Victor

He's been with us since expansion and has just had his breakthrough year, it's time for Dan Baillie to go to the All-Star Game! @wcats

Moscow is ready for playoff hockey.

It was Squinty wasn’t it

Riga is one of the few teams which had our number this season, hence I probably agree. That said, if Europe actually wants to provide a serious threat to Toronto in the finals, they should let us through.

This required research and citing sources. I think this showed more effort than most 590s.

With any luck, biggest backpack will transform into the Scotty Campbell Trophy.

Week 3 of 3 for Pavlov.

Week 3 of 4 for Cast.

Absolute chokers all of us , Vasteras probably gonna sneak into the finals instead.

That is a lot of references to my article I didn’t even like writing that much. I should note that Pavlov is the GM player, not Cast, and I did toy with the idea of letting him go and see if one of the expansion teams takes him for the trade value. Probably won’t risk it though haha. Tocco isn’t going anywhere though, @Matmenzinger is an absolute steal.

Came for the llamas, false advertising

I’ve already resigned myself to the MVP. Hopefully.

Trades Completed Between Season 66 and Season 67June 29, 2019 - July 10, 2019 To (S66) RW - Aleksander Rodriguez S67 NYA 2nd (D Derek England) S68 RIG 3rd (RW Ryo Yamazuki II) To (S63) D - Joseph McWolf New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Riga Reign GM: Benjamin Zeptenbergs ---------------------- To (S60) D - Jakub Vilhjalmsson (S61) G - Arvid Aamo (S63) C - Anthony Dabarno (S63) D - Mountain Thunderfist S67 SEA 3rd (D Pierre Persson) S69 SEA 1st (D David OQuinn) To (S64) C - Joel Ylonen New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Seattle Bears GM: Blake Campbell ---------------------- To S69 MAL 1st (RW Kris Rice) S69 MAL 4th (RW Igor Trice) To S67 DAV 1st (G Michael Johnson) HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller ---------------------- To (S62) RW - Jake Davis To S67 DAV 4th (RW Erik Draven) S69 DAV 2nd (D Blacker Velvet) HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade Vancouver Wolves GM: Keaton Louth ---------------------- To S67 RIG 1st (C Micheal Gary Scott) S67 TOR 2nd (D Guy LeGrande) S68 RIG 1st (LW Teemu Lehtinen Jr.) S68 MAL 2nd (LW Kaspars Claude) S68 MAL 3rd (D Andrej Petrovic) To (S64) LW - Elias Dahlberg (S64) RW - Pat Svoboda HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade Riga Reign GM: Benjamin Zeptenbergs ---------------------- To (S63) C - Rylan Peace To S69 TOR 1st (LW RJ Jubis) S69 TOR 2nd (D Fernando Jokinen) S69 TOR 3rd (G Boris Boris) S69 TOR 4th (RW Symere Myles) Toronto Legion GM: Ryan Power HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade ---------------------- To S69 NYA 4th (LW Justin Goodhope) To S69 MAL 4th (RW Igor Trice) HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann ---------------------- To S67 MAL 1st (C Phil Marleau) S67 MAL 2nd (RW ACL TEAR) S69 MAL 2nd (D Griff Manzer) To (S63) LW - Chace Trepanier S67 MOS 1st (D Lincoln Tate) Moscow Menace GM: Victor Alfredsson Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller ---------------------- To (S61) C - Podrick Cast (S63) LW - Randoms To (S65) LW - Matteo (S66) RW - AJ Axelsen S67 MAL 1st (C Phil Marleau) S69 MOS 1st (D Guy Sasakamoose) S69 MOS 2nd (LW Shush Nyko) S69 MOS 3rd (G Nicolas Fomba) Moscow Menace GM: Victor Alfredsson Riga Reign GM: Benjamin Zeptenbergs ---------------------- To (S65) D - Dallas Jones (S66) RW - Nethila Dissanayake S67 HSK 1st (C Boris the Forest) S67 TOR 4th (G Thorvald Gunnarsson) To (S62) LW - Leph Twinger New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Calgary Wranglers GM: Tyler Barabash ---------------------- To S67 MAL 1st (C Phil Marleau) S67 NYA 3rd (D Hugh Chan) S67 RIG 3rd (RW Dalton Wilcox) To S67 MOS 1st (D Lincoln Tate) Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller Riga Reign GM: Benjamin Zeptenbergs ---------------------- To S68 SEA 2nd (G Bruce Grimaldi) To (S66) LW - Edgar Tannahill S67 MOS 2nd (C Scott Greene) Moscow Menace GM: Victor Alfredsson Seattle Bears GM: Blake Campbell ---------------------- To (S61) G - Roger Sterling S67 MOS 3rd (LW Anthony Hawk) To (S65) G - Chase S69 MAL 2nd (D Griff Manzer) Moscow Menace GM: Victor Alfredsson Vancouver Wolves GM: Keaton Louth ---------------------- To S68 DAV 2nd (LW Micha Sage) To (S65) D - Dallas Jones S69 MAL 4th (RW Igor Trice) New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Seattle Bears GM: Blake Campbell ---------------------- To (S62) D - Konstantin Mulligan S67 VAN 1st (RW Bjorn Scoringsonn) To (S66) D - Codrick Past S67 RIG 1st (C Michael Gary Scott) HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade Vancouver Wolves GM: Keaton Louth ---------------------- To (S65) LW - Matteo S67 MAL 3rd (C Scotty BigShotty) To S68 SEA 3rd (RW Ryan Busser) New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Riga Reign GM: Benjamin Zeptenbergs ---------------------- To (S65) LW - Milan Griffin (S66) RW - AJ Axelsen S68 MOS 3rd (RW Mac Hooper) To (S66) C - Eeli Harju (S66) D - Finn Theismann Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller Riga Reign GM: Benjamin Zeptenbergs ---------------------- To S67 MAL 2nd (RW ACL TEAR) To S67 MAL 3rd (C Scotty BigShotty) S67 SEA 3rd (D Pierre Persson) New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Moscow Menace GM: Victor Alfredsson ---------------------- To S67 TOR 5th (LW Koda Adok) S67 TOR 6th (D Noah Hanley) To (S63) LW - Chace Trepanier (S64) D - Bolt Vanderhuge Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller Toronto Legion GM: Ryan Power ---------------------- To S67 NYA 2nd (D Derek England) To S67 CGY 3rd (RW RJ Lloris) S68 HSK 2nd (D Finnegan MacBurn) Helsinki Titans GM: Matt Bailey New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann ---------------------- To S67 TOR 3rd (C Trevor Van Lagen) To S68 MOS 3rd (RW Mac Hooper) Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller Calgary Wranglers GM: Tyler Barabash ---------------------- To S67 CGY 5th (C Ryszard Franciszek) S67 CGY 6th (D Brooks Polak) To S68 DAV 4th (RW Roadkill Steve) HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade Calgary Wranglers GM: Tyler Barabash --------------------- To (S66) LW - Blake Laughton To S67 NYA 5th (D David Lindberg) S68 SEA 4th (C Nate Wright) New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller --------------------- To S67 NYA 6th (C Free Boubabi) To (S65) D - Bald Guy Helsinki Titans GM: Matt Bailey New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann --------------------- To (S65) G - Chase S68 VAN 4th (RW Joakim Sakic) To (S66) G - Clayton Park Seattle Bears GM: Blake Campbell Vancouver Wolves GM: Keaton Louth --------------------- To (S63) RW - Wlodzimierz Zajaczkowski To (S65) RW - Matthew Kai Malmo Nighthawks GM: Chris Miller Toronto Legion GM: Ryan Power ---------------------- To (S60) D - Johannes Vihjalmsson (S63) LW - Chace Trepanier To (S62) D - Lando Baxter Seattle Bears GM: Blake Campbell Toronto Legion GM: Ryan Power ---------------------- To (S65) G - Joe Nixon S68 NYA 2nd (RW Owen Nolan) S69 VAN 4th (G Mark Davis) To (S62) G - Ismond Kingfisher New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann Vancouver Wolves GM: Keaton Louth --------------------- To (S66) G - Clayton Park To S68 RIG 4th (D Alex Armstrong) Riga Reign GM: Benjamin Zeptenbergs Vancouver Wolves GM: Keaton Louth Trades Completed During Season 67July 23, 2019 - August 4, 2019 To (S63) RW - Dan Wilinsky To (S65) C - Viktor Kozlov (S66) C - Ludvig Sederstrom S68 TOR 1st (G A Red Guy) S68 HSK 3rd (RW Jaxon Walker) S69 HSK 4th (D Kato von Essen) Helsinki Titans GM: Matt Bailey New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann --------------------- To (S65) D - Carles Puigdemont To (S63) LW - Chace Trepanier S68 SEA 5th (RW Bud Knight) Seattle Bears GM: Blake Campbell New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann ---------------------- To (S60) G - Tristan Iseult To (S66) G - Kolur Bjoernsson Helsinki Titans GM: Matt Bailey New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann --------------------- To (S62) C - Maxim Kovalchuk (S66) RW - John Frostbeard S69 CGY 3rd (C Kim Jong Un) To (S64) C - Joel Ylonen Seattle Bears GM: Blake Campbell Calgary Wranglers GM: Tyler Barabash --------------------- To (S67) D - Guy LeGrande To S68 TOR 3rd (RW David Wallace) S69 NYA 2nd (LW Markus Nygren) New York Americans GM: Esso Drunkmann HC Davos Dynamo GM: Shawn Glade

1. Oof, tough one. I like to keep them at a reasonably similar level and the point is it must be possible to find them on the site/portal, so they're all inherently not TOO obscure. That said, my favourite one to devise was the one about the S43 Bears a couple seasons back, where there were many odd things about that team but the unique one was that they won the cup as the 3rd seed in the conference but that was quite a logical puzzle. 2. This is an even better question haha. There's one called 'HOF players per cup champion' which also includes own draft picks per cup champion (i.e. how many homegrown players) which has been sat there for over a year now waiting to be turned into a Media Spot. There's only called 'Hall of Famers by team', i.e. which team had the most HOFers make an appearance for them, which I have no idea if I'll ever use. And I just found one about retired numbers which I think I should revisit soon. And I just got down to the start of 2019 in my drive so there's probably more weird shit lower down. 3. I was actually a really bad drafter back in S15-S16 with New York so I defended against that by basically trading for the entirety of the S36-S39 Davos team (the only draft pick there was a 1st overall goalie in Lennox Moher, pretty easy pick). So it's probably going to turn out to be someone from this Moscow stint. I am really pleased with Jet Jaguar so far to be honest at 10th overall. Honourable mention though to my very first pick, Patrick Bergqvist second overall in S15. Was BPA but also an unknown first-gen who turned out to be a good friend and valued VHL member, Leeroy Jenkins being his next player. 4. Oh, loads of options. The single worst one was probably Jordan Berglund 1st overall in S17, after deciding for days if I should go for him or Markus Strauss. One ended up in the HOF and it wasn't Berglund. But basically every pick I made in S17, the very next selection was the better player. It was a horrendous draft, I ended up resigning about a week later, not because of that, but kinda glad I did haha. 5. I knew it was very likely I'd need more defencemen so yeah, I was keeping the possibility open. If I was gonna stick at center, I was just going to throw a lot of VHLM banked TPE into faceoffs last off-season, but after getting Cast with Jaguar and Gebauer already on board I really didn't need a center. 6. Not a concern at all, he's here to get points on the board and throughout his career no one's been better at it.

Nice 1 goal

Oh this race is tight as fuck

8 theme week TPE for Pavlov because of this and this: https://vhlforum.com/topic/67951-who-is-jason-glasser-the-vhl-gm/ 8 theme week TPE for Cast because of these two: https://vhlforum.com/topic/67949-how-much-will-the-expansion-draft-affect-current-teams/ https://vhlforum.com/topic/67950-last-expansion-for-a-while/

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.