solas

Can I have an automated program click the pension and practice facility buttons?

Using that members tag as soon as he got permission to eh?

I needed that amazing news to settle first. If somebody told me this two years ago that DJ would be in the sacred HOF one day, I probably would have laughed in their face.
When people started telling me that DJ would be a first ballot HOF, I was cautiously optimistic that he may have the merits to actually do it. And now this! An unanimous first ballot is more than I ever dared dreaming of.
Of course I had a lot of help on DJ's path to glory, chiefly the Wranglers, from players to the brass. I will refrain from trying to name all of them (because I will forget people), but I guess you know who you are.
 
Thanks for this induction and good luck for those who just missed out this time around.

bunp

Matty Socks, Class of Season 90
User: @fishy
 
TPE: 1309
Position: D
Nationality: Canada
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 165 lbs.
VHL Drafted: 22nd Overall, by the Chicago Phoenix
VHLM Drafted: 5th Overall, by the Miami Marauders
Played for: Las Vegas Aces, Miami Marauders, Chicago Phoenix  
 
--
 
Career Awards
 
Individual
All-VHL Second Team (3x) | S76, S78, S80  
Team
Victory Cup | S78
Continental Cup | S76
 
--
 
Introduction & VHLM
 
  Matty Socks was had an early birthday, and the relatively unknown prospect jumped right into the VHLM headfirst. The Las Vegas Aces took a chance on this player on the waiver wire in S72. Progress was slow for the first couple of weeks, but then there was an explosion of growth, growing Socks into a 57 point defender by they got to their drafts.
 
Miami in particular was eager to jump on this up and coming player with their second of three picks in the middle of the first round. This was the expansion franchises’ first drafts, and with a legendary start to their existence, Chicago selected to-be Hall of Famer Jean Pierre Camus with their first selection, and then to-be Hall of Famer Matty Socks with their second.
 
With the future settled, Socks turned their attention back to making the most of the VHLM, and preparing to be a high-impact VHL player. Miami gave them the opportunity to be a top player, and explode offensively, nearly doubling their previous points, while putting up 35 goals from the blueline. This is exactly the sort of momentum a fledgling franchise needs from their initial prospects, and everything looked to be going perfectly to start.
 
While Miami fell dramatically to Minnesota in the S73 finals, this playoff experience and extra game time was very valuable to Socks moving towards the VHL.
 
   
Regular Season Stats
 
72 (LVA), 70 Game Played, 14 Goals, 43 Assists, 57 Points, +23, 154 Shots, 40 PIMs, 91 Hits, 104 SB, 3 GWG, 8 PPG, 2 SHG.


73 (MIA), 72 Games Played, 35 Goals, 69 Assists, 104 Points, +54, 235 Shots, 28 PIMs, 43 Hits, 72 SB, 7 GWG, 20 PPG.    
 
 
Playoff Stats
 
72 (LVA), 6 Games Played, 1 Goal, 2 Assists, 3 Points, 0, 15 Shots, 12 PIMs, 11 Hits, 11SB,  1PPG.


 73 (MIA), 15 Games Played, 2 Goals, 10 Assists, 12 Points, +2, 43 Shots, 2 PIMs, 14 Hits, 22 SB, 1 GWG, 1 PPG.    
 
 
 
--  
 
Greatness in the VHL
 
  While Chicago didn’t particularly (yet), Matty Socks certainly came ready for action in S74. Entering the team as the top scoring defender in their rookie season, and leading the recently birthed franchise to a 6th place finish in the North American Conference. With a point (minus one) per game season under their belt, expectations were high moving forward for Socks and the Phoenix.
 
The next season was a step forward for the team and Socks. They squeak their way into a playoff position, and Socks scores a few more points than the season before, while becoming a plus player. Already the 4th highest scoring defender in the league, a few points, and 2 places behind fellow Phoenix superstar Jeff Downey. Chicago would beat out some historical giants in Seattle and Calgary before falling to the Dragons in the Conference Finals.
 
Expectations were big heading into S76, and Matty Socks was ready. Hurtling up the standings, and the scoresheet, Chicago dominated North America, finishing first in the Conference, and scoring the 2nd most goals in the league along the way. Socks led the way by a significant margin on the back end, finding major success with team points leader Kyle Oferson. But most importantly, Chicago catapulted themselves through their Conference, taking down Seattle and Vancouver on the way to clearing out Warsaw for their inaugural Continental Cup victory. Socks tied for the team lead in points and played an over half of games on average. The two top picks from their debut draft came to work this playoff, with Camus only dropping two games along the way to the win.
 
There are always questions the season after a Cup victory as to whether the team has the power to repeat. Acquiring big name Spencer Elsby, their defensive core looked ready to dominate North America once again. Once again winning their Conference, on top of another great offensive effort, although this time the competition was a bit more primed to tighten up the standings. Socks scores another 80 points, leading their top unit and landing another top 10 D scoring performance. Everything fell apart rather quickly in the playoffs, failing to secure a single win, despite a team-leading 6 points from Socks.
 
As the epitome of consistency, Chicago came into this season ready to compete. They squeaked their way to a Victory Cup win, on the backs of a new top line featuring Darius Marimoto, Christian Mingle and Pekko Viitanen. With three 100 point players, Socks and with some help from Elsby, led this team to an offensive dominance. They would not keep up their usual success against the Bears, as they crumble in the Conference Finals after beating the Dragons in their opening round.
 
With a Cup under their belt, and a body of work already, Socks enters S79 attempting to maintain that level of success, and phase their way out of the league in style. Chicago would take a small step backwards finishing in a dismal second place in their Conference, behind the surging Bears. With Spencer Elsby out of the picture this season, Socks took on the brunt of the play again, leading the top unit to another great offensive season. Socks leads Phoenix defenders in points again, and the team comes into the playoffs in exactly the shape the league had come to expect. Chicago fought a long and hard battle against Los Angeles, who got the better of them in a 4-3 OTL.
 
It is in S80 that Matty Socks would eventually play their final VHL game, as victims to the debut of the Vancouver Wolves dynasty. Socks would come out swinging, and end their career with a career high in goals, assists, and points. They gave their all right to the very end, leading the team to a 109 point finish, just a few wins back of the unbeatable Wolves. Things were looking to be setting up for a Wolves and Phoenix showdown in the Conference finals, that being until the Dragons dealt the killing blow in yet another Game 7 4-3 OTL. Rumour has it this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as Matty Socks would retire following the season, having had a fulfilling and successful career, entirely with Chicago.   
 
Regular Season Stats
 
74 (CHI), 26 Goals, 45 Assists, 71 Points, -24, 270 Shots, 88PIMs, 113 Hits, 181SB, 3GWG, 13PPG.
75 (CHI), 24 Goals, 56 Assists, 80 Points, +2, 277 Shots, 24PIMs, 45 Hits, 154SB, 4GWG, 9PPG.
  76 (CHI), 20 Goals, 72 Assists, 92 Points, +13, 295 Shots, 92PIMs, 149 Hits, 150SB, 3GWG, 9PPG.
77 (CHI), 24 Goals, 60 Assists, 84 Points, +13, 269 Shots, 112PIMs, 132 Hits, 179SB, 5GWG, 12PPG.
78 (CHI), 18 Goals, 68 Assists, 86 Points, 27, 271 Shots, 62 PIMs, 78 Hits, 171SB, 2GWG, 9PPG.
79 (CHI), 19 Goals, 57 Assists, 76 Points, 11, 277Shots, 94PIMs, 123 Hits, 165SB, 4GWG, 10PPG.
80 (CHI), 29 Goals, 75 Assists, 104 Points, +37, 348 Shots, 114PIMs, 172 Hits, 157SB, 5GWG, 14PPG.
 

Playoff Stats
 
75 (CHI), 4 Goals, 14 Assists, 18 Points, +2, 53 Shots, 20PIMs, 27 Hits, 31SB, 1GWG, 4PPG.
  76 (CHI), 3 Goals, 13 Assists, 16 Points, +10, 30 Shots, 30PIMs, 40 Hits, 26SB, 1GWG.
77 (CHI), 1 Goals, 5 Assists, 6 Points, -5, 11 Shots, 10 Hits, 7SB, 1PPG.
78 (CHI), 2 Goals, 6 Assists, 8 Points, -4, 34 Shots, 8 PIMs, 10 Hits, 16SB, 1PPG.
79 (CHI), 1 Goals, 5 Assists, 6 Points, -1, 28 Shots, 12PIMs, 20 Hits, 19SB, 1GWG.
80 (CHI), 5 Assists, 5 Points, -5, 35 Shots, 8PIMs, 14 Hits, 23SB.
 
--
 
Legacy
 
  Matty Socks was a legendary leader on and off the ice. They led their team consistently and reliably every season, bringing the same energy and the same exceptional level of performance we came to love and respect from them. Taking a franchise from inception to their first championship is not something many player get to boast of, and is an experience that one never forgets. Matty Socks separated themselves from the rest of their incredible peers in that COVID era of the VHL, jam packed with talent and ultra competitive leading into the 80s. As a first-gen, Matty Socks showed us how one can break into this league and dominate from day one. fishy would go on to have another incredible and single-team career with Bubbles Utonium, leading a second franchise to their first title, 10 seasons after fishy’s first with Socks. Congratulations on the (two!) great career(s), and we hope to see some more in the future!
 
Regular Season Career Record
 
160 Goals, 433 Assists, 593 Points, +79, 2007 Shots, 586 PIMs, 812 Hits, 1157 SB, 26GWG, 76 PPG.
 
Playoff Career Record
 
11 Goals, 48 Assists, 59 Points, -3, 210 Shots, 78 PIMs, 121 Hits, 122SB, 3GWG, 6PPG.
 
 1500+ words!

Hi all and welcome to the S90 HOF induction where we are inducting 2 fine players of VHL's recent past - a first ballot HOFer and one who's had to wait around a bit longer than others.
 
C - Daniel Janser, S82-S89 
RS: 576 GP, 314 G, 422 A, 736 P, +173, 775 PIM, 1,590 HIT, 399 SB, 52 GW
PO: 61 GP, 31 G, 41 A, 72 P, +10, 107 PIM, 141 HIT, 39 SB, 6 GW
 
S85 Brett Slobodzian Trophy (Most Outstanding)
S85 Mike Szatkowski Trophy (Most Points)
S85 Kevin Brooks Trophy (Most Goals)
S86 Scotty Campbell Trophy (Most Valuable)
S86 Brett Slobodzian Trophy (Most Outstanding)
S86 Mike Szatkowski Trophy (Most Points)
S86 Kevin Brooks Trophy (Most Goals)
S86 Scott Boulet Trophy (Top Two-Way Forward)
3x All-VHL First Team (S85, S86, S87)
One Continental Cup (S87)
 
First up, it's the slam dunk induction. In a 3 season spell, Daniel Janser dominated the VHL offensively and led the Calgary Wranglers to a drought-busting Continental Cup, thus securing his own VHL and Calgary immortality. His overall body of work made sure that it was an instant induction, never falling below the point-per-game mark during his 8 seasons in the league. Janser was also a bit of a VHL throwback in 2 ways - one as a league-leading Wrangler, evoking memories of the likes of Brett Slobodzian and Jardy Bunclewirth, and one as a a genuine Swiss superstar, a nation starved of success since the heyday of Scotty Campbell and Calgary's own Scott Boulet. Having spent a weekend in Switzerland this summer I was reminded again it is very expensive place and all those who doubted Janser made an expensive mistake. A very fine first-gen performance by @Daniel Janser
 
 
D - Matty Socks, S74-S80 
RS: 504 GP, 160 G, 433 A, 593 P, +79, 586 PIM, 812 HIT, 1,157 SB, 26 GW
PO: 60 GP, 11 G, 48 A, 59 P, -3, 78 PIM, 121 HIT, 122 SB, 3 GW
 
3x All-VHL Second Team (S76, S78, S80)
One Continental Cup (S76)
 
On the subject of first-gens, Matty Socks was another one, part of the supercharged draft classes which drove the VHL's most recent, and largest ever, 4-team expansion. Part of the reason the Chicago Phoenix were the first of the 4 teams to be crowned champions was hitting gold on many of their first draft picks with Jean Pierre Camus already in the HOF and Socks now joining him. What may otherwise seem like a short list of accolades is what kept Socks out of the HOF for nearly 10 seasons but what kept Socks on the ballot is the sheer consistency - like Janser, never falling below the point-per-game mark (except a 71-point rookie season), regularly named as one of the league's best defencemen and a key part of Chicago's 6-season playoff run. Good things come to those who wait, congrats @fishy
 
 
Voting results
Daniel Janser - 10/10
Matty Socks - 6/10
----
Papa Emeritus - 2/10
Kristof Welch - 2/10
Jakab Holik, Robin Galante Nilsson, Paul Atreides, Reylynn Reinhart, Oskar Lindbergh, Zach Kisslinger II, Hari Singh Nalwa, Nico Pearce - 0/10

Stockholm and Vasteras surviving despite not having good roster is top tier shithousery

the vhl can drive now!

Came back just in time to see the GOAT step down. Chicago was, and probably always will be, the best LR I've ever been a part of. Even with all of those seasons with Helsinki for Pepper, and only the latter half of Winter's career taking place in an expansion town, my best memories of my time in the VHL are with that core.
 
I feel awful for fucking you over with the surprise retirement, but I'm really proud of that cup win. The s76 Phoenix are all-time.
 
Massive cheers, and thank you for everything you've done for Chicago!
 

I appreciate you Jeffery

that Chicago core was the best VHL LR experience i have had and probably will ever have. cheers to the community you built
all the best in retirement where you don't have assholes dming you all the time. enjoy the peace

Chicago will always hold a special place in my heart. I will never forget those degen chats I had with you, u have done a lot for this team and my player. It is extremely sad to see you go Lidia but best of luck in the future

glad i could win you a cup. that chicago team was really fun and one of my best LR experiences.

Thanks for making my time in Chicago so great! By far the best locker room I've ever been a part of ❤️

Thanks for making my time in Chicago so great! By far the best locker room I've ever been a part of ❤️

Thanks for making my time in Chicago so great! By far the best locker room I've ever been a part of ❤️

Managing this team has been a treat all the way from working with league management on the expansion concept way back at the start of the pandemic to winning a championship in season 76, and all the ups and downs before and since then.
 
Overall, I think the Chicago Phoenix have been a success. While my activity has been called into question throughout my tenure, some as a bit of an inside joke, others in a more assholeish way, I think many of my longer-term players will agree that I have been dedicated to trying to build a winner here in Chicago, and we have managed to make the playoffs in 12 of our 16 seasons since we came into the league. While it would have been nice to have been able to have brought more than one cup to Chicago the playoffs are a fickle beast and while we have been close, I was never able to secure one with this second core.
 
Now to thank some specific people.
 
@solas – my first ever draft pick with Chicago and a career player for the Phoenix. Camus was a legend and you are among my favourite members here
@fishy – while our time together got off to a rocky start when I drafted Matty Socks without scouting, I think it ended up being a fun adventure with that first core
@Blazzer – my first AGM and another career long Chicago Phoenix player – I know you hated how Lee Xin played but I hope our conversations in the locker room and early morning gen chat made your early time in the league enjoyable
@Quik – Thanks for trusting me with Christian Mingle and sticking out your career in Chicago – glad we could get a cup out of it – hope all is well
@MubbleFubbles – Thank you for spending as long as you did in Chicago. Our chats on player builds and roster construction were always very enjoyable and I wish you all the best with this player and any in the future
@Shindigs – I hope everything is good with you – we talked a ton while you were here and I am sad we could not win a cup together, but I learned a lot from you on new builds with the hybrid attributes. Hope to see you around again soon!
@fromtheinside – So glad you chose to spend your career in Chicago with Sundin. Once again sad we couldn’t win a cup together but I hope I provided you with a fun place to play out your career
@Subject056 - I know you are a fairly new member of the Phoenix and we haven't talked a ton but whichever member gets to take over as a general manager for the Phoenix has a great member and player to build around as their cornerstone. I hope you can carry Chicago back to glory in the near future!
 
To the plethora of other players who have played in the red and orange since our inception I would like to thank each and every one of you for your time here, whether you got here through trade, free agency, the draft or other means. I hope I gave you a locker room and team where you could have fun while I tried to build a winning team with a good enviroment.
 
Outside of that I would like to thank all the other general managers who put up with me in my role. I have issues responding to DMs, as has been brought up a few times, but that was never anything personal. That issue extends to my personal and work life as well and is something I am trying to work on. I truly did enjoy talking to most of you and you made the role a fun one to work in.
 
I hope to stick around the VHL in some capacity as I have been here on and off since its creation sixteen seasons ago but it is time for me to hand the reins over to someone who can dedicate the time needed to build Chicago back into a championship caliber team.
 
tl;dr it is time for me to admit I am inactive and I’m going to retire

GM John Frostbeard steps up to the podium near the DC Dragons home arena on a incredibly hot summer day with a bag of ice around his neck

"Always a great feeling to be here infront of you in this magnificent day. For a team like D.C. Dragons Captaincy is incredibly important as these are the players that our young guns will look upon for guidance and support. They are the ones that will help our team take that small pebble, roll it down the mountain and start the avalanche that will shape and forge our spirits and skills that create a contender team!"

Here are the Captains for S89 D.C. Dragons

Assistant captain and a player that will be a mainstay with us here in D.C, a player that has showed incredible excellence on and of the ice - Lucas Grey @emidas
Assistant captain and leader, a player who is playing his last season in VHL, our top dragon on forward side- Jason Coiner @Jason
Captain and a person who has been a backbone of this team with their bubbly attititude towards D.C and taking nothing for granted - Bubbles Utonium @fishy

🫧🫧🫧🫧

I'm going to print out this graph and hang it on my wall.

"I don't think it's a question of if he'll make it, it's mostly just when."
-Devise
 
"Kohler should be in"
-Corco
 
 
These are taken from the replies of a media spot I wrote a few years ago, in which I did mostly the same thing I've been doing with this series--take a look at someone who isn't in the VHL Hall of Fame and wonder why. Also at least twice in those years, I've seen a nice little trivia question pop up--"who has the highest career point total out of all players to never be inducted to the HoF?" And while there's always going to be someone who fits in that category, the answer has always been the same: Tyson Kohler. This actually isn't true at the time of writing, because Jerome Reinhart is now up for his second season of eligibility, but I'd imagine that he's going to be in pretty soon. As far as I'm concerned, the title is still effectively Kohler's. And I'm here to more or less rewrite that media spot, but to do it a little bit better and put it in Hall of Not Bad format.
 
One out of an extensive line of players from the @Kendrick agency, Kohler takes us all the way back to the S48 class. He'd spend the first three seasons of his career with the Express before moving to Calgary in S51--and that was where his career would take off. For the next four seasons, Kohler would break both 50 goals and 100 points, and would spend the remainder of his career tearing it up on both Calgary and Stockholm. Twice, he put up a rating of +95, and as a pure scorer, generally did a great job of staying out of the penalty box. He'd win the Funk for his rapid improvement in S51, and lead two teams to a Victory Cup, though he'd never see a championship. He's arguably low-hanging fruit for this series, as his point total and long-standing status on the HoF ballot make him an obvious candidate, perhaps even more so than Jakab Holik...but that also means that the Hall of Not Bad wouldn't be complete without him. 
 
As usual in a HoNB article, we'll be comparing our main subject to multiple different players, both in and out of the VHL Hall of Fame. Those players are as follows:
Diana Maxwell: a Hall of Fame player. From the S50 class, Maxwell started off in Stockholm but was easily best known as the heart and soul of the New York Americans over the better part of that decade. In much the same way as Kohler, Maxwell would take off and put up four consecutive 100-plus-point seasons after her rookie contract was up. In total, Maxwell would only score 4 more points than Kohler, but has a far more extensive award cabinet--two each of the Cup, the Brooks, and the Szatkowski, plus playoff MVP in S53. Pietro Maximoff: a Hall of Fame player. Another member of the "has four 100-point seasons" club, Maximoff played half a career in Riga, starting in S49, before spending the second half between three different teams. Winning the Funk a season after Kohler, that was far from the extent of it--also coming away with two championships, Maximoff would take a diverse array of individual awards during both his and Kohler's careers. Theo Axelsson: a Hall of Fame player. We'll save some of the description for later, but Axelsson would also win two championships in a career starting in Calgary and ending in Helsinki. Although a solid offensive player, Axelsson's niche would be carved out a little bit differently than the others on this list--more on that later. Essian Ravenwing: NOT a Hall of Fame player. The next-best non-HoF scorer to Kohler, Ravenwing was a longtime teammate of Maxwell, also spending S50 with Stockholm and moving to New York for long thereafter. Unexpectedly, Ravenwing is the only player on this list to win the Cup three times, and also won the Mikka Virkkunen trophy as the league's most sportsmanlike player (back when it still existed) twice.  
It's important to consider that each of these players is from either the S49 or the S50 class, one or two after Kohler. I don't think that's something that will make a large difference, but we'll talk about it a bit more later on. As I've touched upon in some of my other articles, the S50s were a really weird time for the league, but I don't see a clear "era shift" in these S50 players' stats as compared to Kohler's and I think it's mostly a fair comparison as far as career stats go.
 
Oh, and I won't be shrinking the graphs this time. That's made them blurry up to this point and they weren't all that bigger to begin with.
 

 

 
It's fair--extremely fair--to say that Kohler scored at a Hall of Fame level for the entire duration of his career. In fact, these are some of the prettiest, most "see-his-career-is-just-about-the-same"-est charts I've ever made. Kohler's and Maxwell's lines practically disappear into each other in some places, and it's safe to say that Kohler was clearly a better player than the next-best in Ravenwing--and though Ravenwing was a solid player, it's not even close. Offensively speaking, things look pretty great in terms of career totals.
 
What about defensively?
 

 
Here's why Axelsson is in, and this is the point I said I'd get to later when I brought him up. I'll point out that a player certainly doesn't need hit totals to be great (Maximoff is in purely based on offensive play, and Maxwell did do some stuff here but not enough for me to say that it made a difference), but a truly great physical forward warrants some recognition. While many players just tried to score, Axelsson did that pretty well and put up over 2,700 hits--that's averaging over 300 per season! He'd win the Boulet three times, something never done by other players in this article, and took home playoff MVP in Helsinki's S55 run. Axelsson stands out because his physical play made him great--it is the Hall of Fame, after all, and he simply made more headlines. 
 
Going off of that, everyone simply has more awards. To recap more extensively, we'll list them off:
 
Kohler:
0 Cups
1 Individual Award (Funk)
 
Maxwell:
2 Cups
5 Individual Awards (Kanou, 2x Szatkowski, 2x Brooks)
 
Maximoff:
2 Cups
5 Individual Awards (Stolzschweiger, Jonsson, Brooks, Szatkowski, Funk)
 
Axelsson:
2 Cups
4 Individual Awards (Kanou, 3x Boulet)
 
Ravenwing:
3 Cups
2 Individual Awards (2x Virkkunen)
 
No, this doesn't make Ravenwing better, but yes, this does mean something. The Hall of Fame isn't just a spreadsheet war. It's about recognizing the defining faces of their respective generations. Maxwell, Maximoff, and Axelsson inarguably are in that category, and we can tell that because we can look back at the players who were recognized as such in their time and notice that they were recognized repeatedly. And while this shouldn't rule Kohler out, either (more HoFers than you think never won an award), it's fair to say that Maxwell and Maximoff, who put up similar numbers to Kohler and in similar styles, deserved to get in first. And if we look at those seasons where Maxwell and Maximoff won their offensive awards, there's no room for arguing that there was just some stupid amount of luck that could have changed over one sim and that the wins could have just as easily gone to Kohler (yes, I tried to do this). Going over seasons where the players could be reasonably expected to be capped or close to capped (which I'll call 4th season or later), we get:
 
S52: Maximoff wins Szatkowski (most points), Brooks (most goals), and Funk (most improved)
Maximoff: 69 G | 70 A | 139 P
Kohler: 51 G | 52 A | 103 P
 
S54: Maxwell wins Szatkowski and Brooks
Maxwell: 60 G | 64 A | 124 P
Kohler: 54 G | 62 A | 116 P
 
S55: Maxwell wins Szatkowski and Brooks
Maxwell: 55 G | 61 A | 116 P
Kohler: 45 G | 46 A | 91 P
 
We can look at this in two different ways. First, Kohler during his peak seasons (his 116 in S54 was his second-highest) was easily outdueled by the other pure scorers. This is significant! On the other hand, we could just as easily adjust the criteria and do something unfair (or fair; that's a subjective statement!) like:
 
S51: Kohler wins Funk
Kohler: 58 G | 64 A | 122 P
Maximoff: 38 G | 36 A | 74 P
 
S57: Nobody wins Shit
Ravenwing: 44 G | 66 A | 110 P
Maxwell: 42 G | 45 A | 87 P
 
It's possible to twist stats any way you want, really; I could make Kohler look like a Hall of Famer if I wanted, but I'd like to look at it from all angles. I think it's mostly pointless to look at individual seasons against each other (at least, in this way), but I do think there's an important takeaway to be made in that Maximoff and Maxwell just had higher peaks than Kohler. That doesn't make their career stats any better, but it did make them stand out more.
 
Something else that's interesting is that every award here, save for the Funk, is an objective award. There's no voting committee, there's no public poll, no one ever decided that Maximoff or Maxwell should win anything in the regular season. No one won MVP, no one was voted most outstanding, and aside from a couple Maxwell seasons, only one player even tried to get voted top two-way. Now, that doesn't mean these awards didn't happen, or that they don't mean anything, but it does mean that there was some competition in these leading seasons. Leading the league in goals and points and not being recognized with an MVP or a Most Outstanding happened three times here, and in S52, both were won by another forward (Unassisted--yes, that's a player name, not a descriptor). It was just a high-scoring time in general.
 
After all that, why don't we summarize and compare a bit?
 
The case for Kohler: overall numbers. There's absolutely nothing to suggest, based on career totals, that Kohler shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. He scored more than many HoF players (mine included) and his 4-point difference from Maxwell means absolutely nothing overall. He's clearly the best in his era that hasn't made it, and the difference between Kohler and Hall of Fame is far smaller than the difference between Kohler and not (Ravenwing). One could also justify his lack of top seasons (something I've seen used as a highly desired characteristic in BoG threads) by arguing that it shows more consistent play, and that a player shouldn't be penalized for playing more consistently. And that's something I'd agree with, for the record. I'd liken this to what I said about hits: putting up hits isn't necessary to be great, but a great player can become great by putting up hits. Winning awards, likewise, isn't necessary, but winning lots of awards is also something that speaks for itself. So, yes, it would have been nice if Kohler had won more awards, but it's perfectly arguable that he managed to be great without.
 
The case against: awards mean something. And Kohler never won a Cup. He was just as good as Maxwell and Maximoff, but they were more dominant. I also wasn't able to find a HoF player from the same era that Kohler can be argued to have beaten, like I've got in my article about Bo Boeser. We'll also consider that Kohler is the third-best in his draft class, behind defenseman Black Velvet and the aforementioned Unassisted--one of the greatest ever, who was too good to even be included in this article. All this in an era known for actives few and far between? It might stack up a bit too much. There's a limited selection of players in the era to begin with, so how much is too much?
 
Finally, as is the culmination of every one of these articles: is Tyson Kohler a Hall of Fame player?
 
I actually think so. I don't think someone needs to win a ton of awards to be a great player. In fact, one of my other favorite perennially-on-the-ballot players (Matty Socks, who will either end up in the HoF or the HoNB someday) doesn't have a single one. And while it would make sense to say that awards mean a lot and that the others deserve to be in over Kohler, I think there's a lot of emphasis on leading outright and not enough on just being a great player in general that hurts players like Kohler. Awards for the others are a great thing, and I think they speak for themselves as bonuses, but I also think that Kohler's play as a whole at least stacks up enough to put him in the same category as the Hall of Famers, even if it's not in the "surefire" category the others were. And there's clearly a line to be drawn after Kohler, too--no one is arguing that Ravenwing should be in (sorry). The main thing that gets in the way of my vote is that there just always seems to be a more deserving candidate on the ballot, though perhaps I could see him getting in if there's a sufficient push in a weaker class. We'll see what happens--Kohler has been a very interesting story to track behind the scenes, and I'm interested in seeing how that story ends.
 
Tyson Kohler has been on the Hall of Fame ballot for longer than I have been a VHL member. Once every handful of seasons, he gets a vote, and if I'm not mistaken (I'd check if the forum weren't acting up on me right now), there was one time he picked up two or three. Time will tell if he makes it in...or remains the answer to a trivia question.
 
 
Previous HoNB articles:
Volume 1: Alexander Pepper
Volume 2: Shawn Glade
Volume 3: Jakab Holik
Volume 4: Bo Boeser
 
Others mentioned: @scoop @OrbitingDeath  @der meister @solas @hedgehog337

Hi there, a lot of you probably already know but figured I’d make a post about it anyways: due to being very busy with real life things for the foreseeable future and not having any real time/motivation to do VHL things I’ve resigned from my jobs.
 
Ill still be around until the end of the season and/or till a new gm is hired
 
ok bye love you