DC

[qripll 526]

Standings and Locker Room 

 

Half of the regular season was played, from now it's pretty clear who will lock the playoffs spot and who is going to chase the wild card one as well. DC Dragons are 7th in North American Conference, and we can't say we would not expect that. On the other hand, we started the regular season with some victorious games with bot in the net, outplaying reigning champions - Vancouver Wolves, and a few solid contenders: Seattle and Chicago. Anyway, our pace in on its predicted numbers.  We started S97 season with full squad: 6 forwards, 4 dmen and a goalie. However, it didn't take long and I made some pretty huge trades including TOR 1st S98, TOR 1st S99, VAN 1st S99 and MAL 1st S99. The last trade had a lot of interest around the league, especially, among some experienced GMs, whatever they think I could only say: I do my best to bring the best value in a return. Dragons are my project, and I am into this club with all my heart. While some are heavily discussing how I broke the market with my asks, other guys are doing deals with me getting what they want and giving what I want. Overall, I am fine with the place we are at the standings and with moves I've done so far. Sometimes our game style is something amazing and even top teams can't cope with us. When I got hired, DC had 3 players in roster and two first round picks, original ones, obviously. With one full season and two VHL Entry Drafts after, we have nice prospect pool, it's kind of debatable thing, but I'd say we are one of the best teams when it comes to prospect quality and quantity and I will show you why below.

With 3 first round picks: DC, TOR and MAL, I'd love to pick around 5th, 10th and 14th. Potentially, I am about to add one more first round pick from another contender, but it belongs to S99 so there is small chance it will be top-10.  Who knows. UPDATE: It happened. Bana has finally realised that I could be just more than just his emotional trigger when it comes to market values, but also his trading partner. Theo Allard found his new contending franchise; I've got one more first round pick in my hands. W trade for every side. This season draft is definitely weak, but being in top-6 is a guaranteed top prospect. I am also excited to see a few promising сenters among this class, Gingy and Sidney Sheppard seem to be a missing part of my rebuilding franchise. I am desperately in need of one more high-end forward, preferably center. For sure, I'd take Cardinal Papia without a doubt if we were dead last place. Fortune could be on my side and lottery might give us 1st overall, anyway I am realistic and 5th oa is the pick we deserve to get. From now I'd love to focus on DC rookies outstanding performance, at the moment both Brandon Petan Jr and YNFR are in top-3 rookie points. Moreover, LaClapbomb Hitstick IV has sone significant impact on the ice which is also great and promising news for DCD. Impressive numbers for the guy who was drafted long time ago, in S94. After Konstantyn Shevchenko being traded, there was a question in the air: shall I announce captain or spend upcoming season with him? Finally, decision was made, I announced Petan Jr to be next on and off the ice leader. Sadie is active in the locker room, more than that she is the major reason why S96 draft was so successful for DC. Absolutely well-deserved C patch on jersey. 

 

S96 DC draft picks review
 

As the guy who love to analyze a lot, it was a matter of time when I am able to share some thoughts about my first drafting experience. Today is the day. Spoiler: I did really good! Probably better than I could've imagined. Let's get started: 

3rd overall - Brandon Petan Jr - 654 TPE (3rd in TPE among S96 draft class) - Captain, leading rookie points run. Massively helpful in every aspect of the team, she encourages our prospects be better every week. yes, @dylanjj37 I am looking at you! 

 

22th overall - YOURE NOT FUCKING RETIRING - 568 TPE (7th) - Alternative captain, only one point behind of Sadie on rookies race. Twists was a mystery for me during S96 Entry draft. Looking at one of the most earning prospects being skipped and skipped and skipped.... I knew there was a reason why there was a scepticism up in the air around his player. I wouldn't say that was a risky pick considering I was between 301 tpe YNFR and other 150 tpe-ish prospects, the gap is huge, and pick was pretty obvious for me. For comparison, 7th overall pick of this draft is currently 352 tpe. He is just slightly better than YNFR was at draft ceremony with almost 2 full seasons over. I wish myself more draft picks like twists!! 

 

23th overall - Wefernardo Mackingikus - 264 TPE (inactive) - Well, sometimes you miss. It would not be a lie If I told you that I had more expectations on Vincent. His first gen player was amazing Dragon, won a Victory Cup and then repeated the success with another team. 1250 tpe first gen, active on VHL discord server, what could have gone wrong? Taking him in the second round was also a relief for me 'cause I didn't do a deep scout work with that draft class, so I was pretty sure Wefernardo is the guy I really want to be in my team with no hesitation. He never answered my messages and disappeared from the forum. 

 

26th overall -  Manuel "The Beast" Ceson -304 TPE (3rd in TPE among 2nd rounders) - the reason why I am writing down this part of article. Manuel is 12th (????) player and finally he reached the 300 TPE plateau, so Dylan can be proud of himself. All this time, he has been saving karma, and I suppose next season he will take a deep breath at VHL stadiums. And mark my words, first home game will be sold out as fans desire to see his first steps on the ice in DCD jersey. I have never said to anyone, but Ceson was in my blacklist from day one due to his VHL background for sure. No clue why, but I decided to take a shot, and this move was probably the most brutal shit I've done in my VHL experience. 

 

32nd overall - Steven Nichols - 236 TPE - The last pick of the second round is still active, and I am more than happy with the fact that @SlyDigi finds his time to claim press conferences or other stuff, so he is not just a clicker user. I am waiting for him to be VHL eligible one day as I follow every ups and downs of my prospects and I really cheer for them and Nichols is not an exception. So far, he has got more TPE than 17th overall pick who went inactive pretty much after the VHL draft. 

In conclusion, I can only admit that DC definitely did the best work on this draft taking the max value almost from every pick!

 

Trade deadline

(563 words for theme week)

 

DC Dragons made a lot of moves and coming to trade deadline as one of the brightest futures in the league. Every valuable player that could be moved for future assets was traded and now I only have to raise my prospects, waiting for them to make the roster. There are a few guys I could negotiate around; however, I don't see anyone matching my asks and there are probably there are no solid buyers at the market. Trading every veteran and inactive guys might hurt production of Petan Jr and YNFR, and I don't really want to initially do that. Both guys are almost on pace for point per game and playing around the bots won't help them with contribution.

It would not be exaggeration to say that the most interesting trades took place at the start of the season and now teams peacefully heading to playoffs battle. Malmo shockingly traded every available pick for Lucy Leitner even though next season will be not as cool as present one. Almost everyone will face depreciation \ retirement. And newly hired GM will have to solve this problem during the offseason without moving potential lottery 1st round S100 pick. As I said, Toronto got their star roster player, and we'll see how it works out for them. 

 

This deadline has a potential to become one of the most interesting one for a while. A crazy tight race on NA conference puts 3 teams in vulnerable position where they are not comfortable to get rid of 1st round picks or promising prospects. However, I would be excited to see at least someone from this list of teams: Seattle, Chicago and Toronto to make some bold moves in the near future. Unfortunately, none of them would. NYA has impressive 11W streak and it seems they locked in playoffs spot. Seattle has already done a few moves before we got to TDL, trading their 1st S99, 2nd S99 and Marek Nowaczyk they got Theo Allard, Baby Moo Moo and Rin Kagamine. Theo Allard was one of the best available C options on the market and it was just a matter of time to see his destination. Moo Moo and Kagamine are useful depth pieces for pretty nice price. So, with that being said, I doubt Bana will get use of S100 picks and this is likely his last moves during S97. Talking about Toronto, they have already traded both 1sts for Shevchenko and Legion's prospect pool is not a thing they could rely on in trade negotiations. And we are coming to Chicago, who surprised me with unexpected fall from 3rd to 6th place for a 20 games span. Cole is not the type of GM who does gambling things and If I were him, I would also accept the reality that his roster has its own limit, unfortunately, it is just a 6th place in NA conference. At the moment, the most benefits from current state of positions are going to NYA that have CHI 1st S98 in their hand. And it seems it could be pretty dope pick, considering DCD 1st round pick will likely be negatively affected due to breaking backup goalie rule. We just need to state the fact that we have nothing to do but see how things will go without any trade deadline drama. European Conference is set, and I don't expect any noise from them either. I hope we will see some activity, but it can't be matched with all the hype we have gone through S97 offseason. 


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