Claimed:Reflecting on My Best and Worst Decisions as a GM

[Tagger 2,722]

With the recent posts that we've had regarding Banackock's approach to the GM role, it made me have a look back and consider how my four seasons as New York GM went. It certainly didn't go perfect (No GM role ever does), but is was a stint that looking back, I felt I performed well but also know that there were some decisions I made where maybe I didn't make the right ones. So for this article, I'm going to analyze my two best moves as a GM along with my two worst moves as GM. 

 

Best Moves

 

Season 47 Free Agency

 

 

The Season 47 Free Agency class fell at pretty much the perfect time for the New York Americans team that I had just taken over. Prior to then, we’d been a team that had made strong pushes in the prior two regular seasons with a team that included the likes of Reencarnacion, Ruutu, Caprivi and Kyanon, but just didn’t have the star quality that we needed in the playoffs to progress to the Continental Cup Final. The Season 47 Free Agency class was filled to the brim with these elite players that we needed; ones that would only be around one season due to forced retirement, but in the right environment ones that could absolutely make their presence felt immediately. We suffered an unfortunate retirement in Nicolas Caprivi leading into the off-season, so grabbing a Center was an absolute must, and we were honoured to bring in one of the greatest centers of all-time in Green’s Thomas O’Malley, who wound up the second highest point scorer in the VHL that season. We were also able to bring in my good friend Streetlight and his player Lloyd Light, who we moved to offense and he was also a huge contributor, coming sixth in the VHL in points and also dishing out a lot of hits in the process.

 

While I definitely cannot take a lot of credit for this (along with Green and Streetlight for agreeing to join, the majority of credit should go to Advantage for building the team that made New York an attractive destination), it was big for me to have my first off-season go as well as it did to get my reign going in the right direction.

 

Trade for Bobby Digital

 

 

Heading into Season 53 with the impending retirements of Phil Hamilton and Biggu Kyanon, there’s a case to be made that Bobby Digital will enter that season as the third best defensemen in the VHL behind Jeff Hamilton and Black Velvet. Considering how good Digital is set to become, I think the amount that I gave up for him back in Season 49 (his rookie season) would have to be considered an absolute steal:

 

To 

(S49) D - Bobby Digital

 

To 

(S48) D - Cian Mercer

(S48) D - Dope Fiend

S51 NYA 1st (C Chris Fekete Jr.)

S50 NYA 3rd (Pass)

S51 NYA 3rd (Forfeited)

 

At the time of the trade, while I was thinking that rebuilding may have to come into effect in Season 50 considering the age of our main roster, I was feeling fairly positive that the Season 51 draft class was not going to be particularly strong (the class actually ended up being even worse than I thought it would) so I had no qualms with discarding the pick. I’m also fairly pleased at the attention that I paid in order to acquire Mercer and Fiend. They were players that were at the time inactive, but young enough that, if they chose to, could return and make a decent player. Neither had been offered contracts by the Legion (the team that drafted them), so I made sure as soon as the season started to offer them as much money as I could without sacrificing their VHLM rights to ensure that I would get them so I could use them as extra leverage in this deal.

 

Worst Moves

 

First Trade

 

 

 

The problem that was generated by the success that we had in Free Agency prior to Season 47 was that it (combined with a lot of salary raises through TPE barriers and Reencarnacion entering his fourth season) put us into a pretty difficult cap situation, although one that I was aware was going to occur prior to signing those players. I had confidence that I would be able to get rid of players like Golden Jedtsson and Gifford Shock for not terrible value, and it looked like that was going to be the case with Shock as Riga contemplated giving up the pick that wound up being Vincent Adultman, but due to their own success in Free Agency decided against it. That left us in a bit of a difficult situation in regards to how to get cap compliant, and unfortunately that led to this shitshow:

 

To 

(S45) G - Ariel Weinstein from QUE

S47 NYA 1st (D Sam Weaver) from NYA

To 

(S43) D - Golden Jedtsson from NYA
(S42) D - Joseph Roy III from NYA
(S46) D - Olivia Diamond from NYA

S47 STO 1st (D John Sleeman) from STO

 

To 

S47 CGY 1st (RW Jonathan Stark) from STO
S47 COL 2nd (RW Kasey Morgan) from QUE
S47 NYA 2nd (PASS) from QUE
S49 QUE 3rd (D Robert Lee) from QUE

Stockholm Vikings GM: Benoit Prévost

Quebec City Meute GM: Clinton Chevy

New York Americans GM: Chris Miller

 

It’s worth pointing out that this is how the trade is posted in the trade tracker. There’s one inaccuracy in that we didn’t give Stockholm that S47 NYA 1^st , we had given that to Quebec seasons prior. At the same time though, that’s decent players going for not just barely anything in terms of draft picks, but draft picks that I knew full well weren’t going to generate anything.

 

The problem with the negotiations was that me and Brovy had agreed on a S47 1^st (the one that turned into Weaver, which was one pick higher than the one I got), S49 2^nd and S49 3^rd for Jedtsson and Roy two days prior to the draft and I took his word for it, he said he just needed to confirm something with the other GM. Then, literally a few minutes before the draft, I was given this offer instead, except Shock instead of Diamond (I changed Shock to Diamond knowing that Diamond intended on retiring). Knowing that I’d struggle to get another team to take these players off my hands for much more value, I just took it so I didn’t hold up the draft. Now in the grand scheme of things, the original deal wouldn’t have been much better (the second I was after ended up becoming Sebastien Laine), but that would have at least been a potentially decent trade piece for a veteran instead of S47 players who were already inactive. So yeah, not a good first trade and kind of my first lesson to not necessarily take people at their word.

 

Rebuilding around One Draft Class

 

 

 

While I would say that I got good value for all of the players that I traded in my Season 50 rebuilding season, looking back, I would have done some stuff slightly differently that would have likely lead to an easier rebuild for Mr. Power. The mistake I would say I made was just going all-in on the rebuild in Season 50 and trading all my players for Season 52 draft picks. While obviously players like Ruutu, Francis York Morgan and E’twaun Delicious would have to have been traded in Season 50, what I probably should have done was held on to players like Reencarnacion and Humbert one more season so that I could acquire some picks in Season 53 draft as well.

 

 

Extra Tidbit – Article for Next Week will be the 50 greatest players of 2016

 

[Kesler 1,514]

Lmao that deal was great for me and Stockholm, you were unfortunately pressured due to the cap and that made way for one hell of a shitty trade.

[boubabi 4,725]

Mostly gr8 for stockholm

[Kendrick 4,741]

I'm confused how was that one of your worst moves if you weren't the GM? Did I read that incorrectly.

[Tagger 2,722]

1 minute ago, Kendrick said:

I'm confused how was that one of your worst moves if you weren't the GM? Did I read that incorrectly.

I copy and pasted it from the trade tracker, guess I overlooked that. Technically I guess they put Miller as the GM since he didn't officially hand over the reigns till after the S47 Draft, but every move made during that off-season was made by me, so I was essentially acting as the GM.

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

you and @hedgehog337 have the best MS' hands down. its like you guys are the same person

[Tagger 2,722]

2 minutes ago, TheLastOlympian07 said:

you and @hedgehog337 have the best MS' hands down. its like you guys are the same person

It's not like I've tried to hide it, have you seen Petenis' build?

[Will 4,662]

Not gonna lie I was pretty sour when O'Malley went to FA after 2 cups, don't think I said much at the time

 

but I've made peace with it..i think

[Kesler 1,514]

15 hours ago, Draper said:

Not gonna lie I was pretty sour when O'Malley went to FA after 2 cups, don't think I said much at the time

 

but I've made peace with it..i think

ur lying to urself

[Advantage 2,899]

On 24/12/2016 at 7:43 PM, YEAH!stlemania said:

I copy and pasted it from the trade tracker, guess I overlooked that. Technically I guess they put Miller as the GM since he didn't officially hand over the reigns till after the S47 Draft, but every move made during that off-season was made by me, so I was essentially acting as the GM.

Yeah I wouldnt make that trash trade.

[Kendrick 4,741]

Claimed