Gustav

I like to think we're mostly just depressed and half of us have stopped caring. Or maybe that's just where I am with things. I also like to think "Gustav Svensk" would be a nice comically Swedish name, while satisfying my ever-present DEMANDS for WORSHIP.

I've heard both very good and very bad things about Popeyes. Still need to try it...

Week 2

Lucas Brandt? Is this @twists? I kinda doubt it. Context for the unwashed masses Either way, welcome!

I mean I've seen people copy-pasting their replies as a separate media spot and getting that approved just fine. I think going for case-by-case approval is the way to go on this because a lot of replies depend on context...but I could go a long time without ever writing a word on the forum if I could just go back and comb through my old replies (not that that's the intent of that being allowed).

Holy shit WHAT I might have the next 5 years covered...

@BarzalGoat we done

After I wrote my CK/DI article someone IMMEDIATELY pointed out that I should have called it DI/CK instead. I don’t disagree because that would have been hilarious.

I'll say that IN GENERAL, GMs do very good work of doing this regardless of player activity. There will always be exceptions, but it's nice to see. I'll also point out that every GM who can be bothered to stay active in public on the forum, comment on graphics, and whatnot, is also actively maintaining a decent player. They don't need any special reward to do that; it just happens because, surprise, having a player is a big part of the league experience and most who care about the league will have some sort of drive to earn consistently. It's not that a GM NEEDS to have a player, otherwise they're not active, it's that I just don't see the point in giving GMs an extra reward for removing themselves from doing a thing that contributes to the community. Having been a GM for years in both the VHLM and VHL, I can assure you that this is 100% true, and that GMs will abuse anything they're given the opportunity to. If you're given a perfectly legal option to do something that benefits you, of course you're going to do it. That doesn't make you bad at all--GMs have done plenty of awful things in my time in the league, and I've always been more annoyed that the system allows it to happen than I've been at the GMs themselves when it's something that goes on for seasons on end. I've also been involved in a lot of policy-making in BoG/VHLM Commish stuff/just yelling about things on the forum in general and I can tell you there's something weird being pulled somewhere more often than not. In the VHLM alone, I've seen people ignoring inactive rules, dodging draft requirements, having players create in the middle of a late round of the draft conveniently right when their pick came up (back when that was still doable), getting access to inactive accounts and keeping them updating, cutting actives to make room for recreates, lying in waiver pitches...the list goes on. I love our GMs, but competition sometimes makes good people do strange things. If a GM isn't doing all those things, they shouldn't be GM. Plain and simple. It's hard to be a GM and do all of those things consistently. But honestly...it's not super hard to be a GM and put in no effort. A big reason why I stopped being GM was that I just wasn't trying as hard anymore. Had I continued to not try, I'd probably still have the job today--I just realized that I could be doing better and it was time to take a step back rather than hold onto a job that I wasn't really feeling. And guess what? If there were an incentive for me to hold onto that job at that point in my player's career (I was almost done with my last player!) I could very well have (and probably would have) continued to stick with the job that I wouldn't be doing very well so Vandelay could get a nice bonus and I could be #1 in my draft class. That wouldn't have been good for the league at all, but it would have happened and I'd be far from the only case. I think what I said initially should have been framed differently. My "GMs should always have a player" argument was based on a situation that existed at the time but isn't really a thing anymore. I don't mean to share that article to explain 100% what I mean here, but I do think it's relevant on some level because at the time, we had GMs more or less threatening to be complete NPCs because their player situation wasn't working out the way they wanted. Way more than trying to say "no, because I say GMs should have a player", and in far fewer words, my point is: 1. Yes, I absolutely do think that system would be abused. 2. That's precisely why it shouldn't exist. Please understand that I really appreciate it when people bring up new ideas, and I'm not trying to shout you down or anything (I just write a lot). I think you've got a great future in the league

Yeah I honestly have no idea why anyone with build experience would invest in DI. Either you want to hit at the expense of sitting in the box, or you don't. There's no way I know of to have a balance unless you want to have just a little CK or something like that.

Hi

Drafts usually go a handful of sims into the season because people just need time. One time my group finished our draft in two days, but most of the time that's super unrealistic...especially when not everyone in a group is a max earner or when your group is a mix of people in different time zones. To still be drafting now isn't abnormal at all. It gets different (and annoying) when your group has people who purposely drag out their picks for the full 12 hours so they CAN look at player performance deeper into the season and make informed picks. I doubt you were around for the "gentleman's agreement" debacle (involving a collective decision to ignore the 12 hours) of maybe a year ago, but that was an interesting group to watch...

I talked about why I think GMs should ALWAYS have a player in one of my articles a while back. Basically, my opinion is that GMs, as representatives of the league, should be fully contributing to the league as long as they're GMs. I don't think a GM has to be a max earner, but if you as a GM are not visible and active in the community, you are not meeting the standards of what a GM should be no matter how good your team is. Someone who can't find the time to write an article (or even just post on the forum) now and then probably shouldn't have a job where the time you put into the community has a strong effect on the interest of an entire group of players. Aside from straight-up incentivizing GMs to be inactive on the player end (imagine how many people would sit around for like a year and a half and roll up on the next deadline with an already-capped player), it introduces an advantage for GMs over other people. If I don't want to GM, how am I supposed to ever be the top player in my class? Alternatively, if I'm a GM and I'm no longer all that interested in putting in time for my team, why should I give up my job when it's giving me free TPE for doing nothing? I just don't think it's too much to ask that GMs actually care about the community...and if you're not feeling that, it shouldn't hurt you to step back from the job. After all, you can always apply later on down the road!

I think stuff like this is a natural process of just...going through the stages of being a member. I'd also argue that in a lot of cases, people step down because they're less invested, rather than the other way around, but that's a discussion for another time. I still bring up just how active I was as a noob as an example for these types of things because I feel like that's a very good example to have--I joined in February of 2019 and I distinctly remember a time in summer of 2019 when I was writing multiple (long!) media spots a week just because I felt like it. These days, I have trouble coming up with ideas for my one article a month-ish (I can always do the smaller stuff instead when I want to, and often I opt for that instead) and I couldn't imagine spending my entire life on the forum even though I used to do that. I think a lot of this ties into the idea of drive-reduction theory, especially among the most active members. In short, the idea is that just about everything you do is because of a "drive"--not necessarily a motivation, like the word is often used, but more so a disturbance that causes someone to act in a way to reduce that disturbance. Especially for someone newer, that drive is to be accepted and to earn respect from more established members. I know because that was absolutely the case for me--I still remember thinking things like "holy shit, a real live VHL GM just liked my post" and "I bet I can get a ton of replies on this article if I tag everyone I talk about in it", things that never cross my mind today. I also distinctly remember talking to other VHLM GMs, when I was one, who straight-up said that their goal as a VHLM GM was to get "promoted" and earn a cooler-looking position. There's a lot of (unintentional) attention-seeking behavior from newer people because of that drive to earn respect. I did it for sure. I'd say you've done it as well. And don't take that the wrong way, because I'd say I noticed exactly that from most people who joined after me and are now household names in the league. That's just how it goes, and it's 100% natural. But now that you've earned your respect, where's your drive? You're happy with what you've done as a VHLM GM, you're on top of the reputation leaderboard for the year (something I myself talked about a lot when I first ended up on top of said leaderboard), you're on the BoG, and absolutely no one will wonder who you are if you log onto Discord. You've reached that "equilibrium" state that the whole drive-reduction theory thing talks about, and you're asking perfectly natural questions about it--why, for example, should you plan out an entire next career of max earning? There's not much more respect to be earned from that, since you've already done it. I wasn't getting any more respect toward the end of my VHL GM career, and I had people ripping on me as Davos prepared to implode again, so I'd basically peaked. I was happy with what I'd done to change the culture of the team and I was ready to hand it off. Likewise, I'd imagine that if I can ever get the VHLM to look exactly the way I want, I'd probably be done running it. I think the answer lies in realizing that that equilibrium state means that you've taken care of those disturbances in your mindset, and it's a good thing that they aren't forcing you to obsess over how active you can be anymore. Theoretically, this should be the most stress-free mindset you've ever had in this league--it just feels off because a lot of that stress is gone. AND THAT'S OKAY. At the end of the day, it just involves coming to terms with the fact that your original goals as a member have been met and moving forward the way you want to--even though you don't quite know what that means yet.

And with that...@comrade cat goes on the clock for our last pick!

By that same logic: @Hoopydog, you can feel free to make your pick at any time since you're the only one left who needs someone on D.

Art Vandelay

@Banackock since you only need forwards, and I only need the other stuff...I'll jump in and make my picks while I'm here to remember to do so. Forget me and just tag BOOM when done. D - Biggie Cheese G - Papa Emeritus

F - Sirdsvaldis Miglaskems D - Erlantz Jokinen @Banackock

F - Nico Pearce F - The Board Game Clue on Skates @Banackock up for 2

Art Vandelay

I posted a status update before the season started about how I'd gotten about 1,000 words into an article and had to deal with the forum deleting it, because I'm too stubborn to write an article outside of the forums. That's because I'm a boomer I don't like re-formatting everything and I put way too many things in italics, or otherwise, to take care of it all again. It's a stupid choice, but what do you expect? Here I am doing it again. At the time, preseason trades weren't open and I meant to talk about one deal each team could make to help either their future or their present. I continue to like that idea, but I think it might be harder to write that article now that all the preseason dust has settled and some of the league's more obvious needs have been met. But, since I'm a stubborn little bitch, I'm going to write it anyway and speculate on what each team could do at some point between now and the trade deadline. Who knows--with the introduction of S88 picks to the pool, maybe I'll be able to pull some things out of the air that I wouldn't have been able to before...and I don't have to do the math on cap stuff either. Here goes nothing! CALGARY WRANGLERS CGY RECEIVES: Papa Emeritus MOS RECEIVES: S88 CGY 2nd Ben Dahl *at trade deadline It's always going to be a simple joy of mine to use the derphorse logo even though I know the new one is also available as a forum emote. I love the way this team is built up now, with their one shortcoming being in net, and I think that gives them a justifiable excuse to go for a rental when they're able to fit one under the cap. After all, they've got a hopeful future plan in Karl Pedersen, and Moscow might be inclined to let Matt Murdock have his chance if they aren't right on top of the league later on in the season. That remains to be seen, but if this goes through, Calgary is arguably the best team on paper in the league. CHICAGO PHOENIX CHI RECEIVES: S87 LAS 2nd S88 LAS 1st DB III James glove dropper LAS receives: The Board Game Clue on Skates Hear me out. I don't think there's any way Chicago goes for this if they seriously intend to compete this season, but I did my best to come up with something that I feel satisfies a major need for the Phoenix if they intend to keep things going in a few seasons and avoid tanking not long after they came back to relevance. It's true that this team managed to turn things around faster than I (or most others) anticipated, but with a S79, a S80, and no one younger than S83 on an already-incomplete active roster, as well as just-average draft capital in the seasons to come and next to no prospect pool, it's clear that they're still feeling the effects of their early-S80s implosion despite the roster itself looking solid. They're going to need picks for the future, and they're going to need players to take up bot space in the lines for now. Here, I've got LA, currently running 7 forwards with a need for a solid top end, going for Chicago's top forward and sending a solid package the other way. If the Phoenix could be talked into it, the deal makes sense for the Stars as well--the NA conference is stacked and they're going to need to do something to hang with the rest. DC DRAGONS DCD RECEIVES: Sergey Preobrozhensky MOS RECEIVES: S87 DCD 3rd S88 DCD 1st Jonathan Ori This is a nice little alternate "what if Moscow doesn't decide to sell this season" type of deal that's still kind of hinting at Moscow selling, but not really (or at least not yet). These players are close in TPE, with a big difference coming in Ori's impending retirement. Let's say Moscow does decide to take next season to restructure a bit--not that they necessarily will--but chooses to make this season one to shoot for the moon. They're effectively competing this season and selling off a forward for next season, gaining a couple picks while DC avoids an immediate threat of retirement and keeps the potential for winning going forward a bit. Just like the first deal, this all depends on what Moscow is planning, but could be a decent win for both sides. HC DAVOS DYNAMO PART 1 (ASAP): DAV RECEIVES: S87 WAR 4th S88 WAR 4th WAR RECEIVES: Maxwell Mathias PART 2 (AT TRADE DEADLINE): HSK RECEIVES: S87 WAR 4th DAV RECEIVES: Jonathan Young This might fall under the category of "much ado about nothing" at first glance, but Davos is in the unique position of having too much on defense and not enough at forward. It's a complicated process to resolve this, but let's consider the effects of not resolving it--one forward out of the equation means up to 30 minutes of ice time per game going to your bots, and you never want that to happen no matter how good the rest of your team is. Warsaw solves the same type of issue by getting Mathias--part of the reason why they're willing to give up a bit extra--while Davos is able to profit a tiny bit draft-wise as presumably no one else is interested in buying inactive Young from the Titans. HELSINKI TITANS HSK RECEIVES: S87 CHI 3rd CHI RECEIVES: Thomas Price George Sanderson The Titans have no one older worth selling for anything significant, and they aren't in a place where buying things is justified. The only trades that make sense to me during this season involve taking cap dumps and making little fluke trades like this one and the one above that involve giving teams the roster filler that they want. In this case, I've got inactive Sanderson--the roster filler--moving out to Chicago, but I particularly like this deal for clearing out Thomas Price in a time when moving a goaler is about to get tough. Chicago doesn't need Price, but Helsinki doesn't either and they've got to make room for Fuukka Rask eventually. It's a 2-for-1 with some return, and it's perfectly symbolic of the perfectly uneventful season that's about to go down in Finland. LONDON UNITED LDN RECEIVES: Florida Man Alessandro Nano S87 SEA 1st SEA RECEIVES: Ivan Retoslav Jerome Reinhart S87 LDN 3rd This one was really hard to decide on because London is right up against the cap this season. I'm not saying this necessarily makes sense for either side, but it's at least somewhat justifiable for London, as they lack some power up front. By getting a bit weaker on defense, and taking a bit of a hit in sending off a career-signed forward, they get the scoring power they need up front and avoid retirement this season on D. There would be a good deal of future consideration for the United here--which is why picks-wise, it's so much more in their favor--but it makes success in this season's weaker EU conference a bit more reachable. LOS ANGELES STARS LAS RECEIVES: Igor Molotov MAL RECEIVES: Todd Cooke James glove dropper S88 LAS 1st S87 LAS 3rd LA has the same needs as London, but with a little bit more cap freedom to work with. Malmo has good players, but they're also severely lacking up front and I think it's possible that they'd sell if that leads to things not going great this season. All in all, Cooke is a very usable player, and I think this deal gives up enough to justify taking it, but it just comes down to whether either team is willing to make the commitment involved. MALMO NIGHTHAWKS MAL RECEIVES: Poopy Peepants S88 LAS 1st LAS RECEIVES: Max Torq Yes, it's true that I got this idea while looking over the last trade. And while it remains true that I think Malmo is likely bound to sell at some point, there's a way they could sell and try to compete this season by pulling off this one. Torq is younger than Poopy, and it's an added bonus that @JardyB10 himself speculated on the possibility of signing with the Nighthawks this season were it not for Torq taking away his #1 defenseman spot. And it's true that this isn't doing much to help Malmo's forward situation--they'd have to do a lot to get that into "good" territory for this season--but if that's really the goal, the 1st here could be used to flip into some more scoring power from whoever's willing to sell it. MOSCOW MENACE MOS RECEIVES: Mo Probert S87 MOS 2nd MAL RECEIVES: Flynn Remy S87 MOS 1st Oh look, I've got Malmo selling again! It would be really weird if they proved me wrong, wouldn't it? Moscow is another team with no cap to spare, so we've got to be careful--oh wait, here comes someone at the same position and in the same salary bracket who's younger and more active. Problem solved! Contrary to the "Moscow could sell" of earlier in this article, here we've got Moscow delaying their aging process and giving themselves an upgrade at the same time in a deal that I personally really like for both sides. Of course, this all comes down to whether or not Malmo decides to sell, but if they do they certainly have options. NEW YORK AMERICANS NYA RECEIVES: Jason Argos S87 LAS 2nd LAS RECEIVES: Taylor Mourning Let's face it--the NA conference is stacked, and New York just doesn't have the same firepower as other teams (much less those with Art Vandelay). Mourning is going to retire after this season, and while I'm about 99% sure @scoop would like to do it in New York (and I'm also 99% sure that would be respected, especially given Mourning's no-trade clause), this makes more sense than anything else I could come up with. The team doesn't have the cap room to justify going all in (and I wouldn't support that in their situation anyway), but I don't think selling is the way to go either because they have plenty of good stuff that will still be good stuff (or could turn into good stuff) a couple seasons down the road. Objectively, I think it makes sense to move out a rental to a team that can afford it, but if not, I'd like to see where Mourning can take the Americans on the farewell tour. PRAGUE PHANTOMS PRG RECEIVES: Hunor Solyom S88 CGY 3rd* *conditional HSK RECEIVES: Halvar Torbjorn Prague has a fairly well put-together roster, and I'm not sure exactly how to make it much better while staying within the cap as they're also very young (and I tried to rent Jokinen elsewhere, but it didn't make much sense anywhere I haven't covered yet. The Malmo-LA deal with Torq/Poopy would also be perfectly doable in this case). Here, Prague gets a defensive prospect--which they could use--and Helsinki gets their own GM's player for cheap. To make that last part fair, I'm thinking there could be a condition on that pick that could make it more valuable if Torbjorn hits a certain TPE level by a certain date. RIGA REIGN RIG RECEIVES: S87 CHI 3rd CHI RECEIVES: Gus Bentley Under-500-TPE forwards are a dime a dozen in the VHL (and what Riga really needs is defense, but I couldn't find an easy way out where that's concerned). That isn't stopping this from being a win-win deal, though, as Riga squeezes a little bit of value out of a player who likely won't factor into any future competitive plans and Chicago fills out their forward lines without giving much up. We all know that Riga will have to just eat this season and look forward to the future, but every little bit counts and a 3rd could be a steal. SEATTLE BEARS SEA RECEIVES: Girts Galvins WAR RECEIVES: S87 LDN 1st S87 SEA 3rd Phoebe Bridgers Warsaw is a team that I haven't really mentioned yet in terms of selling (in part because I've spent much of this article familiarizing myself with every other team first), but it's definitely possible despite their roster looking good for the moment. Should they choose to do so, Seattle has cap space available for a purchase and could easily make one with one of their three first-round choices in the coming draft. So, we'll see what happens--regardless of what Warsaw decides, I don't think the Bears are done yet. TORONTO LEGION TOR RECEIVES: Boris Tsezar S87 MOS 2nd MAL RECEIVES: Oskar Lindbergh This is a better deal than the numbers suggest for Malmo, but I'm going to do some adjustment for the current cheap value of goalers. I'm feeling a bit guilty about saying that the Nighthawks are going to sell for this entire article, so I might as well give them a deal that goes the other way as they upgrade a bit in net. Tsezar will be around a season longer, and agent @Doomsday recently gave up his post in Toronto (raising some questions as to Lindbergh's future), but Lindbergh's contending days with the Legion are likely over and Malmo could certainly sneak into the EU playoff pool with a good deal or two. VANCOUVER WOLVES VAN RECEIVES: Brian Payne S87 LDN 2nd WAR RECEIVES: Biggie Cheese S88 VAN 1st S87 VAN 4th S87 PRG 4th S87 MAL 4th Here's another "players in the same bracket get traded for each other" deal, and I'm making this mostly because Vancouver is awesome this season. With no real way to buy or sell straight-up, I've got the Wolves getting a season younger on defense (and also breaking up a lot of S81s on the team at the same time, which can be a concern with multiple players getting old/retiring at once down the road), and I've got the Predators picking up some more assets with a player they'll still be able to use for a while down the road if they still decide to compete. The 4ths get Vancouver out of this season's draft and save some time in scouting, while also giving Warsaw a few small chances to hit on a pick and help make sure they can keep things going. WARSAW PREDATORS WAR RECEIVES: Maximus Decimus Meridius S87 NYA 1st S87 NYA 3rd NYA RECEIVES: Vasile Lamb *at deadline We looked at "what if New York sells", but now it's time to look at "what if New York buys" and explore the Warsaw-blowing-up narrative a little bit further. That's really all I have to say about that--and whether either team does either thing is up to them--but it's important to note that Warsaw also really needs defense and can flip MDM's position there if they want to. And here's the part where I wait for people to tell me I'm a piece of human garbage for underrating their team or their particular asset. I like to think I've put fair prices on things, and I'm interested in hearing what you think and whether your team should do the thing in question! 2,534 words and my first Gustav article in a minute! See you in a month.

Here for tracking: 1. @comrade cat F - Ronan Lavelle F - Igor Molotov F - Todd Cooke D - Jake Thunder D - Dabnad Shaw G - Boris Tsezar 2. @JardyB10 F - Nils Godlander F - Vinny Detroit F - Zach Kissinger II D - Brian Payne D - AirRig GoodBrandSun G - David Davis 3. @Hoopydog F - Daniel Janser F - Brendan Marner F - Girts Galvins D - Max Torq D - Ryuji Sakamoto G - Xavier Booberry 4. @BOOM F - Saku Kotkakoivu F - Vasile Lamb F - Tomas Sogaard D - Bo Johansson D - Hammar Voss G - Brandt Fuhr 5. @Banackock F - Florida Man F - Hulk Hogan 2 F - Ryan Vidot D - Tavish DeGroot D - Mikhail Kovalchuk G - Clueless Wallob 6. @Gustav (GM) F - Nico Pearce F - The Board Game Clue on Skates F - Sirdsvaldis Miglaskems D - Erlantz Jokinen D - Biggie Cheese G - Papa Emeritus