VHLM Superthread Rankings Late-Season Evaluation

[Grape 528]

The VHLM regular season is nearing a close, with about 20 games left for each team to play. Few teams are necessarily settled into their spots, and there is a chance for a fair bit of movement in this final stretch, but let’s take a glance at where each team is.

Halifax 21st
Current Ranking: 10

My Estimated Ranking: 4

 

Goddamn was I off on this one. When I was looking over their roster, it looked fairly competent. The only piece that they needed was a goalie, and that was killing them early. Maybe their players aren’t building the right way or the sim hates them or something, because they never really were able to dig out of that early hole they were in. I still don’t really know why this team is doing so terribly. They’re not at all the worst team in the league, yet their record says otherwise. Although playoffs aren’t out of the picture, they’ve done too poorly to actually compete for anything. Better luck next season I guess.

Miami Marauders

Current Ranking: 9

My Estimated Ranking: 9

 

We knew what we were getting out of this team this season. I guess I benefited from Halifax being so bad for some random reason. This team is completely awful from every direction. They’ve gotten some good growth from their players, and I could definitely see them being decently competitive next season, with a few pieces moving on up, but in general this team is going to probably stay near the bottom for the rest of the season

Mexico City Kings

Current Ranking: 8

My Estimated Ranking: 10

 

This team has seen a pretty fair amount of growth, much like Miami (and probably every team let’s be honest. TPA is always much higher than previously, but we assume every team has the same average growth, and it’s usually true) but still sits near the bottom. They’re pretty much in the same boat as Miami, just with less players. They’re gonna be a pretty tough team to play against next season, but for now, they’ll sit near the bottom. They’re in a playoff spot as of now, and have a good chance to hold onto it, with Miami and Halifax being 9 and 10 points behind them respectively. While not unsurmountable, current trends will keep Mexico above water.

Saskatoon Wild

Current Ranking: 7

My Estimated Ranking: 5

 

This team has had a pretty brutal season with scoring. Not a lot of offense comes out of this squad (You know it’s a bad sign when my player, basically a pure enforcer, is tied for 3rd in points on the team). Despite their offensive struggles, they sit utop 3 other teams and are sitting in a playoff spot. While I don’t expect too much going into the playoffs, this team can at least be happy with a somewhat average season and a good bit of growth. Yet another team that can look towards next year to really compete. To be honest this team is only really doing as well as they are due to the overtime points, having the most OTLs in the league, while also being tied for lowest GF. If this team could actually score, they’d probably be right where I had them.

Philadelphia Reapers

Current Ranking: 6

My Estimated Ranking: 6

 

Another team right on the money. I don’t know why, but every time I look at the VHLM, Philadelphia is always above 4 teams. They’ve never been super good or super bad. When they downgraded their goaltending, I was pretty confident that they’d slot in this slot. They’re the last team with a negative goal differential, and they have a fair lead above Saskatoon, while being a fair bit behind San Diego. They’re awkwardly in their own section, away from the really awful, yet a step behind the actual competitive. Don’t necessarily expect much out of them in the playoffs, but they’ll likely last longer than the two teams below them going into it.

San Diego Marlins

Current Ranking: 5

My Estimated Ranking: 3

 

I had pretty high hopes for this team when I first looked at them. Although not super low, and the gap between them and 3 of the teams ahead of them isn’t massive, they are decently behind and likely won’t move up. Basically, they’re the de facto average team of this season (weird not seeing Philadelphia in this spot but I digress).

Mississauga Hounds

Current Ranking: 4

My Estimated Ranking: 7

 

I’d like to say I severely underestimated this team, and while that’s true, I still don’t necessarily disagree with my earlier rating. Depth was a big issue going into this season for this team, and it was slowly addressed due to growth. What was weird is that with teams like this, they usually have a bad start and eventually get better, but for this team it seemed that they just stayed good. I guess the sim just screws one team (Halifax) and then helps another.

Las Vegas Aces

Current Ranking: 3

My Estimated Ranking: 8

 

Ight screw me I guess. I was against how well this team was doing and they decided to just flip me off even harder than they were and keep doing well. Again, looking at this team, they don’t really have the star power to be this good, yet they are. I don’t know, maybe I’m just stupid. This team is good, apparently, and will stay good, and probably will win it all because why not.

Houston Bulls

Current Ranking: 2

My Estimated Ranking: 2

 

Yea this team is pretty damn good, and I kinda feel bad for them because of that. So good yet still a step behind the top team. Star studded and full of depth, yet still not good enough. It’s sad, it really is, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. They’re a great team, and it’ll be interesting to see what they can do in the postseason.

Ottawa Lynx

Current Ranking: 1

My Estimated Ranking: 1

 

Not too much to deliberate about. They’re a top tier team. Most of their roster is maxed out on TPA. They have the best GF and GA. A true dominating squad that will probably end up getting bounced in the 2nd round because the sim doesn’t care about good teams. Let there be chaos

 

(1058 words. Claiming for weeks 12/26 and 1/2)

[Shindigs 1,771]

3 hours ago, Grape said:

This team has seen a pretty fair amount of growth, much like Miami (and probably every team let’s be honest. TPA is always much higher than previously, but we assume every team has the same average growth, and it’s usually true) but still sits near the bottom. They’re pretty much in the same boat as Miami, just with less players. They’re gonna be a pretty tough team to play against next season, but for now, they’ll sit near the bottom. They’re in a playoff spot as of now, and have a good chance to hold onto it, with Miami and Halifax being 9 and 10 points behind them respectively. While not unsurmountable, current trends will keep Mexico above water.

Damn, that is an impressive amount of water and boat puns to go with Miami and Halifax.

[Grape 528]

15 hours ago, Shindigs said:

Damn, that is an impressive amount of water and boat puns to go with Miami and Halifax.

completely accidental as well

[Shindigs 1,771]

10 hours ago, Grape said:

completely accidental as well

Those are the best ones!

[Grape 528]

claiming again

[N0HBDY 1,013]

sensing a bit of bias towards halifax lol

[atw2592 286]

Reviewing: I definitely liked this piece because the Bulls were ranked 2nd. I think this is a fair rating for them. I liked the breakdown of all of the teams, even though talking about the mid-low tier teams was tough, you did well in explaining the circumstances of each. I haven't kept up on the bottom tier teams much this season so reading about them helped shed some light on how dominant the top teams are. 10/10

[ROOKIE745 571]

review time: pretty good post Grape, I like that your having fun with it as some teams aren't quite where you or even we would expect them to be. The VHLM and the SIM engine in general are strange beings. I like the effort, you included all team banners and your personal ranking and actual ranking along with a sum up of their play. I do see the use of bold in here and I think using italics for the summaries of each team would be great. Overall pretty good 8.5/10