VHL Trade Wars: Edition 5 (Season 60 Off-Season)

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VHL Trade Wars: Edition 5 (Season 60 Off-Season)

 

 

SEASON 60 OFF-SEASON

To SEA

S61 DAV 1st Round Pick (G - Roger Sterling) @Will

 

To DAV 

F - Gabriel McAllister @CowboyinAmerica

F - Otto Axelsson @Dangles13

Rights to D - Mats Johnsson @Quik

 

General Managers: Seattle @Banackock, Davos @Tyler

 

Date: June 4th, 2018

 

 

This is the fifth edition of the VHL Trade Wars, and I am your host Advantage, here to bring you another trade breakdown.  This one (and yes it is just one) is one of the biggest trades of the 60s with multiple Hall of Fame players involved and features two teams that we have looked at a lot already, Davos and of course, as seemingly always, Seattle.  

 

I decided to present this as a single trade given the legendary status this deal holds and the impact it would have over the next few seasons in the VHL.  At the time that this trade happened, most seemed to see it as an easy win for the Davos Dynamo, who looked primed for a dominant Continental Cup run after these acquisitions.  Even the Seattle Bears GM acknowledged that he felt he lost the deal stating, “For starters, quite the trade talks. For seconds, yeah, that's some heavy duty **** isn't it? Gabriel Mcallister alone could have grabbed the 4th overall pick and then som up until lately in this league and with how trading has been. This is what was offered and this is what the only team buying was willing to pay. They were very aware and took advantage, seizing the moment. Unfortunately, we're in a position where a rebuild should happen and it will.”

 

This quote pretty much sums up the consideration made by the Bears at the time of this move and it’s certainly a reasonable take.  As someone who GM’ed for quite some time in the league myself, there is a lot to the notion that your entire run can be stalled or accelerated depending on your timing of your rebuild.  My first run with the New York Americans was completely excelled when I traded into multiple incredible drafts landing future Hall of Fame players like Tom Slaughter, Xin Xie Xiao and Conner Low.  That being said, my time with the Vikings fell short of expectations, mainly due to my first major deal involving me trading for picks in what ended up being a bit of a dud draft.  Given that we only had 8 seasons with a player, timing is everything and the Bears felt they needed to make the move now.

 

This trade saw the Bears really begin their rebuild in style, moving impending Free Agent Mats Johnsson, a prime legendary veteran in Gabriel McAllister and a young center who was looking for a big jump after a respectable rookie season, all for a fourth overall pick in the upcoming VHL Entry Draft.  That pick would end up being Roger Sterling, a goalie who had a long and solid career as a starter in the Victory Hockey League, finishing his career with a 239-162-31 record over 439 games, spanning seven seasons (including five with Seattle).  He was never really a spectacular goaltender but was considered more a reliable regular season goaltender that unfortunately struggled at times in the playoffs.  While Seattle were certainly not playoff stalwarts during a lot of his time with the Bears, Roger Sterling’s lacklustre playoff statistics certainly did not help.  The goaltender finished his VHL career with 49 playoff starts and a 19-27-3 record, to be paired with a 3.19 GAA and a .910 Save Percentage, all far worse than the career averages of the Canadian netminder.  

 

With all that being said, this was actually a really solid trade for Seattle.  Did they overpay a bit? That could definitely be argued.  Johnsson ultimately was not signing back with the Bears though and Axelsson never really panned out like expected, meaning that the main value being exchanged for that fourth overall pick, was the prime years of Gabriel McAllister.  And it is important to note that McAllister would return to the Bears for his final season, after two campaigns spent with Davos.  The real value of this move was that it allowed the Bears to use their first overall pick to get the player they wanted in future Hall of Fame player and 100% generational talent, Matt Thompson.  A player that would go on to play 360 games with the Bears and scored 268 goals and tallied 519 points over that span.  And they could then use this extra pick to secure the goaltender they so desperately needed to kick the rebuild off right with some security in such a pivotal position.

 

The Dynamo side of things is also fairly obvious as they were looking to compete and wanted to add a couple major pieces to a team that needed someone to lead them.  That player was Gabriel McAllister and he certainly did that recording 198 points over two seasons with Davos and even winning the League MVP back in Season 61.  He wasn’t even close to finished that year though, as he would cruise to Playoff MVP with a dazzling 12 goals, 23 points and 87 hits over the course of 14 games, on route to a Continental Cup and making this trade all the more worth it for the Dynamo.

 

With that being said, while McAllister definitely made this deal one not to regret, Mats Johnsson and Otto Axelsson’s involvement don’t necessarily make it a definitive win either.  Mats Johnsson went on to sign with Calgary and enjoyed four more incredibly productive seasons in the VHL before retiring and later being inducted into the Hall of Fame.  While Axelsson was a solid player that proved to be pretty productive offensively (averaging 57 points a season over his 360 game career) but lacked the other necessary elements to take him past being just a solid second liner on a good team.  He ultimately would play just two seasons in Davos before also ending up back with Seattle, just like McAllister did.

 

Verdict: Winner – Draw: It has to be for me.  Davos definitely doesn’t regret this move as they would acquire the best player in the deal and he would lead them to two incredible years including a Continental Cup victory in Season 61.  While they swung for the fences in hoping to acquire Johnsson, the value of a McAllister for fourth overall deal was honestly fairly reasonable in the first place, so I certainly think Davos did pretty well here adding Axelsson (again, a decent complimentary piece on a cup winning team) in addition.  That being said, Seattle did well too adding a goaltender that would be able to carve out a really good and long career and allowed them to get their rebuild started right by adding one of the most hyped prospects in years at first overall and then adding the significant position of need at fourth.  Solid trade for both teams where the results met the team’s focus when they originally made this move.

 

1100+ Words (Claiming Week 1 of 2)

 

 

 

[Banackock 8,123]

Love these write ups. It was a crazy trade and a huge payment for the pick. 
 

Keep it up bud

[Tyler 885]

Good stuff @Advantage, for sure felt like I took advantage of the lack of leverage that @Banackock had at that point, but it still worked out for both teams in the end. Win win. 

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