Claimed: Boychuk/Parechkin: Quick Comparisons

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

From Boychuk to Parechkin, a History of Offense

 

As far as first generation players go, I think I did a pretty fine job with Travis Boychuk. He was the first player I ever made in any sim league like this one, and his strong outing is probably the reason why I've stuck around here. Boychuk's progression ended at 926 TPE. I think that is fairly impressive considering that a lot of his career, I never had a league job and was not always earning more than 6 TPE per week.

 

Comparing both my first gen Travis Boychuk, and my recently retired Zach Parechkin, they are more similar than some may think. While Boychuk did play an extra season in the VHLM, bringing his VHL career to 7 seasons, Parechkin made the jump straight out of draft and had 8 seasons in the VHL. Both Boychuk and Parechkin hit the 100 point mark three times in their careers. When you put it as basic as that, the two sound like pretty equal players. Travis Boychuk's highest point season was only 103, however, while Zach Parechkin's highest point season was a whopping 131. Zach's worst point totaled season was in his 5th season, a cup winning one where he only managed 78 points. That was definitely an off season for him, especially considering he only scored 35 goals as well, another low point. Meanwhile, Travis Boychuk's season with the least amount of points was 66 in his 3rd season. Boychuk had a lower low and a lower high point, making him worse as a point getter overall.

 

As far as goal scoring goes, Zach Parechkin was far and away the better player. Travis Boychuk never hit the 50 goal mark, and his highest goals scored was S43 where he scored 44 goals on the Quebec City Meute. Boychuk never had less than 33 goals though, but four of his VHL seasons were in the 30s, while three were in the 40s in goals scored. On the other end of things, Zach P scored 50 goals four different times in eight seasons. His lowest amount of goals scored was 35 in the season of the 3peat. Furthermore, the most goals he has ever scored was 65 only two seasons ago in S51.

 

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When you look at accolades, Zach Parechkin blows Boychuk out of the water. Travis Boychuk never won a cup, and his most notable trophy win was winning Rookie of the Year, the Christian Stolzschweiger in S38 as a Calgary Wrangler. The other trophy he won was a Grimm Jonsson in S44, in the season he retired. Zach Parechkin kills Boychuk in accolades. He has three Continental Cups, one Christian Stolzschweiger, three Grimm Jonssons, two Scott Boulets, one Daisuke Kanou, one Kevin Brooks, and one Brett Slobodzian. He also has four trophies from the VHLM. Obviously, as far as career accomplishments, it's all Parechkin. Travis Boychuk just never put his name on the map at the awards show, despite a couple of times with the less memorable awards.

 

Over in the hitting side of the spectrum, Parechkin was easily the more physical player. Boychuk had one big season for himself with 264 hits, but other than that he didn't show anything crazy. Meanwhile, Parechkin was widely known as one of the best hitters in the VHL for most of his career, and he had at least 400 hits in ever season besides the first one.

 

When you look at their careers numbers, you might not notice one thing either. Travis Boychuk was never a true top line player. While he did spend some time there for his first three VHL seasons with Calgary, he never saw daylight on the first line for his four seasons with the Quebec City Meute. Boychuk was stuck behind elite centerman Aksel Thomassen, although he had no concrete complaints. Over in Toronto, Zach P spent his whole career on the top line with Max Molholt. When you look at it that way, it's quite impressive for Boychuk to have put up similar point totals to Parechkin. Some regarded Boychuk as the best second line centerman in the league, who would likely have been number one on many other teams.

 

Now for my next forward, Bo Boeser, there are some huge shoes to fill. Coming from the background of an agency that presented to the VHL two premiere players, Boeser needs to be an offensive dynamo or bust. Especially stepping into the VHL as quick as S55 on a Toronto Legion team looking to be on the uprise between S56-57.