Off-season events reveal dearth of defencemen

[Victor 10,848]

Anyone keeping tabs on the S45 VHL Entry Draft Rankings posted weekly throughout S44 will have noticed the considerable amount of not only goalies, but defencemen as well, and a relative lack of forwards. It does appear, however, that the addition of high-flyers Phil Hamilton and Biggu Kyanon as well as dark horse Bubba Nuck will be very welcome in the VHL.

Two events pinpointed the lack of defensive quality present in the league at the moment. The Super Cup draft thread revealed that only four defencemen have more than 500 TPE in the VHL, one of which is inactive S41 bust Jack Kowalski. The list did not include GM player Lloyd Light but is nonetheless pretty shocking to see.

The dearth of defensive options is further illustrated by the Sterling Labatte Trophy ballot and the All-Star Game ballots for both Europe and North America. Season 44 marked just the fourth time since S24 that no defenceman had 100 points and the previous three seasons were part of the dominant runs by Daniel Braxton and Conner Low. Jake Wylde, the recent shining light on the back, should just about get his second straight Labatte, but it will not be particularly convincing.

Coupled with the lack of Hall of Fame quality heirs to the S36 class of goalies (Wahl, Szatkowski Jr., and Brookside), this era seems to be a scoring forward's dream, but hopefully the dying art of defending sees a turnaround sooner rather than later.

[gorlab 4,321]

shots fired @ Kowalski 

[Molholt 2,185]

I'm gonna get him back

[Baozi 1,658]

shots fired @ Kowalski

Holy snubberonies