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Approaching History | Brovy

Molholt

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Molholt

Molholt 2,185

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So I was looking through some historical information and realized that our very own @brovy is approaching some VHL history. I was looking at the VHL's all-time GMs list, created by @Victor and found here: All-Time GMs

 

I was checking out GM tenures and noticed something, which isn't terribly surprising, but that I hadn't considered before: There aren't many long-term GMs who have never led their team to a cup or at least won a GMotY trophy. The worst such culprit is Thomas Corcoran, GM of the Vasteras Iron Eagles from S31-S39, a 9 season run where his team never won a cup and he was never awarded the Knight Trophy for Top GM. Poor @Corco was never able to achieve either of those things during this tenure, so I started looking for other people who had the same shortcomings, wondering if it was an indication of being a bad GM, having bad luck, etc.

 

I didn't have to look far to see another cup drought streak, by looking at Corcoran's replacement, Benoit Prevost. @boubabi had a similar run from S40-S48, 9 seasons without a Continental Cup victory - however, Benoit was twice voted as GMotY, in S43 and S47 - an indication that the team had success under him and just didn't catch a break in the finals. Prevost rebranded Vasteras to Stockholm, brought them some new life and made them a more ideal destination for a lot of players. While he didn't get a cup, no one is questioning his job as GM during his tenure. So my search went on.

 

Since I was already at the bottom of the list, with Vasteras being last alphabetically, I just moved upwards. Riga had a long drought from S16 to S33, but they had multiple short-tenured GMs during that time, none that were what I was looking for. Steve Smeall (@Toast), the current GM, is on such a streak but is only up to 4 years, this being the potential 5th. So, he could be coming up on this "honor" soon, if he isn't careful! Helsinki hasn't really had many down times in the entire team's history, but the longest was a 5 year stretch for @STZ, Vince Wong, from S37 to S41. 

 

Davos' Jack Reilly, @CoachReilly, went from S40 to S46 as GM of the Dynamo without winning either a cup or a Knight Trophy, a 7 year stretch - the longest that we've seen so far, besides Corcoran's. Davos as a whole has been on a Cup drought since S38 and a Knight Trophy drought since S36. Cologne is a pretty new franchise, but they've had two longer streaks of note. Joey Kendrick started as GM of this expansion team and went from S31-S36 without winning either. @Kendrick's 6 year run looks rough, but when you factor in the expansion team aspect, it probably isn't looked upon as poorly. Alexander Schneider, @RomanesEuntDomus, went on a 5 year streak from S37-S41, taking over for Joey Kendrick. This was an 11 season run for Cologne of struggles before they finally got over the hump in S42, their only Continental Cup and Knight Trophy, both in the same year to Ryan Power (@Mr. Power).

 

Next up was Toronto, who had 8 GMs before S10, so they never had a long individual streak, but they had a rough start to their franchise history. David Knight, the very namesake of the Knight Trophy, was one of the first to grace this list, going from S13 to S19 without either, but then he won back to back Knight Trophies (not named that yet) in S20 and S21 and a Continental Cup in S21. @Knight was able to save himself from being the worst culprit on this list.

 

Seattle has had quite a few longer streaks in their history. Just as a note, Joey Kendrick went without either award in S1 and S2, which you could argue brings his running total to 8. The first almost culprit is Greg Harbinson, who went from S20 to S27 without either before winning a Continental Cup in S28 and then retiring, but we'll return to @gregreg in a moment. Noah Lefevre, @Noah!!, replaced him and went from S29 to S33 without either award, a 5 year run of struggles. Then, our old friend Greg Harbinson took over again from S34 to S37, a 4 year window where they were without a Cup win and a Knight Trophy. This means that Harbinson went 12 years, never winning a Knight Trophy and winning one Continental Cup, the Cup being the only salvation to what would otherwise be a 12 year run. But wait, there is more - because when we were on Cologne, we skipped their most recent GM - Greg Harbinson. Harbinson has been the GM since S45, so he's on another 4 season run, currently in his 5th in Cologne - which brings his total to 16 seasons, working on his 17th, without ever winning a Knight Trophy and only winning one Continental Cup. My requirement for this to be a GM who has never been awarded the Knight Trophy or won a Continental Cup saves Harbinson from my wrath, and Corcoran is still in the lead with 9 seasons!

 

Now, back to the Bears! Tyler Barabash, @Mr. Grumpy Bear, took over for Harbinson's second tenure, going from S37 to S42 without winning either, a 7 season run that rivals him with Corcoran (and his activity issues might make him worse), but then, you also have to consider a different era in Davos Dynamo history as well. That era was S27-S31, in which Tyler Barabash was GM of the Dynamo and never won a Cup or a Knight Trophy. This brings Barabash's total streak to 12 seasons! That makes him our worst cumulative culprit, with Corcoran still being our worst individual run. Once again, we return to Seattle, where we look at Mike Szatkowski, @Mike, who went from S44-S48 without either, a 5 season run, another in a long line of Seattle struggles. However, Mike was the GM in Riga from S28-S39, where he won one Continental Cup and two Knight Trophies, so he's safe from the wrath for now.

 

Quebec City is next on the list, and we finally get to @brovy, who is in the title of this article. Quebec was also an expansion team, but they've had some success. @Koradek won a Continental Cup as GM in S35 and also won the Knight Trophy. Pavel Koradek isn't the only Knight Trophy recipient though, as Frank Chadwick, @Frank, won one in S40, but never won a Cup during his S37-S40 tenure as GM. Since then, Clinton Chevy has been in control of the team, from S41 to present. He has never won a Continental Cup or been awarded as Top GM, which means he is currently on a 8 season run, this current season being his 9th. That means, that if Chevy doesn't win a Cup or isn't voted as the Top GM, he will tie our very own Thomas Corcoran for the longest individual streak of failure as a GM. He would still be 3 seasons away from Barabash's cumulative 12 season streak, but that puts Chevy in rare company - Thomas Corcoran and Tyler Barabash are perhaps considered two of the worst GM tenures in the VHL, is Chevy in the list of three?

 

I have to finish out the last two teams, New York and Calgary. New York had a long Cup drought run, similar to Stockholm's Prevost, with Sam Helberg at the helm from S22-S29, @Streetlightnever winning a Cup. However, he did win two GMotY awards in S24 and S25. Calgary has never been a stranger to success, with every GM they've ever had at some point winning a Continental Cup and a Knight Trophy, the only team to accomplish this.

 

---

 

Recap:

 

Worst Cumulative Streak of not winning a Knight Trophy or Continental Cup

Tyler Barabash - 12 Seasons (S27-S31, S37-S42)

 

Worst Individual Streak of not winning a Knight Trophy or Continental Cup

Thomas Corcoran - 9 Seasons (S31-S39)

Clinton Chevy - 8 Seasons & Counting (S41-present)

Tyler Barabash - 7 Seasons (S37-S42) & Jack Reilly - 7 Seasons (S40-S46)

 

Most Seasons without ever winning a Knight Trophy

Greg Harbinson - 16 Seasons & Counting (S20-S28, S34-S37, S45-present)

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Molholt

Molholt 2,185

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16 minutes ago, CowboyinAmerica said:

As much as I'm not a Bushito fan, those streaks do seem a bit disingenuous considering that he built both the S31 Davos (before he was replaced midseason) and S43 Seattle (before he was replaced right as the season began) cup teams.

 

I feel pretty okay with slighting him there :ph34r: 

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Victor

Victor 10,829

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16 minutes ago, CowboyinAmerica said:

As much as I'm not a Bushito fan, those streaks do seem a bit disingenuous considering that he built both the S31 Davos (before he was replaced midseason) and S43 Seattle (before he was replaced right as the season began) cup teams.

I still say Frank built the Davos team through the S27 draft and all the remaining assets Bushito promptly traded for veterans leading Davos to shit immediately after their cup.

 

And S43 was hardly a feat of GMing intelligence.

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DollarAndADream

DollarAndADream 3,356

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Maybe I'm biased as I was on the team at the time, but one of those QC Meute teams Boychuk was part of probably could have had brovy voted as Top GM. Top team for multiple seasons.

 

Can't go wrong with Wolf/Thomassen/Boychuk/Denis/Waldron/etc on the same roster. ;) Those seasons were fun. 

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Victor

Victor 10,829

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48 minutes ago, DollarAndADream said:

Maybe I'm biased as I was on the team at the time, but one of those QC Meute teams Boychuk was part of probably could have had brovy voted as Top GM. Top team for multiple seasons.

 

Can't go wrong with Wolf/Thomassen/Boychuk/Denis/Waldron/etc on the same roster. ;) Those seasons were fun. 

Except it did go wrong.

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Molholt

Molholt 2,185

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16 minutes ago, Kendrick said:

Just as a correction (not your fault either) I wasn't a GM in S2, Danny Tremblay took over for me at the conclusion of S2 as I wasn't even on Seattle in S2.

 

Then damn @Victor needs to fix his list! Scrub.

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Kendrick

Kendrick 4,741

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2 minutes ago, Molholt said:

 

Then damn @Victor needs to fix his list! Scrub.

I think he has it right somewhat, but there was no real overlap in Tremblay and us, I might have even mentioned I GM'd in S2 by accident.

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Victor

Victor 10,829

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10 minutes ago, Molholt said:

 

Then damn @Victor needs to fix his list! Scrub.

It kind of went into S2. I think there were a couple off-season moves before S2 by Kendrick so we can blame him for Seattle being bad.

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Knight

Knight 1,270

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10 minutes ago, Frank said:

I'd say Brovy has been unlucky especially when Seattle won. Corco made bad trade after bad trade. No GM is perfect though. I probably rushed the rebuild in S40. 

 

I was perfect. Frank, come on.

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Molholt

Molholt 2,185

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My unofficial standings update:

 

Brovy is now tied with Corco for longest streak, with a chance to have the all-time longest of an entire VHL decade if he doesn't win one of them this year.

 

Greg extends his uncatchable lead of never winning a Knight trophy to 17 seasons and counting.

 

Worst Cumulative Streak of not winning a Knight Trophy or Continental Cup

Tyler Barabash - 12 Seasons (S27-S31, S37-S42)

 

Worst Individual Streak of not winning a Knight Trophy or Continental Cup

Thomas Corcoran - 9 Seasons (S31-S39)

Clinton Chevy - 9 Seasons & Counting (S41-present)

Tyler Barabash - 7 Seasons (S37-S42) & Jack Reilly - 7 Seasons (S40-S46)

 

Most Seasons without ever winning a Knight Trophy

Greg Harbinson - 17 Seasons & Counting (S20-S28, S34-S37, S45-present)

Edited by Molholt
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