Renomitsu

Another win, a little close for my comfort. Glad to see @Thranduil and @Arthur get their due credit.

Sucks to take a loss against this, but we got the win in the second matchup. @oilmandan and @Peace both with another good game.

An outing with 7 hits and 2 points from our man @oilmandan, and 2 goals + 3 assists from @SlapshotDragon and @Peace. Good shit.

Great offensive and defensive game for @Symmetrik, and a goal for each F/D set. We'll see if we can't get Canada in the second half.

Solid two-assist outing from @BarzalGoat , and Iseult did juuuuuuust enough to squeak one out over the Scandinavians. I can live with it.

Take another look! I put Blake in at RW on F3. New York's lines are pretty hard to predict because after Wilinsky, Jerwa, and Puigdemont, there's no one above 400 TPE. My assumption is Esso will assign lines based on level of activity after those 3.

I like to tell it like it is.

Welcome to the league! We're happy to have ya The league's going through a huge growth period so I don't blame you for not being familiar with everything. Like @HenrikZoiderberg says it's something that comes with time. Good luck in the VHLM!

Off-Season Run-Down II - The Top Five Okay, okay, I confess - my hot take on Veran Dragomir was a little bit of a tease to put in the bottom five article, especially since Toronto falls in the top half. While there seems to be a reasonably clear hierarchy for the bottom teams, however, the top half is very difficult to differentiate - they're a bit more compelling of a story, as they're all genuinely unique. Here's a short list to summarize before we get started, though: 1) Helsinki & Toronto both have incredible top-line strength but limited depth - especially so in Helsinki's case 2) Riga doesn't have offensive star power, but can duel with the best and has an excellent D1/G. 3) Davos has a great F1 and D2 - but their first-line defense and second line of forwards have some soul-searching to do. 4) Calgary is one of the most uniquely deep teams in the league, with 7 players >500 TPE and great second lines. #5 – HC Davos Dynamo GM // @ShawnGlade Stars // RW Jake Davis Risers // S67 RW Bjorn Scoringsonn S67 C Aston Martin S67 D Guy LeGrande S66 D Charlie Paddywagon S65 RW Katie Warren After taking a beating from Riga in the regular season, the Dynamo pulled an upset in the playoffs by making some key lineup changes. Frankly, it’s a bit tough to keep track of all of the transactions Davos made in the offseason, so I’ll summarize the ones that affect this season specifically here: 1) Traded picks for RW Jake Davis 2) Traded away Rylan Peace to Toronto for four S69 picks 3) Traded away both Elias Dahlberg and Pat Svoboda for S67 and S68 picks, including Riga’s first rounders for both. 4) Traded away Codrick Past for veteran Konstantin Mulligan, while swapping picks Where does that leave S67 Davos? Frankly, they’re in a bit of the same position Riga was in last season, with 14 skaters and potentially just too many mouths to feed, but an incredibly promising future nonetheless. Their top line – with shiny new forward Jake Davis @Josh., Crimson, and John Madden – is right up there with Toronto’s top forward line and settles in at third-best in the league by raw TPE, slightly above Calgary and with a comfortable cushion over Riga’s first line. Like Calgary, Davos has defensive depth but not a lot of raw star power – defender Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen @flyersfan1453 has a whopping 640 TPE in just his third season, but is the team’s best defender by nearly 100 TPA. The team actually has 5 defenders – 6 if you project breakout latecomer Guy LeGrande @Steve to hit 350-400 TPE – that can each serve as top 4 defensemen on a given team, making them probably the deepest defensive team in the league. They may suffer a bit against the league’s top-heavy offenses like Toronto, but their second defensive will have the advantage against everyone except Calgary. Offensively, their depth is limited. Poor faceoff skill after John Madden means that one of their rookies – Aston Martin @Sullvino or Dan Gles @No_Dangles may be pushed to the second line on day one. These high-mid round picks will be taken care of nicely, as they’ll line with rising star Katie Warren and promising rookie Bjorn Scoringsonn, but Davos will face growing pains finding a second forward line that can match favorably against other teams’. High Points – Excellent defensive depth. Top-three F1 line. Great draft prepared for Season 69. Concerns – Very young (but promising) F2; D1 isn’t comparable to top European or North American teams. Projected Lines F1 // Ryuu Crimson – John Madden – Jake Davis F2 // Bjorn Scoringsonn – Aston Martin – Katie Warren F3 // [F1 extra minutes] – Dan Gles – Don Draper D1 // Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen – Konstantin Mulligan D2 // Marvin Harding – Charlie Paddywagon D3 // Alvaro Jokinen – Guy LeGrande G // Finn Davison #4 – Toronto Legion GM // @Devise Star Players // LW Veran Dragomir C Rylan Peace Risers // None (all S64 or earlier) Toronto’s one of the most interesting teams in the league. GM Devise makes a point of trading away all of his draft picks, and in return he has a pretty deep team – with seven players over 500 TPE (3-way tie for 3rd in the league). They missed the playoffs by a pretty sizable 8 points last season (73 vs. NYA’s 81), and notably had a -20 goal differential in spite of having a more mature roster than other teams. It’s pretty clear that Devise intends on continuing this trend of an older roster without any draft picks – as he doesn’t have any for the next three seasons at a minimum – and he’s got a very competitive squad to be fair. They have F1 and D1 lines that can compete with the best of them – and their top trio actually outmatches Davos’s, Riga’s, and Calgary’s – including all playoff contenders in the top five other than Helsinki. Top free agent signee Veran Dragomir @Velevra committed to the Legion within the last 48 hours, and is a major part of why the Legion are quite this high – he completes the second-best trio of forwards in the league. While Ryan Sullivan Jr. @Advantage, line partner Tzuyu @tfong, and S65 quadruple award winner Oyorra Arroyo @omgitshim aren’t obvious shoo-ins for First Team All-VHL this season, they each are perennial first-liners, are All Star worthy, and make the Legion’s top lines absolutely terrifying. I don't think Rylan Peace @Peace needs any introduction as he guns for an MVP/MOP this season with some top-drawer linemates. After the first lines, however, the Legion do have some concerns. Their TPE falls off precipitously after their third forward (as is the case with most teams), and their fourth-best defender is a 275 TPE Bolt Vanderhuge, who may pair with journeyman defender and former Reign member Cayden Saint @Symmetrik this season. While their second defensive pairing isn’t ideal, it still outpaces bottom teams’ D2s and generally should not be a large hindrance. They also have a solid starter in the net in JB Rift @Devise, who is about to start his third season in the VHL, but he doesn’t match up to Pepper, Kriketers, etc. yet. High Points – Excellent F1, D1; well-balanced second line. Tied for most players over 500 TPE in the American Conference (w/ Calgary). Re-signing Roctrion King and picking up Dragomir + Saint will give this team most of what they need and frankly could elevate them as high as #2. Concerns – D2 is not high-quality compared to most other contenders. Matthew Kai will have difficulty competing with some teams’ second lines. Limited faceoff ability across team. Average-to-good goalie may prevent Toronto from going deep. Projected Lines F1 // Veran Dragomir – Rylan Peace – Oyorra Arroyo F2 // Roctrion King – Joey Boucher – Matthew Kai F3 // Chace Trepanier – Gucci Garrop – [F1 extra minutes] D1 // Ryan Sullivan – Tzuyu D2 // Cayden Saint – Bolt Vanderhuge G // JB Rift #3 – Calgary Wranglers GM // @Bushito Star Players // LW Leph Twinger RW Diljodh Starload D Maxim Kovalchuk Risers // S65 Brady Stropko Calgary’s a pretty tricky team to assess; after losing to Vancouver in the conference finals last season, they quickly made several moves that made them potential favorites in the North American conference. These included trades for players like LW Leph Twinger @DollarAndADream and re-signing critical players like Starload @DilIsPickle and Brick Wahl @BladeMaiden long-term, while locking up veterans Sebastian Ironside and Maxim Kovalchuk @Banackock until the end of their careers. These five players alone make for a pretty convincing argument for Calgary, but it’s also important to note that they have pretty solid depth through two lines. While not the absolute top line in the VHL, Calgary’s top three forwards can readily keep pace with offensively-oriented teams like Davos, Toronto, and Helsinki. Similarly, their top defensive line isn’t perfect – Maxim Kovalchuk and third-year player Brady Stropko Jr. will have to face off against the league’s best offensive players. However, Calgary’s second line has 4 players that will start the season over 450 TPE – making their second defensive pair the most lethal in the league, as it includes sharpshooting defender Robert Malenko and defensive anchor Elasmobranch Fish @Sharkstrong. While their second forward line doesn’t quite measure up to Vancouver’s (~580 TPE/player vs. ~440 for Calgary), it can compete with every other second line in the league. One big point in Calgary’s favor is their goalie – Brick Wahl will be integral in pushing the Wranglers to a conference title, as only New York has a comparable netminder (with a large difference in skaters). Wahl clearly outclasses Toronto’s JB Rift, and Seattle and Vancouver don’t have high-tier goalies to speak of as of yet. High Points – Excellent defensive depth; D2 should be able to take advantage of most second lines. Best goalie in the North American Conference. Made key re-signings this offseason, including netminder Brick Wahl. Concerns – D2 will carry the second-line load for the Wranglers, perhaps even offensively. May not have the raw star power needed on first lines to outshine the best European teams or Toronto. Projected Lines F1 // Leph Twinger – Oleksiy Revchenko – Diljodh Starload F2 // John Frostbeard – Roll Fizzlebeef – Sebastian Ironside F3 // Cody Smith – Tyler Barabash Jr. – [F1 extra minutes] D1 // Maxim Kovalchuk – Brady Stropko Jr. D2 // Robert Malenko – Elasmobranch Fish G // Brick Wahl #2 – Riga Reign GM // @hedgehog337 Star Players // D Ryan Kastelic D Joseph McWolf Kallis Kriketers Risers // S66 RW Mikko Aaltonen S66 C Hunter Hearst Helmsley S66 RW Arnor Sigurdsson S67 D Lincoln Tate The Reign’s season was unceremoniously cut short by a sweep from Davos, exacerbating their already-horrendous franchise history against the Swiss franchise. Some experts had them on equal footing to the champion Helsinki Titans, but a couple of trades from Davos and smart line building turned the tables on the Latvian franchise in the postseason. Ultimately Riga’s strength is also its weakness: like the Dynamo in Season 65, the Season 66 Reign experienced growing pains after drafting and retaining six rookies on their main roster. 'Tag' on to that several members in the mid-to-late stages of their respective primes – Preencarnacion @Tagger, Podrick Cast @Victor, and Ryan Kastelic @Enorama, and we had a team that was simultaneously deep but talented at the top. And like Davos two seasons prior, that ultimately became their downfall – they simply couldn’t match up in the playoffs to a team with two excellent forward lines, as rookies Apollo Hackett and Aron Nielsen struggled against their competition. A season older and wiser, the Reign are poised to compete for a European title. With four forwards and two defensemen over 600 TPE (including up to three others that could break that mark by the end of the season), Riga is in an excellent spot to at least keep it close in playoff series against Davos or Helsinki. A line composed of Sigurdsson @bluesfan55, Aaltonen @GRZ, and HHH @Beaviss might not have scared too many teams at the start of last season – but that could be a line that hits 2,000 TPE collectively this season, which is terrifying to consider for most teams’ second-to-third lines. HHH himself can already play with the most skilled first liners in spite of being in his sophomore season, and his likely line-mates could outmatch most of their opposition by midseason too. It’s worth noting that Riga only really has two players that can face off – so we may see a switch-up in lines, with HHH taking on a first-line role and Matthews moving up to the second. Defensively, Riga could go as many as three entirely unique lines this season. With Kastelic and McWolf being the two obvious mainstays and likely receiving the most PP/PK time, GM Benjamin Zeptenbergs also has two reasonably experienced sophomore defensemen in Aron Nielsen and Apollo Hackett. Add to that VHLM standout Lincoln @Tate and we’ve got a team that’s genuinely 5 defensemen deep. Some scouts suggest Tate could join Hackett on the second line as early as mid-season. High Points – Talented S66 draft class and competitive F1; best D1 pairing in the league. Kallis Kriketers will make another strong push for best goalie. Improving S66/S67 players will be key to Riga’s success this season. Lincoln Tate has enough raw talent to make D2 this season. Concerns – An aging Preencarnacion, limited ice time, very tight cap space. Specter of Riga’s limited playoff success continues to hang on the franchise. Projected Lines F1 // Elias Dahlberg – Hunter Hearst Helmsley – Pat Svoboda F2 // Edwin Preencarnacion – Anthony Matthews (?) – Mikko Aaltonen/Arnor Sigurdsson F3 // Chico Smeb – [HHH extra minutes] – Mikko Aaltonen/Arnor Sigurdsson D1 // Ryan Kastelic – Joseph McWolf D2 // Apollo Hackett – Aron Nielsen (early)/Lincoln Tate (late) G // Kallis Kriketers #1 – Helsinki Titans GM // @Quik Star Players // LW Julian Borwinn, G Alexander Pepper, LW Matt Thompson, C Kronos Bailey Risers // S67 D Derek England S66 C Jordan Tonn This one was a pretty easy choice. No major free agent losses, four players above 900 TPA, the best Offensive Defenseman in hockey, and basically all of the award-winning forwards from the last season. I’ve done my fair share of fawning over how Quik has put together a great roster, and that’s absolutely the case here. Their top three forwards (@Jubo07, @Quik, @Beketov) come in with a sum of 2,959 TPA – nearly double that of some of the lower-rated teams in the VHL, or an entire roster of VHLMers – which comes in pretty easily as the best possible first line in the league. Defensively they’re not as overwhelming, but the roster still has an excellent projection with first-liners Sidney Crosby (785 TPE) and Jesse Wilson (694), who can go toe-to-toe with nearly any other starting pair in the league. There’s certainly something to be said about their depth – as their second three forwards are 405, 390, and 335 TPE, respectively – but two of them (C Orion Slade @BluObieZand C Jordan Tonn @MexicanCow123) are still quite active – claiming 10-12 capped TPE on top of all of the uncapped points coming out this past week. Sadly, S66 prospects Ludvig Sederstrom and Viktor Kozlov seem to have burned themselves out of the league – but they’ll still have times to relieve second liners of their minutes to limit fatigue. To this point, we haven’t really mentioned Dan Montgomery @BarzalGoat by name – but he’s one of the many award winners this team has to offer. A top-notch scorer, he was helped by Helsinki’s top-two last season and was able to focus his efforts against second liners to incredible effect. I expect him to have a similarly dominant season from his position this time around. High Points – Absurdly, almost unbelievably talented F1 (avg. 986.3 TPE), excellent scoring defenseman in Dan Montgomery, second-best starting pair in hockey. Also has one of S66’s best goalies. Concerns – Second-line depth, 3 of 4 S66 prospects seem to be done. Top line will have to carry most of the load. Bailey, Thompson, Wilson are all in contract years. Projected Lines F1 // Julian Borwinn – Kronos Bailey – Matt Thompson F2 // Bert Meyers – Jordan Tonn – Orion Slade F3 // [F1 extra minutes] – Viktor Kozlov – Ludvig Sederstrom D1 // Sidney Crosby – Jesse Wilson D2 // Dan Montgomery – Derek England G // Alexander Pepper

S66-67 Off-Season Run-Down I - The Bottom Five Compared to Season 66, this off-season has been a whirlwind – just about on schedule, with an expectation for Season 67 proper to start on either Sunday or Monday. After a dominant regular season, the Helsinki Titans and their two skater stars in Julian Borwinn @Jubo07 and S65-66 free agent signing Matt Thompson @Beketov easily cleaned up in the playoffs – and the awards, with nearly a dozen going their way. And that’s not even including their first- and second-team All-VHL selections. In terms of the draft, Season 67’s class was incredibly deep – much like last season, and a very promising sign – which means some teams have been revamped a bit. And while some teams have traded away players, they were generally pretty even exchanges: New York started a fire sale for picks, and Toronto kept on doing its thing just trading away all of its draft picks. Otherwise, a couple of exchanges for picks to offload some salary didn’t seem to make much of a difference. But here’s a hot take: even this season’s biggest free agent signing in Veran Dragomir doesn’t change my favorite for the S67 championship. Heck, it might not even put them in the top two. Read below and in this topic's companion article for more opinions! #10 – Seattle Bears GM // @Banackock Stars // None Risers // S67 LW Acyd Burn S67 D Ambrose Stark S67 D Boone Jenton S67 LW Henrik Zoiderberg S67 D Hulk Hogan S67 C Scott Greene S66 C Thomas Kennedy S66 G Rayz Funk Of all of the teams with a bright future, Seattle has the most potential. Like New York, they have a relatively younger ‘star’ player in center Joel Ylonen @Esso2264 (an S64 prospect) surrounded by players that would most likely qualify for limited second to third line minutes on other teams. But it’s worth noting – if it isn’t already obvious enough from their ‘Risers’ – that Seattle hit with deep S66 picks and have a tremendous number of 250+ TPE S67 selections. The first season or two for the Bears has been and will be rough – there’s little way around that. With the retirement of Defenseman of the Year and assists leader Samuel Gate @street, there are few current redeeming qualities for the bears. But between rookie wingers @Acydburn and @HenrikZoiderberg, rookie center Scott Greene @DoktorFunk and sophomore Thomas Kennedy @Walter Fizz, three rookie defensemen in Hulk Hogan @HulkHogan, Ambrose Stark, and Boone Jenton @FakeJenton, and goalie Rayz Funk @Rayzor_7, the Bears have literally drafted an entire set of first liners for the future. The question is, will they stick around after their rookie contracts? If 5 or more of the 6 re-sign, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with come S70, but hardly anything is ever so certain in the VHL. High Points - First-line center Ylonen; ridiculously good S67 draft class. Hulk Hogan will be a first-line starter right away, and Seattle has possibly the best future defensive trio and goalie in the league. Concerns - Everything from F1-F3 and D1-D2... for this season. Projected Lines F1 // Shane Mars – Joel Ylonen – Acyd Burn F2 // Henrik Zoiderberg – Scott Greene – Thomas Kennedy F3 // Valeri Morozov – (Thomas Kennedy?) – Edgar Tannahill D1 // Lando Baxter – Dallas Jones/Hulk Hogan D2 // Ambrose Stark – Boone Jenton G // Rayz Funk #9 – New York Americans GM // @Esso2264 Stars // RW Dan Wilinsky Risers // S67 ACL TEAR S66 RW Aleksander Rodriguez S66 RW Nethila Dissanayake S67 C Boris the Forest The Americans squeaked into the last playoff spot in Season 66, and promptly started a fire sale in order to take on two excellent S67 prospects in winger ACL Tear @Quik and center Boris the Forest @chillzone. In the process, they rid themselves of first-liners Joel Ylonen, Joseph McWolf, and Leph Twinger and accumulated picks for S67/S68. For now, that leaves them with several promising young prospects and superstar winger Dan Wilinsky @oilmandan, the lone skater above 500 TPA for the Americans. Thankfully he’s still mid-career, having entered via the S63 draft, and that gives him another couple of seasons to see the New York roster grow. For now, he’ll likely line up with center Carles Puigdemont and fellow winger Kisshan Shan, particularly as the team waits for one of wingers Aleksander Rodriguez @Jtv123, Nethila Dissanayake @nethi99, or TEAR to pass one of the two. Until then, this leaves New York’s first two forward lines as a bit underwhelming, and their D1 line woefully so. In fact, it’s unclear as to who, exactly, New York can even play at D2. Piotr Jerwa and Bald Guy will likely man the first line, while Mountain Thunderfist and maybe a call-up or position swapped forward will have to man the second spot in the second defensive line. New York also has one of the larger rosters in the league, sitting on 15 skaters and 3 goalies. While the aging Tristan Iseult isn’t a bad backup for perennial starter Ismond Kingfisher, their dearth in starting-quality skaters forces the Americans down to ninth. High Points – Good, young prospects (S65+) complemented by a single superstar in Wilinsky. Rodriguez, TEAR, Forest, and Dissanayake should be steady earners. Concerns – No other skaters above 500 TPE. Depth is questionable beyond second forward line and a singular defender (Jerwa). Expect the S68 NYA first pick to be either 1 or 2OA. Projected Lines F1 // Kisshan Shan – Carles Puigdemont – Dan Wilinsky F2 // ACL TEAR – Boris the Forest – Nethila Dissanayake F3 // Aleksander Rodriguez – Maximilian Kirbsson – Blake Laughton D1 // Piotr Jerwa – Bald Guy D2 // Mountain Thunderfist – ??? G // Ismond Kingfisher #8 – Malmö Nighthawks GM // @Advantage Stars // None (RW Matthew Materazo future) Risers // S66 D Jerry Garcia, S67 RW Lucas Nygren, S66 D Rusty Shackleford, S67 C Trevor Van Lagen As the new kid on the block, Malmö really has their work cut out for them. After a hot start to last season, they were eliminated from the playoffs with around 10 games left, and part of it had to do with their selected expansion core. The Nighthawks chose high TPE players, many of which unfortunately ended up going inactive. GM Chris Miller did an excellent job drafting generally high-quality players in Season 66. D Jerry Garcia @GustavMattias in particular has shot up the rankings since being revealed as a possible sleeper in the draft and taking on a VHLM GM position. In a similar vein, defenseman Rusty Shackleford @K1NG LINUS was drafted slightly lower but continues to earn TPE like a madman. When it comes to offense, Malmö’s team is predictably young but promising; Materazo has his work cut out for him, as he’ll most likely be working with veteran Mikka Pajari (492 TPE) and RW Jack Lynch (425) against other first lines. Garcia and one of Shackleford/Basaraba Moose will man the first defensive line, but they’ll likely struggle against league-average lines with 250-300 more TPE than either of them. Ultimately, from the top-down, Malmo needs time to develop its prospects. With a handful of pretty reliable users occupying their roster, they’ll need to figure out a way to retain all of their actives come S68 and S69. High Points – Excellent young defenders, reliable earners after F1. Jerry Garcia and Rusty Shackleford have shown promising consistency in point earning from S66’s draft class. S67 prospects will get starting time sooner rather than later. Concerns – Stated above. Malmö’s not going to win playoff games any time soon, if I had my guess. Projected Lines F1 // Jack Lynch – Mikka Pajari – Matthew Materazo F2 // Blake Gaudette – Teagan Glover – Lucas Nygren F3 // Trevor Van Lagen – Phil Marleau – Brian Strong D1 // Jerry Garcia – Rusty Shackleford D2 // Basaraba Moose – MORPHEUS DESTRUCTIOUS G // Michael Johnson #7 – Moscow Menace GM // @Victor Stars // LW Randoms, C Podrick Cast Risers // S66 C Jet Jaguar, S66 G Owen May As one of the two most recent expansion teams, this is about where I’d expect to find Moscow. There are some starter-quality players on the team that can join Randoms and Podrick Cast, namely C Mark Gebauer, RW Jorgon Weyed, and LW Dan Baillie, but none of the Moscow lines blow other teams’ lines out of the water. That’s not to say the Menace’s offseason was uneventful – they offloaded picks to Riga and Vancouver to acquire three best players in Cast, Randoms, and goalie Roger Sterling – but they certainly mortgaged some of their future in the progress. Ultimately, Moscow is still a very young team, and with rising stars like C Jet Jaguar @gorlab and “goalie of the future” Owen May @FacebookFighter, we can likely say that the Russians have some good days ahead. They may want to move some of their veteran players out for some active rookie and sophomore players or some high draft picks, as I don’t see the Menace going terribly far in the playoffs if they make it. Offensively, they’re capable of keeping up; their first line is perhaps only marginally worse than Riga’s, while their F2 is a fair bit better than the league average (but possibly worse than Vancouver’s). Defensively, we have a different story: Moscow’s best defender is 468 TPE Paolo Nano - good for most teams’ second line, but certainly not their first. High Points – Young, developable team with a pair of veteran mentors. Will have good transition from Sterling to May in goal. Very deep at forward, with Pavlov moving up to F3 shortly. Concerns – Defense currently doesn’t measure up to other mid-table teams. First line offense doesn’t have a clear-cut star. Projected Lines F1 // Randoms – Podrick Cast – Jorgon Weyed F2 // Dan Baillie – Mark Gebauer – Jet Jaguar F3 // Dimitri Volosenkov – Connor McDavid/Vladimir Pavlov – Mat Tocco D1 // Paolo Nano – Evgeni Komarov D2 // Mitch Matthews – Edward Vigneault G // Roger Sterling #6 – Vancouver Wolves GM // @Beaviss Stars // C Beau Louth, C Rauno Palo, D Shawn Glade Risers // S66 LW Julius Freeman, S67 G Greg Eagles, S66 C Hans Gruber, S67 C Micheal Gary Scott The Wolves made it to the finals last year – so why are they sixth, and third overall in the North American Conference? They re-signed Gritty @Positivefan036 and Denver Wolfe @InstantRockstar, who will both be important depth pieces, but don’t have any first line quality players beyond the above listed three stars. S66 draftees LW Julius Freeman @rjfryman and RW Shawnomir Jagr @TheLastOlympian07 are pivotal in forming the second lines, and both are likely to break the 600 TPE mark this season. One point of difficulty comes with Vancouver’s depth at one position – center. Both of their stars are there, and many of their depth pieces (e.g. Hans Gruber, Micheal Gary Scott) have lower effective TPA because of points lost to faceoff skills. And unless they plan on putting Louth and Palo on the same line, Vancouver’s stuck with 400-550 TPE players occupying the remainder of their top two forward line spots. This bodes well for their F2 – which would be the best by about 100 TPE per player if Rauno Palo were put there – but the star split makes for a F1 line that pales in comparison to Helsinki’s, Riga’s, Davos’s, Toronto’s, and Calgary’s. Their first defensive pair (Shawn Glade and Jagger @Philliefan) is similar in quality to Calgary’s, putting them at about fourth in the league, while their D2 sits moderately above the league average. However, Vancouver can easily fight fatigue, as they’re likely to have 8+ forwards above 400 TPE this season. The factor that pushes them furthest down the rankings, however, is their goalie. Even if Greg Eagles and Clayton Park are incredibly active this season, they’ll both hit 450 TPE at best – which puts them possibly above Seattle in North America and tied-ish with Malmo in Europe. That’s not a great look for a team that wants to contend. High Points – Excellent Center and overall offensive depth. Good defensive depth. Concerns – Very star-reliant (i.e. Louth and Palo) forward lines. Their goalies are also very raw prospects and may have a tough time because of average defensive depth. Projected Lines F1 // Julius Freeman – Beau Louth – Gritty F2 // Hans Gruber – Rauno Palo – Shawnomir Jagr F3 // [F1 extra minutes] – Micheal Gary Scott – Ben Hafkey D1 // Shawn Glade – Jagger Philliefan D2 // Denver Wolfe – Codrick Past G // Clayton Park (early) / Greg Eagles (mid-late)

It's timeeee

Mercenaries lines sent a little under an hour ago.

New off-season, new questions. Take a look below! 1. Lots of moves over the last few days, and our roster looks a little different. Which trade/draft pick did you like the most? 2. Who do you think will take home the gold in the World Cup? If you picked your own region, who has the second-best chance? 3. Veran Dragomir is this offseason's big free agent prize; he signed with Toronto earlier this evening. Does this put Toronto over Helsinki as a contender? 4. Toronto also got Cayden Saint, a former Reign player. Got any words for him? 5. Who on our roster is most likely to have a breakout season? 6. I hear we need a daycare for all of the VHLMers this upcoming season. What's with all the new kids? 7. Marvel or DC? 8. To follow up on that: Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or Tom Holland (or someone else) as Spider-Man? 9. We found out that Benjamin Zeptenbergs/hedgehog is actually a hedgehog. Can he... can he talk? How does he do all the paperwork? 10. What are you looking forward to most this season?

I get your frustration. I really do, and that's why I'm trying to argue on your side. I thought Jet Jaguar was the right choice, but we have to respect the opinions of the committee. The important part we have to do now is at least get the committee thinking about these things now and see if they are willing to consider some of our points for future seasons. They voted by their criteria this time around, and I do not want them to reverse their choices. And it's tempting to voice our frustrations in various ways, but the way we go about it can hurt or help our case. I just ask that you continue to feel strongly about it and fight for how you think this process should be changed in the future.

I'm not sure this is a fair argument, and it's also not the one @gorlab or myself is trying to make. The argument is, among players with SIMILAR volume stats, there should be an additional consideration for efficiency. Jet Jaguar had 6 fewer goals than Shane Mars - a comparison of 40 to 46 for the season - and I'm not saying 6 goals is a terribly small amount. Their points were different by a total of 4 (90 vs. 94), which is very much into the grey area as far as whether efficiency is to blame here. For gorlab and myself, we're past the grey area - a 4-point difference (or 6 goal difference, take your pick) with a 500+ minute playing difference is too much to justify giving Mars the RotY. To make the argument that comparing Jorgon Weyed to Peace/Dragomir/Dahlberg is even remotely the same type of comparison we're making, and it's dismissive of the point either of us were trying to make. Weyed has 58 points. Peace, Dragomir, and Dahlberg had 85, 72, and 70 - so the smallest of the differences you can make in terms of points for these players is a +/- 12 difference, while the largest is 27 (which is a ridiculously large difference). Obviously we understand efficiency stats are not the only number we take into consideration and you're correct - nobody would argue these three all-stars are similar to Jorgon Weyed, and we did not try to make that argument. This type of singular-number argument/comparison is precisely what we are arguing against. We are using efficiency AND volume in parallel to suggest Jaguar had a better season than Mars.

Agreed. I've been trying to push a bit for Jaguar in chat for the back third of the season, especially with regard to minutes comparison. Mars has 94 points in 2,006 minutes, while Jet Jaguar has his 90 in <1,500 minutes. That's a huge difference and frankly, Mars doesn't hold a candle to Jaguar because of it. I would hope that efficiency, especially something this drastic in players with similar volume statistics, would be a consideration for ALL committee members. This kind of selection is problematic for the future in the league, especially for rookies since we're going to be seeing much deeper teams. I'm not even entirely sure we can make a "first line vs. second line" argument, since nearly half of Mars's ice time was as a third liner.

I saw this thread and was so pumped to start messing with lines. @Quik why u do dis =[

I like this. At the absolute minimum, make a tracker for free agent signings (or if there is one already, make it more easily visible). For most real sports leagues, free agency is a spectacle - just look at the NBA this year if you need any convincing. If nothing else, it should at least be media spot-worthy. As of right now, if I want to figure out where each free agent went this off-season, I'd need to have all of their tabs open and hold them open until they joined a team. which seems inefficient at best. I guess my main concern/caveat to this proposal is that with Discord and private chats though, it's unlikely most GMs/players will have something substantive to say in their threads. I worry that they would quickly devolve into short, courtesy pitches when a player's really been talking to a GM privately and has a deal done prior to the thread.

Gold: Canada Silver: World Bronze: Mercenaries I mean, I can't really not pick Mercenaries to medal, right?

Posting here to claim second doubles week.

You've been abandoned by your home World Cup region. Perhaps a perennial first-liner or all-star in your own right, you just don't get the recognition you deserve on the world stage. Well, I have some good news for those of you tagged in this post: I see what you're worth, and I want you to show them what you're worth. Since all other teams are on record with their rosters and 3 of 5 have already announced, let's do a few intros of our own! Announcing... ?S66 - Team Mercenaries? Forwards Ryuu Crimson @SlapshotDragon Dan Wilinsky @oilmandan Rylan Peace @Peace Diljodh Starload @DilIsPickle John Madden @Thranduil Oleksiy Revchenko @AndrewWarren13 Defensemen Dan Montgomery @BarzalGoat Cayden Saint @Symmetrik Samuel Gate @street Elasmobranch Fish @Sharkstrong Goalies Johnny Havenk Carison @Donno100 Tristan Iseult @Arthur

Secret VHL Scouting Base, VHL - I don't know if you've taken a look at the pick tracker recently, but there's a huge pick imbalance between teams right now. From Seattle with 8 1st+2nd round picks in the S67 draft alone to Toronto with literally zero for the next three seasons, some teams' front office strategies are clear as day - and really run the gamut from pick-heavy to "literally nobody is coming from the VHLM to us." But there are a few curious teams - Davos, Vancouver, and Riga - who have excellent chances at playoff contention over the next two to five seasons because of excellent young cores of players... but they also have a large number of picks. Davos has 22 selections in the next three drafts (with 7 in the first four rounds of this draft), Riga has 14 (2 in this draft), and Vancouver has 17 (5 in S67's first four rounds). Let's be clear about something, however - Helsinki's run this season with a compact, high-quality roster is what has been shown to work. These three teams need to make serious moves in the next couple of seasons to either (1) offload their picks for win-now (i.e. in S68-S70) players or (2) significantly delay their championship aspirations, because several consecutive large draft classes don't play nicely with contention. By hoarding many of the league's picks onto four teams (we're going to throw the Americans on this list too, but they're in a different spot roster-wise), teams in absolute, must-win-now mode like Toronto essentially have their pick of the litter. Teams fitting the bill right now (Toronto and Helsinki in particular) have significant leverage over other teams because they have excellent players up and down their roster enough to fit the league minimum rather than good ones, with the ability to wait a little while before handing off key pieces and starting a rebuild. And with no likely roster minima in sight, stretching the role of your stars far and wide while minimizing rookie/sophomore ice time is going to be the key to playoff wins. Unlike in real life, it's not likely that a rookie will be better than most veteran players or even have a place at all in a championship squad: there's a tidy little number that gauges roughly how 'good' a player is, after all.

Transaction ID: Ending in 92431 S67 Donation, $20 CAD Doubles Week (Ending 6/30) Doubles Week (TBD) 5 Uncapped TPE $1M Player Store

wait wHAT

Applying for Team Mercenaries! I've never GMed a team before, which makes it unlikely I'll get any of the big-ticket GM jobs - but you can bet I've done a little research here and there on players. ?