pro, I converted my player into an original character (OC), and had already chosen Jordan Binnington as a render for him by then. His story differs a lot from his VHL counterpart, but since I don’t want to lull anyone to sleep, I won’t go too deep into the lore of it all. Then I joined the VHL and future Hall of Famer Lachlan Summers was born after tweaking his original story a bit to fit into the league’s narrative better. Now here we are, two and a half years later with his name being immortalized in the HOF. What a ride. —————————————— My second and current player is Moscow Menace prospect and recently graduated Ottawa Lynx star, River Harrington. If you ask a few people (namely Sadie or Jacob), they’d tell you I actually came up with this player just a few months after joining the league and well, I committed to the bit. I believe the first time I mentioned this player was September 2022 and wrote a short .Com about him in January 2023, so I had very much planned ahead. Like Lachlan, River also started off as an original character before being translated into the VHL, with Vince Dunn as a render. I had this vague idea of a really spoiled rich kid when first creating the character, so naturally I thought: what would the kid be named? River sounded elegant enough after browsing through a list, so that’s what stuck. Harrington was the same deal, just wanted a name that sounded relatively regal, and what better fit the bill than the last name of my favorite character in Stranger Things (which is a show that is taking forever to finish, holy) that had that same snobby rich kid personality in the beginning of the show before turning a new leaf. I thought it was fitting in that regard as well. River has blossomed into a solid player, and while not at the caliber I expected of him just yet, there’s plenty of room to grow as he slots into his role in Moscow, whatever that may be in the near future. —————————————— I suppose that’ll do it (for now). As for what my next player name will be, I genuinely have no clue thus far. River’s got a long career ahead of him now that he’s got his rookie season with Moscow coming up in a few short weeks, and it’ll be a while before I even consider what direction I want to take my next player. I’ve definitely thrown around some prospective ideas but unlike how I was quick to settle on River, there hasn’t been any concrete decisions made yet and there probably won’t be for a while. To those who actually read all the way through, thank you for sticking around for what was essentially another Kirby Rambles-type media spot! I’ve been wanting to talk about the origins of my names here for a while now and decided now was a good time as ever. Catch you in the next one!

Hello @Members! Feels good to use that ping. Welcome to my first(?) non-VHLM rule-related announcement! The @BOG have had some discussions ongoing for a few months now over various rules in the VHL Rulebook, and have made some changes that are probably better to be announced for proper awareness. First, podcast related changes! After reviewing the existing podcast length/guests matrix and comparing them to the standards we hold for VHL.com articles/graphics/podcasts, Media Spots, and Graphics, we've decided to tweak the chart from generally being in increments of 15 minutes to increments of 10 minutes. We'd like to see more members take advantage of podcasts, especially since they're very simple to do (record on your phone, upload to Spotify using the Spotify for Podcasters app on your phone, can even record directly on the app!) and give you more flexibility and convenience than a graphic or media spot. Here's the new matrix for podcast duration to claim weeks/members on the podcast: Now, on to trading related changes! I'm sure everyone saw the infamous S96 VAN/WAR trade that caused quite the stir and put a spotlight on conditional trades. Conditional Trades have been left relatively vague due to the various possibilities that can exist in conditions, and the ability for GMs to use specific wording to drive specific outcomes. However, we would like to make a few common instances clearer and formally codified, resulting in three new rules, and remove an existing rule that was deemed to be potentially problematic due to the wording, despite not being referenced much. Here are the changes. Being added: 1. Conditional trades involving draft picks must specify the season of the pick being conditioned. Teams may only defer collection of a pick as long the deferment has a clear condition for execution in accordance with standard draft pick trading rules. 2. Teams must own the assets being traded, or conditionally traded, as of the time of the trade. Teams must also continue holding ownership of assets that may need to be transferred to another team as a result of a fulfilled condition until the condition is executed upon. 3. A team that signs a player in FA, after acquiring their rights prior to the FA period in a conditional trade dependent on the player's signing, has met the criteria of the condition. (Ex. Vancouver acquires the rights to King Kisslinger from Warsaw prior to S96 Free Agency in exchange for a 3rd round pick that becomes a 1st if Kisslinger signs. If Vancouver signs Kisslinger in FA instead of prior to FA, Vancouver will still owe Warsaw the 1st round pick). Relatively straightforward changes here. Conditional trades must be clear with the season of the pick being traded or have a clear deferment clause with another explicitly specified pick. Additionally, teams may no longer trade picks they don't own, but may acquire in the future. Any picks being conditioned must be retained by the team until the condition is either met and executed, or not met and free to be traded again. Lastly, we've had a few situations where player rights are traded with a condition on their re-signing, only for the player to go into FA and then be signed by the team that acquired their rights. We've developed a precedent where this action still meets the spirit of the condition, so we're formalizing it. Being removed: 4. Any draft pick that is part of a condition may be traded in a separate trade, so long as the receiving team understands that there are conditions attached to that pick. i.e. If Helsinki makes a trade with Davos, guaranteeing the higher of two S75 1st round picks held by Helsinki at the time, then makes a trade sending the "other" S75 1st round pick to Toronto. Toronto must acknowledge that they would receive the lower of the two picks, while Davos receives the higher. This rule was intended to allow for two conditions to be executed simultaneously, as described in the example, where the higher of two draft picks would go to one team, allowing the lower of those two picks to go to another team. However, the language presented a loophole where teams could condition a pick, and then trade the pick away before the condition executed (ex. Moscow sends a conditional 2nd to Davos, where if Moscow wins the cup, Davos receives a 1st. However, Moscow then decides to trade their 1st away to Warsaw resulting in the inability for Davos to receive the 1st). Since conditional trades can already be made sending the higher/lower of two picks to two different teams, we felt it was unnecessary to have this wording in the rulebook where teams could potentially exploit conditions to avoid paying out the conditioned pick. --- Thanks for joining my rule change discussion, and happy holidays! Tagging @VHL GM for awareness and @Commissioner because I probably should.

Despite @Spartan 's attempts to sabotage my development and Bocage kind of just being a bum for most of his career, with his only superstar season being when he was the only high end defenseman on his team, I would say they have carved out a fairly decent career, with possibly a couple more seasons left in the tank, motivation-permitting. Whether this player continues on up to retirement, or they simply ride off into the sunset by the end of this season remains in the hands of Moscow. I’ve put it out there that if traded, I will retire, but I am benevolent. I would give the unlucky GM a chance to sway my opinion and continue forth with the golden years of my Bocage. But, for the sake of this article, let’s assume that Bocage’s career comes to an abrupt end, Simon doles out a suspension that lasts for the entirety of the playoffs and Spartan simply gets fed up and banishes me to the realm of darkness, never to return again. If that were to happen, how good is Obuz? There was little draft hype surrounding the defenseman and to be honest, not many would have considered him to be a franchise defenseman. Last time I checked, he ranks 3rd in their draft class in TPE, and has surpassed many of those taken before him. I would say Bocage served as pretty good value for the 12th selection in the draft, but how does he compare to the other 12th overall picks throughout the history of the VHL? > Starting off with S1, we have Tyler Toews. They played one less game than Obuz, and have around 180 less points. Safe to say Bocage clears. > Season 2 shows Tommy Gunn, with about a season more worth of games over Bocage, but again, falls short on the point total by close to 150. Bocage clears > Zach Parise is the pick in Season 3, and they come relatively close to Bocage in terms of points, but falls short with nearly 200 more games in their favor. Bocage clears > Season 4 Steven Morin is the best looking pick so far, averaging .84 points per game with about 100 or so less games than Bocage. Unfortunately, Bocage is at .96 points per game so yea, Bocage clears. > This one is pretty close. Miroslav Ladic out of Season 5 has a cup to their name and is just a tick over a point per game with 436 points in 432 games, which has Bocage beat. Maybe let’s take a look at their playoff statline: 47 GP | 13 G | 21 A | 34 PTS. Now, compare that to Bocage: 49 GP | 14 G | 38 A | 52 PTS. Beat me out in the regular season, but Bocage shows that he is the more clutch player. Bocage clears > Back to an easy clear. Brian Malkin of the Season 6 draft put up 250 points in 429 games. Seems like it’s pretty concise. Bocage clears. > Another cup winner in the Season 7 selection, Sebastien Perrin. Fortunately for me, this one won’t require too much digging to surpass. Perrin has an extra season worth of games on Bocage, yet falls 17 points behind them. Suffice to say add an additional season to Obuz and that gap widens quite a bit. Bocage clears. > Good thing Bocage wasn’t drafted 11th overall, or else this would be a comparison with Hall of Famer Matt Bentz, although it may not necessarily be that lucky, as Robert Zygadlo is the selection in Season 8. Zygadlo beats out Bocage by a percent in points per game, with 490 in 504. I am not able to find any of their playoff stats either. However, I did look through all the awards and saw that Robert didn’t have any in the VHL, which Obuz did. Therefore, Bocage clears. > Riku Iverson was selected 12th overall in the Season 9 draft, and there’s actually nothing more about this player. From what it appears, they never played a single game in the VHL, or VHLM, having only been drafted to New York and nothing more. Bocage clears. > Another player who appears to have nothing about them. Bruno Becker was the selection in Season 10, and other than being traded a couple times, nothing much else there. Bocage clears. > This one is kind of weird. Tayson Barabash of the Season 11 draft is the first goalie to pop up and I don’t really know how to necessarily compare them with Bocage. I suppose looking at their stats they appear to be a relatively reliable goaltender but nothing spectacular. No awards or anything like that so I guess I’ll say, Bocage clears. > James Sullivan of the Season 12 draft looks like a real gamer. 1.15 points per game is pretty damn good. Two seasons less than Bocage and less than 100 points difference, one could probably make the argument that Sullivan would surpass Bocage if he had those two extra seasons slotted in there. The big difference in between them though comes in the trophy cabinet. No individual awards for James in his career, which means, Bocage clears. > For whatever reason, there are a couple players by the name of Edward Eldred. One in season 2, this one in Season 13, and apparently one way in Season 33 that had some controversy around him and I believe DDoS’d someone. Strange lore surrounding that name for whatever reason. But in regards to this 12th overall pick, I think (stat sheet has him as Edward Eldred 2, but could just be to differentiate, I don’t know), but basically, same amount of points as Bocage with an extra season on him. Pretty easy to say, Bocage clears. > This one is annoying. There are apparently a ton of players with the name “Zach Voss”. The one we’re looking at is the goaltender drafted in Season 14, and what I can gather is, this guy aged like fine wine. Not much to really talk about in his earlier seasons, but S19 he chowed down. Seemed like a solid goalie for most of his career, I keep seeing “franchise” next to his name when I was digging around for things about him. Top VHL goaltender in Season 18 and 19 and absolutely dominated the S19 playoffs, outplaying Daisuke Kanou and winning the trophy the opposing netminder was named after for playoff MVP. This one is a toughy, as goalies are already kind of weird to rank. Trade the playoff MVPS, now you're comparing offensive defenseman of the year and overall defenseman of the year for one season compared to two goalie of the years in back to back seasons, which I still kind of just don’t know. Putting the mindset in a GM mode, and just seeing how kind of useless goalies are comparably speaking, I think I would go with Bocage. You can get a starter level goalie pretty easily and with a good enough defense, you can probably get that goalie to win some hardware. Much harder to just slap in a defenseman and turn them into an all-star. Bocage clears. > Season 15 sees Teatime McScones, a one season wonder for the VHL. Barely breaks 30 points. Bocage clears. > Vince Stephan of the Season 16 draft is a goalie, which like I’ve said before are annoying to compare because there’s pretty much no crossover on the stats. However, this one seems pretty easy. Stephan put up an .899sv% in his career which I think is kind of not good, so Bocage clears. > Rhett Gouldhawke was the selection in Season 17. They appear to be quite a decent player, having won three Cups in their playing career and sit at 398 points in 360 games. While those make them look like a player that could give Obuz some trouble, it comes down to individual accolades. Rhett’s trophy case in the VHL simply consists of the team awards, and has nothing for himself, making him more so a passenger in the cup runs than an actual driver, compared to Bocage’s playoff MVP run. Bocage clears. > Season 18 sees the selection of Gabriel Cederland, who got to tag along for the ride for the season 25 continental cup run. Their offensive numbers, however, are pretty lacking. In 502 games, Cederland put up less than half a point per game with 230, a far cry from Bocage’s numbers. Bocage clears. > Sigmund Olofsson for Season 19 doubles Cederland in Cup wins with two, but again their offense is subpar. While a fair bit better than the previous selection with 355 in 434 games, it still falls short of Obuz. Bocage clears. > A common Helsinki miss, Jon Maxfield in Season 20 appears to have never played a single VHL game. Bocage clears. > Yan Feng broke into the league for a single season, being season 26, after being drafted 5 seasons previously in S21. Suffice to say they did not come close to Obuz’s success, with only 13 points in that one season. Bocage clears. > Ronan O'Keefe appears to be quite the perplexing player. Being drafted in Season 22, they ended up winning a Cup in S26, but appeared to have played sparingly in the VHL across Season 23-26, with some movement thrown in there. In their 202 VHL games, they only put up 15 points. Can’t say they were a main factor in the success of their team with those numbers. Bocage clears. > Swing and a miss with the Season 23 selection of Francois Marfo, never breaking into the league. Bocage clears. > Another 0 game player in Season 24 with Byron Garza. Kind of neat looking at this draft and seeing so many Seattle picks in this one, though it’s kind of in the dark ages of the VHL so I feel like most of those guys were misses too. Bocage clears. > A familiar name pops up in Season 25 with Miroslav Ladic. This one however did not go on to have the same success as his name twin, with seemingly nothing about him. Can’t find any stats or any articles regarding this Ladic, so I’m assuming it was a bust pick. Bocage clears. > Season 26’s selection is Adam Cullen, someone who had a unique playing career, playing a full season in Season 29, skipping Season 30, and playing again in Season 31. This tomfoolery would not benefit him, as he only eked out 20 points in his career. Bocage clears. > Kraphf Dringus in the Season 27 draft has 1 cup to their name but only 207 points in 503 games. Bocage clears. > Pekka Svenson for Season 28 turned out to be a half decent goaltender, putting up a .915sv% in 198 games. With a bit of digging though, they were never a true starter, but was more of a tandem goalie. Bocage clears. > Dylan Pope, the selection for Season 29, never played a game in the VHL. Bocage clears. > Black Jesus in Season 30. Cool name, but no game(s). Bocage claers. > Chris Bourque for Season 31 was apparently an absolute beast in the M, but never cracked a VHL roster. Bocage clears. > Well at least Jesper Hellkvist from the Season 32 draft played some games. Hellkvist had 2 seasons in the VHL, but only able to spew out 61 points. Suffice to say, Bocage clears. > I can’t even pretend to make an argument for this one. The 12th selection in the Season 33 draft is Niklas Lindberg. Lindberg has gone onto be inducted into our Hall of Fame, with a heavily stocked up trophy cabinet, a Stolzschweiger in 34, Boulet in 39, Slobodzian, Szatkowski, and a Brooks in 40, and two Continental Cups which he played a pivotal role in. Take away the awards and just looking at the points, Niklas managed to put up 717 points in 504 games. Absolutely dominating player in his era. Bocage does not clear. > Back to easy pickings. James Ryan from the Season 34 draft never sniffed the ice in the VHL. Bocage clears. > Magnus Hertzberg from Season 35 is another No-VHLer. Seems like they were pretty damn good in the M but could never push themselves to the next level. Bocage clears. > Season 36 shows Gordon Bombay, who capped out at 47 TPE. Yea, gonna have to go out on a limb and say they didn’t make the VHL. Bocage clears. > After that little spurt, Season 37 has a player that actually played in the VHL. Ron World Peace comes out with a Cup win to their name and appears to be a pretty solid player. 407 points in 504 games for their career is nothing to scoff at. Though, that falls short of Bocage’s 419 with Obuz having a season less. Bocage clears. > Pretty interesting player for this one. Seth Rollins is the selection for Season 38, and despite never making it to the VHL and capping out at 50 TPE, the user was actually pretty active, being in the league from 2014 all the way to 2023, and put out a fair few articles about their player. It’s honestly impressive to be, even on and off, interacting in the VHL for nearly a decade and only having one player, who never even broke triple digits TPE. His last message was in 2015, but he still continued to visit the forum and do, nothing I guess? Bocage clears. > Season 39 has Hudson Backenbauer, who got to play an extra game in a season due to a midseason trade. That additional game would not lead them to greatness, as they put out 24 points in their career and went pointless in 16 games in the playoffs.Bocage clears. > Shadhu Rathod Jr. from the Season 40 draft put up some pretty decent numbers and had a very solid career in the VHL, putting up 423 points in 504 games. No Cups though and no individual awards to speak of. Bocage clears. > The Season 41 draft produced a fairly consistent defenseman in Jakob Ackerman, putting up 383 points in 504 games. While they served as a solid and reliable player in the VHL, he never did anything spectacular and never produced any individual awards. Bocage clears. > A.C. Savage is the pick in Season 42. Greatness was never to be expected for this player, as the user @Molholt came out and said that this player was gonna suck, they were bored of the league, and would retire by the end of Season 43. He followed through with that, dropping out with only 2 seasons of the VHL under his belt but a solid 80 points to his name. While Savage never panned out, at least Molholt’s next player had himself a pretty good run, being the leader in goals and points for the Toronto Legion franchise. But, for Savage, Bocage clears. > Chuck Goody for Season 43 got to ride a seemingly stacked Toronto team and earn himself a ring, but didn’t really do anything more than that. 218 points in 7 seasons isn’t awful, but not anything to write home about. Bocage clears. > I guess there are some discrepancies between the Retired Player posts and the All-Time Stats spreadsheet. Jefferson Jackson, the selection in Season 44, either put up 8 points in 34 games, or 10 points in 109 games.I would probably prefer the former, but either way, Bocage clears. > I think for simplicity's sake I’ll use the stats sheet for their points and whatnot and look at the Retired Player posts for awards. Jace Hines for Season 45 put up 226 points in 504 games, and while they saw some team success in the M, they didn’t quite get any in the big leagues. Bocage clears. > Alright, so this one is a weird one. This was back in the day where GM players basically went straight to their team, no questions asked. Molholt, the guy who’s player was a couple seasons ago, gets the Toronto GM gig and his player, Max Molholt, y’know, the guy that leads the franchise in goals and points, gets slapped onto Toronto. To make the rule somewhat fair, a pick has to be voided. That pick happens to be the 12th overall pick for Season 46. So now, it’s somewhat of a dilemma: Do I compare Bocage to the voided pick and take the freebie, or does Obuz have to go up against Molholt. I was originally planning on eating the comparison and moving down the list, there’s a pretty interesting thing I noticed. Yea, Toronto gives up their S46 pick, but Max is an S45 player, therefore couldn’t be drafted in S46 anyways, so that pick is a simple question mark on who they’d pick, and therefore, the void stands, and Bocage clears. > Alright, no more of that chicanery. Season 47’s selection is Surly McGrath, one of those fairly common players recruited by something, makes a player, and leaves, as the user was only on the forums for a month and the player didn’t claim a single drop of TP. Bocage clears. > Season 48 sees Dope Fiend as the selection. Hopes were likely high for this player as the user’s previous player earned around 800 TPE. Unfortunately, Fiend got smoked out of the league pretty quickly, fading away with only 16 points in 98 games. Bocage clears. > JJ Dynamite enters for the Season 49 draft. While they had a pretty long career with 342 games, it was not the most fruitful. In those games, Dynamite only managed to put up 114 points and had no awards to speak of. Bocage clears. > Misha Tobolsk is the player for Season 50. Got a Cup win in Season 53 and 159 points in 360 games. Not a bad player but also not super good either. Bocage clears. > Ales Blasek is the final selection in the Season 51 draft, making this probably the weakest draft I’ve ever seen just pure numbers-wise. This user seemed to be quite the big name back in the day, as they also created Hall of Famer Alex McNeil, but since that player they appeared to be on a steady decline and that’s amplified with this player, who apparently never even earned any TPE, sitting at their base 30. It’s one of those kind of sad relatively common stories of an old user who used to be super good and somewhat active ends up leaving the league (their last player before this one was a S33) and tries to come back after a while and just is never able to reignite that spark. Bocage clears. > Another (sort of) void pick for Season 52, but this one actually has a player from the draft class attached to it. Maximus Theodore Power is a goalie and GM player for New York. GM players usually turn out to be pretty good, and while they did end up winning a Cup, Power didn’t really turn into anything special. A .906sv% in 90 games isn’t gonna get you any props from me. Bocage clears. > Apollo Aho is the pick out of the Season 53 draft. Got one season under his belt and 51 points to show for it. Not good enough. Bocage clears. > The Season 54 draft has Jon Snow as the pick. Another one season player who did slightly better than the one before him with 54 points. Again though, not good enough. Bocage clears. > Lyle Smallwood is the pick in the Season 55 draft. There was probably some hype surrounding this player based on the user’s previous high earning skaters, but unfortunately Smallwood would not share that success. A relatively short career with 216 games played with a modest 134 points. Bocage clears. > The Season 56 draft selection Augustus Gloop appears to have some good team success, being on the winning side of the VHL finals twice, in seasons 58 and 60. However they were likely a supporting cast member than a main star during those runs, with only 83 points in 213 games played in their career. Bocage clears. > This one might be scary. @Quik, who appears to be a Hall of Fame player creating machine, puts together another one in Mats Johnsson for Season 57. 603 points in 576 games, no playoff MVP but showed up with 87 in 72, 2 cups, one in 59 and the other in 62, Valiq in 61, 2 Wyldes, one in 62, the other in 63, and a Labatte tossed in in 63 for good measure. I would say Obuz is honestly pretty close to Johnsson, a lot closer than what I originally thought when I saw Hall of Fame, but still, I have to give it to them. Bocage does not clear. > Apparently I don’t have access to this selection’s Retired Player page, but it matters not. Season 58 shows Vladislav Koradek, a goalie who only played in the VHLM and never made it to their draft team of New York. Bocage clears. > Theo Karlsson is the selection for the Season 59 draft and boy what a pick. No games in the VHL, capped out at 30 TPE. Bocage clears. > Two more drafts until it’s integrated into the portal, which will make this go a lot faster for me, unfortunately @Beketov doesn’t link the player pages on his draft boards so I have to do more work to get there but c'est la vie. The draft selection for Season 60 is Matthew Keller. Despite having an insane season in the M, he never cracked the VHL and really didn’t earn much, capping out at 60 TPE. Bocage clears. > The Season 61 draft shows Jacob Smith, who appears to be not half bad. Played 3 seasons in Davos and put up 105 points in 216 games. Other than being a force in the S61 M playoffs, not much else to say about this player. Bocage clears. > Finally into the portal era for the drafts. I get to close some tabs and stop my laptop from sounding like a jet engine. It’s great to just be able to go to the player page and have everything laid out nice and neat for my viewing pleasure. Season 62 has @AW13’s first player, Oleksiy Revchenko. A respectable center for Calgary throughout their career. Playing 5 seasons with them, putting up 276 points in 360 games, with a season in Helsinki as punishment thrown in there. Good but not great. Bocage clears. > Cool that I’m starting to see some active members and names I recognize start to pop up now. @Peace’s first player Rylan Peace is the selection for Season 63. Pretty strong career for a then first gen, with 467 points in 432 games split amongst Riga, Davos, and Toronto. The kicker is, no individual awards, just a single cup win with Toronto in S67. Bocage clears. > This was definitely not a name I thought was gonna pop up when I was doing this. BladeMaiden’s goalie, Brick Wahl II is the selection in Season 64, and oh boy were they pretty good. While throughout their career they seemed to be an alright, slightly above average goaltender, they absolutely turned it up a notch in their final season, S71, winning the Shaw, Slobodzian, Funk, Clegane, and Campbell and putting up a .931sv% and a GAA of 1.97 in 64 games, they were an absolute wall that season. Career-wise not too bad either, with a .920 and a 2.5 in 495 games. While I would like to make an argument on how Bocage is better, I think it’s best I just give this one to Blade. I don’t want the simp army to return and come after me. Bocage does not clear. > Season 65 sees a less dominant player in Viktor Kozlov, who got a free ride on a very strong Helsinki team, getting a ring as a result. They ended up playing 3 seasons in the VHL, all with different teams, and putting up 40 points in 198 games. Immensely funny statline for Toronto, playing 53 games and scoring 1 goal, for 1 point, and having a +/- of 1. Bocage clears. > Ah Season 66, my first draft in the VHL. I can definitely say I’ve improved a bit, with my first player being taken 47th overall. The player we’re looking at though is John Frostbeard. If that name looks familiar, it’s because that’s @FrostBeard’s player. Subtle hint in the name. Winning two cups in Seattle and being a relatively active participant on the scoresheet in those playoff runs is pretty nice to see, but his points are a chunk less than ole Obuz. Frostbeard put up 296 points in 360 games with 3 different teams and no individual awards to speak of. At least Grimgor is panning out alright. Bocage clears. > Oh, hello again Quik. At least this go-around I’m not going up against a Hall of Famer. No, Season 67 has ACL TEAR, who other than riding the pine on the S69 Vancouver Victory cup run, didn’t have much else going for them. 300 points in 503 games across 8 teams, I guess they were going for a different team every season or something, I don’t know. Doesn’t translate too well to success though. Bocage clears. > First 12th overall pick to break into the 1st round of the draft. Season 68 has Wolf Stansson Jr as the selection. While they definitely had a long career, all with Prague, that loyalty did not pay off in both team success and individual success. Never going really anywhere in the playoffs and putting up 446 points in 576 games. A strong player on I suppose a weak team. Bocage clears. > In the nicest draft, Season 69 has David O’Quinn going in the 12th overall spot. Pretty mid player in the VHL though, despite outstanding success in the M. O’Quinn managed to get 223 points in 360 games across 5 seasons and 3 teams. No awards at the VHL level for him though. Bocage clears. > @ShawnGlade’s (I’m assuming) 3rd player, Shawn Glade Jr, takes the 12th overall spot in the Season 70 draft. This player did not seem to have a very long or fortunate career, with only 2 seasons played and 31 points to show for it. Unfortunately less than mid player. Bocage clears. > The pick in the Season 71 draft is Zyrock12, a first-gen at the time who played big in the M and had a mediocre career in the VHL. 5 seasons split between Malmo and Riga with 189 points to show for it. Bocage clears. > In Season 72 we have @a_Ferk’s player, Timothy Brown. Brown went on to have a pretty fruitful career with 555 points in his 7 seasons in the VHL, all with Seattle, and would also go on to help the Bears win 2 cups in his tenure. Definitely one of the better players so far on this list, but with no individual awards in the VHL, Bocage clears. > Next up we have @SirRupertBarnes’s player, Dimitri Volosenkov in Season 73. Another long and loyal career, playing all 7 seasons of his career with London, amassing 487 points. Unfortunately he would retire with nothing in the trophy case from the VHL. Bocage clears. > A controversial user comes up for the Season 74 draft in Diacope and their player, Kasper Kankkunen. While Kasper would be this user’s best player in terms of earning and production, having garnered 1247 TPE and 445 points in 432 games, they fall short in the accolades section with no awards to speak of. Bocage clears. > Next up we have @emidas’s Joe Kelly for the Season 75 draft. A pretty short career for this player, having only played 2 seasons split between 3 teams, and accumulating 64 points in the process and never even seeing the playoffs in the VHL. At the very least, their lack of success turned their next player into probably the best 55th overall pick in VHL History. Bocage clears. > Season 76 sees @Phil’s player, Phil The Rock Johnson. Very long career out of this guy with 579 games played in the big league with 452 points to show for it. Despite making the playoffs in all but one season, he was pretty much a nonfactor in each showing and his team never really saw much success in the postseason. Bocage clears. > A ppg player hits the scene with Gustislav Nasherov for the Season 77 draft. In his 504 games he barely hit the mark with 507 points. Playoff success was limited though and not much individual success despite the very strong offensive production, especially in seasons 81 and 82 where he broke 100 points. Oh well. Bocage clears. > We have our first player to enter the VHLE era of our glorious sim league. Bastian Greiss is the pick in Season 78. Had a cup of coffee in the VHLE with Stockholm in Season 80 and that’s as far as they’d go with no VHL experience. Bocage clears. > Season 79 has a three cup winner in Omi Aberg. Aberg got to ride on 2 of the 3 seasons of the MetaWolves and did pretty alright for themselves, as well as got another cup with Warsaw in 84. They fell 31 points under a ppg pace, with 401 in 432 games, While the cup wins are a nice addition to their legacy, without any individual awards, they’re still a step behind Obuz. Bocage clears. > A long 8 season career for the Season 80 selection, Logain Ablar was a reliable defenseman for his tenure in the VHL, although not really an offensive juggernaut by any means, putting up 373 points in his 552 games. That S88 season was especially poor, with only 48 games played and 8 points and a -6 to show for it. Limited playoff success as well. Bocage clears. > The Season 81 draft showcases a good but not great first gen in Robert Wilk. Wilk was able to put together a 7 season career across 6 teams, amassing 364 points in 506 games. Not much success with his team or as an individual, with the only run going past 6 games being with the S85 Moscow Menace, and having a completely barren trophy cabinet. Bocage clears. > Season 82 has a real franchise level defenseman in @Steve’s Max Torq. A long and bountiful 8 season career that saw Torq put up 569 points in 576 games with a ring to show off with the Season 83 Bears, where he was a point per game during that postseason. While during his tenure in the league he appeared to be a force to be reckoned with, there was always a player that beat him out, as Torq never won any individual awards. A strong supporting player, but still not part of the main cast. Bocage clears. > Ivan Retoslav, @eagle_3450’s player, is the selection for Season 83. Retoslav put together a respectable 8 season career, with 495 points in 576 games and went on to win a cup with London in S88, putting up 25 points in the 23 game postseason. Too bad that cup is the only award to his name, as Ivan went on to win nothing else. Bocage clears. > @JCarson’s Molly the Cat is the pick for Season 84. They came bursting onto the VHL stage, winning rookie of the year. Molly was also on the S88 London cup winning team, playing a big role in the success of that run. In his career, Molly managed to reach 606 points in his 576 games played, all with London. The lack of additional individual success strikes again however, as Obuz’s award portfolio looks much more impressive. Bocage clears. > Next up is @Toast’s most recent player, Lloyd Braun for Season 85. This defenseman was kid of mid in the regular season, putting up 349 points in 504 games, but came up big for London in Season 93, winning playoff MVP despite his team losing. He would have a ring though from the Season 87 Calgary run. Other than that singular series, which would end up being his last, his other playoff runs were less than stellar and the wow factor wasn’t really there for this player. Bocage clears. > Yea I’m fucking cooked on this one. Season 86’s 12th overall pick is none other than Hall of Famer Lachlan Summers @kirbithan, who some may consider the best goalie pretty much ever. 2 Campbells, a Slobodzian, 3 Shaws a Clegane, a Stolzschweiger, and a cup in S89 for good measure. An absolute dominating force throughout their 8 season career, spent mostly with Davos, posting a .931sv% and a GAA of 2.48 in 459 games played. Massive shoes to fill after Booberry left and they certainly filled them. Not only have they surpassed Bocage, At this point, Summers has surpassed everyone else taken 12th overall. Bocage does not clear. > It’s kind of neat that it seems that after a HoF player that kind of just blows Bocage out of the water, a softball pitch is thrown next. Hannibal Barca is the pick for Season 87, and yea they were not very good. 3 seasons played in the bigs, with 45 points in 216 games. They also managed to squeeze out 1 point in 12 playoff games, but it’s also Warsaw so can’t really expect much. At least they got VHLE MVP in 89. Bocage clears. > I can feel we are nearing the end, as this player is still playing in the VHL. Legacy Gaming @Gaming Ringleader is the selection for Season 88, and is currently rostered on the Chicago Phoenix, which I think will be their final season before retirement. They have been able to muster 428 points in 504 games, which is definitely not bad. They’ve also only had a positive +/- in 2 of their 7 seasons in the VHL, so either they’ve pretty much only been on bad teams (Chicago really hasn’t been that good), or they’re simply poor defensively (probably a mix of both). Bocage clears. > Savaisk Tzesar @comrade cat takes the spot for Season 89. They may have won a cup by now if they weren’t cursed to be on Malmo, but alas, loyalty can be a curse. Regular season both Tzesar and Bocage can be directly compared due to having the exact same amount of games played. While Savaisk’s 417 points is not too shabby, Bocage beats them out by 2 with 419, and is more impressive due to Obuz being a defenseman. Additionally, while Malmo has had a fair amount of success recently, winning the Victory Cup in 92 and 93, playoffs have not been in their favor and Savaisk has not been a large factor in their runs except this most recent where they put up 18 points in only 8 games. Bocage clears. > Season 90: Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage. You are my sunshine, giving light to my day the moment I wake, making my vision clear and shining the path forward. You are my moon, illuminating the night sky, so I mustn’t rest in absolute darkness. You are the air that fills my lungs, yet you also are the one that takes my breath away. You are my protector, blocking the darkness that creeps towards me and ensuring I reach my salvation. You are my warrior, charging into the evil that conspires against me and snuffing out the flames of corruption before they spread. You are perfection, with no faults to show, yet you are always improving, pushing the boundaries of what is seen as the absolute and exceeding the believed barriers. You are, Bocage. > These last handful of players are somewhat interesting, as their careers are younger than that of Bocage, so I’ll have to base it off projections and comparisons of previous Obuz versions. Season 91 has Mina @Baozi, a defenseman who has bounced around a fair bit, playing for 3 different teams so far, winning a cup with Seattle in 93. As of now, they have 242 points in 360 games, which is a rather large chunk away from the offensive production of Bocage. In a comparison, this season should have been their true breakout, as it was for Bocage at this point in his career, yet they didn’t even sniff a ppg. Bocage clears. > Season 92 has DB IV @wcats. When comparing them to Bocage, they are honestly pretty similar in their 2nd - 4th seasons. Bocage has a slight edge here and there, but the main difference comes in that rookie season. DB IV only got 15 points in their first season, whereas Bocage doubled them up and then some with 35 points. As of now DB IV has 200 points in 4 seasons, which, scaled up to Bocage’s game amount, would end up being 300 points. That poor rookie production really hurts their ppg and while I don’t think they’ll end up that low, as it’s more of a gradual increase than a linear one, I also don’t think they’ll have the same success as Obuz. Bocage clears. > Next up we have a goalie for the Season 93 draft. Aleksanteri Kaskiniemi-Kekkonen @Snussu out of Davos comes into the fold. With only two seasons in the league so far, one as a starter and the other as a backup, it is hard to project how good they’ll be. They played very well in the postseason for S95, putting up .930sv% and a 2.59 GAA on a really not that good Davos team, but has been replaced this season with a more veteran starter. They should retake the starting position next season but the thing with goalies are, they are pretty easily replaced. Aleksanteri may put together some above average numbers and keep earning really well, but that’ll probably nip them as lower TPE goalies are probably going to be able to compete at the same level. Bocage clears. > Season 94 sees the return of an old legend in @Hogan and his player, The Phantom of the VHL. Phantom has had a really strong start so far in his career, outproducing Bocage when comparing their first three seasons. Here’s the kicker: In Phantom’s first playoff series, they have generated 3 points in 8 games. This series comes in their third season. Bocage was marginally better with 6 in 12. Clutch is more important than points, and unless they shred up the playoffs next season, Bocage clears. > This next player is one that has yet to break into the VHL. Season 95 shows Drosmis Sarkanis @Mr Bohannan . So since we can’t compare VHL stats, what can we compare? Well, we can look at the draft season and earning. Drosmis was drafted to the VHL in S95, and is currently playing in the VHLM this season, S96. Bocage was drafted in S90, and made the jump to the VHL in S91. Obuz was able to make the jump to the majors after one season of being drafted, where Sarkanis will look to debut with London in S97, 2 seasons after his draft season. Bocage clears. > Our last 12th overall pick. Season 96 has Kurt Bachmann @Blutch as the selection. Similar to the player before this one, Bachmann has yet to break into the VHL, as they are playing for the Mississauga Hounds in the VHLM for their draft season. Their TPE is sitting at 254, and likely projects playing an additional season in the M, and possibly even more, depending on both earning consistency and the state of Helsinki moving forward. I feel secure in saying, Bocage clears. Throughout 96 drafts, the 12th overall pick has garnered some real difference makers and overall solid players, but also had its fair share of misses, with a solid handful never making the VHL and fizzling out before their career even started. Taking a gander of the players selected, I would place Bocage as the 5th best, behind the 3 Hall of Famers of Lachlan Summers, Niklas Lindberg, and Mats Johnsson, and a really strong goalie in Brick Wahl II. 1. Lachlan Summers (S86) 2. Niklas Lindberg (S33) 3. Mats Johnsson (S57) 4. Brick Wahl II (S64) 5. Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage Pretty damn good all things considered. At the start I felt like I would have been worse, and as I was progressing through I thought I was gonna end up a lot better, and then got hit with the Hall of Famers which humbled me. Spartan did try to talk me into not retiring for a bit when I was going through a bummed out period during the season and he said that there could be a legit chance that Bocage breaks into the Hall of Fame himself, but the direct comparisons, even with some extra seasons thrown in there, it appeared that Obuz was a far step away from these other guys. Maybe if he has another superstar season there’s a chance, and I would say that if he at least maintains his play and finishes out his career to natural retirement, he’ll hop over Brick Wall II, but the line between 3rd and 4th is pretty damn massive. But hey, I’ll take 5th. (6845 words. Took me 3 days to get this done. Wish I could say I'll see y'all in 3 months, but you can only claim 4 weeks, so uhhh, see y'all in a month ig)

I APPLY FOR MALMO! Since I joined the league, Malmo is the team I’ve most wanted to join and would love the opportunity since the spot is open now

@leandrofg

Vancouver Wolves S96 Awards Here we are after another disappoint season so I would like to do something differently this time around and I would like to call up the following players: Liv Slater, Rip Wheeler & Olober Syko. I want to start with saying You are the reason that we had the season that we just had and (smiles) and I cannot do this any longer here are you CHAMPIONSHIP rings!! We are the F*** Champions!!! Seriously, It is always hard to say good bye to players that played a key role in the success of the team and seeing the three of you retire as Champions actually makes it harder since some of you have been through a lot with this team. Liv Slater @Subject056 spent the darks days in the tallest tower imprisoned through the Vancouver Wolves rebuild with hope of freedom one day and lifting the cup. Well, Your Freedom has arrived just as our promise to get you a cup has as well. Thank you, Liv for everything that you have done. Rip Wheeler @ScottyP spent most of the time in a drunken stupor dreaming of Vegas and doing what he do!! Being the punching bag and stress reliever for other members of the team. Okay, He also played a huge role in the success unselfishly switching to defense this season allowing the team to claw their way to the Championship. Thank you, Wheeler for everything that you have done. Olober Syko @Spartan traded here with an asterisk beside his name due to the condition of the trade but did everything that was expected of him allowing us to the put the Soju back on the shelf for a later date. We dreamed of a Championship when completing that trade and that is what you delivered; Thank you!! Now go sit down you bums so that we can get this award show actually started…. (wipes away a tear) The first award of the night and you would think I have prepared this before actually starting you are wrong will be the Best Defenseman award. Best Defenseman: Last season the not traded Guntis Gavilrovs had a breakout season and claimed this award as he put his stamp on the Vancouver Wolves. Bollos de Trueno looked to improve on a strong Rookie season along with newly acquired Erik Thorvaldsson but would it be enough to win the award. While Rip Wheeler had enough of being hit by defenders so switch to become one himself thinking it would be easier to be a defender while drunk….. Little Wolf Award (Most Hits): After seeing the waste of time article about good hit versus bad hits; I am not sure this is a great award to win any longer but who am I kidding everyone but the coach likes to see a Thunderious open ice hit that removed the other teams best players head from his shoulders so Who did this the most this season on the Big Bad Wolf team…. Unsung Hero: Every season I find this as one of the hardest awards to give out due to the fact that it is actually hard pin point a single player that might have stood out above the rest of the players and wasn`t either a leader or our MVP. This season I asked this question in the Press Conference to see what type of response I would get and well, everyone voted for someone different throughout the process with only Wheeler voting for himself!! While I don`t completely disagree with his reasoning as we had a ton of selfless acts this past season from Wheeler switching to defense, Soju taking a back seat to Skyo, Martin changing his training to add more pass first mentality and Guntis adding more disciplined side to his game. In all it was really a team effort so who do I think is the Unsung hero…. Sniper Award (Shooting Percentage): Having already looked at the results and yes, it still followed the normal trend for past season with the winner being one of the less played players on the roster thus usually boosting their shooting percentage but this season was actaully a rather close race with three players over 9.00% as the team actually shot a rather impressive 8.24% overall, but we can only have one winner and this year that is…. Most Energetic: This is one of those awards that I also find tough at times but with this Vancouver Wolves team being so active it means it is actually a good thing. So once again I asked this as question in the press conference and wasn`t really surprised by what or who was voted as once again it was rather split between three players in Martin, Trueno and Ninefingers so who was the Most Energetic this season….. QB Award (PP Assists): I am still considering a change to this award in the future but haven`t figured out a good name or even if I want to maybe just add another award for PP goals or total PP points but for now we will leave it as assist so who was the QB of the Vancouver Wolves power-play this season….. Most Valuable Player (MVP): This season Vancouver Wolves MVP has been pretty much lead by two players but one really separated himself from the other towards the end of the season. This was another question posted to the players over the past few weeks and the team was pretty much split down the middle pointing at these two players; Martin & Ninefingers. This season MVP award goes to…… Tooth Fairy (PIM Award): It the past few season we have had one tough defender clearly the run away favorite of this award in Guntis Gavilrovs while that trend continue this season ….. Rookie of the Year/Top Prospect Award: Compared to last season when we had three rookies join the roster this season Vancouver Wolves were clearly in win now mode with zero rookies with only one still consider a rookie due to game played in Goaltender Soju. That means we will be looking at the Top Prospects rather then focusing on the rookie(s). So who is still consider a prospect well, we have Trueno, Stefano, Bouchard, Thorvaldsson and Soju as players only in their second season in the league. So who was the Top Prospect this season ……. Always Responsible (Plus/Minus): It wasn`t me!! (Least PIM): Oops Sorry Eh!! (Least Hits) Shoot the lights out (Most Shots): Work Horse Award (AMG): C`mon Coach (Least Played): Bruised and Battered Award (SB): Three Stars Award: You would think that I have learned after all these seasons of running the awards that we have the Three Stars award at the end of the presentation and that I should actually get it ready before-hand but nope, but I think I am faster at collecting the data!! LOL!! Give me second or two and I will be right back with the data points and yes, this season the bar is free so help yourself!! Final Thoughts: Last season I ended stating that Now was our time and I wasn`t wrong as we did lift the cup at the end of the season but defending it is going to be very tough with team gunning for us more then other seasons and as usually with great Championship teams; changes have been made that will affect our chances next season of repeating but we still have a strong core with Ninefingers, Martin, Stefano, Bouchard, Gavilrovs, Trueno and Soju but I would be a miss if I didn`t mention that we sorrily miss the players that have entering retirement with Liv Slater, Olober Syko, and even Rip Wheeler. Adding further as every great team that wins means further change with Thorvaldsson already traded to Prague, Kisslinger joining the Pandas of Riga and Gavilrovs … uh, wait that was lasts season. This season has proven that we were right to select, trade and put this team together giving me at least great resolve to do it again but for now, tonight and until the start of the new season we can celebrate as we are the Champions!!! Congrats on a Fantastic Season, Wolves!!! @Frank@Girts@Scurvy@Thunder@Subject056@mmrs617@Gaikoku-hito@Smarch@Sawyer13@ScottyP@Kisslinger@ethan tustain@jblock3@Tetricide@Spartan 2658 words (Dec 15th, Dec 22nd, Dec 29th & Jan 5th)

How good have the Hall of Fame voters (most of the time, the Board of Governors) been over the years? Have we been blinded by shiny new players or spent too much time yearning for great players of the past? Or have we removed all context from the equation and inducted purely based on the best stats, regardless of how easy or not it was to put those up in a specific generation? I know the answer already because we have pored over the record books for years to be as fair as possible and given second chances to players who retired many seasons ago. However, as part of an exercise to find any still unlucky to miss out, I've gone through generation by generation to identify each era's best player not in the Hall of Fame, and also how well represented the time period is. The results are below. S1-S11 (S1-S4 draftees) 12 Hall of Fame skaters, 3 Hall of Fame goalies Best non Hall of Famers: 7th best forward: Chris Julien (341 goals, 711 points) 8th best forward: Aiden Alexander (1.50 points per game) 5th best defenceman: Danny Tremblay (587 points, 1,067 blocked shots) 4th best goaltender: Jesus Christ (184 wins, .908 save %) 10 players hit 700 career points, including one defenceman (Sterling Labatte) and three exceeded 900 points (Scotty Campbell, Mike Szatkowski and Christian Stolzschweiger). 8 players scored 300 or more goals with Campbell, Szatkowski and Stolzschweiger obviously in a league of their own. We've reopened the book on old players in the past but it feels like it's been accepted that all those from the first decade that should be in are in, and those on the outside that look impressive are merely the product of their time. The goaltenders of this generation had very low totals by modern standards, having faced such an offensive barrage, so don't have much of a case for reassessment. S5-S15 (S5-S8 draftees) 8 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 7th best forward: Zacky Vengeance (253 goals, 1.40 points per game) 8th best forward: Jonathan Matthias (603 points + trophies) 3rd best defenceman: Cole Hagstrom (536 points, 1,154 blocked shots) 2nd best goaltender: Marek Van Urho (264 wins, .918 save %) Significant come down to just three 700+ point players (Kevin Brooks, Josh Vestiquan, Alexander Beketov). A fall in inducted defencemen (with even the 2nd, Blake Beukeboom, not being a shoe-in) but not many who would be worth shouting for. Slightly less cut and dry than the original generation but the combination of passage of time plus missing records from before S18 makes anyone remaining here a tough sell. The goalies of this generation, before any goalie won MVP, have always felt victims of a lack of recognition, with single-season save % holder Anton Nygard also part of this era. S9-S19 (S8-S13 draftees) 8 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 6th best forward: Zak Rawlyk (669 points, playoff success) 4th best defenceman: Ginzou Fujiwara (343 assists, 1.08 points per game) 2nd best goaltender: Steve LaFramboise (236 wins, .921 save %, 2.39 GAA) The first dead puck era hits, affecting all but Grimm Jonsson, Carl Jacobs, and forward-cum-defenceman phenom Matt Bailey. Tomas Jenskovic threatens to run away as the greatest defenceman of all time but early retirement lets others share some of the spoils. The goalies all were more or less one-season wonders, names like Jonas Markstrom, Tayson Barabash, and Vase Trikamaki, but LaFramboise can feel aggrieved and is often in the Van Urho camp of how did he miss out? S14-S24 (S14-S19 draftees) 12 Hall of Fame skaters, 2 Hall of Fame goalies Best non Hall of Famers: 10th best forward: Max Kroenenburg (321 goals, 717 points) 11th best forward: Peyton Nydroj (325 goals, 1.31 points per game) 4th best defenceman: Patrick Bergqvist (583 points, single season records) 3rd best goaltender: Jakob Kjeldsen (231 wins, .915 save %) The VHL's first renaissance era, fuelled by the might of the S18 draft, and boosted by the high scoring of S20. Nine forwards inducted is a big reason why the line had to be drawn somewhere, even with some notable players beneath it. This is also the well the HOF voters went back to most recently with the surprise and very, very, very late induction of Voittu Jannula. However, any time we do a deep dive, this trio above will be floating around in the picture, but there are some more impressive cases later on down the line. In terms of goaltenders, Jakob Kjeldsen and Joey Clarence, and everyone else really, never managed to make it out of Aidan Shaw and Daisuke Kanou's shadow. S20-S31 (S18-S24 draftees) 9 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 6th best forward: Lasse Milo (322 goals, 739 points) 7th best forward: Evgeni Fyodorov (346 goals, 1.40 points per game) 8th best forward: Kevyn Hesje (687 points, 2,209 hits) 2nd best goaltender: Andreas Bjorkman (255 wins, .915 save %, 2.38 GAA) With the most defencemen outside of the original era inducted, the focus here is the forwards, where there's actually a gap of four forwards between Felix Peters (a curiously late inductee) and Phil Gerrard (sometimes considered one of the weaker entries in the Hall). Three of those are shown above and have received consideration as potential omissions in the past. If anyone has a resurrection, and Gustav's Hall of Very Good has looked into them in the past, it's Vasteras hero Lasse Milo and the VHLM legend Evgeni Fyodorov. S25-S37 (S24-S30 draftees) 10 Hall of Fame skaters, 2 Hall of Fame goalies Best non Hall of Famers: 8th best forward: Nikolai Lebedev (318 goals, 653 points) 4th best defenceman: Nic Riopel (650 points, 1,107 blocked shots) A bit of both: Clark Marcellin (650 points, 1.29 points per game) 3rd best goaltender: Satan (296 wins, .922 save %, 51 shutouts) A throwback era offensively, with 5 players clearing the 800-point mark and Phil Rafter being the first player after S10 reach 400 goals. Also the generation in which Alexander Valiq scored 300 goals from the blue line which no defenceman has been able to match before or since. As a result, despite strong numbers on paper, it's tough for the players listed here to have a good case for induction when they were good, but not as good as some of their illustrious peers. S31-S43 (S30-S36 draftees) 9 Hall of Fame skaters, 4 Hall of Fame goalies Best non Hall of Famers: 8th best forward: Willem Janssen (302 goals, 645 points) 9th best forward: Anatoli Zhumbayev (613 points, 1.22 points per game) 5th best goaltender: Skylar Rift (221 wins, .923 save %, 2.12 GAA) A time of possibly the highest level of parity in the “old” VHL, which is reflected in a lot of players hovering around a baseline of 600 points / career point per game pace, without the big numbers of yesteryear. Conner Low and Matt Bentley took 5 and 2 Sterling Labatte Trophies respectively, without any sustained pressure from any other defencemen in this period. It's really a toss-up between the next best goalie between the what-could-have-been story of Skylar Rift and his early retirement, or Lennox Moher, who stuck around a bit longer but had marginally worse stats. With four contemporaries already in the Hall though, it's an uphill battle for both. S37-S49 (S37-S42 draftees) 8 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 7th best forward: Jody 3 Moons (671 points, 1.33 points per game) 8th best forward: Freedom McJustice (313 goals, 669 points) 3rd best defenceman: Lloyd Light (535 points, 1.06 points per game) Some outstanding performances, not least from Thomas O'Malley being the fifth ever (and last to date) 900-point player and announcing himself as the real challenger to Scotty Campbell. But little sharing downwards and a strange era for defencemen, with Jake Wylde pioneering the defensive build as a path to the Hall. Slight cheat on goalies here by sticking in S43 draftee Hans Wingate, as otherwise no one here peaked long enough to have a sustained case for a ballot nomination. The next best option is probably one of one-time Seattle netminder Niklaus Mikaelson and future Seattle GM Blake Campbell but neither stuck around long enough or crossed the .920 save % mark. S44-S55 (S44-S48 draftees) 9 Hall of Fame skaters, 2 Hall of Fame goalies Best non Hall of Famers: 7th best forward: Tyson Kohler (368 goals, 751 points) 8th best forward: Joel Jarvi (639 points, 1.27 points per game) 3rd best goaltender: Jakab Holik (292 wins, .922 save %, 2.00 GAA, 88 shutouts) Forget parity, this was total disparity between the haves and the have nots. Four players with over 800 points, and seven 300+ goal scorers, including Tyson Kohler, a long-time ballot mainstay. Kohler remains the highest scoring eight-season player not in the Hall of Fame (and highest goal scorer, even including 9-season careers) so may be in for a reassessment. And where there is Kohler there is always Jakab Holik, only recently removed after a long stay on the ballot. The big debate about parity and playoff success is not worth rehashing here again which is why there is an argument to leave this era alone for good, both for Holik and for Kohler. S49-S61 (S49-S54 draftees) 8 Hall of Fame skaters, 3 Hall of Fame goalies Best non Hall of Famers: 8th best forward: Essian Ravenwing (234 goals, 685 points) 9th best forward: Marc-Alexandre Leblanc (297 goals, 1.24 points per game) 4th best goaltender: Astrid Moon (255 wins, 1.88 GAA, 75 shutouts) Ah, the dark ages. A thread-bone thin league with some exceptional performances at the top end (Franchise Cornerstone, Fredinamijs Krigars) but little depth. Most remarkable is that despite Fabio Jokinen being the only inducted defenceman, there is no real other challenger from that position. As for goalies, there's the extreme case of Holik-ification in Astrid Moon although alternatively Torstein Ironside's .925 save % is what deserves a second look. S55-S67 (S55-S60 draftees) 5 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 4th best forward: Veran Dragomir (338 goals, 689 points) Forward/defenceman: Keaton Louth (661 points) 5th best forward: Bo Boeser (619 points, 1.43 points per game) It's always darkest before the dawn or something like that. The only real all-timer from this generation was Gabriel McAllister and the drop off in numbers was significant. That said, I always felt Veran Dragomir was hard done by with nearly identical stats to the inducted Oyorra Arroyo, while Bo Boeser had some shouts at the same time as Mathias Chouinard got his long-delayed induction. Other than Norris Stopko who was inducted there weren't many goaltenders who had much of a case here either, even when including early 60s guys like Roger Sterling and Tristan Iseult. S61-S72 (S61-S65 draftees) 7 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 5th best forward: Jake Davis (290 goals, 681 points) 6th best forward: Edwin Preencarnacion (303 goals, 1.27 points per game) 4th best defenceman*: Ryan Kastelic (618 points + TPE record) *moved to forward midway through career 2nd best goaltender: Alexander Pepper (302 wins, .917 save %) The Podrick Cast-Matt Thompson rivalry elevated both of their performances and recruitment drives replenished the league, but a decline in scoring affected many of the new players in the VHL. Goaltending was dominated by Kallis Kriketers in the meantime, leaving little opportunity to shine to the likes of Finn Davison, Brick Wahl II, or the aforementioned Alexander Pepper. S66-S77 (S66-S70 draftees) 8 Hall of Fame skaters, 2 Hall of Fame goalies Best non Hall of Famers: 5th best forward: Benny Graves (263 goals, 598 points) 6th best forward: Kris Rice (543 points, 1.08 points per game) 3rd best goaltender: Greg Eagles II (261 wins, .915 save %) Probably the lowest-scoring era in VHL history, with no one exceeding 300 goals or 650 points. Also the first generation with equal representation of forwards and defencemen in the Hall, meaning we exhausted options on the blue line but don't really have any impressive numbers up front to consider either. Despite that, no goaltender shone in the regular season either, with Rayz Funk and Raymond Bernard getting inducted more on the strength of their playoff performances. The next guys behind them, Greg Eagles and Jacques Lafontaine, among others, didn't have that in their favour. S71-S82 (S71-S75 draftees) 10 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 7th best forward: Lee Xin (277 goals, 717 points) 8th best forward: John Merrick (650 points, 1.29 points per game) 2nd best goaltender: Rara Rasputin (273 wins, .916 save %) What an interesting generation. The driver behind the last VHL expansion, most of whom experienced their peak during the meta era, with the 4 inducted defencemen not even being in the top 20 of the generation's top scorers. There are a lot of very similar stat lines in the mix here with only Aloe Dear really separating himself from the pack and it feels like we've picked up a lot of worthy candidates, but Xin and Merrick may warrant a return to the ballot. Goaltenders were absolutely blasted by meta, putting up numbers reminiscent of the very first generation, with nearly everyone just below the .920 save % mark and hovering around 3.00 GAA. Rara Rasputin had the playoff wins to his name, while Thadius Sales had two better regular season after joining Vancouver, but neither did enough. S77-S89 (S77-S81 draftees) 4 Hall of Fame skaters, 1 Hall of Fame goalie Best non Hall of Famers: 3rd best forward: Nico Pearce (362 goals, 774 points) – currently on ballot 3rd best defenceman: Kristof Welch (656 points) – currently on ballot 2nd best goaltender: Papa Emeritus (262 wins, .924 save %) - currently on ballot Has there been any generation with more players come onto the ballot but not been able to stick around? Zach Kisslinger II, Paul Atreides, Brendan Telker, Reylynn Reinhart, Robin Galante Nilsson, Hari Singh Nalwa, and Oskar Lindbergh have all spent time in Hall of Fame discussions but couldn't make the cut – for now anyway. Pearce and Welch are also not necessarily safe from future cullings. Yet that would also make it the least represented generation which doesn't seem appropriate. Is this strange meta-turning-into-nine-season-careers dynamic, and the difficulty to compare it to past performances, affecting the Hall of Fame ballot today? Meanwhile, Papa Emeritus perseveres on the ballot as the debate rages on whether one great season is enough and whether this generation of goalies benefited from the post-meta realignment. S82-S95 (S82-S87 draftees) There's already 5 skaters inducted into the Hall of Famer from this group, more than the previous generation, with Skor McFleury sure to make it six. The Frenchman, Bo Johansson, and Hammar Voss are also all on the ballot. Nine-season careers now make it difficult to assess whether Scotty Sundin or Mac Atlas for example are unfortunate omissions or rightfully in the category just below the Hall of Fame. Certainly it feels like this and the next generation will take time to properly settle but it is worth considering whether as voters we have been fair when considering the most recent cohorts. I think on balance yes, even the S77-S89 group above, but it's certainly worthwhile seeing it laid out like this. The two most recent goalies inducted are Lachlan Summers and Jesse Teno, pulling away from nine-season veterans Art Vandelay and Brandt Fuhr who never made the ballot. --- If we are to revisit any older names a la Chouinard or Jannula, then most of them have been rehashed time and time again – they will certainly be no surprise to @Gustav from his Hall of Very Good articles. Lasse Milo, Evgeni Fyodorov, and Tyson Kohler are those that spring out the most from the lists above, with perhaps Veran Dragomir and Peyton Nydroj (and Ryan Kastelic??) worthy of another look. Other opinions may well vary. Have I proven anything by doing this? Not much other than that there are no obvious omissions, but it's still useful to have things laid out in full every now and then as a refresher.

O' Canada! Our Team is Here to WIN! Team Canada is Back for S96 aiming for Gold once again. Different Roster. Same Goal. Forwards Harry Callahan - @dstevensonjr Eric White Jr - @Mysterious_Fish Joshua Schwarzer - @Velevra Liv Slater - @Subject056 King Kisslinger - @Kisslinger Diego Machado - @Dadam30 Defense Bobby Bob - @Baby Boomer Andrew Skiliton - @ace_five_ DB IV - @wcats Tommy Sleeves - @dasboot Goalies Merome Dilson - @MexicanCow123 Herald Benson - @Benson So LETS GET READY FOR THE S96 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AND LETS BRING HOME GOLD Come Join the Team Locker Room here: https://discord.gg/EevvZVpWZg

Pierre Emile Bouchard (S82-S92) User: @Gaikoku-hito February 28, 2022 - February 26, 2024 TPE: 1939 Position: D Nationality: Canadian Height:6'4" Weight: 235 lb. VHL Draft: S84 New York Americans (5th OA) Teams: New York Americans (S84), Vancouver Wolves (S84-90), Helsinki Titans (S91-92) International Play: WJHC S83 - Canada , World Championships (S86, S88, S90, S92) - Canada Trophy Cabinet: S86 Continental Cup - Vancouver S87 Victory Cup - Vancouver S82 Founder's Cup - Saskatoon 87 Jake Wylde Trophy - Vancouver (Top Defensive Defenseman) 87 Sterling Labatte Trophy - Vancouver (Top Defenseman) 87 Dustin Funk Trophy - Vancouver (Most Improved) S92 Alexander Beketov Trophy - Helsinki (Most Assists) S83 WJHC Bronze Medal - Canada S86 WC Bronze Medal - Canada S88 WC Gold Medal - Canada S90 WC Gold Medal - Canada S92 WC Bronze Medal - Canada Individual Honors: 1x All-VHL First Team (S87) 2x All-VHL Second Team (S88, S92) Team Captain - S87-S90 Vancouver •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• The career of S95 Hall of Fame inductee, Pierre Emile Bouchard, spanned nearly two full years to the date from player creation to his last game-- a Conference Finals Game 7 loss to S94 Hall of Fame goaltender Jesse Teno @Aimee and the London United. While one last finals appearance and a chance at a second Continental Cup would have been the icing on the cake, alas it was not meant to be for the defenseman who hung up his skates following that playoff exit. Bouchard's legacy is one of consistency, longevity, and success at every level of play. While some players before and after have hit higher highs, very few have maintained the elite level of play that Bouchard achieved with the same level of consistency, and only one other played as many games in the VHL. With 650 VHL games played over 9 full seasons, Pierre Emile Bouchard shares that record with a former teammate, Nico Pearce @Spartan . To achieve this record number of games played, Bouchard not only had to bypass a full season of VHLM play, but also managed to play an extra two games during his rookie season that saw him traded from New York to Vancouver while the Wolves were a couple games back in their schedule. This scheduling quirk put him on track to finish his career as the all-time leader among defensemen in games played. And while playing a lot of games is one thing, playing them well and achieving success at every level is another. Pierre Emile Bouchard is one of the esteemed members of the Triple Gold Club, having won a VHLM Founder's Cup as a waiver player for Saskatoon in S82, a Continental Cup in the VHL with the Vancouver Wolves in S86, and two World Championship Gold Medals with Canada in S88 and S90. Add to that 3 other bronze medals and some impressive individual hardware and it's not hard to see the case for his induction into the VHL Hall of Fame only 3 seasons after his retirement. •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Prairie Power - S82 Pierre Emile Bouchard-- the son of longtime Prague Phantom Robert Bouchard-- appeared onto the VHL scene after the S82 trade deadline and joined the Saskatoon Wild as a waiver pickup. The Wild, hoping to contend for the Founder's Cup that season, signed Bouchard to fill the fourth spot on their defense. The Wild that season were well endowed with 3 other defensemen scoring over a point per game and Bouchard filled their hole admirably, pitching in 8 assists through 14 games. Developing quickly, Bouchard would find another level in the S82 playoffs, racking up 18 points in 19 playoff games as the 3rd seeded Wild took down 6th ranked Marauders, the 2nd overall Reapers, and Prime Minister's Cup Champion Bulls en route to a Founder's Cup victory. Despite being a late addition, Bouchard would come up clutch for the Wild in their playoff run as he led the VHLM with 4 game winning goals in the playoffs. Bouchard would also pick up an assist on the Founder's Cup winning goal in game 7 of the finals-- a 6-3 win against Houston. This first taste of success would set the stage for what was to come-- call it the prologue to the epic that was Bouchard's career. Following the S82 Founder's Cup win, Bouchard elected not to declare for the VHLM dispersal draft, opting instead to spend the offseason training and to seek out new opportunities in Europe. Thus, he would only play 14 regular season games in the VHLM, but his 19 playoff games took him all the way to the top, leaving little left for him to pursue at that level. VHLM Regular Season: 14 GP, 0 G, 8 A, 8 P, + 1, 4 PIM, 13 HIT, 18 SHT, 14 SB VHLM Playoffs: 19 GP, 7 G, 11 A, 18 P, +/- 0, 12 PIM, 35 HIT, 46 SHT, 24 SB, 4 GWG Swede Dreams - S83 Back when the VHLE was a thing, and when it was an 8 team league that included the Istanbul Red Wolves and the Geneva Rush, Pierre Emile Bouchard signed as a free agent with the Stockholm Vikings. While he would have moderate individual success that season, ranking 2nd on the team with 72 points and 8th among all VHLE defensemen, the Vikings would finish 3rd in Europe's Northern Conference and 6th in the league, missing out on the VHLE playoffs by significant margin. For Bouchard, however, it was a stepping stone season and he continued to prove that he could play at a high level, even without exceptional star power around him. With his sights set on the VHL, he would move on from the E after only one season, despite being drafted 43rd overall in the VHLE on the off chance that he might stay. VHLE Regular Season: 72 GPE, 21 G, 51 A, 72 P, +/- 0, 54 PIM, 73 HIT, 240 SHT, 151 SB, 3 GWG •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• From the Empire State to Beautiful British Columbia - S84 / While all draft eligible players dream of hearing their name called and putting on the jersey of their first VHL team, for the proud Canadian, Bouchard, the Americans came calling at 5th overall, taking him in the 1st round of the S84 VHL Entry Draft. Beginning the season with New York, Bouchard was impressive out of the gates with 33 points in his first 33 games. New York, however, was not in a position to compete that season. With less than half the season elapsed, the Americans entered into trade talks with the Vancouver Wolves who expressed interest with Bouchard. On July 14, 2022, Pierre Emile Bouchard was traded from New York to Vancouver as the Wolves began to load up to be a true competitor, while the Americans embraced a rebuild with both arms, reclaiming their own 1st round pick in S85. The trade was as follows: --> To New York : Ryan @freezyeh + S85 NYA 1st + S85 VAN 2nd New York GM: @frescoelmo --> To Vancouver : Pierre Emile Bouchard + William Futch @Futch Vancouver GM: @Frank Bouchard would conclude S84 with the Wolves, tallying 31 points in Vancouver's remaining 41 games-- thus playing 74 games that season. While there was a slight production drop off for Bouchard after the move out west, it was somewhat to be expected as the Wolves were still on the come-up and struggled to an 8th place finish in the North American Conference in S84, missing out on the playoffs. Apart from his season in the VHLE, S84 would be the only time Bouchard would miss the playoffs in his VHL career. Rookie Regular Season Total: 74 GP, 17 G, 47 A, 64 P, -51, 80 PIM, 133 HIT, 244 SHT, 233 SB, 3 GWG New York: 33 GP, 8 G, 25 A, 33 P, -17, 6 PIM, 40 HIT, 117 SHT, 77 SB, 3 GWG Vancouver: 41 GP, 9 G, 22 A, 31 P, -34, 74 PIM, 93 HIT, 127 SHT, 156 SB •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Howling While the Moon is Full... S85-90 While it was a difficult end to S84 for Vancouver and Bouchard, the team was only trending upward with plenty of talent in the pipeline and a legitimate shot at being a contender through the next 5 seasons. When asked about the trade that brought Bouchard to Vancouver, General Manager @Frank had this to say, "Acquiring Pierre Emile Bouchard during Season 84 was the turning point for that era of Vancouver Wolves. We went from a competitive team with a bright future to a legitimate threat to compete for the cup season after season. Bouchard's agency ended up becoming the AGM of the team even to this day. Bouchard became a leader on the ice and helped us win a cup in Season 86 and make the finals in Season 89. He even graciously let us trade his player so we could commence a rebuild and now we're a competitive team once again." Vancouver took a huge step forward in S85 and finished 2nd in North America and 3rd overall with a 41-24-7 record and 89 points. Now on a team that was increasingly loaded with high end talent, Bouchard saw his points totals drop a bit as he only registered 55 points in 72 games that season. His underlying numbers, however, and the play of the team around him were trending positive! In the S85 playoffs, the Wolves would drop their first round series in 7 games to the DC Dragons-- the eventual Continental Cup Champions. Bouchard collected 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points in those 7 games while playing a team leading 29.94 minutes per game in the playoffs. S85 Regular Season: 72 GP, 11 G, 44 A, 55 P, +22, 38 PIM, 47 HIT, 224 SHT, 110 SB, 3 GWG S85 Playoffs: 7 GP, 3 G, 3 A, 6 P, +3, 6 PIM, 4 HIT, 16 SHT, 9 SB During those first few seasons with Vancouver, Bouchard credits Biggie Cheese @a_Ferk as his first defense partner, a great mentor, and an indispensable part of the S86 team that would win the Continental Cup. Reflecting on this time in his career, Bouchard said, "Biggie Cheese was [my] first defensive partner and taught [me at a young age] how to play in the VHL. If it wasn't for Biggie, Vancouver wouldn't have won the Championship in S86. Yet Biggie Cheese was selflessly traded away, hours after lifting the cup, putting huge pressure on my shoulders in S87-- which was my break-out season. If it wasn't for Biggie, I don't think this would have happened." In S86, Vancouver's Cup winning season, the team only finished 8th overall in the regular season, but only dropped by a point from their S85 form. With 85 points for Biggie Cheese that season, Bouchard saw his point share drop again ever so slightly to 51 points in 72 games, though he did match Cheese's goal total of 20 which was a sure sign of things to come for the still young defenseman. In the S86 playoffs-- as a wildcard team-- the Wolves dispatched the Bears in a 3 game sweep, and then went on to knock off the number one seed Calgary Wranglers in 5 games! They followed this impressive series up with victories in 7 games against the Chicago Phoenix in the NA finals, and the Prague Phantoms in the Cup finals. Just as Bouchard remembers, it was Biggie Cheese leading the way in the playoffs with 29 points in 22 games, while Bouchard himself notched an impressive 19 points, showing signs that he was ready to shoulder a bigger load for the Wolves going forward. S86 Regular Season: 72 GP, 20 G, 31 A, 51 P, +/- 0, 44 PIM, 88 HIT, 247 SHT, 126 SB, 3 GWG S86 Playoffs: 22 GP, 3 G, 16 A, 19 P, +1, 37 PIM, 55 HIT, 71 SHT, 49 SB, 1 GWG In S87, now without Biggie Cheese, Bouchard was the team's true number one defenseman-- and he delivered with a monster season, notching 19 goals and 69 assists for 88 points in 72 games-- a new career high that would stand until his final season. The team, meanwhile, dominated the VHL en route to a 50-16-6 record and 106 points-- 9 points more than the next highest team overall. As the favorites heading into the playoffs as the regular season champions, the Wolves fell victim to the Victory Cup curse, losing in 5 games to the Seattle Bears-- a wildcard team-- in their first 7 games series. Bouchard collected 4 points in that shortened 5 game series where the Wolves never really got their feet under them. For his individual achievements during the regular season, Bouchard claimed the Jake Wylde Trophy as the league's top defensive defenseman. He led all defensemen with a +35 rating, was 3rd overall with 198 shots blocked, and dished out the 12th most hits with 195. That defensive effort, combined with the 3rd most points by a defenseman earned him the Sterling Labatte Trophy as the VHL's best overall defenseman in S87. On top of that, he took home the Dustin Funk Trophy as the league's most improved player, going from 51 points the season before to 88 this season and filling his trophy cabinet along the way. S87 Regular Season: 72 GP, 19 G, 69 A, 88 P, +35, 172 PIM, 195 HIT, 282 SHT, 198 SB, 7 GWG S87 Playoffs: 5 GP, 0 G, 4 A, 4 P, -2, 14 PIM, 18 HIT, 20 SHT, 16 SB S88 saw Bouchard and the Wolves face some adversity as they clawed their way into the playoffs as a wildcard team with a 34-29-9 record. Bouchard was again the highest scoring defender on the team that season with 23 goals and 55 assists for 78 points and a solid +22 rating while some Wolves struggled to stay positive. In the S88 playoffs, Vancouver managed to beat the LA Stars in the wildcard round in a tight 5 game series before faltering to the Seattle Bears in the following round, losing that series in 6 games. Bouchard scored 6 points in those 11 playoff games, but ran into a bit of penalty trouble as he racked up 45 PIM. S88 Regular Season: 72 GP, 23 G, 55 A, 78 P, +22, 126 PIM, 200 HIT, 281 SHT, 171 SB, 2 GWG S88 Playoffs: 11 GP, 1 G, 5 A, 6 P, -3, 45 PIM, 41 HIT, 39 SHT, 37 SB Hungry to get back to their winning ways in S89, the Wolves put together a strong 43-27-2 record for 88 points. Bouchard had another exceptional season with 81 points, 3 points back of the newly acquired Brian Payne @Scurvy, who was a former rival-turned-teammate. Chatting with Bouchard, there was some nervousness about teaming up with Payne in S89, particularly with how the two top defenders might share icetime and opportunities. In the end, Bouchard acknowledged Payne as an exceptional teammate, "Payne was amazing on and off the ice, leading to Vancouver making the finals again; which I believe we choked away after being over confident being up 2-0 in the finals." In those S89 playoffs, after finishing 2nd in North America and 5th in the league, the Wolves climbed past Calgary in 6 games to move onto the second round. In round two, Vancouver swept Bouchard's former team, the Americans, and secured their place against Davos in the finals. After taking a commanding two game lead in the finals by a combined score of 8-4, the Wolves dropped the next 4 straight games as Davos secured the Continental Cup. It was surely a heartbreaking loss for Bouchard, missing out on a chance to win a second Cup. He played a huge role on that S89 team in the playoffs, however, collecting 22 points (2nd most on the team) through 16 playoff games. S89 Regular Season: 72 GP, 18 G, 63 A, 81 P, +2, 126 PIM, 209 HIT, 292 SHT, 182 SB, 3 GWG S89 Playoffs: 16 GP, 7 G, 15 A, 22 P, +1, 43 PIM, 47 HIT, 62 SHT, 30 SB, 1 GWG The S90 Wolves would improve on their previous regular season with 96 points this time around, though they entered the playoffs 4th in NA and 6th overall. Bouchard would once again have a strong regular season with 79 points-- 3 behind Payne this season. As a strong wildcard team, the Wolves would make short work of Seattle in the wildcard round, winning 3 games to 1. They would falter in the second round to the Toronto Legion, however, cutting their playoff hopes short again. In these playoffs, Bouchard was once again one of Vancouver's top players. He ranked 2nd on the team in total points with 12 through 11 games-- the highest scoring defender on the Wolves. S90 Regular Season: 72 GP, 15 G, 64 A, 79 P, +23, 114 PIM, 152 HIT, 214 SHT, 126 SB, 1 GWG S90 Playoffs: 11 GP, 4 G, 8 A, 12 P, +3, 20 PIM, 35 HIT, 22 SHT, 21 SB, 1 GWG •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• The Sunset in Helsinki - S91-92 Following another playoff defeat in S90, Vancouver was on the brink of another rebuild and Pierre Emile Bouchard agreed to a trade away from Vancouver so that his beloved Wolves could acquire assets for the future. It was a sign and trade situation where Bouchard agreed to terms for the final two seasons of his career and waived his NTC to allow Vancouver to ship him off to Helsinki in the following trade: --> To Helsinki : Pierre Emile Bouchard + S93 VAN 3rd Helsinki GM: @samx --> To Vancouver : Lloyd Braun @Toast + S92 HSK 1st Vancouver GM: @Frank The trade equipped Vancouver with a 1st round pick in Season 92, a draft in which they would select 6 times in the first round! Now in the sunset of his career, Bouchard would not go quietly into the night. He continued his hallmark consistency through both seasons in Helsinki. S91 saw the Hall of Famer help the Titans to a wildcard playoff berth with a 41-27-4 record for 86 points. Bouchard would lead all Helsinki defensemen with 86 points in 72 games, setting a career high in assists to that point with 72. In the subsequent playoffs, Bouchard would help lead the Titans from the wildcard to the finals as they took care of Malmo in a tight 5 game wildcard round, then defeated the Dynamo in 6 and London in 5, before failing at the last hurdle to claim the Cup against a strong Legion squad, losing in 6 games. Bouchard led all defenders with 25 points in those playoffs, including 3 game winning goals. S91 Regular Season: 72 GP, 14 G, 72 A, 86 P, +26, 149 PIM, 177 HIT, 217 SHT, 133 SB, 1 GWG S91 Playoffs: 22 GP, 8 G, 17 A, 25 P, +9, 28 PIM, 53 HIT, 61 SHT, 53 SB, 3 GWG And if anyone thought Bouchard would sail softly into the arctic sea-- now entering the final season of his career-- they would be wrong. In S92, Bouchard tied his career high in points with 88 and set a new career high in assists with 73, earning himself the Alexander Beketov Trophy for leading the league in assists that season. His contributions would be a massive part of Helsinki's success as they finished 2nd in the European Conference and 3rd in the league with a 45-19-8 record and 98 points. Bouchard's career high would rank him only 2 points behind DC's Mark Calaway @Beketov for the league lead in points by defensemen. In the playoffs, Helsinki went to 7 games against Moscow and managed a convincing 6-3 victory in game 7. Sadly, for Bouchard, his last chance at a second Cup would fall short as Helsinki lost to London in the Conference Finals in a tightly contested 7 game series. Bouchard would once again rank 2nd on his team in scoring, this time with 21 points in 14 games-- an exceptional end to a legendary career. S92 Regular Season: 72 GP, 15 G, 73 A, 88 P, +28, 44 PIM, 64 HIT, 251 SHT, 152 SB, 3 GWG S92 Playoffs: 14 GP, 3 G, 18 A, 21 P, +2, 6 PIM, 11 HIT, 45 SHT, 34 SB •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Legacy To go along with his 4 individual trophy wins-- including the prestigious Labatte Trophy for defensemen-- being a Triple Gold Club member, and a Victory Cup winner, Bouchard also ranks highly among the best defensemen to ever play in the VHL. Tied for the longest career in games played of all players in VHL history, Bouchard completed his Hall of Fame career with the 11th most points all-time by a defenseman with 670 in 650 games. His 518 assists are good for 9th on the all-time defenders list, and he ranks 62nd in goals with 152. With 1431 shots blocked, Bouchard is tied for 3rd all time, only marginally behind Skor McFleury @Alex. In the playoffs, like the regular season, Bouchard ranks 1st in games played among all VHL skaters with 108. His 115 playoff points are 2nd among all defensemen and 7th among all skaters. Bouchard's 86 playoff assists are the 2nd most all time, and his 29 playoff goals are 5th among all defenders to ever play in the VHL. Clearly, the key to Bouchard's success was consistency and longevity. Playing the games is hard enough, but performing at a high level in each of those games is another feat entirely. Former teammate and fellow games-played record holder, @Spartan (Nico Pearce) had this to say about Bouchard's career: "PEB wasn't the flashiest player on the team and never threw up monstrous numbers in the big picture of the league, but in an era where scoring was lower and consistency was critical from the blue line, Bouchard was one of the best in the league. He was a fantastic and passionate teammate who was a true leader in the locker room too. It was an honor to play with him for a few seasons and I'm extremely proud to see him in the Hall of Fame!" Former rival-turned-teammate, @Scurvy (Brian Payne) echoed a similar sentiment about the kind of player and person that Bouchard was: "I will say that PEB is the ultimate teammate. Selfless, fun, and always wanting to help his teammates out. A true leader in the locker room and on the ice. It was my pleasure to share the ice with him. He made Brian Payne better and truly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame." The career of Pierre Emile Bouchard is an all-time example of the commitment it takes to be a top player in the VHL. As I said at the top, there are players who may have hit higher highs-- or lower lows-- but very few have had the consistency of Bouchard-- consistency, no doubt, fueled by a renewed commitment to continue to grow and develop every week and every day. To do this with great success over the course of a two year span is remarkable. With an incredible 1939 TPE in his career, Bouchard ranks 13th all time among all VHL players in total earning. Now with a 3rd generation in the VHL, the future looks bright for the Bouchard name. While the sun sets on one great career, it is surely rising on another. Congratulations to @Gaikoku-hito and Pierre Emile Bouchard on an incredible career and induction into the VHL Hall of Fame! Career Regular Season: 650 GP, 152 G, 518 A, 670 P, +107, 893 PIM, 1265 HIT, 2252 SHT, 1431 SB, 26 GWG, 69 PPG Career Playoffs: 108 GP, 29 G, 86 A, 115 P, +14, 199 PIM, 264 HIT, 336 SHT, 249 SB, 6 GWG, 19 PPG •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Special thanks to @Frank, @Scurvy, @Gaikoku-hito, and @Spartan for contributions to this article! LucyXpher 12/01/2024 - 4000+ words

@Seabass

Just give it to @dstevensonjr

@LucyXpher Welcome everyone, We are finally here for the best part of the season, the playoffs. This season's playoffs are going to be weird ones. When you look at the standings, one Conference is clearly better than the other. Indeed, the first five teams in the standings are all in the Eastern Conference and they all have a positive differential and the five last teams in the standings are all in the Western Conference and they all have a negative differential. Quarter-final #1 - Philadelphia Reapers (1) vs Houston Bulls (8) Regular season series: PHI wins 3-2-1. We are going to see some tough series in these playoffs, but sadly this is not one of them. Indeed, I just really don't see how the Houston Bulls can pass the Philadelphia Reapers. Philly had the best record of the entire league with 44 wins, 10 losses and 8 losses in overtime for a total of 96 points in 72 games and can count on players like Youre Not Fucking Retiring @twists, Taylor Swift @lilchrist and Einar Mathiesen @xsjack on their team. I am not saying that Houston does not have good players, but Robin Sierra @ethanjaeda and Scrungle Bungle @Novanod will have to play on top of their heads all series long if they want to win it. The outcome of this series is not already decided, but I don't really see how Houston can win this series. VSN Prediction: Philadelphia wins in 5 games. Quarter-final #2 - Mexico City Kings (6) vs San Diego Marlins (7) Regular season series: series tied 4-3-1. Even tough the Mexico City Kings finished sixth of the standings at the end of the regular season, they finished first of their Conference. So, they earned the second seed of the playoffs and are playing the seventh seed, the San Diego Marlins. Usually, the series between the second and the seventh seed is not supposed to be tight, but this one will be. On one side, Mexico City has one of the best goalies in the league in Chazz Michael Michaels @Xflexz and one of the best defense with Alagsantere Groenvold @VattghernCZ and Wladyslaw Mintus @mintusaurus, but has a lot of troubles to score goals. On the other side, San Diego is a more balanced team with a good offense led by Jean-Pierre Devote @eagle_3450, a good defense and a good goalie in Ricky LaFleur @DarkSpyro. VSN Prediction: San Diego wins in 7 games. Quarter-final #3 - Ottawa Lynx (2) vs Halifax 21st (5) Regular season series: OTT wins 5-4-0. Just like the series between the Reapers and the Bulls, on paper this one should be pretty one sided and Ottawa should win it without any difficulty. The Ottawa Lynx are one of the best team in the league on paper with Brandon Petan Jr @sadie, Drosmis Sarkanis @Mr Bohannan and Ocean Codoller @FreshOceanCod as their top three forwards and River Harrington @kirbithan and Hugh Neutron @Corco in defense. As opposed to Ottawa, the Halifax 21st don't really have any super star player on their roster and I don't really see how they can compete in this series. However, they have Jon Webber III @Webberj as their goalie and when you have Webber on your team you know that he can win games all by himslef, so he can definitely win a game or two alone. VSN Prediction: Ottawa wins in 5 games. Quarter-final #4 - Mississauga Hounds (3) vs Miami Marauders (4) Regular season series: MIA wins 7-6-0. When you look at each teams roster, you can only imagine that this series is going to be very long and tough. Indeed, on paper these teams are very similar with a couple of good forwards, a really good defenseman and also a good goalie. Mississauga have Nikita Yolishev @Joel Main and Filip Zinek @FiZi as their top forwards, Slava Kovalenko @OblivionWalker in defense and Deadpanda @Alex in the net. On the other hand, Miami have Marek Nowaczyk @Chillybro and Elf Shoes @ELF_SH0ES in offense, Boris Bone-Breaker @RileyL as their top defenseman and Draw Mac @okochastar in the net. This series can really go both ways and will be really exciting to follow. VSN Prediction: Mississauga wins in 7 games. Semi-final #1 - Philadelphia Reapers (1) vs Mississauga Hounds (3) Regular season series: PHI wins 6-2-1. On paper, these two teams seems to be identical and it is the same thing for their record in the regular season as the Philadelphia Reapers only had one more win and three more points than the Mississauga Hounds. However, in the regular season Philadelphia seemed to have Mississauga's number and won the regular season series with 6 wins, 2 losses and 1 loss in overtime for a total of 13 points with a possibility of 18 against only 6 points for the Hounds. The series will definitely be really thight and exciting to watch, so the winner will be decided on the ice, even though I give the advantage to the Reapers. VSN Prediction: Philadelphia wins in 7 games. Semi-final #2 - Ottawa Lynx (2) vs San Diego Marlins (7) Regular season series: OTT wins 4-3-0. If the playoffs in the VHLM were only based on the standings and the second seed was playing against the seventh seed, the Ottawa Lynx and the San Diego Marlins would have played against each other in the first round. Unlike the first semi-final, I don't think this series will go to 7 games and I think the Ottawa Lynx will wrap this one pretty quickly. Indeed, both teams rosters are pretty far from each other and I think I can say pretty confidently that the Lynx will win this series. VSN Prediction: Ottawa wins in 5 games. Founder's Cup Final - Philadelphia Reapers (1) vs Ottawa Lynx (2) Regular season series: OTT wins 7-1-0. The Philadelphia Reapers and the Ottawa Lynx had the two best records in the entire league with 96 and 93 points respectively, but Ottawa had more wins with 45 against 44 for Mississauga. Both teams have really good first forwards lines and first defense pairs, but what will really make the difference are the depth. In this category, Ottawa has the advantage with Joel Jakobs @Plate and Cole Stermer @Bazeus in offense and Masa Akimoto @Hokikeijot and Taavetti Jokinen @Ahma in defense. Only history will tell us the winner of this series, so will Philadelphia win their second Cup in a row or will Ottawa win their first Cup since S87? In my opinion, Ottawa have a slight advantage, but really anything can happen in this series. VSN Prediction: Ottawa wins in 6 games. That’s all for me, thanks everyone for reading, I wish you all some good playoffs and see you in another VSN article!

With the Pro-Am gm's doing Christmas Carols to announce their picks, the opening line of my own version of "The Huron Carol" wouldn't leave my head so here you all go. If cornered, I could be convinced to sing it in a voice chat sometime. Also, "Ludamus" is Latin for "Let us play". T'was in the moon of off-season When all the leagues were still, Five mighty gm's gathered round, Their rosters for to fill. And on that night when light grew dim, The prospects wondered when they'd sim. Pro-Am has come once more, Pro-Am has come, Ludamus Within a Discord room online, Each prospect player seen, The gm's had their work to do, Their lines they had to weave. But as the draft day e'er drew nigh, The gm's heaved a weary sigh. Pro-Am has come once more, Pro-Am has come, Ludamus But as they do, with toil and time Each team did gain its shape. Defenders, goalies, forwards now Their chance they'd get to take. And every one would hear their name, As all the gm's came to claim. Pro-Am has come once more, Pro-Am has come, Ludamus And now the draft has come and gone, The games played right and fair. Tradition kept, continuing By Tet with greatest care. And once again not far from hence, Another round will yet commence. Pro-Am will come once more, Pro-Am will come, Ludamus (word count: 233)

All-VHL First Team Spanish Moon Moth | Severus Targaryen | Maverick Goncalves Jacob Stone | Jillian Woods Olober Syko ----- All-VHL Second Team Jarmo Ruutu | Axle Gunner | Harry Callahan Mark Calaway | Obuz Scheider Canet du Bocage 170Ws ----- All-VHL Rookie Team Steve French | Phil Sakic | Dorji Khan Ahsoka Tano | Samsayz I-Smell Spider Panda Mentions: @Renomitsu | @Banackock | @leandrofg | @scoop | @jacobcarson877 | @Spartan @jRuutu | @Steve | @dstevensonjr | @Beketov | @Grape | @rory @Seabass | @Phil | @Oddpurplefly | @Aimee | @CaptainSB | @Ricer13

@LucyXpher Welcome, everyone! Today is an exciting day for a lot of young prospects. Indeed, today is the day where they will get drafted for the first time. They will all have the opportunity to really be part of a team during their time in the VHLM and I wish all of them the best of luck!! #1 Saskatoon Wild Cardinal Copia @Beketov RW - 156 TPE I don't really think I have to justify my choice here. Beketov is a proven member who created five really good players, including two Hall of Famers, and is now beginning the career of his 6th player. Everyone knows what his players can bring to the table, and despite only having two points (1g, 1a) in 20 games last season, we know that he will continue to improve to help his team. Cardinal Copia will probably play two seasons in the VHLM, so this gives Saskatoon a two season time frame to be competitive and make a good run for the Cup with Copia. #2 Las Vegas Aces Zak Trokker @Peace LW - 156 TPE Once again, we have a really respected member who is returning after a break of a couple of seasons. Just like Beketov, Peace will continue to earn at a good pace to help a rebuilding Las Vegas team that probably won't compete this season, but will, without a doubt, be better next season. Zak Trokker will probably play two seasons in the M before going in the VHL. Last season, Trokker scored 3 goals in 14 games and finished the regular season with a differential of -3. #3 Houston Bulls Kazuma Satou @Spartan D - 312 TPE I feel like I am already repeating myself, but Spartan is also a well known member of the VHL and the GMs know what he can bring to the table. The only reason I have him at 3rd and not at 1st or 2nd is because he already has 312 TPE. This means that Satou will only play one season in the M before going to the VHL, and since Vegas and Saskatoon won't go for the Cup this season, I don't see them drafting Satou-- but Houston can make a push, so it is more logical. #4 San Diego Marlins CJ Daniels @xNJDevilsFanx RW - 212 TPE Just like the Houston Bulls, the San Diego Marlins are certainly going to be good in S97 and will try everything to make a big push for the Founder's Cup. Indeed, they already have good defenseman and a good goalie so they only need forwards. CJ Daniels is the best forward available in the draft and should be the logical choice for the Marlins. Daniels scored 10 goals and added 19 assists for a total of 29 points in 72 games with the Saskatoon Wild last season. #5 Mexico City Kings Peter Vankman @Josh D - 136 TPE This time, we a have a team in the Mexico City Kings who are probably looking to continue their rebuild. Since they already have a lot of forwards, they will likely be looking to upgrade their defense, and a player like Peter Vankman is exaclty what they need. Josh is a great member and will definitely be a big part of this locker room for the next two seasons before going in the VHL. Last season, Vankman had one assist in twelve games with the Mississauga Hounds and also won the Founder's Cup with them. #6 San Diego Marlins Hater Tottingham @Trunkxolotl LW - 209 TPE The San Diego Marlins continue towards their goal of upgrading their forward core by drafting the second best available forward, Hater Tottingham. Tottingham will be able to help the Marlins right away and maybe even next season, depending on his earning, so it is the obvious choice for San Diego. Hater Tottingham had a really good regular season in S96 as he scored 18 goals and 27 assists for 45 points in 72 games with the Halifax 21st. They even finished with a +16 differential. #7 Saskatoon Wild Pepe Silvia @STZ G - 198 TPE After drafting Cardinal Copia with the first overall pick, the Saskatoon Wild are probably going to look for a goalie that will be there for the next two seasons and Pepe Silvia is the perfect pick for them. Indeed, Silvia will probably play in the VHLM for the next season just like Copia, so the Wild really have a two season window to try and benefit from these players. With the Houston Bulls last season, Pepe Silvia played in 22 games and won 7 of them, while only losing 5 in regulation and 1 in overtime. He also maintained a save percentage of 0.919% and a goals against average of 1.61. #8 Mississauga Hounds Sidney Sheppard @GoodLeftUndone C - 142 TPE After winning the Founder's Cup in S96, the Mississauga Hounds are also a team that will probably rebuild this season. Since they don't really have any forwards, Sheppard is the logical pick here. Sidney Sheppard played for the canadian team last season and scored 2 goals and added 2 assists for 4 points in 20 games, so he would stay in known territory. He also won the Founder's Cup with the Hounds to complete their playoff run. #9 Ottawa Lynx Mikko Tuomala @flyersfan345 D - 258 TPE With the 9th overall pick, the Ottawa Lynx are going to draft the first first-gen of the draft in Mikko Tuomala. The member flyersfan345 has already shown some really interesting things, and if they continue like this way, they could really become a great member for the VHL. Tuomala is already earning at a really strong pace and this is why I think they will only play one season in the VHLM before going in the VHL. #10 Philadelphia Reapers Joseph Poole @Itz_Viperz RW - 169 TPE For the last pick of the first round, the Philadelphia Reapers could draft the second first-gen of the draft-- right wing Joseph Poole. After a season of 3 goals and 3 assists in 48 games with the Halifax 21st, Poole is ready for a big role on his team and the Reapers are a good fit. Joseph Poole is probably going to play 2-3 seasons in the VHLM, so he could become an excellent player for the Reapers. Honorable mention: Gingy – C @MexicanCow123 Bazooka Joe – D @ScottyP Toby Bob – G @Baby Boomer Jagger Bomb Jr – C @Jaggerbomb88 Elisa McMuffin – D @Ente2997 Jack Jack – D @Uncommon Spallsy McDavid – RW @Lochlan Chisholm Augustin Martinez – RW @SleepyPlayz That’s all for me, thanks everyone for reading, I wish you all a good draft and a good off-season and see you in another VSN article!

Rayne Deer GM: @SMYLS4 Forwards Harry Callahan @dstevensonjr Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ Eric White Jr. @Mysterious_Fish Brandon Petan Jr. @sadie Luc Moreau @minman Pelayo Bolivar @SMYLS4 Defense Felicia Hardy @JCarson Bollos de Trueno @Thunder DBIV @wcats Mikko Tuomala @flyersfan345 Victory Hockey League @TheHockey_pro Goaltending Spider Panda @Ricer13 Toby Bob @Baby Boomer When you think about the work horses of Christmas, there is no other creature that works harder to get people their presents than the reindeer. I have assembled a team of the VHL's best work horses in which I believe we can win the whole thing. So as Rayne Deer lets stomp our opponents and kick the Christmas out of them. GO DEER!

What's going on everyone? Matty here. I decided to take a prolonged break from draft preparations for the Philadelphia Reapers just to assemble this squad of combat-trained crazy hockey players to bring a World Cup to Northern Europe, where many legends of hockey come from. HERE IS YOUR S96 World Cup Team Nordic Roster! F - @Steve Axle Gunner F - @N0HBDY Thor Reingaard F - @jRuutu Jarmo Ruutu F - @mattyIceman Kimi Raikkonen F - @SlapshotWrangler Raimo Tuominen F - @Gaikoku-hito Pierre Marc Bouchard D - @STZ Snubb3d Analfist D - @Masu Chan Lionel Collberg D - @Tetricide Erik Thorvaldsson D - @Aimee Ahsoka Tano G - @KaleebtheMighty Dalkr Vidarsson G - @Pifferfish Jorgen Lovstrom Best of luck to all of you and don't forget to join the discord server! https://discord.gg/88GVhFfb

Thank you for the opportunity, I hope I'll do half as good of a job as JCarson did!

@Alex

@kirbithan

I'm once again willing to auction a game of your choice video for a one shot episode on YouTube. As a note, a few coworkers are subbed to my channel and were horrified by last year's choice I'd also be willing, at a hopefully higher price point, to name a character in my novel after you (I retain veto power so my paranormal thriller doesn't suddenly have a character named Hugh Jass in it), and/or sign and ship a copy of the novel once it releases (July 1, 2025).

Continental Cup VHL Champions Vancouver Wolves @Frank Next we look at the actual winner of the coveted Continental Cup. For some the debate on best Vancouver GM of all-time is quite the close affair but I think this cup may be the thing that cements Frank’s legacy. Exactly 10 seasons after their previous championship Vancouver managed to best @Alex's Dynamo in a very close series. All four wins for the Wolves came by merely a one goal margin. Also, S89 saw Davos beat Vancouver in the finals 4-2, so revenge certainly fueled this Front Office and fan base. As far as players go, I especially think Riley Martin @Smarch deserves a huge shoutout for his 11 point performance in the finals, almost good for 2 per game. Overall, it was a team effort and the fans of Vancouver spent the last few weeks having fun parading and celebrating the franchise’s 9th Continental Cup (don’t forget the pre-relocation two of Quebec City).

We should all collectively ignore that I'm GM'ing USA in the WC but Canada here in the WJC! I'm honored to introduce the next generation of Canadian superstars! All of these players have tremendous futures ahead, and some will play some key roles in the VHL already in S97. Some are projected to be franchise cornerstones, while others in due time will surely shape up to be top tier players for their VHL teams. Without further ado, the S96 Team Canada World Junior Championship roster! Forwards C - Brandon Petan Jr - @sadie LW - Nikita Yolishev - @Joel Main RW - Captain Nugget Jr - @Captain nugget LW - Hunter S - @Hunter S C - Robin Sierra - @ethanjaeda RW - Jerry Box - @barryst LW - Hater Tottingham - @Trunkxolotl C - Jackson Jeannot - @Lucas anton RW - Kyle Evans - @Kyle Evans Defensemen D - River Harrington - @kirbithan D - Slava Kovalenko - @OblivionWalker D - LaClapbomb Hitstick IV - @jaxmint D - Bubbles LaFleur - @AJW Goalies G - Kendra Cavill - @Firekiss G - Austin Goulet III - @Tuchy Make sure to join the discord and share some maple syrup spirit! Join HERE!

(we got a topic tab now??) ANYWAY S96 CALIFORNIA CANDY CANES ROSTER FORWARDS @Daniel Janser DANIEL JANSER @Scurvy LOGAN NINEFINGERS @AJW AJ WILLIAMS @animal74 DRUSS DEATHWALKER @Keegan Gamble KEEGAN GAMBLE @Oddpurplefly DORJI KHAN DEFENSEMAN @Scurvy BRAIN PAYNE @DoomsdayYABOI OVEN @VattghernCZ ALAGSANTERE GROENVOLD @Spartan KAZUMA SATOU GOALIES @SnussuALEKSANTERI KASKINIEMI-KEKKONEN @BrutalBoost JOSEPH REED LET'S REP THE WEST AND BEAT THE REST YALL

Helsinki receives: S97 MAL 3rd S97 MAL 4th S98 RIG 2nd S98 MAL 3rd S98 MAL 4th S99 MAL 1st S99 MAL 2nd S99 MAL 3rd S99 MAL 4th Malmo receives: Bret Weier Narnia Shaw Ty Duke Xhekajs middletoe This trade has been accepted by all parties and is pending league approval.

Baie-Christmas Beavers GM: @sadie Forwards Nikolas Kauppi @Tetricide Diego Machado @Dadam30 Sadie St-Louis @sadie Matteo Stefano @mmrs617 Mikko Borisyuk @PacifistKit17 Elf Shoes @ELF_SH0ES Ethan Ashcroft @EthanSea611 Defensemen Andrew Skilton @ace_five_ Lucy Leitner @LucyXpher River Harrington @kirbithan Narnia Shaw @Dabnad Goalies Joel Castle @animal74 Chad Powers @Big_Dyl I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to put together such an incredible group of people for this; let's go get that tournament win Beavers! Watch out Flora Vista...

@Members It's that time of year again! The beginning of the VHL Holiday season and therefore the Charity Auction! So this post is our call for items, you can see what has been done in the past here. This gives you an idea of what other's have done if you want to replicate it but feel free to come up with something new. The way the auctions function is simple, we put up the "items" you offer and as members you put your money bids down and fight over who gets it. Once the time runs out the highest bidder takes the prize. So what's this thread for? Well we need to know what to put up for auction of course! So, reply below if you're willing to auction anything, digital, real, or otherwise. You can also offer up incentives for group milestones or cumulative goals. These would be stuff like the Zoo Tycoon 2 stream that @Beketov has done the last couple of years. Essentially if, as a whole, we meet a certain amount of money raised then the milestone is met and the reward is "paid out" to everyone. Alternatively a cumulative goal would be if that specific auction item reaches a certain amount raised so like "$100 = a stream" or something and everyone puts forth money toward the same goal instead of budding against each other. Notes: - We've had amazingly creative auctions the last two years, check out the subforum for ideas for this year. It's okay to repeat things. - Staff will have the final say on which volunteered items make it to the auction. Ultimately some things like permanent discord mutes or something might be funny but we aren't going to intentionally harm the league or do anything illegal for this. - As always, everything must be SFW. - When you bid on an auction item, you are agreeing to pay that amount in full if you win. Do not bid if you aren't willing to pay. - If you sign up to auction off an item or your time please consider it a commitment. If you offer to do something please follow through with it. People are paying for these things so don't ignore them. Once we get the items for the charity auction sorted, we'll set fundraising goals and share the corresponding rewards for hitting each goal. As always @Commissioner have final say if an item is appropriate and what items will be chosen. Volunteering an item in here doesn't mean it will automatically get chosen but putting something in means it can so make sure you're willing to do whatever you say in here. Happy holidays! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

Congratulations to the S96 Continental Cup Champions, the Vancouver Wolves!

So, with the conversation around my previous article, I set out on a mission to figure out a way to adjust for era. After a few hours exploring the internet, the only accurate way to adjust for era within the VHL revealed itself, and was fairly complicated, but I will try to explain it below: Step 1: Identify each season’s top 5 point scorers and the number of points they scored. Step 2: Average out those points for each season. Step 3: Set up a 5 season rolling average for each season, this reduces the impact of outliers. For example, the number used for season 3 was the average of seasons 1 through 5, two seasons each way. For seasons 1 and 96 this was 2 seasons forward and back respectively. Step 4: Determine the overall average number of points for each season. Step 5: Divide a season’s rolling average (step 3) by the overall average to give each season a ratio. Step 6: Divide a player’s total points by the average ratio for the seasons they played in. The main issue with this is that defensemen scoring doesn’t necessarily mimic overall scoring, however we can assume that an increase to the top end of scoring does mean that defensemen scoring would increase, or at a minimum would have had the potential to increase. What this did do is clearly identify 3 kind of well-known peaks in league scoring, specifically from seasons 1-10 (by far the largest), S50-S59, and from S79-S83 (the meta era). The interesting thing here is that while players who played in the meta era did have their totals drop, it really wasn’t by much, given that they would have played on either side of it as well, which were both below average scoring seasons. It is worth noting that in today’s VHL while we do still have a bunch of players crossing the 90-point mark, at the top end it is a below average scoring era in the VHL (by a hair). From what I’ve seen the reasoning here is simply because we do have a bunch of high earning players, who will produce offensively, but will be unlikely to ever hit the high marks set in the earlier seasons. Since the goalie change a few seasons ago scoring has been trending towards average. Please see my pretty graph below: I then went through this with the top 50 scoring defensemen plus a couple Hall of Famers from the S60-S70 window as per Victor’s request. Of the 54 players assessed 25 saw a increase in their point total, and 29 players had their point totals decrease as a result of era adjustment. All of the top 5 players to increase played between S65 and S78, the player that saw the largest increase was Condor Adrienne who played from S68 to 75, which would have had the middle of their career in the early 70’s which was the lowest scoring era in VHL history by a massive margin. Largest Increase: 1. Condor Adrienne (712 +114) @OrbitingDeath 2. Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen (637 +104) @Fire Tortorella 3. Lincoln Tate (611 +103) @Tate 4. Erik Killinger (658 +68) @Peace 5. Roque Davis (638 +66) @Josh As for players seeing their points decrease when adjusted for era, they all played within the first 11 seasons of the VHL, notably when essentially every offensive record was set, so that makes sense. Most notably here is that Sterling Labatte saw the largest decrease as their point total dropped by 103 points. Largest Decrease: 1. Sterling Labatte (669 -103) @sterling 2. Shawn Crowley (519 -82) 3. Danny Tremblay (506 -80) 4. Joey Kendrick (483 -78) @Kendrick 5. Jochen Walser (574 -43) @marshall_222 We did also see some considerable movement in the defensemen scoring leaderboard when we adjust for era, namely that Skor McFleury goes up to the number 1 spot, Pierre Emile Bouchard jumps into the 2nd spot, Japindeer Singh is the only player to have their point total decrease and remain in the top 5, and Condor Adrienne moves up to 4th. Era Adjusted Scoring Leaders: 1. Skor McFleury (768 +50) @Alex 2. Pierre Emile Bouchard (726 +56) @Gaikoku-hito 3. Japindeer Singh (714 -37) @8Ovechkin8 4. Condor Adrienne (712 +114) @OrbitingDeath 5. Bo Johansson (711 +49) @Shindigs With that being said I made the decision to re-work the formula to determine a statistical score, essentially using the VHFL scoring but inserting era adjusted scoring instead of assists and keeping the initial goal totals to still have more weight there, and because I don’t have the time to do more math. I did drop the weight of a goal to 1.5 (instead of 3) since they are counted in the era adjusted point totals already. Era Adjusted Stat Rank: 1. Skor McFleury @Alex 2. Brian Payne @Scurvy 3. Hard Markinson @STZ 4. Condor Adrienne @OrbitingDeath 5. Alexander Valiq @Koradek 6. Jake Thunder @Thunder 7. Pierre Emile Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito 8. Japinder Singh @8Ovechkin8 9. Battre Sandstrom @Acydburn 10. Daniel Braxton @Jericho As for awards through conversations with Victor I made the decision to adjust the weight of individual awards to better show their overall value (Continental Cup = 100, Labatte/MVP = 75, ROTY/Funk = 35, Other = 50), since this changes things slightly, here’s your top 10. Award Leaders: 1. Conner Low @Smarch 2. Condor Adrienne @OrbitingDeath 3. Sterling Labatte @sterling 4. Phil Hamilton @Phil 5. Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen @Fire Tortorella 6. Jochen Walser @marshall_222 7. Skor McFleury @Alex 8. Ryan Sullivan @Advantage 9. Elijah Incognito @Strummer 10. Daniel Braxton @Jericho As for overall ranking I made the decision to add a bonus for statistical leaders (actual goals, assists, points, hits, and SB) and players with awards named after them, giving said players a bonus of 100 (maximum of 1 bonus) as kind of an impact/legacy bonus. The top 10 defensemen with this era adjusted and improved system are: 1. Condor Adrienne @OrbitingDeath 2. Skor McFleury @Alex 3. Sterling Labatte @sterling 4. Phil Hamilton @Phil 5. Brian Payne @Scurvy 6. Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen @Fire Tortorella 7. Hard Markinson @STZ 8. Japinder Singh @8Ovechkin8 9. Jake Thunder @Thunder 10. Daniel Braxton @Jericho Lastly since the conversation around last article, Conner Low ends up with 478 era adjusted points (+4), ends up 53rd statistically, 1st for awards, gains a legacy bonus for having the most Labattes, and ends up 14th overall. Thank you for reading, while the era adjustment formula is sound, if you have any comments or suggestions to improve the scoring system I’m all ears! 1041 words (2 weeks)

@Banackock

Bana Blabs Christmas, Reddit and Da Bearz Hey everyone! Hope you're doing well. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things or at the very least desperately need to use up the doubles weeks I have stacking up from previous and current seasons donations. The week of Christmas is finally upon us and before you can even say "santa was here", it'll be over and we'll be astonished with how 2024 flew by like a SpaceX rocket and it's now 2025. It's really crazy to think, right?! Life is busy, life is stressful and yet there's things that are good if I look. Trying my best and hoping that as we enter 2025, things can continue to be managed and the progress continues to move forward. I think the next month or so has a lot of potential for me. As for the VHL side of things, lots going on. The off-season is here and GM's and staff are busy at work getting everything done. Drafts and award shows have passed. The World Cup has played itself out. Free agency was a dud. The off-season went strong and as expected as a GM. The off-season went chaotic and not as planned as a GM. It' was everywhere and this is often the norm these days. I stepped away and then up again for Recruitment. No post. No nothing and there can't be nothing. We're doing good and @Moon has helped breathe more life into things. Quick burb ( @Esso2264 bird?!), not onto getting the blab done and my first media spot in a long time. CHRISTMAS - The auction could of been better and we've seen things be better. It's okay. It's in the name of good. People are busy and things are tight in a lot of homes. I think next season we just need to think outside the box too for some creative auction items. In saying this though, the total doesn't matter. It's the overall picture. Look what we're doing together. This place is awesome when you think about it! Day 10 of 12 for Christmas is currently happening. Don't miss out on posting in each thread DAILY to a chance to earn some wicked prizes this holiday season! REDDIT - We're on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/VictoryHockeyLeague/ With current league financing planning and the holiday season being here, we have no budget for executing paid advertisements. This has given us the challenge with having to think outside the box as well. We've gotten a little more active posting on all our socials lately and have started to make our presence bigger on Reddit. 27 people have joined and we're hoping that number continues to grow. The more opportunity and potential for exposure, the better chances we have at coming across the right eyes who would enjoy our community and help us grow. DA BEARZ - Interesting off-season. Things started off hot per usual. We don't fuck around like some types of GM's who love to "wait to see cap", "want to see how free agency goes" or "wants to wait until after the draft". It's just not the best way to be successful. You don't want to shoot the first animal you see, but you also don't want to wait until the last day of hunting either and have to end up settling for the first thing you see that day. The early bird does in fact get to choose whatever the hell he wants to do before the other birds wake in the morning. We started off making huge moves. Some were unexpected and took their own route. We ended up moving @Victor which was super surprising but just had to find a way for it to make sense for our plans. They just didn't find the individual success here. It's a family but it's also a family runned business. It's not just me. It's not just you. It's DA BEARZ. All of us. So, I thought they'd likely hit the market through FA or trade down the road. Better to deal with it sooner than later. Veto trade. Yeah. The one between Seattle and Riga. We were getting Targaryen back and the swap was a fast deal agreed to between myself and @Lemorse7. Long story short, deal was reversed because of league rules stating you can't trade players back and forth as recent as it was (Targaryen was traded from SEA to RIG the season before). Once we got news it was a veto, we made another deal involving a player who requested a trade from Riga. Story shortened and sweetened, they changed their mind shortly after Riga and Seattle agreed verbally. This is where we got fucked. Everything was going good. Had this trade went through, thing would have worked a bit better. Either of these trades. But after this, the markets dried up and some prices for depth (i'm talking 400-500 inactives) shot up it felt lol.. Found our D-men finally. Had to get very creative to not end up paying an arm and leg. Did an inactive player swap from F->D for one. Agaiun, creative and outside the box. GMOTY nominee again, baby! It's good to be bad and bad good to be good. Got draft collateral earlier before this trade that I was hoping to unload for upgrades to our championship calibre team However, ended up drafting @xNJDevilsFanx and @Big_Dyl. Not expected but they've been 10/10 so far on the team. Excellent around the forums and in the locker room. They put us in an interesting position for the future and add a lot of strength to it. I hope they have a lot of fun on the team. Let's earn some TPE. Let's kick some ass. Seattle's been one of the best teams now for 30 seasons. Let's have a good time making sure that doesn't change. I'm really hoping this was enough to get me to two weeks of claiming so I can enjoy some time for Christmas and New Years to enjoy and relax. I'm looking forward to good food and relaxation during these times away from work and during this amazing Christmas season. I'd also like a little more time to focus on recruitment and managing the Seattle Bears! I hope everyone has a MERRY, HEALTHY AND POSITIVE CHRISTMAS! There's things that are happening in the world right now that could paint a worse picture but similar to the theory of "100 good versus 1 bad but focusing on the bad", there's a lot of good happening in the world too. It's important to be aware of but not solely focus on the negative that can sometimes consume us as a society and individual. Dec 23 - 29 -> S96 DOUBLES DONATION (lol, I know..) Dec 30 - Jan 5

DRAFT RECAP This podcast is presented by VSN, everything you need to be updated and informed about the VHL. In this episode of Simon Says, @SMYLS4 and @flyersfan345 dive deep into the VHL and VHLM Drafts and give you their thoughts. Timestamps VHL Draft: 0:02:00 VHLM Draft: 0:39:43 Run Time: 1:10:09 Hours Song: Simon Says (Radio Version) - Pharoahe Monch

Egor Shomin, a promising young hockey player, was drafted with the No. 30 overall pick in the VHL Draft and the No. 27 overall pick in the VHLM Draft by the Saskatoon Wild, thus demonstrating his ability in the game of hockey. Shomin stands out for his excellent skating skills and high hockey intelligence, which allows him to overcome defenders with ease, and his powerful shot allows him to score goals from a variety of positions on the ice. Both clubs, Los Angeles and Saskatoon, consider him as a potential key player and are working to develop his skills. Egor is eager to improve his skills at VHLM and has expressed a desire to join a VHL team in the future when he has the opportunity to play multiple seasons, hoping to make a meaningful contribution to its success through experience and growth. It will definitely take a few seasons to see him reach the VHL and projected skill level to compete among the best players in the world. During the offseason, he will attend World Cup playoffs games and see high-end hockey in live. Scouts are sure, Egor is the final part of incredibly successful LA S97 VHL Draft.

The dreaded off-season is upon us but since I have just won a Continental Cup I don’t have many complaints about it yet. Congrats to my club for the win, a very deserving and fun group. It’s my second Continental Cup (1 with each of my players) and I tell you what, it feels good to win and hope I can hoist a few more with Ninefingers. I do want to send a huge shoutout to Davos for a great run to the finals. A very good team with quality people. As I start this Around the League, I find myself struggling a bit to get motivated to write something and Its times like this I wish I could do a damn graphic or knew how to do a podcast. But I digress and despite this being a meandering post I will press on. VHLM Champs: Mississauga Hounds Huge congrats to the Hounds for a Founder’s Cup title. GM @ace_five_ put together a great club in faced a gauntlet of quality teams in Miami, Philly, and Ottawa. Led in scoring by Filip Zinek @FiZi and Nikita Yolishev @Joel Mainwith 22 points each. The real star of the team though was goalie, Deadpanda @AlexAlex. He was absolutely dominant in each series and went 12-4 with a .917 Save percentage, a brilliant 1.96 GAA, and two shutouts. VHLM clubs will be happy to see him move up to the pros next season and not have to face him anymore. I expect some additional trophies coming his way in the near future. 79 total wins for Deadpanda and 16 career shutouts is pretty impressive VHL career. Congrats to the Hounds! Now that the two leagues are officially in off-season the off-season tourneys are here with Pro-Am and World Juniors (I think). It will be interesting to see how the off-season works in VHLM now with some returning players, draft, etc. My favorite part of the off-season is approaching too which is the draft. London has the first overall pick and after a tough season the storied franchise can continue the build into a contender again. The highest TPE player in the draft right now and probable #1 pick is Hugh Nutron @Corco. London currently has rugged stay at home dman, Alagsantere Groenvold @VattghernCZ. AG is a high earning Dman and their back end could be pretty solid with the addition of Nutron. There are currently 6 defensive players in top 10 (highest TPE) available in draft and 2 goalies. That leaves right winger, Cash Carti @v.2 as best available forward in top 10, TPE wise. Another solid player that any club would be happy to have as a piece to re-build on. Only time will tell where London will go and there is no shortage of guaranteed pics in the draft. Well, that’s about all I can handled for today. A little all over the place and not a lot of substance but I need that TPE for Ninefingers to try and fight for another cup. I hope all of you are having a great weekend.

Gorgeous song, if you've seen Arcane, the scene its used in is so good too. Check it out if you haven't yet! Kazuma Satou and Halifax's season is over, knocked out by Ottawa in game 7 of round 1 in the M playoffs. I spoke about it a bit on @SMYLS4 and @flyersfan345's podcast (which you should check out here) but I didn't go into this season with the expectation that Halifax would be a contending team in the playoffs due to the roster composition and youth of the team. While some of the E reintroduced players had solid impact, I figured I'd be thrust into a significant role as a waiver player which meant that chances of making the playoffs were slim. However, under fantastic leadership by @LucyXpher, Halifax defied the odds and made the playoffs while hanging in there against "better" opponents all season long. It'll be disappointing to not be able to return to Halifax due to Satou currently being ranked #1 in the M draft and HFX not owning a first round pick, but I'm sure they'll position themselves well regardless. Speaking about drafts, Satou will be heading into both the S97 VHLM Dispersal Draft and the S97 VHL Entry Draft. So far, there hasn't been any discussion with M teams and just interest from 1 VHL team, so I'm hoping it'll be an exciting few weeks ahead as we lead up to the drafts. I do have some hopes in mind for the VHL team that drafts me and some thoughts on how I want my career to play out, but I won't expect VHL GMs to be reading these articles to get their information. I still hope anyone who wants to draft me will speak to me beforehand though. Since I expect to go to a rebuilding team, I think my contract requests should be pretty feasible, but I also have been flitting with the idea of an early career position swap to forward since defense is so saturated in this class. Getting some bonuses and higher salaries early in my career would definitely help make that possible if the VHL team is also interested in that avenue. Lastly, it might be a bit unconventional, but I do hope to have some input or sway in the direction and moves of the team that drafts me. Despite being a rival GM, I'd like to enjoy most of my career with the team that drafts me this go around while keeping my GM side separate. From past experiences, there are times where moves aren't made or are too slow to be made that leads to a split. I've also traded myself away plenty of times from Moscow to better position the team and safeguard other players from being traded. This time, I'm willing to stick around for as long as the team wants me, but I would like to be involved in decision making to best position myself and the team for success. I think it can definitely be done, and I have offered advice in informal capacities to teams I've been on in the past. I'd just like to be definitively involved in management decisions or at least be consulted. Maybe it's too bold or brash, maybe GMs during the draft scouting process will tell me its absurd to request. If so, I'd drop the ask and just go along for the ride. I'd just love to help make another franchise as successful as Moscow's been without switching the team I GM.