Who's still around from old cup winning teams? - Part 2

[Victor 10,534]

Here's part 1: https://vhlforum.com/topic/63670-whos-still-around-from-old-cup-winning-teams/

 

Let's smash through a few more seasons then shall we...

 

S21 Toronto Legion @sterling @Victor @Bushito

Sterling and I (James Bencharski and Lars Berger) combined efforts for a second time here on a team built by David Knight. Several other repeat members here like Zero (J.D. Stormwall), McNeil (Voittu Jannula), and Cameron Davidson (nagger), but this was the first Continental Cup for Bushito, who continued making solid players after Peyton Nydroj and recently both got his first Hall of Fame induction and a Continental Cup as a GM.

 

S22 Helsinki Titans @Advantage @Renomitsu

A team with a similar makeup to some older Calgary and Riga teams, with two prominent members being Slobo and Kendrick. Cam Fowler was the first-gen of CoachReilly, a highly vocal member who is sadly no longer with us but remained very active until S50. Noah, inactive at the time and inactive now, got his first championship as Syd Drayson, and the reliable Renomitsu was a depth defenceman for the second time in his career. Adam Schultz was the first player of Frank, famous most for GMing Quebec as recently as S57. Last but not least, Malmo has just become the fourth team he's managed, but back in S22 Advantage was just starting out and got his first cup with Michael Angelo.

 

S23 Calgary Wranglers @JardyB10 @diamond_ace @.sniffuM

Jardy completed his career with a third cup in six seasons, now as GM, having built a team of fine members like Munk (Jeff Dar) and Spangle (Mathias Chouinard), among others. The long-term survivors here however are Jason aka diamond_ace (Lars Intranquilo), a key contributor to the VHLM then and in the year since, and Damien aka .sniffuM (Joey Clarence), who was on the player who created the famous snubbed censor. Damien has disappeared at times since, but has been VHLM commissioner and a Hall of Fame inductee and is back again in a more low key role at the moment.

 

S24 and S25 HC Davos Dynamo @tfong

A few repeats here, most notably Squinty, DGFX., and of course tfong with Kanou's crowning achievements. He is the sole survivor of these back-to-back winners, with Frank again missing the cut, while Koradek, present in S24 and the creator of so many of the current logos around the league, had a glorious but short time in the VHL.

 

S26 Vasteras Iron Eagles @Tyler @Phil @sterling @.sniffuM @Hybrid1486

Very impressive survival rate here, especially with the recent return of Phil, 40 seasons on from his first ever championship. The second and last Vasteras championship was the brainchild of Tyler, featuring in goal as Andreas Bjorkman, and Scotty, on his real last hurrah as RJ Stafford and featured Sterling, Pensfan, Damien's second player Tukka Reikkinen and provided a first championship for Hybrid (Clint Guite).

 

S27 Helsinki Titans - No one

A superbly fun team, but one that really hasn't aged well, with some of its key members long gone like Squinty, Koradek, Boragina, and Claudio. The closest thing to a survivor is Munk, but like in S23, his appearances recently have been far too sporadic to include as a current active.

 

S28 Seattle Bears @gregreg @InstantRockstar @Higgins @JardyB10

Greg built up Seattle's first cup-winning team after S17 on the core of the Seattle Six – Felix Peters (himself), Jarvis Baldwin (CoachReilly), Nikolai Lebedev (Noah), Mitch Higgins (Higgins), Radislav Mjers (Instantrockstar), and CAL G (Jardy). Jardy and Higgins continue to exist in lurk form as former admins/simmers, while the recent returns of Greg and IR have resurrected the active member count of this team.

 

S29 Toronto Legion @sterling @Beketov @Tyler

One of the more random cup winners in the VHL's past (the recent Toronto cup winners have clearly used this team as inspiration) gave additional cup rings to Sterling, Beketov, and Tyler, now Alexander Labatte, Jason White, and Connor Evans respectively. Apart from that, no notable new names won this season, with repeat appearances from Sandro and the Funks – a good VHL band name if nothing else.

 

S30 Calgary Wranglers @Victor @diamond_ace @Advantage @flyersfan1453 @solas @BYE

A decent retention rate here which makes sense how active this team was at the time. More cups came to Jason, Advantage and myself (Clark Marcellin, Ryan Sullivan, Alexander Chershenko), while the defence featured 3 still active members who won their first cups – flyersfan (Jim Gow) who went on to briefly commish, solas (Klaus Muller), a quiet creator of good to great players ever since, and Boom (Vladimir Boomchenko), who recently found himself burnt out again but has consistently come back to good effect in the past.

 

S31 HC Davos Dynamo @Phil @tfong @gregreg @Bushito @frescoelmo

Fittingly, we are getting more names who've stuck around as we get to the halfway stage of the VHL's existence. This was the team of the Knight brothers (David Smalling and Phil Rafter), Fong (again), Greg (again), Sandro (again), Bushito (for the second time, with Satan), and a first cup for frescoelmo, who's more famous for Tarik Saeijs than Emerson Byer but also seemed to reappear in the league recently.

 

S32 New York Americans @Victor @Tyler @.sniffuM @InstantRockstar @Devise

Here a random collection of members combined to good effect, but then how can you go wrong with myself, Tyler, Damien, and instantrockstar? At least, if it's S32. The mastermind behind this was Devise however, in just his second season as GM ever, winning his first championship with rookie goaltender Skylar Rift. There will be much more of him to come.

 

S33 Riga Reign @Hybrid1486

A bit of a relapse here, with a few previously prominent members like sherifflobo and Corco now long gone – although Corco's last player Boner only retired a couple seasons ago. However, Felix Leiter was Hybrid's player so he is representing this team today. Not much more to say about this one.

 

S34 Helsinki Titans @Higgins @der meister @Hybrid1486

Higgins built a team of first-gens in his first run with Helsinki and many are only recently inactive in the VHL. That's a list that includes STZ (Ethan Osborne), who went on to GM both Helsinki and New York, Tylar (Brody Hodgson), who would win a few cups with Helsinki in a few more incarnations as Marcel Faux and Sami Zayn, and fever95 (Anatoli Zhumbayev). One first-gen who is still around is der meister (Till Lindemann), although he has not recreated since Casey Jones retired in S64. Finally, there was a second straight championship for Leiter and Hybrid.

 

S35 Quebec City Meute @Kyle @Devise

A much hated team, built through free agency and being able to acquire all 3 Valiq brothers retains two members – Kyle, who was one of the Valiqs, and Devise, who was the league-altering free agent in Skylar Rift. Otherwise, Koradek and Squinty have long gone as above, while Jericho famously won his first championship with Wesley Kellinger, but has also been inactive since the mid 50s.

 

S36 HC Davos Dynamo @Victor @Velevra @Trifecta @Molholt @Quik @BYE

My crowning achievement as GM has a few members still kicking around, even if you discount the recent departed Boom (Odin Tordahl). My partner on defence was Shane Baker, which was Velevra's first player, he's since made a number of good players including a Hall of Famer in Apollo Skye and one of the more unlucky current players in Veran Dragomir. Da Trifecta got his first cup as Davey Jones and continues to pop in, as does Molholt, more famously the GM of the threepeating Toronto team about a decade later, but first time winner with Jarkko Olsen here. Finally, Quik was inactive at the time but got another ring to his name with Matteo Gallo, my first draft pick as Davos GM.

 

S37 Toronto Legion @Green @xDParK

The star of this Toronto team was Remy LeBeau and this was Green's first-gen, who has won many cups with his numerous players since. It appears Adam Warlock was his last player for a while but he still pops in and history suggests he'll be lured back in sooner rather than later. On the other hand, xdPark largely disappeared after Chico Salmon retired, but has only recently come back and might be at his peak VHL form. A notable member who would definitely still be here if he wasn't banned is boubabi, then on his first player Niklas Lindberg and a far cry from the outspoken member he became.

 

S38 HC Davos Dynamo @Victor @Velevra @Trifecta @Molholt @JardyB10 @frescoelmo

Davos won the last of the three straight Toronto vs Davos finals, and it was a similar team to the one which triumphed in S36. The main changes were Tordahl and Gallo being replaced by Naomi Young (Jardy) and Felix Zamora (frescoelmo), both of whom are in that strange semi-active limbo state at the moment but we'll class them as active for now.

 

S39 New York Americans @sterling @Smarch @tfong @Tyler @Advantage @BYE

A great team built around known, low-risk names, many of whom are still around in some capacity. Sterling and Smarch went back to their days of winning together, with Smarch on his finest player in Conner Low. Fong (Xin Xie Xiao), Tyler (Milos Denis), and Advantage (Brick Wahl) all featured, with another appearance for Tordahl – overall it's little surprise this team won.

 

S40 Riga Reign @flyersfan1453 @Positivefan036 @Phil @Molholt

And we'll end the second part of this on the first champion from the 40s. This was the first combined triumph of the Gows, with Phil helping out on defence. Molholt and boubabi also made appearances on their first players' swansongs in a dominant playoff display. Again, no new names to speak of though.

 

That's another 1,500 words so that's a wrap for Pavlov too. I might revisit this concept in 3 weeks' time.

[Devise 4,475]

Cool concept, I was just noting the other day how before Kyle whom just returned I was the only lone strangler of that hated Quebec team. Feels like that was kind of the last go for a lot of the bigger names, pivotal names too considering most of the members there were responsible for some of the more notable guys in HoF. 

 

I honestly hope you revisit it again because I'm kinda curious how many members of the Toronto3peat days are still around. I don't recall all the names from those teams but a few tbh. 

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

The last line of this song says it all for me

 

[Victor 10,534]

4 minutes ago, Green said:

The last line of this song says it all for me

I'll set my alarm.

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

I rather have you get some draft picks for my year. 

[Victor 10,534]

13 minutes ago, Green said:

I rather have you get some draft picks for my year. 

I'm not Devise, I'll always have a couple.

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

A 3rd will do likely :d

[frescoelmo 1,218]

I think you know more about me winning cups than I do lol

 

good write boss

[Phil 5,014]

Very nostalgic read! Thanks Viccy! 

[Renomitsu 930]

I'm not sure I was even active by the point I hit the S22 championship, hah.

 

Thanks for the trip down nostalgia lane.

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

@flyersfan1453 what if Riga wins?

[Baozi 1,635]

This series is great....cuz I've been mentioned so much

 

Good for the ego on the monday morning.

[sterling 1,990]

Now I disappear in part 3

[Victor 10,534]

Week 2 for Pavlov.

[Molholt 2,183]

On 6/2/2019 at 3:50 PM, Devise said:

Cool concept, I was just noting the other day how before Kyle whom just returned I was the only lone strangler of that hated Quebec team. Feels like that was kind of the last go for a lot of the bigger names, pivotal names too considering most of the members there were responsible for some of the more notable guys in HoF. 

 

I honestly hope you revisit it again because I'm kinda curious how many members of the Toronto3peat days are still around. I don't recall all the names from those teams but a few tbh. 

 

Main core was myself (Max), DaaD (Parechkin), Cowboy in goal, Stevo (World B. Free), Higgins (Black Velvet) at first, Hedgehog made an appearance with Zeptenbergs. Fresco was one of my draftees (Sean Blacker), not sure if he survived long enough to make one of those cup teams. LSP was on those teams, but I don't even remember his username. St. Pierre was the player. Clegane was in goal for our chance at the four-peat that we lost in 51. Reencarnacion filled in some, Hyvarinen too, so we had Tagger or w/e he goes by now and d_a. I can't remember others tbh

[der meister 2,907]

Hi @Victor

[Victor 10,534]

@street again

 

And week 3 for Pavlov.

[Higgins 3,617]

S27 Tits ouch

[jack 496]

I won in S27! I'm back now

[Victor 10,534]

3 hours ago, jack said:

I won in S27! I'm back now

Oh yeah and S37 - we went through this somewhere already.