In what was probably one of the deepest drafts in the history of the VHL (at the time, anyway), S72 saw its fair share of later round gems. No S72 player shines quite as bright in the “steal” category as Moscow centre Pietro Angellini, however. Angellini is okifenoki’s player, a first gen that created near the end of March. This was not an ideal time to create, as my own player was created about a week before and I suffered TPE loss because of it. Selected in the fourth round, 47th overall, Angellini was the second last pick in the draft. With 557 TPE as of today, he is not just a depth piece but an active contributor for Moscow’s offense. He’s currently serving the team as an alternate captain to boot.
Pietro Angellini is not the only player from the fourth round of that draft that remains active. King, Bacon, Andreshnikov, Anigbogu, and Friedriksen are all currently active players in this league by the VHLM’s activity standards (though being active in the community is another matter). Out of those listed, only Anigbogu has managed to pass 400 TPE thus far, with 531. Anigbogu is ngine4’s player and an experienced sim leaguer, and even he is trailing Angellini in TPE. This creates the question, how did a first gen in the fourth round find so much success?
If we go back to the time period that Angellini was drafted in the VHL he had a total of 63 TPE, which was the second lowest in the entire draft. Ernie King was the only one trailing behind him with 62. Pietro started his VHLM career with Mexico City, and he did not seem very interested at first glance. Between the week ending March 29th and Week ending May 17th, Angellini had earned a mere 6 capped TPE. However, even though he didn’t earn a lot of capped TPE at the time, he didn’t miss a single week of updating in that time span. It’s quite possible that he simply didn’t know how to do PTs or welfare, because the week Angellini was drafted in both the VHLM and the VHL he submitted his first ever welfare claim. From there he took off, earning 8 capped TPE and doing his Junior Review the following week. I suspect that being drafted to Moscow had much to do with his development, because as far as I know okifenoki is a forum-only guy. I’ve also been told that Moscow has a pretty active forum locker room. I think those two factors may have some correlation.
Pietro Angellini is currently ranked 19th in TPE in the S72 draft class, and he is trending upwards, having passed Moscow teammate Jay Jones since the last Victory Hockey Central Scouting ranking. In a redraft this would put him in the mid second round, which is pretty crazy to think about. In a draft that saw Moscow draft Alex Letang, Lucas Brandt, Cole Newhook and Keith Krestanovich, he currently ranks second in TPE behind Alex Letang.
@okifenoki I'd like to hear your story if possible haha. There's only so much the portal is able to tell you