Artair McCloud's S77 Preview

[Hoopydog 195]

Introduction

 

So here we go again, the 77^th season of the VHL has just begun and once again we are here to do a season preview, as well as catch up with Artair McCloud, to see what his expectations for him and his teammates for this season. McCloud is still signed with the Riga Reign, although he is in the last year of his rookie deal and could hit the free agent market at the end of the season.

 

Last Season

 

I did one of these at the end of last season but in case you have forgotten, let’s have a brief look at how McCloud’s year went last season. McCloud was a part of a large up and coming Reign rookie class last season, as a part for the franchise’s rebuilding phase. Roster spots were highly contested but McCloud found himself a home playing on the 3^rd line with a brief stint on the 2^nd line and an even shorter stint on the 1^st line during the playoffs. He scoring 19 goals and got 21 assists for a total of 40 points in his rookie campaign. Not bad for a 3^rd liner.

 

This Season

 

After crashing out the playoffs at the hands of the Prague Phantoms, Riga looked to strength their squad and make a real push for the playoffs. They mainly added to their defence by trading for London defensemen James Rose, acquiring the rights for General Zod from Calgary and then signing him and Jared Carter who has graduated from the VHL and joined the main roster. Along with Carter, forwards Joseph Sharkton and Andy Nexber have also made it to the big leagues and will play a supporting role in the forward core.

 

As for McCloud, with the departure of forward Dolant Fertitta, he has assumed the role of 2^nd line forward and has been featuring on the 1^st line powerplay. After the first 4 games of the season, McCloud is yet to register a point as the team as a whole has been struggling to find their feet. It is maybe a bit to early to make some line changes but if this poor form persists then some changes may be needed. This could impact McCloud’s ice time, maybe for better but It would most likely see him change powerplay unit or drop back to his 3^rd line spot.

 

The Future

 

I would like to preface this section by saying that I don’t really know how the salary cap works and anything I say is merely speculation.

 

With, as mentioned above, Artair McCloud’s contract is due to run out at the end of the regular season and with the cap hell that Riga will find themselves in, he may have to accept that he might not be on the team come next season. As last season, and this season so far has shown, McCloud is probably a 3^rd/4^th choice winger on the roster, behind Lose, McLaren and McJake if you count him (as he plays on the 1^st line wing with Sheilds as the centreman). Given this sort of pecking order, he finds himself in 2 scenarios (sort of). The first of which is if Ray Shields resigns with Riga, he would probably take a bit chunk out of the cap and would more and likely mean that McCloud wouldn’t be able to resign. The other scenario is that Shields doesn’t resign and McCloud takes the spot as 2^nd/1^st line right winger. If he were to hit free agency, where could he potentially end up? He would probably want to go somewhere he could get more ice-time. I don’t think that he would want to leave in the first place but if he had to, I’d think maybe D.C. could be a good fit for him. They are in need of a right winger to play on their top line and by the end of the season he could be ready to play that kind of role. Plus, it’s in the opposite conference so he would be able to avoid his old team, well as much as he possibly could

 

The Interview

 

I think it’s about time we hear form the man himself and see what he has to say about this season and his future:

 

Reporter – “Hello, their Artair it’s good to see you again. How are you doing after the off-season and after your teams start to this season?”

 

McCloud – “Hey how’s it going, it’s good to talk to you again. I’m doing good yeah, after losing in the playoffs last season, it was a sore one to take, we had worked so hard to get there but we are young squad and we are only going to keep getting better. So, it was just back to the training ground to make sure we were ready to make some noise this season. In terms of our start, obviously we we’re not happy with how the first couple have went. We are a much better team than the way we are playing but we are working hard in practice to improve and I’m sure we will come good soon.”

 

Reporter – “Yeah you guys have been struggling a bit but have put in better performances already. After losing to Moscow 7-0, you beat Davos 4-1 but then lost narrowly to them again 2-1. After such a quick improvement. How is the mood in the camp?”

 

McCloud – “Yeah we took a long hard look at ourselves after the Moscow game. I know it’s early days in the season but we are serious about where we wanna be this season and that’s battling it out for a cup. We were a new squad last year, most of us were rookies but now we a have had a season to settle in and it’s time to get to work. We played well in our first game against Davos but we are still not quite right and we are looking to get firing on all cylinders soon”

 

Reporter – “You haven’t registered a point yet so far this season but again it is still early doors. Do you have any goals or expectation you’d like to hit or meet this season?”

 

McCloud – “I try not to set goals, I’m more of a take it game by game kind of guy but mainly I just try to improve on the season I had before. I think last season I hit about 40 points and about 20 goals so I guess maybe hitting 55/60 points would be nice and breaking the 30 mark as well would be pretty awesome so I guess those are my own personal goals for this season. Ultimately I just try help my team win and what I want is to win a cup and I will do everything I can to bring it home to Riga and for my teammates.”

 

Reporter – “Yeah I get that vibe from you that you try and put your team goals ahead of your personal ones so good for you man. One thing that I did want to talk to you about is that your contract is expiring at the end of the season. I just wanted to see where your heads at with that whole situation?”

 

McCloud – “Haha I knew this question was gonna come up, I had seen some of the speculation in your stuff before. First and foremost, I would like to say that I am enjoying my time here in Riga. But I’m also not naïve or oblivious to the cap situation that the team could find themselves in come the end of the season. There are lots of good players whose contracts expire and each one of them deserve an extension and any team would be lucky to have them. I’ve just got to prove why the team should resign me and why I deserve a spot on this team.”

 

Reporter – “A small cheeky question for you here, have you had or entered any preliminary contract talks with the GM?”

 

McCloud – “No I have not and it’s understandable that I haven’t, it’s pretty much the start of the season and there’s about 70 game still left to play. Even if I had, I would not disclose them in this interview as I feel that wouldn’t be a professional attitude to take.”

 

Reporter – “Yeah I thought you might say something like that and would expect nothing less of you Artair. That about concludes our interview, do you have anything else you would like to say?”

 

McCloud – “Eh yeah, I would like to thank my teammates and the fans because I couldn’t ask for a better set of either and also I little warning for the rest of the VHL… The lions are coming and oh boy are they hungry!”

 

Reporter – “What a statement to end on, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me Artair and I wish you the best of luck this season”

 

McCloud – “No problem man, take care”

 

So that wraps up our season preview and chat with Artair McCloud. This could be the biggest season in his career as by the end of it he could be on an entirely different team. He is a young talent who will only just keep improving. That’s all from me and I guess I’ll see you at the end of the season.

 

1559 Words, Claiming for weeks 22nd - 28th March, 29th March - 4th April and 5th - 11th April 

[Hoopydog 195]

Claiming week 2/3

[Hoopydog 195]

Claiming week 3/3

[Xflexz 179]

Great job on this! The interview part was definitely a great piece to add in. Hope you do this again next season 10/10

[Prout 373]

Love the interview formatting and how it was implemented here. Great job. I liked how you bolded things and spaced it. Overall a good read and some solid writing skills I must say.  I actually really enjoyed this and looking forward to more work from you!

 

8.5/ 10