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    Morgan catches up with VHL.com

    in VHL.com Articles

    Posted

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    MORGAN CATCHES UP WITH VHL.COM


    It’s interesting to think of how much growing Kasey Morgan will do in the VHL, just judging by his list of his on-ice accomplishments outside of the VHL.

    VHL.com was able to catch up with the former Ohio State Forward after a few games playing for the Bratislava Watchmen in the VHLM. We were able to get his thoughts on his development, his temporary home, and eventually having his named called on Draft Day.

    On The Watchmen:

    “Being picked up by Bratislava is weird to say the least. It’s not easy playing for a team with a dead locker room, especially if you’re the type of player that feeds off of having chemistry with others. It’s hard to want to come into the arena everyday knowing everybody pretty much quit. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the Watchmen. It’s just obvious that the team isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It’s the end of the season practically so it’s the perfect time to work on my game, right now I really don’t have too much to lose. I’m still going to come out with as much intensity as I can, play my game the way that I know I can play and hopefully show the VHL GMs I’m worth a selection come draft day.”

    On His Development:

    “I feel like I’m getting better every practice and every game. You might not see the results right away due to my situation here in Bratislava, but I promise you it’s there. I’ve got all of next season to show people why I can become the future of the VHL. I’m not really worried about sweating the small stuff, everything happens for a reason.”

    On Sir William Covington III:

    “He’s a character that’s for sure. I don’t think I’ve met anybody quite like him ever; he’s pretty vain not to mention self entitled. It’s just weird being around him. We’re teammates, but I openly avoid him off of the ice. Practices can be a bit interesting whenever he feels the need he’s too good for something, he’s always good about that during games and it’s a little frustrating. I don’t hate guy but it’s oblivious we’re focused on two different things. He’s focused on money and being royalty while I’m focused on Hockey. I wish the guy luck in his career, I really do. I just can’t really let his shenanigans be a focus of mine, I’m here to make it into the VHL so I can make use of the opportunity, and hopefully have a decent career.”

    Claimed:Rookie Profile - Kasey Morgan [Final 8/8]

    in Archived Career Tasks

    Posted

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    Height: 6'1''
    Weight: 195 lbs.
    Wingspan: 6' 5.9"
    Birthday: August 11th (22)
    Nationality: American faDAhW6.png
    Hometown: Portland, Oregon faDAhW6.png
    College: Ohio State
    Position: RW (Right Wing)
    Shoots: Right
    Playstyle: Playmaker
    Awards:
    • Big Ten Player of the Year
    • All-Big Ten First Team
    • Named to the U20 American Team
    • Hobey Baker Award Winner
    OVERVIEW
    Four years ago, Kasey Morgan wasn’t on anyone’s radar as a high end prospect. The underestimating of his talent has been traced back to his years in high school when he was passed over for other players to play on the 1st line. Many Division I schools considered him to be an average at best at Right Wing. He ended up landing at Ohio State playing for the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Conference, he started small and proved he’d become a value to the program later down the road.

    In his first season, Morgan made it onto the 4th line where he displayed a high IQ for game, not to mention maneuverability to skate on the fly and pass with the highest of proficiency. Entering his sophomore year, Morgan wasn’t an All-American caliber talent, but he changed that with his performance on the ice.

    Morgan doubled his stats from the previous season, piling up as many goals as he could. As a result he had some big games, including leading Ohio State to a win over in state rival Miami Ohio. Morgan is also human, so he had some ugly games against teams he should have dominated. As he closed his sophomore season he was able to parlay his successes into a string of wins that almost landed Ohio State into the NCAA Frozen Four on the men’s side.

    As a junior his season was marred with having to play through the injury bug running through his team. He was forced to pick up the slack. It’s what nurtured his skill set that could potentially make him a great first-to-second liner in the VHL. While he might not have learned to check his man as hard as a grinder, he has an above-average playmaking ability that will grow underneath the right coaching in the VHLM and beyond. He had some professional scouts attending is games, they all saw something in him (raw talent if anything) that needed to be harnessed into something.

    Most professional scouts also revealed that he could easily become a late first-rounder in a great draft class, but because of how the class might shape up to be another great class for the VHL; Morgan might just fall through into the bottom of the Top 10. He could be picked as early as the 11th pick or so.

    As a senior Morgan was the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer behind Western Michigan’s Chance Stevenson. He was invited to the US National U20 Team, despite the jump in stats playing for Ohio State. His time with the U20 team was cut short due to injury; he missed time after pulling a few muscles in his right knee his first game back. Ohio State finished second in the Big Ten and defeated Miami Ohio in their rematch. Ohio State missed the Frozen four by 1 ½ games back, but they were still winners for how well they played throughout the season. At the end of the season Morgan was named to the All-Big Ten First Team, he also was named Player of the Year.

    PLAYER METRICS / STATS
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    VHLM Combine Numbers
    Aerobic Fitness (Fatigue Duration): 12:00
    Aerobic Fitness (Vox2max): 65.9 (ml/kg/min)
    Agility & Balance (Agility Matrix): 4.42
    Anaerobic Fitness (Mean Power Output): 11.5 (watts/kg)
    Anaerobic Fitness (Peak Power Output): 18.2 (watts/kg)
    Anaerobic Fitness (Fatigue Index): 43.4
    Vertical Jump: 26'18''
    Pull-Ups Consecutive: 10

    TALENT ANALYSIS
    Morgan is considered to be one of the best college players headed into next year’s VHL Draft Class. He’s one of few Americans lined up with a chance to believably become a high end talent. His skating, passing, and hockey IQ are all at a high level, and remains coachable while making other players around him better. Although he’s praised for his offensive caliber, Morgan can be used in any given situation. He’s certainly a VHL-ready prospect, with room to grow underneath the right conditions and coaching going forward the next few years. With a huge upside, it’s hard to see how he can fail if given adequate time to develop behind some season or veteran players surrounding him.

    PROS / CONS
    PROS:
    Hockey IQ - When you draft a playmaker into the VHL, you want him to be aggressive. You want a player who’s trustworthy and believes in himself and in his teammate’s abilities to make plays. You want a guy who can handle the puck, making plays whenever the game is on the line. Morgan is that guy. He’s not afraid to pull the trigger, shooting or passing from any one area of the offensive zone regardless of the game situation. He has a natural sense of where to be, making crisp plays whenever and however he can without question. Generally speaking, Morgan has a good feel for the game and shows the ability to process what he sees in front of him at a moment’s notice. He’s got a keen disposition that’s hard to teach, making him an natural playmaker who’s explosiveness will get him anywhere on the ice he wants to be.

    Puck Handling - Morgan’s ability to handle the puck makes him one of the true enigmas of his draft class. Having exhibited a fair amount of zip on his passes and seemed to have very good accuracy on his wrister to “wow” onlookers during his pre-VHLM workouts. He’s able to use his eyes to psyche out his defensive match up on passes. Virtually he seems like he sees the entire rink at the blink on an eye, preferable he’s a pass-first player and tends to only shoot whenever he has a moment when he isn’t being marked as hard. In terms of touches, Morgan is solid without rival in this department.

    Mechanics - Every coach thinks they can fix mechanics, for most hockey mechanics are a lot harder to unlearn in most respects. One of Morgan’s second best traits happens to be the fact that not only is he fast, his explosiveness does give away to some great skating. Coupled with good arm movement and cardio, you can see whenever he crosses over the blue line he’s capable of weaving through defenders. Most of the time he tends to want to create off the pass, being a past first player he’s enabled himself to ‘go’ from the first touch where he can either feed to puck to a far more manageable position or shoot from right where he is.

    CONS:
    Checking – Morgan isn’t the most physical wing out there. He doesn’t have enough weight to get physical with the opposing team. It’s hard for him to get his shoulder down enough for a hit, it’s what usually lands him in the box. This also leads to Morgan tipping off players around him whenever he’s going for a hit. Morgan does have experience making reads defensively that a coach would want him to make, but that doesn’t mean he’s fully developed in this area.

    Instincts – For all his advances as being a playmaker, Morgan has a fair amount of work to do in terms of being an instinctive Right Wing. He reacts quickly and closes in on the puck tight enough, but he tends to play outside of the set formation at times. He’s using his natural play making ability to cover up where his instincts fall flat. As mentioned earlier, he has a knack for locating the puck and making plays with it. If nothing else, Morgan is very confident and aggressive doing his part.

    Leadership / Confidence – Undisciplined or Unfocused aren’t normally words you’d use to describe Morgan, but that’s what happens whenever he’s on the ice. Morgan doesn’t respond well to certain styles of play be it grinding or just plain dirty. He lacks a certain maturity to stay within his game, most of the time he can be seen playing with emotion versus actual skill. At times he can become a bit choppy at times. Whenever emotionally charged it’s almost as if he goes out looking for a penalty. He has been known to raise his stick, while it is rare it does happen whenever he isn’t playing his game. He lacks certain qualities to become a natural born leader, but he makes up for it by actually having the potential to become one. For the most part Morgan needs to learn how to stay confident late in games, no matter if his team is leading or their down a couple goals.

    FINAL ANALYSIS
    Morgan has the hype as being a first-round, pick and his skill set certainly warrants that. However, he’s still got a bit of a ways to go in his development to become a key part of any VHL franchise. There’s a large chance that he can be over-drafted based on his raw ability. The talk of him being a top 10 player in the future is a huge toss up based on what we’ve seen. Morgan still needs some work but he has shown improvement over the course of his college career to inspire confidence in his development, that he could also be a huge piece to any franchise looking to build around him and a supporting cast. It’s worth it that he was a start at Ohio State and should continue to contribute to any VHLM franchise that drafts him early into his career. He presents huge value if he should slip into the later rounds due to his raw ability. He may have a high spot early on in VHL Draft Class rankings, but he will have to contend with some of the best to either keep it or climb higher up the rankings than initially placed.

    Morgan Ready For The VHL

    in VHL.com Articles

    Posted

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    MORGAN READY THE FOR VHL

     

    Kasey Morgan has finally made a decision on his future in hockey. Morgan, a right-winger played for the Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten Conference, was a top prospect for his team, having been named ‘A’ in his final season as a Buckeye. As a player he’s looking forward to the exercise of playing in the VHLM in hopes of hearing his name called amongst some of the VHL’s brightest stars of tomorrow.  How does Morgan really stack up with the rest of the field gunning for the Season 47 draft class? We won’t know how his career will turn out, but it’s already know that he’s a hard worker and he’s going to hit the ground running for whatever team acquires his rights. He’s already got all the right tools; it’s just going to come down to learning how to apply them to both the VHL and the VHLM. He’s at least keeping a positive knowing he’s got a lot of hard work ahead of him this upcoming VHLM season. He went as far as to tweet out his excitement of the probability of playing the game on the highest level.

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    Van der Merwe Ready For VHL

    in VHL.com Articles

    Posted

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    VAN DER MERWE READY FOR VHL
     

    With the VHL Season 44 Draft right around the corner, there are analyst and fans already looking ahead to a ‘loaded’ Season 45 draft that could bolster the ranks of the VHL. Danger Van der Merwe is one of the young hopefuls looking to fulfill his VHL dream, Van der Merwe hails from the Netherlands and is one of many players who’s been able to hone his skills beforehand. While it’s uncertain where he would fall in the pre-draft rankings, or where he’d be drafted come draft night. He’s already hard at working on what he thinks might be what gets him selected high. Van der Merwe’s Agent and family already went on record stating that he was to become a well-rounded forward and maintain enough physical presence to do a service for whatever team drafts him. At the moment he hopes he can make it through the VHLM as painless as possible, though, it might be tough when he hasn’t logged too many practice hours just yet. The Season 45 draft should be an interesting one, it’ll be just as interesting to see where he lands and how well he’ll perform.

     

    Ryan Cattrall Retires

    in Retirements

    Posted

    This was a pretty though decision to make. I’d been mulling this around for a few weeks while trying to find that spark for the VHL again. needlessly to say I haven’t found it. The lack of Magazine articles and updates should’ve been an indicator, but simply put the thrill is gone. Draper and Kessler tried their best to get me motivated, but it just wasn’t working. I tried to hold off as long as I could, I didn’t want this to seem like it was a 701 situation all over again. I’ve been pretty bored with the VHL and I can’t explain it so instead of making this a problem later I decided it was better just to walk away while I still can. 

    Edition 234

    in VHL Magazine

    Posted

    Denver and Kesler's articles needed a good amount of editing. 

     

    Lots of Gow references throughout the edition I love it :3

     

    Denver I received Coca Cola from the Vikings in the trade, and it's not for this season as he is in the VHLM this season. The move was for the future as Calgary is not anywhere near making the playoffs this season. 

     

    I like the Flyers shootout reference Doomsday :3

     

    Cool Story Bro, don't care. Not like anybody really reads Headlines anyway...

    VHL Headlines

    in Article Submissions

    Posted

    MOVIN' AND SHAKIN'
    by Denver - VHL Headline Writer

     

    The VHL trade deadline has come and gone and marks the ending of yet another season. With only twenty games left on the schedule, the deadline is the push for some teams to try to fix whatever woes ahead of the Playoffs. This season wasn’t as big as some of the VHL’s previous seasons, but has plenty of future implications if you consider the picks involved and what they might turn out to be. March 5th saw King Czar III leave the Helsinki Titans for the Calgary Wranglers, as the two teams traded cross conference. The Wranglers gave up a pick to acquire the services of Czar III; meanwhile the Wranglers have up a Goalie in Coca Cola – in a turnabout move to help the Stockholm Vikings whose goalie situation is interesting, even if their plan isn’t written down anywhere. The Wranglers seem to want to be healthy at Goalie in time of the playoffs, maybe have a bit of a selection of who to play against what team, baring them making some kind shocking return in a season or two? That’s something to keep an eye on headed into both next season and season after next. The Riga Reign a ship that’s possibly getting older depending on who you ask sent off Robin Gow to the Cologne Express for a pick, as it they try to turn the coal of a pick into a diamond of a player. Gow walks into a situation where he can thrive should certain things happen. In general being on the Express at this point in time isn’t a bad thing. The Express sooner or later will make it happen they’ve improved and continue to show that they’re going to be a team to fear within a couple more seasons. In a wrestling sense the New York American’s time is now, the Helsinki Titan’s have become number one contender now that Riga has decided to go collect themselves and come back stronger. The Express embody the type of team that could very much turn out to be a dynasty even with some people being skeptical of O’Malley and Richardson staying together.

     

    Calgary and Helsinki also traded at the deadline. Robert Gow III was sent to Helsinki for a combination of picks at the Titan’s disposal, one of which came from the Express and two of which were for the upcoming S43 draft. Konstantin Azhishchenkov better known collectively as “KJA” was on the move from the Riga Reign, as he was silently traded to the New York Americans for a Season 43 2nd round pick. The American’s gain some depth at Center as the Reign tallied up a total of nine draft picks headed into this draft, the options and possibilities are endless as they could easily find players to trade for where teams are either hurting at a position and willing to draft for or actually wanting to shed cap for a floor that needs to be raised and a ceiling that’s still needs to be fixed.

     

    Even if the rest of the VHL wasn’t directly involved in talks you can already assume off-season moves and either pre-draft or post-draft moves are soon to follow, free agency is also another thing to be considered.  As far as the playoffs are considered, not many of the trades can be labeled as “cup winning” these were all necessary trades to ensure that teams who want to have a future in the playoffs, actually can compete for the next couple of seasons. Unless one of the Gow’s turn in an ungodly performance or KJA wreaks havoc in the next twenty games. Above all else it looks like the VHL is closing yet another successful chapter as teams are ready to go to war in the name of the Continental Cup. 

    VHL Headlines

    in Article Submissions

    Posted

    IN PURSUIT OF SUCCESS
    by Denver - VHL Headline Writer

     

    “What is building, and rebuilding, and rebuilding again, but an act of faith” – Dave Eggers

     

    The first half of the season is finally over for the VHL. It’s almost time to start thinking about the playoffs, the trade deadline is looming and some teams are doing better than others. For the Riga Reign, it’s starting to look as if their interest in the number one pick might actually payoff. It all depends on how they want to use it, should they actually spend it exercising a future core or shopping it to other teams for a more proven commodity. At the moment the signs of them taking a certain prospect seems legitimate, though a long shot that can all change if they get it together and knock of either the Calgary Wranglers and Seattle Bears – highly unlikely giving how they played against the newly somewhat emerging competitiveness in the North American conference. Yes, the New York American’s dominance has been seen and felt, it’s lasted the better part of their tenure. But it seems like a Seattle and a Quebec are open to competing, which was evident in how the Bears stayed at least ahead of the Americans at the start of the season. It was further during the Meute’s winning streak which was under fire due to how ‘easy’ the schedule was.

     

    The Meute have a chance to prove the critics wrong if they can fix their team’s woes ahead of the playoffs, a streak isn’t impossible, but there is room for challenges and skids along the way. The second half sees the team from Quebec struggling in more ways than one, and it’s clear as a team these are much needed if they ever want to utter the words playoff powerhouse in seasons to come. Should they manage to stave off falling behind, lead the league headed into the playoffs, weathering the storm to come they could very well be champions. The American’s on the other hand will always be dangerous in some fashion or another, that’s just how they’re built.

     

    As for the Bears and the Legion – something’s got to give either team has to prove their status in some shape or form. Calgary has a Gow leading them, enough said. Toronto has a chance in the next two seasons to do something phenomenal once they make a few adjustments. Same goes for Seattle, through sight controversy they’ve proven they’re a team you honestly need to watch in the future. The Wranglers are mostly the ones who could play the part of spoiler; they’ve made headway in showing up in the playoffs in previous seasons so that’s something to keep in mind.

     

    Europe is very tightly contested as well the Titans are in a twelve round fight with the Express that’s nowhere near finished. The Express have taken their bumps but aren’t easily bruised headed into crunch time. The Vikings are the most surprising as they’re surpassing initial expectations of a season ago. The Viking’s rookie tandem has proven itself amongst some of the best the league has to offer, they’re showing promise in the future of the Viking’s as a franchise. As for the Davos Dynamo, they’ve shown flashes of being a franchise that might cause others to look down the road. The team itself has room to improve and grow, only time will tell how they shape up and focus on attaining a playoff spot bearing a successful rebuild.

     

      Now is not the time to panic. Rebuilding and starting fresh isn’t always a bad thin, even with the idea of future playoffs and cups hanging in the balance. Older cores are looking to be younger meanwhile younger cores are looking to become more experienced. The Playoffs are approaching, and we’re about to see what some teams are truly made of. 

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