Re-imagining the League with some..uh..moves...

[Tetricide 695]

I'm not saying the League needs to move any teams anywhere with this article... I think there are some unique places that were decided for each league that can certainly make storytelling more fun and that's awesome. However, if we were to say...go to where there are potentially bigger sports markets, we definitely wouldn't see it the way the teams are set up now. This is how I'd imagine the League would look with some interesting and potentially (definitely) controversial additions and subtractions.

 

North America - VHLM

 

Ahh...North America...the place where everyone's players start, so we'll start with the re-alignment of the VHLM. Before I start anywhere else, I'd like to first state that Mexico City would go nowhere. Mexico is part of the IIHF, continuing to slowly grow within the country, and I think it's important to support Mexico and people from there who are fans of hockey to help grow the sport there. Conversely, Alaska gets no love from a team moving there. However, if we were to only consider the US and Canada then I think the best move would be a return back to the Yukon over in Whitehorse, but we're not so get that out of your head. San Diego is an amazing place for sports, and I'm moving this in another league in which I'll explain later. California is an amazing place for sports and it's a bummer we don't have a team in NorCal, so I think an M team in San Francisco would be perfect to take the Marlins' place. Last in the West, we are also moving Houston out of the VHLM to another place, and instead will have a team based out of Denver, Colorado.

 

Moving to the East! Did you know that 3 out of the 5 teams are based out of Canda? Wack! So many good hockey places in the east and they hit like 3 of the cities that are, only 1 of which is Canadian... Now, let's start with Halifax. Not only does "21st" not make any sense outside of "21st century", but it also doesn't have as big of a pull of sports watching as somewhere like idk...MONTREAL?! A major sports hub, only 2nd to Toronto, Montreal I feel would be a perfect move for a team that until this season hasn't done very well for several seasons (I may or may not be lowkey rooting for HFX this season) and a great place to introduce new players. Ottawa gets a pass, you're doing great things for Ottawa @Grape

 

 and it's also an amazing city for hockey. Miami also gets a pass not only because it's the M's newest franchise, but also because Florida actually has 3 big cities for hockey and sports in general. As for Philly, it's kind of a toss-up. Do I ignore my disdain for Boston and say yeah let's move 'em there, or just give Boston the middle finger? Look, numbers don't lie and someone's gotta move there so looks like Philly will move there, but that's not the last move. Nope. Sorry Mississauga, you can stay as the Hounds, but you're moving to Detroit. How could we not have any team in Motor City? Hockey history is too rich there not to have at least one team from a league based out of there.

 

Western Conference

Mexico City --> Stays (or to Whitehorse/Yukon if we remove Mexico from the equation)

Las Vegas --> Stays

San Diego --> Up a League

San Francisco --> New Franchise

Houston --> Up a League

Denver --> New Franchise

 

Eastern Conference

Halifax --> Montreal, also please change it from "21st"

Ottawa --> Stays

Miami --> Stays

Philadelphia --> Boston

Mississauga --> Detroit

 

 

 

 

 

Europe - VHLE

 

I'm sure some of you know where I'm going with this, but it's a solution to a problem of a league I've seen of teams full of IA players and has recently downsized in teams. Say "ciao" to the European league as we lay it to rest so that it may (or may not) wake up for another day when it's needed. Now, to address the TPE gap between the VHLM and the VHL which would be 200. You could raise the M cap to 250 TPE and introduce VHL Farm teams similar to how the NHL and AHL are set up, but I think leaving it at 200 is perfectly fine. This could open a lot of possibilities for VHL GMs for things like cap space and inactive players. Obviously, doing things like moving max earning players down to the farm for the sake of saving cap space would be punished. The farm teams' main purpose is to help recently graduated minor league players to get up to speed with the rest of the VHL pro players, however, you could move a welfare-only player down to make room for a player that would take the same cap space or slightly higher to help with either the production or defense for your team. Now, to address the added Job Responsibilities to the VHL GMs! You've now taken on another team that you'll have to make lines for in the Farm section of the STHS alongside your VHL team. Simon doesn't have a way for someone like an AGM to submit Farm lines separately from your main lines, so that takes away the fun idea that VHL AGMs could get 2TPE Job Pay and you'll just have to keep doing Press Conferences for that instead. With all the added responsibilities VHL GMs would take on for this, I'd say a pay increase to 4 TPE would be fair. Lastly, we would need Farm Team locations!

 

North America

Calgary Wranglers --> Edmonton

Chicago Phoenix --> Milwaukee

D.C. Dragons --> See: VHL Section...

LA Stars --> San Diego Marlins

NY Americans --> Long Island

Seattle Bears --> Tacoma

Toronto Legion --> Winnipeg

Vancouver Wolves --> Kamloops

 

Europe

HC Davos Dynamo --> Cologne

Helsinki Titans --> Tampere

London United --> Leeds

Malmo Nighthawks --> Stockholm

Moscow Menace --> St. Petersburg

Prague Phantoms --> Bratislava

Riga Reign --> Minsk

Warsaw Predators --> Krakow

 

Yes, a few of the E teams moved into the VHL Farm teams. Why does Sweden have two teams for the E... Anyway, let me explain what happened with the D.C. Dragons in my final topic:

 

The World - VHL

 

Honestly, outside of the VHLE to VHL Farm teams not much is gonna change. So, what about D.C.? Well, Houston is being moved up as a VHL Farm team, but they're not moving. Houston has all major sports featured EXCEPT for hockey! (RIP Houston Aeros) Despite the demand for it and the success Dallas has, it really is a wonder why there isn't any kind of pro hockey in Space City. Speaking of Dallas, that's where the D.C. Dragons are headed with Houston as the farm team! I know, the Capital has its teams too, but I'm a Houstonian after all and incredibly biased to my Texas-based teams. That pretty much does it for this little fun article. Thanks for letting my creative brain go a little crazy for theme week! Oh, and I need to add this before I end this article...

 

North America Change:

D.C. Dragons --> Moved to Dallas

Dallas (OUTLAWS???) --> Adds Houston Bulls as a Farm

 

Over 1k.

1st Week - Claimed for Theme week, ending 4/14/24.

2nd Week - Claimed week ending 4/21/24.

Edited April 17 by Tetricide

[Victor 11,021]

1 hour ago, Tetricide said:

Not only does "21st" not make any sense outside of "21st century

@Beketov triggered

[Beketov 9,101]

1 hour ago, Victor said:

@Beketov triggered

@Tetricide can’t be bothered to google “Halifax” and “21” confirmed. The name continues to be divisive purely because people don’t want to understand how perfect it is for the VHLM.

 

FWIW as well there was a period where it was the basic thought that VHLM cities should be the smaller cities and save the larger ones like Montreal for the VHL. We kinda got away from that mentality when we moved all the M teams to NA but we were also rapidly expanding at the time so figured “eh, we’ll get some teams in the big cities later” and then kinda just didn’t. It’s also why Boston and Detroit have long been ignored. It wasn’t really intentional, it just kinda happened.

[Ahma 1,444]

Tampere instead of Turku!? what da hell man

[Mysterious_Fish 405]

3 hours ago, Tetricide said:

LA Stars --> San Diego Marlins

San Diego will not be proud to be LA Stars affiliate

[Tetricide 695]

4 hours ago, Beketov said:

@Tetricide can’t be bothered to google “Halifax” and “21” confirmed.

21 isn't something I thought of adding to the search, and the Halifax Wikipedia article only mentions the existence of the pier...not the significance. Now that I know what it does stand for, you're right. It's perfect.

 

4 hours ago, Ahma said:

Tampere instead of Turku!? what da hell man

By the time I got to this part of the article my brain was mush and I wanted it finished. Google Maps with close cities was my friend, and I already knew of Tampere because of my player so I stuck with that.

 

3 hours ago, Mysterious_Fish said:

San Diego will not be proud to be LA Stars affiliate

Oops oh well.

[Beketov 9,101]

1 hour ago, Tetricide said:

Now that I know what it does stand for, you're right. It's perfect.

I do try to convert people 1 at a time. I did not come up with the name but I will certainly defend it haha

[Mysterious_Fish 405]

2 hours ago, Tetricide said:

Oops oh well.

I will say,if the Marlins stay a team they need a FUCKING NEW LOGO

[Tetricide 695]

28 minutes ago, Mysterious_Fish said:

I will say,if the Marlins stay a team they need a FUCKING NEW LOGO

I think it fits just fine. Maybe a different team name, but I personally like it all.

[Mysterious_Fish 405]

3 hours ago, Tetricide said:

I think it fits just fine. Maybe a different team name, but I personally like it all.

Have you been drinking?

[Tetricide 695]

38 minutes ago, Mysterious_Fish said:

Have you been drinking?

No, I'm a very sober man. Can't remember the last time I had an alcoholic beverage. I have full clarity right now.

[Tetricide 695]

Claiming 2nd and final week 

[diamond_ace 3,112]

A few of these I personally think there are better options for, even if we largely work under your existing framework:

Would go Buffalo for NY's farm, rather than doubling up on the NYC metro area.
Would go Portland for Seattle's farm, if Tacoma happened it would likely be the least relevant place ever used for the league other than when Minot, North Dakota had a team - yes, that was a thing.
Like the option you went with in Milwaukee, proves you weren't just 100% going within state lines.
Winnipeg seems a bit far from Toronto to make it work as a farm, although I'm not super up on internal Canadian stuff and that might be more reasonable than I think. If I'm right and it's weird, maybe that's where the missing Mississauga could fit.

Seconding Ahma's mention of Turku, especially as we had a Turku before.
Would go Glasgow for London's farm, just to cover a second "constituent country" of UK rather than double up on England.
Would go Vilnius for Riga's farm, since "the Baltics" are a thing and not really Belarus.

 

 

If we are working *outside* of your framework: I disagree with the idea of removing DC, and not just because I play for them (you know historically my heart is with Prague, and prior to that Calgary, so this isn't bias talking, although all credit to Frosty as I've very much enjoyed DC and couldn't have asked for a better landing spot if I was going to branch out a bit). 
 

 

(Coincidentally, although completely unrelated other than sharing cities/states that get a mention: the Milwaukee Lakefront is one of my expansion teams in my 40-team NHL23 save, as are the Portland Owls, and since you mentioned Alaska briefly in the M section, the Anchorage Narwhal)