*did you miss me?*
First of all, I'd like to say that this is my first VHL article in many moons. I believe the last time I wrote an article here was in S60. Then I was stepping down a bit since Riga went into the rebuilding mode and I was paying more attention to SBA. Of course, I woke up when the season was about to finish. The S62 draft was another huge one and this was a ''can't miss'' event for me as the rebuilding team GM. So now I'm here with a full article.
Now let's talk about this season. I can't say the teams are done with trades, but majority of deals are done 100%. The draft was the most exciting part of the off-season because other parts of it weren't that fun. Right now NY was the only seller and not much buyers either. The FA class was also underwhelming as hell - literally no superstar player in it, just second liners or second pair material. So I assume we can already figure it out who is going to compete and who will rebuild. And here I need to tell you that this season could be very odd. I see only three contender teams. It's basically TOP 3 and everyone else. 2-3 seasons ago we had at least four competing teams and S59 even had five. Now only three teams are ready for fighting for the championship. NY also could do some damage early, but they will trade Jones and Kiaskov to Davos in mid-season. So let's look at these three teams now.
CALGARY WRANGLERS
@Bushito was so much upset after finals he even voiced an odd idea about selling his players. It obviously was impossible since there were too few buyers (with one of them being a team that beat Calgary in finals, Davos). So of course Barbash didn't sell anyone. As of S62, Calgary is pretty much the same team that was playing last season. The only change was Quill who will replace Kinkaid. So except this team being one of powerhouses this season.
DAVOS DYNAMO
Current champs. They managed to end a 23-season cup drought which was the longest at that time. @Tyler really likes to break curses (see: Vasteras, S26). But they also had problems to solve. Aleksei, Volkov, Roux - all of them were gone due retirements. Tyler managed to find replacements, but the cap situation was not his side so I assume he will play with a lot of rookies this season before he's going to make a trade with NY that will bring Casey Jones and David Kiaskov. We will see how big change this will be for the Dynamo but either way, this team will be scary.
QUEBEC CITY MEUTE
Finally @Beaviss made it: his Quebec is one of real contenders this season. It wasn't an easy road, but for now we may see the Meute as the S62 champs. We may argue that Rayne is only for one season, but they didn't draft Gate without a reason. There is no doubt that this team is going to be one of TOP teams for multiple seasons.
So, what about other teams?
NEW YORK AMERICANS
SEATTLE BEARS
HELSINKI TITANS
RIGA REIGN
TORONTO LEGION
This is the list of teams that won't compete for the championship, but two of them will play in the wildcard round. And of them will even play in the semi's...to just being destroyed by the #1 seed. But still, who has the best chance of making so far? New York is. I believe they still will have Jones and Kiaskov before they would be traded to Davos. And with McKnight plus Kingfisher in the net this team should do some damage and taking majority of points from other four listed teams. Then it's a crapshot. Helsinki has Ron and Shephard; Riga has full two offensive lines; Seattle has a balanced roster and a legit goalie and Toronto has Ironside and Malenko. Seattle could even try to snatch some players from Davos if their GM sells some, but I don't think it would happen - Bana won't throw picks away without a reason. Anyways, nobody from these teams are a real threat for the TOP 3 this season, facts.
That's it and I'm out.
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