How Expansion Generates Talent

[HenrikZoiderberg 469]

I come from an expansion team.

 

Granted, it was a VHLM expansion team and being my first year in the league I had no idea what I was doing. But it was an expansion team nonetheless, and it put me in a position to excel and prove myself in a league so overwhelmed with top-end talent so much that even when starved for TPE, I felt like I was making an impact. Today I hold two "Firsts" on @Nykonax's Mexico City Kings, both somewhat pentalty-minute related, but even those made me feel like there was something special about my player. Like I made a difference in something big and substantial.

 

In their first season in the VHLM, the Mexico City Kings went 24-25-0, good for 5th in the league with a single high-skilled player in Aleksander Rodriguez @Jtv123 to show us the way. They were soon joined by not only me, but now-league-mainstay and AGM of the Kings, Michael Gary Scott @Motzaburger, of whom I'm very proud to call a close friend. Michael was also new to the league, but soon found himself under the wing of veteran members who encouraged his strengths in graphic design. He's made an immense impact in a short time, and I can say without a doubt that both our successes have been the result of being nurtured and given the opportunity to succeed. 

 

Had I come into the league pre-expansion, even one season earlier, I'd have been courted by a mere nine teams, not the present eleven. This would have lead to reduced minutes, reduced opportunities, but also reduced focus. I may not have been as encouraged to grow and improve, and as a result, may not have been as engaged as I have been to date. Instead, I've had the opoprtunity to make friends, build relationships, and stand out in the VHLM, the WJC, and now the VHL. I've been drafted into what projects to be a superteam in a few seasons due to the hard work of @Banackock. None of this would have happened if I hadn't been given that opportunity to shine with the Kings.

 

There are concerns with the expansion, as there always are when these decisions come to pass. Dilusion of talent between more teams. Slippery slope arguments concerning continued expansions. Fantasy draft (which are a terrible idea btw @Quik - don't take away that which the GM's have put so much work into building). But at the heart of it all, you're giving new players the opportunity to succeed, and oportunity which may not have been there had they been buried in third-line minutes. As the recruitment team does their job, the number of members in the league is going to continue to grow, and we'd better be willing to give them the same opportunities that were given to us.

 

I owe my success to an expansion, and I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't extend the same possibility to new members. Let's give this a shot everyone.

 

500 words

TPE for week ending August 18, 2019

Part two of theme week