mattyIceman

SEASON 75 PRELIMINARY MOCK DRAFT The season is over and the playoffs have already begun. The quest for the Continental Cup has begun. For some teams and members, a different game is being played… The planning and scheming for the upcoming entry draft has started... And this draft is like no other... It’s a big one, 'that’s what she said'. This draft has many solid players in the first round. The second round and third round talent alone may shape the future of any VHL team looking for some franchise depth and skill contributions. What pleases me personally is the amount of new users in the community. Somewhere down the road, we will be looking back at this draft, seeing third and fourth round picks helping teams win more Continental Cups. That’s the magic of this draft. First, let’s see where teams would be selecting in the draft. This is hypothetical, based on the final standings only, so this ranking won’t be the one on draft day. I will not be taking into account possible trades, nor will I speculate what moves will be made. The first round could look something like this: 1. London 9. HC Davos 2. Los Angeles 10. Helsinki 3. Calgary (from Warsaw) 11. Toronto 4. New York 12. Riga 5. Chicago 13. Warsaw (from Seattle) 6. Calgary 14. Vancouver (from Malmo) 7. D.C. 15. Vancouver 8. Prague 16. Moscow Both Calgary and Vancouver have two picks each while Seattle and Malmo have none at the moment. Draft day can be very unpredictable that’s for certain. The top 10 alone is insane. There are four VHL GM players in the top ten ranking for TPE. Taro Tsujimoto @GustavMattias has been the consensus #1 ranked since the s73 season. This does not mean he will be picked first. He will go to HC Davos with 175% certainty, around the 9th pick overall. Goaltender Rara Rasputin @Victorwill be going to Moscow at the bottom of the first round, the highest ranked defender Muffbeav @.sniffuMwill go around 13th to the Warsaw Predators while Sirkants Klamasteris @hedgehog337 should go to the Riga Reign. With the reserved picks pretty much locked in, now it’s time for some meat and potatoes. Yum actually. Most eyes are on Pistil Stamen @DMaximus going first overall. His ceiling is incredibly high, but with London slotted first and needing defense desperately after having the worst goal differential, I’m not sure he goes to London. Second tpe-ranked defender L @gorlab would be a logical pick for London here. However.. L has been linked to fellow countryman R @Kylrad and has expressed the desire to be drafted to the same team together. Unless a team can work some magic in the draft and obtain the two spots to draft the players, they may be separated. London has some choices here now. I can see GM Roger McWolf III @McWolfselecting either L or 3rd-ranked dman, Jolly Greene Giant @DoktorFunk, with the first overall pick. He is considering every option at the moment, but he could be convinced to trade down if the offer is very good. Next up is Los Angeles. They have Jeffery Pines down the middle currently, and they could certainly use another centerman to secure and define their future. They could also add another defenseman to their already young blue line with L or Greene Giant. It would be foolish to pass on Stamen though, so with the second pick, I can see GM Josh Da Silva @Josh taking Pistil Stamen here Calgary has two picks here. The Wranglers would be praying for Stamen to be available here, as he would be the heir apparent to current star centerman RJ Jubis @Jubis. He could also use the two first round picks to select L and R as well, so that’s another angle if GM Ryan Jubis chooses to do a full rebuild. Either Stamen, L or Greene Giant gets selected here with the third overall pick. New York is entering a rebuilding phase with three players retiring, but they need help in all areas. With some prospects set to graduate into the VHL, I see them taking the best player available. GM Esso Drunlkmann @Esso2264 has his pick of wingers Joe Kelly @emidas and RJ Thatcher @jhatty8 here in the fourth overall spot, but literally anyone that’s available that he has his eyes on can get selected. The Chicago Phoenix can go ahead and select the best player available if they wish to do so, but they should address their blue line. Next highest defenseman available is 12th ranked Ove Dyrdahl @GRZ, so GM Geoffrey Dee @JeffD should select him here with the fifth pick. Zooming back around to Calgary with the 6th selection in the draft, If they take L at 3rd, they could select R here and keep the pair united, or they could go with the next best forward which would be either the aforementioned Kelly, Thatcher, or go with centerman Its Gucci @frescoelmo , ranking 16th in tpe. DC is next up. If Calgary went with selecting the L and R pair, DC has their pick of either Thatcher, Kelly or Gucci. They could go with a defenseman also, however the rumor mill has it that GM Eno Rama @Enorama might even trade the pick. To who and for what, who knows? As for Prague in the 8th position, well, they’d love to select centerman Its Gucci if he’s still available. GM Jason Glasser @diamond_ace could select any of the top goalies in Artem Tretiak @Molholt or Kunibuni UnGuri @Berocka and shore up their backup position, they may also be shopping the pick around. HC Davos in the 9th position, GM Jerry Garcia proudly selects Taro Tsujimoto. Without question. The Dynamo will have a good problem to solve with two elite centermen in their lineup with SS Hornet and Tsujimoto. With the 10th pick, Helsinki isn’t going goalie. Their forward core is solid so they should go defense. Around here, Ove Dyrdahl, R and Chicken Wing @chikn could likely be their selection. GM Julian Borwinn @Jubo07 could throw a curveball and select a forward to bolster their prospect pool at forward though. GM Rylan Peace @Peace will hold onto his pick at 11th overall and select the best player available. Any defenseman or forward would be a welcome addition to his prospect pool, my best guess is he goes defense as there are quite a few inactive players at that position hitting regression and/or free agency. The Riga Reign should be selecting goalie Sirkants Klamasteris, as franchise goaltender Greg Eagles is retiring after their current playoff push. GM Benjamin Zeptenbergs hasn’t yet confirmed that he takes Klamasteris, it would simply depend on how Riga performs in the playoffs. With VHL stars Lincoln Tate, Phil Marleau and Eagles retiring, he has alot to consider at this draft. It could be mayhem in Riga, or not. Draft Day will tell us what he’s up to. Warsaw has the Seattle Bears’ pick in the 12th spot. GM Damien Walec proudly selects defenseman Muffbeav. Zero drama or speculation here, although he may take initiative and trade down for an asset, and that brings us to Vancouver next. The Wolves have the next two picks at 13 and 14 overall. The rumor mill has it that GM Keaton Louth @Beaviss is shopping these picks, but it’s difficult to determine what he’s looking for if he moves them or drafts in one or both spots. He may keep one and draft a goaltender to back up Jimmy Spyro, he could in fact go with UnGuri or Tretiak, which leaves us with the final selection of the first round going to.. Moscow. Finishing at the top of the standings, GM Victor Alfredsson @Victor will select franchise-caliber goalie Rara Rasputin. He’ll be backing up goaltending legend Raymond Bernard for next season, then offer Moscow many seasons of quality goaltending. Fun (or odd) fact about this draft, Malmo has NO picks. This doesn't mean he won't make a move. GM John Frostbeard @FrostBeard had this to say: "I believe that Malmo could be looking at some possibilities near the draft time. Nothing concrete yet but I can say that I will not have an easy night when the draft happens." How's that for an ominous cliffhanger. Draft Day could get pretty crazy and unpredictable. 1300+ words

Concussion protocol states he isn't eligible to play for the foreseeable future. Nice going @KnightRiley

Damn that's tight, Vegas 1st line tho

1. Our 2nd season has come to an end. We went from 48 points in our inaugural season to 60, while staying true to our plan of building mainly through the draft. Did you expect us to take a bigger step forward? Are you disappointed with our performance? No I think we really improved a lot, even though we did finish last. The whole league is tightening up, so more points shows works 2. How was your individual performance this season? I took a fuckton of penalties. I was either on the ice or in the box. Rarely got to sit with my team during the games 3. Who on the team surprised you the most this past season? Trivium. He's so damn good with that shot 4. Our season is over, but we are taking part in the lottery tournament. At which position do you think we will finish the 10 game tournament? I'd be happy finishing in the top. That's why we compete 5. What team are you rooting for in these playoffs we barely missed? Riga looks nice, Seattle looks scary, Helsinki could be a dark horse, Vancouver and Moscow can make some serious noise 6. Who has your vote for MVP this season? Lincoln Tate. Still leading his team to the playoffs for one last run is a massive accomplishment knowing he'll retire. If that isn't motivation i don't know what is

@RomanesEuntDomusnot a problem! I think you can hop into a locker room and answer any press conference. I'm not sure if a FA can do this

@Rayzor_7 That was either myself or @Spartan. I thought it could be a twice-a-week kind of event-thing with game presentation

Hey @RomanesEuntDomus. I already know you from HD and I know you're in SHL. Hop on the plane that leaves soonest to Houston. Season will be over tomorrow and we won't be in the playoffs (so no game time, unfortunately), but there might be a party or two to celebrate, well, not much besides the fact that we're sim hockey league players. Quote me and respond HORNS UP. Think about it first.

I'm all for variety. I'd give this a go, but I'm never ever in the playoffs, so there's little to no incentive to post anything for non-playoff players. Have the bot link to the daily game thread where everyone's talking about the games. Or don't use the bot, some GMs may link it to their sim-results channel if they want. I have no shame I'll admit when I see sims where we lose (which is often) and/or my player sucked (a little less often), I'll open the boxscores, scan through it quick then close it. Not much else to do besides just say a few things in my LR. I'll also admit that it would be cool to comment in a thread with everyone posting about their games and let trash talk fly. If that's the goal then I'm for it. If not then what's the point? Higher post count? Higher rep?

1 tpe for trash-talking for you both in Moscow. If you elect to keep this tpe, you buy us all drinks

It's still quite funny how ideas are transpiring to incentivize this. I get where @Beketov is coming, it's a big picture big community thing. Incentivizing it makes it more interesting heh

Another great idea. Maybe twice a week there can be a presenter for 8 games. The rest of the time there would be more sims to compensate. Get out of her basement dude... LONDON STYLE

Yessss exactly. That would garner some forum game thread interest and get ppl interested in other games on that day. Some smack talk with other teams, getting people to crawl out of their LRs and just interacting with the community in tandem with discord. It would be a huge bonus for new players in the VHLM to get out and explore ppl and the forum. Might inadvertently help with retention, which leads to expansion and infuence

I don't understand how the rich would get richer or how it's a popularity contest. The idea is alot like a VHL fantasy zone mod, pure luck. Anyway I tried lol

@BeketovOne cool incentive you could implement as uncapped tpe is some kind of event with the sims, something like: Lineup of the day or something. The best 3 forwards, 2 defensemen and goalie get posted by an event manager and people vote a few days before the sim. Could make this a thing twice a week or something, would be really hard to get that tpe, but it would get people interested and engaged in the forum daily thread.

I like the idea of a daily thread of 24 games or so, so that people can comment on the games there. I'd participate. It would be weird though to try answering some trash talk and like 2 posts happen while I'm typing. Could have some "fragmented" conversation, but hey it's a forum it's imperfect like discord. Another thing that would worry me is the spam that would happen. What preliminary measure do you have in mind @Beketov If this was on discord rn, there would be no less than 500 replies to this. Not sure if that's a good thing

Points taken

Must. Raise. Volume. I like your content, keep it coming

Awesome! Tell us more about your former players Phil. I want to go down vhl memory lane

@Biggreen10 grats on the MVP award my man! What a massive honor!! London representing big! Also grats to my man @Rhynex Entertainment coming up big for Team Canada. He was instrumental to our hopes as we came up short.

He really was the clit commander. No joke. Classic stoner flick

Welcome @Maik to the VHL! Houston Bull Assistant GM here. Houston needs another defenseman and you fit the bill! We're at the bottom of the league and we're rebuilding, so there's some spots up for grabs if you play hard. If this no-pressure situation suits ya, quote this post with the reply: HORNS UP!

Hey Gunnar. Houston calling, need defensive help immediately. Please proceed to the nearest airport to fly to Houston. Quote this and say the following: HORNYS UP!!

London is a sleeping giant, currently at the mercy of Simon. Btw... Clit's real, but there are other "things"

If you still havent joined the World Junior discord, click below and join up! S74 WJC Discord

Corrected