diamond_ace articles

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Waiver Wonders

 

Most VHLM waiver players go on to play an uneventful, fruitless career of only a few seasons in the VHLM. Of those who do succeed in the VHLM, and later in the VHL, much of the success comes after the initial waiver year and instead in the draft year. Every year, however, there are a few players who start from nothing and are waived onto a team only to succeed beyond all expectations on the ice. This season was no exception to that, and in fact had more than an average amount of success.

 

Azi Ali, of the last place Brampton Blades, was one such player. Putting up 52 points in 62 games, Ali surely wasn’t a world beater, but he easily finished second on the Blades in scoring without even playing the whole season. Kaspars Tzisling, a Calgary prospect, was the only player on the team to beat him (and he did so with ten extra games played). Ali was also the only player on the Blades to put up a plus-minus in the single digit minuses, at a -8. When the rest of the team is far worse, that’s no small feat. Without Ali, surely the Blades would have won fewer than ten games.

 

Konstantin Azhishchenkov led all waiver players in scoring this season with 81 points in 68 games. Azhishchenkov, due to these numbers, finished the year 16th in points and 11th in goals in the league, and led his team in both points and goals. Playing for the Ottawa Lynx, Azhishchenkov just missed the playoffs  by a mere three points, with arguably a stronger overall team than their finish indicated and brought down by the poor performing Magalhaes Pergher in net. Still, without Azhishchenkov, the Lynx don’t make much of a race out of it, and finish at least ten points back of the Wild instead of three.

 

Looking toward the other end of the ice, Kimmo Salo was never expected to be a top-end starter in his waiver season, but the Oslo Storm had only Jimmity Kricket and a world of opportunity for Salo. He didn’t need to do much to win the starter’s job, and he certainly exceeded expectations for the Storm. By the end of the season, his save percentage was only that of a mid-level starter at 0.888, but his goals against average finished at a solid 2.94 which put him in a tie for fourth after Martin Brookside, Blaine Olynick, and Zach Fucale (tied with Santeri Heikela, Fucale’s teammate on Yukon, where the two split time). The Storm had a solid roster but were sorely lacking in goal, and probably would have been much farther from the playoffs were it not for Salo.

 

These three displayed great skill from the waiver wire, and in two of their cases nearly led their teams to the playoffs. Four other players, Dexter Morgan, John Otter, Marcus Bjorkstrand, and Mikael Svensson, all had fairly solid seasons but were on much deeper teams and were less able to stand out. Travis Boychuk deserves a mention as well for helping try to sneak Ottawa into the playoffs; he was overshadowed somewhat by the success of Azhishchenkov, but surely Boychuk’s season played a major role in their success as well. On the whole, this was an excellent year for waiver players, and the league can only hope to sustain this type of success.

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Bratislava Turnover

 

In the VHLM, the position of a team’s general manager is often in flux. Usually there is at least one opening every season, and in most seasons there are two or three. As such, it’s rare to see a team held by one GM for an extended period of time. The Bratislava Watchmen were just that team; their GM, STZ, had been in charge for the entire duration of the franchise. It was a legacy worthy of note even in this new turnover-prone era of the VHLM, where teams change even more frequently than they did in the past. It’s not an unworthy amount of faith in STZ either, given that he led the Watchmen franchise to two cups, one in S33 and one just now in S36.

 

The next measure of a VHLM team’s success is maintaining activity among the players on the team, keeping them interested enough in the league to remain active and practicing until they get up to the VHL level. STZ was stellar at that too. There was always a sense that the only way he was going to vacate the post was through a promotion to the VHL, and that’s exactly what happened. With GM Higgins stepping down in Helsinki, the reins were passed to the next logical candidate. STZ was that candidate, as his player, Ethan Osborne, spent an entire career playing for Higgins. Once the Helsinki job was offered to STZ, the Bratislava job opened up, and that ended up being handed down to Seth, a member who’d been looking to break into the GMing ranks for some time and finally managed to do so. He had nothing but nice words to say about his predecessor, though. “STZ’s pedigree in the VHLM is self-established. He won two Founder’s Cups, and generated more active players than any other VHLM team under his leadership. There is not a single VHLM GM’s shoes who are more difficult to fill.”

 

While Seth clearly has a great deal of respect for the man whose job he now fills, the upheaval should be a short and simple one. Seth worked under STZ for some portion of this season, so he knows the ins and outs of the team, and should be able to step in and contribute in much the same way. “My plans, and philosophies are identical to STZ’s. I emphasize player development, and activity, over wins. VHLM success for me, is defined by how many members I kept active, and ensuring they had a wonderful time being a member of the Watchmen. I recently completed my first trade, as I shipped a high TPE inactive for a future first round selection. Player development will eventually evolve into wins, but I measure success on a substantially different medium.” With the VHLM on the whole making the push toward player development as a means of success, trumping the simple win-loss ratio, one can only hope Seth is as good as his word. Prior to getting the position, he was rather outspoken on the same issue in many places around the forum, so it’s refreshing to see someone in a position such as this who comes in with a player development mindset. 

Edited March 3, 2014 by diamond_ace

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The VHLM draft is always full of uncertainty. Often the top players in the VHLM draft have just been drafted to their VHL teams, and for many of them, that was the highlight and the VHLM draft is more of an afterthought. This season is even heavier on the number of players who’ve already been drafted into the VHL than in normal years, but in doing so, it’s also far heavier on actives than most drafts. As the draft has only just concluded, more may come of it in next week’s VHLM Mag, but for now, a quick analysis of this season’s unique quirks unlike other drafts.

 

The first and most obvious point is what was just stated; many of these players, in a greater percentage than with most VHLM drafts, have already been selected to their VHL franchises. Five of the ten first-round selections heard their names called out in Thursday night’s VHL draft, and one additional player has been selected as Helsinki’s designated player option, leaving just four for the S38 draft. Another six players in the second round were selected in both VHL and VHLM drafts for this season, meaning that of the top twenty selections in the VHLM draft, only a mere eight will appear in next season’s VHL draft.

 

The next point isn’t necessarily odd, given the way the VHLM tends to cycle, but the entire first round with the exception of a single pick was divided among three franchises (in fact, the first 17 picks were among the same three franchises, again with one exception). Turku, Minot, and Yukon have drafted their way to competitiveness for the upcoming season, and the eighth overall pick (Logan Laich selected to Bern) must feel rather left out of the party. In the first three rounds of the draft (the length of a standard VHLM draft) only six selections were made outside of the three aforementioned teams. These selections were Spud Murphy to the Oslo Storm at 24, Chris Raymond and Leo Tesla to the Ottawa Lynx at 18 and 19, and Rocky West and David Hall joining the aforementioned Laich with Bern at 28 and 30, respectively. Turku, just on their own, had a whopping 14 picks in the first 26.

 

This was the first ever draft for the Moscow Red Wolves, as the franchise recently moved to Russia after years as the Vasteras IK J20. Many have applauded the move, but the draft pick, not as much. Kitsune Yamasaki was just about the best player available to the Red Wolves at 36th overall, but he will be a franchise first that will live in relative anonymity. Perhaps Moscow’s franchise first round pick next season will be something to remember more fondly. If Yamasaki does return to practice, however, the Red Wolves will have plenty of opportunity to coach him individually.

 

On the whole, this VHLM draft as with any VHLM draft was full of storylines. It’ll be up to the teams during the season to determine how those storylines play out on the grander stage.

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The Vasteras IK J20 franchise has long been a source of ridicule among the VHL and VHLM, for several reasons. The first and most obvious reason is the fact that both leagues have a Vasteras squad. The VHLM featured the J20 and the VHL houses the Iron Eagles. Vasteras is a rather small city in Sweden, and there is no team in Stockholm in either league. Sweden surely deserves a team in one or the other league, but why Vasteras, and why both leagues? No other city houses two teams in the league, not even in the relatively more crowded North American Conference where five teams in each league are divided among two countries. Other reasons are due to historic references, such as the J20 super squad put together under then-GM Edgar who still somehow managed not to win the cup.

 

That is why the Vasteras IK J20 franchise will no longer be in Vasteras. The team has moved to Moscow and become the Red Wolves, a move that has been widely supported almost unanimously across the board. This move makes sense on a number of levels. First, Russia as a country was widely noted for its lack of a VHL presence. Housing a VHLM team in Moscow solves that problem and lends itself toward balancing out the European side of the league by representation in more countries. Russia hasn’t had a team at either level since the Avangard Havoc stationed itself in Omsk, and while that’s been quite some time ago, presumably Russian fans have just carried their rooting interest over to the VHL’s Davos Dynamo, the team who was formerly the Havoc. Nonetheless, there has never been a VHLM team in Russia, so even those fans who have followed the Havoc as they became the Dynamo haven’t had a minor club from which to watch the future of the league. Moscow is a much bigger city than Omsk, not to mention the fact that it is located more among the larger Russian population centers and closer to the majority of Europe. Having a club in Moscow is a good idea both for tapping into the Russian market as well as spreading out the teams more evenly.

 

As for the team name, Red Wolves, that is also a welcome change. IK J20 simply isn’t a team name. Red Wolves as a team name works well for Russia. Red has always been a color associated with Russia, as it was the term for their former Communist style of government, and while the country has generally moved on from that era, they still acknowledge it as a part of their history. Out of that era, as dark as it may have been in some regards, sprung several critical thinkers with regards to philosophy, literature, and scientific discovery. Wolves, on the other hand, signify the rugged resilience of the country as it navigates cold, harsh winters. While the Saskatoon Wild already have a wolf-like mascot, this nonetheless works for Moscow. Additionally, red as a color has been less frequently used in the VHLM than in the VHL, so this brings some variety to the league’s color schemes. On the whole, the change from Vasteras IK J20 to Moscow Red Wolves will be regarded as a very positive change.

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The VHLM often tends to be cyclical; this is a noted point of criticism received by the league and one that distinguishes it from its VHL brethren. A team’s rise to power is often for one season, and even the best teams in longevity can only stretch that run to two seasons. Perhaps it is unfair, then, that a 15-16-1 team, while not great, would miss the playoffs at the expense of an 8-22-3 team. From a team success perspective (and for the sake of argument, completely ignoring a VHLM team’s greatest need which is to promote the general interest of its players) it might seem that the 8-22-3 team is trying to fail miserably in order to gain better draft picks. Fair or unfair, competitive advantage or no, conferences do exist in the league and as such, the third worst team in the league will make the playoffs. This is due to no extenuating effort on the team’s own part, but rather a worse display put on by two teams in its conference.

 

At this time, the three worst teams in the entire VHLM, as well as the best team (barely), are in the North American Conference, leaving the European Conference with five of the remaining six. Thirty points separate the top European team, the Bern Royals, from the bottom European team, the Moscow Red Wolves. In contrast, thirty points is only four more than the gap between two consecutively placed North American teams, the Minot Gladiators in second and the Saskatoon Wild in third. How does such a situation arise where an entire conference nearly fits between two consecutive members of the opposing conference?

 

Testing out the old adage that a strong goaltender can lead a weak VHLM team, we find that’s not necessarily the case this season. The two strongest goaltenders are on the two strongest teams in general, so it can’t be said that they’re leading them anywhere. The next two strongest are on the teams in fourth and fifth place overall (the Outlaws and Gladiators) both of which, again, have strong whole teams. The Bratislava Watchmen are actually carrying their relative lack of goaltending (although while Matti Auvinen is new and therefore not yet as skilled, he appears to have the potential to match an Olynick or a Salo down the line) so if anything, the Watchmen directly violate the adage.

 

Speaking of the Watchmen, they’re the key team within which to try the next theory, which is that a typically strong player can carry an otherwise weak team more than a handful of moderately skilled guys. In the Watchmen’s case, the player is obviously David Januzaj. Were it not for Januzaj, the Watchmen actually resemble the Wild in terms of team talent, with a handful of players with the occasional contribution but not much else on either roster. Using the theory that the Watchmen are essentially the Wild with Januzaj, this means that Januzaj himself is good for 27 points in this scenario. Another team that fits this theory is the Moscow Red Wolves. With all due respect to Percy Miller, who certainly has the highest potential of the squad, right now Boone Cassidy is far and away the most skilled Red Wolf. Take Cassidy off of that team and they’re actually worse than the Wild. The one team that doesn’t fit, though, is the Brampton Blades. Bodie Broadus should be enough to carry them, but they have barely any players, so what players they do have are worn out by the ends of games.

 

While from a conference perspective, it looks odd that all of the European teams are so much more tightly packed together, from a roster perspective it actually somewhat makes sense. Good luck trying to predict the way the season will turn out, though. It’s far too early to know if these teams are going to maintain their positions.

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Waiver players can often become the difference between an early loss or an extra couple of wins, especially in the VHLM where the differences in players are minute and sometimes, waiver players can jump over established veterans with regards to talent merely by showing up and putting on a few practices.

 

This season, none fit these criteria more than Mikkel Boomgaarden. A defenseman and the newest prospect from the Boragina agency, Boomgaarden looks to develop right where Yuri Grigorenko, recently of the Quebec City Meute, left off. In the VHLM, even more so than in the VHL, defensemen are at a premium. There can never be enough talent at the position, and not as many players declare for the position because it’s perhaps not as glory ridden as an offensive position or a goaltender. Boomgaarden was picked up on waivers by the Yukon Rush, who lead the North American conference and who are a major contender for the championship this season, and immediately became their fourth-best defenseman without even a minute of work. Not only that, but Boomgaarden has the capacity to climb as high as second on the team, behind Don Draper who is also early in his development and passing Gabrial Johnson and Triton Jackson whose developments have stalled.

 

In a fair world, we’d also be seeing Jackson Miller helping the Oslo Storm to a competitive playoff series, but despite the Storm being in the top six teams, they’re in the powerhouse European conference, which places them fourth in their conference and out of the playoffs. If Miller’d been on the team a little sooner, who knows if they might have caught the Bratislava Watchmen, but it is rather doubtful they’d have made much of an impact even if they had.

 

The Turku Outlaws were a team that were likely to make a splash this year anyway, especially considering their tons of depth through this most recent draft, but one weakness they’d had from the beginning was at goaltender. Brock Waldron, another waiver claim, has recently taken over the role and given the team a step up from Pergher. Waldron is already the better player and is actively getting better, whereas Pergher’s development has stalled quite some time ago. With the added skill of Waldron, the Outlaws will hope to defeat the Watchmen and try to pull the upset over the Royals at the top of the conference.

 

Speaking of Royals, Steve Tremblay has been their impact waiver performer so far this season, and is already one of the most talented forwards on the roster. Granted, the Royals have been just about equally as good at preventing goals as scoring them themselves, and Tremblay hasn’t played as much of a part on the defensive end (that is owed primarily to Blaine Olynick and Ron World Peace, two established players who’ll likely make the jump to the VHL next season) but offensively, Tremblay is one of the players with the most potential on the roster.

 

Many of the top teams have had a waiver player with a huge impact this season, and it seems like the waiver section is becoming more and more useful not only for the sake of getting players onto teams, but for helping the teams as well.

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Going into the playoffs, there are many top names known by all the fans of the VHLM. David Januzaj, Johan Hallstrom, Sasha Stepanov, Ron World Peace, these guys are the top point getters and that’s what makes the headlines in any major hockey league. The VHLM is no exception. There are plenty of other players who’ve made their contributions to their respective teams in just as big of a way as the points guys do, whether through defensive play, physical contributions, or any other type of skill that doesn’t show up directly on the scoreboard.

 

Stelio Kontos leads the league in shot blocks, with 176. Everyone knows shot blocks are a skewed stat and favor the teams at the bottom of the standings, and Kontos’ Saskatoon Wild are no exception. Despite making the playoffs, the Wild finished third to last in the league and by all accounts are likely sweep fodder for the Minot Gladiators. However, what makes Kontos stand out is the fact that he’s jumped in front of the puck enough times to make such a poor team sneak into the playoff picture anyway, and given his team a chance (albeit a weak one) in the playoffs. Kontos has actually blocked nearly half as many shots as his goaltender, Dizzy Dean, has let in all season.

 

Another shot block king, Jack Ryan, is actually on a real contender. He’s also arguably one of the strongest players in the league in all around game. Second in the league in shot blocks with 172, just outside the top ten in hits with 189 (tenth has 192), and a respectable 96 points make Ryan a force in all aspects of the game. Ryan will be a key contributor to the Minot Gladiators moving forward and could help contribute to a run in the playoffs.

 

On the non-playoff Oslo Storm, Penis Hudson has done better even than Ryan in two of the categories. Hudson is second only to Ron World Peace in hits, totaling a massive 342 on the season. He’s also put up 147 shot blocks, good for fifth place in the league, and 121 points (falling a single assist short of the even 100 and scoring a relatively few goals in comparison). With such a strong all around game, it’s a shame Penis Hudson won’t be around in the playoffs to contribute to his team there.

 

One additional player with some rather hidden contributions to his team is Queen Latifa. Don’t look at the hits column for this one, or the shot blocks, Queen Latifa will be found on neither list. What makes Latifa special and what allows for an unsung contribution to the success of the Yukon Rush can be summed up in a single word: clutch. Queen Latifa leads the league in game winning goals, with 16. A total of 16 games were won on a goal scored by Latifa. Additionally, he scored three times while shorthanded, which is good for a tie for fourth place on that list. He may not always score goals, but when he does, it’s at a key moment in the game.

 

These players have contributed in valuable areas to their respective teams, and most of them will be able to continue these contributions in the upcoming playoffs. While they may not get the glory that the scorers and point getters do, they will have just as much to give toward the success of their teams as those who grab the headlines.

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The Prognosticator is here with picks for the VHLM playoffs! There aren’t many series left that have yet to be decided, but everything that has yet to be determined will be picked. At the time of writing, the Yukon Rush had already defeated the Minot Gladiators in the second round and the Turku Outlaws were down 3-2 to the Bern Royals. Of course, both opening round series were completed already.

 

In the Turku-Bern series, it seems likely that Bern will simply close it out in the next game. Turku has thrown everything they have at Bern, but one thing they don’t have is Blaine Olynick. Brock Waldron has done the best he could possibly be asked to do under the circumstances but there’s simply no comparing him, on the basis of talent, to Olynick. Additionally for Bern, Ron World Peace has ten points in only five games, a pace which isn’t matched by any of Turku’s players despite the opening round being easier for them, against the Bratislava Watchmen. Dimosthenis Vlasis and Vojczek Svoboda are Turku’s top scorers with 16 points each in ten games, but as they’ve had a full five more games, it’s only expected they should have more points. Their per-game pace is significantly behind Peace’s. The one thing Turku definitely has over Bern, though, is depth. Should they try to turn this into a slugfest, taking several matching penalties or trying to get even numbers of players from both sides kicked out, Turku would then have it, especially if Peace is one of those removed. As it stands, Bern in 6.

 

The finals will be a whole different animal. Olynick can’t be the X factor, because Yukon’s goaltender, Kimmo Salo, is nearly as skilled. Olynick is still better to this point, and arguably will only extend that gap moving forward, but the gap is much smaller than it is between Olynick and Waldron. Given that, we then have to look at production offensively for the two teams. As we’ve said with Bern, it all stands on Peace. However, after Peace, there’s a significant drop. Earl Parker and Matt Rielly are the only two other players on Bern with a point per game pace, and only ten total players on their roster have contributed at all. Yukon, on the other hand, matches Peace with Konstantin Jaroslav Azhishchenkov, who also has twice as many points as games (eight in four). It’s after him that their depth advantage really starts to show. A full eight players (including Azhishchenkov) have matched at least a point per game, which is much greater than the three on Bern. Additionally, every player on Yukon’s roster, even including Chop Cho and Kyrie Knight, has earned at least a single point. All of this despite playing one fewer game than Bern. It’ll be a closer series than the rosters indicate, if for no other reason than Olynick, but Yukon in 6.

 

The Prognosticator could be right, he could even be wrong, but this is where everything stands at this point. The Prognosticator holds no liability for incorrect picks, and it is still up to the teams involved to get it done. They’re not going to win simply because The Prognosticator said it would happen, they must still put in the work to do the job themselves.

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Next In Line

 

The VHLM is a constant revolving door of new talent, bringing in players just as the best ones leave for the bigs. It’s a conveyor belt of sorts, the top players move on, the middling players move up to the top, and the new prospects make their climb to being contributors. Next In Line, an article that will make a feature in the next few editions, will highlight some of the new prospects that are set to contribute to the VHLM in the near future. Some of these may not quite turn out, but many of them are well on their way to becoming the next big VHL stars.

 

Jackson Miller is an offensively balanced forward, playing at the right wing position. His scoring and passing are equally potent, ahead of most at his level, but over time he may choose to specialize in one of the two at the expense of the other. He also skates very well and can handle the puck with the best of them. Expect Miller to be one of the earliest draftees in the upcoming VHLM draft and expect to hear his name come awards season.

 

Koji Yamazaki is a speedy young defenseman. Coming out of nowhere, the league didn’t even know about this guy until he declared for the draft, but he’s made quite the statement since then. Defense and skating are his two strongest features at this point, but he’s not a bad scorer so early on in his career either. Yamazaki has also developed his checking, to some extent, which is key early on in a defenseman’s development. He should be in contention for defenseman of the year, if his development keeps on at a similar rate, and it won’t be long until he’s breaking into the big leagues.

 

Hudson and Hunter Backenbauer, brothers, are both forwards who are earlier in their development than Miller and Yamazaki, but nonetheless they both show quite a bit of potential and could end up being major VHLM contributors the upcoming season, and the same for the VHL over the course of their careers. Hudson is a left wing and Hunter is a center. Hudson is a strong passer, something that’s sorely needed for the scoring-heavy VHLM, which should give him a good niche to carve out as he develops. Hunter, on the other hand, is more of a scorer, and if the two should end up on the same team they ought to be able to develop significant chemistry. Both are talented skaters, although Hudson is a little better on that front, while Hunter, as a necessity of his position, has been working on faceoff ability.

 

These four players will be joining the VHLM for the upcoming season and all four have the potential to become major players, but they’re not the only ones. Watch this space next week and read up on Milos Denis, Mikkel Boomgaarden, Jose Canseco, and Andrew Niklas Erikson!

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Next In Line Part Two

 

Last week, loyal VHLM Mag readers were introduced to Jackson Miller, Koji Yamazaki, and the Backenbauer brothers. They are just four of the many standout prospects coming up through the VHLM right now, and many more deserve mention. As the season wears on, many of these guys will become household names, but remember, you heard them here first!

 

Milos Denis is a right winger, playing for the Turku Outlaws. Turku will look to benefit from the speedy winger’s ability on his skates, and he’ll likely plan to contribute on the offensive end as well. He has some ability to keep the puck as well, and while it’s not his most developed attribute, he’s been working on that as well as his skating and scoring, and he’s developed in those three areas beyond the average VHLM player. He’ll be a useful offensive contributor in both the VHLM this season and the VHL later in his career.

 

Mikkel Boomgaarden, a defenseman for the Saskatoon Wild, is a contender along with last week’s Jackson Miller for best player heading into next season’s draft. His defensive ability is well above the average VHLMer already, and it’s between that and his surprisingly strong scoring ability for his best attribute. Solid two way play for Boomgaarden leads him to be primarily a skill player, but he’s also capable of holding his own physically and laying people out with big hits. His hitting technique is supplemented by his strength, and he’s also a fairly capable skater.  Could Boomgaarden become the prize for winning the lottery, like Svoboda was last season? It’s a bit too early to tell, really.

 

Jose Canseco represents an interesting niche in most draft classes; he’s the solitary useful goalie. Last season, it was Brock Waldron; the season before, there were two in Kimmo Salo and Blaine Olynick. Canseco, coming over to hockey after a relatively successful if rumor-filled baseball career, is actually a good player although early in his development. It could be assumed that some of the overall athleticism has carried over from his baseball career, and that’s likely contributed to the fact that his size is one of his best attributes. He’s very good at preventing rebounds, which is usually something that comes back to haunt a young goalie, and his reaction time is above average.

 

Andrew Niklas Erikson, left wing from the Ottawa Lynx, fills a much needed role in the VHLM. Passing ability is generally not as prevalent at this level as it is in the bigs, yet Erikson is strong at passing, and more importantly, he passes more frequently than he shoots. In a league rife with scorers but with a dearth of passers, Erikson is primed to find his name at the top of the assists category by the end of the season. As with many VHLM prospects, Erikson’s next strength is his skating ability, as this is something that’s necessary to learn early on in order to be successful.

 

Next In Line will feature four more prospects next week, introducing these guys to the fans and making sure their names are known before they make the all-important jump to the VHL. Featured next week will be Tyson Stokes, Tyrone Williams, Sam Keeler, and Splorg Hansburgersteinewalden.

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FOR 35:

 

The Next In Line series continues with four more prospects whose names will grace the billboards and equipment ads of the near future, but we let you in on them while they’re still just prospects fighting for draft stock. In previous editions, our loyal readers have been introduced to Jackson Miller, Koji Yamazaki, Hunter and Hudson Backenbauer, Milos Denis, Mikkel Boomgaarden, Jose Canseco, and Andrew Niklas Erikson. This week, we bring Tyson Stokes, Tyrone Williams, Sam Keeler and Splorg Hansburgersteinewalden to living rooms across the world.

 

Three of this week’s prospects are all currently playing for the Brampton Blades. Tyson Stokes, a center and one of the early favorites to go toward the top of the upcoming draft, seems to be a Clark Marcellin in waiting. His passing, defense, skating, and puck handling are all top notch, especially for a prospect of his early status. It’s a rarer yet still entirely valid build to develop passing and defense at the expense of scoring, and it worked well in the past, so it should work well for Stokes here. Of these, skating is his most developed characteristic, which is so vital early on in a career.

 

Tyrone Williams, a left winger, is a rarity among prospects in that he combines potent offense with equally potent fighting ability. He’ll knock out an opponent that provokes him, but he’s just as soon to carry the puck past the guy and score. Solid skating and puck handling allow him the freedom on the ice to move wherever he needs to with the puck, and a developed scoring touch lets him finish off the play. Williams would be a good candidate for a Gordie Howe Hat Trick if he could only pass the puck, but that’s hardly a slight on his unique development.

 

Sam Keeler is another fighter, and it’s extremely unusual to have two big fighters in the same draft class, let alone on the same team. Keeler, a right winger, differs from his teammate Williams in that his entire game is more physically inclined and he doesn’t have the offensive ability to go along with it, at least not yet. Keeler’s strongest attributes are fighting, checking, and strength, which lends itself to a physically imposing player that makes it hard to line up a star offensive forward against him. Opposing teams will run the risk of being worn down against Keeler, especially in longer games. He has just recently begun to develop a shot, although how often he’ll be in position to take it remains to be seen.

 

Splorg Hansburgersteinewalden is the only one of this week’s prospects who isn’t a Blade (he’s a right winger for the Oslo Storm). However, he does have one thing in common with both Williams and Keeler (although not with Stokes) and that is his fighting ability. Hansburgersteinewalden isn’t as skilled a fighter as Williams and Keeler, but he’s still developed more at fighting than the standard prospect. Compared to the other three, Hansburgersteinewalden is a bit of a long shot, he’ll still likely be a decent player but he doesn’t quite have the pedigree of the three Blades players. He does, however, have an all around physical game, with above average development in checking, skating, strength, and defense. He’s a poor man’s Keeler but with better skating.

 

The final installment of Next In Line for this particular draft will be next week, and will include Lights Bokan, Mike McGrattan, Kayl Kuzie, and Devin Sundberg. The mere fact that this series could last for this long speaks volumes as to the depth of this draft and it’ll surely be a good one even by the time the draft actually rolls around. 

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The Next In Line series has brought twelve young VHLM players to the forefront of the public image, and the final five players to be mentioned in this season’s series will be Mike McGrattan, Lights Bokan, Kayl Kuzie, Devin Sundberg, and latecomer James Faraday. These five, along with those mentioned previously, seem to make up the bulk of the VHLM draft. Some other latecomers might prove as valuable as many of the players mentioned, but they’ve yet to develop to the point where they really stand out among the class.

 

Mike McGrattan is a right winger for the Ottawa Lynx. He’s a type of player that’s fairly common in the VHLM but less so in the VHL, in that he’s best at scoring goals above any other potential hockey skill. While it’s a frequent build, it’s not a poor build, as the goals need to be scored somehow, so players like McGrattan contribute in that way while building up other aspects of their game. In McGrattan’s case, he seems to be working on his skating speed as well as his passing ability, two things that will be useful for him down the line.

 

Lights Bokan is a defenseman for the Saskatoon Wild, yet for a defenseman, is not particularly defensive-minded. Bokan is certainly above average at defense, but his best contribution is in passing the puck to teammates, with a solid development in skating and puck handling as well. To contribute as a defenseman, Bokan will want to develop more of a defensive game, but the skills already acquired will certainly help in being a good contributor in all aspects.

 

Kayl Kuzie is a center for the Yukon Rush, and is not to be confused with other prospects named Kayl Kuzie from the league’s past. A strong scorer in the vein of McGrattan, Kuzie is a little less developed but similarly apt to score goals. Kuzie, like McGrattan, has been working on his skating. Unlike McGrattan, Kuzie is developing a puck handling game, while remaining simply average at passing for now. With further development, the two could differentiate even more.

 

Devin Sundberg, one of the league’s most enigmatic prospects, is a center for the Turku Outlaws. While Sundberg comes from the agency that brought us such players as Markus Strauss, Felix Peters, and Greg Harbinson, this agency had taken a hiatus from the league and that’s raised a few questions among some people. Still, on pure talent and potential, Sundberg outranks much of this draft, including many of the prospects who’ve been profiled. A natural skater, Sundberg matches it with a developed scoring touch and good control while handling the puck.

 

James Faraday, a left winger for the Yukon Rush, is a teammate of Kuzie. He’s also developed similarly to Kuzie to this point, and almost identically to Sundberg, with skating and scoring as his main focuses and puck handling as a secondary focus. Having burst onto the VHLM scene several weeks later than most of the rest of these prospects, Faraday still manages to match most of them in talent due to having worked closely with recently retired goalie Tuomas Tukio in development.

 

The season 39 draft looks to be a deep one, and these five players, along with the twelve from the previous editions, should fill out the class rather nicely. Additionally, any of our recent declares who choose the S39 draft over the S40 draft could find themselves shooting up the draft boards at the last minute as well. 

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The Anatomy Of Failing

 

The Saskatoon Wild missed out on the playoffs by a single point, finishing with 76 when both the Brampton Blades and Ottawa Lynx finished with 77. This is the smallest possible margin by which to miss the playoffs other than through a tiebreaker, and they finished the single point below not one, but two teams. Most years, 77 points would be plenty for a playoff spot, and it’s arguable that Saskatoon was in fact a playoff team in lottery clothing. What could they have done better in order to get that point and make it in?

 

1.  Goaltending. Dizzy Dean simply isn’t a playoff goalie in the VHLM, nor will he likely ever be. Ottawa goalie Ikier Manushez isn’t that much better, but he is better, and compared to Brampton’s Vladimir Bodnar it isn’t close. Even the Gladiators have better goaltending than the Wild, with Totally Not A Bear. The only playoff team with a worse goalie than Dizzy Dean was Bern’s Ondrej Cajanek. One does not simply make the playoffs with Dizzy Dean in the net.

 

2. Trades. Rather, two specific trades. In the first, Saskatoon dealt Mikkel Boomgaarden to Bern for Aaron Hartley, and picks were exchanged both directions which don’t affect the teams’ current fortunes. Mikkel Boomgaarden is by far the better player, and dealing him away for Hartley made the team clearly worse. In the other, Saskatoon dealt Devin Sundberg to Turku for Braxton Hunter, Walt Pringle, Mikael Svensson, and picks. This one is a little trickier. Depth is always a good thing to have. Hunter, Pringle, and Svensson provide that in a way that Sundberg, as a single player, can’t. However, Sundberg is by far the better player, and the depth pieces don’t even combine to equal him in talent. If Saskatoon had kept Sundberg and Boomgaarden, would they have made the playoffs? It’s impossible to know for a fact, but speculation would certainly lead to that conclusion.

 

3. Conferences. Simply put, if Saskatoon was in the other conference, they’d be in the playoffs, assuming schedules remained the same. It was mentioned earlier that the only playoff team with a worse goalie than Saskatoon was Bern. That might also explain the fact that Bern, as a playoff team, was actually a worse team than Saskatoon, at least based on the standings. Saskatoon was the sixth best team in the league, which isn’t always a guarantee of a playoff berth with the conference format, and it cost them here. Bern, while a point further back of Saskatoon, made the playoffs because there were two easy teams in the European Conference (Oslo and Bratislava) and therefore Bern was always going to get in. Saskatoon, via the virtue of being in North America, only had Minot to beat as an easier team and had to battle it out with three other top teams, a battle which they ultimately lost.

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Often in the VHLM there are several trades in between seasons, as each contending team collects pieces and each rebuilding team collects draft picks or future pieces. This shift in assets has a tendency to flow more freely in the VHLM than in its VHL counterpart. Even so, for a league that sees an abnormally large amount of trades, this was an even greater amount. Nine trades have been made in two weeks. Which teams are gearing up, which are saving for the future, and which are directionless?

 

The first trade was between Ottawa and Bratislava, and it brought the first overall pick to the Lynx. Often the first overall pick has a huge immediate impact on a VHLM team but only spends one season there. Pretty apparent then that Ottawa is trying to compete, and that Bratislava is not. As for the trade on the whole, it’s a S39 1st and S40 2nd to Ottawa and S39 3rd, S40 1st, S41 1st, and S41 2nd to Bratislava. Bratislava, while losing the first overall, won this deal on pure value. That said, if Ottawa wins the cup, they’d be hard pressed to complain.

 

Ottawa continued to load up in their next trade, acquiring Oslo’s S39 1st for an S40 1st and the S40 2nd they got in the last trade. Again, fairly simple trade, Ottawa acquired top picks in this draft with the intent to compete for the cup, and as with the last one, they may have been behind slightly on value here. A cup win can justify it though, easily.

 

Bratislava hit the market again, this time with Turku. Bratislava picked up Turku’s entire S41 set of draft picks, and in the process regained their own S39 1st as well as an S39 2nd. This was a fairly even trade. Bratislava got one extra pick out of it (a 3rd at that) but later picks often tend to have less value than picks in the immediacy of the moment. With the S39 draft pending at the time, if either team won this it was Turku, but is it too little too late compared to Ottawa?

 

Turku traded with Brampton next, and this deal seems to contradict their last. Two players, Kristoffer Ruud and Antoine Sauve, admittedly little more than depth, went to Brampton for an S39 3rd. In recent history, 3rds haven’t often amounted to much, although no one can really say Ruud and Sauve have either. Largely, this trade is insignificant, although perhaps if it benefits anyone, it’s the other depth guys on Turku who now get more playing time. Turku’s selection with the pick, Da’Brickashaw O’Neal, doesn’t look like amounting to a great deal either.

 

The next trade involved two teams who haven’t been involved in any of the previous ones, Saskatoon and Bern. Saskatoon traded up in the draft to 5th pick, giving up 10th pick and an S40 1st (likely late) and also acquiring an S41 3rd. While 3rds are generally not much, they’re at least a little more in the VHLM than in the VHL. Sometimes, an inactive with depth capability will fall to the 3rd, other times a player will return to activity or simply have gone unnoticed. It’s not unheard of for Saskatoon to pull something out with that pick, but honestly, they’ll have to in order to get value from this deal. This was a deep enough draft, especially in the first, where dealing up didn’t make a ton of sense. Bern took Devin Sundberg at 10 (who’d initially looked like a half-season guy but announced he would be down the whole season prior to the draft) and Saskatoon grabbed a goalie at 5 in Gunnar Skovsgard. Skovsgard is certainly going to be good, and Saskatoon will like that they picked up a goalie, but Ikier Manushez was on the board at 10 and wouldn’t have been a huge drop. It’s unlikely that drop will be worth an S40 1st.

 

So far, we have three teams seemingly trying to compete through these trades. Ottawa seems to have come out the best so far, but have somewhat sold the farm to do it. Saskatoon and Turku might be competing for nothing, though, if Ottawa’s team can mesh well. The remaining trades may yet change all of this, so check back in next week.

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The VHLM is an ever-changing world, wherein new trades pop up every week it seems. Just last week we were discussing there only being four more trades to review, one week later that four turns to seven. Contrast this with the VHL, where it’d take half a season to get three extra trades.

 

Looking at the Turku-Oslo trade, this is fairly straightforward but with a couple interesting bits. Turku moves up in the second round (16th pick to 13th) but downgrades inactives. Losing Guy Lukovski and gaining only Spud Murphy might be a detriment to Turku long term, depending on how long Lukovski has left on his free agency deal. The deal up in picks should help Turku in the short term, and there’s always something to be said at this level for the development of actives, but the other side of the coin is that actives will leave and go to the VHL. Inactives won’t.

 

Speaking of inactives, the all-in Ottawa Lynx don’t seem to mind them, picking up Razzle Dazzle for Mike McGrattan and Andrej Hasek. It’s been a long and interesting career for Dazzle, a career VHLMer but with a great deal of success at that level. Surely he’ll play behind Ottawa’s actives even if he’s better (as that’s the primary objective of the VHLM) but he’ll still be a good acquisition for them.

 

Saskatoon and Minot made a deal representative of so many other VHLM deals before: that of lining up their picks for seasons. Saskatoon acquired three S39 2nds for a collection of S40 picks (a 1st, a 2nd, and a 4th, should the draft have a 4th). It’s as simple as them each doing the other a favor in their respective contending seasons.

 

Saskatoon then made an inconsequential deal with Turku, acquiring a 4th for Bo Reinhart and Cody Nichuskin. Primarily this deal would be made in order for Reinhart and Nichuskin to be in a better position, should they return to activity, but in either case, two 0 TPE inactives for a 4th is still inconsequential.

 

Bern, unlike our last two teams, made a very bold move acquiring goalie Vladimir Bodnar for an S41 1st. Bratislava has recently had a history of acquiring picks and delaying success, but with the roster they have, it would have been interesting to see what sort of run they could have made. It likely wouldn’t have been enough this season, so if they have a plan in mind to acquire a goalie next season, this makes sense for them. It certainly does for Bern.

 

Speaking of trades that make sense for Bern, they pick up Mario Corvia and a 1st for… a 1st? Comparatively, Alex Vaklav and Rocky West aren’t really more than throw ins. Bern wins this trade, but Oslo doesn’t do as badly as it looks on paper, if this is the price to line up picks for a more convenient year. They picked up an S40 1st for an S41 1st, while using Corvia as the catalyst to get it done.

 

The final trade to this point (likely not by the time of press, given the frequency of trades in the VHLM) is actually a rather large one. Turku sells off the team, for all intents and purposes (note: not “intensive purposes” as that is not a thing) and Brampton takes advantage. Even with the new acquisitions of Manushez and Nykvist, as great as both are, and Murphy and O’Neal for depth, Brampton is going to have a battle ahead of them in their conference. Ottawa and Saskatoon have both made moves prior to this one and it seems like they may still be ahead, so this could only have pushed Brampton into third in the conference. Still, it’s a playoff berth, and with a competitive roster including goalie and the Backenbauers, it’s worth the lottery ticket as well as the three S41 picks used to get there.

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Welcome to Next In Line, season 40 edition! This is where we will take a look at some of the players who will grace the following draft class, checking in on their progress and giving our readers some insight as to who might step up and become successful in the VHL. Some of you may remember this series from last year. In this edition, we will look at

 

First up is Marcus Hurley. He is a left winger for the Minot Gladiators, and he comes from an agency which hasn’t had a ton of success in the past, but has shown a modicum of activity and could surprise some people moving forward. Hurley’s skill set at this point lies solely in his skating and scoring. This is a typical VHLM build, and isn’t necessarily indicative of what he might do moving forward. It will be interesting to see what he does once he differentiates.

 

Danny Schneider, Hurley’s teammate, is a defenseman with a physical build. He’s a returnee from a long time ago, and there’s always been mixed success with these particular types of players, but it’s not fair to Schneider to judge him by similar but distinct agents in the past. So far, he looks like he can break the trend. He has a strong defensive build so far, with good defense and checking.

 

Soren Douffet is something of an enigma. Previous players under this agency have had great variations in success, ranging from the nearly HOF-worthy Mathias Chouinard to the career journeyman Mario Linguini. Douffet, as a goalie, has to come in somewhere closer to Chouinard to have a successful career. There’s not much of a market for less-skilled goalies, as they’re generally cannon fodder for the playoffs. If Douffet can approach the level of Chouinard (doesn’t even have to be as good, just about 75% as good, or thereabouts) then he could become a top goalie. Right now, his best assets are rebound control, hand speed, and size.

 

Ikier Manushez will compete with Douffet as goalies in this draft class. His previous player (Teemu Lehtinen) falls somewhere in between Chouinard and Linguini. If he can replicate Lehtinen with Manushez, then he could potentially be a competitive goalie in the VHL. His build is currently focused on reaction time, style control, and size.

 

Gunnar Skovsgard will prove whether history or current potential will win out come draft day. Right now, Skovsgard looks like he’s going to become better than either Douffet or Manushez, but agency-wise, he is historically the least successful of the three. If potential wins out, Skovsgard should go above the other two. If history wins out, both Manushez and Douffet will be higher than him. His current build is on hand speed and reaction time, one strength of each of the other two.

 

The three goalies will be one of the biggest underlying stories of this draft class, and it will be interesting to see not only which one finishes highest in the draft, but how their relative careers pan out. Historically, it should be Douffet – Manushez – Skovsgard, but on current activity it would be Skovsgard – Douffet – Manushez (with a closer gap between Skovsgard and Douffet than either of them with Manushez, who has fallen back in recent weeks). Next week we will look into some of the lesser known candidates quickly rising up to the top of the draft boards.

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Last week, we looked at Marcus Hurley, Danny Schneider, and the three goalies in the upcoming draft class, Soren Douffet, Ikier Manushez, and Gunnar Skovsgard. This week, we will focus on players toward the top of the draft class who don’t have the agent history behind them that might be expected of someone at their level. There are a number of players who fit this description, and that speaks to the depth of the upcoming draft class.

 

The biggest and most obvious example of this is Jerrick Poole. A defenseman for the Ottawa Lynx, Poole brings an agent known for his success in other leagues, but not in the VHL. So far, Poole looks to change that. With his biggest strength in his defensive game, but also above average talent in checking, passing, skating, and puck handling, Poole is arguably VHL ready right now. With half the season to go, he should be an early pick.

 

Gunzerker Salvador is a bit of a surprise as well. His agent has represented VHL flop Darkwing Duck, so his history here is negative, which may even be worse than the nonexistent history of some other players. Despite that, he’s made a strong showing of it so far. On the defensively-strong Saskatoon Wild, Salvador falls behind Mason Richardson and Joshua Rubin on the depth charts, two players with much stronger histories. Maybe it is this that allows him to ease off the pressure and just develop. Scoring is his strongest attribute, followed closely by skating and defense.

 

Rami Jakobssen, a player whose agent (like Poole’s) has been more successful elsewhere, has been showing up strong so far. Jakobssen, like our next featured player, has an agent from another hockey league called the SHL. Therefore, he knows the ins and outs of hockey management and should be capable of developing well. Jakobssen fits into a niche that is often overlooked, that of the passer. His passing and skating are his biggest strengths, followed by his puck handling, defense, and scoring.

 

Jody 3 Moons’ agent comes from SHL like Jakobssen’s, so he similarly should know what he is doing with regards to development. A center, Moons has already developed fairly well in the faceoff circle, certainly enough to compete favorably in the VHLM and to build on going forward into the VHL. Skating is his biggest strength, and he has also developed well in passing, scoring, and puck handling. Moons, to this point, is fairly well rounded and can perform capably in any number of roles.

 

Vladimir Komarov is relatively unknown, not just to VHL, but across leagues on the whole. As such, we don’t really know what to expect from him, but so far he has performed well and looks to be an early name come draft day. Another strong skater, Komarov is also quite capable at checking and defense, which makes him responsible in his own end. He’s a stronger prospect than most, which will allow him to throw his strength behind checks, and he has a good pass.

 

These five have seen their names climb up draft projections quite rapidly in the preceding weeks. Poole specifically has been threatening to break up the power trio of Richardson, O’Malley, and Cote, and all four of the others have a good chance to be first round picks. Next week, history will be on our side as we delve into the aforementioned power trio, as well as Lloyd Light and Joshua Rubin.

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Our next five players for this week come from known and respected agencies. Tyler Cote, Mason Richardson, and Thomas O’Malley are the top three prospects at this time (which is a shame for Jerrick Poole, who in most drafts would be walking away with the top pick) and Lloyd Light and Joshua Rubin are strong candidates for the first round. These guys are certainly going to be top players in the VHL, it’s simply a matter of time.

 

Tyler Cote, a center for the Moscow Red Wolves, comes from the same agency that recently brought Sebastian Ball to the league. Ball was impressive, and so should Cote be. He’s a very well rounded prospect, with his best skills in skating, checking, puck handling and passing, but additionally with a strongly developed scoring, defense, faceoffs, and passing. Cote isn’t weak at any one thing and that should make him a viable and flexible VHLer next season.

 

Lloyd Light (Keiji Toriyama’s agency) is a defenseman for the fairly thin Moscow Red Wolves, which gives him an opportunity to play a lot of minutes and develop. He’s paired defensively with fellow draft prospect Vladimir Komarov, both of whom are destined for success at the next level. Light’s skating, scoring, and defense are his top skills, while he is also good at puck handling. Light has the type of build that will make him competent at both ends of the ice.

 

Thomas O’Malley of Remy LeBeau’s agency is an interesting case. He’s spent so much time developing his scoring such that, of the draftees headed into the league, it is the single strongest attribute any player has. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. In O’Malley’s case, it seems certain that development of other areas will come in time (as he’s also very good at skating and puck handling, and fairly good at passing, faceoffs, defense, and strength) and he hasn’t left a part of his game weak in order to develop such a scoring touch.

 

Mason Richardson (Kameron Taylor’s agency) is the only one of the top three prospects who isn’t a center (he’s a defenseman) and that will most likely help guide what team he goes to in the draft. Richardson, as with Cote, is very balanced in his build. His skating and defense are his biggest strengths but he’s also particularly capable at checking, strength, puck handling, passing, and scoring.

 

Joshua Rubin is probably the one of these five with the least history behind his agency, but Evgeny Namestnikov’s agency is still no small matter. Rubin is another defenseman like Richardson and Light, with defense as his primary focus for right now. He also has developed well in skating, scoring, passing, and checking. As with the other defensemen, team need might drive Rubin’s selection in the draft.

 

Next week, we will shine the spotlight on five players who are the exact opposite of these five: completely unknown until this point. Sachimo Zoidberg, Jaime Hill, Oskars Harumpf, and Boris Belov are new guys to the sim league world on the whole, and Jacques “Le Coq” Grande brings a football agent to a hockey league, so they’ll be interesting to see how well they pan out. We still have several top players to profile (including King Czar III and Kurtis Hunter, two more potential first rounders) so keep looking for this feature!

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We’re getting awfully close to the end of the season and there are still so many players to profile, so we’re going to pick up the pace a little. Our original five players for this week were Sachimo Zoidberg, Jaime Hill, Oskars Harumpf, Boris Belov, and Jacques “Le Coq” Grande. We’re going to add two more to this week’s article. Ryan Cattrall and Emidas Blair fit right in with Grande in that the agents of all three have most recently come from a football league called the USFL.

 

Of today’s seven players, Sachimo Zoidberg is currently the best and will likely be drafted the highest, although after the draft everything is subject to change. He has evenly developed skating, puck handling, passing, and scoring, and is becoming a rather balanced player within those attributes. He’s also started to add to his defensive game, but not to the extent of the other four attributes.

 

Two of the other players on this list, Jaime Hill and Ryan Cattrall, are teammates of Zoidberg on the Yukon Rush. Hill joined at the same time as Zoidberg and their agents are linked. As a defenseman (defensewoman? Is that a term?) Hill has primarily worked on her defense, but has also put some amount of work into developing a solid checking game.

 

Cattrall, also of the Rush, is strongest in skating and passing. This is a huge help in the VHLM where everyone primarily focuses on scoring, so a passer is valuable and rare. He’s also added to his defense, which in the long run ends up being beneficial for a forward, so Cattrall’s draft stock may rise due to his unorthodox but highly valuable build.

 

Oskars Harumpf and Boris Belov are both on the Saskatoon Wild. Harumpf, a likely early second rounder who could slip into the first, is far better at skating than at any other single thing. However, he’s balanced after that, with work in puck handling, faceoffs, passing, scoring, and defense. He has no real weakness except for his physical game, but he may choose to specialize a bit more as his build grows.

 

Boris Belov, on the other hand, is probably the single biggest outlier in the draft class. He’s built up his physical game and only his physical game. He’s gone balanced between checking, fighting, and strength, but outside of these and a minor boost to skating, he’s left the rest of his game undeveloped. This is a strategy that he will look to employ once in the bigs, coming on to take the opposition’s stars out of the game and allowing his teammates an easier time of things.

 

Jacques “Le Coq” Grande of the Ottawa Lynx has come onto the scene relatively late (as have several of the other members profiled) and he’s been climbing up the draft boards at a rapid pace. Scoring and skating, two of the most commonly built attributes, comprise all of Grande’s build, but this early on that’s still just fine.

 

Emidas Blair, like Grande, has strictly stuck to skating and scoring to this point in his build. Also like Grande, Blair (and Cattrall, as well as a few others we’ve profiled before such as Jerrick Poole and Gunzerker Salvador) have agent histories from the USFL, a football league. As such, it would not be surprising if that played into Blair’s draft stock, and teams with some tie to the league might be more likely to select Blair and the others than teams without some tie to the league.

 

The remaining draftees which will be featured are King Czar III, Kurtis Hunter, Superbman, Griffin Simons, Bobby Ricky, Christoph Klose, Wesley Matthews, Danny Schneider, Alecs Van Der Merder, Mikko Koskinen, Shadhu Rathod Jr, Alistar Graves, Niklas Kurri, and Marcus Eisenhower. These fourteen players will be covered, seven per week, over the next two editions – just in time to start to focus on playoffs and the draft.

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The fact that this series is still going on for this season says, in itself, the great depth of the draft class. This is one that will be remembered for the ages, and where GMs can make or break their futures in a single draft. Of the fourteen remaining prospects, some will hit, some will miss, and some will fall somewhere in between, but as of right now all of their futures are bright. There have been entire draft classes smaller than fourteen players, and we’ve gone through several editions now and still have that many left. The seven which will be discussed today are members of the Blades, Rush, and Storm.

 

Niklas Kurri is a center for the Blades, and he’s got a little bit of skill in a lot of areas. This guy isn’t great at any one thing, but he’s better than the average player at five different skills. His best skills are his skating, scoring, and defense, making him a threat on both ends of the ice with the speed to get from one end to the other when the play turns. He’s also a decent checker for his level of progression, and he’s worked on his faceoffs a little bit, although he’ll need more work before making the big jump.

 

Playing on Kurri’s team is another prospect, Bobby Ricky, and while Kurri is balanced, Ricky is much more specialized. His only two strengths right now are skating and scoring, a tried and true build at this level. He’s very solid at both of them, especially for a VHLMer, and is well on his way, although he’ll need to work on some of his lesser skills prior to the VHL.

 

The final Blade this week is Mikko Koskinen. Koskinen is built similarly to Ricky, and both their scoring abilities are equal, although Ricky is a little faster. Where Koskinen falls a little short of Ricky in skating, he makes up for it in puck handling, where Ricky is average but Koskinen a little bit more skilled. This will be useful for Koskinen so he doesn’t lose the puck to the stronger players.

 

Alistar “Bloodthirster” Graves is a right winger for the Rush. He’s relatively less developed than some of the aforementioned players, but he’s also newer so his overall pace of development is just as strong. His build is interesting, in that he has developed his passing, scoring, and strength. Strength is often something that players wait on, doing more weight room work in the VHL than in the VHLM, but Graves has built a little and should be able to use it to his advantage.

 

Shadhu Rathod Jr. is a teammate of Graves and is farther along in his development. He’s also pretty balanced to this point, like Kurri. Rathod’s best attributes thus far are his passing and scoring, both of which are solid for a prospect, and he’s also done some developmental work on his checking, skating, and puck handling, making him one of the more well-rounded prospects.

 

Our last two players for this week are teammates on the Oslo Storm and are two of the more developed prospects of the week. Christoph Klose, a left winger, has developed his skating, puck handling, and scoring to a good VHLM level, and a level where he’d not look out of place on some of the lower VHL teams. He has also begun to take some defensive practice, which is very useful for some forwards to have.

 

Closing out the week is Alecs Van Der Merder, a center. Despite being a center, Van Der Merder has not worked on his faceoffs yet, which in the VHLM is actually completely fine. He has a career to work on them. He has gone the skating and scoring route that so many often take, matching Ricky and Koskinen in scoring and just barely outdoing them in skating, and Van Der Merder has also put a few spare practices into puck handling and defense.

 

With these seven down, the only remaining players for this series are King Czar III, Kurtis Hunter, Superbman, Griffin Simons, Wesley Matthews, Danny Schneider, and Marcus Eisenhower. These seven players will be featured next week, and will round out the series just in time for these players to be drafted and find their future homes!

[diamond_ace 3,112]

We have finally reached the last installment of the Next In Line series for the season 40 draftees, and as a reminder, our draftees this week will be Kurtis Hunter, Superbman, Griffin Simons, Wesley Matthews, Danny Schneider, King Czar III, and Marcus Eisenhower. These players are all members of either the Bratislava Watchmen, the Moscow Red Wolves, or the Saskatoon Wild.

 

We will begin with the lone North American Conference representative, Kurtis Hunter. As a right winger for the Saskatoon Wild, Hunter brings the background and reputation of the Toast agency, recently known for Steven Smyl. Hunter is strong at puck handling, passing, and scoring, and he has also worked on his skating but not quite as much. Still, he’s a well rounded offensive forward, although hasn’t developed a defensive game.

 

Like Hunter, King Czar III has a strong chance of going in the first round in the draft. A defenseman for the Bratislava Watchmen, Czar is very balanced in his build. His strongest attributes are his skating and defense, but his passing and checking are not far behind, and his puck handling and scoring are not much farther behind that.

 

Wesley Matthews is another potential first rounder, with an enigma for an agent. The 701 agency has produced a few less than stellar players, but it’s also produced moments of brilliance, and Matthews looks more like the latter so far. Skating, scoring, and defense are his best current attributes, although do not overlook the few extra hours of work he’s put into his checking either.

 

Superbman, a teammate of Matthews and Czar, hasn’t done quite the developing of the other two but he’s still a very good prospect and should be an early second. His only true strength as of yet is his passing, but he’s developed a lot of aspects of his game so as not to have any weaknesses. He’s worked on skating, puck handling, scoring, and defense, and is better than the average VHLM player in each of those, which bodes well for his pro career.

 

Danny Schneider is about as developed as Superbman, although with a much different history of past players. While Superbman and some of the others above have come from agencies with recent players in the league, Schneider is a bit of a throwback. Still, he’s done well in the return, and has an extremely well-developed defense for this level, likely able to hold his own defensively in the bigs too. He’s also been working on his skating and checking.

 

Marcus Eisenhower, a less developed prospect, still projects to be a long term draftee for a team. He likely won’t see the bigs right away but he’s the type of guy a team could store in the minors and bring him up when he can do the most damage. As of now, he’s been practicing at skating, passing, defense, and a little bit of puck handling.

 

Griffin Simons falls somewhere between his Red Wolves teammates, Schneider and Eisenhower. He’s not quite as developed as Schneider but is farther along than Eisenhower, so it’ll be interesting to see how long he takes in the minors. Passing is his biggest strength, which allows for him to be useful for a team with scorers. Puck handling, scoring, and leadership have also seen some development from Simons during his practices.

 

The season 40 draftees are numerous and talented, and it’s a testament to that fact that it took so long to go through them. Nonetheless, these are the players you’ll want to look out for on draft day, not necessarily in order from edition to edition either. The players who have been featured in this series should all make a strong impact on the VHL at some point in their careers, and will be tasked with stepping up to replace today’s stars when they decline. Tall task, but we know they’re up to it, and good luck!

[diamond_ace 3,112]

Looking at the S40 VHLM Dispersal Draft, there should only be three teams that instantly rise to the level of contenders overnight. Some teams may continue to compete with players left from before, and given the size of the S39 draft, there will likely be as many of these as of teams building through the draft. Based solely on the draft though, the teams who stand to jump in class are the Bratislava Watchmen, the Oslo Storm, and the Minot Gladiators. Aside from a lone pick by each of Ottawa and Bern, these three teams comprise the entirety of the top two rounds of the draft. Which of the teams stands the best chance going in (with assets currently on the roster) and as such, should be the strongest favorite for the cup out of these three?

 

Oslo is the biggest questionmark. Lloyd Light has made his intentions known to stay in the VHLM. If he is able to, then Oslo instantly jumps to the top of the three, it seems. Vladimir Komarov and Christoph Klose look primed to return to Oslo either way, and Vincenzo Valentini and Guy Lukovski are two of the better VHLM mainstays. With these four, they'll obviously need at least one additional forward through the draft, but their biggest need will be at goalie. With only the 5th overall pick, it is unlikely they can land Niklaus Mikaelson, who has to be seen as the big prize at the goalie position this year, so they'll have to waiver someone once again. They have enough talent that OSL G, the newly-signed mid-level VHLM talent, should keep them afloat until they do.

 

Bratislava knows with more certainty what they'll have, as there is no looming Light of speculation over their heads. They know who they have and who they don't. Superbman, Wesley Matthews, and King Czar III were specifically drafted for that purpose. GM Seth had their two-season potential in mind when picking them up last season, although perhaps it didn't work as well as he'd have liked for Sepp Reiter. In any case, Bratislava will also need to add a goalie, but they'll have a better shot at Mikaelson if they want him.  All they'd need is for him to pass Minot's first overall as they have 2, 3, and 4. Bratislava will also need to boost its forwards. They'll probably come out of this with a little more star power than Oslo, but their depth will likely be behind.

 

Minot has one potential advantage but it could also become a disadvantage quickly. They're in the North American Conference and won't have to directly compete against Bratislava or Oslo. However, this was also the much stronger conference last season, so any of those teams who intend to compete again solely with carried over rosters will likely run square into the Gladiators. As with both the other teams, Minot needs a goalie, but they need so much more than that. Their best carried over player from last season is Marcus Hurley, who is certainly a good player, but not on the level of Bratislava's three or much of what Oslo returns. Hurley is likely going to be competitive with maybe a Valentini or so for much of the season. Minot would be best served dealing down from that first pick, or perhaps into a different draft altogether, but if they want to at least lock up a playoff berth and likely a round 1 win they could grab Mikaelson. He'll have to stand on his head though, they honestly don't have much else.

 

On the whole, the two European teams look like they're going to be in much better shape, which is good considering this league is screaming for a competitive European presence. Minot has an uphill battle depending on how much value returns to Ottawa, Brampton, and Saskatoon, but it's possible through some strong moves that they could find themselves at least in the finals, even if it's a harder road than the other two.

[diamond_ace 3,112]

The VHLM underwent a significant reformation in between seasons 19 and 20. The entire structure of the league changed, and we can thank then-commissioner Tfong for his foresight into exactly what the league needed at the time. In any case, while this reformation was just about unanimously for the better, it does leave the issue of records and stats from the pre-reformation era being incompatible with records and stats from the post-reformation era. Since the reformation, there have been some teams with stable leadership for periods and other teams without. There are four such instances where a GM has led a team to multiple cups in the post-reformation era, three of which were a pair of cups and one of which hit the trifecta. Coincidentally, there were two such winners in each decade.

 

Starting with the double winners, we have GMs diamond_ace of the then-Ottawa Ice Dogs (now Ottawa Lynx, and S21 and S23 champions), STZ of the Bratislava Watchmen (S33 and S36 champions), and eaglesfan036 of the Yukon Rush (S37 and S38 champions, and the newest entrant to this club).

 

The first of these, diamond_ace, led two very different squads to titles with a year gap. The S21 team was led by Evgeni Fyodorov and Keon Henderson, two of the most active players in the league as well as two of the most successful. Fyodorov scored an unbelievably high amount of goals, and Henderson racked up the assists. Oddly enough, that was about the extent of the team. Leeroy Jenkins would sign on as a waiver player and end up contributing heavily to the playoff run, but it was the dynamic duo of Fyodorov and Henderson that did much of it, as well as the acquisition of Mattias Backlund in goal, the only good goalie that year. The S23 team was overloaded with actives, including Matthew Boragina, Nikolai Lebedev, Daniel Braxton, Mitch Higgins, Matthieu VanCoughnett, Mike Molholt, Joe Nash, Genghis Khan, Dougie Daniels, and Seth Plaut. While the S21 run was more about timing and position scarcity (goalie), the S23 run overloaded the team with activity and steamrolled.

 

STZ has the distinction of the longest gap between cups for the same GM in the post-reformation era. The S33 squad was backstopped by a young Eggly Bagelface, and featured Niklas Lindberg, Willem Janssen, Doug Clifford, Thomas Landry, and Davey Jones, despite being much weaker defensively. Even though the team had no star defensemen compared to forwards, it was a defenseman, Chris Bourque, who led the league in assists for the Watchmen. After a lack of success in S34 and S35, the Watchmen were back at it again in S36. Some mainstays were still on the team (Mario Corvia, Haggard Slobban) but this squad was built in the inverse of S33, with defense first. Slaeter Fjorsstrom, Andrey Zadorov, David Januzaj, and Phil Villeneuve defended in front of the net of Martin Brookside, and offensively, Tom Slaughter, Logan Laich, Kai Randal, and Vincenzo Valentini led an otherwise less than stellar group of forwards (for Founder’s Cup standards anyway) to the top. Really, it was the play of Martin Brookside that did much of the heavy lifting, although where that game has gone in the bigs, no one can say.

 

Eaglesfan036 took home back to back titles in S37 and S38, with surprisingly little crossover between the two teams. Three major pieces appear on both banners: Bennett Wahl, Kai Randal, and Don Draper. The S37 team killed the competition with depth, with a total of 26 players appearing in enough games to merit a presence on the championship banner. Konstantin Azhishchenkov, Lars Strummer, Johan Hallstrom, Triton Jackson, David Januzaj, Mikkel Boomgaarden, and Kimmo Salo are the most notable other than the three who appeared on both rosters, and the squad was balanced across all positions. The S38 club was far less balanced. Only Razzle Dazzle and Gunzerker Salvador joined Draper on the blue line, not even enough to form two pairings. Brock Waldron held up behind them well, and Lukas Nykvist, James Faraday, Vincenzo Valentini, and supporting cast put up enough offense to do the job and take home the title once again.

 

Finally we get to the triple winner, and arguably the best GM in the history of the VHLM, post-reformation era: CoachReilly. With Founder’s Cup titles in S24, S25, and S28, CoachReilly matched the back to back of Eaglesfan036, matched the cups with two off years of STZ, and trumped all three of the others on the list in sheer number of cups won. The S24 team can be summed up in two words: Gunnar Axelson. One of the most prolific VHLM players of all time, Axelson won four individual trophies in the single season for Saskatoon. CoachReilly acquired a defenseman with cup-winning experience in Mike Molholt, paired him with Vladimir Boomchenko, and let them and Axelson lead an underwhelming forward corps to a title, helped tremendously by the goaltending efforts of CAL G. Even G’s backup, Drago Sorrentino, was better than many of the starters that year. On the whole, the S24 team resembles the S21 team in that it was led by a few good players and the best goalie. While Axelson did not remain with the Wild for S25, they more than made up for it with Jarvis Baldwin, Gunnar Rask, Jack Voratek, Xavier Joyal, and Kraphf Dringus. Dringus and Voratek added to Molholt and Boomchenko to form one of the deepest defensive groups of the era, and even depth defender Joe Mawm was not poor. The forwards lagged a little behind the defensemen, but were still a strong group in their own right. The S28 team featured a dominant performance from Damon Wolfe which led them to the cup, as well as the strong play of Jehovah in net, and Roger Fenzing, Rick Ross and Dave Mustaine up top. Ronan O’Keefe was the wily veteran presence on the blue line who had been traded off of the S23 Ottawa club, only to finally reach redemption in his long VHLM career with the S28 Saskatoon team.

 

On the whole, the VHLM is a league with a lot of turnover at the GM position, and even among teams who keep their leaders in place, often they are not met with success. These four have reached the promised land on more than one occasion, and it speaks to the league on the whole as a stepping stone that three of the four are currently VHL GMs.

[diamond_ace 3,112]

The Ottawa Lynx and GM flyersfan1493 joined an elite group of teams to win two cups under the same GM, with their victory in the most recent season (season 39) over the Oslo Storm. This title was fairly straightforward for them, at least in the finals, although getting out of the conference was much more difficult. Last season’s North American Conference was notably stronger than its European Conference as has been noted before. It took the Lynx the full seven games to dispatch the Saskatoon Wild in the conference finals and it took the Wild the full seven games to get past the first round and the challenge of the Brampton Blades. In contrast, the Lynx managed to take out the Storm in five games in the Founder’s Cup finals.

 

The Lynx were comprised of several players who are ineligible to return to the team due to training and development caps; Aksel Thomassen, James Faraday, Andrew Erikson, Thomas O’Malley, Leo Tesla, and Jerrick Poole chief among them. As such, it was fairly simple for them to take this mass of talent and turn it into a cup run. Additionally, they had Nicolas Caprivi, Soren Douffet, and Teuvo Ruutu, who each for various reasons have not returned to the team (Caprivi is with the Bratislava Watchmen, as is Douffet, and Ruutu is with the Minot Gladiators). This is a particularly strong roster even among cup-winning teams and it goes to show why the Lynx were able to withstand the very strong North American Conference in the playoffs last year and take home the Founder’s Cup.

 

However, since none of the players listed above are still on the roster, it will be a long, hard year for Ottawa fans as they can expect no repeat performance from their team. Not only will the Lynx not win the cup again, they likely won’t make the playoffs, and in all likelihood that is not a goal for this team in season 40. Despite the drastically diminished roster, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Lynx. Goaltender Coca Cola will get an opportunity to start for the team in his first season of play, though on some nights it is expected he will be left out to dry in front of a roster with only a single defenseman of note (Razzle Dazzle). Nonetheless, it’s an opportunity for Cola to develop in a situation where nothing is expected of him and so the pressure should be off. Bobby Ricky, a young prospect for the New York Americans, will be the star for the Lynx, or at least as close to one as they’ll have. Lack of linemates may hamper his development somewhat but he should be the leading scorer on the team and that can only help his stat totals. Finally, Carl Sledgehammer, another young prospect but one who has yet to be drafted, will have the opportunity to develop alongside Ricky, who was just in his shoes one season ago. This should certainly help Sledgehammer’s development and allow him to showcase his ability before VHL scouts.

[diamond_ace 3,112]

The Saskatoon Wild, with such players as Rami Jakobssen, Jarome Iginla, Kurtis Hunter, Joshua Rubin, and Gunnar Skovsgard, are dominating the North American Conference. It’s not particularly close, as second place is 16 points back with only 31/32 games played depending on team. After them, though, the next three teams are within 10 points of each other. The Minot Gladiators, Yukon Rush, and Brampton Blades are bunched up in the middle of the conference and only two of the three will make the playoffs. Which team is the best built for challenging the Wild?

 

On paper, it looks like the Gladiators should have a much larger lead than they do, actually. Jose Canseco is (for now) the best goalie on any of the three teams, and Shadhu Rathod Jr. the best player. Additionally, Rift Pajodcast and Brady Stropko are two players who look to become greats, even though they are just developing right now. By the end of the season, they should be two solid options for this team. Could they make a run at the Wild? Probably not, but it should be worth a watch and they’ll definitely have a shot at it.

 

The Rush, currently sitting in third, may end up falling out of the playoffs. They have very little depth and their best player, Mario Corvia, is a career VHLMer who won’t likely improve throughout the rest of his career. Fedir Okranitz, Brandon Holmes and Matej Nemecek are the only three true prospects on this team and that likely won’t catch them up to the Gladiators. It definitely won’t catch them up to the Wild. Waiver players can make an impact and we’ll see who the Rush add but right now it’s not looking great for their playoff chances, considering how strong the Wild especially and the Gladiators are.

 

The Blades are out of the playoffs at the moment. They actually have a better goal difference than the Rush who are ahead of them (-12 to -14) but their point total is seven back of the Rush. The one thing the Blades have that the Rush don’t is depth. There are four more players on the Blades than the Rush, some of whom are decent VHLMers and others of whom are prospects who are still improving. However, only Yannik Zug, AIM-11, and Jack Harkness are still actively developing. This is the same amount as the Rush and this race could come down to the waiver wire, but with the rosters currently constructed, there’s just not enough difference between the two teams to favor the Blades to make up the difference.

 

Of these three teams, even though they are close in the standings, the Gladiators are a strong favorite based on rosters. This is true even though the gap between the Gladiators and Rush is a tiny three points. The Rush, roster-wise, look closer to the Blades than the Gladiators (and this is reflected in the goal differences of the teams) but they’ve been better at converting skill to wins. It looks like the standings as constructed now will be the standings at the end of the season, but the teams are close enough on points that it really can’t be determined yet.