CowboyinAmerica

That's less fun. But I figure O'Tarth will get better in time.

Weeeee. That's a fun way to start the season.

Saskatoon -- When Gabriel McAllister made the decision to sign with the Saskatoon Wild around the trade deadline last year, he hoped for maybe a little playoff success and a foundation to build for the future. What he got, though, was beyond his wildest dreams. Even facing arguably the two toughest goalies in the VHLM in Our Lady of Perpetual Motion and Vernon von Axelberry, McAllister went off in his 11 playoff games to the tune of 12 goals and 9 assists. With that, he led all players in playoff goals, and he tied teammate Bo Boeser in total points. And at the recent VHLM Awards Ceremony, the league's GMs and commissioners decided to reward him. McAllister won the league's Skylar Rift Trophy, awarded to the minor's playoff MVP, with two-thirds of the total first place votes. The award was perhaps an unexpected one for the winger, particularly given that he won't even be eligible for the VHL draft until after this season. But he also thinks it could be a harbinger of good fortune to come. "While I didn't necessarily expect the award, I got to say that I certainly worked hard enough for it," McAllister said on stage at the awards ceremony. "I have to thank everyone who voted for me for this award; it's truly an honor. And believe me when I say: You'll see me up here again next season, this time with an MVP and a championship trophy in my hands."

Everyone here is clearly burying the lead.

A Look at the S55 VHLM Landscape I’m going to go out on a limb and say Season 55 in the VHLM might be one of the most fun the minors has ever produced. At the start of the season, there’s a reasonable case to be made for four different teams winning the championship, and activity is at an all-time high, with many teams having fully active and updating second line players. But if we had to break it down, who’s the favorite to win it all? Here’s one man’s power rankings, which many people will absolutely disagree with. 5. Yukon Rush It’s another rebuilding year in Yukon, though given the strength of the rest of the VHLM, it’s probably a good time to have it. The Rush’s earliest pick was Bastian Stolzschweiger in the fourth round, and given the inactivity of Apollo Aho, Stolzschweiger also represents the team’s biggest talent, alongside fellow defenseman Augustus Gloop. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a firesale here to stock up for future picks, even though there’s not much in the cupboard to sell off either. A rough year’s ahead for Yukon fans. 4. Las Vegas Aces Again, I think any one of the top four teams can win the championship, but somebody does have to be fourth. The good news for the defending champs is a first line that’s probably the best in the entire VHLM. Ying and Aleksi start as two of only three players above 170 TPE to start the season, and VHL second overall pick Dexter Lane pairs with Defenseman of the Year candidate Luca Volkov for the most formidable first line defensive pairing in the league. But there are three problems with the Aces. The first is obvious: a lack of a goalie, which will need to be rectified soon given the offensive talent in the league. The little depth beyond the first line is also an issue—can Harambe carry a line? But both of those can be fixed on the waivers. The one that’s more interesting to me is less obvious: Who’s actually going to score? Slava Aleksi leads the team with 71 scoring, but is at heart a pass-first player. And the rest of that projected vaunted first line, with Ying, Rowe, Volkov and Lane, doesn’t have a single point added to scoring between them. 3. Ottawa Lynx The Lynx on the surface have the opposite issue of the Aces. The have the goalie in Key Perought, and as I very presciently said in my Mock Draft predicting the Lynx to take him No. 2, a good goalie can take you a long way in the VHLM. That goes double when Perought is the only active goalie in the VHLM and the definite favorite to win Goalie of the Year. A four-deep roster of stand-out defensemen in Bogdanovic, Snow, Fook and Kinkaid means there will be a lot of 1-0 games in Ottawa this year. But the Lynx ultimately approach a similar problem to the Aces from a different angle: Who’s going to score? The Lynx’s problem is talent, as all of the TPE is concentrated on the blue line. Among draftee forwards, Les Clarke held the team’s highest scoring rating at 55; Corey Klopfenstein is a solid pickup at center, but may be more of a distributor. Ultimately, this team’s success may come down to recent signee The Process, who will be expected to step in to primary scorer’s role from the beginning. 2. Saskatoon Wild Especially in contrast to the Aces and Lynx, scoring is one problem the Wild are never going to have. First overall pick Gabriel McAllister lit up the goal charts on his way to a Playoff MVP award last year, and that was against good goaltenders in Our Lady of Perpetual Motion and Vernon von Axelberry. While the Wild lose his linemate in Boeser to the VHL, both Scheel and Do are back to join him on the first line and take a step forward. The main difference this year for Saskatoon though is defensively – while last year’s team didn’t have a single active defenseman, Aeschylus Jigglejawns CXXXVIII and Ay Ay Ron might legitimately be the team’s second and third best goal scorers, and Martinov adds stalwart defense to boot. But similar to Vegas, the Wild have a goalie problem. Unable to snag one in the draft, the team will turn to untested free agent Brienne O’Tarth in net to start the season. While the upside is surely there, will she be able to get on the level of Perought and Motion quickly enough to give the Wild a chance? If so, the Wild may be the team to beat come playoff time. 1. Oslo Storm Last year in this space, I made a big deal of the fact that the Oslo Storm haven’t won a VHLM title since Season 32, which has now tied the longest championship drought in minors history. But given this roster, the team has a decent chance at not holding the record by themselves. It all starts between the pipes where Our Lady of Perpetual Motion continues her illustrious VHLM career with a chance to rival Perought as the top goaltender in the league entering the season. In front of her are three defensemen above 100 TPE in Smallwood, Raven and the enigmatic Ky. Future VHL stars Forsberg, Quill and Laflamme anchor the first line, while Helsinki signee Jack Shepherd may turn out to be the most talented second line player in the entire VHLM. If Oslo’s going to falter, though, it will come down to two major issues. The first is offensive depth outside of those four new stars. The Storm traded a lot for Elijah Mikaelson, but will he be able to grow as a player quickly enough to complement Shepherd? The more important issue to me, though, is growth over the course of the season—many of those players that are highly ranked right now, such as Motion and Smallwood, haven’t been seen in the practice facility in months. Don’t be surprised if they’re passed by newcomers like O’Tarth or Stolzschweiger by the time the playoffs roll around.

Lol, not bad for a Trade Deadline creation. Getting this winning stuff started early.

Welcome! Player looks good. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here. You'll be entered into the VHLM here shortly, where you can sign with a team. It's a good time to join up - the next season starts literally today.

Welcome! We too regard Renly as the One True King.

I don't know about Boom's feelings on Calgary (or if he had come out as HFD yet), but if not him, who the hell else was on the board there? And even so, there's a difference between going quietly into FA and doing... that.

Oh man, hell of a game by Ironside. But it's on to the finals!

I do love how Devise writes all that holier-than-thou BS, and the response is still upbeat. Playing in Calgary just seems so much more fun than New York, results be damned.

Reading that far down's overrated

Word on VHLM dispersal draft?

Actually didn't vote the first time, so we're all good

Can only choose one @Higgins

Sounds good, and hope to see you back. Best of luck with the new job and the kid!

Also my thoughts on it. Calgary looking for that S44 "young players and depth" magic, with Jacob in the Wingate role.

I appreciate a son that actually works thematically given the time difference between S1 and S56

1. My hatred for the Chicago Fire is triggered 2. A sign Ying goes #1 so it's not defense overload and both your players will be paired?

Because he was still in the available players forum

Yeah, the VHLM is actually gonna have a ton of talent this year. With five teams, we're going to have actives into the fourth round I think.

$20 for Season 55 Doubles Doubles Free Week +5

Yeah. I'm tired. Had no idea why I thought he was still on the Vikings.

A previously posted article in this space identifying the Americans as having talked too early with Diana Maxwell ignored one simple fact - Maxwell had played for the franchise last year, despite the writer's insistence for some reason that Maxwell was a Viking. That writer has been placed on administrative leave in accordance with the Hockey News's disciplinary policy, which consists of having a Swedish expat named Tormund to take slapshots at him without pads, and however many shots he lets in is how many weeks he is suspended. The Hockey News deeply regrets this error, though it still finds the lack of anti-tampering clauses in the Rulebook somewhat troubling.

Season 55 VHLM Mock Draft Here’s a fun fact for you – the VHLM Draft this year has more combined TPE in it than the VHL Draft. It doesn’t always happen that way, but a combination of particularly strong S55 waiver players (Scheel, Ying, Bogdanovic) and early S56 draftees (Fook, Ron, McAllister) may make this upcoming VHLM Draft the most exciting one in ages. That’s why we think it’s be helpful to have a little mock draft. Remember, a lot can change between now and draft day – not only with trades, but even potentially general managers and league rules. Still, based off the current picks, here’s who you may see coming off the board in the first two rounds this week. 1. Saskatoon Wild (from Yukon) – LW Gabriel McAllister @CowboyinAmerica Everything fits here – the player with the most current TPE in the draft played on Saskatoon this past season and has expressed an interest in coming back. But there’s a hiccup: Can McAllister carry a team? When the Wild asked Bo Boeser to do something similar last season, he was more of a well-rounded player. As McAllister is a pure scorer, he needs more of a team around him to be something special. 2. Ottawa Lynx – G Key Perought @NUCK Another pick, another player that goes back to his same team. While Perought isn’t the next highest TPE player, it’s been a trend in the VHLM forever: an active goalie can take you a long way. With Manley’s retirement and Axelberry’s move to the VHL, Oslo’s Motion is the only trained goalie in the VHLM entering the draft. That’s why it’s critical for Ottawa to nab one however they can. 3. Oslo Storm – C Rudy Ying @punkhippie Ying may be most associated with the Vegas franchise, but one unintended side effect of him coming into the league just after the draft is that he goes back in the draft pool. It’s likely that his VHL franchise keeps him down, and it’s even more likely he won’t last until Vegas’s first pick at 10. Pairing the passer with the more scoring-centric Forsberg seems like a good fit. 4. Saskatoon Wild – D Ho Lee Fook @Will One of the biggest issues in the VHL Finals for Saskatoon was the lack of a blue line – the team only had two defensemen, and poor ones at that, allowing Vegas’s snipers to pick them apart. Fook is the best defenseman in the draft, and his passing and defense potential will be hard to pass up for a team that already has a scorer. 5. Oslo Storm (from Las Vegas) – LW Xavier Laflamme @Laflamme You already have the passer in Ying; now you need the winger to pair him with. Laflamme is yet another player returning to his S54 team, and even though the player’s agency is closely linked with the Yukon franchise, there’s no way Laflamme lasts until the fourth round. 6. Saskatoon Wild (from Yukon) – G Jackson Weekes @Molholt Serious question: Is he retired? I have no idea what Weekes’s status is right now, and that doesn’t portend good tidings for him being selected high in the draft. On the flip side though, Weekes is the only other goalie available in the entire draft, and if he gets back to practicing, he could be the biggest steal in the draft. It’s a worthwhile risk for the new GM. 7. Ottawa Lynx – C Jake Scheel @MD9 Ottawa got their goalie in the first round, and they return the strongest defensive unit in the entire VHLM. This pick is an easy emphasis on offense, but who should they pick to be the centerpiece? Both Scheel and Peter Quill are around the same level in terms of previous practice as of now, but I believe Ottawa's organizational priority on first generation players wins out here. 8. Oslo Storm – D Niko Bogdanovic @Jonessee27 At this point in the draft, most of the value is at defense – and with Oslo having an open hole next to Smallwood and having already taken two forwards, picking one here rounds out the blue line. Bogdanovic has banked some of his practice and can mold himself to whatever type of player Oslo needs, making him a tempting option here. 9. Saskatoon Wild – C Peter Quill @Green The Wild have the most picks in the first two rounds with four, but they need them given that the team has the most bare cupboard heading into the draft. Luckily, the board breaks down perfectly for them here, as Quill represents the perfect linemate for the already-drafted McAllister, and Wild immediately inserts Quill in the role Boeser held last season. 10. Las Vegas Aces – D Nicodemus Raven @Fowll If I was an actual betting man, I’d bet this pick would be shipped out for a goalie or in hoarding picks for a future draft. But if Vegas holds onto it, a defenseman replacement for Savard seems a reasonable way to go. Ay Ay Ron and Aackckqz Ky would also be reasonable selections here, but Raven has the most TPE of all players left, and Vegas going BPA seems like a reasonable thought.