diacope 2

Using for week ending June 7th

In a slightly shocking turn of events, Halifax winger Timothy Brown was traded to his former team Saskatoon, along with Halifax’s S73 3rd round pick. The 21st received Saskatoon’s 1st and 6th round picks in S74, and Mexico’s 3rd round pick in S74. This news came after rumors that the Halifax GM was not content with how the 21st were performing this season. Timothy Brown was sent to the 21st in an offseason trade that saw Lucas Brandt, Grekkark Gyrfalcon, Elijah Flynn and Jared Willis go to Saskatoon. Timothy is one of the most hyped prospects in the VHLM this year, taken 2nd in the S71 VHLM draft. He is also very excited to continue the season with his former team, who are currently in third place and one of the top contenders. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for us in Halifax this year”, said Brown. “With all the picks that they’re acquiring I think next season will be their time to shine”.

There might not be a neutral killing

Also, does anyone have a list of all the claims/roles so far? Mine is a day behind

VOTE NYKO

Damn that's right. I'm used to being able to whisper during the day.

@ContinentalCup036 Could you whisper me what you want me to do tonight?

I was one of the ones who whispered to eagles. I'd rather not share my role openly right now.

Yeah, I don't have an investigative role so I don't have much to add to the conversation.

No way, my Bidoof will lead my team to victory

VOTE RICER

I meant in terms of TPE, but yeah he's doing really well right now.

Claiming final doubles week for week ending 5/31

This is part 2, if you would like to view the Western Conference version you can read it here Glasser Division Minnesota Storm Rank: 1st After taking one quick glance at Minnesota’s roster, I came to the conclusion: “Yep, this team looks terrifying”. The Storm will be a force to be reckoned with this season. It is clear that Minnesota is making a push to win it all this year after the recent trade with Yukon that brought Dickson, Harrison and John to the team. They have one thing most of the other contenders don’t with a capped goalie in Woody McPine, which I think will give them an edge. Minnesota is not lacking in any other areas of the game, either. Danny DeYeeto has been around the block a time or two in the VHLM, and is expected to rack up points for Minnesota. They have a second defense pairing that rivals the first pairing of many other teams. Saskatoon remains the Storm’s biggest threat, and I think it is going to be a Saskatoon vs Minnesota final. Mississauga Hounds Rank: 3rd The Hounds had a very good draft this offseason, and will be looking to make a playoff push this season. It is unlikely that they will win the division, as they share it with a scary Minnesota team, but they have an almost certain shot of making it as a wildcard. The draft saw Mississauaga pick up some important pieces for their squad, including forward Marshall James Frostbeard and goaltender Jacob Tonn. Jacob is expected to have a ton of impact as the starting tender, and Frostbeard is the team’s star forward. Overall Mississauga has a good amount of depth, which could be a wildcard against teams that are top heavy. I don’t think they’re better than Philly, but they’re a good enough team to rank 3rd. Ottawa Lynx Rank: 5th After a successful cup run, which saw the Lynx take home the founder’s Cup, Ottawa’s roster has been gutted quite a lot. Adam Syreck and Big Chungus are the team’s main driving force, backed up by Defenz Mann. Goaltender Ajay Krishna is a gem for the Lynx, taken in the 5th round of the recent draft. However, Krishna is still relatively unproven and it is unknown how he will do after immediately being thrown into the starting role. Defenz Mann and Rich Dickbutt McFudderdudder are a steady force at defense, among the best in the conference. However, Ottawa also has a staggering lack of depth. The top line and defense pairing are elite, but they are essentially the entire team. These aspects force me to rank them 5th in a close contest with Halifax. However, the weakness of the bottom teams in the West makes it so the Lynx still have a very good shot of making the playoffs. Theusch Division Philadelphia Reapers Rank: 2nd Although they have been overshadowed by Minnesota and are not doing very well in the standings right now, the Reapers still have a very good roster provided everyone stays with the team. I’ve heard speculation that they may be looking to sell. While John Poremba is no Woody McPine, he is still a very good goaltender in his own right and will steal them a few wins here and there. Bob Helminen and Bud Knight also remain very good players, and can be expected to provide a lot of scoring for Philly. The defense is also excellent, consisting of names like Ziarie Anigbogu, Riley Knight Gee, and Spencer Elsby. In fact, Elsby is among the best defensemen in the league. While Philadelphia doesn’t have any glaring holes in their roster, they just don’t have the firepower of Minnesota and so I have to rank them 2nd. Halifax 21st Rank: 4th The same problem that plagues the Ottawa Lynx this season is also bothering Halifax, which is a lack of depth. Forward Timothy Brown has been providing a lot of the offense, with help from the first pairing of Viktor Mjers and James Rose. The signing of centre Empty has alleviated some of the pressure off of Brown, but the question is will it be enough? Hex Valentine is a pretty good goaltender and keeps the 21st in a lot of games, but in the present I just don’t think Halifax has the required depth to contend with top teams just yet. Another major issue for Halifax has been the amount of penalties they give up, and star forward Timothy Brown is the main culprit for this. The 21st have three players in the top 10 for penalty minutes. Be expecting a 7th place finish, or even a repeat of last season and another 8th place berth. I’m ranking Halifax 4th in the conference. Maybe I’m a bit biased, but my reasoning was that while Ottawa has better forwards, Halifax has a better goaltender. Miami Marauders Rank: 6th The newest expansion team in the VHLM hasn’t had the cinderella story of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, but that is to be expected. The Golden Knights were the exception, not the rule, as many new expansion teams start at the very bottom. The Marauders are in the process of a bridge season, so to speak.They will not be very good this year but next season will be their year, due to all of the draft picks they have stockpiled. The strong points of the team this season are definitely defense and goaltending. Wolf Stansson and Kosmo Kramerev have been solid on the first pairing, while goaltender Bacon is the third best player on the team and has a sick name. Andre Lebastard is the main driving force on a pretty weak offense. Currently third last in the standings, I think Miami will finish last in the conference and so I must rank them 6th. Meanwhile, I also expect them to be the only team in the Eastern Conference to miss the playoffs due to the new playoff format. Overall Power Rankings 1st: Minnesota Storm - If I finished this power ranking last week like I was going to, I probably would have ranked them 2nd. However, after the recent trade and actually studying their roster, they look scary. 2nd: Saskatoon Wild - The Wild have a weaker goalie than some of the other contenders, so that might be their downfall. However, goalie Gyrfalcon has been quick to improve so he may close the gap. 3rd: Mexico City Kings - The Kings have been slightly overlooked, in my opinion. First overall pick Chris Hylands and goaltender Zamboni Driver will lead this team to a top playoff spot, and first in their division. 4th: Las Vegas Aces - The Aces have been kind of a dark horse so far, currently sitting at first in the league. It didn’t feel right ranking them any higher than 4th since I only ranked them 3rd in the division, but if they continue this pace they will be a top team. 5th: Philadelphia Reapers - The Reapers have been underachieving so far this season, and are currently tied for 5th. On the other hand, Bob Helminen is currently tied for first in points, and Bud Knight is also currently in the top 10. 6th: Mississauga Hounds - The Hounds are a significant improvement from last season where they missed the playoffs. Frostbeard and Tonn will probably be capped by playoffs, so they could manage an upset. 7th: Halifax 21st - The 21st are a playoff team, but they have a current lack of depth. The first pairing has been a bright spot, especially James Rose. Rose is currently 9th in scoring for defensemen. 8th: Ottawa Lynx - With their current roster, they also have a critical lack of depth. If goaltender Ajay Krishna is able to improve a lot over the course of the season, they may be able to finish higher. 9th: Miami Marauders - Despite being lower than the Rush in the standings, looking at their roster makes it clear that Miami is the better team. I believe Miami’s main thing to look forward to is the draft. They will dominate next season. 10th: Yukon Rush - Being able to ice a couple of lines without bots makes the Rush better than teams like Houston or San Diego. Goaltender Jean Pierre Camus is definitely the star, and could steal them a few games. 11th: San Diego Marlins - Like many of the bottom teams, San Diego has the draft to look forward to with an abundance of picks. The Marlins have Roadkill Steve and a better goaltender than Houston, which makes them a better team on paper. 12th: Houston Bulls - Houston is likely to finish last in my opinion, despite being 11th in the standings as of right now. The Bulls don’t have any big assets, though Patrik Laine looks like a possible gem from waivers. Conclusion This is shaping up to be an exciting season for the VHLM, with Las Vegas currently in the lead after 18 games. At the start of the year, I doubt many of us would have expected them to be in first at this point of the season (except for their own players of course) and I think that makes it more entertaining. Let us hope that this year brings us a more exciting finals series, instead of the sweep we had last year. 1534 words, using for weeks ending 5/31, 6/7, 6/14, 6/21

Vote BigAL

1. I think we need another forward for the top 6, or someone needs to step up. 2. I think it will pass. We'll get out of this and start to win. 3. Las Vegas, definitely. I didn't see them being in 1st. 4. I might move Boxman to the 2nd line and bring up Fongs Son. Boxman has really struggled. 6. Really well. I'm currently leading us in goals and was at a 2 point per game pace until the last sim. 7. Sweet chili heat, although I'm slightly allergic.

I like many things about your graphic. The Vancouver logo looks very nice on the L.A. Kings' sweaters. I think that the letters look a bit weird on the front of their jerseys, they are pretty thick and kind of pixelated. If the letters were executed better the graphic would look even better. Rating 7/10

I like pretty much everything about your graphic. The logo appears kind of old school and it looks good. However, the one thing that I think could've been executed better is the font. Making it a different colour would have been beneficial. The pink and white don't contrast well and it is kind of hard to read. Rating 7.5/10

Halifax Off to a Rocky Start Halifax, Nova Scotia - The 21st have got off to a bit of a rough start this season, with a record of 3-5. They also have a current losing streak of 2, including a 4-1 loss to expansion team Miami and a 1-0 shutout loss to Las Vegas. The lack of depth on Halifax has been somewhat exposed in the last week, with first line forward Timothy Brown and the first defense pairing of James Rose and Viktor Mjers providing the majority of the offense. Jeremy Lin has done reasonably well on the first line with Timothy Brown with 2 goals and 4 assists, but on the other wing James Boxman has really struggled with only a single assist. Rookie Fongs Son has done well on the second line with 2 goals and 3 assists, and Rick Osman has produced a goal and 5 points on the second defense pairing. These younger players will have to step up and improve to alleviate the pressure on Brown, Rose and Mjers, who have a total of 35 points between them.

Still had to hover my mouse over it, thought you were tricking me into a false sense of security.

G - Michael Johnson @TTtheT

(I mistakenly took Smitty, who was already taken)

Kendrick Division Mexico City Kings Rank: 2nd The Kendrick division is an interesting one this season, containing Mexico, Houston and San Diego. Mexico really lucked out with the new division alignments this season, as both Houston and San Diego are in the process of rebuilding. In fact, they only have a total of 7 players between them. With that being said, Mexico essentially has a free pass to the playoffs this year as they have the worst two teams in the league in their division. Mexico boasts a well rounded team with a fair amount of depth. This is evident by looking at their top three players, Driver, Hylands and Kamenov, who play goalie, right wing and defense, respectively. All of these aspects were good enough to get them ranked 2nd. San Diego Marlins Rank: 5th There is not a lot to be said of the Marlins this year, who are in the middle of a rebuild. The Marlins traded away a lot of their draft picks and as a result they didn’t have many last year, which is quite obvious after looking at their roster. San Diego currently only has 4 players on their roster, and goaltender Calvin Harvey is perhaps their only active player. The only thing they have to look forward to this year is the offseason. I am predicting San Diego will be 5th this season, because while they have players with lower TPE, they also have one more player than Houston. Houston Bulls Rank: 6th Houston is in year two of their rebuild, after narrowly missing the playoffs last season to the 8th place Halifax 21st by 2 points. Although, the Bulls are objectively even worse this season. They are in a very similar situation to San Diego this season, with almost no draft picks last year and a current roster of only three players. The Bulls as of right now have players that are slightly better than the Marlin’s players, but the Marlins have one more player on the roster so I have Houston picked for 6th. Riley Walker looks to be somewhat active and free agent signing Casey Scott could help them out, but expect this to be another dark season for Houston. Corcoran Division Saskatoon Wild Rank: 1st In my mind, Saskatoon is the favourite to win it all this season. They had a very successful draft with an abundance of picks, and had the good fortune of TPE leader Lucas Brandt dropping to them at 4th overall. Saskatoon is currently in one of the stronger divisions, which currently has Yukon and an undefeated Las Vegas team. Saskatoon has heavy firepower on offense led by Brandt and Kazimir Komarov. The defense boasts Tyler Walker and King Kruul. One of the scary things about Saskatoon’s team is that they have 2 active goalies, and both of them should be over 200 TPE come playoff time. It is cup or bust for Saskatoon, which is why they are ranked 1st. Las Vegas Aces Rank: 3rd The Aces are currently the only undefeated team in the league, but I do think they have been playing above their overall. Regardless, I think they have the personnel to take them to a playoff spot. The main concern for Vegas will likely be depth on defense, as they have a really good first pairing of Alex Letang and Micah Adrienne but not a whole lot after that. Some lower TPE players will have to step up for that on the second pair. The Aces have a pretty good goaltender in Nils Friedriksen, and their top two lines look pretty solid. They definitely don’t have the firepower of top teams like Saskatoon or Minnesota, but they are good enough to rank 3rd. They could be a dark horse in the playoffs. Yukon Rush Rank: 4th After a cup run last season, it is time for a rebuild in Yukon. The team from last year is essentially completely gone, and they will have to rely heavily on star goalie Jean Pierre Camus. However, the Rush are not in a state of almost no players like Houston or San Diego. Yukon currently has a squad of 10 players. On the other hand, only 2 or 3 of them appear to be active. Unless they pick up a few players during the season, I don’t see them making playoffs. Having a few lines and a first defense pairing was enough to rank Yukon at 4th. 743 words, using for week ending May 24th

D - Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen @Rayzor_7

D - Roque Davis @TTtheT