S86 VHFL Group Winners and Losers

[Pifferfish 597]

Howdy folks, and welcome to a Todd Ripley special report with the S87 VHFL drafts wrapping up! Here we will analyze the players who over and under performed for your fantasy teams last season and see what we can learn. Each player will be named and followed by their teams' average finishes in their groups.

 

G Boris Tzesar (2.83)and G Cole Pearce (2.75) - Winners

Both these Goalies were only selected in below 8 groups of the 17 which I think makes one thing clear about them, they weren't highly touted goalies, just get a decent one and have a strong roster in front of them. Just look at the rankings, the top 2 goalies in the consensus rankings we're Brandt Fuhr and Xavier Booberry who both came in 11th and 10th in the year end rankings at the position!

 

F Zach Kisslinger II (4.65) - Loser

When looking at the scoring system of the VHFL one thing stuck out to me last year: defensive stats for forwards are king. That said it made a ton of sense for GMs to draft the reigning Two-Way Forward of the Year. What many failed to notice is the fact that Zach had his monster defensive season on the Preds 2nd unit with much less capable players on the defensive side of the puck. This past season Zach got bumped up to the first line with Vasile Lamb, who really holds his own in front of his own net. Zach Kisslinger has the unfortunate circumstance of being the first player since Chad Magnum in S73 to not be a repeat Two-Way of the Year winner. Many expected us to see the Duncan Idaho of this crop of players, but alas the stars didn't align for Kisslinger and his owners felt it.

 

F Vasile Lamb (2.29), F Brendan Marner (2.41), and F Girts Galvins (2.57) - Winners

I've decided to just lump these three together as they are all on the same roster. They finished 1st, 4th, and 5th overall respectively in the average finish ranking among players selected to more than five teams. Let's start with Lamb. Everybody knew Lamb would be a stud but he has the honor of being number 1! Why the jump though? He played on the same line he did the season before. The answer is Kisslinger! In S85 as funny as it sounds Lamb was stunted by his then linemates Marner and Galvins! Both those players are high level scorers with defensive upside, same as Lamb. Kisslinger is a great passer that was able to feed the puck to Lamb a ton. Also, S86 rookie Jeff Buffy was a pretty solid passer himself while not taking shooting opportunities from a guy like Lamb. 

 

Now to Marner and Galvins. They both got moved away from Lamb who, once again, has a very similar play style to his former linemates. Marner was able to add 10 goals to his total from the year previous while Galvins took a major step forward as the 2nd scoring and defensive option on his line instead of third. Almost 27 more goals, 15 more assists, 33 more shots blocked, and a whopping 123 more hits! 

 

D Jerome Reinhardt (5.00) - Loser

Jerome was a tougher one to diagnose the cause of this fall. Coming off a 99 point season and winning the Valiq and Campbell Trophies, people expected another big year for Reinhardt and instead his production fell off a cliff. It wasn't terrible but nothing close to what we saw in the award years. If I had to take a guess it was either a shift in line strategy or just the major overhaul to the 1st unit. In theory, it as a whole should have had similar numbers but S86 was a rough season for the top guys in London. All in all, London scored only 209 goals in S86.

 

D Erlantz Jokinen (2.35) - Winner

This is the first player we've mentioned that made a team swap heading into S86 with a shift from Calgary to Prague. His numbers were very similar to the last season despite the new scenery and some regression from age. I think many just underrated Prague as a team and with that their players. Also, it's hard to predict how a new team and GM will utilize a player versus a known quantity. All that I think played into Jokinen falling down boards and getting taken in rounds as late as the 5th in many groups. 

 

Honorable Mentions:

D Jake Thunder (2.35) - Winner

F Vinny Detroit (2.59) - Winner

F Thomas Sogaard (2.60) - Winner

D Tavish DeGroot (4.47) - Loser

F Hulk Hogan 2 (4.83) - Loser

F Ryan Vidot (4.85) - Loser

F Florida Man (5.11) - Loser

 

750 ish words

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[Hogan 1,425]

Thanks for calling me a loser piffer

[Pifferfish 597]

5 hours ago, Hogan said:

Thanks for calling me a loser piffer

Hey in terms of fantasy production it was rough for the Bears as a whole.