Blast From the Past

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Edition 328

 

As a long-time member in the VHL, I have been craving writing a new type of article for quite some time.  The history of the league has always been one of the most impressive things with our great league and I wanted to tap into that with my new VHL article, titled 'Blast From the Past'.  This article will focus on the league's history and maybe go into some interesting rankings and recollections from the past dealings in the VHL.  This week I'm going to start simple and talk about the Season 1 Champions, the Vasteras IK.

 

You might be thinking, the Vasteras Iron Eagles won the championship in Season One? Yes, indeed Vasteras has won two championships in their history; in season one and season twenty-six.  The team then went on quite the losing streak before being relocated to Stockholm and have had some success, but have not won a Continental Cup since the switch.  It is amazing enough that the least successful franchise in VHL history won the very first Continental Cup, but that is not the crazy thing about this Season 1 victory.

 

This legendary Vasteras squad boasted Hall of Fame goaltender Matthew Pogge and the greatest VHL player of all-time, Scotty Campbell.  It also had other great players including Clarke, McKelvie and Lidstrom that helped solidify those other two and bring them the Season 1 victory.  Who did they beat? They happened to beat the greatest regular season team of all-time, the Calgary Wranglers.  This Wranglers team boasted easily the best roster with the likes of Hall of Famers Sterling Labatte, Scott Boulet and Brett Slobodzian who also now have trophies named after them due to the incredible legacies they left in this league.  The Calgary Wranglers went 69-3-0 and were easily the favourites for the Continental Cup after their incredible season setting records that are still not broken to this day.

 

The true irony is that the Vasteras squad that was heavy underdogs were able to pull off managed to be the very first champions this league has ever seen.  At the time, people probably would be safe to assume they would eventually be one of the most successful teams in league history rather than the joke of the team they have been perceived to be of late, and are potentially a team that could be contracted if we ever went that route.  All in all, Season 1 saw one of the biggest upsets in league history with this win and it would set the tone for years to come.

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Edition 329

 

Title: The Nine Season Wonder

 

Many of you will know the name Sterling Labatte.  You see the member still as active as ever in our league.  You see the name on the trophy that is rewarded to the league's top defender.  You see that name in both the Player's Hall of Fame and Builder's Hall of Fame.  Sterling Labatte is a name that has had an incredible impact on our league, but I want to use this article to focus on the career of the league's first elite defenseman, and a player that still some consider the greatest of all-time at his position.

 

The National Hockey League has Eddie Shore, Doug Harvey and Tim Horton.  The Victory Hockey League had one defenseman who dominated much of the first decade of this league.  That defenseman was Sterling Labatte.

 

Sterling is notable for many reasons.  He is one of the only players to ever play nine seasons in our great league, thanks to him coming in just after the original draft but still getting to take part in the league's first season.  Labatte took no time to get acclimatised to his new surroundings as he instantaneously became the league's best defender winning the trophy while being a member of the league's greatest regular season team of all-time.  He recorded 102 points that season and finished with an absolutely filthy +93 rating.  This became a regular habit for Labatte as he would finish his career with a multitude of accomplishments and some of the greatest statistics by a defender in league history.

 

The accolades jump off the paper when you look at them.  Three-time Top Defenseman (only Conner Low and Daniel Braxton have won the award more), two-time Playoff MVP and a three-time Continental Cup Champion.  This doesn't even include his Top Leader Awards, many North American Conference Championships and International success that led to a Gold Medal and Bronze Medal as the anchor of Team Canada's defense.  

 

While never a physical presence, Labatte chose to be more disciplined and not take a significant amount of penalties, seeing his value of being on the ice as significant as it was.  Sterling would finish his career with 782 points in 648 games, 776 hits and a career plus/minus of +483.  I could go on and on about his many accomplishments as the league's top nine season wonder and if you gave me 1000 words to write, it would be no trouble at all.

 

However, the message I want clear with this article is the heart and dedication this player and member has given to this league, all the way back to season one.  From the Inaugural season on, Sterling has been the heart and soul of this league and as we see with his first Hall of Fame player, from season one on he has always been one of the most significant talents this league has seen hit the ice.  For our forum, it's sad at times to see some of the originals leave and while Sterling is not officially gone, his time for the league has certainly gotten less and less and he is deserving of this tribute as this week's edition of Blast From the Past.

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THE CUPLESS WONDER

 

This week’s ‘Blast From the Past’ will center around one of the league’s most hyped players of all-time, Daniel Braxton.  The Hall of Fame defender was a stalwart for the New York Americans for seven of his eight seasons and one with the Davos Dynamo as well.  He is known as being the first challenger in quite some time to Mr. Sterling Labatte as being regarded as the greatest VHL defender ever.  He was even the first to win four Top Defenseman Trophies and is still one of two to ever do it (Conner Low being the other).  He also went on to win many other great individual trophies and was eventually an easy choice to be inducted into the VHL Hall of Fame.  There was one thing he didn’t win though and that is a Continental Cup.  

 

For some, Braxton is the standard for how they want their player to produce.  He was elite offensively during the regular season, one of the best playoff performers in the VHL playoffs, a tremendous international performer and hit the illustrious 1000-1000 club, that very few even Hall of Fame defenders have hit since.  He made the playoffs in each of his eight seasons and made sure that everyone knew about it.  As we all know, Jericho is hardly shy about his success and was often controversial during this time, taking shots at other players and constantly shoving Braxton’s success down everyone else’s throats.  With that being said, as we can see, he had a reason to be so cocky.

 

The question is, did he surpass Sterling Labatte as the greatest of all-time at his position and was he even necessarily better than guys that came later like Ryan Sullivan and Conner Low.  For me, Braxton did enough to be mentioned alongside Labatte and similarily Sullivan as while Sully only was able to win three Sterling Labatte Trophies, he also had team success and statistically was better offensively over a shorter career.  Labatte has the longevity and initial success on his side and while his physicality doesn’t compare, his discipline was unparalleled by the other two.  Conner Low though is where Braxton falls short, and while Low only spent five seasons as a defenseman, he also won a Sterling Labatte Trophy in each one of those seasons and passed Braxton for the most in VHL history.
Braxton’s legacy may not be the greatest defender of all-time, the most successful or even the most hyped (with many players before and after having similar hype surrounding their player).  With that being said, his success in the regular season and individually in the playoffs, propelled him into a slot matched by very few others.  With that being said, one has to wonder whether or not New York catching a few extra bounces in finals appearances would have made enough of a difference to potentially sneak him into a league of his own.
 

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Being a General Manager is hardly easy.  For some, like myself, it becomes all you think about.  At work, school and at home, I am constantly trying to plot trades and lineups and figuring out the next step in the operation of my team.  For most, the longest we want to do this is a handful of seasons.  For Jason Glasser, he did this for a VHL record sixteen consecutive seasons.

 

When Jason Glasser took over the job from Jardy Bunclewirth, he was at the top of his game.  He was one of the best point earners in the league, and while his player struggled at times in the sim engine, Glasser was a master VHL GM early on.  He previously had a ton of success with the Ottawa Ice Dogs of the VHLM, so it didn’t come as too much of a surprise to most; especially for a sim league veteran.

 

The climax of Glasser’s time as a GM was Season 30 after a short rebuild that saw the Wranglers draft future Hall of Famers like Alexander Chershenko, Ryan Sullivan and Volodymyr Rybak, Glasser would win his first and only Continental Cup as a VHL GM.  He would receive a David Knight Trophy for his excellence as a GM that season, which was the second of his short career as a GM.  Glasser would win his third and final David Knight Trophy four seasons later after a successful season with the Wranglers, with much of their main core either retired or on other teams.

 

Glasser unfortunately has some of these accomplishments forgotten.  In fact, for many of us in the BOG, we weren’t sure how to judge his run as a GM.  In many ways, it was a tale of two stories.  For the first nine seasons, Glasser was fantastic with a Continental Cup and three David Knight Trophies.  However, from my own perspective, he received a lot of help during that time with drafting and lines, as usually he was far too busy with real life and his many sim leagues to focus all of his time on Calgary.  The unfortunate part for Glasser, is how his time as a GM only regressed as the season’s go on with many feeling he stayed on just to break the record for most consecutive seasons and nothing else.

 

“Jason half assed a lot of stuff”.  That was one quote from discussions over whether or not Jason Glasser should be inducted as a builder.  For many, this opinion is definitely the case in his last six or seven seasons that had many calling for him to step down.  For some, it even went on longer than that and extended for most of his run as a GM with many running the daily operations for him during some of it. 

 

The fact remains though that Jason Glasser should be remembered more for his last few years as a GM.  He checked it out and stayed on longer than he probably should have, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t erase all the success he had prior to as a GM.  After all, it can be hard to maintain the same focus and motivation for as long as he was a VHL GM for.

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"Stacked draft classes".  We still hear this term whenever a solid draft group comes around.  Generally, it's referred to those that still see active members selected outside of the first round, or even in some cases, for drafts that just post an excellent first round and some potential late bloomers afterwards.  I've been around a long time and have seen this label used for draft classes like Season 27, which saw a number of incredible players selected including future Hall of Famer's: Alexander Chershenko, Elijah Incognito, Phil Rafter and David Smalling.  Then there was the Season 33 Draft that saw a fairly loaded first round and a second round that featured the likes of future Hall of Fame talent, Niklas Lindberg and other very solid players such as Sebastian Ball Jr., Evgeny Namestnikov, Thomas Landry and Adam Kylrad.  However, none of these drafts even compare to the magnitude of the tremendous Season 18 Draft.  

 

The Season 18 class saw five Hall of Fame players taken and another handful that had solid cases as well.  The first overall pick is probably a familiar name to some, as the name Daisuke Kanou is plastered onto the Playoff MVP Trophy.  Kanou went on to one of the best careers ever had by a goaltender, leading the Dynamo to three separate cups in a six season span.  The first round also saw Anton Brekker, Jukka Hakkinen and Tarik Saeijs all taken (all eventual Hall of Fame players).  Olivier Scarlett had an excellent career as a defensive defensemen and some argued he had a case for the HOF given his defensive accomplishments that saw him join the 1000 hits, 1000 blocked shots club.  Peyton Nydroj also put together a tremendously successful offensive career and while he fell short of the HOF, he was on the ballot for quite some time.  The draft was not without its misses though, with Cedric Pollack and David Vidal never really matching expectations that they had set in front of them.

 

This draft is not well-known because of its first round though.  The depth in this draft is what makes it the best.  The second round saw Hall of Fame goaltender Aidan Shaw taken (you might recognise that name from the awards too!) along with several really solid players including Pekka Jarmuth, Biggie Shakur, Gabriel Cederland and Jordan de Fabio.  All of these players would play solid roles on some good teams during their career and provide some production over that time.  Michael Angelo was also taken in the second round.  The long-time Helsinki Titans defenseman was drafted by the Riga Reign and quickly traded for a nothing player.  Angelo would prove the Reign wrong in trading him, going on to a successful career that included being the Captain of the Helsinki Titans, winning a cup in Season Twenty-Two, becoming their all-time assists leader at the time of retirement and breaking the record (which still stands) for most assists by a rookie in league history with ninety-eight!

 

Think I'm done? Think again! The third round (yeah....the third round) saw Joey Clarence taken.  Clarence was a goaltender who went on to a 700+ TPE career that saw him win a cup and provide really solid goaltending in a tough era for goaltenders to win awards in.  If not for Kanou and Shaw, Clarence likely makes the Hall of Fame with the potential hardware he could have taken home.  Additionally, Mathias Chouinard was taken.  Chouinard retired early but finished with three cups and a career that saw him record over 600 points.  Chouinard was on the HOF ballot for quite some time and had a few close calls as well.  Roman Andreev was a 400+ TPE solid role player that found a lot of success in Calgary including an incredible rookie season.  Finally, every other player in the third round found success in a supporting role on various teams showing that this draft was indeed three rounds deep...a rarity in current day VHL.

 

The Season 18 Draft is the best class ever done.  For me, it had the elite talents and the supporting talents in later rounds.  Every year, we hope to see another class like this but it really does seem that this was the perfect storm of the VHL recruiting strong, getting excellent re-creates and retaining its members with a league that was a very quality product at the time.  We can only hope for another of these to come in the future.

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The James Platts Welfare Program and VHL Pension Plan have been under fire recently for the potential loss of truly active members in the Victory Hockey League.  Whether fair or not, these systems have led to some members who used to post media spots and/or graphics to start posting in one thread a simple claim to get a slightly less amount of TPE every single week.  This week’s edition of Blast from the Past will take a look at the integration of this program, what it has done for the league and it’s future in our great league.

 

I have to admit that when they brought this plan originally in, I was unsure if I liked it.  At the time, I was consistently earning 9 TPE per week and had no issues coming with creative media spot ideas, entertaining podcasts and I even dabbled in graphics for a while back in my early years of the Victory Hockey League.  This plan seemed to encourage the lazier members or even perhaps the ones that had lost the creativity.  Though, I have to admit that I thought it would be a cool idea if it were to get some former members to return to the league.  This is exactly what happened with some familiar names returning just to post in the welfare threads and in overall league threads as they missed the community but not necessarily the significant commitment.  Part of what made this an easy choice for them was the Pension Plan which gave you additional TPE if you had players with at least 400 TPE in the past, with members like Scotty being able to return and get four points per week just because of his previous players.

 

I found it a lot less used early on as many members still saw the significant advantage of doing point tasks, but this has slowly changed as the season’s go on.  Nowadays, several major members use it and with the two-player system being brought into the league, it is even more common for member’s second player.  Even I used it for a bit on my second player as I couldn’t muster up the time to write two different articles every week and this gave me an easy way out.  This use of the welfare system has come under fire recently in a time where the VHL is seeing less point tasks and more people turning to the welfare system, leading to less time being spent on the board and less overall activity.  Members like JRuutu have called for it to be dismantled and that members using it should try to be rid of or at least converted to point tasks as they are killing the league.  While extreme, the league has seen a lot of people go far lazier since the welfare system came into place.  Or perhaps that is just where we are with leagues.

 

The league is at a crux and I do feel like the new review system is only going to lead to more welfare.  With the potential of easily earning at least 6 TPE per week between the two, a lot of members may go that route.  Then again, the new point task rules about being able to do longer articles for more weeks, may lead to more people doing point tasks since they may only have to write one or two longer articles a month.  Whatever the result is, I don’t think welfare is going anywhere and it has served a purpose…though I’m not sure it is the purpose that it was originally supposed to solve.

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This week I was going through the Hall of Fame stuff given my responsibility as the new League Historian of the VHL.  Looking through this stuff reminded me of some of the old debates we used to have about who is the best at each position and things like that.  Without further ado, I bring you my top-5 Defensemen of all-time.

 

5. Japinder Singh – 576 GP, 751 P, 1293 Hits, 1241 SB

Statistically, Japinder Singh may very well be the most accomplished defender of all-time.  His points total mixed with being in the illustrious 1000-1000 club are all impressive accomplishments that he made while in the VHL.  There are definitely some things to keep in mind statistically though.  First, he was a part of the Season 20 group that got way more points than they would have in any other year, due to the incredibly weak goalie crop that saw more 100+ point players than in any other season.  Additionally, Singh played for some terrible teams at times during the VHL, which definitely helped him reach the 1200 SB plateau.  Nevertheless, his overall numbers are fantastic and definitely stick out from the group.  Why isn’t he higher? The biggest issue for me is the award cabinet.  Singh only won one individual award in his career with a Mikita Trophy in Season 23 for leading the league in assists.  He was never named top defender and never had any other individual accomplishments.  Perhaps he should have and I’d have to review the award ceremonies to find that out, but nevertheless he does find himself on this list for being perhaps the most consistently strong defender of all-time, and certainly from his generation.

 

4. Daniel Braxton – 576 GP, 666 P, 1572 Hits, 1035 SB

I think he gets a bit overrated, but Daniel Braxton was a tremendous defender for the majority of his career.  Of course, he is known as the first defenseman to win four Labatte Trophies (one of just two to do so) and he did so consecutively.  He also won two Brett Slobodzian Trophy’s for Most Outstanding Player, granted there were some controversy that he perhaps didn’t completely deserve either.  The biggest issue for Braxton is that he was never able to bring his team to a Continental Cup victory.  He showed off some strong talents in the playoffs but unfortunately was a part of the Americans that choked many seasons in a row.  At the end of the day, Braxton only really dominated in the regular season and while that means he doesn’t finish number one like Jericho would probably like.  With that being said, what he accomplished still gets him put on this list.

 

3. Conner Low – 504 GP, 706 P, 1596 Hits, 725 SB

Conner Low tho is an interesting case.  He only played as a defender for five seasons but managed to find unparalleled success over those five seasons.  Over that time period, he won five Sterling Labatte Trophy’s as Top Defender and led the league in assists three times over that period.  He’s a difficult case due to the position switch, but his five years as a defender are likely the most accomplished ever.  Had he played his whole career as a defender, he could have finished number one but that is hard to say.  One of the other strikes against Low is the general lack of competition as some feel he had some fairly easy competition besides Bentley.  Nevertheless, with five Labattes, three Beketovs and his fantastic team success, Low finds himself not only on this list but in contention for first.

 

2. Ryan Sullivan – 504 GP, 648 P, 1768 Hits, 848 SB

Ryan Sullivan is another interesting case and there are some comparisons that can be drawn between him and other top defenders.  Like Labatte, Braxton and Low, he dominated the Top Defender voting for quite some time, winning on three separate occasions against competition including Braxton, Incognito, Valiq and Riopel.  Despite the difficult competition at times, he not only dominated the defensemen voting but also led the league in assists on two occasions while being one of the most physical defenders in the entire league.  It’s unfortunate he didn’t play another year in the VHL to take a shot at the 700P, 2000H and 1000SB plateau’s as he was within striking range of all three, which would arguably put him ahead of Singh for the most impressive statistics on paper ever.  Sullivan was a strong playoff performer and did win the Continental Cup once, doing what Braxton could never do.

 

1. Sterling Labatte – 648 GP, 782 P, 776 Hits

He’s been around since the very beginning and while some things change, others stay the same.  Sterling Labatte is the only guy on this list that got to play nine seasons (thanks to the season one signing not counting as his first) and he was the most electrifying offensively for sure.  On paper, his numbers may not look brilliant but hits were not as commonly high back then and his totals were actually very impressive for the time.  His 782 points and tremendous defensive play were impressive during his nine years in the league.  Labatte won three top defender trophy’s while also winning multiple Playoff MVP’s and being one of the cornerstones on a number of tremendous teams throughout his career.  Labatte has his name on the Top Defender Trophy and that reason is because he still is the greatest defenseman in league history.

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I really enjoyed writing last week's article and feel inspired to do some all-time lists given that I continue to revamp the historical section on the forum.  Therefore, I will be doing a Top-10 list of forwards, defenders and goaltenders in the coming weeks.  We will be starting with the forwards as this article will list the players ranked from my honourable mention to number seven on the list.

 

HM. Phil Rafter - 576 GM, 407 G, 485 A, 892 P, +342, 66 GWG

It may come as a surprise to see the player who has the second most points for players since season ten not ranked in the top ten, but not everything is offensive statistics.  Nevertheless, one can not argue with Rafter's numbers as his disciplined style allowed him to be on the ice more, leading to an incredible 892 points, which is good enough for sixth all-time.  One of the big things that gets in the way for Rafter is his lack of award cabinet.  Despite being such a dominant offensive player, his award cabinet is mostly minor with a couple seasons leading to some more significant awards.  In Season 32, Rafter was named the Most Outstanding Player as he led the league in goals and points.  Additionally, the season before he played a huge role in his one and only Continental Cup win with the Davos Dynamo. Rafter was mostly known as a great leader though, being named the Top Leader of the VHL on four separate occasions.  While he was no physical specimen, Rafter was one of the best offensive players of all-time, and had he played in a different era, would have been awarded as such.

 

10. Kevin Brooks - 576 GM, 396 G, 518 A, 914 P, +329, 66 GWG

He sits third all-time in points and is truly one of the greatest players to come out of the early generation, alongside the likes of Scotty Campbell and Mike Szatkowski.  You may recognise this name as the one who is on the trophy for the top goal scorer in the league, and given Kevin Brooks is seventh all-time in goals, he was pretty darn successful at finding the back of the net.  Brooks was a two-time MVP, led the league in goals once, assists once and points twice and was a Continental Cup winner in Season 9 with Toronto.  Kevin Brooks definitely was able to take advantage of some weaker competition, but he did so in a way that puts him third all-time in points.  At the end of the day, he beat nearly every peer and not by a small amount.  Additionally, his lengthy award cabinet only adds to his impressive resume that solidifies Brooks in the tenth spot on my list.

 

9. Unassisted - 576 GM, 402 G, 484 A, 886 P, +530, 958 Hits, 84 GWG

I toyed with the idea of putting Unassisted higher on our list and honestly he came very close to cracking the top five even, but alas he finds himself ninth on our all-time list of forwards.  Unassisted's numbers on the surface don't look much more impressive than the others on this list, but one needs to keep in mind that he played in arguably the most defensive league the VHL has ever been, with goalie records essentially being broken with almost every single season.  He was an incredibly complete player, boasting points, hits, clutch goals and he was pretty successful winning hardware too.  He led the league in goals once, points once, was named MVP, Playoff MVP and Most Outstanding all each one time.  Finally, he was a two-time Continental Cup winner for the New York Americans.

 

8. Alexander Chershenko - 576 GP, 387 G, 489 A, 876 P, +283, 731 Hits, 75 GWG

I fought with this pick cause I couldn't decide if I felt Chershenko should be here or Grimm Jonsson.  After a lengthy review I made my decision but admittedly it was tough.  Chershenko finished his career with an incredible regular season record, but it is his award cabinet and playoffs that are far more impressive.  Chershenko is arguably the greatest playoff forward of all-time with 115 points in 74 games, including 53 goals.  He was even named Playoff MVP in Season 30 and Season 34 for his dominant play.  That isn't the only award he won though as he led the league in goals three times, points once, was a MVP and was also a two-time Most Outstanding Player.  All in all, Chershenko dominated when it mattered the most and took his hardware when he needed too, listing him as one of the greatest forwards of the modern era.

 

7. Grimm Jonsson - 576 GM, 319 G, 488 A, 807 P, +227, 1100 Hits, 39 GWG

I wasn't sure where to put Jonsson as statistically he falls short of quite a few players on this list.  However, one can not ignore his all-around physical play that saw him record 1100 hits in his career, in a time where that he was a tremendous amount.  Like Chershenko, he was a tremendous playoff performer with 70 points and 140 hits in 57 games.  That wasn't the only thing he did like Chershenko though, as he was able to win quite a few awards during his career.  Jonsson won MVP three times, won a Most Outstanding Player, led the league in goals twice, assists once and points twice to go along with his two Continental Cup's and four Top Leader trophies.

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6. Scott Boulet – 432 GP, 349 G, 388 A, 737 P, +401, 772 Hits, 55 GWG
We all know the name from being the player honoured on our league’s Top Two-Way Forward award.  Scott Boulet was easily one of the greatest players in league history, and had he had a longer career, he probably would be in the top three on this list.  As it is, Boulet only played six seasons but still sees himself with well over 700 points and nearly 800 hits, despite playing in an era that saw very few players reach 500 hits in their career.  Boulet won two Continental Cups and his team’s made the finals on four different occasions.  Individually, Scott won a ton of hardware as well with one MVP trophy and four Delvecchio Trophy’s which were awarded for the best defensive forward.  Given that he won the MVP trophy in his last season, it is a real shame that we didn’t get a chance to see Scott go all eight, but for the six season’s he played in the league, he was one of the greatest ever and perhaps the biggest overall threat after Scotty Campbell.

 

5. Mike Szatkowski – 573 GP, 434 G, 537 A, 971 P, +332, 477 Hits, 54 GWG
If you strictly look at his individual award cabinet, you might wonder why Mike Szatkowski is on this list.  However, when you look at just about everything else, you may wonder why he Is only fifth on the list.  Mike Szatkowski is still the second most proficient producer in league history.  He sits only behind Scotty Campbell in points with 971 and while he did it in a more offensive era, his dominance over anyone that wasn’t Campbell is pretty incredible.  Unfortunately for Mike, having to compete with a guy like Scotty and even guys like Boulet, Brooks, etc. did take a toll on his award cabinet.  Szatkowski led the VHL in goals and points on route to a MVP Trophy in Season 8, which are the only three individual trophy’s he ever won in the VHL.  However, he was a consistent all-star and one of the league’s better international players ever.  His place on this list is due to his consistency statistically, hitting 100 points in every single season except one, as he easily stands as one of the most dominant offensive performers in league history.

 

4. Lars Berger – 576 GP, 396 G, 486 A, 882 P, +385, 1818 Hits, 68 GWG

Lars Berger had a great amount of individual and team success throughout his Victory Hockey League career.  On a team level, Berger won Continental Cups in Season 18, 19 and 21.  He also was apart of teams that made the VHL Finals in Season 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.  Individually, Berger is one of the best all-around players ever.  His 882 points rank him in the top ten for points all-time and his 1800 plus hits were among the best ever at the time of his retirement, and still rank incredibly high regardless of his offensive skill-set.  He led the league in assists in Season 22 and was rewarded with the Scott Boulet Trophy (top two-way forward) in Season 22, 23 and 24.  The fact his numbers still hold are incredible but given that at the time of his retirement he was fifth all-time in goals and points and third in hits, Lars Berger should be considered one of the best players in league history.
 

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3. Leeroy Jenkins - 576 GP, 325 G, 484 A, 809 P, +327, 2182 Hits, 47 GWG

There was a time where I compared Jenkins to Campbell in a mag article and argued that while I still felt Campbell was the number one, Jenkins was the closest thing to him there may ever be.  Naturally he was one of the most explosive offensive players of his time but also recorded over 2000 hits and was quite the successful player individually and team wise.  Jenkins won one MVP trophy, led the league in points once, goals once, assists once and four Boulet Trophy's, solidifying him as one of the greatest two-way players of all-time.  Additionally, he won a phenomenal five cups with victories in Season 24, 25, 27, 28 and 30.  When you consider his era and how tremendous he was as an overall talent, Jenkins is right up there with the very best all-time.

 

2. Thomas O'Malley - 576 GP, 381 G, 532 A, 913 P, +400, 233 Hits, 70 GWG

It took a lot to not put Mr. O'Malley at the number one position.  His 913 points are practically unmatched for players over the last forty-five seasons and even given the lower scoring era, still put Thomas up there with everyone that isn't Campbell.  His award cabinet is only matched by one and frankly I think there is quite the difference between the top two and Jenkins on this list.  O'Malley recorded three MVP's, four Most Outstanding Player's, led the league in points four times, goals twice and assists once.  Finally, O'Malley won four Continental Cups including three in a row in Season 45, 46 and 47.  Over this span, he also managed to win a Kanou Trophy for Playoff MVP in Season 45.

 

1. Scotty Campbell - 577 GP, 600 G, 639 A, 1239 P, +643, 191 Hits, 101 GWG

I have heard all the arguments against Campbell.  Yes, he played against some lower-end goaltenders.  Yes, he played at a time where teams were less developed and the stars could take advantage more.  Yes, he generally played in a much higher scoring era.  But none of that explains how he managed to record 300 more points than any other player in his era AND any other era.  His 1239 points, 600 goals, 639 assists, 101 GWG and many other accolades all rank number one all-time.  Additionally, check out this award cabinet:  4 Continental Cups, 3 MVP Trophies, 2 Playoff MVP Trophies, 5 time points leader, 4 time goals leader and 2 time assists leader.  There is no argument that takes out Campbell for me, because for every argument against him due to era, we can easily just point to everyone else in his era and how far back of his records they finished.  Congratulations to Scotty Campbell on being the greatest forward of all-time.

[Advantage 2,891]

The VHL Super Cup was not a longstanding VHL tournament like the World Championships has been.  With that being said, it still did mark a change towards something different in the VHL Landscape.  The idea came about as a way to differentiate tournaments from the VHL WC, that seemed as stale as ever.  It would happen every three seasons, as would the WC, and would feature a fantasy draft of any player you could ever want to take.  While it would only take place four times, in a ten year span, the Super Cup still had some memorable moments and some tremendous performances.

 

The first Super Cup in VHL history was in Season 35, and it saw six teams battle it out for the title including The Reynaud Raid, Shirokov Not Stirred, Pogge Sticks, McCreath Eaters, Maximum Desny and McNeil and the Steals.  Each team played twenty games to battle it out for Super Cup supremacy.  At the end of it all, the Pogge Sticks, led by first round pick Tuomas Tukio, would win it all.  Leading scoring of the tournament was fourth overall pick, Yuri Grigorenko, while McNeil teammates, Davey Jones and Reggie Dunlop, would finish in the top three as well.

 

Another six teams would battle it out in Season 38, with a whole new set of faces taking over the leaderboards.  Fresh names like Odin Tordahl, Conner Low, Xin Xie Xiao and Felix Zamora had taken over the top ten in scoring.  However, it was Naomi Young that emerged as the leading scorer with 28 points in the tournament, the third highest total in cup history only behind Grigorenko and Jones who accomplished their totals in Season 35.  In the end, Vestiquan’s Best took home the Gold with Going Great Heidt’s finishing in second place.

 

Season 41 was run by yours truly and I took a focus to actives.  In Season 38, far too many inactives were taken as key pieces while actives were left without rosters.  This time I made a list of all of the actives in the VHL and made it clear that no inactive could be taken until the actives were gone.  In the end, it was a successful tournament that saw Tom Slaughter run roughshod over everybody.  The Brekker forward recorded 21 goals and 20 assists in 20 games and led the tournament in scoring by 8 points.  His Brekker Bad would win the Cup with Jardy Bunclewirthless finishing second.  Other names in the top five that tournament for scoring included Sachimo Zoidberg, Logan Laich, Brennan McQueen and the legendary Thomas O’Malley.

 

Phil ran the very last Super Cup in league history.  He did a wonderful job and presented a lot of new ideas but unfortunately the league just didn’t seem to appreciate it enough.  In the end, Campbell’s Chicken Noodles took home the championship with Phil’s Porridge finishing second and KKKendrick finishing third.  This tournament saw awards being handed out including top scorer to both Jody 3 Moons and Bruno Wolf; most goals to Rami Jakobssen and Shadu Rathod Jr.; most assists to Tyler Cote and Mason Richardson; top defenseman to Richardson; and top goalie to Blake Campbell.  While perhaps it was just a swansong, the Super Cup started to seemingly meet its potential and it’s a shame that we couldn’t have figured a way to perhaps increase the interest around it.  Nevertheless, its connections to our history are clear and perhaps we will see it or something like it return again in the future.

[Advantage 2,891]

THE PHIL KNIGHT AWARD?

 

The VHL Award for Top Leader has been quite polarizing over its time in the league.  For many, it is a terrible award that even the voters himself don’t really have criteria for.  When GM’s did all the voting, the implication was often that they would just vote for their captain because they see the impact that member has in their LR, and don’t see any of the others.  For some, it’s a great example of leadership on our great forum, and one thing is for sure, there are usually just a few names that ever end up in the discussion for this award year after year.  One of them is Phil Knight, and the vast amount of players he has had in our league.

 

First, a history lesson though.  The Grimm Jonsson Trophy, as it is now known, has been around since Season One when Vasteras’ Scotty Campbell won his first of many trophies.  Many different players won it until it became Jonsson’s trophy to win almost every single year.  The Captain of the Americans won the award four out of five seasons and it was hardly that member’s first win of the trophy as Sterling had Sterling Labatte before, who won the award twice himself.  However, when Phil Gerrard hit the league, it took for quite a turn.

 

Phil Knight’s agency started strong with Gerrard, who eventually made the VHL Hall of Fame, and won the award once.  Through Knight’s first few players, he didn’t dominate the voting as much, with guys like Osborne (four time winner), Taylor (two time winner) and Snijider (two time winner) becoming the league favourites.  In the mid 40’s though, that narrative would change.  Spanning across two different players, Phil won the award eight of ten seasons.  With how dominant he has been in winning the award and with how much he has met to the VHL Community, it seems that he is one of the likely candidates to have an award renamed after himself.

 

In fact, in the discussion of renaming awards we have thought of a few.  The Knight award for Top Leader, the Chris Miller Award for Top GM and the Joey Kendrick Award for whatever you want, have all been discussed.  The Phil Knight Award though seems like the absolute top consensus pick to be renamed and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see that go down in the near future.  For now, we celebrate the tremendous leader that Phil has been to our league and what he has meant for the history of the league.

 

@boubabi