Claimed:Looking back At The Season 35 Draft Class(Part One) [Final 6/6]

[Tagger 2,722]

Looking back At The Season 35 Draft Class(Part One)

 

With Season 42 coming to an end, we are set to bid farewell to the final player selected in the Season 35 VHL Draft to still be playing in the VHL, Tony Stark. With his retirement, we will bid farewell to the last draft class to have been determined on the old VHL.com site before a DDOS attack on their systems forced the VHL to move their website to a different host. While the key information about the draft and the trades that involved the picks have since been recovered, a lot of the chatter around the draft has been deemed unrecoverable. Therefore, my attempt with this article is to bring those who were not present on the old site up to speed with the decisions made in and around the Season 35 Draft along with detailing the careers of the players selected.

 

First Pick – HC Davos Selects Lennox Moher - Goalie

 

With a new General Manager comes a new approach, and that’s exactly what Victor Alfredsson brought to Davos when he replaced David Knight as General Manager of HC Davos Dynamo in Season 34. Taking charge of a roster mainly filled with players reaching the ends of their careers, Alfredsson opted to trade the vast majority of his older talent in order to acquire younger talent through the Season 35 and Season 36 Drafts. As a result of trading away their older talents, which included now Hall of Famers David Smalling and Phil Rafter, the Dynamo would end up finishing with the worst overall record in Season 34. Entering the subsequent lottery, Davos had a 50% chance of winning the lottery having also acquired the Seattle Bears Season 35 first round selection. As it turned out though, they ended up winning the lottery with their own selection anyway.

 

While this draft had quite talents with a lot of pre-draft hype around them, none of them had hype that came anywhere close to that of Lennox Moher. Heading into the draft, Moher had already registered a ridiculous 294 training hours, an amount of effort that had previously been completely unheard of. If you were to go back just four or five seasons, players who were selected with the first overall selection were barely getting even half of the amount of training hours that Moher had put up. With the Dynamo having traded their starting goalie from Season 34 (Rock Star) in the off-season, this was a perfect slot for Moher to slide right into. There was talk that the Dynamo were considering skipping on Moher with their first overall pick so they could collect him at fourth overall, as both Helsinki and Vasteras already had a franchise goaltender in their system. How serious these suggestions were I don’t know, but with the Titans General Manager Mitch Higgins declaring they would take Moher if he was available, they were quickly dismissed and Moher ended up being selected with the first overall selection.

 

Like most goalies that enter the VHL, Moher had to deal with the steep learning curve that comes with playing the position. Unlike most rookies that jump straight into a starting position however, Moher found himself surrounded with enough talent to help him out with his early shortcomings and, the season after recording the worst record in the league, HC Davos Dynamo found themselves straight back in the playoffs. Just one season later, the Dynamo and Moher were Continental Cup winners after beating the Toronto Legion in a seven game series. Despite some strong individual performances by Moher, more of the success of the team came down to the offensive production of new acquisitions Davey Jones and Odin Tordahl. In fact it wasn’t until the Season 38 Playoffs where Moher came into his own and showed the world why he was picked with the first overall selection, as he not only picked up his second Continental Cup victory but also picked up the Daisuke Kanou trophy for being the Playoff MVP. From this playoff series onwards, Moher’s performances during the regular season would only get better, putting up his best performances in Season 40 (his final season) where he recorded the 14^th best save percentage in a season, which ultimately led him to his only Aidan Shaw Award and even saw himself put on the ballot for Most Outstanding Player.

 

Ultimately, Moher’s career lasted only six seasons after the HC Davos Dynamo’s new general manager (Jack Reilly) decided to use his franchise player privileges on Season 42 prospect Freedom McJustice after the team decided to start rebuilding in Season 40.  Moher ended his career in the top 20 in all-time save percentage along with ranking in the top 10 in goals against average and shutouts. Ending his career with an impressive 812 practice hours over a six season career, Moher made the all-star game on four different occasions and, while he may not necessarily have a lot of personal awards to his name, he was a hugely important part of the Dynamo’s success in the latter half of the VHL’s third decade.

 

Second Pick – Helsinki Selects Naomi Young – Center (Pick Acquired From Toronto)

 

If you, for whatever reason, needed more evidence of Mitch Higgins’ prowess in the General Manager position, here it is. In the same season that he managed to pick up a Continental Cup, he also managed to pick up the second overall pick in the draft. The trade in question saw the Titans give up Smooth Jive and some irrelevant draft picks to the Legion in exchange for future Hall of Famer Odin Tordahl and this second pick in the draft. While Tordahl had an unquestionably better career than Jive, both players only played two seasons on the teams they were traded to, and in truth over those two seasons, the edge performance wise would go to Jive. However, not so much of an edge that it makes up for giving up the future second overall pick as well, especially when it became Naomi Young.

 

Young was one of three players in this draft that entered themselves into the draft already with 75 training hours to their name, giving them a big advantage over those who had declared prior to starting their training. While Young’s training hours entering the draft ended up not being that much higher than either Leon Leitner’s or Tony Stark’s training hours, there were question marks about both of those players regarding their commitment that simply did not apply to Young. Young was represented by former VHL player Jardy Bunclewirth, who now holds a job in the VHL as Head of Schedule Coordinator, which meant that he would be in a position to be more hands-on with his handling of Young than other agents are able to be with their player. After all, these matches aren’t going to rig themselves, right?

 

Sorry, sim. Sim, I said sim, shut up.

 

As it turned out, Young to the Titans would be a square peg for a square hole. Helsinki needed a sixth forward to round out their forward lines and Young would come in as that forward. As one would expect from a rookie coming into an already stacked team, Young’s rookie performance was certainly not great, but she was able to assist the Titans in securing a European Conference Championship before ultimately losing to the Quebec City Meute for the Continental Cup. Season 36 would see Helsinki lose three key players in Ryan Sullivan, Odin Tordahl and Brody Hodgson, which allowed Young to play a greater role in the Titans offense. Despite the losses, they were ultimately able to return to the European Conference Championship game, before losing to the Dynamo in six games. With the Helsinki Titans losing even more players the following season, the franchise made the decision to start rebuilding, which made Young a valuable, but also expendable, trade asset. Ultimately the team that would come calling for Young’s services would be the team that just stopped here from winning back-to-back European Conference Championships, the HC Davos Dynamo, who gave up two first round selections in future drafts in order to acquire Young. Despite still playing amongst a very talented roster, Young continued to improve and was able to put up over a point per game as she helped Davos to both the Victory Cup and her second European Conference Championship. However, her dreams of winning the Continental Cup were crushed once again as they were swept over by the Toronto Legion. However, Season 38 looked ready to be Young’s year as Davos were now filled with players reaching their prime. But it wasn’t just the team’s performances that shone, as Young’s individual performance shone in the second line center role, which saw her set a personal best for points. Ultimately, it would be third time lucky for Young and she would claim her Continental Cup on the third attempt.

 

Season 39 saw a change in focus for Young, who would become more of a goal scoring threat, scoring a career high 39 goals on the way to a fourth European Conference Championship, before finding herself disappointed after losing yet another Continental Cup game, this time to the New York Americans. With Season 40 seeing a lot of the Davos roster reaching the end of their careers, Young still had a good three seasons to play, making her a valuable asset for a contending team. The Quebec City Meute decided to jump at the opportunity to grab star players and they picked up Young, Matt Bentley and Felix Zamora for two first and one second round draft selection. While this season would actually see Young make her only All-Star team to date (It is expected she should make the Season 42 All-Star team though, the Meute found themselves shocked by the Calgary Wranglers in the Quarter Finals of the Playoffs, making it the earliest that Young had ended a season. With the Meute deciding to not rebuild, but get slightly younger, Young was traded back to where it all began, the Helsinki Titans, for promising young talents Jarome Iginla (who would eventually tail off) and Ryan Cattrall. It didn’t turn out to be a happy homecoming however as Young had her worst season since her rookie year, as she was only able to put up 62 points along with being eliminated by the Riga Reign in the Quarter Finals of the Playoffs. Much like a lot of the players mentioned here, Young’s final season would end up being her most successful on a personal level, as she racked up a career high 95 points. While a return to the playoffs meant that Young was only the sixteenth player in VHL history to play in the playoffs in every one of their eight seasons, this eighth season would not end in success, as they would be eliminated by the Cologne Express in the European Championship game.

 

Forgive me for the soccer comparisons, but I would say that Naomi Young has proven herself to be the VHL’s Michael Carrick. She’s not going to get close to leading the league in goals or assists; but she’s a person who can run the game for you and guide your team to wins, and reaching the playoffs in each of her eight seasons in the league is a testament to that.

 

Third Pick – Vasteras Selects Leon Leitner – Winger

 

Upon his declaration for the VHL, it seemed like Leon Leitner was destined for greatness. As the prodigy of RJ Stafford, a three time All-Star and represented by Scotty Campbell, arguably the greatest player in VHL history, it seemed like Leitner had all the help he needed to become one of the all-time greats. However, like a lot of players who end up in this privileged position, it doesn’t mean anything if they aren’t prepared to put in the work and there were signs prior to the draft to indicate that maybe Leitner didn’t possess the work ethic to succeed in the VHL. While Leitner, helped by Stafford, was able to clock 75 practice hours prior to his declaration for the VHL Draft, he only accrued 100 practice hours extra between his declaration and draft day, which ended up seeing him behind Tony Stark in practice hours despite Stark not recording any practice hours prior to his declaration. In spite of this, Vasteras (perhaps swayed by Campbell and Stafford’s links to the Vasteras franchise) decided to take a chance on Leitner with the third overall pick in the draft.

 

While unfortunately Leitner’s player page seems to have been removed from existence (or moved incorrectly to a place where the regular forum dweller can’t see it), we can confirm that Leitner did in fact prove those doubtful about his work ethic right, as he ended up recording only 260 practice hours over the course of his seven year career in the VHL.  Asides from a surprisingly effective Season 40, which was more of a product of being surrounded with inferior talent than an actual improvement in performance, Leitner’s career pretty much went how you would expect one to go for a player who hadn’t turned up to training since his rookie season. The all-time standings don’t make kind reading at all for Leitner; 298^th in goals, placing outside of the top 300 in points, outside of the top 400 in points per game and outside of the top 700 in plus/minus. In fact, the only thing Leitner was exceptional as was being used as a hit sponge for his opponents, as he ranks 35^th in all-time hits taken. One could suggest that this poor experience was part of the reason why Vasteras would go on to trade their first round selection in the next three drafts.

 

Fourth Pick – Davos Selects Tony Stark – Winger (Pick Acquired From Seattle)

 

When the man that they call “Iron Man” enters your professional hockey league, you stand up and pay attention, although it was difficult not to with the terrific work ethic Stark displayed from the moment he entered the VHL Draft. While he didn’t have any practice hours to his name when he declared for the Season 35 VHL Draft, Stark worked his socks off to claw the gap between him and the top three players in the draft. By the time the draft came round, Stark had already surpassed Leitner’s training hours and was within touching distance of surpassing Young’s. The doubts about Stark though surrounded his agent, Turner. Turner is without doubt best known for representing football players rather than hockey players, and it seemed evident that should a football opportunity come around, Turner would encourage Stark to take it. In fact, we’re led to believe that the only reason that Stark joined the VHL is because there were no football leagues accepting new players at the time.

 

Things did not get off to the best of starts for Stark and Davos, as the player seemingly refused to turn up for training after being drafted by the team. Luckily for the Dynamo, they were able to relieve themselves of Stark in a trade with the Cologne Express that saw them pick up Davey Jones (who ended up being the Playoff MVP for Davos in Season 36), although they did have to give up two first round selections in the process (which were ultimately used on Leo Tesla and Lars Strummer, the former retired after three seasons while the latter never made a pro roster). Despite the player moving home to Germany, Stark still found it too much effort to turn up for practice, which led to Cologne trading Stark to the New York Americans for a second and a third round selection (the latter of which was passed on). It was only as his third season in the VHL was about to start that Stark elected to turn up to practice, which may have irked both of his former general managers. While Stark had finally made a return to training (now as a defenseman), he wasn’t consistent enough in his work ethic to warrant being kept around, and when Calgary were prepared to offer a second round selection in the Season 41 VHL Draft and defenseman Jack Ryan, the Americans were quick to accept.

 

It was only when Stark set up camp in Calgary that he began to show some of the work ethic that saw him selected with the fourth overall pick. Thriving in his new defensive position, Stark would put up 75 points in his first season with the Wranglers, which was good enough to see him picked for his first, and only, All Star game. Stark quickly returned to bad habits though after this successful season, reverting to not training at all during Season 40 and it was this lack of work ethic combined with stronger defensive competition within the roster coming from Godavari Yumalatopinto and Sami Kravinen that saw his offensive production fall back to pre-Calgary figures. However, an opportunity came for Stark to make a name for himself in Calgary in Season 41 after all three of his fellow defensemen left the team, Stark became the star of Calgary’s blue-line. Prior to the trade deadline, Stark had recorded astonishing numbers in Season 41, recording 57 points in just 45 games along with recording a ton of hits and shots blocked. However, perhaps to his detriment, this attracted the attention of a Quebec City Meute side hoping to usurp the New York Americans, which led to the rebuilding Calgary team trading Stark away along with fellow surprise resurgent Jakub Linholm for a Season 43 second round selection. While this trade effectively stalled any chance at being the surprise successor to Conner Low’s dominance of the Labatte Award, he may end up having the last laugh by becoming the only member of the Season 35 draft class to win the Continental Cup this season.

 

Overall, Stark’s production for a fourth pick selection was poor. However, as evidenced by the subsequent trade that saw Davos receive Davey Jones in return for Stark, what makes a good executive is how they turn bad decisions into good decisions, and that’s exactly what they did with Stark.

 

Fifth Pick – Riga Selects Edwin Encarnacion – Defenseman (Pick Acquired From Cologne)

 

So here’s a guy who is a former All-Star baseball player who’s come into the league with the sole intention of beating up the clients of Chris Miller. He’s gone ahead and recruited a football player in Ron Dayne III, who also attempted to make the transition to hockey only to not record a single hour of practice, to train him to get ready for the VHL. What getting ready for the VHL entailed was taking his shirt off and repeatedly waving it around his head whilst whooping, along with sitting in a penalty box for several hours on end. While he waited around for the VHL Draft, he would participate in VHLM games with the equally horrible Saskatoon Wild, playing on the second line of defense behind the vastly superior Conner Low and Dale Kent, who never got close to making the VHL. When this guy wasn’t sitting in a penalty box or playing hockey (which in truth were pretty much the same thing), he would find himself consistently in problems with the law, seeing himself in a prison cell for threatening to burn down numerous VHL establishments, before then getting thrown back into a prison cell for threatening to burn down the prison that he’d just been let out of. This guy was Edwin Encarnacion and he was drafted fifth overall in the Season 35 VHL Draft.

 

What?

 

Maybe it was the training hours that they had seen that Edwin Encarnacion had recorded that triggered the Riga Reign to move up to the fifth overall pick in the draft to take Encarnacion? Maybe they saw his raw aggressiveness and wanted to try and shape that into an intimidating enforcer? Who could say what the reason was behind the decision, but it certainly wasn’t long for the Reign to decide it was a bad decision as they traded him as early as the Season 35 trade deadline to the Seattle Bears for the number seven selection in the same draft, Brennan McQueen. While the concept of the trade seemed weird at the time, it was ultimately the right move, mainly because Encarnacion took a pre-planned leave of absence from training not long after the move which the Bears were unfortunately unaware of. Much like Tony Stark, it wouldn’t be until Season 37 that Encarnacion would show the work ethic that saw him selected fifth overall, however Encarnacion would ultimately stick with his training a lot longer than Stark did. With Encarnacion being a player that mainly focused on hurting other players, his offensive production was understandably low throughout his first few seasons in the league. However in Season 38, Encarnacion saw a surprise leap in his offensive production, which was enough of a leap to actually see him named to the Season 38 All-Star Game as a second line defenseman. This eventually caught the eye of Jason Glasser, General Manager of the Calgary Wranglers, who was looking for solid depth for his Wranglers side in order to push for a Continental Cup in Season 40. This saw the Wranglers trade a Season 41 first round selection in a deal involving Encarnacion in Season 39, a trade which was criticized at the time but actually may have turned out in Calgary’s favour in retrospect.

 

Encarnacion would go on to thrive in his new role as star defenseman of the Wranglers, as would set a new career high points total with 67 points in the season. It was this offensive production that came alongside his usual brand of physical play that not only saw Encarnacion selected as an All-Star starter, but also saw him receive two votes for the Labatte Award. While Encarnacion was still able to produce numbers similar to his stay in Cologne in Season 40, he found his time more limited due to the inclusion of Yumalatopinto and Kravinen into the roster. Following Season 40, Encarnacion became a free agent for the first time in his hockey career, which allowed him to pick a team where he would be able to focus on what facets of the game he wanted to focus on the most, hits and penalty minutes. After becoming the first player to use the “TPE Re-Allocator” to become a physical brute, Encarnacion made his way to Stockholm, where he would put up hideous offensive numbers, but also record the defensive numbers he was looking for. As his contract with Stockholm was only for one season, he re-entered free agency once again and subsequently returned to Calgary, who were going through a thorough rebuild. It was this final season where Encarnacion would close out his career with his best season to date, tying a season-high for assists whilst also recording a career high for hits.

 

 Much like with Stark and Davos before him, a sign of a great GM is how they are able to make bad decisions become good decisions, and the Riga Reign turning Edwin Encarnacion into Brennan McQueen was a great example of that. While Encarnacion will never be considered a good player, his overly aggressive approach to the game will have him remembered as one of the most feared enforcers in the game.

[Munk 1,298]

Encarnacion.. gone but forgotten :'3

[Higgins 3,618]

That Naomi Young/Odin Tordahl/Smooth Jive trade has driven me to a lifestyle of hard liquor and bath salts tbh

 

Jardy is banned from Finland

[Phil 5,119]

Let's everyone Embargo Jardy

[Victor 10,941]

I'll never understand what possessed Sandro to throw in the 1st rounder too. Tordahl for Jive would have been a fair enough swap. Oh well, got both Tordahl and Young anyway.

The horror of a parallel universe where the Davey Jones trade doesn't happen and Davos goes into S36 with Stark centering the 2nd line....

and jesus christ this is just part 1

[Tagger 2,722]

and jesus christ this is just part 1

Well, that depends on if I get put on the mag or not (and by not I mean I'm printing off every VHL magazine ever published and send it to Steezy on fire). If I don't there wouldn't be a second part, although I could do career retrospectives of the two remaining first rounders that mattered.

 

In truth I was going to do it all, but then I finished this and realised "Fuck, this is nearly 4000 words" and just said fuck it and put part one in front of it.

[Victor 10,941]

I think I'm going to hire you to write 50 in 50 articles.

And finish 40 in 40 while you're at it.

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

Content: 3/3 - A nice read up on some of the players that came before me. I enjoyed the read and I see nobody's graded this from the 14th.

Grammar: 2/2 -

 

"the team that just stopped here from winning back-to-back" - her

"the only thing Leitner was exceptional as was being used as a hit sponge" - exceptional at was being used as a hit sponge

Appearance: 1/1 - Good!

Overall: 6/6

[Kendrick 4,741]

Claimed