Depends on the position but generally scoring and skating are the first two you should heavily focus on. Defense is actually a surprising one most people don’t think about though. Not sure exactly what it does but I know you want it decent high. Max scoring and skating with puck handling and defense at 90 and you’re in great shape.
Honestly, Toronto in my opinion. We’ve proven we can beat NY several times in the regular season and I’m confident our depth could do the same in the playoffs. New York is a good team, don’t get me wrong, they have put up one hell of a fight, but unless Ironside shits the bed or we completely forget how to score I’m confident in Toronto’s ability to defeat anyone.
I’m not sure where I would move each team individually but I know that the cities I would want to see would likely be Halifax for sure because I think having an Atlantic Canadian team would be amazing. After that probably Vancouver and Boston because they are such big hockey markets that the VHL has thus far ignored.
Well the only city I would have to move for 6 in the VHLM would be Oslo. I think for them it would be interesting to have a team in LA. Might not necessarily make sense for a VHLM team in such a big city but that’s alright, I think it could be fun.
Longevity. We’ve been around so long that you know what you’re getting yourself into when you step into the VHL. For some this is a downside, they believe we never change (untrue) but I deem it a positive purely because you know that the consistency and the quality has been here for so long that it’s obviously not going away anytime soon.
Honestly any of the teams that made the post-season are a threat in my opinion. The league was very split this season between the obvious playoff teams and the obvious no playoff teams. I think any of the teams that made it could be a legitimate threat. With that said, I would ideally not like to face Riga. Not that we had a ton of trouble with them in the regular season or anything but the fact that they are going for the three-peat means they are playing with a fire that few teams will be able to match up against.