Season 51: Stranger Things [Reviewed]

[Devise 4,475]

 

Season 51: Stranger Things

 

The VHL's historic 50th season is now over. Hans Wingate, someone who is going to now be considered in the argument for the greatest goalie of all time is retired. The Toronto Legion, a team hailed for accomplishing a first ever threepeat as Continental Cup Champions are now in the record books. It's over. But that is the thing about the VHL, like a bad episode of Monday Night Raw, the show goes on. And goes on it has, as we enter a brand new era of the VHL. The Post 50 era. And that era kicked off with one of the strangest off-seasons, and thus far strangest seasons you'll probably ever see. Let us take a look at what makes this new era of the VHL so odd. 

 

To start with, there is the two player project now beginning to see full affects in the league. While the main clubs have yet to see what two players will do for them, the VHLM is already seeing an influx of players. GM's on rival teams with their second players, familiar faces in every locker room imaginable, and a bunch of teams that have the legitimate claim of being competitive. Parity? Perhaps, but it could be in disguise. Or it could be here to stay. A few of the two player creators have stated they may intentionally make a VHLM only player. We'll see if any of that plays out in the coming seasons. 

 

There is also the strange events that have lead to probably the most unusual circumstances as it comes to teams in the VHL competing. The arguable favorites are the Calgary Wranglers. But let's be real, does that team even remotely look as complete as say, S48-50 Toronto Legion? Or even dominant dynasty teams of seasons past. The answer to that question is a serious no. The reason the team is a favorite has nothing and everything to do with how stacked 5 players on their team are. It has to do with the fact that every other team in the league, sans maybe the Riga Reign are struggling roster wise in a lot of places. Some teams, like Toronto acquired a goalie to go with their incomplete roster. But they lack any real assets save for what, 3 picks, to try and bulk up a roster with a bunch of holes. Even stranger is how the supposed "Kings" acquired their players. All by FA, with one season deals attached. Which means even if the Wranglers win the championship, will everyone return? Or will this just be a season to elevate the Wranglers to one Cup win as everyone then moves on? Make no mistake, without the FA's the Wranglers aren't the contenders everyone thinks they are, because like most of the other younger teams, the Wranglers simply are still decently young sans for their goalie. 

 

To further that last point, 3 of the free agents who signed one year deals with Calgary actually were all S48 draftees. Why is that relevant? Well most expect players in the final season, or two seasons of their career when testing FA to sign one season contracts. Nobody faults them for that either. The last few seasons at a chance to win a Cup. But the 48 players literally just finished their rookie contracts. They have their whole seasons in front of them. Rumor has it only one of the players intends on doing the FA for a season every year, but it still comes off as strange. Any one of those three members could of completely changed the landscape of the league by signing a longer contract with one of the many teams that had holes. Even individually they could of changed the teams fortune for seasons to come. One thing people fail to consider when looking at multi season deals, is it gives the team flexibility to do more. Most of the FA's sat there frustrated wondering what moves the team would make to give them a case to sign for them for one season. The problem with that is, GM's are unlikely to take risks trading assets to secure a player for a season. Most teams aren't looking to win one year, and then instantly rebuild. Having players signed to your team for several seasons in advance gives you the leverage and confidence to trade assets, and then truly build a team from there. That was evidenced by the fact that trades were not happening until most of the FA's had already signed. 

 

The after math of the majority of FA's signing in Calgary for a season was, a bunch of teams stuck in multiple directions. For a second Cologne was rebuilding, the words echoed by GM @gregreg was fire sale. Then the market shifted, players available changed, Seattle picked up a Rodrigues from Quebec and then Cologne traded for Tom Lincoln and decided to make the best of it. The state of the league right now is a very odd one, and it looks to only get odder as the seasons go on. Season 52 is one of the most stacked VHL drafts since probably S18. Two player project effects will be felt, several teams have already loaded up on drafts and depending on yet again, what the same group of FA's do, we could have a lot of question marks. While the lack of certainty does make things a bit more intriguing, it also creates a situation where you end up having more questions than answers. One has to wonder if all the FA's will continue the pattern of signing one season contracts, and completely ignore the fact that they will have less and less confidence in the teams they sign with because of the fact that more teams will be question marks, simply due to the fact that none of the FA's are showing any team the confidence that they can win for more than one season.

 

Which brings us to the other part about the strangeness of the VHL. At a certain point, TPE doesn't matter. Players with 400-600 TPE are doing more damage in the league than ever before. They are almost just as useful in the sim as players at 800 TPE. There is tons of history now of high TPE players failing to accomplish what they were hoping for while everyone from rookise to sophomores, to semi actives who finally hit a good attribute threshold often see more success than those who put all the work in. The imbalance is real, and it is only another aspect of how odd the current era of the VHL has become. 

 

With that said, I leave you with an epic song by Luke Million, if you are a fan of the show Stranger Things, and it's 80's style, then you'll likely love this song. Thanks for not reading, I look forward to many TL;DR responses, and remember, long live the VHL. Or something like that.  

 

 

 

[hedgehog337 3,483]

TL; DR

 

But yeah, not only off-season was weird. Start of the season was strange as well, too rushed. 

[eaglesfan036 4,605]

Great article i agree these are strange times

[Phil 5,133]

Greg's move for Lincoln just before the season started was a clutch move by him... Cologne really aren't going down without a fight and we'll make @Victor rue the day he passed up signing for Cologne

[BOOM 8,846]

Imagine signing 1 year deals to move around the VHL...how fucking ridiculous.

[Higgins 3,618]

too funny

[Mr. Hickey 128]

Review: VHL is very weird now, makes me wonder if someone is fucking with the sim because it did seem like high TPE players used to be much more valuable. I like to equate it to the state of the NHL now though where depth ultimately wins out. Good article full of information. Also I guess I'm too you to "get" stranger things.