AJW

47. 1 ounce of Petrenko's helmet sweat, ashes of Hogan's WWE career, and a dash of Chara's European secret. 48. The boys might hate me but we're listening to country. 1,2 Many by Luke Combs, Starlight by Jon Pardi, and Fast Cars And Freedom by Rascall Flatts. 49. Eiza Gonzalez since she's my celeb crush and I'll score 10 goals to impress her. 51. Just working, have a 7 day work week so lots of money but hopefully lots of beers too after work. 53. I really like Seattle. It helps that the team and my player is performing well, but the locker room is really chill and everyone is great. 54. He was flirting with too many girls at the club and the managers got mad that the kid has too much game so they kicked him out.

This thread is so fun to read. My life is just work and party right now really. Nothing crazy lately, but all the university students are finishing exams and moving home for the summer so a lot of my friends will be leaving. The positive of this is that I can focus more on working and not spending money at the bars since I won’t have any friends around to influence me in going out! So my body and brain are probably going to be pretty healthy this summer, looking forward to it. Oh and also I just finished paying off my student loans which is a huge relief. Not having to worry about them is soooooo awesome.

I might be giving out my secrets here or this could be totally known, but in my opinion, first and second round picks in the VHLM have less value than multiple lower round picks. Now hear me out, getting a capped player from a draft is pretty good right? It is. You get a talented, highly skilled player for the whole season without risk and without worrying about TPE earning at all. BUT! The value of this player and the value of their draft pick can be used in the future for MORE value. Okay so let’s say you have a 1st round pick. That pick could probably be traded for like two 3rds if I’m not mistaken. Even a 3rd and a 4th why not. If you take a look at some of the recent drafts for the VHLM, there has been 100+ TPE players going in these rounds. Let’s say they are welfare players, they earn 6 TPE a week for the season which is approximately 8 weeks let’s say. So now you have two 100 TPE players at the start of the draft that just gained 48 (I’ll just say 50) TPE by the end of the season. YOU NOW HAVE TWO 150 TPE players next season instead of having the one capped player who just moved up to the VHLE. Am I crazy or does that not equal STONKS. If you trade down your draft picks for welfare players they will eventually gain more value than said draft picks. Now this doesn’t always work. Players who earn welfare have a chance of going inactive, missing weeks, etc. But the risk to reward is pretty good in my opinion if you have their draft rights. You could potentially have a pretty good player for 2-3 seasons if they earn slowly and consistently. I am going to use Vegas as an example because myself, Mubble, and Shin have been shaping this team since S81. There are nine players on the Vegas roster who have played more than one season (S82/S83 draftees). All nine players are above 120 TPE with the average being 166 TPE. 166 TPE player in the VHLM is a highly skilled player. The highest drafted player is Kagelberg who went 34th in the 4th round. Their capped goalie went 82nd overall!!!! Do you see what I am saying????? Their goalie went last in a draft and is now worth a first round pick. THEY WENT LAST IN THE DRAFT. All of these players are highly talented players after one or two seasons and were worth low round draft picks to get them. I might be babbling here but seriously, first round picks, second round picks, they’re good!! If you want to make a cup run and have a deep roster you should get them and stack your team to win. But come on, the first place team in the VHLM has a bunch of misfits who sprouted into mega chads and are now running the league. Before I was booted from the VHLM I had the idea (kind of got it from Jiggs saying “trade the picks trust the process”) of trading high assets for multiple low/mid assets. AND ITS WORKING FOR VEGAS. You trade your first for two 3rds, your second for two 4ths, maybe even a 4th and a 5th, now you have four 100ish TPE players for the price of two capped players. Next season you keep these 100 TPE players that are now at 150 TPE and their value now all go to 1st/ 2nd round picks. You could trade one player away and keep repeating this cycle. Trade the player for a 2nd, get two fourths, repeat until your entire roster is welfare players all at 100+ TPE and each season you will have like 7-8 players around 150 TPE and you’re a contender. I’m done, I don’t know if any of this made sense, I’m typing it out on my phone, goodbye.

30. Good, but we need more goals. We average just over 3 goals a game and 3 goals doesn't win every game. 31. Warsaw sucking is surprising, I thought they would be competing better with the EU. 32. Moscow being good once again. 33. Chara! After switching positions they lead our team in points. 34. Anze Miklavz hands down. 35. Probably 7-8. We have great depth and lots of games to play.

F - AJ (The Goat) Williams @Crstats23 I feel like picking my player each season will never help me win but I’m going to do keep doing it till I die

I’m pretty sure they get 24 hours since it’s back to back picks right?

After coming off an impressive 6-1-1 record from the pre-season, Seattle looked to continue their early success in the first sim last night with a 3 game schedule. A double header versus the three time repeated Continental Cup Champions and a single matchup against the original 8 Calgary Wranglers would test Seattle's skills. Game 1 vs. Vancouver Wolves Seattle was looking for revenge against Vancouver after being knocked out the S82 playoffs in the second round to the Wolves. Vancouver has been a strong offensive team the past three season, but with the TPE re-roll and new attributes, the playing field was more even now. Seattle came out strong in the first period, out shooting the Wolves 15-13 and scoring the lone goal. Max Torq opened up the Bears scoring for the season with a goal on the powerplay halfway through the first. The second period was controlled by the Wolves with Nilsson and Li scoring back to back goals to take the lead. Vancouver also ran the shot totals this period out shooting the Bears 20-10. Williams would bring some life back for Seattle scoring the tying goal to make the game 2-2 heading into the third period. The third period saw heroics from the Bears squad, out shooting the Wolves 17-7 with Detroit potting the game winner and Chara squeaking in a late one with 30 seconds left. Seattle wins 4-2 and shots went 42-40 in Seattle's favor. Game 2 vs. Calgary Wranglers After a great first win in Vancouver, the Bears would travel home to host the Calgary Wranglers. Calgary would open the scoring just 4 minutes into the first period with a goal from Kotkakoivu for his third of the season. But just like the first game for Seattle, they like their early starts and took total control, scoring 4 unanswered goals to finish the period. Petrenko and Meridius found their first goals of the season, and Williams would tally two in the period for a total of three on the season. The Bears slowly continued their dominance with a beauty goal from β-SEA RW1 to bring the lead to 5-1 after two frames. Calgary would try to fight back in the third period with a second goal from Kotkakoivu early, but would be unsuccessful in the end as Seattle would take this game 5-2. Seattle outshot Calgary in every period for a total of 55-29. Game 3 vs. Vancouver Wolves The Seattle Bears would see Vancouver for the second time this season already but this time with home ice advantage. Vinny Detroit used this advantage to open the scoring 6 minutes into the first period on the powerplay for his second of the season. Vancouver would answer back quickly with a goal from β-VAN LW1, only to be answered again 3 minutes later by Zeedayno Chara for his second of the season to bring Seattle's lead to 2-1. The Bears controlled the shots for a 23-10 lead after the first. Vancouver would see the only life in the second period with Nilsson scoring his second of the season on the powerplay just 30 seconds into the frame. The rest of the period was quiet with not much happening as shots were 8-6 in favor of Vancouver. Heading into the third, Hogan 2 would take the lead for Seattle after 12 seconds into the period bringing the game to 3-2 for Seattle. But when Seattle scores this game, Vancouver answers back quickly, and Tucker would tie the game 3-3 three minutes later and send this one to overtime. Overtime solved nothing so a shootout was needed. This one took NINE rounds! The third round saw Li scoring for the Wolves with Chara following for the Bears. The sixth round had Zabastovka scoring for Vancouver and Miglaskems answering for Seattle. Then β-VAN LW1, who scored Vancouver's lone goal in the first period, tried to put the Wolves up again and failed, giving Hulk Hogan 2 his chance to seal the game and that he did. Seattle would win 4-3 and out shoot Vancouver 58-22. A really good first three games for the Bears and hopefully this success can continue down the stretch once new teams are introduced to their schedule. Wins Goals For Goals Against Goal Differential Shots Shots Against PP% PK% 3 13 7 6 155 91 27.27 90 1st 1st T-11th 2nd 1st 13th 5th 6th

G - Em Em Flex @lidz

AJ Williams and the Seattle Bears just completed their S83 pre-season and have a lot to be happy about. The Bears finished with a 6-1-1 record and Williams performed extremely well on the stat sheet. I can't find the 8th game posted for Seattle so I'll just used stats from the 7 games I did find. Game 1 vs. Toronto: 3-2 SOW Williams was quiet in his first appearance after a long off-season, showing no points. He did mange to put 14 shots on net, so the opportunities were there just with nothing to show for. Williams was also the first shooter in the the shootout and of course he missed the net. I do not know how you miss the net on a breakaway with no pressure but whatever. Game 2 vs. Toronto: 4-3 L Williams had another quiet game against the Legion, with only an assist to his name after adding a helper for MDM to tie the game 2-2 in the third period on the powerplay. The Bears would fall short in the end with a 4-3 loss. Game 3 vs. Chicago: 3-2 W 1 goal and 1 assist tonight wooohooooo! Williams scored the gamer winner late in the second period to help the Bears win 3-2 over the Phoenix. Williams also got 2nd star of the game and a whopping 12 shots. Game 4 vs. D.C: 4-3 OTL Williams sucked this game. DC scored 4 goals and your boy was on the ice for all 4. An assist helped his cause, but all around terrible game. Game 5 vs. New York: 6-3 W AMAZING GAME TO BOUNCE BACK. Williams scored a hat trick, had 17 shots on net and was first star of the game. I hope these type of performances are not rare because I could get used to this. Game 6 vs. DC: 2-1 W In a close match, Williams helped his team with one assist and 7 shots. Em Em Flex really took charge this game saving 31 of 32 shots. Game 7 vs. New York: 6-2 W In a high scoring game for the Bears, Williams contributed with a goal and an assist. Finishing off the pre-season with only 2 not so great games. Game 8 vs. Chicago: this is the game I can't find, but Bana said we won so yipee I guess. So. In the 7 games recorded here are AJ Williams' stats: G A PTS P/M PIM S H SB GA TK G1 0 0 0 -1 0 14 0 0 0 0 G2 0 1 1 -1 0 8 0 0 0 0 G3 1 1 2 3 0 12 1 0 0 0 G4 0 1 1 -4 0 3 1 0 0 0 G5 3 0 3 3 0 17 1 0 0 0 G6 0 1 1 0 0 7 1 0 0 0 G7 1 1 2 2 0 10 0 1 0 0 Total 5 5 10 2 0 71 4 1 0 0 AVG 0.71 0.71 1.43 0.29 0 10.14 0.57 0.14 0 0 Really not disappointed here. Averaging over a point per game is always the goal, no penalty minutes is beautiful, the only thing I would like to improve is that plus minus stat. The amount of shots my player is taking is also amazing. To get 10 shots a game is crazy to me.

F - Druss Deathwalker @Crstats23

F - Zeedayno Chara @lidz

D - Jan Hlozek @Crstats23

20. We have a strong top 6 for forwards so I’m hoping my player can produce lots of points with the strong line mates I have. 21. Short but good so far. Locker room is a chill fun place and everyone is nice and welcoming. 22. We should be top 3 in NA. I’m thinking 48-21-3 23. I enjoy country music and it usually puts me in a great mood. I like driving around and cranking music. 26. I’m saving Hogan and then we’re jumping the person who has the 20k. 28. My biggest plans are saving up my money so I can travel lots by next year.

D - Aurelien Moreau @lidz

Quick run down on what has happened so far: S78 Joins the league after the draft and is eligible to sign waivers with whichever team he chooses Signs with Ottawa to play for the Lynx under dlamb and JB 56 points in 72 games and Ottawa misses the playoffs S79 Released from Ottawa and enters the S79 VHLM Dispersal Draft as well as the S79 VHL Entry Draft Goes 5th overall to the Los Angeles Stars in the VHL and 1st overall to the Mississauga Hounds in the VHLM Decides to stay down another season in the VHLM 97 points in 72 games in the regular season and 28 points in 17 games in the playoffs Mississauga loses in the Founder's Cup finals to Miami S80 Called up to Los Angeles Drafted 4th overall in the VHLE, but moves up to the VHL 61 points in 72 games during rookie season 5 points in 10 games in the playoffs Los Angeles loses in round 2 to Vancouver VHL 2nd all rookie team (I think I forget) S81 Named Assistant Captain for the Stars 76 points in 72 games in sophomore season 2 points in 4 games in the playoffs Los Angeles loses in round 1 to Toronto S82 Signs contract extension with Stars until S85 Remains Assistant Captain for the Stars 85 points in 72 games in third season 14 points in 11 games in the playoffs Los Angeles loses in round 3 to Vancouver S83 Traded to Seattle Bears Career Totals: VHLM Games Played: 144 Goals: 62 Assists: 91 Points: 153 VHL Games Played: 216 Goals: 109 Assists: 113 Points: 222 To be continued...

10. Didn’t really pay attention to it but congrats to Scotty for going 1oa. 11. Happy about everything. Pumped to be on a winning team again. 13. Us because we are the best. I actually have no idea with the new builds. 15. Pay off all debts and buy a bunch of real estate and investments to be rich forever. 17. Probably spinach. Has no taste and can be mixed with anything. 19. My sister has a cat that we named Nut because we were teenagers and thought it was funny.

*Disclaimer* The players listed are only from the S67 draft to the S78 draft. I used the VHCS post draft rankings and was too lazy to go any further than S67. Also I did not want to go further than the S78 draft class since this is the most recent draft class to experience depreciation (peak in their TPE career if that makes sense). So recently I was curious to see which VHL draft pick (in the first round) makes the most TPE throughout their career. I always wondered if late first round picks are worth having or if early picks are not always worth your buck. So, here is my work which took WAY TOO LONG TO COLLECT. Thank you. 1oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Lincoln Tate 1546 S68 Condor Adrienne 1627 S69 Cinnamon Block 1429 S70 Edwin THE Encarnacion 1133 S71 Kyl Oferson 979 S72 SS Hornet 1558 S73 Groovy Dood 1436 S74 Aloe Dear 1552 S75 Pistil Stamen 1414 S76 Red Lite 1117 S77 Paul Atreides 1351 S78 Nils Tallinder 676 2oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Rayz Funk 1512 S68 Lance Flowers 1416 S69 Benny Graves 1512 S70 Mikko Lahtin 1491 S71 Roque Davis 1628 S72 Robin Winter 1228 S73 Tyler Walker 1214 S74 Christian Mingle 1172 S75 Jolly Greene Giant 995 S76 Bettre Sandstrom 1401 S77 Reylynn Reinhart 1325 S78 Hard Markinson 1198 3oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Phil Marleau 1157 S68 Thorny Underyew 356 S69 Guy Saskamoose 1070 S70 Odin Omdahl 1099 S71 Ola Vikingstad 1289 S72 Latrell Mitchell 1250 S73 Micah Adrienne 938 S74 Venus Thightrap 1354 S75 Kunibuni UnGuri 1246 S76 Tom Eagles 1260 S77 Duncan Idaho 1459 S78 The Seabasstard 966 4oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Aston Martin 556 S68 Jeff Downey 1368 S69 Soren Jensen 1429 S70 Jacques Lafontaine 1193 S71 Stone Wolski 1398 S72 Gino DiGiannantonio 406 S73 Jacob Tonn 1100 S74 Emi Rune 813 S75 L 778 S76 Hulk Hogan Jr 475 S77 Zeedayno Chara 1152 S78 Luc Tessier 900 5oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Hulk Hogan 1500 S68 Luciano Valentino 1276 S69 RJ Jubis 1469 S70 Chad Magnum 1013 S71 Thomas Landry II 1527 S72 Randy Marsh 866 S73 John Merrick 1443 S74 Doug Dimmadomme 1145 S75 RJ Thatcher 463 S76 Kristof Welch 1147 S77 Brendan Telker 1282 S78 Sven Reikkinen 872 6oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Michael Johnson 1008 S68 Frans Eller 294 S69 Guy Lesieur 1156 S70 Iangenere Risteneen 263 S71 Jim Bob 1421 S72 General Zod 1034 S73 Grekkark Gyrfalcon 924 S74 Onde Sandstrom 828 S75 R 737 S76 Frank Funk Jr 773 S77 Asher Reinhart 1256 S78 Aike van Giersbergen 493 7oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Acyd Burn 1391 S68 Teemu Lehtinen Jr 469 S69 Ben Storm 239 S70 Lewis Dawson 932 S71 Hugh Jass 811 S72 Jungkok 1170 S73 Jean Pierre Camus 1179 S74 Markus Schauer 485 S75 Cabe McJake 1349 S76 Caitlyn Catowize 298 S77 Rold Fizzlebeef Jr 1081 S78 Tui Sova 1166 8oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Michael Gary Scott 1381 S68 A Red Guy 1138 S69 Erik Summers 1080 S70 Jared Spaz 831 S71 Joe Proto 482 S72 Viktor Alexei Kamnov 778 S73 Jeffrey Pines 1461 S74 John LeClair II 895 S75 Addison McLaren 896 S76 Hex Rose 666 S77 Alex Johnston 1140 9oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Bjorn Scoringsson 491 S68 Fredrick Elmebeck 591 S69 Hiroshi Okada 957 S70 Jaxx Hextall 1563 S71 Uhtred 1204 S72 Lucas Brandt 526 S73 Patrik Laine 1228 S74 Julian Nousiainen 1044 S75 Taro Tsujimoto 1522 S76 Phoenix Dawson 740 S77 Aurelien Moreau 1354 S78 Nathan Powers 911 10oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Boris the Forest 1151 S68 Samuel Ross 641 S69 Patrik Tallinder 1409 S70 Justin Graves 170 S71 Pengu 635 S72 Valtteri Vaakanainen 1577 S73 Dakota Lamb 1509 S74 Ryan Schwartz 841 S75 Dolant Fertitta 417 S76 Robin Galante Nilsson 848 S77 That Dude 882 S78 Milk Jugs 287 11oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Boone Jenton 309 S68 Raymond Bernard 1428 S69 Kris Rice 1368 S70 Kyle Andersen 483 S71 Erik Killinger 1486 S72 Alex Letang 1440 S73 Kosmo Kramerev 1029 S74 Luke Thornton 1227 S75 Scotty Kaberle 1182 S76 Gunnar Odinsson 1244 S77 Druss Deathwalker 1094 S78 David Tavau 787 12oa Season Player Name TPE S67 ACL TEAR 942 S68 Wolf Stansson Jr 993 S69 David OQuinn 734 S70 Shawn Glade Jr 299 S71 Zyrok12 465 S72 Timothy Brown 1286 S73 Alec Volchenkov 888 S74 Kasper Kankkunen 1247 S75 Joe Kelly 277 S76 Phil The Rock Johnson 1198 S77 Gustislav Nasherov 972 S78 Bastian Greiss 275 13oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Scott Greene 1444 S68 Owen Nolan 1175 S69 Will Clarke 401 S70 Damien Wolfe 322 S71 Ray Sheilds 1125 S72 Andrew Su 1224 S73 Wolf Stansson 361 S74 Lester Green 1067 S75 Muffbeav 955 S76 Philip Stein 692 S77 Miles Johnson 545 S78 Henri le Massif 779 14oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Guy LeGrande 1177 S68 Kaspar Claude 304 S69 Solomon Crawford 429 S70 Derek Eriksson 425 S71 Bob Helminen 669 S72 Chris Hylands 1350 S73 Shawn Glade III 307 S74 Jeffrenomitsu The 3rd 549 S75 Sirkants Klamasteris 1192 S76 Magnus Verlander 741 S77 Joe Madison 869 S78 Tynan Sylvester 590 15oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Henrik Zoiderberg 806 S68 Bruce Grimaldi 185 S69 Markus Nygren 976 S70 Aleelee Kiak 494 S71 Joakim Bruden 704 S72 Gregg Stallion 781 S73 Andre Lebastard 286 S74 Gabriel Akerstrom 492 S75 Its Gucci 1099 S76 Abe Roque 273 S77 Hadrian 466 S78 Andre Miklavz 1021 16oa Season Player Name TPE S67 Derek England 314 S68 Micha Sage 303 S69 Shush Nyko 423 S70 Gabriel Gutzwiler 487 S71 Vin Calia 710 S72 Liam Flaten 392 S73 Marshall James Frostbeard 1096 S74 Isabella Campbell 1203 S75 Rara Rasputin 1211 S76 Jivere Zolnek 741 S77 Barron Kruulenstien 544 S78 Damien Salducci 480 AVERAGE TPE Draft Pick Average TPE 1 1318 2 1341 3 1120 4 964 5 1167 6 849 7 881 8 977 9 1011 10 864 11 1090 12 798 13 841 14 717 15 632 16 659 Conclusions So after looking at these spreadsheets, it is clear to see that: going second overall is better than first overall 4th overall is overrated 5th overall is slept on 9th and 11th overall are VERY slept on 15th and 16th overall suck, there is only a few sleepers Thank you for looking at my article even though it is just a bunch of spreadsheets. wordcounter.net says this is 1000 words so I'm claiming for 2 weeks

Hi

I swear the player names get weirder every season

If I was I don’t think I’d post it as a vhl.com article

AJ Williams, S79 LA Stars Franchise Player Traded To Seattle Just recently I posted a media spot talking a bit about the off season for the Stars and all of the trades/retirements that occurred, as well as talking about my player’s future in LA. Well right after posting that I was sent off to Seattle, leaving just like the rest of my team. It is a weird feeling being traded as a first generation player who was loyal to their club. I was planning on staying in LA my entire career but with all of the trades and rebuild coming with IR stepping in, it makes sense. I am not disappointed with the trade as my player probably would have just rotted away for the next couple seasons being the only developed player for the Stars, so no hate towards IR for doing it. I am pretty excited to be part of Seattle. They have the most winningest GM in Bana, who has been with the Bears since S50 if I am not mistaken. Beaviss is a great member as well and a good addition to Bana’s management team as the AGM. The players are also all pretty well known and good people. Starting with oilmandan and SlapshotDragon who were in my draft class, so at the time of drafting I was very familiar with their players. Jubis is our big dog on the team and the only vet we have. Then the newer players range widely. Bana, Steve, Barzal, and Hogan on defence, all members I have talked to before and know of. Up front with myself, Slapshot and Jubis, there is Frost, Beav and dasboot. Once again all well known members through the community. This team honestly feels like a social event with players who are veterans to the league, so it is really cool to be a part of. I know they can all earn well and build their players for success. I am excited to be in Seattle but it will feel weird for a while not being with the Stars. Hopefully my player can perform and win some awards soon whether that be team or individual.

2/2

1. I love it. It’s a great way to get rid of the meta and now all players won’t be stacked at 500 TPE. 2. I built my player to have solid scoring and defence stats as well as strength. Hopefully he can be a good two way forward. 3. I’d hope my player could be a MacKinnon but he’s more like a Gallagher right now kind of. 4. Great move. Will need a first line center this season. 5. I’m enjoying Seattle so far. Sad to leave LA being the team I was drafted to, but in the bigger picture Seattle is a better fit for my player. 6. We went to Mexico and drank so much tequila that the team ordered “friendly guests” back to the hotel rooms.

The Los Angeles Stars just recently had two killer seasons, finishing 4th in NA in S81 and 2nd in Na in S82. The roster was built for success and even though we came up short in the end, the team had a really good time both seasons. Unfortunately though the band is breaking up. Players are either retiring, being traded, or just not resigning. It is crazy to me that in only four seasons I am the only one left since my S79 draft year. I did not even play S79 as I stayed down in the VHLM. So basically in three seasons everyone is gone! I get that a majority of players who left were veterans in their last season, but that was only half of the squad. I wanted to get a visual of what the f happened this off-season so here we go. OUT Reason IN Reason (S75) Pistil Stamen - F Retired (S82) Eldon Escobar - F Traded (S75) Vick Fairchild - F Retired (S81) Cooper Skambraks - F Traded (S75) Dan Dan - F Retired (S76) Magnus Verlander - F Traded (S78) Henri le Massif - F Traded (S77) Barron Kuulenstien - D Traded (S80) Florida Man - F Traded (S81) Cameron Elsby - D Traded (S78) Tui Sova - D Traded (S76) Tater Tot - G Traded (S82) Tavish DeGroot - D Traded S84 Riga 2nd (S77) Jan Hlozek - D Traded S84 PRG 2nd (S75) Kevin Wu - D Retired S83 MOS 4th (S75) Rara Rasputin - G Retired S83 WAR 4th (S75) Trent Gibson - G Retired So as you can see from my lovely spreadsheet, in one off-season alone, the Los Angeles Stars have lost their entire S82 roster besides my player. It is honestly sad that everyone has left and weird in a way. For the players retiring, obviously you do not have a choice. But the players traded basically all just wanted out after a new GM was hired and our veterans left. I'm not targeting you traded players and calling you traitors in any way, but it is wild to think that 5/6 of us remaining from S82 are now gone. I wish you all the best of luck and hopefully we can slap your teams around one day. The team now consists of myself, the only player above 500 TPE, and four other players. Two forwards, two defenseman, one goalie. Not to mention, only three of us are above the 400 TPE VHL minimum with the other two in the call up range. We do have two or three players who will be eligible for call up once S83 hits, but the depth is surely not there and we will have to rely on drafts and patience to build up a roster again. Something that I find cool is that IR is building some great depth with prospect trading and draft picks. 3/6 of the players traded for are young players only with one or two seasons under their belts and lots of time to develop. Four other drafts picks were acquired as well including good 2nd round picks in the S84 Entry Draft. We now have four picks in the upcoming S83 Entry Draft (one 2nd, three 4ths) and eight picks in the S84 Entry Draft (two 1sts, four 2nds, one 3rd, one 4th). If the rules are the same as the VHLM where you can only have 3 1sts and 3 2nds in one draft, then an S84 2nd will have to go. But I am sure we can get some value from that if necessary. So I really do not have any doubt that Los Angeles will be a strong team again in the next 4-5 seasons. Unfortunately this will most likely be when I am retiring, but you never know. Another thing to consider is that IR was the recent GM for Rome in the VHLE after being promoted. The VHLE has had three winners in it's three season existence and IR has been the winning GM in all three. So if that does not give you some confidence to what he can do then I do not know what will. What do all of these changes mean to AJ Williams? Nothing. I devoted my career to Los Angeles in S81 when I signed a four season contract extension. Meaning I will be signed to Los Angeles for an extended S82-S85 length. The only way I can leave is if I am traded or I sign to a different team in S86 for my final season under UFA's. I honestly do not have plans to leave. When all of the new GM commotion started this off-season, I had thoughts of requesting a trade but then I came to the conclusion that Los Angeles was my first ever team (I am a first gen member) and why would I want to leave when I could create some history for the Stars. Pistil Stamen was the captain for the Stars the past couple seasons and was probably the most loyal player in franchise history as LA is a newer expansion team. I have been watching his player perform the past few seasons since being drafted and want to mirror what he has done for LA. Seeing his player since I was drafted also kept me determined to stay in Los Angeles as he recently took control of the franchise's most points role. That is something I have wanted to beat ever since Jeffrey Pines had the glory. I am already 11th all time with 222 points, so why not keep going? I am shy of Stamen's career PPG and will have one less season than him since I stayed an extra season in the VHLM, but with the future minutes and roles my player will see with LA's roster crisis, I could potentially shoot off like a rocket in the point category. My fait is in IR's lovely hands and whatever he decides goes. If I am trade, it is what it is, if he keeps me, I am totally fine with that. So in conclusion, this off-season was something most teams rarely see, but it is the reality of Los Angeles and as the most likely to win captain role, I am excited for my player to battle with the underdog title that LA will receive. 1047 words - claiming April 3, April 10