Fire Tocchet

1.) I mean, it's obviously WWWumbo. He's a future stud defenseman and according to "sources" should have gone much higher. Those "sources" were probably his parents.... 2.) That's a good question. The best leaders generally naturally fill the position so we'll see what happens. I honestly don't have an answer to this. 3.) Captain should be @gorlab - he always has his team's back and isn't afraid to mix it up with others. 4.) Individually I'd like to be in the top 10 of defenseman scoring, minimize the number of hits and PIMs I have, and have a positive +/-. Some of these might be a little difficult though. 5.) I would swap to center. Many smart people say that defensemen and center are somewhat interchangeable, since there's a decent focus on offense and defense when compared to a winger. 6.) For the team, I'd like to be competitive in games and not get blown out. Making the playoffs would be a plus.

I'll be honest - overall it was an enjoyable listen but I think there's a smidge of truth in what @gorlab is saying. I only turned on the stream around the middle of the 3rd round and caught bits and pieces of it until the 5th round or so but at times it did feel like a group of people talking about the VHL and then "OK, we have to talk about the draft, here are the picks." I understand that the draft is long and there's going to be conversation gaps or things needed to fill the air (and there's only so many ways you can say "yeah we had a good interview", which is what those later round picks usually come down to), but if there's a spectrum and one end is "only talked about the draft" and the other is "only talked about the VHL", it feels like it was just too slightly towards "talked about the VHL", at least for the parts I listened to. Is there a reason that picks weren't announced as they happened, or shortly after? I admit I don't know how the draft actually functions in the portal but even if it was something like: pick is made -> pick is announced/discussed -> banter -> pick is made -> pick is announced/discussed it would feel like the draft is more of the focus.

Free agency is fun as long as everyone is in the same page it's going to happen. Can help a lot with your players career too - not sure Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen makes the HoF if I stayed in Davos my entire career.

Wow!

Wow!

Finished Knife of Dreams and started the prologue of The Gathering Storm. I knew that Robert Jordan passed while writing this one and Brandon Sanderson finished the series but the difference in writing styles feels jarring already.

Wow!

So I was taking a look at the latest VSN Mock Draft and the thing I immediately noticed is that I didn't recognize the vast majority of usernames. That either means many users have changed their names or there's a bunch of new blood (well....new to me at least) which would be great. Everyone who's been here for a while recognizes how important it is to keep bringing in new members and getting them to stick around. I don't remember the exact ages of the founder's of this site but I'm going to guess most people were 18 or younger (and probably younger) when the VHL was created. I'm trying to imagine how a league would look today if people of the same age created a brand new league/sim league concept. Would the entire thing be ran on Discord, or Discord and some portal only? Possibly! Integrate TikTok? (Actually....do we give TPE for creating a Youtube short/TikTok/Reel? Would this be helpful?) I wonder who the oldest member we've ever had is and who the oldest active member is. I'm also kind of curious about the youngest because I feel like back in the day our target demo was that 13-18 age range but today it's probably 16+.

1.) I would like to see a team in the southern or south western US - Dallas, Scottsdale, Phoenix, etc... It's an underrepresented geography in the VHL. 2.) To be completely honest my drive to do weekly PTs dried up years ago, if not a full decade. I think being a max earner for more than two players (especially consecutively) is hard to do, especially once the majority of us got old. 3.) Ha - actual answer? "What city would you like to see get a VHL team?" I'm pretty sure I asked it a week or two ago and I feel like I've answer this question 20 times over the past couple of years. 1.) Which current VHL/VHLM team would you like to see relocate to a new city? You can completely re-brand the team as well. 2.) What would be more important to you and why - Founder's Cup or World Cup? 3.) What's your favorite snack of late?

Up to a 19 (soon to be 20 once I read tonight) day reading streak. Admittedly one or two or three of those I probably read 5 pages before passing out but they still count. I'm living the Kindle being able to tell me how much longer it'll take to finish the chapter. I hate stopping in the middle and this lets me plan out my reading easier.

So, VHLM Dispersal Draft is this Friday (I think?) this is the first time in a very long time I'm actually somewhat active with my player and not a top TPE earner or "known" member, so I'm curious to see where I go. With doing zero research I would guess the 3rd round? I don't know how many teams are even in the VHLM anymore but I'm gonna guess around 10 so that would have me around 30ish on the overall TPE list which sounds right to me. Would be cool to be drafted to the same team as @eaglesfan036 but not required. There was a nice discussion in a media spot the past two weeks or so about the effects of discipline on hits and PIMs. I thought it was interesting that hits were looked at as negatively as they were - the old (and perhaps ancient at this point) thought process was that hits were the best way we had to measure forced turnovers, so hits were good even if they led to PIMs. I forget if it was part of the discussion or not but it would be interesting to see if discipline actually reduces PIMs in builds with a high amount of checking. We know they reduce hits, but curious if the reduce the rate of PIMs per hit.

1.) It's just hard to win the cup. I don't think this is a hot take but the best team doesn't win the cup every year - just the team that's hot at the right time. Doesn't mean it isn't extremely entertaining though. 2.) In general I'll take it being cold over it being hot. Being in PA it gets "cold" but not like routinely below zero windchill or anything. Same thing about it being "hot" but not too hot usually. 3.) I would bring back the Cologne Express and put a team in the Southwest US or CA. 1.) What's your biggest hockey/sports related pet peeve? 2.) What was your biggest misconception or surprise about the VHL when you joined? 3.) How many hours of sleep do you usually get? How many would you like to get?

@MichkovSzndid you name this player after a mid 2000's Flyers draft pick?

Did you ever go through with this? I'm an Inland Marine Territory Manager for a carrier and @eaglesfan036 is in the industry as well.