Off-season and Draft time!

[Anthique 225]

When the Junior Showcase Tournament was done, the off season was next.

 

The off season means training and rest, but also the Draft!

 

It's important to rest after a long season, but you also have to train to be ready for the next one.

After the loss in the first round of the Tournament, Champagne was ready to hit the gym because he feels that he did not deliver a good performance and he wants to be better for his VHLM debut. His training was mostly about getting stronger to get better at pokechecking and to have a better slap shot. He only has one passes in the series against the Brigade and not being able to score at least one was hard for him. He did not skip the infamous leg day so he can be able to skate faster and not being a liability in the VHLM. The defensive aspect of his game is hard to train in a gym so he traveled to Québec to skate with fellow Québécois to continue to play some hockey game on their inside ice ring open all year long. 

 

He took advantage of this trip to rest a little bit in an environment familiar to his home because Québec is like Europe. He went to one of the greatest music festival in the world, the Festival d'été de Québec to discover some new bands and watch some of his favorite artists : Luke Combs, Rage Against the Machine and Marshmello.

The city has a great culture from being a French colony to being conquered by the English more than 400 years ago. The Vieux-Québec part is historic and show that the French were there so it feels like home.

He also went to Montréal, the biggest city of the province, to meet some old teammates and to know more about the Canadians and the Québécois. The nightlife in Montréal is great with all the bars and restaurants from different country to discover and taste the experience without going to the real country.

 

The Draft was held in the town of the last winning team of the VHLM series : Las Vegas! He tells his parents that the draft day was near so they could prepare to go with him in Vegas.

What better ways to enter the pros than take his jersey and go to the Sin City and take advantage of the Strip in the same day. So he booked three nights to have the time to visit the city before the draft and his parents took two. The nightlife was incredible and after all the training he did in the last couple of weeks, he gives himself the permission to go all-in the first night, to have the time to recover before the draft.

The city delivered and oh boy! From someone who have seen the nightlife of Paris and Montreal, Las Vegas is alone at the top. Even if you don't have millions of dollars, there's so much activity available that you can do almost anything you want.

The second day, he recovered from the night before and visit the attractions like a real tourist. The Las Vegas Aces were a potential team that can draft him so he had to know a little bit about the city. 

On draft day, he went to the gym of the hotel to get out of his system all the crap he eat and drink to be top shape for the evening. He put the best suits he have and went to the T-Mobile arena. There, he recognized some of his teammates from the Warriors who will be drafted like him. They shook hands and went to the stand together to know where they will play next year.

The first to go was goalie Karl Pederson with the 2nd overall with the San Diego Marlins.

The second one was forward Otis Boudreaux at 3rd overall with the Philadelphia Reapers.

The third one was right winger Daniel Weaver at 6th with the Houston Bulls.

After the first round, already three of his teammates were gone. It will continue in the second round before a team decided to pick him.

With the 11th overall pick, the Mexico City Kings take center William Futch.

Two picks later, if was the turn of defenseman John Poremba Jr. to go to the Philadelphia Reapers.

At 17th, Alfred Champagne knew that the end was close, but it was not already his turn because the Saskatoon Wild picks forward Astro Singh.

His agent Bob Bissonnette them him that he will probably be one of the next three picks.

Right after, the defenseman Shaggy Tipton II went to the Mexico City Kings. 

The end was near and when he heard his name by the GM of the San Diego Marlins, a big smile appeared on his face. He hugged his parents, shake the hands of his agents and his teammates that were still there and went to meet the organisation. The GM was there to give him his jersey and his hats to take a photo to immortalize the moment. He meets the coach and see that after being taken second, Pederson was still there to meet him. 

Champagne did some interview, take pictures and talk with the management. He learned about the league, the team and about being a pro player. When you got drafted, your life change and you need to adapt to your new reality. Depending of the city you go and your player status (ex: superstar), you can't do all the things you did before. For now, it's not the case for Alfred Champagne because he's only got drafted, but he need to know that he will have to pay attention to some details of his life.

 

The new season begins soon, so he will have to start again his training to be ready to help the San Diego Marlins to have a great season like the previous one, but to win the final game of the season. For now the team is not complete so it's hard to know with whom he will play, but he will certainly play in the top 6 so he will have a lot of offensive opportunity and responsibility. He's ready for the task and impatient to begin!

 

1059 words

claim week 25 june /// week 2 july

 

[AJW 2,201]

It’s really amazing to see you putting in so much work for your player after the JST! I knew you would be a steal but stupidly enough didn’t draft you. Best of luck this season with San Diego, keep up the great work!

[Anthique 225]

Haha you can redeem youself by telling your team to draft me at the VHL draft

On 6/28/2022 at 2:38 AM, ajwllmsn said:

It’s really amazing to see you putting in so much work for your player after the JST! I knew you would be a steal but stupidly enough didn’t draft you. Best of luck this season with San Diego, keep up the great work!

 

[Anthique 225]

Second claim

[der meister 3,248]

I can tell that French is your native language with some of the phrasing and grammar issues, so I'm not going to judge on that whatsoever. Your English is far better than my French. I really like the insight into what your player was doing heading into the VHLM Draft, and the building anxiety as the picks are rolling in and your player has yet to be selected. It paints a really nice picture. The biggest complaint I have is the actual formatting of the article. Sometimes you have spaces between paragraphs [good], and sometimes you don't. There's also no color, imagery, or anything to break up the wall of text. Other than that, though, I enjoyed it. 9/10

Edited July 16, 2022 by der meister
Note: Review for week of 7/24