Wolves kickstart their rebuild through the Draft as Galante Nilsson picks up some Awards

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Wolves kickstart their rebuild through the Draft as Galante Nilsson picks up some Awards

 

The Victory Hockey League has just celebrated their 14th birthday and is about to start their 79th season, after the Warsaw Predators managed to take home the Cup last season. One team that is as far away from a cup win as one can imagine right now is the Vancouver Wolves however, who after being a decent playoff team over the last few seasons decided to kick off a major rebuild this year. After trading a lot of their veteran pieces the Wolves finished Season 78 dead last with just 53 points out of 72 games but as a consolation prize they got go on and select 2nd and 3rd Overall in the VHL Entry Draft that happened this weekend, picking up the two Reinharts Tyler and Jerome. These two youngsters should give the team a deadly one-two punch on the Wing, and they continued to add to their already big prospect pool with the later selections of Omi Aberg (12th Overall) who could one day center the Reinhart brothers, Rhys Trenton (17th Overall), the first Defenseman the Wolves picked up this Draft, as well as blueliners Pistol Pete and X Man (32nd and 33rd Overall).

 

This youth movement, which is expected to continue over the next few Drafts, leaves the Wolves with a very young but certainly not hopeless roster. On such an inexperienced teams the Wolves will now look for leadership from “veterans” such as S75 player Sheldon Juniper and his S76 mates Napoleon Bonaparte, Green Gaming, Henry Tucker, Jivere Zolnek and Kid Frost on Offense as well as S76 players Javad Kamkar and Robin Galante Nilsson on Defense and the team oldie, S74 goalkeeper Markus Emerson Jr.

 

 

One of those players that really emerged as a leader last season was third year pro Robin Galante Nilsson. The Swedish Defenseman played a big role in trying to get as much out of the season as possible for the struggling Wolves, and he was recognized for that in last season's awards proceedings. Galante Nilsson was nominated for the VHLs Best Defensive Defenseman Award but maybe even more importantly, he picked up two Awards and actually broke a record in the VHLs Unofficial Award Ceremony. There he was honored as both the league's biggest minute eater and the league's best shot blocker, claiming the new all-time record for shots blocked with 229 and coming within 3 minutes of the most games played record with 2398.

 

With the Wolves rebuild being in full steam, it is gonna be interesting to see which role the team can play next season and which role Galante Nilsson will play in that process. The team isn’t as barren of talent as it was last season, with top picks Tyler and Jerome Reinhart joining the club right out of juniors for example, but it is probably still at least a season or two away from being competitive again. With Galante Nilsson entering his prime and turning some heads around the league, can the team afford to keep him, possibly wasting some of his best years, or would they be better served to deal off one of their best remaining players and even further embrace the youth movement that they have kickstarted with this draft? We will find out soon when the VHL’s Season 79 kicks off!