LucyXpher

2nd claim - 12/08/2024

Pierre Emile Bouchard article:

Pierre Emile Bouchard (S82-S92) User: @Gaikoku-hito February 28, 2022 - February 26, 2024 TPE: 1939 Position: D Nationality: Canadian Height:6'4" Weight: 235 lb. VHL Draft: S84 New York Americans (5th OA) Teams: New York Americans (S84), Vancouver Wolves (S84-90), Helsinki Titans (S91-92) International Play: WJHC S83 - Canada , World Championships (S86, S88, S90, S92) - Canada Trophy Cabinet: S86 Continental Cup - Vancouver S87 Victory Cup - Vancouver S82 Founder's Cup - Saskatoon 87 Jake Wylde Trophy - Vancouver (Top Defensive Defenseman) 87 Sterling Labatte Trophy - Vancouver (Top Defenseman) 87 Dustin Funk Trophy - Vancouver (Most Improved) S92 Alexander Beketov Trophy - Helsinki (Most Assists) S83 WJHC Bronze Medal - Canada S86 WC Bronze Medal - Canada S88 WC Gold Medal - Canada S90 WC Gold Medal - Canada S92 WC Bronze Medal - Canada Individual Honors: 1x All-VHL First Team (S87) 2x All-VHL Second Team (S88, S92) Team Captain - S87-S90 Vancouver •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• The career of S95 Hall of Fame inductee, Pierre Emile Bouchard, spanned nearly two full years to the date from player creation to his last game-- a Conference Finals Game 7 loss to S94 Hall of Fame goaltender Jesse Teno @Aimee and the London United. While one last finals appearance and a chance at a second Continental Cup would have been the icing on the cake, alas it was not meant to be for the defenseman who hung up his skates following that playoff exit. Bouchard's legacy is one of consistency, longevity, and success at every level of play. While some players before and after have hit higher highs, very few have maintained the elite level of play that Bouchard achieved with the same level of consistency, and only one other played as many games in the VHL. With 650 VHL games played over 9 full seasons, Pierre Emile Bouchard shares that record with a former teammate, Nico Pearce @Spartan . To achieve this record number of games played, Bouchard not only had to bypass a full season of VHLM play, but also managed to play an extra two games during his rookie season that saw him traded from New York to Vancouver while the Wolves were a couple games back in their schedule. This scheduling quirk put him on track to finish his career as the all-time leader among defensemen in games played. And while playing a lot of games is one thing, playing them well and achieving success at every level is another. Pierre Emile Bouchard is one of the esteemed members of the Triple Gold Club, having won a VHLM Founder's Cup as a waiver player for Saskatoon in S82, a Continental Cup in the VHL with the Vancouver Wolves in S86, and two World Championship Gold Medals with Canada in S88 and S90. Add to that 3 other bronze medals and some impressive individual hardware and it's not hard to see the case for his induction into the VHL Hall of Fame only 3 seasons after his retirement. •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Prairie Power - S82 Pierre Emile Bouchard-- the son of longtime Prague Phantom Robert Bouchard-- appeared onto the VHL scene after the S82 trade deadline and joined the Saskatoon Wild as a waiver pickup. The Wild, hoping to contend for the Founder's Cup that season, signed Bouchard to fill the fourth spot on their defense. The Wild that season were well endowed with 3 other defensemen scoring over a point per game and Bouchard filled their hole admirably, pitching in 8 assists through 14 games. Developing quickly, Bouchard would find another level in the S82 playoffs, racking up 18 points in 19 playoff games as the 3rd seeded Wild took down 6th ranked Marauders, the 2nd overall Reapers, and Prime Minister's Cup Champion Bulls en route to a Founder's Cup victory. Despite being a late addition, Bouchard would come up clutch for the Wild in their playoff run as he led the VHLM with 4 game winning goals in the playoffs. Bouchard would also pick up an assist on the Founder's Cup winning goal in game 7 of the finals-- a 6-3 win against Houston. This first taste of success would set the stage for what was to come-- call it the prologue to the epic that was Bouchard's career. Following the S82 Founder's Cup win, Bouchard elected not to declare for the VHLM dispersal draft, opting instead to spend the offseason training and to seek out new opportunities in Europe. Thus, he would only play 14 regular season games in the VHLM, but his 19 playoff games took him all the way to the top, leaving little left for him to pursue at that level. VHLM Regular Season: 14 GP, 0 G, 8 A, 8 P, + 1, 4 PIM, 13 HIT, 18 SHT, 14 SB VHLM Playoffs: 19 GP, 7 G, 11 A, 18 P, +/- 0, 12 PIM, 35 HIT, 46 SHT, 24 SB, 4 GWG Swede Dreams - S83 Back when the VHLE was a thing, and when it was an 8 team league that included the Istanbul Red Wolves and the Geneva Rush, Pierre Emile Bouchard signed as a free agent with the Stockholm Vikings. While he would have moderate individual success that season, ranking 2nd on the team with 72 points and 8th among all VHLE defensemen, the Vikings would finish 3rd in Europe's Northern Conference and 6th in the league, missing out on the VHLE playoffs by significant margin. For Bouchard, however, it was a stepping stone season and he continued to prove that he could play at a high level, even without exceptional star power around him. With his sights set on the VHL, he would move on from the E after only one season, despite being drafted 43rd overall in the VHLE on the off chance that he might stay. VHLE Regular Season: 72 GPE, 21 G, 51 A, 72 P, +/- 0, 54 PIM, 73 HIT, 240 SHT, 151 SB, 3 GWG •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• From the Empire State to Beautiful British Columbia - S84 / While all draft eligible players dream of hearing their name called and putting on the jersey of their first VHL team, for the proud Canadian, Bouchard, the Americans came calling at 5th overall, taking him in the 1st round of the S84 VHL Entry Draft. Beginning the season with New York, Bouchard was impressive out of the gates with 33 points in his first 33 games. New York, however, was not in a position to compete that season. With less than half the season elapsed, the Americans entered into trade talks with the Vancouver Wolves who expressed interest with Bouchard. On July 14, 2022, Pierre Emile Bouchard was traded from New York to Vancouver as the Wolves began to load up to be a true competitor, while the Americans embraced a rebuild with both arms, reclaiming their own 1st round pick in S85. The trade was as follows: --> To New York : Ryan @freezyeh + S85 NYA 1st + S85 VAN 2nd New York GM: @frescoelmo --> To Vancouver : Pierre Emile Bouchard + William Futch @Futch Vancouver GM: @Frank Bouchard would conclude S84 with the Wolves, tallying 31 points in Vancouver's remaining 41 games-- thus playing 74 games that season. While there was a slight production drop off for Bouchard after the move out west, it was somewhat to be expected as the Wolves were still on the come-up and struggled to an 8th place finish in the North American Conference in S84, missing out on the playoffs. Apart from his season in the VHLE, S84 would be the only time Bouchard would miss the playoffs in his VHL career. Rookie Regular Season Total: 74 GP, 17 G, 47 A, 64 P, -51, 80 PIM, 133 HIT, 244 SHT, 233 SB, 3 GWG New York: 33 GP, 8 G, 25 A, 33 P, -17, 6 PIM, 40 HIT, 117 SHT, 77 SB, 3 GWG Vancouver: 41 GP, 9 G, 22 A, 31 P, -34, 74 PIM, 93 HIT, 127 SHT, 156 SB •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Howling While the Moon is Full... S85-90 While it was a difficult end to S84 for Vancouver and Bouchard, the team was only trending upward with plenty of talent in the pipeline and a legitimate shot at being a contender through the next 5 seasons. When asked about the trade that brought Bouchard to Vancouver, General Manager @Frank had this to say, "Acquiring Pierre Emile Bouchard during Season 84 was the turning point for that era of Vancouver Wolves. We went from a competitive team with a bright future to a legitimate threat to compete for the cup season after season. Bouchard's agency ended up becoming the AGM of the team even to this day. Bouchard became a leader on the ice and helped us win a cup in Season 86 and make the finals in Season 89. He even graciously let us trade his player so we could commence a rebuild and now we're a competitive team once again." Vancouver took a huge step forward in S85 and finished 2nd in North America and 3rd overall with a 41-24-7 record and 89 points. Now on a team that was increasingly loaded with high end talent, Bouchard saw his points totals drop a bit as he only registered 55 points in 72 games that season. His underlying numbers, however, and the play of the team around him were trending positive! In the S85 playoffs, the Wolves would drop their first round series in 7 games to the DC Dragons-- the eventual Continental Cup Champions. Bouchard collected 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points in those 7 games while playing a team leading 29.94 minutes per game in the playoffs. S85 Regular Season: 72 GP, 11 G, 44 A, 55 P, +22, 38 PIM, 47 HIT, 224 SHT, 110 SB, 3 GWG S85 Playoffs: 7 GP, 3 G, 3 A, 6 P, +3, 6 PIM, 4 HIT, 16 SHT, 9 SB During those first few seasons with Vancouver, Bouchard credits Biggie Cheese @a_Ferk as his first defense partner, a great mentor, and an indispensable part of the S86 team that would win the Continental Cup. Reflecting on this time in his career, Bouchard said, "Biggie Cheese was [my] first defensive partner and taught [me at a young age] how to play in the VHL. If it wasn't for Biggie, Vancouver wouldn't have won the Championship in S86. Yet Biggie Cheese was selflessly traded away, hours after lifting the cup, putting huge pressure on my shoulders in S87-- which was my break-out season. If it wasn't for Biggie, I don't think this would have happened." In S86, Vancouver's Cup winning season, the team only finished 8th overall in the regular season, but only dropped by a point from their S85 form. With 85 points for Biggie Cheese that season, Bouchard saw his point share drop again ever so slightly to 51 points in 72 games, though he did match Cheese's goal total of 20 which was a sure sign of things to come for the still young defenseman. In the S86 playoffs-- as a wildcard team-- the Wolves dispatched the Bears in a 3 game sweep, and then went on to knock off the number one seed Calgary Wranglers in 5 games! They followed this impressive series up with victories in 7 games against the Chicago Phoenix in the NA finals, and the Prague Phantoms in the Cup finals. Just as Bouchard remembers, it was Biggie Cheese leading the way in the playoffs with 29 points in 22 games, while Bouchard himself notched an impressive 19 points, showing signs that he was ready to shoulder a bigger load for the Wolves going forward. S86 Regular Season: 72 GP, 20 G, 31 A, 51 P, +/- 0, 44 PIM, 88 HIT, 247 SHT, 126 SB, 3 GWG S86 Playoffs: 22 GP, 3 G, 16 A, 19 P, +1, 37 PIM, 55 HIT, 71 SHT, 49 SB, 1 GWG In S87, now without Biggie Cheese, Bouchard was the team's true number one defenseman-- and he delivered with a monster season, notching 19 goals and 69 assists for 88 points in 72 games-- a new career high that would stand until his final season. The team, meanwhile, dominated the VHL en route to a 50-16-6 record and 106 points-- 9 points more than the next highest team overall. As the favorites heading into the playoffs as the regular season champions, the Wolves fell victim to the Victory Cup curse, losing in 5 games to the Seattle Bears-- a wildcard team-- in their first 7 games series. Bouchard collected 4 points in that shortened 5 game series where the Wolves never really got their feet under them. For his individual achievements during the regular season, Bouchard claimed the Jake Wylde Trophy as the league's top defensive defenseman. He led all defensemen with a +35 rating, was 3rd overall with 198 shots blocked, and dished out the 12th most hits with 195. That defensive effort, combined with the 3rd most points by a defenseman earned him the Sterling Labatte Trophy as the VHL's best overall defenseman in S87. On top of that, he took home the Dustin Funk Trophy as the league's most improved player, going from 51 points the season before to 88 this season and filling his trophy cabinet along the way. S87 Regular Season: 72 GP, 19 G, 69 A, 88 P, +35, 172 PIM, 195 HIT, 282 SHT, 198 SB, 7 GWG S87 Playoffs: 5 GP, 0 G, 4 A, 4 P, -2, 14 PIM, 18 HIT, 20 SHT, 16 SB S88 saw Bouchard and the Wolves face some adversity as they clawed their way into the playoffs as a wildcard team with a 34-29-9 record. Bouchard was again the highest scoring defender on the team that season with 23 goals and 55 assists for 78 points and a solid +22 rating while some Wolves struggled to stay positive. In the S88 playoffs, Vancouver managed to beat the LA Stars in the wildcard round in a tight 5 game series before faltering to the Seattle Bears in the following round, losing that series in 6 games. Bouchard scored 6 points in those 11 playoff games, but ran into a bit of penalty trouble as he racked up 45 PIM. S88 Regular Season: 72 GP, 23 G, 55 A, 78 P, +22, 126 PIM, 200 HIT, 281 SHT, 171 SB, 2 GWG S88 Playoffs: 11 GP, 1 G, 5 A, 6 P, -3, 45 PIM, 41 HIT, 39 SHT, 37 SB Hungry to get back to their winning ways in S89, the Wolves put together a strong 43-27-2 record for 88 points. Bouchard had another exceptional season with 81 points, 3 points back of the newly acquired Brian Payne @Scurvy, who was a former rival-turned-teammate. Chatting with Bouchard, there was some nervousness about teaming up with Payne in S89, particularly with how the two top defenders might share icetime and opportunities. In the end, Bouchard acknowledged Payne as an exceptional teammate, "Payne was amazing on and off the ice, leading to Vancouver making the finals again; which I believe we choked away after being over confident being up 2-0 in the finals." In those S89 playoffs, after finishing 2nd in North America and 5th in the league, the Wolves climbed past Calgary in 6 games to move onto the second round. In round two, Vancouver swept Bouchard's former team, the Americans, and secured their place against Davos in the finals. After taking a commanding two game lead in the finals by a combined score of 8-4, the Wolves dropped the next 4 straight games as Davos secured the Continental Cup. It was surely a heartbreaking loss for Bouchard, missing out on a chance to win a second Cup. He played a huge role on that S89 team in the playoffs, however, collecting 22 points (2nd most on the team) through 16 playoff games. S89 Regular Season: 72 GP, 18 G, 63 A, 81 P, +2, 126 PIM, 209 HIT, 292 SHT, 182 SB, 3 GWG S89 Playoffs: 16 GP, 7 G, 15 A, 22 P, +1, 43 PIM, 47 HIT, 62 SHT, 30 SB, 1 GWG The S90 Wolves would improve on their previous regular season with 96 points this time around, though they entered the playoffs 4th in NA and 6th overall. Bouchard would once again have a strong regular season with 79 points-- 3 behind Payne this season. As a strong wildcard team, the Wolves would make short work of Seattle in the wildcard round, winning 3 games to 1. They would falter in the second round to the Toronto Legion, however, cutting their playoff hopes short again. In these playoffs, Bouchard was once again one of Vancouver's top players. He ranked 2nd on the team in total points with 12 through 11 games-- the highest scoring defender on the Wolves. S90 Regular Season: 72 GP, 15 G, 64 A, 79 P, +23, 114 PIM, 152 HIT, 214 SHT, 126 SB, 1 GWG S90 Playoffs: 11 GP, 4 G, 8 A, 12 P, +3, 20 PIM, 35 HIT, 22 SHT, 21 SB, 1 GWG •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• The Sunset in Helsinki - S91-92 Following another playoff defeat in S90, Vancouver was on the brink of another rebuild and Pierre Emile Bouchard agreed to a trade away from Vancouver so that his beloved Wolves could acquire assets for the future. It was a sign and trade situation where Bouchard agreed to terms for the final two seasons of his career and waived his NTC to allow Vancouver to ship him off to Helsinki in the following trade: --> To Helsinki : Pierre Emile Bouchard + S93 VAN 3rd Helsinki GM: @samx --> To Vancouver : Lloyd Braun @Toast + S92 HSK 1st Vancouver GM: @Frank The trade equipped Vancouver with a 1st round pick in Season 92, a draft in which they would select 6 times in the first round! Now in the sunset of his career, Bouchard would not go quietly into the night. He continued his hallmark consistency through both seasons in Helsinki. S91 saw the Hall of Famer help the Titans to a wildcard playoff berth with a 41-27-4 record for 86 points. Bouchard would lead all Helsinki defensemen with 86 points in 72 games, setting a career high in assists to that point with 72. In the subsequent playoffs, Bouchard would help lead the Titans from the wildcard to the finals as they took care of Malmo in a tight 5 game wildcard round, then defeated the Dynamo in 6 and London in 5, before failing at the last hurdle to claim the Cup against a strong Legion squad, losing in 6 games. Bouchard led all defenders with 25 points in those playoffs, including 3 game winning goals. S91 Regular Season: 72 GP, 14 G, 72 A, 86 P, +26, 149 PIM, 177 HIT, 217 SHT, 133 SB, 1 GWG S91 Playoffs: 22 GP, 8 G, 17 A, 25 P, +9, 28 PIM, 53 HIT, 61 SHT, 53 SB, 3 GWG And if anyone thought Bouchard would sail softly into the arctic sea-- now entering the final season of his career-- they would be wrong. In S92, Bouchard tied his career high in points with 88 and set a new career high in assists with 73, earning himself the Alexander Beketov Trophy for leading the league in assists that season. His contributions would be a massive part of Helsinki's success as they finished 2nd in the European Conference and 3rd in the league with a 45-19-8 record and 98 points. Bouchard's career high would rank him only 2 points behind DC's Mark Calaway @Beketov for the league lead in points by defensemen. In the playoffs, Helsinki went to 7 games against Moscow and managed a convincing 6-3 victory in game 7. Sadly, for Bouchard, his last chance at a second Cup would fall short as Helsinki lost to London in the Conference Finals in a tightly contested 7 game series. Bouchard would once again rank 2nd on his team in scoring, this time with 21 points in 14 games-- an exceptional end to a legendary career. S92 Regular Season: 72 GP, 15 G, 73 A, 88 P, +28, 44 PIM, 64 HIT, 251 SHT, 152 SB, 3 GWG S92 Playoffs: 14 GP, 3 G, 18 A, 21 P, +2, 6 PIM, 11 HIT, 45 SHT, 34 SB •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Legacy To go along with his 4 individual trophy wins-- including the prestigious Labatte Trophy for defensemen-- being a Triple Gold Club member, and a Victory Cup winner, Bouchard also ranks highly among the best defensemen to ever play in the VHL. Tied for the longest career in games played of all players in VHL history, Bouchard completed his Hall of Fame career with the 11th most points all-time by a defenseman with 670 in 650 games. His 518 assists are good for 9th on the all-time defenders list, and he ranks 62nd in goals with 152. With 1431 shots blocked, Bouchard is tied for 3rd all time, only marginally behind Skor McFleury @Alex. In the playoffs, like the regular season, Bouchard ranks 1st in games played among all VHL skaters with 108. His 115 playoff points are 2nd among all defensemen and 7th among all skaters. Bouchard's 86 playoff assists are the 2nd most all time, and his 29 playoff goals are 5th among all defenders to ever play in the VHL. Clearly, the key to Bouchard's success was consistency and longevity. Playing the games is hard enough, but performing at a high level in each of those games is another feat entirely. Former teammate and fellow games-played record holder, @Spartan (Nico Pearce) had this to say about Bouchard's career: "PEB wasn't the flashiest player on the team and never threw up monstrous numbers in the big picture of the league, but in an era where scoring was lower and consistency was critical from the blue line, Bouchard was one of the best in the league. He was a fantastic and passionate teammate who was a true leader in the locker room too. It was an honor to play with him for a few seasons and I'm extremely proud to see him in the Hall of Fame!" Former rival-turned-teammate, @Scurvy (Brian Payne) echoed a similar sentiment about the kind of player and person that Bouchard was: "I will say that PEB is the ultimate teammate. Selfless, fun, and always wanting to help his teammates out. A true leader in the locker room and on the ice. It was my pleasure to share the ice with him. He made Brian Payne better and truly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame." The career of Pierre Emile Bouchard is an all-time example of the commitment it takes to be a top player in the VHL. As I said at the top, there are players who may have hit higher highs-- or lower lows-- but very few have had the consistency of Bouchard-- consistency, no doubt, fueled by a renewed commitment to continue to grow and develop every week and every day. To do this with great success over the course of a two year span is remarkable. With an incredible 1939 TPE in his career, Bouchard ranks 13th all time among all VHL players in total earning. Now with a 3rd generation in the VHL, the future looks bright for the Bouchard name. While the sun sets on one great career, it is surely rising on another. Congratulations to @Gaikoku-hito and Pierre Emile Bouchard on an incredible career and induction into the VHL Hall of Fame! Career Regular Season: 650 GP, 152 G, 518 A, 670 P, +107, 893 PIM, 1265 HIT, 2252 SHT, 1431 SB, 26 GWG, 69 PPG Career Playoffs: 108 GP, 29 G, 86 A, 115 P, +14, 199 PIM, 264 HIT, 336 SHT, 249 SB, 6 GWG, 19 PPG •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Special thanks to @Frank, @Scurvy, @Gaikoku-hito, and @Spartan for contributions to this article! LucyXpher 12/01/2024 - 4000+ words

I APPLY FOR MALMO! Since I joined the league, Malmo is the team I’ve most wanted to join and would love the opportunity since the spot is open now

correct

Please Simon, bless us with this opportunity so Ricky and Bubbles can meet the new look Boat Gang in the second round…

Hoping you can get at least one more win Also, go USA!

Congrats on your first goal!! I’m sure there will be many more to come

Thanks for your kind words Having the three of you in Halifax, along with a bunch of others, really made a huge difference for us this season and made my job a lot more fun! Great podcast!

I've actually captioned that show for Netflix in my job, so if you ever watch it with CC there's a chance I did the captions for that episode *disclaimer: if the captions are bad, it wasn't me...

Yes! I working on it, will be done in the next few days!

lol the “Boat Gang” Is Ben the real villain behind all this? So many questions, so few answers

It’s definitely not an easy job from what I can tell, but a very important one! Despite what anyone has said, I think you’ve done a great job and it surely can’t be easy to take on a lot of it alone. Doing that on top of everything else you do around the league— it’s absolutely understandable that it’s becoming too much. I thought about helping a bit when you were looking a while back, but I was worried a bit about taking on too much too fast and burning out. Anyway, thank you for all you’ve added to the league in this position! I hope the community finds a dedicated replacement that can fill your shoes

Another VHLM regular season is in the books for the Halifax 21st, and by all accounts, it has to be considered a successful one! Entering the season, Halifax was conisdered to be one of the most inexperienced teams in the league, featuring no less than 11 first gen players, with all but 3 players joining the team via the VHLM dispersal draft or by waivers. The team collectively began the season with 1846 TPE and over the past 5 weeks have grown that total by an incredible 1271 TPE. The collective TPE of the team now sits at 3117, which is an incredible feat and a huge reason why the team saw improvement as the season progressed. At the conclusion of the VHLM's 72 game regular season, the Halifax 21st held a record of 40-29-3 with 83 points and a +3 goal differential. A quick glance at the standings might give you the wrong idea as the 21st somehow finished last in the VHLM's Eastern Conference, but still managed to outperform every team in the Western Conference by a 7 point margin. It really was a strange season for the VHLM in that respect as there was a very clear divide between the fortunes of the East and West. Every team in the East finished with a postive goal differential, while every Western team held a negative differential and made up the bottom half of the overall standings. But the playoffs are upon us now, and if this season has showed us anything, it's that any team can win on any given night. Apart from the last place Saskatoon Wild with a goal differential of -97, the next lowest goal differential belonged to the Mexico City Kings at -24-- and they managed to finish first in the West... go figure. On the other end, Philadelphia led the league with a +59 goal differential-- impressive, certainly, but a far cry from Vegas' +85 in S95 and Halifax's +150 in S94. There is healthy parity in the VHLM right now and it could very well make these playoffs competitive, if not chaotic! Among the top players on the Halifax 21st all season long is this week's SuperSailor, Hater Tottingham. With the 5th most TPE gained on the team this season, Tottingham has exactly doubled their starting TPE total of 91, and currently sits at 182 overall. And while earning consistently and productively developing their player, @Trunkxolotl has been a regular contributor in the Halifax locker room, week after week, bringing good humor and positivity! And in the sims, Tottingham has been one of the team's top players. Hater potted 18 goals and pitched in with 27 helpers for a total of 45 points over 72 games. While that total may not seem overly impressive compared to league leaders, keep in mind that Tottingham is not yet VHLM drafted and has plenty of room to grow still! On top of that, the Halifax roster is quite full this season and every player has had to share icetime to the detriment of point totals. Having said all that, Tottingham finished 3rd on the 21st in total points behind Kazuma Satou (54) and Ty Duke (62). Tottingham also had the 2nd highest +/- rating at +16 and had the 2nd most hits of any forward on the team with 114. Tottingham was a staple on the team's top line, often facing other teams’ best forwards, and was a big reason why the team found success throughout the season-- not only scoring points, but keeping the opposition at bay. Halifax has been truly blessed these past few seasons to have some incredible waiver signings. This season, Tottingham, Satou @Spartan , Tuomala @flyersfan345, and Poole @Itz_Viperz have all been SuperSailor worthy and all 4 rank in the top 10 in TPE out of VHLM draft eligible players-- Satou, Tuomala, and Tottingham actually rank 1,2,3 while Poole comes in at 8th having joined the team nearly halfway through the season. These players have all been a huge part of Halifax's regular season success and hopefully they can help the team continue strong into the playoffs. Congratulations to Hater Tottingham on being our Week 5 SuperSailor, and thank you for being such a wonderful teammate-- and for choosing Halifax! ༻❁༺

Idk if it’s a record, but I got a game misconduct 25 seconds into a game against Moscow this season— the infraction was “butt ending”. Greatest moment of my player’s career so far

Graphic Pending... On Monday, November 11th, the VHL's Trade Deadline came and passed with a modest amount of activity-- 5 trades in total in the two weeks leading up to the date. It may not have been the flurry of activity that this point of the season is sometimes known for, though the trades we did see certainly shuffled the deck a little and set the stage for the stretch run and the immanent VHL playoffs. So without further preamble, let's dive into the VHL's Trade Deadline and see what it says about the direction of the teams who opted to participate in S96. November 8th The first real Trade Deadline movement occurred between the New York Americans and the Los Angeles Stars. New York receives: D - Moritz Stauffer @GoodLeftUndone (S88 - Retiring) Los Angeles receives: S97 LDN 2nd S97 NYA 3rd New York, who has achieved moderate success with a solid roster this season had a hole to fill in their defense. With a playoff berth in sight, the Americans' GM @STZ opted to acquire a rental player in Moritz Stauffer who will be hanging it up at the end of S96. Stauffer becomes the 2nd highest rated defender by total TPE, after Callum Gary Yannick Janser, and fills the fourth spot on the New York blueline as they push to secure a place in the playoffs. Stauffer, whose career high in points was 72 in S94 with Calgary, now joins his 6th VHL franchise, hoping for one more chance at a Continental Cup. Stauffer previously won the Cup in S90 with Prague and will bring that championship pedigree and experience along with him. Since acquiring Stauffer, the Americans hold a respectable record of 12-7-1, and Stauffer has collected 16 points in those 20 games. Los Angeles, on the other side, received two S97 picks-- the London 2nd rounder being the more valuable of the two as it could turn out to be the 17th overall pick if the lottery goes their way. It's a decent return on a retiring player for a team who is outside the playoff picture this season and is currently in the midst of rebuilding toward future success. In the S97 draft, Los Angeles now holds four 1st rounders and three 2nd round picks which should help them, at the very least, collect a quantity of prospects that could build them up in seasons to come. •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Shortly after the New York/LA deal, Helsinki and Seattle entered the fray with a surprising trade that saw the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy frontrunner, Ahsoka Tano, move to the Seattle Bears Helsinki receives: D - Sunset Moth @McWolf (S91) S98 RIG 1st S98 SEA 3rd S98 LDN 3rd S98 SEA 4th Seattle receives: D - Ahsoka Tano @Aimee (S95) The biggest piece in this trade is the one going to Seattle, and that is the rookie blueline sensation, Ahsoka Tano. As a rookie with Helsinki, Tano collected 43 points in 47 games and was leading the way in the rookie scoring race. This trade represents an upgrade on defense for Seattle, both now and in the future, as Tano projects to be a top defender in the VHL for seasons to come. With 11 points in 20 games for Seattle since the trade, Tano has slowed down in production a little bit while she's seen her ice time reduced on a more complete defensive corps, though she projects to be a top defender for the team going forward. The slight production drop also hasn't hurt her Stolzschweiger chances much as she still leads the race with 57 points-- 6 more than the next highest rookie scorer. For a rebuilding Helsinki team under new management in S96, the return for Tano features a solid player in Sunset Moth who can immediately step in and fill the hole left by Tano on the blueline. Moth is now up to 9 points in 19 games with Helsinki. And while the ceiling on Sunset Moth certainly seems lower than Tano's, Helsinki also managed to secure some draft picks-- most notably the S98 Riga 1st. While the two 3rd rounders and the 4th represent a chance to select a late round sleeper pick, the 1st is likely the only pick here that will amount to a potential player. For Helsinki, the hope will have to be that Riga takes a step back in S98 in order for this pick to be further up the draft order. Alternatively, @McLovin could opt to flip the pick for further capital in the S97 draft. As it stands, Helsinki is loaded up on late picks in S98, but only has one pick in each of the four rounds in S97. For a team that seems to be bottoming out, the plan seems to be to sell anything and everything that isn't nailed down and to reset. Unfortunately for Helsinki fans, the team likely hasn't hit rock bottom quite yet. If I was Sunset Moth, I'd probably think twice before buying a forever home in Helsinki. •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• November 10th On the day before the Trade Deadline, Davos and DC made a true hockey trade-- a one-for-one player swap... sorta. HC Davos receives: D - Joseph Dubois @Dubois (S90) D.C. receives: D - Masa Akimoto @Hokikeijot (S93) In this deal, Davos received the only VHL level player in Joseph Dubois-- now their 5th defensemen as the team apparently wanted more depth at the position going into the playoffs. The jury is still out on how much playing time Dubois will actually earn on this Dynamo defense, but it certainly positions Davos to be able to ice a better roster should they run into penalty trouble going forward, and maybe there's a future trade to be made in the offseason. Dubois had 21 points in 50 games for DC, but has yet to score in 16 games with Davos. On the other side of this deal, DC collects yet another prospect to add to their already extremely populated prospect pool. While Akimoto has yet to reach the VHL, the potential is there to become a solid defense option if GM @qripll can unlock it. Akimoto currently has 44 points in 61 games for the VHLM's Ottawa Lynx. •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• November 11th And then the Trade Deadline arrived with Vancouver and Warsaw opening the day with a spicy trade that featured some hotly debated conditions-- which were ultimately resolved. Vancouver receives: G - Olober Syko @Spartan (S91 - Retiring) Warsaw receives: S98 VAN 4th Conditions: If Vancouver makes the S96 playoffs, S98 VAN 4th becomes Vancouver's next available 2nd. If Vancouver wins the S96 Continental Cup, S98 VAN 4th becomes Vancouver's next available 1st. With their sights set on a deep playoff run, Vancouver went out and acquired the VHL's top statistical goalie, and didn't have to give up much to get him. With the Wolves basically a lock for the S96 playoffs, the S98 4th will almost certainly be upgraded to a 2nd round pick. If Vancouver can go all the way and win the Continental Cup, that 2nd will become a 1st in either S97 or S98-- Warsaw's choice. The only downside for the Wolves is that they only have one crack at it with Syko who has decided to call it a career early at the end of this season. It's a pretty straightforward trade for Vancouver, however, as the cost of acquiring such a dominant goaltender-- even for the remainder of S96-- is relatively negligible. And even if they win and have to pay up the 1st, I'm sure their GM @Frank won't mind too much since they will have achieved their goal. On the other side, Warsaw does well to recoup an asset for a goaltender who was finished after this season anyway. Sure, the Predators might make the playoffs, but even with Syko they were not likely to get far as the team had many other holes to fill as they continue their rebuild. Overall, it's tidy work from @N0HBDY to pull value out of an outgoing Syko. •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• Closing out Trade Deadline Day, Calgary and Toronto made a swap that saw longtime Legion defender Bobby Bob on the move in exchange for another VHL veteran. Calgary receives: D - Bobby Bob @Baby Boomer (S88 - Retiring) Toronto receives: S97 TOR 3rd D - FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY Analfist @STZ (S88 - Retiring) With Toronto sliding out of the playoff picture and a management change immanent, they opted to move franchise defender Bobby Bob to Calgary for a chance to go all the way with North America's top team. In return they receive a 60 point defender in FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY Analfist who-- like Bob-- will be retiring at season's end. The legion also picked up a Toronto 3rd rounder in the swap which may or may not result in a roster player for the future. For Calgary, there's currently only a 7 point difference between Bob and Analfist, however Bob should be a slight upgrade to an already strong blueline. While Analfist has the slight advantage in defensive acumen, Bob possesses the skating, puckhandling, and offensive instincts to make him a slightly more potent option for the Wranglers as the playoffs approach, while giving up very little defensively. •• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ •• And that's all for the VHL Trade Deadline folks! While it certainly wasn't as spicy as Trade Deadlines past, it gave us some insight into the direction of teams as they load up or sell heading into the last couple weeks of the season. Only time will tell who the real winners and losers are. ••●•• LucyXpher 1600+ words

The Halifax 21st, who began the season with a very green and youthful roster, are now coming into their own! With a record of 11-3-0 in the last 14 games, the 21st are cruising towards a playoff spot with only 10 games remaining in the Season 96. A recent article by @Mysterious_Fish which showed each team's average TPE relative to their standings position really highlighted how impressive the 21st have been as of late. With an average TPE of 169.9, Halifax ranked behind all but one team in the VHLM, and yet still sit 5th overall in the standings, only 2 points behind the Miami Marauder's whose average TPE was 253.6! Halifax's success is owed in large part to the herculean efforts of Jon Webber III, who has been one of the best goalies in the VHLM this season, and who could even be in the conversation for league MVP by the season's end. Take nothing away from Halifax's skaters, however, as a collective team effort has boosted the average skater TPE to 169.9 from 99.3 at the beginning of the season! That's a collective 60 TPE jump across 14 players, which has meant that every player has been earning consistently and working towards the team's goal of a playoff berth. Despite not ranking at the top of the league and having to fight for every point, it's been an exceptional and exciting season for the Halifax 21st, and I am very greatful for the efforts of each and every player on this team. It's quite rare to have this level of consistency in the VHLM-- especially from a team that features 11 first gen players who are still learning the ropes. With 5 days of sims left in the season, it's looking more and more certain that the Boat Gang will achieve their goal of reaching the playoffs, and after that, who knows what could happen. This week's SuperSailor, however, is a player who has been a great contributor in the locker room and in the sims, though his on-ice contributions don't always make him the most popular player around the league-- let me explain. Petr Novak currently has 8 points through 62 games, which at first glance doesn't really capture the eye. The eye popping statistics, however, are that Novak ranks 6th in the league with 161 hits, and 6th in penalty minutes with 94. Look, I know what you might be saying, he's a certifiable goon... well, the username @LastGoon007 checks out. There is something to be said for the value of such statistics, however, and Novak has brought an element to the game that many of his teammates lack. In my opinion, a good hockey team needs its fast and skilled scorers and playmakers, a solid goaltender, and responsible, puck-moving defenders-- but it also needs someone who's willing to get their hands dirty, to fight, to hit, and to sacrifice for the team. Does Novak's style of play sometimes leave the 21st shorthanded? Sure, but it's not to an extreme excess and there is certainly value in it-- even if management would like to see him develop his defensive game going forward. What really stands out for Novak is his role as a leader in the locker room. Since the beginning of the season, Novak has been a vocal and positive leader, even securing poutine bonuses for teammates who have performed well. He's been consistently growing and making fun contributions around the team. This kind of leadership to back up his physical play and standing up for teammates goes a long way and is worthy of commendation. As a player who is expected to become a very important member of the 21st defense in future seasons, Novak has come as advertised and has very much lived up to his draft position at 14th overall in his VHLM rookie season. Congratulations to Petr Novak on being named the 25th SuperSailor! Honorable Mention: Michael Lee Jr @blueredlover is one of only 2 players in the VHLM that were selected in the 5th round to remain active and earning! Drafted with only 54 TPE, Lee Jr has climbed an impressive 56 TPE (to 110 totall) over the past 5 weeks and has carved out a consistent role as the team's 3rd/4th line center. As Lee Jr continues to develop, the opportunities will certainly be there for more icetime and an increased role. While it's easy to heap praise on players who pile up points on the top lines, it's the players like Michael Lee Jr, who quietly and consistently continue to develop and fulfill an important role, that deserve a ton of credit! ༻❁༺

This was super interesting to read and you did a great job putting this all together! It definitely goes to show the importance of goaltending in the league right now-- especially having a good capped goalie. There's also something to be said about player build efficiency and some other roster construction factors like depth. Simon will do Simon things, but this really explains alot about how the standings have played out this season!

This is by far my favorite part of the E being gone. The M feels a lot healthier now because of this and even weaker teams can feel competitive because of the fuller rosters

Personally, having more players has kept me more busy with my team, but the trade deadline did feel particularly quiet this season. Maybe it’s also just the time of year? Or maybe GMs are nervous to overpay or undersell? It’s kinda hard to read the value of a player right now as we’re all still kinda feeling each other out

Oof duly noted

I was gifted a new one by a very kind soul! But there was a story behind its disappearance lol

Wait is it possible to get 0 points? I 100% submitted… nvm, I see why I wasn’t tagged

Maybe this is just my groggy 8am cynical brain speaking, but I’m glad we have the current system and don’t have to pitch. First, because it allows us to spend more time with real personal interactions with players who are actually on our teams without feeling like we need to chase down potential players. And Secondly, because I feel like players have their preferred landing spots anyway and don’t even really care about pitches half the time. Anecdotally, when I joined, as soon as I saw my home city Houston had a team, I didn’t care that there were other options with more playing time. I wanted to play there. We also see a lot of recreates who have their preferences and teams they’d rather not play for. Sure, pitching could be fun in an ideal world where nobody got cynical about the process, but as Jacob mentioned above, the prospect of waiting around to be the first in on a new player is way more trouble than it is worth. I’d much rather spend my time as a GM working with and being the first point of contact for players who are actually on the team. I can only speak for myself, but I’ve tried my best to keep our team’s general pitch updated and specific so it doesn’t feel like a generic wall of text like you described. But with a low word limit, there’s only so much you can say. But I do feel like those general pitches could use more love and attention— though in the flip side, it feels like hardly anyone reads them anyway, so…

Fantastic article and a lot of research to chew on! I am very much on board with your predicted playoff productivity— even if the last little stretch has been super meh