Claimed:The Value of Cup Winning Experience In VHL Throughout History

[Devise 4,475]

The Value of Cup Winning Experience In VHL Throughout History

 

The VHL is very much like the NHL where having proven winners, players that have been there and done that can make all the difference. Even statistically speaking, very few teams have won the Championship in either league all as first timers. 

 

I originally began research for this media spot very optimistic. It started with a curiosity for how many Continental Cup winning teams there was with a past Cup winner on their rosters. Going in, I thought to myself "it can't be that many, we do retire players after 8 seasons." Those thoughts would prove to be shattered by a nearly perfect record season after season, with either one big free agent pick up, one small depth player, or some remnant, some player who had won a Championship lingering on nearly every single team. So I kept digging. I switched from what I thought we be interesting stats just from the last ten seasons to trying to find the last time a team won a Championship that didn't have a previous Cup winner on it. My research continued, all the way until Season 20. That is right. From this point until season 20 every single Championship winning team had a previous Cup winner on it. But with that teaser, I'd like to take you on the journey of what I eventually learned to be a weird, but interesting reality among VHL Cup winners. The reality that is, you better have a player on your team that has won a Cup if your going to win, otherwise the odds are not in your favor.

 

In Season 46 the Helsinki Titans repeated as Cup winners, and because of that they had a plethora of former winners on their roster. However even their first of two wins in Season 45 saw them loaded with names like O'Malley, Klose, Wolfgang Strauss, Brady Stropko and Pablo Escobar. All former Cup winners. The Wranglers only needed one former member in Season 45, as Nicklas Karlsson proved to be the only experience they needed. Likewise for both the Bears and the Express in S43 and 42 respectively. The Bears did it with Captain Phil Villeneuve who had won a Cup previously, while Cologne picked up Robin Gow from Riga at the deadline for their Cup winning experience. 

 

In Season 41 the Americans were largely formed of a team that won the Cup in S39 and made the finals in S40. As such tons of names and future hall of fame players comprised their list. Riga leveraged experience from the S37 Toronto winners with Nicklas Lindberg and Ville Sixten, as well as eventual 3 time Cup winning Jarkko Olsen to give them that experience edge. The Americans were largely a new roster in Season 39, but playoff MVP Wesley Kellinger and Odin Tordahl both had won Cups prior. Which brings us to the dynasty Davos era, that won in Season 38 off a roster mostly comprised of S36 winners. Names like Davey Jones, Thomas Landry, Jarrko Olsen, Matt Bentley, Shane Baker and Lennox Moher all won with the S36 Davos squad. Toronto only needed one former Cup winner in long time Titan Anatoli Zhumbayev in Season 37. The Dynamo got started on their run in S36 with Odin Tordahl and Lars Lessio being the former Cup winners. 

 

For expansion Quebec City Muetes first ever Cup win in Season 35 they used veteran free agent signings Skylar Rift and Yuri Grigorenko to go along with Miles Larsson, all three former Cup winners. Helsinki had Felix Leiter and Nic Riopel in Season 34, while Riga had the other funk brother Elijah Incognito as well as Troy Athera and Malcom Spud in Season 33. The Americans finally won a Championship after many attempts in Season 32 and they carried 4 former cup winners with Alex Chershenko, Tukka Reikkinen, Connor Evans and Radislav Mjers. 

 

In Season 31 Davos picked up Felix Peters from the Season 28 Seattle Six squad as well as Gaz, who had won a championship with Toronto in Season 29. In Season 30 the Calgary Wranglers came close to being all home grown first timers, with the exception of hall of fame team hopper and multi cup winner Leeroy Jenkins, who helped the squad. That Season 29 Toronto win came with Jarppi Leppala, Dougie Daniels and Elijah Incognito, all former Cup winners. The Seattle Six era were able to pick up Leeroy Jenkins and Matthew Boragina to help them over the hump. 

 

Hitting Season 27 the Helsinki Titans had Leeroy Jenkins, Japinder Singh and Jeff Dar for Cup winning experience. Meanwhile the last time Vasteras won a championship in Season 26 they had Kevyn Hejse and James Bencharski both former Cup winners at that point. S25 was the last time we saw a repeat until Helsinki did it this past season, so it was loaded with former champions. But even the 24 Dynamo had Anton Brekker, Matthias Chouinard, Chad Murphy, Adam Shcultz and legendary goalie Daisuke Kanou. The Wranglers picked up the Cup in 23 with Biggie Shakur and Jardy Bunclewirth as former champions. In Season 22 the Titans leveraged three Cup winners with Max Kroenenburg, Rhett Gouldhawke and Hiro Renomitsu. While in 21 the Legion were bolstered by Lars Berger, JD Stormwall, Max Kroenenburg and Voittu Jannulua.

 

Which brings us to Season 20. The Davos Dynamo won their first Continental Cup since Season 13, and it would lead to a team that dominated with back to back later in the same era. However that Season 20 Davos team had no former Cup winners on it. A feat that has not been repeated in 26+ seasons. 

 

Interestingly enough, it was the second time in three seasons a team with no cup experience won the title. The Wranglers repeated in S19 and were loaded with former Cup winners, however the Season 18 Continental Cup winning Wranglers mark another team who won with no Cup experience. If you can believe it, that is the first time since Season 1 there was a team with no Cup winning experience to win the Championship. Yes you read that correctly. S1 Vasteras, S18 Calgary and S20 Davos are the only teams to win a Championship without any Cup winners on them. With Season 1 of course being an asterisk since it has no choice but to be the case. 

 

As we keep going down the list, the Season 17 Bears were loaded with former Cup winners. Names like Grimm Jonsson, Devan De La Soul, Fayt Leingod, Sandro Desaulniers, Baron Von Jonsson, Virgil Quincey-McDienenberg. Riga won it all in 16 with just Harvey Singh and Andrew Able as former champions. While in Helsinki they only needed Brandon Rush in Season 15 to secure a Championship. The first Cup win for the New York Americans came in Season 14 with Zak Rawlyk, Sach Arce and Jack O'Riley as the experienced cup winning players. Davos S13 win came with a roster filled with former winners, something you'd expect considering they also won in Season 11. In 13 they had Jonathan Matthias, Zach Arce, Tomas Jenksovic, Jericho Kozmalov, Mike Kloepfer, Markus Sedin and Benoit Devereux, all former champions. The Bears picked up the championship in Season 12 with Jonathan Matthias, Bob Loblaws, Josh Vestiquan and Markus Sedin as former winners. That Season 11 Davos team had Jochen Walser and Tomas Ziegler for Cup winning experience. 

 

Which brings us to the first ten seasons in league history. There was a couple close calls surrounded by a couple repeats. In Season 10 Riga won their first Championship with Ace Lightning, Terence Fong and Jaeger Stryker as former cup winners. While Toronto's first ever Cup win came with just Branden Snelheid as the only former winner. In Season 8 Calgary won their third championship with Edward Holm, Josh Vestiquan, Sterling Labatte and Doug Schneider. Avangard, now Davos won what would be the franchises first championship in Season 7 with Danny Tremblay and Steve Kent being the only two former winners on the squad. Season 6 saw the Helsinki Titans win their first ever championship backed by Scotty Campbell, Matt Defosse, Alex Watson and Doug Schneider. Season 6 was a repeat for the Seattle Bears, their second championship in history and was obviously loaded with former winners. However the Season 4 Seattle Squad had a chance, but they picked up the legendary Scotty Campbell to push them over the edge. In Season 3 the Wranglers won their second ever championship, a repeat, and they had tons of former winners. Which brings us to Season 2, had the Wranglers not picked up Tommy Brown from the Iron Eagles, who were our first ever Continental Cup Champions in Season 1 then they would of been all first timers.

 

There you have it. A history of not just the impact, but the rate at which teams continue to win in the VHL backed by former Champions. It's a strategy that has gotten so successful the majority of teams competing in ever era always have one, if not more Cup winners on their rosters. Will we be able to see a young team built on the backs of players who have never won a Championship win it all again? It's a tough question. The best players in the league seem to win a Championship at some point, a lot of them early in their careers. Those players generally stay on top for much of their career, so even though they may get traded or sign with a young up and coming team, the likelihood that we get a Championship team filled without a single cup winning player seems slim.  

 

Edited January 23, 2016 by Mr. Power

[Kendrick 4,741]

Wasn't mentioned once #phew

[boubabi 4,725]

Someone mentioned #winning ?

[Devise 4,475]

35 minutes ago, Kendrick said:

Wasn't mentioned once #phew

 

Saw a few of your players names on teams, but you weren't eligible for multi cup winner on any simply by name. It was kind of crazy to go back and see some of those old Cup winning teams and see so many names of members that are now back around, or have stuck around. You, Sterling, Sandro, Smarch, Scotty, Tfong, both Funks (who were on a lot of teams) Mike, even an old Noah play thrown in. You guys are the history of this league man! 

 

Also @Streetlight Advantage and I were under the assumption you had never won a Cup as a member, but in one of those Davos seasons we saw Esposito winning one! 

[Molholt 2,185]

Great work 

[Mike 708]

Another 3 paragraph Devise post should make this a media spot.

[scoop 3,425]

23 minutes ago, Mr. Power said:

 

Saw a few of your players names on teams, but you weren't eligible for multi cup winner on any simply by name. It was kind of crazy to go back and see some of those old Cup winning teams and see so many names of members that are now back around, or have stuck around. You, Sterling, Sandro, Smarch, Scotty, Tfong, both Funks (who were on a lot of teams) Mike, even an old Noah play thrown in. You guys are the history of this league man! 

 

Also @Streetlight Advantage and I were under the assumption you had never won a Cup as a member, but in one of those Davos seasons we saw Esposito winning one! 

Fayt Leingod was my player as well, so I've won three. It's just, I haven't won since Season 20 with Esposito.

 

James is the guy who's been here for a while but has never won.

[scoop 3,425]

2 hours ago, Mr. Power said:

Interestingly enough, it was the second time in three seasons a team with no cup experience won the title. The Wranglers repeated in S19 and were loaded with former Cup winners, however the Season 18 Continental Cup winning Wranglers mark another team who won with no Cup experience. If you can believe it, that is the first time since Season 1 there was a team with no Cup winning experience to win the Championship. Yes you read that correctly. S1 Vasteras, S18 Calgary and S20 Davos are the only teams to win a Championship without any Cup winners on them. With Season 1 of course being an asterisk since it has no choice but to be the case. 

Not sure if you ever saw it, but I actually made reference to this fact here.

 

Though evidently I was wrong in what I said about S45 Helsinki winning with just one former cup winner. Maybe I had found that one of the recent teams had just one player (Calgary) but then for some reason attributed it to S45 Helsinki and just looked for the first name that I saw having won a cup that season. :shrug:

 

[Devise 4,475]

16 hours ago, Streetlight said:

Not sure if you ever saw it, but I actually made reference to this fact here.

 

Though evidently I was wrong in what I said about S45 Helsinki winning with just one former cup winner. Maybe I had found that one of the recent teams had just one player (Calgary) but then for some reason attributed it to S45 Helsinki and just looked for the first name that I saw having won a cup that season. :shrug:

 

 

I do recall seeing it now that you posted, but I most of forget that you stated there was only two others (S18 Calgary and S20 Davos) I was kinda curious as well how many playoff MVP's had won a Championship before, and just skimming through the list it appears like a decent amount of them are returning Cup winners. 

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

i was on two cup winning teams and i take pride in them as they were 1st time wins for the franchise i believe. Helsinki in S6 and Cologne is S42. 

[Kendrick 4,741]

Claimed