nerji

1) I never have any expectations for my Christmas gifts. I generally buy what I want through the year so I usually get useful things like socks and stuff like that.
2) The team should look pretty good coming up. Was a little disappointed I didn't get to play with Left Alone this season but meh it happens.
3) Nope, it's kind of cool!
4) I love the web interface for the league. And I also love that there is a welfare option so when I am busy and hate to write I can use that. It doesn't maximize my player but this is life I suppose.
5) That the biggest point task requires so many damn words
6) I usually visit some family, this year went to visit my dad and his wife and had a big dinner

Transaction ID: 3TM67162M2283714T

1) Has to be Left Alone. Had a fantastic season.
2) I don't remember much on our teams and for some reason I can't seem to pull up the schedule.
3) I'd love a trip to Costa Rica but a baby means I'm stuck at home and will have to settle for a treadmill instead
4) No, I admittedly don't follow the league as much as I should. I'm a bad VHLer
5) Yes, are there some new ones coming out or something? My mom used to watch all the old ones and that got me on to these kinds of movies.
6) We used to but since I moved out to a different province we just have small dinners now since the whole family is so far away.

1) Was born in Toronto so my team is the Leafs. I guess they are doing ok but they have some glaring holes still so I'll inevitably be let down come the playoffs.
2) Not sure, I don't follow the M unfortunately
3) My player did ok I guess this season. I would have liked to see him get some time with our top player but it was not to be this season. As for earning, I am doing bare minimum and that sucks I know but I absolutely hate writing.
4) Not really
5) His award will be a good draft pick, that is award enough!
6) Probably Nine Inch Nails. I'm old.

1) Not American, but celebrated back in October
2) I bought a few courses and am thinking of buying a treadmill
3) Feels bad to lose but I'm hoping we'll start to pick things up in a couple seasons
4) Not really
5) Eh, sort of. I felt a little disappointment at not getting first line duty and I feel my stats are a bit further behind than they were last season. We'll see how things end up.
6) Have no idea and Formula 1 doesn't interest me at all

Another season, another theme week...wait, it's a good one? I'm not used to that.
 
I feel like it's been a while since we had forum drama. I think it's actually a little fun to log in and watch people screaming at each other over one thing or another--it's a nice little guilty pleasure that gives me reading material and the chance to say something about the situation that basically just amounts to common sense but in far too many words. It's also no secret that this week's forum drama has surrounded recruitment, from unfounded accusations to people being told to shut up to threads turning into long discussions on proper forum etiquette, it's been an interesting read. And now the blues, in their ever-broadening quest for ULTIMATE CONTROL, ask us to bury actual relevant, interesting, and entirely juicy content with endless threads about how "recruitment is good and we should do more of it." No kidding.
 
We're going to have the whole host of recycled opinions this week. We'll have "let's use Reddit again," we'll have "recruitment doesn't actually do anything," and we'll have everyone's favorite, "it would be nice if we had [exactly what the VHLM GMs do already]." And maybe this week will be valuable. I can see, somewhere in here, the opportunity to uncover some new frontier for the recruitment team. But why list ideas? Everyone's going to do that already and I'm not really part of any spaces myself where the league could reasonably be advertised. I don't, however, want the league to lose sight of realism. Just because we've had a forum thread or two that's created a perceived need for more recruitment--and, believe me, it's worked--we don't need to rush right into it yet. 
 
Which brings me to the main point of my article: if you look at the numbers, the VHL has neither a declining-numbers issue nor a need to grow its user base.
 
I wrote this lovely article two seasons back and I'm still annoyed that barely anyone took the time to read it through and understand it. There's some awesome stuff in there if you agree with my vision for the league--namely, that we should get rid of the VHLE and move back to the way things used to work, when there were only two leagues to deal with and it wasn't normal to have players taking six seasons after the draft to move up. I'm not going to harp on that point too much (although I'd still like to make it), so I'll move on to explaining why I'm bringing it up.
 
It's an article that also serves as a lovely time capsule for the league because it has lots of data on roster sizes as they were in S89. There's a massive spreadsheet in that article that shows you exactly what I mean and that I've updated for S91 (go check it out! It's in the article. You'll have to get around to reading my damn article to find it--see what I did there?). I'll extract a few meaningful numbers from said spreadsheet, and said article, for your viewing enjoyment:
 
Average VHL roster size in S89:
6.1 F | 3.6 D | 1.6 G
 
Average VHL roster size in S91:
6.3 F | 3.8 D | 1.3 G
 
My hypothetical "delete the E and use 8-season careers with a VHLM cap of 250" situation in S89:
6.8 F | 4.1 D | 1.8 G
 
The same situation in S91:
7.6 F | 3.9 D | 1.5 G
 
(Cap is fine in this situation in either season. Currently, the average VHL team has 1.6 inactive players on its roster, which would mean an almost perfect 10-12 actives per team if this were implemented in S91. Delete the E please.)
 
I also appreciated the chance to look at this sheet again because it's occurred to me (sadly after the fact) that I can copy-paste that summary sheet into a separate tab and have a snapshot of how the league looked this season for future reference. It took me a couple hours to bring the sheet up to date, and I don't have it backed up from the original case, but it's in order now for any comparison to S91 that I might eventually need. Maybe you'll see it again in the future!
 
 
You know what this tells us? The VHL has not shrunk even a little bit over the last couple seasons. It also tells us something even nicer. The VHL has not experienced a dramatic (and dangerous) growth rate over the last couple seasons either. That's awesome. In fact, VHL rosters are marginally larger than they used to be, and it appears that there are a few more VHL-ready prospects now than there used to be. That is 100% fine and doesn't indicate a poor job done on the part of recruitment.
 
I think this fits an opinion that I've stated multiple times before just fine--that the current league size should be sustained and that we should work to keep our community the size that we want it to be with recruitment serving mostly to guide it to that level. And that's what is happening. The VHL public can mostly chill out over this issue. We aren't crashing and burning and we aren't going to lose the league just because we're not experiencing the type of recruitment blowup that most of us came into the league in the middle of.
 
"But Gustav," you say, "there hasn't been much recruitment lately! I haven't actually bothered to find out, but I'll hop on the latest trend if it makes me look cool! If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot!"
 
My first answer is all of the above. Complete with a "perhaps we could even shrink the league a tiny little bit so I could have more support for an eventual E nuking. If I had my way, you know what I'd do with it!"
 
My second answer, though, is that you're right--recruitment hasn't been great. And that's something worth keeping an eye on, and that's something that does deserve its own theme week with people bringing up ideas and with the team taking them in for consideration. It's also very true that the VHLM is suffering a bit--our numbers on that sheet are considerably lower than they were in S89, and that's something that could indeed lead to smaller VHL numbers in the future if it persists. Currently, that's something we can deal with. It's even something that I appreciate seeing for my own reasons. And I'm not at all opposed to recruitment for the sake of giving us some first-gens to develop. We could try what we can on Reddit. We could make greater efforts to connect with people right from player creation. We could even--who would ever think?--stop advertising on gaming channels and try to connect with people who actually talk about hockey, or make graphics, or do their own amateur sort of broadcasting that this league isn't all that far off from, instead of making our target audience 12-year-old kids who think we're a gaming community and immediately leave. Wouldn't one or two of those things, or even a certain one in particular, be nice? I like to think it would be great for the league and that recruitment has a wonderful opportunity to grow with this week. It could be a wonderful sort of wake-up call. I'd just rather not see us go the way of overcompensating and end up flooding the league again just because we got yelled at a lot over theme week.
 
Going forward, I think the team could use somewhat of a numbers-oriented approach. We could use someone who tracks league sizes and retention numbers and draft class sizes and figures out when would be smart to recruit and to what extent. A guided approach as to what to do, instead of doing things based on instinct, would be great. It's been alluded to that there's been some inaction on the back end in recent times--and that's absolutely true--but maybe there just isn't that sort of guided approach present. Even keeping track of simple numbers like these would be nice. I believe that with enough tracking of numbers over time, we could reach a very good understanding of how large recruitment needs to make the M for the purposes of growth, shrinkage, or sustainability on the big stage.
 
That's my suggestion for recruitment--get someone to dig into the numbers for you, or start doing it yourself. I suppose it's also my suggestion for the community. The next time you see "RECRUITMENT IS TERRIBLE", think critically about it. Maybe it is! Maybe it isn't, and maybe it's a matter of opinion. Maybe you can look at it as convenient for your own little twisted vision of putting GMs out of work. In any case, I hope this is a valuable contribution to theme week and that what I have to say is taken well.
 
 
1,503 words | 3 weeks | you'll never AI-detector me because my writing style is too stupid for that

1) I think I saw it in the PBE. If I didn't see it there it would have been the SHL.
2) I find it fun most of the time but I don't like the 500 word media spots. I'm not a very creative person and don't want to put crap up.
3) We'll probably struggle again but hopefully we'll start to do better
4) Not really. Pretty average I'd say/ My nine month old changes week to week which is probably most exciting for me.
5) I have a love/hate relationship with World of Warcraft and have been playing it's Wrath Classic version recently.
6) I know very little about the ratios so for me, they seem fine

Rashford Scores First VHL Goal
It's been a long time coming for the youngster out of England, but David Rashford has finally put his name first on the scoresheet for a Moscow Menace goal. Fellow S89 draftee and 10th overall pick Jeff Lewis (@nerji) was the one corral the loose puck and take the shot which Rashford managed to tip into the top corner. The other assist went to Moscow vet Fraser Wallace (@Hoopydog) whose initial shot was blocked. "I was surprised to get a chance on the powerplay," said Rashford after the game. "Usually we let out big guns work their magic and we don't see much ice time. Makes a change that we could contribute on this occasion." When asked how it felt to have the monkey off his back, Rashford replied "It feels great to be honest. There's been a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes so it's nice to have something to show for it. I would've thought it would come at 5v5 since I feel like I've had so many chance to score but at least it's come somehow." 

The rebuilding continues in Moscow as the Menace get off to a rough start to the season. We knew it was going to be a tough few seasons once the team started a rebuild so this should come as no surprise to those on the team but that doesn't make it any easier to absorb.
 
The Menace though have some fantastic young talent so the hope is that in two to three seasons they will be back to competing.
 
In this early season so far, the Menace are sitting in last place in the entire VHL with a record of 3-15-3 good for 9 points. The goal differential is what shocks me, as it's currently a -31 already. It's going to be a rough season.
 
Rookie Axle Gunner is off to a great start with seven goals, twelve assists and nineteen points good for third in the rookie scoring race. It will be an interesting story as the season progresses as the Menace look for back to back rookie of the year awards following the win by Jeff Lewis last season.
 
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1) So far, not terrible. I'd like to see him score more and get that plus minus down some...it's tad high.
2) I'm not totally sure right now honestly.
3) Not a holiday weekend for me now or coming up. I am just trying to grind away until my winter holidays!
4) It's feels fine. Losing sucks but it's part of rebuilding!
5) Next 2-3 hopefully.
6) I'm not sure. Maybe something to do with trivia since it's my least favourite part of the point tasks.

The rebuilding continues in Moscow as the Menace get off to a rough start to the season. We knew it was going to be a tough few seasons once the team started a rebuild so this should come as no surprise to those on the team but that doesn't make it any easier to absorb.
 
The Menace though have some fantastic young talent so the hope is that in two to three seasons they will be back to competing.
 
In this early season so far, the Menace are sitting in last place in the entire VHL with a record of 3-15-3 good for 9 points. The goal differential is what shocks me, as it's currently a -31 already. It's going to be a rough season.
 
Rookie Axle Gunner is off to a great start with seven goals, twelve assists and nineteen points good for third in the rookie scoring race. It will be an interesting story as the season progresses as the Menace look for back to back rookie of the year awards following the win by Jeff Lewis last season.
 
181 words  

1) So far, not terrible. I'd like to see him score more and get that plus minus down some...it's tad high.
2) I'm not totally sure right now honestly.
3) Not a holiday weekend for me now or coming up. I am just trying to grind away until my winter holidays!
4) It's feels fine. Losing sucks but it's part of rebuilding!
5) Next 2-3 hopefully.
6) I'm not sure. Maybe something to do with trivia since it's my least favourite part of the point tasks.

After a season we can consider a success on our path to rebuilding, we've once again got a roster that looks quite different on paper than what we iced last season. Our defense sports nearly a completely new look with 3 new faces, and half of our forward group is making their VHL debut. We're very excited to ice such a young roster with so much future potential. While we have tempered expectations this season in a strong EU conference, we're going to be focusing on development and identifying synergies on the ice to set up a strong competitive era for our future. Now onto the captains!
 
First Alternate - Left Alone - @okochastar
 
Despite being just an S86 player and entering his 5th VHL season, Left Alone is one of the most veteran, active players left on this Moscow roster. Despite being offered the chance to head to a contender during our prior sell-offs, Oko chose to stay put and be part of our rebuild and serve as a veteran presence and leader on a very young team. On paper, he is the best player on Moscow by a wide margin and we will be counting on him to lead our offense by example this season.
 
Second Alternate - Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage - @Grape
 
Despite being a brand new face to the team as a rookie, expectations are very high for the former first round pick as the de facto leader of a very makeshift defensive corps. While help is expected next season, the defense is OSCB's to lead this season. As a big part of this organization's future, it only makes sense to give a franchise defenseman the keys to the defense at such a young stage in his career. While he'll have some veterans alongside him in Fraser Wallace and The Mediocre One, and also former first round talent Eric Queefson, we hope that it'll be OSCB that emerges as the premier talent and leader.
 
Captain - Jeff Lewis - @nerji
 
After a phenomenal rookie debut season where he collected the Stolzschweiger award for the top Rookie in the VHL and a nod to the VHL All-Rookie team, Lewis is primed to take a massive step forward and serve as the captain for a very young Moscow squad. Another core piece for Moscow's future, Lewis also inked a long-term deal with the Menace that'll keep him in the Russian capital for the foreseeable future. We'll look to see Lewis generating chemistry with two new centers in Axle Gunner and Jarmo Ruutu, and help both rookies adjust to VHL life. Expectations are very high for the sophomore forward, but we're confident in his effort and passion to handle this responsibility.
 
Congrats to all named to the leadership team!
 
---
 
I'd also like to officially announce our AGM change that has been in effect for a couple weeks at this point. I sincerely thank @Brandon for serving as my fantastic AGM from S86-S90, and truly appreciate his assistance and input during that time. As he shifts more towards running a very successful business in his life, and also saw his player moved to Toronto in the twilight of his career, we felt it was the right time to make this change and bring in a fresh face. With that, we're happy to welcome @Steve as the new AGM of the Menace! Our top pick in the S90 draft and a long term VHL friend makes his first foray into team management at any level in the league. He's already stepped in and been through trial by fire during my recent vacation, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with him to shape Moscow for the future!
 
 MOSCOW MOSCOW MOSCOW

1) I admittedly haven't looked too closely yet. I have faith in Spartan
2) I like to be loyal to a team, in life in general I am a loyal person.
3) I have never been missing meat from a burger but plenty of times missing items from the order I only spot once I get home and it's annoying
4) I don't think I've met any players other than Dave Dryden who was the vice principal at my middle school.
5) I want to be a high scoring player who plays well with others too!
6) Spartan is away? I didn't even know!

This season we saw a few rookies really step into the spotlight, one of the biggest surprises was the S90 1st overall pick YaBoi Oven @Doomsday, who 0.57 points per game as a depth defensemen on a good team. Another one of the big surprises this season came with Jeff Lewis @nerji who led rookies in scoring by a remarkable 15 points as they finished the season with 66 points. Our other two nominees, Tord Yvel @Trazan and Steve Lattimer @pugsood both finished with 50 and 51 points respectively. The former of which led rookie defensemen in scoring.
 
The Winner is:
 

1st All-VHL Team
Todd Cooke @KRZY - Jason @Jason kranz - John Jameson @Frank
Skor McFleury @Alex - Jake Thunder @Thunder
Lachlan Summers @kirbithan
 
2nd All-VHL Team
Vincent Laroche-Gagnier @vincentlg2007 - Fred Hampton @TownBizness - Ronan Lavelle @Arce
Ryuji Sakamoto @der meister - Brian Payne @Scurvy
Matt Murdock @Acydburn
 
All-VHL Rookie Team
Jeff Lewis @nerji - Steve Lattimer @pugsood - Zyn Westwood @Sullvino
Todd Yvel @Trazan - YaBoi Oven @Doomsday
Evan Bihler @Eb14
 
And that concludes our Season 90 awards! Congratulations everyone!

1) I've actually been playing an MMO pretty heavily recently so I've been doing that - it sucks up my time
2) I am excited about our picks! Will really help our rebuild so I'm excited about things to come.
3) He did a great job. I'm glad I came here because I feel he does a fantastic job overall.
4) I think I'd go to Costa Rica, check out their rainforests, wildlife, and I suppose i could hit a beach or two.
5) My favourite hobby is either playing video games or programming. Kind of bounces between the two.
6) Toronto Maple Leafs. Was born in Toronto, family all cheered for them so I kind of inherited the pain.

When Jeff Lewis was drafted by the Moscow Menace they were a pretty solid team, being drafted into a strong team was pretty exciting even with a core that was perhaps aging by some accounts. Hoping to perhaps go for one last ride before a rebuild was attempted was an intriguing prospect for Jeff Lewis.
 
All that would change when the team would start to sell off it's top players for future draft capital. Hopes of competing for a championship then turned into hopes of being part of a solid rebuild. The team acquired several top draft picks and appeared poised to rebuild and come back strong in a couple of seasons.
 
For season 90, the team struggled going 29-40-3 for 61 points which was fourth worst in the VHL. While it was a bit disappointing, it's still better than I thought we'd do. There was a decent showing in goals for with some players showing flashes of brilliance like Left Alone (72 points in 72 games) Fraser Wallace (67 points in 72 games) and Babay Shrimp (66 points in 54 games).
 
Next season looks to add some more youth to the roster and will hopefully see the team compete a bit more as the rebuild continues.
 
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1) I guess a role model, a scorer is what I really am trying to build
2) I LOVE this idea, it helps build up the locker room I think too
3) More games together aside from just Apex
4) The league is fun and so far the people I have interacted with have also been great.
5) Not really
6) Not doing all the TPE tasks...I keep going hard then tailing off.

1) I guess a role model, a scorer is what I really am trying to build
2) I LOVE this idea, it helps build up the locker room I think too
3) More games together aside from just Apex
4) The league is fun and so far the people I have interacted with have also been great.
5) Not really
6) Not doing all the TPE tasks...I keep going hard then tailing off.

1) I am guessing we'll remain out of the playoffs but should be fun seeing the new faces join us!
2) Team player for sure but it sure is nice seeing my player do well
3) I don't think change anything. Maybe make sure there is a team press conference every week?
4) I honestly have no idea
5) 3-5 seasons until we start really pushing again probably
6) Brown, for some reason when it's pink it makes me sick lol

1) I am guessing we'll remain out of the playoffs but should be fun seeing the new faces join us!
2) Team player for sure but it sure is nice seeing my player do well
3) I don't think change anything. Maybe make sure there is a team press conference every week?
4) I honestly have no idea
5) 3-5 seasons until we start really pushing again probably
6) Brown, for some reason when it's pink it makes me sick lol

@nerji 🥰

This season was an interesting one in Davos, as coming off of a Continental Cup and with a quickly aging roster many people expected Davos to go into a rebuild. However, with some clever asset management and the additions of Vasile Lamb @dlamb, DB III @wcats, and Halvar Torbjorn @Rayzor_7 we were not only able to stay relevant, but win the Victory Cup as the best team in the VHL. In order to do that there were several key things that fell into place. The first week or so of the season was rough as the cup hangover was real, following that we did find our footing around game 20 and never looked back! Towards the end of  the season is where things really caught fire as Davos would go 21-3-1 in their final 25 games! In large part this was due to the performance of several key players.
 
First off all of Halvar Torbjorn, Alfred Champagne @Anthique, David Jokinen @Ahma, and Skor McFleury @Alex set new career highs, including Champagne taking a over 30 point leap to be above a point per game for the first time in their career! Additionally, James Teekirque @Mongoose87 had over 40 goals again as they powered Davos's offense for the most part, and while Pete Mitchell @Crstats23 did take a small step back in production this season, they were an assist machine with a career high of 53 assists and were a key contributor to Davos's success! 
 
Now on the back end of things, Davos's blueline was spectacular this season on both ends of the ice as David Jokinen would record a solid 48 points as a 3rd defensemen! While Jake Thunder @Thunder would have another great season with 86 points, the third most among defensemen, and Skor McFleury would post a breakout 96 points, 25 of which were goals, enough to lead defensemen in points!
 
Now you can't bring up Davos without mentioning Lachlan Summers @kirbithan, this season Summers reached a new level as they would finish the season with a 49-12-3 record, a 0.938 SV%, a 2.06 GAA, and 7 shutouts, which leads starting goalies in ALL MAJOR GOALTENDING CATEGORIES!!! In addition to this, the 0.938 SV% is the 8th best SV% in league history and they are the 1st goalie since S74 (Raymond Bernard @Mr_Hatter) to lead goalies in all major categories. 
 
Now just moving into my award predictions, here they are:
 
Continental Cup: Vancouver Wolves - The best team on paper, and have the experience to get it done!
 
MVP: Split between Lachlan Summers and Todd Cooke @KRZY - Both had amazing seasons and were the main reason for their teams success. I would lean Cooke here, primarily due to their being nobody else on LA that had a top-tier season.
 
Most Outstanding Player: Lachlan Summer - Enough has already been said about this, but they had one of the all-time best seasons ever and no other starting goalie was even close to them statistically.
 
Playoff MVP: Brian Payne @Scurvy - Should Vancouver win the cup, Payne will have to be a large part of their success.
 
Top Defensemen: Split between Ryuji Sakamoto @der meister and Skor McFleury, leaning McFleury due to having a better season in every statistic other than assists and shots blocked.
 
Top Offensive Defensemen: Skor McFleury - led defensemen in points
 
Top defensive defensemen: Jake Thunder - led defensemen in hits and shots blocked while having one of the league's best +/-
 
Top Goaltender: Lachlan Summers - yeah...
 
Top Rookie: Jeff Lewis @nerji - led rookies in points, was incredible this season for a rookie!
 
Top Two-Way Forward: Jason @Jason kranz - led the league in goals and was 2nd in points, very high on the hits leaderboard as well!
 
Top GM: @Moon - made major trades to improve the roster, still has picks left, and Toronto's future is really bright!
 
Most Improved: Split between Jason and Ryuji Sakamoto - these players had the two largest and most significant improvements in the league, DC can only nominate 1 player though, so whoever @FrostBeard nominates will win the award.

1) Happy Retirement!
2) Knowing we were going into a rebuild makes things easier to handle as we continue to lose. As long as we lose properly that is what matters!
3) I think I've done fairly well. I don't know what to compare myself with but I'd say a B is what I'd give myself.
4) London and Malmo
5) I don't watch football - just never got into it. That being said, I sort of cheer for the Giants since my uncle used to love them before he passed.
6) I have no idea - Apex Crew maybe lol