McWolf

Forgot to share it here. Here goes, people.

the names on these guys though

That is actually sad. Why did you have to bring that all up, @Banackock? Such a bummer, man

40 scoring gets you far, coach!

Sadly I am only a defensive dman with close to no offensive upside

Code format was part of the issue, but typically it's just the paragraphs and the line jumps or however you call them that get lost or doubled. I'll figure it out someday. Thanks @Will ! Glad to know you like it ! What? I only did one, and I'm not doing anymore, until I can do it for someone I actually saw play

today I learned that the word s n u b b e d was autocorrected as FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY while writing a HOF article good thing I proofread my texts sometimes

Aleksi Koponen Class of S59 Position: C Birthplace: Helsinki, Finland Height: 5’11” Weight: 180 lbs Jersey Number: 21 Drafted: Automatically drafted via GM Rule by Helsinki Titans Username: @Will Aleksi Koponen joined the Helsinki Titans in the Season 44 offseason as a GM player. He was not the best individual player of his generation and doesn’t have enough hardware to justify his place in the Hall of Fame on its own, but he was a dominant team-first player throughout his career and was part of the mid-40’s Helsinki dynasty that captured two straight Continental Cups in Season 45 and Season 46. Koponen is one of the players that had to wait the longest between the moment he retired and the moment he finally got inducted in the VHL Hall of Fame, only being awarded a spot among the stars in the Hall of Fame in his sixth season of eligibility. He did however receive at least a vote in each of his first five seasons of eligibility. Awards S45 Continental Cup - VHL Champions (HSK) S46 Continental Cup - VHL Champions (HSK) S51 Mike Szatkowski Trophy - Top Scorer Season 45 Statistics Regular Season S45(HSK) 72GP | 28G - 69A - 97P | +49 | 327SHT | 5GWG | 23HIT | 32SB | 51.1FO% Playoff S45(HSK) 12GP | 5G - 5A - 10P | +2 | 29SHT | 1GWG | 2HIT | 2SB | 47.2FO% Following a short rebuild process where they missed the playoffs for two straight seasons, the Helsinki Titans came back strong in Season 45, thanks to an eventful offseason. They traded for both Thomas O’Malley and Brady Stropko and they made a couple of important picks in the Entry Draft. Among the players they selected, 1st overall pick Phil Hamilton, 2nd overall pick Greg Clegane and GM player Aleksi Koponen were the only ones to make the jump to the team on the first year. Koponen found himself centering the second line, behind Thomas O’Malley, for the majority of the year. He finished the season ranked 4th in the league in assists and 11th in points in his rookie season. He continued his strong play in the playoffs, when he scored 10 points, en route to the first Helsinki Titans Continental Cup since Season 34, after they disposed of the Calgary Wranglers in 7 games. Despite his 97-point performance, Koponen only got a single vote for the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy, awarded to the VHL’s rookie of the year, as voters felt Titans goaltender and future Hall of Famer Greg Clegane was more deserving of the award, following his insane rookie campaign in which he led Helsinki to a first place finish in the regular season and to a Continental Cup. Season 46 Statistics Regular Season S46(HSK) 72GP | 24G - 56A - 80P | +43 | 360SHT | 1GWG | 105HIT | 34SB | 55.4FO% Playoff S46(HSK) 10GP | 4G - 8A - 12P | +5 | 30SHT | 1GWG | 2HIT | 8SB | 50.6FO% There has been close to no movement from Helsinki in the offseason. They lost 2 forwards in captain Thomas Duddy and Brady Stopko, but they replaced them by veteran Jackson Miller and rookie Giovanni Reuel. As the reigning champions, a lot was expected from the team as a whole, but also from the 3 players on their sophomore seasons. Phil Hamilton filled big shoes as he replaced Duddy as the team’s captain, while Clegane continued his dominance in front of the net. Koponen followed on his strong rookie campaign with a very small regression to his offensive performance, dropping from 97 to 80 points. 80 points isn’t bad per se, as it still was good enough for 27th in the league, though it was his worst offensive season at this point in his short career and it ended up being his worst point total throughout the rest of his career as well. Koponen had worked on his faceoff skills since the last season and it showed, upgrading his win percentage from 51.1% to 55.4%. For a second straight season, Helsinki finished first overall in the regular season and, for a second straight season, they capped it off by beating the Calgary Wranglers in the finals to win the Continental Cup, becoming the first team since the HC Davos Dynamo in Season 24 and 25 to accomplish this feat. Koponen was Helsinki’s top scorer in the playoffs, but finished 2nd behind Milos Denis of the Wrangles in voting for the Daisuke Kanou Trophy. Season 47 Statistics Regular Season S47(HSK) 72GP | 41G - 46A - 87P | +27 | 423SHT | 8GWG | 56HIT | 30SB | 58.9FO% Playoff S47(HSK) 6GP | 3G - 4A - 7P | +2 | 26SHT | 0GWG | 4HIT | 5SB | 55.7FO% After winning two straight Continental Cups, Helsinki lost hopes of completing the surreal three-peat, when they lost Thomas O’Malley, Christoph Klose and Giovanni Reuel to free agency. They did snag free agent Bismarck Koenig, though, in hopes he could replace O’Malley as the first center on the team. This pushed Koponen back to second line duty again, but only for a couple of games, as he was eventually moved to the left of Koenig on the first line. Having an elite playmaker center him helped him score a personal best of 41 goals, good for 8th in the league, while his 87 points ranked him at the 11th on the scoring ladder. He also finished the season just short of a 60% faceoff win percentage, once again raising from the previous season. For a third straight year, the Titans found themselves at the top of the European Conference, this time finishing 2nd in the league. However, the loss of the 3 veterans before the season started was felt in the playoffs as their path was stopped when they lost to the Stockholm Vikings in 6 games in the semi-finals. Season 48 Statistics Regular Season S48(HSK) 72GP | 46G - 52A - 98P | +33 | 441SHT | 13GWG | 75HIT | 31SB | 61.4FO% Playoff S48(HSK) 11GP | 3G - 8A - 11P | -6 | 54SHT | 1GWG | 11HIT | 6SB | 54.2FO% After Season 47, Bismarck Koenig decided the hang his skates, giving Aleksi Koponen his first chance as the team’s top line center. He did well, hitting new career bests with 46 goals, 98 points, ranking him 6th in the league in both stats, and breaking the 60% faceoff win percentage for the first time in his career. The Titans clinched their fourth straight European Conference regular season title. They took their revenge on the Vikings from Season 47, beating them in the European semi-finals in 6 games, before facing the Toronto Legion in the Continental Cup finals. The team’s lack of depth proved to be a problem, as the Legion went on to win their first of three straight Continental Cups. This defeat marked the end of an era for the Helsinki Titans. In four seasons, they finish atop the European Conference four times, reached the finals three times, winning the VHL championship twice. After this season, they would start a new rebuilding process, as they would trade the 3 team’s stars away. Phil Hamilton was dealt to the Cologne Express, while Aleksi Koponen and Greg Clegane were sent to the Quebec City Meute in the same deal. Season 49 Statistics Regular Season S49(QUE) 72GP | 55G - 77A - 132P | +97 | 524SHT | 7GWG | 298HIT | 30SB | 68.0FO% Playoff S49(QUE) 5GP | 4G - 3A - 7P | +2 | 28SHT | 1GWG | 21HIT | 2SB | 54.0FO% The change of scenery proved effective for Koponen, as he reached new high grounds with his new team. His 55 goals, 77 assists, 132 points, +97 differential, 524 shots, 298 hits and 68.0 faceoff winning percentage were all new career best for him. He finished the season with the 2nd most points in the league, trailing Legion’s Max Moholt by 13. As a team, the Meute did well, claiming the regular season championship. They traded for Wolfgang Strauss, Pablo Escobar, Severin von Karma and Jeff Hamilton during the season, to help with the quest for the Cup, while bringing a friendly face around in Strauss and Escobar, two former Titans. This proved to not be quite enough to dispose of the Meute’s Canadian rivals, the Toronto Legion, who beat them in 5 games in the semi-finals, before going on to win a second of three straight Continental Cups. In the offseason, Koponen was nominated for the Scott Boulet Trophy, awarded to the league’s best two-way forward, and for the Scotty Campbell Trophy, awarded to the league’s most valuable player. He left the awards ceremony empty-handed, but still proved how valuable he was to his team by these accolades. Season 50 Statistics Regular Season S50(QUE) 72GP | 40G - 60A - 100P | +33 | 496SHT | 7GWG | 189HIT | 43SB | 67.0FO% Playoff S50(QUE) 10GP | 6G - 9A - 15P | +5 | 55SHT | 1GWG | 20HIT | 6SB | 62.6FO% Season 50 was marked by an offensive regression throughout the whole league. Koponen followed on his previous season’s outstanding performances with a little drop, down to 100 points. This was, however, good for 3rd in the league, behind teammates Tom Lincoln and Unassisted. Season 50 also marked the first time in Koponen’s career his team didn’t finish at the top of its Conference, as the Meute trailed the Legion by 9 points, ending the season in the North American Conference runner-up spot. Finishing the season in second place meant they had to play in the quarter-finals first, in which they beat the Wranglers in 4 games, before they faced with the Legion again. This was the third straight season Koponen’s team was eliminated from the Continental Cup playoffs by a Cup-winning Legion team. He still scored an impressive 15 points in 10 playoff games, despite not even reaching the finals. Following this crushing defeat, Quebec City sold good players to competing teams and let some others walk to free agency in an attempt to start a rebuilding process. Aleksi Koponen became a free agent for the first time in his career and deciding to sign a one-year deal with the Calgary Wranglers. Season 51 Statistics Regular Season S51(CGY) 72GP | 60G - 75A - 135P | +94 | 573SHT | 15GWG | 177HIT | 23SB | 69.7FO% Playoff S51(CGY) 5GP | 1G - 1A - 2P | -3 | 17SHT | 0GWG | 14HIT | 2SB | 64.8FO% As was the case following his move to Quebec, the change of scenery was nice for Koponen. The Wranglers had a young roster filled with improving rookies a year prior and added Koponen, Unassisted, Black Velvet and Tyson Kohler from free agency. The mix of proven veterans and young guns worked wonders as the team finished first in the league, breaking a 18-year record for most points in a season with 132. For the first time in his whole career, Koponen finished the season 1st in points with 135. He also finished 2nd in goals with 60, a new career high. His 69.7% win percentage from the faceoff circle is also the best percentage he collected throughout his career. Unfortunately, the Wranglers faced up the Toronto Legion in the North American Conference semi-final and were eventually eliminated from playoffs contention following a 5-game series. For the first time in his career, Koponen left the VHL Award Ceremony with some hardware to be proud of, as he claimed the Mike Szatkowski Trophy, awarded to the league’s top scorer. Season 52 Statistics Regular Season S52(CGY) 72GP | 44G - 54A - 98P | +48 | 487SHT | 8GWG | 101HIT | 25SB | 67.6FO% Playoff S52(CGY) 7GP | 4G - 8A - 12P | +2 | 37SHT | 2GWG | 2HIT | 1SB | 50.6FO% It was in Season 52 that age finally caught up on Aleksi Koponen. He scored below 60 assists and 100 points for the first time since leaving Helsinki following Season 48. The Wranglers lost Unassisted in the free agent market and couldn’t find anyone to cover for his big loss. The team ended the season in the 3rd spot in the North American conference, marking the worst position by any team that had Koponen on its roster throughout his career. The Wranglers season and, at the same time, Aleksi Koponen’s career came to an end when the team lost to the 2nd placed New York Americans in the opening round of the playoffs. The Finnish center gave all he had in his final games, gathering 12 points in the 7-game series. Career Statistics Regular Season 576GP | 338G - 489A - 827P | +424 | 3631SHT | 64GWG | 1024HIT | 248SB | 62.3FO% Playoff 6GP | 30G - 46A - 76P | +9 | 276SHT | 7GWG | 76HIT | 3SB  Aleksi Koponen retired as the 14th best scorer in the history of the league. He was also ranked 19th on the assists leaderboard and 4th in the plus-minus category. He only won a scoring title once, but finished most seasons in the top 10 for either goals, assists or points, if not all of them. Early in his career, he served in more or a support role to the elite veterans of a stacked Titans team that won two straight Cups, but was never able to be the star that led the Meute or the Wranglers to a similar finale, as he found himself on the losing end of series against the Legion dynasty 4 times in a row. He had to wait for a while before finally getting his name amongst the greats in the VHL Hall of Fame, probably because he lacked the individual awards to make him go before other players that got inducted before him, like his Titans teammates Greg Clegane and Phil Hamilton, but also because he couldn’t recreate the success of his youth during his peak. However, when all was said and done, his place in the Hall of Fame was well deserved. His career totals of 827 points, +424 and 62.3% of faceoff wins along with 76 playoff points and strong performances leading to two straight Continental Cups made for a strong case and led to him finally being immortalized in the Hall of Fame in the class of Season 59. --- Thanks @Victor for the infos. Thanks @Quik for the stats tables I shamelessly stole. Thanks as a whole for the opportunity to write about one of the better players. I like backtracking the history of the league. And congrats again @Will on Koponen's career. It's 4 in the morning here. I'll probably not mess with the formatting right now, but I'm guessing it will be horrible, as it usually always is when I copy-paste from Word directly. If it's not too bad, I might edit it out directly, though. But worst case, I'll come back tomorrow. EDIT: It's readable, so here goes. Off-article fact; Koponen was top 10 in Hits Taken during 7 of his 8 seasons. Not sure what to do with that, as I’m not sure it helps the narrative of how he deserved his spot in the HOF, but I couldn’t just not talk about it either, so I’m just throwing that out here.

Hey boys, McWolf here. I was about to finish writing my Aleksi Koponen HOF article and was kind of lacking inspiration to talk about the last couple of seasons so here I am, writing a small and uninteresting VHL.com article to try and get my mojo back. Thing is, I basically told someone a couple hours ago I reached 12 capped TPE every week so far since joining. While this was mostly a true fact, I was actually lacking a VHL.com article for the current week to be absolutely right so here it is; Joseph McWolf never really bothered about his jersey number. For him, the most important thing was the logo in the front, not the name in the back, and the number was part of that back part that wasn't too important for him. In high school, he wore number 4, because that was the last jersey available in his size and he was basically the last guy to make the team. In college, he wore number 25. No real reason here other than, well, the jersey fit him, and he didn't really care about the number on the back. However, he realized, once he set foot in America that jersey numbers were a much bigger deal than he ever thought. He wasn't exactly a star back in England, no one would buy a McWOLF jersey. But here, well, that's something that could happen at some point. Probably not this year, probably not next year either, but at some point in his VHL career, there ought to be at least one guy somewhere that wants to buy a McWOLF jersey, right? And this jersey will show a number, the number Joseph will choose at some point. It can't be blank in the back just because the guy doesn't care about numbers, and it would be a dick move for the fans if he just changed jersey number every other season, making their official gear outdated. So, throughout all these thoughts of potential future fans being hurt by him, Joseph made an important decision today. A decision he probably should have made before the VHLM season started a couple days ago. But, hey, at least he made it. Today, Joseph picked his number. He analyzed every numbers possible, every numerical combination that could be potentially worn below that McWOLF nameplate on his back, and he arrived at the conclusion that there was one number that was factually superior to all the others, be it mathematically or visually. One number to beat them all, one number that he'd have no shame being associated with for the rest of his hopefully long hockey career. And now that he thought about it, he realized that this was probably the only reason why it never occured to him that jersey numbers were so important; he hadn't stumbled upon the Holy Grail of numbers before today. Today, Joseph McWolf met with the Ottawa Lynx gear guy and he asked him to print a big fat 49 on the back of both his jerseys. Here, 400 words about numbers. Good night guys. I'm coming up with your article, Will.

McWolf is sad there is no defensive category, so put him in the obstacle course, and he'll be the guy that gets buzzed off the ice after he's been stuck on that same puck handling attempt for 5 minutes. EDIT: And he can goalie if you don't have enough goalies. He can block shots and hit people, that's what you need to do when guarding the net, right?

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Can I apply even if I might be part of a team? If yes; count me in boy!

You are right, I did that but it was just a regular media spot. Reason I talked about it in the HoF articles thread is because I was wondering if I would be able to claim my free week later for the HOF article since I'm still riding this 2k article for another 2 weeks.

@DaftRaincloud your guy is american, right?

Bears 5-3

Linemates on team Europe @Enorama?

Yes, but he is still finishing the season with us. @BarzalGoat Though that would make him a retired player when the WJC drops, I guess. Aight, I'm out.

Chat is with Ottawa, btw.

They are not leaving anyone out. We might get a Europe unified team or something like that. And McWolf should be brit.

Chace reached 75 TPE +3

McWolf scored ayyy

1) I'm late to the party, so it actually started yesterday, but what I wanted to see before it started and what I want to see now is still the same thing; wins. Ottawa has a strong core and we are confident we can take it all this season. Obviously, that 0-2-0 in the first sim was disappointing, after that strong offseason, but we are now back on track at 2-2-0 after 2 dominant wins in back to back games versus the Wild. 2) I'd say the guy that's the most underrated on this squad is my fellow d-man Gregor Rasputinov. He's sitting at #3 on the positional depth chart, right behind Baxter and myself, but he's got what it takes to play top minutes. Look for him to score a lot from that 2nd pair! 3) Our GM set us some roles right after the draft and, for the most part, they are still holding. He set Baxter, Rasputinov and I in a 3-man rotation for 1st pair and 2nd pair of defense, with added time on PP and/or PK for everyone of us, which makes a lot of sense, really. On offense, one move I'm aware of involved Matthews passing James, as he himself suggested, seeing how Matthews put a lot of work in. That was pretty humble of James! 4) We actually got ourselves a Discord server set up and it's been fairly active so far. We are doing good on that. 5) Community is great, but it's at its best on the Discord server. Join it ASAP. 6b) I don't think I'll move much. 2 guys right in front of me, @Jubo07 and @Enorama are capping every week and seizing every uncapped TPE opportunities available, so I'm not passing them unless they go inactive. Current #1 is pretty far ahead if me. That being said, I don't intend on going inactive either, so I should stay put at 4th.

1. Obviously, I would not be so active if I didn't like the league. I like the concept and the community as a whole. You guys are great! 2. already answered to that earlier, so I won't do it again. 3. I think the closest comparison would be a less-extraordinary Marc-Édouard Vlasic. I like to think I have the same defebsive awareness and ability to read the play and prevent it before it even starts. I am also working on my passing game so I can set teammates up with some smooth assists in the offensive zone. 4. That is a good question to which I sadly don't have a preoared answer. You are getting me on the spot! I guess I'd have to say Emma Watson. Loved to see her grow with Harry Potter. She became quite the woman, and she's smart too, not one of those dumb Hollywood stars! 5. Not really to accommodate me, but maybe it could helped future recruits. I actually brought that up to Tagger once. The forum has so many sections and so many of them are completely irrelevant to new players. Maybe it would be easier for them to navigate the site and find the resource they need if you'd just make some forum categories invisible to them at first, at least until they are set up with a player and signed with a team. Leave them with the front office, the point tasks section and the one where GMs offer contracts or something like that.

Definitely count me in as a writer