Late Season Additions Preparing Reapers For Deep Playoff Push

[FakeJenton 24]

The Philadelphia Reapers put the rest of the VHLM on notice when they aggressively entered the trading pool towards the end of this season. At the time there were debates on whether or not making those moves would pan out for the Reapers, however after seeing them lock up the top spot ending the season with a six game winning streak, it is hard to find any fault with the actions of the front office as they approached the trade deadline. 

 

Let us recap the trades in question before we move on, for those who may not know. The first late season trade the Reapers pulled off was to send Rhys Chism over to San Diego, in return they recieved a S67 SDM 2nd round pick, S67 OTT 4th round pick, and center Scotty BigShotty. This could have been seen as the Reapers dishing off one of their top guys doing their best to develop some depth in the upcoming season, which would have been right, but the Reapers weren't finished there. Soon after their trade with San Diego, they engaged in three trades with Minnesota in quik succession. As we all know, Minnesota had just recently brought in some new leadership and it was expected that they were going to shake things up a bit, but nobody could have foreseen what was about to happen. The first trade between the two organizations was for Minnesota's top defenseman, Boone Jenton, which the Reapers had to part with S67 2nd round pick which originally belonged to Minnesota, as well as players Michael McConway and Tony Mac. This trade alone created quite the rumble around the league, as it became quite clear that the Reapers planned on making a late run in the upcoming playoffs and they were going to do whatever it would take to make it happen. But yet again, the Reapers weren't finished, they quickly also secured Minnesota's top offensive player Mat Tocco as well, while giving up their S67 2nd round pick as well as player Logan Swallow. At this point it was clear that the Reapers weren't messing around, and to put the final nail in that coffin they also acquired Tocco's long time friend and teammate Andrew Hawk while sending Peter Schilling to Minnesota. 

 

While it was clear that the Reapers had added an amazing amount of talent to their already deep roster, the league was waiting to see if the gamble would pay off. Well fortunately for Philly, they didn't need to wait long as the recently added player almost immediately made their presence known. In the short time the players were on the team they had already 53 points between the four of them. Mat Tocco (7 goals, 6 assists), Scotty Bigshotty (3 goals, 4 assists), Boone Jenton (2 goals, 31 assists as well as 26 shots blocked), and Anthony Hawk who had no points but added much depth and talent to the team. It is clear that the Reapers had made the right choice. 

 

During the time after these late-addition players were added to the team, the Philadelphia Reapers rose to the top of the standings and secured the number one seed going in to the playoffs. And ironically enough, the first team they will be playing, the team that gave all the new found talent to the Reapers, is the Minnesota Storm. It will be very interesting to see how this series plays out, but it is hard to see the Reapers not coming out of this one. We expect the Reapers won't see much of a challenge until the finals but it has become very hard to bet against them no matter who they face coming up. However, we know anything can happen come playoff time. We will be very excited to see where the Reapers end up

[BladeMaiden 1,807]

@FakeJenton it’s always fun to see how things look from the other side of the looking glass. Incredibly fun read and I cannot say enough about all you new guys, you are all amazing additions to the team and we would not be where we are without you guys!