Expansion is Here; a Player's perspective

[Fire_In_Babylon 35]

Expansion is Upon Us - By Chad Gilbert*

First of all, if you’re not familiar with whom I am, my name is Chad Gilbert. I’m a rookie Center for the San Diego Marlins! My agent said it would be a good idea to kind of branch out and explore some options outside of playing to help make me more well-rounded and get some much needed league attention. He also said, quite a few times, to not mention my face-off ability. So I won’t mention that I lead the league in face off win percentage at all because it’s not important to mention that I lead the league in face off win percentage….so I won’t (but I do). Ok.

 
(Me about to win a face off, which has nothing to do with this opinion piece)

About how does this apply to me? What am I doing? Well, the league recently announced that it would be expanded by two team! Wow, that brings it up to two more than it has! From a league perspective, that means more revenue and more big market money. But what does it mean from a player perspective? Well, that’s what I’m here to tell you! Take a ride through my brain!!!

Can you imagine? The first thing you have to imagine when you talk about expansion is the distribution of talent. Is the sport going to get diluted? Well, I certainly hope so. Anything to make my job easier, right? Say I face off against some 32 year old rookie who’s been trying to make the league since Jesus drew breath? Fine by me! I can ice old dude all day. Makes me look better and helps out my paycheck, which brings me to my next point:

I don’t want to say it cause I might get sued

Enough! You know what I’m thinking! Ethan Hunt baby! With that guy from Snow Dogs, or Eight Below? No wait that was the sad one. Why do movies kill dogs, by the way? Who wants to see that? I mean, I pay money to be entertained, not cry my eyes out! What the hell Disney? Here’s a cute movie about some puppies and the family that loves them, then POW, dead dog. What th…oh shit, sorry. What was I talking about?

LOOK AT IT’S FACE!)

Oh ya! So, money. With two new teams the League ups the cap, for the lovely entrance fee teams have to pay. More cap, more money. More money more…uh, contract…for us. Me, in particular. I need a new TV after I through my controller through it when some 9 year old whooped my butt in Fortnite and said some horrible things about my mom. MY MOM IS DEAD. He didn’t believe me.

Fortnite troubles aside, the bonus cap space will be a real boon for the players and the GM, with more room to maneuver and take some chances on players they may overlook in the past, like me, who can’t seem to score worth a damn but is really good at face offs. But I’m not here to talk about  that, right?

 

 

 

Following up on an earlier point, yes the talent pool will be watered down, but that’s only in theory. How many amazing players were taken late in the draft or worse yet, went undrafted! This totally ties into my point about money!

Killer fans!  That’s right! We have fans all over the world and what better way to bring the glorious game of hockey to more and more people than to bring it to their home turf! More fans in the seats the more opportunity to expand the brand! VHL, VHLM, the teams, the players. It's great for everyone! 

In fact, you have new teams, you need new stadiums, new jobs, new merchandise, new ticket and food sales. Holy crap…that’s a lot of money. Really that's great for the community too. It will bring in more job and more income to these cities. I know it's hard to believe but players do care about more than just wins and stats. We want to see our communities do better. So many players go out of their way to kick off charity events and community events. I was a poor kid living in East Hartford and my local AHL team meant the world to me I hope one day to be a guy who can also give back, and I hope players on all these teams, new and old, feel the same.  It's not just the jobs these teams will bring but so much more! It's very exciting. 

No - like I said, it's not all about money. But you know what? We should be making way more money I think….But but, I distress, disdress? Derobe? No…wait…spell check…digress! I digress, and I need to wrap  this up. Holy shit 650 words? I only needed 500. Ok let me wrap this up. New teams and what it means for players. This is the thesis of my opinion thing. It means more opportunities for underappreciated players. It means our contracts have better value. It mean our skills get to be seen by more people, and it means more fun overall for everyone. I can’t wait. But that’s just my humble opinion

Good night!

 

Chad Gilbert.

 

 

 

(note to reviewers, this is written "by" Chad Gilbert, All typo's, grammar, and spelling errors are intentional)

Edited August 13, 2019 by Fire_In_Babylon
unintentional grammar

[omgitshim 902]

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