Claimed:Research Article: How Well Do Teams Who Spend The Most on Defensemen Do?

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Season 37 – Quebec City Meute

 

Lineup

Forwards

Yuri Grigorenko

Wesley Kellinger

Tomas Valiq

Doug Clifford

 

Defensemen

Alexander Valiq

Niklas Valiq

Gregory Glass

 

Goalie

Tuomas Tukio

 

Salary Spent on Defensemen: $12.25M

Percentage of Total Spending: 39%

Season Outcome: Eliminated in Quarter Finals

Salary Spent on Defensemen by Champions (Legion): $5.5M

 

While S37 saw the Toronto Legion spend a record low on their defensemen (the $5.5M they spent on Jack Sound and Ville Sixten is the lowest amount of money spent on defensemen by a championship winning team), it also saw the Quebec City Meute abandon the two-defenseman system that they had used the previous two seasons and instead add Gregory Glass from the Helsinki Titans to form a three-man defensive unit. Unfortunately for Quebec, the extra focus on defense meant that compromises had to be made elsewhere, which led to them fielding a team of just four forwards during that campaign. That lack of forward depth could probably have been a big reason for Quebec’s early departure from the playoffs, as they only managed 24 shots per game in their Quarter Final series against the Seattle Bears and, despite the best efforts of Tuomas Tukio, ended up losing the series in seven games.

 

 

Season 38 – Riga Reign

 

Lineup

Forwards

Kameron Taylor

Brennan McQueen

Robert Gow III

Robin Gow

Johan Hallstrom

Mikey Blade

Konstantin Azhishchenkov

 

Defensemen

Phil Villeneuve

Malcolm Spud

Doug Clifford

Slaeter Fjorsstrom

 

Goalie

Mike Szatkowski Jr.

 

Salary Spent on Defensemen: $11M

Percentage of Total Spending: 35%

Season Outcome: Eliminated in Semi Finals

Salary Spent on Defensemen by Champions (Dynamo): $10.75M

 

So, some interesting notes before we look at the team who spent the most on defensemen in Season 38. First off, the $10.75M that the Dynamo spent on defensemen on their way to their Continental Cup victory is the highest amount spent on defensemen in trackable history (which is from Season 24 onwards). Secondly, while the Reign did spend the most money on defensemen, they didn’t actually spend the most money on players who played at the defenseman position. In typical Bushito fashion, Seattle Bears GM Tyler Barabash decided to play Sebastien Ball Jr. (a winger by trade) as both a first line defenseman and a second line forward, something that is not allowed in the VHL (for those unfamiliar with the rule, a forward can only play as a defenseman or vice versa on powerplays or penalty kills). I’m not sure if any admin went to Bushito and told him that he couldn’t do that, but I imagine that even if they did, they’d just be told by Bushito that they were wrong and he’d keep playing Ball at defenseman regardless.

 

As for the team that did spend the most on defensemen, the Riga Reign were in their second season of competing after making their first concentrated push for the championship in Season 37 when they acquired Hall of Famer Kameron Taylor from the Cologne Express. The team benefited from a lot of players being on the final years of their rookie contracts, as Mike Szatkowski Jr., Phil Villeneuve, the Gows and Johan Hallstrom were all players who entered the Season 36 VHL Draft (or in Szatkowski’s case, added through the GM rule). You might be curious though as to how they could afford all of those players at defensemen, but it’s worth remembering that Villeneuve wasn’t earning TPE at the current-day Phil levels around this time, Fjorsstrom was still in the second season of his rookie contract and Clifford was a mid-season trade acquisition from the Quebec City Meute after he recreated to make the Hall of Famer Aksel Thomassen. While this team was certainly strong, they fell short to the future champions HC Davos Dynamo, but that would not stop Riga as they would keep a lot of these players around for their successful Season 40 campaign.

 

Next Week, I'll be doing the Season 39 and Season 40 teams.

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@Victor

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