A Fairly Expansion-y Member's Experience with Teams of the Sort

[Gustav 6,407]

I've already claimed a media spot for this week, but let's hear it for EXPANSION TEAMS (pinging @Renomitsu and saying the word "defense" so we can reeeeeeeeee together)! The recent news that the league was expanding made me think two things--first, that I should congratulate Eno and d_a on their new roles (which I have, and will do again here, though I'd be willing to bet that they've been pinged enough lately), and second, that I'd lost the claim that, for my entire time on this site, I've only been affiliated with the most expansion-y of expansion teams. Before I kicked off the #fixthelottery campaign (will things ever change? I'm sorry, I know I need to cut back on the parenthetical remarks), I'd made my role "Expansion Team Guy," for that very reason, and took great pride in the fact that I'd never had anything to do with a team that wasn't the newest in its respective league. After hearing unconfirmed rumors that the VHL was expanding, I held out a bit of hope that I would be taking over a team in question, but (fortunately) kept myself grounded in the reality that that may not be the case. And, now that it's not, my streak has ended, and I'm here to tell you all about my wonderful time with teams of expansion status...

 

 

Team 1: Houston Bulls

The Bulls became my first-ever team back in S65 when I joined the league a day or two or three (or something like that) before the VHLM Dispersal Draft. I got on, asked not very many questions, and claimed welfare and practice facility, while also completing a press conference, to bring my grand TPE total to 38 by draft day. All in all, not the most encouraging to most teams, but at the very least I achieved "OK" status, or "at least he did something recently." The lack of standout production here likely led to Halifax, the one team that I knew through messages with management to be interested in picking me up, to try to let me go a bit farther down the board, a strategy that didn't work out wonderfully for them when I was picked up by the Bulls at 36th overall. I wished @Thranduil, who gave me the news, all the best, and assumed I was done with Halifax. How wrong I was...

 

For a day or two after joining, I was pretty lost--I knew I was playing for an expansion team, I'd looked at a few of the resources in the Bulls forum group, and I thought any sort of work for just a couple TPE was too much to be worth my time...until one night, when I was up around 1:00 in the morning working through a nasty bit of work of the school assignment variety, and I decided to take a little time to do anything but work, and found myself opening up Discord for the first time to jump into the Bulls locker room.

 

It was there that things really fell into place--I found the guide to earning TPE, and had conversations with a few people--I remember receiving my first of many unsolicited compliments from @GlowyGoat, and I thought @Sonnet was OK as well. It was also there that I decided to go the defensive defenseman route--@Radcow (come back Rad) decided that he'd build an offensive guy, and I wanted a build to complement it. I also decided to start writing my usual ridiculous VHL.com articles there, many about Halifax at the discretion (and encouragement) of Sonnet.

 

The locker room in Houston was wonderful, and I'd say, though I never had the information at hand to properly determine, that it deserved to be in the running for "league's best locker room," as far as that season was concerned. I made quite a few friends there (you know who you are), and I still like to check on the guys I spent what seemed like every night hanging out with, the group that convinced me that this was a magical place.

 

 

Team 2: Mississauga Hounds

I was named Hounds GM back when I was in no locker room other than the Bulls' (I think? Not sure which came first, Mississauga or Malmo). I saw a hiring thread for three VHLM GM openings, and jumped at the chance, being the first to apply to any position. Within a couple days, I'd received a PM with a few interview questions, which I know I wrote a lot for and which I'm pretty sure I didn't answer incredibly well--but nonetheless, I was happy to learn that I'd been named GM of the Hounds, and more than a little surprised. There was quite a bit of luck there, too, as Thran got the Halifax job and @oilmandan was named GM of Las Vegas, both of whom, I believe, would have and should have gotten the last expansion job at the time had they still been in the running. 

 

I won't say I was in it to win it all last season, as I was dead set on not aggressively buying and wrecking the team's future in my first season. With that being said, though, I was at the very least in it to not suck, as I felt that being the new guy of the group might raise questions about my competency if indeed said sucking were to happen. I was lucky enough to steal my former teammate (and future league MVP!) Callum MacElroy from Houston in expansion, and I used a couple picks I got in the rest of the expansion draft to strike a deal with Ottawa and move up to #3 overall (a spot which I actually thought was #2 overall when I was making the deal, but ultimately it didn't matter). There, I was able to pick up goaltender Rayz Funk (@Rayzor_7), leader of the S67 draft class in TPE and current Minnesota Storm GM.

 

The draft class as a whole was wonderful--we actually picked up two Funks, with the selection of steal-of-the-season Scott Greene (@DoktorFunk) coming in the 6th round, with great value and activity at many positions--Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) at the end of the second round, two-way sniper Cody Smith (@cody73) at the end of the third, and defensive forward Dan Gles (@No_Dangles) coming in the 4th. In fact, my first three draft choices became, by this season, either AGMs or GMs, with my best free agent signing, @berocka, becoming my own AGM this season.

 

The locker room was once again absolutely wonderful--maybe it's just something about expansion teams that does it. I'd even call it better than Houston's the season before (sorry Sonnet), especially after @Banackock drunkenly (and mistakenly) wandered into the group one night, making one occasional "ya" lead to another and leading to just about the entire team being drafted to Seattle this season. I could not have asked for a better group, and seeing their continued success just makes me happier.

 

 

Team 3: Malmo Nighthawks

My first indication that I might be heading to Malmo came before the VHL draft, when @Advantage sent out the customary "hey, how would you feel about playing for me?" message. While I quickly learned that he scouts every eligible player, and that this meant nothing, I got a bit of a better idea when I took the liberty of messaging him prior to the VHLM Expansion Draft. You see, goaltender Owen May, who was also left unprotected by Houston, was at the time under 200 TPE, and, to the best of my knowledge, planning on staying down (I was wrong; he went up). Quite a few mock drafts had May going to Malmo--after all, he was a solid prospect, and the top goalie of the draft class. So, I inquired about whether or not, if May were selected by Malmo, he would be called up. I got the answer that I needed (and to that I'll say that ADV is very respectful of the wishes of others), but with that was also told that Garcia, not May, was near the top of the Malmo draft board. All this came true when I was FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY by Davos (just kidding, Paddywagon was a solid pick too) and Garcia became available at #7 for the Nighthawks.

 

The locker room was a bit different, I'd say--everyone had been through the VHLM, so the team was lacking a sort of "let's figure this out together" mindset that's widely seen among first-gen players in the VHLM. We were, and are, active, though--the team gets along wonderfully and there's no place I'd rather be in the VHL. I can't speak for Advantage's management strategy, but he certainly filled me in on a lot, as well as giving me a good deal of help with the beginnings of VHLM management, for which I am ever grateful. 

 

Easily the best part of playing for a VHL expansion team, though, is the fact that I was getting all the ice time I could right out of the gate, and as I improve, this continues to be the case. No getting buried behind 800-TPE linemates for a few seasons, no riding the bench on the power play and penalty kill, and definitely no shortage of opportunities to play defense (OK, this means the team wasn't great, but it absolutely gives a defensive player a good chance to show off). 

 

 

All in all, yeah, that does it. I hope anyone placed on either of the league's new expansion teams has an experience comparable to the above, because, let me tell you, I don't regret having been Expansion Team Guy for a second.

 

 

1,607 words; maybe I'll claim it for the next two weeks, maybe I won't. Might write something huge next week so as to jump back into school with a lot banked and ready to go. For now, though--claiming for the all-powerful THEME WEEK.

[diamond_ace 3,112]

Yeah I may have had 24 pings when I woke up...

[Matt_O 897]

At first I was selected and was sad, but after one day I knew it was going to be awesome in Malmo. We got the best LR in the league for sure. Also @GustavMattias you need to write about Houstons S65 draft. It was insanely good

[DoktorFunk 810]

#Hounds4Lyfe #HireGustav