Looking into Las Vegas' success

[Matt_O 896]

The Las Vegas Aces currently sit first in the VHLM, with a record of 18-4-2, and are five points ahead of the second placed Halifax 21st. If you recall to the beginning of the season, I said Las Vegas would finish second and win the founders cup over the Oslo Storm, so their success isn't a huge shock for me. Then again, I'm not sure I expected them to be this good. How are they this good? Lets take a look into their team and what is driving their success.

 

VHLM Draft

 

It all started with the VHLM draft, where they selected Matthew Materazo with their third overall pick. So far, he has 19 points in 24 games, which is solid. He also has 47 hits, which is fourth on the team, so he's throwing the body around. He has 164 TPE, and while his TPE production has kind of tailed off recently, I attribute to that the fact that all the various off-season programs got him so much TPE and now that there are none of those.

 

In the second round, they took Connor McDavid. He has been a solid center for Las Vegas, with 18 points in 24 games. He has around the same TPE as Materazo, with 163 TPE. He is showing tremendous improvement from last season, where he played 72 games and had only 28 points. This year he is only ten points away from that mark with about two thirds of the season left.

 

Over the rest of the draft, the remainder of most of the players taken were busts, to put it bluntly. Nico Sulerzyski, Austin Fourier, Basaraba Moose and Cal Davidson look were four of the six guys taken with the Aces remaining picks, and all of them are below 100 TPE, and it looks like it might stay that way. However, they did take Mitch Matthews, who is on the rise with his 110 TPE. He just hit the first generation bonus as well, and is a nice defenseman. They also got Joe Nixon in the fifth round, and is the backup goalie to Kevin Weekes. He has 141 TPE, and is certainly no slouch.

 

Off season transactions

 

The off-season is what brought Las Vegas to the top, mostly through their trades. On December 17th, they picked up Dan Baillie through a trade with the Yukon Rush, and Baillie has become one of the anchors of the Las Vegas offense. He sits fifth in the league in points, with a crazy 36 points. All they gave up for him was a second round pick and Jessy Thomas, who has a miniscule 72 TPE, and this trade was clearly in the Aces favor. However, Thomas has been exceptional for the Rush, with a team leading 23 points in 24 points, which confuses me to be honest. Players such as myself and McDavid have 90 TPE more than him but we have less points? Maybe because we are on the second line, and get less power play time?

 

Just three days later, the Aces made a second huge splash, with another block buster trade. This time, they traded for Nathan N, again from the Yukon Rush. Nathan leads the Aces with 39 points, and is second only behind Diljodh in points through the entire league. They only gave up two inactives and a second round pick. The two players were Wilson Ristau and Andrew Taylor. Taylor is no longer on the roster, but Ristau is still on the Rush, but hasn't updated his player since early October. While Las Vegas has now given up two good picks to get guys, they are clearly all in on this season, and will likely be in the same situation as the Rush and Wild are in this year; trade all your picks for a chance to win it all and just accept that you will suck the next year. 

 

On New Years Eve, they made a deal that packed Shawn Mendes to Ottawa, in exchange for Chance Matthews. While Matthews is inactive, he has been hitting his stride for the Aces, with 24 points in 24 games. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Mendes, who has a mere 11 points for the Lynx. Every week Mendes picks up 8 TPE, two from practice facility and six from welfare, so Mendes will be picking it up in the TPE department. Chance Matthews is another one of those players on Las Vegas that is sneakily having a solid season, and is a secret key to Vegas' success.

 

Signings

 

The Aces signed Orion Slade mid season, and he has low key been solid for them. He has 20 points in 24 games, and is actually a big part of their success. Las Vegas has two great centers in Chance Matthews and Conner McDavid, and Slade slides into the third line center spot. His depth contributions are big for the Aces, who have at least one reliable scorer on each of the top three lines.

 

Curtis Gary

 

Curtis Gary was dealt from the Wild to the Aces on January 7th in a blockbuster trade, that sent the Aces first and second round picks to Saskatoon for Gary. His talents are definitely worth it, and he had 29 points in 24 games to start the year off. This is a huge acquisition, and now the Aces have four strong centers, and unfortunately for Orion Slade, he is now pushed down to the fourth line center role. Vegas is clearly going all in to win the founders cup, and should be facing stiff competition from the Oslo Storm and the Halifax 21st.

 

 

 

*Quick note: On the Wild and Aces roster, it has Gary on the wild and Cal Davidson on the Aces, but when I check Gary's player page, it says he's on Las Vegas? But next to his nationality, it has the saskatoon logo. Not sure if this is a mistake and it hasn't been updated, or if someone happened with the trade*

 

 

1,004 words

 

 

[Jubo 1,839]

11 minutes ago, Matt_O said:

*Quick note: On the Wild and Aces roster, it has Gary on the wild and Cal Davidson on the Aces, but when I check Gary's player page, it says he's on Las Vegas? But next to his nationality, it has the saskatoon logo. Not sure if this is a mistake and it hasn't been updated, or if someone happened with the trade*

Ya this is due to the trade not being approved by an admin through the portal yet. The players switched teams in the client file the day after the deal was completed.

Also as a correction above, Orion Slade is actually playing wing on our 2nd line with yourself and McDavid. When talking draft picks, we aren't looking all that bad for next season having 2 picks in each round from 3 to 6. Alot of great talent can come from the mid to later rounds of the draft. It will certainly be interesting to see how expanding to 8 teams will change the depth of the league.