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This really isn't that important of a topic but I happened to be looking at our registration stats today so I wanted to share this and showcase just how huge of an effort our @Recruitment Crew is putting in and what kind of effect it really does have on the league. This graph shows the amount of registrations since the league moved to this site in late 2013, I believe it's split up monthly though that's kinda hard to tell over a 5 year span. Obviously it's very hard to really see details that zoomed out but I think the spike speaks for itself. The growth we've seen in such a small time (less than a year) is absolutely amazing and I just wanted to give our guys a big shoutout for it because that's honestly amazing.

imagine making test sims in a random sim engine yall some losers

Saskatoon Wild Scouting Center, Saskatchewan – Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Shane Mars. Kari Jurri. Long ago, the four nations lived toge – uh, wrong intro. My bad. These three prospects are ostensibly the most talented and highly-sought after players in a draft that is nearly (if not already) 90 players deep. As expected, they (among maybe a half-dozen other prospects) have received plenty of airtime and speculation: we’re used to hearing the pro comparisons and possible career trajectories, fans clamoring for lower-ranked teams to ‘tank’ their season to get the next most valuable prospect, and so on. To put this in perspective – the last several dispersal drafts have had between forty and seventy draftees; aside from last season’s dispersal (67 players) the next most comparable was a 51-man dispersal ten seasons ago, in Season 56’s draft. When compared with Entry drafts, it’s still potentially the largest field of selectable players in recent history. The lowest TPE pick from S65’s entry draft was Billy Kimber, the thirty-first (although not the last) overall pick of the draft, who had 32 TPE with the season’s live draft rankings; there are 87 players this season with at least that many points waiting for their chance at the pros. Overall, the Season 65 draft had 38 drafted players – this season’s pool would have half of its players go entirely undrafted if the same were to happen this season. Make no mistake – recruiters have been putting in their work and it’s been paying off. But because this season’s draft pool is so apparently deep, players with the potential to make it as World Juniors, World Cup players, or first-round fantasy picks may go without being mentioned until draft time. “We’ve got enough first-round quality wings alone to make up most Entry drafts by themselves,” one anonymous scout commented at a Week 2 VHLM game, “Mars and Jurri are the obvious, but Aaltonen, Volosenkov, Freeman, Sigurdsson, Jagr, Meyers…” “That would have been your average first round in most previous entry drafts. This year? Those are just the top eight prospects between two positions.” General Managers and AGMs make it their job to look into each year’s eligible player list – so let’s take the dive for ourselves and try to find a few hidden gems, why don't we? Inclusion Criteria (1) S66 Draft Class; currently included in @Tagger‘s most recent Scouting Center rankings. (2) As of the Week 2 VHLSC rankings, currently ranked below rank 20 (based strictly on TPE, likely to be drafted in Round 3 or later of the current draft) (3) Early bird gets the worm – draftees with large TPE claims this week will be more highly considered. Last three weeks’ TPE gain will be the main inclusion criterion. (NOTE – some of these TPEs may be reported several hours before article posting, and may not match current TPEs) D Jerry Garcia – Houston Bulls Current Projection – Mid-Late 3rd Round (23/88) TPE – 144 (+56 after 3/3) Garcia is a hybrid of the old-school defensive defenseman with a new-school prototypical skillset. He’s one of the more skilled defenders on a VHLM roster, with the ability to make it to loose pucks and stop many forwards in their tracks. In recent weeks, he’s been hitting the gym and working on his playmaking skills, but he’s still certainly most effective on his team’s half of the ice. The defenseman’s agent (@GustavMattias) has experience in a number of arenas – the most recent being a stint as Team Asia’s World Juniors GM. He’s been cited as an “incredible force for good” in the locker room by his own GM, and one of the prominent voices interfacing with the media for his minor league squad. Perhaps most importantly, Garcia has been putting in plenty of work on the ice and in the gym; many scouts have noted diversification in the defender’s skills in the last couple of weeks alone. His plethora of proficiencies leave him most likely to continue along the defensive defenseman or enforcer route – but we’d be remiss to count out the possibility of development into a two-way defenseman. Regardless, Garcia’s rapid and recent improvement is a sign that GMs in the majors ought to take note of – he’d be a steal in the fourth round and wouldn’t be out of the question for the early third. Scout’s Notes “He’s well-rounded and is a threat on both sides of the ice because of his passing ability. Something of a black hole for errant passes and chasing the puck down after a big hit.” “[Jerry] has a penchant for making big hits and blocking big shots. He’s probably your goalie’s best friend.” “He played guitar for the Grateful Dead and has an ice cream flavor named after him, I mean come on.” “If I’m a team in need of multiple positions, I’m looking to steal Garcia in the late third, or pick him for value as early as the second.” ABOVE - Hans Gruber, seen here definitely not scheming. C Hans Gruber – Saskatoon Wild Current Projection – Late 3rd, early 4th round (29/88) TPE – 125 (+46 after 3/3) This promising young forward from Germany was traded from Philadelphia in exchange for picks just last Saturday (3/16) with teammates DWin Championship, Cody Parkey, and Brian Strong. Wild GM @Peace made the massive exchange of picks – including what may be over half of the team’s S67 dispersal selections – for a chance to win now. Some suggest Gruber’s something of a grinder or playmaker – and this early in his career, he could probably opt to go either way. It’s hard to pick out one specific strength for the winger, who has shown glimpses of excellence in defense and puck handling in addition to the positional mainstays of passing and scoring. In 34 games in the minors, he’s accumulated 6 goals in 68 shots, and a total of 24 points. He’s presently second on the depth chart – which means he’s quite likely to run into other more-developed forwards and defensemen whenever he’s on the ice. Though his performance does not yet top the league, the Wild GM can rest easy: the young German scored an overtime-winning goal just earlier today in one of his first games with the team. Scout’s Notes “Sure, I see why he could be easy to sleep on. Plus-minus isn’t too flashy – but take a look at his last couple of games and tell me he can’t at least hold his own with the best.” “That screamer to clinch today’s game against the Reapers should at least catch your eye.” “Didn’t this guy steal like $640,000,000 or something?” ABOVE - Clayton Park playing goalie for the Vienna Thunder, Midget AAA team (per biography) G Clayton Park – Yukon Rush Accolades – 1x WJC Team World (S65) Current Projection – Early 4th round (32/88) TPE – 119 (+68 after 3/3) Buried underneath the (well-deserved) hype for Kandee Cain (@SlashACM) and Owen May (@FacebookFighter) is Austrian netminder Clayton Park, a top-four prospect for this season’s draft. Taken 49th overall (7th round) in the S65 Dispersal Draft, Clayton has stepped up his game considerably and may merit consideration for a pick as high as the early third round depending on how the rest of this season plays out. He sits only behind the newly-reinforced Juan Jaundice in shots against but has managed an 86.6% save percentage in spite of the volume of shots against him, good for third in the minors behind the aforementioned Cain (89.2%) and S65 New York draftee Chase (90.0%). He’s currently in the bottom half of the table for goals allowed (3.39) – but many scouts believe that’s simply a function of the number of shots he’s had to defend this season. Park takes on the style of a classic butterfly goalie; though slightly undersized at 5’ 10” and just 150 lbs. (68 kg), Park has shown solid reaction time, positioning, and rebound control. And don’t worry, even when he’s not playing hockey he finds a way to keep in the cold: he has a long history of downhill skiing in his free time. Scout’s Notes “Second-best butterfly goalie behind Cain… probably won’t see a ton of ice time in the pros next season but has potential through the roof.” “Excellent support system, a lengthy history on the ice; if he sticks around he could be pretty good.” “Clayton Park, eh? You talkin’ ‘boot the one in Halifax? RW Mat Tocco – Philadelphia Reapers Current Projection – Early 6th Round (43/88) TPE – 98 (+68 since 3/3) We’re fourteen games (sort of) into the young career of Czech/Italian forward Mat Tocco, and in spite of limited ice time (19.7 mpg, 67th in the minors) he’s racked up a nice plus-minus of +9 with 9 points – not too shabby for a brand-new entry. He has elements of the prototypical sniper-style forward, but with a nice added bonus of being able to skate around slower defenders. As with many of the prospects on the board thus far, Tocco is very moldable – but his strengths right now are mobility and scoring. Though he’s recently had to move to the States, Tocco comes from humble origins. Born of an Italian immigrant and a butcher’s daughter, he’s proven throughout his life that hard work is just part of the process for him; his rapid improvement on the ice over the last few weeks certainly corroborates that. He faces an uphill battle, with nearly twenty wingers above him on most draft boards. If his past is any indicator, however, he’s ready for the test. Scout’s Notes “Pretty raw, but the scoring potential is there. We can always use another high-quality sniper in the league; the sky’s the limit for him.” “Built like a brick sh*thouse for a guy his height. Not surprising to see the number of hits he’s laid out so far.” “Glad to see all of his hard work pay off. Seems like he’s in for the long haul.” “I’d like to see a GM reach a little for him. Might not be out of the question to see him late third, early fourth round by the time all’s said and done. Guys that improve as fast as him go on to either have damn good careers or flame out.” Other unlinked references in this article: @Sonnet, @TheFlash, @leafssteen, @Matmenzinger [if possible, I'd like to use this for three weeks' worth of media spots (weeks ending 3/24, 3/31, and 4/7); currently sitting just under 1,700 words.]

Potential WJC Season 65 Team USA Line 1: Left Wing: Kyson Blake Center: Gritty Right Wing: Matthew Materazo Now, this is a really great first line you have Kyson Blake who is a pure sniper who is also a great all-around skater. Gritty is a wonderfully powerful puck handler who can handle the puck gracefully and get deep into the zone, He can also shoot well enough to hold his own. Matthew Materazo is the playmaker who lets this line shine with his unselfish play and ability to let his line-mates do what they do best. Line 2: Left Wing: Jose Gonzalez Center: Hunter Hearst Helmsley Right Wing: Katie Warren Jose is a great addition to the second line. He is a player who is a good mixture of a player who has a good shot as well as the ability to pass very well. Hunter Hearst Helmsley is a great center who is currently still in the VHLM and is already able to score at will and keep his opponent one edge with his ability to outskate and puck handle any defense. Katie Warren rounds out this line with the unselfish play-making ability that lets the line-mates do great things and balance each other out. Line 3: Left Wing: Shane Mars Center: Orion Slade Right Wing: Josh Harris Shane Mars is another VHLMer who is currently tearing it up right now in the VHLM and can do great work on the WCJ team. With his scoring and general skating ability, it will be a pleasure to see him on the team. Orion Slade is a center who is a great all-around offensive player. He can shoot, pass, skate and handle the puck with ease. Look for him to make good use of the third line. Josh Harris is a great sniper who will help this line-mates by always being in the right place to get a good shoot off so that his line can capitalize on any situation given to him. Line 4: Left Wing: Matteo Center: Teagan Glover Right Wing: Rocky LaGarza Matteo is perfect for a fourth line that can be physical and push the other team around. I would not be surprised if he starts a few games just to check and fight the other team and get them off their game. Teagan Glover is an absolute legend in Halifax right now doing work and getting his team-mates opportunities to great things. Teagan is a well-rounded player who deserves a spot on this team and will only get better as time goes on. Rocky LaGarza is a strong offensive player who will balance out the rest of the line in his true offensive nature. Where Matteo might check someone out of the play Teagan will bring up the puck and Rocky will be where he needs to be to make a play. Defensive Pair 1: Left Defense: Dallas Jones Right Defense: Eric Parker Dallas Jones is a strong defensive player who will be the cornerstone of this USA team. He plays the tough defensive game that makes the other team pay to get near the goalie. Don't sleep on Dallas on the power play either he has a wicked slapshot that can and will go in. Whereas Dallas was the tough defender Eric Parker is the defender who is more all over the place in his ability and play style. Eric is a great position player who has great hockey IQ and that allows him to play whatever style the team needs at any given moment. Defensive Pair 2: Left Defense: Fylo Gibbles Right Defense: Charlie Paddywagon Fylo Gibbles is a great defensive defenseman who will keep opposing forwards away from his goalie. He also has a nice shot if given the space. Fylo is a great skater one of the best on his teams. Charlie Paddywagon is a strong defender who worries more about defense and stopping people than he does about getting points. He is a great skater but his defensive play is one of the best. Maybe one of the best on this team USA roster. Defensive Pair 3: Left Defense: Jerry Garcia Right Defense: Rusty Shackleford Jerry Garcia is a younger skater who is known for his breakout ability. He is great at making sure he makes the right pass or keep the puck himself until he and his team is out of danger and out of his own zone. Rusty Shackleford is a wonderful foil to Jerry. Rusty will check someone out of the play so that Jerry can push the puck out of their zone. Given more time these two could be higher on the depth chart but for now, they could be great additions to the team. Starting Goalie: Joe Nixon Joe Nixon may not be a starter in the VHL yet be he is learning under one of the best goalies in the league right now Tristan Iseult. With that kind of learning and his practicing he has been doing, I am excited to see what he can do with the starting role. Backup Goalie: Cole Mertz Is a strong back up on his current team of HC Davos Dynamo and he will be a strong backup for team USA. Couple players who are on the outside looking in: Justin Cole - G Justin Cole is a great young goalie who even if not on this USA team this year will be a great goalie for years to come. David Harrison - C David Harrison us a great center who starts a play off right by getting the faceoffs when they count. He is developing into a good all-around offensive player who if he continues to grow could make a good addition to this team. Julius Freeman - LW Julius Freeman is a wonderful playmaker who is really new to the league and is on his first season but already near the top of players who can play in the WJC in season 65. If he grows and some people slack off you might see him steal a winger position maybe. AK47 - RW I'm actually not sure if AK47 is able to play since he is on the WJC Eligibility list but he is also retired. If he can play he would be the second line RW but if he is retired then he is retired. 1,055 words - Will use for 2 weeks - March 18th- 24th and March 25th-31st

2nd Week VHLM Recap “What a week for Halifax!” First off, what an amazing week for Halifax 21st – they are in an amazing position leading VHLM with 32 points in 20 games played has a 6-point lead over last weeks champions Las Vegas Aces. With 32 goal differential we can clearly see that lately has been on fire and truly dominating. Halifax wins are coming not only by having the league’s best goaltender Chase, who after 20 games played is having 0.913 save percentage and only 2.34 Goals against but by having deep scoring coming from every line and having 5 players at least point-a-game surely helps. Secondly, the best defenseman in the VHLM? Denver Wolfe from Minnesota Storm is truly dominating as he is leading whole VHLM in points and having over 2 points per game. It is truly unbelievable. I don’t think anyway was excepting this to happen as I don’t remember anyone really talking about Wolfe’s skills. Drafted in S65 as 9th overall in VHL – Looking now at Vancouver Wolves, I guess we will see them on the top of the standing in S67 as well. Thirdly, we must talk about other outstanding players leading their teams in VHLM. Hunter Hearst Helmsley – does he need an introduction? Hunter is leading Yukon Rush in points and as of right now – leading VHLM in goals with 21 goals in 20 games played. That puts him on top of some truly fierce competitors like Jack Lynch from Ottawa Lynx, Kari Jurri from Houston Bulls, Anton Edvin from Halifax 21st and Shawnomir Jagr from Saskatoon Wild who all have 18 goals in 20 games played. All the guys on this list are going to be well known in VHL as true snipers. Coming back to Hunter – I guess we have to put some blame on Yukon’s management as with this generational talent they should not be out of a playoff spot. The +/- category in top 10 is lead by players from Minnesota Storm, Houston Bulls and Halifax 21st. Great chemistry between their lines, truly captivating teammates. Lastly, I would like to talk about Philadelphia Reapers – team that has amazing talent and still haven’t been able to find chemistry between their players. Players like Brian Strong, Mikko Aaltonen, Jet Jaguar, and Tyler Barabash Jr. are doing all they can to push their team to that playoff spot and even though we have had only 20 games played yet, Philadelphia can’t wait much longer to try to have a run for it. With the huge investment by their players into gaining TPE, we could see changed in team’s performance very soon, but will it be too late? There we go ladies and gentlemen, ECN Review of 2nd Week in VHLM is finished and we are here again at the end and this will be a small editorial comment – if any of you dear readers have a suggestion or any idea that I should think about – be sure to write a message here in forum and let’s make news here in VHLM better! People mentioned in this post: @caltroit_red_flames, @Beaviss @hockeyis66 @TheLastOlympian07 @Wheaties @GRZ @gorlab @Bushito @Chase Klein

Sorry everyone! I had a very rough patch where I almost didn't even think about logging in. I'd rather not share the details but I'm glad to be back!

Salutations, Some of you may know me while some of you may know of me, and some of you may have never heard of me before. I am a long-time VHL supporter making his triumphant return to the GOAT hockey sim league. For those of you who don't know me, I am, of course, gorlab. I have been active on a couple of sim leagues in the past, including VHL. I've had some good times and some bad times on sim leagues, but have met a lot of cool people and used sim leagues to teach myself a bit of graphic design, so I have no complaints. I'm over 30 and live in Saskatoon, SK. I've been known to offer the fade to other sim leaguers, and that policy is still in effect, so if you ever find yourself in Saskatoon and want to fight a sim leaguer, hit my line. I have two former VHL players, neither of which amounted to much besides raising multiple Continental Cups. My first player, Jody 3 Moons, was a winger that played on the New York Americans, Stockholm Vikings, and maybe another team in the S40-S50 era. My next player, a defenceman named Bobby Digital, played for NYA and maybe Riga Reign in the S50-S60 era. I've recently returned to the VHL to find that many things have changed, but there are still a lot of familiar faces who I still fuck with the long way. @Will I been back on this site for like a week now and you haven't said wassup? Cmon bruh, I hear you're the big cheese now, but you'll always be the late night hortons running, cigarello smoking homie in my eyes. Some of these new people I met said you made the vhlportal.com. Shit works pretty damn nicely, so good work. I'm glad your education has finally paid off. My new player is a playmaking centre named Jet Jaguar, who will be playing the upcoming VHLM season with the Philadelphia Reapers, so all my OG VHL player partnas keep an eye out for the kid, and get your S66 draft picks ready. I'd shout out a whole bunch of other OG members in this thread, but i'm just trying to get to the tpe tbh. Thanks for reading and I am glad to be back for another run through the VHL.

Devise realised he still had a draft pick.

Jack Lynch - Anthony Dabarno - David Harrison Shane Mars - Anthony Matthews - Sven Hitz Matteo - Teegan Glover - Nathan MacKinnon Bolt Vanderhuge - Benson Van Roosen Burnt Toast - Aron Nielsen Titus Stone - Julius Freeman Justin Cole Clayton Park I checked with the commish and this team does in fact follow the rules so I'll see you boys on the ice. Time for this pro to show the new kids whats up B) EDIT: I fixed it calm down @xsjack @LordTony @Spade18 @Anthony Matthews @tunedtorock @Bucky___lastard @SwagSloth @kayfabe @solas @Lightningyamasha @DaftRaincloud @bagelbitesisbae @rjfryman @WhiteMocha @leafssteen

INDEX No pre-season, we didn't do one last season and I'd rather just get right to simming as soon as possible tomorrow. So GM's feel free to get your lines in and let me know if you have any issues with rosters or other problems. Thanks! Let's have a great Season 65 everyone. @VHL GM Just as a note as well all lines should still be sent to both vhlsim@outlook.com and rpower22@gmail.com.

I always thought pointing out loopholes as a veteran forum member was better by just pointing it out to those in charge instead of throwing a bit of a tantrum.

Rank Change Player Name TPE Team Nat. Member 1 C - Hunter Hearst Helmsley 256 YUK USA Beaviss 2 LW - Shane Mars 233 MIN USA Spade18 3 LW - Kari Jurri 182 HOU NED hockeyis66 4 C - Maximilian Kirbsson 181 HOU SWE Kirby 5 LW - Dimitri Volosenkov 175 HFX RUS SirRupertBarnes 6 RW - Mikko Aaltonen 164 PHI FIN GRZ 7 D - Rhye Tyr 151 HFX CAN Plate 8 LW - Julius Freeman 148 HFX USA rjfryman 9 RW - Shawnomir Jagr 141 SSK CZE TheLastOlympian07 10 RW - Arnor Sigurdsson 138 YUK ISL bluesfan55 11 D - Aron Nielsen 134 MIN FAR solas 12 LW - Bert Meyers 131 MIN USA RunnerBert11 13 LW - Valeri Morozov 130 YUK RUS Dangles13 14 C - Jet Jaguar 129 HOU UKR gorlab 15 C - Raphael Nazarians 128 SSK ARM LIL V O D AK 16 D - Richard Hejtsel 123 YUK LAT hejta 16 G - Owen May 123 HOU SWI FacebookFighter 18 RW - Nethila Dissanayake 122 SSK SRI nethi99 19 G - Wendy Kandee Cain 120 PHI USA SlashACM 19 D - Charlie Paddywagon 120 PHI USA DMaximus 21 RW - John Frostbeard 119 PHI LAT FrostBeard 22 C - Ludvig Sederstrom 118 HOU SWE aleks 23 C - Nacho 113 HFX USA Nacci25 24 G - Luke Derion 112 LVA USA Barracuda 24 D - Jerry Garcia 112 HOU USA GustavMattias 26 LW - Kyle Sabertooth 111 LVA USA uphillmoss 27 D - Codrick Past 105 OTT UK Kylrad 28 LW - Chico Smeb 104 MIN SKR xDParK 29 LW - John Perdue 97 SSK USA johnnyhockey42 30 D - Andreas Sundell 94 MIN SWE VisualDarkness 31 RW - Emil Passerelli 93 SSK USA SparrowLTD 32 LW - Hans Gruber 91 PHI GER TheFlash 32 LW - Hunter Wagner 91 GER GER Inf1d3l 34 D - Titus Stone 90 YUK USA MD9 35 LW - Jordan Joshua Tonn 89 LVA CAN MexicanCow123 35 G - Clayton Park 89 YUK AUS leafssteen 37 C - Rhys Chism 79 HOU USA Jake Levine 37 D - Samuel Sparrow 79 HOU USA Birdman 39 RW - Aleksander Rodriguez 78 OTT USA Jtv123 39 D - Rusty Shackleford 78 SSK USA K1NG LINUS 41 G - Juan Jaundice 77 SSK USA Jus 42 C - Eeli Harju 73 OTT FIN Teztify 43 RW - Sami Van Den Dreissche 72 YUK BEL TsarPeter 44 LW - Blake Gaudette 71 HFX CAN Gaudette 45 D - Edward Vigneault 69 PHI CAN Patpou22 46 D - Papa Gage 67 HFX USA PapaGage 47 D - Beau Buefordsson 63 HOU SKN Radcow 48 D - Cody Parkey 62 PHI PRK SaltyTalty 48 D - Srraxxarrakex II 62 OTT JAP flan 48 D - Dwin Championship 62 PHI SWE Award97 51 D - Dave John OQuinn 60 YUK CAN JohnOQuinn 52 D - Anthony Amberback 59 SSK USA Oost 52 LW - Blake Laughton 59 HOU CAN Grape 54 G - Sunny Burst 58 LVA USA Sunburst 54 G - Kolur Bjoernsson 58 MIN ISL jab3 56 C - BALLS McZehrl 57 OSL GER Rent A McZ 57 LW - Edgar Tannahill 55 SSK CAN Gregreg 58 D - Hiromu Takahashi 54 MIN JAP O4L 58 D - Duncan Jeffers 54 LVA USA Tophdaddy 60 C - Walter Clements 51 PHI SIE cpetrella 60 D - Fabius Adomaitis 51 HFX LTU Claire 60 LW - Cody Smith 51 HFX CAN cody73 63 LW - Joakim Sederstrom 50 HOU SWE Samee 64 C - Pascal Batz 49 OTT SWI efiug 65 LW - Thomas Vancheck 48 LVA AUT Thomas Vancheck 66 LW - Micheal Rasmussen 47 LVA CAN Connor mcdavid 66 C - Adama Traore 47 LVA USA Adama Traore 68 C - Markus Lulic Descheneaux 46 LVA CAN mxld17 68 RW - Mat Tocco 46 PHI CZE Matmenzinger 70 RW - Karlis Liede 43 MIN LAT DoubleCarl 71 D - Dean Clarke 42 PHI USA Kyle 71 RW - Alexis Lafreniere 42 SSK CAN Yehboi 73 D - Londortharl 41 LVA CAM MattyG 74 D - Yuri Kalerov 40 SSK SWI Camel 75 D - Jack Logan 39 YUK USA WeaponX 75 D - Quinton Collins 39 OTT CAN Jepox 77 C - Charles Alderson 36 HFX USA Kithoo 77 RW - Fudge Popsicle 36 HFX CAN LaprasRuler 79 LW - Waluigi De Rossi 34 OTT ITA Kitras 80 C - Matthew Tolsma 33 SSK CAN matthewtols 81 D - Anthony Griffis 32 USA Tygrzz 81 G - Marchello Mirabella 32 MIN ITA Wandering_Buffalo 81 LW - Tim W 32 USA Spadesy 84 C - Gervais Bulhoes 31 CAN HOCKEYBEAST9000 Note: For future weekly editions, up/downs will reflect gains/drops from over the entire week. So for the first set of weekly rankings for the Season 66 Draft, I'm going to focus on the top 10 first generation players (members who are on their first VHL player) of this Draft Class in TPE, looking at how well they've been doing and what else they can potentially be doing to move up even further in the rankings. #1 - Karl Jurri @hockeyis66 Having previously been in the SHL and GOMHL, Jurri is no stranger to hockey leagues and is currently just about seeing off his nearest first-gen challenger for the mark of top first-gen in this draft class. Creating at the trade deadline, Jurri has had as much time as possible to earn TPE prior to the draft and, had it not been for Shane Mars recreate TPE, would be pushing him hard for second place overall in these draft rankings. In regards to Jurri's TPE earning, he's been capping almost every week (the only exceptions being weeks without Trivia and his first week in the league), and has donated twice already in his short career to date. The only thing I believe he may have missed out on given that he came from the SBA was the Affiliate Creation Bonus, that would net him an extra 5 TPE. If he keeps this up, Jurri might wind up pushing Ryan Kastelic for most TPE for a first-gen player pre-draft. #2 - Maximillian Kirbsson @Kirby Despite joining a week later than Jurri, Maximillian Kirbsson has done a very good job to find himself only a single TPE behind Jurri. The main reason why it's so close is that along with Kirbsson claiming the Affiliate Creation Bonus for 5 TPE, he's also spent some of his player store money on the first generation doubles week. Like Jurri, Kirbsson is pretty much capping every single week outside of the weeks where there is no Trivia, so it could well come down to whichever of the two finds a way to cap in weeks without trivia (either through reviewing or taking advantage of the new rule that allows players to submit both VHL.com articles and player cards in the same week) that will decide who enters this draft with the most TPE. #3 - Dimitri Volosenkov @SirRupertBarnes Techincally Volosenkov is not a first generation player given that he has actually had a player before Volosenkov (Nick Ward), but I've decided to let it slide because he didn't actually earn any TPE with Ward. Unlike the two players that came before, Volosenkov is currently our highest ranking first-gen to have found us through reddit. While he is set to lose some TPE in the near future (a misunderstanding on how the Free Week works currently has him with an additional 12 TPE to his name), he still is very much one of the top young prospects heading into this draft, and will gain lots more TPE in the future thanks to his recruitment of fellow S66 draftee Rhye Tyr. However, there is definitely still room for improvement in regards to earning capped TPE as, unlike Jurri and Kirbsson, Volosenkov has never made the 12 TPE weekly cap. Writing 150 words for a VHL.com article for 2 TPE or doing 5 minute podcasts for VHL Radio for 3 TPE are the small tasks that could get Volosenkov on a level playing field with the other top first gens. #4 - Mikko Aaltonen @GRZ The top first-gen to find his way to the league through recommendation of another player (fellow S66 draftee Richard Hejstel), Mikko Aaltonen looks set to reward his recruitee with big TPE gains as he looks set to easily surpass the 200 TPE milestone required for Hejstel to claim 10 TPE. While there was an adaptation period at the start of his career, Aaltonen has recovered to go on to hit the TPE cap in the last three weeks, which shows good versatility in earning given that there has not been Trivia awards the last couple of weeks. Keeping up that pace will ensure Aaltonen's place as a top five prospect in this draft. #5 - Rhye Tyr @Plate As mentioned earlier in the draft, Rhye Tyr found his way into the league through Dimitri Volosenkov and the pair have done quite a few podcasts together. In comparison to Volosenkov, Tyr has a better record of hitting the TPE cap, having done so in three of his six weeks where he has earned TPE, plus Tyr also holds an assistant GM role of the Saskatoon Wild. However, of slight concern is that he's yet to register any TPE output this week and, going off his change of colour in username, may no longer be a part of the VSN crew, which was a big reason for his TPE record to date. If he can find ways to get back to the TPE cap without the job, he remains a very good prospect for this draft. #6 - Julius Freeman @rjfryman While he is only sixth out of the first-generation players in TPE, Julius Freeman may actually be the most exciting member of this draft class. While he's 34 TPE off being the top first-gen in this draft, that's only because Freeman has been in the league for just three weeks. If you compare that to the seven weeks that Karl Jurri has been in the league, it would be more than fair to speculate that, had Freeman joined at the deadline, he would have without doubt been the number one first-gen in this draft class. One of the activities that has helped him nearly eclipse 150 in just three weeks is his participation in the lottery, which can grant players very attractive prizes, such as the 10 TPE prize Freeman earned at the end of February. #7 - Arnor Sigurdsson @bluesfan55 Another trade deadline creation, Sigurdsson has been a solid and consistent earner while developing in the VHLM for the Yukon Rush. While he was originally a player who consistently submitted for welfare, the last three weeks he has submitted Media spots instead, netting him more TPE for his player. He has yet to hit the 12 TPE cap yet during his career (his best week to date was a 9 capped TPE week three weeks ago), but he's not really that far off hitting that mark. If he adds 150 word VHL.com articles and some slightly better scores in the trivia to his current weekly tasks (Media and press conferences), he'll be at the top of his game. #8 - Bert Meyers @RunnerBert11 The story of Bert Meyers to this point is very similar to that of the previously mentioned Julius Freeman as he's another player who, despite only joining three weeks ago, ranks very highly among the eligible draftees. Like Freeman, Meyers hit the TPE cap in his first two weeks in the league and, while he's only at 10 for this week thus far, I presume he may be waiting for Trivia results to get him to the 12 TPE for the week. Another player who can't do any wrong at the minute and looks set to climb very high in these rankings should his form continue. #9 - Raphael Nazarians @LIL V O D AK Nazarians created a week after the deadline, so didn't have quite as much time to earn TPE as some of his fellow prospects, but he hasn't stopped that from getting into the top ten in First-gen TPE. Nazarians got off to an extremely promising start, hitting the TPE cap in his first week in the league, which is a good sign as it proves that he is a player who can hit the cap. However since then, he's had a bit of inconsistency with earning TPE, as while he had one more week where he hit the 12 TPE cap, he's also had three weeks where he only submitted affiliate welfare. While affiliate welfare alone can help you become a solid role player in the league, he's already shown he's got the potential to be much more than that so it will be interesting to see how his earnings maintain in the lead-up to the draft. #10 - Owen May @FacebookFighter The top goalie talent in this draft, Owen May is another draftee who has done a lot in a short amount of time, having created his player four weeks ago. He's pretty much done as much as one player can do to get as much TPE as he can, hitting the cap in three of his four weeks in the league. In fact, the only reason that he's behind other players who created late on in the process like Meyers and Freeman is the awards they received through donating and it doesn't look like May claimed the six TPE he was eligible for during the Special Event last week. Outside of that though, May has proven he has the earning potential to be a very good goalie talent in the future.

This does not help me. I have Helsinki's first. Thanks Calgary

I'm re-naming and cleaning this topic up as a suggestion / complaint instead of an index. Just doesn't make sense to have all that in an index topic. So if you want to continue the conversation you can do so in here.

As we have now reached the conclusion of the S64 World Cup, I'd like to extend congratulations to @Tagger and Team World for coming in clutch and finishing it off right for the first time since S50. I'd also like to thank each of the other World Cup GMs (@Eudaldkp, @Nykonax, @Hybrid1486, @Jubo07, and @oilmandan) for their support in getting everything going and involvement over the course of the tournament. Similar to the WJC, I'd like to acknowledge some of the exceptional play we saw this week and polled the GMs for their opinions. Top Forward: Vesto Slipher (USA) @Hybrid1486 Top Defenseman: Colton Rayne (USA) @Spade18 Top Goaltender & Tournament MVP: Kallis Kriketers (World) @hedgehog337 Thank you everyone for your participation in this off-seasons event and making it a success. Also thanks to @Devise for handling all of the index and simming duties! Cheers, see you in S66.

As a fairly new member of the site I have done my best to stay out of complex conversations because well, I don't know the ropes. However, something that caught my attention was the process involving the GM selection process at the WJC. Lots of ideas have popped into my head and I would like to ask the general population what they would like to do. This article is meant to spur conversation into making changes to how we run this site and future development of communication to the new generations. I've been on this site for a couple of months and it almost feels like a caste system. I know my GM and my team. I feel like an untouchable, the people who have been here longer seemed annoyed with anything said by players who have less experience. I didn't even know about the WJC GM selection until days later when I checked my discord. Something that big should be informed to the masses. I'm glad one of my teammates was selected but I would have also appreciated a chance to throw my hat in the ring (despite the lack of experience). So I'd like to address some ideas: The Implementation of Committees: In real life, every country has a committee that selects the country's GM and then the GM picks the Coach. While I would like the idea of implementing a coaching system, that's a topic for another day. So my overall proposal is that every team is granted a committee as opposed to one committee selecting all GM's. These committees will be three people who have played out at least three full seasons in the VHL. It will be a job that is a capped 2 TPE towards their players. To select these committees, I believe there should be an election. A separate topic can be created where a neutral party can hold a press conference for candidates to campaign (would count as Press Conference for the week). Then a Google Doc poll can be created, just like the ones @Josh. has been making for the VHLM Predictions (10/10). Everyone will be tagged in this thread and will be rewarded 1 Uncapped TPE for participation in the election. Candidates can run for multiple countries but can not be hired for more than one. Every Four WJC the Committees can be voted upon once again unless ran unopposed. GM Selection: Once committees have been set up they are then free to select a GM. Here's where things get extra spicey. So for the WJC I propose it to be a complete amateur showcase. That means all GM's being people who have not completed more than one season in the VHL and have zero managerial experience except possibly being an AGM. I think this brings some more fun to the competition rather than having seasoned vets who understand the simming principles. The World Cup these restrictions would be lifted but I would also like to see the use of committees at the Pro level. To entice people to take the GM role seriously I propose the job pay 6 Capped TPE. If the committee decides to move on from the current GM he can be bought out at a price of 3 capped TPE. If the entire committee believes that the GM was negligent in his role, the player must forfeit their next week's TPE. I believe the introduction of a high risk- high reward system would put more of competitiveness into the competition. No Dual Citizenship: I believe players should not have the ability to switch nations until their removal from WJC eligibility. And they must make a one-time selection once they're introduced to the WC. Basically, in simplest terms, I declared as Swiss even though I was born in the U.S. I can not switch my nationality representation until I have been entered into the pro world cup. I believe this prevents stacking and cliques trying to stay together. Have some fun, losing is part of the experience. Forsberg faced Sakic many of times. I like my teammates and my GM but there's some fun to be had going against them as well. The Decrease in TPE Limit: As a VHLM player, my TPE sits at about 145. Not good overall, but decent, considering the amount of time I've been on this site. I've maxed out every week except my first week because I claimed Welfare not understanding the system. However, I will be facing players that are near 350 TPE. Which is completely ridiculous. I believe it should be brought down to 275TPE at least. This will create a more equal playing field for players. A lot of players who are new but have been getting their full weekly TPE are being left out while people on their 3rd or 4th character are hopped up onto the first line. Let other people have some fun. If you're trying to entice new people to stick around, putting them on the back burner doesn't exactly make a great business model. Final Thoughts: These are not the end all to end all. Its to open discussion on how to improve the experience on this website. Some of my thoughts may already be happening too and if they are I'm sorry. Also, I wouldn't mind these principles being implemented into the VHL as well. I like the idea of a GM being fired. Rather than the same people hold power, open the door for others who want to have a chance at managing a VHL team. Have the current GM's or just the long-standing ones be moved up into an owner role where you run operations for a designated amount of seasons unless you "sell the team" to somebody else. Also, have we ever thought about moving the sim system to NHL? Give some visual representation? I understand the difficulty and time consumption as we would need a complete overhaul of the rating system. So for another time then Thank you for your time this has been my TED Talk. WC: 1004 Claiming as Media Spot Week ending 3/24 and 3/31

Rank Change Player Name TPE Team Nat. Member 1 C - Hunter Hearst Helmsley 270 YUK USA Beaviss 2 LW - Shane Mars 247 MIN USA Spade18 3 LW - Kari Jurri 209 HOU NED hockeyis66 4 C - Maximilian Kirbsson 193 HOU SWE Kirby 5 Up 1 RW - Mikko Aaltonen 178 PHI FIN GRZ 6 Down 1 LW - Dimitri Volosenkov 175 HFX RUS SirRupertBarnes 7 Up 1 LW - Julius Freeman 162 HFX USA rjfryman 8 Up 2 RW - Arnor Sigurdsson 155 YUK ISL bluesfan55 8 Up 1 RW - Shawnomir Jagr 155 SSK CZE TheLastOlympian07 10 Up 4 C - Jet Jaguar 154 HOU UKR gorlab 11 Down 4 D - Rhye Tyr 151 HFX CAN Plate 11 Up 1 LW - Bert Meyers 151 MIN USA RunnerBert11 13 Down 2 D - Aron Nielsen 150 MIN FAR solas 14 Up 5 G - Wendy Kandee Cain 140 PHI USA SlashACM 15 Up 1 G - Owen May 139 HOU SWI FacebookFighter 16 Down 3 LW - Valeri Morozov 139 YUK RUS Dangles13 17 Up 9 LW - Kyle Sabertooth 138 LVA USA uphillmoss 18 RW - Nethila Dissanayake 134 SSK SRI nethi99 18 Up 1 D - Charlie Paddywagon 134 PHI USA DMaximus 20 Up 1 RW - John Frostbeard 133 PHI LAT FrostBeard 21 Up 1 C - Ludvig Sederstrom 132 HOU SWE aleks 22 Down 7 C - Raphael Nazarians 128 SSK ARM LIL V O D AK 23 Up 1 D - Jerry Garcia 126 HOU USA GustavMattias 24 Down 8 D - Richard Hejtsel 123 YUK LAT hejta 25 Up 3 LW - Chico Smeb 117 MIN SKR xDParK 26 Up 1 D - Codrick Past 116 OTT UK Kylrad 27 Down 4 C - Nacho 115 HFX USA Nacci25 27 Up 4 RW - Emil Passerelli 115 SSK USA SparrowLTD 28 Up 2 D - Andreas Sundell 114 MIN SWE VisualDarkness 29 Up 3 LW - Hans Gruber 113 PHI GER TheFlash 30 Down 6 G - Luke Derion 112 LVA USA Barracuda 32 Up 3 G - Clayton Park 111 YUK AUS leafssteen 33 Up 2 LW - Jordan Joshua Tonn 110 LVA CAN MexicanCow123 34 Down 5 LW - John Perdue 107 SSK USA johnnyhockey42 35 Down 3 LW - Hunter Wagner 99 GER GER Inf1d3l 36 Up 9 D - Edward Vigneault 93 PHI CAN Patpou22 36 Up 3 D - Rusty Shackleford 93 SSK USA K1NG LINUS 38 Down 4 D - Titus Stone 90 YUK USA MD9 39 Down 2 C - Rhys Chism 89 HOU USA Jake Levine 40 Down 1 RW - Aleksander Rodriguez 88 OTT USA Jtv123 41 Down 4 D - Samuel Sparrow 85 HOU USA Birdman 41 G - Juan Jaundice 85 SSK USA Jus 43 Up 25 RW - Mat Tocco 84 PHI CZE Matmenzinger 44 Up 4 D - Cody Parkey 82 PHI PRK SaltyTalty 45 Up 2 D - Beau Buefordsson 79 HOU SKN Radcow 45 Down 3 C - Eeli Harju 79 OTT FIN Teztify 47 Down 3 LW - Blake Gaudette 77 HFX CAN Gaudette 47 Down 1 D - Papa Gage 77 HFX USA PapaGage 49 Down 7 RW - Sami Van Den Dreissche 72 YUK BEL TsarPeter 49 Down 1 D - Dwin Championship 72 PHI SWE Award97 51 Up 7 D - Duncan Jeffers 70 LVA USA Tophdaddy 52 D - Anthony Amberback 69 SSK USA Oost 52 LW - Blake Laughton 69 HOU CAN Grape 54 Down 6 D - Srraxxarrakex II 68 OTT JAP flan 55 Down 1 G - Kolur Bjoernsson 67 MIN ISL jab3 56 Up 1 LW - Edgar Tannahill 65 SSK CAN Gregreg 56 C - BALLS McZehrl 65 OSL GER Rent A McZ 58 Down 4 G - Sunny Burst 64 LVA USA Sunburst 59 Up 1 C - Walter Clements 63 PHI SIE cpetrella 60 LW - Cody Smith 61 HFX CAN cody73 61 Down 10 D - Dave John OQuinn 60 YUK CAN JohnOQuinn 62 Up 2 C - Pascal Batz 57 OTT SWI efiug 63 Down 5 D - Hiromu Takahashi 54 MIN JAP O4L 64 Down 4 D - Fabius Adomaitis 51 HFX LTU Claire 64 Up 7 D - Dean Clarke 51 PHI USA Kyle 66 Down 3 LW - Joakim Sederstrom 50 HOU SWE Samee 66 C - Adama Traore 50 LVA USA Adama Traore 68 Down 2 LW - Micheal Rasmussen 49 LVA CAN Connor mcdavid 69 Down 4 LW - Thomas Vancheck 48 LVA AUT Thomas Vancheck 70 Down 2 C - Markus Lulic Descheneaux 46 LVA CAN mxld17 71 Down 1 RW - Karlis Liede 43 MIN LAT DoubleCarl 72 Down 1 RW - Alexis Lafreniere 42 SSK CAN Yehboi 72 NEW D - Finn Theismann 42 HOU GER StaticShocked 74 Down 1 D - Londortharl 41 LVA CAM MattyG 74 NEW D - Apollo Hackett 41 SSK USA Renomitsu 76 Down 2 D - Yuri Kalerov 40 SSK SWI Camel 76 NEW D - MORPHEUS DESTRUCTIOUS 40 PHI IM Abaddon 78 Down 3 D - Jack Logan 39 YUK USA WeaponX 78 Down 3 D - Quinton Collins 39 OTT CAN Jepox 80 NEW D - Jakobe Puffalump 37 LVA CAN Puffalump 81 Down 4 C - Charles Alderson 36 HFX USA Kithoo 81 Down 4 RW - Fudge Popsicle 36 HFX CAN LaprasRuler 83 Down 4 LW - Waluigi De Rossi 34 OTT ITA Kitras 84 Down 4 C - Matthew Tolsma 33 SSK CAN matthewtols 85 Down 4 D - Anthony Griffis 32 USA Tygrzz 85 Down 4 G - Marchello Mirabella 32 MIN ITA Wandering_Buffalo 85 Down 4 LW - Tim W 32 USA Spadesy 88 Down 4 C - Gervais Bulhoes 31 CAN HOCKEYBEAST9000 Edit: Up's and Downs relate in comparison to previous week. So typically for my weekly reports I would just do an extended write-up on a particular topic, but while those will continue to happen at the end of every week (next week will be my first Mock Draft of the season), I want to try implementing a new idea into the draft rankings that will put more focus on the players in this draft. My plan is to write up a Rookie Profile on a daily/bi-daily (depending on number of interested parties) basis for active candidates that will cover their current VHLM career, their current player build, their activity to date and (if applicable) previous history in the VHL. So if you're a rookie and you'd like to see a write-up on your player, submit for the form below and I will have a rookie profile done for you sometime prior to the VHL Draft! https://goo.gl/forms/XDZcGsZxnS4v27vJ3

I am a disciple of the church of boubabi and hopefully I will honour his memory appropriately with my graphics

It is my utmost pleasure to announce the leadership trio of the S65 Moscow Menace! Captain: Mark Gebauer Our very first player, a man who is ready to give his all for the Menace cause, @Sova leads us into battle in our first season! Alternate #1: Evgeni Komarov Another player ready to give his all for the motherland, albeit in a slightly different way, @Gooningitup wanted to play for the Menace since we came into existence and is a logical selection for a leadership role. Alternate #2: Paolo Nano One of our most experienced players, a Continental Cup finalist last season, @leafsman offers much needed street knowledge to a very young team. Let's murder some fuckers.

Hi Everyone! I apologize for the tardiness on getting the Special Event up, I meant to have it on Sunday, but things got crazy and you don't want to hear about my problems 😛 Anyways, @Beketov and I thought that we should reward everyone for sticking through what has been a long off-season with a special Doubles Week Event. However, this doubles week will be different than regular doubles weeks, in that the Doubles points won't come from a 6 TPE Point Task, but rather from any other Capped TPE (excluding welfare/pension/affiliate welfare). That's right, any Capped TPE earned outside of regular point tasks will be worth double, up to 6 Uncapped TPE. This TPE may come from VHL.com Submissions, Press Conferences, Trivia, or Job Pay. Also, something we noticed when coming up with this idea was a lack of variety in ways to earn TPE. We are looking to fix that with new potential 2 TPE Point Tasks, and the first step in that direction is splitting up VHL.com Articles and VHL.com Graphics. Now, you may submit one of each, for 2 Capped TPE each. Stay tuned for new potential ways to earn TPE! Thanks again to everyone for baring with us during this long off-season, and we hope to have the season rolling shortly! @Members

It’s common knowledge now that the Houston Bulls have officially arrived on the VHLM scene. Coach @Sonnet has made his picks, got his players, chose his emblem, kits, and even chose their entrance song. Some critics are saying that expectations should be “realistic” for the latest expansion team. Others, such as new fans, are extremely optimistic about the teams chances this year and beyond. Today we will be breaking down the players in the team that are predominantly Center’s, and how they may be used going forward. Coach Sonnet has already gone on record to state that he wants his players to be flexible when it comes to positions, so this article may be accurate or completely off the mark. I guess we’ll have to wait until game one to know for sure! Victor Kozlov @Kuch9 What more can be said about this guy than he is an absolute beast on the ice. Primarily an enforcer, don’t sleep on Kozlov as a playmaker. Also one of the captains of the team, his valuable experience will be important for this young, inexperienced expansion side. He is without doubt the top ranked Center in the team and his team mates will be looking to lean on him hard, especially early in the season. Though he may not end up leading the side in scoring come the end of the season, one thing is for sure, Kozlov is the big name player of this team. He is the the guy right now and until the rest of his team mates catch up to his level he will remain the guy. Maximilian Kirbsson @Kirby The young Swede has done lots of talking to the media prior to the season, and he’s going to be a big focus for the Bulls this upcoming season. Also one of the three captains, Coach Sonnet already seems to be putting a lot of faith in the playmaker. Primarily a playmaker, he has great puck handling skills and has stated this off season that his scoring and defense is now pretty much up their with the rest of his game. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets the chance to line up with Kozlov (perhaps on the wing with Kozlov bashing through the middle). If not then we will likely see Kirbsson head up the fire power in the second line behind Kozlov. Rhys Chism @Jake Levine Signed following the draft, Chism is an interesting prospect. He’s quite green, but he’s shown some real hunger so far and his progress already is pleasing on the eye. There isn’t too much film of him yet but we are hearing from the Bulls camp that Chism has one heck of a shot on him. That leads us to believe he is primarily a scorer but undoubtedly the biggest X Factor he has in his favour is that he is very much an unknown entity. Opponents won’t have much of an idea to gameplan against him. Definitely one to watch! Ludvig Sederstrom @aleks Did somebody say... brothers? In the same team? Wow, kudos Coach Sonnet, that’s awesome! Sederstrom, similar to Chism, doesn’t have to much film to go off of yet but he too has had some big comments coming out of the camp in regards to his ability. He seems to be the more well rounded prospect than Chism so far, but apparently he is not yet as strong of a scorer. A character on and off the ice, it’s going to be really fun seeing him and his brother mix it up in the VHLM this season, and man I don’t know about you guys but I’m itching for that Sederstrom partnership line to be a real thing!

It's a shame this thread isn't locked down to GM's only, this is an unfortunately bad look from those looking from the outside in. Let's all calm down and worry about our own teams and our own agendas. Big season coming up with two new expansions. It's going to be a more competitive atmosphere with the talent more spread throughout.

EARLY YEARS Kari Jurri was born in Groningen, Netherlands as the middle child of three children – one older sister and one younger brother. His father was a professor at the local university, while his mother was home and raised the kids while doing other things around the house like chores. Being the middle child and the oldest boy, he was often asked to do the bulk of work around the house, which instilled in him a strong work ethic. As it goes with middle children sometimes, he often found himself “forgotten” about and having extra time on his hands, which led him into becoming interested in sports. The Netherlands is known for soccer along with other sports like field hockey and volleyball. They do have basketball and baseball teams as well, but Jurri fell in love with the speed of the ice at an early age. He try out speed skating, but during the warm times of the year, Jurri would play soccer and then once he learned about hockey which combined the skills of soccer and skating, he would focus strictly on hockey. Jurri was not the tallest or shortest kid in his class, but he just had something else that they did not from a young age and that was the burst of speed. He could just out skate as well as out think other kids to the puck. His work ethic at a young age of skating, passing, stickhandling and shooting would aid him later in life. Once his chores and school work were complete, Jurri would grab a stick and just skate around with a puck and stick handle around obstacles, pass the puck off of walls on the house and just shoot, shoot, shoot into a make shift net that his father made him from PVC pipes and some netting. MIDDLE YOUTH YEARS Since he grew up on the northern coast of the Netherlands, Jurri was able to play hockey in Germany since the Netherlands did not have an organized structure. Jurri would often spend the weekends in Germany playing in tournaments but it benefited him greatly since he was able to play against good competition. After the first couple of tournaments, it was clear that he was much more skilled than players his own age – his skating was smooth and faster, his stick handling was superior, his on ice vision and passing were precise and his shot was just blistering. Not only could he pick the top corners over the goalie’s glove and blocker, he had so many breakaway moves that would leave the goalies not knowing which way he was going. Over his early teen years, Jurri would start to grow a couple of inches per year and one of the big things his German coaches had him do was to hit the weight room cause he was not overly bulky at all. He could skate and stick handle around defenders but if hit, he would lose the puck and his momentum easily. He would also train, train and train some more. He would be doing a lot of skating work as well as taking many shots both wrist and slap. He was learning to use his big body to shield the puck from defenders as well as changing the angle on his shots to confuse the goalie. Jurri was going to tournaments now all over Europe – like Sweden, Finland and Norway – to play against kids that were 2 or 3 years older than he was. Jurri could definitely hold his own against them and was opening the eyes of many scouts across Europe. Jurri was also a much-disciplined player and did not take many penalties or lose his cool at all. Although he was very competitive, at the end of the day, he was a leader among his teams and would often be named assistant or team captain due to his calm and easygoing nature. LATER YOUTH YEARS With Jurri now in his mid-teens and being 6’2 and about 185 pounds, he was definitely not hard to miss on the ice or off it. Jurri would now be traveling all over the world to tournaments in Russia, Canada and the United States especially since he had dual citizenship with Germany so that he could play. His fluid style of play caught the eye of many people and he was playing in 18U tournaments against players older but not necessarily more skilled. He was away from home a lot and missed his family, but was getting schooling on the road while still keeping his eye on the bigger prize and that was one day making the VHL. He was balancing life and hockey pretty well while still being a teen and cherished his time with his family when he got it. The summers were pretty busy still training even though it was warm out, he was still skating, working out and doing different stick handling and shooting drills. He would run to work on his stamina, lots of different workouts to strengthen his core, stretching and yoga to keep his muscles loose and some rowing to keep his shoulders and chest strong. By the time he was 17, Jurri was now 6’3 and about 200 pounds. As he grew and put muscle on, he did not lose any speed and was like a freight train going up and down the ice. He had to learn to play smart hockey in that he couldn’t stay on for extended shifts and he couldn’t try to do too much on the ice himself which would cause turnovers, etc. He was getting a hard look from scouts in the VHL’s minor league system the VHLM. Then the call came – “There is an opening in Oslo for about the final 10 games of the season and then you will enter their VHLM draft after the season is over.” Jurri jumped on the opportunity and was able to play in 11 games, scoring 3 goals and assisting on 2 others for a total of 5 points. He was also able to get a taste of playoff hockey as Oslo made it to the semi-finals. Jurri made the trip to Philadelphia, PA for the VHLM dispersal draft. He was fully expected to be taken somewhere in the second round, but with last pick of the first round and 8th overall, Jurri heard his named called by the management team of the expansion Houston Bulls. The next step of his journey toward the VHL starts here and for the next couple of seasons, its going to be a wild ride in Houston with this goal scoring stud.

FORWARDS LW - Brady Stropko Jr @Bushito RW - Joey Boucher @joeyboucher1 C - Gucci Garrop @JG10 C - Scott Shawinganen @Cornflakers LW - Dan Baillie @wcats C - Connor McDavid @Rocketman04 LW - Chace Trepanier @ChaceT RW - Nathan N @NathanN C - Roll Fizzlebeef @TacticalHammer DEFENSE D - Mountain Thunderfist @AdamEss D - Basaraba Moose @Toasty D - Mitch Matthews @Antone10 D - Toby Fitzgerald @JohnnyT_77 D - Rhye Tyr @Plate D - Tyler Barabash @Bushito GOALTENDERS G - Chase @klein G - Wendy Kandee Cain @SlashACM

At 1:17 pm CT the Saskatoon Wild announced that Bert Macklin (RunnerBert11) would be filling in the Assistant GM vacancy. We had a chance to catch up to Macklin after the news dropped and he had the following to say. "I'm super excited and consider myself fortunate to have been given this great opportunity at such an early stage of my career. I hope to bring some more energy to this already amped up organization. I really like what the team has done recently to bring in some new faces and you can't help but notice how rapidly this team has evolved into an almost entirely different entity overnight. I'm hoping to get settled into my new office and acquainted with the staff and players later tonight. With all the newly acquired players in this organization lately I'm ready to help sort through the paperwork and see where this group can take us! I would also like to personally thank @Beaviss for immediately informing me of the open position and @Goonie for taking it upon himself to give me a glowing recommendation which I can only imagine helped put me over the top and gave me the edge over some of the other well qualified candidates. I'm excited to get a chance to learn the ins and outs of the GM role under the tutelage of @Peace. I can't wait to get a chance to sit down and pick his brain a bit, find out exactly what's going on in the mind of Peace and what his plan is going forward for the season. At the rate he's going I wouldn't be surprised if he has his sights set on another player or two, but who knows, maybe he's a one-stop shop kinda guy, that last trade did bring a handful of new guys. As for now though I'm just looking to take in and learn as much as I can to help me become the best AGM I can right now so I can help elevate this club to its fullest potential and hopefully hoist that Founder's Cup! Now you might think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself with a statement like that, but consider this. Yes, maybe they’re currently sitting 7th out of 8 teams in the standings, but don’t be fooled. They have managed to string together an impressive streak of 5 wins that was just ended today by 6th place Yukon. Now while it would’ve really helped narrow the gap in the standings and help get us back into contention, we cannot overlook the recent success this team has found and the measures management has gone to, to bring in the necessary players to fill some of the voids this team had earlier on in the season to make them a legitimate playoff and Founder’s Cup contender. Now if you could please excuse me, I have a flight to catch to Saskatoon and a crew of young guys I’m very eager to meet!” Bert Macklin was last seen passing through airport security on his way to catch his Saskatoon flight to his new home and team. We'll keep a close eye on Bert Macklin as he begins this next step in his career and keep you all updated on his developing story. Bert Macklin The Fucking FBI Saskatoon Wild AGM 555 Words

Forwards Matthew Materazo @Matt_O Kyson Blake @TMI Katie Warren @ShawnGlade Gritty @eaglesfan036 Jose Gonzalez @Jose Gonzalez Triple H @Beaviss Josh Harris @Ty343 Orion Slade @BluObieZ Rocky LaGarza @SwagSloth Defenseman Dallas Jones @Trifecta Eric Parker @Eparker24 Fylo Gibbles @SpartanGibbles Charlie Paddywagon @DMaximus Jerry Garcia @GustavMattias Rusty Shackleford @K1NG LINUS Goalies Joe Nixon @Bonzaijoe Cole Mertz @ColeMrtz21 Discord will be created soon

In the VHL you will be 220 TPE going against players with 500-1,000 TPE. I’m out “walking” my dog. Skimmed it - some interesting thoughts for sure - but I don’t see the TPE levels changing that much at all its to include everyone and to maybe represent more than once if you’re lucky enough. The purpose of the WJC is to give new members AND all lower TPE level players at chance at representing a country as the WC happens less and sometimes requires much higher TPE. Ill read when I get home but I always love members suggesting how to make things better. That’s what this whole entire site is about - everyone enjoying their time

Forwards Wlodzimierz Zajaczkowski @nicolas01 Kari Jurri @hockeyis66 Maximilian Kirbsson @Kirby Mikko Aaltonen @GRZ Arnor Sigurdsson @bluesfan55 Shawnomir Jagr @TheLastOlympian07 Jet Jaguar @gorlab Anton Edvin @caltroit_red_flames Ludvig Sederstrom @aleks Defensemen Elasmobranch Fish @Sharkstrong Denver Wolfe @Goonie Richard Hejtsel @hejta Codrick Past @Kylrad Andreas Sundell @VisualDarkness DWin Championship @Award97 Goaltenders JB Rift @Devise Owen May @FacebookFighter See my post below

We waited forever to give Canada to a new member.... ....to swap Jubo with Bush?

This is the Prague Post reporting in from Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and we're here today with one Mat Tocco. Tocco is the newest member of the Philadelphia based VHLM hockey team The Philadelphia Reapers. He also happens to be a Prague native so it goes without saying that he's a long way from home. Today we'll be taking an in depth look at every detail of Tocco's new life in America and how he's adjusted. Mat begins by greeting us outside of the three story apartment building in which he resides. He's already smiling by the time we reach the door and he's sure to let us know more than once about how excited he is to finally be able to talk to someone in his first language. He leads us into the building, up the to the second floor, and into his modest one bedroom apartment. He offers me and my camera man each a bottle of Pilsner Urquell "I know I shouldn't be drinking this, too many calories, but it makes me a bit less homesick." he says. Nothing is adorned on the bare white walls of his apartment, and as far as furniture goes it's at a minimum. He gestures us to a couch and he pulls up the lone chair from his kitchen and sits there. "I haven't had a chance to decorate if you couldn't tell" Tocco jokes. I continue to survey his living room and spot a picture of him and young woman sitting on his empty entertainment center. Noticing my line of sight Tocco stands up and hands me the picture. "That's Marika, my girlfriend. Leaving her back home hasn't been easy, but I've only been signed to a one year contract. I don't know where I'll be playing next year so it didn't make sense for her to come with." We continue to make small talk for the better part of 20 minutes and I decide to try to gear the conversation towards hockey. "So you've decided to sign with The Reapers, but I have to ask did you have any other offers from other VHLM teams?" Tocco bursts into a laugh. "Funny thing about that, I accepted the offer the second my agent told me about it. Never even gave another team a chance to make an offer. It seemed like a perfect fit so I went for it. I haven't actually given playing with another team any thought." Mat stands up abruptly and grabs three more beers handing us each one. After taking a swig he continues "We'll see where I'm at in my career come next year, but I'd love to continue playing here. I've been here for a very short time but our GM has been very welcoming, and I've actually made a friend in John Frostbeard. He's from Latvia so he knows what it's like to be so far from home." I try to stray from bring up the topic for as long as I can but it's hard not to notice that Philadelphia is in a slump at the moment. "With you guys being at the bottom of the standings, it must be a bit demoralizing considering how far you came from to play here." Tocco's face contorts into what may be anger, but as soon as it appears it's gone. "No, actually I don't think about it like that at all. It's an honor to be playing here. You have to take into account that we're a new team, we still have the rest of the season ahead of us and I don't think the league has even begun to see what we're capable of as a team." he says. "We have a really strong core, the bounces just haven't been going our way. Once everything starts to click, and I guarantee it will, the rest of the league better watch out.". At this point Tocco gets up and leads us out onto the balcony of his apartment. "Sorry I don't like being cramped inside this long". The view from the balcony is nothing much to look at but Tocco eyes seem to be taking in the city at a mile a minute. The constant chatter and sounds of the city may be second nature to most living here but it's a far cry from Tocco's beginnings. "I still haven't adjusted to just how many cars are here. I swear there are more cars than people." We let him take in the city for a few minutes before getting back to our conversation. "Currently you're projected to go 68th in the upcoming draft, do you see that number changing as the season goes on?" I ask. "Absolutely. The level of competition here is insane, and it's daunting, but I think I'm getting better every single day. This is my life, I haven't really planned anything else for myself, so that means that I need to be the best. No less. I'm learning a lot, and my teammates are at levels that don't exist in the juniors back home. That helps a lot." We continue to drink and before too long the sounds of city die down. Mat's face scrunches as if deep in thought, and after a few seconds he says "I'm nervous ya know? I haven't really been nervous before. I was the best on my team in juniors, I was the best back in school. But I just played my first game with the team and I felt lost on the ice for the first time ever. The game is so much faster here. Everyone is just as good as you or better. It's a challenge but one that I think I'm up for." Eventually the street lights come on and it's too dark for our camera so we bring the interview back inside. Something catches my eye that I didn't notice when we first entered the apartment. On the otherwise empty kitchen counter sits two lone hockey pucks. "What's the story behind those?" I inquire. "Oh, uhh yeah... that first one is from actually from the only other time that I've ever visited the states. It's one of the few things that made the trip here. Take a look, it's signed by one someone you might know." I do, it's someone anyone who follows hockey would. Scrawled across the puck is the signature of Jaromir Jagr. "I know it's cliche but watching him as a kid, was my sole inspiration for getting into the game. There was also a very regrettable stage in my life where my hair was inspired by him too." Tocco laughs. Even more interesting is his story about the second puck, this one unsigned and seemingly mundane. "This is the puck that gets me to wake up every day and do this. This is the puck from my very first goal in juniors. I've saved it since then, and hopefully one day I can sign that, give it to fan and actually have it mean something to them." We continue to talk about the league, where other teams are in the standings, and his thoughts on other prospects well into the night. Eventually it gets too late and we decide to wrap things up if we're going to catch our plane back home in the morning. Tocco leaves us with one last thought. "Keep an eye on us, I told you that I'm getting better every day... But that's just the beginning of it. Our team is getting better, and I promise you that come the end of the season we'll surprise everyone." Keep an eye out for more stories like these to come, and in Tocco's own words be sure to follow Philadelphia closely through their first season, they just may surprise us all. 1296 words. TPE for weeks ending 3/17 and 3/24.

I was interested to know how many times my guy, Lando Baxter was drafted in the Victory Hockey Fantasy League. He wasn't good enough in his first two years, but this year I was happily surprised to see his name popping up. That gave me the idea to analyze which players were drafted the most and if there were any surprises. I also linked their TPE and fantasy points so we can see who’s hot and who’s not. Disclaimer: I did my best to capture all the counts, but I could have missed one or two here or there. The stats and TPE were also captured a few days ago. First we look at the goalies. GOALIE NAME COUNT POS TPE Wins Shut Outs Saves Fantasy Points Alexander Pepper 15 G 778 10 0 472 43.04 Kallis Kriketers 14 G 750 13 2 530 60.1 Roger Sterling 14 G 691 17 2 630 71.1 Tristan Iseult 13 G 758 8 0 412 36.84 Ismond Kingfisher 12 G 754 11 2 712 70.84 Johnny Havenk Carison 8 G 464 14 3 552 67.64 Brick Wahl 6 G 528 8 0 703 57.21 Finn Davison 6 G 451 10 1 794 70.58 It’s easy to see why Alexander Pepper was the only goalie chosen in every draft—he has the highest TPE. However, he's off to a really slow start with only 43 points. Compare his numbers to Johnny Havenk Carison and Finn Davison who were left off almost half the fantasy teams. They are bringing in the most bang for your buck if you drafted them quite late. It will be interesting to see if Pepper can make up the difference by season’s end. I wonder if I shouldn't have linked the games played as well. After a quik glance I can see one big issue for those that drafted Tristan Iseult. He seems to be splitting time with his back up, Joe Nixon. Thirteen managers drafted him and are now cursing Vancouver's goalie rotation. Next up, our defenseman: D-MAN NAME COUNT POS TPE Goals Hits Blocks Assists Fantasy Points Joseph McWolf 15 D 784 4 79 55 18 85.8 Robert Malenko 15 D 636 11 56 42 27 93.8 Tzuyu 15 D 589 4 21 35 29 69.2 Ryan Kastelic 14 D 828 6 13 37 16 60.2 Maxim Kovalchuk 14 D 689 5 72 44 24 83.6 Paolo Nano 13 D 418 6 36 50 28 87.2 Marvin Harding 12 D 757 9 83 40 18 84.6 Samuel Gate 12 D 610 4 74 45 26 84.8 Alvaro Jokinen 12 D 554 5 12 67 20 86.0 Ryan Sullivan Jr 11 D 505 4 47 42 15 66.0 Shawn Glade 8 D 639 6 52 37 24 76.0 Sidney Crosby 8 D 590 3 49 48 19 73.2 Lando Baxter 7 D 423 2 5 54 22 70.2 Piotr Jerwa 5 D 422 7 23 53 14 75.0 Luc-Pierre Lespineau-Lebrunette 4 D 576 2 125 55 6 79.0 Dan Montgomery 3 D 491 4 49 57 11 74.4 Elasmobranch Fish 3 D 259 6 81 62 9 86.8 Rauno Palo 2 D or F 798 14 5 21 10 55.8 Jagger Philliefan 1 D 370 1 14 43 14 53.2 Robert Malenko and Joseph McWolf were picked in every draft and they are looking as good as advertised. Tzuyu, on the other hand, is not. It’s easy to see why—the hits and blocks just aren’t there. If the fantasy league was based on points only, I’d understand, but since hits are worth 0.2 and blocks are worth 0.8 Tzuyu just shouldn’t be a top pick. Ryan Kastelic is also an interesting pick. His fantasy points are even less than Tzuyu but you have to wonder if he just hasn’t taken off yet. His TPE is far and away the highest, but the assists and the hits aren’t there. His hit totals in his last two seasons were 71 and 109, but is on pace for 41. His fantasy managers (including me) are hoping for a big improvement from Kastelic over the rest of the season. Because hits and blocks are a big part of this fantasy league, rookie Elasmobranch Fish is looking like a future stud. He has the lowest TPE among those chosen, but has a perfect storm of playing on a team (Calgary) who is struggling and is built for hits and shot blocks. Since Calgary spends a lot of time in their own end, Fish has ample time to get defensive stats (3rd in hits and 2nd in blocks) and help his fantasy managers Lastly, the forward group. FORWARD NAME COUNT POS TPE Goals Hits Blocks assists Fantasy Points Jasper Canmore 15 F 1583 13 52 22 14 68.0 Edwin Preencarnacion 15 F 1061 10 18 12 20 53.2 Veran Dragomir 15 F 1058 21 35 9 25 81.2 Podrick Cast 15 F 1053 14 11 10 18 56.2 Matt Thompson 15 F 1042 16 60 12 16 69.6 Beau Louth 15 F 1003 22 14 25 23 89.8 Oyorra Arroyo 15 F 920 27 20 12 24 91.6 Sebastian Ironside 15 F 843 15 67 10 26 77.4 Jake Davis 15 F 733 16 52 12 25 77.0 Vyacheslav Smirnov 13 F 731 16 10 10 15 57.0 Elias Dahlberg 13 F 542 14 79 19 23 82.0 Rylan Peace 12 F 560 19 25 20 19 78.0 Mark Gebauer 12 F 399 15 22 11 21 64.2 Julian Borwinn 11 F 796 13 35 12 11 53.6 Vaydar Odinsson 11 F 572 13 115 5 13 66.0 Leph Twinger 10 F 778 12 103 12 13 67.2 Kronos Bailey 10 F 680 13 127 8 20 77.8 Vesto Slipher 9 F 811 9 17 17 20 55.0 Ryuu Crimson 5 F 732 17 57 6 15 65.2 Dan Wilinsky 5 F 634 11 65 9 9 51.2 Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen 5 F 393 1 98 56 12 78.4 Randoms 4 F 549 11 115 5 4 53.0 Roctrion King 4 F 502 9 14 5 6 30.8 The Charm 3 F 785 13 16 6 20 54.0 Carles Puigdemont 3 F 396 10 11 9 10 39.4 Evan R. Lawson 2 F 688 11 79 9 14 59.0 Pat Svoboda 2 F 479 11 19 18 17 57.2 Kyson Blake 2 F 337 14 19 11 19 59.6 Konstantin Mulligan 1 F 519 5 105 10 12 51.0 Joel Ylonen 1 F 423 8 10 7 14 37.6 There are nine forwards chosen in every draft. But all 9 were not equal. Podrick Cast and Edwin Preencarnacion are almost 40 fantasy points behind the top two guys— Oyorra Arroyo and Beau Louth. These four offer an interesting comparison. Their hits and blocks are all comparable. The difference? Goals. Since goals are worth 2, while assists are worth 1, this fantasy league rewards the big goal scorers. Arroyo and Louth are #1 and #2 in VHL goals and are therefore the most valuable fantasy forwards. Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen is the forward version of d-man Elasmobranch Fish. Young and relatively low TPE, they both have high hits and blocks. Among the top hitters, Werbenjagermanjensen is also far exceeding all forwards at shot blocks. At the time of writing, his 78 fantasy points is right up there with some of the league’s best scorers like Veran Dragomir and Sebastian Ironside. Some fantasy hockey leagues put a cost on NHLers (like their cap hit) and only allow each team a set amount to spend on their players. It crossed my mind to do it here but use the VHLers TPE as the player cost. While it would take probably too much administration, it would be fun looking for cheap players that put out big fantasy points. It would also mean guys like Jasper Canmore would never get picked. 1,583 TPE for only 68 fantasy points would be a team killer. Vesto Slipher is also interesting. You’d think a player with over 800 TPE should have been picked in almost every league—but he wasn’t. And it’s a good thing too. His 55 fantasy points is one of the lowest tracked in my analysis. Overall, the players chosen the most are often the players with the highest TPE (notable exceptions include Shawn Glade, Vesto Slipher and Rauno Palo). This makes sense if a manager isn't interested in putting in the effort to win their fantasy league. However if you look closer, there are hidden gems that are built for doing well here. Finding guys like Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, Kronos Bailey, Elasmobranch Fish and Luc-Pierre Lespineau-Lebrunette, especially with a late round pick, go a long way to getting you some juicy TPE from the Victory Hockey Fantasy League. - 1,465 words

ECN on VHL Portal #2 Update on current situation in VHL "FrostBeard Entertainment" presents another edition of "ECN on VHL Portal" , a weekly roundup of most important things that have happened in VHL. Remember, if you do like our content show that by adding "Fire" emoji on this post and show our writing staff some love as they are working hard to provide this information for all you lovely people in a hurry. Let's get on with this ladies and gentlemen: First off, I think we have to say that not many real surprises here in VHL standings. With Seattle Bears leading our league and both Vancouver Wolves, who were leading league last weeks, and Riga Reign, an extremely well built team by , just few points behind. I guess we can all agree that Seattle Bears wouldn't in such a strong position without their amazing forward core lead by Veran Drogomir and Sebastian Ironside. Riga Reign is lead by Podrick Cast and Vancouver Wolves again are lead by Beau Louth. All of these players are exceptional and amazing contributors to hockey and VHL showing many of our younger players here in VHL and many more in VHLM how to be dominant and lead your team to victory. Secondly, we shall touch upon an interesting subject of VHL goalies. After first weeks praises it seems that Brick Wahl is slowing down a bit and not putting up those truly insane numbers that we saw after the first week. Still, Brick Wahl is showing promise and giving Calgary Wranglers a chance to compete on a high level! The real standouts this week are 3 amazing and skilled goaltenders : Roger Sterling, Johnny Havenk Carison and of course league leading Alexander Pepper who is keeping his Helsinki Titans in the playoff race and I have a feeling we will hear more about Helsinki very soon. Thirdly, we have to put league leading goalscorer Oyorra Arroyo - His 19 goals in 20 games played are showing everyone in the league that with a bit of support from his teammates Toronto Legion are able to punish anyone who stand in their way! Next two players goal scoring leaderboard we can see already previously mentioned Veran Drogomir and Beau Louth. Every goaltender should fear those names when they cross the blue line and enter in your defensive zone! Will catch you later in a Media Spot post about our leagues most promising young players and much more here on European Cable News hosted by FrostBeard Entertainment! For any suggestions on how to improve ECN format, please contact FrostBeard, our leading editor and president of European Cable News. Huge thanks to everyone who strongly showing their strengthen on ice - keep up the good work! See you later guys and make the next week even more exciting that the last one was! Mentioned in this post are : @hedgehog337, @Velevra, @DollarAndADream,@Victor @Beaviss @BladeMaiden @Will @Donno100 @Sonnet @omgitshim

News broke today that the Philadelphia Reapers have employed the talent of a new prospect to help fill out their third line. Mat Tocco, Prague native is projected to be taken late in the upcoming draft. He will have a difficult task ahead of him in not only proving himself to be a solid draft pick, but also on making an impact in the league during the Reapers first season. Currently ranked in last place, the addition of this young talent will hopefully help Philadelphia turn things around this year. Tocco has proven himself to be a capable playmaker in his home countries junior league, but the VHLM is a step up in competition. We have yet to see how Tocco's skills will translate into the league but Philadelphia's upcoming game against the Las Vegas Aces will stand to be his first chance to prove himself. With the right guidance from the staff and veterans players on roster hopefully Tocco will develop into a force in the league.

The Helsinki Titans are pleased to announce their Captains for this season, as voted on by the players! The vote was a 3-way tie for first place, so we will be running 3 Alternates this season. Alexander Pepper @Sonnet For the 2nd straight season, Pepper's teammates have selected him an alternate for the team. While he will not wear an A on his jersey, Pepper is a leader on, and off, the ice, and is a valued member of the Titans! Julian Borwinn @Jubo07 Tied with Pepper and Sidney Crosby as having the 2nd longest tenure on the team, JuBo has put in immense effort to become one of the league's premier wingers, and his teammates can see that that effort pays off! Sidney Crosby @SidTheKid87 The team's longest tenured defender, Crosby provides a stable presence on the ice, and in the locker room. Always looking to improve, and putting the team ahead of himself, he is a natural selection to represent the double-blue! Vesto Slipher @Hybrid1486 As the 4th Alternate, Slipher will wear the 3rd A in game, and provide the same type of leadership he has since coming over last season. The work he puts in, day in, day out, is an example for his younger teammates to follow!

HOUSTON--Bulls forward Callum MacElroy has gotten quite a bit of media attention lately, and he seems to be embracing it. Yesterday, MacElroy was contacted by the media for a few comments on the Bulls' long string of games against the Yukon Rush, in which the Bulls have not been particularly impressive but have shown for sure that they deserve recognition as a legitimate contender in their first year of existence. Instead of answering these questions, an animated (and visibly drunk) MacElroy proceeded to give a comprehensive ranking of every VHLM team's name, talking for upwards of ten minutes for each and more than periodically stopping to chug another can of Deuchars. So, without further ado, here's what hockey's favorite Scotsman had to say about his competitors: 8. Halifax 21st It should come as no surprise to any follower of Houston that the team has already developed burning feelings against Halifax, and MacElroy was no exception, coming forward earlier this week with his own negative pre-draft impressions of the city. Here's what MacElroy had to say, in part, about the 21st: "Awe rite, noo thes a body sucks. Whit th' heel is a twenty-first anyway? Ye hae tae explain thes nam tae anyain fa hears it coz nobody knows whit it is. It coods be twenty-first century, twenty-first regiment, twenty-first century schizoid cheil, anythin' at aw. E'en if it's guid it still sucks." 7. Ottawa Lynx Lynx, surprisingly, functions as both the singular and plural forms of lynx (though "lynxes" is actually a valid representation of the plural as well). This wasn't the issue MacElroy had with the name, however. As it turns out, he had done his research on the team before the VHLM draft, and it shows in his lack of appreciation for the name's origins. "Hoo unoriginal can ye gie? Thaur was awreddy a minur league basebaa team called th' Ottawa Lynx. That's loch if we waur called th' Rockets. Th' lack ay creativity haur makes me want tae jump intae th' Hooston River." The Houston River is in Louisiana, but we didn't tell him that. 6. Minnesota Storm At this point, MacElroy offered a very drunk (and surprisingly accurate) criticism of American citizens, no matter their region, and explained just how Minnesota's name is a prime example of the American way of thought. "Thes is whit happens when ye lit americans gab abit weaither. They aw want tae gab abit hoo whaur they bide is sae huir uv a much waur than everythin' else, hoo it's tay hot, tay braw, tay snowy, whatever. Jist swatch at thes name--'ooh, aam frae Minnesota! Swatch at aw uir storms!' Nobody gi'es a jobby." 5. Saskatoon Wild It became clear to us at this point that MacElroy wasn't going to be a fan of many on this list. He disagreed with this name for much the same reason he disagreed with Minnesota's: Western culture. "An' these Canadians, they're jist loch th' Americans. Ye hink they're aw braw syrup-drinkin' fowk, an' 'en when ye gang thaur they're aw loch 'look at uir bonnie Canadian wilderness!' dae Ah caur? nae! Ah jist want tae play some hockey." 4. Philadelphia Reapers MacElroy addressed the VHLM's other expansion franchise with the tiniest bit of respect, but then threw even that out the window as he reflected on what society as a whole might think. "Ah dornt see onie problem wi' thes nam, but nobody cares abit reapers anymair. Sure, back when th' irish didne hae onie tatties, th' nam was sure tae make a causey urchin afraid. But 'en Blue Oyster Cult went an' tauld a' fowk nae tae be scared sae noo nobody is. Thes nam sucks tay noo 'at Ah hink abit it." 3. Yukon Rush In much the same way nobody cares about the name "Reapers," MacElroy says, nobody cares about the name "Rush," though at least it has some sort of significance to the area. "Noo Ah ken 'at back in th' day aw these fowk decided tae freeze themselves inside it tae fin' a bit ay gauld an' gie rich. But hoo mony fowk ur gonnae ken thes? American kids ur gettin' dumber by th' year an' bonnie suin nobody is gonnae min' thes at aw. It's a guid reference, but it ay tooch." 2. Las Vegas Aces MacElroy here had the same issue with this name as he had with Minnesota and Saskatoon, that being an overrepresentation of regional pride, but decided to discount a bit of it due to his own personal interests. "Noo haur we hae mair americans talkin' abit hoo their city is th' best. It's aw th' fowk in las vegas sayin' 'take a swatch at us, we spend mair bunsens than ye!' Ah loch thes nam, thocht. Ah loch gettin' blooter'd an' gettin' laid an' i've awreddy bloon ben mah contract bunsens. Sae Ah can identify wi' thes a body." 1. Houston Bulls MacElroy put his own team at number one, offering a bit of hometown bias and putting an end to an altogether crazy interview. "Noo here's th' greatest nam in th' history ay names. Hooston isnae sayin' 'look, we're Hooston! We hae mair bulls than ye!' 'at woods make nae sense. Americans also ken whit a bull is, ur at leest Ah hiner they're nae glaikit enaw nae tae. When Ah saw thes logo fur th' first time, Ah main hae jumped a kilometer in th' air. It makes ye afraid an' it's perfect fur thes league's scariest team." After McElroy finished this last comment (with his volume rising with each one until he was outright screaming by the end) he passed out drunk on his front porch, and reporters left without any further inquiries.

The phrase "Life's not fair" was intended to refer to things like getting major diseases, things where the inherent unfairness/randomness of life is the primary contributing factor. It was never meant to refer to choices made by an individual or group introducing man-made unfairness into a system, because that's not life that's contributing to the unfairness. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other as to this rule (I don't regularly cap, and I do regularly do a PT) just that particular aspect of your comment bothered me, as it does pretty much every time anyone uses that phrase as it's almost always used incorrectly.

Toronto is excited to announce a continuing, and returning leadership group to take core of business for us in Season 65, and ideally beyond! Captain Robert Malenko - @pennypenny Malenko was the Captain of this Legion team in Season 62, before finding success with the Seattle Bears franchise of late. As a returning member and one who has privately committed loyalty for his team till his career is done, Malenko was the obvious choice to return as Captain of the team. Malenko was the league leader in assists last season, and looks to bolster the Toronto squads back end further. A. Captain Oyorra Arroyo - @omgitshim Returning as one of the two assistant captains from last season is the tied leading goal scorer of S64. Arroyo was clutch in helping the Legion secure the Continental Cup championship last season, further adding to a history of pivotal moments and goals. After announcing a career long contract extension with a no trade clause, Legion management and coaching staff are beyond happy to see Arroyo wear the A yet again. A. Captain Evan R. Lawson - @diamond_ace Lawson as a player and Ace as a member are the pure definition of leadership. But Lawson continues to provide more than that to the Legion as one of the more underrated depth centers in the league. He remains paired with now sophomore Chace Trepanier and is the anchor that any competing teams second line needs. Toronto remains committed to him wearing the A until his career winds down this Legion group.

Childhood/Early Years In December of 2001, Juan was born the middle son to the Jaundice family, composed of a brother two years his elder, a stay-at-home mother, and an iron worker father. A third brother would soon factor into the mix 2 years later. Nestled deep in Pennsylvania's Coal Regions, specifically Pottsville, the family never saw too far above the poverty line. Despite the lower household income, the Jaundice children were encouraged to participate in as many sports as possible, most likely as a stronger entertainment outlet than video games or television. This led Juan to have a natural curiosity about the world around him, spending from dusk til dawn bounding around the creeks and wooded areas outside of town. More than once his mother would go steaming out her front door hollering for Juan to come home, well past his Street Light Curfew. These bouts were normally followed by the worst torture a young Juan could think of: forced to stay inside for a week, with the exception being school. While discipline was common place in their household, it wasn't without it's share of laughter. Speaking to him now, even as a young man, Juan looks back fondly for the days that shaped him, no matter how many summer weeks he spent "locked up". The Jaundice family instilled in all their boys a strict moral code, a yearning for adventure, and most importantly a compassionate heart. While his father worked long hours, interactions between the two were striking and warm. Juan remembers lessons taught by his father that can very much be summarized as "You'll understand when you're older." His mother, on the other hand, gave Juan his most polarizing feature, what can make or break his performance in anything: his Stubborn streak. The stubbornness was so profound that his grandmother jokingly gave him the same nickname she gave his mother: "Testa Dura", Hard Head. The clashes between mother and son were heated, usually over as quickly as they started, with Juan slamming a door after being sent to his room. His relationships with his brothers were revolving, two would always get along with one being the odd man out. Not a day went by when the odd man out didn't shift. School Years In middle school, Juan began to bulk up in efforts to continue playing football. He enjoyed stonewalling people as an offensive tackle, but overall size was a limiting factor. Juan wasn't gifted, no more than anyone else, that is. In fact, you could say his only true shining feature was his unrelenting nature. He was not a boy that you could tell "You aren't right for this." His single-minded focus led him to sticking to the position of tackle, even after he was informed he could find greater success under center or at guard. He got along well in his studies, never shining too bright or dim. He friend group tended to follow the same method. He was well liked, but had few close friends. Juan stood as an Everyman, just like his father. He held tightly onto that blue collar workman's spirit. Everything he did followed that old method: Clock in, do your job. Nothing too flashy, just hard honest work. The fire in him was more like a furnace than an inferno; steady heat instead of wild bursts. He didn't take to change well, instead preferring to let his skills and talents compensate for any new styles or techniques. In High School, after a rousing summer of street hockey, Juan decided he'd like to try out for the school's hockey team. He had watched a fair amount of games, but that first taste of the game over the summer sparked a fire in his heart. He began to spend every waking moment obsessing over the game. His interest laid primarily in the brazen position of goalie. "It'd take some balls to basically dare them to beat you." he excitedly said to his parents on the day he signed up for try outs. As predictable as it was for a small town in PA, there was not much interest in the team outside enough to barely fill the roster. Juan got his spot. His coaches saw potential in the young man, but also saw the many flaws. Because of the fact that he was never formally trained in the sport, his form was on anywhere from sloppy to awful. His discipline suffered greatly, as well. When your only physical taste is backyard hockey, rules tend to taste foreign. His entire freshman year could be summarized as a back and forth battle between him and the coaches. As a result, he rode the bench more than he saw any actual ice time. Initially spurned by this, he resolved himself to studying the position in his own free time. What started as another sport to play ended up becoming a time consumer. With a voracious hunger, Juan began poring over highlight reels, scouting reports, reference texts. He was devouring any information he could get his hands on. He began to taste success in the coming years and while his hockey prowess grew, his grades shrank. By his senior year it became abundantly clear that no college was going to offer him a scholarship, especially with his grades just barely keeping afloat. Post Graduation Juan couldn't imagine giving up the sport he grew to love so much, and with the idea of college drifting further and further away, he resolved himself to joining the workforce along side his father after high school. He would get his taste of hockey through pickup games at the local rink, volunteering to play goalie for any team that needed one. Sometimes even rushing straight from work to the rink to suit up for an impromptu game. It wasn't much, but it kept the fire burning. Juan knew deep down that he was destined for something more, and until he figured out what that was, he would keep grinding away. After a phone call came through at the end of an inauspicious week, one that saw Juan get his third reprimand for clocking in late, the answer may have come sooner than expected. Some people say to wait and think about big life changing decisions, but Juan never was that great at listening to others. The Saskatoon Wild needed a goalie, any goalie would do, and it just so happened that Juan was any goalie.

This year, the VHLM saw the arrival of two new expansion teams, both with the singular aim, as is common in any VHLM team, to shock the league with a championship win in their first year. These teams, the Houston Bulls and...well...to be perfectly honest I don't remember the other team. This article isn't about them, and if it were maybe I would have the motivation to check on that. Rather, it's about how the Bulls are perfectly set to take the league by storm and strongly establish themselves as the league's best. Prepare for liftoff. 1. A strong draft. The Bulls came out way ahead in this season's VHLM draft, managing to pick up four (yes, four) players currently over 100 TPE, with one already at the 200-TPE VHLM max. In the later rounds, the team found great value as well, managing to pick up a new member who proved to be active (OK, fine, I'm talking about myself here), as well as snagging Callum McElroy (@GlowyGoat), a veteran forward who has brought invaluable wisdom and experience to the team. 2. They absolutely nailed it in free agency. After the draft, the Bulls completed a second defensive pairing with the signing of Beau Buefordsson (@Radcow), a well-placed offensive complement to 36th overall pick Jerry Garcia. As well as this, the team rounded out their third complete scoring line with the signing of the Sederstrom brothers, Ludvig (@aleks) and Joakim (@Samee), who are currently paired with McElroy. All are active members and have already contributed immeasurably to the team's locker room. 3. They have exhibited dominance both offensively and defensively. Take a look at today's preseason matchup with the Philadelphia Reapers. The final score was 4-3, Bulls, but that made the game seem much closer than it ended up being. The Bulls recorded a whopping 67 shots on goal, while Philadelphia only managed 14. The Bulls managed to record over 4 times as many shots on goal as the Reapers, which is a great testament to their ability to play as a team, through all 60 minutes of a game. 4. They're deeper than Carl Sagan's thoughts. As has been mentioned above, the Bulls have incredible depth at every position. While some other teams in the VHLM are lacking in depth, the Bulls have it all. Every line is active, and Houston has the ability to rotate any of nine forwards and four defensemen onto the ice at any time, creating deadly combinations and always being able to have a dominant presence on the ice. 5. They actually like each other. It's impossible to perform effectively as a team when the players, whether in the virtual world or in real life, can't stand each other. Anyone reading should wish they could drop in on the Bulls' locker room chats. They're funny, supportive, and indicative of a true team atmosphere. 6. They're better than Halifax. Enough said. 7. Great management. There is nothing to be gained on this team by sucking up to the GM, but everyone does it anyway, myself included. Why? @Sonnet has been incredibly helpful with answering (quite literally) anything that we ask, usually within a minute or so of posting. The way he's built this team so far shows that he is a hopeful player's dream. Hats off to the best GM ever Sonnet I know you won't sneak in a few extra TPE for this but it was worth a shot 8-10. I don't know, I got to 500 words and couldn't think of anything else to say. I hope you all enjoy being steamrolled by the Houston Bulls this season.

So @Banackock is sending this out to the VHLM GMs as we speak but an announcement is necessary as well, for the sake of having something official to point to in the future. Effective immediately: The waiver cap per team begins at 9. When the average of all teams' claims reaches 6, the cap increases by 2 to 11. As the average increases by 2, so does the cap, onward and upward as is necessary. So 8 ->13, 10 ->15, etc, although by the time we reach numbers like these we'd need to look into an expansion. If at any time the average closes to within 3 of the cap, the cap jumps by 2. OFFICIAL WORDING FOR RULEBOOK (as in, way more complex and wordy but looks more professional): 5. Waiver System and Roster Restrictions Waiver Claim Limits: While roster restrictions are 18/2 (20 players maximum), a waiver claim restriction will be put in place. VHLM teams are only permitted to signing 9 waiver claim players. If all teams together average above 6 claims (all teams collectively together) the cap will increase by 2 for each team to 11. Once that is met on each team, it will continue the same way. This does not includes players who had been signed, but were cut due to inactivity. Example, 4 teams have 7, one has 6 and three have 5 - the league average for teams waiver claims would be 6.125, thus, bumping the waiver total for all teams to 11 claims.

Imagine writing an entire media spot as a reply.

Hello again, VHLM'ers! I'm happy to announce, tonight, that the Houston Bulls organization has decided on three players to represent the team as official captains. The season is underway in a few short days, here, so I figure there's no better time than the present to stir up a little excitement in the city of Houston. Without further adieu, here are the selections for captaincy this year: Captain- Viktor Kozlov (C) @Kuch9 Kozlov has always been the kind of player to put his teammates first. He comes close to leading the league in hits for a reason- the guy's primary goal out on the ice is to make sure he can create room for the superstars. That selfless drive and previous VHLM captaincy experience (he was a former alternate captain on a cup finals team) are what eventually brought our staff to the conclusion that Kozlov should be the leader of the team out there on the ice. Alternate Captain- Maximillian Kirbsson (C) @Kirby Honestly, a short paragraph isn't enough to tell you why this man deserves to be a part of the captaincy group in Houston. We drafted him because he exhibits the same drive that Kozlov does, though in a much less physical manner. Kirbsson's #1 priority is to dish the puck off to a goal scorer, which is a reflection of his admirable "team first" mindset. As a result, I find it impossible not to look at this kid and think "superstar." He has it all- the looks, the charm, the skill, and the know-how to properly lead this team deep into the playoffs. This man right here, after 10 or so games, will be the face of our team. Be ready to read his name a lot this season, because he's about to send shockwaves throughout the VHLM landscape. Alternate Captain- Callum MacElroy (RW) @GlowyGoat When he sees this announcement, there's no way he'll take me seriously. MacElroy lacks a bit of confidence in himself, there's no question about it, but he's also been instrumental in getting our locker room hyped up for the upcoming season. When coaches aren't around to point some of the newcomers in the right direction, MacElroy is the first to step up and make sure they know what they're doing. He's an outspoken voice in the team's group chat, always providing positive feedback and reinforcement to the guys that are a little bit nervous about stepping out onto the ice. Off the ice, he's been an incredible leader, and deserves some recognition here as our 3rd captain. And now, for a VHLM first... The Houston Bulls locker room has come together to vote for the team's, and the league's, first official goal song. Many suggestions were made, many incredible songs were given consideration, but only one stood tall as a perfect representation of the excitement and energy we plan to bring to the city of Houston this year. Not only will it get the crowd going every time we put the puck in the net, but it also brings us the official slogan of our inaugural campaign. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you.... #HornsUpHouston For those of you on the sidelines, there's still time for you to join the stampede. The bulls are waiting hungrily behind the starting gates, and when the time comes for us to hit the ice, we're not going to hold back. @hockeyis66 @GlowyGoat @Grape @FacebookFighter @Radcow @Sogarn @SpartanGibbles @GustavMattias @Jake Levine @Kirby @Kuch9 @Joe Gagnier @Bear @Samee @aleks @Birdman

Twinger had 100+ points the prior season but fell because Riga's just full. He'll do good on NYA

Okay bumping this. World Cup GM's @Jubo07 @Hybrid1486 @Nykonax @Eudaldkp @Tagger @oilmandan The resim has occurred. For now I've only re-simmed the first day of the tournament ergo 3 game days. I'm going to be starting the Medal round tomorrow so this is your heads up due to the scheduling issues/sim issues that you should be submitting to me your lines for the rest of the Round Robin. I'll give an updated index for submissions for the single elimination medal round games when we get there. The email is in the original post here as is the index with the new schedule for who you face for the rest of the Round Robin. I sincerely appreciate everyone's patience during this and can promise that we'll run into less issues next time. The rest of the round robin will be simmed later tonight, I'm going to give it some time to try to let GM's get lines in and back up's played if need be. Thanks again.

Shout out to @Nykonax and the VSN team for how good the draft looked last night. And shout out to @Bushito for all the custom draft pick graphics! You all did an awesome job!

First off, congrats to @DilIsPickle because the awards show presentation went really well. Also, congrats to all the winners, and no matter how I might frame my following thoughts, I don't intend to cheapen or de-legitimize anyone's award win. Now, on to the hot takes (some may just be luke-warm) 1. MVP to Cast: let's kick this one off with a doozy. Cast is a great player, we all know that, and without him, Riga's 1C would be Pajari, which makes him an extremely valuable player to their roster this season. However, nothing about his performance tells me that he carried the team to greater heights. If you take Cast off the roster, I think Riga still would have been solidly in the playoffs. Same with Malenko and Thompson, honestly, so I don't think they'd be entirely deserving of the MVP either. You all know where I'm going with this. Without Stopko, Toronto is a basement team this year. I would have projected them to miss the playoffs or be trounced in the WC round if it weren't for their star goaltender. Instead, Stopko carried the team to a solid playoff berth this season, wherein they often competed with the top two teams for seeding. 2. DDotY to Kovalchuk: I'll keep this one rather short by saying that Kovalchuk had not even entered my mind for consideration on any individual trophy this year. I was astounded to see his name as a finalist for anything and even more astounded to find that he'd stolen this right out from under McWolf's nose. 3. DotY to McWolf: this feels like one of those makeup calls refs make when they realize they made a chincy call earlier in the game. McWolf clearly deserved DDotY, so when he didn't get it, he was instead handed the DotY instead. Offensively, Malenko was head and shoulders above every other defenseman in the league in S64. It wasn't even close enough to have the gap covered by any sort of defensive prowess on anyone else's part. Those are the only misses that stand out to me personally, make sure to let me know what you all think too in the comments. 364 words.

Rank Change Player Name TPE Team Nat. Member 1 C - Carles Puigdemont 351 OTT ESP Eudaldkp 2 D - Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen 323 OTT USA Fire Hakstol 3 D - Dallas Jones 249 OTT USA Trifecta 4 C - Gritty 244 OTT USA eaglesfan036 5 G - Joe Nixon 230 LVA USA Bonzaijoe 6 Up 1 C - Roll Fizzlebeef 224 OTT CAN TacticalHammer 7 Down 1 D - Brady Stropko Jr 222 OTT CAN Bushito 8 D - Elasmobranch Fish 207 HFX ESP Sharkstrong 9 D - Bald Guy 203 HFX JPN Galdoblame 10 D - Mitch Matthews 198 LVA CAN Antone10 11 RW - Matthew Kai 197 OSL SKR FBR 12 RW - Jack Lynch 192 OTT CAN xsjack 13 C - Viktor Kozlov 186 HFX RUS Kuch9 14 C - Anthony Matthews 177 LVA CAN Anthony Matthews 15 D - Denver Wolfe 175 LVA IRE Goonie 16 C - Orion Slade 167 LVA USA BluObieZ 17 G - Justin Cole 162 SSK USA WhiteMocha 18 Up 3 G - Chase 154 HFX CAN Chase Klein 19 Down 1 LW - Matteo 149 HFX USA tunedtorock 20 Down 1 C - Teagan Glover 137 HFX USA Bucky___lastard 21 Down 1 D - Fylo Gibbles 136 LVA USA SpartanGibbles 22 C - David Harrison 129 OSL USA Lightningyamasha 23 C - Dorian Mason 92 OSL USA Tim 24 RW - Don Draper 90 OTT CAN Infernal 25 RW - Dick Rash 89 HFX USA nick_716 26 LW - Milan Griffin 89 SSK ROM Sogarn 27 RW - Brian Strong 87 SSK USA Wheaties 28 LW - Nico Sulerzyski 79 LVA USA Brolaski 29 LW - Willy memelander 76 LVA SWE jacobaa19 30 D - Benson Van Roosen 74 YUK CAN Benson 31 Up 1 G - Pekka Pouta 61 YUK FIN Snussu 32 Down 1 LW - Austen Fourier 60 LVA FRA speck1447 33 Up 1 RW - Callum MacElroy 54 UK GlowyGoat 34 Down 1 LW - Magnus Pederson 50 OSL NOR Bandit 35 D - Jad Clapperton 47 HFX JAM Jad 36 RW - Michael McConway 46 OSL USA Sixersfan549 37 D - Hadrian Melborn 44 USA Bear 38 D - Robert Burns 42 USA OneBuffalo1230 39 D - Derek Bohne 42 LVA GER wuma 40 C - Josh Wilson 42 HFX CAN jDubzzz 41 C - Scead Simmons 42 SWE Scead Simmons 42 LW - Kaz Uzu 36 CAN Kazuzu 43 G - Evgeny Rapinsky 36 RUS Bonaventure 44 C - Stray 34 YUK CAN Stray Games 45 LW - Billy Kimber 34 HFX CAN Dingle 46 D - Brett Ewing 32 SSK GER kegoo11 47 LW - Colum ODowd 32 IRE sour_chin_music 1 Carles Puigdemont New York Americans (C) 351 TPE This pick won't come as a surprise to anyone. The fact that the New York Americans get to pick first again shouldn't come as a surprise either. Hopefully, they can take advantage of that and, just like Riga these last 2 seasons, they can start competing soon and stay at the top for a while. The Americans are at the very end of their rebuilding process. They can count on one of the best goaltenders in the league in Ismond Kingfisher, they boast an elite first defensive pair with Joseph McWolf and Ryan Sullivan Jr, and they recently traded for Leph Twinger and Vaydar Odinsson, who join their young forward core of Dan Wilinsky, Joel Ylonen and Matthew Materazo. Adding Carles Puigdemont gives more depth to the team down the middle next season and secures them long-term with a number once center, a role once promised for Shawinganen, then for Ylonen, but the former is now inactive and the latter's TPE earning has slowed a bit. 2 Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen HC Davos Dynamo (D) 323 TPE Another fairly easy pick to determine. Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen is the 2nd ranked prospect ahead of the draft, sitting 28 TPE behind Puigdemont, but 74 ahead of Dallas Jones in third. The Dynamo aren't set at any position, so anything will help. A defenseman makes the most sense though, as they lost Jacob Smith to retirement this offseason. Werbenjagermanjensen would join Alvaro Jokinen and Piotr Jerwa to solidify what looks like a future promising defensive core. I'll admit, I almost had Brady Stropko Jr here. He might pass Smitty in TPE during his career, but being the player of a fellow GM, he comes with some risks. You know Bushito is going to try and get Stropko for his own team at some point, so Shawn does the better move for Davos, and he goes with the best ranked defenseman in this class. 3 Brady Stropko Jr Calgary Wranglers (D) 222 TPE I just talked about him and, surprise, the next pick belongs to the Wranglers. There is absolutely no way Bushito doesn't take his own player with this pick. It makes sense for the team, as they are lacking a fast-earning defenseman to be their future blueline star. Plus, by picking his own player, Bushito doesn't have to try and guess a new member's personality, determine if they're the type of players to jump from a team to another in quests for cups, or if they're going to be loyal even through rough seasons. Stropko Jr will never give you up, he will never let you down. He'll join a welfaring Lando Baxter as the team is in for possibly another rough season. 4 Elasmobranch Fish Vancouver Wolves (D) 207 TPE This one got me scratching my head for a while. The top 3 is pretty safe in my opinion, so this is where it gets a bit harder to pick. I thought about putting Gritty here, which would have given him a massive jump from my first mock draft, where I had selected in the middle of the 2nd round. It was a bit disrespectful, but that was my take on it at the time. Time has passed and I now think Gritty is legit. He's not the player I ended up sending to Vancouver though, as I do believe Beaviss will be looking for a solid defenseman with this pick. That's where Elasmobranch Fish comes in. A solid two-way defenseman that can help solidify Vancouver's blueline squad in the very season where they lose both Colton Rayne and Casey Jones to retirements. He'll be joining (now inactive, but still very solid) Samuel Gate and Jagger Philliefan in what promises to be a future solid 3-man defensive core. 5 Roll Fizzlebeef Calgary Wranglers from RIG (C) 224 TPE I have limited knowledge of relationships between members of the VHL, especially when it comes to old school members. I don't know who likes who, who hates who. When it comes to sister leagues, I'm even more off the loop. But, through the vines, I learned that Bushito was also a GM for the New York Herd in the EFL. And guess who's also a GM in the EFL? Right, TacticalHammer. This isn't the only reason I have Calgary selecting Roll Fizzlebeef with the 5th pick, but it makes me think it's a good fit right off the bat (unless they hate each other over there, then I have no idea). After taking his own defenseman 2 picks earlier, the Wranglers follow up with a forward that will help bring back some life in this mostly inactive forward core. He'll join Oleksiy Revchenko, Diljodh Starload and Joey Boucher in their quest for future Continental Cups. 6 Gritty Calgary Wranglers from MOS (C) 244 TPE A second selection in a row for Calgary and a third out of the first six pick. I see the team going back with another forward already. They do need help all over, but selecting Gritty here makes sense. As shown right before, the Wranglers' roster only boasts 3 active forwards at the moment, 4 if they select one out of their first two selections, which is probably what's going to happen, let's be honest. It's on the low side, so they add the best available forward in Gritty. Now, I've mentionned it before, eaglesfan has an history of losing motivation for his player and just dropping them soon during their career, but he also had incredible players a while back. I was doubtful about Gritty, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, as I think he's way more invested in him than he was in Chat or King Gow, two recent early retirements of his. 7 Dallas Jones HC Davos Dynamo from SEA (D) 249 TPE And we go straight to another member with a questionable recent history. Trifecta has made it a habit to retire his players midway through their first season. Created at the deadline of Season 63, Dallas Jones is easily his player with the longest career in the past 4 seasons or so. Which is basically the only reason I see him drop to 7th because, just like it is the case with Gritty, I think Trifecta is truly motivated with this player of his. But you gotta ask yourself if the risk is worth it. He might surprise everyone and bring Jones to the full 8 seasons. Or he could surprise only a couple and retire midway through next season. Or it could be anything in between. That being said, disregarding worries about early retirement possibilities, getting Jones makes sense for Davos. He's the 2nd ranked defenseman at the moment and the best available player at this pick. He'd be joining Jokinen, Jerwa and Smittywerbenmanjensen on the blueline, as the team's offensive core already features future potential elite players in Elias Dahlberg, Pat Svoboda, Rylan Peace and John Madden. 8 Matthew Kai Vancouver Wolves from HSK (RW) 197 TPE After going with a defenseman earlier in the round, Vancouver balances it out with a forward with the 8th pick. They don't exactly need forward at the moment, but I just don't see Beaviss passing a future stud like Matthew Kai. His career started out slow, but he's been earning TPE at a crazy rate, recently, moving up in these rankings every update or so. It will be hard for him to push for a job this year, however, as the Wolves' depth chart has Beau Louth, Rauno Palo, Marvin Harding, Jake Davis, Konstantin Mulligan and Jorgon Weyed ahead of him. I heard rumours of a forward of theirs switching to defenseman though, which would open a second line spot for Kai, as well as ease the transition after losing both Rayne and Jones this offseason. 9 Bald Guy Vancouver Wolves from TOR (D) 203 TPE Following up is, yes, another Vancouver Wolves selection. We talked about it already, they need defensemen the most because of the double retirements. Bald Guy has been a steady earner all season, getting around 10 TPE every week (except this week, but he still has 3 days to make it happen, that's more time than I have left to pull this mock draft up.) Guy went nearly point-per-game in the VHLM, adding over 100 shots blocked, securing his reputation as a solid two-way defenseman. 10 Anthony Matthews Helsinki Titans from DAV (C) 177 TPE Finally, a new team. The first round was very Calgary, Vancouver, Davos heavy, as they combine for 8 of the first 9 selections of this draft. Helsinki Titans will select their first player with the first pick of the second round, adding Anthony Matthews to their strong forward core of Vesto Slipher, Julian Borwinn, Kronos Bailey, Dan Montgomery and Roctrion King. Matthews has an interesting playmaker build, which we rarely see, but it can be pretty effective when paired with snipers, so basically everyone else on the Titans roster bar Montgomery. 11 Mitch Matthews Riga Reign from NYA (D) 198 TPE Another new team, this is exciting. Starting with last year's mock draft, I kinda hate trying to guess what Riga will select, because the team is deep with roster players, deep in prospects but is also pretty much in cap hell so, really, whoever they end up picking might actually be with them only for straight up trade value. Or they'll trade someone more expansive to make room for them. For this reason, I simply choose the easy way out and I give them the best player available, Mitch Matthews at 198 TPE. They got 2 full defense pairings already, with Ryan Kastelic, Shawn Glade, Dylan Nguyen and Bolt Vanderhuge sharing blueline time, so it's probably not the way it will go, but really, it's either they get Matthews or they voluntarily draft a guy with less TPE just so they can keep him down one more season while their cap situation gets taken care of. 12 Denver Wolfe Helsinki Titans from CAL (D) 175 TPE Helsinki had the 10th selection and now they're getting back to back picks. Their forward group was highlighted, now it's turn for their defensive group. It only has two players, Sidney Crosby and Jesse Wilson, but both are pushing to become household names. Adding any defenseman to that pair would pretty much make it a threat everytime 2 of the 3 are one the ice. Good thing Denver isn't just any welfaring defenseman; he's been earning 10 capped TPE every week, which will make him a solid defenseman to add to what the Titans already have in the close future. Watchout for them making other trips to the Continental Cups final soon enough. 13 Fylo Gibbles Helsinki Titans from VAN (D) 136 TPE Helsinki picks again, and they get another defenseman. This time, I have them taking a player who's a bit back in his development, but mainly because he joined rather recently. Now, 136 TPE might seem like a big drop from the other available players bit side, but Gibbles has been earning TPE at a pretty good rate since joining, potentially giving him more value than other draftees with more current TPE but a worse rate. There's also a big drop in TPE between Gibbles and the next best defenseman (I only have one other defenseman ranked in this mock draft, picked 26th overall). Considering the Titans only have two roster defensmen, it makes sense for them to load up on them right now. 14 Jack Lynch Vancouver Wolves from RIG (RW) 192 TPE Jack Lynch has a strong offensive build that could help with scoring from the 2nd or 3rd line of every thing. We already established that Vancouver doesn't need that much help up front, so Lynch would be joining them as a depth piece for this season but, if the change of scenery helped the team even only in the slightest, they might be in contention for Cups for one or two more sesons before they have to drop most of their assets. 15 Joe Nixon Moscow Menace (G) 230 TPE The historical first pick in the history of the Moscow Menace. An exciting time for this new franchise, a time where they can set themselves up with a loyal player that will stick through the first couple of years with them before he get to be a star for them when the good time comes. The Menace already has an interesting roster, filled with prospects that weren't developping fast enough to grant protection from their original team. They now have depth-level players at every position, with a handful of them potentially becoming worthy first liners. They do lack in one crucial department, however: in front of the nets. Which is a good thing because, like every year, there are a bunch of top ranked goaltenders that slip way down the draft because teams don't need them much. I see the Menace picking the first goalie of this season's draft with the 15th pick: Joe Nixon. 16 Matteo HC Davos Dynamo from SEA (LW) 149 TPE After picking 2 defensemen in the first round, the Dynamo adds more depth up front with their 2nd rounder. The team has excellent prospects up ahead, with Elias Dahlberg, Rylan Peace, John Madden poised and Pat Svoboda poised to be future stars in this league. The Swiss team can also count on Connor McDavid in more of a depth role. Matteo would join this already solid group of young guns, as they slowly but surely work their way out of this rebuilding process. 17 Viktor Kozlov Helsinki Titans (C) 186 TPE Helsinki's 4th selection of the 2nd round is a second forward. I see them getting Viktor Kozlov here. It might be cocky to have him drop a bit like that, but Kozlov's base build is that of an enforcer. He recently started putting some more points in passing and scoring, making him a bit more of an offensive threat. The main reason I see him ending up in Helsinki is because of his connection with Sonnet, the team's current goaltender. Quik wants Sonnet to stay on the team for his whole career, so he makes him happy and drafts his bro to his team. 18 Teagan Glover Vancouver Wolves from TOR (C) 137 TPE It's been established already, the Wolves don't need offense all that much, but if they draft 2 defensemen in the first round, they probably won't need defense much either. And they got Iseult in net for a while still. They're in a good place now, and should compete for a couple other seasons. Adding Teagan Glover here just provides them with a safe depth player for future seasons. He's mostly been welfaring, but recently broke his piggy bank and got in some donations to get a bit more TPE. I trust that he'll continue at that rate and provide nice depth to this solid forward core. 19 David Harrison Riga Reign from DAV (C) 129 TPE The Riga Reign adds more depth up front with the first pick of the third round. David Harrison is not a flashy pick by any mean, but he looks like a rather safe one. He's mostly been welfaring, getting between 4 and 8 capped TPE every week. Riga don't need him right away, but he'll be ready to step up to the big leagues next season, when Riga's salary cap might be a bit more under control. 20 Brian Strong Calgary Wranglers from NYA (RW) 87 TPE I talked earlier about the Wranglers getting Fizzlebeef because Bushito and TacticalHammer both GM in the EFL. Guess who else GMs there? Yes, Wheaties. Brian Strong might only be at 87 TPE, but it's mainly because he joined at the awkward time right before the trade deadline. He's been getting TPE at a steady pace since joining, He'll help Calgary with depth up front, joining guys like Revchenko, Starload, Boucher and Fizzlebeef, who was picked a bit earlier. 21 Milan Griffin Moscow Menace from CAL (LW) 89 TPE Moscow's 2nd pick of this draft. As mentionned before, the Menace surprisingly enters their first season with a nice crop of active, semi-active players, that will make a great depth for the team for years to come. Some of these guys might even get to the level where they're core players more than depth players. At pick #21, there are no real stars left, but drafting Milan Griffin assures the team will have one more depth player in development for the future. 22 Justin Cole Vancouver Wolves (G) 162 TPE I wouldn't say the Wolves really need anything at this point. We noted their need for defensemen earlier and the fact that they didn't need much forwards, considering they have an elite offensive group already. They are probably not in the market for a quick fix in front of the net either, but adding a solid prospect isn't a stupid idea. While they still Tristan Iseult for a couple of years, he is entering the regressing part of his career, which makes him the oldest starter in the league right now. Adding Justin Cole now means leaving him in the VHLM this season and having him as a backup to Iseult for two years after that. He'd enter Season 68 as a solid replacement for a retiring Iseult. Probably not the career plan he had, but considering the other teams' need (or lack of) for goaltenders, there might not be a better option for him right now. 23 Don Draper Riga Reign (RW) 90 TPE Another depth player for Riga. Don Draper won't make it to the show before at least one more season at his current pace. But Riga has no opening on the team for at least one more season. Everything fits for Riga with selections this late in the draft and, if they can continue to find studs in the 3rd and 4th rounds of the drafts, they'll keep on being great. 24 Callum MacElroy Helsinki Titans from MOS (RW) 54 TPE Helsinki adds depth here and gets one of the last active players of the draft. Callum MacElroy only has 54 TPE to himself, but he's been pretty active since the VHLM Draft that saw him get picked by Houston, the team GM'd by Sonnet, Helsinki's goaltender. See? It goes full circle. I don't know what Sonnet did to him to bring him back, but I guess he recommended him to Quik and this happens. 25 Orion Slade Seattle Bears (C) 167 TPE Toxic Robbie Z slips down in the draft, not because Orion Slade isn't a good player, but because of his potentially locker room splitting personality. That's pretty much all there is to it. Orion Slade development dipped a tiny bit later in the season, but he'll still be a pretty good player. If Banackock can manage to not let him destroy the locker room atmosphere, he's getting a steal here. 26 Benson Van Roosen New York Americans for HSK (D) 74 TPE Well. The New York Americans are set for a huge step up this season. They will go from a bottom-of-the-league teams to one of the best teams. The only thing they'd need immediately is more veterans to help straight up this season. Sadly, there are no veterans available in the draft. And there aren't really any more active players. Spade just goes with one of many IA skaters and adds Benson Van Roosen to his prosect pull. 27 Chase HC Davos Dynamo from TOR (G) 154 TPE A third goaltender selected in this draft already, and we're only in the third round. I'm mad right? Chase has been earning TPE at a solid rate since he joined, At this point, Davos has the choice between drafting an inactive skater that will never ever do anything in the big leagues or draft a goalie that will probably only be his backup for a while, but that at least is still active in the league. Shawn picks the goalie, and he can give his starter some more resting days in the future (yes, this is a thing), as Chase replaces Stoffiday and Mertz down the line, following a pattern of goalies that end up going inactive in Davos. This is what concludes this mock draft. 3 rounds out of 4. The rest is a crapshoot, there's no active from the rest of the prospects. Feel free to discuss my terrible choices and show me what your mock draft would look like.