Spartan

Fantastic choice using Jared McCann! Love the sig

The past few days since the draft feel like they've really flown by. We completed the draft on Thursday, and it featured some really amazing graphics by Sonnet who needs a lot more credit for that than what he's gotten so far. It was really awesome to see in real time, and hopefully it got more people off the portal and watching the stream. In terms of the draft from a Moscow perspective, I'm honestly quite pleased with it. We selected a disproportionately large amount of wingers in the draft, but I like to think of them as luxury picks. Snagging Steez and Seabass at 2 and 3 was really the main goal of the draft - shoring up our defense and adding a franchise 1B center. I've said many times that I'd love to try to emulate the one-two punch the Penguins have with Sid and Geno, and I think that's exactly what Atreides and Seabasstard can become for Moscow. Adding Lemieux, Markov, Johnson and Takala all in the 2nd was a cherry on top, as I've had great interactions with all 4 before the draft and really wanted to find a way to get all of them on the team. It was a nice combination of veterans and first-gens, older and younger members that has already made the locker room a fantastic place to be. Drafting 4 wingers, 5 if you count the IA Mack, really wasn't the plan I had going into the draft, but seeing them available at our picks was just something I couldn't pass up on. Takala and Johnson both had top 20 grades on my draft board, so I was happy to trade with Toronto to move up and select them. Our middle 6 winger group may be the most uncertain position on our team long-term, and I think Lemieux, Markov and Takala can all remain active and earn consistently to fill in those spots alongside some combination of the 3 rookie wingers we called up this season. It's a deep prospect pool at the position, and now only time will tell how we fare. The cap change will greatly benefit us, as getting that extra 5 million to ensure roster spots for the next 2-3 seasons was huge, and will give us more flexibility in evaluating our rookies/prospects. Lastly, Leroy Johnson may have been the most under-appreciated player in the class. Goalie was not a very coveted position, as is typical for the position. But Kobe had been in our LR for a few weeks before the draft, and he had expressed a desire to play for Moscow. Having Malone entrenched as the starter and Bowman coming up as a prospect gave us very little wiggle room, so I challenged Kobe to max earn up through the draft to prove that he could be a starting goalie. He rose to the challenge, and is one of the few players in this class to really earn his roster spot. I'm very excited to see how he can grow over the next few seasons and potentially blossom into our goalie of the future after Malone - it'll certainly keep Bowman on his toes! Anyways, well over word count so I'll stop it here, but I'm just excited to build more relationships with new faces and continue turning Moscow into a serious threat!

Excited and sad for one last season of Newhook, was an absolute pleasure having you on the team for this long. Let's send you out on a high note!

There's just something special about being an openly rebuilding team. You appreciate the wins a lot more, shrug off the losses much more easily. I've definitely noticed that the focus is more on the people and in my case, testing out various things with very little at stake. I'm grateful that I was put into a situation where this was even possible, as coming in with super high expectations to make Moscow win now would definitely have stressed me out at a time I really didn't need more stress, that being my end of the semester as well. Honestly, same to all points here. I'm realistically busier than I was at college, probably because I have more of a schedule now to avoid just lazing around, and now that I'm fully vaccinated and my friends are as well, we're finding more things to do together and in person. I was at a grad party on Sunday with some close friends and it was just really nice to be in a group of fully vaccinated folks, and able to just spend an afternoon/evening drinking and hanging out with a care in the world. Plus I've been productive in other aspects, so I just feel much better than the past few months. Working out of a basement still sucks though lol. We should play Town of Salem online again sometime

F - Valtteri Vaakanainen @Gaikoku-hito

Congrats on a fantastic career man!

1. animal74 F - Aloe Dear F - Timothy Brown F - Dakota Lamb D - Erik Killinger D - Viktor Alexei Kamenov G - 2. Victor F - Taro Tsujimoto F - Luke Thornton F - Duncan Idaho D - Latrell Mitchell D - Alex Letang G - 3. Enorama F - Groovy Dood F - Ryan Schwarz F - Robin Winter D - Tyler Walker D - Battre Sandstrom G - 4. Spartan - GM F - Valtteri Vaakanainen F - Onde Sandstrom F - SS Hornet D - Matty Socks D - Cowboy Prout G - 5. Gaikoku-hito F - Jim Bob F - Thomas Landry II F - D - Kasper Kankkunen D - Jolly Greene Giant G - 6. Jubo F - Christian Mingle F - Venus Thightrap F - D - Roque Davis D - Chris Hylands G -

1. I was definitely disappointed that we couldn't keep him after his solid showing in S76, but we're always glad to have him back now! 2. I hope you have nitro, because the dancing dragon emote is top tier. Unfortunately my nitro ran out right after I had Eno edit it and add it to the LR. 3. I think it's always nice to see the next generation of VHLers. We're not going to be around forever, so someone else has to step up and be the face of the franchise. 4. Both of them were potential first round selections, and definitely 2nd round picks, so good on Eno to snag both of them! 5. From our time in Moscow in S76, I've seen Olson play lights out. I think he had the best GAA/SV % that season but the lack of starts lost him award nominations. 6. The warmth when sunlight hits your face when you step out of a shadow just feels much different in the late spring/early summer than in fall/winter. Odd choice but that's very pleasing.

Welcome back Riley, good to have you active again!

Hey I joined the EFL first and had to be coaxed into joining the VHL

Welcome back @Emi, best of luck with your new player!

*cough*

Congrats Rayz! Excited to be working with you again

Thanks for giving us a shot Plate, love you loads. Best of luck in London!

EUROOOOOPEEEEE LETS GOOOOOOOOO

Let's get to work! MOSCOW MOSCOW MOSCOW!

Elijah hype!

Yeah this is a question of mine as well, mainly for the opposite side - if a team meets requirements and spends to the $45 mil cap but then drops under the 12 skater requirement and doesn't drop to/under the soft cap, what happens then? Does any trade involving a team dropping under 12 skaters mean that the trade must make the team soft cap compliant? I'd assume that's the case.

Agreed to the point of hating politics. As I mentioned as well, I don't follow it very closely, but I do find certain tidbits and current events interesting and thought provoking to learn from and grow from. There's great discussions to occur, and I don't particularly care for any political party - rather just discussing about potential fallouts in a rather unbiased perspective. I identify as an independent centrist with certain views that can skew to either "side," so I really don't care much for propaganda from either side. And agreed, I enjoy the community we have here and regret that we lost folks last summer. It's certainly a good point as to why these conversations can be difficult to have, but they can be important to have as well. Just needs to be handled maturely and in a civil manner, which is a huge ask and I understand it. After all, participating in those discussions on Discord would be both voluntary and would require permission, so it'd be interesting to see how it could theoretically go. Memeing about certain countries and their politics hasn't stopped, as well as troll comments, and I think those were also large factors in seeing people leave our league.

In a more serious context with an *actual* controversial or intentionally provocative comment, it'd actually kinda show who wouldn't be part of that channel haha

I don't know if this is sarcastic or not . But we've both seen that type of activity actually occur in the server, just takes the right people to start it, and a topic people want to discuss. Obviously we can keep discussing the merits of this overall proposal here, but it's already been shut down by the higher powers so i'm not going to press on with trying to make it happen much.

Absolutely not, I'm not advertising this proposal as some form of deep debate that has a super high standard to reach in terms of points presented. The standards are simply to limit the potential for chaos or conversations getting out of hand. Even in the Discord, people comment on NHL news, or VHL news, or any kind of news hours after it's initially spoken about. There's no harm in replying to someone after the fact, and there's no requirement for everyone to respond to every single point or comment made. Once again, the point isn't to limit discussion to only deep and nuanced points. It's just a casual and civil conversation to be had, not a lengthy debate. If something happens in the world, it'd be nice to have a place on Discord where folks can chat about it in any type of lens they prefer, and then move on.

I think that Discord just emulates genuine conversations. Any in-person debate or live conversation doesn't necessarily provide the opportunity to take a step back and think for a while before offering a response. That's just not how discussions work. That's also why the channel should be limited to people who have displayed the ability to handle fast-paced/real-time conversations without becoming reactionary, and are still able to provide insight based on primarily logic. This isn't purely to have deep, philosophical conversations - casual political fans are welcome as well. I'm not a very hardcore politics fan, more of the casual person. But commenting on current events and the potential effects of such events doesn't require deep, thoughtful responses. A lot of it will be knee-jerk and speculation - all that is required is civility and we have moderators for that purpose.

I think it's widely accepted at this point that Discord offers more convenience and ease of conversation than a forum thread. We have moderators who can lock the channel if it gets out of hand or archive it/move it to a private category so it's hidden, both of which provides a solution to your ease of moderation comment from earlier. More and more people check discord frequently than forums, but overall this shouldn't turn into a major issue, especially with the suggested limits in place to prevent political discussions from getting out of hand

It was a really difficult decision to have to make, as you were a great part of the team during your few seasons with us. One of the best backup goalies in the league, but having a younger prospect coming up meant that we had to sacrifice someone, and unfortunately you were the guy. I know for a fact that another team or two will look to sign you, so keep an eye out! Best of luck my friend, stay awesome