Midseason-ish evaluation of GM Shindigs's moves

[VattghernCZ 1,056]

Back to back VHLM champions Las Vegas Aces are now facing a once in a lifetime opportunity - achieving the first ever VHLM threepeat. The one asked to direct such a feat is none other than Shindigs. As we're approaching this season's trade deadline, let's look back and reflect on his season so far.

 

At the draft table

 

The dispersal draft is arguably the most crucial step for the success of any VHLM team. Shindigs's job was made harder by the lack of 1st round pick, but multiple late rounds picks gave him more shots at potential draft steals. Let's look at each of his selections, their stats and their starting and current TPE.

 

Round 2, 13th overall: Joel Castle (G; 171 224 TPE). Nothing wrong with drafting a great earner goalie close to 200 TPA cap in the second. With .912 SVS%, 2.39 GAA ans 5 shutouts in 36 games played, and with most of the hardest matchups already behind them, he should be in the Benoit Devereux Trophy conversation when all is said and done.

 

Round 2, 16th overall: Jens Lekman (D; 88 150 TPE). Second lowest TPE player drafted in the second round, but one of the better earners of the whole draft. Scoring 28 points (4+24) in 43 makes him the highest scoring Aces defenseman.

 

Round 2, 20th overall: Antoine Barksdale (C; 125 204 TPE). With his.last 2nd round selection, Shindigs took another player with TPE on the lower side compared to other 2nd rounders, but one of the best earners of the draft class. Sensing a pattern? What a steal by Shindigs.

 

Round 3, 23th overall: Sigma Freud (D; 76 119 TPE). A defender with one of tht best names in the draft class. He's probably not developing as quickly as Shindigs hoped he would, but he's still an active, very solid contributor on the Aces' blue line.

 

Round 4, 31st overall: Kobe Johnson (RW; 90 109 TPE). A nice depth player to round out the forward group, but not really tipping the scales.on ice at this point.

 

Round 4, 33rd overall: Wann Kerr (C; 76 156 TPE). Okay, I'm biased towards my player, let's just say it's a 4th round selection who's grown 80 TPE since the draft and is poised to hit 200 TPE in the postseason.

 

Round 4, 36th overall; Grigoris Polyhronidis Jr (D; 129 151 TPE). A solid bet on higher TPE defenseman. He's established himself as a strong sefensive force. Unfortunately, there have been some rumors about losing him due to inactivity, but that's hardly something a GM can predict.

 

Round 7, 70th overall: Shadow Thompson (G; 48 78). Drafting an active player with the last pick of the draft has to be a hit by default. He's showing glimpses of some upside and solid growth eatly in his career. Efen though he's not a part of the LVA organisation anymore, we're just looking at the draft selections themselves in this section, and it was a pretty good one.

 

All things considered, Shindigs did a great job drafting and scouting. Acquiring 2 players who have already capped at 200 TPE and a couple more players potentially doing so before the past puck drop of the postseason - without having a 1st round selection at his disposal - is a marvelous example of great scouting.

 

Trading

 

(Note: trades involving S85 draft picks are not included in this article)

 

Pick trades are worth mentioning, but they're ultimately non-factors for this season. LVA has acquired S86 SDM 3rd in exchange for S87 LVA 3rd and 6th; this trade took place to improve LVA's position in the S86 draft, after Shindigs's planned departure.

 

The only trade including a player Shindigs made this season so far is trading Shadow Thompson to Houston for their S86 6th round draft pick. Shadow looked really promising and probably deserves the opportunity to get more ice time than he would get backing up Joel Castle. Trading him to get another S86 draft pick was the right call. 6th rounder is a better value than 7th rounder Thompson was selected with, however with the promise he's shown, I believe acquiring maybe a 5th rounder would be doable.

 

Waiver pickups

 

Waiver pickups are basically always a win in this league. Shindigs was able to sign Viktor Hasek (goaltender) and Edward Traverse (defenseman), both are well on the track to become good earners and high S86 VHLM draft picks. And especially Viktor is really active in the locker room.

 

Overall grade: A-

 

Word count: 754

Claiming 6 uncapped for week ending 10/2, and 6 capped for week ending 10/9 as allowed by the theme week topic, because I'm currently claiming TPE from multi-week MP.

Edited September 29, 2022 by VattghernCZ

[Shindigs 1,771]

22 minutes ago, VattghernCZ said:

Round 3, 23th overall: Sigma Freud (D; 76 119 TPE). A defender with one of tht best names in the draft class. He's probably not developing as quickly as Shindigs hoped he would, but he's still an active, very solid contributor on the Aces' blue line.

I actually picked Sigma with the goal of him being a "2 season player". Which is exactly what he's going to be. So he's going to be very valuable to the franchise even after I leave. With that in mind, that pick is working as intended. With us already having Juan Ceson returning, alongside GP+Bobcat as the higher earning dmen, he fit exactly what I wanted for long term stability. As we really didn't *need* another very high earning dman to reach the kind of D core I want in Vegas. Due to our focus on DFD we don't need our dmen to be as high TPE as a team that's more focused on Offensive/Two-Way Dmen.

 

22 minutes ago, VattghernCZ said:

Trading him to get another S86 draft pick was the right call. 6th rounder is a better value than 6th rounder Thompson was selected with, however with the promise he's shown, I believe acquiring maybe a 5th rounder would be doable.

Since Shadow was actually a 7th, not a 6th. AJ wouldn't go for a 5th rounder, it was my original ask. But my main goal with this trade was to give Shadow starting minutes, so I didn't care to try and get absolute max value for them.

 

22 minutes ago, VattghernCZ said:

Round 4, 31st overall: Kobe Johnson (RW; 90 109 TPE). A nice depth player to round out the forward group, but not really tipping the scales.on ice at this point.

Kobe's had a lot going on IRL that's meant he hasn't really been earning much yet this season. But he can and will max earn when he's got the motivation to do so. So I see him as being the core piece for Vegas to build around next season on Offense.

 

At some point (usually the 3rd/4th round) you're not really drafting for max power this season, you're drafting the core of next season. In that regard your development has almost been "too good" from a strategical standpoint. But the main goal for me as a GM isn't to have my master plan work out. It's to help guide members to their max potential, which I'm so happy to have seen you risen miles above what anyone in their right mind would have guessed a player named "Wann Kerr" ever would.

 

Edit: Oh an you forgot we got Josh Leblanc on waivers as well.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Shindigs

[VattghernCZ 1,056]

11 minutes ago, Shindigs said:

I actually picked Sigma with the goal of him being a "2 season player". Which is exactly what he's going to be. So he's going to be very valuable to the franchise even after I leave. With that in mind, that pick is working as intended. With us already having Juan Ceson returning, alongside GP+Bobcat as the higher earning dmen, he fit exactly what I wanted for long term stability. As we really didn't *need* another very high earning dman to reach the kind of D core I want in Vegas. Due to our focus on DFD we don't need our dmen to be as high TPE as a team that's more focused on Offensive/Two-Way Dmen.

I see... I was writing this more in a view of going for the threepeat without *totally* screwing up the next GM anyway lol

 

14 minutes ago, Shindigs said:

Since Shadow was actually a 7th, not a 6th. AJ wouldn't go for a 5th rounder, it was my original ask. But my main goal with this trade was to give Shadow starting minutes, so I didn't care to try and get absolute max value for them.

Yea, it was my typo I've already fixed...

[dylanjj37 342]

no mention of shindigs best move, signing free agent juan ceson

 

great article anyway

[Lemorse7 1,021]

7 hours ago, VattghernCZ said:

ound 2, 20th overall: Antoine Barksdale (C; 125 204 TPE). With his.last 2nd round selection, Shindigs took another player with TPE on the lower side compared to other 2nd rounders, but one of the best earners of the draft class. Sensing a pattern? What a steal by Shindigs.

I love and Hate this 

[diacope 1,696]

Most of Vegas players gave the oddest interviews and all seemed to want to be drafted by Vegas

[diacope 1,696]

Saskatoom did the same several seasons ago when like 5 players requested to be drafted only to the Wild