Victor

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).

Love New York.

kewl

The Quebec City Meute and the curious case of underachieving teams There have been relatively few surprises thus far in the S63 VHL regular season. The top four spots are occupied by the four cup favourites and it's not yet clear who will have home ice advantage in the playoffs, while the lottery teams are about as mediocre to bad as expected. Minor upsets were caused by the Toronto Legion, who continue to give some hope of a wildcard round upset, but they are also relativ ely in line with expectation – the big surprise was that GM Ryan Power chose to build a team in this way in the first place. Instead, perhaps the most unexpected development has been the curious drifting of last year's finalists, the Quebec City Meute. No longer a young and up and coming team, this was expected to be the season the Meute really made a name for themselves. With, on paper, the best defensive pairing in the league in Casey Jones and Colton Rayne, the Meute have certainly kept it tight at the back and Tristan Iseult has benefited as the Shaw and Clegane Trophy favourite given the odd struggles of Norris Stopko. But in terms of goals, there has been a dearth of those, and Quebec finds itself staring at the prospect of a wildcard round to start the playoffs. Only 1 player, Veran Dragomir, is scoring above a point-per-game mark, with 55 in 51 games, despite being the 4th highest forward in TPA league-wide. This is not a new development, as even in high-scoring S62, only one Quebec player (Rayne with 101) cracked the 100-point mark. It's also far from a new development in the VHL in general, with the Meute having a large amount of historic examples to look at with both hope and dread. S42 Cologne Express When I look at the current Meute, the S42 Express is the first team that comes to my mind. Three seasons on from coming away with the top two picks in the highly stacked S40 draft, Cologne appeared in the same state of mediocrity. Their top scorer was Thomas O'Malley, with 78 points by some distance the lowest of his career (he'd end up being one of the few 900-pointers in VHL history). They had 85 points, some way behind the three favourites New York, Quebec, and Helsinki. Then lo and behold, the Express turned up the style in the playoffs, won the franchise's only championship, and shook off the offensive shackles going forward. In S43 and S44, they became the VHL's most entertaining team, O'Malley twice leading the league with 50+ goals and 130+ points, and a host of other forwards from Bismarck Koenig to Christoph Klose to Xin Xie Xiao all benefiting. They lost two straight finals, but overall are definitely an example of how things can still turn around for Quebec. S41-S42 Helsinki Titans At the same time as Cologne found a way out of their strange mire, their European rivals in Helsinki provide a cautionary tale of how things might never get better. A much hyped team which accumulated highly rated young players like James Faraday, Don Draper, and Jake Wylde never really got going, despite high TPE levels. In Season 41, the Titans won a playoff series but went out to Riga in the conference finals, after a very mediocre regular season where their top scorer, Faraday, only had 73 points. Things improved in S41 when Helsinki got a first-round bye and Faraday got up to 98 points, followed closely by Naomi Young on 95, but this more promising regular season was followed by another conference final defeat. The Titans then blew things up and although that rebuild ended with back-to-back cups in S45 and S46, that was little consolation for the players who put the effort into a couple very disappointing runs. S61-S62 HC Davos Dynamo Of course, Quebec doesn't have to look that far back for examples of a similar situation. The recent version of Davos broke an uncharacteristically long cup drought but was still an odd team. They never really excelled in the regular season and lived life on the edge in the playoffs, despite getting over the line in S61. The Dynamo were led by Gabriel McAllister, his generation's finest player, but he didn't crack the 100-point mark during his time in Switzerland, again despite a very high-scoring S62 league-wide. Now back in Seattle, McAllister is back to his best, cementing his first ballot Hall of Fame career with likely another Scotty Campbell Trophy. Similarly, Joseph Bassolino, probably Davos' second best player, struggled to make an impact on the league in his Dynamo days, but a move to Riga (and defence) puts him currently second in league scoring, 86 points through 51 games already being a career best. It may be that Quebec still manage to pull off a Continental Cup win in the next season or two, but for guys like Dragomir, Beau Louth, and Samuel Gate, perhaps their best chances of individual success lie elsewhere. So which will it be? Will the Meute go the Cologne route of it all coming together suddenly and gloriously or will this be the modern day Helsinki – good on paper, but underachieving on the ice? Or perhaps they'll go for the middle route – the team succeeds but the players do better when they move on. It could still go any way.

Kisshan coming for Cast's top line spot.

I thought you guys were European? Is Team World the mercenaries of the WJC?

You know you're old when you look at the stats leaders of the WJC and struggle to recognise any names. Given it's already the medal stage of the tournament it's probably to late to start getting to know them now, so I'll just wait for them to become household names in the VHL. At least the fact the two best players are Riga Reign property is certainly quite pleasing. So instead I'll decide which team I think I might like the most based on where they're from. Canada – The home of hockey. The birthplace of hockey and the centre of the hockey world. Always favourites and often winners. Couldn't be me. I love an underdog. USA – In theory, the underdog to the dominant hockey nation that is Canada. But how can anyone cheer for the US and claim they're supporting the underdog? Absolutely not. Europe – This is close to home. Love Europe. So many places to visit, so many different cultures in such a small space. Not that good at hockey but as a single unit, including Scandinavia, can still be a force. But no. Brexit means Brexit. Asia – Quite a vast continent. I've never been so can't comment. Unless you count Turkey (editor's note: You don't count Turkey). Not particularly known for hockey, although they have claimed Russia which is very much known for hockey. Still, to much of an unknown. World – What presumptuous bullshit is this? You represent the whole world, do ya? The United Nations of Hockey. This makes me angry. I'm angry now, well done WJC.

Phil Hamilton and Theo Axelsson are definitely free to be claimed now.

Haters Gonna Hate