Banackock

Over the last decade or so, the Seattle Bears have either been one of the best teams or one of the worst. A rollercoaster, to say the least, has run rampage on the fans, players and management of Seattle for quite sometime. We'd like to say it all started when GM Blake Campbell took the reigns over from Mike, but we don't believe that's the case at all and feel that the team was already heading in this direction during Mike's time. Once GM Blake Campbell was announced the new head gm of the Seattle Bears, he only solidified the idea that the Bears were heading from a high to a low, to a hopeful potential high. As we fast forward numerous of season of rebuilding and then contending, we now find ourselves back at the start. One may call it the Bears circle of life theory and are basing everything off that (we'd like to say it may not be as successful). Let's not blame the Bears though as they've also had some shitty luck on some asshole moves and retirements. This year, the winds had seemed for a short while to be changing. With a fairly successful draft under their belt, they walked away happy. A player who was picked with one of their last picks became active out of the blue and to be honest, was a player Campbell told the commissioner to choose Via "best player available". Then they grabbed a goalie, Perought, rather than having their GM create as one. Seemingly, that has worked out incredibly well... (ha). Next, you key in Xavier LaFlamme @Laflamme, who has pretty great potential and may be one of the best future Bears players if he sticks with it. Then, of course, you got your GM player in Mattias Forsberg and his other player Aleksei Federov who should of been a dominating defender by now. So what exactly is their plan moving forward now that they're sitting tight on their sofas at home, watching reruns of Friends or if they're bold enough, the Season 55 playoffs. Somewhere they could be, want to be, but are not. So what's next? 1. Draft Lottery - We want #1 It's to no surprise that the Bears, like any lottery organization, want the first overall. Yes, we know, the glorified @CowboyinAmerica is steamrolling the league right now when it comes to the up and coming VHLM draft, but the Bears more so want this pick for leverage. Pretty sure @hedgehog337 would suck a dick for this pick and a lot of other GM's would pay a handsome price for it too. This isn't to say the Bears would trade it. Hell, they may even surprise the league with the #1 pick and take a different piece if they find it suiting for their team. Owning that #1 pick though is where things start for them. If they do not, 2nd appeases them very much as well as they have their heart set on a couple players. 2. To move or not not move.. Aleksei Federov, he was supposed to be this huge backbone of the team moving forward when they picked him up in the draft. Unfortunately, that hasn't come to face yet and he's wasting his career sitting on the organization right now. If things don't pick up in the next season or two, expect a major blow up to happen once again and MAYBE even a management change. Blake Campbell has quoted that while he has heavily enjoyed his GMing tenure, he wishes that he'd had the ability to freely also enjoy his player careers before it's too late on the VHL. 3. Free Agency We'll admit, we're not crazy good but if there's players out there willing to give the team a chance, it may par out pretty good. We'd need a starting goalie, one more defender and a little help up front. Calgary sucks, Toronto is mediocre and New York is supposedly heading into a rebuild. MAYBE New York will make headlines - Beat Seattle twice in series, now players join team to help chase championship. Maybe Stockholm will help them out? Campbell sent them Sven Wolf as promised - will they return the love? @Advantage. Either way, FA is big and Seattle looks to make a few splashes there. And of course, much more, but I lack motivation and have cracked my 600 words - so see yah. 6 for Federov

Last day of memories and we'll fire this one off to whatever series that was where we clawed our way slowly back into the series being down 3-0 or 3-1 and forced a game 7 only to tank out in the final game. Pretty sure it was one of the series against New York, but who knows, could be wrong. Either way, the boys were jacked in the LR and it was a hell of a ride thinking we may actually pull it off.

Oslo, baby.

GAME WINNER @Wikiplaysgames

Had to give them one

Day 6 of memories is going to go to the day I took over for @Mike as the Seattle Bears GM. I've always had a strong passion for GMing in these kinds of leagues and had overly enjoyed my time in the VHLM. Despite the differences, I'd say the VHLM was way easier and didn't prepare me as greatly as I would of hoped for the VHL. Though, over time and with experience I've picked it up fairly nicely and have adapted to the league and it's other managers and ways. Now, I'm the longest running CURRENT General Manager in the VHL and don't look to stop right now. I'd like to give this rebuild another go even though it could be sacrificing more of my players careers. Long live Seattle!

Despite certain things and the stakes being even, skill is only part of being a VHL GM. Luck plays a portion. Either way, sure. Some sort of excitement would be great during this dark period in Seattle.

Better than Cologne.

Close one. Whoever that Forsberg fella is.. damn he good

HOF

Whether or not you reached your goal, you're a good person and GM on this site. Really enjoyed having the ability to attempt a cup run with you in my final season with Sven Wolf. Take it easy, enjoy the break and catch yah on the flip side or whatever.

Day 5 worth of memories would have to be awarded to my General Managing time in the VHLM. A lot of people shit on the VHLM and while it was a different league then as opposed to what were transitioning to now, I LOVED it. In fact, it easily competes with my GMing tenure with the Seattle Bears. There were some tough years where the locker room was quiet, but I loved building a team, winning personal and team awards and of course, bringing new and veteran members into the organization and having them hyped for the rest of their VHL career. Bratislava is and always will be one of my greatest memories on this site.

3rd favourite memory on this site was the first season of contention - not during our stronger seasons but the first couple, but mainly the first one. It was things looking up. We had a bunch of good guys together and we had high hopes for the team. Lots of moves coming and going and we lost a lot of people in the LR so to see it finally paying off and thinking that thee chance of us winning it all together was closer and closer was really enjoyable. On the opposite side, the losses were very tough. I remember us being happy through the season. Shit was clicking, the boys were happy. We literally steam rolled over people. Playoffs came and the tank was empty. I remember how shitty it felt - how upset a lot of key members were (specifically @Beketov as he always blamed himself partially. One of the reasons I wanted it so bad. Just another reason why it was such a good memory though because it had such strong affects on myself, the team and its players.

17 hour day.. What a day! Favorite memory #2: Starting Seattle's rebuild. It was a good moment - win/loss feeling heading into it. Win as we ha lota of pieces to deal and made some good deals. Loss because it was shitty we went for it and still bit the bullet. After rebuilding, I gained a lot of amazing members in the LR which lead to a lot of enjoyable, successful season that Im very thankful for as a GM.

Mattias Forsberg - OSL - Center Goals/10 +/- Rating/6 (Above +0)

What Frank said.

One of my favourite memories has to be joining the Stockholm Vikings with my goalie, Blake Campbell. Though I did end up leaving for Free Agency which led to an Aidan Shaw and Championship, it never was an easy moving leaving @boubabi and the rest behind. Either way, my times in Stockholm got a special place in my VHL heart.

4 for forsberg (say that 23 times fast)

Poor Vegas.

Wild be Wild.

EY

Hey ho, hey ho, the season has once again come and gone. Looking across the board now, 6 of the 10 VHL organizations have reached the seasonal ending point for their regular seasons and only 4 (all in the North American conference) have a game remaining. With some very great seasons behind them and the race for the final prize bigger than ever - we're curious to see how the first round will play out. With all of the first round match ups set and ready to go, we figured we'd give it a shot and see if we can hit the grey goose on the head and predict who, what, where, when and why for the first round. Without any further delay, the European conference. European Conference 1st Round Predictions The race for the first place bye was an amazing one in the European Conference, however, Stockholm just fell shy of winning that honour. Taking an extra overtime loss than win compared to Helsinki, Stockholm finished the season 1 point behind with 117 points on the regular season standings. As a result of this, Stockholm and the HC Dynamo will be facing off against one another and when taking a look at the rosters, the stats and regular seasons standings, we can safely say we have a winner in mind (though stranger shit has happened). The Vikings put up 59 more goals while allowing 23 less on the season - beat them by 29 points and finished the year off better (7-1-2 compared to 7-3-0). We will, however, like to mention Davos is rolling on some good momentum as they're heading into the playoffs on a 5 game winning streak. Average TPE per team Stockholm: 506.54 Davos: 323 Clear cut winner here, largely gives the Vikings the edge in the first round. Chemistry would be something that would strongly help Davos take down the Vikings, however, even with boosting amounts of chemistry we feel Stockholm has this in the bag. Roster analysis 2 players break a point per game on Davos (Trombone - 79 and Gretzky - 77) with the next players coming in at 67, 63 and 58. Honestly not too bad but nothing you would expect from a championship winning team. Depth scoring seems to be pretty good on Davos - so watch for that to potentially be a factor in the series. Aside from this, the Vikings goalie edges Davos out and Stockholm's players scoring point wise goes 96, 92, 91, 90 and 70. Carrying on, their depth similarly matches Davos. Result 4-1 North American Conference 1st Round Prediction In my opinion, the European conference will likely be the series to watch in round one as I feel like things could likely be a little different in that one as opposed to this one. Could be my distaste for Calgary and being a little biased, but I see the Americans walking all over them and sending them back to their cowboy infested hole in the ground. While the Americans did;t have quite the explosive season as say Stockholm or Helsinki etc, they're season was still good enough to stack up on Calgary by 29 points in the standings, all while scoring 67 more and letting in 50 less. Based off those stats alone, that's the kind of series I expect it to be. Average TPE per team Calgary: 326 (only 7 players) New York: 711.55 (9 players) Roster Analysis 3 players over 59 points for Calgary, then 2 at 37 with the rest being below 12. For the Americans, 4 above a point per game ranging from 75 to 113, then 69, 49, 23 and the rest below 8. Again, not as exciting as the European conference to watch in my opinion. Holik is the goalie to beat in this series and likely is the icing on the cake. People claimed Jacob should be nominated for something and while he did manage a strong season on an otherwise poor team, his stats just don't pop out to me like it does to others. Boring series, high scoring games and Calgary goes home in 4. Result 4-0 6 for Federov

Looking back and comparing this season to last, a lot of things have changed for the VHLM's Oslo Storm. Three of the biggest things is the depth and talent to their roster, the fact they're not shit anymore and that Swedish centre Mattias Forsberg has been lights out, or should we say ON, this season. Last year he struggled to find his game for a majority of the season and failed to meet expectations with only 64 points through the 72 games while adding a respected 30 goals. This season, however, is a much different tale. With 3 games remaining on the season, it's safe to say he's actually surpassed his expectations this year. Through the 69 games, he has 67 goals, 82 assists and 149 points. As a little cherry on top, he's also over 69% in the face-off circle. Feels good to be playing so strong and to be doing it with a few good people. We've been clicking all season and it's a nice thing to see now considering were going to be teammates in the future. Hopefully I can keep this momentum going into playoffs and into my rookie season for the VHL. 1 for Forsberg

sweet