The Best VHLE Cities No One Is Talking About

[JB123 722]

THEME WEEK ~ SEASON 78 

Hello all, 

 

With Theme Week of Season 78 somehow already upon us, and with the topic being the VHLE, I have decided to write about the cities that are not getting enough attention to be granted one of the ‘Original Six’ VHLE franchises. I included team names, as well as descriptions of the cities and the significance of my team name choices. 
 

Note: This order is strictly east to west

Minsk, Belarus - Minsk Evergreens 

Minsk is the capital of Belarus, a country that is known for their appreciation of architecture and the arts. There are many museums to visit in Minsk. Not to mention a 15,000-seat ice hockey arena. About forty percent of all of Belarus is covered by forest, which makes ‘Evergreens’ a fitting name. 
 

Notable NHL Players: Yegor Sharangovich, New Jersey Devils (Born in Minsk) - Sharangovich had a solid rookie season for New Jersey, scoring 30 points in 54 games. 
 

Madrid, Spain - Madrid Explorers/Madrid Royals

Madrid is Spain’s well-known capital, and the sixth-largest city in Europe today. Madrid is the center of culture in Spain, and it even has the oldest restaurant—in the world, called Sobrino de Botín. Spain played a large part in the Age of Exploration, which is why the Madrid Explorers would make a ton of sense. Another potential name is the Madrid Royals, since Spain has one of the oldest monarchies in Europe. 

Notable NHL Players: No NHL players have been born in Spain as of yet, however, many have Latino ancestry, including Auston Matthews and Max Pacioretty, and retired forwards Scott Gomez and Bill Guerin. 
 

Dublin, Ireland - Dublin Emeralds 

Dublin is Ireland’s capital, the capital of the Emerald Isle. Dublin has a lot of pubs and restaurants, and Ireland overall has great sights to see, including medieval castles. Due to Ireland being the ‘Emerald Isle’ and my reluctance to call them the ‘Isles,’ I am going with the Emeralds, a name that was in discussion for the Seattle NHL franchise and one that captures one of Ireland’s natural characteristics—how green it is. 
 

Notable NHL Players: Owen Nolan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but it is part of the Emerald Isle itself, so I am counting him. 

Many players have had Irish ancestry, including Patrick Kane and Ryan O’Reilly, and retired forwards Brendan Shanahan and Terry O’Reilly. 

Zurich, Switzerland - Zurich Moguls

Zurich is a large financial center in Europe, which makes ‘Moguls’ a perfect name. The ‘Financial Moguls’ would be too long so I shortened it to just ‘Moguls.’ Besides money, Zurich is a beautiful city, with the Alps and Lake Zurich right there—what better backdrop for hockey? The town is no weak link, either, with museums and shopping, among other things. Lastly, and arguably most importantly, Switzerland is on the hockey map already and is a great market for hockey. 
 

Notable NHL Players: Roman Josi, Nino Niederreiter, Nico Hischier

I hope you enjoyed reading, and hopefully this inspires a city to get a team that otherwise wouldn’t have. I certainly liked researching some places I normally don’t get a chance to. Thanks again! 

 

Word Count: 521

Edited June 8, 2021 by JB123

[Crstats23 334]

Review 

I like this a lot, very informative as to why each city would work and I also like how you explained why you named the teams how you did, my only criticism is you could have added a con for each city, but my favorite part is the notable NHL players part, also great job adding pictures so it’s not a wall of text

 

rating 9.5/10 

[mediocrepony 1,216]

great article, i really like a lot of the teams on here and i like the pictures of all of the potential locations for the teams. Notable NHLers was one of my favorite parts.

9/10

the title kinda sounds like a buzzfeed clickbait title too haha

[Doomsday 4,072]

Fun Fact: Madrid is actually a former VHL city, having hosted the Vasteras Iron Eagles during S16 - S20 as the Madrid Thunder.

[JB123 722]

7 minutes ago, Doomsday said:

Fun Fact: Madrid is actually a former VHL city, having hosted the Vasteras Iron Eagles during S16 - S20 as the Madrid Thunder.

Oh wow. Didn’t know this but this will be good for the case for Madrid in the VHLE

[Beketov 8,787]

1 hour ago, JB123 said:

Oh wow. Didn’t know this but this will be good for the case for Madrid in the VHLE

It would be incredibly hilarious to have Vasteras, Madrid, and Stockholm; all three of which were locations that the original Vasteras Moved to.

[Laine 1,361]

4 hours ago, JB123 said:

Minsk, Belarus - Minsk Evergreens 

I see what you did there 

[Alex 2,987]

Hey JB,

 Great article! I like that you included photos of each cities and choose some really unique and feasible locations. You did forget about Istanbul though ! It was very well written and provided a neat perspective! 9/10

[JB123 722]

3 hours ago, Alex_J32 said:

Hey JB,

 Great article! I like that you included photos of each cities and choose some really unique and feasible locations. You did forget about Istanbul though ! It was very well written and provided a neat perspective! 9/10

Thanks! Haha you already talked about it so it wouldn’t fit under the title lol. You made a great argument