Peace

Since the team needs a PC. 1. We just finished the VHLM season. Did the Reapers perform like you expected? 2. Last season there were 1,903 goals... this season the entire VHLM only scored 1,575 goals, with a significant number of goals being produced by players above the former 200 TPE limit. It is clear having 400 TPE players is making a huge difference in the league. Do you think it is a healthy or unhealthy change? 3. What are your expectations for the post season? 4. On a scale of 1-5 how would you rate your players performance this season (1 being bad, 3 being what you expected and 5 being better than you hoped). 5. Do you think YNFR is going to win the Mitch Higgins (MVP) award in back-to-back seasons?\ 6. It should be a shoe in at this point... but what do you think GM Matty Fire is a strong candidate for the Jack Reilly award?

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Zak Trokker hadn't registered a point - much less a goal - in seven games prior to an offensive explosion in the Reapers 5-2 victory over the San Diego Marlins; interestingly, in those eight games with the Reapers, the Philly team has gone 3-4-1 and just snapped a surprising 0-4-1 slide against the same team Trokker played against in his first VHLM game (ironically also a 5-2 victory). In fact, of the three wins Trokker has experienced with the Reapers, each victory has been over the Marlins with a final score of 5-2 PHI over SDM. [Game 288: 5-2 PHI; Game 294: 5-2 PHI; Game 328: 5-2 PHI]. "Can we play the Marlins the rest of the year?" Trokker joked. "We've been struggling lately but other than our last game, we've been right there. A play different and perhaps the game is tied, one less mistake and the game is tied or one more shot on goal might have been a goal."

Claim 2/4

I seen that. Moon did a fantastic job with Toronto!

1. No... 'cause I'm here now baby. 2. 2 GP and no goals? How dare I. 3. LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Very excited to win the championship. 4. Trokker is meant to be everything Kyle Peace was meant to be but never did. 5. Keep the status quo. 6. Much improved player. Gotta draft me though! Outlook is strong though because you're likely keeping several high TPA players.

$10 5 TPE Uncapped Doubles Week Transaction ID: 7PD74947JJ234252G

ZAK TROKKER BIOGRAPHY A turbulent entry into the world of hockey AT A YOUNG AGE Let's be real, most kids don't remember being 3/4/5 years old, but any involved parent cherishes the memories of their child screaming with pure joy when the home team scores a goal. That horn is blaring, the crowd is roaring yet the only voice you hear is a kid looking half evil going 'yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah' until they're red in the face and out of breath. That passion develops into a favorite team, a favorite player, and steadily builds into a sometimes achievable goal of being a hockey player. For many it only ever remains a dream... for Trokker the road was there at a young age, right up until the road became too congested with cooler looking cars. Zak was born and raised in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada; a city built for Alberta's oil & gas industry. By the age of six, Trokker was a firm fan of the Winnipeg Jets despite the influence from family and fans from every corner of the National Hockey League. Every Christmas Zak's father would purchase game tickets with a promise to make the journey to Edmonton or Calgary so the duo could watch their team together, thus further fostering his sons interest in the sport while simultaneously developing his desire to play hockey. At seven Zak started skating lessons, then progressed to power skating before joining a youth development program. Through this program Trokker was able to meet several former VHL players... the what? EARLY HOCKEY Like every kid starting out, Trokker's humble beginning starts with an intro into hockey. Daily skates, drills, and valuable teachings from an instructor built Trokker's capabilities prior to joining a minor hockey association; this is where he learned to skate, learned to stop at speed, learned to puck handle... yet it wasn't meant to be, but no one knew that at the time. Trokker tried out and made the U9 tier 4/5 team out of Fort McMurray which naturally included an extremely rough travel schedule. The team provided a bus from the lonely city into central Alberta, but often one of Zak's parents would have to make a several hour journey just for a sixty minute hockey game in Athabasca or even further south. Everything was going great! Trokker's skills continued to develop as he rapidly climbed from tier 4/5 into tier 3, then into tier 2 and finally into the U11 - 1 league. Unfortunately the NEAHL had other plans: for whatever reason, they closed every Fort McMurray team but the tier one U13, U15 and U18 Oil Barons. Travel costs, perhaps, or just a general lack of interest from an oil city meant more teams were struggling to find players at the lower tiers than before. With Trokker's team being closed, he was effectively pushed away from hockey at just 13 years of age. The Trokker family made multiple attempts to appeal the decision while Zak struggled to elevate to the skill required for U13 tier 1 competition. LIFE AND HOCKEY (or lack thereof) After failing to secure a spot on the only remaining U13, U15, and U18 teams left in Fort McMurray - all tier one competition - Trokker's father essentially forced Zak into (temporarily) abandoning his dreams of playing professional hockey in favor of joining him in the oil and gas industry; it wasn't an appealing nor ideal career and left Zak sitting in the shadow of his parent. As a seventeen and eighteen year old the expectations for Zak were always higher for him than his coworkers, and the demand for superior performance compared to his peers started developing a hostile divide between Zak and his father. Several verbal incidents between the two forced Precision Drilling to step in and assign them to different drilling rigs, eventually accumulating in the termination of Zak's employment with the oilfield company. Throughout his unemployment Zak would attempt to interact with the hockey world in any way he could: he joined several shinny leagues, volunteered his free time as a skills coach, purchased ice time just to practicing in an empty rink or researched ways a twenty year old could get into the NHL. When not obsessing over hockey, he'd take hikes through the wilderness to escape the growing animosity at home, though he spent the majority of his time playing video games and ignoring his parents. By 22 he was back working for Precision Drilling, though working on separate rigs than his father. For four years he imagined playing hockey, but instead quietly kept his head down and grinded away at life. The desire to play professional hockey never died, so when the opportunity to potentially join the VHL landed in his lap, he quickly decided to leave Precision Drilling and relocated to Saskatoon for a summer program with the Peace Player Agency. The Peace Player Agency [as they've done in the past for their now retired Hall of Famer] offered classes to Trokker based on his talents over a decade ago. Where there is potential, there is a VHL player, even if their fate is to be ejected from a VHLM team. Interested in an attempt at a VHL career, Zak begun training with Erik Killinger at 26 years of age. It wasn't the NHL destination Trokker had in mind, but the VHL was a growing league that had already spread across the globe; not even the NHL had done so (yet). After a year of training with Erik Killinger, Trokker was ready for the VHLM; he joined the Philadelphia Reapers after Rylan Peace suggested it.

Most of them were but I'd like to think I made an effort to at least describe what was going on with Saskatoon, what I could offer and what not.

I never really thought it was a mental health issue, so that's a new perspective. I suppose even back in the mid S60's when I managed the Wild VHLM GM's would be irritated that the first pitch was usually the one accepted, which occasionally led to a GM stepping down. It's too early for me to start throwing recommendations out but my old soul certainly feels like there should be a middle ground. There's zero personality and that's a net negative in my opinion; it comes to me as a repellent. I still haven't joined a team yet.

So I've just recreated my fourth player and was awaiting pitches on the creation page for the better part of twenty minutes or so before loosing interest and switching to writing a draft media spot; is everything automated these days, are the portal pitches just a wall of text with an estimated line position? I was expected pitches in the profile page, but have just discovered all the pitches are done on the portal, and they don't even seem individualized... they seem computed, taking the average wingers on the team and spitting out a line based on that number. What happened to the days where VHLM GM's went to each and every profile with an actual pitch? "Hey there, I'm Peace, GM of the Saskatoon Wild..." or "Howdy, I'm the GM of the Wild!", you maybe even threw in a "Welcome to the league, I'm Peace..." every once in a while. You'd then describe the situation of your team: "The Wild are kicking ass in S69 and don't have a lot of minutes available, but we've got a third line spot for you if you're interested" to "We suck ass right now and can offer you first line minutes immediately over the inactive bum we got there right now" and anything in between. It was part of the charm, part of what made being the first point of contact for a new member so interesting. Coupled with a pitch on the player page, I've got pages upon pages of 'Welcome to the Wild/Welcome to Saskatoon/Welcome to the Wilderness' PMs thanking them for accepting the pitch and offering them a link to the DLR. I remember copy and pasting those beginning introductions sure, but each pitch had a hint of individualism behind it as you recapped your situation and what you could do for a new member. You made the effort. Now it's boring. Boo!

Truth be told... I have no idea what topic to write about. The theme is VHL lore, but I've been gone for the better part of ten or so seasons; everything in this noggin is more-or-less ancient history at this point. Sure, all that stuff is still VHL lore, yet like real history only those who care enough to open their books tend to explore what becomes forgotten. There's so many things I could cover from the era I actually enjoyed like the S69 Saskatoon Wild to meeting dozens of wonderful people [such as Elmebeck]. I could also cover the dark era where I loathed logging in or reading a PM here (or on Discord). I absolutely hated being Toronto's GM at the tail end of my tenure starting around S81 or so if I recall correctly; it was a stark difference from doing what I loved for ten plus seasons prior as both a VHLM and VHL GM. All the priggush and smug individuals high on themselves, the drama, the ostracism, and frankly childish behavior from adults wore me down to the point where the only thread connecting me to this community was Escape From Tarkov. After Beaviss and Fong stopped playing that video game the thread finally snapped and I left completely, yet ten seasons later here I am recreating my fourth character in hopes that spark is still there. Now I intend to fan this small ember of interest because so far it has me typing away with no real plan - no structure - just mind to fingers typing... very similar to what I used to do back in the day. A direct thoughts to paper method of writing and it reminds me of greener pastures and enjoyment. So what to talk about? Why not a rundown on my earlier lore. I think that is a safe bet; it is VHL lore afterall, right? THE RYLAN PEACE-ERA My first player in the league was apparently Rylan Peace, though I swear I had an earlier character at some point in my history. My account is from 2013, yet the first thread created with this account was the character creation of R. Peace back in 2018. I don't know if the history there is lost, or if it just didn't happen; in my mind I joined this forum from a GM Connect league I used to play back in the day and created a character all those years ago (NHL 13/14 anyone?). Don't remember why I left, hell I can't even remember if I actually created a character, but either way a handful of years later a 'we'd like you to come back' email sparked my interest and I built myself upwards from there (only to have it crash five IRL years later). Rylan Peace was mostly an experimental character. I was seeing how the sim engine worked, I knew the league was using Simon T's Hockey Simulator, but I certainly didn't know how the league implemented everything and how each person had their own player. I remember thinking everything was done on STHS itself and not the website, so I recall some general confusion at the start. ShawnGlade was my first GM and helped me out tremendously by explaining how the league worked despite being relatively new himself. Curiously I booted up my old broken-yet-functional red gaming laptop from 2012 (can you even say that about laptops from that era?) and found a V2 exe for STHS (along with EHM, ArmA Gold Edition, Halo and DooM 3 of all games). Yeah, I'm guessing that whole thing about creating a character back in the day was placebo now yet it feels so real. Looking deeper into my account I've noticed I don't have any interaction with the league prior to R. Peace at all, which seems baffling to me unless there was a GM connected league at some point in the past that I joined and we just used Xbox Live/PSN to communicate. Posts from this account only go back to 2018, so unless there were deleted threads/conversations, 2018 must be the year I actually started contributing to the forum. Nevertheless I created Rylan Peace and eventually joined Halifax, followed by the VIKING brand. Whoa there's something I haven't heard of in a long ass time. Yep, the league used to have brands a player could join. The only other brand I remember was NETFLEX, but I think there were six? Anyway... I spent less than a quarter of the season on Halifax's roster before R. Peace was eventually drafted by Saskatoon under Gooning then shortly thereafter Dtayl. So here's my initial advance and rapid growth into the realm of GMing! I created Rylan Peace in September, and by October I was already the acting GM for the Wild when Dtayl's PC crashed on him. Not just crashed, but thoroughly died as the only means of communication between him and I came from a college library computer or whenever he had enough signal on his phone. He couldn't submit lines, couldn't react to trades, wasn't updating his player... the only reason I remember this is because I am the pre-requisite to assistant GM's getting access to the portal. I had to dig deep down into my PM's here on the website, but there it is... Will adding AGM permissions just so I can manage the Wild on November 29th, 2018 while Dtayl was out of action and I had struggled for a month to manage the team. I had to conduct all of my league affairs using PMs and DMs, going back and fourth for so long just to do trades, update lines and sign new players that it must have become annoying enough to solve. It was obviously a decision on necessity versus the league being healthy enough for proper AGM privileges to naturally develop. Dtayl never returned, and by January 13th, 2019, Dtayl was removed from his position in a private message from Bana to Dtayl, myself and Quik. I was called the 'interim GM' but Bana outright stated that the position would be official if I wanted to continue managing the Wild, something that would go against me in the future (Read: Not Bana's Fault). I've found the conversations he left in 2020, but describing the situation would be akin to peeling the layers of an onion apart; it requires invading the privacy of personal messages and violates one of my core values before I can even begin to describe what happened, so let's just say I... expressed... my disappointment that there would now be additional considerations to me remaining as the Wild's GM after the "drama" and it bit me in the ass. The only reason I'm comfortable mentioning the first part is because there is a public announcement that stated the same thing with similar wording. Without giving an exact date or which users it affected, I was involved with some drama that many thought I'd quit the league over after being threatened with a warning, leaving every Discord server (again) and deleting Saskatoon's 'DLR' (Discord Locker Room) in favor of using the forum from then on (which didn't last more than a few seasons). When I was told that I might be replaced I eventually went to Devise as he was the first admin online at the time, my primary contact as he's the person I was submitting lines to, and vented to him; frankly I though the difference between Admin, BoG and Commissioner back then was reversed. I just assumed Admin = Highest Ranked Individuals like every other forum I was a member of, and that the Commissioner teams just ran their respective league with no real outside power. Devise was my chance to express myself and describe what was going on in my life. He took it with stride, something I've respected him for ages for. Anyway I got heated and drunk, yes... drunk Peace was a thing back then... and started saying many a things that would have seen me likely banned/suspended under the modern user conduct rules. It was nothing racist, didn't have any hate speech, etc, but I did provoke at least a half dozen users into intentional arguments after the "drama" incident. Now if you're reading along as assuming it was Peace Feet or the whole "I got a 94%" copy pasta from this era, you'd be wrong but I like you're approach. Keep in mind this event is in the past, so I think recapping this event part of the era is now over, but I appreciate you reading. So why was I so crabby? I wrote to Quik (under the advice of Devise) about the whole thing. This'll be as brief as I can make it, but explains why I was in such a sour mood during those events. You see I was and still am struggling with alcoholism; it became a tool to quell my depression and hatred of my life. If anyone knows anything about addiction, it should be that it is perhaps the easiest to become addicted to something when it makes you forget or feel good even for just a moment in time. During the time period surrounding this event, I quickly became known as 'Drunk Peace' in the Discord and forum, and I was. Being a drunk wasn't the issue, it was the glue that held my malcontent together. Now imagine the situation by being in my shoes: It's winter 2019, I've got my three year old niece under my care, and the temperatures are averaging damn near the -40c's for the season; one of the coldest winters recorded for my municipality. You've got a heart of gold and see a wounded cat outside crying for help, and I mean literally crying. You take this poor animal to the vet and find that he has frostbite, ear mites, lacerations, matting, and is severely underweight. Unfortunately they can't take the cat right now unless it is to be euthanized as the shelter is full, and the Cat Rescue in town doesn't have an opening, so you've got two decisions: leave a life to be terminated at a place that's supposed to help animals, or keep the cat until it heals. I chose the latter and kept the cat so it could heal while waiting for a spot in the Cat Ranch. That breached my rental agreement. I explained to my landlady what was going on and at first she seemed okay with the situation, then the next day I had an eviction notice hanging on my door requiring me to be out in fourteen days for a substantial breach of contract. It was even signed by the Court. Fast forward 15 days and I'm living out of my van with a three year old, my dog and whatever items I didn't surrender to my landlady or relocate to a storage bin. That's the situation so can you imagine the pressure, emotions and defeat I felt? I lashed out. My grandma took us in after I told her what was going on. She did that in a heart beat, and would have done that in the first place, but you don't think clearly when you suppress your emotions for so long like I had just to be overwhelmed by them over a period of two weeks. I lived out of my van for less than a day... the travel time it took to reach my grandma's house, really, but the fact it got to the point where the only warm place to go was a vehicle should never have happened; had I just been mentally present, I wonder how I would have reacted differently. Now that's the personal situation that surrounded the drama event; kinda feels good to write about this as part of my own individual VHL lore. It's not relevant to the VHL I reckon but it is part of my history here. And for the record: I've been more or less sober since March 2023... minus my 30th birthday. Let's move on! Here's a fun fact: During my tenure with Saskatoon, I was actively campaigning to move the team back to Brampton because I liked their logo better. Then the logo was updated, and that campaign stopped. I hounded Bana and eventually Diamond Ace when he joined the VHLM Commissioner team numerous times. I have at least seven requests in my PM history and still laugh at my attempt to convince Beketov to step in and say yes. I was humbly reminded to shut the fuck up and stop bringing it up as it wasn't going to happen, though I was told a redesign was coming to quell my attempts. If I remember correctly, I don't think I actually got to manage Saskatoon with the redesigned Wild logo. I ended up using Elmebeck's amazing adaptation for a while rather than the official logo, but it was Elmebeck (I think) that got to manage the team under the new redesign, though I'm not sure there. Here's another fun might-be-a-fact (I can't find out if it is true or not)! I don't think I was ever officially named Saskatoon's GM. That's right, if my memory is correct, I only ever served officially as the acting or interim GM despite Bana's statement that I would be made the GM of the Wild if I so chose to be. Don't worry, obviously I did, but I don't recall ever receiving the title GM publicly and a big reason for that was the situation above. I led the most dominate VHLM team to date (as far as I know) while serving as an ACTING GM prior to becoming an INTERIM GM, and later that same year, I had already moved upwards and onwards with Devise as his assistant with the Toronto Legion (while simultaneously managing the Wild). So now that I'm managing the Wild, while also helping run the Legion, I also decided to join VSN as an editor under Blade (who I think was the head of VSN at the time) and committed time to be in the award committee. I'm not positive how long that lasted, but I remember feeling wholly and completely burnt out. Eventually S69 ends with that [Chef's Kiss] S69 Saskatoon Wild, and by S70 I was the Legion's General Manager after Devise stepped away from his GM responsibilities. After becoming a VHL GM and back then a VHL GM could have their own player character... I retired Rylan Peace a little early, and the Erik Killinger era begins. For now though I think this is enough to cover at least some VHL lore (with bonus personal lore). Perhaps in time I will cover the Killinger era... or maybe the Kyle Peace era; that's when adult babies broke my back. I'm well above 2,000 words but I think half of it is just rambling on. Let me know how much of this is actually claimable. Cheers.

Coincidence? I think not!

Player Information Username: Peace Player Name: Zak Trokker Recruited From: Returning Age: 27 Position: LW Height: 73 in. Weight: 215 lbs. Birthplace: Canada Player Page @VHLM GM

Trucker here… I have to back into my spot.

Uncapped TPE Package - 4 TPE 1/5