VattghernCZ

Applying, preferably D.C. - dragons are cool

No retiring, Grønvold needs you to join his Kraken hunt

Congrats Miami

Alagsantere Grønvold is a hard-hitting, defensively-minded defenseman. His defensive readings and instincts are top-notch. Combined with his elite four-way mobility, he's a nightmare to play against, especially in transition. Discipline has been a concern in his game, as has his lack of composure with the puck on his stick and very limited offensive upside. Grønvold will probably never be your team’s top scoring defender, but he could be the perfect counterpart an offensive defenseman needs to fully unleash their potential. Grades: Skating: A Puck skills: C Goal scoring: B- Playmaking: C Hockey sense: A+ Physical: B- Observations: June 24, 2024: Upon finishing his senior year with the Greenland Youth Academy, Grønvold signed a contract with the Mexico City Kings, who will hold his rights until the upcoming VHLM draft. He looks like a good fit to complete the Kings’ blue line. Due to some visa issues, he's expected to miss the first few games, but he still should have enough time to build chemistry before a potentially very deep playoff run. July 4, 2024: The fatigue from jumping straight from the Greenland Youth Academy senior year into the VHLM regular season has clearly affected Grønvold's game. While he hasn't looked overwhelmed thanks to his awareness and defensive IQ, he has been struggling to adjust to the VHLM pace and to leverage his physical tools. Still, he became an impact defender for the Kings, finishing the regular season with 3 goals, 7 assists, a plus-1 rating, 28 hits, and 23 blocked shots in 16 games. July 13, 2024: Eleven playoff games is not a big sample size, but Grønvold definitely looked more comfortable than he looked in his regular season games. He held his own pretty well, especially considering five of the 11 games were against heavy favorites. Grønvold ramped up his intensity with 19 shot blocks and 20 hits, recorded a single goal and team-leading 7 assists with a minus-2 rating. August 5, 2024: Despite a strong defensive showing at the Junior Showcase Tournament with the tournament-winning Rush team, Grønvold wasn't selected to take part in the World Junior Championship, which arguably hurt his VHLM draft stock as he fell to the 7th overall pick, going back to the Mexico City Kings for season 95. September 13, 2024: In his first—and what should be final—full VHLM season, Grønvold surprised everyone with his production with 18 goals and 48 assists for 64 points (10th among VHLM defensemen). Some of hockey’s best coaches say the better you defend, the less you have to do it, and Grønvold was a great example of it. While his traditional defensive stats were unimpressive—plus-8 rating, 137 hits, and 112 shots blocked—his defensive impact went beyond the box stats, as he was the most deployed player on the league's best defensive team. It's hard to record hits and blocks when your team is on the puck most of the time you're on the ice. Grønvold remains a bona fide mid-first round talent, and a strong playoff performance could even propel him into a top-5 consideration. September 16, 2024: Let's not talk about Grønvold’s performance in the four playoff games Mexico City played. As the draft approaches, Grønvold remains one of the premier blueliners and one of the more VHL-ready prospects, but another year of development before jumping in the big league would be the best approach to his future. He is set to play another season with the Kings now that the VHLE announced the end of their partnership with the VHL and its affiliated leagues.

Hold my beer and hand me a lab coat

1. Not VHL related, my hiking trip to Norway, which took half a season. VHL related, the insane winning streak we were on. 2. Definitely our start to the playoffs. We habe to turn this thing around ASAP. 3. I missed a few fantasy weeks when I was abroad, but I did 12 capped every week, I did theme week PT and player bio. I'm happy. Sadly I'm too cheap to donate for extra TPE. 4. To be honest, nothing, Grønvold is performing exactly how I wanted him to. If anything, I'd take back the 10 TPE in OV and put it in BC to double down on the defensive D-man build. 5. Yes, I used it with my first gen player. I didn't start the build very well, but Shindigs (miss ya buddy) showed me the way. 6. Well not winning the Renaissance Cup, that's for sure. Our core players will be well above 200 tpe, I expect nothing less than a deep playoff run!

We got so close in S86!

There goes my plan to apply for a VHLE GM spot once I see an opening, now that I'm finally able to use STHS lol

I shamelessly admit I've been using quillbot grammar check every now and then, because artifical intelligence is the only kind of intelligence I possess.

Part 1, Intro and VHLM: https://vhlforum.com/topic/151224-the-best-defensive-teams-part-1-vhlm/ VHLE: Cologne Express Defensemen: Joseph Dubois (29.0 AMG), Cody Toland (27.0 AMG), Scrungle Bungle (26.8 AMG), Pan Daffleck (18.7 AMG), Bric Sheithaus (16.9 AMG) Starting goaltender: Jon Webber III While you could argue for a tie in the M, it's not the case here. Cologne is just dominant defensively, leading the league in fewest Goals Against, fewest Shots Against and the least Puck Time In Defensive Zone. The only flaw in their defensive game is their Penalty Kill. But when the weakest part of an area of the game still ranks 3rd best in the league, you're doing something right. VHL: Moscow Menace Defensemen: Nils Andersson (30.3 AMG), Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage (29.5 AMG), Jillian Woods (28.9 AMG), Benjamin Abenduct (28.7 AMG) Starting goaltender: Olober Syko Before digging in, I expected a bit more parity in the top league. I was surprised to see Moscow defensively dominating the VHL even more than Cologne dominates the E. Ranking 2nd in Goals Against, 1st in Penalty Kill, 1st in Shots Against and 1st in Puck Time In Defensive Zone clearly shows they're a nightmare to play against. But the fact they're not 1st in Goals Against surprises me, I guess it's possible to get in their goalie’s head once you cut through their defense (good luck with that!). Mexico City is sitting at 4th overall spot in the VHLM, 12 points behind Mississauga and 1 point ahead of Miami. Cologne and Moscow lead their respective leagues, the Express with a 4 point lead on Bratislava and Moscow in a tie with Riga, 3 points ahead of Malmö. So does defense win the championship? Moscow is just dominant, leading their league in Goals For on top of their elite defense, so a better way to test this claim is to follow Mexico City and Cologne this postseason, as both are below average offensive teams relying heavily on their defense.

Since my player is a defensive defenseman, naturally I'm more interested in the defensive side of the game now. They say defense wins the championship, right? I hope so, I don't want another notoriously incompetent player in my hands. For this week's and next week's articles, I'm going to look at team defense on every level - at how the teams simulate defensively, rather than at individual players - and highlight the best defensive teams. VHLM: Mexico City Kings Defensemen: Alagsantere Groenvold (30.3 AMG), Ronan Amnon (29.7 AMG), Carl Erhardt (28.5 AMG) Starting goaltender: Chazz Michael Michaels Look at any defensive metric and see Mexico being up there. Goals Against and Penalty Kill are the basic defensive stats you can see in the standings, and Mexico ranks second in both. Second to Las Vegas in both scenarios. So why am I ranking MEX above LVA? Because the Kings dominate the Aces and the rest of the league in underlying numbers. Shots Against? Mexico is 1st, Vegas is 2nd. That's close. But the most important job of defense is to keep the puck away from the net, and the Kings lead the league with the least Puck Time In Defensive Zone, while the Aces rank 4th. This leads me to believe Mexico plays stronger defense, but Las Vegas boasts a better simulating goaltender. Part 2, VHLE and VHL: https://vhlforum.com/topic/151225-the-best-defensive-teams-part-2-vhle-and-vhl/

Holy crap the logo swaps are cash money! Great job!

1. I don't think we're catching Vegas, Philadelphia is a coin flip, but I think we can finish Above Missisauga to finish 3rd overall, their defense looks a bit shaky. 2. I don't think there will be many, I saw some guys with names I recognize have already re-created, I think the rest will do so after the season is done, they probably don't want to mess with the results. 3. With my first player, my team made the finals. Hopefully this squad can get a step further and win! 4. Looking at our schedule, getting shutouts against San Diego and Ottawa, would be good, but even better - a statement shutout win against Philadelphia or Missisauga? Yes, I'm going for a bold 10. 5. I haven't even been drafted yet, so it's hard to say. I'm definitely playing in the E, hopefully bringing a strong defensive impact regardless of the stats, just as my player is doing now. Hopefully Grønvold can be a no. 1 or no. 2 defenseman on league's best defensive team. 6. Twelve games left now to get six wins? We're better than that, looking at the schedule, I'm saying 43 wins.

Another week, another goose egg

Hello there!

It's Sunday, 9 p.m., and I've realized I still need to ti 2 capped, so here we go. I've properly baited my swim, put a big halibut pellet under the hook, loosened the drag and I have some time to enjoy a somewhat cold one and write up something while waiting for the fish of the day. I was playing around with the TPA tool today - as I do probably way too often - planning my VHLE build. Or about 30th revision of it. I mean, what am I supposed to do when my player has been capped in the M since before game 1, so I can't apply any TPE? So what am I gonna do when I'm free to spend? First off, I'm gonna put 42 TPE into BC to raise Checking to 60, more than enough for the E. Next up, 1 TPE to DC and 61 TPE to DK to make Defense stand out at 80. 6 TPE in SH rounds up Puckhandling to nice even 70. 51 TPE in SP (I caught a decent Chub at this point) makes Skating 73 and leaves me with 39 TPE available. I'll probably dump them in SS to create some separation between Scoring (47) and Passing (43), with 64 Strength. Looks like a solid 400 TPA build, that I'll probably end up building completely different anyway.

Capped claim for W.E. 9/15 due to a multiweek MS

@Frank @Gaikoku-hito @Thunder

I miss Shindigs

1. That has to be a tie between my last 2 seasons in Vancouver and my last 2 seasons in London. The S89 and S90 Wolves were the best LR I've been a part of so far, and with the S93 and S94 United, my last player had the most individual on-ice success. 2. The end of S94. My last player never won a championship, despite playing in the finals in the M, in the E, and three (or was it 4?) times in the VHL. To end the career with a game 7 finals loss was heartbreaking. 3. He's gonna be the polar opposite of my current player - an undersized winger with the silkiest mitts and deadly shot, think Patrick Kane. 4. The fact the new toy excitement hasn't worn off yet! He's got a long ahead of him, and I'm looking forward to what can he do. 5. The fact I have to bank TPE. I want to watch him grow! 6. I don't know, with SC and PA at 43, him and "offence" don't even belong in the same sentence! Probably for something like commiting a tax fraud. Not intentionally, but because he's an idiot.

I know this is last week's, but I didn't do it and don't feel like coming up with the questions for A3A3 this week haha. 1. Honestly, I've never really given any thought to Mexico City, being European and nothing I'm particularly interested in coming from Mexico. I must admit I know next to nothing about Mexico City. I'll tell you what's not my favorite thing - the weather. 2. Fishing is probably the most expensive hobby I'm really seriously into, so probably Sonubaits. I used to use their baits when I was fishing competitively, but it's just too damn expensive without a sponsorship. 3. I guess Miami, Ricer sounds like a great GM and a great guy. 4. He's one of the guys who puts on headphones to pump himself up. He sits on the boards, listens to "Guten Tag" by Varg and eats a decent amount of roasted sunflower seeds. He doesn't carb load, he's on keto 5. I used to play with a wooden stick as a kid, then got my first composite stick at around 12. Much lighter and whippier. Shooting with the wooden stick was just painful. 6. Mexico and Prague are probably my favorite logos to be honest.

“I don't score goals often. But when I do, we win.” said half jokingly Alagsantere Grønvold in the press availability after the game against Philadelphia, which saw Grønvold score his 5th game winning goal of the season, and extended the Kings’ winning streak to five games (it's seven games now). While Grønvold leads the Kings in game winning goals, and is tied for the third spot league-wide, the comment probably didn't come at the right time, considering it was the only game winning goal he scored in the current winning streak. The other four game winners came in the previous 12 wins - being the shooter of the winning goal in 33% of your team's wins is an impressive performance. It's true Grønvold doesn't score much. His six goals are the tenth lowest goal total among all VHLM defensemen. He can't score goals, he's too busy shutting down the opponents by leading Mexico, the best defensive team in the league*, in ice time. Grønvold will never score many goals. But he's been showing his ability to make the goals he does score really count. *as of now, Mexico has allowed the fewest shots against of any team, and is leading the league in penalty kill success rate

Claim 3/3 for W.E. 9/8

Claim 2/3 for W.E. 9/1

Claim 1/3 for W.E. 8/25