sadie

With the San Diego Marlins being eliminated, sadly, with two losses today, the VHLM playoff teams are officially confirmed. I thought I would give my opinions on who the most likely champions are in my inexperienced brain. The Clear #1: Las Vegas Aces Far and away the most likely champion in my eyes, the Aces have been the most dominant team so far. With a 24 point lead on the 2nd place team in the league, they have easily clinched the top spot. They boast FIVE of the top 10 point-getters and their goaltender Cory Evans leads the league in wins, shutouts, save percentage, and GAA. Currently 13-2 in their last 15 games, they are red-hot. However, both of those losses came against Mississauga, so perhaps the Hounds will have their number in the playoffs as well. Second Tier/Has A Chance Mississauga Hounds Mississauga sits atop the Eastern Conference, and is tied for second in the league with Mexico City. While they don’t necessarily have the flashiest players who lead the league in points, goals, etc, they are an extremely good team who gets results. Their 247 goals are among the best in the league in that department and they have 5 players over 70 points. They are the only team to have beaten Vegas recently, and I think they have a very good chance at winning it all. Philadelphia Reapers While the Reapers are 5th in points this year, I believe they have a very good chance at going on a run. They have 3 players at 200 TPE with a couple more on their way soon. 10 wins in their last 13 games shows them as one of the hotter teams in the VHLM right now. Two trades with the San Diego Marlins and some pickups during the season improved the roster, which I believe is better than their point total shows. Mexico City Kings Mexico City is an extremely good team and one that I may have underrated in these rankings. They are currently tied for second in the league, and have a deep team. 4 Kings players sit at 200 TPE, including a goaltender (Henry Tucker Jr). If their goaltending continues to show up, it could be a huge part of these playoffs. Las Vegas and Mississauga both have more rostered players than the Kings, which could be a problem if they are matched up. Houston Bulls The Bulls have an extremely strong roster, especially their skaters. They have 5 players at 200 TPE and only 3 below 100. Their roster is fully filled out, unlike Mexico CIty’s or Philadelphia’s and the only reason they aren’t ranked third on this list is because of the Kings’ goaltending/2 point lead in the standings and… my weird belief in Philadelphia that has probably been influenced by other people saying they’re going to be good. Anyway, I expect them to go far in these playoffs. Bottom Tier/You Made the Playoffs Halifax 21st Halifax owns a significant point lead over the other teams in this tier, Ottawa and Saskatoon. It also has an extremely large goal differential lead. But as a team that is guaranteed a 5th place finish of below, they’ll be playing a very good team (I assume that’s how this seeding works). With only 6 forwards and 1 defenseman, I don’t see a scenario where they get anywhere, but anything can happen I suppose. Ottawa Lynx Ottawa, you did a great job of filling out your forward group. But the truth is, there are only two players on the team with triple digit TPE and you’ll probably be playing Mississauga or Las Vegas. Also you have no defense. Good luck. Saskatoon Wild I feel like having only 6 players against a top team won’t cut it. On the bright side, ⅓ of your team is at 200 TPE. That’s the end of my very bad list; hopefully I get something right. Champion: Mississauga Hounds because I kinda like upsets.

On Thursday July 28th, I joined the league as a free agent in the VHLM. My player, Sadie St-Louis was promptly offered a contract with the San Diego Marlins. She accepted quickly, happy to actually get an offer from a VHLM team. While the team wasn’t necessarily in a good position to succeed, being at that point more than 10 points out of a playoff spot, the rest of the Marlins roster and our GM Jacob were very nice and happy to help with anything I needed. Jacob has been extremely helpful in giving his opinions and advice on what categories to put TPE into and the strengths and weaknesses of putting TPE into certain categories. Sadie joined in the middle of a flurry of signings made by the Marlins, bringing the total player count on the roster up to 13, which now greatly benefits our team during games. Since signing with them, Sadie has played 7 games with the Marlins. 2 wins in a row happened against Houston and Saskatoon, her first ever wins with the team which have helped keep San Diego in playoff contention. Getting more ice time has helped her production a lot. In these 7 games, she has: Goals: 3 Assists: 6 Points: 9 +/-: -1 Shots: 30 PIM: 2 Hits: 14 Shots Blocked: 5 Power Play Goals: 1 9 points is above a point per game, which is especially good considering she only had 1 assist across the first three games. Her shooting percentage is at 10%. The category that could be the most improved upon is plus minus- being at a negative is hindering the team’s success. I would say that this has been a good start in the VHLM for her, especially considering that I started out having no idea of how to build a player the right way. But again, I could be very wrong being so new to the sim leagues. I have high hopes for the rest of her career, starting with a potential push for the playoffs. San Diego currently sits at 9th overall in the 10 team league, and is trailing the Saskatoon Wild by 10 points. However, with only 6 games remaining before the playoffs, they are going to have to have a practically flawless finish to the season if they want in. Saskatoon will also have to essentially go into a free-fall. Houston and Ottawa will need to play extremely well, as they make up 5 of the Wild’s 6 remaining games. After this season concludes, Sadie will sadly be unable to stay for sure with San Diego, and will head to the dispersal draft. Hopefully she is able to head to a team she will enjoy. I plan to earn as much TPE as I have time to earn over the coming weeks, and upgrade my player so that she can be selected higher in the draft. Next season, she should show significant improvement. And one day, she hopes to be drafted into the VHL, the most prestigious of the three leagues, and have a long and successful career.

Junior Review Sadie St-Louis Sadie St-Louis was born on May 4th, 2004 and grew up fairly close to Quebec City. Growing up in Canada, she naturally was taught to skate at an early age and was more talented than most kids her age in terms of movement on ice. However, she failed to progress well in other aspects of the game, both physically and mentally.. She couldn’t stickhandle, shoot, or hit well at all and was often a worse player on her childhood teams. However, in middle school, she saw that she needed to improve a lot and trained tirelessly with her friends and parents to improve her skills. Her shot became more powerful and accurate and her physical ability improved as well. But it wasn’t quite enough to make varsity at her high school in freshman year. In fact, she still wasn’t close to making it. Angry about this and knowing she needed to improve even more, she played with passion and used her strong skating to emerge as one of the best players on her team, and as a result of this Sadie was given the opportunity to play with the varsity team at the start of the playoffs due to injuries. Once there, she showed a much higher level of skill, leading the tournament in assists with 9 despite falling short in the final. For the next three years St-Louis was a core player on that team, and led the league in points twice. St-Louis was the captain in junior and senior year and she used her speed and strength as her greatest assets. She managed to win a championship recently in her senior year and after that, she set her sights on higher levels of hockey. She was nervous that the VHLM didn’t seem like it was going to work out because she wasn’t sure if she was dominant enough in high school, but she has finally achieved that dream. Today, Sadie received an offer from the San Diego Marlins, and she gladly accepted. The chance to play somewhere like the VHLM is something she had always wanted to have and San Diego has made that dream come true. Excited to start play with the Marlins, Sadie looks forward to the next game against Mexico City. She hopes to help the team compete for a playoff spot as the season nears its conclusion, and she is hopeful that she can be a top player in the future.

#jointhebigfish

Player Information Username: sadie Player Name: Sadie St-Louis Recruited From: YouTube Age: 18 Position: LW Height: 70 in. Weight: 175 lbs. Birthplace: Canada Player Page @VHLM GM