Theme Week Rambling

[Alex 3,279]

We’re just going to ramble a bit for theme week this season, largely because the trade deadline was just an absolute dud. With only 1 trade during the week, and only 5 trades occurring over the course of the season the market has been terrible. This is largely due to a few reasons in my opinion; 1) rebuilding teams just not having assets to trade, 2) the asking price for players is way too high for what you’re getting, and 3) The North American Conference just being too tight for the odd man out to sell.

 

Coming up to the deadline the “rebuilding” teams really didn’t have too many pieces to move, with none of the teams really having a player that could drastically improve a team. This could be solved in the future by simply lowering the salary cap, while typically players don’t want to be on losing teams, it would make create more parity and very well could result in a more competitive playoff race. To share some numbers, when the salary cap was raised (first to 42 mil, then 44 mil) the average team salary was $38 mil, currently it is $33 mil, there literally isn’t a reason not to lower it. This would give both rebuilding teams assets to move towards the trade deadline if they are well out of the playoff race and could actually create a more competitive league as a whole.

 

Throughout my trade talks I expressed interest in a few players, and for the most part the asking price for players was just way too high, you would have to be insane to pay a 1st round pick for an inactive player that is below 550 TPA. I’ll never fault a GM for getting as much as they can for a player. However, I just don’t get not budging from a ask that is too high for a player that has next to no value and will not help you get out of a rebuild.

 

Lastly, as of writing this Chicago is currently the odd one out of the playoffs but given that the gap is only 4 points and they have won 4 straight, I completely get not selling in that position. I was fairly surprised to see Toronto not commit to a rebuild as this was essentially their last chance to get as much as possible, especially given that they are currently a good step back from the top teams in the conference and half their forward core is set to retire following this season.

 

Since we’re still few words shy of 500, I might as well talk about the one trade we did make on the deadline, as Davos acquired UghSike for a 3rd round pick. The main purpose of this trade for Davos is to essentially have a player that can fill in gaps if a player gets put in the box or gets kicked out of the game, it also makes the most of our remaining cap space which was a added bonus.

[LucyXpher 1,638]

12 hours ago, Alex said:

Coming up to the deadline the “rebuilding” teams really didn’t have too many pieces to move, with none of the teams really having a player that could drastically improve a team. This could be solved in the future by simply lowering the salary cap, while typically players don’t want to be on losing teams, it would make create more parity and very well could result in a more competitive playoff race. To share some numbers, when the salary cap was raised (first to 42 mil, then 44 mil) the average team salary was $38 mil, currently it is $33 mil, there literally isn’t a reason not to lower it. This would give both rebuilding teams assets to move towards the trade deadline if they are well out of the playoff race and could actually create a more competitive league as a whole.

I definitely agree with this!  I've seen some people talking about how trades didn't happen because there was no cap room to work with for contenders, but lowering the cap would create more parity-- as you said-- and would give more teams a reason to make a move.  It would also likely give more value to mid to low TPE players, which is good for their engagement and for potential trading.  The gap between the top teams and the tanking teams is too wide right now imo.

[Pifferfish 656]

3 hours ago, LucyXpher said:

I definitely agree with this!  I've seen some people talking about how trades didn't happen because there was no cap room to work with for contenders, but lowering the cap would create more parity-- as you said-- and would give more teams a reason to make a move.  It would also likely give more value to mid to low TPE players, which is good for their engagement and for potential trading.  The gap between the top teams and the tanking teams is too wide right now imo.

Teams would need to take advantage of that 50% discount to round out rosters and squeeze value yeah. Also, plenty of contenders had cap room, that's a total myth. Like Vancouver and Moscow were the tightest teams but they had room to add still. As far as other teams, Chicago had the space to add a $5.5m player if they were willing to send back one of their lower end guys. Riga had $3m in space ready if Toronto had be willing to toss them a Callahan or something. Just that's the rub, you had 1 team with good assets to move and actively want to trade for, and that team wasn't selling. Is what it is. (Great for us in Malmo since we don't have the assets to buy rn so that's fantastic for us) 

[LucyXpher 1,638]

6 hours ago, Pifferfish said:

Teams would need to take advantage of that 50% discount to round out rosters and squeeze value yeah. Also, plenty of contenders had cap room, that's a total myth. Like Vancouver and Moscow were the tightest teams but they had room to add still. As far as other teams, Chicago had the space to add a $5.5m player if they were willing to send back one of their lower end guys. Riga had $3m in space ready if Toronto had be willing to toss them a Callahan or something. Just that's the rub, you had 1 team with good assets to move and actively want to trade for, and that team wasn't selling. Is what it is. (Great for us in Malmo since we don't have the assets to buy rn so that's fantastic for us) 

For sure, I’m not saying cap is the reason the deadline was dead lol, it’s probably more of a separate issue though somewhat related, but there is a bit of parity lacking in the VHL right now 

[Spartan 4,589]

7 hours ago, Pifferfish said:

Like Vancouver and Moscow were the tightest teams but they had room to add still

I'll make sure not to leave 300k in space next time to make the most of our cap lol

[JCarson 772]

Rambling articles can be fun reads.  It is even more fun when the ramblings come from someone on the inside who has at least some perspective on what happened.  The article is well written but only provides a little insight, wish you would have went a little deeper on trade talks and how bad some of the return offers were.  Is there a link between the value for players and the salary cap.  If the salary cap goes down will the required payments go down as well.  Would be interesting to see.  And based on the note below, I am in full agreement, Spartan just needs to manage Moscow's remaining cap better.

 

I give this article a 8 out of 10

[Alex 3,279]

1 hour ago, JCarson said:

Spartan just needs to manage Moscow's remaining cap better.

I mean he did tell my player he would be open to a bonus that was never received... #DeadpandaFA