Bears Off-Season

[Banackock 8,123]

 The playoffs quickly ended with the Warsaw Predators hoisting their first cup in organization history (short history) and seen Seattle Bears former player Uhtred lift one finally cup before calling it a career. The Seattle Bears got talks for the off-season underway as they knew it would take some GM's 3 full rounds to make a response and get their plans in order. The moment the playoffs end, it's always a floodgate being released. You have the one GM in the GM corner going "open, open, open" and you feel as this amazing buzz that things are going to go bang. Sometimes they do, this season I expected a lot more right out of the gates but overall, it was a pretty good and interesting off-season for us and to watch other teams. The VHL celebrated it’s 14th birthday on the day of Free Agency and the day of the draft and because of this, the league handed out a total of 14 uncapped (12 of which I will be claiming with this). Everybody loves a birthday! When I seen Beketov and Bigallan talking about it I knew they were gonna throw away some party TPE. Quik usually only tosses out his spare change to the league when it's his birthday but boy do the other 2 know how to put on a party. Speaking of parties, shortly I will have to attend the "end of off-season" party gala with the Seattle Bears, their fans, families and all of that. With how crazy busy the off-season was, so many wonderful people parting ways, we knew it was something to celebrate. MY SANITY IS SOMEHOW STILL 33% intact. Shout out to @Beketov for noticing my first few sentences were pasted twice. Google Word Doc being sneaky and trying to help me out today!  Great way to get noticed and earn brownie points for what's his face entering SEA HOF.

 

TRADES

1. @BladeMaiden to Prague, with a 2nd, for two 1sts.

 

Seattle Acquires:

S79 PRG 1st (Orion D H Chiester IX)

S81 PRG 1st

Prague Acquires:

Venus Thightrap

S79 CGY 2nd (Ben Aky)

 

This trade was the one that set it off for us. It was the one that kind of decided which direction we were going to go and at this point, just like most of the off-season, I was spider-webbing possibilities on where the team could go, where the players could go, what they could go for and what would be replacing them. It was always our plan that if something was going out, we wanted to have something coming back that would help us contend. It might not be in that trade, but the moment we shipped out Venus Thightrap, it then became one of my missions to look around the league and bring in someone who could somewhat replace her talent. DA expressed interest in Blade fairly quickly once he knew she was on. Despite saying my “wants” in return are high, he made the offer. The offer was too good for me to say no to. Even if I didn’t overly want to get rid of a 74 that was really talented. She was an awesome piece to have on the team and the locker room. She brought even more than I expected at times. We wish her well!

 

2. Trading for Andrew Su’s rights @Da_Berr

Calgary Acquires:

S80 SEA 4th

 

Seattle Acquires:

Andrew Su

 

A lot of GM’s respond in a heartbeat. Most are pretty good at that. Some are terrible and it always makes me wonder who they got there. This deal was me trying to fill affordable holes with players that will likely be very great role players and still put up anywhere from 50-80 points. Su has had a legendary career and while we’re not getting him during the peak moments, we’re still getting a very good player. Yes, he is retiring, but a 4th round pick was a solid gamble when my confidence was pretty high that we could get him signed. At the end of the day, cheap price for a 600-700 TPA player that will serve big purpose on the team.

 

3. Trading Frosty… Again! Davos gets good. @FrostBeard

HC Davos Acquires:

Marshall James Frostbeard

S81 SEA 4th

Seattle Acquires:

S80 DAV 1st

 

The S80 draft is hot, hot, hot. I love Frosty and he’s a massive part of the team and locker room. Fortunately, he’s one of my trusted guys and sits on the council for the team. His guidance, experience and friendship is one that is extremely valuable to myself and those on the council. Trading his player was sticky as D are sometimes harder to come by, however, the price that was offered was a nice one. I didn’t mind getting a 1st, but that was the season that did it for me. The 1st round and very first portion of the 2nd are stacked. It made sense. Helping Davos and seeing @gus bring the team up was super cool too. I think they should be pretty damn good this season and even bad luck won’t hold them down too much like before.

 

4. We need some more talent and they don’t come much better this season @Jubo

Helsinki Acquires:

S80 SEA 2nd

S81 SEA 2nd

S81 SEA 3rd

Seattle Acquires:

Valtteri Vaakanainen

 

This was one of those ones that took a long ass time and obviously it wasn’t Ray’s fault. The other GM’s he was speaking with took their sweet ass time during the entire process. I think they wanted to match the offer which was initially 2/2, but after a few days of the morning “Morning Ray, how are the talks going for Jubo?” to which he always responded something along the lines of “_____ still waiting on so and so to get back as they expressed interest”. It took days and days. Eventually I increased the offer a small bit as it got old waiting on others, Ray grew tired of the same and an easy, mutual deal was made. We got a very, very strong player in VV and to me, he was easily our replacement for Venus Thightrap. Highly skilled, can play wing or C and has had a dominant career. We shipped her out for 1/1 and got the replacement for 2/2/3 which isn’t terrible. 

 

5. Hex out, Frosty replacement and our S80 1st back  @Hex Universe @Poptart

Seattle Acquires:

Micah Adrienne

S80 SEA 1st

 

London Acquires:

Hex Rose

S79 MAL 3rd (Jacob Costello)

S79 NYA 3rd (Emiko Spector)

 

Hex Rose messaged me saying that they’ve enjoyed their time in Seattle but wanted to gain new experiences. The discussion was polite and light going. I let them know that I would do everything I can to ensure their happiness and experience wishes were met. It took quite a bit of shopping but finally got a deal done. We replaced Frosty in this trade with Adrienne who I knew was active in SHL and PBE and also managed to grab our first back for the S80 season which was huge in case we shit the bed or changed directions. Options and multiple plans are always best. We were happy that the deal worked out for all 3 sides. London got a good, active, young player, Seattle got good compensation, and the player had his wishes met (which is always 100% my intentions and goals).  Very happy it worked out, so thank you to all sides.

 

6. Move Greg for youth and cap relief, eventually find FA replacement for FREE!

Seattle Acquires:

S79 NYA 1st (Sigard Petrenko)

S81 WAR 2nd

Warsaw Acquires:

Leo Strauss

S79 PRG 1st (Orion D H Chiester IX)

S79 SEA 3rd (Aina Mortas)

 

This was likely the craziest one as we started talking in the early afternoon of draft day and finished talks I think a couple minutes after the draft time was started. Thankfully, things usually never open on time here so Dlamb and I were good. Moving Greg was a tough one but something I had planned for a small while. It was always my intention to retool, rebuild or whatever you want to call it this season while still being able to have a chance at playoffs. Moving Greg wasn’t an easy deal but we made sure to make the deal as even as possible. Initially, it was a little bit less. Was it Greg + 2nd + something for 1? I can’t remember too much but I quickly countered to see if this striked lamb a little better (and it did). Greg was an awesome member of Seattle who liked to troll a bit and have fun. If people see it as an online sim league where he was just having fun, he’s an amazing guy. Sadly, some take it seriously and yeah. He was extremely loyal, funny and amazing to have on the team. Warsaw got a gem when grabbing him and I hope it works out. My intentions in this deal were to move Greg to clear cap for an FA (eventually fong, who was a free replacement) and then get my #1 target in Slapshotdragon in the draft.

 

DRAFT

We’ll make this portion a little bit quicker. We ended up trading 13th overall in the deal with Warsaw and Greg to get 7th overall in the draft. I do a shit ton of scouting every season (USUALLY) and it starts pretty much at the start of the season or in the middle of the regular season. By the time of the draft, I’ve already spoken to a majority of the prospects at least twice. Slapshotdragon was 100% our target when moving up to 7th, however, we were reaching out just in case they were gone (surprisingly they weren’t). I’ve always respected SSD as a member and they always make exceptional players so it was a no brainer to add them to the team. At 11th, it was always our goal to draft OMD and their goalie. He’s been on the team a few times with me and every time we’ve won a cup. He keeps things real, is a member of the council and somebody I talk to and trust a lot. He’s our replacement for Rara one day and a very steady, loyal one. Can’t go wrong with that! The future wheels are already in motion!

 

FREE AGENCY

Free Agency was also good to the Seattle Bears. As mentioned twice above, we made a move sending greg away to restock the shelves so that we could get a free replacement in @tfong. For me, the trade and signing were basically clearing cap, getting youth and swapping a player that has some FO for someone that was strictly a winger as we already had 3 others with some FO in their builds. We capped the season off having some cap to spend and a roster requirement to meet, so we ended up adding @Kyle to the squad which we were super happy about. 

 

Overall, it was a very busy and exhausting off-season. We made a lot of tough moves, but imo, some pretty good moves. I know other GM's can say they've made good moves and it be okay and when I do it, it's my ego. I think they were pretty okay but they're only surface deals right now. We'll see how the team does this season and how the draft picks that we acquired turn out. That will show overall if they were that good or not. As mentioned, it was always my goal to move out big talent for picks and youth, while still maintaining a competitive roster. I think we did exactly that. We went from having two 1sts in 3 drafts (S79 and S81), to having 6 in the next 3 (79/79/80/80/81 and 81). We brought in stronger players and either free or cheaper prices to replace the ones we lost. They are older and we'll be in a situation next season, but give it a couple weeks and we'll be back to the drawing board. It was my expectations that maybe next season is a little bit of a weaker one as we transition the wheels back a bit, regain strength, and make one final run at things. I'm very happy with the team we built, the locker room we have and the odds we have at competing for playoffs and the Continental cup again. Could we made the finals 7/12? Doubtful, but we'll try! Maybe will make it to another runner up for GMOTY again. Seems I do that every other season too. 

 

2,130 words - 4 week claim + Birthday bash 12 uncapped for Week ending July 25.

July 19-25

July 26- Aug 1

Aug 2 - Aug 8

Aug 9 - Aug 15

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Banackock

[Beketov 9,095]

23 minutes ago, Banackock said:

2,102 words

Does that account for the first 133 words being repeated immediately after?

[Banackock 8,123]

3 hours ago, Beketov said:

Does that account for the first 133 words being repeated immediately after?

What

[Beketov 9,095]

10 minutes ago, Banackock said:

What

Go look at your first paragraph. The first 133 words are there twice.

[Banackock 8,123]

5 minutes ago, Beketov said:

Go look at your first paragraph. The first 133 words are there twice.

lol I started writing on the forum but then moved over to word docs so it must of kept the first bit in there. I'll swap up.

[gregreg 930]

This guy stinks