A Way Too Early Mock Draft - Picks 1-5 [1/2]

[Tagger 2,722]

The end of the regular season is almost upon us and while some teams and players will be eagerly anticipating the start of the playoffs, those who are not on those teams will be more interested in the offseason ahead for their team and namely, who their team will bring in from the S62 VHL Draft. This season’s draft class is unlike many others as it looks like we should expect two rounds worth of players over 100 TPE heading into the draft, a very promising number for the league and a shout-out is deserved to the recruitment crew for their efforts in bringing these players in. But who’s going where? Well, here are my predictions for the draft as things currently stands (Note: Draft Picks done purely on regular season standings prior to the final sim of the regular season).

 

1.       Toronto Legion – Leph Twinger (LW) - 274 TPE

 

This one is the most obvious pick of the draft. Twinger’s agent (Travis Boychuk) is currently serving as the General Manager of the Toronto Legion, Twinger has the most TPE in this draft class (although 12 of them will likely be removed at some point as he’s accidentally claimed VHLM Achievement Tracker in S60, a season too early). Those two points alone are enough to justify Twinger as number one overall selection with the Legion drafting. Fun historical fact, this is not the first time Boychuk has been in this situation; back in Season 54, Boychuk was slated to pick his own player Torsten Ironside first overall, but he wound up trading down to third overall because he knew that he’d still be able to take Ironside thanks to a favourable goalie market. The chance he’d be able to do the same this draft? Pretty much none.

Trade Possibility: If Legion got their own pick, I definitely don’t see it happening.

 

 

2.       Seattle Bears – Maxim Kovalchuk (D) - 184 TPE

 

Similar to the first overall pick, the Seattle Bears will be picking a player with the second overall pick whose agent (Blake Campbell) is also the General Manager of the team. The difference however is that TPE wise, this is not the obvious pick. Some people will use Kovalchuk creating three weeks after Vesto Slipher as a reason for being 36 TPE away from Slipher, and that certainly is a reason for it, but it’s also countered by the fact that Kovalchuk started with 42 more TPE than Slipher did thanks to carryover, so in terms of TPE earning to this point, Slipher would definitely be the better pick, but you can’t discount the huge advantage having a player who is guaranteed to stick around as long as needed and, while he’s only averaging around 9/10 capped TPE a week to this point, we know from history he’s capable of more and if he were to grab his own player, I think we definitely would.

Trade Possibility: There’s maybe a chance Campbell could risk trading down with the Meute for one of their firsts and a later pick (This is Seattle’s only pick in this draft whereas Quebec have three second rounders) if Meute, like last season’s draft, had a specific player they wanted, but given that Riga don’t currently have a VHL quality defenseman, that would be a big risk. Given that they also will be one of the few teams who have a starting calibre goalie and rebuilds could possibly be expected from New York and Helsinki, if they were able to get a similar haul to what they gave the Titans for a first last season, maybe they would be willing to consider trading this and going for it, but I think the more likely option is that they wait until after S62 before they make their moves.

 

 

3.       Riga Reign – Vesto Slipher (RW) - 220 TPE

 

I will admit, I would not have expected Vesto Slipher to be the first player to be taken first out of the players who didn’t share an agent with a General Manager given the very strong recent histories of Pandar and JRuutu, but Slipher has been on a tear with his TPE earning to this point. Currently standing at 220 TPE and with no recreate TPE and one point task week less than Leph Twinger, in terms of how much TPE has been earned per week since creation, Slipher is actually THE best prospect in this entire draft. No doubt there are elements of risk here; the two players I have taken before him and the two players I have taken after him have actually NEVER had a player go inactive whereas Slipher’s agent (Hybrid) has had a few go missing over his tenure with the league. But I think there’s a point where you just have to look at the TPE a player is earning and forget about all that and just go with the in-form guy.

Trade Possibility: Riga General Manager Benjamin Zeptenbergs has been more than willing to trade down in drafts in the past to pick up an extra pick, but if it’s not Quebec, I don’t necessarily see it happening. Given that they also have no VHL calibre goalie at this minute (Aamo is still short of 200 TPA) and won’t be acquiring one until Season 63, they won’t be going for it next season.

 

 

4.       Quebec City Meute – Konstantin Mulligan (LW) - 207 TPE

5.       Quebec City Meute (From New York) – Rauno Palo (C ) - 214 TPE

 

The very strong crop of first-gens have been making a good push to make their case for potential selection by the Meute (and if anyone were to buck the trend and pick a first-gen player, the VHLM commissioner would probably be the one to do it), but I think right now, I have to have the more veteran Mulligan and Palo going fourth and fifth. While Pandar has less history in the VHL than Ruutu, I actually think that Ruutu’s current build could see him being the more likely of the two to be passed over. Currently, and perhaps for the foreseeable future, Palo has both 40 passing and 40 scoring and it’s really difficult to say how a forward with that build is going to perform in the VHL, as most of our experiences with players who haven’t added to those have been inactive defensemen like Boner (who only had points allocated there after the Weekly TPE change from 9 to 12). In Ruutu’s favour though is the fact that I can vouch for him as one of, if not the, best locker-room presence that I’ve ever encountered in the VHL.

Trade Possibility: Out of all of the teams picking in the lottery selections, Quebec are definitely in the best position to potentially trade draft picks and make a run for it. However given the amount of picks that they have in this draft and having players like Dragomir, Louth, Gate and Iseult still very early on in their careers, there’s every chance they could use this draft to stock up on all the young talent they need to make a proper run ahead of Season 62, it all depends on what value is available for his picks.

[Beaviss 4,958]

Good insight  

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

@Tagger

Wow, I didn't even realize I claimed that S60 VHLM tracker TPE on Twinger, and not Ironside. I'm surprised it got by in the update when we had update threads.

 

I guess that means Ironside is missing 12 TPE.

 

@Will

So, since I claimed Ironside's S60 12 TPE on Twinger (you can see it in the Yukon section updates thread), can I just wait until the S61 payout comes, and add on the remainder? I'll just make a note of it. Considering I'm getting 20 TPE for Twinger in S61, so I'll just only add 8 once that payout thread comes.

 

I'm not sure where the Ironside's old updates thread went on the forum, but considering I claimed that 12 on Twinger I can only assume I fucked that up and didn't claim it on Ironside like I was supposed to.

 

 

[Will 4,662]

6 hours ago, DollarAndADream said:

@Tagger

Wow, I didn't even realize I claimed that S60 VHLM tracker TPE on Twinger, and not Ironside. I'm surprised it got by in the update when we had update threads.

 

I guess that means Ironside is missing 12 TPE.

 

@Will

So, since I claimed Ironside's S60 12 TPE on Twinger (you can see it in the Yukon section updates thread), can I just wait until the S61 payout comes, and add on the remainder? I'll just make a note of it. Considering I'm getting 20 TPE for Twinger in S61, so I'll just only add 8 once that payout thread comes.

 

I'm not sure where the Ironside's old updates thread went on the forum, but considering I claimed that 12 on Twinger I can only assume I fucked that up and didn't claim it on Ironside like I was supposed to.

 

 

 

That is fine. Thanks for reminding me that I never claimed it on Sterling.  

[Beketov 9,140]

6 hours ago, DollarAndADream said:

@Tagger

Wow, I didn't even realize I claimed that S60 VHLM tracker TPE on Twinger, and not Ironside. I'm surprised it got by in the update when we had update threads.

 

I guess that means Ironside is missing 12 TPE.

 

@Will

So, since I claimed Ironside's S60 12 TPE on Twinger (you can see it in the Yukon section updates thread), can I just wait until the S61 payout comes, and add on the remainder? I'll just make a note of it. Considering I'm getting 20 TPE for Twinger in S61, so I'll just only add 8 once that payout thread comes.

 

I'm not sure where the Ironside's old updates thread went on the forum, but considering I claimed that 12 on Twinger I can only assume I fucked that up and didn't claim it on Ironside like I was supposed to.

 

 

Thanks for the reminder that I forgot to move the VHLM update threads, I should do that.

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

Review:

Would have been nice to get the 1st overall Twinger lotto pick! Ultimately that didn't pan out, but I did wind up getting my starting goalie Carison out of it. Who knows if he would have dropped to my 2nd rounder. You never know, maybe if I had Twinger at 1st overall I could have had Carison as well. Jake Davis ain't no slouch either though.