Claimed:Season 43 World Cup Preview: Part Three (Team Western Europe) [Final 6/6]

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What everyone's competing for, the VHL World Cup. Not Pictured: The actual VHL World Cup

 

With the World Cup only a season away, fans are started to get excited in preparation for hockey’s biggest international tournament. Since there’s only a matter of months now before teams are to be selected, players will be making sure to put their all in this upcoming season as they chase for a spot on their national team’s roster. In this six part series, we’ll be looking at the six teams set to feature in the World Cup, whether their potential squad has improved or gotten worse since the Season 40 World Cup and predicting how they will perform in the upcoming tournament. For the third part of the series, I will be looking at the only team to make their debut in the Season 40 World Cup, Western Europe.

 

Season 40 World Cup

 

Team Western Europe in a pre-game huddle prior to their Bronze Medal Game with Team World

 

In the lead-up to the Season 40 World Cup, it looked like Team Europe was going to be near-even in talent with the tournament favourites, Team USA. However as the tournament drew closer, it became apparent that Team World was not going to be able to field nearly a strong enough side for a tournament with the scale of the World Cup. To counter this problem, the World Cup administration decided to split talent between the stacked Team Europe and the barren Team World, and thus Team Western Europe was formed. Despite losing the rights to select talents like Travis Boychuk and Andrey Zadorov, Team Western Europe was still able to pick a talented team predominantly filled with older players set to take part in their last World Cup. Despite the veteran presence on the team, it seemed that Western Europe were struggling with big tournament nerves early on as they lost two of their first three games. After their surprise shootout loss to Team Scandinavia in their third game, Team Western Europe went on to win their next six games, which included one win each against trophy competitors Team USA and Team Canada, before losing to Team USA in a shootout in the final game of the opening phase. Led by Willem Janssen’s tournament leading 18 points, Team Western Europe were able to just edge Team Canada into second place thanks to their ability to extend the majority of their losses into overtime. This allowed Western Europe a first round bye in the playoffs before meeting Team Scandinavia in the Semi Final. However, a complete defensive collapse by Team Western Europe saw Team Scandinavia get off twice as many shots in the game on their way to a surprise 6-4 victory. However, unlike Team Canada, they were able to return home with a consolation prize. Whilst it was not the trophy that they were hoping for, fans will be satisfied that the team managed to pick up a bronze medal in the Third Place Playoff after a 6-3 victory over Team World.

 

Who They’ve Lost

 

This is where most of the Season 40 World Cup roster will be during the Season 43 World Cup

 

In truth I’d much rather give a report as to who this team hasn’t lost, as this is the only team in the tournament to lose just as many players than they keep from the previous World Cup. In all, Team Western Europe will not be able to select six of the players that won a bronze medal in Season 40. Some of these are fairly inconsequential losses, like centers GIYGAS and Kez Kincaid. GIYGAS was one of the few players in the VHL who decided to retire immediately after the conclusion of the World Cup after a fairly underwhelming eight year career. By the time the Season 40 World Cup came around, GIYGAS had already been heavily hit with the effects of regression, as displayed by his very poor performances in the opening phase where he recorded just two assists and no goals in ten games. Arguably Team Western Europe’s weakest forward heading into the Season 40 World Cup, Kez Kincaid fared surprisingly better than GIYGAS, putting up nine points in ten games in the opening phase. The Irish forward announced his retirement after missing out on the VHL Playoffs in Season 42, closing the book on a six season career that saw him perform surprisingly well for a player selected late in the second round of the VHL Draft.

 

The remaining four players that Team Western Europe has lost though are players that they would wish they could keep even in their heavily regressed state. There was hope from the Team Western Europe fans that Season 42 MVP Martin Brookside would follow in the same direction as Mike Szatkowski Jr. and elect to retire after the World Cup, however those dreams were quashed after Brookside declared that he would not be taking part in the Season 43 World Cup during the Season 43 preseason games. Brookside performed terrifically in the opening phase of the Season 40 World Cup, leading all starting goalies with a very impressive .941% save percentage, but completely collapsed when it mattered as his save percentage in Team Western Europe’s game with Team Scandinavia was below .900%. Another player who won’t be assisting the team defensively in the Season 43 World Cup is two-time Labatte Award winning defenseman Matt Bentley. Although Bentley was only one of two players on Team Western Europe who were unable to score a goal in the opening phase, he was still a significant help to the team with the puck as he led the tournament in assists during the opening phase. Considering that Team Western Europe had to resort to selecting a defenseman who had yet to play in the VHL for their Season 40 World Cup roster, you could say that the loss of Bentley will have the most significant impact on the team.

 

Rounding out the retired players are left wingers Willem Janssen and Brennan McQueen, two players who could not be more different in the way that they approached the game, as Janssen was a player who would shy away from physical play whereas McQueen was best known for his huge hit totals. Janssen is known around the VHL as one of the better players to never win a Continental Cup having been unable to assist either Vasteras or Helsinki to the trophy. He was unquestionably the best player of the Season 40 World Cup opening phase, leading the tournament with 18 points but, like Brookside, Janssen simply did not turn up when it mattered as he failed to record any points in their Semi-Final loss. While he did score a goal and record an assist in the Bronze Medal game, it was still a disappointment for Janssen that he had yet again missed out on the big prize. While McQueen did not produce quite to the level that Janssen did in the opening phase, he still was able to record an impressive 12 points in ten games. McQueen stepped his game up in the playoffs, recording 4 points in their Semi-Final loss to Team Scandinavia before scoring a hat trick in the Bronze Medal game against Team World. Team Western Europe will miss McQueen’s physicality on the ice, as none of their current forwards possess the same passion for engaging in both sides of the game that McQueen had.

 

Even with all these losses, these may not be the only retirements prior to the Season 43 World Cup. Defenseman Phil Villeneuve is currently playing his last season in the VHL, so may elect not to take part in the World Cup, With his agent Phil already stating that he has a player set to enter the bumper Season 45 Draft, it’s usual for players to declare their retirement around the trade deadline once their agent announces their new plans, meaning that Villeneuve would not be entering the Season 45 Draft. With Bentley already a confirmed retirement, losing another defenseman would be a big blow for the team.    

 

Forwards

 

Bismarck Koenig will be relied upon to produce even this early in his career

 

After losing four forwards to retirement, one would assume that Team Western Europe would look particularly weak at the position. However, thanks to an absolutely amazing influx of good young offensive talent coming through the recent drafts, the team will not be as hit at the position as first thought. The two forwards who filled out the rest of the front line in the Season 40 World Cup are likely to return for the Season 43 tournament. Both Kurtis Hunter and Christoph Klose had yet to play in the VHL prior to their selection for the Season 40 tournament, having spent the season following their Season 40 VHL Draft selection in the VHLM. Out of the two, Hunter will likely come into this World Cup having the most to prove, having only put up three points in the opening phase of the Season 40 World Cup. Hunter had an extremely promising rookie season as he ranked 17^th in the VHL in total points with 87, a total that would have seen him win Rookie of the Year honours in other years. Since then he hasn’t had quite the same impact he had in his rookie season, but is still a solid contributor for the Dynamo nonetheless. Klose had a much better Season 40 World Cup than Hunter, racking up nine points in the opening phase. That success however didn’t transition into his first VHL season, putting up just 46 points in the regular season, although he was able to help the New York Americans to a Continental Cup that season. Klose was much improved in his sophomore season, getting over a point per game, but was completely absent in the playoffs as he put up a miserable two points in twelve games. Now on the Cologne Express, Klose has started his third season off well and he looks set to reach his third playoff series in succession.

 

Another player likely returning to Team Western Europe for a second World Cup appearance is winger Jakub Rhinehart, who appeared in the Season 40 World Cup as a defenseman. Rhinehart was a surprise addition to the team considering that he was selected ahead of veteran defenseman Tony Stark despite not even being drafted until after the tournament. While his individual performance in the opening phase of the last World Cup was nothing to write home about, only two points in ten games, he didn’t turn out to have a detrimental effect on the team as he actually recorded the joint highest plus/minus record of the opening phase. When it came to the Semi Final though, Rhinehart found himself woefully exploited as he had a plus/minus of -3. Since the tournament, Rhinehart moved to the winger position and has been a solid contributor for the Seattle Bears, being one of the top three point scorers on the team in both of his last two seasons along with leading the team in goal scoring thus far in Season 43. Although there’s still time for other players to step up, it looks like Rhinehart will enter the Season 43 World Cup as Team Western Europe’s most prominent scoring threat. The team’s biggest overall threat however is likely to come from the first overall selection in the Season 42 Draft Bismarck Koenig. Although he will have only played two full seasons of VHL hockey prior to the start of the Season 43 World Cup, Koenig looks likely to be the player on Team Western Europe with the most training hours. Even though he is still one of the younger players in the Season 43 tournament, he was good enough at a young age to even take part in the Season 40 World Cup, a full season before he was drafted! Granted, it will be a tournament that Koenig will want to forget as he failed to put up any points whatsoever for Team Mercenaries on their way to a Quarter Final exit, but the victory for Koenig was the fact that he had put in enough effort to get selected to a tournament of this stature so early on in his career. As stated before, Koenig will likely enter this tournament as the leader in training hours for Team Western Europe, and while that shows the amount of effort that Koenig has put in to this point, it is equal parts indicative of the relative youth of his likely support cast.

 

The fifth space on the front lines is likely to be filled by another Season 42 draftee, the third overall pick Wolfgang Strauss. The Seattle Bears management made it clear quite some time before the draft that they intended to take the German should he fall to them, and he has repaid them with some solid work ethic to this point. Although he endured a difficult rookie season with the Bears, putting up less than 40 points, he’s stepped his game up in Season 43 and is on pace to put up around double the amount of points he had in his rookie season. The fight for the last place on the team is tight, but thus far it looks like E’twaun Delicious will edge out Severin Von Karma for the final forward spot on the team. Von Karma is one year older than Delicious, however to this point they are pretty much level in total training hours. With Delicious improving at a better rate than Von Karma, by the end of the season we should see the Season 43 first overall selection break out into a lead over Von Karma, enough to earn the final spot on the team. And then there is the wildcard, Season 44 franchise player for the New York Americans Benjamin Dupont. Even though Dupont is expected to become one of the hardest working players in the league, as expected from a player represented by Chris Miller, it’s likely that the Season 43 World Cup will come too soon for him to represent Team Western Europe, although there is a chance he could still represent Team Mercenaries. The big question for the future is if Dupont can even make it into Team Western Europe come Season 46. With none of the players likely to be selected for the Season 43 World Cup not in a position where they will be forced into retirement, no holes are going to be opened for the Frenchman come Season 46. While Dupont is a hard worker, he’s going to have to make up a lot of ground to overtake players who currently have around 200 more training hours to their name. However, as we currently have Koenig down as the sole center for Team Western Europe, there’s every possibility that a general manager would look to pick either Von Karma or Dupont over Delicious in order to have a greater command over face-offs.   

 

Likely Selections:

C – Bismarck Koenig

LW – Christoph Klose

LW – Wolfgang Strauss

RW – Kurtis Hunter

RW – Jakub Rhinehart

RW – E’twaun Delicious

 

Defensemen

 

Ron World Peace will be Team Western Europe's only defenseman with VHL experience 

 

As we detailed before, the loss of Bentley and the potential loss of Villeneuve will have a huge effect on Team Western Europe. The impact of these losses would have been lessened had there been no other retirements, however Toronto Legion defenseman Ed Grrr elected to call a premature end to a disappointing three season career. So with these three retirements, Team Western Europe only has three total defensemen. Three. Total. Christ. That’s ugly even to the point where you’d suggest Team Mercenaries would have a better defensive unit than them.

 

If Villeneuve does indeed retire prior to the competition, then the team’s best defenseman will be Cologne Express lifer Ron World Peace. Since coming into the league as a second round draft selection, World Peace has been a consistent producer, but not to the extent where he could lead a team at the position. World Peace will be making his third World Cup appearance, having represented Team Mercenaries in Season 37 and Team Western Europe in Season 40, and it’s fair to say he has met expectations with his personal statistics. Last tournament he put up a point per game in the opening phase and was one of the team’s best performers in the playoffs, racking up five points over the course of the two games. While World Peace has more experience under his belt since his last tournament, he has also regressed significantly meaning that any progress that he’s made since the last World Cup has been nullified by the effects of entering the latter years of his career. Team Western Europe will be desperately hoping that World Peace sticks around. He’s certainly at the age where one usually considers retirement, but so far it looks likely that he plays an eighth season meaning he should still be available for the Season 43 World Cup.

 

The other two defensemen that would be available for selection are current VHLM players MC Hammer and Thaddeus Humbert. While they are still young at this point in their careers, it’s fair to say that they’ve not improved as much as people had expected them to at this point. Humbert’s case is a curious one as he’s been spotted at the Watchmen practice facility on numerous occasions, but for whatever reason has no recorded improvement in practice hours to speak of. While the most likely outcome is that Humbert is simply waiting till the end of the season to record the effort he’s put in to this point, the reality is that whatever effort he has put in to this point has not been displayed on the ice. To this point, Humbert has put up a very poor 20 points in 38 games, a total that has to be very concerning for the Cologne Express, who have picked Humbert to replace Logan Laich as their franchise player. MC Hammer on the other hand has been terrific in the VHLM, leading all defensemen in points at the halfway point of the season. However, his effort in training has not matched up to his seventh overall selection in the VHL Draft, as several players selected after him currently have more training hours to their name. It’s to the point where if you look at his current progress, he could very well be spending a second season in the VHLM.

 

Now, the fourth slot. Should Villeneuve not retire, the selection process will be easy enough, it will just be the four players we’ve already talked about to this point. However if he does, then there comes a selection dilemma, one that may see the league commissioners become flexible on some rules to ensure that Team Western Europe can play a full two lines of defensemen. There’s every chance that by the time the Season 43 trade deadline comes about that a defenseman of Western Europe descent declares for the draft. If that’s the case, then the issue resolves itself. If not, then the World Cup commissioners may decide to allow Team Western Europe the opportunity to play a forward at the defenseman position. While Jakub Rhinehart might seem like the most obvious player for this conversion (having played as a defenseman for the team in the Season 40 tournament), the team may prefer to play the more physical Christoph Klose there instead.

 

Likely Selections:

D – Phil Villeneuve (If he doesn’t retire beforehand)

D – Ron World Peace

D – Thaddeus Humbert

D – MC Hammer

D – Season 45 Draftee?/Current Forward (If Villeneuve retires)

 

Goalies

 

Hans Wingate is currently looking a lot better than most rookie goalies typically do.

 

It’s unfortunate for Team Western Europe that Martin Brookside will not be available at the Season 43 tournament, as he’s started to play some terrific hockey both last season and this current season. In his place though will be a terrific young Scottish prospect in Season 43 Draftee Hans Wingate. Wingate entered the Season 43 Draft as the prospect with the most training hours, however due to the teams with the top two picks not being in the market for a goalie, he found himself slide to the Calgary Wranglers at the third overall pick. Although many expected him to have a bright career in the VHL, it was expected that he would have the rough rookie season that most goalies tend to go through. That’s not been the case for Wingate though, as he’s currently third in the league in shot save percentage and, considering that no other rookie has accrued over a point per game, may be a surprise contender for the Rookie of the Year award. Come the start of the World Cup, Wingate will likely be at a similar level to that which Kimmo Salo was at last tournament, which is to the point where he’s not going to cost his team as many games as perhaps we would expect of someone of Wingate’s age, but at the same time is not likely to single-handedly win his team a lot of games like Martin Brookside would.  

 

Team Western Europe elected not to take a backup goalie with them into the Season 40 World Cup and considering that the same talents they overlooked last tournament are still the front-runners for a backup spot this season, they may elect to go in the same direction this season. If they were to pick a backup, the likely choice would either be David Blind or Roland Rengel. Blind was drafted back in Season 41 but has yet to make it out of the VHLM and, now that he’s entering his last year of eligibility for the VHLM, could be playing his last season of hockey. Rengel was selected in the second round of the Season 43 Draft, however he has not progressed at all since his selection.

 

Likely Selections:

G – Hans Wingate

G – David Blind

 

Final Verdict

 

With so many retirements between the last World Cup and this one, it’s only natural to expect a big drop-off in quality. While their forwards are still somewhat comparable to the other teams competing for the bronze medal, it’s defensively where the team really looks a class below their competitors. To me, I don’t think they will get the bronze medal, and in truth may not even get fourth place. It really depends on how their weakness in defense compares with Team World’s problems in goal along with Team Mercenaries lack of stars. Come Season 46 though, this team could well be competing for the Gold Medal.

 

Prediction:

NO MEDAL

[CowboyinAmerica 2,889]

Aww no medal

 

While I agree, I think this team could be super scary come Season 46. Lots of young talent that will be in their primes.

Edited May 16, 2015 by CowboyinAmerica

[Kylrad 178]

Content 3/3 Holy, great article enough content for like 6 PT'S worth

 

Grammar 2/2 Didn't actually catch anything which is great with an article of this length

 

Appearance 1/1 Yup, looks good

[eaglesfan036 4,598]

holy wow lots of great content

[Kendrick 4,741]

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