CowboyinAmerica

Survivor might legit be my favorite show, it's so much fun. The seasons on Netflix are great (somebody I knew from college is on 33!) but if you don't mind paying for another streaming service Paramount+ has them all. 45 seasons to binge, I've done most of them. (I'm actually watching The Traitors on Peacock right now too which the current season 2 features the winner of Pearl Islands - but also spoils how they did on returning Survivor seasons so beware.)

Halifax -- The beginning of the season was a rough one for the VHLM's Halifax 21st. Coming off a season where the team had the worst record in the league, the front office expected to see growth - but was met with eight losses in the team's first nine games, punctuated by a 8-1 drubbing at the hands of Miami that led to five-alarm fires within the team facility. Things needed to change fast. But luckily for Halifax, change for the better was on the horizon. Now, a bit more than one-third through the season, the 21st sit with a 10-14-2 record, good for 22 points. Although that still places them fourth in the conference, Halifax is now only 2 points behind Ottawa and gaining steadily. The team has started to pick up stronger wins as well, punctuated by their most recent two game stretch that included wins over Las Vegas and that very same Miami team that crushed them earlier in the season. "We can feel the momentum shift, and we're picking up on that," noted Halifax forward and first overall pick in last year's draft Antonia Bucatini. "It took a minute, but we're coming together." Will it last? The immediate strong play of new additions like Hunter s @Hunter S and Anthony Vincens @Anthony, both of whom picked up points in the recent Halifax wins, is a good sign. For a team hoping to see growth throughout the course of the season in preparation for a playoff run, it looks like things are starting to go to plan.

1. I do think close. We've been looking a lot better in the past 10 games than we did the first ten. If we can keep earning as a team, I think it's coming. 2. Slow growth. This is a team that was last place last season and the cupboard pretty bare entering the offseason, so I don't think fourth and close to third is that bad. But we need to keep going. 3. It's just been fun seeing all of the new players enter. Excitement around the VHLM is a good thing, and I'm happy that people have embraced the VHLM. 4. I enjoy big markets that don't really have hockey right now. And especially with the area's growth and being in a cold weather place, Salt Lake City/Utah makes a lot of sense to me. (Not sure I've ever seen a Utah sim league team, to be honest?) 5. I'm somebody who enjoys being on the water, so even when it's cold out I'll still take a walk down the shore. Just makes me feel at peace. 6. Philly's really impressed me early, and Jorgen Lovstrom's a big reason. That's a large save percentage gap to any other full-time starter.

I'm not close since I take a lot of breaks (Bucatini's only my 6th player), quick head math has me around 7500ish. I'm guessing there aren't too many that have your longevity and consistency. Wouldn't be shocked if you (or maybe OD) are the leader, would be a fun media deep dive. Congrats!

Thanks for posting these! 1. Until the most recent couple of games I would have said a disappointment, but 8 points in 2 games against the Hounds may hopefully get me back on track. Hoping that things are looking up for Halifax. 2. Trading for Aanarsi Reingaard right before the start of the season was absolutely clutch. They've been a great linemate and just general teammate, letting me show off some more playmaker skills. 3. Naturally there's going to be friendship with somebody from the same country like Gianfranco Del Rocco and I, but there's a bit of a rivalry there too. As two players fighting to be the top pick in the draft, we're both doing our best to one-up each other. 4. I'm honestly open to any team right now, I could see myself fitting many different places. But if I have to choose, I do like playing somewhere new, and Vancouver could be a lottery team I've never played for. 5. Not right now if I'm being realistic, but I do think we have the path to get there. It's just a matter of growing together to be at our best by playoff time. 6. Miami has looked very scary in our conference thus far, and they're only getting better. It's giving us something to strive towards.

2000+ words, claiming for the weeks ending: 1/21 1/28 2/4 2/11

Do 9 season VHL careers actually work? An analysis of S80-83 draftees With the introduction of the VHLE before Season 80 came a different, possibly even more radical change for history and stat buffs like myself: nine season careers. Now, rather than going straight to the VHL after the draft and playing for eight seasons, the idea was that most players would go to the VHLE for one season then the VHL for their remaining eight, thus necessitating nine season careers post-draft. But there was an interesting wrinkle within the announcement: Some players didn’t ever need to go to the VHLE at all. For those at 350 TPE and above, they had the option of going straight to the VHL and playing a longer career than any player in VHL history had ever had before. In doing so, however, they would be subject to a stricter regression scale that means four seasons of decline, with their peak occurring one season earlier than their counterparts who went to the VHLE for a season. There were some thoughts that this may force the VHL to re-write some record books, or that nine season players would be easier shoo-ins to the Hall of Fame. And there’s some logic behind that argument: It’s only top earning players that would even have the option to skip the VHLE in the first place, so it stands to reason that they would also be the players dominating stats and awards. Luckily though, we now have a pretty good data set of those nine-season players to analyze and try and answer the question: Is it worth it? Anecdotal data seems to be swinging towards no - just look at the lengths Logan Ninefingers and George Richmond took to stay in the VHLE this season. My very own decision on this could be coming in a few weeks, which is why I decided to take a look at the data. By my count (unless I missed somebody, which is completely possible), there have been 12 players from the S80-83 draft classes who went straight to the VHL and have finished their careers. And the general thought is, maybe you’re not getting the full experience that you were promised. What I’m seeing is a lot of Very Good players, but maybe not the ability (or in some cases the drive) to become truly great. (S80) C Matty Ice - Total TPE: 1285 @mattyIceman Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 648 302 420 722 83 3854 548 1259 346 39 51 7 Personal Awards: 1 (S80 RotY) There were only two players to jump directly to the VHL in the first season the option was offered, and unfortunately the first one to be drafted isn’t the best test case. Although Fire would win Rookie of the Year in a truncated class (since much of his competition went to the VHLE), the user behind Fire would receive a temporary ban a bit into his career. As a result, Fire would hit 49 goals in two of his first three seasons, but never top 40 again for the rest of his career en route to a solid, but unspectacular nine season career. (S80) LW Vinny Detroit - Total TPE: 1519 @dasboot Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 646 239 280 519 113 2850 1753 3163 362 39 42 2 Personal Awards: 0 The other S80 player to jump directly to the VHL that first season may not be the best test case either, seeing as how Detroit had one very specific goal: as many hits as possible. In that regard he absolutely accomplished his goal - Detroit’s 3136 hits is far and away the VHL record, more than 200 more than the eight seasons of Druss Deathwalker. From that angle, Detroit can be seen as a nine-season career success, with the extra season (Detroit had 339 hits in S80) allowing him a record he wouldn’t have otherwise been able to hit. (S81) LW Nico Pearce - Total TPE: 2206 @Spartan Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 650 362 412 774 177 4216 769 1785 335 52 82 2 Personal Awards: 2 (S84 MVP, S84 Most Goals) Now we’re getting to some interesting ones. Pearce is the current all-time TPE record holder and exactly the type of player that VHL leadership was thinking of when instituting the nine season idea. He sailed past the VHLE cut-off, was a 59 point contributor to a powerful Moscow team in his very first season, and was even able to hold on to the tougher regression scale to hit 44 goals and 88 points in his final season. But if you think of a career as a bell curve, Pearce’s peak was never quite there. Outside of the S84 season with 59 goals and 120 points, Pearce never topped 100 points and only topped 45 goals one other season (S85). The overall counting stats look good - Pearce’s 362 goals ranked 29th all-time - but the end result is a career in the Hall of Very Good. (S81) D Harkat Mulds - Total TPE: 513 @hylands Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 504 137 238 375 18 1606 243 553 679 16 42 5 Personal Awards: 0 The other S81 draftee to go right to the VHL is also our first one to not actually finish out the nine season career. Mulds would stall out their TPE earning fairly soon after reaching the league, hopping around to four different teams (including Moscow and Prague twice) before retiring after their seventh season. The one thing that is interesting from Mulds is that their highest point total (73) actually occurred in that very first season that other contemporaries spent in the VHLE, on a Toronto team that made the playoffs no less. (S82) LW Vasile Lamb - Total TPE: 1433 @dlamb Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 649 342 379 721 134 3928 1469 2877 366 68 76 5 Personal Awards: 0 Lamb’s career reads as very similar to Pearce’s to me, just with some additional player movement and without that one standout season. The cumulative numbers look nice - 342 goals is 42nd all-time, 68 game winning goals is tied for 17th all-time, and 2877 hits is third all-time. Those totals are something you look for in a nine-season career. But I think the trade-off of never truly being top-tier in TPA did hurt Lamb, both in terms of individual season highs (he topped 40 goals three times) as well as team placement (he’d play for six teams in those nine seasons). Another very good player, but the nine season career is not leading to the Hall of Fame. (S82) G Cole Pearce - Total TPE: 1654 @N0HBDY Season GP W L OTL SV% GAA SO GA SA MP Totals 504 278 182 42 0.922 2.65 33 1333 17110 30162 Personal Awards: 1 (S86 Lowest GAA) We have our first goalie! When I was active with Booberry, I watched Pearce’s career with great interest because he took the path I didn’t take. I thought that the additional season of regression would hurt too much, and especially with all of the competition at the goalie position, it would put me behind the eight ball too much. The final answer to that then is a resounding - maybe? Pearce did indeed only win one individual award, as he was competing with a rash of goalies in the next couple of draft classes who were able to keep pace with him in TPA. However, he also had arguably his best season in his eighth season (49 wins, .929 save percentage) before retiring one season early. Another one for the Hall of Very Good here. (S82) D/RW Tavish DeGroot - Total TPE: 1447 @rory Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 577 197 318 515 115 2305 943 1417 981 30 63 5 Personal Awards: 0 There’s a trend I’m noticing as I’m going through too. Many members are starting to top 1700, 1800 TPE and work their way towards the upper reaches of the TPE leaderboard. But by and large, those aren’t the players skipping the VHLE, which you might expect. That’s why I’m putting final TPE totals by player names, because you’re seeing a lot of very strong totals in the 1300-1700 range, but not necessarily totals that can withstand a fourth season of regression which leads to eight season careers regardless. Anyway, as somebody who has had two players start on defense and switch to winger at the end of their career, it makes interpreting career stats a bit of a mess. DeGroot’s career was solid enough (especially with that S84 Continental Cup), but they wouldn’t top 70 points in a season until the final season playing on the wing in Seattle. (S82) D Max Torq - Total TPE: 1728 @Steve Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 576 166 403 569 97 2169 780 1197 1200 33 81 3 Personal Awards: 0 Comparing apples to apples of defensemen who went nine seasons, Torq had some slightly higher highs than did DeGroot - a point total that stayed consistently between 61-86 between his second and eighth seasons, a 1200 shots blocked total that ranks 37th all-time. And similar to DeGroot he’s got a Continental Cup, with Torq’s coming in Season 83 with Seattle. But in his eight season career (he retired a season early similar to Pearce), there weren’t too many very high peaks. A very valuable player to every team that he was on and occasionally in the awards conversation, but ultimately did not bring home any hardware himself. (S83) C Scotty Sundin - Total TPE: 1263 @fromtheinside Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 648 334 410 744 41 4015 409 814 322 55 69 10 Personal Awards: 2 (S91 MVP, S91 Most Points) Sundin is an interesting one to me because of the dualities. 1263 is one of the lower total TPEs on the list, and he only topped 40 goals three times in his career. And yet - he’s literally the reigning MVP after career highs with 49 goals and 112 points last season, his 334 career goals are top 50 all-time, and he is the first and only person on this list to play the full nine season career with the team that drafted him (Chicago). I think they’re happy with their investment with the first overall pick, even if they didn’t get a cup out of it. Sundin a point in favor of the argument that it’s not necessarily the length of the career, but how you build for it. (S83) G Brandt Fuhr - Total TPE: 1418 @Tate Season GP W L OTL SV% GAA SO GA SA MP Totals 581 290 243 43 0.924 2.77 32 1592 21000 34533 Personal Awards: 3 (S86 Playoff MVP, S87 Top Goalie, S87 Lowest GAA) Another goalie, and this time the first one to go the full nine! And you could very well argue that he has the best career of the dozen players listed here. A stalwart in net for 8.5 seasons in Vancouver, the Wolves would go to the playoffs six times during that stretch, go multiple rounds in four, and win it all in one. By virtue of going 60ish games longer than any other goalie before him, Fuhr also ranks 19th all-time in wins and 47th all-time in shutouts, and still manages to hold on to a tie with the 18th-best save percentage of all-time. As I’m writing I kind of feel like I’m making an HOF case here, and I think it’s right on that line. Maybe you’d like to see a few more individual awards, but those are tougher to come by in a competitive era. The best case scenario for a nine-season career here. (S83) C Igor Molotov - Total TPE: 1483 @Dom Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 576 250 341 591 -10 2925 761 1601 266 39 60 2 Personal Awards: 0 Molotov reads to me as a player who had a ton of potential, especially following a number of awards at the VHLM level, but that the nine season career may have held back. Molotov’s TPA peak ended up being the same as their player peak, with 41 goals and 88 points in their fifth season of S87. But regression came swift, where despite his only Cup coming in S88 with London, Molotov would not top 34 goals while in regression. Molotov’s another who clocked out after eight seasons rather than face the tough fourth season of regression, limiting their career numbers somewhat. (S83) D AirRig GoodBrandSun - Total TPE: 1558 @Rhynex Entertainment Season GP G A P +/- SHT PIM HIT SB GW PPG SHG Totals 648 121 430 551 214 1847 792 1127 1293 23 53 1 Personal Awards: 1 (S83 Top Defensive Defenseman) We end with GoodBrandSun, whose career is interesting in that they’re the only player to win an individual award in the season they were originally supposed to skip - an award that ended up being the only one of their career, as it turns out. GoodBrandSun developed from a more defensive-oriented player at the beginning of their career (198 shots blocked in S83 was by far their highest) to a more offensive-oriented player (93 points in S86) near the peak of their career. I believe GoodBrandSun is also the first one to reach the playoffs nine times in a career, eight with Calgary and one with Seattle, with a Calgary Cup coming in S87. Overall a career I’d call a nine-season success story, even if it didn’t come with necessarily the individual accolades. Verdict for Me: After doing the exercise, I’m leaning towards not trying to go nine seasons in the VHL with Antonia Bucatini. While there are some mitigating factors at play with many of the players who tried it in this sample, there are a lot of flame outs on this board - and depending on Fuhr and Sundin potentially not a Hall of Famer in the bunch. Even those with high TPE totals like Nico Pearce (or later Henry Eagles and The Frenchman) may not be seeing the individual success they hoped for themselves on draft day. But there’s always that temptation to try something that not many others have, so it may end up being a conversation between myself and my future VHL team following the draft.

Proud to make it as difficult as possible

This one's done @leandrofg

F - Yaroslav Trunov

@Grape's over time, @chikn can go

As a player from Italy, I'm proud of our fellow Team Asians for our group stage run.

Just another ping for @FrostBeard, you've got 2 picks and 4 hours into the second one

D - Liv Slater G - Jesse Teno @chikn

1. I'm here for the vibes. Seriously though, I don't really have personal ambitions, just think it would be fun to see Halifax good again after some struggles. 2. I tend to be all or nothing, for better or worse. It's why I take seasons off between players to recharge, but when I'm here, I like testing myself to see what I can build by maxing out. 3. Recruitment! Would love to have new players join us to build something in Halifax, it's a great place to get some playing time quickly and learn the ropes. 4. A playoff bid's a good start. I'm not going to say that we should be a title contender immediately or anything, but with the randomness of the playoffs, you never know if you get there... 5. I'm excited to see how Kendra Cavill @Firekiss does. Kendra has a good start on building those goalie skills already, and think she could be a real key for this team to go far. 6. Enjoying it thus far! The main thing will be to keep bringing the positivity, and hope that I'm able to help with that on the boards and in the LR.

Just a heads up, noticed this when I was copying off other drafts for ideas - Wolanin's retired @STZ

D - Jacob Stone F - Todd Cooke @chikn

@Grape is over time, @chikn can jump in

Wooo line mate! Welcome!

Welcome all! You should come join Halifax, we've got playing time and a chance to build something fun here.

F - John Jameson @chikn

Running updated list: 1. @CowboyinAmerica F - John Jameson F - Todd Cooke F - Yaroslav Trunov D - Jacob Stone D - Liv Slater G - Jesse Teno 2. @chikn F - Larry Abass Jr F - Henry Eagles F - Alfred Champagne D - Rex Wolffe Gregor D - Kronchy Kardashian G - Art Vandelay 3. @Grape F - Wann Kerr F - Mac Atlas F - Left Alone D - Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage D - Leif Reingaard G - Olober Syko 4. @zepheter F - S*ubbed Analfist F - AK92 Wit Da Hoodie F - Jimi Jaks D - Pierre Emile Bouchard D - Simons Worst Nightmare G - Merome Dilson 5. @wcats F - Jasper Davis F - Molly the Cat F - Daryl Dixon D - Elias Lampi D - Skor McFleury G - Fuukka Rask 6. @FrostBeard F - Jason F - Grimgor Ironhide F - Nikolas Kauppi D - Mark Calaway D - Ben Laas G - Henry Tucker Jr.

Need SBA in Affiliates Something I'm not sure we've ever tried but might be worth looking into is podcast advertising. I don't listen to any hockey podcasts so I don't know the landscape, but do know they give a decent bang for the buck if we're getting back into the paid world.

Team Asia going to shootouts against the two strongest teams

Season 92 Donation Transaction ID: 55E67499FK049434C 5 Uncapped Doubles Week 1M Player Store