Victor

Yeah what the fuck Gus, I don't come here to think about existence. nah this is good shit. I think this resonates in particular because there's already like two of me - no one IRL knows about the VHL, barely anyone on the VHL knows more than a little snippet about my real life. I also think this has changed over time. Early days VHL I think I was trying to be someone here that I wasn't necessarily IRL. These days I think we are more or less the same person. Despite not knowing about this at the moment, I don't think my real life friends would be surprised this is what I'm into. Equally, I don't think it'll be hugely surprising to anyone here that I'm in finance IRL. I also wonder what people think other people on here look like. Generally, if I'm speaking to someone online I read things in my voice and by extension assume they look similar to me tbh. That's actually still true of people whose faces I have seen. So some members have been quite a surprise (in a good way usually).

is this you volunteering as well btw?

team chaos

Hi all - I'm in the midst of a small historical Media Spot for which I need a few second opinions. VHL history knowledge is welcome but not essential - I'm gonna send you a few things to rank and provide the detail behind them. So really, no history knowledge might be even better.... Anyway, post below or PM me if you're interested.

are they "MOSCOW. MOSCOW. MOSCOW."?

Also @solas, your sig dropdown/spoiler is world class

Can't believe I missed this - great write-up focusing on what really makes this one of the most unique Builders we have. Tyler's one of our most underrated members for sure.

Builders are best done by an older head so happy to leave it with you for the time being.

Thanks @tcookie25 @RedSus and @fromtheinside for catching us up on players, good work! Blake Campbell (Bana) - @Rayzor_7 Austin Gow (Eaglesfan) - @flyersfan1453 Ryan Power (Devise) - @Tagger Tyler Owens (Tyler) - @solas Ivo Willems (Green/OrbitingDeath) - @Poptart are these getting done? Have I missed any being posted? Also Dollar's Builder article is also now available.

I've just added you to it

Bushito madness

I totally misread that tbh as 'all my Hall of Famers were RWs' lol. I've never made a winger, it may be time. But what would you do with all that unused Faceoff TPE??

I heard whispers of some active VHLM ones...

I think Muller ended up going in as a center, otherwise he would be the most recent (again, apart from Chouinard).

Better beer, worse pierogies?

Lol London isn't fucking around huh

Sirkants and Rara trading elite games, I'll take it. Over to Bernard now.

An interview with Rara Rasputin From leaving Miami as a local hero to coming back to Moscow as a relative unknown, and a symbol of the inevitable – the imminent retirement of the Menace's now legendary goaltender Raymond Bernard. That is the situation that Rara Rasputin finds himself in going into his first season in the VHL – S75. It may not actually end up counting as his rookie season, if, as is custom, Moscow management only use him for the required eight regular season games for a backup, letting Bernard play the rest. But rumours swirling around the Russian capital are that Rasputin will start at least one of the season opening games against rivals Riga, so we sat down with the man who might be the centre of attention in less than 24 hours' time. Interviewer: You probably heard the rumours going around that the coach is going to test you straight off the bat in game 1 of the season. How are you feeling? Rasputin: *chuckling* Yeah, it's a strange one, I guess it's the mysterious working of the schedule which put us against a team that management think I could beat straight off the bat. I think the Reign guys would have heard it too and they'll be extra motivated – no one is giving them a chance this season but this is an organisation with over a decade of playoff hockey, they know what they're doing, so I'm expecting a huge challenge from the start. I guess going into a season you know you'll be a backup is tough but this should help with motivation then? Definitely – I've watched many Moscow games since we got the franchise here in S65 and like all fans I know Riga is the big rival – how many times did we meet in the playoffs? 5? 6? Huge series, big consequences each time. And the Reign fans of course have a chip in their shoulder about beating the Russians so absolutely, I won't struggle preparing myself mentally for this one. Looking ahead though, it may be a tough season. The coaches have made it clear that Bernard will start his 64 games so I will be on the bench a lot. It's for the team's good of course, who am I to complain if we win a cup? But I'll just have to make the most of time with him in training so I can absorb some knowledge and take it into the season after. Provided everything goes to plan and you take over as starter in S76 – in your head, is that the start of your career really then? In a way, yes, but I don't really look at it like that. My career started last year, a great season with the boys in Miami, a wonderful finish. And this season, if something happens, god forbid, to Bernard, I'll need to step up. So I can't be thinking of the future, I need to be present in the now and do what's best for the team. That is a great attitude Rara, I think this will ease a lot of fans' fears about the future of Moscow! Thanks for your time and good luck this season. Thank you, I think I'll need it!

Rara Rasputin Prospect Scouting Report Rara Rasputin came from nowhere, a complete unknown becoming the chosen successor to Raymond Bernard in Moscow. He had one season to hone his skills in the VHLM before being thrown into the deep end and after a shaky start he performed very well and was a key part of Miami's Cinderella run to the Founder's Cup, even earning 4 votes for playoff MVP. Miami's roster by the time they won Game 4 against Mississauga was nearly unrecognizable from the one Rasputin joined in pre-season, so what does this dream sequence of a season tell us about the rookie Russian netminder? What is Rasputin good at? Adaptability: More than ever it felt that the leap of faith of adding Rasputin to the Victor agency was more about psychology than any particular skillset. The early journey of Rasputin in the VHL is something of a social experiment – can you teach someone with no hockey background how to be an elite hockey player purely based on their mentality? So far, so good in terms of being a quick learner. We said Miami was unrecognizable by the end of S74 but the same can be said about Rasputin – from a liability to posting regular shutouts and stealing playoff games. He'll have to keep learning on the fly in the VHL. Leadership: Almost by default, Rasputin earned the Marauders' captaincy when he joined the team. He seemed to get lost in the shuffle as the roster grew over the season but then stepped up in a big way, urging the team on and being a good motivating force. Both Miami's management and his teammates noticed, leading Rasputin to take home two awards from the team's end-of-season party – one for leadership and one as team MVP. That's a good sign as Rasputin's predecessor as GM player, Vladimir Pavlov, was a more reserved type while it seem that Rasputin could be a leader on and off the ice in Moscow. What is he bad at? A lot of things: Let's not beat around the bush, the man affectionately known as Rara may have the intangibles nailed down (ironic considering they're, you know, intangible), but he's a long way off what we'd expect from an over-30 goalie entering the VHL. One season of VHLM success is promising but won't paper over all the cracks and bridge the gap between a newcomer to hockey and literally any of his opponents, in net and otherwise, who will have years of experience in the game. His skating is still shaky and his stick-handling virtually non-existent. Yes, Rasputin is big and fairly agile, and will be protected by arguably the league's best defence in S75 in the few games he's wheeled out for. But if Moscow wants to stay competitive after Bernard retires, Rasputin will need to step up in a big way between now and the start of S76. Let's hope that famous mental fortitude makes the difference.

Your playbook of being good every 6-7 seasons can not possibly be copied.

I'm still here reppin the blockbuster trade squad. Just with some added scouting. But are oldies really past their prime? Find out here

Calgary made the most of it though with one cup from 2 playoff appearances. Jardy madness.

The Vancouver Wolves roster that just won the Continental Cup had 13 homegrown (i.e. drafted by Vancouver) players – an all-time record. Considering the 14th player on the team was GM player Brock Louth, that means that the Wolves didn't trade for or sign through free agency a single one of their players – unheard of. It has been a trend in recent seasons – Helsinki was the first to hit double-digits with 10 homegrown players (+Kronos Bailey) in S66, matched by Vancouver the following season and Seattle in S73. Trading is clearly overrated. Back in the day though, some championship teams had as little as 1 player drafted by them. @Devise did it twice, with New York in S32 and S53, and I managed it once, in S38. Speaking of Louth, @Beaviss has quite a trend now. So to summarise: Keaton Louth: not quite HOF, won playoff MVP by winning the finals against the team he GMed in S62 Beau Louth: not quite HOF ballot, won playoff MVP in his last season before retiring Brock Louth: not quite HOF ballot, won playoff MVP in his last season before retiring Clearly, Beaviss needs to keep making Louths and retiring them after 1 season and definitely not trading them to rivals. The alternative is HHH who didn't win the cup at all... doesn't bode well for the monstrosity that is HH Jr. And speaking of Keaton Louth, he is one of the highest TPE right-wingers to not make the HOF, alongside Dan Wilinsky, Jake Davis, and perennial ballot member Tyson Kohler. That last RW to make that HOF (aside from blast from the past Mathias Chouinard) was actually Theo Axelsson who retired back in S57. Right wingers, step up!

between vacation and Mingle, do you even remember what the playoffs are?

Formatting, WORD Here's a fact that may surprise you – the last GM to win the Continental Cup with less than 10 seasons of VHL GMing experience was Keaton Louth in S67 – his 8th season in charge of the Quebec/Vancouver franchise. Before that, it was actually Benjamin Zeptenbergs aka hedgehog, who won his first two cups with Riga (S57 and S58) in his fifth and sixth season in the job. Since then it's been a roll call of some of the longest-tenured GMs in VHL history – Tyler Barabash, Tyler Owens, Matt Bailey, Ryan Power, Victor Alfredsson, Mitch Higgins, Blake Campbell (5 times), and Louth and Zeptenbergs again. That's 176 seasons worth of GMing between them, accounting for 6 of the top 10 GMs in terms of longevity – 2 of the others haven't GMed since the early 50s, while another is Jason Glasser of Prague. The fourth is Chris Miller, who made the finals with Malmo in S68. <picture to illustrate point> Now we all know experience matters and when it comes to VHL GMing that may be more true than in other jobs – it takes a while to grasp the dynamics of trade negotiations, drafting, the VHL salary cap and the planning involved in locating and grasping the window of opportunity to compete. There's probably something to say about the inner workings of the sim engine as well and knowing that tiny bit more about them to gain an edge in the playoffs. Although, it's not a massively different picture in the regular season – since S60, the only additional name not mentioned above to win the Victory Cup is Ryan Jubis with Calgary in S72, the season he officially took over from Barabash. He also made the finals last season, a feat achieved only by him and now Julian Borwinn among relatively new GMs in recent memory (Borwinn has just finished his sixth season in charge of Helsinki). So, what does that mean for the GMs who haven't been around the VHL since time immemorial. Is the recent rise of Jubis and Borwinn a sign of fresh faces on the horizon or is the VHL GMing elite a closed shop? Only 5 of the current 16 VHL GMs are veterans (defined as tenure over 10 seasons), but 3 of these own the current longest playoff streaks (Riga's record-setting 13 seasons as well as Seattle's 7 and Moscow's 6 straight). Louth's Vancouver made the playoffs for 6 straight seasons themselves recently and he has only missed the postseason twice since S60. It does make you wonder if it is easier to maintain the status quo in the modern VHL, where contenders can pick late or even trade their first-rounders and still replenish the cupboards enough to compete perennially. The Reign and the Wolves are certainly shining examples of this method (until Riga's implosion this off-season), with the Menace, Bears, and Titans also joining the retool rather than rebuild train in recent seasons. It is telling that since the 2nd set of expansion (Prague and DC in S68), these are 5 of the 7 teams to make the finals – alongside the aforementioned Wranglers and Malmo's surprising run that first season. Finally, to hammer the point home, the franchises who have struggled the most through what is now most of the current VHL's population's lifetime – New York and Davos – have spent these nearly 15 seasons without an experienced hand to guide them and with little transition from previous management. Both of the last two GM changes in New York happened due to inactivity, while Shawn Glade's exit in Davos to make way for Gustav Mattias was a very acrimonious affair. That is not to say that those two in Davos or the Americans' Colton Rayne and now Esso Drunkmann were not strong candidates when they took over their respective teams, but they were thrown to the wolves in a league with some heavyweights swirling around them with years of experience. Perhaps it is just a phase and maybe even one we're on the way out of – but maybe this new, subtle form of disparity is the new VHL normal. ---Comment section---