Dabnad

Well well well, guess who’s back, back again, Shaw is back, tell a friend. Okay no more references (for now), everyone knows what the theme week is, which is VHL lore, so you might be wondering what I’ll be talking about. Now of course, I’m not the oldest member at all, and I’ve definitely missed a big part of the VHL, as I was not even alive when the VHL started, meaning I only know about incredibly recent news. This lore includes not only one of the best VHL forwards, who there is even an award named after, however, also one of the best shot blockers in VHL history, and an incredible goalie, who stamped his legend in the history of the E. This is the story about the three Mosquitos. Now, many of you must be wondering, Shaw, what the heck are the three musketeers, and who are they, why are they so important? Well let’s start from the very beginning of the story. The day was December 12th, 2021. A kid named Dabnad was scrolling the internet to see a random YouTuber. He was interesting, so decided to click on a video posted. In that video, he saw that the YouTuber was promoting this league called the “VHL”. As a curious kid, Dabnad decided to take a shot at whatever this was, deciding to create a character, calling him Dabnad Shaw. As soon as Dabnad clicked create, within seconds, he saw an offer from a team called the “Mexico City Kings”. Not knowing what he was supposed to do, he decided to simply accept the offer, and that become the start of an incredible friendship, one which lasted years, and in part, continues till day. When Shaw comes into the discord locker room of this new team, he is incredibly excited to meet everyone. Right off the bat, Shaw meets @youloser1337, the general manager of the team. With many questions, Dabnad decides to bombard the man with questions, asking about the leauge, and all the information about how it works. In the process, he sees a man emerge from the darkness, a man who is somehow everywhere you go, Mr. @Lemorse7, Lemorse himself. While I do not remember much about the interaction with him, what I do remember was that being with him was going to be a great experience, so I decided to give this experience a shot. I also quickly found out he was not on our team, which was a confusing experience. As the conversation with the GM was slowing down, we meet one of the mosquitoes arise from the darkness. His profile picture of the minions girl catches my attention quickly, making me think that this league was of those mainly my age (I later find this was not the case, he was old, however, this is important as it let me calm my senses of stranger danger). We start a small conversation, and this man helps me calm my nerves for what this leauge was. This man was none other than the 2x Mike Szatkowski Trophy, and 1x Victory cup winner, Ronan Lavelle @Arce, also known as Arcey! Also the name for the now Defunct VHLE Ronan Lavelle trophy, awarded to the MVP of the VHLE. Arcey was the first musketeer to meet Shaw. Shaw later goes offline, and decides that he should take a look at the forum, and see what that’s about. So he decides to go over the entire form. He sees the way the game works, and sees the different ways to create a player. Shaw decides that it would be best to simply put all his points on defence because it felt like the most important part of a defenceman. For Shaw, his favourite player was Quinn Hughes, so he believed that he should create a player as the exact opposite of his favourite player. After taking a look at the different forums, the rich history, and realizing that he joined the team at a super random time, he decided to start earning, so he decided to start earning a bit. Between his different earning strategies, he checks back on the discord server, to see if there is anything else for him to know, and here, is where he meets the final mosquito. Dabnad goes back on discord, and he sees this guy, his name is comrade cat (????). Now, for a young kid, who was told to stay away from Russian bots, this did not seem like a good idea, but he decides, why not take a shot, and here, Shaw meets the third, and final musketeer, Florida Man trophy winner, Boris Tsezar @comrade cat. Turns out Boris was not Russian, rather a Québécois. Honestly made my worrying worse (JK). Now even if this man was from Quebec, he had a welcoming attitude towards all new comers. He was such a friendly person, and heavily influenced Shaw into staying into the league. After debating about staying or not for a while, Shaw decided to stay, and thus began, the story of the three mosquitoes. Over time, the relation between these three players grew, from becoming simply teammates, to becoming friends, to becoming an incredible trio, and an unmesswithable team. The three musketeers became instantly impactful in terms of playing for the Mexico City Kings. While all three player a different position, their on and off ice chemistry was amazing. This trio was beyond expected, and while they couldn’t bring their team to a finals win, all three imprinted their legacy on the team. Ronan Lavelle, or Arcey was one of the best goal scorers in the whole league, and the numbers showed it, being one of the top players in terms of goals per game in Mexico City History. Boris Tsezar having the 9th highest SV% of all players who played over 70 games in a season for Mexico City, and Dabnad Shaw blocking 74 shots in just 36 games, having one of the best shots blocked/game in the history of Mexico City History, the three truly defined what it meant to be a King (the self glaze is crazy Ik). While the three had an unforgettable run, filled with friendship and trust, it had to unfortunately come to the end, as we approached the VHLE draft. While Boris was a season older than the other two, there was a small hope that the three would unite once again, back in ROM. Using @Gustav ‘s VHL draft predictions (there are no good VHLE draft predictions so we use what we have), Ronan is predicted to go at 13, while Shaw is expected at 23, both to different teams. The draft comes around, pick 1 goes, then pick 2, so on until pick 7 rolls around. This is where Ronan is holding his teeth, cause he knows this is where he has a chance, however, he isn’t picked. Two picks later, we see a surprise Ronan is going to Geneva!!! This is huge, because Geneva has another pick, at 23, simply one pick before Shaw is predicted to go! They may reunite! Back in Geneva!! Now, it’s time for the VHL draft, and this one’s a bit more complicated, as said before Boris was drafted a year before to Davos, while Shaw went to Malmo, and Arcey went to DC. Boris and Arcey unfortunately ended their paths together from this day, as they never shared the same locker room again, calling the end of the official three musketeers, however, the two remained in each others hearts until they retired. Shaw, however, did. Firstly in the VHLE, where all three members of the mosquitoes had outstanding seasons. Shaw, Arcey, and Geneva, while not achieving great team success, achieved an MVP for Arcey, and having Shaw achieve the enforcer role, after reaching 237 hits, and 112 shots blocked, protecting his bud. Arcey’s amazing 100 point campaign, and MVP, also led him to achieve the award name of the VHLE MVP, as now known as the Ronan Lavelle award! While Shaw and Arcey were achieving their success together, Boris was on a one man mission, and he definitely achieved that. Boris decided to lock in, and posted a Bubble-Demko type move. In the S82 VHLE season Boris posted 913 SV% in the regular season, and a 934 SV%(!!!!!) in the playoffs, with 8 wins and simply 4 losses. Not only did he lead his team to a win, however, he also won the playoff MVP, cementing himself in the VHLE forever! All three of these players were good enough to graduate towards the VHL the very next year, and that they did. The three were in their separate paths, and they had incredibly different starts to say the least. Talking about Shaw and Boris, they both had pretty decent starts, Shaw posting 38 points and 174 SB, while Boris posting a 918%. On the other hand, Lavelle had an incredibly poor start, posting just 40 points in his season, however, as you must know, he comes back, and comes back strong. After the first season, it was seeming like the three musketeers were finished forever, until…. BORIS IS COMING TO MALMO!!!! (Thanks @Dom) What a move from Malmo, getting such a great goalie and skater for a 4th. Now, as baffling as this move seems now, it must be understood that Boris was IA at this point in his career, which makes the trade a bit more sense). This move not only boosted the morale of Shaw, however, also improved the play of both Shaw and Boris. Don’t believe me? In the first season together, Boris achieved a 010% boost in save percentage, in simply one season. They do say that players block more shots when they like their goalie, and this proves true, as Shaw blocked 231 (!!!!!) shots in the very next season, which is top 35 of all time! Absolutely absurd. Now, while Shaw and Boris were together Arcey may not have been apart of the trio, but he was faring pretty well wasn’t he? The very next year, he scores 50 more points, winning the Dustin Funk trophy!! Now not much changes through the next couple years, Shaw and Boris staying together, while Ronan was tearing it up on his own team! The season is S88, a couple years ago, we see a new management come into play, with @KaleebtheMighty taking over Malmo. We see Kaleeb make a choice, that will finally finish the era of the three mosquitoes. Damn I got a hull. I’m just built like that . This marks the official end of the three musketeers as we know it in their careers. After spending nearly seasons with a combination of each other, the three have officially been separated, and this time, it is forever. Ronan will go on to have a lustrous career, even making the VHL HOF when he retired. After Arcey retired, he created 2 more players, however, retired both of them before making it to the VHL, and ultimately disappeared, likely due to work/life (also turns out he was like a trillion years old so maybe that’s it) Boris decided to retire the year after, and recreate as a forward, where his recreate plays till day. Shaw decided to play his career out hopping teams, until he retired and decided to take a break until his high school was settled, where after he recreated, and hence the reason you’re reading this now. This was it, while Boris and Shaw are still trying to coordinate a player, it might be the last time we see the three mosquitoes forever. Now, if you had been paying attention to the words I was saying, you might have noticed, “Shaw, I think you’re switching between two words mosquitos and musketeers did you mess up?” Well kinda! Turns out, this trio actually had 2 different names! The first coined by themselves, being the musketeers, where they saw how close they were to one another. The other, coined by @Lemorse7 (I told you he’s somehow everywhere), as a joke that stuck, the three mosquitoes, and iconic trio, and three players, with varying careers and post careers, and three different positions, all meeting up in one place, in one team, through sheer luck that @youloser1337 was active at the perfect time that I registered. Now if this isn’t a lost lore of the VHL, I don’t know what is. At the end of the day, I wish we can meet once again, but this may be it for the three mosquitoes. To Arce and Boris, I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again. This is (OG) Dabnad Shaw, signing off, until next time. 2119 words Week ending Nov 10th - Dec 1st

1. I definitely think we have to get better, however, one player that has to get a lot better is Shaw, he’s been struggling to start the year, and I think there are some changes to be made in his game 2. As someone who had Dabnad Shaw in the past, I think I’m obligated to say yes to that question lol. 3. I really really like the Mexico City Kings logo, though I don’t know if that’s simply personal bias, or the really cool logo 4. I think it’s a mix of pre-season nerves, and a bit of improvement needed, but I definitely think we can get better soon 5. Yes! Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to go into other leagues lately 6. That’s tough, I think though I have to say the Founders Cup.

1. I think if we let the defence grow, there shouldn’t be a problem for the team, however, I wouldn’t be mad if the team improved 2. I think Shaw wants to win the cup this season for sure, along with maybe getting some nice apples on the board 3. Yes sir! Shaw was apart of the JST, Pro-AM, and WJC. He did pretty well! 4. Oo I think that might be a bit though, I don’t know about first but he can definitely get up there 5. I think it’s definitely possible for Armas to get up there for sure, as long as we have a good season I think he does it 6. I think the identity this season will be based around our structural defence and speedy offence

1. Well Shaw makes sure that he can stay in shape during the off-season, meaning that he has an intense gym work out that may not be disclosed for secrecy. 2. I mean, the off-season always has more parties and events, so more cheat days are more common . Shaw’s favorite cheat meal is a good panner-jalapeño pizza. 3. We should all go to New York and explore the city, or internationally go to Australia 4. Autograph, Shaw absolutely hates pictures (he’s like me fr) 5. I love the ecosystem and culture that has let me thrive in the league, a competitive but helpful culture! 6. The amount of words I have to write per week increases so much because of the league, should be less tbf.

1. Ahhh it’s a bit weird. I was one of those people who joined around the COVID times, so it’s a bit weird seeing the E gone now, but it’s a change that needed to happen 2. WE’RE GONNA WIN THE CUP RAHHHHHHH 3. As I mentioned in the last question, WE’RE GONNA WIN THE CUP RAHHHHHHH 4. I need to start becoming a full time earner, so finish a 4 week media spot (check), and start doing things like pressers and articles. Also improve my defense a bit, and my offense a whole lot more. 5. Never Have I ever (I’m a teenage boy) 6. In general I don’t watch movies, but I hate movies that have too many sequels with the exact same plot.

Before we start, I will extremely emphasize that I have sadly not been able to pay attention to the VHL as of the last 2 weeks, meaning that I’m basically just going off vibes, numbers, and stats. Hello everyone! Welcome back to the Shaw Show! This week is an extremely important week, as yesterday was the S96 VHL Entry draft! So today, I decided to actually do a media task, so I will be reviewing each top eight pick (yes this is so I can talk about Narnia Shaw), look at the needs, wants of each team and understand where each team is coming from in regards for their pick. Without too much yapping, I’ll get started! 1. Prague Phantoms - D - Pan Daffleck - @OrbitingDeath The first overall pick was as expected. Pan was pretty much what everyone expected. Pat is a great player from a great man, already reaching 412 TPE, and being an instant player for the Phantoms. Daffleck is a beautiful player, a quality defensive defenseman, however, when you look at his statistics, you can often find some disappointment for the quality of the player Daffleck is. This old man from Macau has simply put 8 points in 72 games, and 0 points in 11 games in the playoffs. While this looks extremely disappointing, a stat you have to have to pay attention to is +/-. While only recording 8 points, Daffleck has +17 in the regular season! To understand how absurd this is, you have to understand that Daffleck being a +17 means that he lets in such little goals that there were 17 more goals scored when he was on ice, compared to when he wasn’t, while only recording 8 points, this stat is absolutely ridiculous! This can show the impact Daffleck brings to each and every team, as soon has he touches foot on the ice. Honestly, there’s not much to talk about this pick, the man most expected to go #1 went #1, to a team that’s been in a rebuild. 2. Moscow Menace - D - River Harrington - @kirbithan Okay so first of all, Moscow having this pick is crazy, having the best record in the leauge, however, they did get bounced early, so maybe they did need this. This pick being traded may have the largest implications on the draft, as we look at essentially River Harrington being traded for Narnia Shaw (who we’ll talk about later), and Kurt Bachman. For now, let’s take a step back and look at what River going to Moscow, and what this means. River is a high quality offensive defenceman, someone who can carry your blue line, and for a team like Moscow who needs a win-now player, Harrington will fit perfectly on the second pairing for now, maybe even getting a promotion into the first pairing in the near future. Harrington going to Moscow has put some large expectations on both Harrington and Moscow to win, and honestly, Harrington might be the favorite to be the rookie of the year, with the crazy statistics he puts up. River had 80 points in 72 games in the VHLM, and is an extremely promising player for the VHL. The league should be scared cause River is going to be a top defenceman for a while. 3. D.C. Dragons - C - Brandon Petan Jr. - @sadie Wow look it’s a forward! Those actually exist, who would’ve thought? Honestly, there really isn’t much to be said about this specific pick. D.C. needed someone to build around, and they took the best player available, by a bit of a margin. Brandon will now be one of the building blocks to the future of D.C. The future looks extremely bright for this team, they have an extreme load of prospects coming up, and I think that D.C. has an incredible future coming up as long as they’re smart about what they do and how they go about rebuilding. Otherwise, there really isn’t much to talk about this team, it’s a simple pick, hard to mess up, and the right pick at the time. How it’ll work long term? We’ll get to know in the future. 4. London United - D - Alagsantere Groenvold - @VattghernCZ This is another one of those, pick with your eyes close type pick. There really wasn’t another option for London here, the 4th highest TPE. While Groenvold isn’t really in the same tier has the top 3, they definitely don’t deserve to be grouped with the rest of the players. He’s on his own tier of the perfect 4th overall pick. While not quite top 3 material, he is by far the best of the rest. Groenvold is another successful defenceman on both sides of the ice. He’s one of the players that you can build your defensive core around, and maybe even build you team around depending on how he pans out in the future. Once again, can’t complain about this pick, London did exactly what they needed to do, and there really wasn’t any doubt they weren’t gonna do this. Simple, yet effective pick for a great player. 5. Moscow Meance - G - Deadpanada - @Alex Oh look, it’s another non-defenseman! The last one until pick 9. This is an incredibly interesting pick my Moscow. They had two picks in the top 5, with the first they picked a star defenseman, which was perfect as he comes in instantly, making them a better team, however, you can look at this pick and be confused, after all why would a team that was just first in the league decide to pick an up and coming goalie, when their star goalie still has 5 seasons until they retire? Well the answer is simple, money! Moscow simply has no more money to pay Syko, meaning that they’ll need a new goalie, and fast, because next year 7 members of their team are hitting the UFA market, and one is retiring. This means that this amazing core that just topped the league may have to dismantle by as soon as next year, and we’re already seeing a key piece that might have to leave if there aren’t any salary maneuvers. Their backup, Joseph Reed, is simply a bit too old to rely on fully. In this case, Deadpanada is an amazing goalie, who will definitely blossom soon, however, a lot of pressure will come on him as soon as he goes up. This year might be tough for Moscow, however, there isn’t much to do about except take the position of need, which in this case is looking like a goalie. This pick can definitely be a make or break, depending on how Deadpanada develops, but the position that Moscow is put in is incredibly interesting, and could definitely be it’s own article, cause they have decisions to make, and it looks like they’ve been forced to make one. 6. Warsaw Predators - D -Slava Kovalenko - @OblivionWalker Okay so I’ve already talked about Slava a lot in my other article, if you want to learn more about the player, go check out my article about teammates vs skill, great analysis about how points are found in the VHL. For this pick, I will mainly be focusing on the pick itself, and honestly, there’s not really much to say about the pick. It’s a great pick, you pick a top pairing defenceman that will be coming up pretty quickly, he’s defensive focused (read my other article for more analysis for points), and a great shutdown guy. Honestly, no complains here, nothing extraordinary or crazy in this pick, but something which does interest me is this Warsaw team in general. Looking from afar, it’s a scary team, and with Slava coming in it’s only gotten scarier 7. Warsaw Predators - C - Joel Jakobs - @Plate Oh look! It’s another forward! This is one of the more interesting picks to me from Warsaw. This pick has shown that Warsaw wants to build around their skaters, and they’ve chosen a center. Jakobs is a great player, scoring 95 points in just 72. He’s a strong passer and scorer and could never be the wrong pick, however, was he the right pick for Warsaw? In my opinion, there is definitely a world where Warsaw goes for a goalie here. Looking at the team roster, their goaltending duo consists of someone retiring in 2 seasons, someone who’s mainly on welfare, and a prospect who is also on welfare. Out of these three, is there really someone you want for the long term? You could argue that the goaltending in this draft isn’t that crazy, with all goaltenders being on welfare, but C. M. Michaels is still getting 12 or so TPE per week, which should work out well. Joel Jakobs in no way is a bad pick, in fact, he is an amazing pick, however, I don’t know if that’s exactly what Warsaw needed, though there are some good goalies coming up in the S97 draft, so let’s see if they decide to pick a goalie then. 8. Helsinki Titans - D - Narnia Shaw - @Dabnad First of all, steal of the draft, best player in the league and should’ve gone first overall. No complains best player. Absolute goat. On a serious note, this is a pretty solid pick for a team that doesn’t necessarily need a goalie, this is the only player they should’ve taken. With You’re not Fucking retiring disappearing, there really wasn’t another high quality skater left in the draft, so on any level, Shaw was really the only skater left with 200+ TPE that was still active. Much like Slava, I have covered Narnia before in previous articles so if you want to see my analysis between how Narnia Shaw plays feel free to read my article about skill vs teammates (two plugs in the article goes crazy). Other than that, really not much to say about Shaw except the fact that’s he’s just him. (Crazy glaze I know) Well, that’s the end of my analysis on this draft, for now at least, I might make another version of this in the future when we see how the careers of some of these players work out, however, I am not well known for actually doing what I say (for example, expansion teams in Asia). Some interesting parts of this draft is how strong the defensive core of the draft is. We could be seeing an all-time defensive draft, with a majority of the top players being defensemen, and many other being goalies. In the first round there were like 2 forwards drafted, which is absolutely absurd. The future of the VHL forward is going to be a bit depleted, so it’s going to be fun seeing how teams work around such a lack of forward talents. I also do suspect that there might be a large influx of players switching from defensemen to forwards as their teams require it, especially on the older side, when money isn’t an issue. All together, the prevalence of defensive players in the league today is really absurd. I could make a whole post on it, but as mentioned before, there is a high chance that some of these offensive defensemen may be open to turning into forwards, such as players like Narnia Shaw. This draft is probably going to be one of the most interesting for now, as it is also the first without the VHLE in a while, meaning that this draft has as large an effect on the VHLM as it does the VHL. Lastly, this draft is going to have an huge trade tree at the end of it, especially due to the Harrington - Shaw/Bachman trade, and honestly, the winner of the trade can be historic. Before we end off, I’d like to wind down and remember that there is a lot more that goes into a pick than what I’ve mentioned up here, you have locker room morale, activity, GM choices, player styles, and many many more factors which go into even considering a player, let alone picking one, so take this draft review like it’s from someone just using numbers and data, not the whole picture. Other than that, there’s really not much more to say, other than this is a draft to look out for in the future, and it’ll be interesting to see how it progresses, and how we can see this draft evolve into an historic one if the cards play out right. I’m excited for this draft more than anyone, mainly cause Shaw’s in it, but I’m more excited to see how the draft will work out. For now, that’s all from me, and this is Narnia Shaw, signing off, until next time. 2138 words Week ending 06/10/2024 - 27/10/2024

1. It’s a good feeling for sure, love making the playoffs and wouldn’t mind winning a cup yeah? 2. That’s a though one! That was Dabnad Shaw’s first team and I have strong relations with them to this date, however that will simply make the victory sweeter 3. Honestly, I wouldn’t prefer any single team, imo all the teams are strong, though I do think that Mexico City is a good draw for us 4. I think the Reapers have a good chance to take it all this year! 5. Yes!!! I’m glad you asked, as a child I played basketball, baseball, soccer, cricket, volleyball, and handball, though you could say I’m still a child so I have a chance to increase this count in the future! 6. Summer for sure, while I enjoy being able to go out with my friends, the heat does get unbearable sometimes!

1. I definitely think there’s a chance Jagr can! Though I wouldn’t be 100% sure you can never count ‘em out 2. That’s a hard one! As a trade deadline addition myself I don’t think you can go wrong with any answer! While I’d love to say myself, I haven’t been really impactful, so I will say Jerry has been a great pickup! 3. I think that we need some time to get together, we have around 10 games left in the season, and I think we just need time to get to know each other! Believe in Miami 4. I really can’t say! All teams are great, honestly every series will be a hard fought series! 5. That’s another hard one, usually it’d be hockey, but since the VHL already exists, it’ll say cricket 6. I am starting to watch this year! I’ll likely be supporting the Buffalo Bills as they’re the closest team to me!

Hey everyone! Welcome to todays scouting report. On today’s report, we will be focusing on an incredible player, coming from a country where not many players come from, Narnia Shaw. Narnia, the son of Dabnad Shaw, is somehow the complete opposite of Dabnad. His abilities on the offensive side of the puck are absolutely incredible, while is defensive side lacks many skills, including his ability to defend well. This makes for an incredible player, one which many consider a new prospect, and a great project for any team willing to take Shaw and see what he can become. While he has an enourmous up-side, the down side is the name, nonetheless, we have yet to see how Shaw does with a team with better players, as Shaw was not in the best situation in the first part of the year in Saskatoon. Let’s look at the pros and cons of Shaw: Pros Passing There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Shaw is an incredibly gifted and brilliant passer. 4th in the leauge for assists, Shaw knows exactly who needs the puck, and when they need it, knowing how to pass. His ability to pass the puck is known across the leauge, making him an excellent pick for a team needing an offensive player. Offensive Vision Such as his passing, his vision offensively is brilliant, seeing Shaw pass the puck is absolutely brilliant as you see him find pockets most couldn’t see after 100s of attempts, Shaw’s ability to know when and where the puck should be is at the level of the VHL’s best, making him an incredible player on that level. Scoring While not as great as his passing or vision, Shaw’s scoring ability must not be undermined. Shaw being able to score the puck is an important skill of his, assisting his offensive vision, and Shaw knowing when to score is more important than his low scoring total. Cons Defensive game There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Shaw has many weaknesses on the defensive side of the game. While Shaw has started working on the defensive game, there are many problems we see while he gets within his end of the ice. He knows where the puck needs to be, however, Shaw fails to see where the puck is, often making poor plays on the defensive side. While he is improving on this skill, his defense needs to improve, and everyone drafting and seeing him knows that this is a must if Shaw wants to be a top player in the VHL. Skating This is another skill that Shaw is slowly but mightily getting better at, however we can see the problems it brings up many times in his games. Sometimes, Shaw is just too slow as a player to improve greatly, and his skating harms both the team and his ability to play the game. This is yet another skill that Shaw knows he has to Improve, and is slowly getting better at, however, Shaw still has ways to go. Overall, Shaw is a great player, his offensive game greatly improves his stock, while his defensive game decreases it. At the end of the day, Shaw’s ability to play the game is one which does not greatly matter on the situation around him, however, it definitely increases depending on who is around him. Shaw is a great player for any team looking for a player who can carry the defense on one side of the ice, while the other side can be compromised. NHL current comparison: 2020 Quinn Hughes Celing: 2024 Quinn Hughes/2022 Cale Makar Floor: Evan Bouchard Thank you for reading my scouting report, this is Narnia Shaw, until next time. 618 words

Hello everyone, today is gonna be a fun write. For today, I will be writing about the first day a rookie experiences in the VHLM. Many people here are writing about rookies in the VHL, however, I wanted to highlight what it’s like to be a rookie to the whole system, being a first gen player, in season 1, in the VHLM. For many people, being a rookie in the VHLM can be a little complicated. I remember, for my first day I was so confused for how media spots work, and how much writing they need, after I dug deep and wrote my article, I realized that I had no idea how I could claim my work, or how capped and uncapped TPE works. Being a rookie is also scary, you’re coming into an environment where no one knows you, and if you’re on a team that’s inactive, you really have no reason to keep pushing. This, however, is the beauty of the VHLM, there are people of all levels, you have people who’ve been in the league for decades, while there are also people who are in their first year, who don’t realize that this system is older than them (took me by surprise seeing the league is older than me). Overall, day one is both hell and heaven, all depending on how you look at it. For many people, going into an environment like the VHLM can be scary, however, for others it can be a moment of joy. Let’s look back at my first day to understand how it can be. I was watching YouTube and saw a guy on YouTube promoting this league online. I saw that it was free, and I didn’t need anything, so I thought I’d simply join the league, thinking that there’s no harm. So I look at the forum, and decide to make an account. I make my first player, Dabnad Shaw, and he’s big, strong, and I decide he’s young. I make my player, go on the forum, and see I have an offer. This offer is for the Mexico City Kings. Honestly, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I decided to just join the first team. From here, I join a team with Ronan Lavelle (Arcey @Arce) and Boris Tsezar (Comrade Cat @comrade cat). These were two great people, along with my team manager, encouraged me to keep going, and that has led to me being motivated to continue on, and this helped me bleed into such a great community. While I was a rookie, I learned many things, and I learned to be patient and learned to enjoy a community like this, and while this is an experience for simply me, I believe that many people have experienced the exact same situation as me, and I believe that many people on their day one have the experience of both confusion and excitement as me, and I believe that many of those who come into the leauge today will have a similar experience to me. Being a rookie is hard work, however when you’re a rookie, in the leauge for the first time, it’s important to stay strong because it only gets better from day 1. I would like to end off by paying my respects to Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. The news of their passings have been incredibly tough on all hockey fans across the world, and I wish their souls rest in peace. Please remember to never drink and drive, because you don’t just impact yourself, but your family, friends, and even strangers. This is Narnia Shaw, signing off, until next time. 610 words Week ending September 15, 2024

1. Haha we don’t talk about those do we? In regards to the founders cup I think the Reapers have a good chance to go all the way 2. Ooo that’s a tough one, I don’t necessarily have a preference in what team picks me, I would just like to have a team which has a good team and active locker room 3. It’s a nice and fun environment! For me it’s a great way to escape all the stress and just write what I feel without being graded or told that how I’m writing is incorrect. It’s a great place to meet new people and have some fun! 4. At the situation I am in? No, at least for the next 7 or so years. With school pilling up I don’t think I’ll be able to give team management enough time for now, however after I’m done studying there’s definitely a path where I go into team management. 5. Shaw’s favorite player is Quinn Hughes, as he’s modeled his game after him 6. My player is not necessarily inspired by me, as I do play goalie, however it is inspired by how i like the game played.

1. I think that Shaw is shaping up pretty well right now! His defensive game and skating need a bit of help, however that should be solved in due time. Other than that, the offensive game is shaping up really well for a d-man!! 2. I think that Shaw has pretty much reached his goal for the year, of course there are many tweaks which would make him a lot better, however the main objectives that I hoped Shaw would reach have been reached. Hopefully Shaw can make the jump through leagues this year and work on a VHLE team! 3. This is a great question! While we will go in detail when his biography comes out, for now, we can say that he learned from his dad! 4. Shaw plays defence because that’s where he was put when he was younger. He was always a bit smaller, however from a young age he knew how to place the puck where he needed. His dad saw his ability to place the puck and told his coach to put him on defence and the rest is history! 5. A question I might have to ask about Shaw is should he develop his offensive game, or start developing his defensive and skating game better? 6. Shaw’s favourite ice cream has to be coffee! From late nights with his friends to beach days with his family, Shaw always loved how coffee tasted!

That’s really interesting! I didn’t know about that! That definitely helped Slava’s ability to pick up the puck in the offensive end.

Hey everyone! Narnia Shaw is back this week with another article. While I may have another article I need to finish, we will ignore that for now. For this week, we will focus on a new topic which I was interested in for this week. Over the last week, the new VHLM season has started. I, of course, have been increasingly obsessed with Narnia Shaw’s statistics and how he’s doing as a player. Through this, I’ve noticed many things in the system, including the 3 star system being flawed, the really cool play-by-play system I just realized exists, and most importantly, the way points work and how they are influenced. For this experiment, I will be comparing Narnia Shaw and Slava Kovalenko (@OblivionWalker), both defencemen around the 170 TPE range, however Slava is on East, being on the Mississauga Hounds, while Shaw is on a mid-tier team in the West, being the Saskatchewan Wild. Slava also hasn’t put any TPA in passing, and 3 in scoring while Shaw has 81 passing, and 60 scoring, which can help you understand the situation better. By far, Slava is a better skater and defender, however this is the end of the major differences. I hope for this article to demonstrate how drafting by pure points is flawed, and there are a million and one factors involved. I wish no harm to any team, or player in this article, this is simply an analysis and for education and entertainment purposes. The Beginning Alright, let’s start off with what we see on the front page of the basic book: goals, assists, and points. Here we see Slava is 6th in overall points, leading the league in d-man points, while being tied for 7th in assists. On the other hand, Shaw is also tied for 7th in assists, and he places 6th in the league for d-man points, however, he does not rank in the league for overall points. Overall, Slava has 9 goals, 16 assists for 25 points in 16 games, while Shaw has 2 goals, and 16 assists for 18 points in 16 games. Clearly from this, we can see that Slava is a better offensive player, ranking higher in points, and goals, however, how can we be so sure this is the case? While they have the same amount of assists, it’s clear for the skill metrics that Shaw is a clearly better offensive player. So why this large difference? Why does Slava have so many more goals, and an equal amount of assists while clearly not focusing on offence? This is the question which I asked my self. For this, i decided to dig deeper into the stats, and see why there was such a difference in the numbers. The Second Part (Numbers) From here, I started going to the index and looked at the numbers from there, after all, there were better numbers that we could look at. Firstly, I looked at the more basic number, P/20 or points per every 20 minutes played. This number helps us understand if a player is better because they have more minutes, or if they are just better. Here, we saw that Slava has a P/20 of 1.09, while Shaw’s P/20 is 0.8, so clearly that isn’t the problem here. The next number I looked at was shooting %, helping us see if a player is simply lucky, or if they are a good shooter, or they’re incredibly unlucky. For reference, the VHL’s goal scorer had a shooting % of 10.1%, with the others being around 9.5-10.5%. Usually, this range is average for a regular player. Here, Slava has an incredibly high shooting percentage of 18%! This number is 8% higher than the average shooter. If we adjust this number to 10%, which is around elite shooter range, Slava has 5 goals in the year, basically half of what he has at the moment. Now let’s look at the other side. Here, Shaw has a shooting percentage of 8%. While this is not incredibly low, it clearly puts him near the bottom of the league, only beat by bots and around 20 other players. Now, is this all luck by Slava and will his numbers come down incredibly by the end of the year? Not quite, we can’t tell how numbers will turn, however it’s common for numbers this high to come down by the end of the season (shout out PDO merchants Vancouver Canucks) and for numbers to average out. While this high shot % doesn’t mean a great deal of things, we should take a mental note of this a it’ll help us understand future metrics. The Third Part (The Nitty Gritty) This is the part where I started getting more confused as it went on, so I’ll try my best to compress the disappointments I anchiv and give as much context as I can. Firstly, I looked at OSB and OSM, meaning own shots blocked or own shots missed, however this number essentially correlated directly with the amount of shots taken, meaning that this had no effect. Next I looked to see if there was a real difference in power play minutes, as that could explain the difference in Power-play goals, however, once again the difference was simply one minute, in favour of Shaw as well, so from here, you can tell that this was another non-factor. Similarly, PK minutes had a limited difference. From here I was incredibly stuck in proving my hypothesis, so I decided to take the long way Part 4 - The Breakthrough From the last step, I was stuck, I had no method of proving that having better team mates and a better team is better for your stats by such a large fashion, so I decided to go though each game log and find the details for why the difference in the points between Slava and Shaw. Before even going into the game logs, I found the offensive and defensive zone starts. Here we saw that the Wild started in the offensive zone 41.2% of the time, while the Hounds started in the offensive zone 45.2% of times, with a 4% increase. The defensive zone starts were also 37.5%-32.3% for the Wild and Hound respectively. This meant that when Slava or Shaw were on the ice, even if they had similar effects, when they were off the ice, Shaw’s teammates couldn’t start in the offensive zone, which harms his ability to pass and score. We also saw how the Hounds had a better GF compared to the Wild, by 11 goals, making it easier to assist on those numbers. From there, I looked at FOW%, this number was not able to be influenced by the defensemen, however has a great ability on the d-men’s ability to get the puck quickly and score off the draw. Here we saw the Wild having an Offensive FOW% of 46.92% compared to the Hound’s 53.41%, meaning that the Hound, and Slava, got the puck nearly 7% more than the Wild. This outstanding face off statistic is also seen in the d-zone, with the Hound being nearly at 60%, while the Wild are at 48.36%, meaning that the Hound also get more pucks in the d-zone, resulting in less goals/shots against them. This gave me a strong base to go from, and here, I decided to go through each game, and find the difference between the two players goals and assists. The results were contradictory to what I expected, however, I realized that these numbers help me prove my point. The numbers I looked at were top contributors to point total (who was on the scoresheet the most with the defenceman), primary and secondary assists, and how many times they were on the scoresheet with bots. I found that Slava was on the sheet most with Ozzy, being with Ozzy 8 times, and Slava had 9 primary assists, and 7 secondary assists. He was only on the scoresheet once with bots. On the contrary, Shaw was on the scoresheet 12 times with Leung, and had just 6 primary assists with 10 secondary assists. However, Shaw was on the scoresheet 3 times with bots. What this shows us is that often times, Shaw is getting the first touch before a goal, and this means that he doesn’t have control over how the goals are scored. The 3 times he was on the scoresheet with the bot also helps us see that Shaw is often with bots while on the ice, while Slava is on with real players. The high concentration of points with a single player is expected, as both are defencemen, making it harder for them to create by themselves, meaning they often need another player to create for them. It’s important here to note that both Slava and Shaw have a bot as their defensive partner. Let’s remember near the start when I exclaimed to remember about the high shooting percentage, let’s go back to that. We see in this paragraph how the better team is clearly the hound, and we can inference why Slava has such a higher shooting percentage. When we look at how the players are set-up, we see that the Hound start in the offensive zone, they have more options at all times, as the forward lines have limited bots. This means that Slava has the ability to shot whenever there is an open net, compared to Shaw who may have a bot in his forward line. This means that the net is less likely to be open, and the shots that go through can be saved easier. The high shot percentage can also be helped by simply having a better offensive face-off percentage, as there are more quick, point shots which make it easier to score against a goalie, and there are also more chances to pass the puck from the point. This is the main reason why I said to not discredit Slava for his high shooting percentage, as he performs his role perfectly, and there is a chance that this number doesn’t go down in the future. Overall, I think that Slava is a great player, and his build is done perfectly in accordance to what his team needs, on the other hand, Shaw is also developing well on a team that may be in the middle ground for now, meaning that his stats have been affected, however, this does not mean that any player is better than the other, rather they can be used in different situations effectively. All numbers are true as off August 16, 2024, at 12 PM. Part 5 - Conclusion Through the research done, I have discovered three main points. Firstly, I found out how influential having an extra defence-man is to help the team. Despite not playing on the same line as Slava, just having the extra defence man on the team helps the Hound keep offensive possession, meaning that when Slava comes into the ice, he does not have to bring the puck up the ice. Another thing I discovered is the importance of the skating stat, as it’s especially important to be able to bring the puck up the ice as a d-man after you’re in the defensive zone. Lastly, I found out that points, assists, and goals are not stats which are determined from pure skill, as if this was the case Shaw would be miles ahead, rather the environment the player is put in, along with how the team is constructed has a huge affect on how points are scored. We see this through how the two players, put in completely different situations, with different builds, can have such similar stats. A strong rounded squad with 2-3 defensemen, along with nearly 2 lines of players, so all lines can be full, are more important on a lower level, as we saw here. In conclusion, we see how the team and its surroundings affect points more than the pure skills of a player, and this is incredibly important to know as a coach and GM, as deeming a build unfit because it didn’t create points in a rebuilding year is not a bad thing, rather a result of teammates, and those players must be treated as such. I want to end this post by saying that this post is strictly an analysis on how the two different situations led to such similar statistics for the defencemen, and I would like to emphasize that if I had accidentally said something about the teams, or players, I would like to apologize. Thank you for reading, and this is Narnia Shaw, signing off, until next time. 2110 words Week ending August 18 2024- September 8 2024

Wow! It’s already the start of the VHLM season and Shaw has showed out! In his first 6 games, Shaw has an impressive statistic of 9 assists, and zero goals, with a plus minus of -1, impressive for the only defenceman on his team! He’s showing signs of being an extraordinary passer, connecting with his team well, earning 5 assists in a game. Shaw’s impressive footing puts him third in scoring for all defencemen, topping all players in their first season, and second highest for all S96 players. He is also tied for the most assists among the whole league, with 9 assists, and 0 goals, a truly remarkable achievement. While it’s incredibly early in the season, it will be interesting to see how Shaw goes from this point on, does he look to improve his passing more, does he focus on defence? Or will Shaw look to improve another part of his game, such as his shot or his skating ability. The development of Shaw is one to look for in the future, and it will be interesting to see how Shaw looks in the future, with potentially a better defensive partner, and a developed version of his already incredible passing. A weakness of his game is notably his skating and defense, so it will be interesting to see how that leads in the future for the young Indian. 230 words Week ending Aug 11, 2024