Why are the Prague Phantoms struggling?

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

Why are the Prague Phantoms struggling?

 

Disclaimer: I will be looking at builds and moves in the off-season. I want to start this by saying I am not trying to trigger people and piss them off. I already know this is going to probably cause an absolute banger thread, as people will come to defend Prague. I'm just going to be stating why they are bad while also showing some specific areas on the team. This is all in good fun and forum content and I'm not trying to hate on anyone. Thanks.

 

Forwards

 

First up, we have the forward core. Realistically, this core isn't anything amazing, but it isn't terrible to begin with. On paper, they've got two game changers in Stefano and Thorvaldsson who should be able to carry the offense, but the rest of the forward core is basically mid. However, that's not the biggest issue. It's the builds. First off, Jussi Jokinenegg has a brutal build with points in basically everything and also being a pass first type of player. I think pass first players can actually work on teams if there's only like one of them, as linking up your best scorer with a pass first player is not a bad idea, however, this is false for this team. They've got multiple pass first players, including Jokinenegg. I don't really want to rip into this guy too much as I'd feel bad, but he needs to get a re-roll and Tetricide needs to help him with his build. He's got so many points in useless categories that just waste his TPE. Shocker that this player hasn't really done too much offensively and is underperforming. As for the rest of the offense, there are some questionable build decision making but I'm not going to call out builds that could be slightly better. Tetricide's player needs more scoring so he can help offensively as his team is essentially pass first demons. He would have a legacy season if he did so. The shining light on this team is Matteo Stefano who is a first gen that has been exceptional for this team. He's got 34 goals already and could possibly get 40 by the season end, but it's just crazy that a first gen who is new is essentially carrying this team on offense. The rest of the team is too low TPE to really matter and sure their builds could be optimized, but it doesn't really matter too much. The main takeaway is the top players need to be the ones generating offense and when you've got subpar builds, it's going to trickle down all the way to the bottom of the lineup. In reference, here is Jokinenegg's build so you can see what I was talking about earlier:

 

 

Just get him his re-roll when you can and it'll fix that issue right away!

 

Defenseman

 

Alright, this is the part of the roster that needs saving. The goaltending is not good, the offense has questionable builds but at least they have Matteo Stefano popping off, however, the defense is basically abysmal. I'm not going to talk about OD or Acyd as their builds are good for their TPE and they aren't the issues. I'll start with Petit Hughie who decided to have a pass first build on defense. Again, not the worst, but now that's two players with pass first builds and that's already a fair amount for a team to have, especially since your offense doesn't really have a pure goal scorer besides Matteo Stefano (shocker he's having a career year basically). We basically have chefs who are willing to cook up the food, but no customers as the goal scorers are MIA. Hughie has 86 PAS 70 SC which basically makes him pure passing. Again, alone not bad, but in numbers very bad. So alright, we've got two pass first players and no real scorer, surely it's not too bad right? Two pass first players can't be awful, I'm sure teams have done it before? How about 3. Now we go to Leitner and this is where things are going to be spicy. So Leitner ended up trading her own player from Malmo (the team she owns) to Prague. I'm sure there friends so all is good, here is the trade below and take note of the date:

 

 

All seems good, we're not judging the value on the trade or anything, just showing you Lucy Leitner went from Malmo to Prague. It seems Lucy bought the re-roll on Feb 10, 2025, don't know when specifically it was approved then or later on, but it says approved so I guess it might've been that date. 9 days later, she's traded which is fine, but the build wasn't set up yet, so she was sitting at 0 TPA for her player. Then about a week after getting traded, she finally rolls her build and it seems decent at first (February 25). I understand why she re-rolled, she had too many points in leadership (I assume this is why) and wanted to spend it elsewhere, alright, makes sense. However, then about 2-3 weeks later, she randomly tosses like 70 TPE into passing and nuclear bombs her build with already two pass first players on the team, with one of them already on defense. Why would you do this? You just basically screwed your entire build and your team by giving them now three pass first players, while also having your best player be AGAIN PASSING. Sorry for my language, but who the hell is going to score goals for this team!? We have a million passers but nobody wants to put the puck in the net. Our best player(s) are legit passing demons and refuse to put the puck in the net. Why would Lucy decide to take her build from scoring at the time where she was having a great career to then just 180 flip it to passing. It's not like she's going to gain anything out of this either, I mean Malmo has Pragues S99 2nd, but there's really no use in trying to bomb a team for a 2nd round pick. I am just very confused at this, maybe she didn't look at the team and their builds, or maybe she just wanted to go full passing and try something different? However, why would you do this after getting traded to a different team, while (hopefully) realizing you already have pass first players and you need shooters on this team. Regardless, I'm sure we'll hear about it down below as I'm curious to see from her point of view why she did this. It's very interesting that after getting traded and a month we randomly decide to pass first and screw our build and the team either further. Who knows why?

 

Also if you're wondering how I know dates, I have an unknown source allegedly.

 

Goalies

 

Last up, we have goaltending. Prague has some pretty subpar goaltending to be honest. They've got a 671 TPA started and a 470 TPA backup, which the backup is basically irrelevant as it's only going to play the minimum amount of games. I won't be focusing on the backup, instead on the starter. They have the fourth worst starting goalie based off of TPA in the league. The only teams that are worse are London, Malmo, and Warsaw, where two of these teams are legit trying to be bad, while London with a lower TPA goaltender is ahead of them. Looking at sv%, they rank 25th out of 33 goalies who have played in the VHL this season (this includes bots and backups). Not the place you really want to be as some backups and bots literally have better stats. Their GAA is fairly decent, with right being around the average (slightly above it), but still, not the worst I guess. Also, Redzic (who is Tetricide's friend in his defense) has already played more than the minimum amount of backup starts with 10 games started. If you're chasing a playoff spot and wanting to make it in, what's the point of playing your worse goalie extra games and screwing yourself over. I could understand if he accidently left Redzic in and the file just carried over the starter (in this case Redzic), but if you're chasing the playoffs while already being behind, you should be looking out for these things. Like I said, in Tet's defense, it is his friend so he might just be wanting to give his friend an extra couple starts as it is his last season anyway. Regardless, it's very clear that Prague's goaltending is NOT good. It probably just needs to be average and it can't really do that and that really hinders this team. On paper, Prague is much better than London and London's goalie is worse TPA wise, but they're ahead, which is not a good sign. Prague can still make it into the post-season, but they're gonna need some miracle streak and Simon to bless them for that to happen, which seems very unlikely at this point. The good news is that Prague has an off-season to fix all this, but they've got to get something going. I guess this is payback for making the playoffs last season with 20 wins!

 

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, this team is underperforming for a multitude of reasons. Their goalies are subpar and can't hang around the league average, they lack multiple goal scorers, with their only being Stefano, and half this team is pass first basically, with bad builds. Their best players aren't goal scorers (Lucy + Tet's player) as one is pass first and the other looks like a two way forward type of build. They literally have no one who can score goals and couple that with bad goaltending, this team was doomed to fail. I'd love to hear the thought process behind this and I can't wait for @LucyXpher and @Tetricide to chime in as I'm sure they will. I hope this will create some forum content because with all the new people coming in, I'm sure they'd love to see some!

 

Guess I'm the villain this time around, huh? Btw here's the team's builds with the pass first player's circled:

 

 

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

also like around 1700 words or something

[Spartan 4,797]

[Spartan 4,797]

Beyond the builds, and even before the Leitner trade, this feels like a prime reference/correlation to @Victor's article about teams moving too slowly or too quickly to get into/out of a rebuild. Without Leitner as an S93, your core are S94's in Thorvaldsson and Stefano at F with 4 seasons left, Daffleck and Sandstrom as 97/96's, an S95 capped goalie as a prospect with almost 500 TPE now, and you keep your 1oa pick which probably would have been Copia anyways. Did they really need to rush into contending?

 

Personally, if I thought holding off was going to tank the S94's careers, I'd just trade them away for a haul now (last offseason) before they start depreciating and some teams wanting those higher end talents that have the years to spare. LDN, LA, DCD, RIG all would have been buyers in my eyes. Rushing into contending with only 2 quality forwards and a 600 TPA goalie feels like the recipe for disaster.

[jacobcarson877 2,662]

One too many passers can ruin a team unless they have a Jesse Teno. A tale as old as time.

[dstevensonjr 567]

Hell of an analysis!

[Grape 886]

Legitimate grounds for an investigation in my opinion, but im just a pot-stirrer and I'll let higher powers look into it

[Victor 11,241]

1 hour ago, badcolethetitan said:

Disclaimer: I will be looking at builds and moves in the off-season. I want to start this by saying I am not trying to trigger people and piss them off. I already know this is going to probably cause an absolute banger thread, as people will come to defend Prague. I'm just going to be stating why they are bad while also showing some specific areas on the team. This is all in good fun and forum content and I'm not trying to hate on anyone. Thanks

Boring

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

2 minutes ago, Victor said:

Boring

 

Trust me I have strong thoughts about lots on the league, but if I were to voice my true opinion I think I'd become public enemy #1 and probably eat a suspension/ban.

[Victor 11,241]

Just now, badcolethetitan said:

 

Trust me I have strong thoughts about lots on the league, but if I were to voice my true opinion I think I'd become public enemy #1 and probably eat a suspension/ban.

You can't get suspended for saying people are bad at their job. 

 

But you are probably wise to hold those thoughts to yourself as a rival GM.

[Spartan 4,797]

1 hour ago, Grape said:

Legitimate grounds for an investigation in my opinion, but im just a pot-stirrer and I'll let higher powers look into it

I think if MAL had received 99 PRG 1 (idk what trade Prague moved it in, but it wasn't to MAL) and then that reroll happened, could do it sure. But if Tet and Lucy were on the same page about it then there's not much to do about it. I don't think there's a conflict of interest between Lucy and Prague given Malmo isn't competing with Prague at the moment anyways.

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

2 minutes ago, Victor said:

You can't get suspended for saying people are bad at their job. 

 

But you are probably wise to hold those thoughts to yourself as a rival GM.

 

Idk, I was going to post something about calling out GMs a while back but I was told not to post it because I could get in trouble for it.

[Acydburn 1,672]

2 hours ago, badcolethetitan said:

as people will come to defend Prague

 

 

@Tetricide @diamond_ace  Let's ride!

 

lol jk @badcolethetitan

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

6 minutes ago, Acydburn said:

 

 

@Tetricide @diamond_ace  Let's ride!

 

lol jk @badcolethetitan

 

THE MORE THE MERRIER

 

[LucyXpher 2,005]

3 hours ago, badcolethetitan said:

All seems good, we're not judging the value on the trade or anything, just showing you Lucy Leitner went from Malmo to Prague. It seems Lucy bought the re-roll on Feb 10, 2025, don't know when specifically it was approved then or later on, but it says approved so I guess it might've been that date. 9 days later, she's traded which is fine, but the build wasn't set up yet, so she was sitting at 0 TPA for her player. Then about a week after getting traded, she finally rolls her build and it seems decent at first (February 25). I understand why she re-rolled, she had too many points in leadership (I assume this is why) and wanted to spend it elsewhere, alright, makes sense. However, then about 2-3 weeks later, she randomly tosses like 70 TPE into passing and nuclear bombs her build with already two pass first players on the team, with one of them already on defense. Why would you do this? You just basically screwed your entire build and your team by giving them now three pass first players, while also having your best player be AGAIN PASSING. Sorry for my language, but who the hell is going to score goals for this team!? We have a million passers but nobody wants to put the puck in the net. Our best player(s) are legit passing demons and refuse to put the puck in the net. Why would Lucy decide to take her build from scoring at the time where she was having a great career to then just 180 flip it to passing. It's not like she's going to gain anything out of this either, I mean Malmo has Pragues S99 2nd, but there's really no use in trying to bomb a team for a 2nd round pick. I am just very confused at this, maybe she didn't look at the team and their builds, or maybe she just wanted to go full passing and try something different? However, why would you do this after getting traded to a different team, while (hopefully) realizing you already have pass first players and you need shooters on this team. Regardless, I'm sure we'll hear about it down below as I'm curious to see from her point of view why she did this. It's very interesting that after getting traded and a month we randomly decide to pass first and screw our build and the team either further. Who knows why?

So for full disclosure, I had a chat with Prague managment before the season about my build plan and everybody was good with it and offered feedback to get it tweaked to where it ended up being-- including starting the season without the 70 TPE in passing and then potentially adding it later depending on how things went.  Safe to say, we didn't start the season on fire so I added the the 70 TPE to passing hoping that might help a bit.  The focus of the build was on the the three core stats of DF, PH, and SK, wanting to get them as high as possible, while also making the build possible to maintain throughout my last 4 full seasons.  I'm not sure if another player in the league right now has higher combined attributes between those three categories so that was the main experiment. 

Passing is simply just more TPE efficient than SC.  If I had invested those 70 TPE into scoring attributes, I wouldn't even crack 80 SC-- which isn't bad, but also not great, and certainly not high enough to be considered a top SC option.  You're probably right though that we need more scorers, though the way I kinda saw it, somebody else who is still earlier in their career with points to earn and spend can fill that void-- especially since most people tend to go the SC route over PA anyway.  This season has definitely been catastrophic for the team, and it hasn't been great for my player either.  I want nothing but success for Prague and my player and there is no way in hell I would try and tank the season for a better 2nd round pick lol-- though I know you weren't seriously suggesting that.  Anyway, maybe somebody else can reroll this offseason to balance out builds since that does seem to be an issue right now as you pointed out, or maybe the team makes some further trades to figure that out.  I'm still confident my build can be great, but I'm realizing that it might not be a build that works offensively without some real scorers on the team.

 

To be perfectly honest though, I don't think the main issue is that we have 3 players that are pass first so much as it is that we lack scorers.  I think any top team needs both and I decided to fill the PA role with my reroll trying to prioritize DF, PH, and SK while planning for depreciation. I mean look at Helsinki right now who are at the top of the league with the best goal differential of +64: 

 

Three things make this team work imo:
1. Great DF across their players

2. Good balance of high end passers and scorers

3. Lovstrom being a great goaltender

 

It's no shock that they're good, but they have more committed passers than Prague with those ratings being higher-- the difference is also having scoring to compliment that which Prague lacks right now.  I do think the lack of balance between PA and SC is a problem right now, but I can't own that personally.  What I do think is a more glaring issue is the lack of DF that the team has on average.  At the top end, we have a handful of strong DF players, but the depth is very lacking compared to a team like Helsinki also.  This, along with goaltending that just isn't fully developed yet results in the league worst PK% right now at 76%.  No amount of SC vs. PA is going to fix that number, that's a DF and goaltending issue-- and some bad luck honestly.

 

In what universe should Prague, even with the current roster, have 9 more PK goals against (60) than my other team, Malmo (51).  Note also that Malmo also has 578 pims to Prague's 577.  What gives lol?  Regardless of the build balance, Prague should not be in the same conversation as teams like Malmo, Chicago, and Warsaw this season-- and yet we are.  I really think it has more to do with bad luck-- or perhaps bad momentum with a really tough schedule to start the season which quickly spiralled into an awful losing record.  I feel like resimming this entire season multiple times, this result might be an outlier.  Note also that Prague ranks 13th in PP attempts.  That hurts.  And yet the PP% of 15.49 is in the same ballpark as teams like Vancouver, Calgary, LA, and New York.  I think the lack of PP attempts and dismal PK actually account for most of Prague's losing this season.  A few more PP goals for and a PK that's 5% better could make a huge difference in close games-- but that's still not really a PA vs SC issue as far as I can tell if the PP is near league average. 

 

Final point, it's interesting that all but 4 players on the Prague roster have a positive +/- rating:

 

 

And even then, those minus players are not completely getting caved at -5 and -6 at worst.  Funny also that one is Pan Daffleck who, by all accounts, has a great build with a strong DF rating of 90, and an offensive bias of 80 SC - 63 PA.  Seems to me this is the build you think we need more of, though apparently that translates to the lowest +/- on the team?  Very strange, I really don't understand it.  Anyway, it's weird that the team comes out at a -20 goal differential when the team average is +4.7 (check my math, but that seems right lol).  Also, pat on the back me for a +12 

 

Conclusion: Maybe we could use some more scoring, but that's not why Prague is bottom 4 in the league.  Lack of depth DF, goaltending that isn't fully developed, and bad luck (especially with special teams) is where I'd say we have the biggest issues.
 

Edited Thursday at 09:32 PM by LucyXpher

[Spartan 4,797]

4 minutes ago, LucyXpher said:

Conclusion: Maybe we could use some more scoring, but that's not why Prague is bottom 4 in the league.  Lack of depth DF, goaltending that isn't fully developed, and bad luck (especially with special teams) is where I'd say we have the biggest issues. Fire the GM bring out the pitchforks for @Tetricide

 

[LucyXpher 2,005]

2 minutes ago, Spartan said:

 

plz no lol, I like Tet

[Spartan 4,797]

Just now, LucyXpher said:

plz no lol, I like Tet

[Tetricide 774]

Cool. Two hit pieces against Prague. I must be doing something right for all this attention. Can't wait for the group chat with the Blues!

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

I can’t quote everything because I’m on mobile but Jokinegg playing on a line with Codoller and Daffleck (2nd line/2nd pairing) I’d assume they’re going to have the worst plus minus as one/two bad builds can’t really save someone with a good build. Also most second lines have bad +/-. Pretty sure almost every L2 has worse +/- than L1 on any team. @LucyXpher

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

2 minutes ago, Tetricide said:

Cool. Two hit pieces against Prague. I must be doing something right for all this attention. Can't wait for the group chat with the Blues!

don’t worry you can’t be fired for being bad, or lots of GMs would’ve been canned. You’re not bad anyway, there’s worse (MEEEEE).

[LucyXpher 2,005]

5 minutes ago, badcolethetitan said:

I can’t quote everything because I’m on mobile but Jokinegg playing on a line with Codoller and Daffleck (2nd line/2nd pairing) I’d assume they’re going to have the worst plus minus as one/two bad builds can’t really save someone with a good build. Also most second lines have bad +/-. Pretty sure almost every L2 has worse +/- than L1 on any team. @LucyXpher

Prague lines have been shuffling all season so Daffleck is definitely not only a L2 player.  Currently he's on L1 so... And Stefano is on L2 right now... not sure that holds up.  Seems to me good players on L2 seem to score more on average so actually L2 +/- would tend to be better for top players unless they literally have no help.  Anyway, it's only +/- and very unreliable and circumstatial so I'm not stuck on it, but still weird.

 

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

Also (last one) but if you’re arguing the “depth DF” sucks isn’t that just the same thing as me saying “and the builds suck”? Feel like that’s the same thing as I assume you’re saying the depth DF (defense attribute) is bad. Maybe I’m wrong though. @LucyXpher

[badcolethetitan 1,024]

1 minute ago, LucyXpher said:

Prague lines have been shuffling all season so Daffleck is definitely not only a L2 player.  Currently he's on L1 so... And Stefano is on L2 right now... not sure that holds up.  Seems to me good players on L2 seem to score more on average so actually L2 +/- would tend to be better for top players unless they literally have no help.  Anyway, it's only +/- and very unreliable and circumstatial so I'm not stuck on it, but still weird.

 

Idk if Stefano has much help offensively, but there’s players who can help defensively (Tetricide) and or pass to set him up. Seems like he’s the only one scoring. The rest of the Shooting % (for the most part) seem low.

 

Also on another note: Isn’t swapping lines a lot usually not a good idea? Or is that just what GMs who are IA say?

[Nykonax 1,643]

28 minutes ago, LucyXpher said:

Passing is simply just more TPE efficient than SC

There's a reason for that.... not that I would know.

 

28 minutes ago, LucyXpher said:

I mean look at Helsinki right now who are at the top of the league with the best goal differential of +64: 

what's Helsinki's lines rn. I'd bet that it's Rave-Ironhide-Kemp, Lamb-Anyone. If it's not then @McLovin should get on that