Well, happy draft day VHL! It's been quite the rollercoaster up until this point, and I'm realizing now that I may not have actually put out any content this season, or at least since last offseason when I chunked out my podcast and VSN work. Quite a bit has changed since then, along with Warsaw winning their first Continental Cup, the VHLE taking more steps towards being legitimately alive, and a whole regular season of action to shape how today will go. I was planning on doing a podcast for today, but I can't seem to find enough quiet time to record, at least when I'm in the mood to record and then edit out the shit parts. So I attempt to ramble about various topics and see how many weeks this will pay out.
Regular Season Reflection
Moscow had a more competitive regular season this go around, without trading away anyone during the season. We had a fairly consistent roster throughout the season, and there were definitely signs of improvement at various times, being able to compete with teams better than us. However we lacked consistency, probably most notable in Duncan Idaho and Paul Atreides' slump. While the two of them were red hot through about a third of the season, Atreides even being in contention for top goal-scorer in the league, both of them suddenly went into a massive slump - failing to record a point for 6+ games. Multiple line shakeups were needed just to coax a few points out of them, but the damage was really done by that point, with Moscow sliding out of our playoff spot and back into the basement of the EU.
However, the standings do show that we still were decently competitive in a very competitive conference. Marginally the 3rd-highest scoring team in our conference, just behind Prague by a goal. The goals allowed shows a real hole in our game, allowing the most goals in the conference by far. However, we were relying on a very young defensive group, led by rookie Hard Markinson, and supplemented by rookies Bahram Kamkar, Shaggy Tipton, and recently minted veteran Bob Tristan. None of these players older than S75, so the defense group was certainly asked for a lot in their first season together. Markinson was able to show enough to get Stolzy honors, and Tipton was a near miss in my eyes for the All-VHL rookie squad. Very proud of the young group in their first season together.
Draft Day
This draft is shaping up to be one of the most top-heavy classes we've had in a bit. Usually we've had at least some interchangeability between the mid-late first to the early 2nd, but that looks to not even be the case this season. Players that would be mid-late 2nd round picks in other classes are borderline 1st round talent out of necessity for active earners. However, the top 7 or 8 picks look to be very interesting.
1st overall is already one of the largest points of contention around the league, as LA faces a bit of a bind. They didn't expect to get first, leapfrogging Vancouver twice, Davos and Moscow to get the selection. But that faces its own challenges. LA is still in compete now mode, with established forwards, defensemen, and a strong goalie to last them at least the new few seasons. In an ideal world, they'd be trading the 5th overall pick for a 700+ TPA D-man to replace Roque Davis who retired last season. 1oa is certainly a complication, as there are already multiple rumblings that neither Reinhart wants to play in LA, with their sights set on Vancouver who acquired the 2nd and 3rd overall selections to take them together. Davos seems content with their selection of D-men at 4, either between Peepants and his playmaking build or Jokinen with his well-rounded offensive build. So LA seems to be best suited to take either Peepants or Jokinen to fill their true need at defense. Otherwise, I'd expect them to pick AJ Williams, first-gen sensation at 1oa, or in a last ditch effort, try to move the pick. But even in that case, you'd be trying to turn the pick into a top d-man somehow. It's a tricky situation and has left a lot of ambiguity as to how picks 1, 2, 3, and 5 will go.
Oddly enough, there are quite a few recreates in this draft that aren't getting much attention as they'd deserve. While Beketov, Cow, Z and Jardy are currently getting most of the attention, there are strong players right underneath them that shouldn't be considered consolation prizes. A lot of eyes will be on Scoop to see if this will be the player he can snap his streak of IA-ness with, and I've personally had a very nice interview with him. He's dedicated to having a team built around him and I'm excited to see which team takes the chance on him. I think he'll pay off. Other users like Rookie, SlapshotDragon, PadStack, oilmandan, osens and Donno100 also have a nice history in the league, with osens making his first recreate! All of these folks may not be the max earning freaks like the folks currently penciled in for the top 4/5 picks, but they've made a name for themselves as consistent earners who understand the league and how to earn and build their players. Expect to see a handful of these folks make up the picks after 5oa, likely to teams looking for consistent pieces over faces of the franchise.
Just to start to conclude though, the first-gens in this class are also quite intriguing. AJW has shown some solid activity in the league, and I got a chance to chat with him during the VHL's brief foray into Minecraft. He's certainly very active in the community and has shown a real penchant to try and be a star in the league sooner rather than later. Birdman out of Houston joined a bit later in the season, but his activity in Houston has been pretty nice to see. He actually might be a former user returning to the league, but with the amount of time between stints, I'm basically calling him a first-gen. Lastly, Agito over in Saskatoon has also shown promising signs as a later create. Might be a sneaky pick who can become a bit of a late bloomer.
Overall though, I'm both excited and nervous for the draft tonight, as well as for the future of Moscow. There's always so much unpredictability with what goes on in management - there's really no guarantees at all. The most active of members can up and disappear, STHS can decide it just doesn't like you, and the best laid plans of mice and men go awry. Every team is walking into this draft with a plan and a hope. It's anyone's guess as to how it'll really play out.
Word Count: 1,157 (2 weeks claim)
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