Victor

I love this. Throw in promotion and relegation for good measure.

The VHL's trade deadline has brought us a mixed bag of results over the years. Sometimes, most times in fact, nothing has happened, while every now and we are blessed with a blockbuster. It's a rich tapestry which I will go through now and pick out a few of my favourite famous or infamous trade deadlines. Please note: I use the trade deadline term a bit loosely as I don't necessarily remember if all of these deals were on deadline day or just before. I am however fairly confident they were all close enough to be considered deadline deals. The Bad - Season 4 To Toronto Maxim Desny To Helsinki Sam Lafleur S6 TOR 1st (Dominik Stryker) S5 TOR 2nd (Sergei Trepanov) We start off way back with not just one of the worst trade deadline deals, but simply one of the worst trades in VHL history. Helsinki, coming off a Cinderella run to Game 7 of the Continental Cup finals in S3, were struggling to match that success, despite the continued best efforts of reigning playoff MVP Maxim Desny. Toronto, in the meantime, were trying to put together a run into the playoffs despite being up against reigning two-time champions Calgary, about to be two-time champions Seattle, and the upstart Hamilton Canucks. GM Sam Lafleur was also retiring at the end of the season so needed a long-term goaltending solution. On paper, there was no more qualified solution than Desny. Problem is, Desny was a pending free agent and had no love for Toronto after a previous 22-game stint in S1. He promptly played 11 further games with the Legion, they predictably failed to make up ground and make the playoffs, and he re-signed with Helsinki in free agency, before guiding them back to the finals in his last season. The real kicker? Toronto's long-term solution in net was the first-round pick they traded away for the couple weeks of Desny. Instead, the Titans got their new franchise goaltender in Dominik Stryker immediately after Desny's retirement, just in time for a special Season 6... The Ugly - Season 6 Seattle trades Scotty Campbell to Helsinki for Andrei Dubnikov and a first (Zacky Vengeance) Then trades for Calgary's Joey Kendrick While Calgary trades Alex Watson, also to Helsinki, for a package including draft picks used to select Matt Bentz and... Scotty Campbell Right, pick this one apart. The Titans, despite running with rookie goaltender Stryker, were a serious cup favourite after a couple attempts as the underdogs in S3 and S5. They showed they meant business with a mid-season trade for the VHL's greatest ever player, despite his own pending free agent status. Campbell would indeed leave Helsinki in the off-season but it was well worth it as he first led them to the franchise's maiden Continental Cup. Before we get to Seattle, it's worth mentioning that Alex Watson, whilst no Campbell, was another fine deadline addition by Helsinki to push them over the edge. It's no surprise Titans GM Daric Radmonovic, also the man behind the Desny daylight robbery, was held in such high regard around the league back then. As for the Wranglers, they got a future Hall of Famer and their future GM Matt Bentz back for Watson, in addition to the amusing tidbit that they drafted the goalie version of Scotty Campbell too. No, he was not the greatest goaltender of all time. He's not even the best goalie named Campbell to have graced the VHL @Banackock. How did Calgary come to this though? Were they not the greatest team in the league's first few seasons? Yes, until Brett Slobodzian retired after just 3 seasons, unretired, lost a lot of TPE (you'll see this described in his Hall of Fame article as a “devastating right knee injury”) and was a shadow of his former self. The Wranglers were still unlucky to miss the playoffs in S4 and came back with a vengeance in S5. That's when things got very ugly against Campbell's Seattle, primarily around accusations of riggery. S5, lest we forget, was a... pretty special season. The official view is that as this was the league's fifth season, the last before S1 draftees hit depreciation, it makes sense they put up insane scoring numbers, especially against weak goaltenders. Campbell was also the TPE leader by a significant enough distance to make his dominance believable. We do also know that when his next player, Tomas Jenskovic, was a defenceman, Scotty drastically decreased scoring sliders to the extent that Jenskovic became the first and still only defenceman to lead the league in scoring. It's therefore perfectly plausible that in Campbell's day, the scoring sliders were cranked up the other way. You would think this would benefit everyone equally and it probably did, but tempers were flaring in Calgary. Given the seniority of some of the members of that team – Slobodzian, Scott Boulet, Sterling Labatte – maybe they knew something that others didn't, but the fallout was that the Bears beat the Wranglers in a tetchy first-round affair and Slobodzian retired for good, taking some loyalists down with him. Some stuck around to help Calgary out, including future Hall of Famer Joey Kendrick. It was therefore a surprise to see him get moved to Seattle at the trade deadline, even if he wasn't the most vocal critic of his rivals. Of course, by that point Campbell had been moved on, making it all the more surprising that the Bears were back to buying (Kendrick did come a lot cheaper while Campbell fetched a future franchise cornerstone in Zacky Vengeance who would lead Seattle to another cup in S12). Naturally, Calgary, having removed the toxic cloud hanging over them at the end of S5, beat the Bears in the playoffs and went to three more finals with a revamped squad. All in all, total chaos. The Good - Season 8 To Toronto: Branden Snelheid from Helsinki To Riga: Tomas Ziegler from Toronto To Helsinki: Radislav Grebeshkov from Riga, a 1st (Noah Lefevre) and Peter Payne from Toronto Let's end this on a positive note with I believe the first mid-season three-way trade and what a wonderful deal it was. This is a rare one where everyone turned out to be a winner. Toronto had well recovered from the Desny debacle to become a serious contender and were actually employing Campbell in the twilight of his career. Branden Snelheid, a Hall of Famer in his own right, would join the core as part of the Campbell replacement plan, and play a key role in Toronto's cup win in S9 and near repeat in S10. Riga gave up very little for a clear upgrade up front. Whilst Tomas Ziegler was no Snelheid, he was a very fine second-line forward and an improvement on Grebeshkov, helping the Reign to three straight finals, winning the last one in S10. He would then actually move to Riga's new rivals in Davos and score a Game 7 2nd overtime winner against Riga in S11 but the Reign got their money's worth well before that. By contrast Helsinki look to have received relatively little for one of their best players in Snelheid and were clearly on the downswing from their S6 championship. Peter Payne is best known for once being the career leader in hits and still features prominently on the top 25 list of PIM in a season. But Noah Lefevre, a steady stay-at-home defenceman in his own right, was used in a huge pre S12 draft trade with Toronto which enabled Helsinki to acquire first overall and therefore Hall of Famer Matt Bailey (the same member as Snelheid in fact @Quik) who went on to GM them to the S15 Continental Cup. So in the long run, everyone gained from this deal. I didn't mean to make this so first decade focused at the outset but it is a time period which has some of the best stories in the VHL. In fact, after S8 the volume of big midseason trades dwindled quite significantly, as most of the blockbusters started to take place in the off-season and still do. I do want to give a shout-out to Vasteras trading $4.5 million in cash for Cole Hagstrom in S11 because that was a thing that you could do. I will leave you with one more deal which I was personally involved in. Bonus - Season 15 To Toronto Alexander Sauve To Calgary Juha Ikonen S17 TOR 1st (Adam Blaine) S17 TOR 3rd (Mario Cilberti) In my first season as New York GM, there was a pretty serious arms race going on between us, the Bears, and the Titans. Toronto was actually a team planning ahead to future seasons but somehow got involved in a huge bidding war with me which went all the way down the wire, for star defenceman Alexander Sauve. I distinctly recall, still living with my parents, on a school night, hiding the fact I was still up at midnight, negotiating with Matt Bentz (yes the one mentioned before) to convince him to take my deal over the Legion's. With an hour to go to the deadline, he confirmed he was going with my trade in private and I went to sleep, only to wake up and find he never accepted my trade despite it being posted publicly, and went with Toronto after all. Who knows what would have been had Sauve gone to New York. What I do know is Toronto didn't end up winning with him on board and actually ended up sending Sauve back to Calgary in S18, where we won a surprising back-to-back set of Continental Cups. Yes, I said “we” as by that point I had resigned as New York GM and been traded to Calgary for a package which included Adam Blaine, the draft pick involved in this trade. It was infuriating at the time, it's hilarious in hindsight, and that's the spirit of the trade deadline that we need back.

Italy nation keeps rising

Sheesh unauthorised Italian attack on Warsaw. RIP 14 game winning streak

Jokes on you I killed this all by not waiving my NTC

They can have their Victory Cup.

I had a very good idea for a VHL.com article but got carried away writing it to the extent that it is now a 2,000 word Media Spot I will be posting probably 3 weeks from now (assuming a theme week shortly appears which will add to the 1 week I have left to claim on my Toronto Legion mini-history article from this week). That's good news for future Victor but slightly irritating for my attempt to earn 2 TPE this week. Oh well. Instead, I suppose this is a last minute nothing article seeing where we are with things. I've just signed an extension with Davos, keeping in line with the 1-season + NTC extensions I've been signing throughout Del Rocco's career to date. The idea is that it lets me test free agency if individual results aren't good enough but they haven't been good enough and yet I've not been a free agent yet. Hmm. It's a good group in Davos though and we can definitely put a good run together, if not this season then the next (why not both?). So on that basis I think sticking around for at least another season is a justified decision.

Sorry Riga it's the history of the VHL

Goncalves, Ironhide, and Gavilrovs in one team is quite something

Damn we took it out on Warsaw

This is part of an unofficial irregular series of Media Spots I'm doing which maps out certain themes for VHL franchises which have made them unique throughout their history. I've spoken about Seattle winning despite having few big superstar names, even in the past, but especially under long-serving GM Blake Campbell. For New York, I talked about how their rise and fall over the decades means that their life resembles a bell curve, although an increasingly lopsided one, as its current right side is becoming significantly long than the left. I've stuck with the old franchises in part because it's a comfort zone for me, in part because there's more to draw on and talk about, but primarily because it's easier to show a clear picture. For some of our newer teams, the theme might change within a single generation because of the small sample size; for instance, had I written about London in S87 I would be talking about how they had failed to win a playoff series in 15 seasons, and look quite foolish after they won the championship in S88 and went on to nearly claim two more in quick succession. So we're sticking with the old this time and it's a grand old team in the Toronto Legion, one of two in the whole league to have never changed its name from S1 until today. Better yet, the Legion encapsulate the sentiment in that opening paragraph – it will take a lot to change the narrative because no matter how good or bad the times are, that's just how the Legion do things. It's all or nothing and it always has been. Toronto has certainly lived up to its location – the largest city of a hockey crazed country, high on expectations which are not always matched by results. Of the eight original VHL franchises, the Legion were the sixth to win their first Continental Cup, despite high profile attempts to do so sooner. Christian Stolzschweiger and Maxim Desny were two of the names brought in to try to lead Toronto to the top but without much playoff success. Scotty Campbell spent his last two seasons in Toronto, a spell reminiscent of the latter half of Wayne Gretzky's career – continued individual success not matched by the rest of the team. When finally it all came together, fittingly a year after Campbell's retirement, the Legion had to stack the team with superstars from Kevin Brooks and Mike Szatkowski to Jochen Walser and Alex Gegeny. It was a deserved win in S9 but it seemed to set the precedent – for the Legion to win, they'd have to be the absolute best and even then they might die trying. It's a trend that's stood the test of time. When the Legion are good, they are great. They've made 3 straight finals on three separate occasions (S20-S22, S36-S38, and S48-S51, the latter being an even rare 4-season streak). The first of those was part of a 7-season playoff streak by the team built by David Knight – one with the likes of Aidan Shaw, David Walcott, Lars Berger, and James Bencharski, which came with great expectations after the S18 super draft and really should have led to more than 1 Continental Cup. The last of those was of course during the VHL's first ever threepeat (and so nearly the only fourpeat) which looking back always seems like a no-brainer – how could anyone else compete with a core of Max Molholt, Zach Parechkin, Hans Wingate, and Black Velvet? And their most recent championships have also all been won in specific peaks, with a repeat in S64 and S65 (the relative underdog nature of that run notwithstanding) and then the S91 cup coming in the midst of a 6-season playoff streak including 3 trips to the finals. In between Toronto tends to underachieve. Even newer members will be familiar that the S91 Continental Cup triumph came after years of trials and tribulations, specifically 25 straight seasons without even a finals appearance, the joint second-longest such drought in VHL history (and the fourth, now fifth-longest ever cup drought). That was pretty extreme even by the Legion's standards but there have always been dry spells – between the mid-30s run and the threepeat a decade later, between the threepeat and the 60s repeat, and going back to the start, from the first championship in S9 to the long-awaited second in S21. No one does the highest highest and lowest lows quite like Toronto. To illustrate that last point perfectly, we need to just look at the single season team records over the years. The Legion have two of the 13 60+ win seasons in VHL history, in S10 and S22. Fittingly both came immediately after a Continental Cup and both ended in finals heartbreak despite being the favourites. But the Legion also have the season with the most losses in history (69 in S11 – immediately after one of the greatest seasons ever), with S5 and S60 only two losses behind. This continues through various statistics: the highest ever goal differential (+237 in S10) followed by the lowest ever (-306 in S11). Two seasons, out of 10 ever, of 400 or more goals (S5 and S11) and also one of the best defensive seasons with just 115 goals against in S51. But also the two lowest points totals of all time – 10 in S11 and a measly 9 in S60. The duality of Toronto never ceases to amaze. It should therefore come as no surprise that the Legion followed up two straight finals appearances, including a very impressive Victory Cup in S94, by making a high-profile goaltending trade and missing the playoff entirely in S96. They're embroiled in a tight playoff race with New York this season and will be hopeful that the Americans' fortunes don't finally turn after four decades of pain, but it feels like if they aren't at the top already, the season is probably a write-off. The only championship season I didn't mention here, S29, illustrates that in a way. It doesn't fit the theme perfectly because it wasn't a star-studded team and most importantly, it was a flash in the pan, having missed the playoffs immediately before and immediately after. Despite that though, it was a Victory and Continental Cup double for Toronto. Because even at their most random, the Legion retain one key quality – it's either all or nothing.

Sorry NY

I addressed this. If a team has 67 points and misses out while one with 65 gets in I don't really care. They don't have the same schedule so you can't prove how they'd have done if they swapped games.

It's certainly been very obvious the last 2 seasons due to there being 4 rebuilding European teams. Most previous times I think the point difference has been small between e.g. 6th in NA over 5th in EU and very possibly down to scheduling differences. So I guess the first point is that it's a small sample size of imbalance which could easily correct itself - and really GMs should be doing that already by deciding when to buy or sell, we've seen too many teams be too loyal to players recently and delaying a rebuild which has actually led to some of today's long rebuilds. Crossover has happened before, albeit very briefly, just before the first expansion of 10 teams. So it can be done certainly. I didn't love the aesthetics of it but when potentially the 3rd best team in the league was missing out on the playoffs there was a better case for it. I have less sympathy for the 9th-10th best team in the league missing the playoffs. Overall I think it's too early to make such a change and maybe not needed at all, but I appreciate the frustration of being that 6th place team missing out.