hedgehog337

Fav moment #3: My first FA signing with Zeptenbergs, when @Mike offered 7M to my player because he thought I'm inactive. It wasn't too far from truth as I was semi-active welfare member at most.

Ontario the S13 champs. Never forget. Welcome!

Fav moment #2: @Frank, @iRockstar @jRuutu @Laflamme @Individual @Duddy @Christmas and @Kylrad in S43 Ottawa.

Fav moment #1: very first Zeptenbergs' game (3+2). Ironically, he never replicated his first game success.

I just needed an explanation why Sokolov likely won't get an award And I actually was praising your +/-. calling it a step up. I just have a feeling that award committee (or w/e) will not risk to name a minus player as the best defenceman despite of his impressive def play. But I don't know, maybe I'm wrong with that.

Wrong game @Will Gunča did what he could, but not enough I guess. good for @Smarch

*The S55 Labatte award winner on the runner-up* I already did it in last season and it's time to make another prediction topic. Last time, someone named Guntis Petenis took took the Labatte award (and not only that) and now the question is: will he regain his best defenseman award? Here are 5 guys who are hoping to be named the best S55 defenseman. NOTE: Quebec, Calgary, Toronto and New York have 1 game left in regular season, so some stats are not accurate enough. BOBBY DIGITAL - @gorlab In S54, he was contending for the Labatte award with 0 goals so his upgrade to 5 goals in this season is looking impressive. However, his scoring won't be enough to outmatch other defs. Also, his 75 points is enough for only 4th among all defenders. But his defensive game is on point - 213 hits and 126 shot blocks so far (71 games played, we have only two games left in regular season) are solid stats and what's more important, he once again was the NY's defensive cornerstone as Robert Jelen is just another VHLM level def. And once again he proved that he can carry team's defense so he's a legit contender. FABIO JOKINEN - @jRuutu The older Jokinen brother is on pace to being the Quebec's legend as he never left Quebec since he was drafted there and his stats are saying the entire story. This time, he amassed 18 goals and 62 assists for 80 points which is always solid for the blue liner. His defensive side also deserves to be noticed - 173 hits+83 shot blocks. Pretty fine stats in the best NA team, I'd say. GUNTIS PETENIS - unnamed *(^_^)* It's surprising to see this guy on this list after a mediocre start, but right now he will likely remain as one of the best defencemans even if he won't get an award. Unsurprisingly, his stats went down comparing to last season, but even that is enough to contend. His hitting game still remains as his strength - 246 hits is the best among all defs and Guntis is the only D in the hit's TOP 10. And he is still an offensive threat with 26 goals (only Savard has more) with 399 shots (best). And I never was supposed to make Guntis an offensive def when I created him...lol. LEE KING SNATCH - @Smarch He already showed flashes of his offensive talent in S54, but now his took his game to another level. He's leading all defs in points (92) and he was pretty decent in stopping shots (101 shot blocks) and that's a strong statement from a guy who used to be a scrub in VHLM. And he has 2 more seasons before he hits the first stage of regression: you can already imagine which numbers he's going to produce after this season. ROMAN SOKOLOV - @Beketov Yeah, he has the -4 ratio, but don't let it distract you from the fact he had -45 in last year, so his performance is already is a step up. Not only that, he was able to make an improvement in almost all other categories: 74 points, 210 hits and 240(!) shot blocks (league's best). You can say that he was playing in a mediocre team, hence these stats. And my answer is - yes you're right and also, not everybody can put these kind of stats while playing in a non-playoff team with a VHLM level player (Girrard) so I won't retract my opinion on Sokolov - he's a contender for the Labatte award. And who's the winner? First of all, I'll make some cuts: *Fabio Jokinen is the reliable def in overall, but he's not the best in any category so that might kill his chances; *Bobby Digital's point count simply won't be enough to fight for an award. And ''only'' +49 ratio might be another nail in the coffin; *Roman Sokolov's -4 still is too low and I'm afraid his SB and hits stats won't be enough to outweigh the bad. So it might come down to two persons. So the winner of S55 best defenseman award is: Guntis Petenis. Alright, that was a joke, don't be bitch about it. The man who will likely this award is: LEE KING SNATCH Why: both guys are ''exchanging blows'' in different categories, but I think the shot block stats will be decisive and LKS has the advantage: 101 against 88(?). Does Petenis still has a chance? Well, if he only scores 6-7 points against Toronto to make things more complicated, but I don't see that happening, so I think Snatch will take an award. That's it and I'm out. 6 TPE goes to Krīgars

4 TPE goes to Petenis

*come one guys, we shouldn't have kind of these emotions from the VHLM* Seems like the VHL league is slowly waking up from hibernation thanks to some deadline deals. And with ''deals'' I wasn't talking about trades. Moreso, these deals are heavily related to our beloved league, the VHLM. Somehow this league started to generate some hype...unfortunately in a bad way. First of all, @eaglesfan036 decided call up Journeyman to his Calgary Wranglers team. It was ok though; after all, it's his player and he's doing what he wants with his player. It was ok, before we saw a true bomb: @Smarch called up Peter Quill from the Oslo Storm team, which generated a lot of talks: @The Trollfecta accused Smarch of screwing the VHLM, @Bushitroll wasn't happy as well as his team took a hit and the others were defending @Green and the Davos GM. It was an interesting read and what's more important, the talks are still in. Maybe this will make the end of this season more exciting, I don't know. But something indeed is happening with the VHLM. Some people aren't happy with this league and they want to be called up instead. Even losing some TPE from the Achievement Tracker isn't a reason why they should stay in minors. Also, I'm seeing that people are getting bored of VHLM (from LR talks) which is concerning. Getting more TPE is great, but is it that great if you're not having fun in that league? And my poll on my last article is showing to us that not all members are fond of the VHL's younger brother. But hey, we can't complain about it every time, isn't it? How about making some suggestions instead? The people are arguing about the minors, but I'm not sure if I saw someone trying to help the VHLM and their commishes in @Frank and @Banackock and the whole blue team. I'm not the best guy with making suggestions, but I'll make a try anyway. *More recruitment; *Encourage GM's to make rookies more involved into this league. Like having an active LR, because quiet LR is giving VHLM a bad name. I don't throwing shades at the current VHLM GM's and probably all 5 teams are having 300-400 posts already, I'm just saying they should be motvated to make things more exciting. And I'm not talking only about the LR. *More recruitment; *Handing more TPE to VHLM'ers. And don't even talk about some TPE inflation thing - even passing 900-1000 TPE isn't an easy task to do. So the VHLM is supposed to be a developmental league? So let it be a developmental league. The juniors need to have a feeling that they're not too far from the VHL league as the careers are short here anyway, so sitting for more 1-2 seasons in minors could make bad things to a career. *More recruitement; *From LR talks again: if the undrafted (yet) player doesn't want to play in the VHLM, put him through VHL waivers to be picked by any team. Then he goes to the draft. What about TPE? Well, we can create a so-called ''Waiver Achievement Tracker'' to not leaving a rookie player with nothing; *More recruitement. * @Higgins needs to drastically change the sim settings in favor of the offense to make it more fun. And make some fix in the Achievement Tracker for goalies and defence to not having things fucked up for them* *More recruitement. Probably these suggestions aren't really useful, but perhaps it could make some members to make their proposals. That's it and I'm out. 6 TPE goes to Krīgars.

yah yah yah, the member is not happy with the VHLM but he needs to stay there for some barely useful TPE, which could result in going inactive/retirement because he's just sick of playing in minors. guys who have been here for a long time so they're getting tired of same old shit. We need to really make VHLM a rookie-only league. Giving them more minutes for AT and giving more TPE for the faster development and let these old timers to forgo the VHLM if they don't wanna play there. Cause I see even these AT and practice facility TPE doesn't really motivates them anymore.

Vikings 5:1 Reign

298 Wranglers 299 Americans 300 Meute 301 Vikings

4 TPE goes to Petenis

*The whole article* Like an hour ago, I was complaining about my struggle to make an article and this one shouldn't be something informative, because I'll just try to write 500 words for 6 TPE. So prepare for a chaotic article without much sense in it. We all can agree that the VHL league isn't having the best time as the activity isn't spectacular. The same goes to VHLM league - I'm not seeing a lot of discussion going in game threads and I don't see much fresh faces involved into this thing...well, only @MD9 and @Eggy216 are the only guys who are doing PT's, I guess. Both of them actually are playing in the Saskatoon Wild team, so perhaps it's @Corco who's doing the magic. But the league still is struggling to maintain attention. Also, there are some persons who are not seeing the future of this league. Like @Devise, @TheLastOlympian07 or @BobertZ. I mean, Robbie's articles about VHLM probably are just troll, but still. I'll try to name some VHLM's pros and cons: PROS More TPE. Well, a member can get more TPE from sim attendances and Achievement Tracker, so that's extra 30-40 TPE in a season. Which is decent amount and it can make a quicker transition to the VHL league. Having more ice time. That can happen if you're signing with a sucky team, but if a member wants to see his player in action, this actually isn't a bad thing to have. Not a pro for everybody, but whatever. CONS Boring. Rookies aren't really involved into the VHLM thing, imo. Maybe it's time to do some TPE giveaways or give bonus TPE for articles like it happened in S54 (mock draft) or a PT, I don't know. Something needs to be done to spark the activity. Short careers. Also, I think a rookie needs to have a feeling that he can make it into the big league soon as careers are short in VHL, that's why I mentioned about giving even more TPE to rookies. Spending at least one more season in minors isn't the best thing the member wants to do with his player in an 8-season career league. Is this supposed to be a developmental league? Well, let's make it then. So does VHLM needs to be cut off? It's not an easy question to answer as both sides will have a legit points, but I think the recruitment has a final say on it. It doesn't makes a lot of sense to have the minor league if we have no much fresh faces coming to this league. Or vice versa: we can afford to have this league with a lot of rookies in. Right now I see we can easily fill all 10 VHL teams with an active VHLM players without even expanding the big league and that's not the good news for VHLM enthusiasts, like @Higgins, VHLM Commishes and perhaps @Kendrick (?). But I'm not saying the VHLM needs to be deleted either. Just do the recruitment job and make rookies to be involved into this thing and it might be alright. My chaotic af article is over. That's it and I'm out. 6 TPE goes to Krīgars.

My answer is: nothing. That's a weird period when everything went quiet. Delayed sims, not a lot of articles and Riga LR is pretty much quiet cause I just can't find my spark to get the activity up since I had tough times at work. Probably it's happening because of SBA and it's exciting off-season and I'll slowly go back to VHL when they're about to start the regular season. I'm seeing some articles lately where people are talking about their burnout and not having the same motivation because they got older and they actually have lifes. Seems legit, you can't do this thing for your entire life and one day you will say goodbye to sim leagues anyway. But the thing is we haven't lots of new members here to freshening things up. Well, that's the another topic to discuss. But it's still a little bit concerning that I have a hard time to write even 200 words for 1 TPE without some random shit. Not even talking about media spot, I just don't know what to write about. Good thing I started to do trivia and fantasy things for saving situation with Krīgars. As about Petenis, I can't even reach 600 TPE now. Sad lyf.

232 Wranglers 2:3 HC Dynamo

233 Vikings 234 HC Dynamo 235 Titans 236 Americans

Trying to save Quebec's first place, good job Freddy.

Somehow only now I saw that. He also managed to win a fight and still finish the game with -1 despite winning a rebulding team by two goals. STHS u drunk go home

Parody?

And Seattle and several other teams not named HEL, NY and TOR.

sick

Apparently I was blind about Seattle, but it remains to be seen why this list wasn't updated with the S3 championship.

4 TPE goes to Petenis

*The parity in VHL?* The S55 off-season wasn't the most exciting thing I've seen in the VHL, but I must say that this mid-season is really boring as hell. But that happens in every league and I'm sure things will change when the trade deadline comes. Another thing why I lost my step is my IRL job: I had hard two weeks following by being drunk as fuck in the Līgo event (and still sitting in the VHL while being drunk, lol) and even now when the things cleared and I'm having more time for the sim league, I'm still strugling to find a relevant topic for 6 TPE. But I thin I found something interesting to talk about...like the parity. And that's not about the VHLM league - I found out an interesting fact about the big league: before S46 we had only two teams that managed to make a two-peat: 1. Calgary, S18-19; @Matt was a GM 2. Davos, S24-25; @Frank was a GM. What we have now? 1. Helsinki, S45-46; @Will was a GM 2. Toronto, S48-50 (first three-peat in VHL history); @Molholt was a GM 3. New York; S52-53; @Devise was and still is a GM Given that New York won the cup in S47 and Helsinki is our defending champs, we can come to a conclusion that these three latter teams just flat-out dominated the league from S45 with only Riga being able to have their season of fame in S51. Knowing that Helsinki is doing good in this season and they have a chance to pull the second two-peat for the first time in VHL history I can only say that something is happening with the parity in VHL. Why that is happening? There's not an accurate answer for this one, but we can make some guess, like 1. Good GM'ing Well, that is obvious that you can dominate the league if you're a good GM. Apparently Draper, Molholt, Devise, @YEAH!stlemania (S47 champ) and @Higgins (S54 champ) were able to do both - assemble a great team and set a good strategy for the win. 2. Players joining these teams to win I assume so of them really did that, but I don't think that was happening on a consistent basis. It's not like only Helsinki, Toronto and New York were the only contenders by that time and other teams had a shot at the cup as well. 3. STHS go home you're drunk/ Rigging, Hey, I made a joke. This article wasn't a complaint about the current situation in the VHL league and I don't think parity is fucked up completily. And I just needed 6 TPE for Krīgars. Although having only 4-5 contender teams is helping these aforementioned teams to reach their goals (Helsinki gains from it more than NY and Toronto were), but that's a question to other team GM's, including to hedgehog337 - why you're tanking? But these GM's wants to get their future stars from the draft so we can't blame them either. Meanwhile, Helsinki is looking for making a history by getting yet another cup. How sweet. 6 TPE goes to Krīgars