My Thoughts and Previous Experiences with VHL(M) Expansion

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Another day, and another article about expansion. Everyone is sharing their thoughts about this expansion, so that's what I'm going to do too. Additionally, I played on an expansion team team during their beginning stage, so I'll share my thoughts about that as well.

 

VHLM: 

 

I actually think the VHLM expanding will be more impactful than the VHL. As we all know, the VHL is based on the idea of a 6 forward, 4 defenseman, and 1 goalie roster where everyone gets a lot of playing time. While these aren't the most realistic rosters, the argument (which I have always believed and will continue to defend) is that it's better to have smaller teams and more individual playing time than larger teams and more realistic playing time, with players getting only 3rd and 4th line minutes. There are other leagues that go this route, and more power to them, but I don't believe it makes for a fun experience if you're not one of those top players, especially since our player careers are for 8 seasons max. In the past, the one point that I would concede that some people find important is that with larger teams, locker rooms would be more interesting. I've never been a huge LR guy, so this didn't hold too much sway with me, but back in the day, locker rooms were a huge part of VHL activity. It seems that more and more discussion that used to be held on the forum has been moved to Discord. I don't know if teams have individual Discord channels or not, but either way, this point is not as important as before, since LR activity is down from where it used to be.

 

This brings us to the main point - VHLM teams are just getting too crowded. At the beginning of the year, teams are fine. Most teams have 2ish lines of actives, and maybe an active goalie. The problem (which is a good one to have) is that throughout the year as people join, rosters start to become more and more crowded. Some of these new members are then stuck playing low minutes on the 3rd or 4th lines, especially if they want to play on a competitive team. My ideal scenario would be that teams have maybe 1 to 1.5 lines of active players at the beginning of the season, with the rest of the roster filled out with new members. This allows new members to play more minutes, which should help with retention.

 

As far as the actual expansion teams and relocation - I've already given my thoughts on the Philadelphia Reapers and Houston Bulls. In short, I'm happy  that the league expanded to Philly, but I wish the team name had a little bit more (or anything, really) representation of the city itself, and not just a random team name. The logo is cool, but doesn't really tie in to Philly at all. With the Bulls team name, obviously something in Texas makes sense. Texas and Dallas were brought up as potential locations, but I brought up that Houston had a hockey history with the Aeros, which seemed to help solidify the move to Houston. Although no one is really talking about them, I think Houston Bulls is a pretty cool name with a pretty cool logo.

 

For the Minnesota Storm - I'm happy that the team moved from Oslo to Minnesota. It's not a secret that if it was up to me, we'd have an all North American (and really I mean US and Canada) league, but I don't hate the European teams or anything like that. Minnesota is obviously a huge hockey state, and deserves to be represented in our league. And Storm...obviously is snows a lot there, so it makes sense. All in all, just a good idea.

 

VHL: 

 

With the addition of the Moscow Menace, the VHL will be expanding to 9 teams. This will be a topic for another day, but I think it's obvious that we will eventually add a 10th team to the league. While obviously not to the extent of the VHLM, VHL teams are starting to get into a roster and cap crunch with their players. I believe we artificially raised the cap an extra couple million dollars to help alleviate this, but I'm not 100% sure. Regardless, I think the cap is going to go back to normal next season or did this season, meaning that there will be less roster spots available for each team. Also, some teams, most noticeably Riga, have had very large rosters the past couple of seasons. I believe last season when I was on the team, the Reign had something like 8 forwards on the roster? Again, just like I mentioned in the VHL section, it's not fun to be stuck playing 3rd line minutes during your rookie season. Your stats already won't be the best since you're a rookie, and when you combine getting only 3rd line minutes, it's even worse.

 

Regarding the actual team - I think the creation of this team was executed great. Moscow is a great city to add to the VHL. A not insignificant number of members have lambasted the fact that there was no Russian representation in the league, and Moscow makes the most sense for a Russian team. The logo itself looks menacing. I don't really agree with giving it a political connotation, since I don't really want to talk politics on the VHL, but it's been made. I think it's great that the team is getting an experienced GM, as turning an expansion franchise into a contender can be hard for a GM new to the league.

 

Past Experience: 

 

While I wasn't on the inaugural team, my first player in this league was traded to the Cologne Express in their second season of existence. For a bunch of reasons I don't really feel like writing about, the team itself never saw playoff success while I was there, but it was still fun. It was kind of cool being a new player on a new team, as you could make history there. For a couple of seasons, I believe my player was the franchise leader in either hits or shots blocked. Besides winning a Continental Cup with the Calgary Wranglers, my first player wasn't really that special, so it felt pretty cool to be on a team's franchise leader boards for a little bit. 

 

I'm now over 1,000 words, so that's all for this week.

 

 

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

For weeks ending 2/3 and 2/10

[eaglesfan036 4,605]

@flyersfan1453 usually makes very educated points on the VHL and he should be the league dictator

[Victor 11,039]

18 minutes ago, flyersfan1453 said:

Although no one is really talking about them, I think Houston Bulls is a pretty cool name with a pretty cool logo.

Also quite surprised by that, like the Houston team more than Philadelphia by a fair margin.

 

19 minutes ago, flyersfan1453 said:

I don't really agree with giving it a political connotation, since I don't really want to talk politics on the VHL

I don't plan to carry on that route once I actually have a team to talk about haha 

 

1 minute ago, eaglesfan036 said:

@flyersfan1453 usually makes very educated points on the VHL and he should be the league dictator

We tried that, he bottled it.

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

5 minutes ago, Victor said:

Also quite surprised by that, like the Houston team more than Philadelphia by a fair margin.

 

I don't plan to carry on that route once I actually have a team to talk about haha 

 

We tried that, he bottled it.

 

Blue Team is the second most demanding role and should be paid a lot more than it is, especially during the off-season. It's not as bad now with some things automated with the portal, but the amount of small things requiring your attention can be dumb sometimes...especially when members squabble. That again isn't as bad now as it was back then...but it's just not something I feel like dealing with after coming home from work. BoG is perfect though since I can still give my thoughts without having any responsibility.

 

I wish I could have been a commissioner during college, but after graduating and getting a job I just didn't have the heart for it anymore...would have been perfect my junior and senior years of school though.

 

Simmer should be a 12 TPE job if it isn't already.

Edited February 3, 2019 by flyersfan1453