The Ducky Interviews featuring Landon Wolanin Episode 8

[jacobcarson877 2,078]

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the Ducky Interviews. This week we reunite with Landon Wolanin, AGM of the San Diego Marlins, and recent Istanbul Red Wolves and Calgary Wranglers draft pick. Obviously, we have had plenty of time to discuss the VHL and VHLE drafts, but this was Landon’s first run at the VHLM draft as an AGM. So, Landon, why don’t you run us through your experience?

 

Thanks Ducky, and always it is a pleasure to be here. Frank and I put a lot of time into scouting before the draft, knowing that we had the ability to draft a Cup contender with all of the great picks we had. I did a lot of number crunching and Frank and I worked together to prioritize positional needs. WE came out of the draft with nearly everyone we were hoping to get at each pick, which made the draft super easy when it happened. I really enjoyed the experience, and I am excited to see how our picks do, and how the rest of the draft class does as well.

 

Can you run us through some of the picks and what stood out for you?

 

Absolutely! Our first pick, at 2^nd overall was pretty straightforward. We figured Svatopluk Puk would go 1^st, so we hoped to exploit the lack of goalies in the draft class and bring back Clueless Wallob. This left us with an incredible tandem in net and bring back a great user in DMax. With the 7^th and 8^th picks we wanted to bring in a couple of defencemen to support our strength in net and give Babushka some potential partners. Faith Hope Love and Malum Maellard earn so constantly and have been great members for a while now, so it made sense to add them as cornerstones on the back end. From there, we had our back-end set, but we needed some good forward options so getting Fraser Wallace and Tyler Busser made a lot of sense in the second round. I really think both would have gone in the first round if it were not for positional needs, and we got to add another 2 active and experienced members to the team. With the next few picks, we wanted to fill out the supporting cast up front and hopefully get a few steals in the process. Joachim Bryngelson and Dens Oden both fell lower than we expected so they were welcome surprises, and solid pieces on offense. Jordan Bennett and Tom Creeg have both been highly active recently on Discord, and Jordan Bennett has been earning like crazy so far, and we hope he is our steal of the draft. We wanted a 4^th sold defenceman so we took a gamble on Cody Kapanen next, who we hope returns to the site soon and suits up for the Marlins this season. Brock Boeser and Roy Krishna were both “project picks” where we saw they were looking to be missing a week of earning leading into the draft, and we hoped that at least one of them would turn out to be active still. Luckily, this has paid off so far, with Krishna earning just before the week switched over and joining us in the Locker Room.

 

With all of these picks under your belt, are the Marlins set? Or are there still more moves to be made?

 

I cannot give out too many details, but we are keeping our eyes open on any players available from other teams, and obviously keeping a watchful eye on the waivers as well. Obviously, we can’t compete with Masu’s speedy offers, but we hope that a championship calibre team reels some members in and keeps them active. So far, we have pulled in Cole Caufield jr, a returning member, Alex Ovechkin jr, a nice extra forward to fill out the roster, and I managed to recruit Molly the Cat! We are super excited to see how these players can add to the team for us this season, and hopefully our veteran players can help teach the ropes to our new teammates.

 

You sound like you want to contend for a Cup this season. How likely do you think it is you end up winning?

 

Obviously, there are so many things that can happen during a season, and each game is tough regardless of your opponent. We all saw what happened to Philadelphia last season. We want to start strong, but we can’t let other teams take advantage of us and learn to beat us by the playoffs. I am a firm believer that earning lots improves a team so much by the playoffs, so I hope to help encourage my team to get whatever TPE they can to be in the best position to succeed come playoff time.

 

Back to your playing career, how have you been fitting in with Istanbul so far?

 

I have had a great time so far, despite being very distracted with VHLM stuff this weekend. I love the group of players we got at the draft, and I think we really have a good shot at making a push in the postseason. We’ve got a nice nearly full roster and picked up a huge free agent in Ryuji Sakamoto who helps make this a terrifying back end. Another team built with great top end talent, and some great earners to work their way up the lineup as the season goes on. I want to use my TPE as a motivator, to try to work my way into a top role by the playoffs. I think the VHLE will be pretty tight, except for a couple teams. It will also be interesting to see how the rest of my draft class, especially my old teammates do. There is a lot of immense talent entering the VHLE, and hopefully we can bring that talent straight into the VHL next season. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves with that thought. It is all eyes on Istanbul this season.

 

Thanks Landon as always for the insightful answers. Until next week folks! This has been the Ducky Interviews, featuring this week’s guest, Landon Wolanin!

 

1028 words claiming week of April 17^th and 24^th

[Kisslinger 342]

Review 9/10!

 

Great job on this article! I like the introduction because it sets the tone of the article. Grammar and spelling seem well done. The format of the article is nice.You could center it to make it look a little cleaner. I like that you used italics to separate the questions and the answers. I feel like if you put a title and a picture in this article it would pop out more.  I really like all the detail you put into answering the questions, it shows you put effort into the article which is always nice. Congrats on getting drafted and good luck this season.

[jacobcarson877 2,078]

claim for week of the 24th