VSN Presents: Week 1 VHL Power Rankings/Preview

[Alex 3,247]

Hi everyone, welcome to the first of many VHL Power Rankings for this season. I'll be slightly merging the preview with this one since last week got away from me a bit. So if you have any ideas for future editions please let me know.

 

NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE

 

1st - New York Americans

Record - 4-2-0

Current Place in Standings - 3rd

Projected Finish - 1st

Forward Rank - 10th

Defense Rank - 1st

Goaltending Rank - 3rd 

Overall - 1st

Standout Player - WWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWWWW @rory

 

New York is off to a solid start this season and have a fairly solid roster. Offense could prove to be an issue, but with a great defense and goaltending there really isn’t cause for concern. New York is the top team in the conference by a considerable gap.

 

2nd - Toronto Legion

Record - 3-2-1

Current Place in Standings - 4th

Projected Finish - 3rd

Forward Rank - 5th

Defense Rank - 3rd

Goaltending Rank - 12th

Overall - 5th

Standout Player - Jimi Jaks @ke1vi

 

Toronto’s window has essentially come to an end, and while they will more than likely make the playoffs, they could struggle against teams with good goaltending as they will be needing to simply outscore their problems this season.

 

3rd - Chicago Phoenix

Record - 5-1-1

Current Place in Standings - 1st

Projected Finish - 5th

Forward Rank - 9th

Defense Rank - 5th

Goaltending Rank - 6th 

Overall - 8th

Standout Player - Spanish Moon Moth @Renomitsu

 

Chicago has a very well-rounded roster, while they do lack a truly elite player, their roster as a whole looks very strong and the early season results seem to agree.

 

4th - Seattle Bears

Record - 3-3-0

Current Place in Standings - 5th

Projected Finish - 4th

Forward Rank - 3rd

Defense Rank - 9th

Goaltending Rank - 7th

Overall - 7th

Standout Player - Eric White Jr @Mysterious_Fish

 

With Chicago, Seattle is reasonably well rounded and will more than likely challenge for the top spot in the conference. As the season progresses Seattle will likely slowly climb the standings.

 

5th - Calgary Wranglers

Record - 4-2-1

Current Place in Standings - 2nd

Projected Finish - 6th

Forward Rank - 6th

Defense Rank - 7th

Goaltending Rank - 16th

Overall - 10th

Standout Player - Adi Dassler @BOOM

 

Calgary is very much in a similar boat to Toronto for this season, while their roster is fairly solid in terms of skaters, Calgary has the league’s worst goaltending. If Calgary is looking to actually compete this season a trade will have to be made for a true starting goalie.

 

6th - Vancouver Wolves

Record - 1-5-0

Current Place in Standings - 8th

Projected Finish - 2nd

Forward Rank - 2nd

Defense Rank - 8th

Goaltending Rank - 4th

Overall - 4th

Standout Player - Owen Lazaro @traphag

 

Vancouver has become notorious for having a slow start to the season, for that reason patience likely pays off here. Their roster is solid and should bounce back in a hurry.

 

7th - Los Angeles Stars

Record - 2-4-0

Current Place in Standings - 6th

Projected Finish - 7th

Forward Rank - 13th

Defense Rank - 13th

Goaltending Rank - 13th

Overall - 14th

Standout Player - Roger Eagles @Greg_Di

 

The rebuild continues in Los Angeles, and with a plethora of young players, everything is going to plan here.

 

8th - D.C. Dragons

Record - 1-4-1

Current Place in Standings - 7th

Projected Finish - 8th

Forward Rank - 16th

Defense Rank - 16th

Goaltending Rank - 10th

Overall - 16th

Standout Player - Herald Benson @Benson

 

Not really much to talk about here, a few young players are making an impact, but it will be a long season in DC.

 

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE

 

1st - Moscow Menace

Record - 5-2-0

Current Place in Standings - 2nd

Projected Finish - 1st

Forward Rank - 4th

Defense Rank - 4th

Goaltending Rank - 1st

Overall - 2nd

Standout Player - David Rashford @Knight

 

It’s undeniable that Moscow got worse over the offseason due to a cap crunch, but the sheer amount of assets they got for players that they couldn’t keep will mean that they’ll be great for some time to come. This season, Moscow enters as the Continental Cup favourites and has shown that early on.

 

2nd - Riga Reign

Record - 5-1-0

Current Place in Standings - 1st

Projected Finish - 2nd

Forward Rank - 8th

Defense Rank - 2nd

Goaltending Rank - 5th

Overall - 3rd

Standout Player - Shubham Anand @Will3

 

Riga is solid again this season and could very well surprise some people this season. Their offense has broken out so far this season and there is really no reason for any concern, other than Skor McFleury’s abysmal start.

 

3rd - HC Davos Dynamo

Record - 4-1-2

Current Place in Standings - 3rd

Projected Finish - 5th

Forward Rank - 11th

Defense Rank - 6th

Goaltending Rank - 9th

Overall - 11th

Standout Player - Antonia Bucatini @CowboyinAmerica

 

Davos continues to progress and should improve quickly over the course of the season. With that being said, there’s a good chance that they will slip to 4th or 5th by the playoffs, given the gap to other playoff contenders.

 

4th - Malmo Nighthawks

Record - 3-2-1

Current Place in Standings - 5th

Projected Finish - 3rd

Forward Rank - 1st

Defense Rank - 10th

Goaltending Rank - 8th

Overall - 6th

Standout Player - Karl Herzlich @LastGoon007

 

To be blunt Malmo is a very interesting team this season, for many seasons they were a top defensive team which helped everyone find more success throughout the lineup and minimized scoring chances against. While they do still have a top defenseman, there is considerable concern as their shots against have skyrocketed compared to previous seasons. We will likely see a trade to improve the blue line in short order.

 

5th - Warsaw Predators

Record - 2-3-0

Current Place in Standings - 7th

Projected Finish - 4th

Forward Rank - 7th

Defense Rank - 12th

Goaltending Rank - 2nd

Overall - 9th

Standout Player - Thor Reingaard @N0HBDY

 

Warsaw’s goal scoring has just got off to a slow start, this should balance out with time. But when you consider the weight, this puts on Merome Dilson there is some reason for concern. We can expect Warsaw to make it back towards a playoff spot and they should be considered a playoff lock.

 

6th - Helsinki Titans

Record - 4-2-0

Current Place in Standings - 4th

Projected Finish - 6th

Forward Rank - 12th

Defense Rank - 15th

Goaltending Rank - 14th

Overall - 12th

Standout Player - THE MIGHTY ICE WIZARD @Royski

 

Unlike the North American Conference, the EU has 3 teams that are a step below everyone else. The rebuild in Helsinki seems to be going well, but with a few veteran assets they should be able to sell and improve their draft stock.

 

7th - London United

Record - 3-3-0

Current Place in Standings - 6th

Projected Finish - 7th

Forward Rank - 14th

Defense Rank - 11th

Goaltending Rank - 11th (pending trade that will occur today)

Overall - 13th

Standout Player - None

 

It’s going to be a long season in London, but they do stand to reap the rewards of teams that need to improve their rosters.

 

8th - Prague Phantoms

Record - 0-4-1

Current Place in Standings - 8th

Projected Finish - 8th

Forward Rank - 15th

Defense Rank - 14th

Goaltending Rank - 15th

Overall - 15th

Standout Player - Lazlo Holmes @Gustav

 

Prague is also in for a long season, but with a few bright spots, namely Holmes who is off to a great start to their career and is the early favourite for top rookie honours.

 

1301 words (2 weeks)

[scoop 3,447]

13 hours ago, Alex said:

4th - Malmo Nighthawks

Record - 3-2-1

Current Place in Standings - 5th

Projected Finish - 3rd

Forward Rank - 1st

Defense Rank - 10th

Goaltending Rank - 8th

Overall - 6th

Standout Player - Karl Herzlich @LastGoon007

 

To be blunt Malmo is a very interesting team this season, for many seasons they were a top defensive team which helped everyone find more success throughout the lineup and minimized scoring chances against. While they do still have a top defenseman, there is considerable concern as their shots against have skyrocketed compared to previous seasons. We will likely see a trade to improve the blue line in short order.

Our shots against have actually decreased.

 

S92: 32.14

S93: 32.56

S94: 32.33

S95: 31.63

 

To be fair, though, that's only because we've played Helsinki in 3 of our 8 games thus far. They are the only team we've held below that average. We are also ranked 6th in shots against compared to 2nd in each of the past three seasons, so relatively speaking, we are doing worse in that regard.