VHL Trade Wars: Edition 1 (Season 60)

[Advantage 2,899]

VHL Trade Wars: Review of the League’s Transaction Timeline (S60-Present)

 

 

Welcome to the first edition of what I am coining VHL Trade Wars, which will be a detailed overview of every trade that has happened from Season 60 to Present in the Victory Hockey League.  I saw this as a great opportunity to relearn some of this league’s history since I haven’t been as present in it over the last thirty seasons or so.  Seeing as I am starting fresh in trying to secure my footing back in this great league, I wanted to give myself a lot of content to build off of so I do really hope you enjoy this.

 

I chose this timeline since the Portal will allow me to be able to comprehensively review every piece that would have been moved from Season 60 to Present, and one thing I will definitely be doing is declaring either a winner for the trade or for those that are more of an even-playing-field, a draw.  This means I will be looking at picks involved and what they became, even if the pick ended up in someone else’s drafting hands.

 

Feel free to respond with any opinions or critiques of the article(s) as obviously some of you may be more familiar with the stakes of some of these transactions.  With that being said, lets get to the first trades.

 

SEASON 60

To DAV 

- Adam Warlock @OrbitingDeath

 

To QUE 

- Elias Sobeck @Boragina

- S61 DAV 3rd Round Pick (Ryan Skinner) @rampagemaster

 

GMs: @Tyler (Davos) – @Beaviss (Quebec)

 

Date: May 11^th, 2018

 

 

Davos made this move to acquire signature dominant agent OrbitingDeath and bring him into the fold that was the Dynamo as they were in desperate need of a defenseman.  This was relatively early on in the career of Warlock as Season 59 was just his rookie season.  Warlock ended up having a solid, though unheralded career, recording 348 points in 504 games while playing a very physical game on the backend.  While some saw Warlock as a two-way player it was really the tough nature and the large frame that allowed him to exceed in becoming a key piece on an organization.  Warlock would make the switch to the wing for his final couple seasons with the Legion which ended up being a great move on his part as not only did he contribute for the team as an offensive power forward, but he helped guide them to back-to-back Continental Cups to end his career with an impressive 21 points over 24 games while dishing out a ridiculous 104 hits over that stretch.  Despite an incredibly decorated VHLM Career that saw him win five individual trophies and a Founder’s Cup in just one season, the bulk of Warlock’s VHL Career was more team based as he became far more of an accessory piece rather than a key cog.  With that being said, in regards to Davos, he would spend three seasons on the Dynamo recording a very respectable 126 points in 216 games while tallying up 391 hits and 304 blocked shots along the way.

 

Elias Sobeck was a VHL player for six seasons and even reached a point-per-game with the New York Americans back in Season 62.  With that being said, he was predominantly a player that the bad teams would acquire to fill out their roster.  While that likely wasn’t the goal when Quebec went out and acquired him, he recorded 81 points over 144 games with Quebec before ties were severed between the player and the organization.  Sobeck would finish his career with a respectable 254 points in 432 games but was unable to capture the kind of consistent play needed to be a complimentary on even a good team so unfortunately he did not pan out as expected when he was drafting sixth overall by Davos in Season 58.  In fact, and this is the true fun nature of this trade…Sobeck was taken one pick higher than Adam Warlock in that draft.

 

Ryan Skinner was drafted with the Third Round Selection that was involved in this deal, but never did make it to the VHL.  He played 144 games in the VHLM, spending a season each with both Yukon and Ottawa, where he actually did find some individual success with 119 points and 159 hits in those games.  With that being said, with no VHL impact he isn’t really a super relevant piece to this deal.

 

Verdict: Winner – Tyler (Davos): Ultimately, I feel like it has to be.  My favourite part about this trade is Davos made the poor pick of Sobeck over Warlock but then ultimately redeemed themselves by pulling this deal off in the end.  Unfortunately for Beaviss, Sobeck never lived up to the expected hype, and while Warlock didn’t live up to the prestigious pedigree his agency has in the Victory Hockey League, he played an important part of three Continental Cups and found success at multiple positions.  One thing that is important to note and ultimately while it is not part of my evaluation, it should be in the court of public opinion, but it has been made clear that Warlock was going to go somewhere else in Free Agency as he wanted to win a Continental Cup with each team.  In some ways, you could argue that Quebec’s hands were forced in not wanting to lose him for nothing.  It’s unfortunate though that they were not able to get anything truly tangible in return.

 

SEASON 60

To NYA 

- Fook Yu @Baozi

 

To QUE 

- S61 NYA 2nd Round Pick (Jesper Stromberg) @Tim

 

GMs: @STZ (New York) – @Beaviss (Quebec)

 

Date: May 12^th, 2018

 

 

This trade was an interesting one as it had been preplanned for quite some time as it was where the Tfong agency that represented Fook Yu had their sights on the entire time.  He had made it clear to GM Beaviss of his interest in going to New York, and it’s great to see the team make that move to accommodate the player while still getting a decent asset back.  It is important to note that the pick in question here was used in a separate deal but has already indicated we will be looking at specifically this trade and not how it was used in a subsequent move, since we will be judging that at a later date.

 

STZ made this move to bring in a veteran high-end forward who was looking to find some team success over his remaining couple seasons in the league.  Yu played on Quebec in his first few seasons before finding himself on Seattle, Toronto and then back on Quebec.  This is where he would ultimately be moved to the New York Americans as Quebec was in the midst of a rebuild and were moving some of their best veterans to acquire draft compensation and younger talent.  The Americans would ultimately move a 2^nd round pick in Season 61 for the talented and rather large forward.  Yu would spend one season on New York, recording over a point-per-game and contributing a massive hit total while being fairly disciplined overall.  He would ultimately not achieve his goal of winning a Continental Cup as the Americans sadly fell short despite a brilliant Victory Cup season as they were upset in the Conference Finals. 

 

While the pick in question would later be moved to the Riga Reign, I do want to look at this as face value here.  Quebec City would use this pick in a later move but ultimately I don’t think the value of this pick was really worth Fook Yu over his last two seasons.   Jesper Stromberg, who was selected with the second round pick, played 72 career games in the VHL and although he did win a Continental Cup in his only season, he was ultimately a depth defenseman on a juggernaut.  He holds very little weight compared to even a season of what Fook Yu brought to the table, but ultimately as said, there are other factors to keep in mind.

 

Verdict: Winner – STZ (New York) - I feel bad for Beaviss cause this isn’t really an entirely fair look at this deal.  There are more aspects to this trade that will be seen going forward (and now this makes me want to do some trade trees at some point) but looking at this on face value, the pick that was acquired ended up being a one-season depth defender in the VHL, while Fook Yu had two seasons of a Hall of Fame calibre career left to play.  Albeit, there is a lot to say about New York not accomplishing their goals when it comes to making this move.  They didn’t even make the finals after acquiring Yu and while he definitely played a big role in their season, his eight points in thirteen playoff games, was less than spectacular.  However, considering they gave up no first round picks or talented prospects and ultimately left this deal moving what became a late second round pick, it’s an easy one to swallow even without a Continental Cup.  On the Quebec side, they were looking to get younger and Yu had expressed interest in playing for New York, so there was less leverage on the side of Quebec, but ultimately New York did receive the better value in this transaction. 

 

 

 

 

- 1559 Words (Claiming First of Three Weeks)

 

 

 

[Banackock 8,134]

Beav taking L’s

[Advantage 2,899]

7 minutes ago, Banackock said:

Beav taking L’s

To be fair, hard to take W's in a rebuild sometimes (depending on the market).  I know that one from experience.

[BOOM 8,815]

[Frank 5,258]

32 minutes ago, BOOM said:

Comparing him to Voldemort. Low blow.

[Advantage 2,899]

19 minutes ago, Frank said:

Comparing him to Voldemort. Low blow.

[STZ 5,389]

How the hell do you remember all this..

[Advantage 2,899]

36 minutes ago, STZ said:

How the hell do you remember all this..

The Portal helps.

[BOOM 8,815]

37 minutes ago, STZ said:

How the hell do you remember all this..

 

Like Victor, he's a VHL rain man.

[OrbitingDeath 3,228]

11 hours ago, Banackock said:

Beav taking L’s

Beaviss never forgave me for Warlock's inactiveness

[STZ 5,389]

6 hours ago, OrbitingDeath said:

Beaviss never forgave me for Warlock's inactiveness

Poor Beav, I had my only inactive on his team too haha

[OrbitingDeath 3,228]

15 hours ago, STZ said:

Poor Beav, I had my only inactive on his team too haha

He just has that effect on people :') 

[Advantage 2,899]

Week 2/3 Claim

[Advantage 2,899]

Week 3/3 Claim.

[animal74 1,855]

Good to have you back @Advantage!