diamond_ace

Every player mentioned in the article is active

The irony of me being on a team with Skylar Rift in goal

Moscow sent Smitty and Gritty to Prague, not Vancouver, but I couldn't make the "rights deal" stick and they subsequently signed with Vancouver

damn it gus why do you have to be a gm ?

Great picks with those 2nds @Peace (not so much the 3rd, but definitely the 2nds). I'd also briefly tried to deal up for 21, and was going Mac if I'd gotten it, but your deal was definitely the better one for Van to take given that 1st.

You've been killing it down there in the M, and we'll be glad to have you on board when you get to the 250 - I'm guessing S73 probably. A steal is only a steal if the player keeps putting in the work, and you definitely have

Also, if you guys want to come in and read a bit of positivity about yourselves, and how you're part of the future of the franchise: @GoadenGoalie35 @HearnNation67 @KnightRiley @Greg Ernest

So entering the S71 draft, the Prague Phantoms had 3 picks: 5th overall (our own first, used to select Thomas Landry II), and 41st and 44th. Let's get the obvious out of the way: Landry has been a great pick and everything you'd expect of a 5th overall, but this article is about the late rounds, so it's not really about him. The following season, entering the S72 draft, we only had a single pick: 42nd overall. Admittedly, we had a 3rd this draft entering the last draft, and that 3rd will play a part here, but we'll get to that in a bit. First, we'll get into that 44th pick. It might seem strange to discuss 44 before 41, but the resulting thing that occurred from the 44th pick happened before the 41st pick. The 44th pick, along with the S72 3rd that I said we'd get to, were sent to Davos for the 35th pick. The 35th pick was then used to select Woody McPine, who is currently 21st among S71 draftees a season later. The 44th pick ended up being Linea Alba for Davos, and the Davos S72 3rd that was sent back to them in the deal went to Moscow and was used on Keith Krestanovich. Alba has been inactive at 84 TPE for almost 2 months now, so the trade is basically which of McPine or Krestanovich ends up with the better career - the trade itself is still very much in the wait and see stages, but the selection of McPine at 35 was a fantastic value and arguably the steal of the draft. Moving 6 spots later to 41, a pick that Prague held to begin with and retained, the selection at that spot was Jack John. Similarly to McPine, John has massively outperformed his draft spot, as he is currently 34th among S71 draftees. Technically, this means that John has also outperformed McPine's draft spot (although not McPine himself). So the Phantoms had two later picks and combined, the two players are 21 places better than they were drafted (at the moment anyway - McPine is 1 TPE ahead of Adam Syreck and Squirrely dan, so who knows how that ends up, although in the long run I'd bank on both guys climbing even more up the ranks). It's all well and good that Prague got all these late steals in S71, but could we do it again in S72, especially after having traded away the 3rd, and coming into the draft with nothing but a 4th? To answer the question: yes, yes we could. Watching the draft unfold while it was going on, I noticed a particularly unusual occurrence: Riley Knight Gee, predicted to go in the 2nd in two mocks the day before the draft, was not only still around at the end of the 2nd, but continued to be around well into the 3rd. With talk in the GM chat of picks being up for grabs for those who might be interested, it seemed like as good a time as any to get a deal going. After leaving a message in the Calgary discord for Jubis which went unanswered (and to be fair, Jubis might not have had permission to conduct trades anyway) I messaged Bana to acquire 32 for a future 3rd (S74). In doing so, Gee was brought on board, and I'm about as confident in him at this stage as McPine last season, so we'll see how that turns out. The 42nd pick, the only pick we had at the start of the draft, was used to select Ernie King. At this stage there wasn't a ton left, but King and the pick after him (Pietro Angellini) seemed to be the best remaining options, especially as I wanted to bring in a forward since Gee is defense. King went missing for a few weeks, but has also had a few weeks where he did a little bit more, whereas Angellini was more consistent and spread out - in the early rounds, I'd rather the consistency, but later on, King represented a bit more boom or bust potential. If he booms - and he absolutely could - this will make for a strong selection, especially at this stage. Most likely, King won't reach the level of the other three, but still - this is how you go into 2 consecutive drafts with three 4th round picks and come out of it with a rejuvenated prospect pool.

After finally winning a group last year, it would be silly not to come back and defend. Can also run a group

has sandford won village of the year yet?

yeah im not up in the early morning

Little bit of insurance in case the Gows don't stick, and honestly it's a good price to get another guy in on the team

1 depends on my mood, I like the meatball mozzarella ones and the pizza ones pretty equally 2 lots and lots of FM 3 nostalgia, I have history with both 4 engaged - no kids, don't plan to either - being paid regularly during the quarantine, but not having anywhere to spend it, has set me up well for paying for the wedding 5 PIE. ALWAYS PIE. 6 vacations

was a bit surprised when i saw i was even on the ballot, so this is prob fair

shh frank butterman

Outperforming your draft spot by 7 places too, great job all around

Also now that I remembered they exist on occasion, the chicken and white garlic sauce ones aren't terrible, they're kind of like a white pizza. Worse than the other two though

The pizza ones and the meatballs/mozzarella ones are the only good ones

Rights move, but I'm hoping to make it stick. Can afford both guys, will be able to give them a good opportunity here. Worst case scenario I lose the already inactive Perry, best case scenario Prague keeps moving forward.

Yeah I think Calgary won, but Helsinki didn't lose, is a fair way to put it. It's fine for Helsinki - the player is the same and they get Smith, so it's impossible to argue on just their side that not trading would be more valuable than trading, which is usually the condition for losing a trade. Calgary's certainly going to be happy with the pick, however.

Also @Sandro

Blade was forced upon Bana, which is even more awkward

I'll second Flyers' mention of Squinty, and add @JardyB10 @Jericho @Noah @CoachReilly the funks (don't have accounts here)

@Cornholio

Different league. Acyd, Gus, Enigmatic, Berocka, Patrik Tallinder are in it