Analyzing Adam Warlock's ridiculous 255-point season

[McWolf 3,115]

If you look at the Ethan Osborne Trophy (most points in the VHLM) list of winners, you can see how erratically inflated VHLM scoring can be, compared to the VHL. I'm not sure I can really explain why, but the fact that some teams probably don't even have any active players some years definitely helps pad stats for some future stars. If you look carefully at the winners, you'll notice three players passed the 250-point mark. The first two (Evgeni Fyodorov, 272 pts in S21 and Gunnar Axelson, 266 pts in S24) precede the portal, so they're harder to actually analyze. The last 250-point season came from an unlikely player, which makes it even more interesting: Adam Warlock led VHLM scoring in S58 with 255 points. As a defenseman. Yes.

 

Looking at S58 Index, I noticed straight away that scoring was way up in that season. It seemed to happened once every other season that players would surpass the 200-point mark back in the early days of the VHLM, but it hadn't happened since Tyrone Williams did it in S39. In S58, no less than 3 players (Warlock and teammates Kiaskov and Denning) did it. A total of 15 players scored 120 points or more. A season later, Noel Roux actually won the Ethan Osborne Trophy with exactly 120 points. So, what happened in S58 for so many players to go apeshit on goalies? And why did a defenseman pace them all?

 

For starters, back then, the VHLM only had 5 teams and recruitment was fairly bad, meaning these 5 teams weren't even full like the 11 teams we have now. That means that rebuilding teams could go as far as trade away all their active players and literally only suit low TPE inactives and bots for the whole season. When 2 or 3 of the league's 5 teams do it, it concentrates the talent on a couple of teams only, and it makes it so these talented squads are going to play the league's garbage teams around half of the time throughout the season.

 

It kind of all came together for Ottawa. They went all-in in S57 and traded for Brienne O'Tarth, Lavar Ball and Colton Rayne, the former two staying with the team for S58, along with most of their roster and . Las Vegas were fresh off back to back Founder's Cups, but still had a good roster, highlighted by future VHLers Veran Dragomir and Evan R Lawson, but lacked skilled defensive players. Their best defenseman was 64 TPE Brandon Hood. The other 3 teams were actual dumpster fires. Both Saskatoon and Yukon played the whole season with 30 TPE inactives as starting goaltenders. Saskatoon also finished the season without a single non-bot defenseman.

 

No need to say that all these matchups were very favourable for offensive powerhouses like Ottawa. But why was Adam Warlock the one to outscore everyone? Why not David Kiaskov, Lavar Ball or Matt Denning? The answer is actually fairly simple. By season end, Warlock was the team's leader in DF by a landslide with 73, meaning that he could take the puck away from the opponents with ease, but also that he'd be the first player to jump on loose pucks and easy rebounds. He was third on the team in both SK (71) and PH (70), behind Kiaskov and Ball in both, and he still had base 40 in PA. Finally, he led the team in SC with 81. All that put together pictures a player that forces turnover aggressively, and then probably tries to dangle his way to the other team's net instead of setting up a teammate with a pass. Once that was done, his high scoring ability ensured that he'd shoot in priority. A shoot that would most likely go through, as most goaltenders in the league were simply horrible.

 

I'm also going to go on and say that having the actual Batman as your blueline partner can only help. You probably play with a next-level amount of confidence when you know you got Batman covering your back. That's probably all that, to be honest.

Edited October 21, 2019 by McWolf

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

Definitly Batman. Couldnt have done it without his tech savvy passes.

 

Thanks for this article♡

[McWolf 3,115]

4 minutes ago, OrbitingDeath said:

Definitly Batman. Couldnt have done it without his tech savvy passes.

 

Thanks for this article♡

My pleasure, bud. I always found the 255-pt season intriguing, but never really looked into it. Thanks, theme week, for making it possible.

[Da Trifecta 1,899]

Woo, my player was mentioned!

[McWolf 3,115]

5 hours ago, Da Trifecta said:

Woo, my player was mentioned!

Which one is yours?