scoop

After playing in 18 games as the backup goalie for the Seattle Bears in S87 and S88, Ash Sparks was close to retiring from the VHL this past off-season when the Malmo Nighthawks made a trade to acquire the former 6th overall pick. Sparks has had a great start to his Nighthawk career, currently ranking tied for fourth among qualifying goalies with a 0.931 save percentage. While his 11-12-3 record is not the best, the Nighthawks have done much better in Sparks' starts as compared to their backup games. In Malmo's most recent game, Sparks got a bit of revenge on his former team, shutting out the Bears for a 2-0 Nighthawk victory. This came off the heels of a game in which the Bears put six goals past Sparks, including the game winner in overtime less than a minute into the extra period. The Bears had also has a four-goal game against the Nighthawks early in the season. The two teams will meet twice more before the season is over. For Sparks, this shutout was his third in 26 starts this season. He has been one of Malmo's best and most consistent players this season, and they are hoping they can count on him for several seasons to come.

Last season, I won my VHFL group rather comfortably, scoring 1477.3 points compared to 1393.8 from the second-place JCarson. Not even realizing it until just now, I ended up with a similar roster for this season. I have three of the same players, and some of those players who I didn't bring back were in my mind again as possible selections. The players who I won with last season who I wound up taking again were Sirdsvaldis Miglaskems, Brian Payne, and Nico Pearce. The newcomers to the team are Perry Laperriere (replacing Henry Eagles as my third forward), Biggie Cheese (replacing Mo Probert as my second defensemen), and Cole Pearce (replacing Clueless Wallob as my goalie). Just as he was a season ago, Sirdsvaldis Miglaskems was the first forward selected to my S89 team, though I picked him in the first round this time as opposed to the second. While not the best possible selection at this point, Miglaskems has been doing even better than he did a season ago. He offensive capabilities (18 goals, 43 points) and his physical game (125 hits) have him currently as the sixth-highest scoring forward. Although most of the forwards who are ahead of him were still available for me at this time, I'm not disappointed in this pick. Last season, Brian Payne was my first selection, but I waited until the second round to pick him up this season. Payne is a very reliable fantasy player because he is someone you can count on to at least rack up hits and shots blocked. Even if he has a relatively down year offensive, he can still easily be in the top ten among defensemen. With 44 points in 33 games, offense has not been an issue for Payne, and his all-around great play has him as the highest scoring VHFL player at the moment. This was a home run of a pick, and I consider myself lucky that even with three defensemen being taken between my first and second picks, I was able to get Payne on my roster. After I selected Payne, six straight defensemen were taken, meaning it was a great time for me to take a forward. There were still several good ones on the board, and a couple of my opponents were already full on defensemen, so I knew I could finalize that spot later. I settled on Nico Pearce, who has actually been a bit of a disappointment for my roster despite having 21 goals on the season. That speaks more to how well my team is doing, but Pearce's assist numbers are down this season, and he has a negative plus-minus rating. In the fourth round, while I did have the option to take Henry Eagles available to me, I went with Perry Laperriere, and this is right up there with Payne as my best pick. Laperriere currently leads the league in points with 50 (25 goals, 25 assists) to go along with 136 hits. While I knew I could count on him for a lot of hits, I wasn't expecting him to be on top of the league in offensive production. He is the highest scoring forward in fantasy points, so to get him on my roster as my third forward selected is wonderful. Although I almost always leave my goalie for my last pick, given that no one between my fifth and sixth picks would be taking a defensemen, I selected Cole Pearce here for my goalie slot. I had my choice of all goalies except Lachlan Summers, who had just been selected, and I was most confident in Pearce. Playing for the Bears, I thought there was a chance for a decent number of shutouts and a good number of wins. Pearce has bee the third best goalie so far, so I haven't lost out on too much with this pick. For my final selection, I ended up taking Biggie Cheese of the New York Americans. Particularly when considering the look of New York's roster, I felt Cheese had a good chance to contribute at least a point per game and be somewhere in the 180 to 200 range in both shots blocked and hits at the end of the season. This was the last defensemen selected the group, and Cheese is currently the 10th highest scoring defensemen, though three of those defensemen above him were also available. This was still a good pick nonetheless. About halfway through the season, I am very pleased with how my fantasy team is doing. In terms of where my individual players rank among their position, I have the following: forwards (1st, 6th, 15th); defensemen (1st, 10th) and goalie (3rd). Normally that assortment of players would probably have me sitting in first place, but currently I am actually in second to @cLoWn who has no players who rank below 5th in their position.

Oh, yeah I made that up.

44:33

The S89 Malmo Nighthawks don't feature nearly as many rookies as last season's squad, but those that they do have all figure into the team's long-term plan. The three rookies on the team are Logan Foley, Reese McFleury, and Viktor Jensen. Logan Foley has been with the organization the longest, having been drafted 14th overall in Season 87. He spent the last two seasons in the VHLE before making his VHL debut. Through the first eight games of the season, he had zero points. At this time, he was the only Nighthawk yet to score a goal. He scored his first goal in the ninth game, and he is now up to four goals and three assists on the season. He is second on the team with 63 hits, which ranks first among rookies. Reese McFleury was another first round pick in Season 87, selected eighth overall by Vancouver. The Nighthawks traded for McFleury during that season. He continued to develop in the VHLE until getting the call this season. He has two goals and eight assists through 20 games while playing solid defense for the second unit. He leads the team with 44 shots blocked. This year's first overall pick Viktor Jensen rounds out the trio of rookies. While he could have spent this season in the VHLE, the decision was made to have him join the Nighthawks straight away. He has proven himself capable, as he is among the rookie scoring leaders. His five goals is tied for the rookie lead, and his 12 points has him ranked second.

D - Biggie Cheese @eagle_3450

G - Cole Pearce @ctots

F - Perry Laperriere @eagle_3450

@cLoWn Jake Thunder had already been selected. Please make a different selection and ping me for my next pick when you do.

F - Nico Pearce @ctots

D - Brian Payne @eagle_3450

I'm pretty sure Prague is one of the bad teams are they not?

Hybrid attributes and the new depreciation rates make it harder to build a skater. Goalies have been completely unaffected by all that. Okay, and what about 16 games? Is that still a rookie? 24? Whatever it is, it should be in the rule book, and not just discussed and decided in a thread so that it doesn't have to be brought up again 3 years later.

There should be something in the rule book regarding rookie eligibility. And in my opinion, rookie eligibility should be lost after a player's first season in the VHL regardless of how many games they played, but the league has been heavily favoring goalies with all the recent changes so I doubt that's the decision that would be made.

F - Sirdsvaldis Miglaskems @ctots

I don't think I'm overreacting to a sim in which we played against two of the worst teams in the league when I say that this Malmo squad might be the greatest in VHL history.

It was a big draft night for the Malmo, who came into the day with the first and seventh overall picks, but would ultimately find themselves making a third first round selection. Things got started with the Nighthawks formally adding Viktor Jensen to the team with the first pick of the draft. Jensen gives the team a young center with star potential, something that they had been lacking. They doubled down on the centers with Ronald Johnson MacWallace III. While Jensen will be playing in the VHL this season as the team's second center behind Ivan Retoslav, MacWallace will be spending a season or two in the VHLE. By the time Retoslav's career is winding down, MacWallace should be ready to take over as the team's second line center. Perhaps the most exciting moment of the drat, however, was when Malmo traded for the 12th overall pick of the draft. The Nighthawks sent S90 WAR 2nd and S91 MAL 1st to the Moscow Menace in order to acquire the pick, which they used to draft Savaisk Tzesar. Picking Tzesar at seven would have been a reach, but he was a player that the Nighthawks wanted badly. His father, Boris Tsezar, spent the final five seasons of his career in Malmo, and Savaisk was keen on playing for the team as well. The Nighthawks have seemingly been building around players who are committed to the team, as shown by their willingness to part with a future first, one that could potentially be a lottery pick, and a second to make this trade happen.

The Board Game Cluedo On Skates

Perennial 6th place New York in shambles

Last season, the Malmo Nighthawks were one of the worst offensive teams in the league. They were 4th from the bottom with 2.46 goals per game, and expectations are that they will be near the bottom again this season. Still, there are some bright spots on the team that are going to be worth watching. The recently acquired Ivan Retoslav has consistently scored near 30 goals, and playing on a team where he will be leading the offense, he could very well set a new career high. Then there are the young stars on the team, either of whom could emerge as candidates for the Dustin Funk Trophy. Yaroslav Trunov and Jacob Stone are two players who the Nighthawks hope will be big factors for the team for years to come. Trunov, a wing who was drafted 6th overall in S87, has 29 goals and 62 points in the first two seasons of his career. Stone had 12 goals and 40 points in his rookie season after falling to 5th overall despite being the consensus best player in the draft. Both Trunov and Stone will be focal points in the offense along with Retoslav. If the three of them can work well together, they should likely perform better than the team leaders from a season ago. The leader in points from S88, defenseman Rex Wolffe Gregor, was traded in the off-season. Stone has surpassed him in skills. Saku Kotkakoivu led the team with 22 goals despite being traded 50 games into the season. Retoslav is arguably a better offensive player than the aged Kotkakoivu was in his final season. The Nighthawks of a season ago didn't have the offensive help for Kotkakoivu like Trunov will provide for Retoslav. The continued improvement from other players on the team should also help take some of the pressure and attention off of Malmo's star players. The team's roster for the upcoming season is likely not complete. They will certainly add at least one forward to the squad either through free agency or in the draft. Whether they intend to go with a similar approach as last season and sign several more players remains to be seen. The team continues to rebuild, and while almost all pre-season predictions will have them missing the playoffs again, that doesn't mean there won't be reasons to watch the team.

Ah, the Harvey Singh approach.