tcookie

As the puck drops on S94 training camp, there is an air of optimism around the Malmo Nighthawks, a distinctly different feeling than the one surrounding the team the last time most of these players were in the locker room when they were cleaning up after another early playoff exit.

The Nighthawks are largely running the same squad back once again, but where there was uncertainty around the futures of nearly the entire core at the end of S93, the off-season has brought answers.

One new face is Vlad Von Carstein, an S92 defenseman who was selected 6th overall and has the ability to be a top defenseman in this league. Though his progression has stalled a bit, he is at least a good second-pairing guy already, with the upside for more if his development gets back on track. Von Carstein's contract was set to expire after the season, but he has already signed a two-year extension. The other is star centre Randy Bobandy, a seven-year VHL veteran who has immediately stepped in and made his impact felt in the locker room. Bobandy has 497 career points in 504 games with Seattle and Calgary after being drafted 4th overall in S87. He fills in the spot vacated by Yaroslav Bogatyrev, who retired from the league.

More reason for optimism, however, are the contract extensions signed by Viktor Jensen, Jacob Stone, and Phillip Rave. All three players expressed a desire to spend the remainder of their careers in Malmo, and Jensen and Stone both signed contract extensions that will bring them to retirement. Rave signed a three-year extension of his own, leaving both him and the team some flexibility for whatever may come in the next three seasons, but Rave called Malmo "home" and says his preference is to stay in Malmo for a full eight seasons.

Malmo can rest easy knowing that this core will be together for the forseeable future. Now it's up to them to prove they're worth keeping together for that long and finally get over the playoff hump.

1) Definitely Taco Bell

2) I didn't really pay much attention to it, but I am all for Switzerland winning it

3) Narco by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet

4) I'd close off the stupid LTIR rule by saying you have to submit a cap-compliant roster on the last day of the regular season and only emergency changes to that roster are allowed in the playoffs (ie. min-salary farm callups if you can't ice a full roster due to injury). If you can't afford to bring someone off LTIR on the last day of the regular season, tough cookies, he's out for the playoffs.

5) My player's originally from Lichtenstein so in the off-season, he takes some time to relax, go home or to nearby Austria/Switzerland and enjoy the mountains.

6) Welcome to the team! Glad to have you here, I've enjoyed your work around the league so far and am glad you get a chance to experience being an AGM. The press conference graphic is nice!

claim week 2/2

HC Davos Dynamo
1.6 - D Felicia Hardy
1.15 - F Matteo Stefano
2.18 - F Johnny Tsunami

In an extremely tidy bit of pre-draft business, Davos moved down from second overall to sixth overall in order to acquire Grimgor Ironhide, and then managed to snag the third-best prospect in the draft anyway, selecting Felicia Hardy with the 6th pick. Though they missed out on the chance to draft one of Maverick Goncalves or Jillian Woods by trading out of #2, coming away with Ironhide and Hardy for the second overall pick is absurd value. Davos continued their solid draft season by picking up promising first-gen Matteo Stefano at the end of the first round, a player with extremely high upside. Johnny Tsunami has future VHLer written all over him as well - an excellent draft for Davos, all things considered.

Helsinki Titans
1.7 - G The Mighty Ice Wizard
1.13 - F Maple Dogwood
2.24 - D Donald Carlson
2.28 - F Ty Duke
2.32 - F Jerry Box
3.37 - F Captain Nugget Jr.

Helsinki made an interesting play with the 7th pick in the draft when they selected The Mighty Ice Wizard as the top first-gen in the draft. It's probably not the way most people expected them to go with the 7th pick, but in the context of the draft, it was actually pretty shrewd: with another first round pick coming up at #13 and several solid players still available, the Titans realized that The Mighty Ice Wizard - likely the only player remaining with future franchise goaltender potential - was actually the scarcest commodity left on the board. They secured their goalie of the future and knew they'd still get the chance to pick a really solid prospect at #13. That ended up being Maple Dogwood, an excellent prospect to be available with a late-first round pick thanks to the overall depth of this draft class. The Titans do have a lack of talented young defensemen, something they tried to address with the selection of Donald Carlson at 24th overall. Carlson will probably play in the VHL one day, but he doesn't have the upside of a true star at the position. The Titans will need to address that in the future, but ultimately, they came away with a pretty solid group of prospects.

London United
-- no picks --

The defending Continental Cup runner-ups are in line to contend once again this season and have paid the price for it in terms of draft capital, sitting out the entire S94 draft. Of course, nobody was thinking about their draft capital when they were playing for the Continental Cup in Game 7. This team is built to contend and will be in the hunt again in S95.

Malmo Nighthawks
2.19 - F Eugene Ryanheart
3.33 - F Gabriel Finley
3.41 - F Trevon Rider
3.44 - D Dakota Nachbaur

Another contending squad, Malmo found themselves with no first round pick but did make a couple of potentially-shrewd pickups in Eugene Ryanheart and Gabriel Finley near the top of the second and third rounds. Ryanheart, in particular, has shown good things early in his time in the VHL, with upside similar to that of Davos' second first-round pick Matteo Stefano. If he continues to develop, he no doubt will end up contributing at the VHL level at some point in the next couple of seasons.

Moscow Menace
1.1 - F Maverick Goncalves
1.2 - D Jillian Woods
2.26 - F Nicholas Sunderbruch Jr.
3.36 - F Yuki Ishikawa

Any time you go into a draft picking first and second overall - especially when you've already got the roster of a contender - you've gotta be pretty happy with yourself. Maverick Goncalves and Jillian Woods are the best forward and best defender in this class, respectively, so Malmo adds a couple of brand new studs to a very impressive lineup. Nicholas Sunderbruch Jr. is an interesting second-round gamble as well - the senior Nicholas Sunderbruch enjoyed a 359-game VHL career after being drafted 35th overall in S74, so there's good VHL pedigree there. We'll see if the younger Sunderbruch is motivated enough to make it to the big leagues - there is certainly enough skill there if he has the desire.

Prague Phantoms
1.10 - D Lazlo Holmes
2.23 - D Kevin Johnathen
2.27 - F Robin Sierra
3.39 - F Hulk Smash
3.42 - F Tommy James Longpre
3.43 - D Mathias Gunnarsson

The Phantoms had a lot of picks here, but not a lot of super high-value ones considering they're in a bit of a scorched-earth rebuild after a long run of contending with some of the best players in franchise history who have just hung up the skates. Lazlo Holmes is a very good addition with the 10th overall pick, a future star defenseman. The second pick of the draft may well end up his defense partner one day - Johnathen is a more raw player but has high upside in his own right, an excellent pickup with a mid-2nd round choice. There's some upside to Robin Sierra and even the third rounder Hulk Smash has flashed some good signs on occasion. Prague has a lot of work to do to field a competitive roster even a few seasons down the line, and they're missing their S95 1st round pick as well, so it may be a while before we see what happens for this group of young players in Prague, but they have to be happy with the number of players that have at least shown some sign of being able to contribute at the VHL level one day.

Riga Reign
1.3 - F Pierre Marc Bouchard

The Reign only made one pick on draft day, but they made it a good one in selecting Pierre Marc Bouchard. Presumably feeling okay-enough about their defense situation going forward (it is at least very good right now, though two players on their D-core are S87s), the Reign passed up on defender Felicia Hardy to take the second-best forward in the class. From an agency that has a track record of producing high-end VHLers, there's a lot of hype around Bouchard and deservedly so. This is a player to pair with Kimi Raikkonen up front and, along with last year's exceptional third overall pick Lucy Leitner on defense, goaltender Red Panda, and whatever comes of the two S95 first round picks, create the core of a very solid team.

Warsaw Predators
2.25 - D Toby Cook
3.34 - G Jon Webber III
3.40 - D Leifr Eriksson

Warsaw is another team in a win-now mode, especially while Lachlan Summers is still around, and they have not been shy about moving their draft picks for players that can contribute now. It's given them a strong-looking roster and a less-strong-looking prospect pool, about what you'd expect from a team in position to compete. Toby Cook is from the agency that gave us Todd Cooke who enjoyed an exceptional VHL career with the Los Angeles Stars that wrapped up not long ago, but doesn't look like a player with the same upside at this stage in his career. Still, things can change, and if you're looking for someone in this Warsaw draft class who may be able to make an impact at the next level one day, that would be the one.

---

1190ish words, for this week & next

With one big move, the Malmo Nighthawks have solidified their roster for the upcoming season, with the acquisition of centre Randy Bobandy from the Calgary Wranglers. The Nighthawks sent their first and second-round picks in S96 to Calgary in the deal.

Bobandy is a seven-year VHL veteran, drafted 4th overall in S87, who has compiled 178 goals and 497 points in 504 career VHL games. While last year didn't go as planned for Bobandy and the Wranglers, he has hit the 80-point mark three times in his career with career-highs of 71 assists and 90 points reached in S89 with Seattle.

Bobandy is a pass-first player who excels on face-offs and is one of the best two-way forwards in the league as well. He's not particularly physical but is an excellent penalty-killer, shot blocker, and marks his man well. He's signed through S94 and has a player option for S95, so if all goes well for the Nighthawks, surely this acquisition is made with an eye towards helping the team both this season AND next.

As a team full of natural shooters, the Nighthawks hope that adding Bobandy to the mix will create some excellent chemistry for whatever unit he's on as well as the powerplay - in addition to being a great addition to the locker room.

15 hours ago, KaleebtheMighty said:

 

1. Another Victory Cup, another early playoff exit. How well do you think we will bounce back next season?

2. Teams around the VHL are retooling. Who do you think will be the toughest to play against next season?

3. We traded to bring in @Dom. Welcome him to the team!

4. Where do you think we finish in the standings next season?

5. What’s your late night go to meal?

6. Books or movies?

7. What are you most excited about for next season?

8. HYPOTHETICAL: If you had to play hockey with either a crappy stick or crappy skates, which would you choose?

1) I have no idea what to predict after last year, but I do expect us to be a playoff team again and it can't happen three times in a row, can it?!

2) Independent of all the retooling I just think Moscow's got a really, really good roster. Vancouver being in the other conference means we don't play against them as much but I will say I think they have made some big additions to compliment a great young roster too.

3) Welcome @Dom! Glad to have you here!

4) 3rd in the EU, 5th in the VHL. Full disclosure, I did not put much thought into this prediction, and mostly just want to predict us to avoid the Victory Cup because that hasn't gone so well for us 

5) Pizza

8. Bad stick, gotta be able to move and use your edges out there. We can make the stick work.

In a rare three-way trade with Helsinki and Vancouver today, the Malmo Nighthawks have acquired young defenseman Vlad Von Carstein, who was the 6th overall pick in the S92 draft.

The Wolves have been making moves early on in the S94 off-season, as this deal was announced just a day after they acquired superstar defenseman Mark Calaway from the DC Dragons from a hefty package of picks. In the three-way deal, Vancouver added another high-end talent in winger Owen Lazaro, who scored 50 goals and 99 points with Helsinki last season. Vancouver's re-shaping of their team, going big-game hunting to beef up their roster, ended up with Von Carstein available for the Nighthawks.

In the deal, Helsinki acquires forward Mikko Borisyuk, forward prospect Ocean Codoller, a 3rd round pick in S94, and a 2nd round pick in S96.

From a Nighthawks point of view, they essentially moved Codoller and their S96 2nd round pick for Van Carstein. It seems likely Von Carstein will fill in for Eric Queefson in the Malmo defense corps, as Queefson's future with the team and the VHL entirely has become murky.

A highly touted prospect from the get-go for the S92 draft, Von Carstein put up 81 points in 72 games for the VHLM's Ottawa Lynx in S91, after being selected 1st overall in the VHLM draft. He would go on to be selected 2nd overall in the VHLE draft and 6th overall in the VHL draft in the same off-season, and put up 71 points in 72 games in his one season with the Bratislava Watchmen before making the jump to Vancouver last season. In his rookie VHL campaign, Von Carstein had 9 goals, 45 points, 67 hits, and 153 blocked shots. It was a young Vancouver team that featured six rookies and finished 13th in the VHL, but he didn't look out of place.

With the earlier re-signings of Phillip Rave and Gregger McKeggegger, the Nighthawks have nearly filled out their expected roster for S94, with one remaining forward spot open. With designs on being a contending team once again, you can likely expect Malmo to make another move - whether a trade or a free agent signing - to fill that spot before the season begins. The S93 Prague Phantoms did make an interesting case for teams competing that potentially that sixth forward spot isn't necessarily required to be a top priority, but it doesn't seem likely to be something that will catch on around the league, at least not at this time.

The Nighthawks will feel the loss of Yaroslav Bogatyrev as they felt the loss of Henry Eagles last season, but there is reason for optimism as many key players are not yet facing regression and have experienced another full year of development. Forwards Viktor Jensen, Phillip Rave, Ronald Johnson MacWallace III, and Savaisk Tzesar will all enter the upcoming season the best they've ever been in their VHL careers and the blueline still looks good, anchored by stud #1 defender Jacob Stone. So far, the Nighthawks have done a great job of being able to keep up with losses, retool, and send a contending team out over the past several seasons. With so many contracts expiring after S94, the future of the franchise may depend on successfully doing so again this year, but the acquisition of Von Carstein feels like a good place to start.

1 hour ago, mmrs617 said:

Questions

1. Does your player's build match with the goal you had when you first created?

2. What off-season tournament are you most excited about?

3. If you had to substitute water for another non-alcoholic drink that you would need to survive, what would you choose?

1) Yup, it's pretty much what I was going for.

2) To be completely honest, I'm probably not going to be pay much attention to any of them. For me I appreciate the couple weeks of down time, especially with the disappointing ways the last two seasons have ended. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to have stuff going on throughout the off-season to keep people engaged, just for me the odd break is nice too!

3) I drink a ton of iced tea so that would work for me lol.

---

1) Is there anything in particular your player needs to work on over the off-season?

2) Who do you think will be the first overall pick in the S94 VHL draft?

3) Who do you think is going to win the Stanley Cup this season?

After back-to-back Victory Cup wins followed by unceremonious post-season exits, the Malmo Nighthawks are facing a potential crossroads. Their direction for upcoming seasons may be up in the air with several key players needing contract extensions in the next season or two.

One player who's future is now more certain is sophomore centre Phillip Rave, who has just signed a three-year deal to stick around. His breakout S93 campaign featured 34 goals and 81 points, doubling up the production he recorded as a rookie in S92.

"The Nighthawks and I had some good conversations after the playoffs and talked about the team's future and what I had in mind for mine and we found some common ground... at the end of the day, this is where I wanted to be. I've loved my time in Malmo and I couldn't see myself playing anywhere else. You just never know what the next few years are going to bring but we have a great team here, we've had two awesome seasons, and I'm excited to get back out there, to compete with this group again next season and just find a way to keep improving and make some noise in the playoffs," Rave said.

"If everything breaks right I'd love to spend my whole career here. It's a matter of making sure the fit's right for player and team, but this is home."

On 5/31/2021 at 7:44 AM, Emi said:

1. What is something you couldn't live without?
2. What is one thing ritual you do before every game?
3. What is your favourite pre-game meal?
4. If you had to play another sport what would you play?
5. What is your go to shoe when you're relaxing?
6. If you could put a team anywhere in the world where would it be?

1) my family and closest friends

2) take a nap, gotta be well-rested and sleep is great

3) a couple cheesy gordita crunches from taco bell

4) being a former talented young skier is Rave's backstory, so i'll go with that

5) if i'm relaxing, i almost certainly do not have shoes on

6) somewhere in Japan seems like a good idea

As the Malmo Nighthawks cleaned out their lockers and held their season-ending media availability, Phillip Rave wasn't particularly interested in hearing from reporters about his breakout 81-point regular season.

"I'm here cleaning out my locker today and there's four teams still playing next week, so what's it matter, really?" says Rave. "Y'know, just like last season, we play 72 games, it's a long regular season and we come out of that as the league's best team. And then we just get embarrassed in the playoffs. You gotta find a way to win games, there's no bonus for keeping them close. Gotta dig deep and win games... we've been saying how we didn't want a repeat of last season, but we got one. So there's going to have to be some soul searching in the off-season because it can't happen again."

"40, 80, 150 points in the regular season... doesn't really matter to me, man, I just want to be holding up the Cup at the end of the year. That's what you play for."

Though it's not the thing on anyone's mind after a second-straight Victory Cup Champion squad got bounced early, the Nighthawks ought to be happy with Rave's second season in the VHL. He doubled his rookie campaign production, jumping from 16 goals and 41 points to 34 goals and 81 points, led the Nighthawks in shots with 442, and finished second in the entire VHL in +/- with a +47 rating. Rave moved up and down the Nighthawks lineup throughout the regular season and managed to be the straw that stirred the drink on multiple different lines.

In fact, Rave compiled those numbers while putting up just 4 goals and 9 points on the powerplay, which might be even more impressive. He ranked 31st in the VHL in goals and 39th in points overall, but his 30 goals and 71 points at even strength rank just outside of the league's top-20 in each of those categories. Of course, while his rate of production at 5-on-5 is very encouraging, especially for a second-year VHLer, the low powerplay numbers in Rave's case are not a function of a lack of powerplay opportunity. Rave did play on the powerplay, and he did not do it well, with the next-closest Malmo forward still recording nearly twice as many PP points (16).

Rave's entry-level contract is up this off-season, and media weren't able to glean much insight into contract negotiations from Rave in the locker room.

"Honestly, haven't thought about the off-season yet. My focus was on winning a championship. The contract stuff... that's for my agent to handle, for one, and it's also just not the time for it. But I mean, I love it here, I love this team. So I'm sure everything will be taken care of, it's just not something I wanted to focus on in the middle of a season. There will be a time and place to sit down and figure out what's going to happen and it's not right now while we're sitting here digesting being eliminated from the playoffs," Rave responded.

For the second straight season, the Malmo Nighthawks have followed up a Victory Cup-winning season with a near-immediate playoff exit, eliminated in five games at the hands of the Moscow Menace. Running it back from S92 with a similar roster - switching out Henry Eagles and Jebediah Big Ol Doinks in Amish for Gregger McKeggegger and Eric Queefson - the Nighthawks got unfortunately similar results, too.

This off-season, McKeggegger, Queefson, and Phillip Rave will have their contracts expire and Yaroslav Bogatyrev retired. There is potential for more significant change, although it seems likely the team would prefer to have everyone back. After S94, the Nighthawks will have to attempt to re-sign franchise cornerstones Jacob Stone and Viktor Jensen as well as defenseman Reese McFleury, while franchise netminder Ash Sparks will retire. These next two off-seasons will represent a crossroads for the Nighthawks after back-to-back playoff disappointments. If they can bring back most or all of these key players, they will most likely be able to put together a competitive roster for a long time.

The Nighthawks will most likely be a playoff contender once again in S94, but if the Nighthawks fail to perform on the biggest stage for a third straight year, it's entirely possible that the team, their star players, or both will see it as time for a change. Despite the excitement, and ultimately disappointment, of the last two seasons in Malmo, the upcoming season may be the biggest yet.

So sorry for your loss. I'm glad the VHL is able to be some sort of outlet for you... that can be important during such difficult times.

The Malmo Nighthawks have clinched their second straight Victory Cup, wrapping up the season with wins over the Los Angeles Stars and New York Americans to post a 51-17-4 record, three points ahead of the Seattle Bears for first overall in the VHL. The Nighthawks went 17-3 in their last 20 games, breaking open what was once one of the tightest European Conference races we've ever seen.

Centre Viktor Jensen led the team in scoring with 94 points while defenseman Jacob Stone put up 87 points, 223 hits, and 164 blocks and between the pipes, Ash Sparks authored another fine season going 45-15-4 with a .924 SV%, 2.41 GAA, and 6 shutouts.

Last season, the Nighthawks won the Victory Cup but followed it up by failing to win a single game in the post-season. "The Victory Cup is nice, but it's not the goal. At the end of the day it's not worth much if you don't get it done in the playoffs, and obviously last year couldn't have gone much worse in that regard. We don't want a repeat of that," said centre Phillip Rave.

The Nighthawks will face the winner of the wildcard series between the Moscow Menace and Warsaw Predators.

12 hours ago, KaleebtheMighty said:

  PRESS CONFERENCE

Week of: April 28th, 2024

Answer 6 of these questions for 2 TPE

 

1. Malmo is making a push for the 1st overall position in both the EU conference and the VHL. Did you think we would be here at the beginning of this season?

2. Who would you rank as our team's MVP?

3. How did your player perform this season?

4. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

5. What team are you rooting for in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?

6. How have your predictions for the VHL held up this season?

7. Who is your favorite band or musical artist?

8. HYPOTHETICAL: You woke up this morning and the world has transformed into the last movie you watched. How screwed are you?

1) I figured we'd be really good again. Who actually ends up #1 overall in the league can be a little random so I wouldn't say I expected anything other than to be among the team's contending for that spot.

2) Either Jacob Stone or Ash Sparks. We allow the fewest goals in the league so let's go with either the #1 d-man on the league's best defense (and one of our leading scorers as well), or the goalie who's keeping all the pucks out. Sparks is right up there among the league leaders in GAA, SV%, shutouts, wins... it probably doesn't hold up to Summers' season when it comes to winning league awards but he's clearly been great this year.

3) Cooled off more than I'd hoped in the second half of the season, but all-in-all it was a pretty good year, a step up from my rookie season. Hope to continue the progress next season.

4) Chocolate chip cookie dough.

5) The Jets are my team, so them, but if I had to pick anyone else, probably Edmonton simply because McDavid deserves a cup.

6) I should get a few points out of Skor McFleury winning awards at least. Most of the rest are not looking great.

Claim 2/2

With about 20% of the season left to play in S93, contenders in the VHL's European Conference are in the midst of a potentially unprecedented race for playoff positioning. Just a couple of days ago, teams one-through-five in the EU were *all* tied with 36 wins and separated by just two points in the standings overall. For five teams to be so tightly-packed is incredible, and certainly makes for an exciting ride for the fans! The teams aren't just close in terms of points in the standings either, as they have the second-through-sixth place goal differentials in the VHL as well, with a range of +43 to +60. All five teams seem poised to battle it out for positioning right to the bitter end.

Malmo Nighthawks

Leading the EU with a 38-15-4 record and 80 points are the Malmo Nighthawks. The Nighthawks have, to an extent, had some issues offensively this season, but they are riding strong team defense and goaltending to a contending spot. Their 190 goals for ranks 8th in the VHL, but their 144 goals against is fewest in the league. Netminder Ash Sparks @DarkSpyro is in the league's top-five in SV% (0.925) and is second among starters in GAA (2.43) and shutouts (4). Viktor Jensen @Advantage is the star of the show offensively, leading the team with 68 points, although Malmo's offense features a pretty balanced attack overall with six players right around or above the PPG mark. All-situations defender Jacob Stone @scoop is having his best year in the VHL, with 67 points, 178 hits, and 138 blocks as the #1 defenseman on the league's best defensive team.

London United

The London United are actually tied with Malmo at 80 points, but have one more game played and one fewer win (37-15-6). The United boast a formidable roster that's a little differently-constructed than Malmo. They're a lot more top heavy with less depth, but equally effective, with Wann Kerr @VattghernCZ leading the entire VHL with 102 points and linemate Leonard Triller @Triller with a remarkable 85 points in 58 games himself. London has the sixth-best offense but second-best defense in the VHL, with certified superstar Jesse Teno @aimkin between the pipes. Teno is in the final season of an eight-year VHL career spent entirely with London, and he is authoring yet another excellent campaign.

Prague Phantoms

The Prague Phantoms come next, currently one point back of Malmo/London (37-16-5, 79 points). Prague has a bit of a unique roster construction as they have played most of the season with two fewer players than most VHL contenders. The recent pickup of LeBen Aky now leaves them just one defenseman short of a "full" roster. They have not been punished for this, though, as they've been on a roll all year long. Prague has some true star power in the lineup with John Jameson @Frank, Nikolas Kauppi @Tetricide, and Skor McFleury @Alex, and all three players are living up to the hype. Jameson is second in the VHL with 101 points, Kauppi leads the league with 46 goals (93 points), and McFleury leads the league in assists (62) and defenseman scoring (82) points - while being top-5 in hits (231) and blocked shots (185), too.

Moscow Menace

The Moscow Menace are fourth in the conference but they, too, are sitting on 37 wins (37-18-3, 77 points) and boast the league's second-best offense with 214 goals for. Moscow are a young team with a roster built similarly to Malmo's in that they're very deep and balanced, and having nine players at the 50-point mark is a testament to that depth. Axle Gunner @Steve has been the team's best player since his rookie season in S91 and continues to improve, having gone from 73 points to 94 to now pacing for 103 this season (83 points in 58 games). On the back end, Leif Reingaard @Zetterberg is having a stellar year with 68 points in 58 games so far. The second-year pro is already one of the league's best offensive blueliners.

Warsaw Predators

Warsaw (36-20-3) sits in fifth place, with brick wall Lachlan Summers @kirbithan having a massive part to play in that. Summers was brilliant in S90 for Davos and captured some individual hardware then - he seems poised, now, to fill up that trophy case a little further in his first year outside of Davos. Summers has faced a tougher workload than most starters - the only goalies that have faced more shots are Matthew McCagg, Karl Pederson, and Red Panda who all play for rebuilding teams in LA, Davos, and Riga (for perspective - Summers has 32 wins himself; LA, Davos, and Riga combine for 34 wins all together). Despite facing 260 shots more than the nearest goaltender on a playoff team, he's atop the league with a .935 SV% and also has 4 shutouts. Their offense has been keyed by breakout seasons from their entire top line of King Kisslinger @Kisslinger (88 points in 59 games), Thor Reingaard @N0HBDY (86 points in 59 games), and Maxim Anisimov @McLovin(85 points in 59 games). Their biggest weakness is a lack of depth - they have six players over 56 points, but then nobody else with more than 17 - but they did make a recent move to pick up Sunglasses Joyo @JetsGoalie101 to help remedy that.

This will mark the 21st season since the league's expansion to 16 teams, and only twice in that time have teams 1-through-5 in either conference been separated by even less than 10 points: S87 when first-place Davos was separated from fifth-place London by 9 points, and S77 when first-place Chicago was 9 points ahead of fifth-place Vancouver, making this season's race potentially historically-close. For the vast majority of S93 so far, these five teams have not been separated by more than 5 points. Remarkably, the first-through-seventh place teams were only separated by 11 points in S87, so there were higher stakes in that case, as two teams didn't even make the playoffs. Still, if the level of play shown by all five of these teams so far continues through the final 13-15 games, we could be witnessing the hardest-fought battle for positioning within a conference in recent VHL history.

---

1032 words, for this week and next

20 hours ago, badcolethetitan said:

 

1. I would say that the team is very active. It's nice to have a bunch of people talking about the games after sims.

2. I think for skaters, it's probably defense. For goalies, I don't know because I've never really created a goalie before.

3. Arizona had to move eventually. I don't think it's going to solve the problem, but it's a solution to one problem.

 

1. How is your player doing this season? Better or worse than you expected?

2. Who do you think is going to make the playoffs (last wild card) in the Eastern Conference for the NHL?

3. If you could play with one player in the VHL, who would it be and why?

 

1) Honestly about the same. After my hot start I had hoped to sustain it a little better, but I figured somewhere around PPG or slightly above was a good target for this year and that's where I am.

2) Detroit

3) I've never gotten to play a season as a player with @Ricer13 and still would like to get to do that at some point, just because of the fond memories of the season I joined the league in Miami with him as GM. One of these days!

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1) Who do you think is the VHL MVP so far this season? 

2) It's a playoff game 7 and your starting goalie goes down, but fortunately you can pick any other VHL starting goalie to fill in that night... who are you picking?

3) What's your favourite pre-game meal?

In the midst of an incredible battle for first place in the European Conference, where first-through-fifth place are separated by a total of three points, Phillip Rave's breakout season has continued for the Malmo Nighthawks. Although Rave isn't scoring at quite the pace he was to start the year, he has maintained a better-than-PPG average with 27 goals and 57 points in 53 games. The Nighthawks have five players at the PPG mark, and forward Savaisk Tzesar is not far behind, giving them a very balanced attack.

"It's obviously always nice to contribute, so I'm happy I've been able to produce. It feels like the work I've been putting in is paying off on the ice, which is always a great feeling," says Rave. "Obviously with the state of the EU right now, you need to be on top of your game every night. You lose a game or two and you can drop from first place to fifth. It seems like the five playoff teams are settled, but the positioning matters. And I think our whole team, myself included, can be a little better with that consistency aspect."

While Rave likely had a chance at one point to take home the Dustin Funk Trophy, as his production has slightly tailed off it's beginning to look like there are other, more impressive candidates. Still, it's a marked improvement from year one for Rave, and the Nighthawks have to be feeling like they have a future star on their hands.

5 minutes ago, KaleebtheMighty said:

Had to create a new one since @DarkSpyro got a little crazy with our last one


  PRESS CONFERENCE

Week of: April 14th, 2024

Answer 6 of these questions for 2 TPE

 

1. With Helsinki selling off their players, it looks like the top 5 EU teams have formed. Where do you think we end up in the standings?

2. We are currently ranked as the 3rd best team in the VHL by point totals. Which team has surprised you this season?

3. What is something you are looking forward to?

4. What has been the most impactful performance from a Malmo player that you have seen this season?

5. How have you been doing with your New Year's Resolutions?

6. PC, Xbox, or Playstation?

7. Which team is your favorite brand or name in the VHL, VHLE, or VHLM?

8. HYPOTHETICAL: You have been allowed to forgo every single chore in your life except for one. You have to do that chore everyday for the rest of your life. Which chore are you picking?

1) Honestly looks like the top-5 EU teams could end up in almost any order at this point, but I think we'll pull it out and end up 1st or 2nd!

2) I thought Calgary would be a lot better than they are.

3) Winning the Continental Cup this year 

4) Sparks has stood on his head a few times. I think there was a game we beat Calgary(?) despite being outshot like 60-30, so I'll go with that one.

6) PC

7) Honestly probably Halifax, even though "21st" sounds a bit awkward. It has a strong meaning & connection to the area, and being for a VHLM team (ie. the entry point to the VHL) it has another layer of meaning to it there. Malmo, Prague, and Riga are my favourites in the VHL.

It's theme week in the VHL, and this season's theme is "rebrand". In recent years, rebranding has been rare for VHL teams, but rebranding can be an exciting time for a team, especially if they really nail the new look. There seems to be a lot of picking on the low-hanging fruit in the London United and to a lesser extent, the New York Americans, so I decided to look at some other teams.

Overall, I think the VHL branding as a whole is actually quite strong, so don't take this too seriously!

Seattle Bears
I don't have anything in particular against the branding of the Bears, I don't think they are in dire need of a rebrand or anything like that. There's nothing I find inherently bad about the Bears' branding, rather, I just find it a little bit plain. Varying shades of red/blue, like their primary colour maroon, are way overdone in professional sports as a whole and the name "Bears" is pretty generic.

Seattle is sometimes known as the "Emerald City" for its year-round greenery, and I love seeing a pop of green in a teams' colours. Calling the team the Seattle Emeralds and featuring a prominent green/white colour scheme, maybe with black, silver, or teal as an accent colour as well, would provide a unique, sharp colour scheme and also give the team a name with strong ties to the area. However, there is a lot of history associated with the Seattle Bears name in the VHL. They are a team that as been around since S1 and have won more Continental Cups than any other franchise in VHL history. Although none of that is erased with a name change, it still creates a situation where rebranding is unlikely.

Los Angeles Stars
This is another team where the branding just feels a little bit generic, probably because of the name "Stars", which admittedly is a little unfair because the connection with the name "stars" and LA actually makes a lot of sense. The colour scheme lacks any real, well, colour. There's a big city a little further south in California that recently lost its football team and is pretty empty in the way of major professional sports right now, so they could be very open to supporting a VHL team in the area...

I'm talking about San Diego, of course. I think we can move the Stars to San Diego and call them the San Diego Pandas! After all, (almost) everyone loves pandas. Think of all the merchandising opportunities! The San Diego zoo was one of the more famous places to see pandas in North America until they returned them to China in 2019, but recent developments indicate that San Diego is likely on the way to getting their pandas back. Of course, we can't do much about the "boring" black/white colour scheme with this team name, but a little pop of colour - replacing the silver accent colour with a bamboo-green accent - could go a long way in making the uniforms a little more interesting.

I would probably care a lot more about the international tournaments if teams were actually just international teams representing one country, and teams that qualify for any given tournament were picked based on the number of eligible players they had or something. But that would mean completely leaving some people out, some teams being completely outclassed, etc... so I definitely get it. I created a guy from Lichtenstein so I'd never get to participate (short of trying to get a bunch of other people to create Lichtensteiners too). It just doesn't really feel like international play to me so it may as well be just another off-season tournament variant.

With the VHL season just across its halfway point, there is no shortage of jockeying for position in a jam-packed European Conference.

The Moscow Menace lead the EU with a 26-9-3 record for 55 points, but it's about as tenuous a grip on first as you can find, with second-through-fourth each having 52 points themselves. Malmo has a game in hand with a 24-9-4 record while the Prague Phantoms and London United are each 24-10-4.

While all teams are very tightly-grouped in the standings, there are big playoff implications at play for this group depending on the order of finish, since whoever finishes 4th will have to play an extra playoff series against the 5th-place team in the conference. Home ice matters too, but getting to avoid the wildcard round is an extra benefit. None of these teams want to get that extra wear on them at the toughest time of the year.

We are set up for a very interesting second half of the season in the EU as all four teams have strong teams and legitimate Cup aspirations. It's rare to see a conference with four powerhouse teams so closely grouped for an entire season. Will anyone be able to separate themselves from the group to claim top spot, or will this be a heated battle that keeps fans on the edge of their seats right down to the season's final game?

@hedgehog337 you took a shot on me as a first gen in that stacked S75 draft, made me the 8th overall pick... I wish that had ended better for both McLaren and for Riga, but it was still fun times there with that crew and I appreciated your willingness to give me a shot. Appreciated the way you handled it when the team didn't do as well as we should have and you had to make some changes, too.

you're a VHL legend man, one heck of a run as Riga's GM here. Best of luck in whatever comes next for ya and I hope we still see you around once in a while