SirRupertBarnes

Today we catch up with Alec Volchenkov shortly after he was selected 12th overall by the London United. Volchenkov looks set to spend another season in the VHLM with the Ottawa Lynx after a successful stint with Saskatoon last season. What were the emotions like on your draft night? “I was a little on edge, you know, unsure of really where you’re gonna be spending your career. It was exciting but I’m glad it’s over now so I can spend a little more time celebrating our cup win before getting back to training.” Are you happy with being taken by London? “Yeah, it’s a great place to play! Coming into an expansion team there’s lots of room for me to grow into my full potential.” Since you’ve gone to an expansion team are you going to play in the VHL or stick in the minors another season? “My plan all along was to stick another year in the minors, hopefully I can win back-to-back cups. Even though London may need me on their roster I’d still like to spend this season in Ottawa. I would rather stay down with a cup contender and develop another season before making the jump. We have a good squad down here and I’m looking forward to the future.” That’s all we have for today, thanks for tuning in as we caught up with Volchenkov. He’s set to have a good season with Ottawa as they hope to go deep this year.

Maybe you wouldn’t have lost in 5 to us if I was on the squad ?

1. I could be biased but I felt London did quite well overall. 2. I’m gonna go with Miami. They shocked everyone this season being a lot better than anticipated. I feel they’ll continue that success with some of that core as well as drafting. 3. It’ll be tough. There’s a few key pieces leaving the squad, not sure if you can really replace players like that. 4. I feel like I’ll be a first rounder but I have no clue 5. I’m going with Brandt. He’s a stud but all of the guys are gonna do great. 6. Hopefully they do something with that and draft well enough to compete again.

Review: This is a solid graphic overall. I love the colour scheme of it, it really fits well with Helsinki. I love the design of the background as well as taking the time to do the custom helmet. The logo blends seamlessly with the jersey. That text is pretty sweet too. Awesome graphic! 10/10

Hello and welcome to part 2 of The Only Expansion Draft Article You Need. In this article @Plate and I will be taking a look at each of the existing VHL teams and who we think they will be protecting for the upcoming expansion draft. We’ve also highlighted a few players who we feel will be the best options made available. Teams will submit protection lists of players eligible to play in S73. That is anyone drafted from S66 to 72, which includes both skaters and goalies. Draft picks cannot be selected directly from existing teams. Any player left unprotected is eligible to be taken in the expansion draft. A team can only lose a maximum of one player (skater or goalie). On the following tables, the names in black are players we project will be protected, along with the best players available shown underneath. TPPS stands for TP per Season. Disclaimer: This does not account for Veteran depreciation, or rapid VHLM growth. If you’d like more information on the expansion draft Plate explains it more in detail on his article. Also, while you’re there you can check out the other four teams please click the following link; https://vhlforum.com/topic/86966-the-only-expansion-draft-article-you-will-ever-need-part-1/ (Plate's Article) If you'd like the official expansion article here is the link for that as well. https://vhlforum.com/topic/85217-season-73-vhl-expansion/ (Expansion Article) Malmo Knighthawks Projected Expansion List (TPPS): C. Adrienne (245), L. Dawson (201), A. Martin (93?), Z. 12 (173), C. Hylands (330), V. Kamarov (298), G. Neal (129?), J. Feriancek (91?) Best Available Players (TPPS): C. Smeb (82?), H. Chan (82?), A. Petrovic (81?) Malmo is in a unique situation where they have a few players they would like to protect. Adrienne and Dawson are the obvious choices along with Hylands and Kamenov for your prospects. Couple that with other future talent such as Z.12, Neal, and Feriancek you have your prospect pool protected. To finish it off strictly by number you have A. Martin and just like that you have yourself a protection list. For an expansion team you aren’t going to get a good prospect out of Malmo. However, if you’re going for cup contention in the first couple years, then you may be able to select one of these guys later in the draft. Moscow Menace Projected Expansion List: V. Pavlov (203), R. Bernard (207), V. Calia (197), A. Letang (363!), L. Brandt (346!), R. Moreau (236), K. Krestanovich (214), C. Newhook (209) Best Available Players: H. Zoiderberg (134), N. Telker (147), O. Lagesson (163), P. Angellini (209) Moscow has done a great job picking up solid assets, unfortunately for them they have too many to protect. Pavlov and Bernard are two obvious choices that would be protected as they are two stud players in the VHL. The next two easy choices are prospects; L. Brandt and A. Letang. Both of which only have one season in the VHL played and are both well over 300 TPA. Going by numbers now we would protect R. Moreau and K. Krestanovich for sure. The last two spots are a toss-up here between C. Newhook, P. Angellini, and V. Calia. We opted to go with Calia for the fact that he is a better player currently. He faces less of a risk since if he goes inactive you can still get a roster player for it. Angellini and Newhook are practically identical players so either one of these a solid argument could be made. We opted to go for Newhook and leave Angellini unprotected. If you’re an expansion team there’s lots of great options for you to take here, it just all depends if you’re going for a win now or win later build. I have a feeling Moscow’s player may be taken somewhat early in the expansion draft due to the solid options that they have. New York Projected Expansion List: J. Freeman (222), M. Scott (214), A. Burn (212), L. Flowers (207), O. Nolan (187), S. Jensen (232), A. Guy (182), H, Jass (269) Best Available Players: R. Penisson (162), J. Brewit (205), A. Dayne (197), Bacon (176) New York was a very easy team to decide in our opinion. They have a great roster to go for another strong season so it just makes the most sense to protect the highest rated guys. Plus, on top of that each of their TPPS is above the league average anyway so it doesn’t feel as bad leaving your prospects unprotected. There are a multitude of great prospects up for grabs here as New York is just unable to protect all of their good players. No choice is a bad one; it just all depends on which role you’re looking to fill. Prague Phantoms Projected Expansion List: C. Block (226), S. Perrin (176), W. Stansson JR (159), T. Landry II (329), O. Ohradka (131), W. McPine (164), A. Syreck (146), R. Gee (236) Best Available Players: K. Palazzo (111), A. Pearson (108), V. Ligriv (106) Prague has some good assets on their team but unfortunately they were a .500 team last season. We opted to prioritize some of the prospects over the vets since they’re not in active cup contention right now. Based purely on numbers it’s easy to protect all of the players in the blue or white. Ohradka was the only fringe pick in our books since he is a bit of a vet and his TPPS is below the league average. However, we felt he was the best option out of the remaining players to protect. Prague is able to protect their prospect pool well enough. The only teams’ really interested in taking one of these guys is a GM looking for a vet presence to win now. Riga Reign Projected Expansion List: L. Tate (214), G. Eagles (195), P. Marleau (174), P. Tallinder (216), G. Saskamoose (196), K. Oferson (322), Pengu (383!), D. Mann (292) Best Available Players: C. Past (118), R. Busser (128), J. Jones (222), B. Wyman (213) Riga is in a pretty great spot overall with some solid VHLer’s along with some great up and coming prospects. Even though they’ll lose someone it really won’t hurt all that much. Most of the protected players are self explanatory. Leaving Past unprotected could be a bit controversial, but we felt it was the right choice. He’s headed into his final season and his TPPS is below the league average. No matter who picks a player from Riga they’re going to get a great VHLer either now or in the future. None of the players available are bad choices and an argument could be made as to why each of them is the right one. Seattle Bears Projected Expansion List: R. Funk (217), S. Greene (211), H. Hogan (204), B. Sunqvist (185), A. Stark (178), O. Omdahl (252), O. Vikingstad (326), Uhtred (272) Best Available Players: R. Marsh (385), T. Brown (351) Seattle has a huge problem here in this expansion draft. They have too many good players to be able to protect them all. Almost all of their players are above the league average for TPPS which is just insane. We opted to protect the vets since Seattle just came off a 47 win season and will be looking for redemption next season. They’re in a good place to contend and can sacrifice a prospect to be able to do that. The two best prospects on Seattle we initially protected. We felt it was better to commit to cup contention rather than the future. If either Marsh or Brown are left unprotected they will be the #1 pick in the expansion draft. Toronto Legion Projected Expansion List: J. Hextall (242), E. Killinger (363), K. McDagg (129), J. Gainer (276), A. France (224), Z. Anigbogu (214), M. Mac (191) Best Available Players: F. Elmebeck (118), G. Gutzwiler (120), J. Blaze (126) Toronto has some decent on their roster that are well above league average. Fortunately for them they’re able to protect all of them so the expansion won’t bother them too much as some other teams. There’s not too much to deliberate about for them so we pretty much just went strictly off of TPPS here. There’s a couple players that arguments could be made for but we felt these were best for the team’s future. There are a couple options for expansion teams to consider though. Elmebeck, Gutzwiler, and Blaze are pretty solid options depending on what your needs are. Each of them are in different stages in their career so one of those players are bound to fill a need on any team. Vancouver Wolves Projected Expansion List: J. Downey (260), B. Louth (260), J. Spyro (244), J. Proto (278), A. Su (479!), G. DiGiannantonio (410!), Kungkok (401!), G. Stallion (308) Best Available Players: M. Tocco (145), G. Manzer (180), S. Dan (180) Vancouver has a solid prospect pool and we strongly believe they should protect that as much as they can. In terms of TPPS they have some absolute studs such as; Su, DiGiannantonio, Jungkok and even Stallion. I feel for this team you pretty much just have to protect the highest TPPS players. They do want to prioritize their prospects, however, there are a few players that are just too good to leave exposed. Unfortunately for Vancouver they just can’t protect everyone. There are some great pieces up for grabs here including; Tocco, Manzer, Dan, etc. The draft will hurt Vancouver a little bit but they have such a good pool they’ll be fine in the long run. Thanks for taking the time to see who we projected would be available. This was quite a bit of work but a blast to make. Thank you to @Plate for teaming up and taking on this project as well as putting the time into making the spreadsheet for all the data we used. Are there any choices we made that you disagree with? Let us know in the comments below! If you could drop a like as well that would be much appreciated. Make sure you read the part he posted as well v.i.a the link at the top. 1683 words

Let’s Gooooooo! Atta be boys! I’m so pumped we were able to do it and be forever cemented as champions. It was a great series Mexico, very well fought and it was not an easy road to get here either. Making the finals is nothing to hang your head about.

1. Just play our game and keep them to the outside. 2. Absolutely unreal. The boys were amped and rightfully so. OT game winner in a Game 7 is an amazing feeling for everyone on the winning side 3. I’m not too focused on the majors right now just focusing on my game and staying in the zone throughout this final stretch. If I had to choose I guess Calgary because they’re a Canadian team? 4. Komarov’s been a stud but everyone’s been producing when we’ve needed them to. 5. Not really that I’ve noticed. Just don’t step on the logo in the LR 6. Practice and watching footage. Just keeping our heads in it and going one game at a time. Making sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves.

Finals here we come. It was a close series Philly, you guys fought hard

Review: This is a great design overall, I love the simplicity of it and how you incorporated the jersey colours into the text. The font style fits the theme of the player's name perfectly and the logo is seamlessly added to jersey. The only thing I would add was having the team logo in the corner or even just the logo. Overall great job though. 8.5/10

Markus Schauer Hits 100 +1

Ignore me, I’m not eligible for this

Claiming part 2 week end July 12

I was just going off the portal, I'll have to look into that further

No face-offs sadly. I appreciate the help though, I didn’t know that list existed

That is helpful, I didn’t know that. Is there a way to see all-time stats or is it locked to individual seasons?

Looking at stats through the player page this is what it shows. Does it only show if you go to team stats? I feel it should show on the player page I’m talking more about career averages of all-time rather than individual seasons or games

Transaction ID: 9E889285TV1182626 Doubles Week $1M Player Store Cash 5 Uncapped TPE

Review: This is a great idea! The overall design of the graphic is well done and I appreciate the originality of it as well. The colour scheme all fits really well together and overall fits with Miami. I really like having the quotes on there and especially the fact that the quotes you chose are very relevant. Great job adding in the players with the Miami logo as well. 9/10

Review: This is a spectacular graphic. By far one of the best edits of a team uniform that I've seen. The logo looks very natural and well placed on the front crest, the silhouette just behind the player makes it super awesome! The background is very fitting with the overall feel of the image, it fits well, looks great, and it isn't too attention grabbing so the jersey is still the main focal point. I appreciate that you put the VHLM logo on there as well, it's a nice touch. This is easily a 10/10. Awesome job!

Today we kick off a new series I’ve started called ‘The Greats of…’ where we will be looking at the top players of each position (active or retired) from different countries. Today we’re going to look at Russia. While they don’t have many superstars the few they have are incredible names that have been cornerstones for their franchises. LW - Maxim Kovalchuk @Banackock 1247 TPE Starting off with the LW position we have Maxim Kovalchuk who played from S62-69 (nice). Kovalchuk played in 576 (all but 72 were with Seattle) in his career and recorded 196 goals along with 413 assists for 609 points. His career high was actually his rookie season when he had 30 goals, 87 assists for 117 points in 72 GP. Pressure was no problem for him either as he was a point-per-game in the playoffs recording 23 goals, 45 assists for 68 points in 67 games played. Kovalchuk won 5 individual trophies, Back-To-Back Continental Cups and even a Founders Cup. It’s safe to say that he is the Best Russian born player to ever play in the VHL. C - Sergei Komarov @Gooningitup 862 TPE Next at Center we have Sergei Komarov who played from S57-63 and in that span had 215 goals, 298 assists for 513 points in 504 games played. He may not have been the highest in the league in terms of TPE, he was however just above a point per game in his career which is an amazing feat on its own. His best season was S60 with the NYA recording 45 goals and 58 assists for 103 points. His playoff performance was pretty solid as well putting up 20 goals and 30 assists in 64 games. In his time in the VHLM he won the trophy for best two-way forward along with being the leader goal scorer and to top it off he even won the Founders Cup all in the same season. RW - Alexsei Federov @Banackock 1030 TPE To finish off the greatest Russian forwards we have Alexsei Federov on the RW. Federov played from S54-61, in which all but his final season were with Seattle. In 576 GP he put up 203 goals and 404 assists for 607 points. In the final year of his career with Helsinki he recorded 51 goals and 59 assists for 110 points. Although he didn’t win any individual trophies he did win a Founders Cup in S52 and a Continental Cup in S59. D - Vladimir Pavlov @Victor 1202 TPE Now that the forwards are taken care of we move onto one of the greatest defenders of all time who is currently ranked 7th in active Defenseman for TPE, Vladimir Pavlov. Pavlov just finished his 6th season with Moscow and has recorded 328 points in 432 games played so far in his career and has an astounding 942 hits. At the time of this article he’s also had 6 goals and 24 assists for 30 points in 54 playoff games. Pavlov hasn’t won any individual awards so far, but has won a Founders Cup in S65 and a Continental Cup in S70. D - Evgeni Komarov @Gooningitup 495 TPE Finishing off the Defensive pairing we have Evgeni Komarov. Komarov had a shortened career only playing in 4 seasons from S65-68 with a relatively new Moscow, but in that time he put up 20 goals and 74 assists for 94 points in 288 games played. While he wasn’t known for his offense he did have 896 hits as well as 504 shots blocked. He didn’t win any individual trophies or cups but had his career gone on a little longer I believe he would be regarded as one of the better shutdown defenders in the league. G - Ilya Kopralkov (Unknown) 339 TPA Last but not least we come to the Goaltenders, who I decided to go with Ilya Kopralkov. Kopralkov may not have been the best goalie on paper but he put up some pretty solid numbers throughout his career. In 387 games played he had a 189-169-23 record, along with a career .913SV%, 2.60GAA and 41SO. After winning his first Continental Cup as a backup for Riga, he went to New York in S52 which was a spectacular year for Kopralkov. In the regular season he had a 47-15-1 record in the regular season along with an impressive 17 shutouts. He continued his success right through the playoffs to put up a 12-3-2 record with a .927SV%, 1.91GAA, 3 shutouts and record just over 1,000 minutes played on the road to his second and final Continental Cup of his career. Honourable Mentions: RW - Bogdan Podarok (Unknown) 1070 TPA This was a toss-up between Alexsei Federov and Bogdan Podarok. While Podarok could arguably be the better player and won 4 individual trophies in a single season in the VHLM, I opted to go with Alexsei Federov since he had a longer career and put up more points than Podarok. One could argue that his points-per-game was higher but i still felt the shortened career hurt him in terms of being considered the greatest Russian born RW of all time. G - Dmitri Dadonov (Unknown) 490 TPA Through the short career Dadonov had, they went 135-172-26. That’s not a great record but they did have a career .925SV% along with a 2.68GAA which are pretty solid numbers for someone with a losing record and playing just over 20,000 minutes. He unfortunately didn’t get much playoff experience since he spent his career on bad teams but did post a 5-2-3 record in the 10 games he did play. While he didn’t win any cups or individual trophies, he did have a great career overall which i felt was worth mentioning. That concludes this week's edition of ‘The Greats of Russia’ make sure you tune back in next time to see which players made the cut to be considered one of the greatest players in each nation’s history. Do you agree with me on my choices or do you feel anyone was snuffed? Let me know in the comments below and we’ll see you next time! 1023 words

While looking at player stats there should be a category for faceoffs taken or just a faceoff %. It's an important part for centers and should be shown in my opinion. I'm not sure if this can be done or not but if other secondary stats can be shown such as shots blocked and hits this should be too.

1. Stick to the game plan and take it one game at a time. 2. They’re doing us a huge favour knocking them off. Similar to Columbus knocking Tampa out in the NHL. 3. My moneys on Frence and his goal scoring right now 4. Orange, Black, and White? I don’t know 5. Honey Badger, it doesn’t give a S$#@ 6. Not really a hidden talent but I’ve drastically improved my golf game the last few years irl

With all these downvotes it turns out that everyone hates every team and nobody has a favourite

Review: I quite like the background and the overall style of this logo. The colouring and everything is great. However, I think even just having the Malmo logo in the design even just in the corner would make it more applicable to the team. My only other complaint would be that the white text makes it hard to read in certain areas but given the location any colour could've given you trouble. Overall great job though! 8/10

Review: Overall i can see the effort and the idea behind this. Personally i find the background very distracting and takes away from the player BUT i do appreciate having a bit of colour instead of just the normal arena. The colours go well together and i kinda like the text you have. I would put the logo just a little lower so as to not get cut off with the colouring around the neck area but overall it was a good effort. 7/10