diamond_ace

Looking back at that draft, I'd have probably grabbed Warren in the 1st rather than risking the Oslo pick in between, then likely Sulerzyski in the 2nd, I remember thinking he was going to be a steal. Obviously that didn't turn out too great for Vegas who got him, but I'd still have taken him over Famished

bdu hadn't really shown his troublemaker side prior to the draft - he didn't really show any side at all, he'd just joined and made like 3 posts at that point. The fact that he was active at all shows a bit of a tendency for me to pull steals, although of course it's unfortunate the way that went after.

I mean that assumes very little of my drafting ability - do you really think I'd have taken Szita? You of all people should give me more credit than that. I pulled you in the 3rd, I'm not taking Szita in the 1st.

True to an extent, although S63 Ottawa was intended to be a mini-retool (not a full on rebuild, but going in that direction more than the final playoff result ended up being)

The VHL (and VHLM) to a much larger extent than other professional leagues like the NHL, tends to split itself into two categories: contenders and rebuilders. In the NHL you'll find a much larger pool of teams in the middle, not likely good enough to win anything but will be at or around the playoff cut line, and there is an actual cut line where teams will make or miss by a handful of points. In the VHL, there's usually a pretty good gap between the last team in and the first team out, or perhaps between the two wild card teams instead if there were too many rebuilders for them all to miss out on the playoffs. In any case, teams tend to have a stronger and more clearly defined identity, where they're either definitely intending to be in the mix for the cup, or definitely intending to improve their draft position - certainly both of these in the VHL and VHLM to a much larger extent than the NHL. Recently, each league has provided one team that just has not picked a side, no matter the conventional wisdom, and one of these teams actually managed to win a cup anyway - spoiler alert. Let's start with the VHLM one, and leave the VHL one to finish off the article. The Halifax 21st have only been in the league for three seasons now. In their inaugural season, most GMs would have just taken what picks they had and tried to move them back a year, essentially tanking the inaugural season for a shot at the second season. Most GMs aren't @ShawnGlade. With an unusual strategy, he tried to compete from the outset, despite starting with the scraps of other teams and despite the fact that his ceiling arguably should have been the middle of the pack. Cups aren't frequently won from the middle of the pack so it seemed logical to trade the good pieces off to contenders, acquire picks for the following season, and try to push for the S63 title instead, but due to Shawnglade's insistence and a little bit of sim luck, the team got off to a great start. This repositioned them into contenders and they tried to acquire pieces, but even then they refused to trade away much from the next season to put all their eggs into one basket. Ultimately they went into the playoffs as the top seed and looked poised for a cup, but lost in the finals in S62 to the Ottawa Lynx, who'd been developing all season from a lower starting point and it paid off in the playoffs. Since they hadn't traded away much in the prior season, Halifax went into S63 in a decent position as well, but ran into a few teams with giant piles of picks, as is usually the way in the VHLM. It again seemed like Halifax would be in the middle of the standings somewhere, and that it would be the perfect time to commit to a rebuild and acquire picks to come out swinging in S64. Again, Shawnglade eschewed that logic, deciding that a team in the middle of the standings might be able to make noise come playoff time, and tried to ride his luck mostly with the players he had and a few acquisitions. This time, he went out a round sooner (the semifinals) but certainly put a scare into eventual winners Saskatoon. Going into S64, the team was handed off to @McWolf who was in a bit of a strange position, as Saskatoon and Yukon (who had been the top seed the prior year but lost in a semifinal upset to Ottawa) had so fully committed to the year before that Halifax wouldn't have been able to tank properly if they tried, but it also looked like there weren't enough pieces to take on the top teams either. Thanks to some draft day implosions on the part of Oslo, Halifax was actually able to climb into the contenders' pool once again, but would lose in the finals to Vegas. Three seasons, two finals, but no cups. Whether this Halifax team is to be considered successful depends on one's definition of success. A lack of cups can't really have been the goal, but at the same time, three decent playoff runs without a rebuild season in the VHLM is pretty much unheard of. The VHL team that fits this criteria, on the other hand, has definitely been successful with no real debate as to the definition. They are, after all, the defending cup champions as of the time of this article. Of course, this would be the Toronto Legion. With what definitely didn't seem like enough pieces around which to build a contender, @Devise took advantage of timing to acquire most of the good pieces of a Calgary team that would enter into a rebuild going into S64, a move which @Bushito was happy to oblige as it would send his own player and two other of his long term Wranglers off to a team that would suddenly get a lot better. Still, with the exception of goalie, Toronto looked nothing like the best team in the league at any position. Devise's well documented aversion to picks had certainly played a factor in deciding to try to put together a contender, although Toronto would spend most of the regular season looking up at teams like Seattle and Riga in the standings, both of whom had much more complete teams across the board. In fact, prior to the season, Toronto looked so little like a contender that one key free agent, Keaton Louth, would choose Helsinki instead despite what Toronto had assumed was a verbal commitment several days earlier. It left a bitter taste in Toronto's mouth as Helsinki didn't seem that much better on paper prior to that acquisition, but of course after it they definitely seemed the stronger team - as did the seemingly two top contenders, the aforementioned Seattle and Riga. Then the playoffs happened. The operative phrase in that last paragraph would prove to be "with the exception of goalie" as the massive gap between Norris Stopko and anyone else in the league would become the key to winning in the playoffs. Stopko was so far ahead of any other goalie that he was nearly twice as skilled as the second best, which was Tristan Iseult of Quebec, who wasn't even able to be a factor in the playoffs because of his GM's failure to follow the backup goalie rule. Quebec was forced to play the backup in the playoffs since they didn't play him enough in the regular season, and Toronto advanced out of the wild card round, seemingly about to lose to top seeded Seattle. In the semis, both the top two seeds would fall, as Toronto would manage to pull off the upset against Seattle and Helsinki would do the same to Riga. This set up a cup finals with a strong storyline behind it; it would become the Keaton Louth finals, between the team he went to and the team who expected to get him. This lit a fire under the Toronto players, who came out swinging and took out Helsinki in a surprising sweep, of course led by Stopko who played not only the best hockey of the season, but put together one of the all time best goaltending performances. Going into S65, Toronto seems to be in an even weirder spot, with Stopko retiring on a high note, and Sebastian Ironside being forced into free agency by rule and prevented from signing with Toronto. Contention looks at first glance to be out of the question, and the team has just enough pieces to maybe start off a rebuild, with Oyorra Arroyo likely to fetch a hefty price and Evan R. Lawson maybe worth a decent pick or two, Tzuyu being young enough to build around going forward. Instead, Toronto will look to contend once more, this time without their one massive advantage in goal (although Johnny Havenk Carison will be eager to prove a point, since he's never gotten the chance to be the primary starter for a team up to this point). This could backfire horribly, but if last season is any indication, it could also somehow work out perfectly, especially with the acquisition of The Charm in free agency. These two teams deserve a closer look, one way or another, for stepping outside the traditional mold of going full on contender or full on rebuild. Teams may look to emulate this going forward, since it managed to work well enough for Toronto to win a cup, although with the recent influx of members it's unlikely the league will ever see such a gap between the best and second best goalie again. Halifax, while a success of sorts in the regular season, never quite managed to get it done in the playoffs, but their book is still being written, as is Toronto's. In any case, it'll be interesting to see what becomes of each of these teams going forward. 1517 words 3 weeks

Oyorra Arroyo @Bushito

The diary is fantastic

One of my all time favorites

It helped that the next best guy was an inactive, but tbh you had the best stats for it

Ottawa also has Don Draper @Infernal who should be able to step up into a good role with the team this year

@Kylrad the sig... is that the character from the music video for Genghis Khan by Miike Snow?

of course

Yukon rebuilt last year, and with the fact that most VHLMers are out of the minors and into the bigs pretty much right away, the league essentially flips on its head every year. Yukon took about a billion people this year. You guys are easily top 3 favorites for the cup, probably the single favorite if I had to pick one.

@Nacci25 is Nacho

Two new brands, no Green Bear

sorry have to do regular welfare this week +5

I'm concerned it might be my fault actually. He posted in achievement tracker, but played in the bigs so he doesn't get any. Might have seen the tag and telling him he didn't get any at the bottom of the post, and got upset

i actually really like this deal for both

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Welcome back, I somewhat remember you from the last time

You don't have to do this you can just link to my post

Top half

@Philliefan @eaglesfan036 @Chase Klein @Rocketman04 @Antone10 @ShawnGlade @TacticalHammer @Kuch9

katie warren 13 viktor kozlov 18 roll fizzlebeef 13 matteo 13 jb rift 20 bald guy 18 david harrison 13 smitty werbenjagermanjensen 20 josh harris 13 nathan n 20 matthew kai 13 bolt vanderhuge 20 brady stropko 18 jagger philliefan 19 gritty 18 chase 16 connor mcdavid 20 mitch matthews 20 justin cole 20 sven hitz 16 john madden 18 (I know you counted 14, which with the +3 would be 17, but I rounded them separately rather than after adding so you got an extra) evgeni komarov 20 milan griffin 13 denver wolfe 13 matthew materazo 17 jack lynch 13 orion slade 13 dallas jones 16 dan baillie 20 fylo gibbles 13 eric parker 16 anthony matthews 13 diljodh 20 elasmobranch fish 19 basaraba moose 13 carles puigdemont 18 teagan glover 13 kyson blake 14 nethila dissanayake s66, ineligible (and did not claim 2 stats anyway) ryan zabby in bigs, no achievement tracker @WhiteMocha @nethi99 @JayF @Thranduil @Gooningitup @Sogarn @Goonie @Matt_O @xsjack @BluObieZ @Trifecta @wcats @SpartanGibbles @Eparker24 @Anthony Matthews @DilIsPickle @Sharkstrong @Toasty @Eudaldkp @Bucky___lastard @TMI @tunedtorock @Devise @Galdoblame @Lightningyamasha @flyersfan1453 @Ty343 @NathanN @FBR @RyanZabby @kayfabe @Bushito It stopped letting me tag there - anyway so I'll tag the rest in the next post, and here are your points (it's what you earned +3, except the cap was still 20). The +3 made the minimum 13. If you think you should have gotten more please check my math but I think this is right

Good luck in Riga bud, glad to have you for the season