VSN Presents: S88 VHL Draft Review

[jacobcarson877 2,540]

Graphic by the always amazing @Ricer13!

 

Another Draft Review! This one took a bit longer than usual, as it is final project season, but hopefully you haven’t forgotten about this! A bit of a strange draft, with a new draft class having to be formed in response to 9 season careers, and recruitment did us well with some great ads, and their effort to bring back old members. This draft will be one to remember for several teams, and one to forget from several others. Some teams didn’t want to take the risks, but others took this as a challenge to find all of the diamonds in the rough. S88 is shaping up to be a great season and this draft will be a key part of that!

 

Calgary Wranglers  

A

Calgary came into this draft, having just won the Cup, and retaining all but one player from the winning team. Time moves forward and their core comes one season closer to retirement, so the great replacement project comes into effect. First up in Oskar Lindbergh, the most recent Daisuke Kanou winner. Merome Dilson was the most obvious solution, and will likely slot in as a starter the moment Lindbergh retires. Tack on Mason Rice, with connections to the Wranglers, and Robert Boldy, a recent returnee, and you have a pretty stellar draft.

 

Chicago Phoenix

A+

 Chicago didn’t have a ton of draft capital, but every selection was the best possible one. Liv Slater was high on pretty much every team’s list, as the frontrunning promising first-gen player. Sergei Romanov is criminally underrated, and has shown promise with reviewing and could probably increase their earnings with similar small writing tasks like game recaps or press conferences. Darko Alexander Malkovich has been very consistent, and will be looking to be a big part of what should be a dominant Saskatoon squad in the VHLM.

 

D.C. Dragons  

B+

The first draft in the post-Enorama era begins with selecting first overall! Frostbeard had a lot of great options available, but went with Mark Calaway, who should be an incredible addition to the team. Adding Eurydyka Sklodowska Dudzinska in the 2^nd round was a bit of a safe pick, with less upside as some other options, but a lot of reliability and a great member. DC will need some stability in the back end moving forward to help them establish their core again. Some to-be-expected 3^rd round selections, pretty consistent welfare earners. Overall very respectable draft “debut”.

 

HC Davos Dynamo

B-

 Davos had one pick in this draft, after their finals appearance. They go with Tullemore Dew, faceoff specialist. Sounds like they will be going with an untraditional build this time around, but will be earning consistently and have a lot of experience to bring to the team.

 

Helsinki Titans  

B-

Helsinki puts together two mid-1^st round picks as consolation for being very bad the last few seasons. They come out of the draft with Owen Lazaro and Legacy Gaming, who seem as though they can be great support pieces for their existing forwards, and can establish a good identity in Helsinki. They really should have gotten an A+ however as they drafted Conner Bedard, who is primed to be the best prospect in VHL history.

 

London United

B-

Always interesting to grade yourself, but considering the chaos of running your first VHL draft, I think I did alright. A lot of trading happened in the offseason and the draft to end up with the players and picks I have, and a ton of that happened as I watched the draft. Alex Deluca and Dalton Canders III seem ready to establish themselves as important defenders for the United, with Brad Marchand and Anthony Simmons have potential to be really excellent supporting forwards for the high flying offense we will hopefully be running for a while. A few hits and misses in the 4^th round, as to be expected. A lot of risk, but could be a lot of reward.

 

Los Angeles Stars  

C-

In a draft where LA didn’t really need a whole lot, they didn’t really get a whole lot. Gregger McKeggegger is a shrewd pick, who will slot in nicely with the team in a couple seasons. Tarro Tsujimoto has showed a bit more promise recently, but lost a lot of draft stock due to some accounting errors. After that, it seems they checked out, not getting a single active player for the rest of the draft.

 

Malmo Nighthawks

B+

They may have capitalized on Pragues financial woes, but regardless they ended up with the highest TPE player in the draft at “6^th”  overall via trade. Justin Williams seems to be very engaged, and could be a great piece for a rebuilding Malmo squad. Davis McLirath had a good interview, but will need to earn quite a bit more TPE to be worth the pick at that spot. Where it goes sour though is the Alex Carlson pick. There were players at that pick that could actually make a difference, but Malmo elected to go for a player that will never set foot in the VHL. Macdonalds Sprite is certainly a heavenly beverage, and at that pick is all you can expect.

 

Moscow Menace

C+

 Much like with DC’s Lucas Grey selection in the S86 draft, Moscow makes me hope that I’m very wrong. Spartan is known for coming in, grabbing his player and then leaving. That player this season was Nils Andersson, who despite inactivity issues in the past, seems to be fighting through them and establishing themselves as a core member in the league. In the 3^rd Moscow selects Lim Jahey, who seems like an outlier, but given the right mentorship, could be quite the steal. Kiak Jr is very inactive. This is a very risky draft for Moscow, but could bring in multiple core pieces for the Menace down the line if handled right for the next few seasons.

 

New York Americans

A-

 In the draft preview, I mentioned New York would need to have a great draft to establish their new identity, hopefully leading to some playoff success in the future. Davis, Mancini and Yvel have all put in the work so far, and will be essential to New York’s future. Roux Jr will be a good supporting piece if they can be kept engaged, and while Ovechkin III’s agency hasn’t sent a player to the VHL in a long time, there is always a chance this time around. Barclay will likely be inactive.  

 

Prague Phantoms

C-

  Prague had quite the chaotic draft, at one point having the top TPE player before realizing how annoying the new rookie 400-500TPE salary bracket is (by 1 TPE too ouch). They made their move to get the next best defender, who they should also be very excited about in Moritz Stauffer. From there they also take a lot of risks. Olivier Gauthier comes from an agency that has been extremely hit, or disappointingly miss. A revival is due, and we shall see how their experience in the VHLE will affect them and their activity. BjorkaBjorn BjornaBjorkson has committed to staying in the VHLE forever, but who knows whether that will be true down the line. Another one I hope I’m wrong about.

 

Riga Reign  

A+

  Immediately after winning the David Knight trophy, Riga comes in with an absolutely spectacular draft. Rip Wheeler and Dank Turtle were high on so many people’s lists, and should be the perfect finishing touches for an already exciting forward core. Scuff McGruff also had a great interview and with some coaching should be another fine addition to this prospect pool. Julien Tessier’s agency has been a bit sporadic, but could be reached for contact if needed I’m sure. Definitely the best possible outcome for Riga this offseason.

 

Seattle Bears

A

  (Insert nice thing about Seattle here)

But honestly, considering they only picked in the 4^th round, grabbing an actually active goaltender is about as good as one can expect. They’ve got a long journey but hopefully they make the VHL one day! Great scouting by Seattle here.

 

Toronto Legion

F (A-)

  Toronto had a ton of picks in this draft and  certainly got value for them. Bobby Bob will be huge on their back end. The fast food duo (should’ve been trio with Macdonalds Sprite though) will be exciting to watch in the coming seasons. Barbaslov and ShaunYoungca have been consistent, Lucky Mitts less so, and to top it all off, Bobby Bob is united with Bob. Good for the memes, hopefully as good when all is said and done.

 

Vancouver Wolves

C

  I don’t really know what to rank this one, because drafting a STZ player is certainly not a C, but it was completely expected from 2^nd overall. Vancouver didn’t really need anything else, as they seem set to establish yet another dynasty. Completely expected (a ton) of value for this pick.

 

Warsaw Predators

C+

  Warsaw gets Leo Lewkowicz who has occasionally getting more than welfare, and a few inactives. Warsaw will likely be entering some form of re-tool/build in the coming seasons so it would’ve been nice to see them getting a few more picks here in this draft, but the value is about what was expected from what they did have.

If you want to yell at anyone, yell at @jacobcarson877 for writing these 1400+ words.

 

[samx 1,173]

@jacobcarson877YELLL

[UnknownMinion 728]

@jacobcarson877yells in kindness*

[Ricer13 2,796]

Excellent write up as always 

[Banackock 8,053]

Gg bpa

[JeffD 648]

Chicago could not be happier to have @Subject056, @AColdCanadian and @WithARevelYellin the organization. We have high hopes for them!

[jacobcarson877 2,540]

2nd claim