animal74

Let's go Royals!!

Let's go Royals!!

S95 Royals
Management:
GM - @sadie
AGM - @kirbithan
 
Forwards
C - Brandon Petan Jr @sadie
C - Jay Sikes @JaySmacksss
LW - Kirill Tyutyayev @ColeMrtz
LW - James Pearson @Jayrad28
RW - BJ Blazkowiczzzz @moody_blues94
RW - Mikey Lopez @MikeyKnuckelz
RW - Arochimaru Shahar @Zurgzz
RW - Gabriel Talbot-Boutin @Mastergab
RW - Devonte Escobar @TheElasticBandit
 
Defensemen:
D - Slava Kovalenko @OblivionWalker
 D - Dog Jagr @koty_k
D - Taavetti Jokinen @Ahma
D - Albin Aldgard @animal74
D - Petr Novak @LastGoon007
D - Ron World Peace Jr @stevo

G - Chazz Michael Michaels @Xflexz
G - Chad Powers @Big_Dyl
 
Captain: Slava Kovalenko @OblivionWalker
Assistant: Taavetti Jokinen @Ahma
Assistant: Albin Aldgard @animal74
 
Super glad to have you all along for the ride! If you still need the tournament server link here it is!
https://discord.gg/mXZfqG64

Congrats, Philly! Last Founder's Cup of the VHLE era. 

S95 World Junior Championship
General Manager Application
Hello everyone!

This season, Team Europe will be hosting the World Junior Championship in Helsinki, Finland! 🇫🇮

For this tournament, we'll be looking for 5 people to GM the following teams:
Canada  USA  Asia  Europe  World   
This job does not require any previous GM or AGM experience and it's a great way to get started with VHL management and learn the ropes! 
 
What are the GM responsibilities:
Select a roster to represent your nation Learn how to create lines and strategies in STHS Create a fun and active atmosphere around your team (very important) Spread some WJC HYPE! What are the perks of being a WJC GM?
Gain experience and practice as a GM so you can apply for other VHL jobs in the future Earn 2 capped TPE per week as job pay for the duration of the tournament Lead your nation to victory!  
If this is your first GM experience, don't worry!  We'll have someone help you through the whole process-- all we ask is that you stay committed!
The tournament will end before the start of the next VHL season so it's not a long term commitment.
 
Interviews will start right away and hirings will be made within a couple of days, so if you're interested, please reply to this thread below!
(Also, make sure you can download the STHS client which you can get here: https://sths.simont.info/
 
Good luck to all applicants!
 

But Deathwalker did it in eight seasons and Detroit in nine. Deathwalker still holds unofficial hits/game record.

On March 11th, 2020 (S71 offseason), I wrote an article analyzing which the chances of which VHL records I believed would and would not be broken.  See below for a quick summary.
 
GP: 648 - Sterling Labatte & Markus Lidstrom (0%) BROKEN (rule change)
Goals: 599 - Scotty Campbell (0%) SAFE
Assists: 639 - Scotty Campbell (0%) SAFE
PTS: 1,239  - Scotty Campbell (0%) SAFE
+/-: +643 & -345 - Scotty Campbell & Sam Pouza (0% & 10%) SAFE
PIM: 1858 - Peter Payne (70%) SAFE
Hits: 2769 - Zach Parechkin (25%) BROKEN (5x)
SB: 1407 - Markus Lidstrom (50%) BROKEN (3x)
 
At the time of making my original article, VHL players were only allowed to have eight-season careers, not nine. That being said, that would mean that most players could only tie the record, not break it. But, thanks to in-season trades, Pierre Emile Bouchard & Nico Pearce both now share the record with 650 career Games Played.  Obviously Scotty Campbell's records have stood the test of time, given the state of parity in the league now vs when he racked up all of his stats. Sam Pouza's record has also stood the test of time, with only Tim Riggins coming relatively close from S88-95 with a -276 rating. Given the new max career lengths, I'm a bit surprised that Peter Payne's PIM record has not been broken. Given the state of the meta in the league since then, I could understand why a member wouldn't want to dump TPE into a player build that spends half of it's time in the penalty box. Three different players managed to break Parechkin's hit record; Druss Deathwalker first broke it in S84 with 2,882, followed by Vasile Lamb in S90 with 2,877, but Vinny Detroit stands alone at the top, finishing his career in S88 with 3,163 hits. Five separate players have broken the Shots Blocked record since my article, with the top two players all time doing so this season! David Jokinen and Skor McFleury completed their careers with 1,513 and 1,437 SB respectively. Dabnad Shaw (S83-90) and Pierre Emile Bouchard (S84-92) both completed their careers with 1,431 SB, however Robin Galante Nilsson should be considered the true record holder, as he was able to finish his career with 1,424 SB, 17 more than Lidstrom, while also doing it in only eight seasons, as opposed to all of the other record holders who needed nine.  
 
 
 
Mentioned: @Gaikoku-hito@Spartan  @Jayhawk @dasboot @dlamb @animal74 @Ahma @Alex @Dabnad @RomanesEuntDomus
 

When defenseman Albin Aldgard left Sweden to test what opportunities were in North America, he landed in as good a spot as he could have hoped for with the contending Mississauga Hounds of the VHLM. One of the top teams in the league were looking for some depth in their playoff quest and Aldgard provided just that. In the 16 regular season games in which he played, Aldgard acquitted himself nicely as the Hounds went 11-5-1 with Aldgard in the lineup to finish the season in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference and 3rd overall with a 46-20-6 record for 98 points. Aldgard didn’t look out of place providing some offense and handling his defensive duties. He didn’t hit the scoresheet until his fourth game when he registered his first VHLM assist and provided seven more points the rest of the way to finish his stint with four goals and four assists for eight points in 16 games. He also had a +10 rating and provided just over a shot and a hit per game while scoring his first three goals on the power play and notching a game-winner.
 
The 5’ 10” Swede, who has garnered comparisons to the Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes, stepped it up in the playoff with 2-4-6 in 9 games as they swept the Houston Bulls in the first round but were stopped short in five games by their Eastern rivals, the Philadelphia Reapers.
 
Overall, Aldgard loved his experience in Mississauga and looks forward to find out where he will play next.
 
“Mississauga, the players, the management, they were great to me. I loved every minute playing for the Hounds. It was good for me to see what the next level of hockey is like and I feel like I played fairly well. I am excited for the draft to see where my next step will take me.”

When defenseman Albin Aldgard left Sweden to test what opportunities were in North America, he landed in as good a spot as he could have hoped for with the contending Mississauga Hounds of the VHLM. One of the top teams in the league were looking for some depth in their playoff quest and Aldgard provided just that. In the 16 regular season games in which he played, Aldgard acquitted himself nicely as the Hounds went 11-5-1 with Aldgard in the lineup to finish the season in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference and 3rd overall with a 46-20-6 record for 98 points. Aldgard didn’t look out of place providing some offense and handling his defensive duties. He didn’t hit the scoresheet until his fourth game when he registered his first VHLM assist and provided seven more points the rest of the way to finish his stint with four goals and four assists for eight points in 16 games. He also had a +10 rating and provided just over a shot and a hit per game while scoring his first three goals on the power play and notching a game-winner.
 
The 5’ 10” Swede, who has garnered comparisons to the Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes, stepped it up in the playoff with 2-4-6 in 9 games as they swept the Houston Bulls in the first round but were stopped short in five games by their Eastern rivals, the Philadelphia Reapers.
 
Overall, Aldgard loved his experience in Mississauga and looks forward to find out where he will play next.
 
“Mississauga, the players, the management, they were great to me. I loved every minute playing for the Hounds. It was good for me to see what the next level of hockey is like and I feel like I played fairly well. I am excited for the draft to see where my next step will take me.”

When defenseman Albin Aldgard left Sweden to test what opportunities were in North America, he landed in as good a spot as he could have hoped for with the contending Mississauga Hounds of the VHLM. One of the top teams in the league were looking for some depth in their playoff quest and Aldgard provided just that. In the 16 regular season games in which he played, Aldgard acquitted himself nicely as the Hounds went 11-5-1 with Aldgard in the lineup to finish the season in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference and 3rd overall with a 46-20-6 record for 98 points. Aldgard didn’t look out of place providing some offense and handling his defensive duties. He didn’t hit the scoresheet until his fourth game when he registered his first VHLM assist and provided seven more points the rest of the way to finish his stint with four goals and four assists for eight points in 16 games. He also had a +10 rating and provided just over a shot and a hit per game while scoring his first three goals on the power play and notching a game-winner.
 
The 5’ 10” Swede, who has garnered comparisons to the Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes, stepped it up in the playoff with 2-4-6 in 9 games as they swept the Houston Bulls in the first round but were stopped short in five games by their Eastern rivals, the Philadelphia Reapers.
 
Overall, Aldgard loved his experience in Mississauga and looks forward to find out where he will play next.
 
“Mississauga, the players, the management, they were great to me. I loved every minute playing for the Hounds. It was good for me to see what the next level of hockey is like and I feel like I played fairly well. I am excited for the draft to see where my next step will take me.”

Name: Stanislav Gregorovitch Kovalenko
Preferred name: Slava
Age: 19
Height: 6 foot 8
Weight: 218
Position: Defenseman
 
Currently playing for and captaining the Mississauga Hounds, Kovalenko leads all VHLM defensemen in points with 76 (22 goals and 54 assists) in the 56 games he's played so far this season. He is a plus 20 while on the ice and has three game winning goals, nine powerplay goals and one shorthanded goal. He also ranks fourth in shots blocked and seventh in the overall points leaders of the season 95 VHLM players. 
 
Positive: consistency
Over the season, Kovalenko has maintained an average of almost a point every game and has only had 6 games out of 56 where he did not have at least one point. Clearly, he can be depended on to contribute to his team.
 
Possible minus: hits
Kovalenko still has hits, 153 to be exact, but depends much more on his long reach to knock the puck away as opposed to body checking. However, this also means that he doesn't have nearly as many penalty minutes as another defenseman might. He's currently 21st in penalty minutes. If a team already has a body checking defenseman, then Kovalenko could be an excellent fit to balance that pairing so both don't find themselves in the box.
 
Positive: points
While not necessarily having as many goals as others, Kovalenko has found the back of the net over 20 times and with more games left to play, his total could reasonably be expected to go up. With his defensive vision high as well as excellent skating skills, Kovalenko scoops up loose pucks easily and either turns those into goals or passes them on to his teammates who in turn put those chances away. Kovalenko currently has a 12.57 shooting percentage, placing him seventh in the VHLM.
 
Possible minus: goals
If a team is looking for a true two-way defenseman, Kovalenko may not quite fit that build. However, if a team needed him to work on adding a wrist shot to his arsenal, there is no doubt that with his work ethic, such a thing could and would be worked on as he already has a fairly impressive slap shot.
 
In summation, there is very little not to like about Kovalenko's overall game and given his consistency, his ability to not only shoot but also block shots and get the loose pucks to an open teammate or put it away himself, he would be an excellent addition to most teams. Anyone finding themselves in need a of a defenseman would do well to give Kovalenko's agent a call to discuss things. Given how low his penalty minutes are as well, it also speaks to him not putting his team into uncomfortable situations, which mean a mature, consistent game which is impressive, given that this is only his first full season in the VHLM after just 12 games as a waiver wire pick up in season 94. If a hardworking, consistent and steady defenseman is what is required, then look no farther than Slava Kovalenko.
 
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Great answers! Thanks @Victor for the time you put into those answers. Appreciate all you do for the league! And thanks @Ahma for setting this up!

Triller and animal, my apologies, we nearly hit the 3 hour mark on our podcast and still didn't get to your questions. But as a bonus, you get them answered in written form by me before the podcast is even posted! Woo!
 
Honestly, given the niche I found in the league between my last 2 players of just existing for awards and HOF purposes, I don't think I have a need to fully retire - it's not too time consuming and genuinely stuff I enjoy doing. There's a few people who have offered to help over the years and I think ultimately it'll have to be a committee job should I leave - I don't think anyone should be expected to do this on their own.
 
Or the league can last until I leave for good and call it a day then.  No but genuinely I have no expectation at this point. When I joined it would have been ludicrous to expect S50 or S100 but here we are. We've had our low points but powered through and we are less reliant on 1 or 2 people than ever before - something very bad would have to happen for an end now, I don't think we'll die out organically any time soon.
 
1. Funnily enough long after I became VHL historian. I actually did all my stuff on the forum and guys like @scoop and others were more spreadsheet-savvy. I don't think I used Excel in any meaningful way before I started working at 18 and it was only after that I started moving much of the HOF to Google Sheets.
 
2. @Spartan  was doing some magic for me in my late Moscow GM days so he knows his stuff. There's a few others who I've not interacted with as much but certainly anyone who knows their way around the portal or has contributed to the VHFL/Fantasy Zone is pretty decent.
 
3. It makes things and achievements meaningful. If we don't look back at what happened or at least have something to compare to, then all we're looking at is some random numbers in some old software.
 
4. I think I've done a Media Spot ranking them before. Chershenko was my most enjoyable for the awards he won and the teams he was on and my level of activity vs achievement I felt. But Clegane had such a fun storyline and was objectively my most successful player and one of the best ever, so he's a close second mainly due to my own being less active by then. Of the HOFers, I wish I was more present for Clegane so he probably answers the 2nd question but I also would have done things differently at the end of Cast's career to make his legacy better (and maybe make Cast vs Thompson more of a debate) and at the end of Rasputin's to give him a fighting HOF chance.
 
5. Season 18 Calgary forever the highlight, we didn't expect, I can still remembering opening the Game 6 result thinking we'd lost and would have to go to 7, but there we were, champions. Two cup winners - Berger in S21 and Chershenko in S30 - rank highly as well, as do two GM victories - the first with Davos in S36, ahead of schedule, and S70 Moscow, the first expansion team win of the current expansion era and the culmination of probably my most difficult time as GM, trying to prove I still had what it took.
 
6. Nothing comes to mind but there were many who would fight over some grammar mistakes to then be proven wrong. I think the grader community of the time and the competitive nature of it, guys like @JardyB10, @Phil, and @frescoelmo, was what made it an enjoyable experience.
 
7. I have a few things tracking football stats (the European kind obviously) just for my own use, as it helps me consume the sport sometimes. Not as many as in the VHL though.

LET'S GOOOOOOOOO
 
My single biggest problem with the league, since it was put into existence, no longer exists. 
 
From the M standpoint, I thought I'd share with you a list of benefits I posted in the VHLM GM forum when we did in fact notify our GMs in advance:
 
 
I think this will benefit the VHLM massively and make the league "make sense" much more easily for people approaching it for the first time.
 
The E was a product of its time that was built to serve a purpose and really did serve it better than I thought it would when that was actually necessary. Seeing as we don't believe it's necessary anymore, though--goodbye and GOOD RIDDANCE.

Never touched the E never will wooo!

Hello @Members
 
I won't lie, some of you are probably thrilled to be reading this, but for me it's bitter sweet. 15 seasons and over 3 real life years ago we officially announced the VHLE, the league's third official league. It was a culmination of a lot of behind the scenes work to make what ultimately was necessary at that time and I was proud to get such a large project off the ground.
 
For many reasons it’s great that it’s no longer 2021, the world isn’t locked down anymore for instance; but one cannot deny those lockdowns brought us a lot of members and now league recruitment has returned to what we would call normal levels vs. the insanity that I think most members became accustomed to. Realistically with that comes the fact that the league is simply not overfilled to the point where a third league is necessary any longer. For that reason, as of S96, we will be removing the VHLE.
 
I can't find any quotes from me on the matter like I would have wanted but I have been saying for years that the VHLE is actually easier to remove than simply expanding the VHLM and then contracting teams later, I stand by that and it is more or less how we are going to handle this. The VHLM for the time being will remain at 10 teams, though we are open to future expansion if needed, and the players from the VHLE will be moved up or down accordingly based on their TPE levels. The VHLM's hard cap will increase to 400 TPE, the VHL's soft cap will remain at 300 TPE. So essentially the same as the VHLE for call ups, if you are over 300 TPE at the cutoff you can play up or down, if you are over 400 TPE you're in the VHL.
 
Exactly how players will be moved down is still up for debate a bit amongst the @VHLM Commissioner  team but in all likelihood players will simply revert back to the team that previously owned their rights in most cases and go to a waiver system in a few select ones. If that doesn't prove remotely balanced there could be a draft, again we'll know more details soon. The VHL isn't particularly affected since players who would have been going up still are so no major change on that front.
 
The @VHLM GM and @VHLE GM groups have been notified about this in advance so they already knew as of a few days ago. For the VHLM side nothing much is changing but unfortunately the VHLE crew are all more or less out of a job, luckily we expect a lot of openings this off season so hopefully they can all find new homes. Either way we appreciate all that they did for the VHLE, even if its time was relatively short in the grand scheme of things. Additionally we appreciate @Enorama for his work as VHLE commish, the RGB teams (RIP that acronym) can be thankless jobs and he did it well to the very end.
 
Other minor things of note that this does affect: the "Hello Europe" career task will officially be retired as of now. We may replace it in the future if we feel like another one is needed but thematically nothing really fits and the @BOG feels as if the career tasks don't necessarily need an additional one in that slot. Career length also did go up with the VHLE but we have no plans as of right now to bring it back down. With the expected time to get to the VHL staying the same it seems equally fair that the career length is staying the same; in most cases people will simply spend that extra season in the VHLM instead of jumping around.
 
I do want to make it clear that, at least personally, I do not believe the VHLE was a failure, simply a mark of it's time. Time's change and the league must evolve. if the time comes that it makes more sense Vasteras may yet ride again but as of now the numbers simply aren't supported. I look forward to moving things back to how they traditionally worked and seeing where that takes us as we approach season 100.
 
Of note, and I promise this wall of text is almost done, we don't expect this to cause off-season delays but it's not impossible so please bear with us if things run a little longer than usual.
 
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, I expect there will be some as this is a lot of information.
 
- @Commissioner

With all 72 games now played in the VHLM regular season, Slava Kovalenko, captain of the Mississauga Hounds, captured first place in defenseman points with 89. Having led the category for most of the season, it may come as no surprise to many that the defenseman was able to hang onto that position, but Kovalenko was modest as always when we reached out to him for comment.
 
"While I'm of course stoked to be the leader in defenseman points, I feel like I wouldn't have gotten there without everybody else on the team. The forwards for scoring when I passed it to them and some of the others for getting the puck to me. Hockey's a team game. I didn't get there on my own and the other fellas stepped up too when it was needed, so they definitely deserve some of the spotlight as well. Ozzy, Albin, Sam, Cody, Clapper, Kurt, Ron, Doc, Jay and Laimdots left their hearts out there and I did my best not to let any of them down."
 
The Hounds finished second in the Eastern Conference and third overall in the VHLM, which means that they will be moving on to the postseason and hoping to replicate their success in hopes of winning the Founders Cup.
 
(word count: 212)
 

Welcome (back?) @acp! Great player name!

thank you! it is open still yes

If this is still open for @Victor...
 
1. How old were you when you created your first spreadsheet?
2. Who do you consider the best spreadsheet power user in the VHL?
3. What about keeping VHL history gives you the most joy?
4. Of your 5 Hall of Famers, which one is your favorite? Which player would you want to have a mulligan on?
5. What are some of your favorite Cup-winning moments?
6. Do you have any funny stories/interactions from when you were a Grader?
7. Do you do any other stats related hobbies IRL?

Have any burning questions for the legendary Victator? The one who once rules the VHL with an iron fist! Once glorious VHL commissioner and a GM, nowadays a mere washed up Admin. (all in good fun )
 
Victor will be revealing all of his deepest secrets and sacred knowledge on this special occasion. What goes on inside the head of this ingenius British VHL nerd and historian?
 
VICTOR UNVEILED brought to you by Ahma and @FrostBeard
 
 @Victor

Blueliners Headline S97 Draft Class

S97 Draftees Albin Aldgard, Bubbles LaFleur, and Brigitta Sandstrom
 
Despite only being able to announce their intentions a few weeks ago, S97 draftees are already coming out in droves, with an exceedingly high number of said draftees being defenders. Of the 12 players currently declared for the draft, an astounding 8 are defenders: Albin Aldgard, Brigitta Sandstrom, Bubbles LaFleur, Hugh Neutron, John Giblin, Petr Novak, Ron World Peace Jr., and Taavetti Jokinen. Not only do these skaters outnumber the rest of the draftees 2 to 1 positionally, they are out-earning them TPE-wise as well. The entire draft class has earned a cumulative 879 TPE thus far in, with 619 of that TPE coming from the blueliners alone. Now obviously they have more total TPE since there are more of them than forwards and goalies, but they are out-averaging the other positions as well, with the defensemen averaging 77 TPE so far and the rest of the positions only averaging 65 TPE. We can expect the positional imbalance that we're seeing so far to even out over time, but for now it's certainly intriguing.
 
 
Mentioned: @animal74@Acydburn@AJW@Gibby28@LastGoon007@stevo@Ahma

GM 315: Lynx vs Hounds
As we get closer to the end of the season, Ottawa and Mississauga are looking at each game as massively important with the Hounds chasing first place and a better playoff seeding while the Lynx attempt to fend off the Wild and the Marlins to stay in the last spot. Clapbomb Bardownski opened the scoring today in the first period, the only goal of the first two periods. Miraculously, Ottawa equalized just FOUR seconds into the 3rd period with what I can only assume was a River Harrington power play slapper from center ice. Bardownski would grab the game winner just 3 minutes later however, with Ozzy Batty shooting one into the empty net to seal it for Mississauga late (they notably had the other two primary assists. Bardownski, Batty, and defenseman points leader Slava Kovalenko were the stars of the game, and quite a low-event one at that with the shots being 23-13 for Mississauga. It's a big win for the Hounds as they now sit even with Philly for second in the VHLM as Ottawa still maintains a five point gap to ninth place.

The Mississauga Hounds went sniffing for some defensive help in the race for the European Conference’s 1st seed against the Philadelphia Reapers and found it with a couple of players who recent declared for the S97 VHL Draft. First they signed diminutive Swedish-born blueliner Albin Aldgard @animal74 who finished his first pro year in the SHL after a successful junior career. Aldgard has been compared by some scouts as the Swedish Quinn Hughes. Next the Hounds signed towering 6’ 8” defenseman Ron World Peace Jr @stevo from Germany. These reinforcements should greatly bolster Mississauga’s back end and provide some relief for Kurt Bachmann @Blutch and Slava Kovalenko @OblivionWalker and hopefully have them more rested for the stretch drive and most likely the playoffs. Early results have been positive as the Hounds have won all four games with Aldgard in the lineup (RWRJ played in the last two) and are riding a seven-game win streak.

The Mississauga Hounds went sniffing for some defensive help in the race for the European Conference’s 1st seed against the Philadelphia Reapers and found it with a couple of players who recent declared for the S97 VHL Draft. First they signed diminutive Swedish-born blueliner Albin Aldgard @animal74 who finished his first pro year in the SHL after a successful junior career. Aldgard has been compared by some scouts as the Swedish Quinn Hughes. Next the Hounds signed towering 6’ 8” defenseman Ron World Peace Jr @stevo from Germany. These reinforcements should greatly bolster Mississauga’s back end and provide some relief for Kurt Bachmann @Blutch and Slava Kovalenko @OblivionWalker and hopefully have them more rested for the stretch drive and most likely the playoffs. Early results have been positive as the Hounds have won all four games with Aldgard in the lineup (RWRJ played in the last two) and are riding a seven-game win streak.