CowboyinAmerica

My third place spot lasted a whole two seasons.

Minot, ND -- All season, the Minot Gladiators were lurkers. Blessed with picking up Hans Wingate and Vogon Jeltz in the VHLM Draft, as well as Jack Ryan in free agency, the Gladiators have cruised to the second-best record in the North American Conference and the third-best record overall. All in all, it has been a successful season for a team that some did not expect to do much. However, if Minot was going to go anywhere in the playoffs, it needed to add some more firepower. And last week, it did just that. The team has picked up Season 44-eligble centers Tim TebowGow and Jefferson Jackson off of waivers, and the two players may just be the spark Minot needs moving forward. For all the hoopla surrounding his name, TebowGow may just be the perfect fit in the Minot first line. Flanked by high-scoring wingers Jeltz and Jacques Grande, TebowGow's nature as a pass-first center makes him a perfect fit. Given how well Ryan has done grabbing assists while on the same line as Jeltz, it wouldn't surprise the coaching staff if Gow finished with 30 assists over the season's final 20 games. Jackson, meanwhile, provides a huge boost to the team's second line, which has struggled in recent weeks. Already having put in work in practice to become a pass-first center, Jackson should slot in nicely in the middle with assistant captain Edgar Balthazar and former center Shawndre Bović to his outside. Also, if he works enough during the latter part of the season, he may just be named to the top line for the playoffs. "I think we can do this," Wingate told reporters following the waiver signings. "I know not many people give us a shot against Brampton, but in a seven game series, anything can happen. And our chances have improved by having these guys on the team."

Don't call it a comeback With all of the hype about a close playoff race, it may seem odd to see a Trade Deadline come and pass with as much movement as a sumo wrestler following Thanksgiving dinner. The Bears, Legion, Vikings, Express and Dynamo all seem to be on the playoff bubble, yet not a single one made a move to try and improve heading into the homestretch of the season. There are plenty of potential reasons for this stagnation, and it suffices to say that the league’s general managers are not particularly happy about the idea. However, when looking for deadline help, it seems that many GMs were looking in the wrong direction. Entering Season 42, former Seattle Bears and Cologne Express winger Karsten Olsen sat third on the all-time hits list, 11th on the all-time penalty minutes list, and tied for 12th on the all-time games played list. There aren’t many players in VHL history who have been roughed up as many times as Olsen. And yet, there is one main fact that seems to have escaped many VHL GMs. “I never actually retired,” Olsen tells Sports Illustrated. “Go ahead and try and look for my name in the retired players’ paperwork. You won’t find it. As far as I’m concerned, I’m still able and willing to play.” The saga of Olsen’s Season 41 preseason, unknown before now, reads like a corporate layoff. Fresh off of a Season 40 run to the European Conference finals with Cologne, and just after starting on the first line for Scandinavia in the Season 40 World Cup, Olsen was all ready to field calls in free agency. However, the calls never came. And when Olsen went to Cologne’s arena to get in some time in practice, he found that his key to enter the building no longer worked. “It was like I was discarded. I went from hero to zero in approximately three seconds. That shift... it was jarring to say the least,” Olsen says. Will we see the return of Karsten Olsen? That depends: Will the VHL play by its own Rule Book? VHL management pointed to the Rule Book to say that Olsen was no longer in the league following Season 40. Convention – and the practices of every player in league history – have dictated that a player plays no more than eight seasons following the year he was drafted into the VHL. However, the actual Rule Book itself says no such thing. In the main VHL Rule Book, there is no section regarding retirement, only the lack of a structure for awarding a player’s salary past his or her eighth season. In addition, in the league office retirement division, there is no mandatory basis for retiring after eight seasons. Not even the player creation guide provides information about forced retirement. The only mention of forced retirement that our reporters could find comes buried in depreciation statutes, which include the utterly vague claim “towards your Eight [sic] seasons of VHL eligibility.” Olsen’s lawyers do not believe that a forced retirement would hold up in court due to the lack of league guidance. As a result, Karsten Olsen continues to believe that he should be eligible for free agency. And, given the lack of a minimum contract in the VHL Rule Book, he believes that he can do so for free, which could be a boon to teams such as Helsinki that are flush up against the cap. There is also no basis for depreciation past a player’s eighth year, and Olsen would argue that this means he has the same skills as he did in Season 40. However, he is willing to work with the league to knock down his attributes an additional 9 percent for his ninth season, using the same “previous season + 2 percent” formula already in place. So, will a team take the plunge? Olsen is certainly willing to find out, with his former teams in Seattle and Cologne at the top of his list. “I don’t really want to fight the VHL, but I will if I have to,” Olsen says. “If Encarnacion and Reencarnacion can be in the league at the same time, with only one of them in the VHL and the other updating in the VHLM, then so can Olsen and Wingate. It’s only right to allow this.” Will it be the Bears, the Express, or another team that gets Olsen's services?

Here's my Other: With only 10 teams, and with 6 of those making the playoffs, you need to adjust your expectations a little bit. In the NHL, you have 7-8 teams that could be massive sellers at any one time, with another 7-8 teams at the top who are buyers and willing to give up young assets. In the VHL, there simply isn't as much from the supply side. This season, you have just Calgary and Riga (and perhaps Davos, who has all young guys). Those teams sold off top players as it was, and if even two players - hi there McQueen and Encarnacion - don't want to be traded or won't be traded for other reasons, there aren't players from other teams who are able to replace them on the market.

It's hard for me to figure out who to root for in the West 8 seed race. Watch Russell Westbrook get to the playoffs and go insane, or watch Anthony Davis get to the playoffs and go insane?

Claimed

Claimed

Claimed

So he gets sent down to Ottawa? Which makes the first round of the NA playoffs Jefferson Jackson (Minot) v. Bobby Ricky? Storylines!

Wooo! Love it, especially the jersey change.

I do think it's boom or bust, and I've been burned picking 5 seeds far before. But I didn't want to pick chalk (3 other 1 seeds in the Final Four for me), not a Gonzaga fan, and too many people picking Iowa State. Buffalo's my 12 seed, actually picking a bracket collapse in Kentucky's region (11, 12, 13 all winning)

We all like a shocker every once in a while, right? Anyyyyyyyway, Utah to the Final Four is my pick that will inevitably eliminate me from every pool.

Reminder if people are interested. Games start tomorrow!

Not that I'm arguing because he probably did good things as VHLM Commissioner, but dude won two-way forward with one hit every three games?

Because I think it's possible (if not likely) that you'll have too much TPE and not able to stay down another season...

For people who are interested then: https://yho.com/tourney?g=195040&k=db67e94847e8cd54 Password is "gimmetpe"

I'm curious how that extra updater TPE would go anyway. "Yeah, you updated... exactly as many weeks as everyone else! Congrats, I think!" (Would also argue against your point that updating takes more time, at least if you're grading correctly.)

So what I'm reading from this is that we both go inactive at the same time, then Shaka comes back.

Gladiators 4-2

Man, you did not pick easy ones this time. Gladiators Red Wolves Rush Blades

Ah, so that's the master plan: Bait Calgary into drafting Wingate, Savage gets active and forces Wingate inactive, Seattle wins NA with no competition once Quebec/Toronto grow older. I see your ruse.

Minot, ND -- We're not even two-thirds of the way through the Minot Gladiators' season, but already, goaltender Hans Wingate has reached one of his goals. Even if he sat for the rest of the season, Wingate would receive his full VHLM bonus heading into the draft this year - an extra 20 practice hours to spend however he wanted. The manner by which he'd receive that bonus is laid out in the VHLM Achievement Tracker. Wingate has already started 40 games - that's 5 points. Another 6 points come from his 34 wins, third-best in the league. From there, his three shutouts give him another 9 points, totaling 20 before the goalie even looks at his save percentage. "It feels nice knowing that I'm going to get my full compliment of points heading into the VHL," Wingate says. "I've been working hard, and it's nice to know that it pays off in one way." He will be receiving his points, that is, unless the commissioners of the league decide to change the criteria by which these points are handed out. It is rumored that one commissioner in particular, stationed in Riga, has it out for Wingate and has already made moves to bar him from joining the Reign franchise in the draft. As a result, so his move in a different direction doesn't look as bad, don't be surprised if the Blue Team changes the criteria to "must have played 50 games outside the United States" or something similar, just to catch Wingate in a pickle.

The benefits of VHLM tanking The Saskatoon Wild are bad. And I don’t mean, “Oh, this will be a boring game” bad. I mean, “What is this sport that you are attempting to call hockey” bad. Through 46 games, the Wild have managed to be leading or tied after 60 minutes of play exactly three times, an almost staggeringly impressive in its awfulness 6.5 percent of the time. Of those three games, two have come against the almost-as-bad Bratislava Watchmen, while I can only assume the Yukon Rush goalie 2 Gud ingested poison before allowing five goals to Saskatoon on Day 39. But of course, this is all part of the plan. The Wild have two first round picks next season including Brampton’s, and at this rate, the team will be locked in to choosing first or second in what should be a loaded draft. All the struggles this season are geared towards a big run in Season 43. Will that run actually materialize, however? A glance at the five worst last-place VHLM teams since Season 31 expansion reveals that the odds may be in Saskatoon’s favor – as long as the general manager is patient enough to keep building. Season 33 Bern Royals – 23 points – S34 Finals It was a clear race to the bottom for the Royals, as they finished 11 points back of the similarly-tanking Oslo Storm, then an additional 29 points back of any other VHLM team. Perhaps the only player of note was goalie Vladimir Bodnar, who would go on to have a mediocre VHLM career. The next season, though, was indisputably better, with Bern finishing with 118 points, good for first in the European Conference and second overall behind the Yukon Rush. With the tank-given first pick in the draft, Bern selected Mikey Blade, who would finish with a league-leading 113 goals. Even though the team fell 4-1 to Yukon in the finals, it’s tough to call the previous season’s tanking a failed endeavor. Season 37 Ottawa Lynx – 19 points – S39 Championship The Ottawa Lynx were in an odd position in Season 37; the team was racing to the bottom, but it was joined in its endeavor by the Brampton Blades, who finished with 20 points. Once the team successfully tanked, however, it did not do the Bern strategy and muscle its way through the next season. Instead, it traded back out of the first pick of the Season 38 draft, instead gearing up for Season 39 by simply sneaking in to the Season 38 playoffs. It paid off; with guys like Aelred Leskowsky around for multiple seasons and five first round picks from trading back, Ottawa won it all in Season 39. Season 38 Bratislava Watchmen – 15 points – S40, S41 Championship The same season that Ottawa was building its team, Bratislava decided to undertake a tanking effort of its own. It certainly succeeded in that aspect; its 15 points trailed ninth-place Minot by 44. However, the team also finished with a near-perfect imitation of Ottawa’s two season strategy. After trading out of the Season 39 draft for more picks and tanking once again that year (26 points), Bratislava came back with a vengeance and four of the first six picks of the Season 40 draft. Thanks to guys who stuck around two years, it worked out nicely for the squad; they’ve won the last two VHLM championships. Season 40 Turku Outlaws – 18 points – The one bust Seeing Ottawa and Bratislava’s successes, Turku decided to take a similar tactic in Season 40, trading away the farm for a shot at the first selection. In fact, not a single player from Season 40 would be on Turku’s roster the next season. However, the franchise took a similar plan from Season 33 Bern, trying to muscle to a championship the very next year. It didn’t work. Despite the strong play of first round selection AC Savage, the team was not quite able to overcome the already-built Bratislava juggernaut. Then, when Bratislava fell in Season 42 (and with Savage and Sinclair going to the pros), the team hasn’t had quite enough in the tank to maintain success. Season 41 Ottawa Lynx – 9 points – S43 Championship? So, which will it be for Ottawa: the success of its previous teams from Season 38-39, or a flame out similar to recent Turku? If I had to guess, I’m going with the former. By trading back for extra picks and snagging still-active players such as Thomas Duddy and Jorma Ruutu who are likely to stay down for one more season, Ottawa may very well be the prohibitive favorite going into next season. All the team needs is a goaltender (which it will have the ammo to trade for), and we may be talking about this team in the exact same cycle as the Ottawa squad from just four seasons prior.

I think you should work on your dirty talk a bit, not even remotely turned on