VHL Trade Wars: Edition 2 (Season 60)

[Advantage 2,899]

VHL Trade Wars: Edition 2 (Season 60)

 

 

Welcome to the second edition of VHL Trade Wars.  Our last one looked at two trades that involved some pretty major players, including Fook Yu who terrorized the Victory Hockey League for a number of seasons.  This edition will look at two more trades with one including a VHL Hall of Famer and the other having two players who played fairly significant minutes on VHL teams for 6+ seasons. 

 

Once again, for those that didn’t read the last one, I chose this timeline since the portal allows these articles to be more detailed.  I try to focus more on the face value of the deal rather than looking at whether or not the player ever suited up for that specific team or was used to acquire someone else in a future trade (since I would be later analyzing those deals anyhow).

 

Feel free to respond with any opinions or critiques of the article as some of you may of course be more familiar with the stakes of some of these transactions.  With that being said, lets get to the moves!

 

SEASON 60

To HSK 

Lukas Muller @solas

 

To QUE 

S62 HSK 2nd Round Pick (Lando Baxter) @Elhandon

 

GM's: @Higgins (HSK), @Beaviss (QUE)

 

Date: May 13th, 2018

 

What better way to start than talking about a legitimate VHL legend.  In Season 63, the league recognized Lukas Muller as one of it’s most prestigious players ever, when he was inducted into the VHL Hall of Fame.

 

Just a few seasons prior, Lukas Muller was on his way to the Helsinki Titans after the team he had spent the majority of his career with, the Quebec City Meute, had traded him not long after he was moved from Riga back to his original team.  Muller was an incredible pickup by the Helsinki Titans as he picked up his game as the season moved on and had a decent playoff run on route to a Continental Cup in his final season in the Victory Hockey League.  While he was certainly past his prime, the Titans saw an opportunity to capitalize on his veteran experience and leadership and they absolutely hit the jackpot.  Muller had a phenomenal career prior to that eighth season spending five seasons with Quebec and two with Riga.  He found an incredible amount of playoff success averaging ten games a season and totalling an impressive 27 goals and 82 points in 81 games, against the best competition in the league.  More importantly, he won Continental Cups in Season 56 with Quebec, Season 58 with Riga and Season 60 with Helsinki, tallying 18 goals and 43 points in 37 games during those three runs.  Besides his strong playoff resume, his climax talent wise in his career was clearly Season 56 where he recorded 48 goals and 136 points in 72 games, on route to the Brett Slobodzian Trophy (Most Outstanding), the Mike Szatkowski Trophy (League Leader in Points) and the Alexander Beketov Trophy (League Leader in Assists).  Muller was a product of the legendary Solas agency that was recently acknowledged when they were inducted in the VHL Hall of Fame as a Builder for their incredible accomplishments over their time representing players in the league.  A member of the glorified triple-Champion club, no question the Helsinki Titans got great value out of this trade, regardless of what ever that pick would turn into. 

 

The Quebec City Meute made the move to acquire Muller in the off-season but ended up trading him to the Titans after what was a not very impressive start for the future Hall of Famer.  The Meute would acquire a 2nd round pick that would end up being used on Lando Baxter, a player that would never play a single game for Quebec, but played 504 games on four different teams in the Calgary Wranglers, the Seattle Bears, the Toronto Legion and the Davos Dynamo.  He had a solid career recording 345 points in 504 games while blocking just shy of 900 shots throughout his career as a defenseman.  He would even represent both Canada and the United States in the World Cup, with 33 career professional international games with 5 goals and 30 points and 55 blocked shots, to show for his efforts. 

 

Verdict: Draw – Quebec (Beaviss), Helsinki (Higgins): Value wise, this is a pretty decent trade for the Meute, as Baxter ultimately was a pretty good accessory piece addition for one season of a legend playing in his declining state.  At the same time, Muller improved as the season went on and was a producing member of the team that went on to win the Continental Cup.  And while I would really like to value the Continental Cup win over everything, I don’t think Muller’s 9 points during that playoff run was necessarily the turning point of their Continental Cup victory.  With that being said, while Lando Baxter played seven seasons in the Victory Hockey League and had an impressive five 50+ point campaigns, he was never a high-end defender in the league, fitting in more as a good #3 defender or decent #2.  Therefore, I feel both teams got pretty good value out of this deal, and while Quebec did not hold onto Baxter long enough to see him play for the team, I look at these trade wars as fairly face value and I see good value out of this trade from both sides.

 

SEASON 60

To SEA 

Vern Reinholdt @Devise

Augustus Gloop @evrydayimbyfuglien

 

To RIG 

S61 SEA 3rd Round Pick (Mikka Pajari) @Devise

S61 SEA 4th Round Pick (N/A)

 

GM's: @Banackock (Seattle), @hedgehog337 (Riga)

 

Date: May 14th, 2018

 

The Bears were looking to move off a couple of veteran players in Vern Reinholdt and Augustus Gloop who were both in what would be the last season of their careers.  Reinholdt recorded 58 points in 72 games in his final season, while even adding a physically impressive 232 hits to his resume for that season.  All in all, Reinholdt finished his career with 418 points in 432 games and even added 28 career playoff points in 35 games.  His career was fairly short lived but his worst season would be his last, and even then 31 goals and 58 points is truly nothing to sneeze at. 

Augustus Gloop, on the other hand, was a physical defensive defender who was playing in his third and final season in the Victory Hockey League.  He ended his final season as a member of the Helsinki Titans, after being picked up on waivers post trade. He still had a very respectable 24 points, 264 and 140 blocked shots over 69 games during that final campaign.  He even won one of two of his Continental Cups that season, to go along with his championship win in Season 58 with the Riga Reign. 

 

The Season 61 Draft ended up not having a 4th Round, so the fourth round pick that was acquired ended up being nothing at all.  Good thing for the Reign that Mikka Pajari would somehow slip to them and end up being a massive steal in the third round.  Mikka Pajari played 7 seasons in the VHL as a member of both the Riga Reign and the Malmo Nighthawks.  He was a well-rounded center that finished with 302 career points and 1212 hits in the 504 career games he suited up for.  He topped out at 77 points in Season 65, while still laying the body to the tune of 196 hits.  His career’s top moment has to be the Season 63 Continental Cup he won as a member of the Riga Reign, and all because they decided to move on from a couple of players that were in the final season of their career.  The best part about this trade? The prestigious and Hall of Fame recognized Devise agency was involved on both sides of this move, as they represented Pajari but also Vern Reinholdt, so he was truly all over this move.

 

Verdict: Winner – hedgehog337 (Riga) – While Reinholdt had a decent final season of his career, it was still the worst of his career and was only just the one final year.  Gloop too, while he was physical and decent defensively, never played the role of anything more than a depth defenseman. This trade certainly isn’t awful for either team, but I did have to factor in that you were getting likely the worst versions of both players going to Seattle, while Riga was getting a pick that was used to acquire a player that would suit up for over 500 career VHL games after this deal. Pajari, on the other hand, played 504 games after this trade and was a well-rounded forward that topped out as a near 80 point center that had a knack of cranking up his physicality over the course of his career.  He even won a Continental Cup for the Reign, so I really feel like I have to lean to them for acquiring the pick that led to the biggest steal of the Season 61 Draft.

 

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With that being said, I hope everyone enjoyed this edition of the VHL Trade Wars.  Let me know who you think won each deal or whether or not you see something differently from how I do.  I try to look at these fairly objectively, but admittedly its easy to not see the facts as they actually were when all you are using is the overall career resume of a player, but not necessarily seeing the climate of the league at that moment.

 

 

 

1529 Words (Claiming Week 1 of 3)

Edited March 20, 2023 by Advantage

[Advantage 2,899]

Claiming Week 2

[RJMW 129]

Review!!

 

First off, I don't think I'm familiar with any of the players that were discussed so I won't comment on who won each trade, but... I love this concept! I think you broke down each trade and why whichever team won really well, especially for someone like me who doesn't know the players or the history. Being able to catch a quick glimpse of the history of the VHL packaged in an interesting concept is super cool. Maybe in future versions of these, I will be able to find some hidden biases you have (joking... for now), but until then I enjoyed this piece.

 

Well written and entertaining - 10/10 would read again.

[Advantage 2,899]

Claiming Week 3/3

[TheNeonShaman 214]

On 3/19/2023 at 11:02 PM, Advantage said:

VHL Trade Wars: Edition 2 (Season 60)

 

 

Welcome to the second edition of VHL Trade Wars.  Our last one looked at two trades that involved some pretty major players, including Fook Yu who terrorized the Victory Hockey League for a number of seasons.  This edition will look at two more trades with one including a VHL Hall of Famer and the other having two players who played fairly significant minutes on VHL teams for 6+ seasons. 

 

Once again, for those that didn’t read the last one, I chose this timeline since the portal allows these articles to be more detailed.  I try to focus more on the face value of the deal rather than looking at whether or not the player ever suited up for that specific team or was used to acquire someone else in a future trade (since I would be later analyzing those deals anyhow).

 

Feel free to respond with any opinions or critiques of the article as some of you may of course be more familiar with the stakes of some of these transactions.  With that being said, lets get to the moves!

 

SEASON 60

To HSK 

Lukas Muller @solas

 

To QUE 

S62 HSK 2nd Round Pick (Lando Baxter) @Elhandon

 

GM's: @Higgins (HSK), @Beaviss (QUE)

 

Date: May 13th, 2018

 

What better way to start than talking about a legitimate VHL legend.  In Season 63, the league recognized Lukas Muller as one of it’s most prestigious players ever, when he was inducted into the VHL Hall of Fame.

 

Just a few seasons prior, Lukas Muller was on his way to the Helsinki Titans after the team he had spent the majority of his career with, the Quebec City Meute, had traded him not long after he was moved from Riga back to his original team.  Muller was an incredible pickup by the Helsinki Titans as he picked up his game as the season moved on and had a decent playoff run on route to a Continental Cup in his final season in the Victory Hockey League.  While he was certainly past his prime, the Titans saw an opportunity to capitalize on his veteran experience and leadership and they absolutely hit the jackpot.  Muller had a phenomenal career prior to that eighth season spending five seasons with Quebec and two with Riga.  He found an incredible amount of playoff success averaging ten games a season and totalling an impressive 27 goals and 82 points in 81 games, against the best competition in the league.  More importantly, he won Continental Cups in Season 56 with Quebec, Season 58 with Riga and Season 60 with Helsinki, tallying 18 goals and 43 points in 37 games during those three runs.  Besides his strong playoff resume, his climax talent wise in his career was clearly Season 56 where he recorded 48 goals and 136 points in 72 games, on route to the Brett Slobodzian Trophy (Most Outstanding), the Mike Szatkowski Trophy (League Leader in Points) and the Alexander Beketov Trophy (League Leader in Assists).  Muller was a product of the legendary Solas agency that was recently acknowledged when they were inducted in the VHL Hall of Fame as a Builder for their incredible accomplishments over their time representing players in the league.  A member of the glorified triple-Champion club, no question the Helsinki Titans got great value out of this trade, regardless of what ever that pick would turn into. 

 

The Quebec City Meute made the move to acquire Muller in the off-season but ended up trading him to the Titans after what was a not very impressive start for the future Hall of Famer.  The Meute would acquire a 2nd round pick that would end up being used on Lando Baxter, a player that would never play a single game for Quebec, but played 504 games on four different teams in the Calgary Wranglers, the Seattle Bears, the Toronto Legion and the Davos Dynamo.  He had a solid career recording 345 points in 504 games while blocking just shy of 900 shots throughout his career as a defenseman.  He would even represent both Canada and the United States in the World Cup, with 33 career professional international games with 5 goals and 30 points and 55 blocked shots, to show for his efforts. 

 

Verdict: Draw – Quebec (Beaviss), Helsinki (Higgins): Value wise, this is a pretty decent trade for the Meute, as Baxter ultimately was a pretty good accessory piece addition for one season of a legend playing in his declining state.  At the same time, Muller improved as the season went on and was a producing member of the team that went on to win the Continental Cup.  And while I would really like to value the Continental Cup win over everything, I don’t think Muller’s 9 points during that playoff run was necessarily the turning point of their Continental Cup victory.  With that being said, while Lando Baxter played seven seasons in the Victory Hockey League and had an impressive five 50+ point campaigns, he was never a high-end defender in the league, fitting in more as a good #3 defender or decent #2.  Therefore, I feel both teams got pretty good value out of this deal, and while Quebec did not hold onto Baxter long enough to see him play for the team, I look at these trade wars as fairly face value and I see good value out of this trade from both sides.

 

SEASON 60

To SEA 

Vern Reinholdt @Devise

Augustus Gloop @evrydayimbyfuglien

 

To RIG 

S61 SEA 3rd Round Pick (Mikka Pajari) @Devise

S61 SEA 4th Round Pick (N/A)

 

GM's: @Banackock (Seattle), @hedgehog337 (Riga)

 

Date: May 14th, 2018

 

The Bears were looking to move off a couple of veteran players in Vern Reinholdt and Augustus Gloop who were both in what would be the last season of their careers.  Reinholdt recorded 58 points in 72 games in his final season, while even adding a physically impressive 232 hits to his resume for that season.  All in all, Reinholdt finished his career with 418 points in 432 games and even added 28 career playoff points in 35 games.  His career was fairly short lived but his worst season would be his last, and even then 31 goals and 58 points is truly nothing to sneeze at. 

Augustus Gloop, on the other hand, was a physical defensive defender who was playing in his third and final season in the Victory Hockey League.  He ended his final season as a member of the Helsinki Titans, after being picked up on waivers post trade. He still had a very respectable 24 points, 264 and 140 blocked shots over 69 games during that final campaign.  He even won one of two of his Continental Cups that season, to go along with his championship win in Season 58 with the Riga Reign. 

 

The Season 61 Draft ended up not having a 4th Round, so the fourth round pick that was acquired ended up being nothing at all.  Good thing for the Reign that Mikka Pajari would somehow slip to them and end up being a massive steal in the third round.  Mikka Pajari played 7 seasons in the VHL as a member of both the Riga Reign and the Malmo Nighthawks.  He was a well-rounded center that finished with 302 career points and 1212 hits in the 504 career games he suited up for.  He topped out at 77 points in Season 65, while still laying the body to the tune of 196 hits.  His career’s top moment has to be the Season 63 Continental Cup he won as a member of the Riga Reign, and all because they decided to move on from a couple of players that were in the final season of their career.  The best part about this trade? The prestigious and Hall of Fame recognized Devise agency was involved on both sides of this move, as they represented Pajari but also Vern Reinholdt, so he was truly all over this move.

 

Verdict: Winner – hedgehog337 (Riga) – While Reinholdt had a decent final season of his career, it was still the worst of his career and was only just the one final year.  Gloop too, while he was physical and decent defensively, never played the role of anything more than a depth defenseman. This trade certainly isn’t awful for either team, but I did have to factor in that you were getting likely the worst versions of both players going to Seattle, while Riga was getting a pick that was used to acquire a player that would suit up for over 500 career VHL games after this deal. Pajari, on the other hand, played 504 games after this trade and was a well-rounded forward that topped out as a near 80 point center that had a knack of cranking up his physicality over the course of his career.  He even won a Continental Cup for the Reign, so I really feel like I have to lean to them for acquiring the pick that led to the biggest steal of the Season 61 Draft.

 

---

 

With that being said, I hope everyone enjoyed this edition of the VHL Trade Wars.  Let me know who you think won each deal or whether or not you see something differently from how I do.  I try to look at these fairly objectively, but admittedly its easy to not see the facts as they actually were when all you are using is the overall career resume of a player, but not necessarily seeing the climate of the league at that moment.

 

 

 

1529 Words (Claiming Week 1 of 3)

Review: I love the detailed recaps you do. As someone with multiple trade trees in the works, I'll definitely take a lot from these breakdowns and hopefully enter it into some of my works. I also really like the format of this, and showing even the exact IRL date of them and not just what season they happened in is very cool. It also highlights how long Hedge has been GMing Riga, unreal tenure there. Some very interesting trades here, and I can't wait for the next one.