Who's still around from old cup winning teams?

[Victor 10,536]

Some time ago I recall I briefly looked at past cup winners in the VHL and checked to see how many members of those teams are still active in the league. From memory this was a VHL.com article and probably about 20 seasons ago now. So, in the absence of any other ideas, I'm going to do this again, just in a bit more depth. Here goes, lord help me.

 

Season 1 Vasteras IK @Quik @Smarch

This was a team led by the original commissioner Scotty Campbell and the original long-serving GM, Pensfan101, whose first player was Thor Ljunggren. But the two members who remain are Smarch, back again for his umpteenth player, and another former commissioner, who was Tommy Brown at the time, and Quik (Matthew Pogge), one of our current commissioners, who was missing for about 30 seasons but has been at the peak of his powers for around 2 years now. Not gonna lie, two members still active from the original cup winners is mightily impressive.

 

Season 2 Calgary Wranglers @sterling @Smarch

Going down the OG Wranglers rosters is like a who's who of VHL legends. Scott Boulet and Brett Slobodzian are two names which stick out here, but haven't been with us for many years (Slobo's last player retired around S40). But we do have another appearance for Tommy Brown, as well as the first cup for Sterling Labatte. Sterling might be playerless for now going on 15 seasons, but remains the a regular presence in the admin forum, always available to ban Phil, and is still the custodian of our donations bank.

 

Season 3 Calgary Wranglers @sterling @Smarch @Beketov

Pretty similar to the season above, with a couple key additions though. Joey Kendrick won his first championship – he only left the VHL in the past year, albeit in acrimonious circumstances. There was also a maiden Continental Cup for the famous S1 first overall pick Robert Sharpe, who began his road to redemption as Beketov and remained in the league since, now being our other commissioner. The fact the two commissioners in S66 won cups within the league's first 3 seasons is kind of mind-blowing.

 

Season 4 and 5 Seattle Bears - No one

Despite being perhaps the most star-studded team in history, from what I can see no one remains in the VHL 60 seasons on from Seattle's back-to-back championship. Scotty Campbell, Alex McNeil, and Dustin Funk largely fizzled out in the 20s, with a few failed comebacks since then but I don't think any more recent than S40. Everyone else on these teams has been gone even longer than that.

 

Season 6 Helsinki Titans @Quik @TheLastOlympian07

A few repeat names from Seattle like Campbell and Matt Defosse, and a handful of other great members here, perhaps most notably Zero, appearing in net as Dominik Stryker, famous for creating the VHL 20 in 20 series which did also sadly seem to kill his activity in the league. There was a second cup here for Quik, now on his second player Branden Snelheid, while on defence we have Shawn Howard, who you might be surprised is TheLastOlympian, who's disappeared at various times in the league's past, but still kicking with player names beginning with Shawn.

 

Season 7 Avangard Havoc @tfong

A stupid team name and a weird roster, but this was actually the Davos franchise's first championship. Probably the most famous player here was Christian Stolzschweiger, but he never recreated anything of note. We also have Fabian Brunnstrom, which was Sandro's first player and he made many more before leaving the league at some point before S50. But the mainstay here is Terence Fong, who won the first of his cups in S7 and the thirteenth just last season with Toronto.

 

Season 8 Calgary Wranglers @sterling @Smarch @BluObieZ @harvey

Lots of recognisable names here: we have another cup for sterling and Smarch (now Max Weinstein), while future commissioner David Knight won his first. David is still MIA but his brother Phil is back with us. Robbie Zimmers also won his first cup – he's now on his alleged last player, although I feel like he's promised that for at least 5 players now. And in a shocking twist, Ace Lightning had a player in the S67 draft after a near literal decade absence but I think he's just retired now which is a shame.

 

Season 9 Toronto Legion @Quik

Kevin Brooks and Mike Szatkowski are the first two names on the list and they have been immortalised in trophy names. Brooks was also the VHL's founding member back in July 2007, while Mike was still around as late as S50 or so. We have another championship for Quik, but it looks like he is the only one still around from this great team.

 

Season 10 Riga Reign @tfong @harvey

No one new here, as second cups came to Lightning and Fong, but too many repeats of old school members on this squad like the Funks (Zak Rawlyk and Brandon Rush), Slobo (Layken Heidt), and Kendrick (Torsten Schwarz). Nothing else to add here really.

 

Season 11 HC Davos Dynamo - No one

The original 3-line VHL roster, about 55 seasons ahead of its time. Sadly, despite the depth, it doesn't look like anyone has stuck around 10 years on. This was the last hurrah of Scotty Campbell, now a GM and playing as Tomas Jenskovic, while notable first-gens here included Zach Arce (Islandersfan) and James Platts (nagger) who were pretty iconic VHL members in the 20s.

 

Season 12 Seattle Bears @Beketov @Tyler

A second cup here for Beketov and Sandro, while Sebastian Ball kept reappearing in the VHL, most recently as Tyler Cote in the early 40s. A new name that's stuck around though is Tyler, then Pavel Dubnikov and remarkably still around and liking any Chelsea-related posts I make. He's also famously a cup drought breaker as GM with both Vasteras (S26) and Davos (S61).

 

Season 13 HC Davos Dynamo - No one

A similar mix here to the S11 team, so the same end result – no remnants. Fayt Leingod however was Streetlight, who still has a player in the league (Samuel Gate) but went inactive around S63. It's happened before so he may yet return but for the time being no one is here to represent old Davos.

 

Season 14 New York Americans @sterling @Smarch @Victor

Sterling and Smarch win yet another cup, now as Grimm Jonsson and Baron Von Jonsson respectively. No one else on the team stuck around for that long really, apart from the goalie, Vase Trikamaki, who was the first player of a guy called Victor, who you might have heard of.

 

Season 15 Helsinki Titans @Quik @tfong @Kyle

An interesting mix here in this team GMed by Quik (now Matt Bailey), also featuring Fong (Ginzou Fujiwara). Another defenceman, Virgil Quincey-McDienenberg, who was the notorious Edgar, eventual Toronto GM and creator of questionable player builds all the way to S50 something. He is now present in the league in the form of Greg's player name Edgar Tannahill (Greg, Edgar, and Pensfan all hail from Owen Sound). Finally, the goalie of this Titans team was Izaak Muller, which was Kyle's first player. Kyle has been in and out of the league ever since and currently is one of the “in” times.

 

Season 16 Riga Reign - No one

One of the few Continental Cup winners without any Hall of Famers and yeah, I don't even know who to mention. Harvey Singh and Jesse Jussal (DGFX. and 8Ovechkin8) were probably the most famous members here, later making the Hall of Fame as Anton Brekker and Japinder Singh, as well as making the Athera twins, but this was all over by around S35. Apart from that, there's not much long-term impact from this team.

 

Season 17 Seattle Bears @sterling @Smarch @gregreg @Beketov

Sterling and Smarch win yet another cup together, now with Sandro, Streetlight, and Edgar too. Beketov also features as goalie Alex Young, while rookie Markus Strauss won the first cup for Greg, who after an extended absence is now back in the league. Greg would become Mr. Seattle and made his mark as the team's long-serving GM later on. Overall, pretty high marks for recognisable member names here.

 

Season 18 Calgary Wranglers @Victor @JardyB10 @Renomitsu

I remember getting to this team last time I did this and realising it was just me and Jardy left. I was Lars Berger, he was Jardy Bunclewirth and was about to become commissioner and then by some distance the VHL's longest serving simmer. Then after I came back recently Jardy disappeared so it was just me. But now Jardy has reppeared (although not yet recreated), but we also had a surprising return from Renomitsu, an unsung hero of this underdog victory and looking to be at his most active yet. So S18 Calgary is really a late bloomer of a team.

 

Season 19 Calgary Wranglers @Victor @JardyB10 @Quik

Pretty much the same as above, but the defence was radically improved in the off-season and that included getting Quik to essentially replace Renomitsu. Also a moment of silence for fallen friends, such as Zero (J.D. Stormwall), Matt Bentz (Mikka Virkkunen), and Alexander Sauve (Zach Manship).

 

Season 20 HC Davos Dynamo @tfong

Fong is holding down the fort for the Davos dynasty, with his most famous player Daisuke Kanou getting his first cup here. Otherwise, it's largely a repeat of names already mentioned before, like Brooks, DGFX., and Streetlight. We've also got one of my faves, Squinty – Patrick Bergqvist in S20 but probably most famous for his next player, Leeroy Jenkins – as well as Chad Murphy (RawEnergy), who I've actually ignored on a couple of occasions (Miroslav Ladic won in S8 and Leander Kaelin in S13), but was a pretty reliable VHL members for 25 seasons or so.

 

That pushes me over 1,500 words so I'll use this for 3 weeks for Cast and write about the next seasons for Pavlov shortly.

[Beketov 8,642]

Back in the day when my players could actually win cups haha

[BluObieZ 1,125]

FYI my last few players I said maybe they will be my last. This player was the first player (and last) where I said 100% is my last

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

that season 6 championship lasted me all the way until S42 i think haha. 38 seasons between ships.

[Victor 10,536]

Week 2 for Cast.

[Victor 10,536]

@street wherever I mentioned your name.

 

Also week 3 for Cast.

[animal74 1,606]

Probably old news now, but I've been back for over a year and I won with Seattle in S12 as D Gunnar-Rune Rorvik. For the record.

[v.2 1,260]

On 6/2/2019 at 2:16 PM, Victor said:

Season 7 Avangard Havoc @tfong

A stupid team name and a weird roster, but this was actually the Davos franchise's first championship. Probably the most famous player here was Christian Stolzschweiger, but he never recreated anything of note. We also have Fabian Brunnstrom, which was Sandro's first player and he made many more before leaving the league at some point before S50. But the mainstay here is Terence Fong, who won the first of his cups in S7 and the thirteenth just last season with Toronto.

 

Season 8 Calgary Wranglers @sterling @Smarch @BluObieZ @harvey

Lots of recognisable names here: we have another cup for sterling and Smarch (now Max Weinstein), while future commissioner David Knight won his first. David is still MIA but his brother Phil is back with us. Robbie Zimmers also won his first cup – he's now on his alleged last player, although I feel like he's promised that for at least 5 players now. And in a shocking twist, Ace Lightning had a player in the S67 draft after a near literal decade absence but I think he's just retired now which is a shame.

 

Season 12 Seattle Bears @Beketov @Tyler

A second cup here for Beketov and Sandro, while Sebastian Ball kept reappearing in the VHL, most recently as Tyler Cote in the early 40s. A new name that's stuck around though is Tyler, then Pavel Dubnikov and remarkably still around and liking any Chelsea-related posts I make. He's also famously a cup drought breaker as GM with both Vasteras (S26) and Davos (S61).

 

[Beketov 8,642]

6 minutes ago, v.2 said:

 

To this day that Season 12 cup remains my favourite.

[v.2 1,260]

13 minutes ago, Beketov said:

To this day that Season 12 cup remains my favourite.

I'm struggling to remember if I was active then or not... I definitely don't remember being on Zimmers' NYA team after that lol.  What year would S12 have been?

[Beketov 8,642]

19 minutes ago, v.2 said:

I'm struggling to remember if I was active then or not... I definitely don't remember being on Zimmers' NYA team after that lol.  What year would S12 have been?

It was my final season with Beketov so maybe like 2009 at most? I think I went 4 seasons with Sharpe and I know I went 6 with Beketov so that would be ~20 months so yeah, early 2009.

 

I think you were borderline active but still somewhat around with McNeil and I.

[Victor 10,536]

37 minutes ago, v.2 said:

I'm struggling to remember if I was active then or not... I definitely don't remember being on Zimmers' NYA team after that lol.  What year would S12 have been?

It wasn't Zimmers' team in S13, it was Brandon and sterling's by that point. My first-gen was on there too - Trikamaki - we were actually a competent organisation lol.

 

Also this is the article that keeps on giving.

[gorlab 4,321]

tf @ Renomitsu being active in S18 ???

[Victor 10,536]

11 hours ago, gorlab said:

tf @ Renomitsu being active in S18 ???

A legend as @JardyB10will testify 

[frescoelmo 1,218]

Damn you season 20

[ke1vi 621]

S1 - Vasteras (J. McKelvie)

S7 - Avangard (McLovin) - best roster ever tbh 

 

also not sad at all to see neither of my players in the HOF .. pretty sure I retired McKelvie early and went inactive on McLovin.

Edited April 6, 2021 by McKelvie

[JardyB10 4,834]

5 hours ago, Victor said:

A legend as @JardyB10will testify 

He legitimately made the team better, despite having like 200 TPE or something. 
 

Was he S16 like me?

[Victor 10,536]

6 hours ago, JardyB10 said:

He legitimately made the team better, despite having like 200 TPE or something. 
 

Was he S16 like me?

Indeed, I believe I drafted him before he went inactive on me. Him and Janelle who may or may not have been Slobo roleplaying as a woman.

[JardyB10 4,834]

1 hour ago, Victor said:

Indeed, I believe I drafted him before he went inactive on me. Him and Janelle who may or may not have been Slobo roleplaying as a woman.

Hey man we all do it.

[animal74 1,606]

On 4/5/2021 at 4:17 PM, Beketov said:

To this day that Season 12 cup remains my favourite.

 

That was a great team!