.sniffuM

i’ve never written anything like this in my time in the league. i’m usually writing little .com articles in character, or doing graphics, or having a laugh with my good friends on 3ppao. i guess there just hasn’t been much that i would consider worthy of blabbing on about. however, as the season gets closer and closer to starting again, i find myself reflecting a little bit.
 
malmo’s championship run this past season was what dreams are made of. if you had asked me before the season started what my expectations were, i would have said “i’d like to make the playoffs without the need for a wildcard round”. boy, was i blown out of the water. things started off well, and after a slight dip in performance, which i addressed with a trade for @fromtheinside we never looked back. we just kept winning and the team grew more and more confident as the wins piled up. seeing the locker room transform from what it was in seasons prior, (which i’m sure any gm of a team not expected to do well knows exactly what that’s like) into what felt like one of the best team environments i’ve been a part of, it was amazing to see. 
 
that run culminated in a tremendous victory cup, which we won quite handedly, and ultimately a continental cup that made things oh so much sweeter. the playoffs had me way more anxious than i care to admit! a huge shoutout to @GustavMattias, @dlamb, and @Banackock for building outstanding teams that nearly pushed us over the edge to our demise. i actually couldn’t believe that we had managed to pull off the victory. it was not something i had ever pictured for malmo so soon into my tenure.
 
that brings me to now. we’re on the other side of all of that, and i feel extremely satisfied with the work i’ve done in such a short time. i can’t take full credit, @FrostBeard set everything in motion way back before i even took control of the team. however, finding some amazing players in the draft, at the positions that we had, is something that i am extremely proud of. i’ve been blessed with not only amazing players, but amazing people too. building a team of people that motivate each other to be their best is probably what i love the most about this, and i couldn’t be happier with the squad that i have today.
 
having said all that, i think this ship has run its course. i got into gming with the ultimate goal of winning a cup. that’s all. i never wanted to be hall of fame worthy, or to be remembered by everyone as one of the greatest of all time. i’m sure every person who has aspired to be a gm can relate. maybe you dreamed of more cups and more glory, but everyone just wants to win! i wanted to make my mark, prove to myself that i could do it, and hopefully make a positive impact on the players i acquired to do that with, and i did it. 
 
so i’m sitting here wondering, what more is there for me here. or better yet, what more can i contribute to the league and my team as a gm? and i’m struggling to come up with an answer. i’m not saying flat out that i’m done just yet, but the time seems right. it feels unfair for me to stay in a position where i won’t be fully committed. and to be taking that opportunity away from one of the deserving up and coming gms just doesn’t sit well with me. day in, day out i see the passion and drive that the other gms bring. not only about their teams, but also about the league as a whole. 
 
maybe i’m a little burnt out. i’ve been going pretty steady at this for the better part of a year and a half, and i’m sure many of you can relate, it starts to take a toll on you eventually. i’m not too keen on running myself into the ground and making things worse than they really need to be. i still enjoy building players, and i cherish the small community i’ve surrounded myself with. like i said, this is not a resignation just yet, but the thought is on my mind. i thought it would be beneficial to get these thoughts down and maybe generate some discussion on things i’ve touched on.
 
anyways, that’s about it. thanks for taking the time out of your day to get a glimpse at my inner monologue.

Hello all,
 
It seems this old man is rather good at going through the help, since I joined the blue team I've seen at least 5 different commishes come and go. Am I cursed? Who knows. What I do know is that the commish team historically runs best as a three headed beast and with @Quik officially moving into the light blue realm that means we need a new head on this hydra to join @bigAL and I.
 
So, we discussed it, and came to the most natural conclusion that it's high time @Josh gets called up to the "big leagues" since he's been pretty much batting in them for awhile now. Does this metaphor still make sense? I'm not really sure. What I am sure of is that we appreciate all the time Quik put into the league and hope to see Josh do great things in the role as I'm sure he will! So, say hello to your new antichrist Commissioner Josh!

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a player to excise him/herself from a team, and in doing so create a hole in the back of the leadership of said team approximately the size of a Wusthof 6 inch hollow edge chef's knife, a decent respect to the interests of the league requires the recently-stabbed to declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 
 
I should know, it's happened to me twice.
 
The first is well-documented: I was GM of the Calgary Wranglers from S26 to S41. For much of the league's history, this was the record for longest GMing tenure - a fact that is laughable at the moment given how readily @hedgehog337 and @Banackock have turned such a run into child's play, but nonetheless it was true. I had a defenseman on my team by the name of Ryan Sullivan, @Advantage's player, and a GM spot became open in New York that he was a logical candidate for, so I traded him there for Skylar Rift, @Devise's player and someone I assumed would be my franchise goalie for the rest of his career. Goalies simply didn't move at the time barring complete shifts in team direction, or so it seemed. Not too long after that, however, I was not entirely on top of things contract-wise during the season and despite my efforts after the season ended, he left in FA (along with several other players from other teams to form somewhat of a powerhouse in Quebec, although some questioned the methods by which that team was built). I didn't know it at the time, but apparently he'd been planning to leave partway through the season, which would have been nice to know but he kept it close to the vest. 

Obviously that wound has long since healed as Devise remains one of my closest friends on the site to this day (and as was made clear in the ensuing decades, I was partially to blame for the whole thing in that particular case). It's in a 40 for 40, which for the most part has closed the book on that chapter, and it's now simply just another moment in history. I only bring it up here as it has relevance to another situation that just occurred hours ago. 
 
Apparently, I'm just a very stabbable person. 
 
This particular GMing run, as the inaugural GM of the Prague Phantoms, began in S68 when the team was created. As an expansion, we were terrible for some time, then got mediocre, then had a few promising years (one of which we deserved better from the sim, and were led in goal by a certain Brick Wahl, which will become important in the ensuing paragraphs). Nonetheless, it has not been a particularly successful go around, sim-wise anyway, but it's been much more fun because I've taken the success of the team with a grain of salt and instead have focused more on generating a good team atmosphere and a place people want to play, especially if they've already done so once before and liked it at the time. There have been a lot of people I've gotten to know well over this run, from the only member I've now GMed on both teams @Doomsday, to multi-league veterans such as @Sharkstrong, @omgitshim and @Cornholio, to guys that have been around in this league for varying lengths of time such as @animal74, @Seabass, @Fire Vigneault, and @wcats. Many of you know, however, that I have a tendency toward promising first gens. It's why I've ultimately always been more at home in the VHLM in some capacity, whether as GM or as a commissioner. I've played a proud role in bringing a lot of guys their first experience with the league - for example, one of the guys I GMed in Ottawa before taking Prague is now sitting beside me in the other commissioner seat ( @McWolf ) and it's always a pleasure to work with him. For Prague itself, it's been a lineup of guys that in many cases have gone on to do quite a bit for themselves here, the most prominent current example being @Domg5, but along with that there's @Gaikoku-hito, @JB123, @Baby Boomer, @Mistxh J and many more. Apologies if your name's not here, I don't think anyone wants to just read off a list of names. My point is that I've gotten to know a lot of people, most of whom I consider friends in some capacity.

Then there's @BladeMaiden.  Someone who started off as a bit of a thorn in my side during her run as GM of the Philadelphia Reapers, but whatever you thought of her methods, she had a passion for that team that was unmatched and I was always grateful for that, whatever the result. Yes, there were times where that passion may have resulted in a few questionable methods, but ultimately the M is about getting people interested and then letting them blossom into good solid members in the bigs, and she was always reliable for that. She's polarizing as hell, probably one of my biggest opposites in that sense (it took me some time to decide to sit down and write this because I fear for the blowback, but ultimately decided I should get something out of the situation in any case) and a lot of people are not entirely fans of hers or weren't early on especially. I've never been in that group. I respected the hustle in the Philly years while not always encouraging the things that happened, and since then, I've developed a friendship enough that I've always wanted to have her around in some capacity, even more so if she's on my team. @rjfryman may have had the winning bid in EFL to get her to come back here and create Thightrap, but it was not for lack of trying on my part (and I could have gone higher, had RJ not had the same goal as I did, which was to bring her back here in particular). She obviously has her group of close friends here, but I count myself among that number. 
 
When the S74 draft came, I had the 4th pick. I was a bit tunnel visioning at the time, I'd convinced myself I was going to draft Blade come hell or high water. As talks wore on ahead of the draft, it became clear 4th would not in fact be high enough, and so I began to try to move up. Ultimately this was futile, no teams were budging, and in fact I had an offer from Warsaw to move to 1st overall that was ridiculous and would have broken my team ( @.sniffuM had already committed to who he wanted with that pick and did not want to go back on his word, which is certainly respectable - the offer was something in the neighborhood of 2 1sts and 2 2nds to move up 3 spots). The fact that I actually thought about the offer for more than 10 seconds tells you all you need to know about how badly I wanted this to work. Ultimately I traded down instead, managed to land Flyers' player at 8th, and certainly came out of that draft looking much better than I would have without all those extra picks I could have given away. When a former commissioner coming off of a hall of fame player falls in your lap, it makes it much easier to accept not getting the player you wanted. 
 
Several seasons later, I'd managed to acquire Thightrap via a trade with Seattle (and anyone who's been in the league for more than half a season knows the type of price that involves) for what at the time seemed like it would be the rest of her career. Three seasons, admittedly marred a bit by the fact that they'd be seasons of depreciation, but this was a good enough player to take the hit just fine. She was only signed for one more at the time of the trade, but surely securing an extension would not be a problem for a friend? Especially when early on she'd asked if 2 seasons would be enough value rather than 3 intending at that time to retire early, but basically just assuming as though things would be with Prague. This would be fine, right? Not remotely an issue? Right? Bueller? Bueller?
 
When the blade slipped in, somewhere between the 6th and 7th thoracic vertebrae, it felt numbing at first. Like a slight tickle. Once the shock wore off, there was much screaming, many tears, and a long hard talk of reconciliation, but it happened nonetheless. I was backstabbed a second time. This time, however, I'm convinced none of the blame was my own - she would tell you the same, frankly. Extension talks began plenty early, I'd sent an offer weeks ago, an offer which she says she never saw (I'm not sure if that was a glitch in the site, or if she did see it and just didn't take it, or what have you). As things got closer, a slight doubt crept into the back of my mind, but I never actually doubted this would get done. Then it didn't. She went right back to Seattle, taking my picks with her. 

Then, like the first stab wasn't enough... she wanted to be removed from the discord. The claim was something about the team needing space to vent and it would be easier to be mad about it if she wasn't there. Sure, that sounds reasonable enough, but not if you know my discord. We're the type of environment where once you're a part of us, you're a part of us for good, as long as you remain in the league (unless you specifically indicate wanting to be removed, but even then that's generally been for people who have been there for a season or so). The term is not for everyone, and I don't really remember who coined it, but there's a reason people have called us the "Phamily" - you don't just stop being a Phantom just because your player has. This request, to me anyway, hurt as much if not more than her player leaving in FA. It also didn't last long. I'd initially compromised and moved her to Alumni (where she would not see the team section, where much of the chat is) but had already been talking to her in discord PM for some time at that point, and once I'd expressed just how not ok I was with that decision, she's back in. It lasted a whole 15 minutes. A body is a whole thing - you can't just cut off your arm, leave it sit out for a while, and then reattach it (unless under very specific circumstances, including a lot of ice, before @Renomitsu the doctor comes in here and corrects me). In any case, this time the fallout has actually gone much quicker, and while I'm still feeling a bit of a fresh wound, Blade and I are already back on good terms, and things are perfectly fine on that end. I'm not willing to lose a friend over a hockey sim, even if it would be easy to do so right now. Blade is a firecracker, far more impulsive than I'd ever be, but that's also a good thing. The world needs some people like that. If everyone was like me, quiet and unassuming, we'd never make any progress. 

However, there is one thing that has come of this. It's arguably been some time coming now, and has been somewhat in the back of my mind, but this has, shall we say... accelerated the timeline. I will not be stabbed a third time. I like to keep my friends as friends, and not think poorly of them, even if only for an afternoon. Therefore, the current plan is that season 80 will be my final season as GM of Prague. I will remain VHLM Commissioner, the role that enables me to do more good for a wider array of people and to help fuel the league with new members who enjoy this strange and wild trip we call a league. Obviously the decision as to my replacement  will come primarily from the blue team, as it has always been, but my recommendation as of this moment (and assuming I'm not talked out of the decision, which I don't see as likely) would be @Acydburn - prior to McWolf, he stood by my side as my fellow VHLM Commissioner and has now taken the same role in the VHLE. He's been Prague's "unofficially official" since day 1, and would have been my inaugural AGM instead of Zoiderberg had he not already been GM of Ottawa (coincidentally the team I'd GMed up to that point). There is no one here I'd rather see get a spot, and frankly it's been a long time coming, if the blues do in fact decide to give him the position. 

2,172 words. 4 weeks of claim. 

I did it

Jacob Carson has accepted Warsaw's offer.

Congratulations everyone! 🎉 

So hot!!  Grats to all!

All scrubs, congratulations.

I did it

MUFFFFFFFF YES CONGRATS
 
@.sniffuM

Hey Everyone!
 
So, this will probably come as a shock to most of you, but I haven't really been around much lately. I touched a bit on this when we announced Al as the newest Commissioner, which was 2 months ago, that I was going through some changes in my personal life that meant less time for the league. Initially, this was meant to be temporary, as I settled into a new phase in my career, hoping to return to full activity as a part of the Commissioner team in this great community that I've devoted thousands of hours to over the past decade and a half. However, after a couple of months, it's become clear that I will no longer be able to put in the time necessary to be a contributing member of the Commish team.
 
It's been a wild ride, and I'll be forever grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the leadership in the VHL. Thank you to everyone I've interacted with for being part of the journey, and if I haven't interacted with you, thank you, as well, if for nothing other than being part of the league.
 

I did it

Claim 1 of 1

I can't believe we let the name Hulk Hogan in the VHL HoF. What a tragedy. 
 
For real though congrats to everybody especially @.sniffuM who has been here eons but really of late had cemented himself with a good expansion GM run. Awesome job everyone!  

I did it

Claim 1 of 1

Victor Grachev's option with the Warsaw Predators has been picked up.

Congrats @Jericho @.sniffuM and @TXC! Thanks for all of your wonderful contributions to the league! 

Congrats muffy!

I did it

wooo muff!!!

Congrats everyone!

The off-season is upon us and with it, this season's Hall of Fame induction. In S79, we decided to honour a few men who have been waiting in the wings for a while (some longer than others).
 
C - Wesley Kellinger, S33-S40 
RS: 576 GP, 275 G, 453 A, 728 P, +306, 532 PIM, 1,138 HIT, 221 SB, 56 GW
PO: 67 GP, 27 G, 37 A, 64 P, +18, 70 PIM, 151 HIT, 39 SB, 7 GW
 
S40 Scotty Campbell Trophy (Most Valuable)
Two Continental Cups (S35, S39)
 
First we have a blast from the past in a similar vein to Mathias Chouinard or just a couple of season ago, Mike Szatkowski Jr. (a goalie Kellinger played against for most of his career). The recreate of Daniel Braxton, one of the VHL's most famous first-gens and one of the greatest defencemen ever, Kellinger got a lot of hype going into a deep S33 draft and went 1st overall. There were two forwards who would get into the HOF as first ballot members, Odin Tordahl and Niklas Lindberg, but Kellinger may have had to wait significantly longer, but he was always there, available for selection when the right time came. The right time is now. Drafted by Davos but making his name when Quebec traded two drafts worth of picks for him in S34, creating a mercenary team for whom he was then the offensive star as they won their first cup in S35, five seasons after expansion. Kellinger then stayed among the top 5 or so forwards for the rest of his career, teaming up with Tordahl to great effect for the NY dynasty and closing off his career as the veteran leader and MVP of another expansion team in Cologne. Never quite the best but always among the contenders, regular season or playoffs, Wesley Kellinger is finally in, hope it was worth the wait @Jericho
 
 
D - Hulk Hogan, S67-S74  
RS: 576 GP, 105 G, 444 A, 549 P, +84, 1,025 PIM, 1,212 HIT, 984 SB, 22 GW
PO: 90 GP, 9 G, 64 A, 73 P, +12, 149 PIM, 170 HIT, 155 SB, 2 GW
 
S71 Alexander Beketov Trophy (Most Assists)
Four Continental Cups (S68, S69, S71, S73)
 
Lincoln Tate went in, then Condor Adrienne and then Jeff Downey, and still Hogan waited. We even inducted a S36 goalie before him but it was all about doing our due diligence. Hogan is a very interesting addition to the Hall of Fame, as his stats don't quite show his consistency and are hurt by his peak being in the VHL's dead puck era in the late 60s/early 70s. But consistent he was, almost like a Kellinger of defence. Similarly, he also didn't accumulate many awards but he did get quite a few championships as a lifer of the Seattle dynasty. Most of the credit for that Bears team went to the GM and then of course to the goalie, but Hogan was ever-present and if you had to think of the face of the franchise outside of Funk then it would be him. The team evolved but Hogan stayed consistent, putting up the numbers and biding his time - recognition finally arrives for @TXC
 
 
VOTING RESULTS
Wesley Kellinger - 8/11
Hulk Hogan - 8/11
-----------
Jakab Holik - 3/11
Alexander Pepper - 1/11
Roque Davis - 1/11
Tyson Kohler, Erik Killinger, Ola Vikingstad, Kyl Oferson - 0/11
 
 
And we're back to making a Builder induction this season. This is a man who was there for both Kellinger and Hogan's careers and then some - he actually joined the VHL at around the same time as me and around the same age, and we then took very different paths to end up in the same retirement home. Famous for his beard, to some most famous for being snubbed, Damien Walec @.sniffuM has been around the block for eons. Like many of us he dipped out for a bit but he's had a lot more highs - 1 Hall of Famer in the great Tukka Reikkinen, busting both Vasteras' and New York's curses, 1 GM tenure with Vasteras best described as a learning experience, 1 GM tenure with Warsaw where that experience was put to very good use with a very good expansion team, a VHLM Commissioner stint at some point in the last decade that I genuinely can't remember when but on the bright side I can vividly remember him being green which means he stood out in trying to make the VHLM (the old version) a better and more welcoming place. And of course years of contributing to league discussions and at times the BOG, and since his comeback (again, pretty much at the same time as me - are you following me Damien?) a staple of the VHL's Discord community - I don't think it would be the same without him.
 
 
Congrats to Jericho, Hogan, and Muff!

Wow