If The BOG Isn't Asking Questions Like "Is Mitchell Osborne The Best Player In The VHL Portal?" Then What Purpose Does It Serve?

[MubbleFubbles 1,307]

Previous Entries

 

Matthew Kai, Elfon Ashelf and Ian Smith

Jack Todaro and Haydyn

Chet Foreals and barry bigman

Dirty Caufield

Greg Santos

Majestic Buffalo

Dawson Thibert

Ches Morrison

Kiefer Leclerc

John Smith

Danny dimes

Evgeni Shevkov

Titomir Pukshuuter

Laser Brewer

George Patton

Calix Pearce

Cameron Elsby

Whiskey Malone and Nicholas Corrigan

Blake Bill

Ryker Quinn

 

Current Leaderboard

1: Matthew Kai

2: Calix Pearce

3: Cameron Elsby

4: Evgeni Shevkov

5: George Patton

6: barry bigman

7: Greg Santos

8: Elfon Ashelf

9: Kiefer Leclerc

10: Blake Bill

11: Nicholas Corrigan

12: Whiskey Malone

13: Chet Foreals

14: Dirty Caufield

15: John Smith

16: Majestic Buffalo

17: Jack Todaro

18: Titomir Pukshuuter

19: Ryker Quinn

20: Ches Morrison

21: Ian Smith

22: Danny dimes

23: Dawson Thibert

24. Haydyn

25. Laser Brewer

 

I was there thinking that my Best and Worst Draft Picks of the Season 80’s podcast series was my most inconsistently timed series that I’ve ever done and then I remembered I’ve waited just over two whole years to get back to ranking the remaining 5000 players in the VHL Portal. So I need to make up for lost time here and, I don’t mean to spoil stuff early, but Matthew Kai may well have faced their strongest challenge yet for the title of “Best Player in the VHL Portal”.

 

We kick things off with Jon Webber, who is managed by a user (webberj) who is still active to this day with his current goalie Jon Webber III. I don’t think I need to tell you what his second player was called. But I will. It was Jon Webber II.  Webber was a very late entry into the Season 75 Draft, joining the Houston Bulls with only 26 games remaining in Season 74 as the team were the only one to offer for him and offered a highly convincing opening speech of “So I'll be 100% honest with you. The team is not great and that is mostly on me.” Entering the stacked Season 75 Draft coming off the back of a solid 11 points in 26 games, Webber was drafted with the 63rd overall pick by the Helsinki Titans in the VHL Draft, but selected far higher in the VHLM Draft, going 45th overall and back once more to the Houston Bulls. Jon Webber had a couple of good solid seasons in the VHLM post-draft alongside his brother Paul, with Jon leading his team in points in Season 75 and playing a big part in Houston’s Founder Cup push of Season 76, where they fell just one game short of success after losing the Final series 4-3 to Mexico City. 

 

Just as they were on the cusp of joining the Titans for the start of the season, they were traded to the Toronto Legion, they were traded to the Toronto Legion for a couple of thirds, a trade perhaps more notable for being amended after having already been accepted by both parties as it also originally included Asher Reinhart moving to the Titans for a first round selection. While one could look at their 64 points over their first 144 games as a slow start, it’s worth pointing out Webber was limited to just 11 minutes per game in their first season and fifteen minutes per game in their second season, so their points per 20 was actually amongst the highest on their team. Their rookie season was also Webber’s lone experience of playoff hockey, but they made a mark early, sending the first game of their series against Seattle to overtime with a late tying goal that ultimately led to a Toronto victory. Unfortunately Toronto wouldn’t progress through the series, but Webber would be satisfied at their contribution in limited minutes. 

 

At the conclusion of Season 78, Webber’s contract expired and he left in Free Agency to his third and final VHL team in the New York Americans. While they weren’t able to help New York get into the playoffs in any of those four seasons, they will be happy with their contributions to the team, namely in their penultimate season (Season 81), where they finished 26th in the league in points and broke the 100 point barrier. 

 

Webber is also by far the highest TPE earner we’ve seen to date in this series with 777 TPE, leading the nearest challenger (Calix Pearce) by over 200 TPE. But is that enough to best Matthew Kai as the Best Player in the VHL Portal? While Webber’s stats later on in their career were undoubtedly boosted by the meta-era (and their build followed suit) which would naturally lead Webber to look more impressive on paper than Kai, I think it would be fair to say Webber was more impactful for their respective team than Kai was, therefore I now dub Jon Webber THE BEST PLAYER IN THE VHL PORTAL!

 

New Leaderboard

1: Jon Webber

2: Matthew Kai

3: Calix Pearce

4: Cameron Elsby

5: Evgeni Shevkov

6: George Patton

7: barry bigman

8: Greg Santos

9: Elfon Ashelf

10: Kiefer Leclerc

11: Blake Bill

12: Nicholas Corrigan

13: Whiskey Malone

14: Chet Foreals

15: Dirty Caufield

16: John Smith

17: Majestic Buffalo

18: Jack Todaro

19: Titomir Pukshuuter

20: Ryker Quinn

21: Ches Morrison

22: Ian Smith

23: Danny dimes

24: Dawson Thibert

25. Haydyn

26. Laser Brewer

 

After that bombshell of a discovery, we now move on to discuss the respective merits of Pasta’s Joshua Herron and whether they are in fact the Best Player in the VHL Portal. They are not.

 

Like Webber previously, Herron joined very close to the end of the Season 85 Draft Class window and were snapped up by Z16’s Ottawa Lynx promising second line minutes for the last half of the season, however three days later they were moved to the Mississauga Hounds. Liking the posts in that trade thread would be the last actions of Pasta in the VHL and, while they kicked off their career strongly with over a point per game in their six games with Ottawa, reduced ice time in Mississauga and a lack of progression saw Herron finish his only VHLM season with 17 points in 40 games, along with 2 points in a very surprising 4-1 playoff series loss against Herron’s first team, despite the Lynx finishing the season 48 points behind Mississauga in the standings. Herron’s inactivity didn’t stop Riga from drafting them in the middle of the 4th round of the Season 85 Draft, but as expected (given the lowest drafted player to make the VHL in that draft went twenty picks earlier) the pick did not pan out to anything successful.

 

Herron’s earning history was short but interesting as they earned 12 uncapped through Practice Facility, First Generation purchase and even submitted a Junior Review, but didn’t earn a single capped TPE. They also were a keen tester of the hybrid attributes, adding at least one TPE to EVERY SINGLE HYBRID ATTRIBUTE. With it being so long since the last episode, this means I’m going to have to track back and think about just how good Joshua Herron is compared with the rest of the players on the portal. I think that it would be fair to say that Herron’s longevity puts them ahead of Kiefer Leclerc, but simultaneously below former best player in the VHL Portal Elfon Ashelf, therefore I dub Joshua Herron as the Tenth Best Player In The VHL Portal.

 

New Leaderboard

1: Jon Webber

2: Matthew Kai

3: Calix Pearce

4: Cameron Elsby

5: Evgeni Shevkov

6: George Patton

7: barry bigman

8: Greg Santos

9: Elfon Ashelf

10: Joshua Herron

11: Kiefer Leclerc

12: Blake Bill

13: Nicholas Corrigan

14: Whiskey Malone

15: Chet Foreals

16: Dirty Caufield

17: John Smith

18: Majestic Buffalo

19: Jack Todaro

20: Titomir Pukshuuter

21: Ryker Quinn

22: Ches Morrison

23: Ian Smith

24: Danny dimes

25: Dawson Thibert

26. Haydyn

27. Laser Brewer

 

And now it’s time to move on to the nastiest of boys, OzNasty’s Mitchell Osborne. Osborne joined the league late on Sunday March 21st 2021 and gave a 32 hour wait before committing to the Yukon Rush for Season 77 on the guarantee of first-line minutes. The thread did make me chuckle as RJ described his roster as “pretty bear”. That day break did mean that Osborne missed the first few games of the season, but they played prominent minutes for the Rush in their 69 games with the team, even though a mid-season trade for fellow defenseman Inunnguaq Kiak cost Osborne their spot on the first line. A very defensive defenseman, Osborne had their defense attribute at 72 with no other attribute breaking 50 and that defensive focus showed up in the number of shots that Osborne blocked, falling just four shot blocks short of breaking the top 10 for the VHLM in Season 77. However despite this defensive focus, they were still able to contribute to a degree offensively with 34 points in 69 games. While Osborne wasn’t able to earn capped TPE in their first week, they went on to claim welfare in their first four weeks along with a couple of press conference submissions, enough to get them to 82 TPE. However, April 10th 2021 was their last visit to the site and that inactivity led to Mitchell Osborne going undrafted in both VHL and VHLM Drafts. 

 

I know we just crowned Joshua Herron as the tenth best player in the VHL Portal, but I think we’re going to have to change that already as, despite Herron going above and beyond with the Junior Review, I think Osborne’s earning vastly outweighs Herron’s therefore I’m now dubbing Mitchell Osborne as the Tenth Best Player In The VHL Portal. 

 

New Leaderboard

1: Jon Webber

2: Matthew Kai

3: Calix Pearce

4: Cameron Elsby

5: Evgeni Shevkov

6: George Patton

7: barry bigman

8: Greg Santos

9: Elfon Ashelf

10: Mitchell Osborne

11: Joshua Herron

12: Kiefer Leclerc

13: Blake Bill

14: Nicholas Corrigan

15: Whiskey Malone

16: Chet Foreals

17: Dirty Caufield

18: John Smith

19: Majestic Buffalo

20: Jack Todaro

21: Titomir Pukshuuter

22: Ryker Quinn

23: Ches Morrison

24: Ian Smith

25: Danny dimes

26: Dawson Thibert

27. Haydyn

28. Laser Brewer

 

Next Time: Duncan Montana, Hugh Mungus and Chase Keller

Edited Wednesday at 10:27 PM by MubbleFubbles