VHL Headlines

[Will 4,660]

Deadline Deals

 

Last week, nearly every article in the mag mentioned the upcoming trade deadline in some way or another. The deadline has since come and gone, leaving in its wake a flurry of trades and, contrary to some early speculation, perhaps a hint of satisfaction. We saw the second part of the highly publicized Stockholm-Toronto exchange, Seattle getting rid of more tired assets in favour of future picks, and Davos alongside Quebec have made efforts to bolster their teams as we approach post-season. 

 

To Davos

James Faraday

 

To Seattle

S46 DAV 1st

S45 COL 2nd

 

In the first deal, Seattle moves highly touted winger James Faraday over to Davos in exchange for their S46 1st and Cologne's S45 2nd round pick. This move furthers the implosion that Seattle began in the off-season following their cup victory, when they moved star netminder Niklaus Mikaelson to Quebec. For Davos, they get a high level winger with a couple of seasons left in him to help them hopefully get passed the teams sitting at the top of Europe, Stockholm and Cologne.

 

To Stockholm

Jerrick Poole

Tyson Stokes

Shadhu Rathod

 

To Toronto

S46 STO 1st

S46 STO 2nd

 

This deal comes as little surprise to everyone as a result of the recent publicity, most often in the form of criticism, it has received. The initial deal, which was leaked a couple of weeks ago, was extremely lopsided in favour of Stockholm. It was even suggested that the Commissioner's Office look into the trade under the 'excessively detrimental to a franchise' clause found in the rule book. In any case, Toronto re-negotiated and we're left with a much fairer deal, Stockholm receives some solid players, and Toronto gets some picks to help their rebuild.

 

To Quebec

S45 QUE 1st

S45 QUE 2nd

 

To Helsinki

S45 QUE 3rd

 

At first glance, this trade is extremely confusing. Why would Helsinki give away free picks? The answer lies in the VHL Waivers, where Helsinki and Quebec executed a shady, but completely legal, transaction that allows Helsinki to pick up 100% of winger Wolfgang Strauss' salary. In addition to Strauss, it's been suggested that a 2nd part of this deal is n the docket for off-season. The goal of the deal for Quebec was to create some room in their cap for another transaction, and for Helsinki they get a forward thats already a sure thing, giving up a high 1st in a draft with few stable forwards.

 

To Quebec

Brady Stropko

King Czar III

 

To Seattle

S45 QUE 1st

 

Just minutes after executing the deal with Helsinki, Quebec GM Clinton Chevy turned around and pulled the trigger on this deal with Seattle. He brings in Brady Stropko, who is a considerable upgrade to his forward lineup, and tough-guy defenseman King Czar III. Overall, this is a pretty good deal for Quebec as they try to get ready for what could be their last kick at the can before entering a rebuild.

[Will 4,660]

Regular Season Coming to an End 

 

In just three or four days, the VHL's 44th regular season will come to a close and the league will move into playoff mode. It's been an exciting season for all of us and will only get better as the post-season starts up. For quite some time now, we've known which three teams will be our European contenders for the Continental Cup - Davos, Stockholm, and Cologne have all enjoyed clinched playoff spots for a few weeks, leaving Riga and Helsinki at the bottom of the barrel on that side of the pond.

 

In North America, however, the cut is not clear. Calgary and Quebec sit atop the conference with clinched playoff spots, but the third playoff spot is still wide open for either the New York Americans or the Seattle Bears. As it stands at this moment, New York will be the third playoff team with their 69 points over Seattle's 67. Both teams have just 4 games remaining, however, New York has left their required backup games to the last minute and still has to play NYA G two more times. 

 

It will be exciting to watch the last few games and see how this race plays out. Personally, I predict that either New York and Seattle will each win one more time, leading to New York getting the playoff spot OR just Seattle will win one more time, leading to a tie in points but New York still getting the playoff spot, as after the points the next column of interest is wins. In any case, one would think that the teams in question would have the most interest in either making or not making the playoffs, but this time around it seems the Helsinki Titans stand to lose the most if Seattle does squeak into playoffs.

 

The Titans currently hold the S45 1sts of Toronto, Seattle, Davos, and themselves. Toronto and Helsinki are clinched lottery picks, and Seattle could give them a third. This would be huge for Helsinki in a draft like this, where they can easily fill some of the holes they currently have in their roster. Further benefitting them is the fact that have the two bottom picks in Helsinki and Toronto, so if Seattle ends up in the lottery, there is a small chance that Helsinki could end up with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd selections.

 

Although, if this were to happen, analysts and experts around the world are certain that Jim Gow of the Riga Reign would spontaneously combust in a fit of utter rage. 

[Will 4,660]

Helsinki Breaks The League

 

Last week in the VHL Headlines, I spoke of the impending draft lottery. It has since come and gone and we're now left with a shocking result that I don't think anyone expected. In the early afternoon of August 10th, a spokesperson for the VHL Commissioner's Office announced the draft lottery would be held live later that evening.

 

The lights were dimmed and the curtains were drawn but the moment the clock struck 7PM EST (?? DTST), the stage burst into life. The lights came on, the curtains opened, and Mitch Higgins, a VHL Commissioner and pseudo Lottery Master, walked slowly onto the stage as 'Highwaymen' by The Highwaymen played in the background. After a short introductory speech in which he wished the two teams who held a stake in the lottery the best of luck, he wasted no time getting down to business.

 

For anyone who doesn't know how the lottery works, it's like this: The bottom two teams from each conference (any team that misses playoffs) is entered into the VHL Draft Lottery to determine the order of the first four picks. The lottery is done to prevent teams from simply tanking to last place, because if there wasn't a lottery then doing so would guarantee first pick. This way, each of the 4 picks have an equal (25%) chance in getting first overall. To do the lottery, each pick is assigned 2 numbers between 1 and 8, and a random number generator is used to generate a number between 1 and 8. The pick which was assigned whichever number was generated wins the lottery.

 

There is one rule, however, and that is that no team can move down more than one spot. For example, the team that came in last place cannot move down any higher than second overall. So in some cases it takes more than one lottery to complete the order, and this was the case this season. The teams with lottery picks this season in order from 10th place to 7th place were: Helsinki, Toronto, Riga, and Seattle. However, Helsinki owns it's own pick as well as Toronto and Seattle's. 

 

The first number generated by Mitch Higgins belonged to Helsinki. Since Helsinki was the last place team, no teams moved positions and therefore successive lotteries were necessary. The second number belonged to Toronto. Again, since Toronto was in 2nd last, no teams moved possessions and therefore one final lottery was necessary to determine third and fourth positions. The third number belonged to Seattle, moving them from 4th place to 3rd place and sending Riga to the back of the pack.

 

The crowd and viewers at home were left in awe, perhaps more so due to it being the second year in a row that Riga got sent to the back of the pack versus Helsinki securing the top three selections. It's a severe case of bad luck for Riga and you can't help but feel at least a little bad for them. In typical Mitch Higgins fashion, he promptly thanked everyone for tuning in and ended the show. As bad as it is for Riga, though, it's a huge win for Helsinki as they're left in control of a draft with several highly touted players hailing from several big name agencies. 

[Will 4,660]

Super Cup Revisions

 

A while back during the season, I brought up the topic of Super Cup in the Board of Governors. My reason for bringing it up was simple - the S41 Super Cup received very poor engagement and did little to garner excitement. This wasn't the fault of the Super Cup commissioner or anything like that, it's just not as exciting for people as the World Cup is. For anyone who doesn't know what Super Cup is, it's basically just a big 6-team fantasy draft of every player in the league. 

 

Initially, a lot of people in the BoG and various people I spoke with around the league were of the mind that Super Cup has run it's course for now and perhaps something else would do better justice to the otherwise boring off-season. I wasn't opposed to these ideas and there were actually some I quite liked, such as a World Junior Tournament for our VHLM players. Ultimately, however, we decided the best course of action was to spice up the Super Cup the best we could in it's current form, giving it the best chance of survival, and re-evaluate it at the end of the tournament.

 

The thing we wanted to address was the draft. Since the draft is huge, it can take several hours and people largely don't pay attention after the first few selections. In order to create at least some attention and discussion to the draft, we came up with Mock Drafts. This allows spectators to place their predictions for the first 3 rounds of the draft - and earn TPE for how well they do! In fact, you can earn some TPE just by submitting one. Since it's all done through PM, at least a little bit of research into the player list is required to submit one. 

 

The second idea we had was to bring some meaning to statistics, so we decided to introduce predictions for things like Most Points, Most Assists, Top Defencemen, etc. They aren't necessarily awards in the sense of other VHL awards, but you can place predictions and earn some TPE nonetheless. Our goal in making these new features was simply to garner more discussion and hype surrounding the Super Cup.

 

Our two Super Cup Commissioners, Phil and Molholt, are in charge of running the tournament. If anyone can bring some life to Super Cup, it's these two - Phil has already taken up a great initiative in publishing the All-Time Super Cup Statistics. I do hope everyone takes the time to look into Super Cup and participate in these new features, we know we can only do so much but the concept of a league wide fantasy draft is pretty neat so let's hope it works out.

[Will 4,660]

BoG Update + New Additions

 

In this edition, I'll be straying from the typical course of the Headlines to bring you all something that has been forgotten the past few seasons - the annual BOG update. This was something that was done for a few seasons but then got away from us, causing some of you to feel as though the committee responsible for bringing forth and discussing new ideas wasn't being transparent enough. So, here we are. 

 

Over the past few seasons there have been two topics that have seemingly dominated discussion in the BOG - league activity in general, and the VHLM. We'll start with VHLM. Since contracting the minor league a couple of seasons ago, the BOG has continued to discuss ways to improve the league for our new members. While nothing has so far been finalized, we've talked about everything from introducing a salary cap, changing waivers, restricting draft pick trading, and we've even come up with some changes to the VHLM Practice Facility that we hope to implement in the near future.

 

On the topic of league activity, they've mostly been exploring ways to increase our presence on the web and find new sources to garner members. Reddit advertising is something that has come up consistently and, with the help of the recruitment team, something we hope to come to fruition soon. Another thing that has been brought up is how we can improve our presence on search engines such as Google - getting closer to the top of the search list is something that could help attract new members, and we will continue to explore ways to do so.

 

Of course, the BOG has talked about various other things as well. Just this off-season we implemented some new Super Cup features that we came up with during the season, we've toyed with the notion of using TPE for things other than attributes and looked at the salary bracket structure. There has certainly been other small ideas and discussions but nothing has solidified as of now.

 

Presently, we have a fairly active group of people in the BOG and there has been no lack of discussion. That being said, however, it's always healthy to add new minds to the forum. For that reason, we've decided to add two new members. These members have no shortage of ideas that they have presented around the forum, and through their media spots they have shown they have a great understanding to the league.

 

I welcome YEAH! and CowboyInAmerica to the Board of Governors. 

[Will 4,660]

Goodbye Off-Season, Hello Season 45

 

The VHL is gearing up for it's 45th season. On what is currently slated to be this upcoming Tuesday, off-season shall come to a screeching halt and resident simmer Jardy brings us the first games of S45. Overall, it's been a very eventful and busy off-season. Not only did we have the Super Cup going on, but we also had a plethora of trades that have led to a pretty interesting distribution of wealth for Season 45. 

 

Let's go over this crazy off-season. First, Super Cup. In an effort to make the tournament more relevant, the BoG introduced some changes and additions prior to this iteration of the Super Cup. It seems as though they were at least somewhat successful. There isn't a ton of posting in game threads but there is a good amount, and the mock draft/award predictions have been seemingly well received with a pretty good number of members participating in the hopes of earning some nice TPE. Simmer Higgins has been delivering consistent sims and the tournament is set to close tomorrow (Sunday) with the finals being simmed. 

 

The sheer number of trades that have happened this off-season is pretty unbelievable. Fourteen trades in total. This is compared with nine in the Season 43 off-season, and ten in the Season 42 off-season. Every team has made a move this off-season at one time or another. The end result of these trades is a very interesting setup of the league as we go into the leagues 45th season, specifically in the European Conference. Davos and Stockholm continue to improve and bolster their rosters. Cologne sells major pieces to Helsinki and loses others to retirement/free agency, but have also made acquisitions that could still deem them competitive; assumably because they have no S46 selections, so to desire to be awful. Helsinki made moves with various teams, bringing in players as their slated to have their first competitive season since rebuilding. Riga also made moves to acquire established talent as they also aim for their first competitive season since rebuild.

 

If you followed that, you will see that all 5 teams in the conference can be considered competitive teams. This unprecedented parity will surely make following this conference very, very interesting. In North America, Calgary has made changes to their roster to go for another cup following their S44 win. New York continues to approve, acquiring star netminder Niklaus Mikaelson to replacing the stuttering Jax Barnstormer. Quebec sold their major assets but still has enough of a roster to call themselves competitive. Seattle and Toronto, however, both appear to have fairly bare bones rosters based on small-time free agency signings. Either of them could certainly give Quebec a run for their money for the third playoff seed, though.

 

To summarize: great off-season and an even greater Season 45 is coming.

[Will 4,660]

The Rookie Race

 

The Season 45 rookies are 23 games into their professional careers and the race for the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy is well underway. As it stands now, Aleksi Koponen of the Helsinki Titans leads scoring among rookie players with 32 points. The young centerman has been playing on the second line alongside Wolfgang Strauss and fellow rookie Marcel Faux, although recently Strauss moved up the line 1, with top forward Brady Stropko dropping back.

 

Behind Koponen is Max Molholt of the Toronto Legion. An underrated prospect going into the season, Molholt has certainly made a name for himself quickly with his 30 points. Playing on a grim Legion roster may have given Molholt the room he needed to break out, as he plays with former Viking Joeseph Roy III and Alistar Graves. 

 

The other big name in the rookie race right now is Greg 'The Mountain' Clegane, goaltender for the Helsinki Titans. Through 23 games, Clegane boasts a 18-4-0 record with a 0.922SV% and a 2.12GAA - very impressive numbers for a young goalie. In fact, Clegane currently leads all goaltenders in the league in save percentage, goals against average, and wins. 

 

A VHLM Three-Way

 

You don't see three-way trades very often in the VHL. The only one I've seen to date in my VHL career was just the off-season before last when Cologne, Seattle, and Quebec did some goalie and pick swapping. However, the young and driven GM's of the VHLM have pieced together an interesting three-way transaction. 

 

The teams: Moscow, Oslo, Yukon. Moscow see's the lesser of the Cleganes (Sandro) join their roster, while Oslo sees players Bubba Nuck and Marquis Hyvarinen join their squads. Yukon takes home the picks as they pick up an S47 1st from both Moscow and Oslo. It's not something you see everyday, so good on the VHLM GM's for keeping us on their toes.

 

European Madness

 

We all knew the European Conference was going to be close going into S45, but I don't think anyone expected what we see today. It's almost unfathomable to think two of these teams won't have a post-season. Helsinki is currently at the helm of the conference with 32 points. Below them is a close race between, well, basically all 4 teams. Riga and Cologne come in next at 29 and 28 points, respectively. Just below them, currently outside the playoff threshold, is Davos and Stockholm at 26 and 24 points. 

 

If either of those teams ends up missing playoffs (Davos or Stockholm), you have to wonder how that will effect them going forward.

[Will 4,660]

A Commissioner Steps Away

 

It's been roughly 9 months since longtime VHL Commissioner announced his intention step down from the 'Blue Team'. He was replaced by not one but two new additions to the team, one of which has made the decision to take a step back from the league in the interest of real life.

 

Jim Gow, also known as Flyersfan, announced this week that he would be leaving his role as Commissioner. Despite being a short tenure in comparison to the Commissioner's of the past, Jim will be remembered for his level-headed wisdom and rational decision making. A good man, it was truly a pleasure to work alongside him and he will certainly be missed by Higgins, Jardy, and I.

 

I'd like to take this opportunity to extend the best of wishes to Jim on behalf of myself and the rest of the administration. I've gotten to know him a little bit over the past while and it sounds like he's got a lot going for him - real life will always take precedent over the job, but I know this decision likely didn't come easy to him. Good luck, Gow, and thanks for everything.

 

Deadline Action

 

The VHL's 45th Trade Deadline has now come and gone, and although it was relatively quiet, we at least got to see a couple of moves as teams bolster their rosters and prepare for playoffs. The obvious 'big move' was between New York and Quebec, where Quebec sent retiring star Bruno Wolf alongside Tyson Stokes to New York in exchange for a 1st and 2nd round pick. 

 

The other deals where a little less climactic, to say the least. Calgary obtained Hudson Backenbauer, an aged depth player, from Toronto in exchange for a 3rd round selection. Quebec made another swap, this time with Davos, sending defenseman Patrick Demko to the Dynamo for nothing more than a 4th round pick.

 

Three of the VHL's Best Celebrate Birthday's 

 

It's a well known fact that September babies are the best kind of babies. This past week, three of the VHL's very own September babies celebrated birthdays! Happy Birthday to JardyB10, Scotty, and Draper! (Yes I wrote a mag article about my own birthday, come at me).

 

I only know of one other VHL who's existence is celebrated during this great month, and that is Smarch. I'm not sure what date his is but Happy Birthday to him, whenever it may be.

[Will 4,660]

I edited the above headlines that went unpublished, they should be good to go despite being a little aged. 

[Will 4,660]

Final Stretch of S45

 

With 7 games left per team, we are quickly closing in on the end of the VHL's 45th Regular Season. In just a few days, four teams will be left in the dust, while the top-six will move on to post-season. In North America, we already know which teams will be left behind - Seattle and Toronto. In Europe, however, it still isn't so clear cut.

 

Stockholm sits at the bottom of the Conference with 71 points, 8 behind Cologne who sits in fourth and 11 behind Davos, who sits in third. At this point, playoffs are a long-shot for the Vikings but not impossible. As for Cologne, despite being just 3 points behind Davos for the third-seed, getting back into the playoffs will be tough for them. Davos would need to lose, and Cologne would need to pull out some big victories - taking into account that COL G will be playing five out of their last seven games, this isn't likely to happen.

 

Many Goodbye's

 

The trade deadline is always a time where many players come and go from the league, and this season was certainly no exception. We said a final farewell to many players these past few weeks, but in turn we welcomed many to the league. The biggest name to hang up their skates was Bruno Wolf, the highly-touted two-way forward from Quebec has expended his 8 seasons in the league and now, in accordance with the league's retirement standards, must move on. 

 

It was of course no surprise to see Wolf go, as he had no choice in the matter. The most surprising departure was, without a doubt, Devin Sundberg. The Davos centerman decided to call it quits a season early - presumably out frustration with personal and team performance. This isn't good news for Davos and will be interesting to see what Jack Reilly has planned to fill the void left by Sundberg. Among the rest of the retirements were Benjamin Dupont of New York, Niklas Karlsson of Cologne, David Blind of Toronto, and Danger van der Mewe of Helsinki.

 

S45 Team Point Task

 

Unconfirmed reports from multiple sources within the league headquarters have indicated that a Team Point Task may be on the horizon. From what we hear, Commissioner Draper and the Board of Governors have been working tirelessly to come up with a good theme for this season's event.

 

For those who aren't away, the league held a very successful Team Point Task in Season 40 as part of the S40 Celebrations. After the success of that event, it was decided that we would do such point tasks every three seasons - on those season where no World Cup or Super Cup is present. Our next one was Season 42, and was also very successful, which brings us here, to Season 45. We hear that the Board of Governors and the Commissioner's Office have been struggling to come up with a suitable theme for this season so please feel free to post any suggestions or ideas you have in the Mag thread. 

[Molholt 2,185]

Final Stretch of S45

 

With 7 games left per team, we are quickly closing in on the end of the VHL's 45th Regular Season. In just a few days, four teams will be left in the dust, while the top six will move on to postseason. In North America, we already know which teams will be left behind - Seattle and Toronto. In Europe, however, it still isn't so clear cut.

 

Stockholm sits at the bottom of the Conference with 71 points, 8 behind Cologne, who sits in fourth and 11 behind Davos, who sits in third. At this point, playoffs are a long shot for the Vikings, but not impossible. As for Cologne, despite being just 3 points behind Davos for the third seed, getting back into the playoffs will be tough for them. Davos would need to lose, and Cologne would need to pull out some big victories - taking into account that COL G will be playing five out of their last seven games, this isn't likely to happen.

 

Many Goodbyes

 

The trade deadline is always a time where many players come and go from the league, and this season was certainly no exception. We said a final farewell to many players these past few weeks, but in turn we welcomed many to the league. The biggest name to hang up their skates was Bruno Wolf, the highly-touted two-way forward from Quebec has expended his 8 seasons in the league and now, in accordance with the league's retirement standards, must move on. 

 

It was of course no surprise to see Wolf go, as he had no choice in the matter. The most surprising departure was, without a doubt, Devin Sundberg. The Davos centerman decided to call it quits a season early - presumably out of frustration with personal and team performance. This isn't good news for Davos and will be interesting to see what Jack Reilly has planned to fill the void left by Sundberg. Among the rest of the retirements were Benjamin Dupont of New York, Niklas Karlsson of Cologne, David Blind of Toronto and Danger van der Mewe of Helsinki.

 

S45 Team Point Task

 

Unconfirmed reports from multiple sources within the league headquarters have indicated that a Team Point Task may be on the horizon. From what we hear, Commissioner Draper and the Board of Governors have been working tirelessly to come up with a good theme for this season's event.

 

For those who aren't aware, the league held a very successful Team Point Task in Season 40 as part of the S40 Celebrations. After the success of that event, it was decided that we would do such point tasks every three seasons - on those seasons where no World Cup or Super Cup is present. Our next one was Season 42 and was also very successful, which brings us here, to Season 45. We hear that the Board of Governors and the Commissioner's Office have been struggling to come up with a suitable theme for this season so please feel free to post any suggestions or ideas you have in the magazine thread. 

 

My edits.

[Will 4,660]

Upgraded Site

When I first announced that the old instant-messaging system was being decommissioned in favour of upgrade to the latest version of forum software, I was met with a lot of mixed reactions. There was a lot who supported the decision based on the reasoning I provided but, understandably, there was a lot of opposition as well. While the old system was of course convenient, it came with a lot of baggage and, at the end of the day, Higgins and I came to the conclusion that it's convenience was no longer worth the negatives that came with it. 

We're now a few days post-upgrade and I think the majority can agree that it was the right call to make. Not only did we get a new forum with a long list of new and updated features, but we also got a new chat system that, while maybe slightly less convenient, will get the job done. The main thing now is that a of people feel the overall look and feel of the previous site may have been better, but we're only a few days in and improvements are still being made. Due to this being an entirely new version, there was only so much we could 'prepare' before the upgrade actually happened as far as theming and customization went but fear not, graphical mogul Boubabi is on the case and working on improving themes and we hope to bring something new to you in the near future. 

Overall, while it is a big change and will take some getting used to, I firmly believe this was a wise decision for the long-run of our forum. Keep in mind that this version is still relatively new so new modifications and add-ons are constantly being released, so look forward to new features coming along as we go forward.

First-Round Sweep

The first round of the VHL's 45th playoffs have ended, seemingly as quickly as they began. Both series' ended in sweeps, leaving the Calgary Wranglers and the HC Davos Dynamo to move on to the second round where they will face off against New York and Helsinki, respectively.

I doubt many members had much hope for the Meute's chances against Calgary but I don't think anyone expected Davos to breeze by the Reign so easily after they seemed to struggle all season. It looked like generating offense would be Davos' biggest obstacle going into playoffs, but they performed impressively in their series against Riga. Mason Richardson is leading in points among all playoff teams, with Faraday and Sundberg making healthy contributions as well. They out-scored Riga 14-8 over the course of the series. 

Who knows whether or not Davos will be able to carry that offense over to their series against the Victory Cup winning Helsinki team that they are slated to face off against next, but surely the Titans must be a little concerned after witnessing Riga fall with such ease. 

 

Edited October 22, 2015 by Draper

[Will 4,660]

Here Come The Finals

With the first-round concluding with two clean sweeps and each of the second round match-ups ending in just five games, these playoffs sure are speeding by. Without a doubt, these are quickest playoffs that I've seen thus far in my tenure here. Regardless, when all was said and done after the first two rounds, it was the Calgary Wranglers and the Helsinki Titans who stood ready to face-off against one and other in the finals.

Both teams performed well against their respective second round opponents, but surely not many expected the Wranglers to dismantle the Americans in the fashion that they did, and Wingate's outstanding performance throughout that series should most certainly have the Titans on edge. Conversely, the sheer depth of the Helsinki roster as well as their powerful offense is likely to be the biggest challenge faced by Calgary is what should be a very exciting series to watch. It was Calgary who took home the first two games, both in Helsinki. Game one was a close 4-3 match-up, but Wingate handily stole the 2nd game from Helsinki despite them outshooting their opponents. Game 3, in Calgary, went to Helsinki.

BoG Appoints New Members

Some of you may have noticed by now, but the Board of Governors has recently added 3 new members in an effort to renew and rejuvenate the discussions and ideas that take place. It was a relatively slow season for the Board compared to previous ones, but we're hoping the addition of these members will help get new ideas and concepts rolling again. Molholt, gorlab, and DollarAndADream have all joined the Board of Governors. 

Of course, with the welcome of these members come the goodbyes to others. STZ, Green, and Romanes have been long-serving members of the BoG and each of them has contributed a tremendous amount to both the BoG and the league as a whole. Unfortunately, real life has gotten busy for all of them and they have each decided to take a step back for now. I'd like to thank each of them for what they've contributed, and I certainly hope they don't become strangers to the forum.

S47 Draft Class

Teams possessing first-round draft picks are poised to capitalize in a big way with the upcoming S47 VHL Entry Draft, with a total of 13 draftees now sitting at 100+ TPE. Zach Parechkin presently leads the pack with an impressive 235 TPE.

The Draft Lottery was done this past week by longtime VHL Commissioner Higgins - the end result places 1st Overall in the hands of the Toronto Legion, with 2nd going to Seattle, 3rd going to Toronto, and 4th once again going to Seattle. 

Edited October 29, 2015 by Draper

[Will 4,660]

An Update from the BoG

As I did last season, I bring to you today a small update from the Board of Governors. The Board, for those unaware, is a group of VHL folks who discuss and create ideas to improve and innovate the league. This season, the Board wasn't extremely active, but a few editions ago I wrote about some new faces joining the team and I'm happy to report that things have since picked up rather significantly.

Regardless, there certainly was some things spoken about this season. Just yesterday, you saw some of those concepts come to fruition with my announcement. Firstly, the change to new member TPE was something suggested by Flyersfan, and evidently makes a lot of sense. It isn't exactly giving new members more TPE than the old system, but if giving it to them straight away rather than over the course of a few weeks helps to retain even one member, it was a worthwhile change to make in my books. Next listed in my announcement was the change to the point task upgrade that is available in the player store - this wasn't a BoG discussion per say, more of feedback to a stated decision by me, but the reasoning behind it is simply that because magazine staff already gets extra TPE on their point task, they shouldn't be able to get so close to the weekly cap with just one piece of work.

Thirdly was regarding the reformation of the VHLM Practice Facility. The BoG has been discussing this for awhile now and there were probably 5-6 different options on the table, ranging from what I announced to creating some kind of game of the week poll with some kind of integration the VHLM Mag. We couldn't wholly agree on which options were feasible or not yet, but we did all agree that any of the options are an improvement over the current system and, for that reason, we went with the simplest setup whilst we work on improving it further. 

Perhaps the largest item being discussed by the BoG at the moment is a recently renewed recruitment discussion, where we have made quite a bit of progress in refining our recruitment strategy. We've found a few different places that are feasible for us to place advertisements on, and we're thinking up ways to provide better incentives during our recruitment drives. We've also come to think we should begin to shift much of our focus that is currently on social media to different places, like various hockey forums. Aside from that, we talked about about changing the attributes of bot players, changing the update scale, and looked at adding some new player store options.

Other items discussed were put in a media spot by Eaglesfan, so I won't bother repeating them here. With Season 45 over and a new one coming quickly - here's to a new season that's as successful as the last 45. 

[Will 4,660]

VHL Recruitment Lottery

There is no doubt that recruitment around the league has been stagnant over the past few months and it's fairly evident to see this when looking at the S47 draft class in it's current state. Fear not, however, there are quite a few new ideas, incentives, and strategies that we hope to roll out over the coming seasons. For now, we're introducing the VHL Recruitment Lottery. Mostly the brainchild of Mike, sterling, and flyersfan, this system rewards recruiters with tickets in both a weekly lottery and a grand end-of-season lottery. 

The prizes in each of these lotteries have not yet been set in stone, but I can tell you that they will be fairly generous. Recruitment is what will keep the league going and if anything deserves good rewards, it is recruitment. Expect to see things like free weeks, doubles weeks, player store cash, a custom sig and maybe, just maybe, raw TPE. Of course this lottery won't solve all of our recruitment problems - we don't expect it to, but we do think it's a good step towards providing enough incentives to get members out there trying to bring new folks in. Again, recruitment and retainment is essentially the top priority within the BoG right now so do stay tuned for more additions and giveaways as we release them. For now, get out there and recruit!

Hall of Fame Induction

It seems like it was awhile ago now but I've been MIA from the headlines for a couple weeks now and my off-season article was dedicated to a BoG update, so I never got to touch on some of the off-season items that I would have liked to. In any case, here we are now in S46 two more members in the hall of fame than before. For players, we saw the easy induction of Tom Slaughter as a now first-ballot hall of famer. Beyond Slaughter, though, the vote was very split. I believe Slaughter had something like 15 votes and the next closest was 4, with a few other votes thrown onto to different players here and there, and some even chose to vote for nobody other than Slaughter which isn't commonplace for HoF voting. 

The next inductee was not a player but rather a builder: Phil. Phil was inducted to the Hall of Fame as a builder for the contributions he's made towards the league in his storied VHL lifetime. This ranges from everything to the players he's built, the things he has commissioned (as we saw last Super Cup), his wonderful podcasts, and overall just his dedication to the league. So well done to Phil and Sterling, well-deserved inductions.

[Will 4,660]

The Death of Grading

The effective abolishment of the VHL's grading system is a pretty huge change for the VHL. Graders marking members on grammar, creativity, and whatever else has been how the VHL's point task system has operated for the past 45 seasons. The change to a more relaxed method that prevents members from losing TPE and taking out some of the 'waiting' that the VHL entails is something that is been talked about sporadically over the past several seasons. I recall having a conversation with Flyers about it once, and I think different people have posted about in the BoG.

This time, it was brought up as part of our ongoing discussion regarding our overall recruitment strategy. Most us, with myself included, felt that the current grading system turns some people off as they don't want to log onto a sim league and be docked points when they're trying to build their player. My view on it is that we aren't some kind of education forum, and that so long as people are putting in an amount of effort that is comparable to everyone else - they should be rewarded just the same.

We aren't abandoning graders, although they may be called something different at some point. We will still pay writing graders to check up on media spots, provide feedback where appropriate, and help people with point tasks in general. We'll still be paying graphic graders to do the same as writing graders, but with a focus on providing feedback to help young sig makers learn from our experienced graders. It was also far more common to receive less than a six on graphics compared to other point tasks, so this change could help encourage the graphic side of the league to grow. 

I don't think we will see any decrease in the quality of point task. I believe that most of us put our best effort forward relative to our abilities whether it be with writing, graphics, or whatever, the only difference now is that people won't be disadvantaged when their abilities are slightly below others. This whole thing could also promote people to try other PTs, which could be nice. 

[Will 4,660]

All-Star Week

 

After so many seasons, it was a fairly unanimous decision amongst the BOG and Blue Team alike that the All-Star game was in need of a reboot. Traditionally stuck inconsequentially somewhere in the off-season schedule, the All-Star game will from now on take place around the trade deadline. We ultimately decided to run a trial this season as we didn't quite have enough a time to organize ourselves properly to do all of the new things we wanted to do, but nonetheless this season's All-Star features team captains, a draft, and a BOG eligibility vote.

 

Overall, I think it was a good success. It seemed like it drew a lot more interest than our previous off-season All-Star games, although I'm sure the doubles week helped with that. Next season the new format will come into full force: the BOG will first come up with a list of 20 players to be in the All-Star game. After that, there will be community votes to determine both the team captains and the final 6 players who will be entered into the draft pool. Next, the draft will happen followed by a community vote for the starters on each team and then, finally, the game shall be simmed. The Young Stars game will continue to run in the fashion that it did this season.

 

This season it was ultimately Team Phil Knight that emerged victorious, which I think may have come as a surprise to a lot of people given that it seemed like Sterling perhaps 'won' the draft, but in any case it worked out for Phil so congratulations are in order for him and his team. 

 

S48 Draft Class: Closed

 

With the trade deadline now in the rear-view, the S48 draft class officially closed as any new entrants will go straight to S49. It closes out at a decent 25 members, which certainly should bring a smile to the faces of GM's who had to deal with the measly 14-player S47 class. Regardless of it's size, the S48 class is an interesting one when you consider it holds big-name recreating members like Higgins, Kendrick, STZ, Beketov, Ninetyfourgoalie, Gooningitup and even IR. On top of that you have promising newer members like Pavel_Ovechkin, dankoa, Adwyer, and Gregy. Indeed, this draft class has a very promising 1st round and the 2nd round definitely won't be anything to scoff at either as I think there still be a few surprises hidden in there.

 

One of the most interesting players to follow, in my opinions, will Jakab Holik (Beketov's player). For those who don't know, Beketov's been around since S1 and thus he's made quite a few players, one of which even has an award named after him - the Alexander Beketov Trophy. Anyways, before Beketov's last player, Jackson Miller, was drafted I remember there was a lot of discussion about how high/low he would be drafted since his last couple players had started strong and trailed off over time. With Miller, though, I think Beketov proved he's still churning out quality players and for that reason I think Holik will certainly be one of the most sought after this season. He's also a goalie, which ought to help his cause. 

[Will 4,660]

Playoff Time

 

The regular season has ended and it was again time for the most exciting time of the season, playoffs. The first round has already come and gone, seemingly ending as quickly as they snuck up on us. Seattle was swiftly defeated by the Calgary Wranglers in 5 games and the Riga Reign were eliminated in a controversial 4 game series against Stockholm. Continuing on to the second round it remains close in both series, with each tied and 2-2 at the time of this writing. New York entered the series with a lot of confidence and hype surrounding them, but they realized rather quickly that the Wranglers were not going to roll over on their 4th straight finals appearance so easily.

 

Conversely in the other series, Helsinki vs. Stockholm, I believe it's a generally even match-up that could go either way. Stockholm certainly has a deceivingly formidable offense with the likes of Karnage, 3 Moons, Von Karma, Shock, and even the inactive cup-winning legend Brady Stropko. Helsinki's offense is nothing to shake a stick at either with players like Koponen, Strauss, Faux, Harumpf, and the soon to be retired Bismarck Koenig. I do think however that Stockholm has the upper-hand offensively. Ultimately, the end result of this series will likely come down to how well the Helsinki defense can hold off the Stockholm. In any case it should be an interesting series to follow. 

 

Recruitment Ideas

 

For the past while we've been trying to come up with new incentives and activities to get people recruiting again. We saw some small draft classes and it's become evident that we have to get new members flowing in if we want the VHL to keep on going. With the elimination of Super Cup, the upcoming off-season is rather empty. To fill this void, it was suggested some time ago that we hold a recruitment drive in alternate off-seasons with the World Cup. That is likely what we will do, but we could use some suggestions.

 

We're basically looking for any recruitment ideas whatsoever. We'd like to find new websites to advertise on, and we definitely need to come up with some worthy incentives for this upcoming recruitment drive. As always, if your idea gets used we will give you a lovely little 1 TPE. We're really looking to pick up recruitment over the next season so no idea is too radical. Post suggestions in the mag thread!

 

 

[Will 4,660]

GM Succession

 

There has been a lot of talk about general managers lately. In particular, how general managers become general managers and what their respective teams ought to pony up in order to get them there. The subject of much debate, the league's decisions on each of the cases in the past while has been inconsistent at best. Putting the 'valuations' aside for a moment, part of the problem is that this isn't the way GM transitions should be happening, although it seems to be happening more and more frequently. 

 

From what I understand about the history of the VHL and from what I thought I've known since I've been around is that general managers come most often from someone on the team, and in the cases when there isn't someone on the team, the GM trades for someone who wants the job and then hands it over. However it's becoming more and more apparent that it doesn't always work out that way, as we've seen too many GM's in recent years simply walk away. And I don't know how much you can blame them for that, after all real life certainly takes priority over a virtual sim league.

 

It does leave the team, the blue team, and the BOG in a precarious situation however. Made even worse when it's basically on the eve of off-season, choosing someone to take over and figuring out how to get them to that team in a way that's fair to everyone is not an easy task, and evidently I don't there will ever be a solution that will please everyone. I would probably categorize myself as a supporter of 'moderate' compensation in that I think in certain instances when the draft is close or whatever, then yes there should be at least some compensation. That being said, there's always going to be variables and nothing in this league is ever cut and dry. I'll use the example that's been used throughout this Davos ordeal - would it be okay for Davos to have gotten Higgins just days before the draft, for a 2nd or even nothing? Of course not. 

 

Regardless of what I value a GM player at, I think the important thing from here is to remain relatively consistent with what took place in the Davos situation. As I said, things are always different and it can be adjusted up and down when circumstances warrant, but I believe there's a baseline here that the majority seem to agree with and that ought to be a good place to start in future cases. There was a lot of debate and arguing about this over the past week but the one person who kept his cool was Gooningitup and for that I believe Davos to be in good hands. 

 

[Will 4,660]

VHL Awards

 

The release of the VHL Awards list is always one of the most anticipated moments of the seasons. Perhaps the single most heavily weighted factor in Hall of Fame inductions, awards are important to members of the league. And for good reason! The awards themselves have been, as far as I can tell, more or less the same since the beginning of times, aside from when they changed all of the names to historical VHL players. Now, don't quote me on that because generally I don't know shit and this could very well be another one of those cases.

 

There was a bit of talk in the BOG this off-season about adding a new award and/or retiring one, and I'm hoping in writing this to see what other people would like to see in the awards list. Among the suggestions was the addition of a Defensive Defenseman award, which would be nice as there is only 1 award guaranteed for a defenseman as it stands now. The cons we came up with were that a lot of times it would likely be the same as the Labatte winner, and if we based it off of hits/shot blocks it would often go to a mediocre player on a shit team.

 

I think it's an interesting idea and even if it does end up being the same as the Labatte winner on some years, the reasonable chance of a defenseman winning an award is still much less than that of a forward. Now, for the award that I believe should be thrown out the window. The Mikka Vurkkunen Trophy, or as it is more commonly known: The Pussy Award. Handed to the player deemed Most Sportsmanlike at the end of the season, the Virkkunen is the least prestigious award by a long shot. The candidates that make it to the ballot are those with low HIT and PIM counts. The problem lies in the fact that STHS is absurdly random at assigning hits and PIMs. Looking at the career HIT totals of Thomas O'Malley relative to other players of similar build, I have yet to discover any rhyme nor reason why some players have more hits in a single season than a comparable player has in a career. 

 

The Virkkunen would probably make more sense as a public vote that would be based off of real sportsmanship on the forums rather than these rigged stats outputed by STHS, however we already have Top Leader for that so what's the point. Further, Phil would probably win both of them and that would almost certainly net him a banning from sterling, which is inherently bad for me. 

 

None of this is solidified, it's just my thoughts after having a brief discussion with Victor in the BOG. Let us know of your thoughts on Awards by posting in the magazine thread!

[Will 4,660]

General Managing: Losing its Prestige?

 

My recent posting in the job interview forum marks what will likely be yet another round of external GM transitions. I've really come to hate these as a commissioner and it worries that they seem to be happening more and more frequently. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems like there isn't as much interest in GM'ing anymore. I know when I was a young member there was always people trying to get their feet in the door as fast as possible, whether that be taking a VHLM GM job as a stepping stone or what have you. 

 

Don't get me wrong, despite only getting 3 messages so far I've gotten a few great applicants from this latest post and I'm thrilled about that. The point I'm trying to make is that, evidently, interested and suitable candidates seem to be fewer and further between than I remember them previously being. GM'ing in itself isn't always an easy job, and certainly it comes with it's fair share of frustrations when things don't work out the way you thought they would in your head. It's often thankless and there isn't even any payment for it. That being said, it can be very rewarding when things do go your way. 

 

I've been a GM for some 6 or 7 seasons now and there's been some low points and some high points. We've won cups and had a great time doing it. In fact,  I couldn't ask for better group of members to do all of this with and that's really what has made my time as a GM enjoyable for me. Then there are the low points, for example realizing your over the cap a quarter way through the season. Or losing players to free agency. Or simply getting pissed on by STHS. It can be trying and frankly I'm often caused more stress by my position as a GM than I am as a commissioner. It's an experience though and one that I would urge people to try out if their interested in getting more involved with the league.

 

We've gotten a lot of new members in the past few weeks and hopefully we'll see some of them applying for GM positions before too long. The VHLM is really a great place to get your feet wet even with the differences between the two leagues. Moreover, GM turnover in the VHLM is astronomical anyways so if you try it out and decide after a season that it isn't not for you, nobody will hold that against you.

 

I'm not sure what the 'fix' is for this. Maybe it's to start paying GM's a weekly TPE sum. Or, perhaps it's another item that signals the need to continue focusing on our recruitment so that the rest may follow. In any case, I do hope we can begin to build the interest again so that these generally messy external transactions can be avoided, or at least saved as a last resort. 

[Will 4,660]

All-Star Week

 

Last season we announced the changes to the All-Star format but weren't able to put them fully on display due to how late we left it. Our captains last year were Phil and sterling - they both did a great job aside from sterling's slow ass drafting, but this season we put it to a vote and ended up with boubabi and jRuutu. The draft went as planned and we should be on good schedule to have the game simmed tonight, as planned. 

 

The first pick of the draft, which went to Team jRuutu, was slightly surprising to me. Not that the legendary Hans Wingate wasn't worthy, I just wasn't expecting first overall to be a goaltender. Interestingly, the next goalie didn't get selected until 12th overall when Team Boubabi picked Ariel Weinstein. Second overall saw Edwin Reencarnacion get selected by Team Boubabi. There isn't much to debate here - Reencarnacion has been a dominant force this season, leading the league in points by a decent margin for nearly the entirety of the season and racking up impressive defensive statistics at the same time. 

 

Third overall, back to Ruutu, was used on defenseman Phil Hamilton. While Phil has had a bit of a slow season, I think this was a wise selection to snatch the highest TPE defenseman to go along with Wingate. I should note that as Boubabi is a team captain and his player was voted into the All-Star game, his team got Lord Karnage automatically. Thus, through the first 4 'selections' it was purely offense vs. defense in Reencarnacion + Karnage vs. Hamilton + Wingate. 

 

That might have been a little dramatic, as both teams ended up with big names in all areas as the draft progressed. Ruutu got Marcel Faux, Freedom McJustice, Max Molholt, and the very underrated Neils Skovgaard. Boubabi on the other hand picked up the leagues best performing defenseman this season in Arcutus Mengsk along with his fellow Bear, Jeff Hamilton. Ariel Weinstein, Greg Clegane, and the rookie goaltender Atticus von Braxton will man the net for Boubabi's court.

 

You can find the full player list in the announcement forum and hopefully by the time your reading this the actual game thread will be available. All in all, I think the first real season of the new all-star format will be a success and I look forward to many more. 

[Will 4,660]

VHL Playoffs @STZ (sorry hehe)

 

As another regular season comes to a close, the VHL braces itself for the always exciting playoffs. While there is around 7 games for each team left to play, we already know which teams will move on to the playoffs and which teams will have an extended off-season. We don't know, however, who will take home the Victory Cup this season. As it stands, Toronto is in the lead with 97 points, 2 points over the 2nd place Helsinki Titans at 95. New York and Stockholm certainly still have a shot as well if either of the formerly mentioned teams goes down the shitter in the final stretch of the season. 

 

In the equally important last-place race, we have the sad, sad season performances of Riga and Davos who come in at 33 and 34, respectively. Quebec and Calgary, while still completely shitty, aren't quite as bad as the European bottom teams. In fact, Quebec has managed to steal games here and there from good teams all season. On the bright side, Cologne has finally decided to make something of themselves and they're actually in the damn playoffs! While they do look like quite an underdog in a glance at the standings, one must remember that Cologne made some thrifty deadline acquisitions in Brady Stropko and Callum Sinclair. Thus, their sad point total isn't a great indicator of what kind of damage they might be able to do in playoffs.

 

The biggest leap this season over last is not Cologne though, it's the Toronto Legion. The 2nd worst team in the league last season, the Legion have held onto 1st in the league for what I THINK was the vast majority of the season. The off-season moves that handed them players like Wingate and McJustice, and now TebowGow as well, can be blamed for this. The rookie Black Velvet  has even gotten in on his fair share of action with a nice little 54 points. 

 

My predictions for playoffs are two close first rounds, Stockholm vs. Cologne and Seattle vs. New York. I think New York will manage to squeeze by Seattle and move onto face Toronto in the conference finals. In Europe, the odds favor Stockholm but I'd like to see Cologne give them a fight. Stockholm vs. Helsinki in the conference finals, easy choice. I'm going to with Toronto coming out on top of New York in North America - it will definitely be a close one but I'm not sure AVB's ready to get his Wingate on. And finally, Toronto vs. Helsinki in the finals. In other words, Draper vs. Higgins. I'll let you make your own predictions on that one. 

[Will 4,660]

Welfare Woes

 

This week I'd like to talk about something certainly worthy of being headlines, but not really headlines because most of the conversation about it has happened behind closed doors in the BOG forum. 

 

Actually, that's somewhat of a lie. The topic was recently brought up by New York forward Jorma Ruutu in the general discussion something or something. If this isn't ringing any bells for you, the topic was regarding what, in his opinion, is an excessively lucrative welfare and pension program for our older members. He took a little bit of heat for it from our older members but his opinion of the welfare system is completely understandable and he isn't the only one that see's it that way. Likewise, the opinions of the older members who don't want to see it go or reduced are completely understandable as well. After all, many of these people have contributed several players spanning several real life years to this forum. 

 

Personally, I believe the answer is a balanced approach. One that will not allow players who consistently use welfare to become superstars, but one that also isn't too disparaging otherwise we're simply at risk of losing some long-standing members who are important to the community. I have no problems with the base welfare/pension amounts (2, 3, and 4 TPE) as, again, I think it's quite reasonable for long-standing members to be given such a luxury, so long as we aren't essentially 'encouraging' people to claim welfare week after week, and that is where it becomes a problem in my eyes. 

 

The first big item that I take issue with is the pension upgrades in the player store. They simply shouldn't exist in my opinion, especially the Pension Plan II which brings a member's weekly welfare claim to 5 TPE - a measly 1 TPE less than a point task. The VHL.com article upgrade already exists, which allows you to post 2 VHL.com articles per week instead of 1, and that is what welfare claimers should have to buy if they want that extra 1 TPE. 

 

Another thing is that I feel like we've made it so easy to reach the 9 capped TPE limit each week, that some people are just deciding to do welfare because they know they can get at least close to the weekly cap through other options. Trivia, VHL.com articles, and various league jobs all come to mind. 

 

Changes to the welfare and pension system will most likely be announced this off-season, though nothing is yet set in stone. Please feel free to use the magazine thread to provide any input or insight on how you think the pension system should be adjusted (or not). 

 

 

[Will 4,660]

The VHL has a lot going on, and a lot of people put their time and effort into keeping it going. Even in periods where it seems like the activity has dwindled or dropped off, there are many members who diligently do their jobs which, in turn, keeps this place running. Sometimes, I feel like some of these people don't get enough credit for what they put into this site, and this article is for them. I'm not going to be able to touch on every single person that I would like to in this short article, but I will take this opportunity to give a shout out to some in particular whom I think go under appreciated.

 

The first - Higgins. Higgins has the unenviable job simming the VHLM. You might assume that the VHL sim requires more work on account of people paying more attention to it, but truthfully it is quite the opposite. Constant turnover, way more transactions, and having to create half the players in the league every season makes simming the VHLM a heck of a lot more time consuming than the VHL. Even so, Higgins has missed a mere handful of sims since he took over the VHLM and that in itself quite impressive. While we're on the subject of VHLM, Commissioner's eaglesfan and Smarch are also more than worthy of mention for the way they've kept the league running smoothly for the past many seasons.

 

 The Point Task Staff and Updaters (including sim updater Velevra and page updater Phil) are next on the list. These guys truly do the bulk of the 'grunt work', even with the switch away from grading - the feedback the PT Staff provides, especially with graphics, is invaluable to aspiring artists. The updaters, meanwhile, get your players updated in a timely manner for the most part. Velevra has been quietly updating the sim behind the scenes for many seasons now and his consistency is nothing short of spectacular. And Phil, well, you can think him for having such a pretty little player page. Head Grader DollarAndADream also needs a shoutout, as he's been keeping the PT Staff running as smoothly as I can ever remember them being. 

 

STZ, the long-time Mag Editor, can't be forgotten. Despite a brief stint where Molholt took over for a bit, STZ has churned out a completely absurd amount of editions as editor. Molholt did a great job during his time as editor and it was sad to see him go, but when I learned STZ was coming back, I was over the moon. He's a guy that's been committed to this for a long time and that's nothing to shake a stick at. 

 

VHLM General Managers are one of the most important jobs we have. They are typically one of the first people to make an impression on new members on behalf of the whole forum, so it's crucial that we have good people in those positions and, right now, I feel like we do have a great group of VHLM GM's. I'm guilty of not paying much attention to the VHLM at times, but I do see enough to know that these guys are doing great work in welcoming our new members.

 

I could go on all day but, sadly, STZ will probably yell at me if I make this any longer. I regret that I don't have room to make more specific mentions, but to everyone who has a job around here that keeps doing it even when it might not be convenient or comfortable, I thank you. It doesn't go unappreciated.