The S61 draft so far. Part 1 [1/2]

[hedgehog337 3,480]

 

*Riga Reign GM after the S61, 62 and every other draft.*

 

 

I was talking about the S57 draft as the moment when VHL started to slowly rise from the ashes. Ok, we had a couple of good drafts prior to this, but I don't recall a single first-gen in any of them. Whereas the S57 draft gave us three notable rookie: Beaviss, Spade and Exlaxchronicles. After a couple of medicore drafts which happened during the S58-60 time, a recruitment crew started to make some moves and putting an actual effort into this. The first move was joining the afilliate partnership with SBA and EFL. The S60 draft was supposed to be a good one because a lot of members came from that partership. Unfortunatelly, only Arroyo came off as the lone star of that thing and of the best players of that draft as well (alongside with Dragomir and Iseult). Then the recruitment crew slowly started to exploit options. Once again, they started to think about reddit and such things. Can we tell that their effort helped to make the S61 draft better? I'm not sure as it still was relying much on recreates and not much first gens were worth much (other than a couple of them). However, there was one positive trend happening - I remember when a lot of older members were creating their recreates and going inactive shortly after doing so. So that was making some of us to not believe them anymore, like it's never a guarantee that a famous member in the past will certainly produce a star player. And while it was still relevant for the S61 draft, actually only few of them are not with us anymore. It is kinda surprising to see that a lot of recreates are still kicking and doing great. But that tells us that the recruitment crew and other members did a good job at making us feel this league is on the comeup again. And recreates started to believe in that. As the result, they continued to update their players and be an active part of this league.

 

So what I'm taking about? This time, I'm going to talk about the S61 draft and how it panned out. The S63 was the last rookie season for these players so let's see how they are doing now, after three seasons in this league.

 

 

1. LW - Matt Thompson

TPE: 800

Member: @Beketov

 

Before this draft, we were witnessing a fight between Thompson, Gate and Cast. All three players were not only fighting for being the #1 pick, they also wanted to settle the best TPE earner before this draft. I don't recall who had the highest TPE number prior to this, but one thing we do know - Matt Thompson went first overall to Seattle. There were some questions who the Bears' GM is going to take first, Thompson or Gate. However, this pick seemed more logical. First of all, forwards are being more valued here. And second, I'm pretty sure it was something to do with Beketov's last goalie. Drafting this player is a chance for Bek to do with Seattle what he couldn't do with Jakab Holik. At this moment, he has 800 TPE which is not a highest number among the S61 draftees. But he is about to become the true superstar of this franchise after McAllister went into the retirement home.

 

2. D - Samuel Gate

TPE: 610

Member: @street

 

Prior to this draft, I had a lil trade with Quebec. We swapped our first round picks while I also took the 15th OV pick. The reasoning of this was Quebec really wanted to draft a defenceman since they already had forward Dragomir and Beau Louth on their system. And looks like they weren't sure if I wouldn't draft this player by the #2 OV. By that time, Gate was the best defenceman draftee and this pick was obvious from the Meute management. Well, he's still the best defenceman in TPE earned, although one other D could take this accomplishment from Sam, but we'll talk about him later. As about the #2 pick, he is still a solid player and he will likely become the leading blue liner after Rayne and Jones are going out due to forced retirement. However, his activty level suddenly dropped in November and he hasn't been active since. We can only guess is it temporarily or this is for a long time. Anyways, I think Beaviss won't regret much about this pick as Gate is going to be a reliable player regardless. It's just he could've been better, that's it.

 

3. C - Podrick Cast

TPE: 842

Member: @Victor

 

I had some thoughts before this draft happened: to draft Cast or Sterling? I needed a goalie, but there also was an option to make it by myself. Also, another reason why I took Cast is because Victor wanted to play for Riga. It appeared that he never played for this team which also is his homecity IRL. So I fulfilled his wish and let Sterling to Seattle. Fast forward, he is the best TPE earning player among all S61 draftees followed by another Reign player. He also is responsible for one of the greatest seasons by a player ever. Alright, this was not a Scotty type of a season, but it's a rare thing to see a player scoring 174 point in just one season. And yes, it happened because our roster still was so-so other than Edwin, Cast and Leph and they were getting much chances because of it. Plus, majority of newer goalies were still sitting on minors. Anyways, that season already put his name into the potential HoF player list. From now, he can constatntly posting 100 point seasons and he's a lock hall of fame. So yeah, this is one of the best picks I've ever done in drafts, no doubts about it.

 

4. G - Roger Sterling

TPE: 641

Member: @Will

 

I drafted Cast and Seattle grabbed Sterling. It was all obvious. Bana even was telling me in chat he would take him if I'll draft Podrick. And while he is one of GM's that likes to bluff at times, I knew he was being serious that time. Seattle needed a goalie and they took him. Case closed. You can already tell I have no regrets about that. While Sterling is on way to become a real goaltending threat in future, I already won the championship with Cast and a way lower TPE goalie. As about Roger - he is obviously the best goalie that came out of this draft. He had a competition with the other goalie that was picked after him, but for now there is no questions about it. And I tend to believe he is about to have his star moments in future. With Seattle or without it - that's the another question and we will get an answer following S70.

 

5. G - Arvid Aamo

TPE: 189

Member: @Daniel

 

Yeah, I won the championship and thing, but do you think I wasn't making mistakes before that? I wish. But this is the first bust of this draft. At that moment, I still wanted to take a goalie since I've decided to make a centre player. I had hopes for Davos beating Calgary in the S60 wild-card round to have 3th and 4th picks which would likely net me Cast and Sterling. Would it have been better with Cast, Sterling and my centre player, but probably without the player that went sixth and couple of FA's I took last season? This is a what could have been type of a question, but I won't think much about it after the S63 ended. As about Aamo: this player seemed as a promising one, especially when the only Daniel's good player was another goalie (Dadonov). However, he started to show signs of inactivity shortly after he was drafted. He was still trying to claim some TPE's, but it didn't last for long. He indeed went inactive somewhere in July and never came back. Then he was traded Davos in last off-season for...the fourth round pick. That's your S61 draft's fifth pick, everyone! As of this moment, he is the free agent and it's certain that last season was his last. At least he can brag about being a starter in each of three seasons and even getting into the playoffs with Riga.

 

UPDATE: HE JUST LOGGED IN!!! Somehow. I guess I should think about this member more, maybe he will have a good player coming up.

 

6. RW - Edwin Preencarnacion

TPE: 824

Member: @Tagger

 

Well, this pick turned out wayyyyy much better than Aamo one. Interestingly, this player wasn't really considered even as the first round pick in S60 mid-season. Why? For some point, Edwin still had like 30 TPE although he was doing PT's and was capping max/close to max. And at some point I thought he is doing this on purpose to tank his draft stocks. It turned out that he just hadn't time to claim all these TPE and my pre-draft talks with him propelled into the first round action. It also worth mentioning that I actually drafted two UK members in same team which is also European. Coincidence much? Back to this player: at this point he is considered as less of a superstar than his partner in crime, Podrick Cast. I know Tagger doesn't minds this as it was his wish to play in same line with Victor. This also works to Riga: how can it be a bad thing to have a powerful line, right? Will this lessen his chances to be inducted into the HoF cause he's not getting as much points as Cast? The chances might go down, but the current pace is still going to be enough for that. Also, I already mentioned him as the second TPE earner, only behind by you already know who.

 

7. D - Robert Malenko

TPE: 552

Member: @pennypenny

 

Poor Toronto. Being a rebuilding and not even having own first, that hurts. But this doesn't means they had a bad draft. The Legion management could make a good pick in Robert Malenko. And actually this is the best first-gen player from the S61 draft. Penny started off with a bang with making a presence in both forum and discord. However, despite of this making a good pick, Toronto couldn't find a way how to compete so they had to trade Malenko to Seattle that just started to compete for the gold. I also was mentioning that Gate might still have the highest TPE number from all S61 defs, but Malenko is that other player I was talking about. And while Penny is not being as active as he was; at least he is still claiming some points. And actually, he should have more TPE than he has now. It's just he hasn't claimed all of that stuff since like late October. So he's probably 600+ TPE right now. As for his activity level - I guess he's chilling right now. Malenko is at position he's going to be a solid defenceman no matter what until regression kicks off.

 

 

8. RW - Sergei Kovalev

TPE: 442

Member: @Laflamme

 

With the 8th pick, the Bears' management went with the member who is lowkey one of the most loyal Seattle player ever. Whether it was Escabar or Laflamme, they all spent majority of their careers in Washington state based city. And now we have Kovalev and he's another player who is helping Seattle with achieving their goals. The member never had much activity going on, but he stays as the reliable one. Also, he's a cap friendly cap player so that's a double help for his team. I think this is how all his players are being descripted like: never had flashy stats, but thanks for staying with us and making a fine second line/pair player. In this draft, Seattle had three first round picks and they did a really good job in drafting as nobody from them went inactive and I'm sure they are creating activity in their LR.

 

 

Could you believe that? Because I'm not. While I was thinking about the ninth pick, I realized I'm very close to 2000 words now so I will stop here. I'm really sorry to others who won't be mentioned in this article. But you know what? Sorry not sor....

 

...*that moment when I realize I have Randoms* Yall some lucky bums. The second part of this is coming up sooner than later. Until then,

 

That's it and I'm not out yet.

 

6x4=24 TPE goes to Kallis.

 

17.12 - 23.12

24.12 - 30.12

31.12 - 06.01

07.01 - 13.01

 

[Victor 10,536]

You are right in a way, don't think I'd stick around if the league didn't look like it was picking up right after S61. I was still on and off throughout much S60 and S61.

 

That said, for me S62 was also a big motivating factor - kind of need to make a great player. Also that was very much a Scotty type season.

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

REVIEW: A nice article on the 1st round of the S61 Draft. Not bad at all to only have 1 true bust. Even if Gate never updates again, he'll still be a very valuable player for whatever team he's on. Nice job detailing the circumstances of each pick...because that's something I can never remember when I try to do these and it takes too much effort for me to look it up  I'm looking forward to seeing the 2nd round, since after the 1st round the picks obviously get more interesting/potentially controversial.