Random League thoughts of the Week with Arce

[Arce 755]

 

As we hit the 10 game mark of the VHL season, and the end of April we are in the thick of it. As I was sitting here thinking what to write, I figured I would incorporate my thoughts on all the different things going on in the league that affect me personally. It is my player Ronan Lavelle's rookie year, so it has been exciting that my player is at the point where he is in the big leagues. I enjoyed being in the VHLM, and of course Lavelle's personal success in the VHLE. But there is nothing even close to the VHL, that is what it is all about. I also have not been part of a meaningful playoff run with Lavelle yet, so to be potentially be apart of one is exciting. I have taken on the role to GM the Houston Bulls in a rebuilding/re-tooling season as we did not have many draft selections this past season. This is also my first season doing VHFL, which has been a fun experience so far. There have been talks about the TPE value of that vs the weekly VHL fantasy picks. There is definitely a way to make the VHFL even more exciting, I will get to that later on.

 

Ronan Lavelle and the DC Dragons

 

The DC Dragons find themselves with a 6-4 record through the first 10 games of the season. This is good enough to put them tied for 3rd in the North American Conference. The league probably considers this a mid start, however it is important to note that DCD G has appeared in 4 of those games. DC is still off to a positive start and has already used half of their backup goalie games. Eno was definitely smart to burn these games early on. Unfortunately we lost 2 of these games to the New York Americans. They have a talented roster, but the DC offense should have been able to produce far better offensive results against goaltender Dexter Vaughn. Unsurprisingly DC's production has been led by Taylor Mourning, who was second in the league in goals last season by just a single goal. Mourning has 16 points in 10 games, 8 of those being goals. This is also good enough for third in the league at the moment. Ronan Lavelle is tied for second on the team in points with Poopy Peepants, both tallying 11. Lavelle has 5 goals on the season, 2 of those being game winners. It is nice to see Lavelle averaging over a point per game so far. He is not far from the rookie leaders, but it's the Chicago Team Clue duo have been the ones off to a great start. Ryan Vidot has 10 points for that PPG average in his first season as a forward thus far. I really believe with Vidot and Mourning being my line mates, all of our production will only get better from here. Especially as we see more Bubbles Utonium and less of DCD G. Speaking of Utonium, Bubbles is off to a 4-2 start and a .926 save percentage, and a 2.38 GAA. A truly awesome start, and I expect numbers like this to continue for our most valued player. I know Tui Sova has been off to a slow start point wise with 7 in 10 games, but Sova's got too much talent not to put his foot on the gas as the season progresses. The difficult thing here is to be patient. With a d-core of Sova, Kitson, Funk and Peepants we are in good hands. With the 4 CPU goalie games, I am happy with where we are at and the expectations are higher going forward.

 

The Houston Bulls GM Experience

 

The early experience becoming the Houston Bulls GM has been an interesting one. This is my first VHLM GM gig in over a decade. The league has certainly changed, especially considering last time I GMed, VHLM teams wwere affiliates of the VHL teams. However, the goal has always been the same. Help your prospects as much as you can. Back in the day, you were responsible for helping your VHL parent team's prospects develop. Also, you would do waiver pitches to new members who would join a VHLM team for that season until the draft the following off-season, like what we have now. Unfortunately for me, our goaltender went MIA in March, so he had to be dropped due to the inactive role. My earliest draft pick was in the 3rd round, and I feel like I got great value there with defenseman Ty Heisler. I also was then able to pickup Doug Britton and his fellow friend Otis Boudreaux. Both have been a great locker room presence, and both have produced with their max amount of minutes. I am trying to set these guys up for success. Both have expressed interest in earning TPE, and it has been a pleasure showing them how the league works. Even though this season has been taking a step back, the goal is to try to continue to try to pickup as many waiver players as I can, and hopefully also get a goaltender if I get lucky. The goal is to just try to continue to set the guys up for success, and helping their players take the next step.

 

VHFL Experience

 

This is my first time also doing the VHFL. I personally went for an offensive based approach, so we will see how that works out. I am currently 3rd in my pool so far. I am a frequent flyer in the Moscow Menace locker room, a lot of my friends on the team, and a lot not on the team usually chat in there. One discussion that took place was how the TPE distribution does not have the same bang for it's buck that the weekly fantasy pick em' does. There were talks about lowering the amount of TPE in the pick em' because the TPE handouts were too high, and re-align the value. You could also go the opposite way. Right now the max TPE you can get is 6 if you win your pool. This can easily be taken a step further if the powers that be think so. On top of the 6 TPE handed out to the group winners, why not also hand out extra TPE for the best of the best? For example, the person who scored the highest amount of points in the whole league should be awarded extra 3 TPE for example. 2nd place would be an extra 2, and anyone in the top 10 an extra 1. It is just a thought, and 1-3 more TPE isn't an absurd amount. It also gives people a more competitive edge, and it's about bragging rights. Not only did you win your pool, but you were the best in the whole freaking league.

 

Word Count: 1153

Claim for: Weeks ending in 5/1 and 5/8

 

[Shindigs 1,771]

On 4/25/2022 at 2:58 PM, Arce said:

For example, the person who scored the highest amount of points in the whole league should be awarded extra 3 TPE for example. 2nd place would be an extra 2, and anyone in the top 10 an extra 1. It is just a thought, and 1-3 more TPE isn't an absurd amount. It also gives people a more competitive edge, and it's about bragging rights. Not only did you win your pool, but you were the best in the whole freaking league.

This is a very interesting take on it, and one I quite like. I'd been thinking of other ways to make VHFL more competitive mainly, but also more rewarding. My solution would have been a lot more work intensive, which is fine since it's Spartan who'd need to do the work anyways, but yours is a lot cleaner and easier to apply.

 

My idea was more that you'd have 3 brackets. The first season everyone would just do VHFL as normal, no change from now. But the top 2 players in each group would get moved into the winners bracket, bottom 2 to the losers bracket. Winners bracket has slightly higher TPE payout for the individual group position, losers slight lower. Any new player who hasn't done VHFL before would get seeded into the DC bracket (mid). This would be quite a pain to actually manage though, and unless you actually want to tryhard in VHFL. Accidentally going into the top bracket from a lucky season would probably kinda suck TPE wise, since realistically last place in winners bracket would still be less TPE than a good finish in the DC bracket. But having that more competitive aspect to it would make it a lot more exciting to me at least.

[Arce 755]

Claim for week of 5/8.