Plate

This is my second claim for week ending August 2nd. 2/3

Dude that is sick! Congrats to everyone! GO BULLS GO!

McWolf is a stud. Big reason why I performed as well as I did on the S65 Halifax squad.

... at least as an offensive defense man, his play must be attractive to his gm, RJ. The third rounder has put up nine points in the first six games of the Bulls season. He is sitting at 7th for assists in the league. We caught Markus Schauer outside of a German diner. Schauer was enjoying some sauerbraten and schweinshaxe. Reporter You've had a very good season so far. Are you impressed with your first few games? Schauer I'm just impressed with the team effort so far. Christian Mingle has been an all-star. The veteran presence of Riley Knight alongside me has helped get my bearing on the season. Don't even get me started on how well that ladies line is doing. Reporter Is there anything you would like to improve on for the playoffs? Schauer I need to do better at stopping shots on Dre. Too many shots are being left in. He's bailed us out more times than I can count, but he shouldn't have to. I take responsibility for that. The Bulls have allowed 17 goals against. It is the second highest amount among the top five teams in the league. On the flip-side, Houston has scored 37 goals in just 6 games. They are on pace for scoring 444 goals on the season.

Review That's right Jiggs. After all the LR interactions that we have, which is funny considering we aren't on the same team, I'm popping you a review. I don't care how topical this is. I'm here to get it done so you can keep making ? content. I loved this interview! You don't need any help coming up with any bright ideas or making your player personable. The only things that I would suggest touching up on is adding colour. This is a common suggestion, but it's something that lets the eyes rest a bit easier and gives it something to focus on. Breaking up the black and white is really tough. Just as an example, you could have given the Reporter and Jiggs colour on top of their boldness. See how Reporter and Jiggs stand out a bit now (Not a fan of the green I used but you get it). Score Content: 9/10, Not enough pranks. Format: 8.5/10, Add some colour. Flow: 10/10, Changing anything would make it worse.

I feel like it's an unwritten responsibility for VHLM management to keep new players involved. Being interviewed, from a first-gens perspective, certainly would help retain interest.

Working on a suggestion thread as we speak.

TPE is a guideline. The main factors for how high a player is drafted isn't necessarily TPE. I can summarize it into the three A's: Activeness Attitude Aspirations Activeness. If you're more active than someone with 20 or so TPE more than you then you're "technically" more valuable. You have a higher potential because you'll get more TPE in the long run. The amount of players you've had in the VHL also lowers the risk and you'll be drafted higher. Attitude. Your personality affects where you will go. Just like in real life. It's kind of a popularity contest but for a GM trying to build a locker room it's one of the main things that's taken into consideration. The more locker rooms you're compatible with the higher you'll get drafted. Aspirations. This more closely ties to motivation. You might be active in the community but not do many point tasks because you have a hard time staying motivated to put the words in. And that's okay. The more aspiration you have as a player means you'll get drafted higher. That's a really good mentality that not every GM/AGM has. Management might say they do, but I would be willing to bet that most (51+%) of players don't get interviewed at any point in their draft season.

The version that exists now is a spreadsheet that gets updated every week with the TPE totals of every player. But you can just see it if you go to the draft page and look at the list of players in your draft year. It's not the same as interacting with a scout.

I think GMs need to do a better job scouting. It's been a complaint for a lot of players, especially new gen ones. If a GM doesn't have the time I don't see why you can't sauce your draft board over to the AGM to get things going. I felt like I had to reach out to teams to get scouted, even though I was a mid 2nd round selection. I still fell to the third round on a very promising Houston Bulls squad though. I'm not upset about it. Building a solid locker room is more important than the TPA values of players. Good locker room/leadership = More motivation to make your player better. I've been thinking about making a "scouting" suggestion thread, with ideas of having a VHL "central scouting" group who would take a deeper look at rather than just the numbers in the players.

Sorry about that. I'll change it right now. I finished this at 3:30 yesterday. My .coms will be "reports" on the latest power rankings. I'm going to update the list at the start of every week!

Problem with the goalie market is either a team needs a goalie or they don't. Not to say that you aren't a valuable piece to the Hound puzzle, it's just the market for the position is limited by the environment!

Welcome again to my expectation’s media spot! Where I go through the most in-depth power rankings post you have seen yet! This is where I rank how each team will perform, and I also project their wins and losses over the season! Incredible! Mind you, I can’t account for things like trades, busts, people leaving, signings or TPA growth. Basically, all the independent variables that a teams TPA is depended on. Which is why the result at the end of the season might be VERY different. Method If you want to know my method, you can read this. There will be a bunch of formula and math jargon going on here. You can feel free to skip this and just look at the list. My feelings won’t be hurt. This was a two-step process. The first step was figuring out the baseline wins and losses for every team. Then the second part was adjusting the number of wins and losses total so that it fit the 432 games that are played in the regular season. I took all the teams’ players and threw them onto a spreadsheet. Then I added up all their TPAs together. From when I did this segment the last season, I discovered the TPA per point was 29. Meaning for every 29 TPA a team had, they got a point in the regular season. I used this as a baseline. I had to round to the nearest whole number because you can’t have half a point. Halifax has 603 TPA on their team. 603/29 = 21 When I did that for every team, I got a small problem. It totals up to 350 wins and 514 losses. I wanted both numbers to be at 432 because there are 432 games played in the season. So, I needed to do some adjusting by spreading out 82 wins among our 12 teams. How did I get to decide how many wins a team got? I’m glad you asked! I added up all the TPA in the league from all the teams. It turned out to be 20,303 TPA. I then divided the amount of TPA each team had to get a percentage. Again, I rounded to the nearest whole number because you can’t have a part of a win. It’s either you lost, won, or went into overtime. There is 20,303 TPA in total. Halifax contributes to 0.03% of that. 20,303*0.03 I used the 0.03% TPA contribution that Halifax had as the amount of wins they would get from the 82 left over. Because they had 0.03% of the TPA in the league, they would get 0.03% of the 82 wins available. Halifax has 0.03% of the TPA in the league. There are 82 win up for grabs. 82*0.03 = 2 Congratulations Halifax you just got yourself two more wins! Because of the rounding, there were two more wins than I needed this way. Philadelphia was supposed to get 2 wins out of that slice of pie, but I cut them because they had the lowest amount of TPA. Sorry Philly fans. I’ll be going down the list in reverse order. From the worst team to the best. You won’t believe who’s first! Philadelphia Reapers Grade: Rebuilder Record: 9 - 63 - 0 Points: 18 Philly stands strong at 524 total TPA in their roster. Philly saw most of their players move up to the VHL or get drafted high in the S73 Dispersal Draft They’re going to be settling into rebuild territory for a while. There isn’t much else to say about this season for them. The Reapers might spare some of their players by trading them away to contending teams. I mostly mean their goaltender, John Poremba, for a 1st and other assets to a team that needs a goalie. It will be interesting to see if Philadelphia can post a better record that last seasons Houston Bulls. Halifax 21st Grade: Rebuild Record: 13 – 58 – 1 Points: 27 Halifax is poised slightly higher than Philadelphia. Not that it matters down at the bottom of the league. With 603 TPA on their roster they could squeak a couple more wins out. Next season Halifax is going to be completely insane. Even though they won’t be dong great this year, you can watch out for them in the future. There aren’t many all-star talents on the 21st. Which is okay, because even the greats had to start somewhere. Their best player, Hex Valentine, is a piece that you might see ship off. Consider this season for Halifax a bit of a quiet one as they explode into S74. Mississauga Hounds Grade: Rebuild Record: 18 – 53 – 1 Points: 37 Mississauga is singing the same song as the rest of the rebuilders. However, with a couple more pieces to fit into their roster next season. They sit with a steady 851 total TPA at their disposal. This will be a forgettable season in their history. Yet an important one in their rebuild as they try to gain as many picks as possible. Micheal Mac and Gavin Harris lead this team as their best forward and defender. Harris is a solid defensive defenseman that can lay out the body. The two way player Mac will be looking to lead the team in points and goals. Depending on their aspirations, could be trade bait or pieces for Mississauga next year if they stay under the 250 TPA limit. Mexico City Kings Grade: Rebuild Record: 21 – 50 – 1 Points: 43 Mexico City went all in last season trying to hoist the Founders Cup. With one draft pick for this season, Ottawa’s 1st, and a squad lacking a bit of depth, this season might be a bit tough. There’s 970 TPA on this roster so they’ll break 1000 in no time. The Kings wont be the worst team in the league. Mexico is a team that still has some very good pieces. Their top pairing defensemen, Chance Rust and Kirishima Wakaro, would be a good enough pairing for almost any team in the league. The depth isn’t there. With one solid defensive and offensive line Mexico is going to be a seller as the season progresses. Yukon Rush Grade: Hopeful Record: 27 – 44 – 1 Points: 55 Yukon is the first team on the list to break 1000 TPA on their roster with 1247. It’s possible that Yukon can turn it around with a goalie prospect for next season. This is an upswing season for the Rush. There were great selections in the draft. The first line of Jeff Odinson, Alek Andreshnikov and Vlad Imir will only look better as the season moves along. The back end and goaltending pose a few questions. It isn’t to say that Yukon can’t perform this season with the skaters they have on their roster. But if they want to unlock the full potential, looking for a starting goaltender and defensemen would help solidify a possible 1st round upset. Las Vegas Aces Grade: Hopeful Record: 32 – 40 – 0 Points: 64 Las Vegas isn’t as good as last season. They’re in the middle of the pack with 1495 TPA in the locker room. I would say Vegas will be a .500 team by the end of the season. Coming into the playoffs might be able to turn an upset but won’t go far. Watch this age well. There are still good pieces on Las Vegas that are going to hit the TPA cap. Nils Fiedriksen, Onde Sandstrom and Gary Rush are all going to be excellent talents come the playoffs. With some signings and a couple trades Las Vegas could push themselves from hopefuls to contenders. Houston Bulls Grade: Contender Record: 39 – 32 – 1 Points: 79 Houston is almost a purely offensive team. Sitting with 1820 TPA in their roster. Being in their LR, I will say there are quite an active number of members. Compared to the other top teams in the league though, the numbers say they will get 39 wins. The Bulls are a team that will get better with time. There is a considerable amount of star talent on this team. Which will be a trend the farther down the list we go. S74 prospects include Aloe Dear, Venus Thightrap and Markus Schauer, who are all top 10 prospects. Riley Knight and Drew Minott are veterans of the club and tie things together nicely. This is a Houston much different from the one last season. San Diego Marlins Grade: Contender Record: 44 – 27 – 1 Points: 89 San Diego came out of the last draft looking at cup contention. 2066 TPA is in their locker room, the first team to break the 2000 TPA mark. The S73 draft treated them well. They quickly sprouted from going 2nd last in the league, to potentially in the top 5. That’s a very good climb. The Marlins are looking high and mighty as the first real contenders for the founder’s cup. There are two players that start at the cap already for the Marlins coming into the season. 1st overall selection John Merrick and Pietro Angellini. Doug Dimmadome is a solid starter that will be an elite goaltender come the playoffs. Don’t sleep on Marlin prospects Ryan Shwartz or John LeClair II. The left wingers that will be key pieces as the season goes along. Ottawa Lynx Grade: Champion Record: 52 – 20 – 0 Points: 104 Ottawa, my former team, is looking poised as one of the top 4 teams in the league. It’s a close race between them and their former first round opponent Saskatoon. Perhaps the two cats will have a rivalry going this season? Their S73 draft set them up for this season so you can look for them to make the most of it. It won't be difficult for them to make the most of their 2425 TPA either. Spearheading the charge is their 2nd overall selection Alec Volchenkov. The two-way passer with a build unlike most in the VHLM. Ajay Krishna is an absolute STUD in the net and is easily the best goaltender in the league. Jiggly Gumballs and Mikeal Keef lead this Ottawa defense. With defensive builds and an elite goaltender, good luck scoring on this Lynx squad. Saskatoon Wild Grade: Champion Record: 52 – 19 – 1 Points: 105 The team that is almost tied, but eclipses Ottawa by a single point, is Saskatoon. It would be a disservice to forget to mention they are the S72 founders cup champions. While they did lose good pieces in the dispersal draft, McWolf left this team in capable hands. This team isn’t just good, they’re going to be eying up the cup as one of the favourites to win. This team has a very solid 2462 TPA to start. Keith Krestanovich, Dan Baillie Jr, Bobby Wyman and Emi Rune are your top liners for this team. Cal Conway is another top goaltender in the league. With a good balance of scoring and defense, expect this team to just play solid hockey throughout the season. S73 will be a ride to the playoffs. Minnesota Storm Grade: Champion Record: 59 – 12 – 1 Points: 119 Minnesota finished top of the league last season. There's an incredible 2752 TPA in that locker room. Though they didn’t win the founders cup, this team is poised to go right back again. Under normal circumstances a team with 2752 TPA in their starting roster would be enough to put them as the best in the league. This time around, it’s not the case. The storm have the players and the experience needed to go deep in the playoffs. Shawn Glade III and Ziarie Anigbogu are both 250 TPA and their starting pairing defensemen. Elite. Couple that with Cole Newhook, Jer Lefebvre and John Brewitt on your first line and you have the elite players needed to make other teams shudder. The scoring on this team is deep too. Joe Exotic and Jack John make excellent depth pieces. Miami Mauraders Grade: Champion Record: 66 – 6 Points: 132 3088 TPA. Last years Minnesota Storm had finished the regular season with about the same number. Miami is an absolute unit. They are the clear winners of the last draft and the favourites to win the cup this season. Can’t wait to see Miami dominate this season and work into a finals cup run. Eight players in the 200 TPA range and five of them being at the cap already. Miami was fortunate enough to win the Patrick Laine sweepstakes, for starters. I could talk about the talent of Andre Lebastard, Dakota Lamb, Oh Sens, Wolf Stansson, Matty Stocks, Kevin King, Victor Grachev or Luke Thornton. But honestly, that was enough and I’m already past 2000 words. Final Standings Table: Thanks for reading and I hope that my standings are accurate! Enjoy! Words: 2118 Mentions (I just finished and this is a lot of mentions, very sorry): @ahockeyguy @IamMOOSE @fishy @Jtv123 @KaleebtheMighty @osens @PatrikLaine @Andre LeBastard @dlamb @GoadenGoalie35 @Joe Exotic @JBrew42 @GrittyIsKing09 @Jer_Lefebvre @ngine4 @ShawnGlade @Shaka @Boragina @wcats @Lefty_S @Emi @JigglyGumballs @Hooperorama @SirRupertBarnes @Esso2264 @Enorama @flyersfan1453 @Steve @okifenoki @Renomitsu @BladeMaiden @DreMin15 @KnightRiley @Biggreen10 @fonziGG @G_Rush @CrlineDijohn14 @DrHexDex @LastOneUp @BigIrish @turkey2349 @Snussu @GoldGear88 @PuckPushers @Big Dee

If you don't put me on one of these I'm rioting (The IRL player I use it Moritz Seider)

Why didn't you draft Markus Schauer in the second round?

CONSIDER THIS A REVIEW Let me try to break this all down from an unbiased standpoint here. Before we talk about any of that, we have to talk about the salary cap itself. The salary cap in real life is tied directly to NHL revenues (And the CBA agreed upon by the NHLPA and the BoG). For simulation purposes the number in the league seems arbitrary. Money, at it's most efficient point in the VHL, exists only to fight depreciation. PHASE ONE Washing away money from a player is completely fine imo. I consider the money unspent as "the retirement" fund of that player. I talk about the upgrades and stuff in phase two. But basically, PHASE TWO The showroom is an interesting idea. Honestly? I don't see a point in it. I could write an article right now about the mansion that my player received from a random inheritance. Between the time it would take to implement the assets, and the amount of content it would create for members, it's not worth it. As for the trophy show room, most members don't get a trophy to begin with. So it would be empty. That can be discouraging. We have to be careful when implementing new ideas that will "make the rich richer". I do like the idea of giving members the ability to have a border around their picture. It shouldn't be built on the idea of having to purchase them with money you get from retiring players. That means new players don't get access to them. A neat idea could be an achievement system, where the reward for getting certain achievements is the ability to change the border around your profile. You could also have job specific borders, and team specific borders depending on where your current player is playing. I know other forums also have medals that go below each profile sometimes. The obvious problem is that players might get those achievements and the digging would be hard to do. Just a thought. Instead of borders for achievements you can do titles above member names. Such as "The Hat Trick" for having a player score their first hat trick or "Too Clutch to Choke" for having so many game winning goals in a season. PHASE THREE I think we should revisit branding and sponsorship to begin with anyway. Without the need for a money overhaul. I don't mind how you have the current system set up, but there's one problem with branding and sponsorship that was apparent in the past. It's basically like managing another set of teams. And giving players more things to do causes more burnout, especially among new players. The focus has shifted less away from gaining TPE and it's become more about how the league can keep the players they do already. Setting point totals or stat requirements as part of the contract in a system where you have NO control over your player is not a good idea. Submitting VHL.com articles with themes set by your sponsor is a great idea though. Interesting idea by influencing development of signed players, but I can see how it can be gamed. The bonuses is where the point stats and the award selections would go. As for an actual review of the writing of the article, you don't need to indent paragraphs if you also put a space between them :). I'm guilty of that mistake too. You can also throw some pictures in on the sides. It was a really good thought piece though and I can't wait to see if more conversation comes from it. Score Content: 10/10 Format: 8/10 Flow: 10/10

Ruining careers once again are you Reno? xD

@gorlab you forgot about me dude!

Claim 2/3

You forgot about @rjfryman there buddy

I went to Boston/NJ/NYC for a band trip and they SCHOOLED our jazz band. Great experience about what music is about and to never expect anything less of other peoples talents.

When I was 13 I joined the local universities honour band playing lead trumpet there. They played university 1 level music. It was pretty dope. I left a few years later though because the other trumpet players stepped on my toes a lot

Can't wait to tear it up in the minors with you

This is great stuff.