leafsman

@Spartan
 
Draft complete

F-Alex Johnston
 
@Banackock

Alessandro Nano first season in the VHL is coming to a close and it's been a pretty good season for him.  The Helsinki Titans have been competitive this season but unfortunately Nano season will not end in a championship as his previous ended in cups with Miami and Vesteras.  On a personal level, Nano had a great season as his production with just a game left in the season is coming clos to matching  the VHLE last year.  Nano has 15 goals and 47 assists for 62 points iin 71 games this season.  Nano has 3 more goals this season than last and is 3 points shy of his VHLE total.  Considering the jump in the quality of the league it's quite surprising to see Nano pretty much match his VHLE point totals.  It's unlikely that he will have a 3 point game in the finale but it's still been a good one for him.   Alessandro has also blocked 179 shots to go along with 172 hits.  Nano prides himself on his defensive game but as the stats have shown he can contribute at both ends of the ice.  Nano leads the titans in shot blocks by 4 so that could change in the final game.  Alessandro is second on the team in PIM but he's just 2 back so he could lead the team in that category after the final game.  Nano is the titans highest scoring defenseman at the moment with a 2 point lead over salducci.  
I think I've had a good rookie season and I think we played as well or even exceeded expectations for the team.  We have a great young team and I think we have a great future.  Although my cup winning streak has come to an end I believe we will be contenders very soon.  I am going to work hard to his offseason to become a more well rounded player next season.  My goal is to o work on my offensive side of the game while putting some hard work in the gym to get stronger.
 
Now that Alessandro has basically completed his first season in the VHL it's time to see how he fared in comparison to his father Paolo Nano who was also drafted by the titans.  Earlier in the season Alessandro had already passed his father in goals and assists but now we can see by how much.  Paolo had 6 goals and 26 assists which means alessndro has doubled his dad's goals total and came close to doubling the assists total.  Paolo played 2 seasons in Helsinki and it will be interesting to see if Alessando remains a Titan longer than dad. "I love playing here on Helsinki and would be happy to play here as long as possible.  I know it's a business but if it were up to me I'd love to be a Titan for life" said Alessandro Nano.
Paolo had this to say about his son. "I am very proud of how Alessandro played this season.  He definitely is a more talented player than I was and I believe he will have a much better career than me.  He's already won at the lower levels and that was something I was never able to accomplish.  I also never won a Continental Cup and I truly believe Alessandro will win one one day.
 

1) Yes or No: do marshmallows belong in a fruit salad?
No, first I've heard of that.
 
2) What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to your teammates? 
Guys who don't give it their all and take off shifts.
 
3) Do you have any holiday plans coming up? 
Live with the in-laws while our house is being renovated so having my wife aunt and uncle here .
 
4) Have you been signing up for the VHL 12 Days of Christmas events?
Yes I think I may have missed one
 
5) Do you think there are any potential point tasks that we could be doing instead of Media Spots, Graphics, or Podcasts? Or does that cover pretty much everything? 
 
Not that I can think of but maybe someone else has a great idea.
 
6) What do you think the best indicator of a Two Way Forward's performance is?
 
I have plus minus but for this sim will go with that. 

Happy Birthday

1) What is your favorite holiday? 
Without a doubt Christmas
 
2) Are you a coffee person, tea person, or neither?
 
Coffee, drink Nespresso mostly.
 
3) Do you think it's easier to build a team via the draft or via free agency?
The draft is probably best as it's cheaper and free agents may want to win so you have to build through the draft first.
 
4) Do you have any podcast recommendations?
I don't really listen to them but my wife has been into calm down with Erin Andrews and Carissa Thompson and it's good if you're a football fan 
 
5) Why is Helsinki the best team in the VHL?
 
Have good group of young players and prospects from the past draft so as a rookie it will be great to grow with them.
 
6) Why is Helsinki the worst team in the VHL? 
I don't think we are the worse but the reason would be that we don't have enough experience yet but it will com
 
 

@Spartan
 
Draft complete

Can Anybody Be the Ultimate Winner?
 
One of the toughest accomplishments historically in the VHL is the Triple Gold Club: winning a VHLM title, VHL title and World Cup all in one career. Despite having a few successful players, I've done it exactly once - with Gabriel McAllister, who won with Saskatoon, Seattle/Davos, and the USA. According to the most recent tally from S76, only 82 players in all of VHL history have all three titles.
 
But winning everything just got a bit tougher due to the introduction of the VHLE. Now, players would have to win in in four different leagues - VHLM, VHLE, VHL and World Cup - and one could argue the World Juniors could even be thrown in there as well. Especially since most players will only spend a season or two a piece in the VHLM and VHLE as currently constituted, and each league has at least 8 teams (and the VHL itself has 16), it'll be very tough to be a winner.
 
In fact, one season in to the VHLE, two players are currently on a Quadruple Gold trajectory: Alessandro Nano @leafsman, who took home the VHLM title with Miami in S79 and VHLE with Vasteras in S80, and Tynan Sylvester @diamond_ace , who was on Yukon's S78 run before heading to the VHL for a season, then back down to Vasteras's title team. (Sylvester also was a Warsaw prospect when they won in S78, but I don't count that.)
 
Will Nano or Sylvester pick up the other missing pieces? I hope Nano does at least, as his Helsinki teammate. But the Quadruple Gold Club will continue to be an interesting thing to track (or for @Victor to track if I'm being realistic) either way because I expect it to be rare.

Well, everyone's favorite AGM is sick. Would you rather be bedridden for a day and then be fine, or be kinda sick for a full week?
In bed for a full day sleeping than suffering for a week.
 
 
2) What is your go-to comfort food and/or activity while you are sick?
 
Watching something on tv and if I feel too crapy but on sports talk radio and drift in and out of sleep.
 
 
 
3) What is your least favorite symptom to have while sick?
Post nasal drip sucks as it makes it harder to sleep and therefore harder to get better 
 
 
4) Are you a board game person? What's your favorite?
 
My favourite would be risk although rarely play that one anymore.  With covid haven't played games in awhile .
 
 
5) Looking forward to the draft, Helsinki is looking pretty stacked at picks. What do you think the priorities should be? 
 
 Some offense I'd say mostly  and maybe another dman. We got a good goalie last year.
 
6) Now that there is another league (VHLE), do you think the VHL draft has more or less meaning?
 
I don't think it's changed much just means guys will get here a season or two later than before

@Spartan. It's CDs turn.
 
@FBR. It's been over 12 hours.  Please pick when you can.
 

Yes it's @Prout turn for one more pick and then back to domino and then you

I'm am accountant at a company that owns office towers and malls.  Just got my accounting designation this year after many years of trying to get the right work experience required.  So too boring for most people lol

I'm am accountant at a company that owns office towers and malls.  Just got my accounting designation this year after many years of trying to get the right work experience required.  So too boring for most people lol

Review: This is a good article. Your predictions make a lot of sense and are supported by stats. Format is good, building and underlining as well as spacing makes it easy to differentiate between awards. A suggestion I have is to maybe use some logos? Other than that, well done. 9/10

As I am currently playing in the VHLM I've decided to look at the VHLM awards and look at some candidates and see who I think will win the award 
 
Founders cup
This is the trophy all VHLM players aspire to.  I will through out 2 teams per division as cup candidates.  In the eastern division I will go with the Mississauga Hounds as the favourite as they are dominating the regular season and have to be considered strong contenders.  The second team I am putting out there is my own team of the Miami Mauraders who sit in 3rd in the division.  I'm very biased but i believe we have a shot at the cup.   In the west there are really just 2 contenders and that's the Saskatoon wild and the Mexico city kings.  With Saskatoon higher goal differential they are my pick to lose to my mauraders in the cup final.
 
Prime Minister's Cup
This award is given to the team with the best regular season record and There is really only one candidate to win the prime minister cup at this poin.  That team is the Mississauga Hounds who enjoy an 11 point lead on Saskatoon with 14 games remaining.  Saskatoon has a game in hand but the hounds magic number is 19 and with that many games left it's unlikely.
Mitch Higgins trophy
This trophy is given to the league MVP.  The strongest contender for this award who leads the league in points by 9 and leads in assists by 5 while trails goals by 3.  There's a decent chance that he will lead all 3 categories and that would seal the Higgins trophy.  Another candidate is Kyle peace who is top 4 in points, goals and plus minus and leads in short handed goals.  
 
Ethan Osborne Trophy
This trophy is given out to the points leader and that is currently Duncan Montana.  Montana leads the league by 9 points so he's very likely the winner with just 12 games to go.  Bryn Yrwy is the guy who is 9 back while Zach Kisslinger II is in third 11 back and this race seems to be done already.
 
Alexander Chershenko trophy
This trophy is given to the player with the most goals and this season the most likely winner is Bryn Yrwy who has a 3 goal lead over peace with 12 games left.  This means that peace is the second strongest candidate while assist and point leader Duncan Montana rounds out my top 3.  
 
Vladimir Boomchenko Trophy
This trophy is given to the player with the most assists in a season and this year it looks like it will be in the hands of Duncan Montana.  MVP contender Montana has 80 assists in 60 games so far this season which gives him a 5 assists lead on Zach Kisslinger II.  With 12 games left there is still time to catch Duncan but I don't see it happening.  This trophy is a 2 man race as third place Nathaniel Minion is 10 back of first.
 
Ryan Sullivan Trophy
This trophy is given out to the league's best defenseman.  These awards usually go to the leading scorer among the d and this year thats likely the case.  Zdeno leads defense scoring by 16 points as he's put up 33 goals and 63 assists which is good enough for top 10 in scoring.  Hes also an effective player at both ends of the ice as he's second on the league in shot blocks with 171.  He's also not afraid to throw his body around as well.  The other candidate is pistol Pete but don't see him having a chance as he has less shot blocks and points.
 
Benoit Devereux Trophy
This award is given out to the top goalie.  This is a hard one to predict as there's different leaders in each category.  First candidate is Luke Spinelli who leads the league in wins and shutouts. However That's more of a function of his strong team in front of him as he's 6th in GAA and out of the top 10 save %.  I'd say the strongest candidate at the moment is Leroy Johnson who is second in wins and save % and he's  4th in GAA.
 
I haven't predicted the playoff MVP as I just wanted to focus on regular season individual awards as we have stats for them. 

1). Make salaries matter somehow.  I'm now on my third player and have always taken minimum salary as rather have a better team as I could still have enough cash for depreciation fighter. I have no idea how to do this other than more options in the player store.
 
2) Player builds are very similar but that seems like a sim issue.  All players have very similar builds due to how the sim works.  Seems stupid that passing makes a forward less successful.  I don't know what other sims are like for this type of league but would be great if there were more attributes to make diverse players.
 
3) A mock draft like event like PBE does where you make predictions on over under things such as and number of players at certain position drafted in top round.  Get a certain number of TPE per correct answer.  Might make draft more interesting for those not involved in it.

Uhtred won his first individual award of his career in his final season as he was won the Daisuke Kanou trophy which is the continental playoff MVP. This is the only award of uhtreds career but he will retire back to bebbanburg with a pretty full trophy case. One major disappointment in uhtreds career however is that he was never able to win a world cup and was unable to join the triple gold club. Uhtred has played in a few world cups but was unable to win the gold medal. Uhtred won his first trophy in his first year as professional hockey player with a founders cup win with the Saskatoon wild. Uhtred then won a couple of Continental cups with Seattle in addition to a victory cup. The last continental cup and victory cup and was won by uhtred in season 73 and at that point he had 2 continental cups, a founders cup and a vitoryy cup. At that stage in his career he was a champion every other season. After that uhtred went 4 seasons with up to a troohy until winning the victory cup with Warsaw in season 77. That was just a precursor to season 78 where uhtred won his final contental cup bringing his career total to 3. At the end of his career hes managed 3 continental cups, 2 victory cups, a founders cup and a Daisuke Kanou award. Thus his biggest disappointment is not joining the triple gold club.
 

The regular season is filled with plenty of heroic exploits, but it takes a true legend to excel in the playoffs. Tonight, we recognize the MVP of the S78 Playoffs with the Daisuke Kanou Trophy. 
 
Tonight, one of these players will transcend greatness, and take their place in VHL lore as a legend of the game, a player who played the biggest when it mattered the most. Dakota Lamb @dlamb put together an incredible postseason for Warsaw's championship run, scoring 34 points in 17 games, including 10 goals, good for two points a game. James Rose @MattyIce put together a valiant effort for the Seattle Bears, scoring 25 points as a blueliner, along with 51 hits and 44 blocked shots. Uhtred @leafsman put together a dynamic playoff run for Warsaw, scoring 15 goals and 31 points to power the Predators to a championship.
 
Who will become the next entry into the VHL's echelon of legendary playoff heroes? The winner of the Daisuke Kanou Trophy, and Season 78 Playoff MVP, is...
 
 

Good morning VHL! It's bright and sunny here where I'm at and it's got me in a good enough mood that I feel like making a Media Spot today before it gets hot so I can go out swimming later on in my day. Today I'll be talking about my S78 World Cup roster selections for Team Western Europe. For those who don't follow the World Cup, I made my official roster announcement last Thursday here: https://vhlforum.com/topic/105451-s78-team-western-europe-world-cup-roster-announcement/
 
Now I'll go over each of my players and give you all a more descriptive report on them in order to explain why I selected them for Team Western Europe. 
 
The Forwards
 
Center / Cabe McJake /  🇮🇪
@Red
 
Well this was an easy selection as McJake lead all eligible forwards in TPA (915) and in total points (87). So really it was a no brainer to select McJake as he was simply the best offensive weapon to choose from.  McJake is also well rested and has something to prove as his Riga Reign didn't make the playoffs this year as they finished on the wrong end of a tiebreaker with the Malmo Nighthawks for the final Wildcard slot after both teams finished with 76 Points in the standings. McJake's 87 Point season playing as the Reign's first line center man was good enough to lead the team in points and I figure McJake will probably be assuming much of the same kind of role here on Team Western Europe. Seeing how McJake is also the only Irishman in the VHL system which includes the VHLM, he will also have every hockey fan in the whole country's support at this event. 
 
Left Winger / Ryan Schwarz /  🇩🇪
@Enorama
 
 Ryan Schwarz had a hell of a playoff round when his New York Americans fell to the D.C. Dragons 3-1 in the Wildcard Round. He was over a two point per game player in the playoffs, earned himself 2 2nd star selections in a losing effort and was the American's top offensive player scoring 10 points in the short 4 game series. During the regular season Schwarz proved to be an effective enough two way player that I also feel comfortable giving him some time on the penalty kill. He also brings in some sandpaper to my lineup as he posted over 150 hits last season. I like how he seems to elevate him game in big moments and I hope he can come up clutch for Team Western Europe as well. 
 
Right Winger / Uhtred 🇬🇧
@leafsman
 
I decided to not let Uhtred retire from hockey just yet.  Uhtred played on the best offensive team in the VHL, the Warsaw Predators who won the Continental Cup on the day I made my official roster announcement for the World Cup. Uhtred won't be getting much rest but I hope he can stay red hot for the World Cup Tournament after earning 31 points in 17 playoff games. With selecting Uhtred we're brining in someone who knows what it takes to win as he has now won 3 Continental Cup rings (S72,S73,S78) as well as having won the Founder's Cup back in Season 69. He just seems to win where ever he goes and the one thing stopping him from being a triple gold member is winning the World Cup tournament. Uhtred has plenty of World Cup experience as he also played in this tournament on 3 other occasions and has twice represented Team Western Europe in the past. Uhtred has scored a total of 42 points in 33 games played in the World Cup tournament and I think Uhtred can be a offensive weapon yet again for us and has another excellent World Cup performance left in him before he sets off to enjoy retirement.
 
Center / Leo Strauss 🇩🇪
@gregreg
 
Leo Strauss was another no brainer as he was one of the seven eligible players for Western Europe that was 700+ in TPA. Basically, as the underdogs of this tournament every 700+ player automatically made the team in order for us to ice the most competitive team we can. Also there was not much other competition for the center position as Kevin Sterk was the next eligible VHLer in TPA (429). Strauss will not have much time to rest up having just finished participating in the Continental Cup Finals as a member of the Seattle Bears. Unfortunately for him Strauss' team lost in the finals 4-2 against Uhtred and the Warsaw Predators. Now Uhtred and Strauss are going to have to learn to put their aside their differences as they're set to join forces as team mates on team Western Europe. While I may have Strauss originally set as my team's 2nd line centerman, I know he's fully capable of playing on the top line as well in case McJake decides to slip up. Strauss played very well behind Venus Thightrap in Seattle earning 85 points which is awesome for his role and I figure he can do just as well supporting McJake.
 
Right Winger / Artair McCloud / 🇬🇧
@Hoopydog
 
We have 4 players hailing from the United Kingdom which means 1/3 of the players on this team are Brits this year. Artair played for the Riga Reign along with McJake but played mostly on the team's 2nd line earning himself 66 points. Those numbers aren't the most impressive when you first look at it, but I think McCloud has some unlocked potential as he was able to pot 30 goals despite his poor shooting percentage of 6.8%. Even if he doesn't suddenly explode offensively like I'm hoping here, he's still useful to Team Western Europe as he's a competent player in his own end and is positionally sound so I hope to use him quite a bit on the penalty kill. 
 
Left Winger / Phil The Rock Johnson / 🇬🇧
@Phil
 
Now this is where I had to make a decision between two players. The eligibility list for Team Western Europe was lacking in depth on the left side, so I had to select a natural right winger to play on the left side. I was left torn between two great character guys in Phil and Druss Deathwalker that both excelled in the same style of game. They both would add a lot of sandpaper to my squad I just had to pick between the two and even though I know @animal74 pretty well compared to Phil I decided to go with Phil because he had an edge when it came down to skating.  The Rock didn't have the most explosive season offensively putting up 43 points but he did however put up 258 hits while playing responsibly in his own end. I didn't bring Phil in to be a threat every night offensively but I brought him in to be a threat to opposing players and I brought him in for that big dick energy.
 
The Defense Corps
 
Left Defense / Roque Davis / 🇵🇹
@Josh
 
This was quite the easy one, Roque Davis was at the top of the eligibility list being the only player over 1000+ TPA available to me. Not to mention Davis has 35 games of World Cup experience, 22 of which on Team Western Europe. In those 35 games he produced played well producing 31 points. Does Davis still have it though? He's technically retired from the VHL and he's coming off the worst season of his career and didn't make the playoffs with the Los Angeles Stars. Even his last world cup appearance was mediocre at best after he posted 4 points and went -4 in 11 games for Western Europe in Season 76. It was obvious that Davis has lost a step but even at his worst Davis still managed to put up 50 points this season in the VHL so he still has some offensive upside despite his regression. Hopefully Davis can redeem himself and play a good tournament because if team Western Europe wants to place top 3, we'll need to see Davis at his best so let's hope he has more hockey left in him.
 
Right Defense / Chris Hylands / 🇬🇧
@hylands
 
Chris Hylands has been a staple on Team Western Europe's D-squad for the last two tournaments and has done well for himself posting 22 points in 22 games and was arguably the team's best defenseman in last year's tournament. Hylands also had a great season in the VHL that saw him quarterback the league's offensive machine AKA The Warsaw Predators. Hylands' regular season was so good that he ended the year as the top point getter among the league's defenders scoring 87 points. Hylands most importantly helped the Preds earn themselves a Continental Cup by putting up 21 points over 17 games. Hylands has a boat load of experience, winning two Continental Cups and being a key player to our team over the last two tournaments, we just had to roll with him once more. 
 
Left Defense / Micah Adrienne / 🇳🇱
@Poptart
 
Adrienne has been one of the better shutdown guys in the league for a while now and he's never been a minus player in his VHL career. Having a shutdown defender is a useful asset, especially for the team's penalty kill. However, he's coming off his 2nd best season offensively of his career after posting 66 points for the London United so he's not a one dimensional player by any means. He too is a returning player to Team Western Europe and he brings a lot of winning experience. Every VHL team that ended the season with Chris Hylands in the mix has reached the playoffs so far and Hylands has won it all before with Vancouver in S74 so buddy knows how to get it done. Hopefully he can help Team Western Europe win a few games and hopefully finish the year among the top 3 teams of the tournament. 
 
Right Defense / Defenz Mann/ 🇫🇷
@Mike
 
Selecting DeFenz Mann was probably one of the more controversial picks I made for this tournament. I selected DeFenz Mann even though I also had guys like Matt Thunder who had more TPA and Jackson Philliefan who had more points in the VHL to pick from. Thunder is 5'9", 160 lbs wasted TPE into fighting and tries to play tough and takes a ton of penalties. Yeah he put up 60 points but he didn't help his team win by going -17, hell he didn't even make the playoffs. I already had enough sandpaper on my team with Phil so he didn't fit the style of play I needed. Philliefan did produce more points than Mann playing on the same Dragon's team but he went -14 versus Mann's +27 which was good for 5th in the VHL. Mann also played pretty good at last year's tournament posting 9 points in 11 games so I thought I'd give him another chance to play in the World Cup. 
 
The Goaltenders
 
Alright well this is where things got complicated for me. I got the chance to select my goaltenders after team Mercenaries selected his due to the fact that Team Western Europe had no VHL calibre goaltenders for me to select from even though I'm sure young prospect Aike Van Giersbergen @enigmatic will get there one day. Team Mercenaries selected Jean-Pierre Camus and Rara Rasputin before me therefore I was left to select the following:
 
Goaltender / Artem Tretiak / 🇷🇺
@Molholt
 
Stat wise and TPA wise, Artem Tretiak appears to be the frontrunner for the starting position for team Western Europe however I'm leaning on splitting the starts during the round robin and whoever plays the best during the round robin will be used during the elimination rounds. Tretiak had a solid season posting a save percentage of .924 and helped the Malmo Nighthawks reach the semi finals before getting overpowered by the eventual cup winners, the Warsaw Predators. Tretiak didn't play too well in the semi final round and looks to bounce back in the World Cup tournament.

Goaltender / Kunibuni UnGuri /  🇫🇯
@Berocka
 
Okay yeah Tretiak's stats look better and he has more TPA but it's only a 8 TPA difference and Tretiak got to play on a playoff team. UnGuri had the unfortunate pleasure of playing on the worst team in the North American Conference, finishing with 58 points in the standings which is only better than the Vancouver Wolves at 53. Therefore of course his stats don't compare well to Tretiak's but he still managed to put up respectable numbers despite playing one of the worst teams in the VHL. UnGuri also has previous World Cup experience playing 10 games for team World in S75 and doing very well posting a save percentage in the .930s , Tretiak on the other hand has never participated in international play. We'll see who ends up winning the coach's favor in the round robin. 
 
I'm pretty comfortable with my selections for this year's World Cup tournament and I believe that this team can surprise everyone and we'll embrace the role of underdogs for this tournament. I believe this team can finish top 3 and it'll be very entertaining to watch and see how we'll do. 
 
2200+ Words good for 4 PTs
 

Pretty solid squad! Final tour for @leafsman !

Great way to cap off a career.  Probably won't have another player that wins as much as uhtred.

Great way to cap off a career.  Probably won't have another player that wins as much as uhtred.

Great way to cap off a career.  Probably won't have another player that wins as much as uhtred.