Claimed:Riga vs New York: A Brewing Rivalry

[Victor 10,571]

Riga vs New York: A Brewing Rivalry



From Season 31 to 34, you could put in a strong argument that the Riga Reign and the New York Americans were consistently the strongest teams in the VHL. Making the playoffs all four seasons (as did Calgary and Helsinki), the two teams met in the finals in consecutive seasons, the Americans shocking Riga in Season 32 before the Reign returned the favour the following season with an upset of their own. Previously, in Season 31, both teams were felled by the champions from Davos, Riga in the conference finals and New York in the cup finals, while Season 34 too ended in disappointments, as the two teams played just seven games each, falling to their conferences' respective champions; unsurprisingly, Calgary and Helsinki. Apart from prolonged success (New York's had of course lasted for much longer than Riga's though these might have been their best years), the two teams were also linked by a blockbuster trades between Season 32 and 33. Alexander Labatte and Austin Gow were swapped for Troy Athera and Malcom Spud in a gamble by the Reign who hopes to win with a worse goalie (Jehovah) and more cap space for another forward (Thomas Corcoran). It paid off and Athera and Spud became back-to-back champions while Gow retired without a cup, being on the wrong end of two finals.

Retirements hit the two teams hard after Season 34 which is why now they find themselves in the bottom two positions in league standings, in stark contrast to the previous four seasons. Americans GM Chris Miller, coming in after Season 32, spend his two seasons in charge of a competing team preparing for a rebuild, while Riga's Mike Szatkowski is now leading his team into a second, as he started the turnaround back in Season 28, ending years of futility in the Latvian capital. Both GMs timed their firesales so perfectly and executed them so precisely that they are now set up for long-term success from Season 37 or 38 and perhaps will soon establish a rivalry which will blow their recent match-ups out of the water.


Wahl and Szatkowski Jr. have already done battle in the VHLM

The comparisons between the two teams border on frightening. The teams had back-to-back picks in the Season 35 entry draft to start their rebuilds, New York having their own after toning down on draft pick trading under Miller, while Riga acquired Cologne's in one of several selling trades during the off-season. Both teams selected defencemen to start building up their new core, the Reign going with Edwin Encarnacion, who is a dark horse candidate for the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy, while the Americans chose Conner Low, who plies his trade again in the VHLM. The two young blue-liners were soon joined in the system with two goaltenders, as both GMs decided it was better not to risk and wait for a franchise goalie in a shallow netminder market and brought in Brick Wahl as Miller's new agent, while Szatkowski introduced his son, Mike Szatkowski Jr., to the VHL.

After an off-season of competing to ice the worst possible roster above the cap floor, Riga and New York are now on strong pace to finish bottom two in the league, which would be guaranteed if it wasn't for Seattle's shocking start to the season. After their terrible seasons come to a close, both teams will be hoping for draft lottery luck to secure first overall and at least not fall to third overall pick. After that, the scouts will go out to create the future for these two franchises and based on their current accumulation of draft picks, there will be a lot to add to both organisations. On top of trading Malcom Spud for (essentially) Edwin Encarnacion, the Reign received solid returns from Davos for a package of Shane Baker, Keiji Toriyama, and Jarkko Olsen, from Calgary for Michal Wozniak, and from Quebec for Miles Larsson. On their end, the Americans did well by sending Thomas Landry to Davos, Alexander Labatte to Calgary, and Ryan Sullivan to Helsinki. All in all, on top of their own selections, New York owns three first-round draft picks in Season 36 and 37, while Riga trumps them with four. Both teams have also stacked their shelves with second-round picks and the future looks bright, for the teams individually, for their growing rivalry, and for the league as a whole as this should be fun.

[Mike 708]

The only reason I wouldn't quite call it a rivalry is NY will be getting owned by Riga on a daily basis.  I guess you could call them being very angry with Riga because they keep losing but they won't be on our level so its not a real rivalry IMO.

[Doomsday 4,048]

Content: 3/3 - These two have always been going at it, so it's no surprise that they're also competing to be the worst team in the league as well, just to one-up the other. At least New York can claim that they have by far the most entertaining roster names in the entire league, so take that, Riga!

 

Grammar: 2/2 - Flawless.

 

Appearance: 1/1 - Two New York teams, which is the Americans brah?

 

Overall: 6/6 - Yup!

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Content: 3/3 - An interesting comparison between the situation Riga and New York currently find themselves in. With the amount of picks the two teams have in the next two upcoming drafts, I'm sure their rebuilds will be pretty short.

 

Grammar: 2/2 - Good enough I guess.

 

Appearance: 1/1 - Solid.

 

Overall: 6/6

 

FINAL: 6/6

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