Hometown Heroes of the VHL

[Victor 11,021]

We've seen all sorts of names, characters, and nationalities go through the VHL over the years, some significantly more outlandish than others. However, I quite enjoy it when things stay grounded and just a completely normal player becomes great. An underrated quality I think is when a player achieves the highest honours while playing for their hometown club.
 

Although we've seen a few people try to keep things local, especially back in the GM player days, and Ahma (not quite a GM player but same effect) once brought a Swiss defenceman to Davos in David Tavau, we'll focus here on the true crème de la crème – homegrown Hall of Famers. So we won't talk about Vladimir Pavlov, Lucas Nygren, Dagmar Havlova, and George Washington (yes the founding Moscow, Malmo, Prague, and D.C. GMs were exceptionally creative) or other such examples like Valtteri Vaakanainen or the numerous Louths. No, this about the best of them. Behold a (probably) complete list of Hall of Famers who made their name playing in the city they were born.

 

Helsinki Titans

Tuomas Tukio @Higgins and Aleksi Koponen @Will
 

The Finnish capital was the city that first came to mind when coming up with this article and Tukio in particular was the first name on the list. This was homegrown greatness by design. Mitch Higgins took over a struggling Helsinki team ahead of S30 and immediately set out putting together a new spine for the franchise - 1^st overall first-gen pick Ethan Osborne secured things up front but Higgins took matters into his own hands in goal with local lad Tuomas Tukio. The Titans were reborn on and off the ice, peaking in the S33 regular season before finally getting the ultimate prize in a gruelling 7-game series in S34. Tukio wasn't quite the superstar of the team yet, but was a reliable shot-stopper and his final two seasons in Quebec and New York saw him become a two-time MVP and secured his place in the Hall. It'll always be Helsinki the great netminder will be associated with however.
 

Less than 10 seasons later, Higgins' own protege William Shaw again needed to steady the drifting Titans and went big on the S45 draft. Shaw chose to draft his defence with Phil Hamilton at the back and Greg Clegane in net, instead bringing in a center as his GM player – like Tukio, a Helsinki-born player in Aleksi Koponen. In their rookie and sophomore seasons, Koponen, Hamilton, and Clegane won back-to-back Continental Cups (with some veteran help of course, not least from one Thomas O'Malley) ensuring legendary status for Koponen immediately. Like Tukio, his best statistical seasons actually came after he left Helsinki after four seasons, but the Titans are still the team with which he spent most of his time.

 

Calgary Wranglers

Devon Marlow-Marta, Norris Stopko, Jasper Canmore @Bushito
 

I actually expected to see a lot more from Calgary here because they have been associated with lots of Canadian superstars over the years. A lot of them were actually from a different province with two of the founding fathers of not just the Wranglers, but the whole VHL – Brett Slobodzian and Sterling Labatte – being from Saskatoon. Same for Jardy Bunclewirth, an ex-player and ex-GM who is also now long part of Calgary lore.
 

But we do get some other bits of quality from Calgary itself. That's where Devon Marlow-Marta is from, a consistent scorer who spent his whole career with the Wranglers, being a key member of their S8 championship. Do you know why Marlow-Marta has the North American championship trophy to his name? Because the member behind him, Devon, didn't leave the conference until deep into his third player. Marlow-Marta played in Calgary, then Devon De La Soul split his career across New York and Seattle, before Biggie Shakur started off in Toronto before making his way back to Calgary. Those were all the NA teams you had to choose from back then and Devon left not long after, never breaking the connection. It was more or less the same for Terence Fong and his next few players (he got through Avangard, Riga, Vasteras, and Helsinki before Daisuke Kanou's big career in Davos), although Fong has now been here so long he's long lost the European conference link.
 

Finally, it's GM Tyler Barabash's duo of Norris Stopko and Jasper Canmore, key members of the S61-S63 finals run including the dominant S62 Continental Cup victory. They could have easily been Stockholm Vikings legends instead if the league chose to keep the Vikings and not give their assets to Calgary. Instead, the Wranglers won by being the popular kids and the rest is history.

 

Toronto Legion

Black Velvet @Higgins
 

Toronto has done a good job of emulating real life Toronto and being a destination for superstars but not necessarily the place they are made. Enter Black Velvet, inspired by Canada's largest city's arguably most famous face Drake, and remarkably another entry for one Mr Higgins, 10 years after Tukio's retirement.
 

Velvet was in his first three seasons when the Legion won the league's first ever threepeat and so despite being a much-hyped first overall pick local talent, Velvet wasn't quite in his prime when Max Molholt, Zach Parechkin, Hans Wingate, and company led Toronto to unprecedented success. He was already massively influential in defence however and would have a Hall of Fame career after leaving Toronto, eventually adding two more championships for a record-tying five. Initially, his free agency move to Calgary was massively controversial and that might have impacted his “homegrown star” status, but as the dust has long settled, the original excitement and impact is what is remembered.

 

Riga Reign

Fredinamijs Krigars, Kallis Kriketers @hedgehog337
 

It's back to GM players and more recent ones here – and all from one man. Long-time Riga GM Benjamin Zeptenbergs was of course from Latvia himself, ticking a bonus box, and consistently brought Latvian players into the VHL. Two of them were some of the best of all time. Fredinamijs Krigars came first, his partnership with John Locke propelling the Reign to back-to-back Continental Cups in S57 and S58, and he remained one of the highest scoring forwards in the league throughout his career.
 

The next big name was Kallis Kriketers, brought in due to a high-scoring team (see Podrick Cast, S62) not having any defence or goaltending to speak of. Kriketers wasn't some stopgap though and while he wasn't the hero of the S63 championship where he was just a rookie, he would go on to become one of the best goalies of all time, perhaps the best of the ongoing “modern” era. By Kriketers' retirement, he had dominated the field, spent his whole career in his hometown of Riga, and set the Reign well on their way to a record 13-season playoff streak.

 

HC Davos Dynamo

Tomas Jenskovic @scotty
 

This is quite a unique case – the team moved to the hometown of their star player. Tomas Jenskovic was drafted first overall by the then Avangard Havoc in S10 and within a season Scotty Campbell became their GM and moved them to Davos, kickstarting an unparalleled run of trophies and success for decades to come. The first two Continental Cups arrived immediately, in S11 and S13, with Jenskovic front and centre of them. As soon as he picked up the mantle from another legendary defenceman, Jochen Walser (who naturally, was also part of Davos' first season), Jenskovic became the undisputed best in the position, culminating in S14 when he became the first and only ever defenceman to lead the league in scoring.
 

Campbell stepping down from all his roles shortly after that curtailed Jenskovic's career earlier than planned and nearly derailed the Dynamo. They recovered but have often been the best representation of Swiss hockey in the VHL, as the golden age of Swiss superstars died roughly around the same time as Jenskovic's career. Davos awaits its next great local hero patiently.

 

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And that does it. Unfortunately, specific city locations are not part of players' birthplaces since the move to the portal so we can only guess at specific hometowns since then. Andrew Su for example was a Canadian Hall of Famer who excelled for Vancouver (in fact he never ventured far from there with brief stops in Calgary and Seattle) – but was a he a local? We may never know. Of the long-serving franchises there's the perhaps surprising omission of New York and while Conner Low may have been applicable option, we don't actually know where in the USA he was from. To be fair, I had already done a surprising amount of defending of Conner Low in the recent “best defenceman of all time” debate so do not feel that he has been terribly hard done by me here.
 

Anyway, that's more of less everything I had to say on the subject. A fun little piece even if I didn't say much new, maybe there was a little tidbit here or there that is new to whoever is reading this. Given the time and day that I am writing this I would be remiss not to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a lovely holiday time of the year. Hope you all have a good time to end the year.

[der meister 3,246]

This was fun