CowboyinAmerica

Nah. Higgins just simmed the first two VHLM games a day early, so he simmed just one VHLM game yesterday to let the VHL catch up. EDIT: Finals are still one game per day though

Funny you say that, because that's what I was just about to say. I'd totally create a coach and update his stats post-Wingate, just for the novelty of it.

XM Radio topic title, or porn spam? You decide!

Aatami Artturri posted that in June, eh? #Riggins confirmed.

The Rise of the Young Goalies Now that we’re at the end of the season, it’s essentially a toss-up who will win the Aidan Shaw trophy for Top Goaltender. Calgary’s Hans Wingate holds a slight advantage in both save percentage and goals against average over Quebec's Niklaus Mikaelson, while Mikaelson currently has the overall lead in both shutouts and wins. Voters can’t go wrong with either one, or even GAA-leader Blake Campbell, but in doing so the voters will be doing something that hasn’t happened in a while: picking a young goaltender. Hans Wingate is in only his second season past his draft year. Blake Campbell, meanwhile, is in his third, and Niklaus Mikaelson is in his fourth. Other positions have had recent young winners — Conner Low and Godavari Yumalatopinto both won Best Defenseman in their first three years, while O’Malley picked up Top Scorer in his fourth season last year. However, the recent trend at goaltender skews towards old goalies. Last ten Shaw Trophy Winners (Season after draft year in parentheses) S43: Martin Brookside (8th) S42: Martin Brookside (7th) S41: Mike Szatkowski Jr. (6th) S40: Lennox Moher (6th) S39: Eggly Bagelface (6th) S38: Tuomas Tukio (8th) S37: Tuomas Tukio (7th) S36: Remy LeBeau (6th) S35: Skylar Rift (5th) S34: Remy LeBeau (4th) You have to go all the way back to Season 34 before you get to another goalie who won the award in the first half of his career: Toronto’s Remy LeBeau. And going back even further, past the first four seasons of the VHL (in which every goaltender was at least that young), there have only been nine awards in 39 seasons in which the goaltenders were in their first four years post-draft, with only five trophies handed out to those players in the past 32 seasons. Goalies who won in first four seasons post-S4 (Season after draft year in parentheses) S34: Remy LeBeau (4th) S30: Marius Henchoz (4th) S25: Benjamin Glover (2nd) S21: Aidan Shaw (4th) S20: Aidan Shaw (3rd) S11: Steve LaFramboise (4th) S10: Benoit Devereux (2nd) S8: Alex Gegeny (4th) S6: Adrian McCreath (4th) This is where Hans Wingate could win some serious acclaim. As noted, there have only been two players that have won the trophy just one year after their draft year... and ironically, neither one was actually drafted. Benoit Devereux was assigned to Avangard (later Davos) via the GM rule, winning the award in his second season, as well as his fifth and sixth, en route to a Hall of Fame career. Streetlight’s Benjamin Glover, meanwhile, would win the award in his second and fifth seasons, both with New York after also being assigned there via the GM rule. There’s also another important point for both Wingate and Mikaelson, whichever one wins the award: six of the eight players on that list are in the Hall of Fame. The two that aren’t, meanwhile, have decent excuses. LaFramboise, with his then-exceptional 558 TPE, might be one of the biggest goaltender snubs from the Hall of Fame, sitting 16th in all-time wins, 13th in save percentage, 19th in GAA, and one Shaw Trophy and Continental Cup each despite only playing 364 games. Henchoz, meanwhile, was on his way to a similar career with Calgary, going 208-85-22 and sitting with a sixth-best all-time 2.09 GAA before retiring unexpectedly just 316 games into his career. One could argue that the relative weakness of the Season 37 through 39 draft classes has made the road easier for Wingate and Mikaelson, and you wouldn’t be wrong. With the high profile busts of S37 goaltenders Blaine Olynick and Kimmo Salo, S38 draftee Brock Waldron was the only older goaltender expected to put up a fight. Still, the accomplishment could set up a long, award-winning career for either Mikaelson or Wingate, with Campbell, Sinclair, Gow and others aiming to usurp the title with a run of their own next season.

Save percentage and GAA, you've got shutouts and wins. And each one of those categories is pretty damn even. Really wish I hadn't crashed the way I did down the stretch, but it's pretty much a toss up based on what each voter's criteria is.

3-2 Vikings

Wranglers Dynamo Wranglers Vikings

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I don't have a problem if you're willing to put in the work, why not? But I highly doubt it's sustainable if you personally are tired of the job/go inactive for a spell.

But trading Toronto's first was totally worth it! Fever had such an excellent not-even-full-season!

I'm really excited to see what Riga does, both with its pick and in general. Think the franchise could head in a bunch of different directions, probably the pivot point of the offseason.

Was waiting for a bad game somewhere in there, but all told, facing 42 shots and 9 power plays that's not terrible

If someone on Quebec has to be first star, I'm happy it's Bushito.

There's actually one of those that just opened a short bus ride away from me. Maybe I'll check it out sometime...

What, don't feel like defending... *quickly checks Wikipedia*... Chicken Cottage?

Wait, Olsen once led the league in 1st stars? In that case... Karnage for MVP! And these other 6 applied retroactively!

Wingate

While I appreciate the win, Eagles should really, really take me out against Helsinki please. EDIT: Although I have 5 games left, and other than Quebec (x2), Davos and New York, the rest of our games are against Seattle/Toronto/Riga/Helsinki, so whatever.