Tagger

Did two radios thinking I'd use one in later weeks, but figure I'll only forget so I'll post em both now:

For Beaviss: 1) Quebec are currently listed as $3.75M over the cap, a figure set to rise once Jones and Rayne's finances are corrected. Were you surprised about being that far over the salary cap heading into S64? 2) Do those salary issues change your approach to the upcoming draft at all? 3) If you could have a do-over on one trade or draft pick that you had, what would it be? 4) Which draft do you plan for your player after Keaton to enter, Season 65 or 66? 5) While you won the Kanou in S62, Season 64 will be your last chance to get a regular season award with Keaton. Which one would you say you have the best shot at?

You'd likely have to make your own, all of those who were involved in the Player Card crew (bar Devise, although I think he was there for writing the blurbs rather than the graphic side) are no longer here.

@Quik One thing that has been missing from the Off-Season schedule for some reason since S60 is the VHLM TPE Cut-Off. I remember dealing with guys in the lead up to the draft last season and there was a lot of confusion as to when they could start earning TPE again if they wanted to stay in the VHLM by being below cut-off so it might be worth adding such a date to the schedule.

Yeah, to clarify my position this shouldn't be voided. Even if Bana had used the old rulebook, those followed the rules where a GM player like The Charm had to retire to be traded, so would have only been a rental there as well. Wasn't using the current rulebook as an excuse to void it, but I do still feel though that updating the rulebook accordingly to make sure future GM's who maybe weren't here or didn't read the announcement threads at the time have access to the current ruling is in order.

It would be nice though to see these rules that we've brought up make it into the rulebook given that they were announced a month ago. Part of the problems that we'd had with the prior rules was that the rule about a GM being forced to retire once he stepped down was only mentioned in the thread announcing the decision and never transitioned into the official rulebook.

Yep

Looking at the new GM rules that were made here, this seems to be the situation that fits this deal: External Hire: 3 Options New GM may create a GM Player of their own, leaving their original player with the team they belong to. The previous GM Player is sent to FA as soon as the new GM Player’s draft year arises (i.e. If the new GM Player is a S67 Draftee, the previous GM Player would become a Free Agent following the S66 Season). Previous GM Player may not return to original team (or any team they are traded to during that season) via FA, or contract extension, within 2 seasons but can be traded for. For Example: If @Quik steps down and the new GM of Helsinki wishes to create a S67 Draftee, Kronos Bailey would automatically become a Free Agent following the S66 Season. Should Helsinki trade Bailey to another team, he would be ineligible to sign with either Helsinki or the 2nd team, until after the S68 Season. If for some reason the 2nd team also trades Bailey, he would be ineligible from signing with the 3rd team as well So going off that, Tyler would be an FA next off-season (for the Season 65 Draft that Glades second player is in) and wouldn’t be able to sign for either Davos or Seattle in that FA period until the offseason with the Season 67 Draft (which is irrelevant as I think Charm would be retired already anyway?).

3

I had a check now and was actually surprised that we only got rid of the way Fire Hakstol mentioned we used to do it four seasons ago (In May), felt way longer ago than that. The reason I saw cited for the change was that while it had good intentions, people found it annoying to claim the TPE (We would use the same practice facility threads, but we had to copy and paste the links to the three game thread posts in there, which I imagine would be more frustrating for our mobile/tablet users as well) combined with people wanting an activity check PT saw the two ideas combine into one and thus the current Practice Facility. It did help post counts though from what I remember of our initial research into the matter, so maybe something like that would be worthwhile re-implementing in some form if we found a way to better tally it. I would say no to the role-playing stuff for pretty much the same reason as Fire Hakstol said in that I don't think certain media articles should receive more than others based on the context (E.g. My favourite articles are the ones that cover statistical/historical stuff, I wouldn't want to see them fall by the wayside because they were rewarded less). As for the articles thing, I can feel where you're coming from, it can feel pretty shit when you put in the effort to then have no feedback whatsoever (or even worse just like the most pettiest of criticisms for it). I think implementing something specifically to encourage feedback would be difficult though as, at the end of the day, it would wind up being very much similar to the current reviewing system that yourself and others aren't the biggest fans of.

@ShawnGlade asked me to do a media piece on the S62 Draft and, while I haven't done that yet, this is just a quick podcast looking at some of the things I was surprised by looking back at that draft.

Part I - Pick em' (Pick the correct winners of all three games for 2 TPE) Game 5 - Calgary Wranglers @ Riga Reign Game 6 - Riga Reign @ Calgary Wranglers - No Game Game 7 - Calgary Wranglers @ Riga Reign - No Game Part II - Predict the Score (Predict the correct score and winner of this game for 3 TPE) Game 5 - Calgary Wranglers @ Riga Reign - 3-1 Reign Part III - Player Predictions (Predict the correct player for each category, 1 TPE for each correct answer) Series leader in points: Shephard Series leader in goals: Crimson Series leader in assists: Shephard

Depends, I only did this because I had free time for writing today. Might cover it in some of my podcasts if not

Done

Got some time for myself on the PC today so figured I'd do my article for the week ahead now rather than do a podcast later. This isn't going to be a super in-depth piece, but just looking at the first rounders taken in that draft. I got to writing this article and realised it was 932, so figured I'd tap in an extra few words in the intro so I can use it for two weeks. This draft is very comparable to the S48 Draft Class, four draftees who are going to stand a good chance at HOF consideration, with a few other players whose TPE they earned before inactivity will set them up as solid depth players with others who are quietly progressing. Looking at this draft in retrospect though, it's kinda weird that we had a Mock Draft PT for this draft, but then none in the following, much more interesting draft classes. 1 - Matt Thompson (Seattle Bears) While Thompson is currently behind Podrick Cast in both points and goals, this is still a great pick at first overall. While his rookie season didn't see him get over a point per game, he's gone on to put up 100+ point seasons in the next two years. He is also a lot more physical than the other forwards taken in this first round and that physicality saw him pick up the Boulet trophy last season. In a ReDraft: He'd be competing for first overall with Cast. 2 - Samuel Gate (Quebec City Meute) Given that there were three very good skaters in the top of this draft, I was surprised that the Meute made a move to trade up from third to second. Ultimately, this wound up being a bit of a whiff for the Meute, a pick that could have seen them get last seasons MVP saw them get a now inactive defensemen whose nearly 200 TPE behind Cast. Given the Meute's lack of scoring this season, it makes you wonder how the Meute-Reign playoff series would have gone had the Meute taken Cast here. In a ReDraft: While his TPE is high, his inactivity would have him selected around 5-8 3 - Podrick Cast (Riga Reign) It's always a weird one taking a once-super-established player who is returning from a long absence, sometimes the player immediately falls off after showing initial promise of a return to form before the draft (Prime example would be Leon Leitner, Scotty's player in the S35 Draft who went third overall) but other times, like Victor as, they just pick right up where they left off. Cast leads in TPE, has already won the biggest personal awards going and looks very much like he'll be extending his active streak of HOF players In a ReDraft: Between himself and Thompson for first overall 4- Roger Sterling (Bears) Sterling came in at a time where the goalie market was looking to soon become exceptionally weak, however that didn't stop the teams above from letting him fall to fourth overall. While you could argue he was the best TPE earner of the players prior to the draft (He closed the gap in TPE between himself and the first three taken exceptionally quickly despite creating post-VHLM Draft), he's not been at the same pace since the draft, mainly due to purely focusing on his assigned job rather than the other external TPE opportunities. Statistical wise, he's been a solid goalie, but still waiting for his true breakout season. In a ReDraft: Given that we know how the next pick pans out, it would be between Sterling and Preencarnacion for fourth overall. 5 - Arvid Aamo (Reign) I was surprised when Aamo was taken as high up as this in the draft given that even Daniel's best player (Dadanov) was only a solid player at best and all his players since then I believe failed to make the VHL. Aamo made the VHL, but he probably should have just stuck in the VHLM given how rough the last two seasons have been for him. This pick single-handedly forced the Reign GM Hedgehog to change his plans for his current player to make up for Aamo's inactivity. In a ReDraft: Mid to late 2nd. 6 - Edwin Preencarnacion (Reign) Given that I created after the VHLM Draft and with little recreate TPE, I'd like to think that I've done a pretty good job with my TPE earning to the point where I'm pretty much neck and neck with the first overall pick in this draft in TPE. My performance in the sim has been strong as well, not to the extent of Cast, but still keeping dreams of a HOF player very much alive. And to think the majority of the Mock Draft PT's had Mikhael Vega going ahead of me. In a ReDraft: Competing with Sterling for third overall. 7 - Robert Malenko (Legion) While Malenko kept up a good pace for a long time and has had a solid performance in the sim (especially this season just gone), he's become one of those players where you presume he's still very active in TPE earning, but in actuality has fallen behind. No update has been done by Penny since Week Ending Oct 28th and the only points I can see left over are the ones he earns for posting the welfare and practice facility threads (Unlike Marvin Harding, while he has not updated since Oct 14th, he has at least been submitting graphics on a weekly basis). In a ReDraft: Bottom half of this draft, competing with Gate, Harding and Kovalev 8 - Sergei Kovalev (Bears) This was a pick where I was surprised it wasn't Jesper Stromberg (a player who in the leadup to the draft had been earning TPE at a very high rate), but with his inactivity, Kovalev actually wound up being the better player. In the sim, he's filled a role, getting 91 points in his rookie season before falling back to below a point per game this season. Since stepping down as VHLM GM, he's become a pure welfare and practice facility player, so will still improve as he approaches the mid-way point of his career In a ReDraft: Same as Malenko Using for two weeks (W/C 12/10 and 12/17)

Realised I hit my 11th anniversary of player sim leagues, so a quick rambling about some of the differences between now and then

Sorry I'm pretty late getting to these questions, so some have somewhat already been answered. 1) I think we've got a great chance, we've got a very strong group all-round and, providing Kriketers can produce to a decent level, I think we've got a very good shot of winning it. 2) I was going to say Malenko, but then I saw he hasn't done any real TPE earning lately, so I'll say Jake Davis. He's producing at a high level for a second year player and he's doing a great job earning TPE for a player taken in the second round of the draft. 3) I think worse, but predictably so. Last season we were able to feast on weaker goalies and less competing teams, but this year there's been a lot more competing teams and there's been more players on my own roster to compete against for points. 4) I play with a wood stick. 5) Even before the playoffs I would have said Calgary, as I didn't think Toronto or Quebec had much of a chance at all whereas Calgary, while finishing third, still had a roster that I felt had a very good chance of winning. Predict we trade our first for a forward, pick Davison with our second cause all other positions are filled.

1) Do you think you can up your production next season? I think I can improve on 95 points next season, although that will partially depend on how our team is set up next season. 2) What do you like about the VHL? How long it's been going, I came hear from leagues that lasted no longer than two, so a league that's been going for 11 years is very impressive 3) If the opportunity came, could you see yourself managing a team? I've done it once before (New York S47-50, won the cup S47) and while it was fun, I don't really have any interest in returning to the role any time soon. 4) What do you hate about the VHL? My main gripe would be how long it can take some times for suggestions to go through. The league was looking empty with ten teams for a while, but only contracted to eight over a year later. Also my suggestions to improve Trivia and VHFL had only positive feedback, but never got implemented. 5) Which upcoming draftee are you most excited to watch? I would say Brick Wahl, mainly because it will be interesting to see how the top goalie prospect will line up in this current era. 6) Which upcoming draftee would you like to see on your team and maybe play with them? I'm not entirely sure looking at the current setup of our roster if we'll have the cap for another skater, so I'll go with Finn Davison. He's been a very productive member thus far and would serve as an excellent backup for Kriketers and a very good starter for other teams in the future.

Note: This was actually recorded over a week ago, it's just I'd recorded it and then gone on to realise there would be a bonus for both PT/VHL Radio for Brand Week

Covering two issues that I think could be looked at with the brands. It's a bit of rambling given that I'm spending most of the time focusing on the road haha. Also, just got embedded mate

The point that @Quik is making though it that your team's current status is irrelevant, players should still be receiving offers from all teams to the point where they can no longer offer for any more or there is absolutely no playing time on offer to them. The VHLM first and foremost is about the player experience and a player will get significantly more enjoyment out of being signed to a team who won't make the playoffs than not being signed at all. If a player is much more likely to sign for another team based off of the fact that the other one is likely to be better, that's fine, but that's no reason to stop bidding yourself, especially should there be moments where active players don't receive any other offers.

Looking at four players who I saw didn't have brands and talking about them