VHL Trade Wars: Edition 7 (Season 60 Off-Season)

[Advantage 2,770]

VHL Trade Wars: Edition 7 (Season 60 Off-Season)

 

 

SEASON 60 OFF-SEASON

 

To HSK

RW - Aleksei Federov @Banackock

C - Mattias Forsberg @Banackock

C - Shawn Gretzky @TheLastOlympian07

D - Peter Quill @OrbitingDeath

G - Markus King @Kendrick

 

To SEA

S61 HSK 1st Round Draft Pick (Sergei Kovalev) @Laflamme

S63 HSK 2nd Round Draft Pick (Mountain Thunderfist) @AdamEss

 

General Managers: @Higgins (Helsinki), @Banackock (Seattle)

 

Date: June 8th, 2018

 

 

Hello all, this is Mr. Advantage here with a slightly stonerific seventh edition of the VHL Trade Wars.  We will be looking at a MASSIVE trade this edition it involving numerous incredible players looking to end their career with a swansong.  So lets drop some beautiful, sweet tea knowledge on all of you beautiful online personalities. 

 

Just a reminder my good friends, these Trade Wars are mainly focused on this value of the deal at hand and not necessarily looking at trades that came from some of the pieces involved. And once again, I will judge each trade to see who won or loss the deal now that we have collective hindsight of how the pieces involved played out their careers. Okay, with all that being said let’s pop into this move.

 

This trade sees the Seattle Bears entering a rebuild and looking to move off a plethora of veterans and finding a great trading partner in the Helsinki Titans who were looking to build towards a second consecutive Continental Cup win.  The trade saw Aleksei Federov, Mattias Forsberg, Shawn Gretzky, Peter Quill and Markus King all traded to the Titans in exchange for a couple of picks including the Titans’ first round pick.

 

Aleksei Federov would play his eighth and final season in Helsinki and have a career year totalling 51 goals and 110 points over 72 games.  His dominant offensive performance was really benefited from a drastic increase in shots on goal, which saw him record 476 (86 more than any other season in his career).  On the all-around side of his game, he also had a career-high 355 hits while still finishing with less than 100 PIM.  It was an incredible final campaign for the veteran and the Titans really benefited from his tremendous production, which even came in the clutch with 13 game-winning-goals.  For his career, as both a defenseman and a winger, Federov would record 607 points, 1872 hits and 842 blocked shots over his impressive 576 game career.

 

Mattias Forsberg didn’t last as long as Federov but would still play his sixth and final season of the VHL in Helsinki, just like Aleksei did.  Coming off a really impressive 104 point campaign that saw the fifth year forward record his second consecutive 40 goal season, he would improve on that with an absolutely dominant 52 goal and 116 point performance.  This was good enough to take home the Mike Szatkowski Trophy for Most Points in the Victory Hockey League. He would follow this up with five goals and eight points in seven playoff games. Forsberg was on track to be a future Hall of Fame player but ultimately would retire with 552 career points in 432 games.

 

Shawn Gretzky would play the role of playmaker in his eighth and final season in the Victory Hockey League.  He would finish his career with a 28 goal and 82 point performance over the course of 71 games in Season 61.  The vet really stood out in the playoffs though with 10 points over the course of their 7 game run.  Finishing his career with 674 points in 575 games, Gretzky was a productive forward that finished his career with two 100 point seasons.  And clearly, another great pickup for the Titans for that one year run.  

 

Peter Quill was the only player that was traded to Helsinki that didn’t play the last season of his career in Season 61.  Quill would play the seventh of his eight-year career on the Titans and recorded 55 points, 102 hits and 114 blocked shots over the 72 game season.  He had similar production in the playoffs with 5 points in 7 games on route to their disappointing playoff defeat.  Finishing his career with 454 points in 519 games, Quill ultimately had a solid well-rounded career mixed between forward and defense.

 

The final player traded was probably the best and that is Hall of Fame goaltender, Markus King.  Playing his final season in the league as a Titan, he would record a 49-13-4 record with a .928 save percentage and 1.75 GAA.  It was easily one of the best season’s of his career, and if not for his ridiculous 56-2-2 campaign in Season 57 with Riga, it would undoubtedly be his best.  Unfortunately for King, he did falter in the playoffs where he played 6 games and struggled to the tune of a 3.17 GAA and a .896 save percentage.  So while he was an amazing goaltender during the regular season, it is a bit disappointing for the Titans that he ultimately couldn’t get it done when it mattered most.  That being said, it could also be a product of how the team played in front of him, but given his tremendous resume, you definitely had to have hope that he could deliver more there.  Nonetheless, what an incredible career and a really staple point to this deal was how dominant King was in Season 61.

 

Ultimately, the Titans had every player in this deal for one season of their career and while that doesn’t sound like a ton, this included an elite goaltending performance from King, two 100+ point players and another 80+ point forward.  It’s tough to judge them too hard given the talented years all these players had, but it’s pretty disappointing that they didn’t even make it past their first-round matchup.

 

Looking at the other side of the coin, the Seattle Bears would acquire two picks and would use them to acquire first round selection, Sergei Kovalev and second round pick, Mountain Thunderfist.  It is safe to say that Seattle can’t be super thrilled with how these picks turned out.  Starting with Kovalev, he would carve out a respectable five year career between the Bears for four seasons and the Nighthawks for his fifth and final.  Finishing his career with 299 points over 360 games, Kovalev really never evolved past an accessory role that really had no business being on a top line for anyone, which is a bit disappointing for a first round selection, even if he was the last pick of the round.

 

Mountain Thunderfist was actually the worse of the two players drafted by Seattle, but actually still managed to play 441 games as a depth defenseman for the Bears, Americans and Phantoms.  He managed to record 88 points, 802 hits and 593 blocked shots over that career but ultimately while a decent filler for most teams, didn’t really bring anything majorly substantial either.
 
Verdict: The Helsinki Titans (Higgins) has to be the winner of this move.  It must have been a tough year I assume value wise for a selling team cause I feel like the last pick of the first round and a second round pick are not great pieces considering the incredible talent going the other way (even if just for one season).  Even if just for one season, all those players had good years with a few having arguably the best of their career.  Meanwhile, while I don’t entirely hate the picks that they acquired in return, they simply didn’t produce the careers you would expect of players selected at this spots.

 

- Idk...1200+ Words (Claiming Week 1 of 2)
 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Advantage

[Advantage 2,770]

Week 2/2

[ShawnGlade 1,002]

Unfortunately my player is not Shawn Gretzky

[Banackock 7,660]

5 minutes ago, ShawnGlade said:

Unfortunately my player is not Shawn Gretzky

@TheLastOlympian07 BROTHER

[Ahma 1,292]

37 minutes ago, Banackock said:

@TheLastOlympian07 BROTHER

TLO! The legend!

[Advantage 2,770]

23 hours ago, ShawnGlade said:

Unfortunately my player is not Shawn Gretzky

Haha sure isn't.  Oddly enough one of two that I didn't check cause I was that confident! (I knew King cause of HOF)