S66's Gems and First-Gens: A Retrospective [1/2]

[Renomitsu 934]

Retrospective #1: Season 66's "Hidden Gems"

 

 

Scouting is a hell of a hard job in sports - sim leagues or otherwise. In real life, it's both an art and a science to determine what players have the intangibles needed to succeed at a professional level. It's similarly hard to determine what sim league agents will stay active, even among those who have a long, storied history of max-earning on a weekly basis. Sometimes a GM will get lucky and strike gold on a second, third, or heck, even a sixth round pick (yes, @ItsMcLovin, that's you. Nice work!).

 

For those of you who aren't aware, I like to write long articles. Back when I first created Apollo Hackett, I was coming off of a three-year-hiatus (a short stint with Saul Hackett in the S40s) and wanted to familiarize myself with the site and its new members. That involved a lot of tagging, particularly of @GustavMattias, and research into members that weren't well-known at the time - especially when it came to my Best First Gens article. It's worth noting that this, in addition to my Hidden Gems feature, were both written over six months ago in late March/early April. It featured exactly zero old heads that I could remember from my days with Saul or Hiro Renomitsu, my first player from before Season 20.

 

I've run a handful of numbers, and as it turns out, I did an okay job of plucking out some of the active members from one of the largest classes in the Victory Hockey League's history. Some of them panned out, while others... well, we'll get to them soon enough. Here's my retrospective on S66's Hidden Gems, with First Gens to come at a later time.

 

I mean seriously, just look at how chill this dude is.

 

#1) D Jerry Garcia @GustavMattias

Team – Houston Bulls → Malmo Nighthawks (S66-present)

Projection/Draft – Mid-Late 3^rd (23/88) → Pick 7

TPE – 144 → 819

Accolades – (S68)#2 in Jake Wylde Trophy voting, World Cup Champion (USA); (S67) #2 in Shots Blocked (163); (S65) World Cup Juniors Champion (USA)

 

Really, what kind of Season 66 article would this be if I didn't feature Jerry Garcia front and center? Early draft reports had the Nighthawks defenseman dropping into the mid-to-late third rounds based on raw talent and his representation's relative lack of history in the league. One league scout told me he'd be picked for value in the second round, as indicated in my article. But he certainly earned his spot in the first round as Malmo's first-ever franchise draftee and ascended into projected top-10 status even before the draft started.

 

Since being taken 7th overall, Garcia has emerged as an obvious leader for the Nighthawks - and in fact has been designated as their captain for this season. He's slowly come into his own as a playmaker, with a respectable 31 points in his first season to 60 points (10 G, 50 A) in his third while posting an excellent +39 on the season. But what earned him praise from scouts pre-draft was his nose for the puck when around his own net - he's regularly blocked about 150 shots per season, and helped lead his team to a championship appearance just three seasons into their existence. I think this one's easy: Garcia was definitely a gem.

 

 

#2) C Hans Gruber @TheFlash

Team – Saskatoon Wild → Vancouver (S66-68) → Helsinki/New York (S69) → Retired

Projection/Draft – Late 3rd, early 4th (29/88) → Pick 28

TPE – 125 → 513

Accolades – (S68) World Cup Bronze Medalist (Western Europe); (S67) Continental Cup Winner (Vancouver)

 

Well, up until Monday this week, Hans Gruber looked like a solid selection for the third round. To put this pick in context, most VHL teams had high-quality centers to work with in Season 66. Most centers - Vancouver's Hunter Hearst Helmsley aside - were, as a result, dropped in the draft precipitously night-of. That included centers that we now consider elite just over three seasons into their career, like Jet Jaguar (10th overall). As we see some of this generation's best centers headed for regression or even already retired, however, it was expected that a class of strong centers entering a center-heavy league would smoothly transition us from one generation to another.

 

Gruber's retirement makes this a bit of a harder sell for the class of S66. Aside from Helmsley, Jaguar, and the massively-surprising Jordan Tonn @MexicanCow (an emerging star in his own right), the S66 centers taken in the first few rounds simply haven't panned out. Helsinki's Bert Meyers and Ludvig Sederstrom were highly-touted prospects that failed to improve past their minor league levels of talent. In most other periods in the VHL, 513 TPE would be enough to make you a significant asset on any pro team. Among retired centers in the portal (which dates back to the S40s), Gruber among the top 30. He put up 45 points in Vancouver's championship season in spite of limited minutes, and did similarly in S68 before his progression stalled a little. Subsequent trades to Helsinki and New York led to a bit of reflection on Gruber's part; though I'd call a 500-TPE third-round pick a sure-fire gem in most situations, the fact that he's retired means he counts as a miss for me.

 

 

#3) G Clayton Park @leafssteen

Team – Yukon Rush → Seattle Bears (S66-67) → Riga Reign (S67-68) → Malmo Nighthawks (S69-present)

Projection/Draft – Early 4th (32/88) → Pick 27

TPE – 119 → 321

Accolades – (S65) World Junior Championship Selection (Team World)

 

When I made this list, I did so with the intention of selecting at least one player per position (F, D, G), and just-so-happened to include a winger and a center to break the forward position up. Unfortunately for me, Owen May, Clayton Park, Juan Jaundice, Kolur Bjoernsson, and every other goalie from S66's list are now inactive, and only two of them are even on rosters anymore. May last updated in August, while Park did so in mid-July. While these top two goalies taken each have reached >300 TPE in total, neither one has had the breakout career we'd expected from them.

 

Park had a starting role for Seattle upon first being drafted, starting 60 games for the Bears with a respectable rookie save percentage of 90.3%. But as he was a rookie and Seattle was incredibly young, he unfortunately faced nearly 2,100 shots in those 60 games and finished with a 19-30-9 record. The young Austrian then took a second-fiddle role with Riga, where he played in about 20 games per season and actually finished with positive records each time (7-5, 6-3) and a startlingly-good 92.4% save rate in Season 68 with the Reign. He's shown sparks of promise in two games with Malmo this season in replacement games (96.7% saves), but most front offices seem content to relegate him to a convenient pinch-goalie role. He might still have a spot in the league, but for me this is a miss.

 

 

#4) RW Mat Tocco @Matmenzinger

Team – Philadelphia Reapers → Moscow Menace (S66-current)

Projection/Draft – Early 6^th Round (43/88) → Pick 31

TPE – 98 → 624

Accolades – (S66) World Junior Championship Selection (Europe)

 

Rounding out our list is the Czech winger Mat Tocco, who we covered when he had double-digit TPE. He had been on the site for just over two weeks when we covered him as a potential hidden gem; while he experienced a bump in his draft stock between the time I wrote my article and now, he was still selected at the top of the fourth round. Everyone and their mother knew he was a project that needed just a little more time in the minors. More importantly, he was overshadowed by an ostensibly top-heavy wing class - with six occupying the top ten spots. He's since overcome the low expectations set by his draft position and is regarded as first-line-worthy by most of the league. The Menace are likely thanking their lucky stars that Tocco panned out, especially when some other forwards selected well above Mat - including their 5th-overall LW Dimitri Volosenkov - flamed out of the league shortly thereafter.

 

Other players aside, Tocco has proven a valuable asset for the Menace, who have a new need for top-line forward play after the retirement of Podrick Cast and the impending regression of Dan Bailie, Randoms, and Jorgon Weyed. They have a variety of superstars and fringe-All Star centers in Jet Jet Jaguar and Gritty, and Toco is the youngest (and one of the best) wingers they've got. Though his point totals were restricted somewhat by limited minutes in past seasons (S68 - 48 points, S67 - 23 points), he has 15 points in 18 games this season, and to this point has a >10% scoring rate on shots. Add onto that the best plus-minus of his career so far (+11, again through just 18 games), and he's got a brighter future than many first-through-third rounders of ANY draft.

 

Even though I thought he'd be a gem well before the draft, this level of growth is well beyond what anyone (except maybe @Victor) expected.

[ThePerfectNut 563]

Aleksander Rodriguez is not in it so it's invalid! My only accolade would of been a WJC champion with USA...but I carried Mexico to make it into the playoff in there first ever season and averaging over 1 PPG in the VHLM!

 

But if I'm being serious, I joined my class way after other people and was not even in the top 90, TPE wise, (I could found that leaderboard again) and I was completely new to this so I didn't knew anything about this so I could of easily quit like a lot of new people do. But, I stayed and ended up getting drafted 24th overall? You saw my potential back then And now Im like top 12 with the current active members from that class I believe. This kinda hurt my feelings from the work that I tried to do and catch up to the competition regardless of my late start

[hedgehog337 3,483]

16 minutes ago, Jtv123 said:

You saw my potential back then

 

as much as some bloke named @hedgehog337

 

and then he traded you for an inactive defenseman smfh

[Victor 10,937]

1 hour ago, Renomitsu said:

even a sixth round pick (yes, @ItsMcLovin, that's you. Nice work!).

The disrespect on @Kyle

[Renomitsu 934]

30 minutes ago, Victor said:

The disrespect on @Kyle

If I featured any more Moscow players in my writing people would start thinking there was Russian meddling, and we can't have that

 

Sorry @Kyle, had to sit you out of this one

[Renomitsu 934]

1 hour ago, Jtv123 said:

Aleksander Rodriguez is not in it so it's invalid! My only accolade would of been a WJC champion with USA...but I carried Mexico to make it into the playoff in there first ever season and averaging over 1 PPG in the VHLM!

 

But if I'm being serious, I joined my class way after other people and was not even in the top 90, TPE wise, (I could found that leaderboard again) and I was completely new to this so I didn't knew anything about this so I could of easily quit like a lot of new people do. But, I stayed and ended up getting drafted 24th overall? You saw my potential back then And now Im like top 12 with the current active members from that class I believe. This kinda hurt my feelings from the work that I tried to do and catch up to the competition regardless of my late start

This article was only on the players featured in my article from ~6mo ago and seeing how I did!

 

If I had time I could probably go back and point out gems I missed from prior classes.

[Peace 1,523]

Do this but for S63! 

[Renomitsu 934]

Claim for 1/5/2020 (2 of 4; claimed original post previously)

[chillzone 231]

Review: awesome article man. very in depth and eye opening! scouting is one of my favorite aspects of sim leagues, and it’s rare to get a chance to look back and re-evaluate the opinions / picks made in past seasons. love the focus on sleeper picks of the article, and tracking the players’ success and failures. awesome work @Renomitsu (would love to see articles like this in SBA too )

[Renomitsu 934]

Claim for 1/12/2020 (3 of 4)

 

Thanks for the review chill!  

Edited January 10, 2020 by Renomitsu

[bluesfan55 103]

i cri

s66 was v gud class

[Renomitsu 934]

Claim for 12/19/2020 (Claim 4 of 4)

 

Finally putting this article to rest.