Miami's high earners digest

[courtjestr19 66]

You must construct Additional Pylons.

 

Well, this is exactly what I did. As decreed by the disembodied voice on high, Additional Pylons now exists as a defender on the Miami Marauders, entering a playoff race with only slightly more skill than the average bot. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see how it plays out.

 

Looking at the Marauders, we have quite a few top-tier minors players who are the main reason for the success of the team this season (I think—this is very possibly a pretty uninformed take as I'm just getting to know this league!). 

 

The maxed earners on the Miami Marauders at the moment are LW Elf Shoes, LW Filip Zinek, RW Luc Moreau, D Armas Jortikka and G Draw Mac, with C Jacob Longstreet and D Dog Jagr not far behind at 372 and 352 TPA, respectively. As part of me just getting to know our team, I'm going to take a look at each of these guys in a bit more depth.

 

LW Elf Shoes (440 TPE, maxed in the minors) is a first-gen create that began their career in S91 in a brief 12-game stint with Ottawa. After a ho-hum first full season with the Marauders, they really got going in a big way for the Bulls in S93 to the tune of 76 points as a master facilitator. Elf Shoes has taken to more of a scoring role in two of the past three seasons for the Marauders, lighting the lamp 37 times both this year and in S94. Across the board they're an unstoppable offensive force, and Miami can only hope that they get the train going in the playoffs this season. 

 

LW Filip Zinek (420 TPE, maxed in the minors) is another first-gen create that began his career with the Bulls at the beginning of S92. Impressively, Filip broke out in his first season with a 48-point showing in year 1, and has since been a point-plus-per-game force in the minors. Both last campaign and this one have been especially strong, with a combined 160 points over the two seasons with over 70 total goals. The mans wants to score, and has done so in droves. This one-two punch with Elf Shoes, which was only united near the end of this season, is a powerful statement for the Miami offense headed into the S97 postseason. 

 

Adding to the offense on the other side of the rink is RW Luc Moreau (480 TPE, maxed in the minors). Moreau has been a Marauder mainstay for the past three seasons and has seen his point total jump by 20 between last season and the present. As the others so far, Luc has cashed 36 checks and served up another 40 for his teammates this year, and could end up being an important piece of the Prague Phantoms roster as soon as this upcoming season. Prague has to feel good about getting a pretty quality skater and handler headed up through the minors. 

 

I'm going to go out of order here a bit to cover another guy from Luc's cohort and fellow Phantom prospect, first-gen D Dog Jagr (352 TPA). The giant, 16yo Czech defenseman is an expert facilitator (51 assists this season!) and generates more hits than The Beatles out there on the ice (230 this season!). Dog clearly has that dawg in him as well, with the past two seasons checking in around 100 PIM. It certainly looks like Jagr will be an inspiration to A. Pylons as he learns and grows into his own large frame in the VHL.

 

D Armas Jortikka (402 TPE) remains a mainstay in the Marauders defensive rotation. This season, the Finnish blueliner has put himself in the minds of Davos fans by facilitating on a whopping 59 goals scored plus contributing a separate 25. (I'm also noticing while going through this exercise that the Miami numbers on offense are pretty gaudy, lol.) Perhaps even more impressive is 12 PPG, which tells you something about the clamping defense and offensive ability above his crisp passing that delivers when it matters. 

 

Second to last in this listicle is Canadian netminder G Draw Mac (TPA 457, maxed in the minors). A cool 47-14-7 record to go with a sparkling 0.919 SV% and 1.67 GAA is indicative of surreal skill. Some of the crazier stats on Draw's season? Their 13 shutouts are almost as numerous as their RT losses this season. Most wins in the VHLM this season. Only 115 GA in 68 games. Overall, Draw has had a stellar season and merits a long look in the best minors goalie of S97 discussion. Helsinki must be thrilled to see their best goalie prospect standing on his head in the minors; Mac is proving that their 11th overall selection spent on him was well worth it.

 

Now last, but very much not least is the Marauders' highest point-getter this season, C Jacob Longstreet (372 TPA). With a ridiculous 95 points in 71 games, Longstreet's been on fire the whole season. Does it help to have some all-world forwards on the line? Yes. Is that the reason Longstreet has scored 39 goals this season? Probably not, but it certainly helps. What's perhaps the most astounding thing is that although the 95 points is certainly excellent, he once scored a total of 133 points in a season as the primary center for the Saskatoon Wild on 65 goals and 68 assists. To put that goal number into perspective, the Wild have a total of only 124 goals this season. The highest scorer this season, in fact, has 13 fewer goals with one game remaining in the season. What a beast (and at the same time, what a ceiling for him to hit during the playoffs!).

 

Overall, I probably didn't appreciate how dirty the dangles were on Miami when I signed up to join them, but I'm thrilled to have joined up with the team for the playoff run. I certainly hope that Additional Pylons can provide some meaningful defense—if not now, then in the next couple of seasons. Here's to success and a minors championship in S97!

 

Word count: 1026. Using for Jan27-Feb2 and Feb3-Feb9.

[JCarson 817]

Reading this article I get a good sense of how Miami is structured and who they will need to rely on to make a deep playoff push.  Having a new player, especially one so aptly named being part of it should be a fun experience.  I wish Miami luck in the season 97 payoffs, there are a number of good teams out there and well there is Simon, sometimes a strong team structure just doesn't matter when it comes to our Sim engine.

 

I give this article a 9 out of 10/

[courtjestr19 66]

Claim link for Feb. 9 (2/2)