Claimed:Red Wolves Primed for Post-Season [Final 6/6]

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

The Season 45 regular season was upon us and the Moscow Red Wolves were GM less and came off one of their worst seasons in franchise history. Queue GM Shawn Howard who was hired by the league to turn the franchise around. He was armed with 10 draft picks in the Season 45 VHLM Dispersal draft. He had 3 in the 1st round, 3 in the 2nd round, 2 in the 3rd round and 1 in the both the 4th and 5th rounds. He also made some decent waiver pickups throughout the season and some trades to go along with 2 free agent signing's 1 inactive and 1 active. Now let us look at the roster.

 

Goaltender Sandro Clegane: 200 TPE (19 banked)

 

Sandro Clegane is one of the best if not the best goalie in the VHLM. He was drafted last season to the Cologne Express but with Brock Waldron still there going into his 8th and final season Clegane needed a place to play so he was sent back down to the VHLM. He wasn't sent back to the Moscow Red Wolves though, he was sent to the Oslo Strom with whom he played 7 games with going 5-2 with a 0.927 save percentage and a 2.01 G.A.A. He was involved in a three team deal that sent him to Moscow, Marquis Hyvarinen and Bubba Nuck to Oslo and 2 S46 1st round draft picks to Yukon. So far in the following 47 games since the trade he has gone 41-6 with a 0.917 save percentage and a 1.43 G.A.A. He also picked up 13 shutouts to go along with 3 assists on the season. This was a very shrewd pickup by the GM only giving up a S46 1st for the best goalie in the league. 

 

Defenseman Arcturus Mengsk: 199 TPE

 

Arcturus Mengsk might be the steal of the 1st round. He dropped all the way down to 5th overall being passed over by Bern 3 times and Moscow once before being taken by Moscow who didn't pass over him again. He has been the teams best defenceman all season. He leads the team in scoring with 26 goals and he has assisted on 80 for 106 points in just 56 games. He is also a +57 while playing 28 minutes per game so he is also very solid defensively. Not to bad for a player drafted 5th overall. 

 

Right Wing Jace Hines: 139 TPE

 

While Mengsk might be the steal of the 1st round, Hines might be the steal of the whole draft. He dropped all the way to the 2nd round being picked 13th overall. He was passed over by Bern twice, Moscow once and Brampton once before being taken by Moscow who would not pass over him again. He is the leading goal scorer and leading point getter for a forward. He has 31 goals and 35 assists for 66 points in 56 games. He has jumped 70 TPE since being drafted and that is impressive. 

 

Right Wing Pete Stockton: 121 TPE

 

Pete Stockon was a waiver pickup early in the season and the Red Wolves could not be happier to pick him up. He has been a solid 2nd line contributor all season and has made a case for him to be the 1st line RW. He has caught up to Shawn Muller in terms of practice hours and has put up decent numbers all season. He has scored 25 goals and assisted on 27 for 52 points in 56 games. GM Shawn Howard says he will try him on the top line for the remainder of the season to reward his work ethic and the time he has put in. This may come to a surprise to many since Shawn Howard is also the player agent of former top line RW Shawn Muller. Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise for Muller.

 

Right Wing Shawn Muller: 121 TPE

 

Shawn Muller was drafted 3rd overall by the Moscow Red Wolves in the Season 45 VHLM Dispersal Draft. He was the 1st building block in the rebuild of the Red Wolves and has been producing pretty good all season. He has scored 23 goals and assisted on 32 for 55 points in 56 games. He is almost a point per game on the season. However, in the last few weeks Muller has been getting lazy and will now be demoted to the 2nd line. This will hopefully wake up the player who may have some discipline problems.

 

Defenseman World B. Free: 114 TPE

 

World. B. Free was picked 7th overall by the Red Wolves in the draft. He was picked over Saul Hackett who by many thought would go higher than Free. GM Shawn Howard had other plans though as he went with the established player agency with Free rather than the player whose agency just came back after a 25ish season hiatus. Free has played with Mengsk all season and has been solid scoring 17 goals and assisting on 59 for 76 points.  He has also brought it to opposing forwards as he has recorded 131 hits. Arcturus and World complement each other well and GM Shawn Howard cannot be happier with the 2 defenseman.

 

Left Wing Travis Willcox: 114 TPE

 

Travis Willcox was signed as an inactive free agent. He was mostly signed to have his competitors not have him. This looked good at first but with all the forwards that came in afterwards this priority signing could have been better used picking up defenseman Jeff Hamilton who became available right after the signing. In limited playing time though he has picked up 16 goals and 15 assists for 31 points with only 13 minutes per game. Still, one of Shawn's biggest regrets is signing Willcox.

 

Defenseman Lukas Zhukenov: 113 TPE

 

Lukas Zhukenov was drafted 6th overall by the Ottawa Lynx in the draft. He played 9 games in Ottawa before being traded to the Moscow Red Wolves for 2 2nd rounders. This gave the Red Wolves 5th, 6th and 7th overall and all 3 picks were defenseman so thats a pretty sound D core. In the 47 games that followed the trade Zhuk has scored 10 goals and assisted on 38 for a total of 48 points. His season total is 15 goals and 42 assists for 57 points in 56 games. It may have been a bit of an overpayment on the GM's part but when you're all in, you're going to have to overpay.

 

Center Jory Rose: 98 TPE

 

Jory Rose was selected and instantly became the teams number 1 center. He has done good all season and has only gotten better as the season wore on. He has worked hard all season and its great to see it finally pay off. He has scored 20 goals and assisted on 35 for 55 points in 56 games. He is a +56 which shows how responsible he is in his own end. He has also won 51.73% of his faceoffs which is ok but GM Shawn Howard hopes that total goes up before seasons end.

 

Center Bobby Boucher: 81 TPE

 

Bobby Boucher is the teams number 2 center and is steadily improving at an all right pace. That is not saying Shawn Howard is disappointed in that but he is saying that it could be better by 1 practice hour a week. In 56 games Bobby has produced 12 goals and assisted on 15 got 27 points. This is a bit underwhelming considering the talent on the team but what can you do. Hopefully this improves in the rest of the regular season. He has won 58% of his faceoffs though and GM Shawn Howard is very happy with that, hopefully Jory Rose can reach these marks in faceoffs and Bobby Boucher can reach the point totals of Rose by seasons end.

 

Right Wing LeAndre St.Pierre: 78 TPE

 

What a waiver pick up this guy has been. He started as fresh as you can be with 0 practice hours and 56 games in he has 78 practice hours. All his hard work as yet to pay off in terms of stats but I have no reason to believe that they will pick up. He has scored 10 goals and assisted on 20 for 30 points. He has the potential to be one of the best players in the Season 46 VHL Entry Draft if he keeps up his work ethic. I have nothing but kinds words to say about St.Pierre and hope he keeps up the hard work.

 

Defenseman Tanner Hynes: 66 TPE

 

Tanner Hynes rounds out the defenseman core and has played second fiddle to the big three all season. However, he has scored 18 goals and assisted on 40 for 58 points which is good enough for 3rd on the team. He has been very underrated all year and although he doesn't practice much he may a solid contributor during the playoffs.

 

Goaltender Lenny Face: 65 TPE

 

Lenny Face was the #1 starter on the Red Wolves early in the season starting the first 9 game going 5-2-2. This seems respectable right? but he had an ugly 0.885 save percentage and Shawn Howard deemed this was not good enough for the squad who had championship aspirations. He hasn't started a game since the arrival of Sandro Clegane but has had to come in because Sandro got to drunk and couldn't finish the game.

 

Right Wing Lucas Galeano: 51 TPE

 

Lucas was drafted in hopes that his player agent Kevin Brooks would be able to create another legend just like he was during his time in the early stages of the VHL. He has not been that though and has played sparingly. In this time though he has still been able to score 10 goals but only has 2 assists for 12 points. 20% of his goals have been game winners for whatever that's worth.

 

Left Wing Lucas Villa: 31 TPE

 

Lucas Villa was drafted in hopes much like Galeano, a former player agent who was a VHL legend. Zach Arce is the man who brought Villa into the VHL/M and GM Shawn Howard hoped he would turn out like said Arce. This was not the case as Villa has toiled on the 3rd line scoring 3 goals and assisting on 5 for 8 points. For the rest of the season GM Shawn Howard might demote the duo of Galeano and Villa to the 4th line in hopes to create more offence.

 

Center Oliver Cleary: 13 TPE

 

Oliver Cleary has been on the team since before I got here. He has been a good soldier but he is simply not good enough to play more than 4th line duties. This season he has scored 3 goals and assisted on 12 for 15 points and he has won 53% of his faceoffs. 

 

Season Results: 56 GP - 46 W - 8 L - 2 OTL - 94 P - 226 GF - 90 GA and 1 clinched playoff spot. 

[Tylar 219]

Content: 3/3 - Meh team. Saskatoon is better   

Grammar: 2/2 - nothing major

been the teams best = been the team's best

its = it's

Appearance: 1/1 - Colours everywhere

Overall: 6/6

[Kendrick 4,741]

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