diamond_ace

There are 7 GM players across the S67, S68, and S69 draft classes, each fulfilling different roles for their teams. Let's take a look at them, in a way that fills up 150 words. George Washington - the first player to join Eno's expansion team, George Washington is a center, and he's already at 110 TPE. He's played a bit for Halifax already, and could be a strong foundation for team to be named later as they enter the league. Centers are also a position the league definitely needs right now, and for a team that will be building through the expansion draft, as well as the defense-heavy S68 draft, it's probably the right call. Washington, Havlova, and Louth are all in the S69 class. Dagmar Havlova - the first player to join my expansion team, Havlova is also a center, but hasn't just yet done as much as Eno's player. That's not a surprise, Eno gets way more TPE than I do, but it does set Prague up slightly behind Eno's team. Still, given how I've been doing the last few weeks, Dagmar should be the best player in terms of TPE I'll have had since Brookside, unless Kefka gets there first. Brock Louth - Beaviss isn't just a "TPE whore" as the term goes, Beaviss is a TPE crack addict. Beaviss is the meme from Chappelle's Show - "y'all got any more of them TPE" pretty much describes him. Brock Louth will be good. Vancouver will be better off for having him. Louth is also the first player on this list to be on defense, rather than at center - this was perhaps a smart move historically as defense has been harder to fill, so while the S68 draft has a ton, I can understand an established team going that route. Keven Foreskin - it pained me to type that name, and not in the way you'd expect. I'm very much not a jokey person and naming someone Foreskin is something I would never do, but I know there will always be people like that. It's the spelling of "Keven" that drives me up a wall. The word has a fucking I in it, Esso. Still, the player ought to be good - Foreskin has developed well, he's going to be caught by Louth eventually but he's still a solid piece. Another defense, which like I mentioned earlier, the S68 draft is full of them but there probably won't be as many going forward, so it's not a bad idea. Foreskin is the only S68 GM player. Vladimir Pavlov - the guy who gives Louth a competitor in best TPE-season ratio, Pavlov's already 452 and he's only an S67 player. He's also already well ahead of Ambrose Stark and Lucas Nygren in the same class, who are no slouches themselves. Pavlov, once again, is defense - in fact, 4 of the 7 are, and Pavlov has a headstart as the only GM player out of these 7 with playoff experience. Ambrose Stark - the final defender out of the group. He's also one of the massive group of S67 players on Seattle, a group that for the most part will get to develop together and all arrive at their peaks at the same time (and knowing VHL cap, that will be the time someone will have to go, other than whoever already goes in expansion). Stark, Hogan, Low, and Kefka look like a strong top 4 defense going forward, but either Low or Kefka will be exposed and likely taken. Lucas Nygren - the only right winger on this list, this also makes sense because Malmo is strong at both center (Pajari, Marleau, and Lagen) and defense (Garcia, Shackleford, Moose, Chan, and MORPHEUS). Nygren being a winger will allow him to focus elsewhere rather than putting points into faceoffs, since he already has reliable guys there, and he's developed nicely already and will look to break into the playoffs with Malmo soon.

Seattle is one of the teams with a lot of players to protect. Let's start with the guys who are absolutely locks to be protected. Given the statements of the Smarch agency and Kevin Low that indicate Low might not be protected, we'll assume any S67 player that's more developed than Low is a lock. That includes Rayz Funk, Hulk Hogan, Acyd Burn, Scott Greene, Henrik Zoiderberg, and Ambrose Stark. With Stark being the GM player, that fills 5 of the spots and the GM player, leaving 3 available. Of the 3 remaining spots, let's see who could fill the spots, and we'll include Low among them: S62 - Maxim Kovalchuk - 953 TPE S66 - John Frostbeard - 464 TPE S67 - Kevin Low - 375 TPE S67 - Berocka Sundqvist - 320 TPE S66 - Valeri Morozov - 312 TPE S67 - Kefka Palazzo - 275 TPE Low is easily the best TPE-season ratio among these, so it's a bit of a shock for him not to be protected, if he indeed is not protected. He would be a hell of an acquisition for an expansion team. There are a few guys on here who seem likely to lean in one or another direction - John Frostbeard, for example. It wouldn't make sense for Seattle to trade Joel Ylonen for him if they did not intend to protect him, so it's likely that we can assume he is one of the spots (he's also the next best TPE-season ratio). Maxim Kovalchuk, on the other hand, has a player option and could just as easily turn down a deal to an expansion, so he's unlikely to be protected as he could just come right back - same with Valeri Morozov, who just recently waived a clause, and would not have had to do so if he was likely to be protected. IF we assume a yes for Frostbeard and a no for Kovalchuk and Morozov, that leaves just the S67s remaining: Low, Sundqvist, and Kefka. Realistically, Low and Sundqvist should be the protects out of the three, but if Low is right and he is not protected, then Kefka, it stands to reason, is. In either case Sundqvist appears to be safe.

Ni

Ardsvuni Tigran Khorenatsi Astavdzaturyan Organized Leader of the Artsakh Oblast, Nagorno-Karabakh Region - Controls the Armenian-nationalized Nagorno-Karabakh Region, located as an enclave inside the borders of Azerbaijan - Does not recognize Azerbaijani authority - Fights for the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, would settle for Armenian rule - Yells "Down with the Azerbaijani tyrants!" once every three hours; dedication to this task is unerring and results in restless bouts of brief sleep Former freedom fighter, Artsakh Oblast, Nagorno-Karabakh Region - Fought for the return of Artsakh to its time as a principality in the Middle Ages - Read Elegy on the Death of Grand Prince Juansher to the people every Tuesday at 1, so that they may remember the glory days of the independence of Artsakh Former clergyman of the great prophet, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Armenian glorious overlord of all Accommodations needed: - Must be willing to give 4 days between shifts, as travel is limited to a poorly maintained railway line between Ketelparaq and Stepanakert, and then outgoing flights from Stepanakert. - Must make enough money per shift to pay for the flights both in and out of Stepanakert, and the train tickets both to and from Ketelparaq. - Must be given off May 29 every year, as it is a holy day of rememberance of the martyrdom of Great Prophet Henrikh Mkhitaryan, when the Azerbaijani tyrants cut him down rather than allow him to enter their country.

What he said

And if we ever do a really big expansion into Africa, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea.

And Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Africa and Central African Republic

It would be interesting to put one team in Tuva (a region, not a country, technically in Russia but in clearly the Asian portion) and another in Tuvalu (an island that's part of the Oceanic continent but would work for Asia if necessary) and see which similarly named place reigns supreme

Waaaait let me get my lines in

For Kefka

Bohemian Breakdown Please tell me if it worked, I always question if these things work

Yep, hence the argument in general. Tbh I don't even get what's debatable, it's obviously fine

This is hilarious, and absolutely fits within the rules as written.

this plus the article above gets me full bonus for havlova

this in addition to the article above gets me full bonus for kefka

The brampton change I'm pretty sure was whenever Meg stopped being gm

@Phil @Matt_O @Tate

so s26 Vasty Jr?

I might start doing a podcast, now that I have 2 players to do. I doubt this will be an every week thing (I'll prob just knock out a big multiweek article most of the time for at least one of them, and then sometimes a small article, sometimes a podcast, sometimes welfare) but at least a few episodes will definitely happen. Ask me stuff. Also, I can't guarantee that the things you ask, I'll be allowed to reveal, depending on what and when.

I didn't necessarily think you would, but it was a creative enough solution that I could see it happening. It would be very you to do something out of the box like that.

Oh, and since @Renomitsu's ghost was apparently haunting this article as I wrote it, I probably ought to tag him.

The saturation of the goalie market has long been a source of consternation for VHL GMs. For a while there, it generally worked itself out, and I'm not super familiar with how it went before I got here in S19 (my first VHLM season) and S20 (my first VHL season). Then as players such as Alejandro Messi, Vince Stephan, and the like took spots on VHL teams despite definitely not being in the same league as their contemporaries such as Daisuke Kanou @tfong or Joey Clarence @.sniffuM (to use the two of the four who are still around now) it became a bit of a power imbalance: contendership was largely determined as much, or nearly as much, by whether a team had a good goalie as by whether they had a good roster. Then came the influx of the GM goalies; one such example was Andreas Bjorkman @Tyler with then-Vasteras. The thought behind this was that the GM would always be at least moderately active if not highly active, and so teams would not need to employ low-active goalies. This was the trend for years, through several generations of players, but the side effect was that newer members were largely discouraged from making goalies. If an established vet wanted to make a goalie, a team where the GM neared the end of their goalie career would be one of only a few landing spots, or sometimes the only landing spot. If a new member did, it was a pretty hefty wait and see approach - a spot would become available if the new member was truly promising, but anything less than that and it would ultimately become a bit of an issue. For what it's worth, I largely tried to avoid the trend, with some combination of Skylar Rift @Devise (more on that in the historical article here) and Marius Henchoz. Eventually I created Martin Brookside, who finished out my tenure in Calgary and was eventually traded to Cologne after @eaglesfan036 took over in Calgary. The GM-goalie trend has gone by the wayside, which I largely consider to be a good change, because it means other players can create goalies. There have been plenty of great members to create goalies who have made a large impact on the league since, from first gens Brick Wahl @BladeMaiden, Alexander Pepper @Sonnet and Tristan Iseult, to established non-GM members making franchise goalies Roger Sterling @Will and Ismond Kingfisher (RIP Spade) to guys who skirt this line and are more established elsewhere but have gone on to be great here, such as Finn Davison @Poptart. As it stands right now, there are 3 goalies in the top 15 of the S68 Live Rankings, and 3 more between 27 and 36. To me, these rank from "obviously good enough to start for a franchise, barring a major life event" in A Red Guy @.sniffuM to "could become a starter depending on how well he gets on with his new team and if he finds his stride in the league" in Block Buster @Banana2311 and everywhere in between. The top three especially look like good bets to start somewhere - but are there three starting spots? The two aforementioned goalies as well as Raymond Bernard @Mr_Hatter, Fang Flashback @uphillmoss, Bruce Grimaldi @Psyduck77 and Samuel Ross @Brrbisbrr will be watching this draft with even more interest than the skaters in it; a skater, short of top activity, will still find a place on a roster and largely contribute just fine. A goalie generally either starts (60+ games) or is a backup (a handful of games, at least 8, but unlikely to go above 12-15 at best) so the cutoff between "did enough" and "didn't quite do enough" is a much sharper cutoff at this position. Plus, that doesn't even take into consideration the goalies that will inevitably add to the logjam next season, such as Solomon Crawford @AndrewWarren13. So what spots are open now, what spots will be opening, and what spots are mostly spoken for? Obviously the two biggest opportunities for new goalies are with the expansion teams, one of which is mine. @Enorama I'm sure is doing some of his own research already, and probably has a few guys he's working with on said research, just as I have. Adding two new starter roles and two new backup roles will clear out a bit of the logjam, but I don't know how many of the guys listed above would want to be a backup, at least beyond the first few seasons of their careers, plus there will be teams with backups exposed in the expansion draft that might be safer bets for us to take - New York for example has 4 goalies, with one active, one semi-active (a convenient backup) and two inactive. Would Eno and I take one of the draftees, put all our eggs in their basket, and pick up a clear backup in the expansion draft so as not to threaten the role of the starter? Would we take two of the draftees (perhaps one from the top 15 and one from the 27-36) and play them as largely a tandem, some split of games in the 50-22 range, so that if the starter leaves, the backup is good enough and active enough to start (at the risk of that not being a situation the players themselves want, although still better than they'd get somewhere else, but one can't always assume people will react to a situation logically)? Would we bypass the draftees entirely, giving a shot to a current backup that's a bit more established than a guy coming out of the draft (example would be Pekka Pouta @Snussu) who isn't earning at a top tier goalie rate going forward but would be a bit more competitive in the first 2-3 seasons of the team than a new player coming in? It would neither be fair nor correct to put all the burden of housing 6 goalies onto Eno's and my shoulders, and it definitely won't happen that way. There are a few categories the other teams fall into, and first I'll take a look at the category most likely to be interested in picking up some of these players: the starter is aging (in depreciation, or will enter it in the upcoming season) and there isn't an heir apparent. The two most obvious examples of this are Riga and Helsinki. Kallis Kriketers @hedgehog337 and Alexander Pepper @Sonnet are the two highest TPE goalies in the league, and both will be entering their 6th season. Their backups aren't likely to become starters, with this group coming up behind them - Pepper's backup in particular (Tristan Iseult) will be retired at the end of these playoffs and definitely won't be a threat. Clayton Park was at best a sporadic welfare claimer, but at this stage he may not even be that, as he's been gone since July 28th. It wouldn't surprise me if Riga and Helsinki picked up goalies in this draft to develop under the last portions of Kriketers/Pepper's careers and then take over, although either one could just as easily wait until next season and take Crawford or another goalie then, sacrificing a season of development for a further season under the new starter down the line. Moscow could still go this way as well - Roger Sterling will be entering his final season and therefore he'll definitely need to be replaced. Owen May @FacebookFighter, however, is a much better option going forward than Clayton Park, and while May kind of rides the line between starter-level activity and not (he's already been passed by Rayz Funk who is a season younger, but he's also not terribly far behind JB Rift who is two seasons older) it has recently come out that May's activity has been affected by personal issues in his life. Given that, I think the move is likely to go ahead and trust him to start, and let his situation resolve. He's not far behind where a starter needs to be anyway - the aforementioned Rift, one of the "worst" starters by TPE-to-season ratio, is good enough to backstop a team in first place after all. If Rift is enough, surely May can get there with two extra seasons. The next category is S64, and here is where Rift comes into play, along with two other starters in Brick Wahl and Finn Davison who were mentioned earlier. Of the three, there's actually a bit of a gap, which could come into play regarding future goalie situations. Wahl and Davison are clearly a good margin ahead of Rift in TPE, and so it seems as though the two of them could fight depreciation more easily once they get there. This, to me, makes Calgary and Davos less likely teams to take a goalie at least at this stage. Davos also has Pekka Pouta, one of the better backups in the league but with a TPE total you'd like to see more in an S66 or S67 draftee if he's to be relied on long term. They both still could, especially given the relationship between certain members of Calgary and either S68 draftee Fang Flashback or S69 draftee Solomon Crawford, but it's likely not a direction they need to explore unless someone falls for value late. Toronto, however, provides an interesting conundrum. Outside of Rift, there is not a single other goalie on their roster. We all know Devise doesn't like to keep any draft picks, but if he could somehow acquire one of these goalies (through draft, or more likely for him, through trade) it would leave open the possibility of a certain turn of events. Rift, being far behind Wahl and Davison, is perfectly competent as a starter now but doesn't seem likely to be able to fend off depreciation as easily. Considering Rift is the GM player, and Devise could easily just recreate whenever he felt like it, maybe he'd take a goalie, develop them for a season or two behind Rift as he takes his final free season and maybe the first depreciated season, then allow them to take over as he recreates elsewhere. This also seems like a very Devise-like thing to do since it would continue the window of contention, as there would be no seasons under a low-TPE goalie, since most of the guys in this class would be at or near Rift's current level two seasons from now. The S67 starters or heirs apparent also come as a bit of a tiered system, much like the S64s. Rayz Funk @Rayzor_7 is by a wide margin the best of the class and is already Seattle's starter. It's unlikely anything will change that going forward. If I rank the teams as most to least likely to take a goalie in the draft, which I won't explicitly be doing but you get a pretty good idea from the article, I'd have Seattle dead last. Funk is the guy so to speak and isn't at risk at all. The second tier of S67 guys include two who are in a very similar spot in TPE (one point apart on the portal) but one is the current starter, and the other is set to take over in the future. Michael Johnson @fonziGG will safely be in the net for Malmo for a long time, and appears to be the Davison of this class if Funk is the Wahl, whereas Greg Eagles @Greg_Di has the more heavily developed but significantly less here Ismond Kingfisher to deal with, at least for the time being. It's also possible Vancouver lets Kingfisher dangle in the expansion draft, as a sort of carrot in front of the two new horses in case Eno or I want to contend immediately. Not likely, but possible. Either way, Malmo and Vancouver both seem to be set in goal going forward. New York, however, has the final S67 draftee and isn't nearly as set as the other three. Thorvald Gunnarsson @Saelven88 is the most active of New York's four goalies but he's in the same class as Funk, Johnson, and Eagles, while being well back of Johnson and Eagles and less than half of Funk in TPE. It remains to be seen what New York will want to do - are they willing to bank on the moderately active Gunnarsson or the potential return of Kolur Bjoernsson @jblock3 who hasn't been on in two weeks, or do they take a new guy to push Gunnarsson and potentially take over the net long term? So ultimately, you have Riga and Helsinki who would look for an heir to two successful thrones, New York who may not have what they believe to be the future in the franchise currently depending on what they think of Gunnarsson going forward, Moscow and Toronto who could get creative or could rely on what they have, Calgary and Davos likely aren't quite at the stage to need a goalie yet but could take one if the value presents itself late or for personal relationships, and Seattle, Malmo, and Vancouver are definitely unlikely, unless they grab a backup. 2190 words Dagmar doesn't have to do anything for a month

I'll be up front with people, I'm not going to even remotely try to be competitive s1. S2 we'll see, but I think trying to be competitive s1 would require pulling from resources that could go toward making s3, s4, etc more competitive.

@boubabi So just to clear the air a bit: I'm not super thrilled you're back and I'll be honest about that, based on how you were at the end of your time. I'm still on the side of no, even though it's obviously happened anyway. However: you definitely impressed me in the podcast, and so far in your time back, you seem to be fine. I know how you can be when you're not in the mode you were in at the end - I know the vast majority of your time here, you were one of the best we had. I know you can be a great member - I've seen that firsthand. I've also seen the opposite, and that's the lasting memory I have of you at this point. Prove me wrong. You have this chance and regardless of whether I think you should or should not have it, I'm interested to see what you do with it. Podcast-you does seem to be much closer to original-you, so good luck and I wish you the best.