CowboyinAmerica

F Lee King Snatch @Kesler

G Markus King @Green

D Felix Savard @Kesler

Europe + Toronto updates will be tomorrow afternoon, just an FYI

For Season 58, because I want to get it in. Player Name: Gabriel McAllister VHL Team: Seattle Bears Cash you have: $1.5M (S57) + $3.5M (S58) = $5M Purchase Name: Two Attribute Points Cost of Purchase: $5M Cash Left: $0

I can guarantee you there are people with college degrees who don't know where Riga is. Probably Davos too, though that's a tiny bit more in U.S. news.

Gabriel McAllister @Green

One thing I haven't seen discussed much: If we're moving EU teams to NA, but we're worried about losing VHL history, there's an easy way to avoid this. Helsinki becomes the Ottawa Lynx Riga becomes the Saskatoon Wild. Davos becomes the Vasteras Golden Eagles Yukon Rush Then reintroduce Brampton, Minot, Syracuse, whatever you want to fill out VHLM ranks. I don't really care either way because I don't pay much attention to team locations, and I'd probably tend on the side of not moving for legacy purposes. But worth a thought.

I'll be in

Seattle (AP) -- Most watchers of the Seattle Bears offseason have been focused on who the team will take in the Dispersal Draft and the big trade with Quebec that brought Fabio Jokinen to town. But today, somewhat of a shocker emerged out of Bears HQ: winger Gabriel McAllister has signed a three year extension, with a no trade clause throughout the extension. The contract will kick in this offseason and run through Season 61, McAllister's sixth season in the league. According to the player's agent, that particular time frame was done on purposes. "Gabriel likes it here, and he wants to be known as a Seattle man," Warren told reporters after the extension was made public. "They have a single goal: winning championships. And reasonably, according to Gabriel, they have four seasons to do it, starting this year. With so many S54 stars like V2A, Yu and Federov, he wanted to be here through the end of their careers. And now he'll have a chance." The contract is for the minimum amount of cash possible under the league's bylaws - though given McAllister's talent, that will still be a high amount. It's expected that he will earn $5 million per year over the life of the extension. On the open market, though, he could have gotten even more. "It's not about the money for Gabriel. It's about winning and loyalty," Warren said. "He's got both of those in spades. He's excited to be with the team that drafted him for a long, long time."

In the VHLM, Oslo just won for the first time since S32 (which I was on with my first player). Think only Vasterasholm has gone longer among both leagues.

1. Ivan Morozov 2. Aksel McKnight 3. Dragon McDragon 4. Kriztof Mueller 5. Lavar Ball 6. Adam Warlock 7. Otto Axelsson 8. ? Vladislav Koradek 9. Elias Karlsson 10. Paul DiMirio Jr.

I like, and I've needed a new one. Thanks!

Barely in, but I'll take it!

I'm pretty sure there has been literally one sim league team that has ever been based in Delaware (believe @Tagger was the GM) and not gonna lie, got me hyped. So I get it for recruiting purposes, but outside of that one I've never really cared.

$20 for S58 2 Doubles Weeks 5 Uncapped Free Week For Gabriel McAllister

Seattle (AP) -- It's safe to say that last season didn't end exactly the way Seattle Bears fans would have liked. Stuck in a crowded conference, the Bears finished with the league's sixth-best record but missed the playoffs by virtue of sitting fourth in North America. Especially after the beginning of the season went so well, the end result was a bit heartbreaking. But taking a bigger picture, though, last season wasn't supposed to be the leap for Seattle. Season 58 was the time all along where Seattle was aiming to jump into the league's upper echelon. And they now seem poised to do just that. It certainly helps Seattle that there is now one grand conference, meaning that a situation last like year is no longer possible. With Calgary, Davos and likely Quebec still rebuilding, a playoff birth seems very likely. And unlike competitors in Riga and Helsinki, nobody on Seattle's team is entering depreciation, making now the opening that they've been looking for. It certainly doesn't hurt either that the Bears hold the second pick in the dispersal draft, with a player like Shawn Gretzky or Chase Keller possibly entering the fold. "I have to say, I'm getting extremely excited for this upcoming season," winger Gabriel McAllister told the media following an offseason practice. "We've been building since I got here two seasons ago, but now's the time to break out. I don't think many people see Seattle coming, but with our depth, I think we might even have what it takes to go all the way."

Since teams need to hold the picks to be able to offer, I'm suddenly curious whether "next year's draft" would mean S58 or S59 in this case

I'm a sucker for puns tbh

Oh yeah, I totally agree with the reasoning. Does make the draft interesting since there's like no defense in that case.

This is 2000+ words and for the weeks of 12/4, 12/11, 12/18 and 12/25 for Gabriel McAllister.

Handicapping the VHL Dispersal Draft This offseason, the VHL is contracting down to eight teams, losing the Cologne Express and Stockholm Vikings. If I can editorialize for a quick second, I think it’s a spectacular idea. Anything that brings more active players onto each individual team, promotes more competition throughout the league, and maintains the history of the VHL is a good move by me. And in conjunction with eliminating the second player rule, which was something I have heavily been in favor of, I believe this will see the resurgence of rivalries and individual team interest in the league. But that’s not what the purpose of this article is. Instead, it’s to answer the question that will be on everyone’s mind this offseason: What happens to the old players on Cologne and Calgary (since Stockholm’s assets are being transferred to that team)? The way that the dispersal draft works is that all current players, prospects, and RFA's – notably, not unrestricted free agents – will be entered into a pool for the remaining eight teams. From there, the draft order will be completely randomized (which I find interesting, rather than VHL Draft order, but I’m in favor). The draft will take place behind closed doors in the GM Forum, and the draft order has likely already begun. That doesn’t mean that I can’t speculate though! I decided to have my own mini dispersal draft, just to see what types of players are available and the strategies that could develop. Taking a look at the draft as a whole, it seems that there could be two distinct strategies off the top: teams that are rebuilding would be focused more on Cologne’s younger players and prospects, while teams that they think have a chance at the title would be looking at the forwards that got Calgary to the playoffs last season. Of course, not everyone will actually be available from those teams – notably, players like Jacob, Savard and Volkov are set to hit free agency, severely depressing the market for teams looking for defensive help. But there is enough talent present where at least the teams in the front half of the first round will be able to get some actual help right away. Ready for some action? Here are my results, with the draft order randomized via Random.org. This isn't the final list of players available in the draft, as I may have missed something. Players Available (Only players over 50 TPE represented) Calgary Wranglers (S53) C - Marc-Alexandre Leblanc, TPE: 537 (S53) RW - Motherfucker Sharpe, TPE: 504 (S54) C - Shawn Gretzky, TPE: 607 (S54) RW - JourneyMan, TPE: 195 (S56) RW - The Process, TPE: 204 (S56) D - Ho Lee Fook, TPE: 113 (S56) G - Brienne O'Tarth, TPE: 128 (S56) D - Emil Martinov, TPE: 82 Cologne Express (S56) D - Aeschylus Jigglejawns CXXXVIII, TPE: 108 (S56) D - Jabby McFullO'Schmidt, TPE: 71 (S57) G - Shawn Brodeur, TPE: 324 (S57) C - Chase Keller, TPE: 423 (S57) C - Mike Szatkowski III, TPE: 60 Randomized Order: 1. Toronto Legion 2. Calgary Wranglers 3. Helsinki Titans 4. Seattle Bears 5. New York Americans 6. Riga Reign 7. Quebec City Meute 8. HC Davos Dynamo 1. Toronto Legion: C Shawn Gretzky To me, the first pick of this draft will be down to three players. If it’s a relatively young team or a team entering a rebuild (like Quebec), then Keller is the clear choice. If it’s a team that has an older goalie like Helsinki that has a goalie entering the depreciation side of his career, then I can see an argument for Brodeur. But for a team that’s looking to compete right now and has no eye towards the future – and really, I think this might be only Toronto and Riga – then I would expect a current top-flight player like Gretzky to be the pick. Right away, Gretzky would become the best Legion player on offense by TPE, slotting in with likely Reinholdt and Boeser to create a formidable top line. In fact, it’s not hard to see where Gretzky would have made a major difference in this year’s playoffs, where Toronto’s Boeser scored 22 points in 13 games, but no other Legion player had more than 14 points or 6 goals. With Gretzky in the fold, Toronto would certainly be looking at a second or third seed in the playoffs next year, at worst. 2. Calgary Wranglers: C Chase Keller Remember, these Wranglers are the assets from the old Vikings, meaning the young team centered around players like Norris Stropko, Mats Johnsson and Boner. In this regard, Chase Keller would seem to be an absolutely perfect fit and the face of the franchise for years to come. There’s just one issue… Well, that’s rather ominous. If you remember, Keller had a number of demands about what teams he wished to play for before the S57 draft, drawing the ire of some around the league. Perhaps chief among the naysayers was Bushito, now the GM of Calgary. Couple that with a situation where Keller wishes to play on a franchise his agency isn’t as familiar with—which certainly isn’t Calgary—and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wranglers are dead last on his list of preferred teams. But with a young goalie already on the team and no use for older players like Sharpe or Leblanc, would they take the chance anyway? 3. Helsinki Titans: G Shawn Brodeur I don’t think there’s a potential better fit between team and player in this draft than if Brodeur ends up on the Titans. With a glut of goalies in the league, there aren’t many places for Brodeur to reasonably land. Helsinki, however, is one of them, with Astrid Moon the oldest goalie in the league when taking into account Quebec’s future acquisition of Marcel St-Laurent. Barring a mass goalie retirement – which actually wouldn’t surprise me, given that guys like Jacob may be left without a team in free agency and others like Mist4ke may be a backup – Helsinki may be the only place he reasonably can land. And yet, Helsinki is another team that may be seeing their window of opportunity closing, given that some key players like Moon and Franchise Cornerstone are beginning to move into regression. Furthermore, the retirement of Theo Axelsson leaves an absolutely massive hole at wing on the first line. And Motherfucker Sharpe is very familiar with the Helsinki franchise and would slot into that position nicely. I don’t have Helsinki pulling the trigger in this scenario, but it’s certainly something to consider, if they’re not interested in a Moon succession plan. 4. Seattle Bears: RW Motherfucker Sharpe Another team that is looking to take a big leap this year, especially given the dissolution of conferences that saw them on the outside looking in last season, the Bears’ goal should be nabbing one of those top three playoff spots and staying out of the Wild Card game. Improved goalie play would go a long way towards that goal, but more than that, the Bears simply need offensive consistency. Right now they have a mish mash of players with different, sometimes cannibalistic, skill sets, especially given the three centers they have in Forsberg, Quill and Yu. They never quite did figure out their lines for that reason last season. For that reason, I see Sharpe as a better fit than Leblanc in Seattle. While Leblanc may have more TPE, he also have a bunch of skill in face-offs, which would be a pointless skill given the current composition of the Seattle offense. Sharpe, meanwhile, is a defensive forward to his core, and his checking out be an incredible skill to pair with more finesse players like Forsberg and McAllister. His pass-first style, meanwhile, would fit quite nicely with McAllister’s tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. 5. New York Americans: C Marc-Alexandre Leblanc The Americans may claim that they’re still in the rebuilding stage, but in actuality, last season showed that they’re not that far away and can certainly hang with some of the more talented teams in the league. Especially when adding Season 58 draft picks to the mix, New York is going to be in contention for those Wild Card playoff spots, whether they add more talented players or not. In my eyes, they’re certainly ahead of at least Davos and Calgary in talent as it stands, and if Quebec commits to rebuilding, there’s your three non-playoff teams. With that in mind, why not give yourself a fighting chance with the best player on the board? Leblanc isn’t a perfect fit given that the Americans already have two pure centers in Komarov and McQuack, but he’s enough of a talented player elsewhere that the Americans should be able to fit him in any given situation. Similar to Gretzky and Toronto, he would immediately become one of the most talented offensive players on the team’s first line and be expected to carry a large portion of the load. And slotted next to Fujimoto, he would have a line mate that complements his skills well. It makes a lot more sense to me than hoping a lottery ticket like Fook or Process pays off, at least. 6. Riga Reign: D Ho Lee Fook As you might be able to tell given how steeply TPE drops off a cliff after the top five, sixth is the worst spot to sit in this draft in my opinion. There are going to be some nervous people when the random draw occurs, and three teams that could certainly use the help are going to be left out in the cold. That’s what happens sometimes, though, and the three teams at the bottom will need to figure out how to turn lemons into lemonade. To me, the two best lottery tickets at this point are Fook and The Process. I can certainly see an argument for the latter, especially considering that Eagles and Hedgehog seem to have a working relationship with one another forged by seasons of playing on each other’s teams. With Will’s seeming return to activity, though, the pick here is clear to me. The Reign only have two current defensemen on their roster, and a low TPE, high activity defenseman is actually probably preferable for a team trying to keep its championship-winning roster together under the salary cap. Plus, being on the defending champions could be a nice hook to make sure Will remains at full activity. 7. Quebec City Meute: RW The Process After so many seasons of GMing against one another, this would certainly be fun to see. I’m not sure whether this would actually help or hurt Eagles regaining full activity if he were no longer a GM and instead on Quebec, but Frank is one of the best GMs he could possibly ask for in that regard. This pick up would make a lot of sense too if the Meute are rebuilding, as Process is young (S56) and could still be around as a depth forward when Quebec intends to compete again in a few seasons. And if the Meute decide to suddenly reverse course and compete again for one more season, picking the highest TPE player available isn’t a bad strategy, either. 8. HC Davos Dynamo: RW Journeyman Whoever gets the last pick really gets the short end of the straw, as there really isn’t much left in terms of activity at this point. With that in mind, why not hope once again that Eagles decides to come back to full activity, with his second player on yet another team? This one is an even worse fit than The Process on Quebec, as Journeyman is an S54 player with fewer TPE on a team that’s rebuilding. The other options, though, are hoping players like O’Tarth, Martinov or Szatkowski return to activity at some point in the future, and at least Eagles has been around the board in recent days. That’s about all you’re going to get at this spot.

Good stuff, think that's a good call. I'm interested in the VHLM-type Wild Card round as well, think that could be a lot of fun. Thanks to the admins for doing something proactive to help

A few things that may be a bit outside the box, but food for thought. Tried to stay away from what others had said as much as possible. 1. Tying VHLM teams to the VHL again - I know this is how it was done in the old days, and I know that it was changed somewhere around Season 20. I like the idea though because it puts another number of people with a stake in keeping the VHLM active, which I think is sorely needed right now. That's the actual problem, not where teams are located or anything cosmetic like that. I personally think the VHLM has worth so I wouldn't be in favor of killing it completely, but it does need to be retooled. Of course, this would come with... 2. Contraction - I know you're thinking about it already, and I know others are posting it too. I've been against it in the past, but I just want to reiterate that I think it's time. Bringing the league back down to eight would mean more active people on each team, and as somebody who thinks the current playoffs are too long, having semifinals and finals only (4 teams) would make the playoffs actually mean something a bit more. 3. End the Two-Player Experiment - We tried it. I didn't like it in the beginning. And now I think there's some empirical evidence to back it up. Having players on multiple teams simply dilutes where people spend their time on the boards, makes people feel like they have to do too much to keep up with both players (causing quicker burnout), and all but kills rivalries in the league. I'm not sure there's a single member here that's having fun with both their players right now. And if there are only eight teams, we should still have the members to fill things up. (My main one, tbh) 4. More Games Simmed Per Day - The regular season can be a slog at times, and while there are ways to encourage engagement during the regular season (such as TPE for posting in game threads), that doesn't kill the main issue at hand. So what if we went from simming roughly 10 games a day to simming roughly 20 games a day? It wouldn't take too much longer for the simmer (only as long as posting a few more game threads), and it would have the benefit of moving through the regular season more quickly to parts where people have more fun. 5. Tying to Actual Hockey - The big untapped market for recruiting is people who generally like hockey, but have no idea what a sim league is. That's where we're going to get members. But in order for people to have it stick and think it's worth their while, there needs to be some tether to reality or something they know. So why not play up the hockey fan aspect more? Rather than Pick Ems/Guess the Score for VHL games, why not make it for NHL to draw in those hockey fans? Could trivia be a mix of VHL and hockey in general? Could we develop some sort of lore, if we're leaning into the roleplaying aspect, that explains to newcomers better what the VHL is in relation to the NHL? Think it might be more worthwhile to get people to stay.

Seattle (AP) -- Gabriel McAllister's second season in the VHL was a bit of a roller coaster. On the bright side, the Seattle Bears left winger established himself as a legitimate offensive force, finishing with 48 goals and 47 assists - that goal figure placed him a tie for eighth league-wide, while his 93 points were fourth among natural left wingers. He led the Bears, the league's sixth-best team, in both goals and points as well. The Bears, however, could not make the playoffs despite a winning record, finishing 10 points behind Calgary for the final North American playoff spot. That means that two seasons into his VHL career, McAllister still hasn't tasted the playoffs. And for a guy that won in the VHLM title in S55 and made the championship series in S54, the lack of competitive playoff play is bugging him. "Of course I wanted to lead the team to the playoffs. Isn't that what everyone wants?" McAllister asked reporters in a season-ending press conference. "This past season, I simply wanted to take a step forward in my gameplay. In this third season, though, I have a distinct goal: Making the playoffs next year." With another season under their belt, and with Quebec rebuilding, the Bears will be favored to get there. But in order to do, it will take hard work from all parties in the franchise - perhaps Gabriel McAllister first and foremost.