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Anyone who watched the stream already knows but hot damn did it like generating the same number multiple times. 2 people won twice despite having over 100 numbers to choose from. Of course we want the prizes to go to as many people as possible so they didn’t ACTUALLY win twice, I just hit re-draw on the lower tiers. As I mentioned on the stream, if you would prefer a prize in a lower tier than what you have won just let us know and we’ll accommodate that instead. We’ll be getting in touch with all the winners soon to get shipping and stuff sorted out. So, enough talking, who won? Tier 1 - $10 VHL Donation x10 winners - No actual cash value but the equivalent rewards of a normal $10 VHL Donation. You can claim your prize in the regular donation index, just link back to here to show you won. @eaglesfan036 @DaftRaincloud @JeffD @Cusemode @Jayrad28 @ROOKIE745 @Grant @PadStack @McWolf @KC15 @GRZ* * I feel bad because I looked at the wrong number and initially announced the winner as GRZ. Considering this prize costs the league nothing I have decided to give it to GRZ as well on account of the confusion. Tier 2 - VHL Merch x5 winners - Beaviss can confirm but we were aiming for a $20 value here so I believe this means a VHL T-Shirt. He can also confirm if the designs for every team are ready or if it will be a VHL Logo version. The blue team will be in touch with you about claiming this to get your sizing and shipping information. @Sonnet @diamond_ace @Phil @Beaviss @Peace Tier 3 - NHL 20 x3 winners - A copy of the latest VHL ripoff EA Sports NHL game for whichever console you’d like. The blue team will be in touch with you about claiming this to get your console choice and shipping information. @studentized @Motzaburger @Patrik Tallinder Tier 4 - NHL Jersey x1 winner - Finally the big boy. $250 value to a single person. A Jersey of any NHL team and player (or custom) that you’d like. The blue team will be in touch with you about claiming this to get your sizing and shipping information. @MMFLEX Congrats to all who won and I hope you all enjoyed your VHL 12 days of Christmas!

Playoff Previews: First Round Seattle Bears v. New York Americans And there it is. 72 games later, we are in the playoffs. This season was a weird one but, once all was said and done, the teams that were supposed to make it into the playoffs did, and the teams that are rebuilding or are still in that expansion setup phase. Just like that, the 72 games every team just played aren’t worth much anymore. Even if a team made the playoffs without too much hassle, they’re just 4 losses away from being eliminated by a team that barely made it in. Which brings us to this North American Conference first-round matchup between the defending champion 2nd-seeded Seattle Bears and the young 3rd-seeded New York Americans, reminiscent of a fight between David and Goliath. Road to the playoffs The Seattle Bears should be the overwhelming favourites, coming into this first-round series. They are better offensively and defensively, and apart from a couple of players, they are virtually the same team that seized the Continental Cup in Season 68. However, things are not always either black or white. While the Bears enter the playoffs as one of the best teams in the North American Conference and one of the favourites to make it to the Continental Cup finals, they have strangely struggled against the weaker New York Americans all season. Both teams won twice with the home-ice advantage and won twice on their opponents’ ice. Seattle did win one game in overtime, giving New York a lightly superior head-to-head record of 4-3-1, compared to Seattle’s 4-4-0. Both teams also tied with 19 goals across the 8 games played. However, when the Bears won a game, they did it in explosive fashion, leaving the Americans scoreless in their 3 regulation wins. When it comes to games played against other teams, Seattle did have the edge, finishing second in the North American Conference and fourth in the whole league with a record 44 wins, 23 regulation losses and 5 overtime losses. New York ended up just one spot behind them in the conference and seventh overall thanks to their 35 wins and 37 losses, including 10 in extra time. As said earlier, the Bears were the most recent winner of the Continental Cups, capturing it last season after sneaking in the playoffs for the first time since Season 65. On the other side, the Americans are just making it back into the playoffs after missing them in the last two seasons. Why the Seattle Bears should win Even though they didn’t overwhelmingly dispose of the New York Americans every chance they had throughout the season, the Seattle Bears are still entering this series as the favourites, and are actually among the favourites to be the North American representative in the Continental Cup finals. They are stronger in literally every aspect of the game, sporting better forwards, defensemen and one of the best starting goaltenders in the VHL. Their forward corp, led by veterans Dan Wilinsky and Joel Ylonen, and youngsters Acyd Burn and John Frostbeard, is one of their obvious strengths. Wilinsky had a career-high of 39 goals this season, while also surpassing the 80-point mark for the 3rd straight time. Ylonen has been his regular self, playing a strong two-way game while eclipsing the 60-point mark for a 3rd season in a row. Burn and Frostbeard have actually both taken step backs from their strong performances last season but were still very serviceable, both scoring over 30 goals and 60 points. On defence, the team can count on a ridiculous top 5 of Hulk Hogan, newcomer Guy LeGrande, Leph Twinger, Ambrose Stark and forward-turned-blueliner Berocka Sundqvist. All of them are equally good offensively and defensively, but if we had to highlight one that could be a difference-maker over the course of the next 4-to-7 games, I’d say LeGrande, who was acquired from the Americans this very season, might be holding a grudge against his former team and could wreak havoc on them. Finally, the team’s MVP this season has definitely been goaltender Rayz Funk, who’d be in the discussions for the Shaw Trophy if it wasn’t for Riga’s Kallis Kriketers’ almost historical numbers. He shut the Americans out thrice this season already and could very well do it again a couple of times in the next couple of weeks. On the other side, the New York Americans have a tough matchup ahead of them. They did win half of the head-to-head games this season, but their roster is nowhere as competitive as their opponents’. While the Bears were named among the favourites to win the Continental Cup since before the season even started, no one knew if the Americans would even join them in this spring dance until about a week or two ago. Now, while their roster might not be as strong as the Bears’, they are a very young team, dressing only three players not still on their rookie contracts, meaning. Indeed, except soon-to-be-retired Konstantin Mulligan, no one on the team has been in the league for more than four seasons, with the vast majority of them actually playing only two or three seasons in the VHL. Despite all that, the Americans could surprise the better Bears if their young stars perform well. Boris the Forest and Keven Foreskin, the team’s leading scorers, both coming off career years, need to step their game up even more if they want their team to even have a chance in this first-round series. Soren Jensen and Ryo Yamazuki II, two of the league’s top rookies, are also expected to carry the offence for the Americans. On defence, the Americans are definitely not as dangerous as the Bears, but still sport a couple of strong blueliners, like Fredrik Elmebeck, former Bear Kevin Low and defending Jake Wylde Trophy winner Lance Flowers. The team’s true X-factor, however, is definitely young goaltender A Red Guy. His 0.923 SV% and 2.24 GAA both rank top 3 among starting netminders. Should he play as good in the playoffs as he did in his sophomore season, he might be able to save his team and steal a couple of games for them, which is basically what they need to advance to the next round. At this point, all the Bears have to do to win this series and proceed to the North American Conference Finals is be their usual selves. The Americans were the slightly better team in the 8 matchups between the two teams this season, but they’d need a literal miracle on ice to summon their inner David and overcome their own Goliath. A Red Guy would need to play on his head, but it’s definitely possible. Not probable, but possible. My predictions are A Red Guy will be able to steal two games for the Americans, but they come short and the Bears win the series in 6. Players mentioned: @oilmandan @Esso2264 @Acydburn @FrostBeard @HulkHogan @Steve @DollarAndADream @Banackock @Berocka @Rayzor_7 @hedgehog337 @Pandar @chillzone @Velevra @Donno100 @Elmebeck @Smarch @CowboyinAmerica @.sniffuM VSN Writer McWolf

As my tenure as the Yukon Rush General Manager is coming to an end, I thought it was fitting to write up a little blurb summarizing it all. With 6 seasons under my belt (S64-S69); I’ve finished off this stint tied for the longest tenure with the greatest GM in Rush history (eaglesfan036, S36-S41). Before my jump up to the GM spot, I also served as the Assistant under BarzalGoat. Unfortunately during the 9 seasons where I was involved, the Rush only made the finals twice and were unsuccessful in winning the cup both times. The first season after officially taking over the reins of the Rush was a struggle to say the least. With a team made up of career minor players, there wasn’t much of an opportunity to contest and the Rush ended up missing out on the playoffs and finishing last in the league. Fortunately this season allowed the Rush to trade in some assets and set me up for a big draft for S65. The draft in S65 was, what I believe, the best draft I’ve had during my time in the VHL. In the first 2 rounds we had 6 picks and were able to snag some of the biggest names in the league at the time. Helmsley, Cole, Matthews, Morozov, Hejtsel, and Stone were huge players in what would hopefully be a cup run. Sadly due to the dumpster fire availability of goalies in the expansion draft for Moscow, Cole was called up immediately and we were left without a clear starting goalie. Because of this, S65 ended up being a middle of the road finish for Yukon and a first round exit. S66 was a quiet one, most of the players that excelled the season prior were making their way up to the big league. Without many assets and not many picks, Yukon missed this playoff by a large margin but were able to set themselves up well for the next two seasons with draft picks. Coming back into form with the S67 draft, the team was set up to make another big run in to the playoffs. However, the goalie situation was once again not everything it appeared to be. Highly touted prospect Sawchuk failed to report to the team after training camp and wasn’t returning my calls. Luckily Guy showed up at the start of the season and, while not as experienced as Sawchuk, held together an impressive season that got us into the postseason. Once again the team crashed and burned after a dismal first round showing. The last time we made it to the finals, S68, started off with me thinking it would be a middle of the road finish. It’s funny that the farthest this team has made it was when it most exceeded my expectations. While there wasn’t much super star power on the team, there was a lot of consistency in each position and an amazing defense led by Hunter, Petrovic, and Lindberg. Sadly it all ended being 2 wins away from a title after two strong 4-1 series wins. While we’ve made it to the playoffs this season, I’m sad to say the first round exits haven’t stopped. Hopefully whoever takes on the role of GM of the Rush after me, can bring the team back to its former glory. Word Count: 550~

In honour of your overlord's (that's me) birthday, everyone who likes this post gets 1 TPE. #teepz #lovevictator #tpeinflation

The Seattle Bears as Final Fantasy Tactics Classes Welcome back, boys and girls. This week we're going to answer the question that everyone's been asking - which Final Fantasy Tactics class (or Job) would each of the Seattle Bears be if they lived in the world of Ivalice? I know that a few of you keen VHL sports writers have tried to answer this very question in the past, but as you lack my shrewd hockey sense your answers were somewhat lacking, and needed a trained expert to provide a competent evaluation free of the biases that your own experiences provide. As such, let's begin. Ninja - Joel Ylonen @Esso2264 The Bears' assists leader, Ylonen can move across the ice like crazy, weild a stick in each hand to make his plays, and *Hamedo* dodge out of a hit and deliver a counter-blow before it arrives. Joel skims along the edges of a game, and when the moment is right, pops in and makes his attack, then returns to his position out of danger before it has the chance to strike. Knight - Hulk Hogan @HulkHogan The tank of the Bears, Hogan is equally good at taking punishment and dealing it out. Especially skilled in breaking his opponents' gear, Hogan is a threat no matter where he is on the ice, but he's best deployed on the front lines where he can cause damage and be a physical shield for his supporting cast(ers). Dragoon - Dan Wilinsky @oilmandan Another precision striker, Wilinsky lead The Bears in goals this season. Knowing exactly when to jump in on the play and press the attack, Dan's another strong front-line fighter. Also a weird affinity for belts, don't look too deep into his bedroom. He may take on the nickname JUMPMAN if he continues this level of play. Chemist - Berocka Sundqvist @Berocka Two rules man. Stay away from my fuckin' percocets, and do you have any fuckin' percocets? Squire - Henrik Zoiderberg @HenrikZoiderberg Maybe he's the future of the team, maybe he'll grow into a knight, a thief, or an onion knight, but Zoiderberg remains the young underdog of The Seattle Bears. Able to hold his own out on the ice, but always better when supported by those around him. He'll RUSH up the ice, FOCUS on the play, and leave the other goalies STONE cold. Calculator - Maxim Kovalchuk @Banackock Attached to the mastermind behind The Bears, Kovalchuk runs the numbers, figures out the lines, and min/maxes until the cows come home to lead his team to victory. It takes a lot of study in each position to grow into the role of a calculator, and it's not a feat that everyone can achieve, but Maxim has more than one cup ring to prove that he's got what it takes to pull of this position with gusto. Dancer - Rayz Funk @Rayzor_7 To the left Take it back now y'all One hop this time Right foot let's stomp Left foot let's stomp Cha cha real smooth 504 Words TPE for week ending December 29

Yesterday, newcomer Jeff Blaze who announced he would be entering the Season 71 VHL Draft found out he won't be playing in the VHLM for the remainder of the playoffs. Based of the time that he declared he would be coming into the league, it was too late for someone to sign him for the rest of the year. Jeff wasn't too happy at first, but at the same time it will be good for him to begin training for next season to become an elite player for whomever picks him. This offseason will be very important for him with his training to prove to teams in the VHLM, that they want him on their team for the upcoming year. In the mean time Jeff will wait around to hear his name called in the Season 70 VHLM draft to decide his fate. He has a lot to prove to teams as he doesn't have a ton of hockey experience in his past, as he started hockey at a very late age. Stay tuned for next week, for an update on Jeff Blaze.

Yesterday was a big day for Jeff Blaze, as he announced he would being entering the VHL. Jeff comes into the VHL with very limited experience in the game of hockey as he just started the sport at the age of 16. But ever since Jeff put on those skates, it's like it was meant to be. No one has probably heard much of the name, but what you can expect is a fast skating winger, who knows how to put the puck in the net. Jeff will be entering the Season 71 draft, which as of right now looks like a strong class. Adversity is something that Jeff is very familiar with, and it seems like he knows how to handle it very well. It will be interesting in the next few days to see where Jeff ends up in the time being, as teams have some days to offer him some a spot of their team.

@AndrewWarren13

MINI INTRODUCTION - JEFF BLAZE (RW) S71 It was three days ago, when the VHL Commissioner was informed that Jeff Blaze would be entering the VHL, and declaring for the Season 71 Draft. At first there was a lot of question around who he even was, as the name hasn't been talked about around the hockey world very often. Jeff, who hails from Nashville didn't start playing hockey till the age of sixteen and is only nineteen at the moment. You heard that right, he has only played hockey for three years. Whenever people hear that they are absolutely shocked as that is not very long in the sport of hockey. He always skated as a kid, but never really took interest in hockey until he was around sixteen. Once he stepped onto the ice with a hockey stick, it was almost just natural for him. Jeff left home last year to go play for the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, where he had a slow start, but did eventually start to show his talent towards the end of the season. After the season was over, he had a few Division 1 NCAA offers but he decided to go the pro route instead as he hasn't ever been much of the school type. This upcoming season in the VHLM, will show whether he decided to make the right decision or not. It's a huge risk for him, and it's something his parents were definitely not happy with at first. Looking forward to next season it is hard to say who will take chance on a player like Jeff. It will be interesting to see who does, and if it will pay off hugely for them or if it will be a disappointment. It’s going to be a huge offseason for Jeff, as far as training goes and what he can prove to these teams going into the draft. Jeff has already told many teams that he has one of the best trainers in the United States as far as hockey goes. That might be enough to show teams that this kid is committed to playing in this league and being successful. Even if Jeff has an amazing season next year, it’s still going to be hard for him to even get into the top two rounds of the Season 71 Draft, as it is looking as a very strong draft class. We haven’t seen very strong draft classes as of late and it will be very interesting to see how this one plays out. Other wingers such as, Erik Killinger, Jim Bob, Uhtred, Thomas Landry II, and Adam Syreck are some of the highly anticipated guys that he has to compete. Another interesting dynamic that Jeff brings is that he can also play other positions which isn’t very common in the game now a days. When it ultimately comes down to it though, nothing else matters expect for his performance on the ice and we will have to wait a little to see how that goes. Next week, we will look into more into the childhood of Jeff Blaze and the reason he wanted to play hockey.

If I had a dollar every time I read “that’s not the issue here” in this media spot I could’ve donated $800 myself to the VHL

Jet Jaguar beats up Kronos Bailey at 0:09 of 1st period Edward Vigneault beats up Nethila Dissanayake at 16:05 of 1st period WHAT A STATEMENT TEAM

There's a lot of writing here so I'll keep this short. I want to reintroduce RFA's, give players more interest in contracts and make the overall structure a bit better for QOL Rookie: A player in their 1st, 2nd or 3rd season after being drafted (considered as entry-level period) Prime: A player who is not eligible to be on a Rookie contract and is not regressing. (Seasons 3-8) Rookie Contract Structure: Rookie Contracts must be a minimum of 1 season, and a maximum of 3 seasons. If the contract is only 1 or 2 seasons long, the rookie will be considered a restricted free agent. If the contract is 3 seasons long, the rookie has the option to pursue unrestricted free agency at the conclusion of the contract. If a rookie is not offered a contract by the last day of the succeeding pre-season, they will become an unrestricted free agent. If a rookie contract concludes while the player is still eligible for RFA, their new contract must continue to abide by rookie rules for any seasons where they are still RFA eligible. Prime Contract Structure: A prime contract will come into effect starting with a player's 4th season. At the expiration of a contract, a player will become an unrestricted free agent. Your ELC as a rookie would be either 1/2 seasons - go to RFA 3 seasons - go to UFA RFA Rules: Two ways to go about this; 1. Teams may offer contracts up to the end of your rookie phase (1-2 seasons) and the team that holds your rights may choose to match that contract and if they do so you will receive that contract with your current team. OR 2. Teams may offer contracts up to the end of your rookie phase (1-2 seasons). If you choose one of their contracts over your current teams offer, then the team that holds your rights will receive the following compensation; Under 400 TPE - Second Round Pick 401-600 TPE – First Round Pick 601-800 TPE – First Round and Second Round Picks 801+ TPE – Two First Round Picks Minor adjustments to low end of bracket and high end TPA/TPE Bracket Rookie Prime Under 300 $1 500 000 $1 750 000 301-400 $1 500 000 $2 000 000 401-500 $2 000 000 $2 500 000 501-600 $2 500 000 $3 500 000 601-700 $3 000 000 $4 000 000 701-800 $3 500 000 $4 500 000 801-900 $4 000 000 $5 000 000 901-1000 $4 500 000 $5 500 000 1001+ $5 000 000 $6 000 000 I would like to see the cap bumped to $50 000 000 to compensate for possible player adjustments as well as the shift in teams running more players. More of a side note but something of interest. TPA Freeze Rule: A rule I’d like to introduce for the benefit of teams and GM’s. If a player wishes to stay in a lower bracket for the season, they may ask for a TPA freeze. In doing so they would be “frozen” at their current TPA and would not be allowed to apply TPE until completion of the season. Ex. A player at 800 TPA wishes to stay in that bracket then they could request a TPA Freeze. Their player would be an 800 TPA player for the season and would be worth 3.5/4.5M (rookie/prime). The can then earn TPE into 801+ and not be bumped up into the 4/5M bracket. If a player and GM want to go back on this during the season, then the players cap hit will be his bracket at time of unfreeze +$500 000 to avoid abuse. Ex. 800 TPA unfreezes at 925, his hit would be 5/6M rather than 3.5/4.5 when he froze. The player also only receives his original contract and not his new cap hit. So I'll ping @Beaviss as commissioner, @tfong as the Public Liaison to hopefully get this discussed by the BOD. Since you read everything anyways @zepheter

Edition #7: CHRISTMAS EDITION - MERRY CHRISTMAS! HO HO HO! Hello VHL. It feels like forever since I've done one of these and we're once again back to the struggle being somewhat real. I'm busy at work, the league is firing on all cylinders and it's the holiday season! The streets are crazy, the stores are chaotic and the people are double whatever else you can come up with. They're insane. People literally go crazy this time of year. Special advisory: unless you have to, do not go outside. Kidding. It's not that bad really. It's a beautiful time of year. Echoing it's a busy time of year. Doubling down on being tired and the struggle being extremely real but here I am still finding a way to chug it out and make it happen. I think we could say the same thing about the VHL many, many seasons ago. Now, look at us! We're flying high baby and things are getting better and better and better. The league is growing fast, the teams are growing full and I think with each season that goes by the league is also getting... BETTER! The season just came to an end a few days ago and we have our final results. I'm not overly shocked by how things went and I think there were a lot of close, top-notch battles that could of went one way or another but just happened to play out how they did in the regular season. This season, looking at the standings, you notice how strong the league is becoming. Look at how many great teams there are. Vancouver takes the cake and Riga takes the leftover with 103 and 98 points to top off the league. Davos, DC, Prague and Calgary are the bottom 4 teams and I don't think this surprises many people. In fact, that's I think almost how people would have the order going except maybe DC being higher than Prague? I don't know. They're close. They each different. The teams in the middle are also very interesting and the middle is made of amazing teams just like the top. I think playoffs this year are going to be the most talented, skilled playoffs we've ever seen. It's going to be a bloodbath and the champion is almost going to "earn it" with his scars each time he finds a way to limp out of a series (or triumphantly gallop - who knows with STHS?). Another thing that really surprised me was how much the player’s total points amount really dropped. I think I remember seeing that Julian Borwinn won it this season and was at something like 93 points. Didn't even crack 100 points this season and I'm unsure that's ever happened in the league before. I also think I seen something on that possibly from Victor, but am unsure. Still, looking at this season and how it turned out - it's weird. I remember Flyers mentioning the scoring is following similar trait and saying we could be in the early 80's I think. I'd take a stab and say we're closer to modern-day NHL maybe than we think subtract the team amounts etc. Maybe not quite there but in the transition phase. Either way, super weird season that got me thinking and comparing. Will be interesting to see what next season is going to be like. Something tells me a lot of players are going to be having stronger, more "turnaround" like seasons that will surely get their VHL souls pumping. CHRISTMAS. IT'S CHRISTMAS! WOO! Man, I love Christmas. The snow is shit because it's slippery as fuck but it's beautiful. The cold sucks ass. I could do without the cold but you can't have one and leave the other. Both or none. I mean, hasn't really been all that cold this year anyway yet. One cold week maybe. Then you got the music that's super festive, all the stores and towns and whatnot are decorating with figurines and lights and Santa and yeah. Everything becomes cheery and bright and festive and people almost just seem to be more polite and joyful. At least this is what I notice. Christmas is awesome. I love it for the simple things like I love decorating my house. Our house on the inside is super elegant and I dig it. We go balls out. Speaking of my love for simple things at Christmas time, how about the act of giving away? Like the VHL's Christmas Extravaganza? Pretty sweet that they're giving away 12 days of Christmas and then a wicked raffle/prize at the end of things. What about that other thing? What was it? Oh, right. Yours truly got to thinking and posted an idea in the BoG proposing the VHL get into the charity business. Sure as shit, it took off and here we are. I don't know what the total is at but it's something crazy that no one thought we'd reach. 3 hours into the counting and I think we busted the $200 milestone within 3 hours. That was without the $200 that the VHL agreed and mentioned they would match (which was the max). Then, boom. The number skyrocketed. Climbed like a mother fucker. I was checking it at work. I was showing my girlfriend. I even told my crew at work. It's amazing man that something so silly and whatever on the internet, a group of awesome people on something that could be considered so small to others, came together and did something so big. It's awesome to see. There were big numbers and small numbers but those weren't the ones that mattered to me. It was just the simple "yeah, I donated". Doesn't matter the amount. Everything is appreciated and all should be celebrated for their amazing gestures and warmth at the holiday season when others may be struggling to have certain things like a roof over their head or food in their bellies. For us, it was the Make a Wish Foundation and what an amazing cause it would be. Again, for me, it didn't matter. the BoG mentioned it and I said SURE! We're making somebody or multiple lives better by doing something so small. All of us came together and with that, it really created something massive. I hope we continue this amazing thing year after year for the Christmas time. I hope we come back more organized and evolved with it. I hope that other sim leagues like the SHL, GOMHL, PBE, EFL and SBA see how amazing the members within the VHL are and just how strong and true this community can really be when it needs to be. This holiday season assured me that while we've had some very, very minor bumps in the rearview mirror, that those very few who whisper negatives are wrong. That the VHL is even better than I thought it would be, could be or was. I am proud to be a part of the VHL. Finally, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who made donations to this year through the VHL Charity Drive thingy. It's been super awesome to see everyone come together and get super pumped and passionate about something like this. Again, I echo, it shows how great the league is, how strong our leaders are and how amazing our members are. Thank you for making the VHL great. I hope Santa is good to you all this year. If you do not believe in Santa, I hope Bill Cosby is good to you. MERRY CHRISTMAS! BEST WISHES THIS HOLIDAY SEASON. Executive President of the VSN Bana

Twinger: The Sim's Hated Player If anyone needs a shining example of how TPE does not always mean success, just take a look at Leph Twinger. While he had success in the very early goings of his career, things dropped off, and they dropped fast. Now in the twilight of his career, Leph Twinger is hoping the Seattle Bears can help him win a cup in his final games, to at least cap it off with something good. Twinger came out of the VHLM with nothing but accolades. In his season before the VHL, he won the Higgins, Chershenko, Osborne, and Bentz trophies with the Yukon Rush. Any VHL team could look at his stats and want to draft this kid, but not all things are as they seem. Leph was drafted 1st overall by the Riga Reign in S62, and he came out of the gates into the VHL with flying start. 56 goals and 60 assists as a rookie, with 116 points. He even had 10 game winners 12 PPGs, not to mention his 559 shots on net. Riga was a team that season that had ridiculous scoring, however, so maybe those numbers were just boosted. Podrick Cast had a 174 point season, not to mention Edwin Preencarnacion's 141. Still though, all things seemed to point to a big 'YES' for Leph Twinger's career. Those rookie numbers are nothing to slouch at. Moving on to his next season in S63, Twinger's point production was halved. He ended the season with 67 points, including 34 goals. He still had 290 hits on top of that, so he was not a bad player by any means, but going from 116 to 67 is still very notable. That season, Joseph Bassolino led the Reign with 110 points, while Cast and Preencarnacion had 106 and 95 respectively, so Twinger was 4th in team scoring. Those other player's numbers all fell as well, so at first glance, this drop was not anything to worry about. The Riga Reign also went on to win the cup that season, which wound up being Twinger's only cup of his career so far, unless he wins it all this season with the Bears in S69. -------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- In S64, Twinger dropped again, this time to 50 points. For a 1st overall player in his 3rd season, that's not something that you want to see. He had chances playing with Cast and Preencarnacion in Riga who were still producing, so seeing this high training kid in Leph Twinger struggling.....it was not good. The Reign decided to trade him away in that off-season, over to the budding New York Americans. This move was a hopeful one for both Twinger and the Americans, as a move that it would light a fire under his ass and starting performing similar to his rookie season. This definitely happened, as he upped his game to 74 points. Unfortunately for him, that was the last time he would hit a point per game in a season in his career. The next season with New York he would drop to 63 points, and I suppose the doubt began to sink in for Leph. He never had any super successful seasons in New York, and only managed to get in 8 playoff games in total, not producing much and obviously not winning a cup. New York then tossed Leph Twinger over to the Calgary Wranglers, where BladeMaiden, Bushito, and company figured they would take a swing at reviving him. As more of a depth guy on the Wranglers, he did no better, putting up 49 points. They would grant him some good time in the playoffs that season with 7 games, but that's another season of not winning for Twinger, and that would ultimately do it for him as a forward. In the very next season in S68, the Wranglers and Twinger decided it would be best to move him to defense, which may sound like an odd move for a guy named Leph Twinger, but what other reason did he need to give up on being a forward than his rocky past? As a defenseman he had some respectable numbers with Calgary, putting up 65 points and 247 hits. This was actually 3rd in scoring on the Wranglers, so pretty decent for a defender. That Calgary team managed to take Twinger to the North American finals, but they ultimately lost to the Seattle Bears in 4 games. Why not have Twinger be a player that gets swept in a series? Might as well, considering all the other failures of his career. Now moving on to his final season, S69, the one that is currently in the playoffs, Leph Twinger plays as a defenseman on the Seattle Bears. Yeah, that's the team that eliminated him the season before. For the Bears, as a 675 TPA guy, he put up the worst season of his career, production-wise. 39 points with 14 goals, both milestone lows for him. He also has 0 points in their first 2 playoff games right now. My wish is that the Seattle Bears can carry his old ass to a cup, but who knows how far they will go. All I am saying is, TPE doesn't mean everything. You can pour 1300 TPE into a player and have him be very average. You can have him have 90's or higher in all the important attributes and not perform even close to what people would expect. You can have him get 116 points as a rookie and have you feeling like you could have your best player yet. All of this can happen with lots of TPE. One thing is for sure I guess, and it's that I don't give up on my players. @Banackock@BladeMaiden@Bushito@hedgehog337@Spade18 Trying to tag my GMs. You guys don't have to read it all obviously, just figured I'd tag you in my Twinger fail write-up.

Acyd Burn has accepted a Signing Offer from Seattle: S70: $3,500,000 (NTC)

4th Annual Unofficial VHL Regular Season Awards – S69 Another regular season has come to a close. That means we can dole out some regular season awards! Welcome everyone to the 4th Annual Unofficial VHL Regular Season Awards for S69. These awards have been created by me. There is no voting process and they are not officially recognized by the VHL Board of Governors. I wrote descriptions for most of these award names in the original award post. This year I'm cutting down on that junk and getting straight to business. Without further ado, away we go: The Pylon Award (worst +/- rating) – Basaraba Moose @Toasty Basaraba came within 1 of tying Sven’s record from last season, but barely finished ahead with a -57 rating on the year. Basaraba had the lead in this award by a wide margin, the next closest players were at -38. Previous Pylon Award Winners: S68 – Sven Hitz (-58) S67 - Piotr Jerwa and Nethila Dissanayake (-34) S66 - Bryce Zhields (-49) The Gandhi Award (least penalty minutes) – Hugh Chan @HughJas_ There’s a little bit of controversy with this award this year. While there has never been an official requirement of minutes played to qualify for this award, I now recognize that we need to set it at 1,000 minutes. Because of that ruling, Hugh Chan wins the award with 4 PIM in 2050 minutes played. Honorable mention to Shane Mars who had 0 PIM, but only played 561 minutes. Previous Gandhi Award Winners: S68 – Jack Lynch (0 PIM, 1473 Minutes Played) S67 - Diljodh Starload (0 PIM, 2091 Minutes Played) S66 - Beau Buefordsson (0 PIM, 1939 Minutes Played) The Timex Award (received most hits) – John Madden @Thranduil John was hit an astounding 357 times this season, shattering the previous high of 302. Previous Timex Award Winners: S68 – Mikko Aaltonen (297 hits taken) S67 – Rauno Palo (302 hits taken) S66 - Beau Louth (300 hits taken) The John Wayne Award (most shots on goal) - Julius Freeman @rjfryman Julius took another step and fired the puck on net 452 times. Barely beating Randoms (448) and Julian Borwinn (447). Previous John Wayne Award Winners: S68 – Rylan Peace (466 shots) S67 – Matt Thompson (495 shots) S66 – Shane Mars (533 shots) The “Hit the Broadside of the Barn” Award (most own shots blocked) - Julian Borwinn @Jubo07 Julian had 136 of his shots blocked. Previous HtBotB Award Winners: S68 – Rylan Peace (144 shots blocked) S67 - Beau Louth (153 shots blocked) S66 - Oyorra Arroyo (142 shots blocked) The “Can’t Hit the Broadside of the Barn” Award (most own shots missed) - Elias Dahlberg @Nykonax Did the fact that Elias led the league with 320 missed shots factor in to his decision to retire? Previous CHtBotB Award Winners: S68 – Rylan Peace (351 shots missed) S67 - Beau Louth (364 shots missed) S66 – Roctrion King (372 shots missed) The New Shin Pads Award (most blocked shots) – Guillaume Fontenette @okochastar Guillaume takes home fresh new shin pads after blocking 166 shots this season. Last year’s winner, Seabass Perrin finished 2nd with 147 blocked shots. Previous New Shin Pads Award Winners: S68 – Seabass Perrin (207 shots blocked) S67 - Piotr Jerwa (170 shots blocked) S66 - Lando Baxter (189 shots blocked) The Tired Legs Award (most minutes played) - John Madden @Thranduil In back to back years, the minutes played leader is also the most hit player. John averaged 31.38 minutes per game for a total of 2,259 minutes this season. Previous Tired Legs Award Winners: S68 – Mikko Aaltonen (2,290 minutes) S67 - Shawn Glade (2,226 minutes) S66 - Robert Malenko (2,324 minutes) The Snap! Award (most power play minutes) - Elias Dahlberg @Nykonax Elias spent 368 minutes on the power play. Previous Snap! Award Winners: S68 – Joseph McWolf (351 power play minutes) S67 - Beau Louth (437 power play minutes) S66 - Jake Davis (412 power play minutes) The 1 vs. 100 Award (most time on penalty kill) - Wolf Stansson Jr @Cornholio Prague occupied the top 4 spots for penalty kill minutes. Wolf led everyone with 328 minutes on the penalty kill. Previous 1 vs. 100 Award Winners: S68 – Jack Lynch (353 minutes) S67 - Aron Nielsen (374 minutes) S66 - Lew Bronstein (352 minutes) The Sean Archer Award (highest face-off win %) - Rauno Palo @jRuutu Much like Podrick last year, Rauno ends his career on a high note, winning 59.45% of his face-offs. He barely beat out Joel Ylonen, who had 59.41%. Previous Sean Archer Award Winners: S68 – Podrick Cast (62.56%) S67 - Beau Louth (63.09%) S66 – Rauno Palo (63.10%) The Castor Troy Award (lowest face-off win %) - Zeno Miniti @Zeno Zeno had a league low 32.27% face-offs won. Previous Castor Troy Award Winners: S68 – Gritty (36.31%) S67 - Gucci Garrop (35.07%) S66 - Bryce Zhields (30%) The Triple Deke Award (most penalty shot goals) - Owen Nolan @studentized Owen scored 6 penalty shot goals out of 11 attempts. Previous Triple Deke Award Winners: S68 – Jorgon Weyed (6 penalty shot goals) S67 - Veran Dragomir (8 penalty shot goals) S66 - Leph Twinger (5 penalty shot goals) The Rocky Award (most fights won) - Edward Vigneault @Patpou22 Edward won the award with 4 fights won. His fight record was 4-0-2 the season. That gave him the award nod over Hiroshi Okada (4-1-4). Previous Rocky Award Winners: S68 – Tyler Barabash Jr (2 fights won) S67 – ACL TEAR (6 fights won) S66 - Ryuu Crimson (4 fights won) The Glass Joe Award (most fights lost) – Rusty Shackleford @K1NG LINUS Rusty set a new low mark losing 5 fights this season. Previous Glass Joe Award Winners: S68 – Podrick Cast and Jordan Tonn (2 fights lost) S67 - Kronos Bailey and Hunter Hearst Helmsley (4 fights lost) S66 - Rauno Palo (3 fights lost) The Stars Award (most stars won) - Julian Borwinn @Jubo07 Julian had 27 total stars awarded to him this season, including a league high 13 1st stars! Previous Stars Award Winners: S68 – Matt Thompson (32 total stars) S67 - Rauno Palo (25 total stars) S66 - Matt Thompson (28 total stars) The “Always a Bridesmaid” Award (most stars without winning 1st star) – Tzuyu @tfong Tzuyu won 12 stars without winning the 1st star this season. Previous Bridesmaid Award Winners: S68 – Zeno Miniti (9 stars) S67 - Dan Baillie (13 stars) S66 - Mikka Pajari (7 stars) The Biggest Backpack Award (player with the largest difference in points from the rest of their team) - John Madden @Thranduil Are we seeing a pattern here? Last season Mikko Aaltonen won the same 3 awards John Madden won this year. Madden scored 28 more points than his closest teammate, Basaraba Moose. Previous Backpack Award Winners: S68 – Mikko Aaltonen (28 points more than teammate) S67 - Podrick Cast (23 points more than teammate) This concludes the unofficial award ceremony. Thank you to everyone reading. Congratulations and/or condolences to all the winners! Have a good night! 1,172 words, will claim for 2 weeks.

Dont Roast pls

Hello everyone, It's been a little while since I've had to do this, however @MexicanCow123 has been officially relieved of his duties. After teaching him everything I know, setting him up for massive success and having him be an absolute legend, it's time for a new prodigy to be born. I have no doubt in my mind that he will be a great GM some day with all of the stuff he has learned over our time together and I really truly believe he's even helped me become a better GM. With that being said, I'm a very fun GM, I'm an active GM but if you're going to be my AGM, I want someone who: > Is Active > Willing to learn > Is committed to the team regardless of results > Willing to go above and beyond for the sake of players fun If that is you, this is what the job entails: > Setting lines/tactics when I am unavailable to do so > Recommending line/tactics whenever you god dang please > Recruitment (this is a biggie) > Draft Scouting > Discord & Forum Engagement I'll field some applications for a bit, see how peoples activity levels have been, and then make a decision immediately when I feel I have found the right candidate. I know the tasks seems like a lot but you're taking over from one hell of an AGM who has done a lot for this team, and I don't really care for slackers.

You're threatening to tone it down?

The Mississauga Hounds swept their 1st round playoff series against Ottawa. The Hounds played a flawless first round. Before beginning their next round against the Mexico City Kings the Hounds took some time to celebrate their 1st playoff series win. After the season ended the Hounds got a little crazy going to the Rippers. The team agreed something a little more PG would be in order if they won a playoff round. After winning the team decided on doing a team function at General Manager @GustavMattias’s mountain side cabin. The plan was to do some mountain biking along the beautiful mountain trails and then gather around the fire for some celebratory drinks and laughs. The had a great day on the mountain ripping up trails just like they ripped up the Ottawa Lynx. The fun began when Assistant GM @Berocka showed up with a dozen flats of Bundaberg Ginger Beer. The Hounds spent the rest of the evening drink Australian beer while debating back and forth about whether or not Australia was real. By the end of the night the verdict was in. Australia in fact is not real and the team sent Berocka back to his racist rehab camp to finish his treatment. word count: 204

I am not stepping down but Dils has been fired after I found out he was changing Blades lines behind hers and my back when I let her do them for the remaining 20 or so games to close out the season.

This aged well.

Pure Fighter Pros and Cons For my next player I’ve debated a few different things I could do. One of the front runners is creating a physical beast who does nothing but smash opponents. This build would most likely be checking, fighting, strength and defense all above 90 with other attributes being low. This would most likely result in having a ton of penalty minutes, fights, hits and a bunch of other stats. This build has pros and cons, I really want to do it but I don’t wanna bring a team down with me. I will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of this build to my player and team. Con 1: I will bring the team down Having 90 checking and fighting probably won't result in very good offense, I wouldn’t be surprised if I lead the league in penalty minutes every season of my career. With my defense at 90 I could be a good shot blocker and have a decent amount of hits. With all these combined I may have some decent stats but it's quite possible that my team will constantly be on the penalty kill, causing more goals against and losses. Pro 1: I can help tanking teams With all the stats I previously mentioned I could be near perfect for tanking teams records. With consent penalties against me the team would always be losing and I could help them get last in the league and chance at getting the first overall for next season. If I did make a build like this I would prefer to be on losing teams, I would not want to hinder a chance at a deep playoff run or cup win with my terrible player stat wise. Con 2: I wouldn’t help my teammates Good players can still have good stats on bad teams. Whoever would be lucky enough to be my linemates would probably have to deal with a lot. If I could get on a line with inactives that would be much nicer as I wouldn’t be affecting anyone’s personal play that cared about it. I would most likely be traded to many teams over the course of my career to fit that criteria. I could see a player like this to go down as one of the most traded members in VHL history. Pro 2: I want to do it This isn’t really much of a pro, just a personal preference. One thing I don’t really like is scoring, I don't want to make a center with 40 goals a season nor do I want to make another defensemen similar to what I have right now. I want something fresh and new and this could be it. This is more of a unique build that I feel has been done less often and that's one of the reasons I would like to do it. This could keep me more interested in the league instead of getting burnt out and eventually becoming bored of doing it. Overall I can see this being a possibility for me in the future. In 4 seasons time their may even be a different pick lottery system and new teams that could give me more of an incentive to do it. Only time will tell, I'm really not sure if I want to do this yet or not.

Seattle's lines for New York 👌

lets get this out of the way now FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY

Retrospective #1: Season 66's "Hidden Gems" Scouting is a hell of a hard job in sports - sim leagues or otherwise. In real life, it's both an art and a science to determine what players have the intangibles needed to succeed at a professional level. It's similarly hard to determine what sim league agents will stay active, even among those who have a long, storied history of max-earning on a weekly basis. Sometimes a GM will get lucky and strike gold on a second, third, or heck, even a sixth round pick (yes, @ItsMcLovin, that's you. Nice work!). For those of you who aren't aware, I like to write long articles. Back when I first created Apollo Hackett, I was coming off of a three-year-hiatus (a short stint with Saul Hackett in the S40s) and wanted to familiarize myself with the site and its new members. That involved a lot of tagging, particularly of @GustavMattias, and research into members that weren't well-known at the time - especially when it came to my Best First Gens article. It's worth noting that this, in addition to my Hidden Gems feature, were both written over six months ago in late March/early April. It featured exactly zero old heads that I could remember from my days with Saul or Hiro Renomitsu, my first player from before Season 20. I've run a handful of numbers, and as it turns out, I did an okay job of plucking out some of the active members from one of the largest classes in the Victory Hockey League's history. Some of them panned out, while others... well, we'll get to them soon enough. Here's my retrospective on S66's Hidden Gems, with First Gens to come at a later time. I mean seriously, just look at how chill this dude is. #1) D Jerry Garcia @GustavMattias Team – Houston Bulls → Malmo Nighthawks (S66-present) Projection/Draft – Mid-Late 3rd (23/88) → Pick 7 TPE – 144 → 819 Accolades – (S68)#2 in Jake Wylde Trophy voting, World Cup Champion (USA); (S67) #2 in Shots Blocked (163); (S65) World Cup Juniors Champion (USA) Really, what kind of Season 66 article would this be if I didn't feature Jerry Garcia front and center? Early draft reports had the Nighthawks defenseman dropping into the mid-to-late third rounds based on raw talent and his representation's relative lack of history in the league. One league scout told me he'd be picked for value in the second round, as indicated in my article. But he certainly earned his spot in the first round as Malmo's first-ever franchise draftee and ascended into projected top-10 status even before the draft started. Since being taken 7th overall, Garcia has emerged as an obvious leader for the Nighthawks - and in fact has been designated as their captain for this season. He's slowly come into his own as a playmaker, with a respectable 31 points in his first season to 60 points (10 G, 50 A) in his third while posting an excellent +39 on the season. But what earned him praise from scouts pre-draft was his nose for the puck when around his own net - he's regularly blocked about 150 shots per season, and helped lead his team to a championship appearance just three seasons into their existence. I think this one's easy: Garcia was definitely a gem. #2) C Hans Gruber @TheFlash Team – Saskatoon Wild → Vancouver (S66-68) → Helsinki/New York (S69) → Retired Projection/Draft – Late 3rd, early 4th (29/88) → Pick 28 TPE – 125 → 513 Accolades – (S68) World Cup Bronze Medalist (Western Europe); (S67) Continental Cup Winner (Vancouver) Well, up until Monday this week, Hans Gruber looked like a solid selection for the third round. To put this pick in context, most VHL teams had high-quality centers to work with in Season 66. Most centers - Vancouver's Hunter Hearst Helmsley aside - were, as a result, dropped in the draft precipitously night-of. That included centers that we now consider elite just over three seasons into their career, like Jet Jaguar (10th overall). As we see some of this generation's best centers headed for regression or even already retired, however, it was expected that a class of strong centers entering a center-heavy league would smoothly transition us from one generation to another. Gruber's retirement makes this a bit of a harder sell for the class of S66. Aside from Helmsley, Jaguar, and the massively-surprising Jordan Tonn @MexicanCow (an emerging star in his own right), the S66 centers taken in the first few rounds simply haven't panned out. Helsinki's Bert Meyers and Ludvig Sederstrom were highly-touted prospects that failed to improve past their minor league levels of talent. In most other periods in the VHL, 513 TPE would be enough to make you a significant asset on any pro team. Among retired centers in the portal (which dates back to the S40s), Gruber among the top 30. He put up 45 points in Vancouver's championship season in spite of limited minutes, and did similarly in S68 before his progression stalled a little. Subsequent trades to Helsinki and New York led to a bit of reflection on Gruber's part; though I'd call a 500-TPE third-round pick a sure-fire gem in most situations, the fact that he's retired means he counts as a miss for me. #3) G Clayton Park @leafssteen Team – Yukon Rush → Seattle Bears (S66-67) → Riga Reign (S67-68) → Malmo Nighthawks (S69-present) Projection/Draft – Early 4th (32/88) → Pick 27 TPE – 119 → 321 Accolades – (S65) World Junior Championship Selection (Team World) When I made this list, I did so with the intention of selecting at least one player per position (F, D, G), and just-so-happened to include a winger and a center to break the forward position up. Unfortunately for me, Owen May, Clayton Park, Juan Jaundice, Kolur Bjoernsson, and every other goalie from S66's list are now inactive, and only two of them are even on rosters anymore. May last updated in August, while Park did so in mid-July. While these top two goalies taken each have reached >300 TPE in total, neither one has had the breakout career we'd expected from them. Park had a starting role for Seattle upon first being drafted, starting 60 games for the Bears with a respectable rookie save percentage of 90.3%. But as he was a rookie and Seattle was incredibly young, he unfortunately faced nearly 2,100 shots in those 60 games and finished with a 19-30-9 record. The young Austrian then took a second-fiddle role with Riga, where he played in about 20 games per season and actually finished with positive records each time (7-5, 6-3) and a startlingly-good 92.4% save rate in Season 68 with the Reign. He's shown sparks of promise in two games with Malmo this season in replacement games (96.7% saves), but most front offices seem content to relegate him to a convenient pinch-goalie role. He might still have a spot in the league, but for me this is a miss. #4) RW Mat Tocco @Matmenzinger Team – Philadelphia Reapers → Moscow Menace (S66-current) Projection/Draft – Early 6th Round (43/88) → Pick 31 TPE – 98 → 624 Accolades – (S66) World Junior Championship Selection (Europe) Rounding out our list is the Czech winger Mat Tocco, who we covered when he had double-digit TPE. He had been on the site for just over two weeks when we covered him as a potential hidden gem; while he experienced a bump in his draft stock between the time I wrote my article and now, he was still selected at the top of the fourth round. Everyone and their mother knew he was a project that needed just a little more time in the minors. More importantly, he was overshadowed by an ostensibly top-heavy wing class - with six occupying the top ten spots. He's since overcome the low expectations set by his draft position and is regarded as first-line-worthy by most of the league. The Menace are likely thanking their lucky stars that Tocco panned out, especially when some other forwards selected well above Mat - including their 5th-overall LW Dimitri Volosenkov - flamed out of the league shortly thereafter. Other players aside, Tocco has proven a valuable asset for the Menace, who have a new need for top-line forward play after the retirement of Podrick Cast and the impending regression of Dan Bailie, Randoms, and Jorgon Weyed. They have a variety of superstars and fringe-All Star centers in Jet Jet Jaguar and Gritty, and Toco is the youngest (and one of the best) wingers they've got. Though his point totals were restricted somewhat by limited minutes in past seasons (S68 - 48 points, S67 - 23 points), he has 15 points in 18 games this season, and to this point has a >10% scoring rate on shots. Add onto that the best plus-minus of his career so far (+11, again through just 18 games), and he's got a brighter future than many first-through-third rounders of ANY draft. Even though I thought he'd be a gem well before the draft, this level of growth is well beyond what anyone (except maybe @Victor) expected.

So the title of the spot here, makes it pretty simple, so I don’t think I have anything to explain. I’m just gonna rank all the members of the S61, if they’re not in the portal I’m not ranking them plain and simple, so without further ado here we go, and yeah one last things they will either be ranked **good**, **bust**, or **steal**. 1. Matt Thompson - There’s really nothing wrong with this pick, he ended up being a generational talent who scored 150 points. He’s a Seattle legend, and is in the Hall of Fame. In 576 games he had 422 goals and 403 assists for 825 points. He's 2nd in the class in terms of points, and he’s one of the greatest. All that being said I’d say he’s a **good**. 2. Samuel Gate - So Gate was the 2nd pick in the draft, and seeing how the first pick went you’d think this guy would be generational if not at least a hall-of-famer, but no while he wasn’t generational or a hall-of-famer, but he was fairly solid and was an amazing talent in his final season with Seattle, and maybe you can make a case for it, but that’s where I have him. Just to show you Gate's stats, in 432 games he had 67 goals, 321 assists, for 388 points. So considering all these things I’d say he’s **good**. 3. Podrick Cast - Podrick, Podrick, Podrick, easily one of the best players we’ve seen with a career high of 174 points, that’s simply insane, but it’s been said that scoring was very high, but he just happened to be the highest of the high. In my opinion he’s the best player here, and his career totals agree with me, and here are the numbers. In 576 games Cast had 379 goals, 467 assists, and 846 points in his career. According to the portal Cast, is the 3rd highest player on the TPE leaderboard. So considering all of these facts, I was on the horizon of steal, but went with **good**. 4. Roger Sterling - Roger Sterling wasn’t a bad player, but I don’t know if he should’ve been 4th overall. He had solid starting stats, but I don’t know about 4th...but he still did get a good/crazy amount of wins, like that guy won and won and won. He’s fairly high on the tpe leaderboards in the class though, and some goalies are just hated by the sims, and Roger, might be that guy, and of course it hurts that he never got the cup. So stating all of these I’ll go with my first **bust**. 5. Arvid Aamo - So this pick honestly looking back was terrible, but I can see the mindset of this pick later, compared to the others he had a good amount of tpe for a draftee. Although this guy was on his drafted team for two year, and remember he’s a goalie so these guys sometimes are rare to come buy. So you’d think just maybe this change to a new team would be a really good one, hah noooooooo. That was nonexistent, he went from a winning season right to a terrible season, and he never played in a vhl regular season game again. So considering it was 3 seasons, I’d 'sadly' have to say this one is a **bust**. 6. Edwin Preencarnacion - So this guy should honestly be the 3rd or the 4th pick, and considering the others above him it’s insane to think he’s not a top 2 pick, but that’s the reality of this Draft Class. He was apart of that great scoring effect in S62, and he had 140 points, and I’m back to recording the stats, and in 504 games, he had 303 goals, and 338 assists, and 641 points. Tagged hasn’t disappeared from the vhl season at all as he actually has the leading tpe prospect in this draft class (S70), and maybe I’ll make a MS or Article on that class. So considering everything he’s done I’ll have to say that he’s our first **steal**. 7. Robert Malenko - Yikes, this guy is a pretty controversial figure pennypenny, a guy who’s gotten banned from the VHL discord server indefinitely, but that’s got nothing to do with his player so now to talk about his player. Malenko was really offensively sound for a defensemen, and that S62 season didn’t even get his top 2 highest scoring season, and he scored a lot of points that season with 72 points, and his career high is 106 points, and I’d just like to throw in he nearly reached 1000 shots blocked which is pretty crazy just thinking about it. So in 504 games he had 133 goals, and 377 assists, for 510 points just over a career point per game, and he recently finished his career with a season with D.C. In my opinion he’s the best defensemen in the draft, some people might wanna argue about that, and unlike Gate he actually won a cup. So now considering everything (besides the controversy part) I’d say he’s a **good** pick. 8. Sergei Kovalev - This has to be the biggest downfall, so let’s talk about this 91 points in that juiced S62 season, and then it was downhill from there, and I get going downhill from S62 almost everyone here went down that way. He also had terrible defensive game, it’s not a terrible pick all things considered, but things could’ve went down better, but now for the stats in 360 games, he had 139 goals, and 160 assists, for 299 points, and looking at career points you probably think it’s not that bad, but given it’s not a ton of games, and he mainly banked off of that S62 season nearly hitting 100 points, now all things considered he’s a **bust**. Just to clarify I was considering making a meh just for him cause his player is kinda vanilla, but I settled for bust not a bad rookie year. Now that, that is all out of the way I’d like to thank everyone who read this entire thing, and I’d just like to say thank you for reading this whole thing, and enjoy the rest of your day tags: @Victor, @Beketov, @Tagger, @street, @pennypenny, @Will, @Laflamme

Seattle Bears Pizza A local pizza chain in Seattle will begin serving a very hair-raising new dish. Called "The Cub", the new pizza is a 40" across pie featuring 12 pounds of bear meat on the pie. The chain, Little Joe's Exotic and Orgasmic Pizza/Delicatessen of Pure Culinary Delights, is hoping that this new pizza becomes their best seller. "It costs $200 to make, so we plan on selling one for $1200 a slice. It's a little steep, but we feel the citizens of Seattle will love it," says restaurant owner Little Joe. "It's 12 pounds of bear meat. What's not to like?" Animal rights groups in Seattle have called the serving of this pizza "barbaric" and are calling for it's removal from the menu. "Listen, the only bears that we killed for this were one's who escaped the zoo. Frankly, we gotta do something with this meat, cause it ain't gonna keep forever," says Little Joe. The pizza goes on sale tomorrow at all Little Joe's Exotic and Orgasmic Pizza/Delicatessen of Pure Culinary Delights locations.

Okay so even before I wrote this, I know lot of people will look at this and think why is he even complaining. Well let me finish before you post. Hell. Let me start. You fucking smug asshole. So the league did this whole twelve days of Christmas thing, where they gave TPE each day leading up the Christmas. Which was nice and all. Don’t get me wrong they could have just given a free week and had been done with it. But they went above and beyond that and gave a bunch more TPE. Now where I have the issue is that they gave away dollar values with the said TPE. The dollar values added up to the grand prize on Christmas Day. It was like $800 or some shit like that (Probably wrong, the dollar value is not the issue) and on Christmas had a draw for winners for a predetermined number of prizes. Which were an NHL jersey for one person, NHL 20 for a few people and I think and I maybe wrong, a few players got “donation” money to get whatever they want. Now that “Donation” is not really the issue here but it’s funny how the league said the value was something grand and they wanted people to be like “Thank you for being so generous” Well think about it. If you “donate” to the league the money goes to the league and you get free TPE or whatever you want in return. So what the league did her was saying “Hey here’s $20 (Example) you can spend on the player store” Obviously the player gets credited the $20 and sure the league “losses out” on those donations. But Do they really lose out? I feel like when they came up with the prizes, when they came up with the shittier ones they just were like fuck! What can we give? And they came up with that. It’s stupid really. To say what you can get for $20 really holds a value of $20 is a joke really. I wouldn’t spend 2 cents on it. My point here is that the Donation money shouldn’t be counted against the Prizes total worth because its not worth it at all. Now to the real issue. Well… not issue, but to the real thing this article was about. When do you ever remember a Christmas that you woke up on Christmas Day and you got no presents? Other people in your family got them but not you? Look I understand that they can’t give jerseys and games to everyone. That is not the issue here. But they make it out to be this generous gesture but it really isn’t. What they really should have done was give away a free week (in the very least since it costs them nothing at all) to everyone else that did not win. Seeing that they $800 or whatever came out of members pockets when they donated because, there is no way in hell that they paid out of their own pockets. Which also proof the league doesn’t need your donations as much as they make it sound. They had enough to spend $800 or whatever and still obviously enough to keep the site up and running. You give them the money and they spend it on other people but you. You fuckers should have given everyone else a free week. That is all. End Rant.

@Jubis

Sorry everyone I placed the bar quite high hopefully someone can reach it.

I am extremely eager to learn and think that I would make a great addition as AGM. If you have any questions please private message me.

First off let me say, Congrats Mexican, you were an amazing AGM! I wish you the best of luck on your long journey ahead of you! 😀 I would just like to say that you know that I am already helping with scouting so you know that I can help you with that! I’ve been active for a while now, playing for your team, I believe i’ve been active for 5 weeks. I am very willing to learn and take in any tips, suggestions, or advice that you wish to give me! I am very committed to this team, and I am dedicated to making it better, know matter how bad or good it can be. I’m used to being the underdog, so being a bad team will it affect me. I have a never quit type of personality. I’ve already learned a lot from you, and I know what it’s like to have fun as a player. I know that there is a time to be serious and a time to be funny. I am willing to take time out of my day, to make sure players are at their maximum happiness on your team. I am very good at setting, and suggesting lineups. I have practiced almost my whole life, to be a NHL GM. Now I am chasing that dream! You know that I am good at Scouting and recruitment. I have a lot of free time to do this stuff. I am very active on discord, and help with creating forums for the team a lot! To all other applicants trying out, I wish you the best of luck. Rockstar, I will jot be mad if you don’t pick me, I just hope for the best for this team going forward, and if that means a different AGM than me, so be it. You’ll always be one of the best GM’s ever!

Good series! HUGE upset for the 21st! We put our trust in @ROOKIE745 and it all paid off in the end! @BigBallerFromDownUnder with 13 points in six games, and @Gwdjohnson added another 11 to carry us through. Solid contributions from @Doomsday, @LefLop and @DaftRaincloud definitely helped along the way. Also had some great defensive play from @Lockdown Defense.

Playoff Previews: First Round Moscow Menace v. Helsinki Titans Such an amazing matchup between our Russian kings of hockey and Helsinki Titans, a better looking and less talented counterpart. It is important to note that both teams have been brilliant this season with Helsinki taking a lead slightly. Road to the playoffs For Helsinki this last season was tough as they have to hire a new GM for the team and it was decided that non-other than Jubo will take over Helsinki Titans. They still have a lot of brilliant, high-quality players around like Julian Borwinn and Kronos Bailey. Quite intriguing that the regular-season series ended up with a result of 4 to 4 as that means that both teams have yet to crack the maze that will lead to a winning strategy on ice. On one side you have Helsinki, a feared and experienced team with players that constantly can be thrown into the conversation for individual awards and Moscow, a team with amazing free-agent signings that have not only created a buzz in their locker room but also have pushed Menace into the conversation as the most intriguing team to watch. Why Moscow should win? For me, it is fairly easy to evaluate these series and even though for me it seems that Helsinki could have a slight edge over Moscow, but you would be wrong. In my eyes, Moscow is the real deal this season and is the team everyone has to be afraid of. With their genius Free-agent signings in Smitty and Gritty, they have cemented themselves as the team to beat and that is not even counting in Randoms and Jet Jaguar who both have been truly on fire this past season. Having over 80 points per game and each having at least 30 goals, it is a lethal combination that teams just have to find a way to counter. I strongly believe that Moscow will be able to win this series strictly based on the fact that Alexander Pepper hasn’t had its best year in recent history. In this stage and level of talent, you can’t have a weaker goaltender as that just straight up sabotages your chances and pulling out wins. In the end, the real question here is - did Davos give them a soon to be cup-winning goaltender? Davison is a truly high calibre goaltender that can not only carry its team but can also help his teammates with taking some pressure off from them as you can expect him to do great no matter what! This won’t be a sweep and these won’t be series that will end fast with one side dominating. It will be a duel that will show why Moscow’s free-agent signings pushed them past Helsinki. Series will be tough and both teams will have moments to look back at and say - We could have played better. That being said, I believe that Moscow Menace will be moving to round 2 in a long 7 game series again Helsinki Titans. You could even speculate that Helsinki will score more but Moscow will score when it is important. People mentioned: @Jubo07, @Quik @flyersfan1453, @eaglesfan036 @hedgehog337 @gorlab @Sonnet @Poptart Chief Editor of VSN FrostBeard

TPE freeze: the problem is, without changing the incentives in player store (which we've tried so many variations I think we can safely say player store will never make money really worthwhile in the VHL) or overhauling how we use money in general (a worthy discussion if someone wants to start it, but would be a very long process), there would be little incentive to unfreeze. Stay at 4mil forever to help the team out, not like you'd miss out on much. RFAs: Don't massively care, the current rules are relatively new, not even sure if 10 seasons old, brought in because for 60 seasons, no one bothered to use the RFA system really. Not necessarily a bad thing though, with an 8-season career and short contending windows, knowing your prospect will stick around for 3 is at least some guarantee you don't really get with how short-term a GM's approach has to be.

This aged even better.

A great teammate and an even better friend @Psanchez55 ❤️

Berocka Sundqvist now a D-Man By Steven Brockman Sundqvist to a shock to all after sitting out for multiple games as a Seattle Bear has returned this time playing on the blue line. The physical forward who was known for his shooting ability has now reemerged onto the ice as a defenceman. In an interesting change of events we spoke previously with Sundqvist and he said he was focusing on his defence zone play. It has been reported that one afternoon during training that Hulk Hogan had a photoshoot at the opening of his new gym. This left the bears with 8 forwards and 3 skaters that play defence. Sundqvist offered to fill in the slot and surprised GM Campbell with his play. Campbell looks like he has made a good decision it seems with Sundqvist scoring goals and getting assists. It's strange to think that putting someone with his ability to shoot to play in defence. We managed to get Sundqvist to answer a few questions after a training session one day this is what he had to say. "I am just happy to play the great game of ice hockey, I will do what I can to help the team. Scoring points is great fun but I have really enjoyed being physical and being able to put my body on the line to help Funk in the net. I would like to give a special thanks to Nixon who was helping me train extra and improve my skating." When we asked Sundqvist about how he got started on playing defence he would not confirm or deny the rumours it was Hulk Hogan being at a gym opening. After moving to defence Sundqvist has put up 8 points coming from 3 goals and 5 assists. It looks like his game has really improved. We know from our last interview that Sundqvist always respected being able to play a 200 foot game so I am sure that the switch for him wasn't that difficult. Sundqvist was a part of the Bears side that won the Continental Cup last season. It appears that he will do whatever he can to help the Bears win back to back. It's great to see the young players of the Bears make such a big impact and to take one for the team. Hulk Hogan when asked about Sundqvist moving to the Blue line had this to say, “I don’t like it, he better not steal any of my ice time.” It is a strange thing to say after the rumours that Sundqvist is only a D-man cause of Hogan. Sundqvist has also been in the news after fellow Australian Mississauga Hounds AGM, Tomothy Berocka said that he would donate 80% of his payslips to the Australian Firefighters to help battle all the fires happening around the country. Berocka Sundqvist has also joined the cause and helping to spread awareness to the American and Europeans. Come and see how Sundqvist goes as a D-Man in the opening playoffs between Seattle Bears and New York Americans.

I mentioned that in the stream. Yes, fittingly for S69 we had 69 people get all days.

Since I am a TPE whore and I haven’t done my media spot this week I’ll guess I’ll be spewing some VHL nonsense. I imagine most of it will be about my player and the Bears but who knows. To start out with the Bears they ended the season 2nd in the North American Conference and 4th in the league with 93 points. They had the 3rd highest goal differential and ended the year on a shoot out loss. When looking at the players on the team only one player was in the top 10 of the leagues. Meanwhile the top tanked team in North America had 4. Helsinki had two in the top 10, Moscow had 2. When looking at the average time played, only one player had less than an average of 29 minutes per game. That would be the one player from the Bears. Seeing as how the Bears didn’t do poorly one could infer that there was more depth scoring than relying on a particular player to carry the team *Cough* Connor McDavid *Cough*. When looking at team awards the most points goes to Dan Wilinsky with 81, 29 Goals 42 Assists. Dan also had the most goals on the team with 39, had the highest +/- with 40, the most penalty minutes, most Hits, Most shots, and highest points per 20 minutes. Some of the Awards that Willinsky didn’t win were most assists which goes to Hulk Hogan. The most minutes played goes to Guy Legrande, who played part of the season with the New York Americans. LeGrande also had the most shots blocked on the team and Most minutes played. Highest Shooting Percentage goes to Leph Twinger with 14.74%. Most power play points goes to Acyd Burn with 25. The unsung hero award goes to Berocka Sundqvist who not only took a cut on his ice time earlier in the season but switched his position to defense to help the team. Berocka is the truest definition of a Bear and makes everyone around him better. Finally, we get to the starting goalie Rayz Funk, since you can’t really compare the starter to another starter on the team we can compare his season to last season. Funk started one game more this season and posted a record of 29-22-4, last season was 38-22-4. Seems like Rayz picked up that extra win with the extra game played. This season he sits at a save percentage of .923 compared to last season .921. His goals against average is .923, last season was .924. Both season he had 8 shut outs, but this season he had a lot less goals against. Comparing 146 goals against this season to 155 last season. If something can be said about Funk it is that he is consistent. In the playoffs the Seattle Bears face off against the New York Americans. The New York Americans had 80 points on the season and at the midway point weren’t expected to make the playoffs, they seemed to have hit a winning streak about midway through the season. With the trade of Guy LeGrande to the bears for Kevin Low, this series has a little of a story behind it. I guess we’ll see how the playoffs, play out.

1. Through 72 games we've seen some highs and some Lows (hehe), but through it all what's everyone's favorite memory from this season? There were so many highs and lows, how could anyone pick a favorite. 2. We finished 7th overall in the league, coming ahead of both Toronto and Calgary, while nearly taking 6th place from Malmo in the process. Is this better or worse than you would have predicted before the season started? I think it better than expected at the start of the season. 3. Going back to the highs and lows, which was more surprising? Our race to the bottom of the standings or our unbelievable redemption run to get us where we stand now? Remarkable turnaround after trading LeGrande, coincidence? 4. Looking forward we are set to face Seattle in the first round, how do we feel about this matchup? Going to be a good series. 5. Looking into the storylines, Guy LeGrande, former Americans defenseman will be coming home to face us in this first round matchup, what impact does this have on the coming series for you? LeGrande was a pain in the ass and should have no impact on this series. 6. Rookies Soren Jensen and Ryo Yamazuki II make up 2 of the top 3 rookies in terms of points, with Jensen looking to take home ROTY. How do you expect next seasons rookies (David O'Quinn, Jaxon Walker and Danny DeYeeto) to preform? I see a bright future for that trio of rookies.

The only notable retirement of today.

I loved my time there but recently I've become the AGM of Ottawa and I NEED to complain about this. Mississauga was a great place before they took my team and thrashed them in the playoffs. When every single member of that team gets called up to the VHL they're getting a sweet surprise also known as my fist. Kris Rice? Boom he's getting the one two punches immediately. Patrik Tahlinder is going to get a leg drop right in the middle of the ice. I would annihilate their GM Jerry Garcia but I already do that in stats ;). It would take me thousands of words and pages to right down my hatred on the Mississauga Hounds but since this is a VHL.com article I am not going to do that infact I will end it quite soon. Anyways if any Hounds wanna fight me just respond here, i'll be happy to oblige.

Merry belated Christmas! (if that's a thing). Dalton Wilcox had a great time in Christmas, so late that he forgot to show up for this interview in the holidays. He spent time with family eating and drinking (lots), opening and buying presents for all his newfound celebrity friends, and singing Christmas carols. He discovered a new found talent for singing after downing a few (I mean lots) of drinks. Here are some of his favorite Christmas tunes ranked in order of preference: 1. Jingle Bells - the OG in terms of Christmas carols. Easy to sing and remember the words, especially the part where Batman smells. 2. Joy to the World - Dalton brings joy to the ice every time he plays so this one was really relatable. 3. Littler Drummer Boy - this song can be seriously be played year round. It's that catchy. 4. Feliz Navidad - yo this song is lit. The chorus never fails to get Wilcox moving and grooving. 5. We Three Kings - this song just reminds Dalton of all the good times he's had with the boys. A tiny tear comes out of his eye every time. I hope everyone in the VHL had an enjoyable holiday and has a great 2020.

To cut on costs half the calgary team has retired. That saves a few million in salary costs.