CowboyinAmerica

Review: 9/10 Good article! As somebody in the Titans system I've definitely been watching the top of the draft closely, and I definitely agree that these three have set themselves apart. My question is that all three are GMs of teams that might not be at the top of the draft, and will they want to play for teams that aren't their own? For the article itself, it was straightforward and organized well. I really appreciated the bolding of the names as well, though I wouldn't have minded a picture or headline, something else to spruce up the presentation. The other thing I'd note from the editor in me: Watch out for run-on sentences. Something like "He is expected to be a stud in the upcoming season, but he can work on his passing, however this sniper is in a good position to take the 1st overall spot." doesn't read that well and could be a split up. A few of those in this piece.

I'm claiming this next week, just wanted to do it now to help Blade with the podcast: 1.) how does it feel to be on a team that carries so much vhl history and was reborn in the the vhle? It's wild - it would be wild even if I wasn't on the team, frankly. I've been pushing for Vasteras to come back ever since even before they were gone, since I thought (and still think) it was a horrible decision to get rid of the league's villain. I hope this team's able to pick up the mantle. 2.) what does being involved in the first season of a new league mean to you? It was a main reason I recreated, honestly. The chance to make some history always appeals to me, and I'm glad I'm around to give it a shot. 3.) what do you think sets your team apart from others This team has like 3 GMs, 2 or 3 former GMs, and other members who have been here a long time. The amount of VHL experience here is actually kind of absurd. 4.) tell me something fun about your player I think I've settled that he's a literal ghost from the family on the Boo Berries cereal. Which you would think wouldn't make a good goalie, but you'd be wrong. 5.) any crazy team traditions There's an actual eagle that we have as a team mascot, and being as cold and dark as it is, we also have a lot of booze flowing around. If the eagle has a sip or two of beer after each win, who's to say... 6.) tell me about your fav player/ bestie on the team You'd think there would be a goalie rivalry, but Oskar Lindbergh and I get along real well. We're pushing each other to do better, which I think will only help when we're two of the top goalies in the league in a few seasons.

Vasteras, Sweden -- It has been a roller coaster early part of the season for the Vasteras Iron Eagles, and not just because the team's returning to VHL-branded hockey after 40 seasons away. It seems so far like the team just can't get on a run - every time they pick up the win, they inevitably seem to drop the next game. Break the season up in two game stretches, and they seem to go 1-1 almost every time. To be fair, that's also the case for many VHLE franchises, who have similar levels of talent due to a large player pool and an initial VHLE Draft that spread all those players out. But for the Iron Eagles players, it doesn't make them any less antsy. "Of course, I want to win a few games in a row," goaltender Xavier Booberry said. "I came here to win, and I'm hoping we can go on a run soon to do so." Booberry in particular has had a rough time getting in a rhythm. As the VHLE mandates that backup goalies start at least 20 games, the Iron Eagles have been splitting time between Booberry and Oskar Lindbergh in the early going. If the latter remains absent from practice, however, Booberry is set up to receive a large number of starts later in the season, where he hopes to build on his current .925 save percentage. "Overall I've been happy with my play, even after just eight games in the net," Booberry added. "I think we've got the talent to show something special this season, and I'm excited to get that chance."

Grabbing for this week 1. With this being the inaugural season of the VHLE, What do you think of the VHLE as of right now? I'm enjoying it so far. As to be expected with the inaugural draft, the teams are very close. It'll be an exciting one with a lot of back-and-forth down the stretch. 2. The Eagles, imho, had a good draft, which of your team mates are you most excited to see play this season? It's not too often you get two top five picks on the same line. It's going to be fun to see Kotkakoivu and Peace play off each other this season. 3. What are your goals for this season as a player, team, and organization? It's pretty straightforward: It's all about winning. I want to be the first VHLE champs, and I think we've got a good shot at doing that. 4. What is one crazy thing that has happened to you or a team mate since joining the Vasteras organization? Have you ever tried lutefisk? They tell you it's a Scandinavian custom and you have to at least try it. Trust me on this one: don't. 5. What is your pregame ritual? It's all about zoning out and getting in game mode. Some guys like to get hyped, but I go the other way - calming my mind gets me focused. 6. If you could give an award for best team mate so far who would it be and why? Armani Calamari has definitely been the most vocal in the locker room, and I appreciate that. I think he's going to be a star with how engaged he is.

1000+ words, claiming for the weeks ending 10/3 and 10/10

Two Number One Picks, But Much Different Eras In the S80 Draft, Xavier Booberry went first overall to the Helsinki Titans. This is a great honor, and one I certainly don’t take lightly. I also know the pressure that comes with that high draft position, though, because it’s the second time one of my players was taken first overall—the first was with the Seattle Bears, who selected Gabriel McAllister first in the S56 Draft. My run-up to the two drafts was fairly similar: Booberry had 357 TPE at draft time, McAllister had 313 due to a slightly shorter season. And while McAllister certainly had more team success in the VHLM, winning a Founder’s Cup with Saskatoon as part of two straight McAllister Playoff MVP runs, Booberry’s regular season VHLM MVP speaks to the success he had in his one full season as well. That’s why I thought it’d be fun to compare those two drafts, placing them side-by-side. But I think I forgot… well, just how much the VHL has changed in just 24 seasons. Take a quick look at this chart, then let’s break it down: Draft Spot S80 Player TPE at Draft S56 Player TPE at Draft Ending TPE 1 Xavier Booberry 357 Gabriel McAllister 313 1613 2 Matty Fire 350 Ay Ay Ron 236 771 3 Saku Kotkakoivu 352 Sergei Komarov 126 862 4 Oskar Lindbergh 287 Aackckqz Ky 216 270 5 Kyle Peace 324 Matthieu Bourdon 116 340 6 Corey Kitson 355 Ho Lee Fook 113 120 7 David Davis 286 Igor Mjers 54 70 8 Alessandro Nano 293 Kristjan Härmä 56 ??? 9 Vinny Detroit 366 Aeschylus Jigglejawns CXXXVIII 108 108 10 Hari Singh Nalwa 313 Mr. Shakedown 30 ??? 11 Nils Godlander 185 Emil Martinov 78 82 12 Logain Ablar 249 Augustus Gloop 58 201 13 Florida Man 222 Spicey 61 ??? 14 Zach Kisslinger II 246 VHLM Forever 72 72 15 Sven Eightnine 264 Brienne O'Tarth 67 128 16 Ryan Vidot 233 Jabby McFullO'Schmidt 59 71 The Good: That’s two Hall of Fame players leading the S56 Draft there! In addition to McAllister, Ay Ay Ron was Boubabi’s second player, at a time when multiple players were still a thing in the VHL. Ay Ay Ron was designed to be the defenseman counterpart to his already dominating Franchise Cornerstone at center, and both would go on to win a number of awards throughout their careers. And although not a Hall of Fame player, Gooningitup’s Komarov would have a solid career as an enforcer in Davos, still sitting in the franchise’s top ten all-time in both hits and shots blocked. The Bad: Let’s start with the fourth selection in the draft and explain who he was. Tagger’s secondary player, Aackckqz Ky, was an attempt to make a randomly-generated player. Literally every TPE that he received, he would go to Random.org to decide what attribute he would assign it to. At retirement, the defenseman had 56 in face-offs, 67 in penalty shot and 64 in leadership. This was the fourth overall pick in the draft. And he’s not considered an out-and-out, total bust in this class! Given that, Bourdon certainly provides at least some value—he played seven VHL seasons in total, bouncing between Seattle, Quebec City, Riga and New York in journeyman career. He even managed 69 points in his next-to-last season with the Americans. The undisputed steal of this draft, 12th pick Augustus Gloop (a second rounder in the 10 team league), only managed three VHL seasons, but somehow managed to win two titles with S58 Riga and S60 Helsinki. The Ugly: So let’s start here: Will’s secondary player, Ho Lee Fook was drafted sixth overall at 113 TPE. That would have placed him 39th among the Season 80 Draft class. Fook, by the way, would earn exactly 7 more TPE and would retire without playing a VHL game. You can say the same for secondary players from currently active members, such as IR’s Mjers or Muffins’ Jigglejawns, who straight up fell off the map despite nominally being first round picks. Indeed, it’s not hard to see why the two player experiment in the VHL failed overall. Trying to get TPE for two players caused most members to fall off the map (or in Boubabi’s case, banned). But even the first generation players didn’t offer much. A few had very brief spells in the VHL, such as 15th pick Brienne O’Tarth who had a few cups of coffee as a backup goalie. But even the depth pieces of this draft didn’t provide any depth at all, making any draft picks after roughly fifth overall effectively meaningless. Considering four of the next five picks after that point were acquired via trade, that’s not great. And then there’s three players that for their final totals, I have question marks. That’s because, when I tried to find their player pages via the S56 Draft, I was told that I don’t have permission to view them. I’ll assume this is because they made absolutely zero impact in the VHL and were eaten by the system immediately, or perhaps they were taken to a VHL Black Site and forced into labor to build the eventual Moscow stadium. My Takeaways: It’s clear how much the VHL has changed in the past 24 seasons, clearly for the better. The S56 Draft was a down season by any measure, but by standards of the time, it wasn’t absolutely unreasonable. The second overall pick of the S55 Draft had 109 TPE at draft time; the S57 Draft had more depth but only two players above 200 TPE at the draft. Those numbers were somewhat expected. And while the S80 Draft is a stronger than draft than normal, I don’t think it’s seen as outrageous on the other end of the spectrum. The expectations have changed. That’s why for me, I might say that my first overall with Booberry is even more fulfilling than my one with McAllister. There is clearly more competition in today’s VHL than there was 24 seasons ago, which excites me. It may end meaning that Booberry’s career isn’t as prolific, given the talent he’s now competing against. But that’s just fine by me, because I’ll take a healthy and competitive VHL over three-player draft classes any day.

Thanks! We're good to go here @Spartan

Almost. @NSG88 picked a third defenseman - please pick another forward who hasn't been picked from this post.

G - Doug Dimmadome @JB123 I'll update the main post tomorrow and will let anybody know with any issues.

@NSG88 Not only do you already have a goalie, you already picked that goalie. Please pick again.

F - Phil the Rock Johnson @NSG88

Sorry, don't have my laptop so I'll update the main post tomorrow. D - Lucifer Olivier Leveque @JB123

D - Reylynn Reinhart @NSG88

Review: 9/10 Welcome to your new player! It'll definitely be interesting to see whether the passing build works in the scoring meta - it's essentially what I was trying for with Flowers too, and even though his forward seasons seemed fine, it always seemed like he was leaving a little bit of potential on the table. I imagine it'll be the same for you, where you'll be a valuable team asset, but might not get what you want in terms of individual accolades. In terms of the article, it was well-written and flowed cleanly from beginning to end. If I have a nitpick it's that I wanted to hear even more about the new player and how you think things might work - I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, certainly, but Miglasķēms is where the juice is! Either way, really enjoyed the read, and best of luck!

Read this one anyway, so let's review it! Review: 10/10 I really enjoyed the conceit of this one, and as others said it's something that immediately encourages others to think up their own teams. (I have an idea or two where I'd adjust things, probably start from the goalie on the worst team out since there's so many around the same S75 TPE range, but don't know what that'd reveal.) The descriptions for each of the selections was excellent, as was the presentation where you included not only the teams and TPE figures, but the salaries as well which was a nice touch. There's not much else I'd think to add here, maybe a "just missed" or "other selections" bucket at the end if you were feeling like an overachiever? But all in all an excellent article, and would love to read this as an every season installment if you're up for it.

@STZ has two picks we're waiting on, so we're into the second 12 hour clock. Please pick soon if you can.

Oh damn, was very much not expecting that! Thank you to all who voted for me, really cool to have so early in my career. (Also sorry for beating you Numbers, please don't cut me in the ECFA.)

F - Duncan Idaho @JB123

I thoroughly appreciate the honor! Between McAllister and Olsen, I've spent near half of my VHL life on the Bears. I have a lot of love for the franchise, and it's cool to see one of my players now representing in the rafters as well. Also proud to have gotten you your first Bears title in what's become an illustrious career. Go Bears

It hasn't been announced, but I agree

I like the idea - I'm similar to NSG though where my timing's a bit spotty this weekend (at a wedding). So forum probably easier for me for this particular one.

F - Christian Mingle @NSG88

So I can update myself. I know a lot of you, please don't make me be a jerk 12 hours a pick, STZ starts on the clock. 1. @STZ F - Groovy Dude F - Taro Tsujimoto F - Cabe McJake D - Jiggly Gumballs D - Zeedayno Chara G - Jean Pierre Camus 2. @JB123 F - Asher Reinhart F - Aloe Dear F - Venus Thightrap D - Kristof Welch D - Kasper Kankkunen G - Thadius Sales 3. @CowboyinAmerica(GM) F - Christian Mingle F - Duncan Idaho F - Phil the Rock Johnson D - Reylynn Reinhart D - Lucifer Olivier Leveque G - Doug Dimmadome 4. @NSG88 F - Henry Tucker F - Tyler Reinhart F - Jivere Zolnek D - Robin Gilante Nilsson D - R G - Markus Emerson Jr. 5. @Timmy Turner F - Red Lite F - Gunnar Odinsson F - Brendan Telker D - Tom Eagles D - Scotty Kaberle G - Artem Tretiak 6. @Frank F - Druss Deathwalker F - Justin Lose F - Chris Reynolds D - Hard Markinsson D - Battre Sandstrom G - Rara Rasputin

I'm about to be so damn obnoxious.

The Rebuild Takes Shape in Helsinki Helsinki, Finland -- It was a busy night in the draft room for the Helsinki Titans, which along with Toronto held a large portion of the first three rounds of the Season 80 VHL Draft. And all in all, the Titans leadership should be happy with their haul, bringing in a host of rookies to one day join with young stars like Jonathan Ori and Gustislav Nasherov. The Titans seemingly had three sets of strategies throughout the night. First was securing the goalie of the future, which they did by making Marlins goalie Xavier Booberry the #1 overall pick. Then, their attention turned to secure the blue line, where Alessandro Nano (8th overall), Flynn Remy (18th overall) and Dookie Headtop (22nd overall) gives Helsinki a number of top-tier defensive options moving forward. Finally, it was all about the high-upside wingers, with Kyosti Karjalainen (25th overall), Bradley Buzzer (31st overall) and Gunnarwolfe Vomacka (34th overall) looking like potential linemates for Ori or another future center if they can keep up their training pace. It's notable that even since the draft last night, all seven of those rookies have already showed up to training camp, and all but Remy have signed their rookie contracts. To Booberry, it shows all the signs of a team that's hungry to grow and potentially compete for titles here in a few seasons. "I knew going in this would be a rebuilding project, but every new project needs its foundation," Booberry said in a post-draft interview. "Take everything this team's done tonight together, and it's clear we've got that base now. This is looking like a strong team in a few seasons already, and with so many picks next season and a lot of growing to do from these guys, I'm excited to see where it goes from here."