Inside One Super Cup Draft Room [Final 6/6]

[CowboyinAmerica 2,887]

 

Inside CIA's S44 Super Cup Draft

 

 

It’s a different experience, being a Super Cup GM. Unlike the VHL, where you can have a long-term plan or make trades if something goes wrong, or the World Cup, where your team is predetermined for you, you have one shot not to screw up. It’s a frightening feeling, but it’s also one that rewards preparedness and knowledge of the league. Luckily, those are two of my relative strengths.

 

The Season 44 Super Cup draft was a marathon, ultimately lasting 3.5 hours. For all of that time, I was at work in my downtown Chicago office, and the walk home among abandoned Friday night offices was a bit odd. But it also gave me time to reflect on my draft, and my team, for this upcoming Super Cup.

 

So here is a look behind the scenes at one GM’s thought process through the draft. Since I had two picks in a row in the sixth slot of the snake draft, I’ll be treating each selection and each explanation as a pair.

 

Picks 6/7

6. D Jake Wylde

7. C Aksel Thomassen

 

When I received the sixth and seventh picks in the draft lottery, I was ecstatic. There were eight players that I saw on a clear tier from everybody else, and this draft slot had me taking two of them. Of course, at the time I wasn’t anticipating that Waldron and Mikaelson would go so high in the draft either, but either way, I was happy. In a normal draft, my goal would have been clear: Take the two highest forwards on the board, no questions asked. However, the given crop of defensemen made this a bit different. There were plenty of forwards that I could reasonably take in the third/fourth round range. However, once Wylde, Richardson and Poole went off the board, the next-best active defenseman (since Light was a GM player) had just 439 TPE. This meant that if I had an opportunity to gain a relative advantage at D, I had to take it. As for Thomassen, I wanted playmaking and faceoff ability more than checking, which made him a natural selection over Wolf and Karnage.

 

Picks 18/19

18. LW Kristoph Klose

19. RW Kurtis Hunter

 

After picking up a center and a defenseman in the first two rounds, I knew without a doubt I wanted two wingers to finish out my first line here. Now, I would have been having a center play one of these positions. However, the one with the greatest TPE, Devin Sundberg, had 41 of his 694 TPE banked, and an additional 65 TPE sunk into face offs, which wouldn’t have helped on this line. Klose and Hunter, however, both had it all. Both have built their players specifically as wingers, both are active and fun players to have on board, and both have won these sorts of tournaments recently with Western Europe last year. I was praying that both would last to pick 18, and I was ecstatic when they did (even if Ahma cursed me for it).

 

Picks 30/31

30. C Bronson Faux

31. LW Edwin Reencarnacion

 

Once Jaime Hill went early in round five, and since I already had GM player Hans Wingate in net, I knew it was highly likely I would be building my second line with my fifth and sixth rounds. Just taking the highest TPE players, however, doesn’t always work. Shadhu Rathod has a ton of TPE banked. Milos Denis is relatively even on passing and scoring and has been hit by depreciation. I knew I wanted players that had a complementary set of skills, as well as were active as could be. That’s why I was ecstatic when Faux in particular fell. The high checking was something that was missing off this current team, and with well-built passing and puck handling, I could easily slot Faux in the middle with two more readily-available scoring-built players on the outside. I found the first of those players in Reencarnacion, who with his 99 skating and 90 scoring fit perfectly as a complement, not to mention the energy he brings to the team.

 

Picks 42/43

42. D Golden Jedtsson

43. D Francis York Morgan

 

By this point, I had neglected defense too long. While I wasn’t expecting Wylde’s partner to be blowing the world away with stats, I still needed someone who would be strong enough to hold his own on the top line and wouldn’t be a liability. With his recent growth, Jedtsson was perfect. His 90 defense and skating allows him to slot right in; he’s not a scorer, but with our first line, he doesn’t have to be. I didn’t stop there, however. Selecting York Morgan was all about tiers; defensemen went off the board early in our draft, and if I didn’t select him there, the next-highest active defenseman was Hamilton, way down at 50 TPE lower.

 

Picks 54/55

54. C Gifford Shock

55. G Greg Clegane

 

Frankly, I was shocked (pun intended) that Shock fell that low. With 437 TPE, he was the most talented semi-active forward since the beginning of round seven, but partially because of the glut of centers and partially because of that semi-activity, he fell. With only 70 face offs and no banked points, however, he doesn’t lose too much by moving to winger on the line alongside Faux and Reencarnacion. The Clegane selection, however, was a bit less of a no-brainer. Did I really want to take a backup goalie this early instead of my third line or second defensive line? In the end, it came down to relative advantages. Everyone will have to play their backup goalie; not many teams will experience very little drop off when they do so. Clegane was strong enough to be a starter, but once Streetlight passed on him, I knew my team could have a strength relative to all others in its quest for a first round bye. It was worth passing on Kurri, who would have been my third line center otherwise.

 

Picks 66/67

66. D Benjamin Dupont

67. C Aleksi Koponen

 

Picks 60 through 65 saw a large run on young, active defensemen, all of which I was looking at to pair with York Morgan. I almost missed the boat. However, at the end of the day, Dupont fell in my lap, which was just fine by me. Advantage brings leadership experience to the team as well, which can help with my lines. Perhaps as much as Dupont, though, I was surprised that Koponen fell as far as he did. Draper has been perhaps quieter building up TPE with this player, and I think he’s fallen under a lot of people’s radars. That will absolutely change with Helsinki next year though (I personally will be predicting him RotY), and having him as the leader of my third line is a nice place for a breakout party.

 

Picks 78/79

78. LW Souryuu Kaminogi

79. RW Evgeny Nezhmetdinov

 

Coming down to the end of the draft, I was looking at solely at two things: activity, and then fit. Kaminogi gave me both – while Kylrad might not be the loudest player on the boards, he’s certainly active and a great player to have on the team, and his 90 scoring and 80 skating gives me a solid complement to Koponen’s playmaking on the third line. Nezhmetdinov, meanwhile, was all about activity. I could have gone with Zeptenbergs, but I wanted a player that has worked hard to improve in recent days, and Nezhmetdinov has certainly earned his spot playing winger in the Super Cup. His high puck handling and passing provides another funnel to Kaminogi’s scoring as well.

 

Picks 90/91/After Draft

90. D Saul Hackett

91. D Sean Blacker

AD. C Bitch Higgins

 

Finally, with my last selections, I wanted to get some guys that have only recently created a chance at the Super Cup. Hackett has worked hard since creating at the trade deadline, and seeing as how I had an open spot on the third line at defense, he was a perfect fit. Similarly, fellow S46 prospect Blacker has been active since his agent came back in the fold, and although he’s a natural forward, I wanted him to find a team. I was hoping that another agent would follow my lead and pick up the third guy I was looking at, Higgins, but it wasn’t meant to be. So, why not pick him up to play as well? I will be tinkering with the lines to make sure Higgins sees ice time in this tournament as well, and I’m hoping all three S46 prospects will use it as a springboard to big things in the VHLM next season.

[eaglesfan036 4,598]

interesting. You should be a GM some day! 

[Victor 10,934]

What a legend.

We gonna win the league!

[frescoelmo 1,275]

<3

[scoop 3,425]

 

Everyone will have to play their backup goalie

We do?

[Toast 887]

Content 3/3 - All hail the best team! Superb draft and it's nice to see the detail/thoughts that went into each of the selections! I'm looking forward to this locker room for sure and a nice little run in the Cup hopefully.

 

Grammar 2/2 - I didn't spot anything.

 

Appearance 1/1 - Yay team logos.

 

Final 6/6

[CowboyinAmerica 2,887]

We do?

 

Well, apparently they did in S41 and didn't in S38 and S35, so we should probably figure this out soon. Either way, I'll still probably be doing a 15/5 split.

[scoop 3,425]

Well, apparently they did in S41 and didn't in S38 and S35, so we should probably figure this out soon. Either way, I'll still probably be doing a 15/5 split.

I don't remember enforcing it in S41, but maybe whoever was simming did. I planned on playing Price for some games as long as he displays interest, just as I did with Skovsgard in S38.

[Tagger 2,722]

Can confirm that playing backup goalies for half the games in S41 was something that was enforced rather than just encouraged, although we were told that prior to the draft so we knew about their importance beforehand

Edited August 30, 2015 by XaviYEAH! Woods