Theme Week - Expansion Proposal

[Ledge 1,131]

It is that time of year, and I need something to write about for this theme week. So, since the theme is VHL alternate reality, I figured I’d do a piece on expansion. It’s been a very vocal issue that has been discussed with the BoG and the commissioners, and nothing has been put into effect yet, although there have for sure been hints of something big coming. But perhaps the funniest thing I find about this whole situation is the April Fools prank played by Bek, where, in an official looking statement, announced that the VHLM was being disbanded and joining the VHL, with new teams also added. I, as I imagine many others did as well, initially fell for the ruse because of how startlingly realistic it could be. That’s part of what I’m going to go into in the rest of the article. 

 

First things first, let’s address the issue. We can’t just keep expanding without a very good reason for it, and let’s just say that we definitely have one. The amount of members has exploded recently, with the recruitment crew reaching into massive sites like Reddit and Facebook to put the VHL out there. New members have arrived in droves, and they have flooded first the VHLM and now the VHL. Despite having newly expanded in S73, adding four teams, there are increasingly more issues with roster spots, cap space, and ice time concerns. In the past, teams with too many players would just offload one of their unimportant guys to another franchise with room for them. This season, in S77, it has come to where GMs are having trouble finding teams with extra space. This has led to a lot of VHL users coming to the conclusion that more expansion is needed. Which may not be the case.

 

See, expansion is, well, risky. Yes, there is clearly a good amount of possible reward involved. New GMs would get to help create new teams, and it’s always fun to imagine it going perfectly. Unfortunately, most things in life don’t exactly work out perfectly. Expansion solves problems but also creates them. There are more roster spots, and more members of the community are engaged in team management across the league. But championships per franchise become sparse, and we may start to question the reasoning behind our dedication to these positions besides having fun. Reading this now, I can’t think of many solid cons to expansion, but I’m not the one who has to deal with all the behind the scenes stuff involving STHS and the portal etc. I can’t speak for someone with that responsibility. But I can make a proposal of my own to see how the general public reacts.

 

There have been ideas thrown out there. Obviously, making more teams is the most common and I think the most naive possibility. Just throwing more teams into the mix is problematic for reasons stated above, and it gets to the point where we are at an NHL level of cup droughts. This is a fun online league, and part of that is being able to win a championship. So in my proposal, I took that into account. Yes, we need more teams. But is there another way to incorporate more teams without making the cup drought hole bigger? Here’s an idea that’s been tossed around; a sort of affiliate league where there was one affiliate team for every two VHL teams, or something like that. I’m not a part of the BoG, so I can’t speak for them, either. But the idea I had is similar to that, and even stemmed from it. I liked the idea of a separate league, but in a manageable way.

 

When I say ‘manageable’, I mean yes, there is a separate league, but not really. Let me explain. If I had to make the decision about the league, the first thing I would do is take 4 teams from the VHL, preferably two from each conference, and move them to a new league. I don’t know what the new league would be called, but the old VHL would no longer be the VHL, because both leagues together would be the VHL. Think of it as the CHL; each league would be the OHL, QMJHL, or WHL, and all of them together are the CHL. So two new leagues, both under the VHL. Then, eight new franchises would be added to the new league. After that, both leagues would have 12 teams and the VHL would have 24. 

 

The VHLM will still exist, except the TPE limit will be 200, at least initially, to make sure all the new teams have an acceptable amount of players to start with. If the recruitment continues to be fruitful, the limit will go back to 250. The dispersal draft will use the same format as is now, with waiver players signed during the season being eligible to be selected. The amount of VHLM teams will remain, with the juniors being abolished until further notice immediately after the expansion. Again, if the recruitment drive stays strong, the VHLM shouldn’t raise too many issues. 

 

The VHL draft, of course, will have to be modified. However, it is easier to explain the playoffs first. The 72 game schedule will not change, as it has worked for the league for the past couple years. The leagues will have conferences of 6, and four teams from each conference will make the playoffs. Then, with no relation to the conference rankings, the 8 postseason teams will be matched up based on regular season points, followed by wins, and then an elaborate tiebreaker system that has yet to be formed. For example, it will be 1st seed vs 8th seed, 2nd seed vs 7th seed, and so on. This will happen for both leagues, with the usual 7 game series. The playoff teams will play it out until two teams remain from each league. Here’s where it gets exciting. The four teams will enter the Continental Cup playoffs, which will be in the format of the CHL’s Memorial Cup, where there is a round robin to start. The fourth seed is eliminated, 2nd and 3rd seeds play in the semi finals, and the winner of that game plays the first seed in the Continental Cup finals. That squad will be the VHL champion.

 

The eight teams from both conferences who didn’t make the postseason will be entered into the initial draft lottery. Using the tiebreaker system, the last place teams in both leagues will have the best, and equal, odds for first overall, followed by the second to last teams, and so on. This will determine the top eight picks in the draft. With the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th selections set with the results of the Continental Cup playoffs, the remaining 12 teams who made their own league playoffs but not the Continental Cup playoffs will have a lottery of their own. The 9th and 10th overall picks will be decided by a lottery between the team with the worst regular season record who also lost in the first round from both leagues. This pattern will continue with the other losers of the first round, with the worst records of each conference having better odds than the teams with the better record, and lotteries between the same places from each conference. This format will have all the picks of the first round mapped out. In the second round, the earlier pick between two teams who had a lottery will go to the team that didn’t win the lottery in the first round. The third round will be the exact same order as the first.

 

There was another thing I was thinking about changing, and it was the portal. It shouldn’t be too difficult to add an option to switch between leagues, but again, I can’t speak on behalf of those guys who are in charge of that aspect of the league. It’s something that I can merely hope is reasonable.

 

This is the part where I can suggest some team names! There has been a lot of pushing for teams in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, so I think the Pittsburgh Steelhawks and the Buffalo Battalion are both very achievable names. I like the idea of adding more global teams with the new 8, so more representation in Asia, Australia, and Africa would be pretty cool. Personally, a franchise based in Reykjavik would be awesome, ust because the city name sounds so neat and there are tons of great team names that you could build off of that. I’ve also hyped the Montreal Voyageurs as a potential expansion name since like last year, so I am definitely still going to push for that.

 

That brings my proposed expansion theory to a conclusion. With all the criteria I needed to meet, which I sort of clarified in the beginning, this was my best attempt to build a scenario where everyone is happy with the outcome, although I know that is not possible. I tried to solve more problems than I created and ultimately provide the BoG with an option to at least consider for a moment when they make their decision. This was fun to make and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Happy Saturday, and I’ll see you next time.

 

P.S. I'm open to criticism so bring it on

 

 

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[JardyB10 4,865]

This is a fun concept! My one critique would be your con about expansion, saying that more teams would lead to NHL length Cup droughts. I agree that that could be a potential issue, more and more league members could go their whole career without seeing a Championship.

 

But unless I’m bad at reading, splitting into two leagues and then playing in a Memorial Cup style tournament doesn’t actually solve that? It’s still 24 teams competing for the same prize.

 

If we wanted to address that issue specifically while sticking with the theme of this alternate reality, maybe have the two leagues play for their own Championship. Then, to make things interesting, perhaps every 2-4 seasons, there could be a Mega Tourney after the playoffs, where 4-8 of the best teams face off for a new elite trophy. 
 

Or perhaps even do 4 leagues with their own championship? And every two seasons the 4-8 winners of the last two seasons face off in a mega tourney, with repeat champions getting byes in the first round.

 

I can think of heaps of problems with my suggestions, haha. It was a fun thought experiment all the same, thanks for the article!

 

 

[Beketov 9,025]

4 hours ago, Ledge_and_Dairy said:

Reading this now, I can’t think of many solid cons to expansion

Mainly just one big one: risk of contraction. You, like many of the current members, didn’t have to deal with contraction or really any low point in the VHL’s history. You’ve only known the ups, the good parts, the parts where teams are full and recruitment is rocking and everyone and their grandmother wants a GM spot.

 

Imagine for a moment that slows down. Imagine draft classes with only a handful of active players because recruitment has dried up. Imagine morale being so low that people have to be begged to take on GM spots and generally have to hold them long pst when they’d like to quit because the league is no options.

 

This is not all hypothetical, it was the very real reality of the league in 2017, at the end of which we had to make the horrible decision to remove teams from the league. Contraction is messy, the PR of it is worse. You’re not only removing teams that may be beloved but admitting that the league is in such a bad state that it can’t support itself anymore. That is the risk we have to weigh every time we discussion expansion: is it sustainable. Each franchise is, on average, 11+ roster spots which not only means more people but also means bigger drafts which means more people needing to be brought in constantly to keep up. Sustainability at the levels we have been at for the past few years is a legitimate fear. I had to be part of the contraction discussion once and I do not wish to do it again.

 

This is why it’s easy for members to shout for expansion every time the league gets moderately full but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always the best option. Consider that to have a single round of draft picks now is the same amount of people as 2 rounds 3 years ago. Twice the amount of members required to keep the league functional purely from adding teams. Eventually that is not sustainable, recruitment can’t keep up the pace.

 

So yeah, that’s my long rant about the matter and the basics behind why it’s not something we ever take lightly. The BOG isn’t trying to just ruin everyone’s fun, we’re trying to make sure we don’t have to blow up all that fun within a year.

 

There is also the far more minor issue of too many teams being just generally overwhelming and impossible to keep track of. Personally I can’t keep track of all the SBA teams for example, there are too many. That’s far less of a concern than sustainability kind you but it’s not nothing.

[Ledge 1,131]

2 hours ago, JardyB10 said:

 

If we wanted to address that issue specifically while sticking with the theme of this alternate reality, maybe have the two leagues play for their own Championship. Then, to make things interesting, perhaps every 2-4 seasons, there could be a Mega Tourney after the playoffs, where 4-8 of the best teams face off for a new elite trophy. 

 

I actually really thought about this, it would be pretty sweet

[Ledge 1,131]

1 hour ago, Beketov said:

So yeah, that’s my long rant about the matter and the basics behind why it’s not something we ever take lightly. The BOG isn’t trying to just ruin everyone’s fun, we’re trying to make sure we don’t have to blow up all that fun within a year.

 

Yeah, this is obviously something to take into account. All of the stuff you mentioned are the cons I didn't mention in the article. It all makes sense in the end and I think most people excluding rory will respect the BoG's decision.

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