S91's All-VHL 1st Team? Old News.

[Renomitsu 930]

S91's All-VHL 1st Team (per VSN)

Leandro Goncalves  - Scotty Sundin   - Molly the Cat  

Elias Lampi  - Skor McFleury

Jesse Teno 

 

It's awful lonely at the top. So lonely, in fact, that I don't think anyone from above's S91 All-VHL 1st Team is going to repeat. Don't believe me? Well, the decision's a little easier than you'd think.

 

Who Definitely Won’t Be Making the List

Jesse Teno - G -  

Joel Castle deservedly won the Kanou en route to a Continental Cup last season, far out-performing even his 42 regular season win efficiency to secure the giant trophy and ring. You could have made a pretty fair argument for regular season awards, too, as Jesse Teno had a 0.1% lower save rate and just 0.04 fewer goals allowed per game – but Castle’s lack of shutouts (3 vs Teno’s 6) probably clinched the first gen’s Shaw/Clegane combo over animal74.

 

Unfortunately, both Joel and Jesse have their work cut out for them. They've played 47 games this season – the second most of any starting goalie at time of writing – just 5^th in wins with 22 – and they’re not going to catch up to Malmo’s Ash Sparks. Jesse's save percentage (92.2%) also keeps him out of the top ten for the league and a half point under 5^th place (among starters), and similarly doesn’t register on the goals against average leaderboard. Teno sits at just one shutout, so unfortunately we can't make that argument, either. Unless he manages to absolutely stand on his head for the next ~15 starts there’s absolutely no way he makes All-VHL 1^st Team (or even sniffs 2^nd, for that matter). Sad days.

 

Leandro Goncalves – C –  

As excellent as Leandro was – winning the Slobodzian, Brooks, AND Szatkowski trophies all in one go while securing his second career Victory Cup – he unfortunately can’t make the All-VHL Team in any capacity this season.

 

Why? He’s retired. However, if this were twenty years ago when fewer things had been automated electronically, that probably wouldn’t stop some real-life fans from voting for him. Fandoms die hard.

 

Scotty Sundin – C –  

Another All-VHL First Team member, another retiree. Sorry Scotty, you’re awesome, but there’s unfortunately no reviving this glorious center for another award ceremony. Enjoy the Szatkowski and Campbell though.

 

Elias Lampi – D –

Yep, another first-teamer, another retiree. GG WP to the S91 Labatte and Wylde winner – truly a standout in a very competitive landscape.

 

 

Who Probably Won’t Be Making the List

Molly the Cat – RW –

Jcarson’s Christian Stolzschweiger winner and former VHL champion (going back to S88) is a stellar player – and that’s not just because he’s added exactly 1,337 TPE to the Cat at time of writing. Molly has never won an individual award since her debut season for the VHL, but was certainly a dark horse candidate after scoring 107 points including 52 goals, a full 23 of which were on the power play. It’s worth noting that the winger was a much harder/frequent hitter in her early career, having seen a steady decline from 275 hits in her sophomore season on a year-by-year basis. She’s on pace for just under 150 this season – which admittedly would be a tiny uptick from previous.

 

It seems as though I’ve got a lot of praise for the winger – and in fairness, Molly is 10^th in shots taken this season with 9 total power play goals. Sadly,  her 56 points leave her a full 8 out of the top ten this season, and unless she suddenly picks up a boatload of hits to put her in contention from a two-way forward standpoint this season, there isn’t much of a shot to make it on the All-VHL 1^st (or likely even the 2^nd) team.

 

Skor McFleury – D –  

The former Davos, Riga, and Malmo player hasn’t exactly had the most stable of careers – unfortunately being the subject of a full four trades throughout his career since creation. Indeed, McFleury was moved from the now-defunct Rush to the Express in S86, then after making it to the majors was traded rom Riga -> Davos (S89) where he won the Continental Cup (S89), Victory Cup (S90), and Valiq (again, S90). The carousel simply wouldn’t end, however, as McFleury was traded yet again in both S91 (to Malmo) requiring a waiving of his NTC, as well as S92 to his current team in Calgary.

 

I’ll make the argument that Skor has a fairer shot than Molly, however, as he’s currently fifth in points and has substantially more hits than both Pierre Emile Bouchard and compatriot Reese McFleury with a similar number of points. Let’s settle on All-VHL 2^nd Team upside, as Jacob Stone and Mark Calaway both have slight leads in points, hits, and shots blocked. 1^st Team is a bigger ask and, while we’ve got maybe a couple dozen more games to go, I’m not sure he can eat into those leads in time.