Season 89: Could A First-Gen Go First Overall?

[MubbleFubbles 1,292]

It’s been 1034 days since the D.C. Dragons selected Hall of Famer Groovy Dood with the first overall pick in the Season 73 Draft, marking the last time that a first-gen player was selected first overall in the VHL Draft. Since then though, while there have been several talented first-gens enter the draft and gone on to do great things in the league, none have been selected in the top three picks of the draft since Dood’s first overall selection. However, this draft presents a unique opportunity for first-gens to break into those top three selections as, with the league finally finishing its transition from eight season careers to nine season careers these last couple of seasons, there weren’t as many of the traditional trade-deadline recreates as usual and there was in fact only one player in this class (Pope Francis) that created with over 70 recreate TPE.

 

So, could a first-gen go first overall in this upcoming draft? It would be a case of deja-vu for Advantage, who entered that Season 73 Draft mentioned previously with his player Tyler Walker having the highest TPE in the class before being selected second overall and once again currently leads this draft class in TPE. While there are a lot of promising first-gens in this draft class, I think these three stand out as the best potential candidates of being taken first overall.

 

Note: All numbers used accurate as of W/E 4/14 except for Practice Facility which updated for next week early.

Jeff Lewis @nerji

 

Currently the highest TPE first-gen in this draft class, nerji found our league through our Pro Baseball Experience affiliate and immediately made a very good impression, kicking off their VHL career with six straight weeks of 11 or 12 capped TPE and, while they haven’t quite been hitting that high recently having been busy with a new born and a new puppy (congratulations on both nerji!), they’ve still had good activity and in their early weeks have demonstrated that when they have time available, they have the capabilities to be a top earner in the VHL. They also have a build that a lot of General Managers will be interested in, as teams are always on the look-out for scoring threats on the forward lines.

 

Fradin McGryer @Fradin99

 

Of the potential first-gen candidates for first overall, Fradin McGryer has been the most publicly active player on the VHL discord, frequently contributing to discussion in there and prospective VHL GMs will be happy to see that as that means they could potentially bring a very active asset to their team’s locker room. That wouldn’t be the only positive Fradin would bring though, as they’ve been doing a great job of earning TPE, hitting 10 or more capped TPE in five of their first six weeks in the league. The one thing that could effect Fradin McGryer’s draft stock is that their current build is leaning towards being a defensive defenseman, which is not a build that has typically been drafted early in the VHL Draft, but hopefully the recent successes of similarly minded players like the award winning pair of second round selections Brian Payne and Jake Thunder will change GM’s approach to players with those builds.

 

Tobias Weiss @jfaly

 

There are only three players in this draft class who have earned the maximum 12 capped TPE every single week in the league. Two of them are recreates Eric Queefson and Montgomery Burns, but the third is first-gen Tobias Weiss who has gotten off to the best possible start as a new member of the VHL. Weiss actually shares a lot of similarities to Liv Slater, the first first-gen taken in the last draft who was also a fellow Houston Bulls defenseman that was consistently earning 12 TPE in the lead-up to the draft and both have demonstrated interest in being more involved in the league by taking up a JST GM role. While they aren’t yet in the top-10 in their draft class in TPE, the only reason for this is their late joining date and their current rate of earning will see them a lot higher in the rankings come draft day.

Edited May 15, 2023 by MubbleFubbles

[nerji 130]

43 minutes ago, MubbleFubbles said:

kicking off their VHL career with six straight weeks of 11 or 12 capped TPE and, while they haven’t quite been hitting that high recently having been busy with a new born and a new puppy (congratulations on both nerji!)

 

Thanks for the kind words! I really wanted to earn as much as possible but the time requirements between the newborn, puppy, and work really caught me by surprise. I'm thankful the league has a welfare option and I keep trying to hit some of the other tasks. I suck at the trivia though. Really enjoying my time so far and hopefully things ease up here on my end so I can start getting into some media!

[MubbleFubbles 1,292]

4 minutes ago, nerji said:

 

Thanks for the kind words! I really wanted to earn as much as possible but the time requirements between the newborn, puppy, and work really caught me by surprise. I'm thankful the league has a welfare option and I keep trying to hit some of the other tasks. I suck at the trivia though. Really enjoying my time so far and hopefully things ease up here on my end so I can start getting into some media!

Glad to see you are enjoying your time here! Just to help with your trivia quandry, here's a couple of things that could potentially help to make sure you can get the 2 TPE in trivia each time:

 

1) If you refer your question to the 2-trivia-2-hunt channel in the VHL discord, you will usually get someone respond within minutes who will link you to the appropriate place that will help answer your question. E.g. If the question is about GM's, a user will send you a link to the list of all the GM's for each team on the forum.

 

2) Not sure if it will help with every question that's currently in the system since I wrote it a bit ago now, but I wrote this piece up about a year ago which could maybe help you find the answers:

 

[Advantage 2,899]

All 3 of you rock and keep it up! 

 

Draft class probably bit under the radar compared to some of the others but I'm sure lots will come out of great players will come out of this one.