Spartan

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

The first part is why I asked for it to be limited to all, then people have to request to be in it. Prevents a massive crowd of folks just unloading on each other, especially folks who would just hop in once a month or after some major political event to pitch in vocally. Small groups can establish civility and etiquette, then you slowly expand. Gen chat should be a NHL discussion channel but some people apparently don't like it lol.

Perhaps gatekeeping was a poor suggestion - I'm fine with anyone being part of it as long as they can maintain civility in it. Folks who are known to explicitly troll or don't have anything serious to say shouldn't be part of it, just like the finance channel. Similar standards to entry

I've seen it being handled, therefore I have some faith.

I don't think it's unfamiliar to many that the VHL general server has a "no politics" rule that was instituted due to past discussions where political stances and people's feelings clashed, leading to hurt feelings and general chaos. However, I think it's also somewhat apparent that there is a general subsection of the VHL population that does enjoy participating in political/politically-related discussion, and can maintain a level of civility and courtesy, without taking political into personal. Therefore, I'd like to suggest adding a politics channel to the VHL general server with some clauses in effect. Similarly to the #finance-and-stonks channel, I'd advise for the politics channel to be by invite only, therefore somewhat gatekeeping the people who can participate in said discussion. Sure, this excludes people, but primarily along the same standards as the finance channel, where only folks who participate in serious, civil discussion are allowed in. Folks who break that standard are removed, and the general population is not allowed in without a personal request. The finance channel sets a precedent for this type of channel to exist, so I'd hope that the mods are more willing and able to assign that permission based on the user's history in the server, barring folks who are unable to participate in political discussions without making it personal. I don't know what pushback I'll get from this, but I suppose a few counter-arguments to this will be: Q: "Why not just use the thunderdome?" A: Well, I'd assume that the majority of people in the server keep the thunderdome muted because it's not a place anyone expects to have a serious discussion in. It's for muted folks, spammers and counters, activity that most of the population doesn't want to see. Q: "Too much work, why should we even bother?" (from staff) A: I think that it's quite clear that it's a topic that people like discussing, but there aren't really any great platforms on discord for the VHL population to partake in it. Creating a whole new server would be significantly more work, and it's relatively easier to have a discord channel than starting a mega-thread in the general discussions section of the forum. With the kind of "demand" that exists in the league and mods being paid more for their job, as well as the standards already set by the finance channel, it doesn't seem like a massive step in a different direction, to me at least . Feel free to ask more questions, argue against it, or whatever. Just my two cents about something I'd like to see

And this is where I fail lmfao

It's finally draft day!!!!!! Maybe this time I'll keep my word count under 500 lol. But it's a very exciting day for 16 teams in the VHL and all the prospects eligible to be selected. I remember my draft day in S72, pretty sure I was moving out of my apartment at the end of my junior year in college. Now a full year forward, I've graduated college and it's the dawn on the S78 draft. Exciting times. Moscow has reached out to a number of players, and so far almost all the interviews have gone very well. There are a lot of excellent users in this draft, regardless of their TPE or earning, and I wish I had more picks and roster space to be able to take them all. Difficult decisions are going to have to be made tonight, but I'm grateful for the advisors in my corner who have helped through the process. It's been a tough but fun process, and the future of Moscow has never looked brighter. Funny what can happen when you actually trade for picks, and don't trade them away, eh? It's also been pretty odd to know basically how the top 5/6 picks will shake out well in advance of the draft, I've noticed a lot more communication and transparency between GM's in similar pick ranges in the VHL than in other leagues. Not a complaint at all, rather knowledge that's nice to have on hand. Benefits multiple parties in that sense, so I have a lot of respect for Gus, Ricer and McWolf for their willingness to be open and transparent. Lastly, life has just been chaotic so I wasn't able to work on VSN's S78 Mock Draft (check it out here!), but I'm planning on putting together an S79 "Way Too Early Mock Draft" sometime next week to get some hype started for the next draft. Will be a fun project to work on with the Scouting department! Word Count: 329 (success!)