fever95

Ripe Rookies - Part 1 Hello folks and welcome to the first edition of this in which we are dubbing "Ripe Rookies" where we will be taking a look and evaluating each VHL rookie on a number of different categories up to this point on the season. There are many great rookies in this crop and there are countless possibilities on who could take home the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy as the VHL's top rookie at the conclusion of Season 48. There are severeal different types of players in the Season 48 VHL rookie class and many of them bring different things to the table for their respective team. This week, we will evaluate three of those players, so without further adieu, let's get to it. Atticus von Braxton - Goaltender - New York Americans Atticus von Braxton has been nothing short of spectacular between the pipes for the New York Americans thus far in Season 48. He has started 18 games for the Americans, posting a record of 9-7-2 with a 0.915 save percentage. His goals against average sits at 2.24 with a trio of shutouts and no assists. von Braxton has faced 482 shots, allowing just 41 to get past him and tickle the twine and has yet to take any penalty minutes. This outstanding play from Atticus in his first season in the league has him and the New York Americans sitting third in the North American Conference with 34 points, eight points back of the second place Seattle Bears. Atticus von Braxton has definitely been the most proficient netminder thus far in the season and could even be a contender among top goaltenders in the VHL when it's all said and done this season. With that kind of play, Americans fans will quickly forget about Blake Campbell and I give von Braxton a grade of A. Black Velvet - Defense - Toronto Legion Black Velvet was the first overall selection in the Season 48 VHL Entry Draft and he jumped right into the VHL with the Toronto Legion. Thus far, Velvet has been having a decent season, suiting up for 26 games for Toronto, scoring 8 goals and 19 assists, totaling 27 points on the season. His plus/minus rating currently sits at a +25 and has taken 26 minutes in penalties. Black Velvet has also delivered 30 body checks but has received 36 body checks against him.He has used his body to block 43 shots from getting to the Toronto Legion net and has taken 110 shots on the oppenent's net, leaving him with a shooting percentage of 7.27%. He has logged nearly 29 minutes of ice time per night for the first place Legion, who sit three points ahead of the second place Bears in the North American Conference. For his performance thus far, I will also give Black Velvet a grade of A. Artom Zhumbayev - Goaltender - Cologne Express Artom Zhumbayev was the second overall selection in the Season 47 VHL Entry Draft and spent an extra season in the VHLM for his development before making the jump to the VHL in Season 48. He is having a fairly decent season with a young Cologne Express team thus far. Zhumbayev has started all 26 games for the Express, posting a 12-12-2 record and helping the Express get a tight hold on a playoff spot, currently in third place, eleven points ahead of the fourth place Riga Reign and ten points back of the second place Helsinki Titans in the European Conference. AZ has faced 748 shots against, allowing 77 goals against for a 0.897 save percentage and a 2.99 goals against average. He has two minutes in penalties and a pair of assists with a triad of shutouts on the season. Artom has played fairly decent up to this point but there are other rookie goaltenders who have better statistical numbers and for that, I will give him a grade of B-. Well, that brings us to the end for this week folks. Make sure to come back next week for another edition of Ripe Rookies, when we will select a few more rookies to evaluate their performance up to this point in Season 48.

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#77 Player name : Artom Zhumbayev NHL Render : Kari Lehtonen Primary Color : Green Sig style : Sexy

another shutout, tied for the league lead now.

AZ's first career VHL point haha and the win, i'll take it

yea, i'll take a hit on my save percentage for the win every day of the week.

wow, another shutout and against a team that smoked us 7-1 not too long ago.

@Knight

Zhumbayev and Cologne Holding Their Own Season 48 of the VHL season is now underway and Cologne Express rookie goaltender, Artom Zhumbayev now has eight professional games under his belt. The Cologne Express are a very young team who will take at least a couple of seasons before they legitimately start to compete for Continental Cup championships. With that being said, the Express and Zhumbayev are both holding their own in their games thus far this season. Following eight games, Cologne sports a record of 4-3-1 and Zhumbayev has posted a 0.903 save percentage with a 2.97 goals against average and one shutout. He has also put up two penalty minutes and has looked good about one-tenth of the way into his rookie campaign aside from a game against the Helsinki Titans where he was hooked from the net. The nerves are usually really going for young players in their first career professional game but that did not seem to be the case for Zhumbayev when he and the Express suited up against the Reign in Riga, Latvia for the opening game of the season. AZ stopped all nine shots that he faced in the first period as his teammates fired eleven shots on net but failed to solve Fedir Okranitz. In the middle frame, Cologne outshot Riga once more, eight to five this time and Zhumbayev passed that test with flying colours. Maxime Perron potted a pair of second period goals for the Express with Joel Jarvi and Lucas Zhukenov both picking up a pair of assists, giving the Express a 2-0 lead heading to the third period. In the final perios, Cologne was able to outshoot Riga eleven to six but failed to score any goals. It didn't matter though, as AZ held down to fort and stopped everything thrown his way, stopping 20 shots in the game to record his first career shutout in his first career VHL game. The Express then traveled to Seattle for a tilt with the Bears and Zhumbayev was much busier in this contest. He was tested 22 times in the first period alone, stopping each and every shot while his teammates were only able to muster five shots on former Cologne goaltender, Sandro Clegane. In the second period, AZ faced twelve shots and stopped all but one, allowing a Niels Skovgaard marker early in the period and they were down 1-0 heading to the third. Pete Stockton and Tyson Kohler both picked up their first career VHL goals on seven Express shots during the third period while Shawn Muller countered for Seattle on thirteen shots. The game needed extra time and overtime solved nothing so a shootout was needed where Zhumbayev stopped all three shots and Pete Stockton scored the only goal to give the Express the win. AZ stopped 47 of 49 shots in the win. Seattle and Cologne then had a re-match in Germany and this time the Bears picked up a 5-4 shootout win, AZ stopping 30 of 34 shots in the loss. Next up was a trip to Stockholm, Sweden for a match-up with the reigning European Conference champions in the Stockholm Vikings, Gifford Shock notched a powerplay goal late in the first period to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead after twenty minutes, despite being outshot 9-6 by Cologne. The Vikings outshot the Express 12-10 in the middle frame but the Express managed to score the lone goal, Tyson Kohler picking up his fourth on the year and things were all tied up, heading to the final period. Tyson Kohler then picked up his fifth goal on the season to put Cologne aheadbut two minutes later, Vogon Jeltz tied it up and Lord Karnage scored the deciding goal at about the halfway mark. Zhumbayev took the loss, stopping 24 of 27 shots. Cologne then returned home to Germany for a meeting with the Riga Reign where they were able to come away with a 3-1 win, outshooting Riga 34-19 in the process. Pete Stockton and Maxime Perron scored for Cologne in the first period, while Bronson Faux picked up a second period goal for Riga and Maxime Perron scored his second of the game early in the third period to put the game out of reach. Joel Jarvi recoreded two asssits and Zhumbayev stopped all but one of the nineteen shots that he faced. The next game was not so pretty as the Express were in tough against the powerhouse known as the Helsinki Titans and were blown out 7-1. Helsinki outshot the Cologne Express but only by the tune of 35-24. It was just a bad game for Zhumbayev who allowed six goals on nineteen shots and was pulled from the net late in the second period. Giovanni Reul scored Cologne's lone goal with David Hamilton picking up an assist. Aleksi Koponen, Marcel Faux, and Phil Hamilton all had three-point nights for Helsinki while many others had a multiple point night. A re-match with the Stockholm Vikings came next but the result was the same, a 3-2 loss in Cologne this time around. Stockholm badly outshot the Express in this one, 43-25 and Zhumbayev was able to trap 40 of those 43 shots. Giovanni Reuel and Joel Jarvi were the goal scorers for Cologne while Tyson Kohler and Lucas Zhukenov each had a pair of assists. Vogon Jeltz and Lord Karnage countered for the Vikings in the first period and Severin von Karma potted the winner early in the third period. The Quebec City Meute then came to town in what would prove to be a high-scoring game, Cologne coming out on top by the score of 5-4, outshooting Quebec 34-26. Giovanni Reuel picked up a pair of goals, while David Hamilton, Joel Jarvi, and Tyson Kohler also found the back of the net. Lucas Zhukenov put up a trio of assists, Reuel potting the game-winner midway through the third period. Zhumbayev stopped 22 of 26 shots in the win.

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that's what i like to see.

no better way to begin your VHL career!

S48 purchase Player Name: Artom Zhumbayev VHL Team: Cologne Express Cash you have: $4,500,000 Purchase Name: Double Prediction Points Cost of Purchase: $2,500,000 Cash Left: $2,000,000

Zhumbayev Eager For VHL Debut Artom Zhumbayev, the second overall pick of the Cologne Express from the Season 47 VHL Entry Draft will make his long awaited VHL debut when the team hits the ice for Season 48. The Kazakh netminder spent his first two seasons in the VHLM, splitting time between the Oslo Storm, Moscow Red Wolves, and Bratislava Watchmen where he suited up for 125 regular season contests. In those 125 games, Zhumbayev concluded his VHLM career with a record of 75-39-11, posting a 0.905% save percentage, and a goals against average of 2.12. He added 17 shutouts, 12 penalty minutes, and 5 assists in those two seasons. During the VHLM playoffs, AZ finished with a 12-4-4 record over two seasons, making the Founder's Cup Finals in both seasons and winning the championship with Bratislava in Season 47. He posted a 0.886% save percentage and a goals against average of 2.37 over those two playoff seasons with one shutout, no penalty minutes and no assists. With VHL training camps in full swing now, Artom Zhumbayev has been taking the majority of the shots between the pipes for the Express and has been impressing the Colonge coaching staff with his development from the time he was drafted by the Express to now. He is nearing 300 hours in the training facility and should reach that plateau by the time the season begins. Word from the Express training camp is pointing towards Zhumbayev winning the starting job between the pipes on opening night of Season 48. Artom's success in the VHLM will take time to translate to VHL success as he is in the early stages of his career and will need time to make the adjustments from the VHLM to the VHL. The players here are bigger, stronger, faster, and a lot more well-rounded than what AZ has dealt with in the VHLM but he has shown that he has the talent and work ethic to make these adjustments and become the franchise goaltender for the Cologne Express. Cologne is a very young team and will have two other rookies in the form of Tyson Kohler and David Hamilton joining Zhumbayev when the Express hit the ice for the new season. Joel Jarvi, one of the favourites to take home the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy as the top rookie will be entering his second professional season. Pete Stockon and Lucas Zhukenov are a bit older but still fairly young in VHL terms and the Express were able to pick up Giovanni Reuel via free agency. We will have to wait until training camp concludes to find out if Season 48 draft picks, Adrian Kharlamov, Sean Connery, Sid Crosby, or P.J. Jackson are able to impress enough to suit up in an Express jersey on opening night or if they will be sent back down to the VHLM for more development. This young Cologne Express team will see their fair share of struggles but the future looks bright in Germany for this franchise.

@Kendrick

Watchmen Avoid Monumental Meltdown; Win Founder's Cup Well, the VHLM season has concluded and your Season 47 Founder's Cup Champions are the Bratislava Watchmen. With the win, Bratislava captured their fourth championship, and first in six seasons. It was one hell of a roller-coaster ride throughout the season for the Watchmen to say the least, and they were able to cap it off in pure ecstasy, on top of the VHLM world. The first twelve games of the 47th VHLM Season were not too terrible for the Watchmen who had a record of 7-3-2 up to that point in the season. The following set of games were not so kind to the Bratislava franchise, who played a dreadful stretch of hockey that seen them play to the tune of a 10-16-3 record. Watchmen management had seen enough and knew some changed needed to be made, and changes were made. In three separate trades, the Watchmen brought in forwards Bobby Boucher, Pavel Ovechkin,Mikhail Gribov, and Adam Holmstrom as well as defensemen Sam Weaver, Benjamin Tumack, Zach Voss, Saul Hackett, and Tanner Hynes. They were also the recipients of a VHL free agent signing by the Cologne Express who then sent forward Alexander Davidson down to Bratislava. These changes gave the Watchmen a lot more depth at both forward and defense as well as more top-end talent, and it showed on the ice as Zhumbayev had a lot less shots to deal with. Bratislava responded by catching fire, winning seventeen of their next eighteen games, including a nine game and eight game winning streak respectively. They then concluded the regular season, winning three of their final games and that propelled them from third place in the European Conference to top spot and a first-round bye in the opening round of the playoffs. Bratislava's first playoff opponent would be the Oslo Storm, who took care of the Bern Royals in four straight games in the opening round of the playoffs. The Watchmen dropped a thrilling game one by the score of 4-3 in overtime, but delivered their own thrilling overtime win in game two by the score of 3-2 in double overtime to knot the series at one game a piece. Bratislava then won a 3-2 decision in game three, followed by the Oslo Storm taking game four in triple overtime in a 4-3 thriller. Bratislava took game five in another close one, winning 5-4 and then wrapped the series up in game six with a 4-1 win, punching their ticket to the Founder's Cup Finals. In the cup finals, the Ottawa Lynx, a team that defeated the Watchmen in eight of their nine head-to-head meetings during the regular season would be the opponent, following a grueling seven game series with the Yukon Rush. Bratislava jumped out to a qyuick 3-0 series lead with a 3-2 win in game one and 4-2 wins in games two and three. They thought they had it made and the series won and much to Ottawa's credit, that was not the case as they fought back to tie the series and force a game seven with a 3-0 win in game four and 2-1 wins in games five and six. Bratislava refused to allow Ottawa to come all the way back from 0-3 and avoided a monumental meltdown when they won game seven 2-0 on an 18 save shutout from Zhumbayev and a two-point night from Alexander Davidson.

another 2-1 loss.

close one.

@gregreg

i am on Colonge

@Splat