Fantasy Corner - VHFL S91 in Review

[tcookie 678]

Note - I’m not affiliated with VHFL in any way. I pulled the data from the VHFL group updates thread because I thought it would be fun to look at, and did some similar stuff with VSN a while back, but this is all very much unofficial! 1581 words, good for the next 3 weeks.

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A thrilling season of VHL action wrapped up yesterday and with it, a slew of VHFL group champions crowned. How did you fare in your group this year? Who helped you win your league, or who didn’t live up to the expectations you had for them?

 

In this edition of VHFL Fantasy Corner, we’ll take a look at the season that was in S91 and the stars and duds of the fantasy campaign.

 

Group Winners

There were 14 VHFL groups in S91, with some very impressive seasons among them. 32 teams crossed the 1400 point mark overall, a number that was required to win each of the 14 groups, while 7 teams (6 group winners and one unlucky 2nd-place, @JCarson) hit the 1500 point mark. The tightest group was Group 11, separated by just 6 points.

 

Here are your group winners for S91 (another disclaimer, please do not take this as official results):

Group 1: @twists - 1518.9
Group 2: @jacobcarson877 - 1456.2
Group 3: @Triller - 1440.5
Group 4: @kirbithan - 1516.3
Group 5: @VattghernCZ - 1495.8
Group 6: @hedgehog337 - 1490.0
Group 7: @Arce - 1516.6
Group 8: @leandrofg - 1461.3
Group 9: @Grape - 1508.8
Group 10: @cLoWn - 1480.1
Group 11: @tcookie - 1485.6
Group 12: @STZ - 1425.8
Group 13: @eagle_3450 - 1548.3
Group 14: @MexicanCow123 - 1508.9

 

The highest-scoring team across all VHFL groups was managed by @eagle_3450, who put up a whopping 1548.3 points. That team consisted of Larry Abass Jr, Leandro Goncalves, Dogwood Maple, Jake Thunder, Skor McFleury, and Jesse Teno.

 

Highest Scoring Players

The overall highest scoring player in VHFL this year was Larry Abass Jr of the Los Angeles Stars. The 6’3, 212 pound power forward really came into his own this season. Abass was already a solid fantasy contributor in recent years thanks to a tendency to pile up 300+ hits while contributing on offense, but this season, Abass didn’t just contribute on offense, he dominated. Scoring career highs across the board, Abass finished the year with 46 goals, 55 assists, and 101 points while going well over the 300 hit marker for the third-straight season (357), and was the only player to top 300 fantasy points this season (301.6).

 

The highest scoring defenseman in VHFL was Malmo defenseman Skor McFleury, another player who changed teams last off-season. McFleury was owned in 100% of groups, and for good reason. McFleury was a fantasy stud last season with 25 goals, 96 points, 211 hits, and 158 blocks. That made him defenseman #1 last year and pushed him over the 300 fantasy point mark with 300.8 overall. It was a similarly dominant performance this time around as he put up 22 goals, 89 points, 224 hits, and 142 blocks to lead all VHFL defenders by almost 17 fantasy points with 282.1.

 

The highest scoring VHFL goaltender was Davos’ Lachlan Summers, which you can file under “entirely expected”. Davos was always supposed to be a great team this year and they delivered on that promise, leading to Summers piling up a bunch of wins (46). Summers won the Shaw, Clegane, and Slobodzian Trophies last season and he’s got a good shot to take home some more hardware this year, with a 46-12-6 record, 2.24 GAA and 0.933 SV% to go along with 5 shutouts. It was a dominant year and Summers just edged out Art Vandelay for the league lead in fantasy points among goalies.

 

VHFL All-Star Team

F - Larry Abass Jr (301.6) - AK92 Wit da Hoodie (289.3) - John Jameson (282.1)
D - Skor McFleury (282.1) - Elias Lampi (265.4)
G - Lachlan Summers (244.0)

 

@RileyL @hedgehog337 @Frank @Alex @Pifferfish @kirbithan

 

Fantasy MVPs

When we talk about Fantasy MVPs, we’re talking about the guys you regularly find on winning rosters. This isn’t always necessarily the best players, although there is strong correlation. You might find a big name who had a great season a little lower in the FMVP rankings because a similarly good player was able to be found later in the draft, leading to an even stronger presence on winning rosters. This plays into this year’s selection as while big names like John Jameson are definitely found on group-topping teams (Jameson was on 5 group winners himself), Larry Abass Jr was both fantasy’s top scorer AND available later in drafts in general.

 

We’ve already talked about the dominance of Abass Jr this season, but what really earns him the title of VHFL Fantasy MVP is the fact that he was found on a whopping 10 of the VHFL’s winning rosters. Shockingly, one group didn’t even draft Abass (group 14), so Abass finishes the year up at 92.9% owned, but in the 13 groups he was owned in, his team won 76.9% of them. No team with Abass on it finished worse than third overall.

 

Skor McFleury can be found on several VHFL champion squads, too - 6 to be exact - but one other player that deserves a mention here is defenseman Elias Lampi. Lampi was only owned in 71.4% of groups (10) but his teams won 4 of those groups. In his second year with the Los Angeles Stars, Lampi put together his best all-around season as he set a career high in points (82) and +/- (+28) while still posting strong defensive numbers (215 hits, 151 blocks). With production like that, you have to figure Lampi will find himself universally drafted next time around.

 

VHFL All-MVP Team

F - Larry Abass Jr (10 group winners) - Landon Wolanin (5) - John Jameson (5)
D - Skor McFleury (6) - Elias Lampi (4)
G - Jesse Teno (4)

 

@RileyL @jacobcarson877 @Frank @Alex @Pifferfish @aimkin

 

S91 Fantasy Steals (Highest-Scoring Players <40% owned)

F Henry Eagles, Malmo Nighthawks (35.7% owned, 247.2 points) @Greg_Di
In hindsight, it looks kind of silly that so many people passed on Henry Eagles in their fantasy drafts this year. Malmo was looking at a big step forward, particularly with the off-season additions of Skor McFleury and Yaroslav Bogatyrev, so why wouldn’t a guy like Eagles take a big step forward to match? There was some skepticism around Eagles’ fantasy relevance this year, probably due to the fact he only put up 58 points last year, but Eagles flourished in his seventh VHL season, matching a career high with 42 goals and setting a career high in points, too, with 96, convincingly leading the resurgent Nighthawks in scoring.

 

F Francesco Mancini, New York Americans (7.1% owned, 237.5 points) @GioSivo
Now this one, on the other hand, is completely understandable. The Americans are a bad team, finishing with a 29-38-5 record as the second-worst team in the North American Conference, and Mancini had 58 points in his entire VHL career coming into this season. So, nobody could realistically have predicted a 100-point campaign out of him, but here we are. With 47 goals and 101 points, Mancini had a downright massive year. He was only drafted in one group, and in that group, the team that picked him won. Guess they knew what they were doing.

 

D Rex Wolffe Gregor, Seattle Bears (7.1% owned, 241.4 points) @oilmandan
Gregor had the best season of his five-year career in the VHL in S91, with 27 goals, 79 points, 165 hits, and 137 blocks. His previous career highs of 20 goals, 67 points, and 166 hits were all comfortably eclipsed as he became one of the highest-scoring defenders in VHFL this season. As the #1 defenseman on a Bears team that hopes to take a step forward next year, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Gregor’s on a lot more VHFL rosters in S92.

 

S91 Fantasy Disappointments (Lowest-Scoring Players >70% owned)

F Vincent Laroche-Gagnier, DC Dragons (78.6% owned, 192.8 points) @vincentlg2007
It’s not like it was a bad year for Laroche-Gagnier, but after he put up 100 points in his first season in DC in S90, more was expected and he was drafted accordingly. Laroche-Gagnier doesn’t provide too much in the way of physical presence, so he needs to score to put up big numbers in VHFL, and his 35 goals and 78 points overall didn’t quite do it for teams that drafted him high.

 

F Randy Bobandy, Calgary Wranglers (71.4% owned, 168.4 points) @AJW
Bobandy scored 174 points over his last two seasons in Seattle before heading to Calgary, and there were high expectations of him taking a big role for the Wranglers. It didn’t quite work out that way for Calgary, who struggled to produce offense all season long, and Bobandy dropped off to 59 points, a number reminiscent of his sophomore season. If the Wranglers can fix their offense, you can bet the points will come back for Bobandy next time around, but for such a highly-drafted player to end up with this VHFL score was a disappointment.

 

D Phil Strasmore, Calgary Wranglers (85.7% owned, 170.5 points) @Phil
It seems to be a trend with Wranglers on the list, and it makes sense, because much of fantasy is simply about putting points in the board and the Wranglers struggled to do that as a whole. Strasmore, a longtime Wrangler, had four straight 60+ point seasons before this one but dropped off hard to 40 points in S91. His defensive numbers didn’t quite live up to expectations either, as his hits total (225) was his lowest in five seasons, and his shots blocked 106 was his lowest of his career. There doesn’t appear to be much reason for the sudden decline, as Strasmore still passes the eye test with flying colours, but the eye test doesn’t do much for the 12 VHFL teams that drafted him.

Edited December 7, 2023 by tcookie

[jacobcarson877 2,076]

This is great work! Fumbled one pick myself, but the rest of my team was spot on!

[eagle_3450 278]

W

[AJW 1,749]

Bobandy L

[JCarson 594]

Article Review:  Great work on this VHFL review.  A lot of analytical work to look at the.  The individual call out as the only player with a 1500 plus total points that didn't win their group provides a unique personal connection for me.  The added analysis of looking at sleeper picks and worst picks in addition to  looking at the expected list of best performers helps look at future VHFL choices.  Not sure there is much that could be added to this article to make it better.  Again well done, I give this article a 9/10.  Keep up the great work. 

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