Shindigs

We're just taking TPE whoring to a new level. Seriously I went to sleep last season and Jacob wrote two of them before I woke up. Madness!

1. Moscow didn't win. So yeah, about as expected tbf.
2. Pretty MID, only got a blind man out of it.
3. Not really, if you have changes you want to make in your life. Waiting 1 year between them will only slow your improvement.
4. Whoever sucks ass, so usually the Canucks.
5. Barring you starting the season like shit, like you do ever 3 seasons or so. You should win it.
6. It's likely going to be a battle between Lavelle and Pearce, kind of comes down to what the lines are and how everyone works together. You have so much forward depth it's likely you'll have one 90-100 point scorer on the 2nd line and one 110-120 and one 100 point scorer on the 1st. Only Simon knows who will be the chosen one.

Great to see the two defenders Bo has been looking up to since joining the league finally get a spot where they belong. Congrats on two very impressive careers, and my condolences that @Spartan  FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY you both on the one trophy that's missing.

Which I'm all for, I think it would also make contract negotiations actually be a lot more fun. Cause at least to me just getting sent the standard ELC of 3m 1m 1m with 0 room for negotiation wasn't exactly a "fun and engaging" experience. Now, if you can't add bonuses after the fact. You actually have to sit down with your GM and look at what role you're expected to play for the team during that ELC and what salary structure fits that. It adds risk on the side of GMs, sure. But giving above minimum value on contracts *should* have risk attached, which the current system doesn't.

Unless we give nearly infinite cap space with the upcoming cap changes. You'll still realistically need a roughly equal amount of lower TPE players as you do now to be cap compliant. This change won't really affect that, so players who are consistent solid lower end earners with good builds will still more than likely get their call ups at 300+/400+ for cap relief reasons, same as they are now. The people who are mainly impacted by it are the ones that are either of a role that's just too saturated at the time. Or built like a madman and refuse any and all attempts to get them to build in a more sane manner. In either case, that player is being traded to a rebuilder that can absorb them, since they don't care about running a 6/4/1 anyways. Just want picks. That's what a lot of GMs were busying themselves with this off-season, trying to dump 400 TPE forced call ups they couldn't actually use in any meaningful way (or even fit under the cap).
 
Frosty had seen people talk about the possible cap increase on Discord, so he DMd me about it earlier today with his potential concerns (which was mainly that people might be upset that the E gets a bigger role, when everyone already hates the E). But also with another sentiment that he'd had from a lot of his players. Ones who wished they could play one more season in Bratislava, but simply weren't allowed due to the hard cap. So there are people in that camp too, especially first gens to whom it doesn't matter as much if they put up stats in the VHLM, or E or VHL. Because to them, whichever league they are currently in, is the highest league they have been in. So it still matters to them. But on the flip side we have other players, who like you, don't care for the E at all. I'm sort of in the middle.
 
I just saw the E as a stop gap on Bo, but that was mainly because I knew before the season started that I was playing 1 season there and then instantly going to the VHL. If I knew there was a possibility I'd make it my home for 2 season, would I have cared more? Honestly, not sure. Maybe? I do find myself caring a lot more about my minors team in the SHL than I ever got the time to do with any of my minor teams here in the VHL. Since I'm on that team for 3 seasons, so I actually have time to get to know my teammates and get invested in winning with them. Something that barely had time to happen in our minors with how much I hopped around.
 
To be crass about the whole situations though, the reason we have this problem now is because of the E. If we didn't add the E, and add a 9th season as a result of adding the E. We wouldn't be having this issue, so using the E to fix the problem it caused only seems fair. If the 9th season wasn't a thing, all we'd have to do to fix the hybrid impact on the cap is the depreciation change we already did. Done deal, easy. But we have the 9 season situation happening too, and the easy solution is expanding the E cap to fix the roster spot issue, and extending the cap brackets to fix the players who are 400 TPA over the end of the bracket never losing a tier ever due to depreciation. At that point we should have the same amount of concurrent players in the VHL at most times and depreciation actually affecting cap hits of max earners again.
 
That's kind of a casualty of the hybrid change. Unless you're building to strictly be a defense bot, if you're full PF+Welfare, nothing else. That's just not actually possible. If you do the recreate thing of more or less full carryover into max earning for 1-2 seasons and then transition into PF+Welfare with Pension, yeah that makes it still be very much possible in a secondary role (2nd dman, 4th forward). But you'd be able to start taking on the lesser version of that secondary role (6th forward, 4th dman) as early as 400 TPE, same as now. You'd just likely not get expanded to the role your player currently has until later in their career. The reason you were able to do it on this player, was due to being in that lower TPE range in the middle of the meta era where 550 TPE players were superstars. As you weaponized that fact pretty effectively with Vancouver, you essentially forced the league to make that exact kind of earner no longer be able to have that kind of career in the VHL. Lower TPE players are simply much worse comparatively to higher TPE players than they used to be. Because we had to make it that way in response to the meta.
 
It used to be what, like 90+ core rookies going up against 99 core star players? More or less. So a gap of 9 per.
Now it's 60-70 core rookies up against 85-95 core star players. So a gap of 15-35 per.
The gap is just so much bigger, you can't have much game impact unless you're on a rebuilder, where you're force fed the stats, with that kind of difference. It's why running 3 dman setups is completely viable now. The 60-70 stat filler you put next to your star is so much lower stats that they might as well be a bot at that point, cause they don't get to do anything. The only chance to be useful in that role is to full send into DF to hit 80 and then at least you can do *something*.

I've proposed the idea elsewhere, so obviously I agree with it. But 450 isn't enough. I'd say as high as 550 would be reasonable still. Does this mean some players *can* play their whole career and never hit the VHL? Yes! Does this already happen? Yes! Could they talk to their VHL GM and still get called up as early as 300 if there is roster space and they'd prefer to play a depth role in the VHL? Yes!
 
Like Spartan touched upon, this would have to be combined with the ELC change we've discussed elsewhere to make sure you still can get that 1 guaranteed ELC season. Or well it does *have* to. Remember this doesn't change how early a player can make the VHL at all. It only affect how late a player can make the VHL. If you're a max earner and want to get called up the same as now. There is no difference at all. In fact, this would coincidentally fix the issue where we have max earners who are considering stopping earning at the end of their draft season to stay sub 400 and be allowed to do another VHLE season. If the cap just wasn't 400, that would be completely irrelevant as they wouldn't have to do that and would still fly past 550 during that next season anyways, so they wouldn't get an "extra" cheese season down to manipulate their depreciation for free.
 
With the hybrid changes players at 500-600 TPE (except goalies ofc) are largely worse (unless they have min/maxed builds) than 400 TPE players were pre-hybrid which was when the VHLE cutoff was set. So the cap doesn't necessarily make sense for that reason alone.
 
As for the fairness within the VHLE:



The upper is a potato build ~550 TPE Hybrid player, the exact kind of player that would struggle to find a team in FA despite being active. The lower is a ~330 TPE Hybrid player with an optimal VHLE build. The latter is a better player in the sim, and it isn't even really close.
 
So what's my point? My point is that in the 300-550 bracket we're in an area where we have pretty "meh" scaling, and as a result the difference between a good and a bad build is more relevant than the difference between 300 and 550 TPE. If a player has 200 TPE in the VHLE, they are either a skipper who will be 400 by the end of the season anyways, or they are IA, or they are at worst a Welfare+ at the end of their 1½ season who will also be around 330 at the end of that season, or a max earning 1st gen that will be at like 360 by the end of that season. Either way, it's not that big a gap. For the most part you spend your VHLE time going from 60 SC/DF to 70 SC/DF and taking your SK/PH from 50->60-70 which is actually a smaller raw attribute gap than between the lowest and highest VHLM players due to the 30-200 range having better TPE scaling in general.
 
With the amount of concurrent draft classes in the league going up from 8 to 9 we'll simply have more Welfare forwards than we can feasibly fit on VHL rosters. They would be much better off playing big roles and rolling in stats and being difference makers in the VHLE (actually giving the league a real, undeniable, purpose) than being stuck in FA not feeling like they have a place to go. Because if we had that situation happen this season, imagine what it will be like when we have a whole extra draft class of players in the same situation every season going forward.
 
No amount of incentives to VHL GMs and cap massaging will really put a dent in that. We simply won't have the room for them on VHL rosters, unless we completely restructure the cap and roster rules to force 9/4/1. But do we really want that? Do we want players putting in like 10 minutes of ice time at the VHL level more than them being 100+ point 25 minute superstars at the VHLE level? If so why do we even have the VHLE at that point? And why do we call it a "competitive" league, if we'd rather have their star players be depth pieces that get no playtime in the VHL?

The irony of that being that they are literally the same thing. If you treat your players like human beings and go the extra mile to help them. Not only will they naturally be more successful, they will specifically *want* to be successful to repay you for what you've done for them. They will want to play for your team, because it's your team. Having the mindset that what's best for your players vs. what's best for your team are two different things is just so short sighted. Since sustained success requires your players to grow and thrive. Not to mention sharing the LR with people you know and respect is a hell of a lot more fun than a bunch of people you don't know, but who certainly have a lot of TPE.
 
That's what I built Vegas on, I traded away all my 1st round picks to get 2nd/3rd/4th round picks letting me reach out to people who had all the potential in the world, but hadn't learned how the league works yet. What's the point in drafting as many 200 TPE recreates as you can? You won't teach them anything, they won't get better as time goes along, and you won't be able to significantly change their league experience. Whereas if you instead focus your resources on first gens that you actually can make a difference for (or lower earning recreates that may have had a similar experience to what's outlined in this thread) you can actually do something.
 
My starting point for all my players on Vegas was always to explain how Welfare+ works, what the career trajectory is compared to max earning and pure welfare, while doing welfare+, and just let them make an informed decision on how much effort they "need" to put in to reach their goals for their player. For some players they end up only doing welfare+ one or two weeks. Then realize that they just don't want to put in any extra effort at all. For quite a lot of players they do decide that some version of Welfare+, be it 8 per week or 10 per week, is what they are comfortable doing. And some get hooked on earning and go full max earning.
 
 
The most demoralizing thing for me when I was a VHLM GM, and still to some degree is, is that I kept seeing the same pattern repeating itself. With the slam dunk 100% players being the exception, so many of the players who I either worked my ass off to keep from going IA and stay doing Welfare. Or who I got invested enough to do Welfare+/Max earning would instantly fall off a cliff once they left the Vegas and went on to their VHLE teams. One of the primary ones being Town's player. He's literally one of the most prominent members in the SBA, but since all the jobs he holds over there to max earn don't actually give him any affiliate claims in the VHL he doesn't do point tasks here. He just does Welfare, but if you tell him about Theme Weeks/uncapped opportunities/Fantasy Zone/Predictions and the like that take 0 effort. He will do them, as long as you remind him to get his Welfare+PF in for the week, he does it. And as long as you give him build advice, he's more than happy to apply TPE that way. But he knows enough about sim leagues to not blindly want to apply TPE himself. Since that is a good way to completely ruin your player for their entire career as a Welfare earner.
 
What this lead to after he left Vegas was him sitting in the VHLE for almost a whole season at 200 TPA with like 260ish TPE until he finally just stopped doing welfare at all. I was too busy dealing with my own players to keep close tabs on my alumni, there's only so much time and energy I have. So I have to focus it where I "should" be focusing it and trusting that his VHL/E GMs actually do their damn jobs and continue developing him. Well, they didn't. After I noticed what was going on I just reached out to him in DMs and asked if he wanted build help to apply all his banked TPE, and he was more than happy to. Was literally just waiting to have either of his actual GMs talk to him about it at all. (He'd also been traded without being told by the GM who traded him and only getting a welcome message from the new GM, who he though was his VHLE GM. He had to ask me about the specifics of the trade) After the new build and me slightly getting his focus back on the VHL he did go back to doing Welfare again and went on to having a 100+ point season int he VHLE the following season, and from what I can tell on Cologne he actually did get sufficient GM help to stay on top of things. Well, sort of, he was never told to claim the Christmas TPE or the Theme Week. But at least he's doing the weekly earning.
 
Now on the flip side of that stuff, I do somewhat get it. Unless you've actually been a GM you probably haven't had the absolutely soul crushing experience of having a player completely ignore (or give 1 syllable answers) to any and all attempt to help them, no matter how heartfelt. Or players who will either a) completely ghost you or b) do what you told them in PMs/DMs but won't even show you the common decency of responding to said messages. You can only get your spirit crushed by so many people shitting on your best attempt to help them before you just shut down to protect your own sanity. At some point the likely outcome of dealing with a long-shot Welfare earner and putting your heart into helping them just becomes such a source of stress that you simply stop trying. I was approaching the point where that would be me, it was one of many reasons I stepped down as Vegas GM. Because if you *do* reach that point, you shouldn't be a GM anymore. You're no longer fit for duty in my opinion.
 
We also kind of have an issue among at least some VHL GMs where they consider their VHLE prospects to be "not their problem" if you will. Part of that is not wanting to step on the toes of the VHLE GMs that by all accounts *should* be guiding them, which I can respect. But part of it is also the mindset that as a VHL GM all you do is compete, you don't develop. That's someone elses job and it's not what you took the position for (Not like you could use your AGM for it or anything). So that's certainly something I'd consider a pretty glaring culture issue in the VHL as well. To go back to the Town example, when I was guiding him on his build. I was asking him what his VHL GMs plans were for his player moving forward, to give more informed feedback on how he might want to build his player to actually be VHL ready (and able to fill the spot he's needed in) once he hits 300-400 TPE. Which was when I found out that neither of his VHL GMs had even talked to him about anything of the sorts at all, ever. That's a problem which would be so easy to solve. I get not having the time/energy to micro manage every single one of your prospects, but not even having a quick chat on how they could go about making your roster? Really? That's not a good look. Do we not see the value in a player that would effectively be a Welfare (with some uncapped) GM player for all intents and purposes, since you'd have complete build control, and he won't actively pursue FA? Isn't that pretty much exactly what you want when the cap is this tight?
 
Seriously, a huge part of being a GM in a player league is that you're actually dealing with people. So if you don't want to do that, do you even want to be a GM?

The irony of that being that they are literally the same thing. If you treat your players like human beings and go the extra mile to help them. Not only will they naturally be more successful, they will specifically *want* to be successful to repay you for what you've done for them. They will want to play for your team, because it's your team. Having the mindset that what's best for your players vs. what's best for your team are two different things is just so short sighted. Since sustained success requires your players to grow and thrive. Not to mention sharing the LR with people you know and respect is a hell of a lot more fun than a bunch of people you don't know, but who certainly have a lot of TPE.
 
That's what I built Vegas on, I traded away all my 1st round picks to get 2nd/3rd/4th round picks letting me reach out to people who had all the potential in the world, but hadn't learned how the league works yet. What's the point in drafting as many 200 TPE recreates as you can? You won't teach them anything, they won't get better as time goes along, and you won't be able to significantly change their league experience. Whereas if you instead focus your resources on first gens that you actually can make a difference for (or lower earning recreates that may have had a similar experience to what's outlined in this thread) you can actually do something.
 
My starting point for all my players on Vegas was always to explain how Welfare+ works, what the career trajectory is compared to max earning and pure welfare, while doing welfare+, and just let them make an informed decision on how much effort they "need" to put in to reach their goals for their player. For some players they end up only doing welfare+ one or two weeks. Then realize that they just don't want to put in any extra effort at all. For quite a lot of players they do decide that some version of Welfare+, be it 8 per week or 10 per week, is what they are comfortable doing. And some get hooked on earning and go full max earning.
 
 
The most demoralizing thing for me when I was a VHLM GM, and still to some degree is, is that I kept seeing the same pattern repeating itself. With the slam dunk 100% players being the exception, so many of the players who I either worked my ass off to keep from going IA and stay doing Welfare. Or who I got invested enough to do Welfare+/Max earning would instantly fall off a cliff once they left the Vegas and went on to their VHLE teams. One of the primary ones being Town's player. He's literally one of the most prominent members in the SBA, but since all the jobs he holds over there to max earn don't actually give him any affiliate claims in the VHL he doesn't do point tasks here. He just does Welfare, but if you tell him about Theme Weeks/uncapped opportunities/Fantasy Zone/Predictions and the like that take 0 effort. He will do them, as long as you remind him to get his Welfare+PF in for the week, he does it. And as long as you give him build advice, he's more than happy to apply TPE that way. But he knows enough about sim leagues to not blindly want to apply TPE himself. Since that is a good way to completely ruin your player for their entire career as a Welfare earner.
 
What this lead to after he left Vegas was him sitting in the VHLE for almost a whole season at 200 TPA with like 260ish TPE until he finally just stopped doing welfare at all. I was too busy dealing with my own players to keep close tabs on my alumni, there's only so much time and energy I have. So I have to focus it where I "should" be focusing it and trusting that his VHL/E GMs actually do their damn jobs and continue developing him. Well, they didn't. After I noticed what was going on I just reached out to him in DMs and asked if he wanted build help to apply all his banked TPE, and he was more than happy to. Was literally just waiting to have either of his actual GMs talk to him about it at all. (He'd also been traded without being told by the GM who traded him and only getting a welcome message from the new GM, who he though was his VHLE GM. He had to ask me about the specifics of the trade) After the new build and me slightly getting his focus back on the VHL he did go back to doing Welfare again and went on to having a 100+ point season int he VHLE the following season, and from what I can tell on Cologne he actually did get sufficient GM help to stay on top of things. Well, sort of, he was never told to claim the Christmas TPE or the Theme Week. But at least he's doing the weekly earning.
 
Now on the flip side of that stuff, I do somewhat get it. Unless you've actually been a GM you probably haven't had the absolutely soul crushing experience of having a player completely ignore (or give 1 syllable answers) to any and all attempt to help them, no matter how heartfelt. Or players who will either a) completely ghost you or b) do what you told them in PMs/DMs but won't even show you the common decency of responding to said messages. You can only get your spirit crushed by so many people shitting on your best attempt to help them before you just shut down to protect your own sanity. At some point the likely outcome of dealing with a long-shot Welfare earner and putting your heart into helping them just becomes such a source of stress that you simply stop trying. I was approaching the point where that would be me, it was one of many reasons I stepped down as Vegas GM. Because if you *do* reach that point, you shouldn't be a GM anymore. You're no longer fit for duty in my opinion.
 
We also kind of have an issue among at least some VHL GMs where they consider their VHLE prospects to be "not their problem" if you will. Part of that is not wanting to step on the toes of the VHLE GMs that by all accounts *should* be guiding them, which I can respect. But part of it is also the mindset that as a VHL GM all you do is compete, you don't develop. That's someone elses job and it's not what you took the position for (Not like you could use your AGM for it or anything). So that's certainly something I'd consider a pretty glaring culture issue in the VHL as well. To go back to the Town example, when I was guiding him on his build. I was asking him what his VHL GMs plans were for his player moving forward, to give more informed feedback on how he might want to build his player to actually be VHL ready (and able to fill the spot he's needed in) once he hits 300-400 TPE. Which was when I found out that neither of his VHL GMs had even talked to him about anything of the sorts at all, ever. That's a problem which would be so easy to solve. I get not having the time/energy to micro manage every single one of your prospects, but not even having a quick chat on how they could go about making your roster? Really? That's not a good look. Do we not see the value in a player that would effectively be a Welfare (with some uncapped) GM player for all intents and purposes, since you'd have complete build control, and he won't actively pursue FA? Isn't that pretty much exactly what you want when the cap is this tight?
 
Seriously, a huge part of being a GM in a player league is that you're actually dealing with people. So if you don't want to do that, do you even want to be a GM?

Now that's a pretty stacked looking team. Not sure if he was up or not in your group, but Murdock in net is looking to be a great sleeper pick for goalie despite technically being a rookie in most groups.

Shouts to @jacobcarson877and @STZagain for the easy content idea.
 
Another off-season, another VHFL draft.  Props to my group this time for being super efficient and making my return to being a VHFL GM smooth as hell.
 
I was at the 6 turn again this season, a position I don't mind as the double picks are time efficient to make.  I made most of my selections this season on member consistency, and teams that I think will excel. Here's this seasons team:
 
1. F - Nico Pearce @Spartan  
Pearce is poised to lead the Menace and the league this season on Moscow's very dangerous looking top line.  Initially I had hoped to grab Ronan Lavelle @Arcehere, but he was taken just before my pick.  I think the Nico/Ronan connection will go off this season and I am comfortable having secured a top line Moscow player higher than 1100 TPA with my first selection.
 
2. D - Bo Johansson @Shindigs
Had to grab a Dman here pretty quickly before waiting 12 more selections and losing my guy.  Who better to select than someone with 4 different awards while only entering their 5th season?  Shindigs has built an incredible player here with BoJo and is poised to rack up more awards this season. He is the clear cut successor of the Markinson/Sova era.  Could this be the season he shatters the 100 assist mark? 
 
3. F - Tomas Sogaard @Brandon
Sticking with Moscows first line here.  Sogaard was still on the board an again I am confident in Moscow's first line this season.  Lavelle/Pearce/Sogaard just seems like an insane trio and no doubt all 3 will compliment each other as they have fairly similar "meta" forward built, making the Menace one of the top teams in the VHL yet again.
 
4. F - The Board Game Clue On Skates @MubbleFubbles
At this point I've realized all of my selections have been from either Chicago or Moscow lol.  Not mad about it however as I believe this are all franchise players on top contending teams.  Mubbles has shown time and time again that he is a smart, top tier member.  Nearing 1400 TPA, this could be a steal at this selection.  While Clue On Skate's stats have unfortunately been fairly mid up until this point, I am hoping for a breakout season - he is definitely due and the build looks great.
 
5. D - Tavish DeGroot @rory
Managed to clean up some trash at the 5 spot and snag DeGroot as my 2nd D. After a weird off-season for FA's, DeGroot finally landed on the emerging Riga Reign.  A young team with lots of promise, DeGroots role here could solidify them as one of the top D in the VHL.  Someone on the blue line is going to have to rack up some STHS pity stats, and who better to do it in Riga than Tavish DeGroot.
 
6. G - Bubbles Utonium @fishy
The D.C. Dragons are looking mid again this season, 2 seasons removed from their glorious championship win.  Utonium is nearing the 1000 TPA mark, pushing them into top goalie territory on paper.  This former champ will no doubt rack up some nice fantasy stats, and likely see a high volume of shots whenever the Dragons ice their 2nd line.
 
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The irony of that being that they are literally the same thing. If you treat your players like human beings and go the extra mile to help them. Not only will they naturally be more successful, they will specifically *want* to be successful to repay you for what you've done for them. They will want to play for your team, because it's your team. Having the mindset that what's best for your players vs. what's best for your team are two different things is just so short sighted. Since sustained success requires your players to grow and thrive. Not to mention sharing the LR with people you know and respect is a hell of a lot more fun than a bunch of people you don't know, but who certainly have a lot of TPE.
 
That's what I built Vegas on, I traded away all my 1st round picks to get 2nd/3rd/4th round picks letting me reach out to people who had all the potential in the world, but hadn't learned how the league works yet. What's the point in drafting as many 200 TPE recreates as you can? You won't teach them anything, they won't get better as time goes along, and you won't be able to significantly change their league experience. Whereas if you instead focus your resources on first gens that you actually can make a difference for (or lower earning recreates that may have had a similar experience to what's outlined in this thread) you can actually do something.
 
My starting point for all my players on Vegas was always to explain how Welfare+ works, what the career trajectory is compared to max earning and pure welfare, while doing welfare+, and just let them make an informed decision on how much effort they "need" to put in to reach their goals for their player. For some players they end up only doing welfare+ one or two weeks. Then realize that they just don't want to put in any extra effort at all. For quite a lot of players they do decide that some version of Welfare+, be it 8 per week or 10 per week, is what they are comfortable doing. And some get hooked on earning and go full max earning.
 
 
The most demoralizing thing for me when I was a VHLM GM, and still to some degree is, is that I kept seeing the same pattern repeating itself. With the slam dunk 100% players being the exception, so many of the players who I either worked my ass off to keep from going IA and stay doing Welfare. Or who I got invested enough to do Welfare+/Max earning would instantly fall off a cliff once they left the Vegas and went on to their VHLE teams. One of the primary ones being Town's player. He's literally one of the most prominent members in the SBA, but since all the jobs he holds over there to max earn don't actually give him any affiliate claims in the VHL he doesn't do point tasks here. He just does Welfare, but if you tell him about Theme Weeks/uncapped opportunities/Fantasy Zone/Predictions and the like that take 0 effort. He will do them, as long as you remind him to get his Welfare+PF in for the week, he does it. And as long as you give him build advice, he's more than happy to apply TPE that way. But he knows enough about sim leagues to not blindly want to apply TPE himself. Since that is a good way to completely ruin your player for their entire career as a Welfare earner.
 
What this lead to after he left Vegas was him sitting in the VHLE for almost a whole season at 200 TPA with like 260ish TPE until he finally just stopped doing welfare at all. I was too busy dealing with my own players to keep close tabs on my alumni, there's only so much time and energy I have. So I have to focus it where I "should" be focusing it and trusting that his VHL/E GMs actually do their damn jobs and continue developing him. Well, they didn't. After I noticed what was going on I just reached out to him in DMs and asked if he wanted build help to apply all his banked TPE, and he was more than happy to. Was literally just waiting to have either of his actual GMs talk to him about it at all. (He'd also been traded without being told by the GM who traded him and only getting a welcome message from the new GM, who he though was his VHLE GM. He had to ask me about the specifics of the trade) After the new build and me slightly getting his focus back on the VHL he did go back to doing Welfare again and went on to having a 100+ point season int he VHLE the following season, and from what I can tell on Cologne he actually did get sufficient GM help to stay on top of things. Well, sort of, he was never told to claim the Christmas TPE or the Theme Week. But at least he's doing the weekly earning.
 
Now on the flip side of that stuff, I do somewhat get it. Unless you've actually been a GM you probably haven't had the absolutely soul crushing experience of having a player completely ignore (or give 1 syllable answers) to any and all attempt to help them, no matter how heartfelt. Or players who will either a) completely ghost you or b) do what you told them in PMs/DMs but won't even show you the common decency of responding to said messages. You can only get your spirit crushed by so many people shitting on your best attempt to help them before you just shut down to protect your own sanity. At some point the likely outcome of dealing with a long-shot Welfare earner and putting your heart into helping them just becomes such a source of stress that you simply stop trying. I was approaching the point where that would be me, it was one of many reasons I stepped down as Vegas GM. Because if you *do* reach that point, you shouldn't be a GM anymore. You're no longer fit for duty in my opinion.
 
We also kind of have an issue among at least some VHL GMs where they consider their VHLE prospects to be "not their problem" if you will. Part of that is not wanting to step on the toes of the VHLE GMs that by all accounts *should* be guiding them, which I can respect. But part of it is also the mindset that as a VHL GM all you do is compete, you don't develop. That's someone elses job and it's not what you took the position for (Not like you could use your AGM for it or anything). So that's certainly something I'd consider a pretty glaring culture issue in the VHL as well. To go back to the Town example, when I was guiding him on his build. I was asking him what his VHL GMs plans were for his player moving forward, to give more informed feedback on how he might want to build his player to actually be VHL ready (and able to fill the spot he's needed in) once he hits 300-400 TPE. Which was when I found out that neither of his VHL GMs had even talked to him about anything of the sorts at all, ever. That's a problem which would be so easy to solve. I get not having the time/energy to micro manage every single one of your prospects, but not even having a quick chat on how they could go about making your roster? Really? That's not a good look. Do we not see the value in a player that would effectively be a Welfare (with some uncapped) GM player for all intents and purposes, since you'd have complete build control, and he won't actively pursue FA? Isn't that pretty much exactly what you want when the cap is this tight?
 
Seriously, a huge part of being a GM in a player league is that you're actually dealing with people. So if you don't want to do that, do you even want to be a GM?

Yeah, this is the key thing. Not everyone wants/should be a max earner. It's about finding what's most enjoyable to that person, even if that might not line up with what you'd like them to want as a GM. Just have to work with what you have and make the best of it.
 
It's completely pointless to push a player into max earning if that will just burn them out in weeks/months, when them doing Welfare+ would have made them *not* burn out and still earn very similar amounts. A consistent Welfare+ player out-earns an inconsistent max earner over a full career almost every time.

That is indeed very true, I fully believe that I have been able to achieve that too but I do see plenty of situations where GMs make a choice between "Hey, we need to compete so no matter what the player wants, I will go and make sure that we win" or "I will do everything what players want and respect their wishes which will mean no competing". 

It is funny because as a GM, I have personally valued every single person highly no matter what and that mindset of making sure that you are always "People-first" mentality actually leads you to wins and championships, just as you said it worked for you in Vegas. 

It is however really tough because as a GM you have know HOW to balance your own GM expectations and player expectations. It should always be about ways how we, GMs, can make sure that player is having a wonderful and best possible VHL experience. 
 

The irony of that being that they are literally the same thing. If you treat your players like human beings and go the extra mile to help them. Not only will they naturally be more successful, they will specifically *want* to be successful to repay you for what you've done for them. They will want to play for your team, because it's your team. Having the mindset that what's best for your players vs. what's best for your team are two different things is just so short sighted. Since sustained success requires your players to grow and thrive. Not to mention sharing the LR with people you know and respect is a hell of a lot more fun than a bunch of people you don't know, but who certainly have a lot of TPE.
 
That's what I built Vegas on, I traded away all my 1st round picks to get 2nd/3rd/4th round picks letting me reach out to people who had all the potential in the world, but hadn't learned how the league works yet. What's the point in drafting as many 200 TPE recreates as you can? You won't teach them anything, they won't get better as time goes along, and you won't be able to significantly change their league experience. Whereas if you instead focus your resources on first gens that you actually can make a difference for (or lower earning recreates that may have had a similar experience to what's outlined in this thread) you can actually do something.
 
My starting point for all my players on Vegas was always to explain how Welfare+ works, what the career trajectory is compared to max earning and pure welfare, while doing welfare+, and just let them make an informed decision on how much effort they "need" to put in to reach their goals for their player. For some players they end up only doing welfare+ one or two weeks. Then realize that they just don't want to put in any extra effort at all. For quite a lot of players they do decide that some version of Welfare+, be it 8 per week or 10 per week, is what they are comfortable doing. And some get hooked on earning and go full max earning.
 
 
The most demoralizing thing for me when I was a VHLM GM, and still to some degree is, is that I kept seeing the same pattern repeating itself. With the slam dunk 100% players being the exception, so many of the players who I either worked my ass off to keep from going IA and stay doing Welfare. Or who I got invested enough to do Welfare+/Max earning would instantly fall off a cliff once they left the Vegas and went on to their VHLE teams. One of the primary ones being Town's player. He's literally one of the most prominent members in the SBA, but since all the jobs he holds over there to max earn don't actually give him any affiliate claims in the VHL he doesn't do point tasks here. He just does Welfare, but if you tell him about Theme Weeks/uncapped opportunities/Fantasy Zone/Predictions and the like that take 0 effort. He will do them, as long as you remind him to get his Welfare+PF in for the week, he does it. And as long as you give him build advice, he's more than happy to apply TPE that way. But he knows enough about sim leagues to not blindly want to apply TPE himself. Since that is a good way to completely ruin your player for their entire career as a Welfare earner.
 
What this lead to after he left Vegas was him sitting in the VHLE for almost a whole season at 200 TPA with like 260ish TPE until he finally just stopped doing welfare at all. I was too busy dealing with my own players to keep close tabs on my alumni, there's only so much time and energy I have. So I have to focus it where I "should" be focusing it and trusting that his VHL/E GMs actually do their damn jobs and continue developing him. Well, they didn't. After I noticed what was going on I just reached out to him in DMs and asked if he wanted build help to apply all his banked TPE, and he was more than happy to. Was literally just waiting to have either of his actual GMs talk to him about it at all. (He'd also been traded without being told by the GM who traded him and only getting a welcome message from the new GM, who he though was his VHLE GM. He had to ask me about the specifics of the trade) After the new build and me slightly getting his focus back on the VHL he did go back to doing Welfare again and went on to having a 100+ point season int he VHLE the following season, and from what I can tell on Cologne he actually did get sufficient GM help to stay on top of things. Well, sort of, he was never told to claim the Christmas TPE or the Theme Week. But at least he's doing the weekly earning.
 
Now on the flip side of that stuff, I do somewhat get it. Unless you've actually been a GM you probably haven't had the absolutely soul crushing experience of having a player completely ignore (or give 1 syllable answers) to any and all attempt to help them, no matter how heartfelt. Or players who will either a) completely ghost you or b) do what you told them in PMs/DMs but won't even show you the common decency of responding to said messages. You can only get your spirit crushed by so many people shitting on your best attempt to help them before you just shut down to protect your own sanity. At some point the likely outcome of dealing with a long-shot Welfare earner and putting your heart into helping them just becomes such a source of stress that you simply stop trying. I was approaching the point where that would be me, it was one of many reasons I stepped down as Vegas GM. Because if you *do* reach that point, you shouldn't be a GM anymore. You're no longer fit for duty in my opinion.
 
We also kind of have an issue among at least some VHL GMs where they consider their VHLE prospects to be "not their problem" if you will. Part of that is not wanting to step on the toes of the VHLE GMs that by all accounts *should* be guiding them, which I can respect. But part of it is also the mindset that as a VHL GM all you do is compete, you don't develop. That's someone elses job and it's not what you took the position for (Not like you could use your AGM for it or anything). So that's certainly something I'd consider a pretty glaring culture issue in the VHL as well. To go back to the Town example, when I was guiding him on his build. I was asking him what his VHL GMs plans were for his player moving forward, to give more informed feedback on how he might want to build his player to actually be VHL ready (and able to fill the spot he's needed in) once he hits 300-400 TPE. Which was when I found out that neither of his VHL GMs had even talked to him about anything of the sorts at all, ever. That's a problem which would be so easy to solve. I get not having the time/energy to micro manage every single one of your prospects, but not even having a quick chat on how they could go about making your roster? Really? That's not a good look. Do we not see the value in a player that would effectively be a Welfare (with some uncapped) GM player for all intents and purposes, since you'd have complete build control, and he won't actively pursue FA? Isn't that pretty much exactly what you want when the cap is this tight?
 
Seriously, a huge part of being a GM in a player league is that you're actually dealing with people. So if you don't want to do that, do you even want to be a GM?

I had a sort of middle ground experience wherein I got dropped into a wholly inactive team with a GM who was barely there and I was so beyond confused. I also knew no one in the league and didn't know where to start beyond what the welcome DMs linked to. And even with those I was confused because I didn't understand the lingo or concept of a sim league. Thankfully I took it upon myself to join the Discord and took up @Shindigs on his offer to ask him questions. He ended up becoming my main source of learning for my first month at least. Even now I'll still pop into our DM and ask him a question if I'm really confused with something or need clarification. 
 
But yes, as a fellow first-gen who is highly active, I think there is a lot that can be done to make sure more new members end up like us.

With a special highlight on how you gave him 0 cups? 🤔

With a special highlight on how you gave him 0 cups? 🤔

Great to see the two defenders Bo has been looking up to since joining the league finally get a spot where they belong. Congrats on two very impressive careers, and my condolences that @Spartan  FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY you both on the one trophy that's missing.

With a special highlight on how you gave him 0 cups? 🤔

With a special highlight on how you gave him 0 cups? 🤔

Two inductions today, recognising two fine defencemen and erstwhile teammates who recently retired from the VHL...
 
D - Hard Markinson, S78-S85 
RS: 576 GP, 191 G, 505 A, 696 P, +218, 1,230 PIM, 1,816 HIT, 1,201 SB, 21 GW
PO: 98 GP, 37 G, 89 A, 126 P, +38, 237 PIM, 347 HIT, 246 SB, 9 GW
 
S78 Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy (Top Rookie)
S81 Sterling Labatte Trophy Trophy (Top Defenceman)
S82 Sterling Labatte Trophy Trophy (Top Defenceman)
S84 Sterling Labatte Trophy Trophy (Top Defenceman)
S84 Alexander Valiq Trophy (Top Offensive Defenceman)
3x All-VHL First Team (S81, S82, S84)
1x All-VHL Second Team (S83)
 
The dominant defenceman of the early 80s, Hard Markinson was an unstoppable machine on both ends of the ice. One of the most hard-hitting blue-liners of all time, Markinson also finished 7th amongst the VHL's highest scoring defencemen ever (and that includes 3 players who spent some time as forwards). While he couldn't get his hands on the coveted Continental Cup, it was not for lack of trying, having been part of the Moscow team that went to the finals a mind-blowing 5 times but came away with nothing. Markinson did his part, with the 2nd most points in playoff history, as well as smashing the records for playoff shot blocks and assists by some 37 and 10, respectively.
 
---
 
 
D - Aurelien Moreau, S77-S84
RS: 574 GP, 100 G, 530 A, 630 P, +131, 1,030 PIM, 1,449 HIT, 1,163 SB, 11 GW
PO: 95 GP, 12 G, 64 A, 76 P, +8, 216 PIM, 238 HIT, 172 SB, 2 GW
 
S81 Alexander Beketov Trophy (Most Assists)
S83 Alexander Beketov Trophy (Most Assists)
S83 Alexander Valiq Trophy (Top Offensive Defenceman)
2x All-VHL First Team (S81, S83)
 
Aurelien Moreau had to wait a season longer than Markinson to get inducted, owing to a slower start, but when he got going he was one of the finest playmaking defencemen we have seen. Only the great Sterling Labatte and Japinder Singh put up more career assists than Moreau among defencemen, and he ranks 6th all-time even when you add forwards in as well. He was no defensive slouch either and gave Moscow a formidable blue line for the few seasons Moreau and Markinson spent together. He proved he was not dependent on his teammates however by continuing to dominate the blue line through to retirement.
 
---
 
VOTING RESULTS
Hard Markinson - 13/13
Aurelien Moreau - 9/13
---
Erik Killinger - 2/13
Kristof Welch - 2/13
Jakab Holik, John Merrick, Matty Socks, Lee Xin, Robin Galante Nilsson, Paul Atreides, Brendan Telker, Reylynn Reinhart, Tui Sova - 0/13
 
Congratulations @STZ and @Frank on your latest additions to the Hall of Fame!
 

1. Moscow didn't win. So yeah, about as expected tbf.
2. Pretty MID, only got a blind man out of it.
3. Not really, if you have changes you want to make in your life. Waiting 1 year between them will only slow your improvement.
4. Whoever sucks ass, so usually the Canucks.
5. Barring you starting the season like shit, like you do ever 3 seasons or so. You should win it.
6. It's likely going to be a battle between Lavelle and Pearce, kind of comes down to what the lines are and how everyone works together. You have so much forward depth it's likely you'll have one 90-100 point scorer on the 2nd line and one 110-120 and one 100 point scorer on the 1st. Only Simon knows who will be the chosen one.

Although there is not much going on for most during this never ending off season I still need my much needed TPE to bank for my impending depreciation next year.  So here goes another around the league in 500 words. 
 
TEAM USA DISSAPPOINTING WORLD CUP
With high hopes in the S86 World Cup the Americans just couldn’t get anything going.  The team played some great defensive games against the World’s best but just a bounce here and there kept them on the losing end.  Best of luck to Team Nordic and Team Europe in finals.  
 
VHLE NEWS
As I am bored and checking the forum and stat line constantly waiting for the season I saw that the defending champs Oslo Storm still have an amazing looking club that can repeat.  One of the downsides of not being in the VHLE or VHLM for that matter is I look at what going on less and less.  I need to be better about it since there is so many good players.  Now I am not sure some of these players won’t get called up but if not, they are going to be deadly.  With the addition of Oreo McFleury who scored 46 goals in the M their potent offense just got better.   On D they have stud, Brodie Landry III (16 g 49 A 65 Pts) and in goal they have two options in Basileus Jute and The Red Menace.  Added to this they have one of the best GMs @JB123In the E who will make moves to help the club.  I am excited to see what Oslo does this year.  Best of Luck
 
Bo Johansson Takes Home some Trophies!
I had the curse to play against BoJo @Shindigsin the VHLM where he destroyed defenses with his skill and knowledge of how to build a player.  I was privileged enough to play with him in the VHLE where he truly taught me how to build the type of defenseman, I wanted Payne to become.  This past season we saw BoJo take it to another level completely.  He ended up #6 In points (105), #1 in assists (94), led all defenseman in points, was a +44, and even had 137 hits and 152 blocked shots.  The only surprise this year was his low goal total on the Power Play, which I am sure will improve next season.  Overall, it shows he was an easy pick for the Sterling Labatte Trophy (top overall defenseman), the Alexander Beketov Trophy (top assists), and the Alexander Valiq Trophy (Top offensive Defenseman).  I feel this is just the tip of the award-winning iceberg for BoJo and am truly happy for him as Shindig is a great ambassador for this league.  
 
RECRUITING UPDATE
Well….. I recruited my third player here and I talked about earlier my first two were 50-50.  Jake Thunder @Thunder has been remarkable while my other one crashed and burned quickly.  My latest recruit Rip Wheeler @ScottyPhad a good first week and got some good TPE and signed with the Las Vegas Aces, a great storied club with winning tradition.  Well, week two of my latest recruit got him ….WAIT FOR IT…….2 F$CKIN TPE FOR PRACTICE.  Now I work with ScottyP in real life and have hounded him all last week with no luck.  I’m hoping it was just a down week and he will catch the bug like most of us do and earn, but I don’t feel optimistic.    

I'm always watching. 👁️‍🗨️

@TheNeonShamanSkipped, make pick when you see this
 
G - Cole Pearce
 
@AJWon the clock