The VHL's 20 in 20 series created by Zero, followed by ten more articles in S30 and another ten in S40, mostly written by me with a few exceptions, were a fine idea and if I may say so myself, quite decent articles in the end. You can find them all the Hall of Fame.
However, they were also very time-consuming and unless someone else chooses to pick them up, there won't be a 50 in 50 addition to the league. Fear not though, as I will not simply let this momentous occasion slip by as resident VHL history, and I have a few ideas in store for the upcoming 50th (fiftieth!!) anniversary of the league. The first of these will begin to take shape in Season 49 on the pages of the VHL Magazine, with the idea laid out below.
I don't think enough attention has ever been given to the quality of some past VHL champions so I decided to right this wrong following an off-hand conversation with Chris Miller, aka @Advantage. There is of course a very straightforward way of ranking championship teams, but not every championship team was at its best necessarily in the season that they won the Continental Cup. Additionally, some champions look much more impressive when seen as part of the longer dynasty. With that in mind, I felt it was necessary to rank all of the VHL's dynasties from S1 to the present day. Now, dynasty is a strong term which isn't really true for most of these, but it's the best term I could think of. The criteria to qualify for the below list was simple: win a Continental Cup (with one exception) and any consecutive playoff seasons around that championship will count as part of the “dynasty”. Again, there are a few more exceptions as Davos won the cup in S11 and S13 but missed the playoffs in S12. Meanwhile, Riga won the cup in S16 and made the playoffs from S15 to S21, but the years after S17 were a very different team plus they didn't win another cup. Otherwise, it's all quite uniform.
List of “dynasties” to be ranked, in chronological order:
S1-S4 Vasteras IK – S1 Continental Cup champions
S1-S3 Calgary Wranglers - S2, S3
S4-S6 Seattle Bears – S4, S5
S5-S6 Helsinki Titans – S6
S6-S7 Avangard Havoc – S7
S5-S9 Calgary Wranglers – S8
S7-S10 Toronto Legion – S9
S8-S12 Riga Reign – S10
S11-S14 HC Davos Dynamo – S11, S13
S10-S12 Seattle Bears – S12
S12-S15 New York Americans – S14
S14-S16 Helsinki Titans – S15
S15-S17 Riga Reign – S16
S15-S17 Seattle Bears – S17
S18-S19 Calgary Wranglers – S18, S19
S19-S25 HC Davos Dynamo – S20, S24, S25
S19-S25 Toronto Legion – S21
S22-S24 Helsinki Titans – S22
S22-S23 Calgary Wranglers – S23
S25-S26 Vasteras Iron Eagles – S26
S26-S27 Helsinki Titans – S27
S24-S31 New York Americans – no cup, S32 cup winners split into different run
S26-S30 Seattle Bears – S28
S29 Toronto Legion – self-explanatory
S30-S35 Calgary Wranglers – S30
S28-S31 HC Davos Dynamo – S31
S32-S34 New York Americans – S32
S31-S34 Riga Reign – S33
S31-S36 Helsinki Titans – S34
S34-S37 Quebec City Meute – S35
S35-S39 HC Davos Dynamo – S36, S38
S35-S38 Toronto Legion – S37
S38-S42 New York Americans – S39, S41
S37-S41 Riga Reign – S40
S40-S44 Cologne Express – S42
S43 Seattle Bears – the battle against S29 Toronto will be intense
S44-S47 Calgary Wranglers – S44
S45-present Helsinki Titans – S45, S46
S44-present New York Americans – S47
S48-present Toronto Legion???
The spreadsheet as it stands includes the length of the dynasty, the amount of finals and cups in that time frame, as well as award winners and eventual Hall of Famers. If you think something else should be included in considering this ranking and/or would like to have an early look at what it looks like, let me know by posting below. Otherwise, stay tuned to this ranking making its way to a magazine near you soon.