jacobcarson877

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Except for the part where it's Twists' fault. 
 
Just a week ago everything was looking up. Vancouver had made a slew of off-season trades to bolster their roster to compete amongst the elite teams. But so far in Season 94 the Wolves have had trouble scoring goals and keeping them out of their net. On paper Vancouver has one of the strongest rosters and should be a shoe in to the make the playoffs. Enter Twists. Some may call it a coincidence but as a glass half empty kind of person I can't over look the fact our struggles have coincided with @twists return to activity. Now I don't want to blame him directly, but it is almost one hundred and ten percent his fault. First let's examine the evidence Twists comes back to activity Vancouver starts to lose, this is a  fact. Twists started two threads today we lost twice, again these are facts. I think in situations like these it's important to presume guilt until innocence can be proven. So hold your pitchforks high Vancouver, we'll let Twists defend himself here before we usher him off to the shadow realm once again.  

glad I can do some good for the league!

It’s already S94 and I feel like I still can’t believe that Lachlan’s journey in the VHL is going to come to a close at the end of the season. It feels surreal in a way, that I started out this career as a clueless first gen who wasn’t even sure if I was going to max earn or how involved I was actually going to be in the league— to growing a goaltender who’s become a household name and future Hall of Famer. I’m getting a little emotional thinking that this is it, once the trade deadline hits, I’m going to press that retire player button and have to start over again. On one hand, it’s extremely daunting to know I’ll finally have my first taste of the hybrid attributes with a skater, but on the other, I’m so excited to see what my next player will bring. Either way, it’ll be bittersweet and I don’t think I’ll ever be fully able to let go of Lachlan because he’s been so integral to my growth as both a member of the VHL and in a way, as a person, since creating him as led to so many opportunities here in making friends, experiencing a whole niche interest with a group of many others as nerdy as I am, and overall just stepping out of my comfort zone for once. Thank you to everyone who’s made my first go-around here in the VHL an unforgettable one and I can't wait for the next!

we’ve come a long way, let’s make this last season the best one yet.

shoutout @Triller!!!
 
There are not many opportunities left in the league to walk into a franchise and walk out the undisputed best there had ever been. David Davis had a great season, Cole Pearce (notably appreciated) was the only goaltender to hit 100 wins for the club for a while. Jacob Tonn had a great couple of seasons. Tater Tot held off opponents the best they could for the time. But Jesse Teno blew each and every one of them out of the water.
 
When I took over London in S88, I was presented a mostly competitive young core, and a whole pile of trade offers. Some GMs would have taken the opportunity to shed these valuable assets and define their own vision, and boy were some of the trade offers tempting. But I knew that wasn’t an option. I knew Jesse Teno, and the accompanying aimkin were special since the season 84 JST. I took over the San Diego Marlins the following season, and knew that aimkin would be the perfect AGM. Teno had a difficult season on a sparse Saskatoon roster, but earned at a rate that caught the attention of Dil who could not pass up the promise of a homegrown starting goaltender.
 
Teno stood out from day 1, securing 7 wins in their rookie season, and never let go. Somehow the .923% in their rookie season would be their worst, ending their career at a mind-boggling .928% in the regular season. Teno always gave us the chance to win, even when I was learning all of the things that I did wrong long after I could have fixed them. We never missed the playoffs during my tenure with Teno (my Tenoure?). And in the playoffs, Teno was a different beast.
 
.928% is a ridiculous figure, but that was brought down by some random outliers over 72 game seasons. In the quick timeline of the playoffs, Teno was able to conjure a .936%.

Teno allowed me the ability to push the absolute limits of STHS and the salary cap, slashing our defensive spending every season, and Teno never caved in. Teno was our undeniable MVP in our Cup run, and was the reason we could even build the teams we did in the first place. At the end of every season I knew that we would be able to compete again because we had Jesse Teno.

One must be legendary if every opponent curses your name before and after every game. Jesse Teno, despite being the player of one of the nicest people I’ve ever shared a sim league space with, became a villain that everyone feared. Teno ended dominant regular season runs. Teno made Victory Cups seem useless. Teno stared you in the face while robbing you blind.
 
Teno was the best of us, and will be remembered as the face of London. Teno set franchise records that may never be broken. Teno sits amongst the greatest goaltenders to have ever done it throughout league history. And Teno will watch over us for the rest of time, protecting us like they always did.

Thank you Jesse Teno, thank you aimkin for always believing in me, always allowing me a place to spew thoughts, and for being the nicest villain this league has seen in as long as I’ve been around!

@aimkin

If you don't recognize this image, you've missed out on quite a bit.
 
 
It's been a long time since my last installment of this series. Part of that is that I got lazy, part of that is that I got busy, and another part of that is just that I know I'm going to have to jam-pack this article. I took a few of these off of talking about my time as a GM, but anyone who knows me also knows that being a GM meant more to me than that first offseason. I wasn't sure how to break up that information, though, so I hope it makes logical sense that this article deals with my first attempt to compete--a fairly short-lived one that I started building up in S71 and kept going through S74 or so when all the assets I'd stacked up decided to unstack. 
 
I suppose the place to start is right where the last one left off. S70 largely consisted of me sitting, waiting, and losing. Which was fine for the most part; I'd gotten myself ready for that and was super excited for the future. If the VHL had a reputable Hockey News-type media outlet, we would have been featured on the cover of their "Introducing Your S75 Continental Cup Champions" issue, and for good reason. We had both the draft picks and the hype on our side, and I hoped I could live up to it.
 
 
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS OF S71:
Preseason:
Roque Davis drafted 2nd overall
Joakim Bruden drafted 15th overall
Mickey Dickson drafted 25th overall
Big Chungus drafted 33rd overall
S73 DAV 2nd traded to New York for Joel Ylonen and Walter Clements
S71 VAN 2nd traded to DC for Derek Eriksson
Joel Ylonen traded to Prague for S73 PRG 2nd
Shawn Glade Jr traded to Seattle for S72 SEA 3rd + 4th
 
 
Aside from @Ahma's Davos-faithful Fernando Jokinen, and @Brrbisbrr's Samuel Ross in net, there weren't many players left on the roster that even I recognized. Some of those whose names I knew were inactive by that point, and the mess that was Davos was up to me to figure out. There really wasn't anything wrong with our S71 draft class--just picking the best player I saw as available got us Davis, bringing @Josh back to the Dynamo (perhaps sooner than he might have hoped), as well as Bruden, a mid-level earner managed by @PadStack who probably projected as a solid backup for most teams. Other features of note in the draft included Dickson--who I'll talk about a bit later--and Chungus, who I almost never saw outside of the portal but who ended up getting a cup of coffee with the team eventually.
 
The offseason was interesting because it was the first time I could make moves with a purpose. In a move that puzzles me to this day, I made a rental deal for the retiring Joel Ylonen (despite never thinking I would be in a spot to compete). But on the funnier end of that deal, I managed to DM every other team's ears off until I'd arranged to move him to Prague for almost exactly what I paid for him to begin with--making it the second time I had @Esso2264 on a roster of mine and he didn't make it to the start of the season. Two other trades went down--one where I gave DC a 2nd-round pick (which I could have used on the pretty-decent Xavier leFlamant) for Eriksson (who just about immediately went inactive) and another where I was contacted by Seattle about acquiring Shawn's player. I felt bad moving Shawn out of Davos (even with permission), but I also felt that there was still a bit of tension in the air between us at that point and hoped that cutting the tie temporarily would help both of us with a fresh start. 
 
From that point, it was still sitting and waiting and losing, but at least some of the players I was managing were the result of my own choices. We hit last place in the league (again), but Davis won both the Stolzschweiger and the Valiq and I was looking forward to getting better.
 
 
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS OF S72:
Preseason:
SS Hornet drafted 1st overall
Robin Winter drafted 2nd overall
Chico Smeb, Andrej Petrovic, and S73 DAV 1st traded to Malmo for S73 RIG 2nd, S73 SEA 3rd, and Jerry Garcia
Jack Feriancek and S72 DAV 2nd traded to Riga for rights to Acyd Burn
S72 TOR 1st and S73 RIG 2nd traded to Vancouver for S72 RIG 1st and David OQuinn
S73 PRG 2nd, S73 DAV 4th, and S74 DAV 4th traded to Vancouver for Jerry Wang
Vin Calia, S72 RIG 1st, and S72 DAV 3rd traded to Moscow for S72 MOS 2nd, S73 MOS 1st, and S74 MOS 2nd
ACL TEAR signs in free agency
 
In-Season:
Milos Slavik, Michael Hall, Derek Eriksson, S73 MOS 1st, and S74 DAV 3rd traded to Moscow for S74 MOS 3rd, Killy Foilen, and Jet Jaguar
This insane 3-way deal that essentially involved Acyd Burn being traded for Hunter Hearst Helmsley
 
 
Davos had just recorded a VHL-record third straight last-place finish, so pardon me for making that the reason why I decided to flip the team on its head. S72 was the first (and biggest) taste of what Ahma would come to call Big Gustav Offseason Moves (BGOMs), and while some had some disagreements as to their value, this was one of my most exciting seasons as GM.
 
First of all, the draft was a personal dream of mine--I loved both @McWolf and @Rin, and seeing both of their players reach hot prospect status with me in position to get them got me very excited for the draft lottery. Guaranteeing that I'd have them around with a double lotto win meant quite a bit, and even though I completely whiffed on both of my second-round picks (both max earners until the second I picked them), I still considered the draft a success.
 
The story of my management in S72, though, was buying, and I had all the resources in the world to make that happen. @FrostBeard had just been hired as GM in Malmo, chose to rebuild, and graciously offered me my own player at a fair price. I took that--and then overpaid a little bit for a rights deal on @Acydburn's first-gen player. Acyd would eventually cave in to the pressure and sign on with us, and he did lots to help poke my brain in that offseason as to where to take things next. With some reshuffling, we brought in David OQuinn to help out on defense (where he would stay for three seasons) and traded for second-line forward Jerry Wang (the only other VHL player ever to be named Jerry at the time, managed by very solid member @ColeMrtz). Add to this the fact that I'd just signed @Quik the commissioner? We were looking dangerous. The roster was reasonably well filled, and I hoped that we could take things to the next level. And I still had resources to spend.
 
A little bit into the season, Moscow's rebuild caught my eye and I pulled the trigger on a deal for Hall-of-Famer Jet Jaguar. I'd just upgraded my roster in a big way--by moving three lower-level forwards out for a mid-level one and a high-level one, I'd not only improved the roster but cleared out one of my forwards, answering some questions some of my hot prospects had about ice time.
 
The thing was--I now had two people, both who were good enough to be a team's first-line center, both of whom wanted to be mine. Both @gorlab and Acyd were upset that I was using their player in ways that didn't match their own goals as I experimented with lines, and eventually Acyd requested a trade. Fair enough.
 
Fair enough that I cooked up a massive three-way deal with myself, New York, and Vancouver, where Acyd would get a new home and I'd keep a top-level forward. In just one season, Davos had gone from last place to swinging a deal for all-time great Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Here's the issue, though--HHH was also a legitimate 1C and this did nothing to help with gorlab's objections to Jaguar's status remaining a question. Arguably, I'd made the situation worse, as he and @Beaviss had feuded in the past. It was my first lesson learned in that every VHLer wants the best for their player, and that one's goals as a GM should take this into account. The following offseason would begin with a strongly-worded Jaguar trade request before we talked it out a bit.
 
But anyway, this would be the last season for Samuel Ross in Davos. He wouldn't make it far in the playoffs, but we made it there for my first time ever as a VHL GM. I'd be nominated for the Knight after the season (and narrowly lose), and I felt good about my ability as a GM. As it turns out, I also felt pretty good about making huge deals.
 
 
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS OF S73:
Preseason:
Mickey Dickson traded to Malmo for S74 HSK 2nd and S75 MAL 4th
Rights to ACL TEAR traded to Calgary for S74 CGY 4th and John Poremba
Samuel Ross traded to Helsinki for S74 PRG 4th and Owen May
Jerry Wang, S74 DAV 1st, and S74 MOS 3rd traded to New York for S74 NYA 4th and Soren Jensen
S74 HSK 2nd and S74 NYA 4th traded to Calgary for Charlie Paddywagon
 
 
The season started with a few small wins--I'll always bring up that I got rid of @samx right before she went inactive, and even though I was losing Quik to free agency, he'd at least communicated that to me. Davis was by now a solid offensive defenseman build, and I still had Jaguar and Garcia on the roster for a final season. It would be tough to deal with my S66 players retiring, but I would just figure that out later, wouldn't I?
 
The first step I took in figuring that out later was by turning around and trading Wang just a season after I'd brought him in. This, along with yet another first-round draft pick burned, gave me Soren Jensen, @Velevra's player who I practically never heard from but who would give me a solid 900-some TPA on my top line for almost 4 whole seasons. The second step I took in figuring things out later was to...give me more things to figure out later by getting rid of even more S74 picks for a rental of @DMaximus ' retiring Charlie Paddywagon. And while it was sad, Bruden had finally earned well enough that he was our #1 goaltender, so I moved Ross out to a place where he could still start.
 
As it turned out, Jensen and Paddywagon historically underperforming in STHS output wasn't something that would be magically fixed by their moving to Davos. Nor did essentially forfeiting my entire S74 draft class seem like a very good idea when we (yet again) got knocked out of the playoffs almost immediately. I headed into the offseason with three high-profile retirements on my hands and a lot of space to fill. Luckily, I had Hornet and Winter developing, but would that be enough? Between Paddywagon retiring and Josh letting me know that he wasn't convinced he wanted to re-sign, I had work to do for S74.
 
 
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS OF S74:
Preseason:
Rayz Funk signs in free agency
Roque Davis re-signs for S74
Shawty Nananana drafted 31st overall
S74 VAN 3rd traded to Calgary for Joe Proto
John Poremba traded to Prague for S75 PRG 4th
 
In-Season:
S75 DAV 2nd, Joe Proto, and Big Chungus traded to New York for Owen Nolan
 
 
My primary goal in the offseason was to stop Davis from walking out the door, and it just so happened that the greatest playoff goaltender in VHL history was hitting free agency before his final season. Bruden's activity had hit marginal levels by this point, so even though I liked his agent, I committed to a completely free BGOM and pulled the trigger on signing Funk. Davos, for the first time in my GM tenure, had a legitimate #1 goaler by any team's standard, and this was enough to convince Davis to stick with us (albeit on a one-season contract). We also managed to grab @Grape in the draft despite getting rid of every other one of our picks, and though I didn't feel quite as confident about this roster as I had in previous seasons, we were still competitive on paper and were ready to let Hornet and Winter take over with Jensen as our top forwards.
 
No one told me, though, that having an entire top line that Simon didn't like wasn't exactly a good thing. We had decent enough TPE levels to do well enough, but things just weren't clicking and Davos found themselves in a big hole halfway through the season thanks to an abysmal offense. Things were bad enough that @Rayzor_7 reached out to me to ask that I trade for more scoring power--and he was right. No one was selling for what I had, though, and I didn't have much of a choice but to continue my trend of buying aging (and in this case inactive, despite decent TPE) players. I grabbed New York's Owen Nolan and hoped that would work.
 
The rest of S74 was an adventure. I spent some time watching us take a nosedive in the standings...and then I watched the greatest stretch of Davos hockey I've ever seen as a GM. I don't have the exact numbers, but with a small handful of games left in the season, we'd just gone something like 18-2-0 over our last 20 and were all tied up with a few other teams for the last playoff spot. Which mattered quite a bit, because we had the best playoff goaler, after all. 
 
And then we choked away the very end of the season. Our win streak cut out just in time for us to drop a bunch of games right at the end, and we missed the last playoff spot by one point. Such is life.
 
This would mark the beginning of the end for Davos. Funk retired, Josh told me he was gone for sure this time, and I watched Nolan depreciate while Jensen got a season older. In just three seasons, I'd opened and closed Davos' competitive window by turning draft capital into retirements, and I didn't look like the world's best GM--without checking, I believe Funk was the last free agent signing I ever got. But as much as I took Davos to Hell in a bucket, at least I enjoyed the ride, and I hope some others who played with me during this time did as well.
 
 
 
As a side note, I find it worthwhile to mention that before S71 even happened, I found myself taking a shot at a super-active first-gen as my AGM. I took a huge liking to Proto right off the bat and one day shot him a message offering him the job. He was great for the locker room and max-earned the whole time he was in the VHL--but we also had a few disagreements. It was nothing that boiled over into anything bad between us, but it was a short window into what would soon follow when he super abruptly left the league (citing various differences with administration). His forum account seems to have been deleted, and he seems to have moved on from the VHL for good. But he was a big part of the early buildup of Davos and its culture during my time.
 
Right after Proto left Davos (to get hired in the VHLM, thanks to the Gustav Effect), I ended up re-hiring @Berocka, my best friend in the VHL, as my AGM after he quit in Mississauga. This would be a partnership that lasted the entire rest of my tenure, and it's one I was always grateful to have.
 
This was also when most of modern Davos culture--much of which still exists today!--defined itself. The use of "David" to refer to the team, and also as a sort of cheer; the use of McDonald's mascot Grimace as the team's; even the various Discord emotes I made that were just meme variations of my profile picture (and even ones that combined these things, like the picture at the top of this article); all of these things made Davos what it was and I love that somewhere in the world, someone is reading this who remembers these things and looks at them as fondly as I do. The first competitive run I gave Davos might have been a failure on the scoreboard and it might have cemented a negative reputation for myself as a GM, but I wouldn't have changed a thing about how it went off the ice and the memories I made with all the people I have mentioned in this article. So, in spirit of that:
 
DAVID!
 
 

Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
 
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name
#2: Can't We All Just Get Along?
#3: Who Needs Cybersecurity Anyway?
#4: The House That I Built
#5: Can We Fix It?
#6: American Beauty
#7: The Kids Are Alright
#8: Dogs In A Pile
#9: I Just Wanna Grill For God's Sake
#10: This Old House
#11: Go Directly to Jail
#12: If You Can Dodge a Color, You Can Dodge a Ball

@leandrofg

With Moscow drafting highly touted defensive talent Jillian Woods in the most recent draft, the writing is on the wall that one of the Menace’s two headline defensemen will likely be on the move as early as season 95 due to the ensuing salary crunch. The Moscow GM has been adamant on expelling perennial underachiever Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage pretty much ever since he was drafted, and just haven’t been able to find a suitor or a replacement. Now with Woods in the pipeline, Moscow has the ability to move Bocage for really any return. Now, the difficult part is finding a team that will be willing to take on Bocage at his full value. There are a few teams scattered around the league that may be of interest, however.

Yukon Rush
 The Rush are back and better than ever. They will be looking to rebuild their long lost legacy and what better way to do so than by acquiring a top tier defenseman. They will have openings at every position and likely would need to start from scratch, with free agents, IAs, and whatever they can scrounge together through the draft. They will look to Bocage early on for leadership on and off the ice, as well as establishing a strong culture that will entice big name free agents to the cause.

Madrid Thunder
The long defunct team could be looking to make a comeback, and Bocage would be a perfect fit to help start off the reboot. Bocage has been caught on tape stating that the Madrid Thunder would be the one team he wants to see make a return, and it would therefore be his dream destination to play. Being relatively close to his home country, there is no feeling of homesickness. He can provide Madrid with an immediate shot in the arm of both offense and defense, strong leadership capabilities, and a healthy culture.

Cologne Express
In a relatively small controversy, Bocage skipped the VHLE and opted to instead play an additional season in the VHLM. Because of this, he never got the full VHL experience and is missing out on this core piece of development. It’s only fitting that at some point, he makes his debut, and a fitting team would be the Cologne Express. Cologne has established a strong aura of competitiveness and elite play and performance, and Bocage would fit in perfectly with this, being a true winner and leader. Cologne has taken a step back in terms of their roster, and could probably use a near 1k TPE player on their roster.
 
Warsaw Predators
This team is on the precipice of becoming a true championship caliber team for seasons to come, with the possibility of procuring a perfect season during their reign. What this team needs, Bocage can provide. A top tier #1 defenseman to flesh out their elite roster will be the perfect complimentary piece. Bocage would provide secondary offensive scoring as well as be the final brick of the wall they’ll have on defense.
 
Ottawa Lynx
It is rather typical for a GM to have their player play for their team at some point. Bocage missed out in the first go-around, and therefore could find himself back in the M one more time. The VHLM typically has relatively weak rosters, with the highest players only being around 200 TPE, which would allow Bocage to absolutely dominate the competition. Ottawa will likely have a roster spot available for many seasons to come to facilitate such a move, and would likely benefit from Bocage’s veteran presence.

well @Spartan , these are your choices.

(601 words)

Welcome back! Was hoping to see you around here again sometime!

Yea you heard me right I litteraly won gold in the JST and WJC in like 1 week. Only problem is I DONT CARE!!! In the WJC no joke I didn't know sims started until the SEMI FINALS???? The day before I won gold! Nobody mentioned me about sims starting or how Europe was dominating the competition litteraly nothing. I wanted to see how my player was doing and then the index wouldn't work and it turns out to get it to work I had to paste a URL fish sent me? That could've been a virus. Anyway turns out I was getting third line center minutes. Why the hell was I in this tournament? I litteraly got 9 minutes a game. I feel like a bot. I feel like an inactive. Anyways I guess world cup gold is next and then a cup. First quadruple gold champ is me!

Jesse Teno has been kicked from the Honourary Assistant Captain position, and has been relegated to the Goaltending Coach position.
 
 Captain: Leonard Triller @Triller
 Assistant: Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ
 Assistant: Sjin @Sjin
 
Couldn't be happier getting to lead this group to hopefully another successful run!

To my few Mexico City fans –

Thank you for having me and cheering me on, even if it was for just a short while. I truly enjoyed my time playing in and for your beautiful city and it is an experience I will never forget. Thank you for welcoming me with such open arms near the end of the season and for being the home for the start of my career. Without you I wouldn’t feel as good as I do. I promise to return to Mexico City to spend some more time getting to know the people and the city itself. Your culture is so beautiful, and I wish I could immerse myself in it more. One day perhaps I will come and live here after I retire and spend a few years enjoying myself.
 
To the Mexico City staff, crew, and team –

Thank you also for opening your arms to me. Coming not only into a new league but a new country was one of the scariest things I have ever done, and you all were so kind and gracious. You opened your homes and your hearts to me, and I will be forever grateful. You will always be my first hockey family and I will treasure that forever. I look forward to returning to Mexico City with the Marlins because then I can see you all again.
 
To San Diego and it’s fans –

Thank you for the warm welcome! I don’t know if I was your first choice for the admins to make but thank you for cheering anyway. I promise that I will do all that I can to make you proud of this team and me. I am very much looking forward to spending this season working my ass off for your guys and I hope we can make you proud of this team. I cannot wait to see what San Diego and its people have in store for me. The weather, the beaches, the shopping. I have only seen it on tv and in movies and I cannot wait to get out and explore.
 
To San Diego staff, crew, and team –

Don’t let my kind demeanor fool you. I will be a badass on the ice and I will fight like hell to get this team across the finish line at the end of the season. We are going to be a force to be reckoned with and every other VHLM team should be careful about how they approach us. I promise that I will work hard and be the best defender that I can be. I hope to prove that I was worthy of a first overall draft. And, even if I turn out to be a complete bust, I promise that it won’t be from a lack of trying. I will give everything I have and more to be the defender you deserve.
 
Thank you also to the VHLM as a whole for allowing me to join your organization and for helping me get to where I am.
 
506 words for week ending 6/2/2024

Thanks. Life has finally decided to stop throwing "crazy" at me...well...at least it is on a scale I can handle now, haha.
 
I need to figure out what team to join so I can hit the ice, easier said than done that is for sure!
 
Plus I need to get the Player Name updated....

What a group, and what a pleasure this season is going to be!

So the new portal just dropped and I’m a fan. Overall, I think Will and Josh have done a terrific job with the portal and I look forward to seeing what more will come down the line. For this article, I’ll break it down into three sections: Likes, Dislikes and Things To Fix (Dislikes will more focus on design choices that I would prefer a difference to whereas Things To Fix is more focused on problems that currently occur).
 
Likes
 
Dark Mode - I’m a frequent dark mode user wherever possible, so the dark mode implementation in the VHL has gone done very well with me. As I’ll mention later, there’s only one place where I found it a bit of a problem, but otherwise, very happy with the addition.
 
Standings - Nice addition putting the logos of each team on the standings and I also like how playoff standings are no longer cluttered with teams that didn’t make playoffs.
 
New Player/User Search Bar - It’s cool to now get Seasons and Usernames for players directly from typing in the name, can see this being a good timesaver. 
 
Ability to see Free Agency offers - So I don’t know if this is new or not (I don’t recall seeing it in the past), but being able to view what contracts were offered by each team by clicking on their name is cool. 
 
Schedule Link bug fix - This may well have been fixed before this update, but I remember from my time as M GM it was a bit of a pain clicking link on the schedule, because it would always go to a broken link. This has now been fixed to go to the correct place.
 
Additions to Team Pages - It’s nice to see current scoring come up on the team’s page now as, even as someone who is quite well-versed with the portal, I’d still sometimes come to the team page looking for it only to be denied. As someone who is semi-frequently doing a podcast series on best and worst draft picks of the Season 80’s, the draft history is also a big timesaver and cool for keeping team’s history.
 
Dislikes
 
Light mode is sometimes too light - I don’t often view light mode now, but I would say I’m not a fan of changing the headers from black background to white background as in some situations the headers don’t pop like they should. E.g. Team Roster. 
 
Update log on dark mode - One of the things we have to do as updaters is keep an eye on how much capped TPE someone has earned in the week, but in this dark mode, I wish the background on the bits that are the weeks (e.g. Week Ending June 2nd) were not dark themselves and more like the colour of the VHL/VHLE/VHLM button in dark mode to clearer split the difference between two weeks.
 
Missing E - It still feels like the E is quite a way behind on the portal compared with the other leagues. As someone who recently set a record in the E that is not tracked by the index (most game winning goals), it would be nice to have that information easier to find instead of comparing every index.
 
Underlines on GM names in Teams Page - This could just be an accidental addition, but I find the underlined GM names to look worse than they did before the change without the underline. 
 
Things to Fix
 
Sorting in Team Scoring - So sometimes this works, sometimes this doesn’t, but there’s times if you flick between the different teams and different seasons that you can’t do an ascending sort. It’s not a huge thing because there’s very little occasions outside of PIMs that an ascending sort would be useful, but just something I caught.
 
HOF Career Stats - One thing I did notice was that the HOF Career Stats appear to be stuck on showing every single player in the portals systems rather than breaking it up into pages, and the sorts don’t work even if you use filters to narrow down the number of results, so the page isn’t of much use as it stands. 
 
Combining Stats After Trades/Fixing Stats after Position Changes - Maybe this is something that has been fixed and will take effect in later seasons, but it would be nice for trades and position changes to no longer affect the stats pages on the portal as I know there’s been a few players in the past that have been initially missed off of ballots due to trades. In addition, position changes lead to producing some unintentional bad stats that can lead to new users incorrectly interpreting information. E.g. Left Alone being the best defenseman on S90 and S91 when they’ve only just moved to defenseman. 
 

Stud.

The not so secret rumour of Roger Eagles skipping the VHLM to play in the VHLE this season was finalized last week as Roger hit the VHLE free agency and signed with Rome. There was a little bit of interest for the up and comming goalie and he decided to go with the team that would give him the best opportunity to play.
 
" In the end the reason I picked Rome is because they were the team that would provide me with the most play time and that was my only consideration when hitting free agency" Roger says "Other teams were interested but I didn't feel like the backup role would help with my growth and development. I am happy going to Rome as they seem to have a pretty solid team on paper and I am excited to get started"
 
Roger will be playing his first full season in the league as his only current experience has been playing 17 games in the M as well as 4 games in the World Junior Championships. This will be the first time scouts will be able to look at him over a full season. It is not yet known how many games Roger will start this season or what was promised to him but the goal will be to become Rome's started as the season goes along.

Rome currently has one other goalie on the roster, Olafur Gunnleifsson, but Olafur has not yet reported to training camp and not much is known about his availability or desire to play in Rome. He is still contracted to show up to regular season games and the team will have to wait and see what happens. As of now Olafur would be scheduled to start the first few games but if he continues to miss practice, he may quickly find himself as the backup to the up and comer Roger Eagles.
 
"I think Rome was the best opportunity for me to play with their current goaltending situation and its also a beautiful city" Roger says " I know the ice conditions might not be the best due to the weather but as a player living in Rome while making a career in a dream job just can't be beat. When I get the opportunity to play, I have to ensure I am at the top of my game to claim the starter role and to give the VHL scouts something to discuss during the upcomming draft. It may seem far away but early impressions are always the best"
 
Roger has been working on his speed and agility in off-season training as he prepares for the more skilled VHLE league. Skipping the M means he will be thrown into the deep end at this level due to the higher skilled players but Roger is one of the rare goalies that can handle the pressure and thrive in a league with more skilled players. He has already got some experience playing against more skilled players when he played in 4 games in the WJC as the backup goalie for Team Asia. He played pretty OK getting Team Asia's first win.

shoutout @Triller!!!
 
There are not many opportunities left in the league to walk into a franchise and walk out the undisputed best there had ever been. David Davis had a great season, Cole Pearce (notably appreciated) was the only goaltender to hit 100 wins for the club for a while. Jacob Tonn had a great couple of seasons. Tater Tot held off opponents the best they could for the time. But Jesse Teno blew each and every one of them out of the water.
 
When I took over London in S88, I was presented a mostly competitive young core, and a whole pile of trade offers. Some GMs would have taken the opportunity to shed these valuable assets and define their own vision, and boy were some of the trade offers tempting. But I knew that wasn’t an option. I knew Jesse Teno, and the accompanying aimkin were special since the season 84 JST. I took over the San Diego Marlins the following season, and knew that aimkin would be the perfect AGM. Teno had a difficult season on a sparse Saskatoon roster, but earned at a rate that caught the attention of Dil who could not pass up the promise of a homegrown starting goaltender.
 
Teno stood out from day 1, securing 7 wins in their rookie season, and never let go. Somehow the .923% in their rookie season would be their worst, ending their career at a mind-boggling .928% in the regular season. Teno always gave us the chance to win, even when I was learning all of the things that I did wrong long after I could have fixed them. We never missed the playoffs during my tenure with Teno (my Tenoure?). And in the playoffs, Teno was a different beast.
 
.928% is a ridiculous figure, but that was brought down by some random outliers over 72 game seasons. In the quick timeline of the playoffs, Teno was able to conjure a .936%.

Teno allowed me the ability to push the absolute limits of STHS and the salary cap, slashing our defensive spending every season, and Teno never caved in. Teno was our undeniable MVP in our Cup run, and was the reason we could even build the teams we did in the first place. At the end of every season I knew that we would be able to compete again because we had Jesse Teno.

One must be legendary if every opponent curses your name before and after every game. Jesse Teno, despite being the player of one of the nicest people I’ve ever shared a sim league space with, became a villain that everyone feared. Teno ended dominant regular season runs. Teno made Victory Cups seem useless. Teno stared you in the face while robbing you blind.
 
Teno was the best of us, and will be remembered as the face of London. Teno set franchise records that may never be broken. Teno sits amongst the greatest goaltenders to have ever done it throughout league history. And Teno will watch over us for the rest of time, protecting us like they always did.

Thank you Jesse Teno, thank you aimkin for always believing in me, always allowing me a place to spew thoughts, and for being the nicest villain this league has seen in as long as I’ve been around!

@aimkin

Jesse Teno has been kicked from the Honourary Assistant Captain position, and has been relegated to the Goaltending Coach position.
 
 Captain: Leonard Triller @Triller
 Assistant: Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ
 Assistant: Sjin @Sjin
 
Couldn't be happier getting to lead this group to hopefully another successful run!

Been a while since I had to do a task here and just completely blanked. I wrote about 6-7k words across my sim leagues last week to prepare for a slight drawback in activity, and now I have to write 150 words and my mind is empty. Jillian has been super busy, playing mediocre in the World Juniors, winning the Junior Showcase Tournament for the second time, getting smoked in the Pro-Am tournament as expected and earning like 60 TPE in these past 2 league weeks. Nice to know that when it does come time to spend TPE again I’ll at least have this much TPE to drop. Hoping to get that number to roughly 200 by the time the next season rolls around but there is lots of season left to go! Excited to get underway with Rome, last time I played in the VHLE my franchise got folded so hoping for better things for Rome and their future!

Jesse Teno has been kicked from the Honourary Assistant Captain position, and has been relegated to the Goaltending Coach position.
 
 Captain: Leonard Triller @Triller
 Assistant: Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ
 Assistant: Sjin @Sjin
 
Couldn't be happier getting to lead this group to hopefully another successful run!

Jesse Teno has been kicked from the Honourary Assistant Captain position, and has been relegated to the Goaltending Coach position.
 
 Captain: Leonard Triller @Triller
 Assistant: Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ
 Assistant: Sjin @Sjin
 
Couldn't be happier getting to lead this group to hopefully another successful run!

Jesse Teno has been kicked from the Honourary Assistant Captain position, and has been relegated to the Goaltending Coach position.
 
 Captain: Leonard Triller @Triller
 Assistant: Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ
 Assistant: Sjin @Sjin
 
Couldn't be happier getting to lead this group to hopefully another successful run!

I expect some spicier .com names now that you're on Moscow

Been a while since I had to do a task here and just completely blanked. I wrote about 6-7k words across my sim leagues last week to prepare for a slight drawback in activity, and now I have to write 150 words and my mind is empty. Jillian has been super busy, playing mediocre in the World Juniors, winning the Junior Showcase Tournament for the second time, getting smoked in the Pro-Am tournament as expected and earning like 60 TPE in these past 2 league weeks. Nice to know that when it does come time to spend TPE again I’ll at least have this much TPE to drop. Hoping to get that number to roughly 200 by the time the next season rolls around but there is lots of season left to go! Excited to get underway with Rome, last time I played in the VHLE my franchise got folded so hoping for better things for Rome and their future!