Mike

Lynx Lynx

4-3 Lynx

While spending virtually his entire life in the United States Mike Szatkowski Jr. was born in Canada. At the time his father VHL Hall of Famer Mike Szatkowski had taken a player/GM role for the Toronto Legion. After spending two seasons in Toronto as a player and some additional time as a GM they left the city. The family took a short stint away from the game of hockey and moved back to western, NY. You can't exactly shut that part of your life away though. Hockey DNA is forever imprinted within every member of this family. The family moved from place to place taking on different projects from coaching, commercials, inspirational seminars, and various other appearances. There wasn’t much down time to really get into a traditional living situation. It was mostly hotels and traveling no time for traditional schooling or hockey leagues. From school to school and place to place there wasn’t ever a real chance for structure. Losing out on many childhood and teen opportunities were rewarded with plenty of time spent around and practicing with other VHL stars. In an effort to differentiate himself and specifically knowing he couldn’t top his father’s success specifically at the center position he took a different approach. At a young age Szatkowski Jr. decided to go completely opposite and play goalie to blocks shots rather than to take them. While an unexpected decision he would line up vs. his father a VHL great on a daily basis. That kind of valuable competition and experience is priceless. After you play vs. a superstar facing your peers just doesn't seem quite as difficult any longer. Before Szatkowski Jr. could start his bid into the VHL though he had to at least get an education to fall back on. The average VHL career is less than eight seasons with virtually no one making it ever past that. Hockey isn’t a permanent career for anyone even the greats. Eventually you have to step away from the career of playing and that was the deal if he wanted to try to play professionally. After graduating at the age of twenty Szatkowski Jr. was given a shot with the Ottawa Lynx a minor league team in the VHL. At first it was mostly based on the merit of the name but quickly the league realized he was a prospect worthy of the VHL level. In seventy-two games this season Szatkowski came out with sixty wins. His save percentage was close to ninety-one and the G.A.A was 2.16. Those numbers are great for a minor league player but it was largely in part to the depth on the Lynx roster. Look for real signs of potential next season when he is called up to the Riga Reign the team his father currently is the GM for. Pros Hybrid – Szatkowski is uses the hybrid style of goaltending. This means that he can use both the traditional stand-up or butterfly method when needed. This general understanding gives him tremendous control no matter which style he uses. It keeps the shooter guessing and helps prevent tells in his stance. Experience – Having spent a ton of time around former VHL players Szatkowski comes into the league as a seasoned rookie. Spending his entire life around pro players has given him a great edge in that he knows the speed of the game. When you are a young boy into a teen and play hockey with retired VHL Hall of Famers including your father it is a foundation that money can’t buy. Reaction Time – This is just a great natural gift given to Mike. Sure you can improve yourself with a good diet, rest, and exercise but that can only take you to a certain point. Szatkowski just has this talent that he was born with able to diagnose the situation quickly and react. From sight to understanding and then actually taking the steps to react is just amazingly fast. Cons Taking Things For Granted – Having been around the league for a large portion of his entire life and having a relative already pave the way there is a sense of entitlement. Thinking that becoming a VHL pro player was already a forgone conclusion can cause him to slack off a bit. Granted the natural talent is there but this isn’t just any league anymore. The VHL is a premier hockey league filled with top end talent. Size – While Szatkowski has a good size frame at 6’3” and 220 pounds he doesn’t necessarily fill out that frame. Whether it is not squaring up in the net, using the right pads, or just not having the right physique he just plays smaller than you would expect. It could be him masking another flaw that is of more serious conern. Skating – Mike is very sound with the fundamentals of how he plays goalie but lacks skating ability and agility. His lateral movement leaves something to be desired and his full range of motion is less than ideal. In the minors he could rely on inferior opponents and a very strong Lynx team to makes saves to win the game. When he is surrounded by the fastest and best come next season in the pros he must be able to move flawlessly.

Cal D3 is OP GWG

Amazing play by Tfong probably I'd vote him playoff MVP even with the loss and thank you super depthy Lynx roster for making my job really easy.

GWG suck it Devise j/k

#TotallyNotABear

Toronto didn't make the playoffs last season with the best goalie in the league in LeBeau. Riga made the playoffs with a 200 TPE CPU goalie. You need to have an extraordinary season to be called a MVP what Tukio did this season was nothing out of the ordinary. Might as well make Moher, Smyl, or Bagelface MVP since Dynamo made the playoffs in Moher's rookie season despite them having the least goals scored for any playoff team, Smyl in Seattle is the MVP letting in one less goal the Moher they only don't make playoffs because he doesn't have an offense, and Bagelface let in less goals than both of those but had the worst offense of the three teams in Vasteras he must be the MVP. Wozniak has inflated stats ok so does every other forward in the league from all games against NY/RIG. Wozniak has inflated stats from playing with other good players well that's the case for other forwards in the league too. Lets remove all of that and make my points down to a deflated 120 take away more than 30 points so that I'm just barely leading in total points. I'm still leading in nearly 7 categories when you ignore the inflation. Tell me that winning 66% of faceoffs didn't matter when Calgary's next center Zamora had 54%. I absolutely agree with you Devise that if the argument was Wozniak got tons of extra points against bad teams and that was his only positive merit then sure. Wozniak managed to somehow beat the rest of the players on Calgary in 7 different categories and the entire league who also got to play against the same bad teams.

I have a request that you have my babies.

I voted for Quebec top to bottom they are the most complete team in the league right now. There is a good reason they had the best record in the North American Conference despite tough competition from Calgary, Toronto, and even an improved Seattle.

Rock Star had 0.916 on Riga and face a bajillion more shots than the next closest goalie. Despite us scoring barely over a goal per game we beat Helsinki twice and managed 12 points on the season.

I have itchiness in my nether region advice? No I'm not going to a doctor. I know a prego girl whos still kinda hot the dads not really in the picture. I don't want a serious thing just dat ass thoughts. Devise seems like a pretty smart person and a hard worker yet he lost his job recently make up a long ridiculous story that lasts at least 5 minutes as to why. You must each do it and I'll pick the winner after listening. Jericho claims to be working a lot but when I log into League he always seems to be on what is the real reason he has been slacking in the VHL? Is it because he can't yet talk about how good his player is like he did with his defenseman? Seems like Kellinger is starting to get good finally and Jericho has been quite a bit more active lately hmm weird. Break for a joke - A guy walks into a bar...says ouch. Noah your playa haz mad skillz but u's been prety quiet lately wats the dealio Finish up with talking about the future of Riga.

My argument back to you Devise is this you said basically I got 1/3 of my good stats against bad teams which kind of discredits me to some degree I can accept that. However if your pro Tukio argument says his stats would be better if he had played better against the fluke bad teams that kind of going against your first argument against me. If we can't discredit Tukio's bad games against bad teams you can't discredit my good games against bad teams. The games that happened are the games that happened just like you can't count playoff stats for regular season you can't say what if with stats for the games that did happen. I would also say if my only good stats were 154 points which is the main argument you are making then yes that is also more of a debatable argument. The fact of the matter is though I was first in the league in Faceoff%, +/-, and many other stats as well as being 2nd in a couple.

There have been a lot of self promotion lately and since Wozniak hasn't yet won a single award till this point in his career, he won't likely make the Hall of Fame, and insert other negatives for his career also I shall plead my case. I won't vote for myself this season because the voting is going to be close and I don't want to ultimately cast the deciding vote if it would be for me. MVP = Most Valuable Player and as defined by Google web definitions - The player judged to be the most important to the sport. Wikipedia says it is an honor typically bestowed upon the best-performing player or players on a specific team. Many in the VHL interpret this as the player who is most valuable to a team's success. Meaning If everyone on the team is great but another good team has just one stellar player he should win the award instead. I feel that is a valid argument but if one player on a team filled with other great players can differentiate himself enough I feel that makes a just cause for MVP. Which I feel Wozniak did by winning so many different categories. 1)Goals - 72 2)Assists - 82 1)Centers - 42 more points than next closest player 1) Points - 17 more points than closest player 41 more than next closest team 1) Points per 20 - 1.40 (excluding the 1 CPU player QUE LW2) Tied 2) Shooting% - 12.57% 1) Face-Off% - 66.18% 1) +/- +75 Might I add for this there are 3 QUE players after Wozniak and only 2 other Calgary on the top 10. 1)PPG - 16 2)GWG - 13 All of this was accomplished while taking the 2nd most hits in the league at 313 so while under continual harassment able to accomplish so much. Had the margins for other top forwards on other teams been closer then I feel you can make the argument valid for those other forwards. Wozniak also had nearly 200 hits when he is not even meant to be a two-way forward. As for my case vs. any goalie in the league. If we think back to last season with Remy LeBeau who played absolutely lights out last season better than any goalie in Season 34 or any goalie this season. His team the Toronto Legion didn't even make the playoffs. So if we have a goalie play above all other goalies a team still could miss the playoffs. Where as a good offense it doesn't really matter if the goalie is mediocre. Rock Star and NYA G had save percentages of 0.916 and 0.910 but they were the worst teams in the league. Davos made the playoffs with Moher who had the lowest save percentage among starting goalies with a 0.904.

Gladiators Storm

Wild 3-2

Wranglers 3-2

Wranglers Titans

Kendrick that last post to me sounds like you are arguing against being too rigid which is exactly what forcing someone into a contract the don't ultimately want to be in. That sounds like you are for it but argue against it.

I'm not saying they can't talk to their players since can you really enforce that. I just think it would be cool to have a period of the playoffs and end of the season where they can't sign the contract even if they do still talk to the GM about it. It would make possibly a slightly more important trade deadline and also give us more to write about heading into the off-season about the few players who might go into FA.

Don't matter Corco your barely a GM j/k

Having just read STZ's XM article about his player and FA it got me thinking. In the NFL and I'm sure this is true in other sports there comes a time when you can't even negotiate with a player any more till the off-season. I think it would be kind of cool to bring that into the VHL for the sake of drama and potentially cause a few more players to hit FA. My suggestion wouldn't be dramatic but just something along the lines of once the trade deadline hits no new contract extensions can be signed. Teams would still have the time in the off-season before FA opening to sign their FAs if they hadn't already or extend inactive players. It could make the trade deadline just a little bit more useful too.

Vasteras to forfeit their 1st round pick in this draft for tamponing.

Clearly I'm better than Brick Wahl.

both playoff series dayum after 2 each