Ranking My Old Players

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

This is a very objective list where my opinion is the law and everything else is untrue. Jokes aside, this is based on my opinion and is no way supposed to be set in stone. This is not based on my enjoyment of being the player but based on how “skilled” I would consider them. Besides, all of my past players were a bit mid anyway and the order is actually quite obvious now that I think about it. But because I can’t get enough of being a narcissist, let’s talk about my players! I have had only three players and Raimo is my fourth player so I don’t have as extensive of a list as others may have but I remember having a lot of fun with all three. I guess you can say I have a bit of an archetype as I have had two forwards and one goalie, with Raimo being the third forward. Maybe I should consider spicing it up in the future. Regardless, I will be ranking these three players; making for a really short ranking but it also means I can say a lot about what I think about these three players. Without a further ado, here is the ranking starting from lowest ranked to highest ranked.

 

Third Place: Ryuu Crimson

 

Chalk it up to recency bias or not having really thought about Ryuu in a while but I would say that Ryuu would probably rank the lowest in terms of skill out of my players. Don’t get me wrong, I will love Ryuu for being my first player and having the most un-Asian last name ever for an Asian (I am an Asian, don’t worry), but it makes sense that my first ever experiment would be my least skilled player. Solid scorer but in reality was a consistent second-liner and a fringe top liner at best. Never scored under 20 goals but pretty much hovered around that 20-30 goal range except for two seasons. He was definitely far from horrible but was definitely not my best work. Still though, lots of great memories; Davos was a great team to play in, winning the championship with Riga in my rookie season was amazing, and also getting the Daisuke Kanou that year alongside Stropko was really cool. Unless I am mistaken, Ryuu Crimson remains the only rookie to win the Daisuke Kanou. If I am mistaken, then Ryuu Crimson was the first to win it as a rookie. Before you note that his stats are very similar to Sigard Petrenko and that it seems to make little sense that I consider Ryuu a consistent second-liner/fringe top liner, remember that this was during the S60s. During those seasons, scoring was a LOT higher and point totals felt like they were skyrocketing and this was before people learned to spam SC. Though, obviously, bonus points for the fact that there was a good period of time that he just fought a lot for some reason. Man was an absolute goon (I call him that in the most affectionate way possible) for some reason for a good bit.

 

Second Place: Sigard Petrenko

 

How suspenseful. Second player in and we already have the answer for number one. Out of three, Sigard was the player who I feel like mostly fulfilled my expectations. I wanted to make a winger who could hit and score. A power forward who could put in the net but also put in work off the puck. His shooting percentage might be terrible and he definitely had a notable amount of penalties but he still got goals, had a really solid plus/minus rating (as flawed of a stat it is), consistently scored around 30 goals during the second half of his career, and could also hit. A lot. Sigard Petrenko is (as of writing this) top 5 in terms of Seattle Bears players when it comes to the number of hits. Sigard was also a playoff performer; he currently ranks second in Bears career playoff goals just behind Timothy Brown. I think that I was able to balance Petrenko’s physicality and defensive solidness with the ability to score. There was a time I was questioning whether I should switch him to the blueline but there was never really an organizational need and Petrenko was succeeding so I didn’t go through with it. It also helps that Sigard had an excellent team around him. I mean, the Bears roster was excellent. Definitely had a lot of fun in the locker room. I also remember Petrenko’s time with the Mississauga Hounds and just what a great season that was. Also, one last fun fact about Sigard Petrenko; his first name was taken from Sigard Gunnar; a teammate of mine when Jacques Lafontaine was on the scene. Now that Lafontaine has been mentioned, it is time to talk about the best player I created.

 

First Place: Raimo Tuominen

 

So Raimo is shaping up to be the-

 

Okay, sorry, I shouldn’t get too ahead of myself. Here’s the actual first place player in my eyes.

 

First Place: Jacques Lafontaine

 

So much happened with Lafontaine. It was a roller coaster with him as my player. First of all, there was the amazing Saskatoon Wild team that dominated and had that historic season in the VHLM in S69 in which Lafontaine was carried by an excellent squad to a Founder’s Cup Championship. Still got the Benoit Devereux somehow. Also won the Skylar Rift trophy. Funnily enough, I’d replace a “Rift” when Lafontaine took over the starting role after backing up JB Rift in his rookie season. For some reason, whenever I think about that team, I can’t help but think about Danny DeYeeto even though we had so many great players on that team. But regardless, that was an amazing season to be a part of. Then there was the whole debate on whether or not Hextall or Lafontaine should get ROTY just for neither to win it. Then there was the whole three-way rivalry between Spyro, Hextall, and myself. Then there’s winning two Clegane trophies, getting two Victory Cups, and then always muttering curses under my breath every time Seattle eliminated us before I eventually had Petrenko go there. Jacques Lafontaine, while a bit overrated, is still one of my favourite players and probably the single greatest player out of the three I have made so far.

 

1068 words; will claim for two weeks.

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

Claimed week ending 11/05

Edited November 5, 2023 by SlapshotWrangler

[SlapshotWrangler 864]

Claimed week ending 11/12