Bears GM in contention for GMoTY?

[Banackock 8,146]

There's always been some form of controversy with how this is awarded (sometimes?), however, could this season be a little more clearer? Typically, it's to the GM who is awarded the most success, but has also brought the most success to their teams - whether it's with trades, signings, strategic drafting, continued success or huge progress because of all of the above. This season, we actually seen a lot of movement in the off-season. We watched as Davos sold of their roster, Toronto jumped into compete and Helsinki largely cashed in on advancing their rebuild. 

 

In my opinion, Blake Campbell of the Seattle Bears could potentially be the guy to win GM of the Year and claim his 2nd of this type of award at the VHL levels. While numerous teams had big off-seasons, likely no more than the Seattle Bears. The Helsinki clubbed had a strong off-season, but results aren't quite there yet and often, you don't see it go to a mediocre organization. They have strong talent, just not quite strong results yet. While Toronto followed suit, they went much older to compete and may not be as smart of moves as other teams in the off-season, but they still competed when things were looking much worse. Calgary has fallen from grace, whether they care to admit it or not. They do have Seattle slightly, as Seattle goes 4-3-2 against them, but in the standings and with the "back up goalie" rule, Seattle likely gets the leap. Either way, the fall from grace also reflects on their records and placing in the standings in previous years. For Quebec, they just haven't seen the results they were likely hoping for. 

 

Then you have Riga and Seattle. Riga had a decent draft and brought in some nice players that way, but likely not quite the moves Seattle pulled off. Seattle brought over Gabriel Mcallister and Otto Axelsson over from Davos in SEPARATE trades. Prior to that in the off-season, we watched them get Robert Malenko and Jake Davis from Toronto. These 4 players combined have gotten 327 points and 120 goals for the Seattle Bears this season. They added 47% of their team goals this regular season during last off-season with trades. Then, on top of that, they added David Kiaskov - managed to help him transition to defence to further add depth there, to which he has added another 9 goals and 74 points to bring the off-season tally to a impressive 129 goals, 401 points total.

 

While their off-season additions have largely boosted the team (we also forgot Thunderfist, who has minor affects but has added some form of depth which is better than CPU), the team has also seen an improvement in the standings and their overall record. From 36-29-7 (79 points and 5th place), to currently being in second place with 8 games to go (and Riga playing 6 Back up goalie games, Seattle none) with a record of 47 - 12 - 5 through 64 games. This is already and improvement of 11 more wins, 17 less losses and 20 more overall points. 

 

Started as a VHL.com, ended up here. 

+6 to whatever player didn't claim welfare for this week

[BOOM 8,824]

You're goddam right that we have strong talent. 

 

Good luck for the award race.