S65 VHL Draft Rankings, Week Two: Team Needs

[McWolf 3,115]

Rank	Change	Player Name	TPE	Team	Nat.	Member
1		C - Carles Puigdemont	230	OSL	ESP	Eudaldkp
2		D - Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen	202	OTT	USA	Fire Hakstol
3		D - Dallas Jones	165	OSL	USA	Trifecta
4	Up 2	D - Brady Stropko Jr	154	OTT	CAN	Bushito
5	Down 1	G - Joe Nixon	153	LVA	USA	Bonzaijoe
6	Down 1	C - Gritty	149	OTT	USA	eaglesfan036
7	Up 3	C - Roll Fizzlebeef	141	OTT	CAN	TacticalHammer
8	Down 1	C - Viktor Kozlov	132	HFX	RUS	Kuch9
9	Up 5	D - Elasmobranch Fish	122	HFX	ESP	Sharkstrong
10	Up 1	D - Bald Guy	121	HFX	JPN	Galdoblame
11	Down 2	C - Orion Slade	120	LVA	USA	BluObieZ
12	Down 4	D - Mitch Matthews	116	LVA	CAN	Antone10
13		RW - Jack Lynch	111	OTT	CAN	xsjack
14	Up 8	C - Anthony Matthews	97	LVA	CAN	Anthony Matthews
15	Down 3	C - Dorian Mason	92	OSL	USA	Tim
16	Up 3	G - Chase	87	HFX	CAN	Chase Klein
17		RW - Matthew Kai	82	OTT	SKR	FBR
18		LW - Matteo	82	HFX	USA	tunedtorock
19	Up 1	G - Justin Cole	81	SSK	USA	WhiteMocha
20	Up 1	RW - Don Draper	80	OTT	CAN	Infernal
21	Down 6	LW - Nico Sulerzyski	79	LVA	USA	Brolaski
22	Up 1	RW - Dick Rash	79	HFX	USA	nick_716
23	Down 7	D - Denver Wolfe	77	LVA	IRE	Goonie
24		C - Teagan Glover	68	HFX	USA	Bucky___lastard
25		LW - Austen Fourier	60	LVA	FRA	speck1447
26	Up 2	D - Benson Van Roosen	60	YUK	CAN	Benson
27	Down 1	LW - Willy memelander	58	LVA	SWE	jacobaa19
28	Down 1	G - Pekka Pouta	53	YUK	FIN	Snussu
29		C - Luke Allman	48	OTT	UK	Luke Allman
30		D - Jad Clapperton	47	HFX	JAM	Jad
31	Up 2	RW - Michael McConway	46	OSL	USA	Sixersfan549
32	NEW	D - Fylo Gibbles	46	LVA	USA	SpartanGibbles
33	Down 2	LW - Magnus Pederson	44	OSL	NOR	Bandit
34	Down 2	D - Hadrian Melborn	44	HFX	USA	Bear
35	Up 3	C - David Harrison	43	OSL	USA	Lightningyamasha
36		D - Robert Burns	42	HFX	USA	OneBuffalo1230
37	NEW	D - Derek Bohne	42	LVA	GER	wuma
38	NEW	C - Josh Wilson	42	HFX	CAN	jDubzzz
39	Down 5	C - Scead Simmons	38		SWE	Scead Simmons
40	Down 5	LW - Kaz Uzu	36		CAN	Kazuzu
41	Down 4	C - Stray	34	YUK	CAN	Stray Games
42	Down 2	LW - Billy Kimber	34	HFX	CAN	Dingle
43	Down 4	D - Brett Ewing	32	SSK	GER	kegoo11
44	NEW	RW - Callum MacElroy	32		UK	GlowyGoat
45	NEW	LW - Colum ODowd	32		IRE	sour_chin_music

 

 

Hi VHLers and VHLMers, welcome to this second edition of the weekly draft rankings. Blues accepted my plea to add a member to my one man team (to be fair,@Beaviss was always really helpful with greeting and helping new members). @Sonnet will now help me with everything. Or he'll lead the whole thing and I'll stay in the back, enjoying my free pay. I don't know yet. Anyway, I'm glad I got a solid member to help me, now. I know he'll do an amazing job at it, I didn't recommend him for nothing. And the fact that I know have someone to help me a bit means I can be more regular with these weekly rankings and the general updates.

 

So, just like last week, I'll present to you a different aspect of the next VHL draft, and I'll do so every week, up until the end where I'll be doing elaborate mock drafts. For this week though, we'll start slow and we will establish what every team needs. This might future draftees visualize where they might be a better fit. I'll be going through the teams in the order that they might select players in the upcoming draft, reversing the standings upside down.

 

 

 HC Davos Dynamo

Davos might be the worst team in the league right now, but they are headed in the good direction. They got key players at every position and pretty just need some pieces to complete the puzzle. Dahlberg, Randoms and Gonzalez will return on offense and will be joined by Madden, Baillie and McDavid, all getting promoted from the VHLM. On defense, they have Jokinen and Jerwa already with the team and both are still improving weekly. As for goaltenders, they might have the worst goaltender tandem at the moment, but Stoffiday and Davison are respectively in their 2nd and 1st season, meaning they both got a lot of time to improve and actually become great in time for the team's championship window. Even if one of them actually goes inactive, the other one will go on.

 

I'd say the team's biggest needs right now are a 1st-line center and one or two defensemen to add depth behind their current pieces. But, really, anything would help them.

 

Calgary Wranglers

The Wranglers are in a pretty bad position right now and will probably still be in that position for another season or two as they are merely starting their rebuild. Revchenko, Gebauer and Zajaczkowski are the highlights in their forward core and Diljodh will help them starting next season. This is a small group of forwards, but it is a good start towards great things. The future of their defense isn't looking as good, though. Baxter is their only active defenseman since Saint has been MIA for a month or so. Both are projected to be 2nd pair guys in the future. The one area in which the Wranglers are set, though, is in front of the net. Wahl is still improving at the same rate as he did in the VHLM and he should be their starter for years to come.

 

The team's biggest need is definitely on defense, which is a good thing because there a couple of good defensemen on top of the draft rankings (like Stropko Jr.) They're likely going to look at some forwards too, come draft day.

 

New York Americans

Things are finally looking good for the Americans. After a couple of rough seasons, the team's youngsters are starting to develop into a great band of players and they don't need much more to help them, as their window is opening pretty soon. They can count on 4 active forwards in Wilinsky, King, Ylonen and Zabby. Shawinganen seems to have gone inactive, but he'll stay as a depth piece, while Materazo will join the team next season and will pass him on the depth chart soon enough. McWolf and Sullivan Jr. are currently the team's whole defense depth, but they'll soon be one of the top pairing in the league for years to come. Parker will come up next season to help them. Kingfisher has been playing lights out for the Americans for 3 years now and he'll continue to give the team a chance year in year out for 5 other seasons.

 

I'd say the team doesn't have a current urgent need that they can assess through the draft. If I was the Americans (I kinda am), I would maybe try to package high draft picks for more players in their prime, to add some star power to this roster that's not too far from competing. And then, really, any skater they can get in the draft that will help the team in a season or two is bonus, as the Americans are currently the team with the shallowest depth in the whole league.

 

 Helsinki Titans

The Titans find themselves in a strange position at the moment. Quik tried to kickstart their rebuild by signing some top-tier retiring free agents in Johnsson, K. Louth and Kane. Add that to their impressive core of future stars and they should have been a scary team. But they're currently fighting for a playoff spot and don't look like they can compete with the Reign. At the conclusion of this season, the 3 free agents will retire and the team will be lead by the youngsters once again, which will put the team in a situation à la New York Americans. Slipher, Borwinn, Bailey, Mulligan, Montgomery, Odinsson and Boucher will form a solid forward core, while Crosby, Wilson and Nano anchor the blueline and Pepper tries to bring back some WJC magic.

 

Just like with the Americans, I think the Titans are only a piece or two away from competing, and they won't find anyone ready for that kind of role in the draft. Maybe the best way to go would be send a depth piece and good pick to bring in a solid veteran.

 

 Quebec City Meute

Quebec needs is easy to assess. They need a better GM. But there are none available in the draft, so Beaviss will have to do for now. On a more serious note, the team should be competing now. They reach the S62 Continental Cup Finals, but couldn't repeat last season and they're not the favourites to get to the big finals once again. They have the fire power up front to do it, with Dragomir, B. Louth, Palo, Harding, Weyed and Svoboda. They can still count on Iseult to keep the net for a couple of seasons. But, once again, as it seems to be the case for a couple of teams so far, I think the area where the Meute needs the most help is on defense. They got Jones and Rayne retiring at the end of this season, leaving only Gate and Philliefan (currently in the VHLM) as active defensemen in their system.

Seeing as the team is in its prime right now, I'd suggest trading for a defenseman in its prime, but I think teams will continue to hold to theirs, as the defenseman market is scarce right now, so they'd better try to fix their needs via the draft.

 

Seattle Bears

The Bears are a good team in the middle of the prime competing seasons. They got a nice forward core of Thompson, Charm, Davis, Smirnov, Kovalev and Garrop. Their defense is gonna be hit by the retirement of Kiaskov, but they still have Malenko, Kovalchuk and Thunderfist behind him. Their goalie situation is set for a while with Sterling. They don't have any urgent need, but they would benefit from getting some depth on the wings and on defense. They don't have a pick before the 3rd round too, so they likely won't be picking anything that will be better than a depth piece before their cup window closes.

 

Toronto Legion

Seeing the Legion in 2nd positions is kind of surprising, but then again, it seems like that is the Devise method. You have picks, you trade away the picks for current stars and you try to win it all like this repeatedly. They currently only have their 4th pick this season, and their 4th pick the next season as well. I haven't been here for long enough to know if it ever worked, but I'll go ahead and say: whatever need the Toronto Legion has, they're more likely to assess it via trades and free agency than via the draft, so we'll stop this one right here.

 

Riga Reign

I'm incredibly tempted to just say 'Riga doesn't need a thing. They're the defending champions and look like they might repeat this year.' But it actually doesn't mean that they don't need a thing, so I won't cut it short. I don't really know how they managed to do that, but they got the best active roster in the league as well as the biggest prospect pool in the league. If the Reign continue like that, they'll have enough players to suit a B team and it would probably still be better than Davos this season. The problem now with the Reign is that their players get better and need bigger contracts and they won't be able to keep everyone. I don't know their plan, but I'd try to select, in the draft, players that would fill holes in the prospect pool after the next wave of promotions hits. Hard to say what it will be, so I'll just say that Riga will look to get players that grow slowly and steadily.

 

Spoiler

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[Nykonax 1,564]

1 minute ago, McWolf said:

. If the Reign continue like that, they'll have enough players to suit a B team and it would probably still be better than Davos this season

 

4 minutes ago, McWolf said:

Davos might be the worst team in the league right now

 

[Beaviss 4,957]

7 minutes ago, McWolf said:

Quebec needs is easy to assess. They need a better GM. But there are none available in the draft, so Beaviss will have to do for now

 

[McWolf 3,115]

I like you both, @Nykonax and @Beaviss

[Nykonax 1,564]

11 minutes ago, McWolf said:

Quebec needs is easy to assess. They need a better GM. But there are none available in the draft, so Beaviss will have to do for now.

LMFAO

[ShawnGlade 1,010]

3 hours ago, McWolf said:

I'd say the team's biggest needs right now are a 1st-line center

Let's just forget Warren exists eh?

3 hours ago, McWolf said:

Davos might be the worst team in the league right now, but they are headed in the good direction.

Inject it into my veins

 

3 hours ago, McWolf said:

If the Reign continue like that, they'll have enough players to suit a B team and it would probably still be better than Davos this season.

Ok, fuck off

[Da Trifecta 1,899]

@McWolf Toronto has their 4th round pick not their 4th pick. When you say it as 4th pick, it sounds like they have 4th overall.

[Spade18 1,305]

11 hours ago, McWolf said:

 

 

 Quebec City Meute

Quebec needs is easy to assess. They need a better GM. But there are none available in the draft, so Beaviss will have to do for now.

 

 

 

Finally some one said it.

[Beaviss 4,957]

4 minutes ago, Spade18 said:

 

Finally some one said it.

 

[McWolf 3,115]

7 hours ago, Trifecta said:

@McWolf Toronto has their 4th round pick not their 4th pick. When you say it as 4th pick, it sounds like they have 4th overall.

Yeah, that. I can't english

[FBR 158]

What's a boi gotta do to pierce the top 10? Pay?!

[Spade18 1,305]

6 minutes ago, Beaviss said:

 

[Peace 1,532]

13 hours ago, McWolf said:

Quebec needs is easy to assess. They need a better GM. But there are none available in the draft, so Beaviss will have to do for now.

 

[Victor 10,940]

15 hours ago, McWolf said:

I don't really know how they managed to do that, but they got the best active roster in the league as well as the biggest prospect pool in the league.

Damn right @hedgehog337