End of One Season, Start of the Next for Toronto

[der meister 3,403]

With the regular season having come to a close, the Toronto Legion find themselves at the top of the North American standings and a single point behind the Moscow Menace for the league's best point total. The outcome of S98's regular season is probably a surprise to most pundits, as the Legion don't have the most experienced roster or necessarily most talented roster. Center Raimo Tuominen, who had 94 points in 72 games, winger Konstyantyn Shevchenko, who notched 81 points for third best on the team, and defenseman Andrew Skilton, who finished second in Legion scoring with 87 points, are Toronto's only skaters above the 1,000 TPE mark. Skilton leads the way with 1190. Compare that to Moscow, who has left winger Maverick Gonclaves with 1,404 TPE, center Jarmo Ruutu with 1,218 TPE, center Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage with 1,198 TPE, and defender Jillian Woods with 1,249 TPE, and it becomes a bit of a struggle to discern how these two teams are separated by a single point in the standings.

 

In terms of league leaders, Tuominen finished tied for 5th in goals with 46, 7 behind the league leader in Moscow's Gonclaves. Tuominen was also tied for 5th in total points with 94, 12 behind Gonclaves and his teammate, Jarmo Ruutu. Skilton was 2nd in the league in assists with 70, and finished 4th in defensive scoring, just 4 points behind the league leader, HC Davos Dynamo's Mina. Toronto winger Toby Kadachi had an outstanding season, leading the entire VHL in hits with 330, which significantly outpaced the 2nd place Erik Thorvaldsson of the Prague Phantoms, who ended with 291 hits. Kadachi fell just short of a point per game pace, ending with 69 points in 72 games, also spent a good bit of time in the Sin Bin, serving 152 minutes in penalties, good for a tie for 7th most in the VHL with Conference Prince-de-Galles of the Helsinki Titans.

 

Skilton and fellow defenseman DB IV both ended the season with 13 power play goals, which were tops for Toronto and tied for 4th league-wide. Skilton also finished tied for 1st in shorthanded goals with a pair.

 

The good news for Toronto is that the majority of their roster is slated to return next season, with Tuominen and depth defender Walter Fitzroy Jr as the only players who are retiring or not under contract. Kadachi, Shevchenko, Skilton, DV IV, defender Gul Dukat, winger Dorji Khan, goaltender Dalkr Vidarsson, and center Spanish Moon Moth will all be seeing significant decreases in their annual salaries starting next season, which means that the Legion will not only be able to bring back the majority of one of the league's best teams, but have an enormous amount of cap space available to fill in any holes via free agency. In fact, as of the time of this article, they only have 15 million committed for next season on a cap of 44 million, so 29 million available with slots for one forward and one defenseman due to the aforementioned retirements of Tuominen and Fitzroy Jr.

 

If you're a fan of the Toronto Legion, you'd obviously be pulling for them to go all the way once the playoffs start up in the coming days. And, at the risk of putting the proverbial cart before the horse, it's hard not to be excited about the possibilities heading into next season, as well.

 

There's going to be some serious parties on Bloor if the Legion go deep into the postseason