Breaking the 4th Wall: Season 97, VSN and Malmo, Trade Critiques, and Lovstrom for MVP

[LucyXpher 1,986]

Malmo

 

I don't think I've yet experienced a season in the VHL that was as eventful as S97.  In all honesty, as S96 was winding down I was all in on Halifax for S97.  I felt we had an amazing core of players that we had put together through trades and the draft, all of which were building up nicely to make us a strong team in S97.  Then, as the season was nearly over, @KaleebtheMighty stepped down after a decade of seasons in Malmo and I absolutely HAD to apply for that job.  For context, ever since I joined the VHL, Malmo was my favorite team.  The colors, the logo, the city (I also have a soft spot for the Redhawks), but especially the members of the team.  So many of my favorite people early on just happened to play for the Nighthawks and I found myself rooting for that team even before my player had reached the VHL.  People like @AJW, @DarkSpyro, @tcookie, @Komrad, and @scoop all made time for me early on in my VHL journey and all happened to play for the Nighthawks.  As a VHLM GM with only 4 seasons of GM experience at that point, I wasn't truly looking to try and jump up to the VHL for any old team.  I had every intention of sticking with Halifax until we won a Founder's Cup, or until I had put in over 10 seasons there.  There was only one VHL job that would make me change my mind, and truthfully, it opened up much sooner than I expected.  So I applied for Malmo, hoping that I would get it so I wouldn't have to bide my time for another 15+ seasons on Halifax waiting for the newest Malmo GM to step down-- not that that would have been a bad thing!  The VHLM is a super fun league to manage in and I already miss alot of the interactions with brand new first-gen players who are fresh off the boat and eager to learn... but Malmo was the GM job I'd set as my goal from the beginning so I applied, and got the job, which brought with it a whole new set of challenges and intricacies to wrap my head around in a relatively short amount of time.

 

VSN

 

Around the same time, maybe shortly after I got the Malmo job (?), @Pifferfish approached me and asked if I'd be willing to take over as head of VSN.  This was definitely not a job I was looking to take on and I was a little hesitant to say yes with everything else going on.  I like writing, creating, having fun on the forum, but in a lot of ways I've found that VSN is a bit like GMing a team.  There's a lot of behind the scenes managing that goes on there, and I'm happy to say that we have added a bunch of amazing new team members to VSN!  

 

Okay, so I have two observations about how the VSN Head role has affected my VHL experience.

 

1. 10 TPE job pay is great, but it's definitely earned!  Having to manage the VSN schedule, making sure new content is coming out every week, editing articles, staying active in the VSN server, contributing to collaborative projects, and filling in for graphics is a lot of work.  If I'm being completely honest, 10 capped TPE is sometimes not enough.  I've made so many graphics for VSN posts that I can't claim which just fall under my job pay-- except job pay includes everything else involved with VSN, so it's alot of extra work for 2 TPE.  THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT BTW!  I'm not actually asking for more job pay or extra uncapped TPE, I think 10 TPE job pay is fair.  But what I don't love about the VSN job at times is that I have to prioritize it over the fun, low pressure VHL posts that I would like to make.  Sometimes it would be nice to be able to spend my time making a graphic for a teammate instead of "VSN Presents: Season Preview".  It's one thing if you're a contributor and you can pick and choose the VSN posts you want to contribute to, but when you're in charge and get 10 TPE job pay, if nobody else is going to do it, I guess I need to earn my pay.  All that to say, VSN is a ton of fun, but it's alot of work.  SO if you know anyone who is good at graphics and would like to help, please send help!

2. Because of everything above, taking over a new VSN role and being busy making graphics, editing, and planning the schedule, I had to balance all of that with starting out as Malmo GM.  I would never say that my VSN role truly influenced the direction we went with the team because that's simply not the case, but it was one more reason why it made sense to make one last run with the old Malmo core before blowing it up after S97.  For anyone who is not a GM, making trades is super fun, but it can also be a fair bit of work, especially if you're trying to sell players for the best value possible within a small window of time before the market completely dries up.  If you take too long to make your moves, you may not be able to move a player at all, and that can be a problem if your player is about to retire at the end of the season.  

 

Trade Critiques

 

For the record, I'm not actually offended by any critiques certain members have made about my trades-- but that certainly doesn't mean I agree with them.  With managing a team, I think decisiveness and commitment are probably the most important qualities a person can demonstrate.  If the plan for a season is to be all-in to compete, then leave no stone unturned and no money on the table.  If the plan is to rebuild, then waste no time with the teardown.  Where teams run into trouble, I feel, (in the VHL and in real life) is when they get stuck in the mediocre middle, somewhere between a rebuild and contention.  There is absolutely a time to stand pat and stay the course when a team is building up, but when you're at the beginning or end of a competitive cycle, I don't see any reason to be taking half-measures.  

 

So we decided to go all-in for S97.  Having chatted with the players-- 3 of whom were retiring and had been career Nighthawks-- it was clear that the overwhelming feeling was that we should go for it one more time.  There were even players with NTCs who would have used them if we tried to make a move (which would absolutely have been their right) and I had no intention of starting my VHL tenure begging a career Nighthawk to waive their NTC.  That's a battle that's simply not worth having in my opinion.  We were all in for S97 then, which means no half-measures.  The team was missing a top defender since Jacob Stone @scoop had just retired after 9 full seasons with the team, so who better to acquire than my own player who I knew was on the block in Riga.  I knew the player build would serve the team well and that I could very easily decide to trade myself the following offseason with zero pushback if we make the decision to sell and rebuild-- which we did.

 

So we traded an S97 1st and an S98 1st for Lucy Leitner and a 2nd.  The S97 1st became Mikko Tuomala @flyersfan345, who will definitely be a top player, and I'm honestly shocked he fell to 11th OA since he now ranks 5th in the S97 draft class in total TPE.  But here's the thing, what good does that pick do for us while we're trying to compete in S97? Tuomala will just now be making his VHL debut in S98 and it will be at least a few seasons before he's anywhere near my own player for total TPE, and it's not as though my player was old.  We traded for my player who still had two full seasons to play before any depreciation hits, which means trading her later wouldn't be much of an issue if we decided to go that route.  So for anyone saying we "bought" when we should have sold, I would argue that we leveraged inactive assets to make them work for us in the immediate present and in the future.  Trading my own player later for what would become the 1st overall pick in Cardinal Copia @Beketov feels like we broke even at the very least as we begin our rebuild in S98.  

 

And the other trade we made before S97 cleared our cupboard of draft picks-- remember, no half-measures-- to acquire Narnia Shaw @Dabnad, Xhekajs Middletoe @Xhekityb123, Bret Weier @Quanack, and Ty Duke @TheDuke.  The true value we gave up was a S99 1st and two 2nds. The 3rds and 4ths probably won't amount to much if anything and I think that's pretty widely agreed.  Narnia Shaw had an incredible rookie season for Malmo and was a perfect addition to our blue line, spending the entire season playing alongside my player and collecting 52 points.  As an S96 draftee, Shaw ranks 11th in the class in total TPE at 580, and is already almost halfway to their previous player's total TPE of 1120.  I'm very pleased with Shaw alone for a 1st round pick since he helped us compete in S97 and will be a big part of our defense as we begin to rebuild.  On top of that, we picked up one of my favorite members in the VHL.  Since joining Malmo, Xhekajs Middletoe has been THE fastest earning member in the VHL, bar none.  Don't believe me?  Just check the update logs. 

Here are his last 13 weeks of TPE earned since joining Malmo:
29, 25, 26, 29, 33, 26, 8, 24, 16, 6, 16, 17, 18

That's 273 TPE since joining Malmo.  Shut up and take all my 2nd round picks.  

 

On top of that, we acquired Bret Weier, who filled our final forward spot in S97 and did admirably to compete in his rookie season-- and Ty Duke, who will be joining the team this season as a rookie.  And people said at the time that both teams lost... smh.

 

With the trades made prior to S97, Malmo was set up to be a contender and we clinched the Victory Cup by a solid 9 points over 2nd place, and had a goal differential of +119, 25 more than the next best team.  Simon can and will hate Malmo in the playoffs, but we had every opportunity to finally get over the first round hurdle after the best regular season in Malmo franchise history.  No half measures.

 

Following the season, we've decided that now is the time to rebuild as Viktor Jensen @Advantage, RJMW III @RJMW, and Savaisk Tzesar @Komrad all retired as career Nighthawks, with Jensen setting the franchise record for goals, assists, points, and games played-- something that would never have happened if we had traded him before S97.  Maybe that doesn't matter to some people, but to me it's absolutely awesome!

 

Since S97 ended, we've made 11 trades which I won't bother going through now-- that can be saved for next offseason or a later date when the value of the trades is clearer.  We have only one returning player on the S98 Malmo roster and that's Narnia Shaw who is beginning his 2nd season in the VHL.  I also made my first ever VHL draft pick, which I'm proud to say was Cardinal Copia at 1st overall.  New Ghost album coming in April btw, I'm excited for that!

 

For Malmo going forward, the main thing is going to be keeping players earning, active, and motivated to participate in the rebuild as we may not be the best team on paper this season-- by design of course-- but there's no reason we can't have fun, and that's going to be my main priority.  

 

Lovstrom for MVP

 

The VHL Awards happened just recently and while I'd normally abstain from making any public critiques about the winners, I really believe Jorgen Lovstrom @Pifferfish was robbed of the Scotty Campbell Trophy for MVP and there's plenty of recent precedence to back that claim up.  

Here are the last 5 Campbell Trophy winners-- all goalies btw-- compared with the top skater in the league from that season:
S96 Winner: WWW... (NYA) - 37-23-4, 0.929%, 2.47GAA, 6SO, 2228 SA, (NYA finished 7th overall)

Top skater: Spanish Moon Moth 115 points, +15 points more than nearest teammate

S95 Winner: Dalkr Vidarsson (VAN) - 42-18-4, 0.928%, 2.46GAA, 5SO, 2216 SA, (Vancouver finished 5th overall)

Top skater: David Rashford 127 points.  See also Randy Bobandy 113 points, +18 points more than nearest teammate

 

S94 Winner: Lachlan Summers (WAR) - 38-20-6, 0.934%, 2.45GAA, 5SO, 2422 SA, (Warsaw finished 7th overall)

Top skater: Jimi Jaks 131 points.  See also Axle Gunner 106 points, +17 more than nearest teammate.

 

S93 Winner: Lachlan Summers (WAR) - 40-23-2, 0.935%, 2.61GAA, 4SO, 2616 SA, (Warsaw finished 8th overall)

Top skater: Wann Kerr 127 points, +19 points more than nearest teammate

 

S92 Winner: Merome Dilson (CGY) - 40-17-6, 0.935%, 2.3GAA, 6SO, 2252 SA, (Calgary finished 2nd overall)

Top skater: AK92 Wit da Hoodie 108 points, +25 points more than nearest teammate

 

And here is Jorgen Lovstrom's record from S97:

Jorgen Lovstrom (MAL) - 50-12-2, 1.99GAA, 0.934 SV%, 9SO, 1954 SA (Malmo finished 1st overall)

Top scorer: Harry Callahan 115 points, +16 points more than nearest teammate

 

Perhaps somebody with more insight can tell me what I'm missing, but I simply cannot understand how Lovstrom, with a better record and better statistics does not get the MVP nod when the last 5 winners all managed to win the award against skaters with arguably more impressive seasons than Callahan.  WWW... did not even win the Aidan Shaw trophy in S96 as the league's best goalie, I just don't understand it.  Obviously the voting was close, but it seems like an obvious snub based on possible recency bias with Callahan and the Legion surging to a playoff berth after being very mid through the first half of the season.  I could see an argument against Lovstrom having to do with the number of shots he faced compared with the past winners, but his save percentage is better than most of them.  Having fewer shots against typically hurts a goalie's save percentage, and yet he's right there with or above the last 5 winners.  Malmo also allowed the fewest goals in the league by a considerable margin and was not the top offensive team either.  

 

I don't know, explain it to me if I'm missing something, but the past 5 winners and top skater comparisons seem to paint a pretty clear picture as to why Lovstrom should have won the award.  

 

But that's it for my offseason rambling, I can't wait to get started with S98 on Wednesday!

 

 

Edited March 10 by LucyXpher

[flyersfan345 72]

You competed for a Continental Cup and in the process won a Victory Cup and it ultimately came at no cost to the future. I wouldn't say there's any worry about making mistakes on trade value.

[Victor 11,193]

TBH it's the 5 straight goalie MVP seasons which are the mistake rather than 1 season finally wrestling it back for the skaters.

 

But diving in, at least 2 seasons (Jaks and Rashford) didn't have a forward both stand out on his team and in the league like Callahan. Summers dragging Warsaw into the playoffs kicking and screaming was also more impressive than Lovstrom winning another Victory Cup with Malmo.

 

It was very close though and I think 7-6 was a fair reflection of how close it was. They both win it if their performances happened in different seasons.

[Pifferfish 777]

  On 3/10/2025 at 7:22 PM, LucyXpher said:

Malmo

 

I don't think I've yet experienced a season in the VHL that was as eventful as S97.  In all honesty, as S96 was winding down I was all in on Halifax for S97.  I felt we had an amazing core of players that we had put together through trades and the draft, all of which were building up nicely to make us a strong team in S97.  Then, as the season was nearly over, @KaleebtheMighty stepped down after a decade of seasons in Malmo and I absolutely HAD to apply for that job.  For context, ever since I joined the VHL, Malmo was my favorite team.  The colors, the logo, the city (I also have a soft spot for the Redhawks), but especially the members of the team.  So many of my favorite people early on just happened to play for the Nighthawks and I found myself rooting for that team even before my player had reached the VHL.  People like @AJW, @DarkSpyro, @tcookie, @Komrad, and @scoop all made time for me early on in my VHL journey and all happened to play for the Nighthawks.  As a VHLM GM with only 4 seasons of GM experience at that point, I wasn't truly looking to try and jump up to the VHL for any old team.  I had every intention of sticking with Halifax until we won a Founder's Cup, or until I had put in over 10 seasons there.  There was only one VHL job that would make me change my mind, and truthfully, it opened up much sooner than I expected.  So I applied for Malmo, hoping that I would get it so I wouldn't have to bide my time for another 15+ seasons on Halifax waiting for the newest Malmo GM to step down-- not that that would have been a bad thing!  The VHLM is a super fun league to manage in and I already miss alot of the interactions with brand new first-gen players who are fresh off the boat and eager to learn... but Malmo was the GM job I'd set as my goal from the beginning so I applied, and got the job, which brought with it a whole new set of challenges and intricacies to wrap my head around in a relatively short amount of time.

 

VSN

 

Around the same time, maybe shortly after I got the Malmo job (?), @Pifferfish approached me and asked if I'd be willing to take over as head of VSN.  This was definitely not a job I was looking to take on and I was a little hesitant to say yes with everything else going on.  I like writing, creating, having fun on the forum, but in a lot of ways I've found that VSN is a bit like GMing a team.  There's a lot of behind the scenes managing that goes on there, and I'm happy to say that we have added a bunch of amazing new team members to VSN!  

 

Okay, so I have two observations about how the VSN Head role has affected my VHL experience.

 

1. 10 TPE job pay is great, but it's definitely earned!  Having to manage the VSN schedule, making sure new content is coming out every week, editing articles, staying active in the VSN server, contributing to collaborative projects, and filling in for graphics is a lot of work.  If I'm being completely honest, 10 capped TPE is sometimes not enough.  I've made so many graphics for VSN posts that I can't claim which just fall under my job pay-- except job pay includes everything else involved with VSN, so it's alot of extra work for 2 TPE.  THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT BTW!  I'm not actually asking for more job pay or extra uncapped TPE, I think 10 TPE job pay is fair.  But what I don't love about the VSN job at times is that I have to prioritize it over the fun, low pressure VHL posts that I would like to make.  Sometimes it would be nice to be able to spend my time making a graphic for a teammate instead of "VSN Presents: Season Preview".  It's one thing if you're a contributor and you can pick and choose the VSN posts you want to contribute to, but when you're in charge and get 10 TPE job pay, if nobody else is going to do it, I guess I need to earn my pay.  All that to say, VSN is a ton of fun, but it's alot of work.  SO if you know anyone who is good at graphics and would like to help, please send help!

2. Because of everything above, taking over a new VSN role and being busy making graphics, editing, and planning the schedule, I had to balance all of that with starting out as Malmo GM.  I would never say that my VSN role truly influenced the direction we went with the team because that's simply not the case, but it was one more reason why it made sense to make one last run with the old Malmo core before blowing it up after S97.  For anyone who is not a GM, making trades is super fun, but it can also be a fair bit of work, especially if you're trying to sell players for the best value possible within a small window of time before the market completely dries up.  If you take too long to make your moves, you may not be able to move a player at all, and that can be a problem if your player is about to retire at the end of the season.  

 

Trade Critiques

 

For the record, I'm not actually offended by any critiques certain members have made about my trades-- but that certainly doesn't mean I agree with them.  With managing a team, I think decisiveness and commitment are probably the most important qualities a person can demonstrate.  If the plan for a season is to be all-in to compete, then leave no stone unturned and no money on the table.  If the plan is to rebuild, then waste no time with the teardown.  Where teams run into trouble, I feel, (in the VHL and in real life) is when they get stuck in the mediocre middle, somewhere between a rebuild and contention.  There is absolutely a time to stand pat and stay the course when a team is building up, but when you're at the beginning or end of a competitive cycle, I don't see any reason to be taking half-measures.  

 

So we decided to go all-in for S97.  Having chatted with the players-- 3 of whom were retiring and had been career Nighthawks-- it was clear that the overwhelming feeling was that we should go for it one more time.  There were even players with NTCs who would have used them if we tried to make a move (which would absolutely have been their right) and I had no intention of starting my VHL tenure begging a career Nighthawk to waive their NTC.  That's a battle that's simply not worth having in my opinion.  We were all in for S97 then, which means no half-measures.  The team was missing a top defender since Jacob Stone @scoop had just retired after 9 full seasons with the team, so who better to acquire than my own player who I knew was on the block in Riga.  I knew the player build would serve the team well and that I could very easily decide to trade myself the following offseason with zero pushback if we make the decision to sell and rebuild-- which we did.

 

So we traded an S97 1st and an S98 1st for Lucy Leitner and a 2nd.  The S97 1st became Mikko Tuomala @flyersfan345, who will definitely be a top player, and I'm honestly shocked he fell to 11th OA since he now ranks 5th in the S97 draft class in total TPE.  But here's the thing, what good does that pick do for us while we're trying to compete in S97? Tuomala will just now be making his VHL debut in S98 and it will be at least a few seasons before he's anywhere near my own player for total TPE, and it's not as though my player was old.  We traded for my player who still had two full seasons to play before any depreciation hits, which means trading her later wouldn't be much of an issue if we decided to go that route.  So for anyone saying we "bought" when we should have sold, I would argue that we leveraged inactive assets to make them work for us in the immediate present and in the future.  Trading my own player later for what would become the 1st overall pick in Cardinal Copia @Beketov feels like we broke even at the very least as we begin our rebuild in S98.  

 

And the other trade we made before S97 cleared our cupboard of draft picks-- remember, no half-measures-- to acquire Narnia Shaw @Dabnad, Xhekajs Middletoe @Xhekityb123, Bret Weier @Quanack, and Ty Duke @TheDuke.  The true value we gave up was a S99 1st and two 2nds. The 3rds and 4ths probably won't amount to much if anything and I think that's pretty widely agreed.  Narnia Shaw had an incredible rookie season for Malmo and was a perfect addition to our blue line, spending the entire season playing alongside my player and collecting 52 points.  As an S96 draftee, Shaw ranks 11th in the class in total TPE at 580, and is already almost halfway to their previous player's total TPE of 1120.  I'm very pleased with Shaw alone for a 1st round pick since he helped us compete in S97 and will be a big part of our defense as we begin to rebuild.  On top of that, we picked up one of my favorite members in the VHL.  Since joining Malmo, Xhekajs Middletoe has been THE fastest earning member in the VHL, bar none.  Don't believe me?  Just check the update logs. 

Here are his last 13 weeks of TPE earned since joining Malmo:
29, 25, 26, 29, 33, 26, 8, 24, 16, 6, 16, 17, 18

That's 273 TPE since joining Malmo.  Shut up and take all my 2nd round picks.  

 

On top of that, we acquired Bret Weier, who filled our final forward spot in S97 and did admirably to compete in his rookie season-- and Ty Duke, who will be joining the team this season as a rookie.  And people said at the time that both teams lost... smh.

 

With the trades made prior to S97, Malmo was set up to be a contender and we clinched the Victory Cup by a solid 9 points over 2nd place, and had a goal differential of +119, 25 more than the next best team.  Simon can and will hate Malmo in the playoffs, but we had every opportunity to finally get over the first round hurdle after the best regular season in Malmo franchise history.  No half measures.

 

Following the season, we've decided that now is the time to rebuild as Viktor Jensen @Advantage, RJMW III @RJMW, and Savaisk Tzesar @Komrad all retired as career Nighthawks, with Jensen setting the franchise record for goals, assists, points, and games played-- something that would never have happened if we had traded him before S97.  Maybe that doesn't matter to some people, but to me it's absolutely awesome!

 

Since S97 ended, we've made 11 trades which I won't bother going through now-- that can be saved for next offseason or a later date when the value of the trades is clearer.  We have only one returning player on the S98 Malmo roster and that's Narnia Shaw who is beginning his 2nd season in the VHL.  I also made my first ever VHL draft pick, which I'm proud to say was Cardinal Copia at 1st overall.  New Ghost album coming in April btw, I'm excited for that!

 

For Malmo going forward, the main thing is going to be keeping players earning, active, and motivated to participate in the rebuild as we may not be the best team on paper this season-- by design of course-- but there's no reason we can't have fun, and that's going to be my main priority.  

 

Lovstrom for MVP

 

The VHL Awards happened just recently and while I'd normally abstain from making any public critiques about the winners, I really believe Jorgen Lovstrom @Pifferfish was robbed of the Scotty Campbell Trophy for MVP and there's plenty of recent precedence to back that claim up.  

Here are the last 5 Campbell Trophy winners-- all goalies btw-- compared with the top skater in the league from that season:
S96 Winner: WWW... (NYA) - 37-23-4, 0.929%, 2.47GAA, 6SO, 2228 SA, (NYA finished 7th overall)

Top skater: Spanish Moon Moth 115 points, +15 points more than nearest teammate

S95 Winner: Dalkr Vidarsson (VAN) - 42-18-4, 0.928%, 2.46GAA, 5SO, 2216 SA, (Vancouver finished 5th overall)

Top skater: David Rashford 127 points.  See also Randy Bobandy 113 points, +18 points more than nearest teammate

 

S94 Winner: Lachlan Summers (WAR) - 38-20-6, 0.934%, 2.45GAA, 5SO, 2422 SA, (Warsaw finished 7th overall)

Top skater: Jimi Jaks 131 points

 

S93 Winner: Lachlan Summers (WAR) - 40-23-2, 0.935%, 2.61GAA, 4SO, 2616 SA, (Warsaw finished 8th overall)

Top skater: Wann Kerr 127 points, +19 points more than nearest teammate

 

S92 Winner: Merome Dilson (CGY) - 40-17-6, 0.935%, 2.3GAA, 6SO, 2252 SA, (Calgary finished 2nd overall)

Top skater: AK92 Wit da Hoodie 108 points, +25 points more than nearest teammate

 

And here is Jorgen Lovstrom's record from S97:

Jorgen Lovstrom (MAL) - 50-12-2, 1.99GAA, 0.934 SV%, 9SO, 1954 SA (Malmo finished 1st overall)

Top scorer: Harry Callahan 115 points, +16 points more than nearest teammate

 

Perhaps somebody with more insight can tell me what I'm missing, but I simply cannot understand how Lovstrom, with a better record and better statistics does not get the MVP nod when the last 5 winners all managed to win the award against skaters with arguably more impressive seasons than Callahan.  WWW... did not even win the Aidan Shaw trophy in S96 as the league's best goalie, I just don't understand it.  Obviously the voting was close, but it seems like an obvious snub based on possible recency bias with Callahan and the Legion surging to a playoff berth after being very mid through the first half of the season.  I could see an argument against Lovstrom having to do with the number of shots he faced compared with the past winners, but his save percentage is better than most of them.  Having fewer shots against typically hurts a goalie's save percentage, and yet he's right there with or above the last 5 winners.  Malmo also allowed the fewest goals in the league by a considerable margin and was not the top offensive team either.  

 

I don't know, explain it to me if I'm missing something, but the past 5 winners and top skater comparisons seem to paint a pretty clear picture as to why Lovstrom should have won the award.  

 

But that's it for my offseason rambling, I can't wait to get started with S98 on Wednesday!

 

 

Expand  

Also, I put up those numbers compared to the other .930+ goalies AFTER they nerfed goalies a bit with the sliders. So...

[Pifferfish 777]

  On 3/10/2025 at 8:12 PM, Victor said:

TBH it's the 5 straight goalie MVP seasons which are the mistake rather than 1 season finally wrestling it back for the skaters.

 

But diving in, at least 2 seasons (Jaks and Rashford) didn't have a forward both stand out on his team and in the league like Callahan. Summers dragging Warsaw into the playoffs kicking and screaming was also more impressive than Lovstrom winning another Victory Cup with Malmo.

 

It was very close though and I think 7-6 was a fair reflection of how close it was. They both win it if their performances happened in different seasons.

Expand  

I do take issue with 1 thing that I've heard a couple of times though, people keep telling me "Callahan did more to get his team in the playoffs" which 1. Sounds like me playing in the EU impacted things bc the conference had a far weaker 5 seed than the NA and 2. Implies that bc of Malmo's offense was generally good, Løvstrøm was less impressive. On that 2nd point, let's actually dive into the numbers for a moment and look at the REAL reason Toronto made the playoffs.

 

Dalkr Vidarsson and his team, were 8th in Shots Against. Still not terrible as it is top half of the league but the team overall was 3rd in goals against. Compared to being 5th in goals for. These numbers tell me personally, the largest impact on Toronto's success was their goaltender. I think people acting like Callahan was on a team devoid of other talent is fucking stupid. And I personally think, Dalkr was the Legion's MVP based on the numbers I just laid out. Even if you don't, his case is at the least competitive with Callahan's. Who was Malmo's other MVP candidate? Who else on that team did anything remotely deserving of MVP consideration? That's my larger issue. A player on a team with a CLEAR MVP and overall better team outcome with the stats to back it up vs one with a less clear contention and worse team results.

[Pifferfish 777]

  On 3/10/2025 at 8:12 PM, Victor said:

TBH it's the 5 straight goalie MVP seasons which are the mistake rather than 1 season finally wrestling it back for the skaters.

 

But diving in, at least 2 seasons (Jaks and Rashford) didn't have a forward both stand out on his team and in the league like Callahan. Summers dragging Warsaw into the playoffs kicking and screaming was also more impressive than Lovstrom winning another Victory Cup with Malmo.

 

It was very close though and I think 7-6 was a fair reflection of how close it was. They both win it if their performances happened in different seasons.

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And from my perspective, it fucking sucks that I genuinely feel like I got punished for the BOG picking kind of mediocre goalie seasons for the MVP in the past couple of runs. If y'all want to internally be like, hey we need to better evaluate how we judge skaters compared to goalies, that's one thing. But don't drag me down and justify it with nonsense. The precedent was made well before my season, and it was shattered and that feels personal. Even if it wasn't.

[Victor 11,193]

  On 3/10/2025 at 8:38 PM, Pifferfish said:

And from my perspective, it fucking sucks that I genuinely feel like I got punished for the BOG picking kind of mediocre goalie seasons for the MVP in the past couple of runs. If y'all want to internally be like, hey we need to better evaluate how we judge skaters compared to goalies, that's one thing. But don't drag me down and justify it with nonsense. The precedent was made well before my season, and it was shattered and that feels personal. Even if it wasn't.

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Well the important thing is you're taking it well

[LucyXpher 1,986]

  On 3/10/2025 at 8:12 PM, Victor said:

TBH it's the 5 straight goalie MVP seasons which are the mistake rather than 1 season finally wrestling it back for the skaters.

 

But diving in, at least 2 seasons (Jaks and Rashford) didn't have a forward both stand out on his team and in the league like Callahan. Summers dragging Warsaw into the playoffs kicking and screaming was also more impressive than Lovstrom winning another Victory Cup with Malmo.

 

It was very close though and I think 7-6 was a fair reflection of how close it was. They both win it if their performances happened in different seasons.

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Yeah, I understand that maybe the skaters need a little more love, but of all the seasons, I'm not sure this was the one to break the trend just for the sake of it.  I think there were examples of skaters who were arguably more valueable to their team over the past five seasons compared with goalies who put up weaker numbers who still won the Campbell.  

I take your point about Jaks and Rashford, but Bobandy and Gunner in 95 and 94 both helped their teams to the playoffs with greater point gaps to their next closest teammates than Callahan to Machado.  I won't argue with the Summers wins, but the precedence is still there and it seems harsh to see a goalie with a far better record than the last 5 winners miss out.  

Also, looking at the voting from the past 5 winners, the only one that was even remotely close was WWW... in S96, which would make sense because he never even won the Shaw.  The rest were all overwhelmingly given to the goalies.  Crazy to me that this would be the season it changes...

[RJMW 150]

Xhekajs supremacy

[Rin 225]

  On 3/10/2025 at 7:22 PM, LucyXpher said:

If I'm being completely honest, 10 capped TPE is sometimes not enough.

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  On 3/10/2025 at 7:22 PM, LucyXpher said:

But what I don't love about the VSN job at times is that I have to prioritize it over the fun, low pressure VHL posts that I would like to make.

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TBH, this is the open secret about taking jobs in the VHL. The amount of work required for some roles absolutely dwarfs that of someone that just casually posts articles and graphics for their weekly 12, for no added benefit other than a few "thank-yous" from the few people that give enough of a shit about forum content to read it. I ended up burning out and resenting the fact that I wanted to put in work or effort on a lot of things that people didn't really care about or latch on to.

 

The truth is, if you want to do something with your VHL content, you can just do it. IMO, there isn't any reason at all to sacrifice PT freedom for a little extra job pay, just center your media spots/graphics/.coms around whatever projects you want to push or encourage in the league. The "ask 3/answer 3" press conference thread we have up is kind of a hilarious example of that; apparently there were pitches to make that an acceptable form of PT when, in reality, the rules of press conferences already allowed us to do that in the first place. Thus, the thread was started and PCs got so much easier to manage.

 

At this point I'm on a bit of a tangent, so I'll reel myself back in to basically voice that your thoughts are both heard and shared 100%. If it gets to a point where you stop having fun, don't be afraid to just drop it and get back to doing something you enjoy. It gets very easy to turn the VHL into a second job, and when it started to get to that point for me, I started resenting it until I eventually lashed out against it. This is supposed to be a fun hobby/creative outlet at the end of the day, and it's much more fun when it stays that way.

 

  On 3/10/2025 at 7:22 PM, LucyXpher said:

For the record, I'm not actually offended by any critiques certain members have made about my trades-- but that certainly doesn't mean I agree with them.  With managing a team, I think decisiveness and commitment are probably the most important qualities a person can demonstrate.  If the plan for a season is to be all-in to compete, then leave no stone unturned and no money on the table.  If the plan is to rebuild, then waste no time with the teardown.  Where teams run into trouble, I feel, (in the VHL and in real life) is when they get stuck in the mediocre middle, somewhere between a rebuild and contention.  There is absolutely a time to stand pat and stay the course when a team is building up, but when you're at the beginning or end of a competitive cycle, I don't see any reason to be taking half-measures.  

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Don't ever feel the need to justify yourself when it comes to GM handlings. The armchair GM-ing and commentary can get to be a lot, it's exhausting. If you're working to do right by your team and are, above all, keeping a fun environment going, then genuinely who cares.

[Spartan 4,729]

  On 3/10/2025 at 7:22 PM, LucyXpher said:

Jorgen Lovstrom (MAL) - 50-12-2, 1.99GAA, 0.934 SV%, 9SO, 1954 SA (Malmo finished 1st overall)

Top scorer: Harry Callahan 115 points, +16 points more than nearest teammate

 

Perhaps somebody with more insight can tell me what I'm missing, but I simply cannot understand how Lovstrom, with a better record and better statistics does not get the MVP nod when the last 5 winners all managed to win the award against skaters with arguably more impressive seasons than Callahan.

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You guys had 7 skaters with 80+ points, there wasn't really a "remove this piece and the team is shit" for your team. You could have run a rookie goalie and probably still been top 2/3 in the EU.

 

  On 3/10/2025 at 9:21 PM, LucyXpher said:

I take your point about Jaks and Rashford, but Bobandy and Gunner in 95 and 94 both helped their teams to the playoffs with greater point gaps to their next closest teammates than Callahan to Machado.  I won't argue with the Summers wins, but the precedence is still there and it seems harsh to see a goalie with a far better record than the last 5 winners miss out.  

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Gunner lost to Summers in 94 which you say is fine.

 

Bobandy in S95 had a big gap yes, but Lovstrom was just as strong for Malmo that season and we (I use it loosely, because I was also the one crossing off nominees who had a teammate perform equally as well in the discussion thread) generally don't nominate players who have a similarly strong MVP teammate candidate. If both Bobandy and Lovstrom were exceptional in S95, neither ended up on the ballot. I was also the first one to scratch off Rashford and Ruutu in S95 for the same reason.

 

Callahan was pretty much the dominating force for Toronto without a good supporting cast beyond Machado (who apparently he didn't even play with for most of the season per someone's contribution to the BOG discussion) and Vidarsson's numbers were not great enough to be considered a fellow MVP candidate. Maybe some people could have argued for it, but it wasn't there. It was a tight vote in the end with the 7-6 and was the most discussed player award.

[rory 2,003]

 WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW got robbed in s92 so stop yapping about MVP it's a popularity vote with numbers

[Spartan 4,729]

  On 3/10/2025 at 10:19 PM, rory said:

 WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW got robbed in s92 so stop yapping about MVP it's a popularity vote with numbers

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v popular amongst the same voters in s96 huh

[rory 2,003]

  On 3/10/2025 at 10:27 PM, Spartan said:

v popular amongst the same voters in s96 huh

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u guys voted for some mid forward for roty over the top GAA goaler that drug the americans to the playoffs and had to make it up to me in s96.

[LucyXpher 1,986]

  On 3/10/2025 at 10:16 PM, Spartan said:

Callahan was pretty much the dominating force for Toronto without a good supporting cast beyond Machado (who apparently he didn't even play with for most of the season per someone's contribution to the BOG discussion) and Vidarsson's numbers were not great enough to be considered a fellow MVP candidate. Maybe some people could have argued for it, but it wasn't there. It was a tight vote in the end with the 7-6 and was the most discussed player award.

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I think one of my main points of disagreement is that one of the most prestigious awards in the league is restricted to players who aren't on a top team.  Like okay, without Lovstrom does Malmo still make the playoffs?  Sure, but I doubt we win the Victory Cup by 9 points and have the lowest GA in the league, not to mention 3 separate winning streaks over 12 games.  Some of the most valuable players are on the top teams, why should star players on mid teams be prioritized for the award?  That's the logic that got Taylor Hall the Hart Trophy and it's kinda goofy.  It just becomes an award for the best player on a mid team then. 

[Big_Dyl 238]

great read, was really interesting to see the VHL from a different perspective

[Alex 3,333]

Honestly for me it just came down to that IF Malmo had a league average goalie they are still very much a top 2 team in the EU last season, GAA is a weird stat since it's very much a team stat, and while Lovstrom did have a spectacular season, they really weren't the main reason for Malmo's success given that they did have the 3rd most goals in the league. Whereas, Toronto was carried into the playoffs by Callahan and he was without a doubt the main reason for Toronto's success.

[Spartan 4,729]

  On 3/10/2025 at 11:35 PM, LucyXpher said:

I think one of my main points of disagreement is that one of the most prestigious awards in the league is restricted to players who aren't on a top team.  Like okay, without Lovstrom does Malmo still make the playoffs?  Sure, but I doubt we win the Victory Cup by 9 points and have the lowest GA in the league, not to mention 3 separate winning streaks over 12 games.  Some of the most valuable players are on the top teams, why should star players on mid teams be prioritized for the award?  That's the logic that got Taylor Hall the Hart Trophy and it's kinda goofy.  It just becomes an award for the best player on a mid team then. 

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I mean if we followed your logic, a Moscow player would win it a lot more just because they're a top 3 player on the best regular season team. I wouldn't complain, but that's not really what the most valuable player entails. The best player will be recognized in the Slobo, the community vote. Star players on mid teams win sometimes because they've carried that mid team to a spot the team wouldn't have been in otherwise. We could have dropped one of our max cap players each season and still made playoffs, that's why Moscow players don't win it. If someone on Moscow wins, it's because they put up a performance that's considered carrying a team. Lovstrom didn't carry Malmo, he had a team of superstars in front of him as shown by the offensive strength of Malmo and the amount of balanced scoring across the roster that I mentioned before.

 

It's also fairly well documented in league history that best player =/= MVP - I remembered Moscow being dominant in S76 and checked the MVP winner. Lahtinen tied for 1st with 121 points with 61 goals and lost to Andrew Su on Vancouver who also had 121 with just 47 goals but didn't have two other teammates above 100 points. MVP is just not Best Player, and given that Lovstrom won individual awards in other categories, he got his recognition. I don't know why there's so much focus on MVP specifically when the vote was close and Callahan had a phenomenal case for this season as well.

[Pifferfish 777]

  On 3/10/2025 at 10:16 PM, Spartan said:

 

Callahan was pretty much the dominating force for Toronto without a good supporting cast beyond Machado (who apparently he didn't even play with for most of the season per someone's contribution to the BOG discussion) and Vidarsson's numbers were not great enough to be considered a fellow MVP candidate. Maybe some people could have argued for it, but it wasn't there. It was a tight vote in the end with the 7-6 and was the most discussed player award.

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So we are just ignoring the tangible team stats that show Vidarsson had a crippling disadvantage with a mid defense corps in front of him and still produced the 3rd best defensive team in the league and was easily the 2nd or 3rd best goalie in the league. He would be clearly an MVP candidate and potential Shaw winner without Jørgen existing last season. Like the stats are the stats, Callahan had MVP caliber support in net, period. You can choose to ignore that to justify things but it is a FACT. His team's defense was more valuable to their success than their offense as a whole. 

[Pifferfish 777]

  On 3/11/2025 at 12:15 AM, Spartan said:

. I don't know why there's so much focus on MVP specifically when the vote was close and Callahan had a phenomenal case for this season as well.

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Bc the MVP is the most important award in the league and being 2nd doesn't really mean shit bc it isn't tracked anywhere. I could have lost by 13 votes and still feel the same bc it isn't a win. 

[Spartan 4,729]

  On 3/11/2025 at 12:26 AM, Pifferfish said:

crippling disadvantage with a mid defense corps

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I don't know what you're quantifying this with, but using the only stat I can see TOR had 661 SBs and MAL had 662.

 

  On 3/11/2025 at 12:28 AM, Pifferfish said:

Bc the MVP is the most important award in the league and being 2nd doesn't really mean shit bc it isn't tracked anywhere. I could have lost by 13 votes and still feel the same bc it isn't a win. 

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Alright well you just don't agree with my personal rationale which is fine, but 6 others apparently agreed with me too and voted for Callahan.

[Pifferfish 777]

  On 3/11/2025 at 12:33 AM, Spartan said:

I don't know what you're quantifying this with, but using the only stat I can see TOR had 661 SBs and MAL had 662.

 

Alright well you just don't agree with my personal rationale which is fine, but 6 others apparently agreed with me too and voted for Callahan.

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They gave up the 8th most shots in the league and only had the 3rd most goals against. Pretty simple line of logic says that that is an indicator of strong goaltending. Then I'm simply quantifying that defense mattered more to them winning based on them having the league wide 3rd best GA and only 5th GF. 5th GA despite being 3rd in shots for as well. Compare that to Malmo where their strongest unit was defense. And normally I wouldn't bring up Toronto's goaltending to tear down Callahan but it literally was the exact argument used against Løvstrøm by no less than 3 people I've talked to. "Malmo's offense is a factor" then why is the incredibly strong goaltending of Toronto not a factor. People seem to forget how Malmo was perceived BEFORE S97, 3rd best in the EU. Like 5-6 in the league. We outperformed expectations and Toronto met them.

[v.2 1,460]

This is more controversial than Beyoncé winning album of the year for her country album.

[LucyXpher 1,986]

  On 3/11/2025 at 12:15 AM, Spartan said:

It's also fairly well documented in league history that best player =/= MVP - I remembered Moscow being dominant in S76 and checked the MVP winner. Lahtinen tied for 1st with 121 points with 61 goals and lost to Andrew Su on Vancouver who also had 121 with just 47 goals but didn't have two other teammates above 100 points. MVP is just not Best Player, and given that Lovstrom won individual awards in other categories, he got his recognition. I don't know why there's so much focus on MVP specifically when the vote was close and Callahan had a phenomenal case for this season as well.

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I'm not saying it should be the "best player award", but it seems like from the case you've been making alot of very valuable players are excluded from contention because there are other valuable players on their team.  So it really comes down to how a team is constructed then and less about how well a player performs.  Just because a team has multiple valuable players shouldn't mean one of them can't be deemed the MOST valuable in the league.  If it's Moscow players every season then great, I don't care, though it probably wouldn't be since it was only S95 that a Moscow player led the league.  Callahan won the scoring race by 1 point, Lovstrom won the goaltending race by a mile-- he was in a category of his own among other goalies-- and Malmo still didn't have any players breaking the 100 point threshold.  Malmo's highest scorer had as many points as Machado, and yet Callahan didn't have any help? Strange logic if you ask me. 

Besides all that, the precedent was well set and completely ignored.  Lovstrom outperformed basically every goalie that won the award in the past 5 seasons, while Callahan would barely have been top 5 in some of those seasons.  To say nothing of the fact that through the first half of S97 Toronto was barely in a playoff spot and Callahan was nowhere near the top of the points leaderboard.  I guess consistency means very little and recency bias is strong.  

[Pifferfish 777]

  On 3/11/2025 at 1:06 AM, v.2 said:

This is more controversial than Beyoncé winning album of the year for her country album.

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That's also controversial, put Beyonce to pasture just like we did Callahan, both well past their prime...