I Used 2801 Words To Talk About The New VHLM Draft Pick Rules, The New VHLE Commissioner And The Teams In The North American Conference

[MubbleFubbles 1,292]

VHLM Draft Pick Trading Changes

 

The new VHLM Commissioners announced that there would be new rules regarding draft pick trading in the VHLM starting with S87 draft picks. The most notable change is that teams have gone down from being able to have up to 3 firsts and 3 seconds to only being able to have two picks in the top two rounds. This brings it closer to what it was back in Season 55 where you could have no more than three picks in first two rounds and, to be honest, I was never a fan of the decision to change it to max of three firsts and three seconds in the first place anyway (I think the opinions of the then-VHLM GMs were listened to too much in that instance) so I see this as a good change. There was a slight change made to one of the other amendments after the official announcement as the initial requirement of a team owning at least four picks in the first four rounds was lowered down to three picks in the first four rounds citing difficulties in making trades happen with the old limit, which makes a lot of sense. While I’ve never believed that teams need to utilize a strategy heavily dependent on tanking and following it up with a season of holding several picks to have success in the VHLM, we won’t be seeing that in the future anyway so hopefully it will lend itself to more well-rounded competition in the VHLM.

 

New VHLE Commissioner

 

Rjfryman, who has done a lot for the league in many different jobs, announced that they were to step down from their position as VHLE Commissioner and thus a new vacancy was made available, which was filled by Enorama, who I think will do a great role in the job and someone who I have to imagine was among one of the top candidates for the VHLM Commissioner jobs when they were advertised.  Enorama has been a very consistently active presence in the league and has obviously had a big impact on the league, holding the record for most TPE with a player along with currently having the joint-third longest GM stint in the VHL as the Dragons only GM to date, so I look forward to seeing what they do in their most important role yet.

 

As an aside, I was interested in the VHLE Commissioner job myself and was waiting for the job interview post to be made to declare my interest, only to find they didn’t do one and used the VHLM interview thread instead. As someone who didn’t really have any specific ideas to bring to the M but did for the E (as illustrated in one of my last VHL.coms where I mentioned an idea for a change to the VHLE Draft), it was a bit frustrating to find out that the hiring was made based on a different thread rather than a new application thread being made, especially since it’s not like Enorama would have not posted in a new application thread if he was interested in the VHLE role. While I wouldn’t have gotten the job anyway given how pivotal Enorama has been, I’m hoping they consider making new application threads for vacancies in the future rather than presuming candidates who apply for one job would be the only ones interested in another job just because it has similar responsibilities (E.g. I get it for GM jobs in the same leagues when vacancies need filling at short notice but, had the E had a vacancy before the M, Gustav likely would not have posted in an VHLE Commissioner application thread, so if that same logic had been used, we would have potentially missed out on a very good M Commissioner choice)

 

A Closer Contested VHL Season

 

At the time that I’m writing this (After Friday’s sims), the league is proving to be a lot tighter than most that have come before, with a lot of the teams lower down the standings showing up to upset the best teams in the league. With two thirds of the season gone, just 30 points separates the league’s highest ranked team (Warsaw Predators on 69 points) and the lowest ranked team (Riga Reign on 39 points) which, if they kept at their current pace, would be a 45 point gap by the end of the season. Compare that with the gaps between top and bottom teams since the VHLE was implemented:

Season 80 – 87 point gap

Season 81 – 89 point gap

Season 82 – 93 point gap

Season 83 – 75 point gap

Season 84 – 71 point gap

 

This is likely as a result of the large increase of new players that have made their way through the development system into the VHL pro league as the Season 81 and Season 82 class now combine for more 400 TPE+ prospects than Seasons 78, 79 and 80 combined despite having one less draft class (87 for S81+S82, 86 for S78-S80).

 

The North American Playoff Race

 

Toronto Legion are currently bottom of the North American conference and, looking at the roster, while they aren’t miles away in terms of talent, their current position is a fair reflection of their current ability. Taking into account the average numbers of each North American teams first two lines, the Legion are currently last in the conference in both the STHS scoring (70.9) and defense (77.4) attributes and are also seventh in puck handling (77.7), so seeing them record the least amount of goals scored and the most amount of goals conceded in the conference is maybe not too much of a surprise.  Unfortunately, the sim hasn’t been too kind to their goalie either as Oskar Lindbergh is currently 15^th among the 16 goalie starters in save percentage despite being third in goalie TPA. I’ve also got Toronto down as having the toughest ending schedule to the season along with eight games remaining for their backup goalie to play, so I think the chances of them making it into the playoffs are not impossible, but incredibly slim.

 

New York currently sit in seventh and five points off of the playoff places, although the team currently in fifth (Los Angeles) has played one less game. Unlike Toronto, New York have had a really good performance all round from their goalie Augustus Kennedy, who currently sits at third place in save percentage. On top of that, the defense led by Poopy Peepants have been limiting opponents shooting opportunities as they have the sixth best record for shots allowed despite playing the most games in the league. The main problem for New York has been their inability to score as they have the second-lowest total number of goals in the VHL, although I do think that this is something that could be improved with a few tweaks to the lines. I think the main problem is that, as things have been most season, their strategy of the second line is heavily dependant on the shooting of Maximus Decimus Meridius, who leads their team by some distance in shots, but they only have 71 scoring while Yun Chiang, who sits at 85 scoring is playing a bit part (lowest amount of shots of the six forwards) on an already strong first line, so I think if Chiang was moved down to the second line, that could potentially unlock Chiang and boost the scoring output on the second line. I think New York could still yet make a late push for the playoffs as they have one of the better schedules out of those in the North American Conference (they are the only team in the conference who doesn’t have any more games against both Moscow and Warsaw), but they need to hope their six backup games remaining don’t have too much of an impact on their results as they cannot afford to have their BOT goalie cost them games in the position they are currently in.

 

Chicago sit in sixth place, but have had a rather bizarre schedule this season which sees them up to four games behind some of the other teams in the VHL and this looks like it may not even out until the very last sim of the regular season, as five of the last sixteen games on the schedule are Phoenix games. While they sit five points behind Los Angeles in fifth place, they do have three games in hand on them, so the current point gap is a little bit deceptive. Chicago’s strongest part of their play this season has come through defenseman Bo Johansson, who sits fourth in assists along with helping the Phoenix record the second lowest amount of shots faced (and are only four shots against behind the leading DC Dragons who have played one more game). This good form hasn’t really transitioned to other positions though as The Board Game Clue on Skates is the only forward above a point per game (and barely above at that) and Cole Pearce, like Lindbergh for the Legion, has been putting up save percentages that don’t really match their TPA levels, sitting at 13^th in save percentage among starters. While the good news for Chicago is that they only have to play their backup for one more game, they do have a slightly tougher schedule than their main competitors for the final playoff spot in New York and Los Angeles, but most of their games set for the last sim of the season are against teams who are either looking unlikely to make the playoffs or only just making it, so should Chicago keep it tight up to that point, it could be a very entertaining final sim of the season.

 

Los Angeles are probably the biggest surprise of the North American conference this season. While they do have a lot of potential, it didn’t look like they were quite yet ready to compete given that their first two lines average the lowest skating (72.9) and puck handling (75.2) in the North American conference along with ranking sixth in NA in defense (79.9) and scoring (72.2), but they’ve found a way to make it work this season and currently sit just inside the playoff places. The main contributors to this are definitely Sirdsvaldis Miglaskams, who has scored the second most goals in the North American conference and has more than double the amount of goals that the next highest scoring player on the Stars has had, and Art Vandelay, whose .927 save percentage ranks as the fourth highest in the league. Interestingly the Stars could have been even higher up in the standings, but they’ve had easily the worst shoot-out record in the league, winning only one of the seven that they’ve participated in. They do still have all their backup games left to play, but their run-in is pretty favourable as the two teams that they have to play the most (Toronto and Prague four times each) are both teams that are currently outside of the playoff places.

 

Calgary sit in fourth place and have served to be the most entertaining team to follow for the neutrals as a lot of their games have had plenty of goals for both teams! It’s not really surprising that Calgary have been a very potent offense this season given some of the talents they have at the forward position, averaging the second highest scoring attribute (79.1) in the North American conference, with Daniel Janser and Saku Kotkakoivu both having 60 point seasons thus far. What is somewhat surprising though is the amount of goals they’ve conceded, despite the fact that their goalie Ben Dahl is having a good season, registering a .925 save percentage at this moment, along with the amount of shots that they’ve faced (once games equal out, they’ll likely have faced the most shots in the North American conference) despite the fact that the team has the highest average defense attribute (84.3) in the North American Conference. Calgary still have six backup games remaining (although they’ll be hoping for much better out of Red Gaming than the .859 save percentage they had in their two starts thus far) but their schedule is more favourable than a couple of teams ahead of them in the standings (they have the most games remaining of the North American conference against the Riga Reign team that currently sits at the bottom of the standings), so don’t be surprised to see Calgary move up in the standings in the near future.

 

The winner of the last two Devon Marlow-Marta trophies, the Seattle Bears currently sits in third place in the North American conference. Seattle is a great example of the amount of success a team can have by simply taking advantage of limited opportunities. Despite not having particularly great figures in shots for (once games balance out, will probably be 11^th in the league in that stat) or shots against (currently have the most shots against in the conference, although Calgary will likely overtake them once games balance out), they’ve managed to find themselves on the same amount of points as a Moscow Menace team that has the highest shots for/against differential in the league (Moscow have had 545 more shots for than their shots against, Seattle have faced 15 more shots against than shots they’ve had). Dusty Wilson currently sits in 12^th in league save percentage but has helped single-handedly win games with five shutouts, which currently leads the league. They have five games left to play their backup, but unfortunately they have one of the most difficult run-ins to end the season, with five games still to play against the other teams in the top half of the North American conference along with four games left to play against Moscow.

 

The D.C Dragons sit just one point behind the conference leaders, but with three games in hand it maybe wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see the Dragons in the top spot in the near future. DC success has illustrated the impact that star players can have on a team as, despite being only one of two teams to have multiple players record less than 10 points, they have league leading performances in both goals (Ronan Lavelle with 36) and assists (Tui Sova with 53) that have helped carry the team up the standings, along with Bubbles Utonium recording the joint highest save percentage in the North American conference. Perhaps the player who has had the most impact is Sova, as the team has been very strong defensively, facing the least amount of shots in the league. The one thing that could hurt the Dragons’ chances at finishing the season on top of the North American Conference is that they face a much tougher schedule ahead than the league leaders, with DC notably only having three games left to play against the current five lowest ranking teams in the VHL, but at least they can enter those games knowing that they’ll be playing with their strongest line-up as the Dragons have started their backup for the required eight games already.

 

While the Vancouver Wolves had a bit of an iffy start to the season, winning just six of their first sixteen games and needing a shoot-out for two of those victories, the Wolves have put together a strong run of performances since then and now find themselves top of the North American conference with two-thirds of the season played. Funnily enough the current Wolves team is the North American team that looks the closest to the composition and build of the old meta teams, averaging the lowest passing attribute in the conference (64.6) whilst also averaging the highest scoring attribute (81.2) in the conference. Brandt Fuhr has had a good season to this point, their .927 save percentage is the fifth best in the league and they’ve predictably had a great performance from Nico Pearce, who has put themselves in very good position to add to their two trophy haul from last season. Vancouver are the polar opposite of their nearest challenger DC in terms of backup games left to play in that they’ve yet to bench Fuhr once, but I would also say that Vancouver probably has the easiest run-in of any other team in the North American conference. While they do have four games to play against Moscow, they don’t have any more games to play against Warsaw or Calgary and they’ve only got one game to play against both DC and Seattle. Couple that five games against the two lowest ranking teams in the EU conference and it should be interesting to see whether the easier schedule they face than DC will offset the number of backup games they have left to play.

 

2801 Words, using for W/E 10/9, 10/16, 10/23 and 10/30

Edited October 1, 2022 by MubbleFubbles

[ThePerfectNut 563]

7 minutes ago, MubbleFubbles said:

I think the main problem is that, as things have been most season, their strategy of the second line is heavily dependant on the shooting of Maximus Decimus Meridius, who leads their team by some distance in shots, but they only have 71 scoring while Yun Chiang, who sits at 85 scoring is playing a bit part (lowest amount of shots of the six forwards) on an already strong first line, so I think if Chiang was moved down to the second line, that could potentially unlock Chiang and boost the scoring output on the second line.

Bro been trying for WEEKS to tell him to change lines and make Yun Chiang not suck as much as he do, but all he does is switch strategies a bit (Which lowkey made us lose even more)

 

They so lucky rookies are forced to sign 3 seasons smh. 2 more seasons to go 

Edited October 1, 2022 by ThePerfectNut

[Beketov 9,101]

33 minutes ago, MubbleFubbles said:

it was a bit frustrating to find out that the hiring was made based on a different thread rather than a new application thread being made, especially since it’s not like Enorama would have not posted in a new application thread if he was interested in the VHLE role. While I wouldn’t have gotten the job anyway given how pivotal Enorama has been, I’m hoping they consider making new application threads for vacancies in the future rather than presuming candidates who apply for one job would be the only ones interested in another job just because it has similar responsibilities

To be fair Commish jobs rarely have postings at all. We mostly did with the M because we knew it was likely we had to replace both and we had a bit of time. With the VHLE we wanted to get it dealt with quickly and were all (that is @Josh, @Acydburn, and I) in agreement that @Enorama fit the role well.

 

So it’s not so much that we used the VHLM posting for the VHLE posting, it was more just that we knew we had a candidate we liked and that’s generally how commish hirings work.

[MubbleFubbles 1,292]

4 minutes ago, Beketov said:

To be fair Commish jobs rarely have postings at all. We mostly did with the M because we knew it was likely we had to replace both and we had a bit of time. With the VHLE we wanted to get it dealt with quickly and were all (that is @Josh, @Acydburn, and I) in agreement that @Enorama fit the role well.

 

So it’s not so much that we used the VHLM posting for the VHLE posting, it was more just that we knew we had a candidate we liked and that’s generally how commish hirings work.

I guess that's fair, I knew we don't have threads for VHL commishes but I felt like I'd seen at least a few VHLM Commish threads for vacancies in the past, so presumed there'd be the same for VHLE, but I guess all the E commishes have been hired without one. I probably focused too much on the fact that the thread was referenced.

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