Transaction Chronicles: The Advantage Timeline

[Advantage 2,769]

I sit first all-time in wins by a VHL General Manager with 834 over 1584 career games.  I have won two Continental Cups over my twenty-two seasons as a General Manager.  In my first true chance with a contender, I took the New York Americans to four consecutive Victory Cup trophies, which was a Victory Hockey League first.  I also hold the record for the most David Knight Trophies ever won with five.  I am no longer a General Manager but I have often reflected lately on what trades helped me achieve so much success and what ones may have cost me more Continental Cups or even continued regular season success with certain teams.  Therefore, I want to start a series where I chronicle every VHL Trade I ever made as a General Manager over the twenty-two season stretch.  The big ones and the small ones will be all chronicled as I will explain my thinking and review how successful they actually came to be.  No General Manager is perfect and I’ve definitely made some rough moves in the past, so I am curious how some of the trades shake down.

 

To  
(S28) D - Troy Athera
(S31) D - Malcom Spud

To
(S28) G - Alexander Labatte
(S29) D - Austin Gow

Riga Reign GM: Mike Szatkowski
New York Americans GM: Chris Miller

 

My memory will probably be a bit shaky on some of the trades I made over my tenure as New York General Manager, but this will not be one of them.  To give the context, the New York Americans had to trade their goalie Skylar Rift (who was the GM’s player) to Calgary in order to get my player, Ryan Sullivan, who was a defender.  This was due to me becoming GM, but it left New York in a tricky situation.  I had to find a goaltender and while one of the targets I thought about was Jehovah, he wasn’t exactly a high-tier goaltender.  Enter Mike who decided he wanted to be insane and make this trade that involved a future Hall of Fame goaltender in the prime of his career, Alexander Labatte.  Alex was the reigning Most Valuable Player and had won the last two Top Goaltender Trophy’s. 

 

While Labatte would definitely finish off his career stronger than anyone else in this trade, Athera and Spud proved to be solid accessory pieces in the Reign’s Season 32 Continental Cup victory.  Ultimately, this was still a great trade for me though, with Labatte providing multiple seasons of Top Goaltender worthy play and Austin Gow providing some strong defensive depth over multiple seasons, at the expense of two solid, yet unspectacular defensemen.  I still remember the shock and excitement that came from this trade with any calling Mike crazy, yet it was he who won the Cup the very next season.

 

 

To
(S32) C - Cody Inko
S33 VAS 2nd (RW Thomas Landry)
S34 CGY 2nd (D Nick Becker)

To
(S26) D - Radislav Mjers

New York Americans GM: Chris Miller
Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser

 

This was an interesting one and it was mainly made due to me not necessarily always getting along with the agent of Radislav Mjers and due to the fact that I was adding Sullivan to the team and needed to move out a defenser for cap reasons.  Calgary, trying to replace me, decided to take a shot on the playoff performing Mjers and added him in a trade for a young forward and two picks.  On the surface, Cody Inko had a solid career as a second line center, recording 334 points in 432 games while the gem out of the picks was Thomas Landry.  My boy Doomsday helped guide this talent to eventually be a captain for the Davos Dynamo, and despite a slow start to his career offensively, he finished with 540 points and 1937 hits in 504 games.  Had he produced a bit more at the beginning of his career, there is a pretty decent chance he would have made the Hall of Fame.  Sadly, I eventually did have to trade him due to him being slightly old for the rebuild, but its pretty hard to argue when you trade for a pick that later became a bonafide number one-line star and a really solid second line center, for an aging and regressing but solid defender.  I have no regrets about this one.

[BOOM 8,404]

Do your good trades next. 

[McWolf 3,111]

I wasn't here but that is a great series idea!