Victor

Who is Eno Rama, the VHL GM? Well, no one knows, so I won't speculate. What I'll talk about instead is what he symbolises as he is now promoted to the role of VHL expansion GM. Over the past week I have been working on compiling a list of when the league's current members joined the league – the results are quite interesting and will be used in a Media Spot in the near future. But the key point is Eno was one of the first new members who started this league's renaissance in the 60s. S62 was the first big first-gen draft with guys like ShawnGlade, Josh, SlapshotDragon, among others, but S63 was when a first-gen in Ryan Kastelic actually went first overall. I can't be bothered to check, but I think the previous two times a first-gen went first overall was Ethan Osborne, @STZ, in S30 and then Josef Heiss Jr. in S31. Fittingly, that was around the time of the original VHL expansion. So I guess my point is this: after giving 3 expansion GM slots to 3 guys who have been here for way too long in myself, Jason, and Chris Miller, it's about time the job goes to someone who symbolises the reason we're expanding at supersonic speed. The fact it's also someone committed to maintaining the Hall of Fame also warms my heart.

It was my intention to do a “Who is Jason Glasser?” Media Spot for my expansion week special, until @McWolf swooped in and did one on Jason's more recent stint as the GM of Ottawa in the VHLM. To be honest, this is probably for the best, as other than the fact he was good, I don't actually know many specifics about Glasser's VHLM tenures. Therefore, a full GM profile of Jason Glasser would require a bit of research while a profile of VHL GM Jason Glasser I can do almost from memory. It's quite easy – Glasser was Calgary GM for the entirety of my favourite player's career, when I was probably at my most active, and then throughout most of my tenure as VHL commissioner. Overall, I remember it quite vividly. I was angling for a return to Calgary almost from the day Lars Berger left after that magical double success of S18 and S19, and this only accelerated once he retired and Alexander Chershenko was created. The Wranglers weren't necessarily in the best place at the time, with Jardy's aggressive buying resulting in the cup win in S23 but also a quick collapse in S24, so this was more of a sentimental decision than anything else. However, participating in the Calgary locker room in that intervening Berger-Chershenko period gave me full confidence in the ability of their new GM, who probably started with fewer assets than he will with his expansion team in a few weeks' time. Indeed, those first seasons in Calgary are probably the best evidence of Glasser's ability as GM and proof that the new VHL franchise is in safe hands. Picking out the highlights of that march to the S30 Continental Cup is actually quite difficult, but there was an air of inevitability about it, as every trade and draft pick seemed to come off. The likes of Volodymyr Rybak, Ryan Sullivan @Advantage, Jim Gow @flyersfan1453, and Klaus Muller @solas were drafted to the team, some were obvious picks, but some were inspired, and just getting into those draft positions without having much to sell from S25 to S27 was impressive enough. Glasser also managed to navigate a potentially franchise derailing goaltending situation early on in his reign. Jardy's recreate, the future Hall of Famer CAL G, had to be traded before Glasser himself could recreate, meaning the Wranglers were likely to need to draft Satan in the S27 draft. Instead, Davos GM Frank Chadwick, whose own recreate was a goalie, Marius Henchoz, was interested in stepping down and Satan's agent Tyler Barabash was interested in taking over, meaning the two teams could work out a mutually beneficial deal whereby Davos got Satan and Phil Rafter @Phil while Calgary got Henchoz and Chershenko. Fittingly, the two teams involved in the CAL G/Satan/Henchoz trades, Davos and Seattle, were the two Calgary had to beat en route to S30 glory. The salary cap and expansion draft would hit the Wranglers harder than most because the roster was deeper and more active than pretty much any other in the league. Until then though, it was an iconic team Jason built up. From the Ukrainian connection (Rybak, Chershenko and the other Chershenko, Nikolai), to running a full '-enko' line (Chershenkos, Yuri Grigorenko, and Vladimir Boomchenko), Calgary was among the league's headline teams. The S30 cup was the culmination, but the S31 regular season domination was arguably the more impressive demonstration of the depth and star power built up by the team's GM. It was also undoubtedly the peak of Glasser's reign. Indeed, while most GMs would dream of a then-record setting 17-season GM reign, spending most of it in the playoffs, and taking home 3 Top GM trophies, I suspect that in addition to the unique opportunity of building up your own team and legacy from scratch, Glasser put his name forward for an expansion franchise in part to make sure the end of his Calgary reign wasn't the lasting memory of his VHL GM career. That S30-S31 team fell apart quickly, as for various reasons stars like Chershenko and Sullivan made their way to the Wranglers' main rival in New York. The goaltending situation also deteriorated, as Henchoz retired, was replaced by Skylar Rift @Devise, who then jumped ship in free agency to Quebec – such a controversial story it got its own 40 in 40 article. The team's foundation remained solid and competitive, but Glasser mortgaged the future to supplement it, first by bringing back Chershenko, then by trading for another goalie in Alexander Labatte. The Wranglers didn't get the second cup they possibly deserved and then after S35 the rebuild was always behind its rivals. In the end, a surprise first-round win in S40 was the only further success they could muster. So to answer the initial question; who is Jason Glasser, the VHL GM? At his best, he is meticulous and a brilliant drafter who can build competitive teams from scratch, but when real life caught up with him, the Wranglers also suffered. I am confident that the one who will show up with *spoiler alert* Prague will be the first, but it's probably even better that he still has something to prove despite vast GM experience previously. I for one can't wait to see how the European Conference's newest franchise develops. @diamond_ace

I'm torn because on one hand, Moscow could very realistically finish 5th in Europe next season but easily make the playoffs in the NA. On the other hand, putting aside team allegiances, I don't know how much I care about the 8th or 9th best team in the league making the playoffs as ultimately they're not gonna win the cup.

Definitely not in the season they won the Victory Cup as they got Greg Clegane'd in the conference finals but then I wiped S52 from my memory so entirely plausible.

A third VHL expansion is taking place in four seasons (or second if you count Malmo and Moscow as one expansion spread over two seasons), which is an unprecedented period of growth in the VHL. I am of course an advocate for this round of expansion as I was the ones in S65 and S66, but I wonder if 12 teams will be where we reach optimum condition. At the moment most VHL teams are running 2.5-3 lines but that talent will be spread out and it might be a while until we can guarantee that 14 teams would be able to do so and remain in good health. In S67 currently, Toronto's shootout voodoo aside, there are 5 teams with 82 or 81 points with four games to go in the season. For the second year in a row, 7 teams went for the playoffs, but like Toronto last season, Davos has fallen short this year. Even with the likely abolition of crossover and simply 6 teams per conference competing for 4 playoff spots, it is unlikely we'll see a playoff race in S68 and possibly for a few more seasons after that. Speculating on next season, it's likely the two expansion teams finish bottom of their conference. The North American Conference might be particularly weak as New York is still in the early stages of the rebuild and Toronto might really struggle to remain competitive after retirements and free agency. It will be up to Seattle to take the next step up (S67 shows they are capable), otherwise the NA will have just two real cup contenders – Vancouver and Calgary. That might cause calls for retaining crossover as depending on how Malmo young squad progresses, there may be five teams competing for four spots in Europe whereas there won't be any playoff race in the other conference. Either way, it will probably be a while since we have 9 playoff hopefuls in a league with 8 playoff spots.

With expansion draft details not yet revealed but speculation being that protection rules will be similar to S65 and S66 and each team will lose an asset, here's a brief overview of how that affects every existing VHL franchise. Calgary – Win now mode means little to lose The Wranglers went old fashioned by accelerating their rebuild to end up where they are now – competing with two lines and basically no prospect pool. Whether it will work out remains to be seen as there is some uncertainty over the future of franchise goaltender Brick Wahl, but on the bright side it means they can protect most of the team. Expect veteran Robert Malenko and/or youngster Cody Smith exposed – they're players Calgary would rather keep but can deal without. New York – Won't notice The good thing about being bottom of the league is not having many valuable assets. New York's attempt to compete bottomed out last off-season and has left them without too many pieces at the moment – they'll probably have to end up protecting some inactive players as they have more slots than core players. That might mean losing a reasonably valuable third round pick, but the Americans have enough of those in S68 and S69 to cope. Seattle – Timing works against them If the Bears were a season behind in their rebuild and about to draft big in S68, they'd have nothing to worry about. Instead they went in on S67 and now have more players from that draft class than there are protection slots. And that's before counting slightly older players like John Frostbeard and Dallas Jones. In the long run, Seattle wouldn't be able to keep this whole team together anyway but it does mean they have to decide who has the most upside now which can be a tough call this early on in players' careers. Vancouver – Should stop drafting so well The Wolves hit a low in the first season after moving from Quebec but have rebounded well thanks to building a new team effectively entirely through the draft. That does mean they have a young, deep team with more actives players than they can keep, as an article by one of their own players clearly shows. There's little more to add to that – Vancouver will need to decide who the most important players are to their continued contender status. Toronto – No impact After this season, Devise has 99 problems, but the expansion draft ain't one of them. Between retirements, pending free agents, and not having made a draft pick since S63, Toronto has nothing to lose and might only 4 players under contract going into the off-season. At the absolute most, they'll have 11, meaning they're probably losing someone like Gucci Garrop or Bolt Vanderhuge. Looks like that S70 3rd round pick is coming into play. Moscow – Probably better off for it Having known about expansion for a while, naturally I've assessed how I'll be affected by it and although there are still a couple decisions to make, overall it's probably a blessing as the salary cap tightens around Moscow... and a few other GMs will probably be thinking along the same lines. Without revealing my game plan, I think the Menace will be able to retain our core players and lose someone who might have been a cap dump anyway. Malmo – Would be happy to avoid but will deal Going into their third season, the Nighthawks will be at a point where they're a young team with more active players than protection slots but they've already been throwing players away before S67 given ice time and cap considerations. Whoever they lose, a Gaudette, a Basaraba Moose, or maybe Dalton Wilcox, will be a piece an expansion team would love to have, but probably one Malmo can deal without. Davos – Is getting real tired of expansions The problem with being in a perennial rebuild, other than obviously not actually winning anything, is also having a deep prospect pool vulnerable to expansion draft raids. Davos already lost Dan Baillie and Jack Lynch in S65 and S66, two of Moscow and Malmo's best expansion draft selections, and will likely have one of their fine S67 prospects (Leblanc, Ligriv, or someone else) stolen this time. Riga – Also resigned to losing a promising young player The Reign have made a living since circa S61 or so off never having to sell the farm by constantly replenishing their roster with younger players. The result? Six seasons straight in the playoffs but also always having more players than expansion draft protection slots. Riga can't protect all their stars (Kastelic, McWolf, Dahlberg) and also all their S66 players, therefore will provide another useful piece for the expansion teams to grab. Helsinki – Potential tough decisions In a league of trying to never enter a firesale, a few franchises are building the old fashioned way, and Helsinki is one of those. This expansion draft catches them at a reasonably good time, where an ageing roster will need some cap balacing anyway so perhaps the Titans will sacrifice one of their loyal servants in order to compete longer. It's a risk though, there's no guarantee Guillaume Fontenette will develop to replace a Jesse Wilson or Bert Meyers to the level of Matt Thompson or Dan Wilinsky, but probably will work out well for Helsinki either way.

Eh you’re still top of the conference plus we play each other twice.

Whoopin yo ass x

Oh no I’m so sorry

Damn

You got some threepeat action to balance it out. At least @jRuutu got something to be happy about. Actually did Calgary even win another playoff series after S47? As in the real Calgary not the Stockholm rip off. Cursed. @eaglesfan036

Best Game 7 until S47.

This hurts. Knew you knew too much to be left free to roam.

It’s over, enjoy the draft lottery

Penalties will kill us.

We have been more north in Sweden in the past... with limited success.

Also Quebec’s expansion buddy back in day was Cologne, so Germany was covered once until it got contracted. Hopefully will be revisited soon, lots of attractive cities there.

Yeah I think geographically Moscow, Riga, and Helsinki are actually very natural rivals (especially given former Russian Empire/Soviet borders). But we all know the one true rivalry is Riga vs Davos anyway. Also bring back Bratislava, they always deserved to be in the VHL.

@BladeMaiden

Eh, still put up decent numbers

Just gonna .500ing our way through the rest of the season lol. Big fights won by Gabella and Komarov this sim as well #dontfuckwithMoscow

Fucking barn burner that

Yeah just players.