Grape

Claimo for second weeko

You know your team isn't looking too good when their strength is the vibes

The new season is on the horizon, and while there is still some movement across the rosters, most are pretty much set for the start. There was a fair bit of turnover in the front offices in the M, with the league introducing four new GMs to take over some teams, with a bit of a blend of experience, in both actual management, and the VHL in general. We had a fairly interesting draft, with one of the more stacked goaltending prospect pools in recent memory, all but guaranteeing the IA goalie rule to be suspended for this season (hopefully indefinitely). With all that being said, let’s evaluate how each team looks jumping into season 90. 10. Ottawa Lynx FD Ranking: 10th (0.167) Goaltender Ranking: 9th (81 TPA) Biggest Need: Defenseman The Lynx were hit with a major wave of inactivity over the offseason, losing most of their would-be returning roster, and only coming into the draft with 2 players on the roster. There was also a bit of a scramble nearing the draft getting pick compliant which came down to the wire and cost them some depth picks both in this draft and in future ones. While they were able to restock a bit in the forward position, their defense position is very weak, which is out of character for Ottawa, who usually heavily targets the blue line in the draft. As of now, they only have one defenseman on the roster. While the one D system has shown some success before, it isn’t something you’d want to bank on. Ultimately, this season will come down to how they play on the defensive side of the ice, with having one of the lowest TPA goaltenders as well as a thin blue line. 9. Houston Bulls FD Ranking: 9th (0.286) Goaltender Ranking: 8th (108 TPA) Biggest Need: Defenseman Houston came into this draft with iirc zero returning players and came out with a strong forward group, ranked fourth in the league. Because of their situation, they were only able to focus on one position, completely neglecting their blue line. They do have the perfect amount of skaters that, if willing, they could put two of their forwards on the blue line to at least help on that side of the puck, although that would not be ideal. Houston has historically been able to create strong offensive forwards and I feel that this season will be no different. Their success will rely upon what they do to address their lack of defensemen. 8. Philadelphia Reapers FD Ranking: 8th (0.422) Goaltender Ranking: 6th (135 TPA) Biggest Need: Defenseman Philadelphia was able to roster arguably the best team for two seasons straight and will be paying the price for that this season, with a large fall from the top. Their roster pretty much had to be completely rebuilt from the ground up and now appear to be much weaker than previous seasons. With only one blue liner on their roster and a pretty thin forward group, they appear to be very similar to Ottawa, albeit a bit further down in development, and in that sense will not be particularly competitive. There is also a bit of a controversial player on their roster, having brought in Dylan, famous for his Juan Ceson player and, after the rule change, pretty much retiring after every season without really doing much. It hurts a bit to have to roster and play a person who more than likely will claim very little and recreate at the end of the season, or possibly even halfway through, but if that’s what he wants to do, so be it. As for the team, waivers will really be the only chance this team can put up a fight. 7. Halifax 21st FD Ranking: 3rd (0.639) Goaltender Ranking: 10th (0 TPA) Biggest Need: Goaltender Halifax is arguably a team that should be ranked much higher, near the top of the league. They boast the second best forward group and while they only have one defenseman, that defenseman is one of the few capped blue liners in the league and Halifax is more than able to make the one defenseman system work. They had a really strong draft and from the looks of it, this appeared to be the Halifax team to finally make a push and actually win something. The issue, however, is in net. Last season, their goaltender went inactive, and while during the season you can retain an inactive goaltender so long as you drafted them, the next season is deemed a clean slate and you need to acquire a new tendy. No problem, they did so in the draft. Sure they aren’t at starter level yet, but they should be serviceable enough, right? Well, they would’ve, but for whatever reason they retired. Now the team is stuck with an empty net one day before the season starts. Luckily, there are a ton of backup goalies on teams that I feel that teams would be more than willing to move. It just hurts to have to give up assets on something you thought you had secure. As of now, this is where they sit. If they do make a trade and acquire a goaltender, they’ll jump up. 6. Las Vegas Aces FD Ranking: 7th (0.489) Goaltender Ranking: 3rd (157 TPA) Biggest Need: Forward Vegas was one of the few teams that were able to solidify their blue line at the start of the season, having a decently deep and strong blue line. Their forward group is decent enough, although they aren’t very far along in development, which drags them down to eighth in the league in regards to that position. Overall, the team is decently well-rounded and while I don’t see them as being one of the top teams in the league, so long as development and activity go well they should be a decent middle team this season. 5. San Diego Marlins FD Ranking: 6th (0.519) Goaltender Ranking: 4th (155 TPA) Biggest Need: Forward San Diego had a bit of a slow start to this season’s draft, but still went out and made some strong acquisitions and have built a rather strong team. They’ve gone up and gathered up all the Reingaards in the league as well as a couple other players. Defense and goaltending is solid, but like Vegas, their forwards need a bit of development to go from that competitive level to actual contender. 4. Miami Marauders FD Ranking: 5th (0.531) Goaltender Ranking: 5th (143 TPA) Biggest Need: Forward Miami is yet another team pretty similar to San Diego and Las Vegas. Strong defensemen and goaltending, weaker at forwards but still decent depth-wise. Their defense does lack the depth that the other two teams have, but the high TPA of their players makes up for that. Just like those other two teams, additions or strong growth will be needed to really push them to contender level. 3. Mississauga Hounds FD Ranking: 2nd (0.647) Goaltender Ranking: 2nd (169 TPA) Biggest Need: Defenseman Mississauga is one of the few teams that will jump out the gate and be near the top of the league for at least the first half of the season. The majority of their players are well along their development, most being well over halfway to the cap. As of now the only question mark on their team is on the blue line, with one of their two defenders being a new create who has yet to apply their TPE. That usually is a bad sign but they haven’t been around for long enough for that to be relatively concerning, but something to keep an eye on at least. 2. Saskatoon Wild FD Ranking: 4th (0.618) Goaltender Ranking: 1st (199 TPA) Biggest Need: Forward Saskatoon (somewhat selfishly) hoarded an absolute truckload of picks and because of that was able to draft and put together the biggest roster in the league, with 9 forwards, 4 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders. Defensively and in goal, they are already at an elite level and will absolutely bully teams early on. Forward wise, they are a bit more scattered developmentally, with most players being somewhere in the 100s but a few being below the three digit mark. While those players do bring the rating down a touch, so long as they develop, this team has the potential to be the top team in the league. 1. Mexico City Kings FD Ranking: 1st (0.719) Goaltender Ranking: 7th (132 TPA) Biggest Need: Forward Mexico City comes into this season with the majority of their roster already in the 100s TPAwise and makes them arguably the most developed roster in the league as of now. Coming out of the gate and pretty much throughout the entire season, this team will be near the top of the standings. The only concern I really have for this team is in forward depth. With three forwards, what happens if they don’t click as a line? If they can’t produce together, the team will struggle. Also, what happens if one goes IA? It is not unusual for a team to lose a player or multiple due to inactivity. Losing any forwards without increasing the depth will be catastrophic for a Mexico City team that looks to compete. (1558 Words)

Love it! We need more weeb shit in the league

7/32 isn't bad for VSN standards

It's alright, I'll turn that bad pick into a steal

Honestly more impressive to completely miss on everything so I'll take this as a win

@Arce @Tetricide appreciate you both for being absolute legends helping me get compliant and not completely fleecing me to oblivion. Best of luck in the draft!

Definitely understand that, and that's where some of my ignorance is shown. I was reached out to by I think 10 or so VHL teams and since I didn't see really any complaining on the VHL draft side of things, I felt that it was roughly the same for most others. The size of the E plays a pretty big factor in the perception of scouting and whatnot. Being scouted by 2 teams doesn't feel as good as being scouted by 6, but both are about a third of the VHLE and VHL respectively. My personal perception with scouting is also fairly warped since I like to go and scout pretty much everyone, whether they're in my range or not and I know that's pretty strenuous and not many others do that.

A lot of people hate on the VLHE, some for no reason at all really, except that it’s kind of “trendy” to do so. And while a lot of the hate directed towards the league is irrelevant and done more so as a joke than legitimate disgruntlement, there are valid reasons. One of these reasons revolves around their draft, mainly, the GMs and scouting. Now, I can’t speak for all players, but from what I’ve seen and heard, there are a decent amount of players that have seemingly been passed over by the VHLE GMs and haven’t had any contact with any team in the league, maybe by 1 or 2 teams informally, but for the majority of the league, it’s radio silence. I understand that not every GM has oodles of picks like Vasteras and a lot of players aren’t necessarily in their pick range, but an effort should still be made. It is incredibly disheartening, for new players especially, to receive practically no interest from where their next step to the VHL is. There was a problem with inactives in the league and that’s why the league contracted from eight to six, and while the TPE range that the E inhabits is where most people generally fizzle out, the GMs aren’t doing themselves any favors in maintaining interest. This isn’t a me specific problem. I’ve only been reached out to by 2 teams but I’ve made it pretty clear that I plan on skipping anyways. This is a problem for the whole draft class. Personally, a GM should reach out to every player, whether they’re in your range or not. It shows interest, and it shows that you actually care. From what I’ve seen, the E appears to be filled with GMs that are content with claiming job pay and not much else. Scouting is an integral part of the job. Do it.

claiming again

Before these new (I guess they aren’t that new now) hybrid attributes, everything was pretty much clear cut. Scoring boosted scoring, defense boosted defense, skating boosted, well, I guess that one still does just boost skating. The point is, each stat directly boosted their attribute and nothing else, which would work well on paper. However, there was a slight issue within STHS itself. A meta was found in which players would basically pour TPE into scoring and that would generate oodles of offense. Now, while this meta wasn’t completely unknown, it wasn’t massively abused. That was until Vancouver went on a little run in which they won three straight championships, season 80, 81, and 82. That playoff run was pretty much the nail in the coffin for the past system, and in came the hybrid. Now, while the attributes have changed, STHS still hasn’t. The meta showed how offense is generated, and the hybrid attributes have somewhat neutered that offensive generation, although that was the design. See, the meta made it so that a player focused purely on one offensive stat, that being scoring, and STHS looks at offense in two different ways: 1. STHS decides what your player does based on your passing and scoring attributes. Higher pass stat = your player passes. Higher scoring stat = your player shoots. 2. How STHS decides on what your player does is based on the separation of your scoring and passing attributes. To see a noticeable difference in offensive production, there needs to be a 5 level difference between the attributes. If you want to pass more, your passing attribute needs to be 5 levels greater than your scoring attribute for STHS to sim your player that way. The same is true for scoring. See, that separation dictates what your player does; however, when there isn’t a separation, your player does neither. It doesn’t matter if you have 99 scoring and 99 passing, your player will still struggle offensively. So, you’ll pour TPE into slap shot and wrist shot to boost your scoring, right? Well, the issue is is that those stats, at the start, don’t boost as much as the big beautiful desirable stat staring right at you: Offensive Vision. Put 3 levels into Offensive Vision and your attribute goes up a level, compared to having to put 10 levels in either Slap Shot or Wrist Shot to match that. 7 more TPE for each level up till level 70 to increase your scoring level. The ratio remains awful. It only becomes TPE efficient when Slap Shot or Wrist Shot is still under level 70 and Offensive Vision is in the 75-80 range. Early on, especially in the VHLM, it is really hard to put that TPE into something that just is not efficient. So, you want to generate offense in the VHLM. How are you gonna do it? Well, you have two options: passing or scoring. Passing is a bit easier since there are only two attributes that go into passing, and the actual passing stat is better than Offensive Vision, albeit slightly. With that being said, it is viable to bypass Offensive Vision completely to become a pure playmaker. Now you would want to put some points into Offensive Vision because you want to boost your passing stat the most efficient way possible. Once you gain a strong lead in that attribute, Offensive Vision will only improve your offense, not hinder it. Level 70 is when the first drop-off starts for every stat, and that is where you should start to consider teching into other attributes. Sprinkle in some of the secondary attributes (puck handling, skating, defense), and you have yourself an elite playmaking M player. Just upscale everything for the higher leagues and you will become a top playmaker for every team you’re on. Scoring is a bit harder to do, since you have to balance both slap shot and wrist shot. In the M, you should put more focus on slap shot than wrist shot, as the secondary attribute in strength is more important than wrist shot’s secondary attribute in penalty shot. Like I mentioned previously, the drop-off for stats is usually at level 70. When it comes to the scoring stat, that changes slightly. Slap shot and wrist shot only become better than Offensive Vision after Offensive Vision reaches level 75. So, you push Offensive Vision to level 75, then focus on Slap Shot. There needs to be roughly a 5 level difference between passing and scoring for STHS to favor one attribute for offensive production, and to reach that, after bringing OV to level 75, is to boost Slap Shot to exactly level 42. That costs you 122 TPE and therefore, in the M, you have 78 more TPE to spend. I would say putting 40-50 of that into Defensive Coverage is wise as that improves both your skating and defense, and defense in STHS helps with your player positioning, both in the offensive and defensive zones, meaning you do offense better. The remaining can go into improving puck handling and skating, and, if you really wanna put up some points, bring slap shot up to 70 and start putting TPE into Wrist Shot. In the higher leagues, just keep scaling up and you’ll do alright. The one thing to look out for, however, is TPE efficiency. You’ll need to put points into OV at some point after to be efficient in growing your scoring attribute. Basically, the order would go: Level 75 OV -> Level 70 SS and WS -> Level 90 OV -> Level 80 SS and WS -> Level 99 OV -> Level 99 SS and WS. There is one area in which OV, SS, and WS share the same efficiency and with that you can go to any and boost your scoring at the same rate, being OV in the 80-90 level range and SS and WS in the 70-75 level range. A maxed scoring stat will have a 23.76 level difference from passing and will definitely generate a ton of offense. The hybrid attributes have done an amazing job erasing the old meta and making it so players have to balance attributes in order to create a good player. Make no mistake, though, the meta still does exist. It is just infinitely harder to obtain and many players simply cannot dedicate that much TPE into making it happen. To fully max out your scoring stat will cost you 675 TPE. Firstly, some players don’t even get that much TPE in their career. Secondly, that completely ignores the relevant stats that helped make the build so good in the first place. You still need to pour TPE into defense and skating and puck handling to the point where even 1000+ TPE players would have a somewhat hard time to have a maxed out scoring stat. Thirdly, and lastly, it really just isn’t as good. With the old system, you could boost scoring independently from your passing. The highest you can get scoring without increasing passing is 63.76. That really isn’t much to write home about. Try to emulate the meta all you want, you’ll be good, but not as good. It’s better to just get the separation on the attributes, and focus on making your player you, and not some cookie cutter template. (1218 words)

Leftovers... ouch

YES CHAIRMAN BANA! GLORY TO THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ASIA

How did you draft a French player to Team Asia?

Congrats to all the new blood! @Otis Boudreaux Jr I'm so sorry but you've inherited a franchise that can never win.

I care

The Mexico City curse has now been brought onto two VHL teams. May god have mercy

Gus clears

No team Greenland? Rigged

From Yukon to Geneva to the Shadow Realm.

Man that playoff loss really broke you . In all seriousness it was a pleasure having you in the M working with all of us. Best of luck on your future!

Lmao

The return