*Preparing for the draft*
Hi, it's me again with the S61 draft related article. After all, I still need to use doubles which I won in the lottery and as a Riga GM I have nothing else to write about. And looks like other GM's are interested in this draft as well - @DollarAndADream with his draft update, @Banackock with his own version of VHLSC. Good to see such active general managers here.
And good to see these kind of drafts. I don't even remember when we had 11 players with 100+ TPE even before the draft started. Perhaps in VHL's early days. Let's see this TOP 11 (as of 5/27):
D - Samuel Gate - 214 TPE @street
LW - Matt Thompson - 189 TPE @Beketov
C - Podrick Cast - 186 TPE @Victor
RW - Edwin Preencarnation - 146 TPE @Tagger
G - Arvid Aamo - 140 TPE @Daniel
D - Robert Malenko - 130 TPE @pennypenny
G - Roger Sterling - 124 TPE @Will
RW - Sergei Kovalev - 120 TPE @Laflamme
LW - Marvin Harding - 120 TPE @.sniffuM
C - Mikhail Vega - 114 TPE @iRockstar
D - Jesper Stromberg - 100 TPE @Tim
As we can see, defense is a bit more stacked than other positions. Gate is the first in TPE and other two are solid too. We also need to mention that the best first-gen player plays in defence (Malenko). Another honorable mentions goes to Alvaro Jokinen (93 TPE) and Lev Bronstein (64 TPE), both of them could become a nice second round steals. It's a shame than Jacob Smith (61 TPE) is likely stopping with updating because @jacobaa19 player was another candidate of being a steal. Now he may drop to a third round. Also, @Ahma is kinda wildcard member as his only destination is Davos. We may really see this player drop to a low round just to be drafted by the Dynamo. Btw, who still doesn't know: @troy = @stevo. Just saying.
What about other positions? Not a lot talking there. Left wing has only aforementioned Harding and Thompson. It's unfortunate that Ryan Skinner (64 TPE) last update was at the beginning of May as he was another option for a second round steal, just like Jacob Smith. Perhaps @rampagemaster could find a motivation to give it another shot.
Right wing. Outside of our two best RW leaders, we have Wolf Edmunds (38 TPE) and Jordon Tonn (45 TPE) with some potential left. @MexicanCow even posted twice after his update (one of them in the achievement tracker thread), @Wolf Edmunds didn't update his player since April 30th but still pops in. I won't write them of yet, but now Tonn is the third best RW in this draft class and maybe he will become that steal of the draft.
Center. Nothing...The most interesting question here is what's up with Mikka Pajari? (48 TPE now, but should have more). Is @Devise done? Or he is tanking his player's draft stock on a purpose? I didn't see he retired this player so he may become a diamond in the rough if Devise would at least claim a welfare for this player.
Goalies. Similar to a center position, albeit Greg Santos (53 TPE) is still making moves so maybe @Barracuda could also see some spotlight in the draft ceremony. Another one was Victor Ball (38 TPE), but looks like @jcfbey01 isn't really interested in this league anymore. Sad.
My article is done. Thanks for reading it.
That's it and I'm out.
12 TPE goes to Kurtutecis.