MubbleFubbles

Duncan Idaho @Arce

The main off-season activities are pretty much done and dusted now, but there's still the interesting matter of figuring out how teams are going to become cap compliant. Three teams are still over the cap as of writing and they are Seattle (500K over), Riga (3.5M over) and Toronto (5.5M over) and it's going to interesting to see what method they take to become cap compliant, especially Seattle and Riga since simply trading off a player would have them icing less than 10 skaters (the usual full roster mark) meaning they are likely to address the situation in more elaborate ways. Also one small thing I noticed that hopefully won't require too much to fix, if at all, I noticed that inactive S77-79 players haven't faced depreciation properly. Like their hybrid attributes have been depreciated but their STHS attributes remain the same as they were pre-depreciation (e.g. Rolf Fizzlebeef Jr. is listed as 86 PA but his hybrid attributes should only have him at 84). Hopefully that's either an easy fix or something that actually doesn't even need fixing and will sort itself out automatically over time cause dev team have obviously done a lot of great work recently and deserve a nice easy off-season this go round.

1. Now that the S84 VHL Entry Draft has concluded, which prospect will become the best player out of its class? https://vhlportal.com/teams/drafts/64 I think there are a few people sleeping on Maloish cause he had a few rough earning weeks, but I think he has the most potential of these rookies. 2. The Colorado Avalanche holds a 2-0 lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Do you think this series will become a sweep or will the Lightning respond? I think the Lightning might claw a game back although with how badly they got beat the other day I don't really have an explanation as to how they will haha 3. Do you play hockey in real life? I've actually never played hockey, it just wasn't popular enough around where I live as a kid to properly get into playing, so I stuck with other sports. 4. What's more important to you as a player, goals or points? I would probably say goals rather than points, but mainly because as the player with the most invested in scoring, I need to make sure my player produces on that front. 5. What's better, Street Hockey (in the streets) or Field Hockey (played on grass)? Field Hockey is pretty popular over here (we get medals in the olympics pretty regularly I feel) and I've had a few family members play field hockey so I'll go with that. 6. Does your player have any plans for the off-season? The Board Game is gonna do what the Board Game does and that is just be itself and continue to exist!

Sign me up!

Woo, welcome to the team @Baby Boomer!

Ya I was on one of the draft streams a couple seasons ago and it was a lot of fun although I was trying by best to stay awake since it always starts at 1 AM my time! I'm the same when it comes to not saying I'm in VHL to friends just cause I know I spent my formative years writing articles about my player deliberately shitting himself on the ice, and that is difficult to explain to an outsider as to why I decided to spend a portion of my limited time on this planet writing about that. I think the one time someone asked what I was doing, I said I was chatting with some members of a fantasy hockey league, which is close enough! Looking forward to drunk history!

1. What is your favorite part of the offseason? Probably the draft, provided the classes are deep enough it's always interesting to see who goes where 2. What are you hoping to achieve come next season? I'd like to be the clear #1 TPE player in my draft class, I'll be one behind top player after submitting this, but I've got a purchase lined up that'll give me a real big boost 3. What team(s) do you think win it all next season? Can be VHLM, VHLE, VHL, or all of the above. I'll have to check later since there's still plenty of moves to be made regarding cap compliance 4. Predictions for the rest of the NBA Finals? Who are you pulling for? I'm not really pulling for either, haven't followed NBA much recently 5. How about hockey? Lightning or Avalanche? I'm gonna go Avalanche cause that will get me TPE! 6. Best summer activity, in your opinion? I play a lot of golf so summer is great for it!

https://anchor.fm/mubble-fubbles/episodes/MubbleFubbles-Radio-Ep--9---A-Draft-Preview-So-Last-Minute-Its-Actually-Late-e1k2bdg Sorry it’s quiet btw, recorded past midnight. Claiming for Weeks Ending 19/6, 26/6 and 3/7

- I'm doing a podcast based on the draft, but I don't know which podcast would make for a more entertaining/insightful concept. Would you prefer a podcast where I talk about who I think the GMs will pick or would you prefer a podcast where I talk about who I would pick with each pick if I were GM? - The salary cap is battering some teams this season for sure. Some teams still remain $5 Million over the cap so it's interesting to watch how teams aim to counter that, do they go for the quick fix that will have them hit the same problems next year or do they go for a bigger rework which will hopefully see them clear of cap issues for a couple of years? I think the two big reasons for the cap getting threatened by more teams this season are the less present rookie contracts compared to pre-VHLE era (Some players like Johnny Xavier are making their first VHL appearance this season, but it's on a prime contract, 1-2 VHL seasons played on rookie contracts being more the norm nowadays rather than 2-3 on rookie contracts pre-VHLE) along with depreciation not having nearly as big an effect on veteran players as previous seasons (Examples such as Zeedayno Chara depreciating less with 7% this season than with 4% last season, the Prague Reinharts depreciating by less than 100 TPE in their final season.). It's not necessarily an issue, it actually makes for a more entertaining off-season for the neutral. It does mean teams are going to struggle to stick together more often now, but it could also give an incentive for faster rebuilds if players are going to need to be moved more frequently.

If the situation is still the same as when the rule was written, signing your own player as GM is really only reserved for the most extreme of circumstances (e.g. There's literally nowhere else you could go but your own team). The approach to that could have changed since, but that was the thought process when it was written, so if that's still the case it would require an extreme circumstance for Kennedy to get to LA through FA that I don't think would happen with the VHL in the situation it's in atm.

Transaction ID - 9UF36687FU6112254 1 Mil 5 Uncapped Doubles Week

This is pretty cool, I especially like that you can specify a search for events now, so I can just type in like "Trade Deadline" or "Draft" in the search bar and click Events to find the right dates

Welcome back @8Ovechkin8! Nice to see older members come back into the league! If you haven't already, it might be worth checking with a commish or updater to see if you can get your recreate TPE added (we get it auto-added now but because your last player was pre-portal it won't automatically get added to your guy). I would think you should be due around 25 from Yumalatopinto at least.

Yeah, it’s a bit weird this week, there’s a lot that I could potentially talk about for my media spot this week but for whatever reason, I just can’t bring myself to write anything about them. Like for example, Seattle and Moscow are going into Game 7 in the VHL Final, and that’s interesting because the narrative the past three seasons has been Moscow keep getting to the final and losing and, to be honest, I just don’t see the viability of that strategy. All they are doing by beating more teams on the way to lose in the final is giving the teams they beat better draft picks. So yeah, hopefully they change their minds on that cause it’s not very smart. But yeah, I don’t really have any personal investment in that game so can’t really talk about it. I could talk about VHLE where the Watchmen beat Vasteras, fuck yes! I don’t know why I’ve started wanting to see the Iron Eagles fail since I never felt that way when they were in the VHL (although I did prefer the Vikings when they replaced in the VHL). Maybe I’ve just subconsciously garnered the feelings of the old Iron Eagles haters or maybe inherited Shindigs hate of Vasteras. It could also be because of that time where they managed to trade off a member who has had 11 players in the last 22 seasons for a first and a third (and note that first was first overall) before he’d even made the VHLE (Spoilers: He never is cause he’s retired), and it's always fun to see a team that gets such an inexplicably one-sided trade in their favour have things not go their way. But yeah, I’m not in the E so I couldn’t really tell you much about what happened but congrats to Frostbeard as well. Now something I could potentially talk about is the Las Vegas Aces winning the Founders Cup for the first time close to twenty seasons. Shindigs did a really good job with that team, picking a lot of good players in the last draft like Dogwood Maple, Velociraptor Greg, MacElroy and Kagelberg, and I think for the VHLM, that can really give you a good gauge on how good a VHLM GM is, seeing how many of their drafted players are still around at the end of the season, and Shindigs has been perfect on that front. Also nice to see players who were around in my stint like MacTavish, Clark, Evans, Bielas and Dusterov win a cup that I unfortunately couldn’t help them get while I was GM, because they have been good active earners! But I’ve got to keep Shindigs on his toes so he wins again next season so I can’t let him get complacent by giving him all the praise he deserves here, so I can’t write any more on that. And then there’s the upcoming draft which I really want to talk about but with the draft order still up in the air, it’s just a little too early, but I am going to be doing my Mock Draft podcast next week so I’ll be talking about that then! So yeah, guess I’ll have to just do a graphic instead.

- With their win in the S83 Lottery tournament, the Los Angeles Stars became the second team to acquire the maximum possible 35% odds of winning the first overall selection (the first was New York in Season 75). This also makes the Los Angeles Stars the team with the worst regular season record (38 points) to win the lottery tournament. Interestingly, both the S75 New York and S83 Los Angeles teams recorded a +6 goal differential during their winning efforts. - Since Los Angeles also owns Vancouver's 1st rounder, this gives LA (barring any trades) a 55% chance of holding the first overall pick in the Season 84 Draft, which ties the lottery-era record set by Helsinki ahead of the Season 81 Draft. - This tournament also saw the team with the best record to ever enter the Lottery Tournament in the Helsinki Titans, who had 91 points in the regular season. Helsinki Titans went on to finish second to the Stars despite recording a +20 goal differential across the tournament, which is a new record beating the +19 set by Warsaw in Season 74 and later tied by Riga in Season 81 (Like Helsinki, that Riga team also finished in second place).

https://anchor.fm/mubble-fubbles/episodes/MiniFubbles-Ep--13---Who-Is-Going-Number-One-e1jj2pu

My favourite media article of every season! You must be getting close to being able to set up an unofficial Hall of Fame for those committed in their quest for the unorthodox awards haha! Shots for days from Saku, is that the most of these awards any one player has had in a given season?

Oh wow, guess we really stepped it up in the playoffs then!

https://anchor.fm/mubble-fubbles/episodes/MubbleFubbles-Radio-Ep--8---The-Alarm-Went-Off-Again-e1jgikj Note: There is no actual alarm in this one so your ear drums are safe

1. What is your favorite place to sit? I like to sit in the sofa in our living room best, but for lounging I'd say my bed. 2. I've been seeing lacrosse stuff pop up recently, what are your opinions? Would your player be interested in lacrosse or are they ice-only athletes? I have conversed with The Board Game Clue On Skates on the matter and it refused to comment on the issue. I think it'd fare alright though. 3. Thermostat wars: what temperature do you keep your home? Bonus points if you answer in Fahrenheit. They never taught us Fahrenheit in school unfortunately. I keep my room about 22 degrees celsius 4. Tell me about your player's stick: is it long and whippy, short and stiff, or somewhere in between? It's actually just made of cardboard, nobody has bothered to check its stick and it's just kept it since joining the VHL 5. You put in the game-winning goal and made your way to the locker room. What are you drinking to celebrate? The Board Game Clue on Skates isn't a big drinker for obvious reasons, when it gets carried to clubs though they keep shoving Tequila shots inside its cardboard shell. 6. NHL question: are the Rangers going to stop the Lightning in round 3 to prevent the 3-peat, or is Tampa going to the final again this year? It's going to be the Rangers because that's what I put for the TPE task!

I'm hoping to do an audible Mock Draft at some point within the next two weeks so figured I'd talk about some of the stuff I noticed in this draft here: - In comparison to the last draft we had, it seems like there's a few less players who are dedicated to hitting the max 12 in a week, but there's significantly more players than S83 had in regards to players hovering around that 8-11 capped TPE per week range. However, 45 of the 91 prospects in this draft are currently at the VHL definition of inactive, so it looks like teams looking to get active players with fourth round picks will have to hope teams before them take chances on higher TPE inactives. - Goalies should be interesting. Heading into this week the top goalie Art Vandelay was about 20-30 TPE behind the top earners, but he's now surged up into fourth in TPE, and that's without the 10 TPE VHLM Grad Bonus. Had he had that, he would've been second in TPE and only two behind draft class leader Callum Murray. The other element that makes it goalies interesting for this draft class is that three of the six top earning prospects in the S85 Draft Class are goalies, so does a rebuilding team without a goalie fix maybe focus on the skating talent in Season 84 and grab their goalie in Season 85 or do they just solve their goalie issues as soon as possible and take a potential hit with what they can get in terms of skating talent in Season 85?

@Shindigs

When you're 2-0 up and only Game 3 is done on a Game 3-4 sim

1. What are your thoughts on the series with DC? Can we finish them off? Hey let's hope so! We've already beaten em twice so there's a great chance we can get one win in our last three. 2. Who is the goofiest member on the team? That's a tough question, it's very tight between the one who is on a mission to insert a Clue branded team into every league and the one who is huge into protein farts! 3. Do you believe leadership has an effect in the sim engine? I honestly don't know, Simon T's guide is vague on the matter, but part of me wonders if you have to be selected as a captain for it to have effect. 4. How gnarly is your playoff beard so far? Gnarly, which for a board game, is INCREDIBLY GNARLY 5. Do you think we are the dark horse for this season? Why or why not? I would say so, it'd be difficult but heck we have one of the best records against Moscow in the VHL, so going from bottom to that is pretty good dark horse material! 6. Who is your favourite player thats not in the playoffs? Deagan Rust, I have a great appreciation for goons

The Current Situation: These are the standings heading into the final game of the season. The Helsinki Titans will play the North American Conference leading Seattle Bears whereas the Prague Phantoms and the London United both play each other. Worthy of note is the win column that has Helsinki with one more win than both London and Prague, as wins are the first element used to break a tie. The Helsinki Titans currently have a winning record over the Seattle Bears with two wins and one loss. While it’s notable that the Bears were playing a BOT goalie in the Titans last win over them, it is also worth noting that the winners in each of the three matchups heavily outshot their opponent. To remove all doubt of missing the playoffs, the London United would have to beat the Prague Phantoms, but they’ve only done so in one of four encounters this season. Two of their three losses however were in OT. Prague have actually out-shot London in every single matchup they have had this season, however when the London United last played Prague, they were playing their backup goalie. It is worth noting that all four teams will be playing starting goalies in these matchups as they have played 63 games each. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If Helsinki lose in regulation to Seattle, then it is obvious. Helsinki miss out on the playoffs. If Helsinki lose to Seattle in overtime, the only way Helsinki can make playoffs is if London loses to Prague in regulation. This is because both Helsinki and London would be tied on points but Helsinki would get into playoffs over London due to their higher win tally. If Helsinki beat Seattle and London lose to Prague (regardless of if that loss is in OT or regulation), Helsinki will overtake London in the standings and London would subsequently miss out on the playoffs If Helsinki beat Seattle and London beat Prague in regulation, then both London and Helsinki would overtake Prague (Helsinki would be tied on points with Prague but would overtake them based on their win tally) and Prague would miss out on the playoffs. It’s worth noting this is the only situation where Prague can miss the playoffs. If Helsinki beat Seattle and London beat Prague in overtime, then London will overtake Prague into fourth place (through having a higher win tally) but Prague would still make playoffs in fifth place as they would be on 94 points and a win over Seattle would only give Helsinki 93 points. Therefore, Helsinki cannot be guaranteed a place in the playoffs even if they defeat Seattle.