Unsung hero

[jRuutu 2,426]

 

Picked in the third round in season 62 draft - Paolo Nano! So far 478 games in VHL,  62 goals and 260 assists, not bad from a 19th overall pick. Nano had an interesting start to his career in VHL, S63 was his rookie year and he started the year in Riga, but in the middle of the season he was traded from Riga to Helsinki. Playing around 10 minutes per game on average in Riga changed to well over 25 minutes in Helsinki, so an excellent move for Nano. Unfortunately, Helsinki did not make it into playoffs in S63 and Riga won the cup, but Nano played 72 games and scored 32 points during his first season in VHL.

 

Next year Nano played full season in Helsinki, in a big role he collected 35 points. Helsinki finished third in the regular season and made all the way into the finals in playoffs, but Toronto was better and took the cup. Nano had 3 points in 11 playoff games.

 

Time of change, after s64 Nano moved to New York as a free agent where he played his best season so far, 60 points in 72 games! With the help from Nano, New York finished fifth in the league, only one point above Davos, but Helsinki kicked New York out of playoffs in the first round.

 

 

That was enough New York for Nano, after s65 he moved to Moscow as a free agent where he has played ever since. In Moscow is where the VHL world saw the best Paolo Nano, 64 points during S66, and career-high 65 points during S67. Season 67 is the only season when Nano and Moscow played in the playoffs during Nanos's first three seasons in Russia, old enemy Riga was too much, 4-1 wins and Riga went on to the next round.

 

Last year Nano managed to collect respectable 42 points 72 games, during the ongoing season and in 62 games he has 24 points from the third pairing so far. Moscow is also playing really well, a big part of that is the depth of the team and veteran Nano is part of that, Moscow is fifth in the league and third in EU division at the moment, so it's looking likely that we will see Nano in the playoffs this year. The ongoing year is his last one in VHL, he announced his retirement early this season.

 

The reason why I chose Nano is the length of his career combined with where he was picked in the draft. Not often you find true late-round gems that stick around and have long careers, but Nano is great example of that, 19th pick from 27 possible players, quite a few players picked before him in S62 did not have anywhere near as long careers as he did and let's not forget the fact that Nano scored over 60 points three times in row and is still making things happen in Moscow. Excellent puck-moving defender and one of the best late-round picks in modern VHL.

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

Hate to be the one to break this to you:

 

[jRuutu 2,426]

49 minutes ago, OrbitingDeath said:

Hate to be the one to break this to you:

 

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