VHL Storyline – Expansion Finals

[Smarch 2,953]

VHL Storyline – Expansion Finals

 

At the time of writing this article, the Victory Hockey League is awaiting the first day of the Continental Cup Finals. The finals this season will see the Chicago Phoenix and Warsaw Predators facing off against each other, an amazing feat for franchises that both saw their first seasons in the league in Season Seventy-Three. Today we will take a quick look at the two franchises that are looking to hoist their first VHL championship in just their fourth VHL season, and how they got themselves in this position.

 

Chicago Phoenix:

 

The Phoenix have come a long way since their eighteen-win inaugural season back in Season Seventy-Three. Chicago’s General Manager Geoffrey Dee started off his career with the Phoenix, with the Season Seventy-Three VHL Expansion Draft back on July 13^th, 2020. Chicago was awarded the Second Overall pick in the expansion draft, along with five other picks spread out through the twenty-four picks. Dee used the Second Overall pick in the draft to pick up another pick in the VHL Entry Draft, picking up Slot A, which was Seventh Overall. That pick turned out to be the first franchise building block Dee would put into place, selecting the team’s starting goaltender for the past four seasons, Jean Pierre Camus. Fifteen selections later, Dee pulled another gem out of the Season Seventy-Three draft, when Dee and the Phoenix selected Canadian born defesenman Matty Socks. Chicago would of course as mentioned earlier go onto win only eighteen games in Season Seventy-Three, something that did set them up for long-term success, as the team through the draft lottery was awarded the Second Overall pick in the Season Seventy-Four VHL Entry Draft. Although the team missed out on winning the draft lottery, picking Second Overall allowed the team to find their franchise forward in Christian Mingle. While Mingle was able to bring some extra firepower to the roster, Season Seventy-Four still saw the Phoenix put up a losing record, however they did add twelve win from the previous season. As is the theme with this article and the Phoenix, another losing season allowed the team to enter the draft with the sixth overall pick. At this time with an up incoming roster that seemed ready to break out, Dee saw a unique opportunity to pick up two franchises defining defenseman in the Season Seventy-Five VHL Entry Draft. Dee flipped his Season Seventy-Six First and Third draft picks to Calgary in exchange for the Fourth Overall pick in Season Seventy-Five and a Season Seventy-Six fourth. This move allowed the Phoenix to pick up for L and R to finish building their impressive defensive core.   

 

 

All the moves in the draft, along with some savvy trades put the Phoenix in the spotlight as the team now headed into their third VHL season in Season Seventy-Five. After winning thirty-games the season before, the Phoenix continued to improve each season, as the team saw its first winning season in Season Seventy-Five, posting a thirty-seven-win season, good enough for the team’s first playoff appearance. In their first playoff appearance in the league, Chicago was tasked with facing one of the best VHL franchises over the past decade, the Seattle Bears, in the North American Wildcard round. In a three game sweep of the best of five series, the Phoenix swept the Bears in a surprising turn of events. Chicago would then see another first as they would head into the Conference Semi-Finals against the best team in the league, the Calgary Wranglers. Unlike the Wildcard round, Chicago was put to the test against the Wranglers, with the series finally being decided in overtime of game seven. That’s where the team’s second draft pick from their first VHL Entry Draft, Matty Socks came to the franchises rescue. Just like that after experiencing their first playoff berth just a few weeks ago, The Phoenix were now headed to the Conference Finals to take on the D.C. Dragons. Again the Phoenix were back and forth against their opponent in the Conference Finals, and just like the previous round, the Phoenix found themselves in a game seven. Unfortunately for the team, a rough second period would be the undoing of the team and the end of their great Cinderella playoff run. Six goals were scored between the two teams in the second period, but Ove Dyrdahl put the final nail in the Phoenix coffin, with the Dragons fourth goal and the eventual game winner with just under 5 minutes left in the second period. A great season and great run, set the team up for where they find themselves now.

 

Fast forward to today, the Phoenix and the city of Chicago are looking forward to first Continental Cup finals in the city. After going 1-1 to start the playoffs, the Phoenix have gone on to win the last seven playoff games, a very rare hot streak for VHL teams in the playoffs. The next week will be full of highs and lows, while Phoenix management and friends go on the wild last ride with the team.

 

Warsaw Predators:

 

Like Chicago, the Predators came into the league in Season Seventy-Three and immediately held court near the bottom of the European Conference standings. This of course is not a knock on Warsaw of their management, the expansion franchises in the VHL are not expected to be world beaters when they enter the league. Like Chicago the first real action that Predator General Manager Damien Walec saw with the team was the Season Seventy-Three VHL Expansion Draft. The best selection for the Predators in the VHL Expansion draft was the third last pick in the draft, when Warsaw took the S73 VHL Entry Draft Slot C (10^TH Overall). With that selection in the Entry Draft, Warsaw was able to select centerman Dakota Lamb. Lamb who currently is the highest TPE player on the team, was a great first building block for Walec and the Predators. Like Chicago, Warsaw used the great Season Seventy-Three VHL Entry draft to stock the cupboards, selecting goaltender Ajay Krishna and defenseman Victor Grachev in the Second Round of their first VHL Entry draft. After the first season in Season Seventy-Three that saw the team finish with twenty-three wins, which was good enough for fourteenth place in a sixteen team league. While the first season had its share of growing pains, Walec and the Predators new better things were ahead for the new franchise. Season Seventy-Four started off for the Predators by selecting Aloe Dear First Overall in the Season Seventy-Four VHL Entry Draft. While Dear was the belle of the ball in Warsaw, one shouldn’t overlook the selections the Predators made at Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Overall. With those back to back selections in the Second Round, the Predators were able to pick up two quality pieces to help the team in Tim Waters and Lexi Glass.  

 

 

While Glass has been the better of the two up to this point in their careers, Waters has been a stable contributor on the Predators blue-line. Warsaw headed into their second VHL season in Season Seventy-Four with a better roster, but one that had a lot of learning and growing to do. This was evident in the regular season, as the Predators did improve their wins from twenty-three to twenty-seven wins, the biggest indicator of the learning and growing the team did was in the goal difference between the two seasons. The Predators ended with a minus sixty in the goal difference category in Season Seventy-Three, but improved that number to a minus thirty-four in Season Seventy-Four. Behind the scene and on the ice, the players and management were doing everything in their power to ensure the team was headed in the right direction, that direction took a real shot in the arm heading into Season Seventy-Five. Walec started working the trade wire in the off-season, starting with a deal with Riga that say a Second Round pick head to Riga in exchange for Jeffrenomitsu The 3^rd. In the next few weeks, Warsaw would go onto pick up four draft picks, alongside veteran centeramn Dagmar Havlova. Warsaw then headed into the draft to complete the slight roster overhaul. The Predators used one of those picks they were able to grab in a trade with Toronto to pick up defenseman Muffbeav. Now with a more complete roster in their third VHL season, the Predators were ready to move from pretender to contender in Season Seventy-Five. I don’t think many that follow the VHL expected the leap Warsaw took from year two to year three, but after a twenty-seven-win season the season prior, Warsaw broke out in a big way with a forty-win season in Season Seventy-Five. Warsaw would see their first VHL playoff matchup in their history in the Conference Semi-Finals in Season Seventy-Five, unfortunately they would run into the eventual Continental Cup champions, Malmo in that round. Warsaws’ great season would end in that game seven defeat at the hands of the Malmo, but much like Chicago the Predators first playoff appearance would go a long way the following season. As the off-season began in Warsaw leading into Season Seventy-Six, Predators GM Walec, again took to the trade wire to upgrade his roster. Seattle and Warsaw would strike a deal that would see a First and Second head to Seattle in exchange for a Third round pick and six-year forward Uhtred.

 

Now as the team and their fans await game one to be played in the Polish capital, Predator fans hope that the team’s first championship appear ends in success.

 

1,599 Words For weeks:

February 28-March 6

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Edited March 5, 2021 by Smarch

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