Victor

Alright @Members, hope you've recovered from your initial injection of hype. We are now entering the team selection process. @Acydburn and I want a final team poll featuring 8 or 9 teams but as you might have seen from my weekend Media Spot, there's not actually enough ready-made ones to narrow down to 6 VHLE teams. So, forget about the Stockholm Vikings, Cologne Express, Vasteras Iron Eagles, Bratislava Watchmen, and Bern Royals for a moment - we'll come back to them. In the meantime, we just want to see which cities are the most popular from a small shortlist. Vote for your 2 favourite cities on the list and the most popular options we'll try to either match to an existing logo or design a brand new concept for. And remember, stay hype.

Valid points tbf. I think the Stockholm Vikings name is a strong frontrunner but that doesn't mean no changes to the logos - as long as we keep it in-house I say that's totally within the remit of the VHLE.

Discuss Winnipeg Jets and Arizona Coyotes

1-1 RARA, Aksu coming in to brighten up the day.

@hedgehog337 pls

Respect the derp

Week 2 of 3. First VHLE related poll will be coming possibly as soon as this weekend! Watch this space.

I have to say I don't like the face at all, sorry. Riga lion >>> Plus @Esso2264 actually wants this to be the Montreal logo.

Yis

That's what he said.

Let Maronen start every game.

In the spirit of VHLE, let's have a European franchise themed trivia week to kick off S78. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy14t2wXDNAm7BDnlEd_YpEyucneBDI57OO_LvZt4DWG9-9g/viewform?usp=sf_link Each correct answer is worth 1 capped TPE at the end of the week. Don't reveal the answer in public, but if you're not sure, ask around, here, or in the special trivia Discord channel. @Members

That's ok I guess.

Never understood why some players were so loyal to him throughout all his stints which generally always ended as trainwrecks with no leadership.

Very nice and much needed uplift

Alright, who's ready for some potential VHLE team hype? We are going to go down memory lane to see which logos and franchises have a shot at coming back to the VHL after 20 or 30 seasons in the abyss and assess the early favourites and the longshots. Vasteras Iron Eagles Up first it's Vasteras. I think it would be one of the upsets of the year, although very fitting for Vasteras, if this is not the landslide winner of the vote. This should be one of the few instances where there will be a united front between the hardcore Vasteras fans and the members who thought the Vasteras experiment had run its course but retain a soft spot for the franchise. As a quick recap, Vasteras is an iconic franchise for a variety of largely wrong reasons. Founded as the Vasteras IK, a straight rip-off of an existing Swedish hockey franchise, the team drafted Scotty Campbell in S1 and famously won the inaugural Continental Cup, defeating the record-setting 69-3 Calgary Wranglers. After Calgary avenged their defeat in a rematch in S2, Vasteras went on an infamous run – making only one further finals appearance before S26, and this was during a brief sojourn as the ill-fated Madrid Thunder. The franchise returned to Vasteras in S21, now under the Iron Eagles moniker and soon under that clean logo you can see above. S26 ended the longest cup drought in VHL history but embarked on an even longer one, although from S41 the team moved to Stockholm (more on that franchise in a second). Although to this day no franchise has matched either of Vasteras' lengthy cup droughts (New York and Davos are getting close though), the city was home to several big names over the years. Campbell started his career as noted above, with the likes of Mike Szatkowski, James Bencharski, and Tukka Reikkinen lighting up Vasteras in the seasons to come. During their time, highly respected members such as Sterling, Tyler, Damien (muffins), Corco, and solas represented the Vasteras brand well and have kept the memory alive such that I think this is one of the VHLE favourites. Bratislava Watchmen From unsuccessful, possibly cursed, but well-liked in some circles, we go to very successful and why were they contracted again? Bratislava's contraction in S53 is in my eyes one of the biggest mistakes the VHL has ever made and a large reason for the VHLM's North American shift, as it, along with Bern's move to Las Vegas, left Oslo as the minor league's only European representative. Coming into the VHLM as part of the S31 expansion, Bratislava was created by future Builder Vince Wong (future Helsinki and NY GM) and won 2 cups in his 6 season tenure – the Watchmen eventually won 7 in 23 seasons of existence which as I'm sure you'll appreciate is an incredible record. In addition, after Wong Bratislava was at various times run by Blake Campbell and Benjamin Zeptenbergs – two names you'll recognise as they've been in charge of Seattle and Riga forever and are also both in the Hall of Fame. Great GMs lent themselves to great players passing through Bratislava – the likes of Thomas Landry, Davey Jones, Niklas Lindberg, Jody 3 Moons, and Pietro Maximoff started out as Watchmen – i.e. some of the earliest VHL experiences of Trifecta, Doomsday, Boubabi, and Gorlab, among others. Anyway, Bratislava won the Founder's Cup in S52, literally a season before someone decided to get rid of the franchise and for this injustice they will definitely be my first vote into the VHLE. Stockholm Vikings The cursed child of Vasteras. Despite not being the successful new chapter that Riga, Davos, and New York were for their franchises, the Vikings came into the league with a great logo and left with plenty of goodwill. Two trips to the finals in just 17 seasons is better than what Vasteras could muster in the previous 38, but in the end the Vikings couldn't get over the hump falling in two finals to New York and it was an easy choice to contract. I don't really have much of a fond connection to Stockholm and the fact they peaked in the late 40s and early 50s means they're associated with the league disparity of the time, Project Player Two, and just general pessimism. I do think the Vikings brand deserves a second shot and a potential Swedish rivalry with Vasteras is intriguing plus I think lots of people will vote for this option anyway. Cologne Express Once associated with Quebec as one of the first expansion teams in the VHL, since S57 Cologne has sadly been forever linked to Stockholm as one of two unlucky contracted franchises. The Express were the slower starters compared to the Meute, but in S42 won a championship at the expense of Quebec, and with the likes of Kameron Taylor and Thomas O'Malley being some of their homegrown talents, Cologne was definitely a desirable destination. Things soured after that though and the Express made only one more finals appearance after the O'Malley era, becoming known for a ludicrously good Joel Jarvi season in S53 and then infamously for being managed into the ground by Scott Anderson. The lack of a German team in the VHL despite coming so close in the S73 expansion might make Cologne slightly more appealing than Stockholm. I would personally expect both to make it into the VHLE but if it came down to it I might edge towards Cologne. CHOO CHOO. Bern Royals Davos' old affiliate, the Royals controversially moved to Las Vegas in the 50s because someone let Robbie Zimmers make decisions, although the Aces seem to be a decent VHLM franchise and Bern was always a bit forgettable. I don't really how strong feelings about the Royals, except maybe that the name doesn't make too much sense for Switzerland, but I do like Bern as a location and think Swiss hockey deserves more representation both for its prevalence in VHL history and its real life growth over the past decade or so. Bern would be one of the teams I would probably vote for but maybe leave the name open to suggestions as long it suited the logos. I do however think a regal team in the VHLE would be very welcome. Turku Outlaws This is actually a difficult one to support because 1) they didn't win anything and 2) I can't actually find their logo. I know it was a dark green with black type scheme which is fairly redundant if Cologne makes its way back into the VHLE as I suspect it will. Plus Turku's stay in the VHLM was very brief, with Kolari having won in S30 and Turku being disbanded at the end of S42 – so there really isn't much history to call on. Really Turku's best hope is taking someone else's logo purely on the basis of being a good Finnish location and in my opinion superior to Kolari. Kolari Panthers The problem with the Panthers in the meantime is the tiny little town they are based in, as well as a logo I am not convinced is actually ours (but it might be). I know there is a reasonably sized support for Kolari in the league, mainly from members who remember the franchise from the 20s, but it could be a tough sell. I will touch on two other potential options now before suggesting what might be a solution for the Turku/Kolari/other location dilemma. The Gladiators and the Red Wolves We then have two fine logos which don't quite work for the VHLE. One is for the Minot Gladiators, a franchise contracted back in S42 along with Turku and based in North Dakota. That was quite a controversial decision at the time, as Minot had a good history, especially as Calgary's affiliate, and was also the hometown of the recently passed away 701 who was a vocal critic of their contraction. There is no real reason to bring back Minot but the Gladiators might have life yet – either as a logo for either Turku or Kolari or perhaps another location such as Gothenburg or Oslo, both of which were well-liked and successful VHLM franchises. The Red Wolves in the meantime is possibly not the most ground-breaking logo but adds a nice bit of red to the league and would most likely have to move elsewhere within Russia, given Moscow now has a successful franchise in the VHL. That's fine though – Russia is obviously a massive hockey nation and can be represented with more than 1 team across the leagues. Certainly these two logos provide a bit of flexibility with the team options. With that in mind however, there is a possibility that a brand new logo is the approach to take, rather than pulling together scraps to form a 6th (or 5th) VHLE franchise. If I was a betting man I would say Vasteras, Stockholm, Cologne, and Bratislava are four slam-dunk and in fact excellent selections for revival. Bern might sneak in by default either. The sixth selection is open to interpretation however and perhaps there is time for someone to approach the VHLE with a real game-changer of a franchise.

Curious how you think Vasteras' history was ever better than Davos' Also could Pensfan come back now??

G Artem Tretiak @animal74

I personally lean towards VHL rules and relaxing of VHL rules, but we'll see. Like with the changes this offseason, numbers will drive this. Probably rarer than you think. For example, only 1 S78 player would have been eligible to skip VHLE this season and pursue a 9 season career. And that's a risk anyway with an early start (joining a league where 95% of the population will be 100 TPA ahead of you) and signing up to some horrific 9th season depreciation. Yeah, end of offseason, and part of VHLE GM jobs will be figuring out if there's a chance of that happening with their targets.

It's extending further than the VHL can possibly imagine. Soon the Continental Cup finals will be a fight to get promoted to the VHLE.

The real question is will VHL stats count towards VHLE

Ah yes bipolar Rara is back.

F Duncan Idaho @Enorama

Why so many shots man