hedgehog337

Last week, I was covering our S75 season and gave a shoutouts to every Riga draftee. Now let's talk a bit more about players who were a part of Riga last season, but will either start this season in a different team or just going to remain unclaimed. Not including players who retired following last season. LW - Shush Nyko (S71-75) @SDCore Somewhat an end of an era. He was the only player remaining from the championhip winning S72 team. I remember back in the S69 I was contemplating between Spyro and SD and after some discussions with Nyko we decided to choose the latter. He turned into a solid second line forward at his prime, including a 51 point season in S73. He was also a decent at updating. Unfortunately his activity declined between S72 and S73 as he took a commish job in SHL and he's also in PBE I believe. As the result of this, he suffered a harsh decline in S74, but was kept for one last ride in S75. 41 points is actually a fine stat considering that Riga wasn't even a contender team. Anyways, the lotto tournament was the last time when we saw this player in action. I'm very sure that nobody will claim him from the FA pool. Goodbye Shush, you were a nice player for us and you can have that S72 championship. RW - Jeff Odinson (S75-75) @GoldGear88 For his two seasons he was a Vanouver's prospect. When he was already imagining himself in the Wolves jersey it came apprent that this team has no roster space for him at all. Luckily for him, the solution came even before he stepped on the big leagues ice. He was a part of a pretty big deal between Riga and Vancouver and since we were not contending he found himself being as one of prime power forwards for our team. He didn't score lots of points, but he did what he was supposed to do best. 246 hits, 6 or 7 fights. He was somewhat a rookie version of Phil Marleau which is not necessarily bad. The member behind this player was also updating a steady pace and even was popping in our discord at times. It was sad to realize that we simply won't have a roster space for him this season, but it looks like LA is ready to give him an opportunity to continue his career. If this is the case, we wish him very best in the Stars. C - Alek Andreshnikov (S75-75) @PuckPushers Like Odinson, he found himself in a position where he was just not needed for his original team. He was even ready to retire his player (because he couldn't play in VHLM anymore), but I managed to keep him in this league by signing a contract and putting him a 1C position. I'd like to say that he was a good player for us. He spent the most minutes on ice of all VHL players and he repayed us with 59 points. Nice rookie season for a player who perhaps wasn't even supposed to wear any VHL team's uniform at all. He had another similarity with Odinson - we had no roster space for him in this season so we had to let him go. Ironically, DC decided that they need some forward depth and brought him back where he started from. I'm glad I could get him at least two season of the big league action. LW - Michael Hall (S75-75) @Hops Player who was moved around more than former three players combined. At first he was Davos' prospect, but was moved to Moscow in same season as the part of Victor's retooling plan. He was a bit inconsistent at updating so when the time came he found himself unneeded for Moscow. I guess you know what happened next. After signing him for one season I put him at the third line. I thought he was still going to get decent minutes, but STHS decided that 5-6 minutes per game will be enough for him. What a shame. In lotto tourney he was moved into the second line to see what he actually can do. It resulted in 3 goals in 10 games which was...an ok result I guess. Our team was just cruising through the lotto tournament without any ambitions and it seems like it affeted Hall at all. At the end of the season he was let go because...you know the drill. Looks like he will remain as FA although his build has some minor potential (90 scoring). Here's to hope he could find a place in any VHL team. RW - Gino DiGiannantonio (S75-75) @pennypenny At the S72 draft he was considered as the promising draftee. Penny was an active discord user although with some problems with his attitude. Anyways, it was going pretty well for him and Vanouver...until he was banned again and this time it was indefinitely. Pretty much immediately after that his TPE earning pace drastically slowed down and shortly after he went inactive. I assume the his rough mental state made him to leave this league and as of this moment he remains inactive. As for him being part of our team - he was claimed by us from inactive free agency. At that moment we didn't even have full two lines so that claim made sense. And then I brought another forward, another forward, another forward etc. It resulted in Gino not even receiving max minutes despite being one of the highest TPE forwards in our team. Anyways, he did fine with scoring 35 points. As you would imagine already he was let go from our team due to obvious reasons and as of this moment he remains unclaimed. Well, I guess RIP Gino's career. Wondering if Penny will ever considre to come back to VHL. LW - Joe Kelly (S75-75) @emidas I had some big hits in the S75 draft, but also some of them never panned out the way I wanted. Case in point: Joe Kelly. He was picked 12th OV after I realized I missed a chance on Scotty Kaberle. I was hoping that this time Emidas will give VHL a chance and make a good forward. Well, RIP. Shortly after the season started he stopped earning any TPE which worried me a lot. He still had that privelege of an auto-12 so there was still a hope, but by the end of the season I realized that he won't have any chances in Riga as he would just be buried by way more younger S74/75 talents coming up from minors. There was some positives from Kelly as well. His second half of the season was pretty swell and he ended up with 51 points although he started off very meh. I believe he had like 3 points in 20 games or something. Anyways, there was no chance that he would have any roster spot in Riga and I managed to trade him to DC. I believe they were hoping that he would come back and become a decent depth forward, but the news is that Emidas is done with VHL altogether and may retire his player at some point. What a shame. So here it is, 6 players who were a part of Riga Reign last season who never found a place in the first gen filled S76 team. Some of them like Odinson, Andreshnikov and Kelly found new teams to play for and I'm happy to see that. Shush Nyko is just too old and regressed to spend his farewell season anywhere. Whereas Hall and Gino appeared to be the victim of ever growing league. I imagine they would actually be an decent depth piece for a contending team in S50's. But we're in S70's now so it doesn't matter anymore. For reaching 1500 words I need to make more shoutouts so I'll mention players who decided to spend their last career season in our team: D - Andrej Petrovic @Tyler D - Jacob Perry @Liberty_Cabbage LW - Ben McGirr @cartoes I'm glad that Liberty found another spark in him to make a recreate. Perry's last season was really nice and he actually ended up as one of the best VHL defensemans. Sure, it's easier to get stats in a non contender, but how many times we do see some regressed lower TPE players ending up with good numbers? I'm also glad I could provide Prague's second line legend McGirr a roster spot for his last season instead of rotting in FA till his career is over. And it was nice to see Tyler in Riga again. Maybe someday he will recreate again, but for now Riga will remain as his last team. Well, this was the article about ex-Riga players. Congratulations on their careers or good luck in the new team! That's it and I'm out. 11/01 - 17/01 18/01 - 24/01 25/01 - 31/01

Riga Reign offers: S76: 3M S77: 1M Had to do this manually as you're not in FA pool in portal. Just say ''accept'' here. @Mashy

Latvian invasion in Calgary!

Bye Goodbye

Yes

Riga Reign offers S76: 3M S77: 2M S78: 2M @Erik I've been told to make a manual thread for this one. So just accept it here.

Captain Knuckles is in the building!

New season, old plans. The only difference is that we pretty much have the youngest squad in this league! A big difference in my books. Other than that, this will be our growing season but I'm still expecting us to play spoilers all the time. Because it's fun, I know. Anyways, back to the thread's subject. This season we will have 3 brand new captains in the play! But first, our honorary captain. We already had that in S74 I believe (Sasakamoose) and now we're back at it. I was considering 4 players for three spots and this particular member said he is ok with waiting. He is a very young player and I'm sure he will be recognized later. Not only as the captain, also as the premier two way forward as well. Here is our Honoray Captain: HC - Addison McLaren @tcookie Ok, and now here are our three members who were chosen to wear the shirt with a letter on it: Calvin Harvey - despite our team being very young in general, this player was the most recent acqusition by us. He was brought to our team via trade last season and he immediately made a huge impact both ways - on ice and in locker room. For his willing to stay in this league despite having problems to crack the roster deserves a recognition and this season he will be among the chosen trio. Isau DaMoose - I wasn't sure how this would turn out right after I drafted him. And I'm very happy that this turned out very great for us. He may not have the biggest TPE number, but oh boy his activity in forums, in LR particular! He is the main reason our forum LR is actually booming and having a revival after the significant drop of activity in mid 60's. He shows also an interest in our team's process, like drafts, lineups, FA etc stuff. I think this choice is justified. Matt Thunder - at the beginning I was just hoping he would be a decent second pair welfare player in the future. Slowly, but surely he started to make more noise in this league. He was doing more PT's than just practice facility and welfare and increased his activity both in forums and discord. He also started to do media as of late and some bonus career PT's as well! He kinda reminds of myself - I was also being a straight welfare semi active member from Europe who wasn't earning more than 5-6 TPE per week. Also with a meh English language skills. Slowly I started to feel this league more and here I am, almost with 10000 posts and a GM. Maybe he will get a management spot in the future? Who knows So, here are our S76 captains: C - Matt Thunder @Matt thunder A - Isau DaMoose @Eynhallow A - Calvin Harvey @Mrpenguin30 Congratulations to our captains! And as always, don't you forget to congratulate them as well!

no, Riga will get him.

nevermind me I'm just trying to remind everyone else that Riga Regin team exists.

not with my late third round pick

So you're saying that 70 point jump and an improvement in other stats for Anigbogu was only enough for two votes and not even winning the Funk? Behind two fucking goalies? Yeah, there is no season without voting commitee laying a big egg and taking a big fucking L. thanks for recognizing Harvey at least.

and here I am thinking that Thunder was a third round pick. trash ass GM I know that doesn't change the fact that we got a wondeful steal at 34! Way to go @Matt thunder!

In fairness, Riga is even a lesser contender now anyways.

He wanted to play for a contender and I'm obliging. Good luck in Davos @Kendrick! May Davos have something good this season.

the problem is that it's only in this competiton. you're playing in Davos after all.

Guess which team's draftees earned the most TPE from the start

1. Thoughts on our trades so far? 2. Zyrok has re-signed with us for one more season! Did your excitement rate go from 100 to 1000? 3. What was the most surprising trade of ours so far? 4. How does it feel to offload these banked TPE to attys? 5. Say your final goodbyes to Joe Kelly and Sirkants Klamasteris. 6. And make a good welcome for Lewis Dawson! 7. Do you think we can fight for the playoff spot? 8. Who in your opinion will be our leading scorer in the S76? 9. What happened to Beaviss? Why is he suddenly went mute mode? 10. Ledge is being rejected for AGM spot all the time! How can we help him with that?

picking up where @Tagger left off back in the day

you wish. I'm that greedy mf, I'm about to extend a contract and get my first rounder ok thanks