Unsung Heroes: The Merrill Story

[diamond_ace 3,112]

This is a deep rewind for those who are interested in something a bit smaller that would likely never make Matt's deep rewind series. Not only is it a single pick in a single random draft back when the drafts were shit, it's a pick that bears no real relevance to most people. It is, however, the origin story of one @diamond_ace (me) and it couldn't have happened without the help of four people: @Sandro, @gregreg, @JardyB10, and the unsung hero in this case; Cam Merrill, the 3rd overall pick in the S20 VHL draft, Silky (who does not have an account on this version of the site).

I'd been on S19 Minot Gladiators under Jardy as GM - Jardy was also GM of the Calgary Wranglers, who most of you will recognize a bit more than now-defunct Minot (VHLM). The VHL draft had two big names in it, Japinder Singh @8Ovechkin8 (HOF, although not the only HOF, as 5th overall Adam Schultz @Frank would be inducted as well) and Kevyn Hesje. At 220 and 214 TPE headed into the draft, these two were clearly the top picks. After that, it dropped off a bit to the 3rd and 4th in TPE, Cam Merrill and Lars Intranquilo (me).

This was a story of the yin and yang of the draft. Forward vs. Defense. Vet vs. first gen. On the decline vs. on the upswing. Sometimes, however, the position becomes the key part, and even though it seemed like Intranquilo had the more promising career (having gained quite a bit on Merrill) if you need a forward, you need a forward. 3rd overall was Merrill, 4th overall was Intranquilo, and the fire was flamed. I spent the next several seasons trying to gain as much ground as possible on Merrill to make the decision look dumb (although I played like I had about half as much TPE as I did, and clearly Schultz played like he had my TPE count) and here we are today.

[Victor 10,940]

I think we've finally moved on from it but the blind following of TPE to pick players by GMs was always mind-boggling. When you know someone like Silky is gonna come in with 6 TPE a week and no more, why not take risk on a first gen? Never made sense to me but you could pretty much plan a draft by predicting which GMs would make that mistake.