VHLM Draft Grades (6-10)

Pifferfish · November 26, 2022

Alrighty folks, part 2 is finally here! I have been on vacation and formatting these the way I want is impossible on mobile so finally I'm on a PC and ready to write!!! Let's get right into it! A-I'll start with speed updates on the first 5 teams we looked at as we have a pretty good sample size of games to see how their drafts actually worked out.

Philadelphia: Its going well. The team's draft grade still is what it is based on volume but they have traded to regain the services of clutch waiver add last year, Tyler Swift (@lilchrist). As was discussed none of their actual draft selections are on this team, but yet they sit atop the VHLM Eastern Conference. I'd say C now that I know for certain JLJ is IA.

Houston: They are still near the wine cellars of their weaker conference. Both their picks are on the team still and putting up okay numbers mixed in with the various waiver additions this team has made. I think the key change holding this team back is that their advantage was a returning goalie but with the new IA goalie rule changes the benefit of that distinction has closed a ton. Seeing both players are still aorund and earning I'd move them up to a C.

Las Vegas: DEFCON 1 in LV right now!!!! The team with the current best finals streak in the VHLM is not even in a playoff spot right now! As far as their draft I'll say this. I think my grade was maybe slightly high. I'm still in love with their top 3 selections. Something I believe had severely hurt this team was their use of Tyler Swift who we mentioned earlier. Is the TPE high? No. But the adjusted STHS Overall is fantastic. Where was Vegas utilizing this talented Defensive Defenseman? The 4th defensive unit next to Juan Ceson (@dylanjj37). This lack of usage and the low team success led to a requested trade. All of that said, Vegas flipped a third round pick for a 2nd and a 5th in a year they probably don't care too much about. Since I can't factor the gained value from a mid season trade into the equation I'd say a B works in the retrospective section of this.

Mississauga: I feel like this A+ was spot on. I'm not in their locker room but I imagine that most these players have kept up their activity there and are hype about the team's solid start. With that activity each of their top 5 selections are still active!! Love Love Love this team class! Great work @a_Ferkincredible draft my man, can't wait to see you continue this good work for seasons to come! This remains an A+ without a doubt.

Miami: This was my biggest miss. This team expected more activity and hasn't found it from the draft class. Granted they had a shallow amount of draft capital to work with they still didn't do their best with it. Swinsola has produced on the ice but not really that locker room presence for the team @nurxwould have liked. I still like the Darius trade and he got the steal of the late rounds with Aland. For the 58th pick overall what a steal there by the way. It just... wasn't all it was hyped to be or could have been. C+ from me with hindsight.

Now that we have concluded the review of the original teams mentions let look at 5 fresh teams.

Mexico City Kings
Grade B
Picks: 17 Grizz Tazzo, 27 Keno Akara, 28 Tim Riggins, 37 Ross Glagau, 47 George Costanza, 57 Viktor Hasek, 67 BeauDC.
I really like this draft from @badcolethetitan. None of these players are a shining beacon hope on this team. I wasn't in love with the move to trade Marimoto but the return was decent enough. Grizz is having a great year but it just feels like that's partially on the back of a titanic effort and season from Stroheim. Glagau felt like a great value but like I said earlier, the introduction of IA goalies really closed the gap in this category. His play has been subpar on top of it which doesn't help this pick's value in my grade. Costanza was the weirdest pick of the draft in my book. Hadn't updated for weeks but was active on the forums heading into that weekend. I'm unsure if the forum activity has continued after the draft but Costanza for certain has not updated on the portal since that time. Overall I like it, but I'm simply not wowed and I think the value Darius could have brought is something that this franchise misses.

Saskatoon Wild
Grade B-
Picks: 6 Yaroslav Trunov, 10 Reinhard von Kongming, 16 Admir Bala, 26 Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 30 Shawn Juhamatti Aaltonen, 42 Beep Beep Bedard, 46 Flynn OSteel, 56 Joe Dee, 66 Asher Boham.
@Bulduray_1was overseeing this one and at a glance I think they wanted all the players with 3 names they could get! Jokes aside (at least I hope this is a coincidence) Its not a bad group. At the time of the draft I thought additions like Bedard and Aaltonen would be potential steals but they have not updated in some time which leaves me a bit sad. This team is in such an odd spot. Only having 4 of their 8 picks stay active is a tough pill. But at current earning Bala and Kongming potentially are set to make a return next season. Trunov has capped so as good a top round pick as you can have. Ibrahimovic has been the least consistent of the 4 very active players but still is contributing to a nearly .500 record. Presently the team sits in the position of a team that will be in but questions about how much they deserve to be will certainly exist as the season progresses. If I knew they can secure the returns of Bala and Kongming, then this grade would probably be a B or B+.

Ottawa Lynx
Grade A+
Picks: 1 Mac Atlas, 7 Greg Hickman, 9 Elias Lampi, 19 Winston Dixon Jr., 29 David King, 33 Jagger Bomb, 39 Niall Mahoney, 49 James Chizler, 59 John Cena.
This team killed the draft! Their was some jumping about that occurred in the leagues' GMs but I'm pretty sure this draft was 100% @Moonand @Jason kranz. If I'm wrong I apologize. Regardless of who drafted the team @Grapeis the General Manager now. This team killed the S86 draft and they are cruising to a top 3 placement so far in the VHLM. Most of these picks were great and have remained active. Lampi got flipped for a great haul especially when you consider where he was drafted. David King has sadly fell a bit quiet but Bomb and Mahoney out of the 4th round make up for his loss in spades. 3 solid defensemen in this draft class was quite a feat with how fast the fell off the board.

Halifax 21st
Grade B-
Picks: 5 Edward Traverse, 15 Jimi Jaks, 25 Tim Stuzle, 35 Braeden Panarella, 45 Marc Gorman, 55 Left Alone, 65 Mr Fancy Pants.
What a little draft @ShawnGlade put together with purely HFX picks! As is the norm so far in these grades, those last 3 picks are irrelevant. You could argue the Gorman picks actively hurt the team as he was taking a roster spot that may have stopped a waiver addition from showing up on the roster. Traverse was considered by many to be the consensus top defenseman in the class that was openly available to every team. To the 21st he fell and he is playing really well! He has more shot blocks than the next two players on his team combined. Jaks is currently leading the team in points and has been consistently training up to improve. Panarella is a weird one. He is better than point per game so far holding the 2nd spot on this team. But then he combines that with an atrocious -15 plus/minus mark. Its a rough thing to just have clouding an otherwise good line. This team is wilting at the bottom of the East. At least Panarella projects to return for one more VHLM campaign, maybe he can be the leader of this team next season. Also, Tim Stuzle could be here next season as well. Expect to see players like Jaks and Traverse to be OTB in the coming weeks if the waivers done start rolling into Halifax to right this sinking ship. I'd say this class and Saskatoon's are very eerily similar in the way they have played out so far.

San Diego Marlins
Grade A+++++++++
Picks: 2 Kronchy Kardashian, 3 David Jokinen, 4 Justin Lion, 12 Oreo McFleury, 13 Full Player Name, 14 Jack Jeckler, 31 Leonard Triller, 32 Jacob Bryla, 34 Keita Kourou, 44 Michael Williams, 62 Joshua Lo Giudice Jr, 64 Yorrit Van Loo.
Wow. Wow. 7 more "Wows" each for every one of these top NINE selections! Not one pure button clicker among the bunch. Got two of the top 4 projected defensemen in the class and added another 2 great additional bodies to fill out the top two pairings. They got the player I would rank second in the race for VHLM goalie of the year. They got a capped TPE player at 31st overall who is an incredible presence in their locker room. They traded for Ben Dover just before the draft which was a great value in my opinion. @jacobcarson877with a masterclass here. I haven't seen more VHLM draft than this first one but I can't imagine any team has ever produced a class individually this deep and stack with this level of earning. Even their last "good" pick in Keita Kourou has successfully been flipped for a better asset in Don Aven for this cup ready squad. I won't go into detail on all of these players but their locker room is popping and has a ton of activity with many of these selections at the center of the conversations. They are flying off to a red hot start on the ice. This is it young GMs of this league.... Look at this team and admire it. We may never see anything quite the likes of it again with the new pick limiting rules but damn it is a beauty to behold while we can. Is this class enough to say that Jacob Carson is a lock for the GM of the Year Award already? By the way, the amount of plus signs I used is no accident. They got a plus for each of their good picks.

Thanks for reading everyone... Might go through and tag the players mentioned here in a reply but for now I'm just going to push this out as its been in the pipeline for a while.

1,800+ words
11/27, 12/4, 12/11