What if Bek never came back to the VHL?

[Matt_O 897]

This was initially what I wanted to write about when I read about the theme week, but I just didn't know enough to write a full media spot about it so I figured I would do a vhl.com. A lot of people on the site may not know about this whole story, so I'll just try to sum it up. @Beketov correct me if I'm wrong, since I'm just going off of what I remember.

 

Beketov joined the site in the first ever draft as a goalie, Robert Sharpe. He was even selected first overall in the inaugural draft. However, there was a scandal. Apparently he had been re-using graphics that he used in other leagues to get easy TPE, and was suspended from earning TPE for an entire year. The punishment was a bit absurd, but it was just the VHL making an example out of him, to show that you wouldn't be able to mess around with the league. Bek was considering leaving the league entirely, but Scotty, the commissioner back in those days, convinced him to stick around. What would of happened if Bek never came back? There is just way too much that would have changed to seriously talk about this, especially since I wasn't even around for the first 63 seasons of the leagues existence. But, this is very clearly the biggest what if in league history. Yeah, you can talk about what if this team won game 7 or what if this team made this trade or whatever, but if Bek leaves the league after the inaugural season, what state is the league in right now? Is there even a league? 

 

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[Gustav 6,414]

Sharpe would have gone down as an even bigger draft bust and would probably be a lot more of a commonplace meme today. I'm not sure many new people know who the VHL's first-ever draft pick was, but if said pick immediately went inactive we'd probably hear the story told a hundred times more than it currently is.

[Beketov 9,025]

@GustavMattias is definitely right on the bust front. As it standard Sharpe is a bust mostly for going before Scotty and having the lowest TPE ever for a first overall (on account of the suspension mostly) but it would have been even worse if I had up and left the site 2 weeks after the draft.

 

In any case you did get the facts mostly right, hit the link points at least. The punishment was originally going to be much lower actually but everyone kinda piled on (legs just say we weren’t the kindest site back in the day) so Brooks decided to make an example of me.

 

As for what would have happened, I’m not egotistical enough to think the site would have died without me. It certainly would have gotten on more or less the same for at least 10 years. I’d like to think I’ve evoked a lot of change in the 3.5 years I’ve been blue and I did help save the place but if it wasn’t me it would have been someone else I’m sure.