Devise

Saw a few of your players names on teams, but you weren't eligible for multi cup winner on any simply by name. It was kind of crazy to go back and see some of those old Cup winning teams and see so many names of members that are now back around, or have stuck around. You, Sterling, Sandro, Smarch, Scotty, Tfong, both Funks (who were on a lot of teams) Mike, even an old Noah play thrown in. You guys are the history of this league man! Also @Streetlight Advantage and I were under the assumption you had never won a Cup as a member, but in one of those Davos seasons we saw Esposito winning one!

Good win but damnit now I have to justify another goal scored.

It came at game 128 of the season. The New York Americans were taking on the Davos Dynamo, and were up 4-1 heading into the third period. The Americans were given a power play after Valmount was called for hooking, and already had 3 power play goals on the night. As the power play unfolded, some weird behavior began to emerge from Light and O'Malley who after taking control of the puck were passing the puck around, setting it up. At one point, Humbert was able to skate away from a defender and launch a perfect one timer feed to Llody Light, who seemed to intentionally shoot it wide, as it come off the boards to the stick of Thomas O'Malley. O"Malley deked, and took a slap shot that also seemed to go intentionally wide. As Humbert rushes to collect the rebound before it went out, he skated forward and upon the strong urging of his teammates finally shot the puck, which turned out to be a goal...Humberts 1st of the season and only the 8th of his 4 season long career. Humbert joked about the play during practice to the media the next day. "Yeah apparently the guys got in their head that it would be funny to keep shooting the puck wide, and force me to stop passing it and take a shot. I mean most guys on our team have more goals than I have shots on net, it's no secret that I don't shoot the puck very often. So the guys thought it would be hilarious if they kept forcing me the puck on the power play, while were up and the game was in our hands of course. So as the puck came to me I heard the bench and the ice just yelling at me to shoot the puck so I said screw it, and blased the slap shot. I honestly didn't think I had a shot at even hitting the net, much less scoring the goal. Everyone got a big laugh out of it in the locker room that is for sure." The Americans went on to humble a Davos team that has a struggling off-season, defeating them by a 7-1 score. The goal, remains Humberts only one of the season, on his total 13 shot attempts. It is also only his second goal in as many seasons, as Thaddeus went most of last year without a goal until his triple deflection fluke bounced into the net.

The Value of Cup Winning Experience In VHL Throughout History The VHL is very much like the NHL where having proven winners, players that have been there and done that can make all the difference. Even statistically speaking, very few teams have won the Championship in either league all as first timers. I originally began research for this media spot very optimistic. It started with a curiosity for how many Continental Cup winning teams there was with a past Cup winner on their rosters. Going in, I thought to myself "it can't be that many, we do retire players after 8 seasons." Those thoughts would prove to be shattered by a nearly perfect record season after season, with either one big free agent pick up, one small depth player, or some remnant, some player who had won a Championship lingering on nearly every single team. So I kept digging. I switched from what I thought we be interesting stats just from the last ten seasons to trying to find the last time a team won a Championship that didn't have a previous Cup winner on it. My research continued, all the way until Season 20. That is right. From this point until season 20 every single Championship winning team had a previous Cup winner on it. But with that teaser, I'd like to take you on the journey of what I eventually learned to be a weird, but interesting reality among VHL Cup winners. The reality that is, you better have a player on your team that has won a Cup if your going to win, otherwise the odds are not in your favor. In Season 46 the Helsinki Titans repeated as Cup winners, and because of that they had a plethora of former winners on their roster. However even their first of two wins in Season 45 saw them loaded with names like O'Malley, Klose, Wolfgang Strauss, Brady Stropko and Pablo Escobar. All former Cup winners. The Wranglers only needed one former member in Season 45, as Nicklas Karlsson proved to be the only experience they needed. Likewise for both the Bears and the Express in S43 and 42 respectively. The Bears did it with Captain Phil Villeneuve who had won a Cup previously, while Cologne picked up Robin Gow from Riga at the deadline for their Cup winning experience. In Season 41 the Americans were largely formed of a team that won the Cup in S39 and made the finals in S40. As such tons of names and future hall of fame players comprised their list. Riga leveraged experience from the S37 Toronto winners with Nicklas Lindberg and Ville Sixten, as well as eventual 3 time Cup winning Jarkko Olsen to give them that experience edge. The Americans were largely a new roster in Season 39, but playoff MVP Wesley Kellinger and Odin Tordahl both had won Cups prior. Which brings us to the dynasty Davos era, that won in Season 38 off a roster mostly comprised of S36 winners. Names like Davey Jones, Thomas Landry, Jarrko Olsen, Matt Bentley, Shane Baker and Lennox Moher all won with the S36 Davos squad. Toronto only needed one former Cup winner in long time Titan Anatoli Zhumbayev in Season 37. The Dynamo got started on their run in S36 with Odin Tordahl and Lars Lessio being the former Cup winners. For expansion Quebec City Muetes first ever Cup win in Season 35 they used veteran free agent signings Skylar Rift and Yuri Grigorenko to go along with Miles Larsson, all three former Cup winners. Helsinki had Felix Leiter and Nic Riopel in Season 34, while Riga had the other funk brother Elijah Incognito as well as Troy Athera and Malcom Spud in Season 33. The Americans finally won a Championship after many attempts in Season 32 and they carried 4 former cup winners with Alex Chershenko, Tukka Reikkinen, Connor Evans and Radislav Mjers. In Season 31 Davos picked up Felix Peters from the Season 28 Seattle Six squad as well as Gaz, who had won a championship with Toronto in Season 29. In Season 30 the Calgary Wranglers came close to being all home grown first timers, with the exception of hall of fame team hopper and multi cup winner Leeroy Jenkins, who helped the squad. That Season 29 Toronto win came with Jarppi Leppala, Dougie Daniels and Elijah Incognito, all former Cup winners. The Seattle Six era were able to pick up Leeroy Jenkins and Matthew Boragina to help them over the hump. Hitting Season 27 the Helsinki Titans had Leeroy Jenkins, Japinder Singh and Jeff Dar for Cup winning experience. Meanwhile the last time Vasteras won a championship in Season 26 they had Kevyn Hejse and James Bencharski both former Cup winners at that point. S25 was the last time we saw a repeat until Helsinki did it this past season, so it was loaded with former champions. But even the 24 Dynamo had Anton Brekker, Matthias Chouinard, Chad Murphy, Adam Shcultz and legendary goalie Daisuke Kanou. The Wranglers picked up the Cup in 23 with Biggie Shakur and Jardy Bunclewirth as former champions. In Season 22 the Titans leveraged three Cup winners with Max Kroenenburg, Rhett Gouldhawke and Hiro Renomitsu. While in 21 the Legion were bolstered by Lars Berger, JD Stormwall, Max Kroenenburg and Voittu Jannulua. Which brings us to Season 20. The Davos Dynamo won their first Continental Cup since Season 13, and it would lead to a team that dominated with back to back later in the same era. However that Season 20 Davos team had no former Cup winners on it. A feat that has not been repeated in 26+ seasons. Interestingly enough, it was the second time in three seasons a team with no cup experience won the title. The Wranglers repeated in S19 and were loaded with former Cup winners, however the Season 18 Continental Cup winning Wranglers mark another team who won with no Cup experience. If you can believe it, that is the first time since Season 1 there was a team with no Cup winning experience to win the Championship. Yes you read that correctly. S1 Vasteras, S18 Calgary and S20 Davos are the only teams to win a Championship without any Cup winners on them. With Season 1 of course being an asterisk since it has no choice but to be the case. As we keep going down the list, the Season 17 Bears were loaded with former Cup winners. Names like Grimm Jonsson, Devan De La Soul, Fayt Leingod, Sandro Desaulniers, Baron Von Jonsson, Virgil Quincey-McDienenberg. Riga won it all in 16 with just Harvey Singh and Andrew Able as former champions. While in Helsinki they only needed Brandon Rush in Season 15 to secure a Championship. The first Cup win for the New York Americans came in Season 14 with Zak Rawlyk, Sach Arce and Jack O'Riley as the experienced cup winning players. Davos S13 win came with a roster filled with former winners, something you'd expect considering they also won in Season 11. In 13 they had Jonathan Matthias, Zach Arce, Tomas Jenksovic, Jericho Kozmalov, Mike Kloepfer, Markus Sedin and Benoit Devereux, all former champions. The Bears picked up the championship in Season 12 with Jonathan Matthias, Bob Loblaws, Josh Vestiquan and Markus Sedin as former winners. That Season 11 Davos team had Jochen Walser and Tomas Ziegler for Cup winning experience. Which brings us to the first ten seasons in league history. There was a couple close calls surrounded by a couple repeats. In Season 10 Riga won their first Championship with Ace Lightning, Terence Fong and Jaeger Stryker as former cup winners. While Toronto's first ever Cup win came with just Branden Snelheid as the only former winner. In Season 8 Calgary won their third championship with Edward Holm, Josh Vestiquan, Sterling Labatte and Doug Schneider. Avangard, now Davos won what would be the franchises first championship in Season 7 with Danny Tremblay and Steve Kent being the only two former winners on the squad. Season 6 saw the Helsinki Titans win their first ever championship backed by Scotty Campbell, Matt Defosse, Alex Watson and Doug Schneider. Season 6 was a repeat for the Seattle Bears, their second championship in history and was obviously loaded with former winners. However the Season 4 Seattle Squad had a chance, but they picked up the legendary Scotty Campbell to push them over the edge. In Season 3 the Wranglers won their second ever championship, a repeat, and they had tons of former winners. Which brings us to Season 2, had the Wranglers not picked up Tommy Brown from the Iron Eagles, who were our first ever Continental Cup Champions in Season 1 then they would of been all first timers. There you have it. A history of not just the impact, but the rate at which teams continue to win in the VHL backed by former Champions. It's a strategy that has gotten so successful the majority of teams competing in ever era always have one, if not more Cup winners on their rosters. Will we be able to see a young team built on the backs of players who have never won a Championship win it all again? It's a tough question. The best players in the league seem to win a Championship at some point, a lot of them early in their careers. Those players generally stay on top for much of their career, so even though they may get traded or sign with a young up and coming team, the likelihood that we get a Championship team filled without a single cup winning player seems slim.

Dear god I scored another goal. I'm trying to keep Humbert under 10 career goals, this type of shit is preventing that. In other news, huge offensive outburst, whole roster contributing!

We are elite off the face off.

Humbert NYA

I enjoyed meeting Phil as well, great guy and one of the fundamental members of the league. Good read Sterling.

As anyone who knows the "esteemed" Devise player agency run by Mr. Power will tell you, the choice of players he represents is always suspect. It isn't that the players he chooses to represent have no talent. It is that in most cases, the expectation of their hard work and effort rarely translate into the type of on ice success normally associated with higher level players in the VHL. The majority of the time, they either end up being depth players or players that are meant to fill a specific role. That appears to be the case with defender Thaddeus Humbert as well. The still young defender, now enterting the first season out of his rookie contract years appears to be filling a niche for the New York Americans thus far in the season. That niche is the guy who stays on the ice, and does his best to keep things shored up. It is mostly a defensive role, although touted as a high level playmaker we have only seen flashes of Humberts offensive ability thus far in his career. While it is clear he isn't a shoot first player, he has 3 shots in 13 games thus far this season. However he is the leader among all Americans in minutes played, with 422 in those 13 games. He is also averaging 32.45 minutes per game. A key, says Americans former General Manager Chris Miller is that Humbert doesn't take a lot of penalties. He tries to be disciplined while playing with a slight edge. It makes him the perfect companion to defensive partner Biggu Kyanon, who has 36 PIMs as opposed to the 4 that Humbert has. "We think Biggu is going to be a Labatte winner some day. But those guys need someone who plays the game well enough to fit with them. We feel Humbert fit that role when we traded for him and signed him long term. While I may only be a advisement role to the organization now, I can say they still feel happy with that progress. Biggu plays a high tempo game, and it's nice to have a shut down guy who stays out of the box to fill in the minutes we need when Biggu finds himself in trouble."

Player Name: Thaddeus Humbert VHL Team: New York Americans Cash you have: $4,500,000 Purchase Name: Point Task Upgrade/Mag Combo Cost of Purchase: $2,000,000 + $1,000,000 Cash Left: $1,500,000

The balances are updated, and you can find the link in the new thread.

S47 Player Balances Welcome to the VHL player store where you can spend your contract money earned through your career. Please make sure to fill out the purchase template below in order for your purchase to be official. If you are making multiple purchases at once use multiple templates, or clearly break down the cost of each purchase. You can click on the player balances link there to see what your balances are. **NOTE** If you already purchased for Season 47 in the Season 46 thread that is fine. Please do not repost it here, as I already added/calculated it in the balance sheet. Also a note to whom needs the info, tracking of purchases in the balance sheet is also up to date. So tracking to see who bought what for predictions and upgrades is there. Thanks for your patience. Purchase Template: Reroll Your TPE - $10,000,000 -Limit once per career. -Must be done in the off-season prior to depreciation. -Reset all your attributes and re-spend your TPE to give your player a brand new identity. -Contact a commish prior to purchasing. Two Attribute Points - $5,000,000 -Limit once per season. -This does not count towards your total TPE, just your attributes -This adds 2 to any attribute point you have. Example, you have 82 in Skating and raise it to 84. The higher the attribute the more actual TPE value you get out of this purchase. Triple Award Predictions - $5,000,000 [Deadline: Tuesday November 10th, 11:59 PM EST] -Must be purchased at the start of a season -You gain triple the Yearly Award Points for the season you purchased this in. -You may only purchase one award prediction modifier per season. Free Week - $3,000,000 -Limit of twice per season -You earn 6 TPE in place of a point task for the week. Double Award Prediction - $2,500,000 [Deadline: Tuesday November 10th, 11:59 PM EST] -Must be purchased at the start of a season. -You gain double the Yearly Award Points for the season you purchased this in. -You may only purchase one award prediction modifier per season. Welfare Upgrade - $2,000,000 -Add +1 TPE to your welfare claim (2TPE to 3TPE/week). -Stays active for only the season that it is purchased. -Cannot purchase both this item and the VHL.com/Radio Upgrade in the same season Pension I Upgrade - $2,500,000 -Add +1 TPE to your Pension I claim (3TPE to 4TPE/week). -Stays active for only the season that it is purchased. -Cannot purchase both this item and the VHL.com/Radio Upgrade in the same season Pension II Upgrade - $3,000,000 -Add +1 TPE to your Pension II claim (4TPE to 5TPE/week). -Stays active for only the season that it is purchased. -Cannot purchase both this item and the VHL.com/Radio Upgrade in the same season Position Switch - $3,000,000 -Limit once per career. -Switch from forward to defense or defense to forward. -Note: Players will no longer be allowed a free position switch any longer. GM's may still position switch their inactive players once per career provided they have not switched positions already. VHL Magazine Cover and Article Combo -$1,000,000 -Limit of once per season -Your player gets featured on the cover of the magazine and gets a freelance article written specifically for them. VHL.com/Radio Upgrade - $2,000,000 -Adds 1 TPE to your 590 or two-point podcast -Active for 8 weeks of the season -Will count against the weekly TPE cap -Cannot purchase both this item and any of the Welfare/Pension Upgrades in the same season Point Task Upgrade - $2,000,000 -Adds 1 TPE to your weekly point task (media spot, graphic, etc.) -Active for 8 weeks of the season -Will count against the weekly TPE cap - NEW FOR SEASON 46 - Cannot be used in combination with magazine submissions 'The Jaromir Jagr' - $6,000,000 -Must be purchased in the off-season prior to depreciation -Can only be purchased once per off-season -Choose one attribute and that attribute won't experience depreciation for that season Old But Not Forgotten - $10,000,000 -Must be purchased in the off-season prior to depreciation in either your 7th or 8th season -Your attributes will be depreciated 1% less than normal in your 7th season, or 2% less in your 8th -4% instead of 5% in 7th season, 5% instead of 7% in 8th season Experience Points -You may only purchase a single experience points package per season. -Adds experience points to your player. $1,000,000 - 1 Point $2,000,000 - 4 Points $5,000,000 - 10 Points

Sorry sorry. My free time ended up getting crunched with other things, mostly between side business and work. I did get started on this last week but then got distracted talking with Kendrick, Boubabi and Tfong in chat. You guys can feel free to make your purchases, I only got this half done last week so I'll be finishing it up on Thursday. If you don't know your total, look at your S46 total and add your S47 contract found in the finance section. I'm sure blue team will allow you to retroactively claim your welfare upgrades and whatnot for a week that you missed into the season as well. Thanks for your patience.

Jardy the real standout this tourney for sure. Glad we got Gold, and that push comes to shove he's a European player haha! Congrats to all the winners, well deserved.

Holy crap I played a lot of minutes. We need defenders.

Fedorov was a fantastic player. When I was little Detroit was my fav team as I grew up. Then I stopped watching hockey till like 07 and came back and discovered Caps and the rest is history. But you are right about the highlight reel goals, so many in OT or one goal games with the game on the line. He is a clutch player whose consistent, physical, and is a power play threat on top of it all. I feel pretty honored to have seen the majority of his career highlights.

Ovechkin becomes the fifth fastest to hit 500, only Mario, Gretzky, Bossy and Hull faster. Wow. I knew it would happen given how close it was but still. Despite the low scoring era we are in is there any doubt this is one of the greatest goal scorers in league history? Man. Best part about the whole thing was after he scored it the whole bench and the goalie came into a pile to hug him, standing ovation from the crowd, etc. Everyone respects and honors how hard it is to score the kind of goals he's been scoring at the kind of pace. I read somewhere that since Ovechkin entered the league he has scored now 500 goals, the next closest person in goals since he entered the league is Iginla with like mid 300's. That is crazy. Nobody in the league currently comes close to even being the gifted pure goal scorer Ovie is, even at 30. Great stuff.

Love Cologne pulling off all these upsets! Keep making em pay Trains!

Yeah well your not even going to get past Riga so this series match ups irrelevant!

Dominating fashion! Love it! Great shutout for Campbell!

Fantastic new logo!

Given your player name I'll trust your judgement on this one.

Ouch. Tough loss, 0 for 7 on the PP is the real reason.

All those scoring forwards and it is literally our only two defenders who get on the score sheet. What a hilarious way to start the year. Humbert and Biggu all you need!

Fantastic work all. Victor for riding the pine accidentally, and all the rest of you talented folks make repeating, dominating and GMing so easy. Congrats to us for real we look to still have a stacked team for several in a row here. Hoping to see more Gold in our future.