hedgehog337

as RFA maybe. and why would he even do that while being a commish?

yeah no

We wish @linsangeles very best in Calgary and may Fischl have a good rookie season! Welcome to Riga @Kendrick! yeah it's me again

drip AGM

I mean the champion GM is the Latvian, so...

And Latvia isn't. IT'S SEŠI !!! also, do you history job and confirm or deny about the lowest ever seed champion theory pls.

also, knowing the nationality of Malmo GM, it should've been game Seši, not шесть. smh Dev.

As I was mentioning in discord, Malmo won the championship from the 7th overall seed. I think this is the lowest seed that won it all. Anyways, congrats to Malmo and @FrostBeard!

If you're looking at Sirkants Klamasteris career so far you would notice that his road is almost a carbon copy of his idol Kallis Kriketers' career, before graduating to the big leagues. Just like a second ever Latvian Hall of Famer, Sirkants wasn't playing the game of hockey very seriously until a certain point. His hometown was a also contributing to this fact - Kuldīga was never known as the hockey city even by the Kurzeme region standarts. Mostly his child and teenage days were spent in some typical local tournaments until he was noticed by HK Zemgale/LLU representatives. Sirkants decided to not waste this opportunity and agreed to take his talents to Jelgava, the place where HK Zemgale/LLU was from. He played his first official games under Zemgale Juniors jersey, but soon enough he was called up to a main team since he proved to the bosses that he is good enough for the Latvian elite league. Like now in Riga, he started his career as the backup for more experienced goalie with occasionally coming up as the starter. He was a decent goalie, although it was felt that he still needs to adjust into the other team's atmosphere. It was still an unusual exerience for him comparing to the local events in his hometown. Soon enough, he started to feel better and play with more confidence and it was only a matter of time when he was ready to take over in the net as a starter. The breakout season happened during his third year in this team. His team was never a truly elite team, but in that season everything changed for them. One of the reasons was Sirkants himself who managed to seize and opportunity and never letting it go. At the end of the season he was named the best goalie of regular season. This team was the case of being a very pesky underdog who was figthing for every single game despite never having stars. Their Cinderella story came to a dramatic end in the semifinals when they lost to a stronger team in 5 games (Latvians are using the best of 5 system). But it was apparent that the young and uprising Latvian goalie has something to say to the hockey world. Soon after the season ended, Sirkants was contemplating the idea of trying the next step which was the NA leagues. Since his idol Krikets was playing in the VHL his choice was kind of obvious. He decided to send his application to @hedgehog337 agency and unsurprisingly, it got accepted. There was no doubt that his debut in VHLM was inevitable. He got sent to the minor waivers and then was quickly taken by the Houston Bulls team. The rest is history.

Quick ramble about the potential offseason plans for every VHL team. Calgary - trying to find a team for couple of goalies (Olson/Carson/Askarov). Just wondering if it's possible though. Some teams could use a backup so maybe? Also, using all the first picks for drafting as they're entering the retool process very soon. Chicago - nothing much. Slowly replacing older second liners with the prospects (Tate/Eso/Marimoto). Other than that, should be a quiet offseason for them. DC - trying to compete at least once more. Desperately searching for the defenceman and likely finding him. May even have to deal their 6th overall pick for that. Davos - same stuff. Trying to find an adequate replacement for Nolan. Lucikly for them, the trade block is full of good forwards. Their defence though... Helsinki - similar to Chicago. Fairchild and Dan Dan are gonna be a good backup scoring option for them. Also, I could see them getting Couture in exchange of like...Kate Upton. London - I have a feeling they will sell Magnum and Schwarz to DC. Other than that, no big deals from them. LA - slowly building a proper contender before Pines is hitting a regression. I'd say their defence and a goalie could be a big deal in the future. Malmo - searching for everything besides a goalie. Losing Condor is gonna hurt them and if MJF indeed goes to D, they'll have to get more good forwards on top of second liners Walkers and Sterk. Again, the trade block is making a life easier. Moscow - soon to retool territory, but before that they will go big. Could bring another star forward for higher picks. NY - similar to LA, building a team rather than buying anything. They seem more balanced team than LA also, though with a younger goalie. Prague - drafting Acyd, welcoming Gobeil/Bouchard and LeFriend and that's all what she wrote. Like almost every other Prague offseason. Riga - no rush, trying to sell couple of younger guys who won't have a spot on our roster next season. Seattle - trying to change things since later seasons brought a disappointment for them. Also, trying to not enter into the retool/rebuild phase. Toronto - no big deals like Peace always does. Using their draft picks for likely forwards and wait until their players (outside of Merrick) will be grown up enough. Vancouver - selling one or two forwards to not clog up their roster. Trying to find a D prospect or two. Warsaw - nothing much. Welcoming Wu/Endrizzi and calling it a day. So I would predict some trades like DC taking couple of forwards from London and finding a good defenceman from whatever team. Seattle makes some big deals with Davos or Moscow. Vancouver sells Couture to Helsinki for Upton and some picks. Riga manages to find a new home for a couple of their draftees for a cheapo, likely to another rebuilding teams. Malmo brings a lower TPE forward, probably Seattle once again plays a part in this. Or even Moscow. Calgary indeed manages to find teams with no backups and throws them their goalies prospect pool for 4th round pick or something. So there it is, a short blabbing about teams etc. There's nothing much to read about since I'm not in mood to write a long article, but maybe next week? That's it and I'm out.

It all started brilliantly for a big bull Latvian netminder from Kuldīga. Despite of not having a huge success in the minors with Ottawa he still had many reasons to cheer for. It was projected that Riga Reign GM Benjamin Zeptenbergs was looking for Sirkants way before the draft time and these mocks were absolutely spot on. He was indeed drafted by Riga which meant he wouldn't have had to waste his time to adjust to the different environment. He was simply in his home. Also, the starter position in a quickly rebuilding team was giving him a lot of opportunities to show his skillset right away. That didn't last for long though... After he played his 7th game in the season, the surprising news struck the VHL world. Zeptenbergs decided to make a deal for another goalie who was waiting for a long time to make his name in this league, Calvin Harvey. Which meant Sirkants had to step aside for a more ready goalie and learn something from him. From this moment on, there was nothing much to say about his rookie season. He was occasionally stepping on the ice when Harvey didn't have a great day. However, he had to wait for the end of the season when he was called as the starter once again, against strong Helsinki Titans team. But when the game started it was apparent that he lost his spark that he had in the early season. He performed poorly in that game and was replaced by Calvin in the mid game. So that concluded Klamasteris season. It started very promising for him, but it seems like he isn't ready to accept the fact that there are way better goalies in this league. Apparently, his mental game is not on point and that is not the way how to make his idol Kallis Kriketers proud. 3-5-1 record, .926 save percentage, 2.95 GAA. Looks like decent stats even if we're taking into the accout that most of times he entered the game from the bench. Which likely boosted his stats a bit. So maybe there is some hope left and he will fix his mental to get back to his best form. After all, when it comes to working hard - there is no complaints about his work ethic. And maybe one day Riga Reign GM is going to trust him more...or any other VHL team.

I guess we can make Fong happy and do some Asia conference action?

he really said Dubai is in Europe

in champ league seems interesting for me

tbh I don't see Toronto picking Boom, they already have two promising D prospects coming up plus Anigbogu. I'd say they'll decided between Ray and Hex. If I was LA GM I'd pick Ray tbh, the defence isn't a pressing need for them at this moment. Also, I think Juice could be drafted a bit higher. that was your episode of an armchair GM rambling about this draft

Philly banished their Mexico devils when it mattered the most. Congratulations!

@Eynhallow and @tcookie are really on their mission in these games.

1. I spread a wrong wrong answer for trivia last week. What's the punishment? 2. Excited about the next season? 3. Who are you rooting for in VHLM finals? 4. Who are you for rooting in VHL playoffs? 5. How hyped are you for the new NHL season? 6. Do you think expansion for the VHL league will be needed in the near future? 7. Do you think bringing the disboard to our LR was a good idea? 8. Rocket also extended with us! (for 2 seasons). Did your excitement rate go from 10 to 100? 9. Are you hyped for the VHL World Juniors (if you're picked by any team)?

yeah I wasn't interested to pick my another player, I was having enough with Kallis. yes it was.

I really gotta take care of my memory since it's fumbling hard as of late. Like how could I forget @Domino Draws smfh from now on @GustavMattias is not allowed to visit this thread.

Some members are writing about their 2020 here, but I won't do that. Mainly because there was nothing out of ordinary things that happened with me last year. Even with C-19 thing. I still have a job, place to live and I had a fun summer. So instead of that I'm just gonna do more boring stuff and type something about Riga Reign's S75 because this was an interesting one. I'll name stuff that I liked in this season and what not really. - 29 wins. A pleasant surprise. We didn't have a hell of a roster and most likely we were expected to score less wins. But our players did everything to not make us the pushovers. We managed to perhaps being the most annoying team for most of contenders. Especially to Prague, Davos and Warsaw. And I believe we won Chicago more than once and yet they are three wins away from the finals. Big lmao at STHS. - Trade for Calvin Harvey. One of main reasons why we did decently this season was the player who wasn't getting a lot of chances in his previous team, Helsinki Titans. Nobody else wanted him so I managed to get him for a cheap price which was certainly a win for me. I mean, Klamasteris is two seasons younger and I'm also capping at 12 TPE, but Harvey gives us way more chances to get out of the rebuild phase ASAP. And also he had some neat games this season, including a 70 save game in a win against Warsaw. 100% positive moment for our team. - Extending Harvey and Rocket. Another positive news came during the playoffs. Calvin Harvey made our life more exciting so I was very interested to keep him in Riga. The same level of excitement came from him in our extension talks and as the result he signed with us for 5 more seasons! Our goaltending is now locked for the long time. As for Rocket, things were more difficult out there. And not because of player himself - we were about to welcome six wingers from minors next season which made things a bit tense for me. However, Cabe McJake decided to switch to a center so it opened a spot for another one and I reached up to Rocket with the extension offer. He was cool with it so here we go, two more seasons of Rocket in Riga! I do plan to make at least one extension later in the offseason by the way. - The reborn of forum locker room. I don't know how long this will last, but this season was a total success. We managed to reach 17 pages as of this moment and while this may be far from the best results VHL[M] forum lockers were producing back in the day; I'd say I was pleased with the activity in Riga LR. Big credit goes to @Eynhallow for making this happen. - The overall excitement about our future. I had to give back some S76 picks for making this happen, but I'm happy with the result. Nearly everyone is active an earning from 6 to 13 TPE weekly (plus some uncapped opportunities) and even one of rare inactives Hi Hello appeared to be a multi. We are about to have a nice deep roster with three full lines consisting of 320-450 TPE guys even before the season starts. Also, Zetterstrom and Thunder at D with Carter and McBighit coming up later. *Excited hedgehog noises* - Not making the playoffs. Literally the only negative from this season. Our playoff appearances record was officially over this season and it's kinda boring to not play in the post season. But hey, sacrifises need to be made for the bright future rather than dragging our contention window with the previous players just to perhaps becoming a mediocrity. As you can see, despite being a rebuilding team I'm finding this season having way more positives than negatives. Contending season after season is cool obviously, but sometimes I need a change of scenery and prove that I actually can make a nice rebuild as well. Makes my GM job more fun to be honest. At the end of this article I'd like to say thanks to every single Riga player and prospect for willing to grind for TPE week after week, even in holiday season. I believe we will have a very bright future and longterm contention window and you will be the reason why this is going to be possible! See you in S76/77. There goes all of them shoutouts: Our prospects: @RedSus @Eynhallow @tcookie @Dolant @youloser1337@Hoopydog @Matt thunder @SimmerDown99 @jaredc7 @Eddie Dams @linsangeles @Ledge_and_Dairy @Nikdandrea34 @coochiman @monttu @matt sovick @emidas Our retiring players: @Tyler @Liberty_Cabbage @cartoes Our current players: @Mrpenguin30 @turkey2349 @Rocket @GoldGear88 @Hops @Zyrok @PuckPushers Even our inactives: @pennypenny @SDCore That's it and I'm out.