The State of Defense

[McWolf 3,115]

As soon as S64 finishes, there will be new sheriffs(?) in town or, rather, on VHL bluelines. To better understand where I'm going to with that, here's a figure in which you can find the top 10 defensemen in TPE right now, in the VHL.

 

Rank	Player	Season	TPE	TPA	Member
1	D - Mats Johnsson	57	1610	1075	Quik
2	D - Colton Rayne	57	1229	673	Spade18
3	D - David Kiaskov	57	1134	579	Exlaxchronicles
4	D - Casey Jones	57	1043	486	der meister
5	D - Joseph Bassolino	59	815	735	Smarch
6	D - Ryan Kastelic	63	671	662	Enorama
7	D - Joseph McWolf	63	633	630	McWolf
8	D - Robert Malenko	61	632	550	pennypenny
9	D - Samuel Gate	61	610	605	street
10	D - Maxim Kovalchuk	62	547	547	Banackock

 

The first thing that catches the eye in this figure is the difference in age between the top 5 and the bottom 5. The top 4 players on the list, Johnsson, Rayne, Kiaskov and Jones are all retiring this offseason and, being a S59 draftee, Bassolino will be in his 7th season in S65, the 2nd depreciation season. On the other side of things, defensemen ranked 6th through 10th are somewhere between their 2nd (Kastelic, McWolf), 3rd (Kovalchuk) or 4th season (Malenko, Gate). So, if we were to check the same table at the start of S65, the top 4 of Johnsson, Rayne, Kiaskov, Jones would be gone and Bassolino would probably take a good hit because of depreciation.

 

This means that, next season, the top 5 in TPA could look a little something like that: Kastelic (~750), McWolf (~725), Bassolino (~700), Malenko (~675), Kovalchuk (~650). This is impressive because, apart from Bassolino, everyone here is still in the first half of their career and still got some prime time ahead of them. This is mostly true for the two youngest on this list, Kastelic and McWolf. The two S62 Founder's Cup champions drafted 1st and 2nd in the S63 VHL Entry Draft could enter their 3rd season in the major league as the 1st and 2nd ranked defensemen in the whole league. Unless a forward in his prime makes the switch to defense soon, Kastelic and McWolf look like they will be the top 2 defensemen starting next season, and possibly up until the very end of their career, when depreciation starts to hit them.

 

This means between 4 and 6 seasons where these two could be competing for the Labatte Trophy, awarded to the best defenseman in the league, as well as for the Valiq Trophy and the Wylde Trophy. The defenseman position seems to be under-represented in the Hall of Fame but, if both Kastelic and McWolf can win a couple Continental Cups and be on top of the discussions for all three defensemen trophies most seasons, one of them, or even both of them could enter the Hall at the conclusion of their careers.

 

tl;dr - Kastelic, McWolf best dmen for the next 6 seasons confirmed.

@Enorama

 

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Claiming 4 Uncapped TPE

Edited January 21, 2019 by McWolf

[Nykonax 1,564]

Dahlberg is better on defense than this mcwolf scrub

[Devise 4,475]

Agree that we are certainly poised for a new guard to come in and take over. But also think your sleeping on Tzuyu. Obviously ranks lower than the list in TPA, but his build is unique enough that I think people are going to be seeing his name on the Valiq a time or two. Valiq himself, who the trophy was named after, was notable for being a power play goal and goal scoring D. Having a look at the attributes of Tzuyu and his production this season would show you that he's built in that way. 99 scoring already, despite slightly lower TPE. He's also S63 like Wolf and Kastelic. If I put my money on it, the old guard will probably be hit harder due to depreciation and just being in an odd era. Wolf, Kastelic, Tzuyu and Ryan Sullivan Jr would be my money for competing for future D trophies. 

 

Obviously odd stand outs can come out, but I think part of building a good player now is not just going hard on TPE it's getting your build in a comfortable position for what your trying to do well before depreciation so that you can maintain it.

 

Good read up nonetheless. I hope to see a resurgence in D and we very well could see a crop hit the HoF from this post S60's era. 

Edited January 21, 2019 by Devise

[McWolf 3,115]

28 minutes ago, Devise said:

Agree that we are certainly poised for a new guard to come in and take over. But also think your sleeping on Tzuyu. Obviously ranks lower than the list in TPA, but his build is unique enough that I think people are going to be seeing his name on the Valiq a time or two. Valiq himself, who the trophy was named after, was notable for being a power play goal and goal scoring D. Having a look at the attributes of Tzuyu and his production this season would show you that he's built in that way. 99 scoring already, despite slightly lower TPE. He's also S63 like Wolf and Kastelic. If I put my money on it, the old guard will probably be hit harder due to depreciation and just being in an odd era. Wolf, Kastelic, Tzuyu and Ryan Sullivan Jr would be my money for competing for future D trophies. 

 

Obviously odd stand outs can come out, but I think part of building a good player now is not just going hard on TPE it's getting your build in a comfortable position for what your trying to do well before depreciation so that you can maintain it.

 

Good read up nonetheless. I hope to see a resurgence in D and we very well could see a crop hit the HoF from this post S60's era. 

Wouldn't say I'm sleeping on Tzuyu. More like I didn't want to go too in depth with it because I could have speculated about it for a while.

 

In that same S63 draft class, we have Crosby too, who regressed a bit this year, but he did receive Wylde votes last season. Should be a strong candidate for it again in the future.

[Gooningitup 1,290]

Assuming Evgeni Komarov wont end their careers early everyone sleeping on this stud

[Victor 10,940]

Very possible Labatte and Wylde for McWolf this season, at which point you're guaranteed to be Conner Low. Or peak early like Casey Jones.