The Original VHLM Part 2: Inactive Teams

[Will3 465]

With the rich history of the active original VHLM teams summarized last week, it is time to do the same with the original franchises no longer a part of the VHLM. While all of these these clubs met with a tragic fate, these fallen franchises have left a  amazing legacy the has and will continue to shape the future of this crazy league for many seasons to come.The time has come for a review of the history of the inactive oiginal VHLM teams.

 

Of these four collapsed clubs, two started in Sweden, one was from The States and one lived in Canada. Starting in Sweden, there was the Jönköping Warriors. They would be the first European VHLM team to relocate, moving is the opposite direction their rivals,the Gothenburg Eagles, would take. Home was found just over the border in Kolari, Finland. They also would be the first teams to take up the Wolves branding, but only for the first five seasons in their new home. Afterwards  they club rebranded to their most memorable identity, the Panthers. However, unlike their rivals now called the Oslo Storm, things in Kolari didn't work out. A desperate move to Turku to become the Outlaws in S34 couldn't stop the inevitable. After S42 The Tuku Outlaws were folded along with another team to mentioned later. The brand discarded in Kolari would be accepted in Vancouver about thirty seasons later. 

 

Vasteras' VHLM team has a complicated legacy. Sure they are the longest surviving original VHLM team but for most of their existence in the shadows of the bigger VHL club. In S37 they would become something new. They became the Moscow Red Wolves. Both name and brand would have significant impact of future of the VHL. The team eventually dissolve after fourteen seasons in Russia. Moscow would be awarded an expansion VHL franchise fourteen seasons later. Where Vasteras' VHL team inspired two VHLE clubs, the minor club gifted the Red Wolves branding to a VHLE franchise in Istanbul that is now folded as well, leaving behind a uncertain legacy.

 

Mini Minot is now an easy place to find. Yet this North Dakota town hosted an original VHLM franchise. They were known as the Gladiators. Aside from a random relocation to New York State to become the Syracuse Wolfpack for five seasons before returning back home to ND, the Minot Gladiators would be a rooted franchise until being killed off along with the Kolari Panthers in the first double folding in league history after S42. The Gladiators branding would be rightfully picked up by Rome, Italy's VHLE club., leaving Minot back to being mostly forgotten.

 

Brampton, Ontario is the minor league equivalent of Quebec City. They can't keep a team either in real life or in simulations. The VHLM  story begins the a team resembling the at the time OHL club, the Brampton Battalion. They would rebranded is S24 to the Brampton Blades, possibly resembling a different CHL team. The ax would finally fall on the Blades after S53 when they along with the expansion Bratislava Watchmen  cease operations. With the Mississauga Steelheads relocating to Brampton this comming season, there is hope that the city's luck can change at long last.

 

Indeed, these toppled teams have done great work in inspiring the future. With both cities and brands now in the VHL or VHLE, these original  HLM teams continue to have a living legacy long after their gone. And who says the can't effect things in the future that we are unable to see  yet. There is always a chance that the rich history of the crazy league can change and influence the future. Just have to wait and see.

[Mysterious_Fish 387]

7 hours ago, Will3 said:

With the Mississauga Steelheads relocating to Brampton this comming season

do do imma be going to those games

[diacope 1,696]

Warriors can't believe they went through so many identities and ended up landing in Canada