hedgehog337

1. Based on the season so far, how confident are you that we can make it to the final this time? I have no idea. kinda eh chances if we're gonna continue to bottle the scoring 2. We are currently in a big slump with the scoring drying up, what do you think is needed to change to help get a run going? Maybe some trade? speaking of which.... 3. Who has been the biggest leader in the locker room this season? Tobias Reinhart and Alexandre Leduc 4. Any idea on what you'd want to do with your next player? idk I need to figure it out something with AK first though 5. How has your summer ben going IRL, any cool vacations? it's kinda aight. could've been better with a better weather you know. prolly still gonna visit my cousin in Tallinn cause why not 6. Can you provide ma decent question to ask in the next presser? why it is so hard to come up with a decent question?

Too late old man!

bruh I'm here for the half of VHL life already. idek how some members could spend whole 15

So here it is, VHL is going further into the teenage years as it's celebrating the 15 year anniversary. Some of current members here aren't even that old so that's something. So the theme week said we can look back and reflect and I guess I can do that. Most of memories are gonna revolve around my GM tenure since uhhhh....out of 44 seasons I already spent here I was a managing a team for 35 seasons and counting (including Bratislava). My first comeup - late 40's. Don't exactly remember in which season, but I became something bigger than ''clicker'' with Zeptenbergs in the second half of S40's. I even was leaving teams to FA couple of times and I think this means something. Later I even started to do medias, though it was very uncertain for how long I could last with the grading system we had these days. Luckily for me, that system was abolished which gave me a breathing room and perhaps this was one of main reasons why I actually stayed in this league. Did I have any part in making VHL toxic in S50's? I think, not. Like always I was being a bystander and making lots of side comments in hot threads because why not. You know the feeling when you're reading the hot shitstorm and then comes members who are spamming some random shit ''for fun'' and killing the whole vibe of the thread. I was being like that. I remember that Riga locker when most of times we were discussing Helsinki and @boubabi in particular. That was also pretty much peak Riga forum locker under my tenure. Though the S76 thread blew out the water every other season post number wise, but these days we had more than two members participating in locker. Anyways, yeah VHL was suffering in 50's. Burnout from PP2 and constant drama made members less invested in this league. And new members never really came cause nobody had the energy to recruit. Though ironically these were the days I really started to flourish. Bratislava and then Riga GM, the rise of my activity, making good players... Most fun times #1: ...speaking of which. I really was having fun seeing some members in shook when 450 TPE Krīgars started to light up the league for some reason. Well, with the help with the 440 TPE inactive Locke. You think 70's meta is something new? Riga was out there exploiting this in late 50's already, though I obviously never knew anything about 40 passing meta stuff. Also, Petenis in mid 50's was something lol. PP2 Another part of history of the league. Not a small part either, even to this day this is being mentioned. The higher ups were trying to save the league from dying by implementing idea from @Molholt. We did get more players, but also on top of that we got more players that got burned out from trying to work with 2 players at the same time. By the way, Krīgars was the product of PP2. At least it gave VHL more hall of fame players...eh? Most fun times #2: It correlates with the previous two points. Winning is fun and having back to back is even better. Everything worked in our and my favor. Getting a hall of fame goalie for cheap, meta being on our side. For obvious reasons I was a fan of that. Beaviss. At this point pretty much iconic member for VHL. He came in S56 and quickly climbed up in ranks with his hella active energy. Seeing that this league is not far from crumbling he decided to do something. No, not to quit VHL. He and his ''right hand'' @Spade18 actually managed to do a proper recruitment which actually gave results in rather quick fashion. Some of the first wave first gens that came in early 60's are still in this league. His efforts in recruitment brought us to the first point of culmination - the S66 draft which was the biggest and deepest the VHL has ever seen by that time. He kept his energy until mid 70's when the league was already very far away from the 50's shitshow times. @Beaviss VHL portal. ''It goes hand in hand'' - pretty much recruitments relations to portal. The idea that was started by @Devise(?) was done in real life by @Will in early 60's. Then it was and still being improved by @Josh and @Dil. The portal is named one of the biggest reasons why the recruitment was so successful. Earning TPE and updating player became an easier job. It made VHL more casual which appeared to be a positive since more members were buying into this idea. My first step down - S54. Yall out there thought I only started this in mid 60's? In my very first season in Riga I had a dubious trade idea which never worked so I went to cry a river to not so oldhead GM @Banackock and told him I'm about to step down. Oh if he ever knew who will still be Riga GM in 31 seasons he would probably told me that this job is not for me. Instead, he was telling me to not give up....well I didn't lol. My least favorite playoff series. S65, Toronto 4-1 Riga. Thanks I hated that. I was so pissed I even was typing in caps lock on and I pretty much never do that even when I'm mad. So you know how livid was I after losing game 5. Dead puck era (S64 - 72) The successful recrutment effort brought lots of fresh blood into this league which meant we had less horrible teams that could be dunked on. The scoring league wide went down really quick and even having expansion teams didn't stop overall scoring from plummeting. We were witnessing some fascinating achievements like winning the scoring title with as low as 88 points. Goalies for sure were eating really good these days. Second big rectuitment wave (S72-75) Well, you could say it wasn't as much as recruitment crew job as it was from something unfortunate thing. That thing was named C-19 and the lockdowns that were a result of this virus. People had nothing much to do at home all the times and VHL was the one way how to spend the time. Regardless if you were a sim league veteran or a newbie. The draft classes were really booming these days which culminated in the biggest draft in VHL history - S75. That was really something huge and I'm pretty glad I had lots of picks there hah. Some of newbies from that timeline are already holding high positions in this league and one of them was even a commish for a moment. Truly great days. My least favorite period (S77-81) I think I don't need to explain again why. Good summer, shit results, lots of job. All of that came up in one time and drove me out of the league for the most part. My activity during that time was the worst since early Zeptenbergs days. Thanks, I hated that too. Meta/high scoring (S76-82) I have to say, the first seedings of that were planted earlier by @FrostBeard's Malmo. Even in S71 when he tried to rebuild during the season I felt like the players he got from that big Riga/Malmo trade actually made this team more offensive based as their builds were scoring friendly. That even helped them to leapfrog Helsinki for the last playoff spot though before that trade they were trailing behind. Couple of seasons later he assembled players that were really about scoring and not much else and that worked pretty well. Not without Condor's help of course, but still. Soon enough, they won a championship. In fairness, I doubt Frost had any idea about making the scoring heavy team, he just was drafing and trading for players that were fitting into their timeline and that's really about it. Neither other GM's were watching him like that. But something here was really up - get more scoring first players; do not even bother for physical or passers and get what you want. Other GM's were starting to do the same stuff (though again, I don't think Malmo was the reason). Year by year we were witnessing teams getting more scoring based until @Nykonax said fuck it and assemble a 40 passing team. I think we all know how it went for his managed Vancouver and why the hybrid system was implemented in the first place. VHLE (S80 - ) Something nobody ever thought it would happen. A third league. The so called ''C-19 recruitment'' also brought a good amount for clickers who weren't that active to have a big role in a team, but still were decent enough to have a spot in a team. Soon enough teams were having large problems to land them anywhere since they had no cap or roster space. In the attempt of these 300-400 TPE clickers not ending up without a team this league was created. Alright, enough about history stuff I'm tired and I'm off to sleep soon. That's it and I'm out.

1. How is your player doing halfway through the season? Wanted for some more, but it's E league so whatever 2. How is your summer coming along IRL? It's aight events wise. As for weather, I'm not satisfied. 3. COVID seems to be picking up again with the new variant, do you expect the team to put any health measures in place? No masks/vaccines/safety whatsoever. Then every other team is contracting the illness from us so when we're getting well again we will become champs by default as the only healthy team. 4. Who has been the most surprising player of the season? Not paying much attention outside of Riga, so let's say Cheese having a breakout year. 5. How are your Prediction Points lining up with actual events of the season? I have no idea. we shall see when the time comes 6. What team outside of Riga has the biggest shot at winning it all? Honestly, if Moscow once again chokes with their current form. Spartan needs to be banned for that.

1. How are you feeling about your player so far this season? he's aight, prolly couldve done better 2. Are you having fun this season? kinda? depends on how is Riga performing 3. We lead the league in a tight race, what do we have to do to keep on top? score goals 4. Who would you say your biggest rival has been this season so far? tbh I dont care enough to have a rival for now 5. Tyler Busser is only 3 points from leading the league, do you have any motivation for him to achieve that? he's probably already having enough motivation to grind for that 6. What is your favorite flavor of Ice cream? oreo cookie ice cream

I thought I'll have a strength to write something more interesting, but no. This past week has been more entertaining, I have to admit. Yes we had that roe v wade thread week prior, but last week events were straight league based. We had some interesting trades happening with the bigger implications than we would've ever thought. Anyways, I'll start with the most recent trade to date, which actually happened yesterday. CAL/VAN - straight forward trade. Calgary gets more scoring boost in Telker and getting themselves into the title contention. Vancouver getting a younger player who never had a real chance to flourish in more stacked Calgary team. I'm a bit sad Frank didn't get a pick, but we'll probably figure something out later. Good for Telker who will finish his career in a contender. VAN/NYA/SEA - now this trade was spicy as hell. In fairness, despite of a three way trade status Vancouver didn't play a major part in this drama. They just came in to grab another young player for two older ones and went to hibernate again. However, it didn't save this trade from sparking a tense situation. Looks like some members were mad as hell Seattle got what they wanted once again. And again it came at the expense of New York. 89 trade says hi. It was known that Beaviss is way past his sim league prime and his player's build was meh to say the least. When the player only scored 3 points in last playoffs in a team that won a championship...you know that this ain't it. However, was this really a bad trade? Honestly, the 89 trade was the only one that wasn't looking great. I get that Cow wanted him, but as far as I know nobody else was giving damn about him. So giving a first was very uneccessary. Certainly should've lowballed. This trade though? Now that NY had Sven, I see where Cow was going. The defense and goaltending was already set, this trade was for setting up the forward roster for the future seasons. Basically the now ex-GM was not interested in waiting for too long before entering the contention phase. This strategy is an interesting one, though it comes with few obstacles: - it requires a good free agency. Not the certified MID like it was this past offseason; - gotta trade more picks for more forwards to make the team enticing enough for potential FA's. the best case scenario is trading for FA rights and convincing player(s) to sign with the team; - not longterm enough. Some of the bigger NYA players are either already in regression or are not far away. Though with the current depreciation system...maybe it's not that of a big deal. As you can see, this strategy is not horrible at all, just risky. Obviously it also would be nice to somehow bring Beaviss in and make him reroll MDM's build. And also hoping that GM's can free reroll inactive players builds. That'd make someone like Wilk a better player too. Anyways, Cow cares about none of that anymore. People went too berserk on his moves so he decided to pull ''fuck all of yall'' and stepped down from New York. Now it's the interim Fresco who will try to make something from it. Or do nothing, he is still an interim after all. Also, Bana trying to defend this trade in that thread was a bit funny. I bet he was cackling out there while typing his explanation. At the end of the day he got what he wanted. Switched from a player with non effective build to a two lower TPE guys to make 6/4 roster. And Bushtit may not even be worse than MDM at all. So these are trades that happened at this moment....wait no. RIG/PRG - just pressing accept button as we speak. Got a 4th defenseman in JaredN, a familiar member for Riga. Maybe this time we will get a title with him on the roster. That's it and I'm out.

1. as of now, ye sure. 2. idk, prolly Busser or me 3. he's decent, still wishing for more tbh

New week new whatever type of media. Riga is somewhere at the top. Probably couldve been first, but that stupid illogical loss to Prague puts us at the same level as some other teams. Speaking of which, I am a bit concerned about the offensive output so far. Sometimes we are doing well, but most of times we're just ok with 3 goals or something. I guess I'm greedy as hell, but I do want to see more goals from the team. More goals = more wins = championship. That's the logic right here, not what sim spew out in our game against the rebuilding Prague. Also, a bit funny and relatively rare stuff - actually not one contender is doing horrible from the get go. I was getting used by at least one team doing really meh until mid season, but for now nobody is falling under that category. The whole NA contender group occupied the top 5 early on and it doesn't seems like they will keep the foot off the gas. I'd say, there are still some iffy teams in this league that may only fight for the wildcard spot this season. - First off, Davos offseason implied that they are putting the league on notice...but so far relying only on couple superstar tier forwards is proven to be a meh strategy. The offense definitely isn't convincing enough and Davis is still trying to get back into his better form that he showed in Prague. - London had to sell Godlander who never thrived in the non meta era yet. However, it didn't save them from being just mid. Pearce might be the only one who is actually trying, but for how long this will continue? I feel like once he is tired of carrying them, it's trouble time for Dil and company. Otherwise, other four EU contenders are feeling more or less comfortable and I think neither of them will miss the post season. By the way, Moscow really thumped Warsaw like that. I mean, Moscow is a 4 times finalist, but 8-0? Simon T smh. AK is actually doing fine so far. 17 points in 12 games which is the best points total in the team for now. Also he leads defs in this particular stat as well. Is this type of build really is being welcomed in this new hybrid era? Might as well as be. Because some of the best players in this leagues do have similar ratio...new meta I guess. Anyways, if this is the preview of what's to come in the VHL league, I will be a happy camper. Now it's on to Spartan to not screw this up after Mark retires. Disinterested in his own player hedge is not the best hedge for the team, though I feel like Calgary was fine with Klam regardless if I was being max earning guy or barely being a clicker. So this is the end of this article. Yet another successful week of spewing 500 words for 6 TPE and it's already July! That's it and I'm already out.

1. How's the start of the season going for your player? uhhh, he looks cool so far. probably the build does some wonders 2. What do you think is Riga's biggest need is at this point? nothing really about now, it's more about the future now 3. Heading into the second season with it - are you a fan of the new meta? that's a big word here considering nobody is doing meta numbers. but so far so fine 4. If Riga had to have a company logo on it, what would you pick to have on it? Latvijas Balzāms cause why not

Papa Emeritus @Jubis

Jannik Nylen @Vkobe-v

this thing messy as hell Brendan Telker @Jubis I guess you go

so that means you shoulve been banned 30 years ago. Right?

dam.

Brendan Marner @samthemancub

Here we go, hotter weather. Which means I have a harder time to come up with something meaningful article cause I have no desire. I guess welfare coming up soon. Hi @Spartan. Anyways, we had some spice going up and it was brought up by US supreme court or whatever that thing is called. The thread about their decision on abortion really blew up and this is already a summer classic thread. May even be remembered by the end of this year too. Nothing much new on Riga as well. I thought I can sell Telker somewhere, but looks like I can't even do that and nobody even wants him. If only for a useless ass pick or player so I'm not even sure what to do. What's the punishment for playing the roster that's over the cap? Asking for a friend. I even brought in Powers and Kaprizov because I didn't think I'll have major problems with giving Telker out. But now he may not even be traded to a contender which is even more stupid. There is one 50/50 contender that was running around but I doubt they will put anything at this point. So yeah...I guess rip Riga picks and my GM position as well. Anyways, nothing very much interesting elsewhere too. Calgary decided they need yet another center, but I guess their wingman position is gonna be stronger. Good for them. Prague is getting more youngins and picks. The rebuild is going pretty fine I see. Good for Acyd. Wait, I just realized I didn't mention where did AK land in the VHLE league. I was having some guess that I will be drafted by Istanbul since their AGM is the starter goalie in Riga. And they had lots of picks too. My hunch had it right. Matter of fact, the hoodie guy was actually drafted high. The third overall - I believe this is the highest overall my player was ever drafted, though I may forget something. I am very sure I was never picked first nor second. I think I'm pretty good and never being drafted with the top picks and I doubt this will ever happen. I'm very in doubt I can have another go after AK and sim leagues in general. Moreso, will I even stay at GM for long? Oh wait, I could stay for long just for making that Seattle oldhead suffer with his 7 cups on his back. And while I'm typing this, a member who goes by the name of @Scurvy included AK92 among his creative names list....or annoying. Or both? Anyways, I could just recreate after the hoodie man is gone while stealing another rappers long ass name just to make everyone suffer. So yeah, nothing really else to say. The season starts on Thursday so we can chill for more days. And I can still have the 43.5M roster for 3 more days. Or more? Time will tell what plans I have. That's it and I'm out.

1. do you think Riga GM is crazy for still being over the cap 3 days before the seasonn start? 2. do yall actually celebrating summer solstice? if so, how? 3. so Avs got it. happy or nah? 4. any milestone you wanna reach this season stats wise? 5. who is the most dangerous opponent for Riga in your opinion? 6. what's your favorite drink for the summer?

nah let em continue

Vinny Detroit @Jubis

the biggest bystander in the game says this is a lie

Hard Markinson @samthemancub

1. Happy belated fathers day! Did you celebrate it? 2. Or, do you ever plan to become a parent at some point? 3. Lots of members are complaining about the heat while I'm crying about ''only 20C''. What should I do to turn things around? 4. How's the Avs vs Tampa finals so far for you? 5. What are your feeling on EU conference still being stacked as hell? 6. How more do you think you can spend on sim leagues before calling it quits?

The E draft is soon and I'll have to witness on how far AK is going to drop. Or not. He has a good amount of TPE so he deserves to be high. Also, I won't even watch that draft because hedge sleep meme. Don't know much about the draft, I just know Istanbul has 5 picks in the first two drafts, that's wassup. Also, I've been contanced by 3 teams so far. One of them had to move out from talks quickly as they have too much defensmans. But hey, thanks for talking regardless. The offseason is about to end...in a week and half? Good lord, that's a long time. I guess thanks, cause I'm not gonna pay much attention to sim leagues from thursday to sunday and maybe even beyond. I've heard we're finally getting some heat and I'm ecstatic about it. Who cares about sim leagues when you can go to the beach and chill. Anyways yeah, only one trade from Riga so far. Carter had to go and considering he was pending FA. The price was somewhat fine. Got a second rounder plus a player on ELC which certainnly gives us an opportunity to make a decent roster with some depth. Another idea for a trade is swirling around so we may see an interesting trade soon probably. Speaking of which, @Frank is in shambles. His player is still hanging on Toronto and having a very uncertain future cause the cap space and stuff. I guess someone like Chicago is gonna put a cheap ass price to take him and make a decent contender, but hot damn. Also, Oilman retiring just to give Seattle a cap relief, that's some lmao moment. Not much sympathy for this team cause they managed to rob A FIRST ROUND PICK away from NY for pre much a cap dump. They'll be fine I reckon. And they did sign a 5.5M deal with a player who has a questionable build and already used the free reroll option...are they really really trying to go back to back? Anyways, EU conference is still a dogfight. 7 teams are having a chance for the playoffs and only Malmo can relax and dream about winning the first overall pick. Moscow - lost Idaho which is a hella blow imo. I know other players did good too, but not having this player might have a negative effect on offense. Still a major contender; Warsaw - looks pretty dangerous, but what's up with low skating defs. sheesh; Riga - the roster not ready yet lol. But should be fine regardless; Helsinki - finally a decent roster, though defense is a question. Think they should make it this season....to the playoffs, I did say nothing about winning it all; Davos - Alex is having his quest for the GMoTY award. team is depending too much on two big time forwards and goaltending. Might squeak into the post season; Prague - trying to step back from contending, but their offense is still decent. Might have some fight left in them; London - Dil is coasting to the rebuild sooner than later so he didn't do much this season. Probably too mid to make it. Malmo - no stress. But hey, NA is finally having some life too. DC brought Idaho, Calgary fortifying their D spot, Chicago is somewhere there lurking too. Too bad the playoff fight there is still too predictable but hey, at least some movements there. Ok, enough words. That's it and I'm out.