Prague welcomes it's new players [1/2]

[Seabass 593]

Prague Welcomes It's New Players

 

 

Last season the Prague Phantoms and the D.C. Dragons were introduced to the VHL. Fans of both cities were beyond excited to see some VHL Hockey in person.  However both of their inaugural seasons ended with both teams sharing the bottom two positions in the standings. Fans in Prague were both disapointed and forgiving considering it's an expansion team's inaugural season and expectations were low from the start. This season however, fans are expecting to see an improvement over the last season. @diamond_ace had to make some moves in order to rectify some deficiencies in his team. Today, I'll be talking about the Prague Phantom's offseason acquisitions. I'll be giving a short history on each player and make comments/give insight on where these new faces will fit in on the roster. 

 

Ace first tried adding to his team through free agency but came out empty handed, it didn't look good at first. Then finally his first move of the offseason happened.

 

Owen May

 

The Phantoms made their first move by acquiring veteran goaltender Owen May from the Moscow Menace in return for their 3rd round pick and goaltender Kolur Bjoernsson. Solid move considering the 3rd round pick is the most valuable thing their giving up with Bjoernsson only appearing in 12 games for the Phantoms last year in a backup role. Owen May is expected the be the team's new starting goaltender after Bruce Grimaldi's rookie season ended with a sub .900 save percentage (.894) and a GAA of 3.87. May is naturally a better fit because of his VHL experience having played over 120 games in the VHL for a previous expansion team in the Moscow Menace.  Not only does he have experience but he has experience playing for a relatively new team, so we can expect May to be a calming presence in net for the team and a mentor to the young up and coming goalies in the Phantom's system, Grimaldi and Crawford.  

 

Cinnamon Block

 

@omgitshim

The Phantoms had some luck on their side as it was announced at the S69 Draft Lottery that Prague had won the lottery and would be selecting 1st overall in the S69 VHL Draft. Rumours immediately began swirling around that the Phantoms would be trying to trade the 1st overall pick in order to get more competitive quicker. At first rumour had it that Ace was looking to acquire a star goaltender, but that was quickly put to rest when Ace pulled the trigger on the Owen May trade but that never seemed to have stopped the rumours from flying. Draft day came and the team decided to make history and use their pick to select Los Vegas star defensewoman, Cinnamon Block. Block plays a hard hitting styled of game, as she racked up 216 hits last season for the Los Vegas Aces. Block seems to have every base covered and doesn't really have any flaws to her game.  She was 5th in league scoring by a defense(wo)man with 87 pts , 4th in the league in total assists (76),  3rd in the league in plus/minus (82) and 6th in the league in total hits, she was a superstar in the VHL and was making a league filled with men look like a bunch of kids and it's no wonder the Phantoms decided to reach for her and select her with the 1st overall selection. We can expect Block to one day turn into an elite defensewoman in the VHL but for now we can expect Block to make the Phantoms out of training camp this year and anchor down a role on the team's 2nd pairing and with good play we might even see her play on the top pairing with another highly touted defenseman, Wolf Stansson Jr.

 

Jacob Perry

 

@Liberty_Cabbage

We can expect the team to have another rookie on the backend as Jacob Perry has had a pretty solid VHLM season last year in his own right as he ended the year with over a point per game with 73 pts. Unlike Block, who gets most of her offensive from solid passing and more of a possesion style of hockey in the offensive zone, Perry tends to want to pinch in and shoot the puck a lot more. Perry's biggest asset is his lazer of a shot as he ended his last VHLM season with 34 goals and tied defenseman Will Clarke with the league lead of 21 Powerplay goals.  Perry still needs some work on his skating however if he wants to make an impact at the next level of hockey but we still project him to make the team out of camp and play on the team's third pairing with a good chunk of time on the powerplay. We expect Perry to continue progressing in the coming years and hopefully he and Wolf Stansson Jr. can develop some chemistry on the Powerplay as I think both these player's games would compliment each other pretty well on the powerplay. 

 

Mark Gebauer

 

Ace surprised the team with yet another trade as the Moscow Menace traded veteran centerman Mark Gebauer and defenseman Pierre Persson, but this time the Menace paid the Phamtoms to take on those two contracts as they send Prague a 3rd rounder on top of the two players in exchange for Prague's 4th round pick. Surprising as Gebauer still has some value in the VHL. He may at the tail end of his VHL career but still has enough skill to compete and has the experience to complement the skill. Gerbauer has played 5 full seasons and over 300 games in the VHL. He was under utilized in Moscow last year and he's eager to come over and mentor the younguns in Prague and hopefully turn another expansion team into a successful team. Lookout for a bounceback season from him

as he's probably going to be used more by the Phantoms than the Menace did in his last season there but I wouldn't expect him to hit 90pts like he did in his prime. 

 

Pierre Persson

 

Persson was declared a bust early by the Menace after playing only one season for the team. In his rookie season Persson didn't exactly impress the team with his offense only managing 13 points in his 72 games played but he didn't really get much ice time either.  He only managed 6 hits for the year so you know he brings absolutely no physical play, and I dont really see any area of his game that absolutely impresses me. If it doesn't work out in Prague I don't think Persson will have any more options in the VHL for him and honestly i'm not even convinced Persson will be able to make the team out of training camp with all the young solid defensemen joining the team this season. 

 

The team is almost guaranteed to improve this year as all the young rookies from last season are coming in this year with a better expectation on what's needed in order to compete in the VHL. More than 50% of the team featured rookie players last season, this year we only expect Block and Perry to make their rookie debuts which is only 10% of the team. The team also has the veteran presence of Laughton, Draper and now Gebauer and May to help mold this team into a winner. Fans have faith that the team is headed in the right direction after this offseason's moves, but now the pressure is on as fans now are hoping the team can now make the playoffs. Critics have them currently short of making the playoffs so we'll have the keep an eye on this years Phantoms!

 

WORD COUNTER : 1287

Edited November 17, 2019 by Sebster03

[Banackock 8,160]

Quick read for me here @Sebster03 . Good stuff  

 

Prague is playing strong so far this season  

[fonziGG 1,071]

Review:

Huge post to read, I love it. So I thought your formatting was great. It was easy on the eyes to see the players names bolded and in a larger size. Each summary of each player was written with a great description and I'm now excited to see how Prague will fair this season! Great job!

[Seabass 593]

claiming 2nd half of this PT