Line! - BABYMETAL

[Spartan 4,402]

I've realized for a bit that I really don't talk about my player....at all. So I'll make the effort to cover Nico in this VHL.com since this has been a bit of an eventful season for him.

 

The hype and expectations for Nico over the offseason was fairly obvious with Nico going off the board in the first round in pretty much every VHFL draft, and then also being listed for various awards on predictions ballots. Vancouver also had high expectations for the team, with youngsters like Svatopluk Puk, Henry Eagles and Dogwood Maple entering their sophomore seasons alongside stars Alexandre Leduc, Biggie Cheese and Brandt Fuhr. On paper, this was one of the most dangerous teams and most considered them to be a playoffs lock - or even a top 2 team in the entire league.

 

Through about the midway point of the season the performance on the ice was extremely shaky. Nico averaged about a point per game and was the top scorer on the Wolves, but a point per game doesn't really lead a team to wins in this era of the VHL. Even though @Frank tried every line combination possible, the results just never came. Vancouver was at a point where missing the playoffs entirely was a possibility.

 

At some point around game 29-30, I reached out to Frank to discuss a player swap, as Moscow was in a similar position where the team wasn't performing to expectations and the first line was invisible most nights. It was a very unique situation in the VHL, as I don't feel we swap identical TPA players at the same position and from the same draft class very often. But due to the similarities in player age and TPA, both teams were willing to try out a simple change of scenery.

 

Quite interestingly, the trade seems to done exactly what both teams hoped.

 

Preobrazhensky:

 

Pearce:

 

Both players went from point per game on their old teams to around 1.22 PPG and have sent both teams into stronger positions in their respective conferences. Vancouver is now solidly in 4th place in the NA with 6 points between them and Seattle in 5th. Moscow is in a race with Warsaw and Davos for the 1st seed in the EU, with all three teams holding the 1st place spot for various periods of time over the past few sims. 

Personally, I am just glad Nico is playing a bit more like what you'd expect from a 1.1k TPA player. Even other superstars on Moscow such as Tomas Sogaard and Hammar Voss have found their games as well since Nico's acquisition. Now both franchises will wait and see if their new superstars can take them on a deep playoff run.