jacobcarson877

Welcome back!

Thank you! Isn't Vegas in the West? How can the east be the best conference?

Welcome back! Best of luck this time around!

I mean outside of an actual betting system this is literally just fantasy zone.

i'll be honest I never saw it coming this season, but man Riga is gonna be insane for the next few seasons!

oof

It's beautiful!

Hard not to root for this team!

It is a bit crazy to think that I am reaching the halfway point in my VHL career. This season has flown by, mostly due to the fact that I haven’t been applying TPE, and Landon Wolanin has been bonkers. It was just a week or so ago that I was super disappointed with the season, nearly leading the league in shots but not being on the top-10 goal list. Seems Simon decided to regress to the mean, and is allowing me to score some goals before the end of the season. With only a few days left on the season, there is still so much that can change, and to be honest I’m trying not to think about scenarios and how I can walk away with some personal hardware. I’m just happy Calgary is finally starting to look like the team that was dreamed up by Ricer in the offseason. I think we’ve learned a lot about what doesn’t work, and not really anything on what does, beyond not touching what we have now.

You're telling me you didn't have 4 more words for a multi-week claim? (regardless, good piece, and a fun recap of all of the things I've just gotten used to by now)

A fellow S75 Founder's Cup champ! Knew I recognized that name from somewhere!

Would love to return as an AGM!

honestly? i stand by your take considering what we knew about STHS. Apparently D are useless so LAS broke our perception of good hockey strats.

You are insane. We should be paying you real money for this at this point.

I think you're right, but I also know that we can't retroactively retain players from before. I think the infrastructure and organization of the league, while imperfect, is the best it has ever been to retain players. The VHLM has resources unlike ever before, and discussion has been had on how to address the new member experience and organize our league structure to best handle the TPE/experience demographics we have, and address the TPE ranges where we lose the most of our players. With the membership size we have today, recruitment is more about maintaining the influx of players to match the natural and inevitable departure of members over time. With a brand new draft class to fill now that the 9 season rotation has begun instead of the old 8 season one, the push for recruitment makes sense, but obviously the goal needs to be to keep as many of those members around, so that we can maintain stability in our cycles and have a healthy recreate to first gen balance going forward.

W

Run Dack 60 minutes a game I think

I am just now realizing I missed the Tottingham trade in the middle of the chaos, (da) bear(z) with me as I write that section

Welcome!

It is time! Trade deadline has passed, new creates are flowing in, and teams are looking to gear up for the playoffs! There wasn’t a lot of cap space floating around in the VHL, and rosters are looking rather full, so it took some interesting manoeuvring to get anything done. But do not fear! The VHL did provide us some interesting trades to look at, and maybe just once, VSN will say something publicly nice about Seattle! To kick us off, Vancouver and Malmo. Malmo receives: Reese McFleury Vancouver receives: S88 MAL 1st Spaz puts all of his eggs in 1 basket, acting as AGM, and a future defender for Malmo. While this move doesn’t affect anything this season, it does indicate there will likely be some roster turnover for Malmo this offseason, as they change out some of their depth pieces and continue to lean into their core. Vancouver gets what should be equivalent value for McFleury, with there still being promising talent through the first round in this coming draft. With Vancouver having a D core they are happy with, the pick will be more helpful for adding time to their competitive window. Next up is a bit of a crazy one. Seattle, Riga and Davos come to some sort of conclusion. HC Davos receives: Florida Man Riga receives: Gus Bentley Isamu Knievel S88 DAV 1st S89 LAS 3rd Seattle receives: Tavish DeGroot Why don’t we start with Davos here. They cleared some roster spots and consolidated their assets into Florida Man, an established scorer, and the perfect player to complete the all important 2 duo on their roster. Davos looks to propel themselves above the rest of the EU, who are deadlocked in a duel to see who will make the playoffs. If Florida Man can find some chemistry with Mason Jones or Pete Mitchell, Davos could easily be a contender. Seattle turns a slightly underperforming Florida Man into the ultra-performing Tavish DeGroot. Only having been separated for 49 games, DeGroot had blossomed in Riga, taking advantage of a rather weak roster, and looks to bring back some new experience and scoring touch to Seattle. Acting as a winger now, DeGroot should see continued offensive domination, and has helped Seattle build an all-of-a-sudden terrifying forward core. Riga gets back assets from a player they really had no need to sign and brought some excitement to their roster for the first half of the season. Knievel should continue to be a useful depth piece for the seasons to come, and Bentley will either do the same, or Riga will use their Team Option to open that roster space back up. Good return for their assets, and a chance to continue to pile on more and more exciting young prospects to dominate the EU in a couple seasons. Shoutout to Riga for giving DeGroot the chance to go back to a contender, and even better, likely their top choice in Seattle. Vancouver brings some more value into their franchise, buying off one of Helsinki’s young and exciting established players. Helsinki receives: S88 VAN 1st Vancouver receives: Tater Tottingham Vancouver continues to shuffle around their young defensemen. After losing McFleury to Malmo, they replaced him with the already VHL-ready Tater Tottingham. Essentially flipping McFleury into Tottingham and what should be a much better 1st rounder. Helsinki gets some return on one of their prospects again, and continues the cycle of constantly rebuilding. We love a first rounder, but until that first rounder sticks around and actually plays significant games for Helsinki, they are just wasting any chance of a competitive window. Next up we have the first of DC’s moves, after what can only be described as a disappointing start. This time they meet up with Seattle, who has already been busy. Seattle receives: Vasile Lamb S88 DCD 4th D.C. receives: Deron Nesbitt S89 SEA 1st Seattle doubles down on this season and grabs pretty much the only redeeming factor of DC’s season in Vasile Lamb. They needed to go in hard if they were to look to leapfrog NYA, and bringing in a surefire Boulet candidate is a good way to do that. DC gets back Deron Nesbitt, an Auto-12 defenseman, with over 900 TPA. Very solid return on paper, but DC would not be Nesbitt’s final destination before the deadline. DC tacks on a 1st rounder, and hopes that this recruitment drive will bring them some exciting talent to begin their rebuild. Our final trade before the deadline involves DC flipping Nesbitt, this time to Toronto. Toronto receives: Deron Nesbitt D.C. receives: Hasbulla Magomedov Keita Kourou Toronto picks up an established talent, who they will hope to woo back for multiple seasons. Given the nature of Nesbitt’s contract, it makes sense that the price to acquire them would be less than maybe I would have expected. This move isn’t for this season, but the hope of future seasons. As much as I’m not sure DC needed Nesbitt, considering their spot in the standings, I would never have expected them to flip them to the only team in their conference lower than them. I do worry about the return here, only because of the previous trade. Kourou and Magomedov are certainly useful players, but considering Nesbitt was the main return for Vasile Lamb, it feels a little underwhelming. Only time will tell though, and DC has been known to find the diamond in the rough, and we shouldn’t count them out of finding an amazing asset with the S89 1st. While not our most eventful trade deadline, it has become clear Seattle are sick of being mediocre, DC is diving into their rebuild, Davos is ready to win now, Riga is patiently waiting to unleash their fury on the EU, Toronto is looking to kick themselves out of their rebuild, Malmo likes Spaz and Vancouver likes winning. Thanks everyone for tuning in, and best of luck for the rest of the season! Players Mentioned:

you collect on each person as they hit each milestone.

woo

Welcome!