Victor

Iseult

In his head Stopko is already retired.

Yassssss Hope we meet in the playoffs this season, this seems like fun. Also hope you get swept in the first round but hey ho.

https://www86.zippyshare.com/v/TGHVKsne/file.html 3+1 TPE

DEPHFPTH

shootout winner yay

They're cool. There are also six teams so more world cup depth level than actual VHL. I also don't really care but if we're going to bring them in I don't know what else we'd use them for.

I'll probably keep stealing the puck from Thompson to ensure he doesn't score more than me.

Wait this isn't 500 words! (unless it's not meant to be, in which case, carry on)

Big fan of this

1. Where's your nose? 2. What season should we expect to see you graduating from the VHLM? 3. Favourite VHLM team? 4. Best player in the league right now and why is it Podrick Cast? 5. If you had to pick any of the current VHL playoff teams to win the cup, who would you pick?

1. Pretty predictable to be honest, should be a decent playoffs, but don't think this season will live long in the memory. Probably doesn't help that it follows the individually great S62, but yeah. Not too many storylines for me. 2. Honestly, 10. It was irking me significantly, almost as much as the Marta and Fong Trophies not being retired. Initially, I think I'd have ended up disappointed that the Wylde stuck around but we found a very good solution, and the Valiq Trophy aesthetically pleases me. I'm glad not too many seasons of the Labatte were lost. 3. Let's see how it goes in the off-season, I'm a bit weary that the hype has died down pretty quickly. I do like the concept and had a fair amount of fun with it when the original bids were being made, so am keeping an open mind. 4. Chershenko. My most fun player and I'm sure he'd be a playoff god even against serious depreciation - might even beat Campbell's career stats. In his position, Clegane was the more dominant but the risk with going too far with goalies is all their key stats get worse with time... best to leave him on the high. 5. It probably still is Calgary, even though I haven't been there since Chershenko. That just enhances it to be honest, it's like a distant memory of a bygone time. Davos when I was GM was fun too and extending what at the time was a very impressive legacy. Shame they ruined it afterwards. 6. So obviously as I just said I was Davos GM. Can't believe you forgot that, I traded you guys Kellinger for 2 drafts. I was also NY GM a long time ago and not very successfully, for two seasons, but in 5 seasons with Davos I basically did everything I wanted - quick rebuild, 3 finals, 2 cups. My approach is actually quite similar to yours in that I accumulate draft picks as assets, without the intention of using most of them. That then means that I have to be highly involved in being ahead of the game in trades and FA (see the wooing of Tordahl from Helsinki). That's very draining and don't think I could last longer than a rebuild-contention cycle as GM. Also I think there is a clear knock on effect on quality of players - it's not impossible to make a HOF player as GM but you're much more a victim of circumstance. Note how sterling has never been a GM but all his players are in the HOF. All of mine but my first-gen are. Out of not my first-gens, my GM player in Bentley was probably my worst - still a HOFer, but just about. And he was only a defenceman because I was GM. So I veer very much to the player-first side of the spectrum, although I may dabble again in it now with GMs having two players. But then that's a concept I don't particularly like as I showed in the BOG so I don't know if I can bring myself to do that. Plus, time constraints IRL make my full-on GMing style hard to implement. I do agree, I'd think I'd definitely do a good job over a long period of time, but I don't really have the itch to do it because of the success of the Davos time.

My man Kallis!

Oh boy Kallis.

Can't believe none of the syllables are Gow.

3-2 Seattle

232 New York Americans @ Riga Reign 233 Calgary Wranglers @ Seattle Bears 234 Quebec City Meute @ Helsinki Titans 235 Toronto Legion @ HC Davos Dynamo

The inaugural Sponsor's Shield tournament will soon be hitting a VHL off-season near you, with the Brand Managers doing their best to attract the VHL's finest to their brand and build a winning team. When attracting players, the managers might have gotten a bit overzealous by offering the maximum $3mil slot to players who didn't deserve it, or perhaps got lucky by getting a true star for free relying on brand appeal alone. Now that Season 63 is almost up, we can have a good look at who's going into the Sponsor's Shield grossly overpaid and who should be calling up their agent to renegotiate. The “Stealing a Living” Category The $3mil slots appeared to have been thrown around with no discernible logic before S63. Among the reasonably safe bets of Podrick Cast and Jasper Canmore, currently #4 and #3 in league scoring, we have the much braver punts like reigning Valiq Trophy winner (but still just a sophomore) Maxim Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk hasn't quite hit the heights of S62, but is still performing respectably, which can't be said for some other highly paid stars. Riga's rookie goaltender Kallis Kriketers, whose .915 save percentage and frequently subpar performances have left some fans clamouring for a return of Arvid Aamo. But Kriketers is safe from the most overpaid tag – that has to go to Konstantin Mulligan, who is Jolt Juice's highest paid player despite not yet scoring 100 VHL points. Beau Louth, and his below-point-per-game pace on a struggling Quebec, is also in trouble. The “How'd You Get Him For Free?” Category Well, it's actually quite obvious how Gabriel McAllister ended up not taking any money for his endorsement given he will retire after the tournament is up. Still, picking up the best forward of the generation for nothing is a big boost for Ubuyalot Games. He's looking to end his career on a high with another Scotty Campbell Trophy and could yet add to his impressive playoff record – the question is can he keep going for another testing tournament in the off-season? Honourable mention here to Keaton Louth, also playing for free, but for VIKING. He's no McAllister but he's the reigning playoff MVP and ninth in league scoring, so is definitely worth more than he's (not) getting. The “Everyone Else” Category Outside of the obvious picks there's a few other bargains out there. Joseph Bassolino at $1mil is good value for money for Haterade, the former Davos center a completely changed man now that he's in Riga and on defence. His prime competition for the Labatte, Mats Johnsson, also undervalued himself by signing up for just $750k with Ubuyalot, although a similar reasoning to fellow old head McAllister is probably applicable. That, or manager Jorgon Weyed did a great job of whispering sweet nothings in these veterans' ears. On the less wisely spent money side of things, we have Johnny Havenk Carison, relegated to the bench by veteran Shawn Brodeur in Toronto, but racking up a nice $1.25mil salary with True North Gear. Apart from that, bring on the tournament and sorry you're all losing to Haterade.

Outside of Calgary, https://vhlforum.com/topic/31244-quebecs-win-streak/

Think the GMs should be incentivised to poach players and/or do stuff like weekly rankings and otherwise generate hype. *I say GMs, I mean BMs

Switzerland v Belgium was one of the most fun games I've watched in a while. Was ready to switch off after Belgium scored 2 and Swiss needed 4.

Go for it!

We no longer on fire.

We on fire.

1. Lack of an absolute elite TPE player. Cast is now in the top 10 players league-wide, Preencarnacion and Bassolino just behind, but Seattle, Calgary, and Quebec have some monsters from the S56/S57 era. That could be the difference. 2. Honestly, it's scary to think about it. I really don't want to get my hopes up, but I don't think a player will be better positioned for a while to get into the top 3 all-time, maybe even push Szatkowski's 971. So hopefully this 3-season stretch is somehow only the beginning. 3. I think both will benefit equally. Both are on pace to crack the 800-point mark comfortably which for me is the first consideration for the HOF before anything like who did they play with. Extrapolating current careers, Cast and Thompson would be the first ballot Hall of Famers but I don't think it'd be much more than a season's delay for Preencarnacion, and that's if he doesn't win any individual awards - I'm sure he will though. 4. I don't think the S64 draft is quite deep enough for Riga's pick to be an instant VHL player - I could be wrong here. So if there isn't a very good buying opportunity (and based on the age of the players likely available for sale I don't think there will be), there's no harm having more prospects in the pipeline in case anything goes wrong with S62/S63 classes. We gained a lot this off-season through FA and could lose it just as quickly, so I definitely don't think there's a pressing need to sell all the picks. 5. Something would have to go terribly wrong in the next 5 seasons for Cast, Thompson, and Preencarnacion to not make it. Sterling should get a few Shaws at some point and secure his place. Gate is well positioned but defencemen are tougher to predict, but if he doesn't, a forward like Louth might so I'm going to put a preliminary prediction of 5 players. We'll all be in a great position to exploit the talent gap at the top once the S57s retire so it is looking good. 6. Sebastian Ironside. He was nearly the highest scoring center at one point and is still doing very well on an average team. But Jake Davis maybe even more so... thought he'd be overshadowed by other Seattle players and ended up not picking him up in fantasy, despite him having a hot start from the very start of the season (with the draft still going on).