VHLM First Team All-Stars

[LucyXpher 1,577]

 

Earlier today I named my S92 VHLM All-Stars.  In the same media spot, I also named a group of First Team All-Stars-- the top players at each position from the entire VHLM.  In this short post, I want to specifically highlight this group of 6 players and add some shine to their star as they've all had exceptional seasons in the VHLM to this point.

 

VHLM FIrst Team All-Stars

 

(LW) Forum Content - (C) Antonia Bucatini - (RW) Yermolai Nabokov
(D) Bric Sheithaus - (D) Bilbo Teebaggins
(G) Jorgen Lovstrom

 

Forum Content (LW) @frescoelmo - Saskatoon Wild: In S92 in the VHLM, Forum Content has paced the league basically from day one.  With 20 goals, 41 assists, and 61 points, Forum Content has been the focal point of the Saskatoon offense all season alongside Annie Oaks.  HIs league leading performance is made all the more impressive as he sits at 178 TPA with room to improve still.  Eligible for the S93 VHL Draft, Forum Content will be near the top of many scouts' lists as they consider which player represents the future of their franchise.

 

Antonia Bucatini (C) @CowboyinAmerica - Halifax 21st: The top scoring center in the VHLM, Bucatini has shown exceptional scoring prowess all season long.  Selected 1st overall by Halifax in the S92 VHLM draft, Bucatini has lived up to expectations, leading their team in scoring as well as leading the league in shots on goal with an absurd 257 in 38 games!  With 26 goals, Bucatini is one of the VHLM's premier goal scorers and it's scary to think of how productive they could be on a better team as Halifax has really struggled this season.  

 

Yermolai Nabokov (RW) @fonziGG - Philadelphia Reapers: At right wing, nobody has been better than Yermolai Nabokov who has  26 goals and 33 assists for 59 points in 38 games.  Despite what the funky names on this Reapers' roster might suggest, Nabokov is the engine of this Philly offense.  With a balanced mix of passing and scoring ability, Nabokov is a threat any time he is on the ice and is a big part of the Reapers' success in S92.  Like Forum Content, at 167 TPA, Nabokov has room to grow and could even challenge for the league scoring title by the end of this regular season.  Also eligible for the VHL draft, it would be a shock not to see him among the top selections this coming offseason.

 

Bric Sheithaus (D) @Oldhead91 - Las Vegas Aces: In his 3rd season in the VHLM, Sheithaus has found another level with 53 points in 38 games.  He leads all defensemen in points and all players with 42 assists.  Drafted 7th overall by Riga in the S91 draft, Sheithaus still has not made the leap to the big leagues and remains at 188 TPA.  His performance this season, however, speaks to his growth as a player and his effectiveness as he has been a major factor in Vegas' success this season.  

 

Bilbo Teebaggins (D) @SackButter - Miami Marauders: With only 96 TPA, Teebaggins has been playing out of his skin.  The second highest scoring defender with 12 goals, 34 assists, and 46 points in 38 games, he has factored into the Miami offense on a nightly basis.  While there may be questions about whether he can repeat this success in the second half, Teebaggins deserves credit for his performance thus far and has the potential to be a difference maker at the next level if he can take the next step forward in his development.

 

Jorgen Lovstrom (G) @Pifferfish - Philadelphia Reapers: Lovstrom is the best goalie in the VHLM right now and there isn't much debate.  With league leading numbers like a .919%, 2.35 GAA, 1 SO, and 27 Wins, no other goalie is on his level right now.  At 142 TPA, Lovstrom looks to be the top draft eligible goalie in the upcoming VHL draft and will certainly have his name in the conversation for some personal hardware if his play follows its current trend.  A native of Greenland, Lovstrom has the potential to be a top goalie at the highest levels and will definitely be a player to watch in seasons to come.  

 

*Honorable Mention: At the time of writing I did not notice that Jean-Pierre Devote's @eagle_3450 points with Mississauga were not included in his total points on the leaders page.  His total points would actually have him on par with Forum Content for the VHLM lead, but with 31G-30A-61P.  I'm not going to change my selections retroactively, but I just thought I should acknowledge the mistake and say that he would have been much more seriously in consideration had I realized this when I made the picks.  

 

 

Lauren Lambert for VHL.com

02/04/24

Edited January 30 by LucyXpher
*Added honorable mention

[Pifferfish 596]

Fun Fact: Jørgen Løvstrøm has the best SV+ of the last 5 seasons in the VHLM. @LucyXpher

[LucyXpher 1,577]

2 minutes ago, Pifferfish said:

Fun Fact: Jørgen Løvstrøm has the best SV+ of the last 5 seasons in the VHLM. @LucyXpher

Interesting, what is SV+?  Do you mean save percentage?

[Pifferfish 596]

14 hours ago, LucyXpher said:

Interesting, what is SV+?  Do you mean save percentage?

so in baseball they have a stat called OPS, on base plus slugging. But if I took that number for a guy who played in 1986 and a guy in 2012 and tried to compare them it would lack context. Rules are different and change year to year. The competition changes, ect. So OPS+ takes the OPS for a player in a season and compares it to the league wide OPS. 100 is league average for that season. So SV%+ is that same concept but for save percentage. It's not an actual stat that exist outside of my creating it as far as I know. Like if you look at S91, Pipo Papa looks amazing right. But then you notice that a ton of goalies did really well. 6 clocked over a .910 SV% so possibly there was very weak skaters (which based on things I've read without actually looking into S91 is true.) Versus this season we have teams with nearly full rosters particularly with forwards. So my competition is different. Hopefully this very long winded explanation makes sense. I'm working on something for VSN that uses this concept. Another consideration in my data collection is the percentage of games that were shutouts. In S88-S90, this hovered around 11%. In S91 it jumped to 18%. This year (S92) so far it's 2.78%! Goaltending league wide has been historically bad. The league wide SV% is .893 right now. the next lowest since s88 was a .902 in that very season. 

 

[LucyXpher 1,577]

8 hours ago, Pifferfish said:

Hopefully this very long winded explanation makes sense. 
 

This is very helpful and it does make sense!  I’ve been noticing some of the wild differences in goalie performance from season to season and wondering myself how to compare, because obviously scoring seems much higher this season than it was last (22 shutouts for one goalie is wild), though the average TPA of goalies probably hasn’t changed much to account for this league wide. Thanks for the explanation and I look forward to seeing this stat applied in other articles of yours!  
 

Btw, could you share the math? I’d be interested to try this myself in other contexts.  Are you just dividing an individual’s sv% by the average sv%, the higher the number the better? 

Edited January 30 by LucyXpher

[Pifferfish 596]

5 hours ago, LucyXpher said:

This is very helpful and it does make sense!  I’ve been noticing some of the wild differences in goalie performance from season to season and wondering myself how to compare, because obviously scoring seems much higher this season than it was last (22 shutouts for one goalie is wild), though the average TPA of goalies probably hasn’t changed much to account for this league wide. Thanks for the explanation and I look forward to seeing this stat applied in other articles of yours!  
 

Btw, could you share the math? I’d be interested to try this myself in other contexts.  Are you just dividing an individual’s sv% by the average sv%, the higher the number the better? 

Yeah so OPS+ is just (playerOPS/leagueOPS)*100 so I did that with save percentage. It's important to remember that you want the league total Save Percentage though. Not just the average SV% of every player. I got the league wide number by using the index and copy the All Goalie stats table into a Google sheet. Then I had the sheet sum all the shots against, minus all the goals against, ect. Ect.