A William Karlsson of your time.

[diamond_ace 3,106]

With the expansion of both leagues coming up, one might assume the expansion drafts will go in a standard manner, with the VHLM teams losing their 6th most valuable asset and the VHL teams their 9th, with no twists in the tail. Most likely, this is how it will go - after all, this is a sim league, our GMs are normal people and aren't paid to do this professionally, so it's just easier to make a pick and be done with it. However, one need only look at the recent NHL expansion to see how the standard, simple expansion draft can be anything but as simple as expected - teams giving up extra picks to incentivize an expansion team to take one player rather than another. William Karlsson comes to mind as the perfect example of what I'm talking about - the Columbus Blue Jackets gave up extra picks, as well as David Clarkson (and importantly David Clarkson's contract, something that isn't a factor in the VHL) to ensure the Vegas Golden Knights took Karlsson in the expansion draft - instead of, for example, Joonas Korpisalo, the pick of armchair GMs and expansion mode GMs in the NHL series. Might we see something like that here? It's unlikely, but here are a few ways it could happen.

1. Riga Reign trades a pick package to Moscow to select Kisshan Shan, Bolt Vanderhuge, or Curtis Gary.

Riga is a team right in the peak of its window. They're at the top of the league right now, and they need players who will contribute now. Word around the league is that either Rylan Peace or Mikka Pajari would be the last one on the outside looking in (Pajari would be the more logical choice for most teams due to age, but Peace insists he's on the chopping block, so it's possible he knows some insider info and is terrible at hiding it). However, both of these guys are going to be more useful for Riga than a player just entering the league, so some thought should be given to Riga coming to an agreement with Moscow, which would allow them to keep both guys. I haven't looked at cap restraints at all and that might be a factor, but if they can all fit, surely it's better for a contender to lose picks? While they're at it, I think if Riga could manage to hang onto Kyson Blake as well, they'd like to do so, as he'll also be able to compete fairly well given he had to forfeit TPE to stay down. Riga could send their S65 1st to Moscow for Moscow's S66 2nd, in addition to packaging a 3rd with the player himself in order to get Moscow to take one of the above three. All three of these guys are active, so no 3rd is required to expose them in the draft, but that little bit of extra incentive could push them over the edge into being taken. Ultimately it would be something in the realm of 1st and 3rd for 2nd and player, but it would mean that Riga could keep both Peace and Pajari, and even better if they could work in keeping Blake.

 

2. Davos talks to Moscow ahead of time, agrees to expose Piotr Jerwa who would normally be protected, Moscow offers a bit to ensure this.

 

Davos is at the exact opposite side of their window from Riga. They're not in the least bit competitive at the moment. If there's ever a team that should be able to get out of an expansion draft with no real losses, especially a players-only expansion draft (unlike the picks expansion of the VHLM) it should be Davos. Eaglesfan's mock has them losing Dan Baillie, which is a decent loss, but not on the level of a Konstantin Mulligan, for example - or an Evgeni Komarov, who will be discussed shortly. However, there have been a few disputes in the media between Davos management and their player Piotr Jerwa, who might be open to a change of scenery. As Jerwa would normally be among the protects (and quite safely so) Davos could come to an agreement with Moscow that they'll leave him open for a price. Moscow isn't exactly in the business of dealing away picks as an expansion team, but maybe something like swap rights on the teams' respective S66 picks, such that Davos gets to take the better selection whichever it is, could be worked out. Or, if a deal has already been worked out with Riga, perhaps Moscow's S65 2nd is expendable if they have two 1sts in this hypothetical.

 

3. Seattle threatens to hold Evgeni Komarov hostage and not leave him exposed, to force Moscow's hand.

 

It's the worst kept secret in the league - even less well kept than that there would be a VHLM expansion prior to its announcement (in comparison, the VHL expansion was much more tightly held) that Evgeni Komarov wants to go to Moscow. He'll become easily the best player on their team in terms of activity ratio to age (plus the Riga selection if no deal is reached) and it's unfortunate on Seattle's part that they have to leave exposed such a good active young prospect... or do they? Komarov is stuck for whatever the length of his contract is (usually 3 seasons) so Seattle could announce they're not actually going to expose Komarov and instead go a different route. Ultimately I doubt they'd go through with it, but it could put pressure on Moscow to get a deal done one way or another, and try to get some minor piece out of it (perhaps the spare 3rd that will be attached to whichever inactive Calgary exposes). Seattle could insist they're not going to expose him, to try to bribe Moscow into paying for his exposure, although Victor would likely see through it so at the same time Seattle probably only pulls this trick if they're actually willing to go through with not exposing him if they don't get their price.

 

1014 words 2 weeks

[diamond_ace 3,106]

Also, I expect exactly none of these to happen, and for both expansions to just be straight picks. This isn't the league for complicated situations like the William Karlsson thing.

[Gooningitup 1,290]

Gotta love being called the best player Moscow may be able to pick

[diamond_ace 3,106]

2 minutes ago, Gooningitup said:

Gotta love being called the best player Moscow may be able to pick

Obviously I value you pretty highly, I drafted you to Ottawa after all

[Banackock 7,729]

31 minutes ago, Gooningitup said:

Gotta love being called the best player Moscow may be able to pick

[Gooningitup 1,290]

31 minutes ago, Banackock said:

 

What gunna keep me now

[Gooningitup 1,290]

Wait can we claim for 2 weeks? Cuz im close to 1000 words on my article if so ill edit and add a bit more @Beketov @Banackock

[diamond_ace 3,106]

8 minutes ago, Gooningitup said:

Wait can we claim for 2 weeks? Cuz im close to 1000 words on my article if so ill edit and add a bit more @Beketov @Banackock

Up to 4. Don't get multiple bonus though

[Gooningitup 1,290]

Just now, diamond_ace said:

Up to 4. Don't get multiple bonus though

 

I swear we removed that? Maybe im confusing it with something else.

 

And well if i streched it to 2 weeks id just not get the bonus for theme week? So be the same TPE either way? Or would i get theme week bonus and next week making it 18TPE

[diamond_ace 3,106]

Just now, Gooningitup said:

 

I swear we removed that? Maybe im confusing it with something else.

 

And well if i streched it to 2 weeks id just not get the bonus for theme week? So be the same TPE either way? Or would i get theme week bonus and next week making it 18TPE

They tried to remove it a while back but got hit with enough backlash that it got almost immediately put back. It was gone for about 2 days

[Beketov 8,683]

7 hours ago, diamond_ace said:

They tried to remove it a while back but got hit with enough backlash that it got almost immediately put back. It was gone for about 2 days

This.

 

I still hate it. I still think it’s ridiculous that we’re rewarding less activity but also not fairly since only MS writers get it but oh well, people liked it.

[diamond_ace 3,106]

1 hour ago, Beketov said:

This.

 

I still hate it. I still think it’s ridiculous that we’re rewarding less activity but also not fairly since only MS writers get it but oh well, people liked it.

To be fair though, I probably wouldn't be VHLM Commie otherwise. I doubt I'd have the drive to do an article every week if I actually had to do it every week, and while the important part of the job is being around on the forums and discord and being able to do jobs and answer questions (and has nothing to do with TPE directly) it probably wouldn't be a good look to give it to a 6 season 400ish TPE guy no matter how forum-active I am or how much league knowledge I have. 600 looks a lot more reasonable, certainly enough that the background pushes it over the top. Plus I think it was Hybrid that was saying he'd potentially have gone inactive completely back when you were trying to remove it, and now we have him talking about maybe stepping up into some sort of role. On its surface it "rewards less activity" but in practice it's proven to have done quite the opposite for many of us. I understand you not thinking of it that way initially when you wanted to get rid of it, but I'd think after all the seasons that have happened and proven the opposite, you'd stop hating it and see it as the benefit to the league that it so visibly is.

[Beketov 8,683]

19 minutes ago, diamond_ace said:

To be fair though, I probably wouldn't be VHLM Commie otherwise. I doubt I'd have the drive to do an article every week if I actually had to do it every week, and while the important part of the job is being around on the forums and discord and being able to do jobs and answer questions (and has nothing to do with TPE directly) it probably wouldn't be a good look to give it to a 6 season 400ish TPE guy no matter how forum-active I am or how much league knowledge I have. 600 looks a lot more reasonable, certainly enough that the background pushes it over the top. Plus I think it was Hybrid that was saying he'd potentially have gone inactive completely back when you were trying to remove it, and now we have him talking about maybe stepping up into some sort of role. On its surface it "rewards less activity" but in practice it's proven to have done quite the opposite for many of us. I understand you not thinking of it that way initially when you wanted to get rid of it, but I'd think after all the seasons that have happened and proven the opposite, you'd stop hating it and see it as the benefit to the league that it so visibly is.

Oh I’m not actively trying to get rid of it but that doesn’t mean I don’t hate it. Most of the hate has just moved toward the fact that only MS writers get the benefit and no one else can which isn’t really fair.

 

Either way, it can stay whether I dislike it or not. There are plenty of things in the league I don’t personally like, that doesn’t mean they are all on the chopping block.

[diamond_ace 3,106]

8 minutes ago, Beketov said:

Oh I’m not actively trying to get rid of it but that doesn’t mean I don’t hate it. Most of the hate has just moved toward the fact that only MS writers get the benefit and no one else can which isn’t really fair.

 

Either way, it can stay whether I dislike it or not. There are plenty of things in the league I don’t personally like, that doesn’t mean they are all on the chopping block.

I think maybe a larger graphic work, like a magazine cover style thing, could be double weeks or something - it's just harder to do something like this for graphics. Although then again, they get the benefit now of barely having to modify a picture at all and getting the points for it. Throwing a new name on a guy's back and changing nothing at all else, that has to be about the same as writing an article with the word "the" repeated 500x in a row.

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

2 hours ago, Beketov said:

This.

 

I still hate it. I still think it’s ridiculous that we’re rewarding less activity but also not fairly since only MS writers get it but oh well, people liked it.

 

To be fair, when I feel like I can make a graphic that can get a 6/6, there's something wrong as well as far as time commitment for a PT.

[Beketov 8,683]

2 hours ago, flyersfan1453 said:

 

To be fair, when I feel like I can make a graphic that can get a 6/6, there's something wrong as well as far as time commitment for a PT.

You aren’t wrong. The, for lack of a better word, skill of our GFX community has gone down a lot. Not sure if people just aren’t experienced or don’t want to try.

[diamond_ace 3,106]

week 2