Campbell's Corner #2

[Banackock 7,658]

 

Edition #2: Off-season Recap, Then and Now

 

Well, with that poor excuse for an introduction, I suppose it's officially time to start giving you the goods. The season officially rung its bells to commence the start of Season 69 on Thursday, November the 14th and the ripe old time of "Whenever is good for @Devise". We dig, we dig. As always, we appreciate the solid work that our simmers do in this league unless it's @Beketov bumping up his shooting % again. Again, I kid. The sim was at a good time to get people hyped for the season. Seeing as this is the second edition and we're coming to you quickly after the all-glorious intro, we feel it's best to do a little recap, get every all schooled up on what's hot and what's not this season, what's going on and where we're currently at in the season. For me, only a few days have gone by in the season but we're already expecting to see a few things. I'd imagine a few things that stand out to people and definitely, a few things currently stand out to me. I'd say there's a few big surprises mixed in with the way we always knew things were going to go. A few questions that we had kicking around in our heads heading into and out of the off-season were likely as follows. Does Malmo replace Thompson with Davis? Does Moscow actually mean busy or are they big softies still on the inside? Is there where we start to see the fall from grace for our beloved Devise/Toronto and Hedge/Riga? (didn't that start last season?). Excellent questions to get the brain stirring and likely the lips flapping. All things we encourage here, folks. Let me stir and let em flap because, with that, we're off to the races. Vroom, vroom. 

 

VHL Off-Season Statistics

FA's Signed: 18

FA's Total $: $63,000,000 

Trades Made: 20

Times Dil has been Muted: 8

 

This portion was mostly for fun. We all had a good idea that heading into this off-season, lots of things were going to be taking place. Not a great amount of talks were even being had at one point due to almost every GM wanting to see how free agency played out. This season, over 60 million VHL bucks came into the hands of the players, as we find ways of stealing from the rich and giving to us hockey players to find hot hockey wives. Seeing as that is 60 million for only this season and that its average's above 3M per player, they're doing pretty good. Also, the fact that @DilIsPickle been muted at an increasing rate lately. One can't help but begin to think eventually the secret shadow people will come for him, as they do for all of those who like to have a little fun causing trouble. Once the shadow people have you, game over.

 

Free Agency 

For me, Free Agency was the thing Seattle was most focused on. Not only because there were huge players available that could potentially have interest in coming and making our team better, but also because of all those great players who also had the potential to go elsewhere, making lives tougher for those here in Seattle. Heading into Free Agency, I had a few questions. What's Seattle going to do? What's Malmo going to do? And who is going to become that #3 team? For me, there's always 2 who you might take a guess on but there's always that one to get you thinking too. Now, further into it, there were 3 top situations that were on my radar.

 

The first being what does Dan Willinsky do? He was voted the "Most Wanted FA" of this off-season by the members and for very good reasons. His player towers the others in TPE, he's a solid guy and any time you're adding a quality winger and player like him to your roster, you'd find it very. very difficult for yourselves to fuck it up. He's just that good. Now, Willinsky ended up having his rights traded to Seattle. Talks began, a deal was struck and it took until slightly after the FA day began that he was throwing on a Bears jersey. For me, this signing is huge for Seattle. The calibre of player that added to a team that's already extremely young and skilled is only likely to make it boom or bust. You know how STHS works. @oilmandan

 

The second thing I had my eyes on was where is Jake Davis going to go? Now, I figured Seattle had a chance. He'd been a member of Seattle before and we were fresh off a cup run. What's not more to love than history and success? He knew he'd be coming to a great team and locker room etc. However, this is not how things went. This is also not how I thought things would go. I and the locker room always had some form of a gut feeling that Davis' had intentions to fully test and that other teams were just as good of a possibility. In fact, we assumed Malmo would be the place he'd go to. They were arguably the team that should have won. They were a great team. They just lost Thompson. What an excellent replacement Davis' is. This is exactly why Seattle dealt for Willinsky's rights and not Davis'. Adding Davis to the Malmo roster, alongside the other acquisitions they made during the off-season, makes them a true contender once again. Davis' has been a great player throughout his career and we expect this trend to continue during his time in Malmo. @Josh

 

And thirdly, while not the last big piece moving in free agency by a long shot with numerous other big talents on the market, but how could they be bigger than the duo known as Eagles and Flyers? Where do they decide to head together? Smitty and Gritty were this off-season hot package deal coming to GM's straight from the toaster oven. Seattle was in the running here too. They were looking for ways to move cap, found ways to do so but struggled to find anyone willing to either take the plunge or pay the price. At the end of the day, that 3rd team came into play and they did so ever swiftly. Moscow took both players on after finding a way to trade out some massive shit contracts, players and yeah. Moscow was saved. They had me tricked. You looked at their roster last season and heading into this one and without any form of Free Agency luck/movement etc, damn - they'd be dead. I'd really be feeling sorry for them. Fortunately, they played their cards right, said the right things and ended up doing the right thing. @eaglesfan036 @flyersfan1453 

 

The rest of Free Agency was obviously spicy as well. Orion Slade was a considerable piece on the market and I always felt that if we didn't get him he'd end of finding his way to Toronto or maybe even somehow, magically, Vancouver? Would they have had the cap? Likely not? Could Beaviss of put him under his back-up reduction considering Beav doesn't have a full-time, 8 game backup? These are important questions to bring up at the next council meeting. You also had Paddywagon, but after quick talks, you kind of figured he'd be heading back to Davos to eventually be traded. I literally called it to him during our discussions and watched it all play out in front of me like a rom-com gone right. Then you got Rodriguez to Malmo. The Seattle LR was calling that move long before it happened. Lastly, all the players who were yet to be drafted that Davos made an offer to. Yeah, we'll just leave that at that. @Jtv123 @BluObieZ @DMaximus 

 

Draft

I'm going to be 100% honest with you here and I know a lot of GM's are going to know what I'm talking about. When you don't have many picks, or in Seattle's case any at all, you don't pay a massive amount of attention to the drafts. However, thanks to @rjfryman's amazing scouting lists and whatnot, it makes it and all the players eligible a lot easier to find and scout. Huge thanks to him because I know for sure as a GM, I do rely on those lists quite a bit and it does make our jobs 100x easier. Making those damn scouting lists and all the work it took many seasons ago were absolutely gruelling but you definitely had to make sure you did your homework. Especially if you didn't want to take 3 hours every single time it was your turn to pick. Being available, ready and on time looks good on you but it also shows respect to your fellow managers. 

 

Now, Louth obviously goes to Vancouver. Easy. Check. 1 pt on the board. Where do the rest fall? Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend a great deal of the draft. I popped in a few times to see how the GM's were doing, what was going on and just to see where everyone was going. It's always an exciting time. I was sitting at work having a long ass day that seemed to never end and didn't until 0030 the next day. Thankfully, no picks for Seattle this season (despite the nice looking talent). For me, it's tough. Which player would I go with 1st overall? Strictly based on player and not my role with Seattle, you'd be looking at Graves, Jensen or Cinnamon Block. Those are the 3 obvious choices.

 

So, why did Prague go with Cinnamon Block? I'm likely wrong on this. I know shit regarding the situation and promise you next time I won't go off hopes and dreams with the information. But something tells me it's personal. You know what you're getting the player. It's a great player. It's a great member of @omgitshimand you know what kind of consistency they're going to bring. On top of that, just to compare it to Velevra or any other great member, you could also argue that you may be getting "more" in terms of activity. However, it could have went either way. Now, if I was selecting a player for the Seattle Bears, It'd be a toss-up between Cinnamon and Graves. Hearts telling me Graves. Sweet names, cool member. Likely a great player we're about to watch take over the league. Heads saying "Hey dummy, a defender that has the potential to be great and elite - you're turning up those chances when they're that much more valuable?". 

 

The rest of the draft class looks stronger than I do believe most anticipated. Just looking at the list, I notice tons of members quite a way down the pickings that I either have interacted with on the forum or Discord or have at least noticed them and the good work they're contributing to the site. While some may not see it, a lot of lower picks that could be thrusts or busts - time will tell, to be determined kinda guys, were left on the table a little later. Guys like Higgins, Will, Fever, and a few others down low have the potential of performing just as well as those taken above them. I wish each member of this draft the best of luck and if you ever need a hand, feel free to reach out to me. CHEERS!

 

First Week of Sims

 

It's crazy how this league works. It really is. One second you're the Continental Cup champions and the next thing you know it's the off-season. You blink and all of a sudden the Free Agents scatter to different teams, trades start firing off and the draft has long passed. The pre-season was skipped because nobody likes a preseason except try hards (aren't we all try-hards at heart?) and we're now a week into the Season 69 regular season. After 20 seasons in the VHL, 25 seasons total longevity if we're counting the VHLM tenure connected to my Bears one, It still blows my mind to know how it all goes by so quickly. People think the off-season takes forever but it truly doesn't. For most GM's I'd imagine it feels quick. Especially if you're right out of the finals and heading into the official war-zone known to all GM's as the off-season. This season didn't disappoint. We seen crazy big deals, big pieces moving and big players signed. We watched a few teams take a step back, some find a way to keep pushing and others to break their limits and create new, much higher ones (Yes, I'm shouting out to big, bad Moscow). I remember a time during my early years of my tenure were at some points the off-season was dull. FA's all went back to the same teams or rare left (or there were few anyway) and the drafts had zero hype. Now? I can't remember an off-season that wasn't this much fun.

 

The season started November 14th and we are now officially a week into things here. 96 games have been played. 259 goals scored. We've seen a lot of wild things already during this season and I think we're starting to get an idea of how tough and competitive the league is becoming. It's like the evolution of the NHL game to me. Quite some time ago, we were living in the ‘80s and ‘90s of the NHL. Now, we're advancing and it's 2019. It's a whole new game. More depth, more talent. Hey, how about more teams? It's starting to even the playing fields all around and it looks like the VHL is finally starting to serve that smooth peanut butter instead of chunky shit. Starting this season off, there are quite a few things I've noticed and I'd like to touch upon.

 

First, Moscow. Once you see them fire off that Smitty and Gritty dealing and all the trades they had to do to move cap, let me guess. Your reaction was "oh shit. They found a way to do it. Oh damn. Oh shit. They're good. '' Something along those lines though, hey? You had Malmo who just took a trip to the finals. You have Seattle fresh off a cup win. You have Vancouver who everyone else forgot about but newsflash, they've always been good. They've never changed and this season they're dominating but all of a sudden, Moscow added their name into shit and they did so with an extremely loud, abrupt public announcement to the rest of the league that they're here and they mean crazy business. Also, I picked Jaguar in Fantasy so go me! @Victor 

 

Next, Hello?! Seattle? Are you there? Are you alive? Are you... hungover?  Yeah. Things aren't looking too bright for the Seattle Bears so far this season. 4-4-0 isn't a terrible record to start the season, but they're losing key games to big teams and teams where the points matter a little more. They haven't had extreme scoring from certain players in which they're starting to get a little impatient with and they're simply not seeing the results that they were confident a few days ago in getting. Their roster is crazy good. It's also crazy young and fairly cheap. They boast 4 D, 8 F and 2 goalies and their players are all pretty good in TPE. Kovalchuk, Burn, Frostbeard, Ylonen, Funkx2, Willinsky etc. Somehow though, the team hasn't been able to find any form of traction. Even after the W's, there hasn't been much of a time where they've felt things have gone great so far this season in Seattle.

 

Onto Prague.I don't know. We're not going to touch long here because I feel like it's a streak and it's going to end much sooner as opposed to later. I heard someone in the discord say that we shouldn't be surprised for Prague's success. Prior to saying anything, I don't take away from what D_A has done with the team. The good leadership and drafting and what not. The team will likely find success in the future but right now, while it looks like success and a small step forward for humankind in Prague, it's not. For me, it's simply down to luck. Prague's best player is Gebauer and he's sub 450 TPE/TPA. The rest of the team is essentially young, still developing or struggling to develop players. They're all 200-450 range and I mean, I don't need to be the one to say it. I don't think that team is going to survive against the top dogs of this league. However, the start is still cool to see for them. @diamond_ace

 

Now before we get to the bottom, let's touch on the majority of the middle teams. Malmo and Seattle exist among these teams. As do Toronto, New York, DC and Helsinki. Then you got the 3 on the top and the 3 on the bottom. For me, this group isn't as surprising as what maybe some could argue. New York is an up and coming team. They got some nice pieces and they should start pulling off W's. Toronto made some moves to stay competitive so I expect to see them around this point all season too. Helsinki may hover where they're at or drop a spot or two. DC will drop in my opinion. What Aaltonen is doing is really awesome. I've become a big fan of his watching his player grow into the dynamic offensive beast he is. But I don't think he'll be enough to keep the ball rolling this strong. Malmo has a tough rough ahead of them but arguably harder and easier at the same time compared to last season. I expect them to improve their record and climb slightly. Malmo will be fighting Moscow all season long, similar to Seattle likely battling Vancouver (who is beating Seattle's ass with a wooden spoon). ILLEGAL!  

 

Now, the bottom teams are and aren't surprising. Davos and Calgary your expect to see there. Davos flipped the switch again and is off into another rebuild. They have some solid pieces to do so and likely will bounce out of it fairly quickly. As for Calgary, similar, they're flopping the season in hopes of adding some serious arsenal in the upcoming draft. They still have numerous top talents on their roster too. Retool? Rebuild? I mean, it's hard not to look at retooling and skip all the shitty parts but in my opinion, rebuilding is the smartest and best way to get exactly what Calgary is looking for. You want explosive dominance. You want a dynasty. Well, you aren't going to get that holding onto 75 cents when you're shooting for the dollar. Riga is another surprise to me. They've done great for such a long time and I think slowly it's coming to an end. A few shitty retirements maybe and all that jazz too. They can bounce back. There's a great chance they do do that. The season is still young.

 

Closing Statement:

This article evolved into one crazy Pokemon monster but I had a lot of fun writing it. Taking a look at the league and really thinking and evaluating what I'm thinking has been an enjoyable experience thus far. I have tons more ideas that I want to bring to life, share with everyone and roll with but I figured as I nicely walk over the 3,000-word mark that I would say goodbye and end things off with what I got. As always, PM me feedback or comment. Ask any questions and make any suggestions. I'm just throwing out my own personal thoughts in these articles and sharing them similar to "Coaches Corner". 99% of things are meant to be light and to spread fun and love on the VHL. Keep up the awesome stuff, VHL! 

Executive President of the VSN 

Bana

Edited November 20, 2019 by Banackock

[ThePerfectNut 563]

Give us all of the moneyyyyy

[diamond_ace 3,106]

Yeah it's definitely a streak. Let's say 30 games from now, when we're in probably 5th in the conference, we had some random 6-4-2 run. No one would bat an eye. People are only noticing it now because it happens to be the beginning of the season. 

 

I will, however, let this ride for a bit longer, just to give the guys something to look forward to. We're going to nosedive a bit as soon as Crawford goes in (and once he's in, he stays in, as the active) but I think we stay ahead of Davos and end up maybe 10ish points back of the last playoff spot. 

[zepheter 585]

I guess when I look at the 1st pick that way then yeah it made sense to draft the defenseman first. Probably would've known the value of defensemen if I wasn't a noob. 

[Enorama 1,980]

2 hours ago, Banackock said:

Pokemon monster

 

Redundant phrase, a true fan would know that

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

i can totally see how Bana was tying to dump cap to all other gms.

 

heres my player, i need to dump him, do me a favor, give me a 1st round pick and take his salary so i can find free agents

"no"

well youre an idiot. this is a good player you have to pay the price.

'you're trying to make me do you a favor by taking a player and give you a 1st'

im the best, i never lose trades. its my offer or nothing

[gorlab 4,321]

What do you mean, YOU PEOPLE?!?!

[Banackock 7,658]

13 hours ago, TheLastOlympian07 said:

i can totally see how Bana was tying to dump cap to all other gms.

 

heres my player, i need to dump him, do me a favor, give me a 1st round pick and take his salary so i can find free agents

"no"

well youre an idiot. this is a good player you have to pay the price.

'you're trying to make me do you a favor by taking a player and give you a 1st'

im the best, i never lose trades. its my offer or nothing

This wasn’t much of the case considering we have something like 8 forwards and still have cap space. Did I want to trade Kovalchuk? Yes. Did I want to give him away for free? No? Why would I? It’s not like I NEEDED to trade him. I wanted to trade him. He’s a 650 TPE player after regression which is only 50 less than your player. If the league wasn’t so full and this was season 57, I’d have zero issues getting quite a bit for Kovalchuk. New league, new times. 

Why on earth would I give away a 650 TPE player away for free to improve another team just to sign an FA that had less TPA? Of course I’d need value back in that situation. 
 

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by Banackock

[Banackock 7,658]

10 hours ago, gorlab said:

What do you mean, YOU PEOPLE?!?!