The VHL Goalie Dilemma: Team by Team

[CowboyinAmerica 2,889]

 

Where Every VHL Team's Goalie Situation Stands Right Now

 

The Season 75 Draft was a banner one for goalies, with five top netminders all finding homes and promising to duke it out for the entirety of their careers. With Sales, Rasputin, UnGuri, Tretiak and Klamasteris all reaching above 1000 TPE, it solidified that they would be grabbing all of the goalie awards for the coming seasons. And if that discouraged players from building goalies in the coming drafts, well, VHL teams would deal with the reckoning when it came.

 

My friends, the reckoning is about here.

 

Due to a dearth of active goalies between the S76 and S78 Drafts, there are a number of top VHL teams that could be facing a goalie crisis as soon as next offseason when those S75 players retire. Still others are looking to reload their goalie shelves this offseason, with a number of top netminders up for grabs in a strong S82 Draft. And then there’s the teams in the middle, looking to capitalize on the goalie vacuum by riding their goaltenders to the top in the mid-80s.

 

Below, here’s a look at where every VHL team stands with their goalie situation entering the S81 offseason. As always, this is one person’s opinion, I'm bound to get things wrong, and all it takes is one major trade or free agency signing to make all of this moot. Still, I hope it’s an interesting breakdown to see where the goalie market lies entering what could be a chaotic offseason.

 

 Calgary Wranglers

Starter: Sirkants Klamasteris (S75, 1050 TPE)

Active in System: The Red Menace (S80, 261 TPE)

Breakdown: The Wranglers are certainly a team built to win now, and despite being an expiring contract, I’d imagine Klamasteris will be brought back for his final season next year. But with Tallinder, Kotkakoivu and Jokinen, the Wranglers have pieces to win in S83 and beyond as well. The Red Menace can be serviceable, but he’d need to start earning more than 5 TPE a week to be Calgary’s answer in S83 and S84, I figure. They could definitely be a team active in the trade market or free agency next offseason.

 

  Chicago Phoenix

Starter: Barry Taffe (S76, 300 TPE)

Active in System: N/A

Breakdown: It’s pure rebuild time in Chicago, and the goalie coffers are completely bare. I can absolutely see the Phoenix taking a goalie early like they did as an expansion team, as Jean Pierre Camus was the team’s netminder for every year of its existence until now. With currently the second-best lottery odds, a Pearce, Utonium or Arpa would make a lot of sense at that part of the first. With the S83 goalie chest looking a bit more bare, I’d be surprised if they don’t come out of this draft with a goalie.

 

  D.C. Dragons

Starter: What’s a Goalie?

Active in System: N/A

Breakdown: When the only goalie in the system is S81 third round pick Mike Hroch, who hasn’t updated since mid-November, you know you’re hurting for some talent. The Dragons have the worst record, and thus the best lottery odds. But with talent needs all over the board, would they want to start the rebuild with a goalie over someone like Lamb, DeGroot or Torq? Having the L.A. pick helps here – I wouldn’t be shocked if they either hope one of the top three fall, or grab someone like Wumbo mid-first.

 

  Los Angeles Stars

Starter: Rara Rasputin (S75, 1111 TPE)

Active in System: N/A

Breakdown: Similar to the Wranglers, the Stars are built to win right now, but they also have some young pieces (Williams, Sova) where it’d be reasonable to want to win in S83 and beyond as well. But there’s not even a Menace in the pipeline here, and as just noted, they don’t have their own first this year. I can see L.A. being active in the goalie trade market next offseason—or perhaps even this offseason, since Rasputin’s an expiring contract and has been a mercenary in his later years.

 

  New York Americans

Starter: Morgan Karlsson (S76, 396 TPE)

Active in System: Tadhg Byrne (S81, 240 TPE)?

Breakdown: Another rebuilding team with an under 400 TPE goalie, it’s clear that Karlsson isn’t the goalie of the future. The Americans are in an interesting spot though – they thought they had their next goalie in taking Byrne with the 16th pick of last year’s draft. Bryne, however, has earned exactly 1 TPE in December. With the fourth-best lottery odds, could the Americans cut bait that quickly and take one of the top three goalies in the draft? With goalie at a premium, it wouldn’t shock me.

 

  Seattle Bears

Starter: Em Em Flex (S79, 511 TPE)

Active in System: N/A

Breakdown: Finally, we have a team that has reason to feel secure in its goalie situation long-term. Taken with the 11th pick in the S79 Draft, Em Em Flex may not be a max earner, but he’s more than consistent enough to lock down the starting job for the Bears long-term. With the S81 Draft cavalry coming shortly, things could get sticky when he’s in year seven and eight and regressing. But S85-86 is a ways off, and I expect to see him in place for at least 3-4 more seasons.

 

  Toronto Legion

Starter: Oskar Lindbergh (S80, 502 TPE)

Active in System: Boris Tsezar (S81, 239 TPE)

Breakdown: The Legion also have their goalie of the future, and after a short break last season, the former fourth overall pick now looks to be back on track with his TPE earning. Given the preponderance of S80 and S81 forwards in Toronto, they’re angling for a mid-80s dynasty, and Lindbergh’s timeline is right along with that goal. Don’t sleep on Tsezar in goal either though – the third round pick is looking like a potential steal as he moves up to VHLE next year, and could be a trade piece to a goalie-starved team.

 

 Vancouver Wolves

Starter: Thadius Sales (S75, 1214 TPE)

Active in System: Aike van Giersbergen (S78, 493 TPE)?

Breakdown: The Wolves have one of the more fascinating goalie conundrums coming up. Particularly with their S79 forward stars, they’re going to want to extend their recent dominance as long as possible. Sales, though, only has one more season. The assumed goalie of the future, former sixth overall pick van Giersbergen, hasn’t been around since mid-November. He’s good enough to be a stopgap, and that may be all Vancouver needs with the rest of their talent. I wouldn’t be shocked if they pay highly for another star goalie next offseason though.

 

  HC Davos Dynamo

Starter: Kunibuni UnGuri (S75, 1104 TPE)

Active in System: N/A

Breakdown: They’ve got one more go around with UnGuri, who has 104 TPE banked and I would assume would re-sign for an eighth go-around in Davos. Once he retires (alongside Tsujimoto) though, it may be rebuild time in Davos. Seattle has the Davos first this season, so trying to jumpstart the goalie rebuild in this draft may be tough. But they’re a team I wouldn’t be surprised to see them already eyeing someone like Brandt Fuhr in the S83 Draft.

 

  Helsinki Titans

Starter: Xavier Booberry (S80, 679 TPE)

Active in System: Anime Protagonist (S78, 354 TPE)

Breakdown: I like to think I’m secure in my position, right? Seriously though, Booberry’s probably going to be second, right behind Emeritus, in goalie TPA in a season or two’s time, so the talent’s there. And his timeline matches up with a Helsinki team looking to be competitive as soon as next season after bringing Johnston on board. As long as there’s not a serious front office mishap, you can lock him in as the starter for the next several seasons. It’s also worth noting too that Protagonist is still chugging along at 5 TPE a week, and could be a definite FA pick up for a team with a retiring S75 goalie.

 

  London United

Starter: Tater Tot (S76, 624 TPE)

Active in System: Ed Nu (S81, 236 TPE)

Breakdown: Raise your hand if you had Tater Tot as the goalie with the highest save percentage this season. Now, put your hand down, you filthy liar. Especially with his excellent season for a rebuilding team, I’d expect Tater Tot to get a fourth and fifth season in London before retirement if he wants it. But this United team has long-term aspirations and wants a goalie of the future. Could that be Nu? The third rounder has been progressing nicely in Ottawa, and could be a diamond in the rough should London use its early first to go defense (also a position of need) rather than goalie. I can see them going either way.

 

  Malmo Nighthawks

Starter: Artem Tretiak (S75, 1061 TPE)

Active in System: Thomas Price (S81, 214 TPE)

Breakdown: Tretiak’s had an excellent run in Malmo, winning two cups and hoping for a third with this season and next year to go. But the time to look post-Tretiak is certainly here, especially with the Nighthawks viewing S83 and S84 very much in Telker, Deathwalker and Mourning’s window. S81 third rounder Price had stalled out a bit, though he’s used Christmas giveaways to get into VHLE territory recently. I could see Malmo being very active in the trade market next offseason for a goalie to extend their window a season or two further.

 

  Moscow Menace

Starter: Papa Emeritus (S79, 726 TPE)

Active in System: Leroy Johnson (S78, 390 TPE)

Breakdown: There was a time a season or two ago, when they signed Rara Rasputin ahead of him, where I was curious if Emeritus might request a trade so he could get more early playing time. But he ultimately banked on having a strong six season career as Moscow’s S77 players entered their peaks, and it’s paying off this year. Emeritus will go into next season as the likely goalie TPA leader, and there’s no reason to believe he’s headed anywhere else anytime soon. Johnson, by the way, updated for the first time in a month last week and could be a trade piece for a goalie-desperate team as he’s signed through next season in Moscow.

 

  Prague Phantoms

Starter: David Davis (S80, 531 TPE)

Active in System: N/A

Breakdown: Taken with the seventh overall pick in the S80 Draft, Prague put all of their chips on Davis as the goalie of the future. With his auto-12s, seems it would be a smart bet as well, as he’s kept up the growth since then and will likely be in contention for Shaws throughout the mid-80s. With strong S78 defensemen like Powers and Reikkinen in front of him as well, I don’t see much reason that he’d jump ship in free agency, but if a godfather offer is there from a Calgary or Malmo trying to extend their window, would Prague consider it?

 

  Riga Reign

Starter: Tobias Reinhart (S78, 497 TPE)

Active in System: N/A

Breakdown: The Reign are an interesting one to me – they’ve got a bunch of S75 players to make a run this season and next, but Reinhart as a S78 player is actually more of a post-S82 goalie play at his current TPE level. If there’s one goalie I’d have my eye on to potentially be moved this offseason or next, Reinhart is it. He’s stuck between Riga’s present and future (with S81s Leduc, Chiang and Cheese up soon), and with the sixth-best lottery odds, taking a swing on a goalie this draft that more lines up with their window wouldn’t shock me at all. A very possible Arpa landing spot.

 

  Warsaw Predators

Starter: Andrew Bowman (S76, 601 TPE)

Active in System: Orion D H Chiester IX (S79, 379 TPE)

Breakdown: Bowman was a sneaky strong free agency signing that you might have missed – after splitting last year between Toronto and Riga, Bowman’s found his home in Warsaw and has helped make them a likely playoff team. He’s a pending free agent, but with his recent activity, I wouldn’t be shocked if they bring him back for another two seasons to finish out his career. The downside is, that may leave Chiester out in the lurch – he’d be entering regression as Bowman finished his career, and may end up a trade piece should Warsaw end up in a future rebuild.

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by CowboyinAmerica

[CowboyinAmerica 2,889]

2000+ words, for the weeks ending 1/2, 1/9, 1/16 and 1/23

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Very nice article to read as a S82 goalie!

[AJW 2,156]

@Thunderidge is going to be a diamond in rough for Malmo I can see it

[AJW 2,156]

6 minutes ago, ajwllmsn said:

@Thunderidge is going to be a diamond in rough for Malmo I can see it

So I just learned that diamond in the rough doesn’t mean he’s good  … He’s gonna be a menace in Malmo though for sure!!

Edited December 30, 2021 by ajwllmsn

[Spartan 4,401]

1 hour ago, CowboyinAmerica said:

There was a time a season or two ago, when they signed Rara Rasputin ahead of him, where I was curious if Emeritus might request a trade so he could get more early playing time.

I know it definitely must have looked odd when we signed Rara, but we made sure to have Bek's blessing before doing it. If he wanted to be the starter and felt ready to lead us to the playoffs, we wouldn't have signed Rara at all and would have just rolled with Papa. But Bek agreed and we made the finals, think we even tried to squeeze in some extra starts for Papa to get some stat padding going on.

 

Good article, glad Moscow has a decent goalie future ahead of us unlike some other teams

[Shindigs 1,771]

Those are quite a few bleak futures. Thankfully this draft looks kinda stacked on goalies at the top though. Just please don't pick @N0HBDY1st overall. Can you even imagine how insufferable he would become as a double 1st overall? We'd never hear the end of it!

 

Though since he is a #TeamClue member we would appreciate the PR boost!

[Victor 10,940]

Isn't the VHL Goalie Dilemma that we all suck?

[Beketov 9,024]

27 minutes ago, Victor said:

Isn't the VHL Goalie Dilemma that we all suck?

Why did we want to get scoring back up again?

[Victor 10,940]

1 hour ago, Beketov said:

Why did we want to get scoring back up again?

I forgot I made a goalie.

[N0HBDY 1,117]

7 hours ago, Shindigs said:

We'd never hear the end of it!

Don't worry you're spot on

[a_Ferk 766]

The goalie situation has been intriguing to me also, and I noticed the S75 goalie retirement situation when I was browsing the portal one evening. (Was too lazy to write an article about it though). It's interesting how many teams are going to be in a desperate situation in a few seasons as goalies are at a premium. A 400-500 TPA goalie is a very hot commodity right now. Emeritus and Booberry are going to be insane in a few seasons compared to the talent level of the rest of the league. Very good read, first time I've read a 2000 word article in a long time. 10/10

[CowboyinAmerica 2,889]

On 12/30/2021 at 11:44 AM, CowboyinAmerica said:

2000+ words, for the weeks ending 1/2, 1/9, 1/16 and 1/23

Claim 3/4

[Rhynex Entertainment 481]

Very good article! Easy to read and very nicely structured with all the logos and information breakdowns and explanations. Very good use of bolding, sentence structure and colour coding as well. Very good read, looking like we have a lot of goalies and a lot of possibly looking for goalies as well. Perhaps NYA are looking to re-draft @Tate again? 10/10 

[CowboyinAmerica 2,889]

On 12/30/2021 at 11:44 AM, CowboyinAmerica said:

2000+ words, for the weeks ending 1/2, 1/9, 1/16 and 1/23

 

Claim 4/4