CowboyinAmerica

A bunker beneath Vasteras -- As we near the VHL trade deadline, GMs are approaching divergent paths. Some are looking to shore up short-term needs. Others are looking more long-term with the rebuilds. And, if rumors are to be believed, some are looking very, very long-term. According to anonymous reports, there is one deal being worked out that would see Team A trade a current defenseman to Team B for a future pick and a S96 third. However, very importantly, that pick would be a conditional pick that would not convey until Season 168. If Team B merely makes the playoffs in Season 166, Team B would send a S168 second that would return for the S96 third. But if Team B makes the finals in Season 166, a S168 first would be heading back to Team A. This sort of groundbreaking deal is only possible due to VHL leadership's interpretation of a recent trade between Vancouver and Warsaw. According to this interpretation, it doesn't matter when the future pick actually is - as long as it's eligible to be traded when the condition is met. Since S168 picks are eligible to be traded following the S166 playoffs, this trade occurring in Season 96 would seemingly be totally legal if executed. "It's a gray area," our tipster said, pointing to a rather black-and-white area of the VHL rulebook. "The two GMs and the player wanting to be traded told me so." Already, reports say that Team A is excited for which future great-grandchildren of future VHL stars they will receive in the future. All they have to hope for is that the VHL won't contract either team, or that the VHL still exists, or that we avoid the heat death of the universe. But, sources add, that is a chance all are willing to take. I don't actually care about any of this, I just find the insistence that it's totally fine very funny.

You see, because we don't know exactly which illegal trade is going to be made right now, that makes it legal. Or something.

Claim 3

1. Thoughts on this season’s theme “VHL Lore”? It's a fun theme, I hope people take it as an opportunity to dive into the league's history a bit. Some of that stuff may only be evident if you've been around a while though. 2. If you had to put all your remaining TPE into one attribute, what would it be? Is this bait to try and get me to talk about the Leadership meta? Because it's working, everybody should go for Leadership! 3. Historically, who do you think is Davos’ biggest rival? Historically I think it has to be one of the original teams in Europe, which only leaves a few. I'll say it's Helsinki - I have fond memories of a lot of fights between the two when they've been good at the same time. 4. Besides Davos, which VHL/E/M team name/branding stands out most to you? Going back to the original teams, I do like Riga's. The orange is unique, as is the team name, and I think the logo change a few seasons ago worked well. 5. Are there any moves/additions we need to make for our squad as we approach the trade deadline? I'm not totally sure. I feel like a lot of the top of Europe is pretty even, so I think it might just be luck of the draw when we all get to the playoffs. 6. What jersey number does your player wear? Why it's 11 of course! Because that looks the most like noodles to me and, of course, bucatini and all that.

(Especially since I'm on vacation) Can I count last week's article? Victory Cup curse sure seems like lore to me.

LEADERSHIP META GANG LET'S RIIIIIIIDE

1500+ words, claiming for the weeks ending: 11/3 11/10 11/17

Where Winners Aren't Winners Seeing as it’s still rather early in the season, I was floundering a bit on something to write for this week. But then today’s game thread sparked an interesting thought: It’s called the Victory Cup curse in some circles, the idea that the league’s best team won’t actually win the championship in the playoffs. At a glance, it’s a bit absurd that the Victory Cup winner wouldn’t actually win the title - they’re the best team, and have an easier road to the finals due to seeding, right? On the other hand, the playoffs introduce an element of randomness that can be tough to overcome. If all 8 teams that make the quarterfinals were assumed to be equal (excluding the two Wild Card losers, since Victory Cup winners get a bye), then each team would win 1/8 or 12.5% of the team. So I decided to look in recent history: Is there a Victory Cup curse? Here’s how Victory Cup winners have done in recent memory, dating back to S80 and the VHLE era. S95 Moscow Menace (108 points): Quarterfinals loss to Davos 4-0 Was this entire article a conceit to bring up that Moscow got swept by a semi-still-rebuilding Davos last season? It’s not, but I’m certainly not going to argue the side effect. This will be Spartan’s number one data point for a while that good Moscow teams might actually be cursed. S94 Toronto Legion (111 points): Finals loss to Moscow 4-2 I’m not sure I would necessarily call it a curse if the top team in the regular season makes it to the finals and takes that series to six games. Still, it stings a bit that this was comparatively a down Moscow team that finished fifth in the conference and had to go through the wild card game before their miracle run. Victory Cup curse? Prognosis: maybe. S93 Malmo Nighthawks (106 points): Quarterfinals loss to Moscow 4-1 Or maybe it’s just a curse that Victory Cup teams will either lose to Moscow, or be Moscow and thus cursed themselves. This was admittedly a tough European Conference season where the top five teams finished between 106 and 91 points. So it’s not really a massive upset for Malmo here, more an unfortunate circumstance. S92 Malmo Nighthawks (110 points): Quarterfinals loss to London 4-0 I will say though, this sweep stings a lot more for the Nighthawks. London isn’t a bad team for sure, finishing with 88 points and the four seed in the regular season. But for a Malmo team that finished 12 points clear of its closest competition in the regular season, they certainly would have wanted at least one playoff victory. S91 HC Davos Dynamo (105 points): Quarterfinals loss to Helsinki 4-2 OK, so I went into this concept with the hypothesis that maybe Victory Cup winners didn’t do as poorly as the general perception thought. But nope, this is yet another team (from Europe, naturally) that fell to the wild card winner in the quarterfinals. Helsinki this season barely scraped into the playoffs by one point over Prague, but would go on to take the finals to six games. S90 HC Davos Dynamo (106 points): Semifinals loss to Prague 4-1 Hooray, it’s a team that was able to win their first playoff series! And in semi-commanding fashion at that, taking down London in six games! But unfortunately for Davos, that was the end of the road. Prague was indeed a good team though, finishing with 100 points themselves and going on to take the title in a sweep over L.A. S89 Moscow Menace (104 points): Quarterfinals loss to Prague 4-2 Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A dominant regular season European Conference team goes into the playoffs and gets stomped by a wild card team that has around 80-ish points. This time, it was Moscow on the receiving end from Prague. OK, starting to understand why Spartan would believe there’s a curse here. S88 Prague Phantoms (103 points): Quarterfinals loss to London 4-1 Maybe the entire point of this article is just me proving to myself that I didn’t pay enough attention to the Victory Cup curse. This also happened to be my final season with Xavier Booberry, and Seattle finished one point out of the Victory Cup. Considering that the Bears would go on to take London to Game 7 of the finals, maybe I should be thankful we didn’t get one more win. S87 Vancouver Wolves (106 points): Quarterfinals loss to Seattle 4-1 You may be saying, “Oh my dear CIA, it’s clear this is a European problem! Just wait until we get back on the civilized North American shores.” Well, my hypothetical straw man friend, that doesn’t change things it seems. Vancouver finished 9 points up on every other team in S87, but it wasn’t enough to save them from a 74 point Seattle upsetting them in their first series. S86 Calgary Wranglers (107 points): Quarterfinals loss to Vancouver 4-1 Of course, S87 couldn’t have hurt that bad for the Wolves, because they were on the other foot the previous season. The Wranglers beat out every other team by at least 7 points in the regular season, but the wild card Wolves dispatched them with ease in five games. I’m running out of things to say about these series that are all ending the same exact way. S85 Warsaw Predators (108 points): Semifinals loss to Moscow 4-0 A dominant Warsaw team in a pretty even S85 regular season (only one other team finished over 90 points), and to be fair, Warsaw did at least reach the conference finals. The only problem is, they were swept once there by an 88 point Moscow team, who would go on to lose in the finals to a 84 point D.C. team. C'est la vie. S84 Moscow Menace (114 points): Semifinals loss to Warsaw 4-3 Maybe the strongest team of the past dozen seasons, Moscow put up a dominant 114 points and cleared their next closest competitors in Europe by 18 points. So what happened? They lost in the conference finals of course! It was a close series to be fair, and Warsaw went on to win the title, but still another disappointment in a long line of them. S83 Seattle Bears and Moscow Menace (113 points): Seattle beats Moscow in finals 4-3 So we finally have a Victory Cup team winning a title… kind of! Interestingly enough, it’s our first tie with Seattle and Moscow both ending the season with 113 points. Those two teams would also be the two to reach the finals, with the Bears winning the championship in seven games. So maybe it’s a half success for the Victory Cup champ? That’s how I’ll count it. S82 Vancouver Wolves (110 points): Finals victory over Moscow 4-0 If S83 was a half victory for the Victory Cup champ, then we have a definitive date in S82 that the Victory Cup curse was no more. The Wolves were fairly dominant in the regular season thanks to their meta shenanigans (leading to hybrid attributes soon after), but even moreso in the playoffs by sweeping both the conference championships (over L.A.) and the finals en route to victory. Finally, we have a team that capitalized on the potential that it showed during the regular season. S81 Vancouver Wolves (118 points): Finals victory over Moscow 4-2 Another dominant regular season resulted in another championship run for Vancouver. In this case, it wasn’t as easy of a road in the playoffs with Calgary taking Vancouver to seven games in the conference finals. But again, it shows that the Victory Cup curse wasn’t always a thing, just a recent phenomenon. S80 Vancouver Wolves (118 points): Finals victory over Moscow 4-3 Just including this one for completeness sake that Vancouver also won the Victory Cup in each of their threepeat seasons. But it’s also funny to see that they beat Moscow each of those times. So what have we learned today? There’s a definitive date that the Victory Cup curse started: Season 84, ironically with one of the more dominant Moscow teams in a long-time. Since the Vancouver threepeat and the Seattle-Moscow tie in S83, Victory Cup teams have only been to the finals once (S94) and have never won it. On the flip side, Victory Cup winners in the last 10 seasons have gone 2-8 in their opening series. That’s a bit insane actually - a statistically unexpected outcome even if the teams were assumed to be even, let alone that the team on the losing end is supposed to be the projected winner. All in all, this tells me that the Victory Cup curse is absolutely real, and the Moscow Menace should start tanking games right now to try and avoid it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

1. Happy Halloween week, fellow Davids! As of Monday, we are third in the EU. How many points do you predict we will end up with by the end of the regular season? Has to be better than last season, right? So I'll say it's a 99 point season - which given the strength of the top of the conference could still be third. 2. How do you think the league should further incentivize activity and content production from users? It's a tough one, because I do think the league does a good job already. I kind of like the balance personally - I'd spend more efforts in recruiting new people than tweaking the formula for pre-existing ones. 3. There are some amazing, funny, and interesting player names in the VHL. Do you have a favorite (that’s not your own)? I do like Logen Ninefingers, as somebody who's read through Joe Abercrombie's whole catalog. You have to be realistic. 5. Do you believe enforcers will eventually be phased out of hockey? Depends on your definition. Dudes just looking for a fight? Probably. But somebody who's primarily out there to lay out big hits and intimidate still has a role. 7. Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not? Now that I'm old and have a house I pass out candy. But that counts as celebrating Halloween to me - probably going to have some spiked cider, see a lot of fun costumes from kids and have a grand time. 8. How early is too early to listen to Christmas music? You gotta wait until after Thanksgiving. It's more just a function of burning yourself out too early - good things come to those who wait.

I've long advocated for the opposite direction: Location distinctions are pretty much meaningless in a sim league anyway, just get rid of conferences. (Also gets rid of the scenario that's going to happen this year where 6th place in NA will have 30 more points than 5th in Europe.)

Lol I was about to say very much not me. Good read though!

1. How do you feel about your player’s performance so far now that we are around a week into sims? Pretty solid, more than a point per game so far is a positive. And more importantly the 8-2 record, Davos coming out strong so far. 2. What goals do you hope to achieve by the time your current player’s career is over? A title. That's really just it - it may sound a bit conceited, but I've gotten a lot of the MVPs and HOFs and stuff. But I haven't won a title since S61, and I really want another. 3. Should hybrid attributes also be applied to goalies? I think it's time, more than anything just to shake up the meta. Having built a few good goalies, the build pattern is pretty obvious at this point and I'd like to see something new. 4. How long have you been a member of the VHL? Has anything drastically changed since then (besides the VHLE folding)? Too long. Way too long. The sim league landscape is a very different place than it was in Season 32, but I think a lot has changed for the better, both in terms of activity and how people treat each other. 6. Which Davos player would you want on your zombie apocalypse survival team? Is there another answer other than Grimgor? Give me a raging orc that can take down zombies with one check, and I'll just stay back here and be happy. 8. What is your favorite candy? Big Reese's Pieces person over here. I love peanut butter in general, and something that mainlines peanut butter into my system can only be a positive.

Claim 4

Now announcing a temporary nickname for the season: Antonia Jokinen

1. Did your player participate in any tournaments this offseason? Not this offseason, an offseason for the World Cup. I'm very excited for upcoming Team Europe though, think we're going to grow into something special. 2. What have you done to keep yourself busy this offseason? Specifically staying not busy. Everybody needs some time to rest and relax, and it means I can focus more when the season is actually here. 3. Was there any VHL FA signing or trade that shocked you? Not that it shocked me, but I am both happy and interested to see Dilson here in Davos now. A long and illustrious career, here's to hoping we send him out on a high note! 4. Who would you consider your player’s rival? I don't know about rival, but a lot of people pair Bucatini and Gianfranco del Rocco together. Rival? Lover? It's such a fine line. 5. What do you think about the nine season length of a VHL career? Would you make it shorter? Longer? I think it's fine. If I had absolute authority, I do think the previous eight season career was a bit cleaner just because people get burnt out at the end. But I can't argue too much, especially with a 400 TPE VHLM limit designed to keep players down another season. 6. What is the best-looking jersey in the NHL? I'm a sucker for the real traditional looking ones, so it might be the Leafs for me. But I will say - the Kraken color and logo combo does call to me.

Davos, Switzerland -- Last season, HC Davos Dynamo could be considered ahead of the curve. After multiple seasons of making the playoffs, just getting into the wild card would have been considered a success - but the team did that and more, going on a Cinderella playoff run and taking the eventual champions to six games in the European Conference finals. What will they do for an encore? If the offseason is any indication, a European Conference finals may now be the expectation, rather than the result of a miracle run. In comes three top-flight players that encompass all parts of the ice: forward Owen Lazaro, defensive player Mina, and goalie Merome Dilson. All three come with extensive experience - and crucially, extensive playoff experience - and add some veteran savvy to what had previously been a very young Davos team. "It's clear the rebuild's over. If we weren't here before, we certainly are now," said third-year center Antonia Bucatini. "No excuses, we're moving into win or bust mode." Will that put pressure on Davos' young players? Time will tell. It's notable that, alongside those veterans, Davos still does have two rising rookies in the starting lineup in forward David Pastanap and defensive player Alfonse Desjardins. But Bucatini believes that combination of veteran leadership and youthful energy will propel the team forward. "Davos is here, and we're going to be here a while. It's on us to figure it out now," Bucatini added. "I know better than to give a soundbite and predict a championship or anything. But trust me: I like where we're at, and I think we'll be even stronger this season."

Claim 3

1. The offseason is moving along. Do you have any thoughts about Davos’ S96 first round pick: Victory Hockey League? (What a stellar player name.) Glad to have them on board! Having the whole VHL may help our STHS karma, but more immediately it's great having another potential young defensive player as our current ones get older. 2. What are your goals for this upcoming season? My main goal is always winning the championship, but I do think it'd be cool to try and hit 100 points. With the talent on this team this season, if I get a bit better as a facilitator I think it can be done. 3. Are you aiming for any individual awards with your player? Probably not this season, third season in the VHL is always a bit of an intermediate time. But especially as I start to top 1100 TPA soon, I'm hoping that MVP talks aren't too far-fetched a dream. 4. As per tradition, give us your bold VHL prediction for S96! A team with less than 60 points is going to make the playoffs in Europe this season. It may be a race to tank with all of Prague, London, Warsaw and Helsinki, and at least one of the four has to make the playoffs. 5. How do you feel about the VHLM’s hard cap now being 400? I'm really curious to see how it goes. The argument against such a high cap in the VHLM was that it'd ice out stats from newer players joining. I hope that doesn't happen, but happy to see the full rosters. 7. Are you more of a cat person or a dog person? As I type this with one dog next to my feet and another curled up on the couch across the room, personally a dog person. Nothing against cats, I just like the immediate feedback and fun that dogs bring.

Transaction ID: 3DV87947FF7777820 $1M Player Store Cash 5 TPE Uncapped Doubles Week

Davos, Switzerland -- Following an unexpected run to the European conference finals last season, many expected that Davos would be aggressive in shoring up the team to make a similar run in S96. And through the beginning of the offseason, the team has done just that, looking to bolster the overall young roster with a few veteran presences that Davos hopes will put the team over the top. First, Davos brought in former Vancouver forward Owen Lazaro. Entering his final year before retirement, Lazaro brings another scoring option for a team that often had to rely on its defense to win games last season. But that defense saw some love as well, with Davos shipping off defenseman Sunset Moth to bring in fellow S91 defensive player Mina in a swap of players and picks. "Lazaro and Mina are both players I've played against in the past, so I know how good they are," said center Antonia Bucatini at the team's practice facility soon after the trades. "Coming from Vancouver and Seattle, they know how to play in the playoffs too. I'm certain they can get in here and teach us a few things." With those two players in the fold, Davos does have $4 million in available cap room, but the roster is by and large set - especially with three players (Pastanap, Desjardins, and BjorkBrjoksen) graduating from the VHLE. It's not a Title or Bust season with all of the young players, but some believe that a title is indeed a reasonable goal. "Last season we just wanted to make the playoffs. But I think we're ready for the next step," Bucatini added. "Do I think we can be one of the best teams in Europe? Yeah, I do. And now I'm really excited to show it on the ice."

1. After our performance this past playoffs, how do you feel about the state of Davos as a team? Feeling really positively. Getting as far as we did puts us ahead of our timeline honestly, and I think we just keep growing together from here. 2. With the draft coming up, we currently sit at the 10th selection! What position do you think we need the most? Honestly, we're really in a position where it's best player available. Maybe defense I suppose with Laas getting up there in age, but I think a talented player who fits in the LR is paramount. 3. Did your player perform as you expected this season? Bucatini did - I knew it would be very tough to keep up with my rookie season's 93 point pace, but averaging more than a PPG during the playoffs was nice to see. 4. Do you believe offseasons should be shorter? Or is this the perfect amount of time between each season? I'm good with two weeks. It gives a bit of hype for things like the draft and even the end of the playoffs, and lets people recharge before the next season. The alternative is something like the SBA does with starting the offseason events during the playoffs, but I think that just takes away interest from everything going on. 6. What piece of advice would you give a first-gen VHLer? Don't take everything super seriously. The point of sim leagues is to be fun, and it's fun to engage and go hard with jobs and interest. But if you feel yourself being burned out, it's OK to step back for a bit. 8. Have you ever traveled internationally? If so, to what countries? I have! And honestly more in the past 8-ish years than my whole life before that. In that time, been to Canada, Mexico, England/Scotland, Spain, Bolivia, Bonaire, Vietnam and Cambodia. Probably doing China and who knows what else next year.

2000+ words Claiming for the weeks ending: 10/6 10/13 10/20 10/27

CIA’s Long, Likely Wrong S96 Mock Draft We’re at the best time of year again. Finally, we don’t have to pretend like we’d be able to pinpoint Riga on a map, or try and define what a Legion is and why it would apply to hockey. Now that unimportant things like the actual games are behind us, we can all pay attention to what actually matters: baseless speculation on teams’ futures based on absolute guesses about the draft. Yes, it’s mock draft season once again. Drafts tend to have a certain flavor depending on the season, ranging from stacked to weak to confusing. I wouldn’t be surprised if this year’s draft ends up somewhere in the latter - there are some strong prospects to be sure, but it’s also not a Superdraft. If I had to guess, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the best players in this draft are first gens who aren’t getting hype right now, and end up passing some of the recreates that are already showing some signs of inconsistent earning. Of course, especially in a draft like this, that makes it an absolute fool’s errand to try and predict where everybody is going to go. Luckily for all of you, I’m just that kind of fool. Here’s one person’s guess what’s going to happen in the upcoming draft, based on little but my own perception of team needs and some guesses about how players will end up in the future. And as always, if you don’t like where I’ve slotted your player, you should absolutely take it as a personal slight against your character. Let’s get to picking! All TPE totals are accurate as of Sunday afternoon. 1. Prague Phantoms: D Pan Daffleck, Saskatoon Wild - 389 TPE, @OrbitingDeath Not having last year’s first certainly stung, but now the Prague rebuild can truly begin in earnest. But the top of this draft is a bit interesting - the top three players by TPE are on the blue line, but do you really want your rebuild to begin with a defenseman? It’s a genuine question, but there’s one piece of wisdom that supercedes everything else: When you see an OrbitingDeath player, you take them and ask questions later. Considering the agency’s previous defenseman Condor Adrienne was a Hall of Famer who won 12 individual awards, I think Prague would be just fine beginning the rebuild that way. The one caveat: Since this team does need a lot of depth, I wouldn’t be shocked by a trade down to restock the cupboard either. 2. Helsinki Titans: C Brandon Petan Jr, Ottawa Lynx - 342 TPE, @sadie Now this one is more of a question for new Titans GM McLovin. River Harrington is sitting there as the highest TPE player on the board, and Helsinki does only have one player on defense younger than S90. But on the other hand, that player was last year’s first rounder Ahsoka Tano, and I have a hard time believing they would go D in back-to-back seasons - especially with a strong center like Petan Jr on the board. Petan gives the Titans a tailor-made replacement for the retiring Tullemore Dew, and would be the first line center of the future next to Maple Dogwood and Isaac mclflopper. I don’t think you could go wrong either way, but the utility of a first-line center is just a bit too much to ignore. 3. D.C. Dragons: D River Harrington, Ottawa Lynx - 370 TPE, @kirbithan The other team entering the offseason with a new GM, things might actually be a bit more straightforward for Qripll specifically because the cupboard is more bare. Konstyantyn Shevchenko, Harold Benson and DB IV are solid pieces to begin the rebuild in earnest, but if the Dragons are to take the next step, they really need one of the top talents available. Harrington is just that, giving the team its newest top defensive player on the future to go with the top forward of the future in Shevchenko. I don’t see them reaching for someone like Youre Not Fucking Retiring if this is the board, making this one a fairly straightforward pick. 4. London United: G Deadpanda, Las Vegas Aces - 285 TPE, @Alex This is where I think things could get interesting. Similar to Prague, the cupboard is pretty bare in London as they’re entering a full rebuild. Similar to Prague, a forward or defenseman would really help to establish a tentpole that the rest of the team could then build around. But unlike the first pick of the draft, there isn’t an OrbitingDeath sitting there. So, would London take the best player available in Alagsantere Groenvold? I could certainly see it - but I also wouldn’t be shocked by an alternative move. With the Alex agency coming off a potential future Hall of Famer in Skor McFleury, Deadpanda is a strong prospect around which to begin a rebuild. There are other goalies potentially available later in the first round, where London has pick 9, but if they want almost sure thing goalie talent it’d be tough to pass up Deadpanda here. 5. Moscow Menace (from Los Angeles): D Alagsantere Groenvold, Mexico City Kings - 343 TPE, @VattghernCZ Somebody let Moscow get another lottery pick? Damn you all to hell. Anyway, this one isn’t one to overthink. Nils Andersson is entering their final season, and Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage is starting to get up there in years as well. There isn’t another defensive player currently in the team’s prospect pool. And Groenvold is easily the best player available by TPE, especially over the next defensive player available on the board. The Menace could hypothetically try and wait until pick eight to go defense, but I don’t know why they’d chance it. Groenvold would be a pretty straightforward pick here. 6. New York Americans: D Slava Kovalenko, Mississauga Hounds - 276 TPE, @OblivionWalker Unlike the teams I’ve talked about so far, the Americans are in retool rather than rebuild mode and would very much like to win in the next season or two. And luckily for them, they have both picks six and seven here and have the possibility of getting a little bit creative with their selections. For the first one, that defensive corps is extremely talented, but also looking extremely old. Yvel is entering their final season, Dodo is two seasons away, the wonderfully named Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish is entering regression, and former first pick Janser is one season away. They need some youth on the blue line, and our top first gen in Kovalenko would provide just that. Following a season of strong growth for the Hounds, Kovalenko would likely need one more year of seasoning with the Hounds but would step nicely into the Americans’ lineup next year in a season they’re still hoping to compete. One note: I also wouldn’t be shocked if they’re the team trying to trade up to #1 or #3, if there’s somebody they see as the final piece. 7. New York Americans (from Calgary): RW Youre Not Fucking Retiring, Philadelphia Reapers - 305 TPE, @twists I’ll be honest, I thought about getting cute here. Most of the Americans’ young talent is in the forward corps with Shelby, Gretzky, Reynolds Jr and French, and WWWWWWWWWWWW is quietly three seasons from retirement in goal. I certainly see an argument for a goalie like Chazz Michael Michaels or even Trunov. But what the Americans really need is some talent that will be able to contribute quickly in their competitive window and is, well, not fucking retiring. Following a 116 point season with VHLM champion Philadelphia, Retiring clearly comes in with some scoring skills on a team that struggled with that aspect at times last season. They’d be a natural replacement for a retiring McKeggegger next offseason. 8. Moscow Menace (from Warsaw): C Joel Jakobs, Philadelphia Reapers - 211 TPE, @Plate There are three ways the Menace could go here. The first is goalie, but with Syko in the prime of their career, I don’t think that’s reasonable. The second is a recreated welfare-plus player like Villain, Shaw or Mackingikus, which would provide consistent earning, but maybe not the top upside. But if I had to guess, Moscow has enough talent already on the team that they could afford door three, a big swing. Jakobs’ agency hasn’t had much success in the VHL previously, but already is getting close to passing previous player Jordan Bennett (also drafted by Moscow, for what it’s worth) in terms of practice hours. With a job working for the league’s magazine, there’s reason to believe they’re here for the long-haul as a top practicer. And, of course, with a defensive player already taken in this mock, the Menace could look for a top offensive player in the draft. It all makes sense. 9. London United (from Seattle): RW Wefernardo Mackingikus, Philadelphia Reapers - 245 TPE, @vincentlg2007 This would be the downside of taking a goalie early - that’s the top position on the board in this configuration, and certainly London wouldn’t be selecting two goalies. But there’s a solid forward on the board that would help rebuild that side of the ice. Although Mackingikus has had a few welfare claims during practice time recently, the agency behind Mackingikus has a strong legacy - Vincent Laroche-Gagnier ended up winning two VHL titles in a long and productive career, mostly with Calgary and D.C. That type of consistency would serve London well as they look to enter the rebuild, with Mackingikus establishing a tentpole to build around following another season or two in the VHLM. 10. HC Davos Dynamo (from Vancouver): D Narnia Shaw, Miami Marauders - 252 TPE, @Dabnad One of these teams is going to take a chance on a goalie, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Davos is it to push Aleksanteri Kaskiniemi-Kekkonen a bit. But with that said: Ben Laas is starting to get up there in age, and with a lot of the other holes on the Dynamo roster filled, I wouldn’t be shocked if they traded up to #10 to fill that hole specifically. Narnia Shaw’s agency had a strong and consistent career with previous player Dabnad Shaw, who played largely with Malmo before bouncing around at the end of their career. Early returns are showing similar consistency with Narnia, and Davos could afford (and maybe even prefer) potentially two more seasons of Narnia playing in the VHLM. 11. Helsinki Titans (from Malmo): G Vladimir Trunov, Halifax 21st - 204 TPE, @qripll Here’s where I think the goalie run begins. THE MIGHTY ICE WIZARD looked like a strong player as the seventh pick of the S94 Draft, but in recent weeks, that ice has begin to thaw as they’ve been an inconsistent presence in the practice facility. Especially with the draft board as it is, I’d expect the Titans to sure the position up with a potential replacement. But that begs the question: Which goalie out of the multiple available? Chazz Michael Michaels is the top goalie by TPE, even over Deadpanda, and is looking for an opportunity to prove themselves. Draw Mac comes with strong activity in the SBA and a history of being loyal to their VHL franchise. But I’m picking the lowest TPE option - but only because it’s the one that created most recently. Vladimir Trunov comes from a line of Trunovs with VHL success, and of course, the agency is spearheaded by D.C.’s newest GM. I see the new Helsinki leadership taking a big swing that Vladimir will develop into a top-tier goalie. 12. Moscow Menace: C Mad Villain, Las Vegas Aces - 260 TPE, @Tate Recognizing now that Moscow has three first round picks, I wouldn’t be shocked to see them try and make a move up either. There is a need to consolidate talent somewhere, I’d imagine. But since I’m not predicting trades, let’s go out with a big swing. Mad Villain’s agency has very publicly said their player will not be reaching the VHL, and in fact will no longer even be present in VHL facilities at all. But even since that time, Villain has claimed welfare, trivia and VHFL. Interesting. What would be the most Villain thing to do: Try and tank your own draft stock, of course! I’ll say the Menace take the chance on the villain here that the team can get them to stick around. 13. Prague Phantoms (from Davos): G Chazz Michael Michaels, Mexico City Kings - 286 TPE, @Xflexz Prague has the first overall pick in this draft of course, but soon before writing, they made a move to trade pick 10 to Davos for picks 13 and 16, gaining more depth in the process. I’d have to think that move was made with a potential goalie in mind, given that many are bound to be around in the latter half of the first round. As noted before, Chazz Michael Michaels is the top goalie by TPE with a welfare-plus strategy, and they’d likely be ready to move up after one more year in the VHLM. They’d pair well with someone like Daffleck to provide a stone wall of the future in rebuilding Prague. Now, that does beg the question - former first rounder Ondrej Vencko has returned to practicing, could that cause some friction? I’ll say that’d be a good problem to have if you’re Prague, take the talented player and figure the rest out later. 14. Chicago Phoenix: G Draw Mac, Miami Marauders - 261 TPE, @okochastar The Phoenix are a very interesting team entering this draft. They’re very much in win-now mode, with Gaming and Mancini staring down retirement and stars Oven and Artyomov now fully into regression. If they could find a way for a win-now player, particularly by trade, I think they’d go that direction. But there aren’t really any win-now players left on the board at #14, with the top forwards and defensive players left requiring at least two more VHLM seasons. So I see them preparing early for the eventual rebuild with the selection of the best player available: Mac. Coming from a prominent SBA agency, Oko’s past three players have all reached 1000+ in the VHL. I’m sure Chicago would take that consistency and have a top chip either for trade or the eventual rebuild. 15. Toronto Legion: D Dog Jagr, Miami Marauders - 190 TPE, @koty_k Toronto may not yet be rebuilding following the retirement of some longtime stars, but Callahan, Machado and Bob getting up there in years, it’s certainly not far away. As a result, and with the draft board sitting as it is, the Legion are looking at a player who will likely be living through a rebuild in 2-3 seasons. Jagr has largely been present at the welfare facility so far, but has done so consistently - and crucially, with trivia, press conferences and fantasy zone mixed in. There’s some potential for a solid player here with that consistency, and that’s all the Legion can be shooting for here at pick #15. 16. Prague Phantoms (from Riga): D Kurt Bachmann, Mississauga Hounds - 175 TPE, @Blutch We start and end with the same team, the Prague Phantoms and their need for any sort of talent to come in the door. Bachmann comes with a similar story to Jagr in the previous pick: a welfare earner but consistent in doing so, with trivia and press conferences sprinkled in to provide some potential for a solid piece. Bachmann probably would require two more seasons in the VHLM before coming up, but the Phantoms can afford to wait. A good get to bring more talent into the door as the Phantoms continue to rebuild.

Game 3 Recap A close game like this just seems begging for a trivia answer, but unfortunately trivia is dead and never to come back, which is forcing me to write this post. Anyway, given the eventual sweep, the Aces will look back on this one and wish they had it. The Reapers got out to the early 3-0 lead, but the Aces scraped and clawed to make it 4-3 by the end of the second period, then eventually 4-4 with Manuel Ceson's goal in the third period. That sent the game to OT, but Joel Jakobs ended up being the hero. Props are also earned by Bret Weier, whose four point game earned him the first star. The 5-4 OT victory gave the Reapers just one more victory to get the Founder's Cup victory. Game 4 Recap And get that victory the Reapers did, this time in a bit more dominating fashion. Fresh off his Game 3 OT winner, Jakobs kept the hot streak going with two goals and an assist to clinch the series. Interesting, the shot disparity was closer in this game, with the Reapers only outshooting the Aces 27-26. But Onyekachukwu Chidieber Oluwaseun was a very deserving second star in stopping the strong Las Vegas offense and outdueling future first round pick Deadpanda. Overall, a sweep might not have been what experts expected entering the series, but it was a well-deserved win for the Reapers. Now they can go back to Broad Street and celebrate with a parade!

Davos, Switzerland -- Following a longer run than many expected, HC Davos Dynamo's Cinderella story is over. The team fell to the Riga Reign in a shutout in Game 6, bringing a close to the series and setting up a Riga v. Toronto finals. But while the mood in the Davos locker room after the game was down, it certainly wasn't outright sad. Rather, there was an understanding that the team still played much better than many expected, getting to Game 6 of the conference finals in a season where some weren't sure they would make the playoffs. "We've been playing well these entire playoffs, so I can't hate that we dropped these last two. Sometimes, that's just the way the puck bounces," said center Antonia Bucatini, who ends the playoffs as the team's leading scorer. "It was a good run, and it gives us confidence that we're a team that can get this far." Indeed, expectations may now be heightened for Davos entering next season. While David Jokinen, Yaroslov Trunov and James MacEvoy will be hanging it up after the season, the majority of the team will be returning with another offseason of training under their belt. Add in the expected call-ups of David Pastanap and Alphonse Desjardins, and the team's roster may already be set for opening day next season. That's far in the future, however. For now, Bucatini and the rest of the team may be headed on a long-deserved vacation. "This is the longest season I've ever had playing hockey. It gets tiring, let me tell you," she added. "It's time to see some family, some friends, some fun, and come out next season even better."