Nine seasons is not enough

[scoop 3,441]

When the VHLE was introduced, the league opened up the possibility for nine-season careers in the VHL. Given that this was implemented along with the VHLE, I am certain that the decision had little to do with extending career lengths. This is, however, something that I have been in favor of for a while, so in my day as commissioner, I would give players more time before forced retirement. This would of course come with heavier depreciation over the last several seasons, allowing for a more natural career trajectory for those who opt to player more seasons. Rather than retiring when at their peak skill, they can experience a downswing in their career.

 

While I don't have a perfect framework for what a career will look like, my initial thoughts are a new maximum of 12 seasons, with the season count beginning in their draft year. The first ten seasons would function similar to what we have now, with depreciation beginning following the fifth season in the VHL. I haven't done any number-crunching to determine exactly what depreciation rates we would be working with, but because I would want careers in the first eight seasons to look roughly the same, let's continue to start it at 5%. Every subsequent season, the depreciation will be +3% from the previous season, working it's way up to a 23% depreciation rate following a player's 11th VHL season. I do not intend on having a 12-season career be the norm. This will be something that is hard to maintain, and to that end, there would be restrictions on banking TPE to save it from depreciation.

 

The restriction on banking TPE is as follows: during a player's final two depreciation updates, all banked TPE will be lost. Importantly, this restriction falls in line with the final two seasons of a player's career clock rather than their depreciation clock. If someone spends two seasons in the VHLE after their draft year, this would mean that following their 8th and 9th VHL seasons, they are not allowed to bank TPE. This guarantees that in the final two seasons of a players career, should they choose to continue playing, they will be worse than they were before. This would be a huge incentive for players to not play out a full-length career, especially given how harsh the depreciation rates get, but it does give them the option.

 

As far as the depreciation fighters in the store go, I haven't thought too much on the specifics, but the options would look very similar. There would be an item in the store for a 1 or 2% reduction in your depreciation; this item would increase in cost based on which depreciation level you are at. The other item would be a reduction in the depreciation of one attribute of your choosing; this would be a 100% reduction at the first few stages of depreciation, and would only be 50% effective in the last few. Again, I don't have specific ideas here, but I think this would be a better direction to go than disallowing purchasing these items altogether.

 

This idea isn't without downsides, and I recognize that. One prominent argument in the past against extending careers has been the affect it would have on career records and statistics, but in reality, that has no bearing on what is good for the league so I'm not going to acknowledge it any further. The real case against extending careers is the effect that it would have on draft classes. Longer careers means fewer players in drafts. If an idea such as this were to be seriously considered, there would need to be a lot of focus on analyzing the effects it would have in this regard.

 

There you have it; that's my big idea. It does not come with much analysis of how viable it is, but that's for someone else to potentially look into. I don't know the last time anyone in power has put any thought into extending careers, but I do think it is something that would appeal to some. Harsh depreciation rates would make it undesirable for others. The important thing is it would give members a little more control over their career while having potentially very little downside.

Edited July 10, 2023 by scoop