Late (but early this week) ramblings about draft depth

[Victor 10,943]

So it looks like Season 44 will be the first ever VHL draft without three rounds. In fact, there are not enough players for a full two but that's almost irrelevant. 19 draftees would still be enough for two rounds and a half prior to expansion but again, doesn't really matter. Truth be told, does it matter at all?

Although it looks good to have four or five rounds (god bless S40), realistically, drafts still end up being about 10-15 players at best. Quite frankly, S44 will be no different. Out of 19 eligible draftees, 11-12 seem like they will stick around and so the amount of players entering the VHL will not actually decrease. Thus, the system which has proven feasible since Season 31 will continue doing so. The VHLM has taken a hit, as evidenced through contraction, but that is again not significant for the rosters of the VHL. Yes, on the whole it's status quo and it has been for well almost the entirety of my VHL activity, but incremental improvement is still better than decline.

What we won't have in S44 is a late round steal who will have the motivation to spend two seasons in the VHLM and break into the VHL but then again, I struggle to think of 10 such players since Season 10. And certainly less than that if you discount drafts which had non-steal-actives going in the late second and early third.