My two cents on the backup goalie debate + some other positional stuff

[Enorama 2,039]

If you aren't living under a rock, you've probably heard plenty about backup goalies in the VHL lately. Honestly, I was surprised to see that most people generally seem to agree that something needs to be done about the influx of goalies over the past few seasons, but it seems that nobody has any really solid idea of what. I'm sure that the BoG has been discussing the issue over the past season or two and we'll hear some kind of decision from them either this offseason or the next. Until then, I decided to look at what I think should be done with goalies in the VHL.

 

The most popular and simplest idea that I've seen so far is to simply raise the backup requirements from 8 games started to 10, 12, 15, 20, or whatever arbitrary threshold we choose now instead of the 8. The problem for this is that the higher we make that threshold, the more teams with active backups will have an advantage over the season and although we have too many active goalies for the 9 teams in the VHL, we don't have enough for the 9 backup spots that would be necessary. Here's the thing though, I called that a problem, but I really don't think that's a problem at all. So what if teams with backups have an advantage for around 1/4 of the season? Teams with active players in any position other than backup goalie are given advantages today, so why are we treating the backup position any differently? Let them affect the way their team's season goes, let them become a commodity, let them be wooed in free agency or pursued in the draft. 

 

My least favourite part of talking to new players is when I repeat "do not make a goalie" about fifteen times over just to drive it into their heads that there is no market for goalies right now. It would be different if I told them a certain position was mostly saturated and that it would be competitive to get starting time in a certain position but for me to have to say that literally no team would have any real interest in them just because of the position they chose pains me to my core. #AllPositionsMatter

 

In other positional news, the S63 defensive class is taking over the VHL starting next season. Once the S57 draft class (Johnsson, Kiaskov, Jones) is forced into retirement this offseason, Kastelic and McWolf will be the two highest TPE (not just TPA) defensemen in the league in only their third season of VHL play. Tzuyu , Crosby, and Wilson won't be too far behind. It'll be an exciting time to see how these youngsters perform in the final year of their rookie contracts. Will any of them test free agency? How many of them will fall foul to the new tampering rules? We'll just have to wait and see.

 

And then who cares about forwards, they're all a bunch of bums anyways.

 

503 words

[SidTheKid87 166]

13 minutes ago, Enorama said:

And then who cares about forwards, they're all a bunch of bums anyways.

Preach

[Beaviss 4,958]

36 minutes ago, Enorama said:

If you aren't living under a rock, you've probably heard plenty about backup goalies in the VHL lately. Honestly, I was surprised to see that most people generally seem to agree that something needs to be done about the influx of goalies over the past few seasons, but it seems that nobody has any really solid idea of what. I'm sure that the BoG has been discussing the issue over the past season or two and we'll hear some kind of decision from them either this offseason or the next. Until then, I decided to look at what I think should be done with goalies in the VHL.

 

The most popular and simplest idea that I've seen so far is to simply raise the backup requirements from 8 games started to 10, 12, 15, 20, or whatever arbitrary threshold we choose now instead of the 8. The problem for this is that the higher we make that threshold, the more teams with active backups will have an advantage over the season and although we have too many active goalies for the 9 teams in the VHL, we don't have enough for the 9 backup spots that would be necessary. Here's the thing though, I called that a problem, but I really don't think that's a problem at all. So what if teams with backups have an advantage for around 1/4 of the season? Teams with active players in any position other than backup goalie are given advantages today, so why are we treating the backup position any differently? Let them affect the way their team's season goes, let them become a commodity, let them be wooed in free agency or pursued in the draft. 

 

My least favourite part of talking to new players is when I repeat "do not make a goalie" about fifteen times over just to drive it into their heads that there is no market for goalies right now. It would be different if I told them a certain position was mostly saturated and that it would be competitive to get starting time in a certain position but for me to have to say that literally no team would have any real interest in them just because of the position they chose pains me to my core. #AllPositionsMatter

 

In other positional news, the S63 defensive class is taking over the VHL starting next season. Once the S57 draft class (Johnsson, Kiaskov, Jones) is forced into retirement this offseason, Kastelic and McWolf will be the two highest TPE (not just TPA) defensemen in the league in only their third season of VHL play. Tzuyu , Crosby, and Wilson won't be too far behind. It'll be an exciting time to see how these youngsters perform in the final year of their rookie contracts. Will any of them test free agency? How many of them will fall foul to the new tampering rules? We'll just have to wait and see.

 

And then who cares about forwards, they're all a bunch of bums anyways.

 

503 words

 

Ill agree with you but the problem is the cap cant make it worth while for me to carry a backup. Its also a problem because as a player seeing your player only play 1/7th of the season would be depressing. IF we had P2.5 in effect than im sure someone wouldn't mind being a backup.

[Hybrid1486 577]

5 hours ago, Enorama said:

Teams with active players in any position other than backup goalie are given advantages today

I'm not sure whether you mean just a generally active team (which I would agree with) or a team that has a deeper roster than others...I've basically spent my career on teams that run 3 lines and it doesn't seem to provide any sort of competitive advantage that would be lost by dumping three forwards

[Enorama 2,039]

19 minutes ago, Hybrid1486 said:

I'm not sure whether you mean just a generally active team (which I would agree with) or a team that has a deeper roster than others...I've basically spent my career on teams that run 3 lines and it doesn't seem to provide any sort of competitive advantage that would be lost by dumping three forwards

 

I generally mean carrying an active player in a position that would otherwise be filled with an inactive player is beneficial.