Was the expansion a good idea?

[Matt_O 897]

On Friday, the VHL commissioner Beketov announced that two more teams will be added to the VHLM, and the Oslo Storm will be relocated to Minnesota. The VHL also had their fair share of changes, with the Quebec City Meute relocating to Vancouver and the Moscow Menace being added to the league. It was a big day for the VHL and many would consider it a successful one. But was it successful? Lets take a look and see what the relocations and expansions do for the league.

 

Lets take a look into the relocations. The Oslo Storm moved from the Scandinavian region all the way to the USA, where they are now the Minnesota Storm. This move came because of the lack of American teams, which was apparently a pressing issue for the league. As most of the VHL and VHLM are canadian teams, they decided to up their American representation. This is probably a good move in the end. They also added the Philadelphia Reapers and the Houston Bulls to the VHLM, which helps new members get more playing time on minor league teams, which I think is very important. In the VHL that is a little bit less of an issue since if you have enough TPE to make it to the VHL you are probably somewhat dedicated regardless of playing time. New members aren't, so if you can get them to have success early on more people will stay.

 

They also announced the expansion of another VHL team, the Moscow Menace. The clear goal that the GM Victor had was to intimidate his opponents, as that is how they do it in Russia. He put it best when he described the logo as "Someone on the verge of taking over your home and make no mistake, the threat of invasion is very real!" Victor was GM for the HC Davos team that last won the cup, which was in Season 38. Victor hopes he can recreate the success he had with that team, but now with the Menace. The real question is who will make the playoffs first: Moscow or HC Davos? I certainly hope it is HC Davos, considering some teams (such as HC Davos) don't have many players that are actually good that will be left unprotected. This may cost them a third round pick if they can't get their act together and offer Moscow an active player in the expansion draft. However, Moscow will also likely get good players from the Riga Reign, the Seattle Bears, Toronto Legion and the Helsinki Titans. They should be able to get four really solid players from those four teams, especially Helsinki and Riga. The Titans have 11 players over 400 TPE, and most likely will have 12 by the end of the year. Moscow should have a good start to the expansion draft with some of the guys available from Helsinki.

 

All in all, it was a successful day for the VHL. Perhaps one day we will have some many users that we need more teams. I also think it would be an interesting idea to give Rome a team, whether through relocation or expansion. Just because Rome is cool, they can put ice in the coliseum and play there.

 

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[ShawnGlade 1,010]

2 hours ago, Matt_O said:

I certainly hope it is HC Davos, considering some teams (such as HC Davos) don't have many players that are actually good that will be left unprotected.

did you even look at our roster when writing this?

[Matt_O 897]

13 hours ago, ShawnGlade said:

did you even look at our roster when writing this?

I shouldn't have said they were bad players, just not as good as other guys from other teams. I was also looking only at the TPE totals and didn't really take into account that some are young and will improve

[Sova 53]

17 hours ago, ShawnGlade said:

 did you even look at our roster when writing this?

if he did he would have looked at the roster he would have seen you have no good players neither protected or unprotected is that what you are saying? (besides Dahlberg)

[ShawnGlade 1,010]

6 hours ago, Sova said:

if he did he would have looked at the roster he would have seen you have no good players neither protected or unprotected is that what you are saying? (besides Dahlberg)

I'm saying fi you actually look at our roster and do basic math, you'll see we have 3-4 active players unprotected