My Thoughts on Expansion

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

*Note - this originally was going to be my fan590, so some of the topics/flow may be more disjointed than usual.

 

My Thoughts on VHL Expansion

 

After originally expanding from 8 to 10 teams in circa S35, the league made the painful, but correct decision to contract back to 8 teams. Fast foward to the S60s, and the league has now expanded from 8 teams to 9 teams, to 10 teams, and now to 12 teams. How will this impact the league?

 

Expansion Draft - The Expansion Draft is always an interesting time in the VHL. @Victor wrote a very good article about how the expansion draft will most likely affect the rosters of the VHL teams as they're currently constructed. Given the rules have not been publicly announced yet, I won't go into too much detail about the advantages vs. disadvantages for the expansion teams compared to the previous two, but I think it'll be interesting to see the direction these two teams go versus how the most recent expansion teams did, specifically Moscow. I am very much generalizing and just going off memory, but Moscow seems to be going the Cologne Express route of "compete now and compete fast" while Malmo is going the slightly slower route of Quebec.

 

Impact on HC Davos - So, this will be Davos' 3rd expansion draft, and yet again, we're going to lose one of the better players/prospects available in this expansion draft. Sort of is what it is considering the draft rules were not made with the rosters of any one particular team in mind, but it kind of sucks, considering that player would either be a positive contributing member to the team or a trade asset. On the other hand, this will get us closer to what I believe the ideal roster size is. If the previous expansion and this expansion did not happen, Davos would be in better shape this current season, but I don't know if I'd say it would be enough to make us true contenders. Would we have made the playoffs? Sure, possibly, but I don't think we would have been in the upper echelon of the league.

 

Playoffs - So, what I'm actually the most excited about (so maybe I should have put this first?) is what we're finally going to be able to do with playoffs. I touched on this in my fan590, but with 6 teams in each conference now, I would still very much be in favor keeping the playoffs to 6 teams instead of expanding to 8 teams. 1st overall in each conference gets a bye, while 2nd plays 3rd. At the beginning, I would keep cross-over for a couple of seasons and would re-determine if it's necessary once all of the expansion teams start to even out with the rest of the teams in the re-build/re-tool/tear down cycle. Are there teams who might "deserve" to make the playoffs miss out? Depends. Did Davos and Seattle "deserve" to make the playoffs, 12 and 15 points out of the last playoff spot respectively (as of this article)? I would say no. Is it possible if they make the playoffs and upset the 1st seeded teams? Yes. But for a league that can sometimes have a problem not much happening during the regular season, I think having a TRUE playoff race for the last spot in each conference would add some more intrigue to the league. 

 

Roster sizes - Getting closer and closer to 6F/4D/1(or 2 if you include backup)G. As anyone who's read my previous thoughts on roster construction knows, I believe this is the ideal roster size for our league, and more importantly, for a competitive team. Everyone gets to play top 6/top 4 minutes and put up stats, 3rd line players don't waste away playing limited minutes, everyone wins.

[eaglesfan036 4,605]

Agree completely on playoffs and roster sizes

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

@Philliefan can you like this so we can cover all 4 sports? Thanks.

[Sixersfan594 247]

4 minutes ago, flyersfan1453 said:

@Philliefan can you like this so we can cover all 4 sports? Thanks.

If only you could like your own posts.

 

we now need: Soulfan, unionfan, kicksfan, and others