Tessier's Thoughts on Rookie Start

[KC15 340]

Expectations

 

Luc Tessier is brand new to the VHL. As a top earner, he exceeded the VHLM 250 TPE cap in his first season. Some suggested to him that he slow down his earnings toward the end so he could spend one more season in Juniors and go for a VHLM Cup. The idea of winning a Cup whether in Juniors or the VHL is VERY appealing, but there is no way I was going to give up even one TPE I could earn in my quest for VHL glory. I started out as a Center with a commitment to max earning and I’m going to get as close to that as I can within the constraints of real life.

 

So, I knew Tessier was going to start very green and hoped that he would go early in the draft and therefore to a non Cup-contending team. So expectations were fairly low going in both for Tessier’s individual performance and HC Davos’ team performance.

 

 

The Team

 

Got to say, the team performance expectations are unfortunately pretty much being met. We are 6-11-1 for a total of 13 points. We are losing two times as often as we are winning and that is a recipe for a miserable season per the standings. This projects out to a 24-47-1 record which is 6 wins shy of the Dynamos’ S77 total. Ouch again. We are dead last in the European Conference and if it weren’t for Vancouver’s completely disastrous start, we would be dead last in the entire VHL. I didn’t expect it to be this bad, but I don’t expect we will stay on a 24-win pace and it isn’t spoiling any of my fun. I knew we would not be strong this season and things are all in place to get better fairly steadily in the next few seasons so that we will definitely be in the hunt for the playoffs soon.

 

The Player

 

It’s a much rosier picture on the individual side though. I expected Tessier to struggle mightily at first, but though he is not lighting up the highlight reel every night, in 18 games he has 4 goals and 5 assists. That’s a pace of ½ point per game, which starting at just over 250 TPE at season start isn’t all that bad. And it’s ahead of my first player’s (Guy Lesieur) first season. 4 goals and 5 assists over 18 games projects out to 16 and 20 over the entire season. Lesieur only managed 12 G and 10 A in his first season and he went on to be a 40+ goal scorer capturing the league lead one year. So, I’m pretty happy with 16 G and 20 A for Tessier – and I actually expect he’ll surpass that as he continues to earn and work hard on the ice.

 

 

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