Season 50 VHL Entry Draft: Essian Ravenwing [1/2]

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

Essian Ravenwing was born in a small town in Wales. His dream was to play hockey and he chose the league known as the Victory Hockey League to display his hockey talents. The 6'2 centerman declared that he would be playing in the VHL in Season 48 but had to go through the VHLM process to get there. Let's follow his journey from there.

 

Season 48 - Saskatoon Wild

Season 48 Regular Season
S48 VHLM - SSK - 26 GP |  2 G | 17 A | 19 P | +14 | 12 PIM |  22 H |  55 SH |  7 SB

Season 48 Playoffs
S48 VHLM - SSK -  9 GP | 2 G | 12 A | 14 P | +5 |  0 PIM |  6 H | 45 SH | 5 SB

Ravenwing declared in the middle of the Season 48 VHLM season, so he was put through a waiver process and was picked up by the Saskatoon Wild. The Wild were in the midst of battling the Ottawa Lynx for first place. In the end, the Wild fell just short finishing with 102 points to the Lynx and their 109 points. Ravenwing had a decent season playing in 26 games, scoring 2 goals and assisting on 17 goals for 19 points.

 

In the playoffs, the Lynx would play the Brampton Blades who finished with 51 points on the regular season. It was a easy series for the Wild who swept the Lynx in convincing fashion with the Wild winning by a combined score of 17-8. The next series was the tough one as both these teams went to war. In the end the Wild fell in just 5 games with most games being decided by 1 or 2 goals. Ravenwing has a fine showing in the playoffs with 2 goals and 12 assists for 14 points in just 9 games. He will be a hot commodity in the upcoming VHLM Draft.

 

Season 49 - Bern Royals

Season 49 Regular Season
S49 VHLM - BER - 72 GP | 21 G | 74 A | 95 P | +30 | 33 PIM | 109 H | 207 SH | 15 SB

Season 49 Playoffs
S49 VHLM - BER - 10 GP | 0 G | 12 A | 12 P | +3 | 11 PIM | 18 H | 28 SH | 2 SB

In the Season 49 VHLM Dispersal Draft, the Bern Royals watched as Ravenwing fell to them at 4th overall and could not have been more happier with how the draft played out. Ravenwing was taken after Thor Odinsson (1st OA), Asher Donovan (2nd OA) and Diana Maxwell (3rd OA). Bern also picked up Travis Gowecny with the next pick in the draft at 5th overall giving the Royals a great 1/2 punch in the middle.

 

Bern was a great team in Season 49 and they were the runaway best team in the European Conference with 2nd place Oslo Storm finishing with 88 points compared to Bern's 99. Ravenwing had a great season scoring 21 goals and assisting on 74 goals for 95 points in 72 games. The Royals were a great all around team this season with at least 8 players reaching the 50 points plateau.

 

Bern got the bye into the semi finals and would await the winner of the Oslo Storm and the Bratislava Watchmen. The Storm would sweep the Watchmen and move onto the semis to play Bern. The series was very hard fought with the Royals taking it in 6 games. It was 2-2 after 4 games but the Royals proved too much in Game 5 and 6. In the finals, it was the Yukon Rush who surprised everyone by beating the Brampton Blades in the semis who would make it to the finals. In the end, the Royals swept the Rush and just one game was decided by more than 1 goal and one game even went to overtime. It was a much closer series than it looked. Ravenwing showed his playmaking prowess with 12 assists for 12 points in 10 games. The Bern Royals were the Founders Cup Champions and Ravenwing ended his VHLM Career in style.

 

Season 50 - Stockholm Vikings

Season 50 Regular Season
S50 VHL - STO - 72 GP |  8 G | 33 A |  41 P | -46 | 10 PIM | 89 H | 170 SH | 65 SB

Season 50 Playoffs
N/A

Season 50 World Cup
S50 WC - EUR - 10 GP | 1 G |  0 A |  1 P | -2 | 6 PIM | 12 H | 10 SH | 1 SB

Season 50 World Cup Elimination Round
S50 WC - EUR - 2 GP | 0 G | 0 A | 0 P | +2 | 4 PIM | 3 H |  1 SH | 0 SB

Coming into the Season 50 VHL Entry Draft, Ravenwing was one of the highly regarded players and there was a 66% chance he would be packing his bag for Stockholm. In the Season 50 Draft, there were 3 prospects who were head and shoulders above the rest and they were Diana Maxwell, Theo Axelsson and Essian Ravenwing. Stockholm owned the 1st and 3rd overall pick in this draft (3rd overall from Seattle) and were guaranteed two great building blocks. Diana Maxwell went 1st overall, Theo Axelsson 2nd which left Essian Ravenwing 3rd overall. Ravenwing and Maxwell would be teaming up in Stockholm.

 

The first season wasn't that great and was certainly a struggle considering how these two players dominated the VHLM. Ravenwin scored 8 goals and assisted on 33 goals for 41 points playing for the lowly Vikings. The Vikings finished dead last in the league with just 27 points which was 20 behind the 9th place team. Overall, it was a nightmare season in which I don't think either player were prepared for.

 

Ravenwing was named to the Season 50 Team Europe Roster for the World Cup. While being a rookie, he was expected to put up much points but just 1 goal in 10 games? That was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Team World though was pretty good and finished 1st in the Round Robin with 19 points. Europe would play Team Mercenaries in semifinals and beat them 2-0 before moving onto the finals to play Team World. The World beat Europe with a 2-1 score. Ravenwing was awarded a Silver Medal which was pretty nice for him considering the struggle that was going on in Stockholm.

 

Season 51 - New York Americans

Season 51 Regular Season
S51 VHL - NYA - 72 GP | 11 G | 21 A | 32 P | -50 | 12 PIM | 49 H | 182 SH | 13 SB

Season 51 Playoffs
N/A

One season after taking Diana Maxwell, Essian Ravenwing and Elijah Dotran with the 1st, 3rd and 5th overall picks, the Stockholm Vikings decided to rebuild the rebuild and ship these three players off along with Nikki Kissanen for a Season 52 Davos 1st (Lee King Snatch), Season 52 Quebec 2nd Round Pick (Die Domi), Season 52 Cologne 2nd Round Pick (Johnny Styles), Season 53 New York 1st (SkateFast McChunky) and a Season 53 New York 2nd (Luigi De Rossi). Just by taking a quick look, it was basically Lee King Snatch for Diana Maxwell and Essian Ravenwing. Not a very good trade for Stockholm.

 

In New York, the Americans weren't very good and it really brought the players down. Ravenwing finished with lower stats than his rookie season in Stockholm. Ravenwing scored 11 goals and assisted on 21 goals for just 32 points. The Americans finished 9th ahead of the very lowly Vikings who finished last with 18 points.

 

Season 52 - New York Americans

Season 52 Regular Season
S52 VHL - NYA - 72 GP | 17 G | 62 A | 79 P | +56 |  0 PIM | 24 H | 222 SH | 25 SB

Season 52 Playoffs
S52 VHL - NYA - 17 GP | 5 G | 11 A | 16 P | +6 | 0 PIM | 4 H | 55 SH |  4 SB

Season 52 World Cup
S52 WC - EUR - 10 GP | 2 G |  2 A |  4 P | -1 | 0 PIM |  1 H | 23 SH | 7 SB

Season 52 World Cup Elimination Round
S52 WC - EUR - 2 GP | 0 G | 1 A | 1 P | -3 | 0 PIM | 0 H | 10 SH | 0 SB

Coming into the Season 52 season, the Ravenwing has been quite disappoint to say the least with just 73 points in two seasons. This was a make or break season for the centerman from Wales. What do you know, he did end up breaking out with 17 goals and 62 assists for 79 points. It wasn't a massive breakout but it was improvement. The Americans improved quite a bit in Season 52 as well finishing with 110 points which was 2nd in the NA just 9 points behind the Seattle Bears.

 

The Americans would play the Wranglers in the semi finals in what proved to be possibly the best of the playoffs. This was one of the bright spots of the quarterfinals in the history of the VHL. The Americans won the series in 7 games in which all games were basically high scoring save for Game 2 which was a 1-0 win by the Americans. The Americans would move onto the semifinals to play the Seattle Bears. In what was supposed to be another close series, the Americans wound up winning the series in just 5 games. The Bears won in OT the first games then lost the next 4 games by at least 2 goals in 3 of 4. In the finals, it was the Riga Reign who would move onto the finals to play the Americans. It was another snooze fest of a series with the Americans winning 2 of the first 3 then the next 2 to win the Continental Cup. Ravenwing would score 5 goals and assist on 11 goals for 16 points in the 17 game playoff. It was a very good showing for Ravenwing.

 

It was another World Cup year and the European Squad named Ravenwing to the team once more expecting more than 1 goal. They did get 2 goals and 2 assists for 4 points from Ravenwing. Europe finished 2nd in the Round Robin with 17 points. The European Squad made it to the semifinals via the bye but would lose to the USA team causing them to drop to the Bronze Medal game. There they would fall to Team World 3-2 in OT to lose the Bronze Medal. From great highs of winning the Continental Cup to the lows of losing a medal in OT, it was quite the season to Ravenwing who had just 1 assist in 2 games.

 

Season 53 - New York Americans

Season 53 Regular Season
S53 VHL - NYA - 72 GP | 30 G | 69 A |  99 P | +56 |  8 PIM | 12 H | 304 SH | 21 SB

Season 53 Playoffs
S53 VHL - NYA - 19 GP | 7 G | 16 A | 23 P | +8 | 4 PIM | 4 H | 69 SH | 19 SB

Coming off a Continental Cup in Season 52, many were wondering what would become of the Americans in Season 53. Ravenwing continued his assent to one of the top players in the game with 30 goals and 69 assists for 99 points. He was 1 point shy of the 100 point plateau. The Americans closed the gap to the Bears who had 118 points to the 114 for the Americans. This again meant the Americans would have to play in the quarterfinals.

 

The upstart Meute finished in 3rd but would be easily pushed aside in 5 games by the Americans setting up another playoff battle between the Americans and Bears in the semi final. Instead of the 5 game snoozer last season we got the series we all wanted and that was a 7 game battle between the top two teams in the VHL. It ended with the same result though with the Americans moving on after 7 games. In the finals, it would be the Americans vs the Vikings, yes the same team that traded the two players now on the Americans. In the end, it was Ravenwing and Maxwell who got the last laugh on the Vikings beating them in the finals in 7 games once and for all proving the Vikings made a mistake trading them. Ravenwing scored 7 goals and assisted on 16 goals for 23 points in the playoffs. Ravenwing was a two time Continental Cup Champion.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

claiming for the weeks of:

Feb 19

Feb 26

Mar 5

Mar 12

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Review:

Great one from you. Ravenwing had a fantastic career, and was a scary forward since the start of it. Der Meister makes legit players every time.

Great write-up!