Claimed:BIG Season 40 Tournament Preview

[Victor 10,942]

Season 40 Hall of Fame Tournament Overview



The announcement's been made, the rosters announced, and a whole load of stats and numbers posted in the tournament's own fancy section. Yet, names and numbers can be only mildly interesting at best and without context are rather bland. Luckily for you, I'm here to help out with my doubles week historical Media Spot profiling and overviewing the players, teams, and generations involved in this humdinger of a best-of-seven series.

Season 18 Era



The Season 18 VHL Entry Draft was a watershed moment for the league, the much-needed injection of activity to move onwards from a period of low activity, lack of real sim excitement, and uncertainty in the league's head office. Prior to this generation, Grimm Jonsson was a class above everyone by becoming the first 1,000 TPE player, while just two others had exceeded 800: Matt Bailey (954) and David Henman (878). This was all about to change.

Not just S18 players came to the forefront of course and there was even a niche for stars like Mikka Virkkunen and J.D. Stormwall on the back-to-back champions from Calgary to dominate before the new era truly descended. When it did, nothing quite illustrated the dominance of the S18 draft as much as it goalies. First overall pick Daisuke Kanou, second-rounder Aidan Shaw, third-round steal Joey Clarence and GM recreate Jakob Kjeldsen would come to dominate the S20s, with only their teams making the playoffs for three seasons from S22 to S24. Each won a cup and in fact Calgary's S19 victory was the last until S26 not won by a S18 goalie (of which three went to Davos and three-time playoff MVP Kanou). Kanou and Shaw were of course the leading lights, first-ballot Hall of Famers who now how trophies named after them; Kanou for his aforementioned playoff efforts and Shaw for regular season domination and four Goalie of the Year wins. Kjeldsen and Clarence were overshadowed for the most part but integral parts of the quarter, with Kjeldsen just edging out Clarence, award-wise, as the third best of the era.

Many great offensive players were thwarted by this goaltending dominance with no one standout performer up front. Of course it also didn't help that there were so many good forwards at the time. The S18 draft is represented by Jukka Hakkinen, Tarik Saeijs, and Anton Brekker in the Hall of Fame, as well as Mathias Chouinard (profiled here) on this roster. It's a bit telling that neither of these players made it to the top line for their talent did not result in as many awards as you'd expect. Brekker, almost as synonymous with the Davos dynasty as Kanou was an attacking and hard-hitting force but was often one of, but not THE best, the exception being a well-deserved MVP trophy in S22. Hakkinen and Saeijs both sadly missed out on Continental Cups, Hakkinen due to his eight-season loyalty and consistency during a barren spell for the New York Americans. Saeijs played for top contenders and during his greatest moments (S20 and S23) won pretty much everything there was to win individually.



The top line of this squad is in fact slightly older than the forwards above. Center Markus Strauss won the cup in his rookie season in S17, he didn't win another but was one of the greatest pure goal-scorers in VHL history, competing for offensive awards with Saeijs, Brekker, and fellow S17 player Lars Berger, the second-line center who became the first to 1,100 TPE and won three straight Scott Boulet Trophies. Strauss is flanked by long-time Seattle team-mate Cam Fowler, one of several first-gen revelations of the era, a contender with Berger and Brekker for the Boulet Trophy and famous for his on-ice leadership of the Helsinki Titans in S22 and beyond. On the other side is the oldest player involved, Jardy Bunclewirth. The pace-setter for first-gens and third-round steals, he debuted with the offensive powerhouse in Calgary in S18 and won the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy with stats not seen since, well, Christian Stolzschweiger. A few scoring titles later and despite slowing down before winning a third cup with Calgary in his last season, Bunclewirth's point-per-game pace is unrivalled by anyone who didn't play in the VHL's first decade. Finally, the perennially underrated Phil Gerrard centers the third line, one of the more talented players involved but overshadowed as a late-bloomer. A championship and playoff MVP with Vasteras is his greatest feat.

So many words and we haven't even touched up on the defence. This is probably the least star-studded position for this era, if only because there was no leading force throughout. After Labatte Trophies initially went to veterans like Bailey, Henman, Patrick Bergqvist, and Voittu Jannula, Adam Schultz probably did his best to take the initiative with a generation-leading two. His career was short, however, unlike his Davos partner Japinder Singh, never the top defenceman himself but easily the most consistent, with career points beaten only by Sterling Labatte himself, and a member of the 1000/1000 (hits/shots blocked) club. Another member of that club is David Walcott, another model of consistency before his offensive eruption in his final season. James Bencharski, his long-time linemate who finished with the same 950 TPE, rounds off the top four, a key member of the Toronto dynasty with Walcott, and a Vasteras champion with Gerrard.

Post-Season 18 Era



It's a bit harder to classify the older generation's opponents in this tournament. There was no era-defining draft in recent times, like perhaps Season 40 will become, with the possible exception of Season 27, created largely by re-creates from the S18 era. The draft years are spread out as a result, from S21 to S29 and you could well split the team into two based on when they made their largest impact, but it wouldn't be much of a team then.

Top line right winger Pavel Koradek is probably the best example of this. A S21 draftee, he was part of the second half of the Davos dynasty, winning the S24 cup with Brekker, Kanou, Chouinard, Singh, and Schultz. Then a surprising trade saw Koradek land in Helsinki, where he went on to make his name as a superb goal-scorer, a younger version of Markus Strauss. He spent his last season with New York, almost a necessity for this generation given the early dominance of the New York/Seattle rivalry. Leeroy Jenkins and Tukka Reikkinen, who you could make a case for as the best forwards ever, contributed to the rivalry, with Jenkins playing for both sides before winning a VHL record fifth Continental Cup in his last season in Calgary. Jenkins set a single-season hits record, beaten by David Smalling and then Reikkinen, won a record-tying four Scott Boulet Trophies (then beaten by Smalling) and was always among the top scorers in the league. Reikkinen was much the same, winning cups with both the “cursed” Vasteras and New York, and leading the league in points with this team. By still playing a key role in S32, Reikkinen does a good job of connecting this line to the rest of the team.

The second line of Volodymyr Rybak, Alexander Chershenko, and Jarvis Baldwin became renowned for consistently being among the league's best offensive forwards and never having a poor season, as well as an average 1,186 TPE per player. Baldwin was part of the fabled “Seattle Six” but had his best individual season in Calgary, where Rybak and Chershenko also made their names. Another consistent scorer was third-line center Phil Rafter, Chershenko's #1 rival in the middle of the ice. Rafter became the fourth player ever to reach 400 career goals and his and Rybak's scoring pace was about as close as you would expect to get to Bunclewirth's. Rafter's demotion to the third line only comes due to slight TPE disadvantage to Chershenko and to rekindle his chemistry with his career linemate Smalling, whose superb accomplishments as a two-way forward have already been discussed above. Rounding out the Davos themed line is Ansgar Snijider, another model of consistency and 100+ point seasons, though sadly without a cup to his name.



At the back, Daniel Braxton and Ryan Sullivan were much more prolific individually than any of Schultz, Bencharski, Walcott, or Singh. Braxton led the way with a VHL record four Labatte Trophies, never letting third defenceman Mitch Higgins in on the action, thus causing the latter to continue waiting for his Hall of Fame induction. Sullivan followed Braxton with three Labattes of his own, though he was thwarted once by center-turned-defenceman Clark Marcellin, for most of his career a hard-hitting playmaker and ultimately an excellent example of versatility.

Despite the star-studded defence, the goalies involved are quite capable of defending themselves. While not as revered as Shaw or Kanou, Alexander Labatte and CAL G's stats rival and often exceed those of their accomplished predecessors, with Labatte winning three Aidan Shaw Trophies in a peculiar career for a goalie which involved four teams. G was less of a traveller, being a member of the Seattle Six and was often thwarted in his top goalie hunts by Benjamin Glover, who won his first Tretiak while Shaw and Kanou were still in the league. Alongside Braxton, Glover was comically unlucky to miss out on a Continental Cup, but with G and Labatte he was once crowned league MVP, a feat achieved only by Kanou from the S18 class, quite impressive considering the trophy-laden forwards this trio came up against.

Prediction

After that extremely long and detailed preview, I suppose it would be right to end with a prediction. The schedule states the tournament will end a day before the start of Season 40 but I doubt it will be so long. Although the S18 era includes some of the biggest names in VHL history, it is no match to its younger opposition in terms of TPE. Lars Berger and Aidan Shaw are the only players with more than 1,000 TPE (with Gerrard very close at 994), while Japinder Singh, though his stats speak for themselves, is the only player involved with less than 600 TPE. In contrast, just six players for the post-S18 era have less than 1,000 TPE, with Pavel Koradek (762) and Leeroy Jenkins (870) the only ones with less than 900. It's not as far off if you look at the overalls in the sim but I will be surprised if the S18s win more than two games.

Post-S18 in five

[Da Trifecta 1,899]

Content: 3/3 This was a really great piece and fun to read. This is basically a short history lesson for anyone who came to the board post S30-ish. I myself have learned a lot from reading this. I am rooting for post S18 though.

Grammar: 2/2 One side note

Appearance: 1/1

 

Final 6/6 (doubled 12/12)

 

 

Note:

aforemention - aforementioned

[Victor 10,942]

No, a grammatical error has been made!!!

[scoop 3,432]

No, a grammatical error has been made!!!

Leave. Now.

[JardyB10 4,865]

Not to mention teammate is one word, tsk tsk.

[Da Trifecta 1,899]

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[Kesler 1,514]

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