Decades of VHL Trivia

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During the 15 real-life years that the VHL has been around, we have gone through over 80 simulated seasons. A lot has happened during that time, and some of it is more noteworthy than others. Some of these things are somewhat inconsequential, but for those who love trivia and league history (such as myself), they can still be fun to look at. That is why I have prepared for you all eight facts, one for every ten-season span of the league's history. In particular, my research focused on awards and Hall of Fame trivia, so that is what I have for you. I don't have anything from the S80's decade, because clearly nothing worth mentioning has happened, and that would be one more thing I would have to write about. Let's get going!

 

 

Eye of the Tijger [the only former Amstel Tijger in the Hall of Fame]
One thing that the early seasons of the VHL had that we don't see as much nowadays are relocations. Those who are not familiar with league history may not know of the Amstel Tijgers, who played in the VHL for a single season before spending some time as the Avangard Havoc, and eventually settling in Davos and becoming the Dynamo. With just a single season played in Amsterdam, Tijgers fans didn't have much opportunity to witness Hall of Fame talent on the ice. There was one player from that squad, however, who did end up enshrined in the Hall of Fame: Petr Shirokov.

 

The only Hall of Fame player to ever wear a Tijgers jersey, Shirokov played just four seasons in the VHL. Upon his retirement, he was part of the inaugural Hall of Fame ceremony. While you could argue that the VHL, still being in its infancy, did not yet have the need for a Hall of Fame, Petr Shirokov was definitely a star of the early years. Looking at his career through the lens of today's VHL, it may be hard to understand why Shirokov would have been inducted, but this was a different era. Besides, without Shirokov in the Hall, the Amstel Tijgers would be the only team to have no former players in the Hall of Fame, and that wouldn't be fun.

 

 

Switch Hitter [the only player to win both a forward-specific and defenseman-specific award]
Within the sim world of the VHL, a player who is a good forward is almost certainly going to be a good defenseman as well, and vice versa. Still, players for the most part stay as a forward or defenseman, but there are cases where players switch sides, be it for necessity for the team's lineup or simply a desire to change things up. It is never the most noteworthy thing when it happens, but factor this in with the position-restricted awards, and we have the recipe for a trivial fact: only one player in VHL history has won both the Scott Boulet Trophy (given to the top Two-Way Forward) and any one of the Sterling Labatte, Jake Wylde, and Alexander Valiq Trophies (the awards given to the Top Defenseman, Top Defensive Defenseman, and Top Offensive Defenseman, respectively). That player was Matt Bailey.

 

Beginning his career as a right wing, Bailey quickly established himself as one of the best two-way forwards (a term which we use more to describe power forwards) in the VHL. He won his first Boulet Trophy in just his second season of play and followed it up with two more in S14 and S15. Midway through his career, his Helsinki Titans needed more defensemen on the roster, so Bailey made the switch. In the final season of his career, his fourth as a defenseman, Bailey won the Labatte Trophy, making him the first and, to this day, only player to have won a position-specific trophy at two different positions. While this doesn't necessarily mean he is the best ever to play as both a forward and a defenseman, he is at least near the top of the list.

 

 

The Last First MVP [the first MVP from the last original franchise to have an MVP]
If you look at a list of the Scotty Campbell Trophy winners from the first 23 seasons, something that will likely stand out to you is that all but one of them were won by someone playing for Seattle, Toronto, Calgary, or Davos. Three franchises had yet to have a player to be named MVP, but that would change relatively quickly from that point on. In Season 24, Tarik Saeijs became the first Titan to win the award (Helsinki would boast two of the next three as well), and Andres Bjorkman bucked the trend for Riga in Season 27. That left just the Americans franchise as the only one without a Most Valuable Player to their name. It was in the following season that goaltender Benjamin Glover became the first MVP for the last of the original eight teams to be represented.

 

(A quick note: I did not specifically intend to write about my player; I sought out this information not realizing who it would be).

 

Just as the Americans franchise has been remarkably pathetic in the last couple decades of the VHL, they were known as one of the worst in the first couple decades as well. They did have a window in the era of Grimm Jonsson, during which they won their first Continental Cup, when they could have potentially produced an MVP, but Davos had a stranglehold on the award at the time. Instead it took until Season 28, when Glover's career high 0.929 save percentage and 51 wins were enough to earn him the hardware. While he may not have quite been the most outstanding overall, he stood well above the other goalies and was pivotal in New York's 115-point season.

 

 

Star-Studded Failure [the team with the most Hall of Fame players on their roster]
The Americans were a good team during Glover's playing career, but they fell short in the finals in each of their five appearances. While this was still seen as a turnaround for the franchise that only had six playoff appearances in total through 23 seasons, things got even better in coming years. Over 22 seasons from S32 to S53, the Americans won six Continental Cups. This entry is not about their success, however. In Season 38, the New York roster included more Hall of Famers than any other team in VHL history. With that in mind, it's no surprise that they won the Victory Cup by 15 points over the next closest team. It was a surprise, however, when they won just two games in the playoffs.

 

While this collection of all-time greats were not all playing in their prime, and one of them was a backup goalie for the season, the team was the best in the regular season. They were led by Tuomas Tukio's swan song in which he won his second consecutive Campbell Trophy, an in-his-prime Odin Tordahl's sweep of the scoring leaderboards, and Conner Low's third of five consecutive Labatte Trophies. In addition, they had Xin Xie Xiao in his third season and Tom Slaughter in his second. Brick Wahl was aforementioned backup to Tukio, and the final future Hall of Famer on the team was Wesley Kellinger, playing in the prime of his career. Up until recently, Kellinger was not in the Hall of Fame, as he had to wait 38 seasons before enshrinement. It wasn't until then that this Americans squad officially had a record seven future Hall of Famers. As I said, though, it still wasn't enough in the playoffs, as they were dispatched by the Toronto Legion in the Conference Finals.

 

 

Offensive Vision [the most recent player to lead the league in both goals and assists]

In three of the first four seasons, the league leader in goals was also the league leader in assists. Brett Slobodzian did it twice, while Scotty Campbell was the other during this time. Grimm Jonsson accomplished the feat in Season 15, and as previously mentioned, Odin Tordahl did it in Season 38. The fifth, and most recent, player to earn both the Kevin Brooks and the Alexander Beketov Trophies in the same season was Thomas O'Malley of the Cologne Express in Season 44. The VHL has gone 39 seasons without another player replicating this success, though it's not impossible, and we will likely see it again at some point, as just recently in Season 77, Andrew Su came within one goal of joining this elite group.

 

O'Malley came into the league in Season 40 with an incredible rookie campaign, but his numbers declined over the next two seasons. In Season 43, he turned things around for good, with his 53 goals good for the league lead and his 78 assists just three shy. The next season when he led the league in both, it wasn't particularly close. His career-high 59 goals was five higher than his closest competition, and his 76 assists gave him a cushion of six. In no sort of surprise, he was named the MVP that season, an award he would win in the next two seasons as well. He would never again, however, lead the league in either goals or assists, but he did lead in points during his second and third MVP campaigns.

 

 

Losing When it Counts [the best regular season record to fail to reach the Finals]
The Calgary Wranglers finished the VHL's first regular season with an astounding 69-3-0 record. To date, this is the best regular season performance by a team, and it is one that is very unlikely to ever be topped. Famously, this team lost in the Finals to Vasteras; but hey, at least they made it there, right? Only two other teams in VHL history have finished the regular season with over 130 points: the S51 Calgary Wranglers (64-4-4, 132 points) and the S54 Stockholm Vikings (66-4-2, 134 points). In the playoffs, however, these two teams fare no better than the Season 38 Americans. Earning the bye into the Conference Finals, the Wranglers fell in five games. Since my article is about records, however, I will be focusing on the Season 54 Vikings, as they have the best regular season record by a team that failed to even make it to the Finals.

 

In the regular season, the Vikings were an incredible team. Their record (again, the second best ever) speaks to that more than anything else can, but it's definitely worth mentioning that their +182 goal differential is in the top ten of all time. The offense was led by Tyson Kohler and Pietro Maximoff, with 54 and 53 goals, respectively. Rhett DeGrath was a wall in front of the net, winning the Aidan Shaw Trophy with a 0.933 save percentage. This would actually be the only award won by this team, which really got things done more as a unit than they did with star power (that's not to say they didn't have elite talent). Their opponent in the Conference Finals would be the 108-point Titans, against whom the Vikings were a mere 5-2-1 in the regular season. In the six-game series, Stockholm managed to score just ten goals, and DeGrath posted an abysmal 0.879 save percentage.

 

 

The Long Wait [the longest wait time from retirement to Hall of Fame enshrinement]
Not everyone can make the Hall of Fame on their first or second ballot, though the majority of them have. For some, it only takes a few more seasons due to competitive ballots. Then there are those who the voters just aren't sure about. These guys might get some consideration after their retirement but never quite enough. Then, maybe due to timing or a shift in voters, everything aligns and they get the call. With statute of limitations on Hall of Fame voting, some players can wait a very long time. I mentioned Wesley Kellinger's 38-season wait earlier, and just a couple seasons before he got in, Mike Szatkowski Jr. was voted in after 33 seasons. These two rank second and third in terms of time waited behind Matthias Chouinard, a Season 18 draftee who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Season 68.

 

The Season 18 VHL Draft was very good. Very, very good. Six of the players from this draft, now that Chouinard has joined them, are in the Hall of Fame; this is more than any draft class outside of the inaugural draft class (no surprise this one leads the way). At the time of the draft, Chouinard was underdeveloped compared to many of his peers, so he fell to the middle of the third round when the Calgary Wranglers picked him. He didn't make his VHL debut until Season 20, limiting his career to just six seasons, but in that time he won three Continental Cups. In his 434 game career, he had 286 goals and 624. While there are some who thought he should have made his way into the Hall earlier, his 42 seasons spent waiting could honestly have gone on even longer. When he did finally get in, it was the fifth consecutive Hall of Fame class that included just a single player.

 

 

Rayzing the Cup [the player with the most Playoff MVPs]
When the Seattle Bears won the Continental Cup in Season 73, the list of players with at least four VHL championships grew from nine to 14. It was the fourth win in six seasons for the Bears, and the quintet of Scott Greene, Ambrose Stark, Hulk Hogan, Berocka Sundqvist, and Rayz Funk were there for it all. You are going to find success when you are able to keep a unit together like that, and while they all deserve credit for the role they played on the team, it's hard to not single out one of them in particular as the linchpin of their playoff success. That, of course, would be the Rayz Funk, who was named playoff MVP in each of those four cup-winning seasons.

 

Only two players have ever won the Daisuke Kanou Trophy more than twice. The first was Daisuke Kanou himself. In Season 71, Funk matched him, and then in Season 73 he surpassed him. Although Funk never stood atop the goalie ranks in the regular season, he was a star when it came to the post-season. In three seasons, his playoff save percentage was at least 0.935, and he was below a 0.924 save percentage just once. In his playoff career, he had a 55-20-10 record with a 0.930 save percentage. Seattle has him to thank for a great deal of their success during that era. I give very little chance of any player ever topping his playoff MVP count; at best, maybe someone will tie him within the next 83 seasons.

 

 

 

2382 words (0 pictures); for weeks ending 7/24, 7/31, 8/7, 8/14

Edited July 25, 2022 by scoop

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