Jake Wylde HOF [Reviewed]

[Will 4,660]

D - Jake Wylde

Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Height: 6’5”

Weight: 215 lbs.

Jersey Number: 80

Drafted: S38 HSK (via GM Rule)

Username: STZ

 

It sometimes seems that, while there are plenty of good defensemen in the VHL, great defensemen are often few and far between. Jake Wylde, a product of the famed STZ agency known for representing Hall of Famer Ethan Osborne, was one of these defensemen. His award cabinet may be smaller in comparison to other Hall of Fame defensemen and indeed, he never did manage to secure that Continental Cup that he by all accounts deserved. However, despite that, Jake Wylde's no-nonsense physicality, his impressive blue-line offense, his vigor, and his tenacity are what justifies the two-time Labatte winner's induction here, in the VHL Hall of Fame. 

Career Awards:

S40 European Conference All-Star
S43 North American Conference All-Star
S43 Alexander Beketov Trophy
S43 Sterling Labatte Trophy
S44 North American Conference All-Star
S44 Victory Cup (with Quebec)
S44 Sterling Labatte Trophy
S45 North American Conference All-Star
S45 Devon Marlow-Marta Trophy (with Calgary)

 

Season 38

Regular Season
(HSK) 72 GP / 27G / 33A / 60P / -30 / 173PIM / 278HIT / 311SHT / 170SB / 6GWG

 Season 38 saw Jake Wylde enter the pro leagues for the first time, where he was sent to the Helsinki Titans automatically as a result of his player agent being the General Manager. The Titans were, at this time, still in a rebuild cycle and this season saw the first 'new blood' from that cycle join the team in the form of Jake Wylde, fellow defenseman Vojzcek Svoboda, and goaltender Kimmo Salo. Ultimately, the Titans were still a very young team at this point and their dismal regular season performance showed this fact. They came in at 9th in league and last in the European Conference. While Wylde did manage to put up 60 points, pretty decent for a rookie defender, this was only good enough for 3rd place among rookie scorers. His impressive defensive abilities were showcased, however, as he busted into the league with 278 hits and 178 shots blocked. 

Season 39:

Regular Season
(HSK) 72GP / 27G / 27A / 54P / -36 / 154PIM / 275HIT / 311SHT / 125SB / 4GWG 

 After Season 38, many Titan assets moved up from the VHLM to join the pro league team and, when combined with a couple of off-season acquisitions and draftings, this signaled a real bolstering of the Helsinki roster. Unfortunately, both Wylde and the Titans at large struggled once again this season. Wylde saw virtually every stat decrease over the previous season and Helsinki made only modest improvements in their overall performance - still last in the European Conference. This was perhaps expected - Helsinki was still a young team whose roster contained a total of five rookie players in Jackson Miller, Don Draper, Chris Raymond, Tyson Stokes, and Dexter Morgan. It could also be noted that this was a fairly competitive time in the European Conference; Davos and Vasteras were both on the last legs of their respective generations, vying for one last chance at the cup. Meanwhile Riga was aging as well but still very much competitive and looked to be for at least another couple of seasons, and Cologne was going through a rebuild pretty much in sync with the Titans. Nobody could deny, though, that the future of Helsinki and Jake Wylde at this point looked extremely bright. 

Season 40: 

Regular Season
(HSK) 72GP / 23G / 49A / 72P / +31 / 147PIM / 263HIT / 250SHT / 102SB / 3GWG

Playoffs
(HSK) 7GP / 3G / 6A / 9P / +0 / 35PIM / 14HIT / 19SHT / 11SB / 1GWG

With Davos and Vasteras entering rebuilds, the stage was set in Season 40 for Helsinki to start being a truly competitive team. The untimely retirement of Helsinki defender and team captain Vojzcek Svoboda in the off-season prior Season 40 certainly hurt the team, but ultimately they managed to make improvements and find themselves in a playoff spot with the acquisitions of Damon Tyrael and Willem Janssen. Former Vasteras goaltender Eggly Bagelface was also acquired in the hopes that he would have a better chance at carrying the Titans to a cup than the struggling Kimmo Salo. In addition, Season 39 1st Overall selection James Faraday joined the roster. Wylde recorded his best numbers to date during Season 40 and helped push the Titans into the 3rd playoff spot in the European Conference. Their playoff performance, however, ended up being short lived. A close, 7-game series saw Helsinki fall to the Riga Reign in the first round. While surely a disappointing end to the season, Season 40 would turn out to be Wylde's personal best regular season performance as a Titan. 

 

Season 41:

Regular Season
(HSK) 72GP / 17G / 34A / 51P / +32 / 151PIM / 257HIT / 200SHT / 95SB / 3GWG
 
Playoffs
(HSK) 11GP / 6G / 8A / 14P / +2 / 25PIM / 49HIT / 40SHT / 14SB / 0GWG

Still reeling from the early elimination in the Season 40 playoffs, Helsinki sought to once again bolster their roster and go at it again. Janssen was still around for another season and Helsinki picked up centerwoman Naomi Young in a deal with Quebec. Eggly Bagelface had retired, however, which meant that the burden of goaltending was once again on the shoulders of the struggling Kimmo Salo.  It seemed all of the Titans, Wylde included, struggled individually this season, as evidenced by his regular season stats which would be among the worst of his career in terms of point production. Despite this, Helsinki found themselves comfortably in the 3rd playoff spot in Europe and were again off to playoffs. Helsinki came out of the gate strong in the post-season, breezing by the rival Cologne Express in just 5 games. Sadly, in the second round, Helsinki once again fell to the Riga Reign, this time in 6 games. On the bright side, Wylde had a fairly good playoff run personally, recording 14 points in 11 games which places him under only Naomi Young on the Titans roster.

Season 42:

Regular Season
(HSK) 72GP / 19G / 45A / 64P / +28 / 128PIM / 240HIT / 218SHT / 106SB / 5GWG
 
Playoffs
(HSK) 7GP / 2G / 2A / 4P / +0 / 29PIM / 11HIT / 19SHT / 5SB / 0GWG

Season 42 was supposed to be the season. The season when Wylde and the rest of the Titans would finally see the hard work that they put in throughout their rebuild payoff. In some ways, maybe it did payoff. In other ways, it sadly did not. Helsinki finally pulled themselves out of the 3rd slot in the European Conference and climbed up to 1st, ahead of Cologne and Stockholm by a significant margin. Third in the league overall, just slightly behind New York and 12 points behind the league leader, Quebec City. A trade made in the off-season saw Kimmo Salo sent to Riga in exchange for veteran goaltender Mike Szatkowski Jr. Additionally, forward Robert Gow III was acquired from Calgary at the trade deadline. All this combined - a dangerous Helsinki team with high expectations going into playoffs. It seems though, that this Helsinki generation just couldn't catch a break. They were eliminated in the semi-finals, in a hard-fought 7 game series against the eventual Cup Winners, the Cologne Express. This one stung more than any other of the Titans failings, especially for players like Jake Wylde who were becoming increasingly frustrated with what seemed like tough luck. 

Season 43:

Regular Season
(QUE) 72GP / 22G / 81A / 103P / +64 / 160PIM / 255HIT / 261SHT / 90SB / 3GWG
 
Playoffs
(QUE) 5GP / 2G / 44A / 6P / -1 / 24PIM / 27HIT / 16SHIT / 5SB / 0GWG

Season 43 was a real turning point in Jake Wylde's career. After the soul-crushing defeat in Season 42, the decision was made to start over and send Helsinki into another rebuild. This of course meant that the Titans would be selling off their high value assets. Jake Wylde was among the first casualties of this decision - in a deal made in the Season 42 off-season, Jake Wylde was traded to the Quebec City Meute. This was a very good home for Wylde. Quebec was in great shape with a fantastic forward lineup featuring now fellow Hall of Famers Aksel Thomassen and Bruno Wolf, as well as Travis Boychuk, Niklas Kurri, and Milos Denis. A little-known Helsinki rookie defenseman named Patrick Demko was also included in the deal and thus joined Wylde on the point in Quebec City. In the regular season, Wylde completely crushed his personal bests in scoring stats and maintained very impressive defensive statistics. The Meute easily led the North American Conference and secured a bye to the second round without any trouble. Some of that bad luck from Helsinki may have once again reared it's ugly head, however, as the Meute were eliminated in what was a completely unexpected second round defeat at the hands of the Seattle Bears, who had seemingly come out of nowhere. While certainly an unfortunate way for the season to end, Wylde surely was uplifted by the fact that he was the winner of both the Alexander Beketov Trophy, for most assists, and the Sterling Labatte Trophy, awarded to the leagues top defenseman. 

Season 44:

Regular Season
(QUE) 72GP / 24G / 68A / 92P / +52 / 183PIM / 227HIT / 254SHT / 127SB / 7GWG
 
Playoffs
(QUE) 5GP / 0G / 2A / 2P / -1 / 19PIM / 11HIT / 6SHT / 8SB / 0GWG

 Season 44 was another great season for Jake Wylde. The Meute had only gotten better, swapping out their older goaltender Brock Waldron for the young and vibrant Niklaus Mikaelson. Expectations were high and, in the regular season, both Wylde and the Meute at large certainly delivered. Quebec City secured the Victory Cup for best regular season record and once again held a bye to the second-round of playoffs. While Wylde wasn't quite able to match his offensive statistics from the previous season, he wasn't too far off and his defensive statistics certainly didn't suffer any as he recorded nearly 130 shots blocked on the season. Playoffs commenced and the Calgary Wranglers blew past New York in the first round, which meant it would be the Wranglers vs. Meute in the Semi-Finals. It truly pains me to write this but, once again, Jake Wylde and his team fell in the semi-finals. Calgary would go on to win the Continental Cup this season. At this point, Wylde must have been getting understandably frustrated. In spite of the ever-repeating losses as a team, Jake Wylde was once again recognized individually this season as his regular season performance netted him a 2nd Sterling Labatte Trophy. 

Season 45:

Regular Season 
(QUE/CGY) 72GP / 16G / 48A / 64P / +21 / 153PIM / 206HIT / 206SHT / 100SB / 1GWG

Playoffs
(CGY) 16GP / 4G / 13A / 17P / -1 / 38PIM / 62HIT / 43SHT / 35SB / 1GWG

 After Season 44, the future of Jake Wylde and Quebec City were very much in question. Aksel Thomassen had left the team via Free Agency to join the Riga Reign, and goaltender Niklaus Mikaelson was traded to New York in the off-season prior to Season 45. Evidently, it was time for Quebec to rebuild. Luckily, after playing just the first 9 games of the season with the Meute, Jake Wylde was traded to the Calgary Wranglers who were poised to make another run at the Cup after their victory in Season 44. Wylde's offensive production waned in Calgary, probably due to a slightly weaker forward roster than what he had been used to working with in Quebec. Nonetheless, Wylde still recorded good numbers in this season and Calgary easily found themselves in a playoff slot, just 1 point under the leaders of the conference, the New York Americans. Calgary came out strong in playoffs, sweeping Wylde's former team, Quebec, in just 4 games to advance to the semi-finals against New York. Calgary took the series in 5 games and finally, after so many seasons of semi-final eliminations, Jake Wylde was making a finals appearance. The trouble was that Wylde's other former team, Helsinki, had since completed their rebuild and would prove to be tough competition in the finals. After going up 3-1 in the series after the first four games, Calgary either had a meltdown or Helsinki had some mystical surge - Helsinki came back, first winning 2 games to force a game 7 before administering a decisive 4-1 final blow in the last game to win the series. While Wylde himself had a great playoff performance, this surely would have been troubling circumstances to end his career with - losing in 7 games to the team which was originally intended to be his 'career home'.

Career Statistics:
 
Regular Season:

576GP / 175G / 385A / 560P / +167 / 1249PIM / 2001HIT / 1996SHT / 915SB / 30GWG

Playoffs: 

51GP / 17G / 35A / 52P / -1 / 170PIM / 174HIT / 143SHT / 78SB / 2GWG

Wylde's final VHL game, that fateful game 7 matchup against Helsinki in the Season 45 Cup Finals, was played on November 1st, 2015. As you reflect on the entirety of his career, you don't see a huge award cabinet and you don't see crazy high offensive numbers by which defensemen are perhaps too often judged by in the VHL. What you do see is a player who never gave up his quest for glory and, regardless of the circumstances or the misfortunes of seasons past, always gave his all to his team, regardless of what team that was. Despite never winning that cup, there is much to be said about Wylde as a player - his back-to-back Labatte's in Seasons 43 and 44 certainly indicate he was one of the top defenseman of his era and his over 2000 career hits, amounting to about 250 hits per season, is no easy feat to achieve as a defenseman. It is truly a shame that Jake Wylde was never able to have his name engraved on the Continental Cup in light of 5 consecutive playoff appearances but I hope he can consider his efforts worthwhile by having his name forever remembered here, in the VHL Hall of Fame.

 

@STZ

[Kesler 1,514]

fucking beaut

[BOOM 8,745]

If you wrote that in one sitting, it's a great read and very well done. If not, it's a 7/10.

[evrydayimbyfuglien 600]

Review:

This isn't a typical MS so I'm not sure how to review this. I mean, it's very well written and thorough, obviously. Congrats @STZ let's get Unassisted into the HOF next. If Flip ends up half the defenseman Wylde was, I'll be happy. Keep up the writing, @Draper glad to share a locker room with you guys.

[STZ 5,360]

Like x2

 

I think I said this in the actual HOF induction post.. But with Wylde, I never felt like he was a HOF player. Definitely not while I had him, and even now really after he's retired. I think his numbers are nice, but he never had that dominant generational feel that I had with Osborne. Regardless, it's a really great honour and I'm thankful to those who inducted him. I think my bitterness of always finishing the season on the losing end actually distorted my view on him as an individual player lol..

 

Also, being a GM kinda ruins the fun of the league for you....

[Will 4,660]

Just now, STZ said:

Also, being a GM kinda ruins the fun of the league for you....

 

Fact.

 

Luckily now we can both live in peace and watch Kesler suffer =)