Claimed:Chronicling A Career (Scouting)

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Chronicling A Career (Scouting)

 

It is no secret that I have held many positions in the Victory Hockey League. Whether I was in the front office as a General Manager or used as a scout for the future of the franchise. In my time here I have been in many places including Riga, Calgary, Toronto, Seattle, Davos, Helsinki and now obviously in Cologne. Obviously through thirty-seven seasons of hockey I have seen many things and many people come and go. I have built friendships, rivalries and best of all some great memories of a place we tend to visit a lot more than other places on the World Wide Web. Today I look into a career of scouting and players I've seen drafted through my work or myself first hand.

 

 

I started my career with the Seattle Everblades, who I had created before the first season took place. They are now the Seattle Bears but the city has always been a fixture here in the VHL. Under my management the team had some successful selections in the draft and some of these players went on to great things.

 

RW - Alex Watson (S1 Dispersal Draft)

C - Tyler Toews (S1 Dispersal Draft)

G - Tyler Vassell (S1 Dispersal Draft)

D - Danny Tremblay (S1 Dispersal Draft)

LW - Steven Morin (S1 Dispersal Draft)

G - Sam Martin (S1 Dispersal Draft)

D - Waldo Cezar (S1 Dispersal Draft)

RW - Christian Stolzschweiger (S1 Supplementary Draft)

C - Robbie Zimmers (S1 Supplementary Draft)

RW - Peter Foster (S1 Supplementary Draft)

 

My first season I fuelled what would later become an all right team, but by my standards I failed in my short tenure in Seattle. Christian Stolzschweiger was a fellow German native and I figured drafting him would allow me to communicate well within the franchise. Alex Watson became known for his All-Star game performances and if they gave out cars he would have three (albeit with Calgary). The rest of the selections didn't amount to a whole lot, but Waldo Cezar is mostly known for being Fernando.

 

 

I quickly moved on in my career and eventually retired as a member of the Calgary Wranglers in the sixth season of the league. It wasn't until then that I got a job with the Riga Reign as one of their two scouts in the organization. Teamed with a man named Brett Slobodzian, we both scouted young prospects for the Reign and found some gems for Dustan Funk who was GM at the time.

 

C - Sean Costello (S9 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Brandon Rush ( S10 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Mitchell Cross (S10 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - J.S. Sicard (S10 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Kaiser Straf (S12 VHL Entry Draft)

 

This wasn't the biggest highlight of either Slobodzian or I's careers but we were limited with the picks we had. Brandon Rush had a sub-par career and Sean Costello eventually did make the Riga Reign roster. Mitchell Cross went out to be a VHL journeyman who played over 300 games in the VHL before retiring. Kaiser Straf was a solid depth defenseman with huge upside but he never put up Hall-of-Fame numbers by anyone’s standards. Riga was a very dominant team, so trading picks away was all too common in my time with the Latvian squad.

 

Taking a break from scouting, I moved and travelled to see family before taking another job. In season eighteen I came back into a franchise position with the Helsinki Titans. I was named General Manager of the team and quickly tried to build a very active team. This is probably the best highlight on my resume in regards to quality prospects.

 

RW - Syd Drayson - (S17 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Jonathan Slade - (S17 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Jacob Elwood - (S17 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Erik Larsson - (S17 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Jordan de Fabio - (S18 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Eric LaJuenesse - (S18 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Sven Kramer - (S18 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - Ignatius Feltersnatch - ( S19 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - Kevin Brooks II - (S19 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - Zach Gagnon - (S19 VHL Entry)

RW - Raymond Lindsay - (S19 VHL Entry Draft)

G - Zack Henning - (S19 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Justin Wood - (S19 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Jon Maxfield - (S20 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Sarmad Kahn - (S20 VHL Entry Draft)

G - Jay Shields - (S20 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Jere Wulf - (S20 VHL Entry Draft)

D - A.J. Collins - (S21 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Kevin Wiznowski - (S21 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Matthew Boragina -  (S22 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - Ronan O'Keefe - (S22 VHL Entry Draft)

G - Wacey Hamilton - (S22 VHL Entry Draft)

 

That may look like a long list with regards to prospect quantity, but when you weed through it you'll only find some that were quality. In season twenty-two Feltersnatch and Drayson teamed together to lead the Titans to a Continental Cup victory. Many of the other prospects took their first steps in the VHLM and either retired or spent a career unnoticed. The Titans chapter was a successful one in my VHL history and one I would have liked to re-enact.

 

 

Another stint focused on player development allowed me to clear my head and avoid the pressures of front office management. It was until the league announced they were going to expand that I voiced up and was selected as an expansion GM. The Cologne Express were created in Germany (with respects for my Grandfather's history). It is in Cologne where I was able to do some pretty solid scouting and drafting. With some help along the way from Zack Gagnon, Alexander Schneider, Uzi Thunderkowski, Malcom Spud and Jim Gow, we created a very positive dynamic in the German city.

 

D - Radislav Mjers - (S31 Expansion Draft)

C - Abraham Sander - (S31 Expansion Draft)

C - Kameron Taylor - (S31 VHL Entry Draft)

G - David Poulin - (S31 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Reggie Dunlop (S31 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Zach Cuff - (S31 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Layton Eritar - (S31 VHL Entry Draft)

G - Evgeni Chekhov - (S32 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Sasha Stepanov - (S32 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Christian Thorstrom - (S32 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - Marcus Figgarowta-Nahimal - (S32 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Riley Stevens - (S33 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Shadhu Rathod - (S33 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Mikhail Mikhailovich - (S33 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Justt McCauley - (S33 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Davey Jones - (S34 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Simon Tremblay - (S34 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Boone Cassidy - (S34 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Lauris Prikulis - (S34 VHL Entry Draft)

G - Connor Elliot - (S34 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Frédérik Ernst - (S35 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Guy Lukovski - (S35 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Mikko Leskonen - (S35 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - Nicolas Stormborn - (S35 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Josef Andersson - (S35 VHL Entry Draft)

RW - Franz Monster - (S36 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Stelio Kontos - (S36 VHL Entry Draft)

G - Jimmity Kricket - (S36 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Molson Keith - (S36 VHL Entry Draft)

G - Blaine Olynick - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Lars Strummer - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Mikael Svensson - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

D - Ron World Peace - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Kai Randal - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

C - Kez Kincaid - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Rick Ross - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Kristian Stormborn - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

LW - Maxwell Dorian - (S37 VHL Entry Draft)

 

It's amazing that through all my years of drafting, scouting and managing a team I have only drafted one goaltender that has amassed the century mark in wins. Evgeni Chekhov quickly erased my memory of David Poulin and put Cologne on the map early on. Cologne got its fair share of steals in Reggie Dunlop (2nd round), Marcus Figgarowta-Nahimal (4th round) and Zach Cuff (3rd round). I had a hand in some of the recent draftees with Cologne but can't totally be credited with the selections. The emergence of Radislav Mjers and Abraham Sander made the Express locker room livable right off the bat.

 

Through my entire career in the Victory Hockey League I was blessed to draft, scout and meet some great members who tagged with me. Successful tenures in various locations made me have very positive memories of such eras. When you think deep down you can see that many of these members went on to great things or are still achieving new heights today. Slobodzian, Noah, Zimmers, Meg, InstantRockstar, Stolzy and many others all shared time in organizations I was apart of that goes as part of my history here. Through all the busts, franchise players and overall enjoyment of drafting I can honestly say I had tons of fun doing it all.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Kendrick

[Molholt 2,185]

This was an interesting article/idea. Good history here.

[Guest Svoboda_3]

Content: 3/3

1,554 words. Are we sure Waldo Cezar was Fernando? I always thought that pedo just went under Fernando. Anyways, enough of that child porn master, this Media Spot was so good. I loved the topic and how sentimental you went near the end. I liked that you shared some of the credit and not just glorify all of your transactions. I remember when I created the Wranglers, from the start, I got to thinking, "what is this Kendrick guy doing calling the Seattle franchise the Everblades when there clearly aren't alligators in Seattle?"

Grammar: 2/2

Way better than last week. Great job.

 

best of all some = best of all, some

Dustan = Dust'n

( S10 = (S10

season = Season

LaJuenesse = Lajeunesse

development allowed = development and it allowed

Thunderkowski = Thundakowski

apart = a part

Appearance: 1/1

Looked good; center alignment, color, logos etc.

Overall: 6/6

[Smarch 3,196]

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