VSN Presents: Under 250 - S79 VHLM Recap

[Alex 2,869]

 

Welcome back to Under 250! Today we’ll take a look back at every team's season 79 and maybe even take a glance into what the future will hold.

While you’re here be sure to check out some of the other recent VSN articles!

 

Under 250 - S79 VHLM Playoff Preview | The S79 Continental Cup Preview - Seattle Bears VS. Malmo Nighthawks|  S79 Trade Deadline Recap

 

Eastern Conference 

The eastern conference shaped up the way that many would have expected with Mississauga having a dominant regular season, Miami and Philadelphia in that second tier and Halifax taking the last playoff spot. Ottawa and Minnesota then had what looks to be the last season of their respective rebuilds as both teams have built up a fair bit of draft capital for the upcoming draft.

 

Minnesota Storm

Finishing the regular season with a record of 19-49-4, Minnesota did not have a good season in terms of their record. However, Minnesota did have a few bright spots this season, first off with the emergence of Nils Godlander @Moon_50 as they would join the Storm 40 games into the season and go on to be just short of a point per game and without a doubt have a very bright future. Another player who had a great season with Minnesota this past season was Finn Davis @M1nT who finished the season with 31 goals and 75 points to lead the Storm. The returning roster at this moment is pretty bare with only Barry Bonds Jr @Jim Kovtrash returning, Minnesota does however have their fair share of draft picks and will look to have a huge draft that could see them emerge as one of the potential favourites come S80.

 

Ottawa Lynx

Just in front of Minnesota in the standings is the 23-44-5 Ottawa Lynx. GM 16z has done an incredible job building this team to be very competitive for the next 2 seasons as they have 3 first round picks in the next 2 drafts including Mexico’s and Philadelphia’s S81 firsts, both of which could fall in the lottery. Along with their draft capital, Ottawa has some solid players returning in Louis Vignac @Habs fan, Matty Live @Mattylive3k and Arno Blugers @bukss_a all of which played well this past season recording 14, 33, and 20 points respectively. Last season defensemen and team captain Ben Aky @Lilmar led the way for the Lynx scoring 28 goals and 69 points in 62 games before being traded to Mexico City. 

 

Halifax 21st

Halifax 21st had a strong start to the season but started to trail off towards the end, finishing with a record of 33-30-9. Halifax’s offence was led by the duo of Zach Kisslinger II @Kisslinger and Bryn Yrwy @dylanjj37 who would finish second and third in league scoring and would lead the league in assists and goals respectively. Defensively Halifax was carried by one player all season in their goalie David Davis @Josh, who finished the season with a 0.901 SV% and a 3.44 GAA in 68 starts, expect to see Davis possibly with an outside chance at taking home the goalie of the year award as compared to every other goalie in the league they made the biggest difference for their team as they did not have a single defensemen in front of them for the majority of the season.

 

Philadelphia Reapers

The 49-20-3 Reapers had a great regular season led by Darth Kaprizov @Darth Kaprizov, Gregory Bates @Tyler, and Miroslav Tsarov @PadStack all of whom scored over 100 points. The Reapers captain and starting goalie Tobias Reinhart @Spaz had a solid season and should hold his head high as he managed a 42-17-2 record, while having a 0.885% and 2.94 GAA and will move into the top 5 in Reapers history for both games played by a goalie and wins. This off season will likely mean the start of a rebuild in Philadelphia as most of their players will be moving onto the VHLE and they don’t have many draft picks left after spending the past 2 seasons in search of the success they had in season 75.

 

Miami Marauders

This Miami team got better with each and every game and towards the end of the season surged past Philadelphia and Mexico to finish with a record of 48-17-7 and claim the third spot in the standings. During the regular season Mikey Markov @JetsFan81 stepped up in a big way to score 57 goals and a total of 118 points. Additionally Hari Singh Nalwa @Dil had a great season by having 102 points as a defensemen. In goal Em Em Flex @oilmandan had a great season as they would finish the season with a 0.901 SV% and 2.53 GAA while starting every game. As for the upcoming draft Miami has some later picks and could make some moves to either acquire more in search of another Founder’s Cup.

 

Mississauga Hounds

The Hounds were the odds-on favourites to win the Founder’s Cup from the start of the season, drafting Aj Williams @ajwllmsn, Corey Kitson @Nykonax , and Sven Eightnine @BarzalGoat in the first round and trading for 4th overall pick Tony Adams @fonziGG. During the regular season the Hounds would be as expected as they would walk to having the best record in the VHLM with a 56-12-4 record. Led by Nathaniel Minion @Minion, who now leads the Hounds in all-time scoring, and Otto Numminen @Otto Numminen. Going forward Mississauga should rebound fairly quickly as they currently have the picks and returning cast to be competitive again before we know it.

 

 

Western Conference

The Western Conference had its fair share of story lines throughout the season with San Diego surging into a playoff spot after being last in the league early in the season, and the battle between Mexico City and Saskatoon for the top spot. The season played out as expected for the ever consistent Las Vegas Aces as they would finish in a playoff spot for the 4th time in 5 seasons. Both Yukon and Houston had down seasons as their eyes are clearly set on the future.

 

Houston Bulls

Houston had a season that they likely would like to forget going 11-60-1 as GM @rjfryman sold off every player in order to set up the new GM @MattyIce to build the team their own way. Houston currently has no returning players as expected but they do have more draft picks than most other teams across the next two drafts. Houston will surely be a team to watch as they should be competitive for some time to come.

 

Yukon Rush

Following their S78 Founder’s Cup win the Rush had a down year finishing with a record of 23-42-7. Leading the way for the Rush this past season was Kyosti Karjalainen @UnkemptCL4PTP who was a point per game and is expected to be one of the top selections in the upcoming VHLM draft. Additionally for the Rush goaltender Oskar Lindbergh @Doomsday held them in every game and finished the season with a 0.902 SV% and 3.5 GAA. Heading into the draft Link Zhang @WHY_Bolts remains on the Rush roster and they have a lot of top selections in the draft and will likely be one of the top teams in the league next season.

 

San Diego Marlins

The Marlins are an interesting story as early in the season the Marlins found themselves in last place, with additions to the lineup in all the right places and spectacular play from the core the Marlins rebounded to a 33-34-5 record, good enough to claim the 8th playoff spot. During the regular season Alexander Rivers @DrummerBoy15 and Pippo Coca @pippo played very well both of which finishing the season above a point per game. The real turning point for this team came with a trade with Houston to acquire Xavier Booberry @CowboyinAmerica who would go onto have a 24-12-4 record with the Marlins and propel them into the playoffs. Going forward the Marlins and the Reapers are in the same boat with few or no returning players and minimal draft picks, following the rebuild of these two teams could be a story to keep an eye on.

 

Las Vegas Aces

Trade the picks, trust the process. Las Vegas had a very successful season 79 as they would finish with a record of 38-29-5 and two of their defensemen in Zdeno Chara @Agito and Pistol Pete @PistolP would finish tied for the most points by a defensemen with 111, both of which had no problem putting the puck in the back of the net either as they would have 38 and 41 goals respectively. Going forward Las Vegas has a decent returning group led by Pekka Grubauer @Tendy and could easily take a step towards contention by trading the picks and trusting the process yet again.

 

Mexico City Kings

The Kings had a very good regular season lead by goaltender Bastian Greiss @ThatsGreissy as they would finish with a record of 48-17-7. Offensively Deke Rike @JCV put in work as they would score 106 points. As far as season 80, the Kings have most of their season 80 draft picks and have a of solid returning player in Dookie Headtop @Pengu. Mexico could take another run at the Founder’s Cup next season and you shouldn’t be surprised if this team exceeds expectations.

 

Saskatoon Wild

The Wild had a spectacular second half of the season to catch up to and pass the Mexico City Kings for the conference lead. Led by top goalie Leroy Johnson @Vkobe-v who maintained a 0.902 SV% for the entire season and is one of the main reasons for the Wild’s 51-18-3 record. Along with Johnson you can’t talk about the Wild without mentioning Duncan Montana @124715 who finished the season with 149 points, good enough to have a wide margin between them and the next highest scorer in the league. Alongside Montana was Kyle Peace @Peace and Dekster Jankowski @xsjack who finished with 129 and 109 points respectively, this high scoring offence and solid goaltending propelled Saskatoon into first in the western conference. Going into next season Saskatoon has several returning players in Jankowski, Nikita Eklund @Ekky and Matt Avens @Mr Bohannan who along with Saskatoon’s third through seventh round selections, the Wild could find themselves in a playoff spot next season.

 

Playoffs

Quarter Finals

The quarter finals went as expected for the most part with all of the top seeds winning their respective series. Although the top seed won every series, the length of two of the series were very surprising. First off in what was expected to be a very close series potentially going seven games, Bastian Greiss and the Mexico City Kings completed the only sweep of the playoffs against the Philadelphia Reapers. The second series of interest here is the series in which Las Vegas almost took out the eventual champion Miami Marauders taking them all the way to game 7. The other two series saw the Mississauga Hounds and the Saskatoon Wild defeat the San Diego Marlins and the Halifax 21st in 5 games.

 

Semi Finals

The semi finals saw the Mississauga Hounds experience their first real scare of the season as the Mexico City Kings took the Hounds all the way to game seven in part thanks to their spectacular defensive play, the Hounds would go onto win game seven by a score of 5-4 in a real nail-biter. The other semi final series saw the Saskatoon Wild take an early 2-0 series lead before dropping the next four games to a powerhouse Miami team.

 

Founder’s Cup Finals

In a rematch of the S78 Founder’s Cup finals we saw the Miami Marauders and Mississauga Hounds go toe to toe yet again, the Hounds looking to avenge the season 78 sweep, and Miami looking to pull off yet another upset against the Hounds. In game 1 the Marauders would find themselves trailing 3-1 early in the third before 4 goals between Omi Aberg @osens, Bob Beach @Big Bob, and Mikey Markov secured the 5-3 win. In game 2 we saw Miami take an early 2-0 lead before giving up 3 straight to Mississauga, before the end of the second Maximus Decimus Meridius @Beaviss would tie it up and in the 3rd Alessandro Nano @leafsman would score the eventual game winner giving Miami the 2-0 series lead. Game 3 would have 11 goals between both teams as they would go back and forth all game before Nathaniel Minion would score his second of the game in the third giving Mississauga a 6-5 lead that would hold up for the rest of the game. In game 4 Miami would wake up in the third period with the game tied at 3 and score 3 straight to take a stranglehold on the series with a 3-1 series lead. In a do or die game 5 for Mississauga it would be all Miami as they would take an 2-0 lead in the first and never look back winning the game 5-2 with a Founder’s Cup winning goal scored by Omi Aberg in the second period. Both teams had a great playoffs and it will be very interesting to see where this rivalry goes in the future. 

Going into next season the VHLM will look very different with @InstantRockstar, @Zetterberg, @KaleebtheMighty, @thadthrasher, @Advantage, and @rjfryman moving on to the VHLE and taking their place six new GMs in @youloser1337, @MattyIce, @Ledge and Dairy, @Alex_J32, @JB123, and @N0HBDY, the VHLM could be a very interesting place in the future and we’ll see soon the new direction of all these teams.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Alex_J32

[UnknownMinion 726]

Mr.minion has left the building(love this Alex)

[Agito 212]

❤