VHLM Surprises

[diamond_ace 3,107]

So this year's VHLM has been particularly unpredictable in many ways. How things were supposed to play out is not at all how they have played out.

 

1. Saskatoon is the biggest surprise. This was a team that largely expected to win the league, or at least finish near the top. Having 4 of the top 6 picks and 6 of the top 10, one might reasonably have concluded that this was the team to beat - Bryce Zhields and Johannes Vilhjalmsson are two of the best players in the VHLM, and the other two Vilhjalmsson brothers as well as Bastion Logan Mac Finsceal and Beau Louth should really have made this team much better than they've been so far. There have been two major flaws, of course. Drafting Oyorra Arroyo only to see him get called up to Calgary was a big blow, and goaltender Brody Neufeld has not lived up to his draft selection at all. With arguably the worst starting goalie in the league, Saskatoon hasn't kept the puck out of the net particularly well, and the second highest goals for total hasn't been enough to compensate for it.

 

2. Yukon has been the opposite of Saskatoon - in fact, if you took the current standings and just swapped Saskatoon and Yukon, it would look a whole lot more normal. Yukon are the defending champions, which usually doesn't bode too well for teams in the VHLM. Unlike most defending champions, Yukon retained some of their biggest pieces, namely Billy Pilgrim, Tristan Iseult, and Varis Tribuncovs - coincidentally, one player in each phase of the roster. Yukon's depth is underwhelming, however, despite their place at the top of the standings. Presumably, when other teams' developing players get near the point Pilgrim, Iseult, and Tribuncovs are, depth could take over and be Yukon's undoing.

 

3. Everyone else. Ottawa and Oslo aren't too far off. Ottawa was supposed to be second and they are third, but only a single point back of Oslo with two games in hand, so effectively Ottawa is in control of their destiny as far as second. Oslo should have been battling with Yukon for third, so while they'd be inclined to be disappointed to be behind Yukon, they can offset that with the fact that they're technically second and realistically third which is a good result for them standings-wise. Las Vegas are last, as expected. They're relatively competitive though, which is promising. Should the standings remain as they are, Vegas will have the opportunity to upset preseason favorites Saskatoon in the wild card, doing the rest of the league a favor and not letting them right the ship.

[Spade18 1,305]

last, but not least*

[Beaviss 4,955]

10 hours ago, Spade18 said:

last, but not least*

 

Im starting to think my players are cursed..... Beau joins sask they suck ass unexpectedly.... Keaton joins Que they rebuild... then gets moved to CGY and then they all of a sudden start sucking more than expected....

[diamond_ace 3,107]

3 hours ago, Beaviss said:

 

Im starting to think my players are cursed..... Beau joins sask they suck ass unexpectedly.... Keaton joins Que they rebuild... then gets moved to CGY and then they all of a sudden start sucking more than expected....

Don't know what happened to Calgary, but you're the GM of Quebec so the rebuild is on you, and Sask I acted like it was a debate but it's completely Broalie being a bust. I feel like Gooning should trade for Santos or Aamo, but the longer he goes, the more the rest of us profit