ecn ECN Special edition "Current Legends"

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Hello there and welcome ECN Special called Current Legends where we shall talk about 2 very important current players who will finish their career after this season. This is not a post were we will compare both players and their achievements, what we will do though, is provide a great insight into how they distinguished themselves and become two of the most respected and dominating players in the league today.

 

Of course we are talking about Podrick Cast and Matt Thompson.

 

Podrick Cast as a player have spent his career between two European teams. Riga Reign where he had one of the best seasons if not the best season in the history of VHL. S62, in only his second VHL season, Podrick Cast had a truly tremendous season where he absolutely dominated everyone and scored 79 goals and finished the season with 174 points. Even though he hasn’t been able to repeat that kind of performance at any point since S62, he has been consistently played above PPG. That truly spectacular season handed him 4 individual awards – Scotty Campbell Trophy, Kevin Brooks Trophy, Brett Slobodzian Trophy and Mike Szatkowski Trophy. S63 was the season when Podrick Cast and Riga Reign won Continental Cup, the prize everyone hopes to win in VHL. His regular season numbers clearly showed that he was the most important and valuable piece on Reign’s roster, but that changed significantly in playoffs. S63 playoffs had many talented players on each roster but no one could have expected that Podrick Cast would go under point per game and finish playoffs with a  Cup and +/- rating of -4. S64 gave Podrick Cast another chance to shine as he was able to win Scotty Campbell Trophy again. Biggest change is his career was the trade that happened between Riga Reign and Moscow Menace that sent him to Moscow together with his long time teammate Randoms. Even though without any personal awards since S64, he has been played amazing hockey and it does show why Podrick Cast has been in the conversation for Hall of Fame for quite some time. Question that will matter most will be surrounding this season as him finishing it on flying colours and winning an award or two would surely help his chances to be first ballot choice of HoF!

 

Matt Thompson’s career has been as interesting and fascinating as you could expect from one of the most consistent goalscorers of past 10 seasons. Though it is not the reason why Matt Thompson is so amazing and worth looking at. He has been one of the best Two-way forwards in VHL in modern era. His rookie season was a hard one to swallow considering he ended up with only 56 points in 72 games played. By looking at it, the good thing about situation like that is that you can only go up from that and it is exactly what happened with Matt Thompson’s career since then. S62 brought him two individual awards – Scott Boulet Trophy and Dustin Funk Trophy. Not only S62 allowed him to show off his skills on the defensive end of the ice, but it also gave him a chance to prove himself that he clearly did. S63, considering the dominance of Riga Reign was tough and even though Thompson had a great season it was just not good enough for any awards or a true chance at fighting in the playoffs. S64 was another big push for Matt Thompson when he finished his season with 110 points and won Brett Slobodzian Trophy, Kevin Brooks Trophy and Scott Boulet Trophy. With S65 not being as productive offensively, Matt Thompson needed to prove his defensive game again and that helped him with another Scott Boulet Trophy win. Probably the last Big year for Matt Thompson was in S66 when he helped Helsinki team with Continental Cup. In that season, he also was the leading goalscorer and the best two-way forward in the league. Again, in S68, his last season he will be in need to prove his position and justify his almost certain place in HoF. Another one of Scott Boulet’s or Kevin Brooks would surely push his career to the spotlight once again.

 

            All in all, we are clearly seeing two players who have dominated each time they got on the ice. One, a legend because of consistency and having one of the best single seasons in VHL and the other a legend because of him ability to rise up and be one of the best goalscorers of last 20 seasons.

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People mentioned: @Victor and @Beketov