Victor

@Beketov triggered

To decide what franchise is most in need of a rebrand it makes the most sense to look at how old each team's logo is. After nearly a quarter-century of VHL seasons of teams slightly modifying and re-using existing logos from other leagues and sports, since S24 all logos have been original, some designed by the VHL's own graphics community, and most of the more recent ones being purchased from third-party designers. Quite a few continue to stand the test of time. Let's count them down. S81: Riga The newest logo in the VHL belongs to the Riga Reign who avoided a rebrand for nearly 60 seasons beforehand and are only on their third logo overall (all variations of the orange lion). I think this one got quite widespread approval and is certainly an upgrade on the previous version so it would be unlikely to be changed any time soon, even as a big change is about to take place in Riga's GM position. S75: Calgary Another long-awaited change to an old franchise's appearance took place just six seasons previously, as the beloved derp horse was retired after 50 seasons to make way for a more imposing stallion. The Wranglers have also only gone through three variations of the red horse and the current version is likely here to stay for a while. S73 expansion teams: Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Warsaw S68 expansion teams: D.C. and Prague S65 expansion team (Moscow) and S66 expansion team (Malmo) I am grouping all the expansion teams together (which is actually half of the league) for a specific reason: unlike the rest of the teams' logos, these were purchased using the league's donation money with the thought process that these were long-term investments and won't be replaced on a whim in the short-term. Of course, these expansion teams have all been around for at least 20 seasons now but as we have seen with Calgary and Riga above, and indeed many more examples to come, this is far from a long time in VHL terms. Just as importantly, these are actually a solid set of logos, most of which I think there is no great clamour to replace. The exceptions might be LA and London and purely on a personal level I think LA is the franchise most in need of a fresh start but I'll let someone else dive into that topic in more depth. S53: Helsinki The Titans aren't far off from being joint-oldest on this list as their logo change in S53 was only a cosmetic one really, polishing up and slightly recolouring the version they got in S24 when all teams rebranded to in-house made logos. However, given Helsinki did give themselves an uplift 30 seasons later, they fall in the midtable of this list. There's nothing that needs improving for them but maybe they'll want another small makeover in the near future. S52: New York The next three logos are a tale of how logo changes can sometimes seemingly alter history. The Americans had lots of success following the S24 rebrand and were arguably the league's most successful franchise in the following 30 seasons. However, just before their back-to-back championships of S52 and S53 they swapped to this logo and after that initial short-term success.... well you guys probably know most of the story. One finals appearance has followed in the 40 seasons since, so if there's any franchise that needs a rebrand just to dump their loser era it's New York. S47: Toronto In a similar vein to the Americans, the Legion's logo swap immediately led to threepeat, the first of its kind. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster since but Toronto's logo just seems to work for them and also harks back to the version they used in the league's first decades. In fact, the S47 rebrand replaced a very unpopular logo so this change was welcomed and despite being one of the oldest ones in use now, it doesn't feel like there is much clamour for change at the moment. S44: Davos Until the recent renaissance under Alex, this, even more than New York's, was the league's most cursed logo. The Dynamo were definitely the league's most successful franchise before S44 and then they just stopped being that. I also personally preferred the logo they replaced, although I am biased as I was the team's GM just 5 seasons previously. Davos has turned things around a bit now but it's the third-oldest logo in the league so I say get them to switch it up and leave that cup drought firmly in the past. S31 expansion team: Quebec, now Vancouver Funnily enough, given what I said about the “new” expansion franchises above, it seems to be the fate of expansion teams in the VHL that they are stuck with their logo for life. Cologne never replaced theirs and have been resurrected with in in the VHLE, the Quebec's was considered so good that it survived the move to Vancouver (more of a translation rather than a rebrand). In fact, not touching the logo was one of the conditions for the move being allowed to go through. It is still unique in being a logo designed by the team's GM, in this case founding GM Pavel Koradek. What has changed over time is that this is now the second-oldest logo in the league so perhaps popular opinion could be swayed towards a change. It is such a simple yet effective one though. S24: Seattle Fittingly, the oldest logo in the VHL is in Seattle, also home to the league's (soon to be by far) longest-serving GM. The Bears logo does predate Bana's reign (yes there was such a time) and is the only logo to survive from S24, when all eight franchises at the time got custom-made logos, having survived until then on versions ripped from existing teams. Seattle until then (ignoring their 1-season stint as the Everblades) had used the Hershey Bears logo, swapped to fairly similar one in S24 and haven't looked back since. Time for a change? Maybe under a new GM...

I successfully rebranded once and never looked back.

Moving the Los Angeles Stars but bringing in the Dallas Kings, genius.

big moves by da bears

Plans were being put in place tbf, albeit not agreed, pre recruitment drive. More difficult to justify now but it will always be the first port of call if the pipeline dries up, as was always intended.

Phoenix Chicagoes would be my vote

Correct

Wait this is like 3 paragraphs long

if anything we don't have enough tribalism. everyone's too nice. need more hatred, more rivalry, more forum content

be careful or we'll bring back the Avangard Havoc

I think that's all caught up on players. Does anyone want Eno

There's a defencemen only list where you can see it split and can work that out: https://vhlforum.com/topic/347-vhl-career-stats-updated-for-s92/ I think Encarnacion is the only defenceman near the top in hits. Alternatively any player with 1,000 or so blocked shots is going to be a dman.

3 TPE??? We are so blessed

I gathered that lol I need specifics

@Sjin where you based mate

All timer reign

profound

It's roughly the midpoint of the season which means soon I will be putting up the HOF ballot up for BOG discussion. Most of you will see the results of that discussion and vote in around a month or so when the induction is announced in the off-season. Anyway, I like to use this time to look ahead at who currently playing might be joining the ballot after their retirement and on this occasion will share the (not particularly detailed) thought process. S85 draftees: John Jameson @Frank and Jesse Teno @aimkin are slam dunk Hall of Famers in my mind, perhaps even both first ballot entries. Teno has the two utterly dominant playoff runs in S88 and S92, plus a league-best regular season in S91 in between, and an overall consistent body of work dragging London to becoming an elite franchise. Jameson maybe had less trophies than expected, but is on track for a fourth 100-point season, has been ever-present in the Boulet conversation and also has transformed a middling franchise in Prague. Doubt anyone else from S85 makes it. S86: The Frenchman's @OrbitingDeath case is gathering pace, having won his first championship and individual trophy last season and likely adding to that in S93. Lachlan Summers @kirbithan is in the same boat as Teno, maybe needs another strong season to be slam dunk but has done enough for the ballot. Time is running out for the rest of the draft class and too early to tell for anyone younger.

I can't imagine finding this league and first experiencing it on my phone lol. In part because the first iPhone came out the year I joined and I very much did not have one. So much content on a small screen. Nahhh I'd quit.

Week 4 of 4

This was a good one tbf but the "potentially thousands of dollars" was a bit of a stretch

Honestly thought I was getting banned for members still trying to claim that

Tbf I'm not sure that's gonna help lol