S69 Retirees' Requiem

[McWolf 3,111]

 

Season 69 Retirees’ Requiem

2nd edition

 

Season 69 has come and passed, and with it went a couple of players, victims of time itself. As the years go by, players drafted from Season 62 to 64 start to feel the impact of years of playing hockey at the highest level, hitting and getting hit, as they one by one decide to stop before their bodies can’t take it anymore. This article is an ode of some sort, a way to celebrate the careers of these players that made their stride on VHL rinks last season and decided to hang their skates during the offseason.

 

 

Honourable mentions

 

This is the second edition of the Retirees’ Requiem. Last season, I only spoke about six or seven retirees because - I don’t mean it as a jab at other players that may have retired the last offseason - I didn’t feel like any more players had done enough in their careers to deserve a chapter to their name. This season, however, saw a lot of interesting players retire and I felt like it would have been unfair to a couple of them if I didn’t say even only a few words about them. I’m going to talk mainly about eight players this season, but there were an additional group of five players I believe deserve to at least be bundled together in this honourable mentions prelude.

 

In a Season 64 Mock Draft, I called Piotr Jerwa a glorified welfare player. What I meant by that is that he was only claiming welfare and a couple of side tasks, totalling from 6 to 10 capped TPE most weeks. This was harsh. True but harsh. However, when all was said and done, Jerwa proved what a great player you can be even if you just claim welfare. In six seasons, the Polish defenseman played for four different teams (Davos, Seattle, New York and D.C.), had a career-high statline of 26 goals and 72 points in Season 68 and was considered for the Jake Wylde Trophy numerous times. He retires without winning it a single time - without winning a Cup either - but it was still a great career for the "glorified welfare player".

 

Ismond Kingfisher might have been the GM-player of the New York Americans for the first five campaigns of his career, but he will probably be remembered more as the netminder that helped the Vancouver Wolves win their first Continental Cup since moving from Quebec City, averaging only 2.42 goals against and maintaining a save percentage of .923 throughout the playoffs. The American netminder retires with nothing but this one Cup on his trophy shelf, and only 160 wins to his name but was still considered one of the best goalies in the VHL in his prime.

 

Shane Mars’ career was ephemeral but explosive. Following a draft season in which he scored 110 points with the Minnesota Storm of the VHLM, he joined the Seattle Bears and didn’t miss a single beat, en route to a Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy-winning campaign, where he beat Jet Jaguar to the finish line by scoring 46 goals and 94 points. We could already sense that something was wrong with Mars the next season, as his role was limited and he was only able to score 60 points. The next two seasons, the speedy winger was but a shell of his past self, as he totalled only 18 points, playing for the Bears and the Reign. If he had been able to keep his numbers as high as during his rookie season, maybe his career would have been longer than four seasons and he would have deserved as a main spot in this article.

 

Paolo Nano’s career took a turn for the best when the Moscow Menace selected him in the Season 66 Expansion Draft, as the move catapulted him from a depth defenseman with the Helsinki Titans and the New York Americans straight to the expansion team’s first pairing. He’s been their best defensemen for the first two seasons of their existence, scoring 64 and 65 points. He was once again relegated to a depth role in the last two seasons, with the emergence of young Vladimir Pavlov and the signing of one of the league’s best blueliners in Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, but he’ll forever be remembered as the franchise’s first real quarterback.

 

Jesse Wilson has spent most of his career away from the spotlight. He spent the six seasons of his career with the Helsinki Titans, more often than not sharing the ice with fellow Season 63 draftee Sidney Crosby, forming together one of the better and more constant two-way defensive pairs of the last decade. They were both, along with Julian Borwinn and Alexander Pepper, part of a group of four Season 63 draftees that spent their whole career in Helsinki. While the other three are still playing for the team for one last season, Wilson retired early as a winner of one Continental Cup in Season 66, with a statline of 81 goals, 223 assists, 304 points, 698 hits and 694 shots blocked.

 

Elias Dahlberg

 

Swedish winger Elias Dahlberg was selected 2nd overall by the HC Davos Dynamo in the Season 64 VHL Draft, right after he lit the VHLM up by scoring 57 goals and 118 points for the Ottawa Lynx. This high level of performance awarded him Mitch Higgins, the Ethan Osborne and the Alexander Chershenko trophies. A decorated player at the VHLM level, Elias Dahlberg retires from the VHL with only one major league award to his name - a Dustin Funk Trophy earned after jumping from 36 points in his rookie season to a career-high 105 points, good for 6th in the league, in his sophomore season. He was never able to recreate anything close to that in the four remaining seasons of his career, though he was always seen as a dangerous player on both sides of the ice, reaching the 30-goal, 70-point mark every season, playing with both Davos and the Riga Reign.

 

The decision to retire after only 6 seasons was a puzzling one, given that Dahlberg was still in his prime and could have helped a team still built around a strong enough core to legitimately compete for a Cup. In the end, the decision is his and his only and he feels like moving on, we can't really blame him, though we'll miss seeing him play, and we'll miss the undeniable chemistry he built with Pat Svoboda, a fellow Davos draftee who was traded alongside him to Riga. Together, they terrified opponents with their high-octane style of play, as they totalled 358 goals, 769 points and 1815 hits in six seasons together, making them one of the most prolific pairs of heavy-hitting wingers in recent memory.

 

Jake Davis

 

Probably the biggest steal of the Season 62 Entry Draft, Jake Davis retires as the best scorer of his draft class and of this retirees’ class, if we may call it that. His 681 points in 576 games rank him as the 78th best scorer in league history. He could have ended up a lot higher on the list if it wasn’t for a strangely quiet final season, in which he was only able to score 28 goals and 54 points, making it the first time since his rookie season he came short of the 30-goal and 80-point marks. Despite accumulating points at such a high pace, Davis never settled with a team for more than 3 seasons. The Toronto Legion quickly realized the good move they made by selecting him with the 10th overall pick of the Season 62 Draft and decided to send him to the Seattle Bears with Robert Malenko, at the conclusion of his rookie season, for a pair of first-round selections in the coming years, while his value was sky-high. After only a season in Seattle, he was traded straight to Quebec City, in a three-way trade that sent Veran Dragomir to Seattle. He had some of his best seasons playing for the Meute/Wolves franchise, eclipsing the century mark on two straight occasions, before being once again traded, this time to HC Davos Dynamo. Two 40-goal, 80-point seasons later, Davis hit free agency and decided to finish his career in Malmö, where he felt he could add to his already strong resume, though it didn’t go as he had planned from the start.

 

The most surprising thing about Davis’ accomplishments is the fact that he was never the recipient of any award, either at the VHLM or VHL level. He has been a dominant power forward throughout his career but never finished a season with either the most goals or points and he was outshined in Scott Boulet votings by the legendary Matt Thompson. Perhaps if he didn’t get to play against one of the league’s best players for seven of his eight seasons of play, he would have been able to collect a trophy or two, but the timing never seemed right for him. Still, Davis retires as one of the 60’s best power forwards, a player with three 40-goal seasons and two 100-point seasons to his name. 

 

Maxim Kovalchuk

 

The first of four players featured in this piece that changed position at some point in their career, Maxim Kovalchuk is actually the only one that went from a defenseman to a forward. It was a shame, given how good he was as a defenseman, but it was a testament to how much of a team player he was. He didn't hesitate to make the move to forward midway through Season 66 as a member of the Calgary Wranglers, when it was determined that was what his team needed, knowing very well it might end up hurting his HOF chances. In his four seasons as a blueliner - all played with the Seattle Bears - Kovalchuk scored 90 goals, 249 assists, 339 points, including a ridiculous 30-goal, 117-point rookie season that saw him win his only Alexander Valiq Trophy. He added more hardware to his trophy case in the next couple seasons, as he won two straight Jake Wylde trophies in Season 64 and 65, with a Sterling Labatte and an Alexander Beketov in Season 65 as well. Playing as a forward the next four seasons, his points totals plummeted year after year, but he still provided solid performances for a second-line centre, helping the Seattle Bears - which he rejoined in Season 67 - win the Continental Cups in his last two seasons.

 

All in all, Kovalchuk retires as one of the best two-way defensemen to play the game in recent memory. He's one of only three defensemen to win the three different awards limited to his position - the other two being Mats Johnsson and, more recently, Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen - and who knows how many more he could have added if he wasn't forced to spend the last three-and-a-half seasons of his illustrious career as a centre, due to roster and salary cap limitations. He would probably have ended up near the top of the all-time list when it comes to goals, points, and shots blocked by a defenseman, cementing a case for a possible Hall of Fame induction next offseason, but now it looks like his post-career legend status is a bit more disputed. One thing is sure however, there probably wouldn't have been a place for the Russian skater on the Bears crowded blueline had he not made the switch before his last two seasons, making the Season 68-69 back-to-back Cup runs might not even have happened if it wasn't for him joining as a depth centre.

 

 

Dan Montgomery

 

A career Helsinki Titan, Dan Montgomery was selected 6th overall in the Season 62 Entry Draft, following a disappointing VHLM campaign with the Yukon Rush, in which he scored a mere 26 points and lost in the Founder’s Cup Finals to the then Oslo Storm. The Titans saw incredible potential in the man who was once promised to have a brilliant career. After a strong showing of 55 points in his rookie season, Montgomery exploded for 85 points in his sophomore season, marking the only time in his career he reached the 30-goal plateau. From this point forward, the American skater’s development kind of stalled, his point output going back down to 52 points in his 3rd season.

 

To try and shake things up a bit, the Titans General Manager at the time decided to try the forward on defence and it did rejuvenate him for a while, which is shown by his surprising Season 66 18-goal, 91-point performance that awarded him the Alexander Valiq Trophy, even though he appeared to be behind both Sidney Crosby and Jesse Wilson on the team’s depth chart. He spent the rest of his career with the Titans as a defenseman, but he was never able to have as big an impact on his team as during his Offensive Defenseman of the Year Trophy-winning campaign, his point totals dropping every year from Season 66 up until last season. This brings the following question on the table: What would have happened if he had kept on improving as steadily as he did at the beginning of his career if he had reached the sky-high potential that he was tabbed with when he was drafted as a forward?

 

Rauno Palo

 

And just like that, we go from a young star whose career went downhill after entering the second half of it, straight to a late-bloomer whose career appeared to go nowhere until his fifth season. Rauno Palo entered the VHL in Season 62, following his selection by the Quebec City Meute, later known as the Vancouver Wolves, at the 4th overall pick. Palo was just coming off a strong minor-league campaign during which he posted a statline of 35 goals and 55 assists while engraving his name on the Founder’s Cup along with those of his Oslo Storm teammates. Some say the step between the VHLM and the VHL is a steep one and, while some players some to make the transition seamlessly, it definitely was true in the case of the Finnish centre. For the whole duration of his rookie contract - curiously, it’s also the whole time he played for the Meute before they moved to the Pacific coast - Palo wasn’t able to crack either the 20-goal or 50-point marks. He started showing signs of an incoming breakout in his fourth season, when he broke both marks, scoring as much as 31 goals and 66 points.

 

From this point, he never looked back to the disappointing performances that defined the first half of his career. He went on to score north of 40 goals in three straight seasons, even breaking the 50-goal mark once in Season 68. His point output also went up as he was able to pass the century mark twice, in both Seasons 67 and 68, allowing him to claim the Mike Szatkowski, the Alexander Beketov, the Scotty Campbell and the Brett Slobodzian trophies for himself in the former of the two. His Vancouver Wolves also ended up winning the Continental Cup that season. Palo only played for one other franchise during his career, following a mid-Season 68 trade to the Riga Reign, as the franchise looked forward to capture their first Cup since Season 63. He kept on posting strong performances, establishing evident rapport with fellow European centre Ryan Kastelic, but they were not able to capture the Continental Cup before Palo retired at the conclusion of Season 69.

 

Rylan Peace

 

Let’s be honest here, Rylan Peace was not the best player in the league, at any point in his career. He never won an award and never ranked higher than 5th in either goals or points in any season he played. Instead, he makes this list for being a consistent top-tier performer. The Riga Reign’s 2nd-round pick in the Season 63 Entry Draft joined the defending champions as a rookie a year later in a very limited role, only managing to score 46 points, but absolutely broke out after a trade to the HC Davos Dynamo the following season. In true Dustin Funk fashion, the Canadian centre went from 24 goals and 46 points to 51 goals and 103 points in his sophomore season, just missing on the most improved player award, which was awarded to fellow retiree Elias Dahlberg instead.

 

Peace continued on this track the next couple of seasons, as he scored over 25 goals and 70 points in each of his last 4 campaigns, playing for both Davos and the Toronto Legion, to which he was traded before the start of Season 67. He never scored north of 50 goals or 100 points again, but he was always a consistent goal scorer, a player his teams could always count on to make an impact. It’s truly a shame he decided to hang the skates after only six seasons in the VHL because he would probably have been able to post another similar statline, and he might have gotten another chance to capture his first Continental Cup.

 

Diljodh Starload

 

An agitator off the ice, Diljodh Starload joins Elias Dahlberg as the only other Season 64 draftee that had enough of an impact in such a short time to make this list. Even more impressive for Starload, he stayed down in the VHLM one more season after he was drafted, which means he only got to play 5 full campaigns at the major level, but it doesn’t really matter because, to be honest, his whole career is mostly defined by his ultimate season, at the conclusion of which he was awarded both the Alexander Valiq and the Alexander Beketov trophies. Like many others on this list, Starload was drafted in the first round by the Calgary Wranglers as a forward but eventually opted to continue his career as a blueliner while he was a member of the Vancouver Wolves. He was never exactly a standout forward in the first place, though he did score 77 points in his sophomore season, so it made sense for him to try and shake things up at a new position, which paid off big time, seeing how he scored 18 goals, 67 assists and 85 points in his only full season as a defenseman, effectively leading the league in assists and leading all blueliners in points.

 

Starload probably wishes people would remember him for this breakout, award-winning season but, the truth is, he marked his teammates and rivals more for his off-the-ice antics. He made a couple of threats that he was going to retire early to his general managers in Calgary and Vancouver. He also acted behind his general manager’s back when he was hired as Calgary’s AGM. However, when all was said and done, the Canadian multi-positional talent was a great presence on the ice for the Wranglers and especially for the Wolves, though it’s too bad he ended up retiring early like he threatened to do so many times because it would have been fun to see the next chapter of his rivalry with Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, with whom he shared blueliners awards last season.

 

 

Leph Twinger

 

And that brings us to number 8 on the list, the last retiree I’m going to talk about, and he had a truly interesting career that should wrap this piece up just fine. Leph Twinger was selected 1st overall in the Season 62 VHL Entry Draft by the Riga Reign and entered the league the very next season and started his career off with a bang. In all the craziness that was Season 62, Twinger’s rookie statline of 56 goals, 60 assists and 116 points was almost forgotten, but it would easily have been enough for him to win the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy in basically any other season in recent memory. A first overall draft pick selection tabbed with unlimited potential scoring a whopping 116 points in his rookie season, that bodes well for his future, right?

 

Of course, that’s what everyone thought and Twinger’s value was as high as it ever was at that point in his career. But things went south real fast and his goals and points totals dropped the following two seasons while the number of hits he collected day in day out skyrocketed, making it look like the Reign wasted the 1st overall pick on a career enforcer. After a third season where he was only able to score 50 points, Twinger was drafted to the New York Americans, a team finally on the rise after a couple of seasons of rebuilding. The move rejuvenated Twinger a bit, as he scored 74 points in his first campaign, the second and last-time he broke the point-per-game mark in his career. However, his stay in New York was typical for him and his point output dropped the next season, forcing another trade, this time to the Calgary Wranglers. After a first difficult season during which he scored a career-low 49 points, the Canadian enforcer made the switch to - you guessed it - defence. As it was the case with the move to New York, his first season playing his new position was a great one, as he scored over 60 points and recorded over 100 shots blocked and 200 hits, a feat only accomplished 142 times since Season 18 (earlier indexes are gone, it seems). A move to the Seattle Bears before the start of his ultimate season saw his numbers all around the board drop once again, though it permitted him to get crowned as a Continental Cup for the second time in his career. Now that it’s all over, it’s easy to look back and say Leph Twinger - later known as Defen Sman, probably - wasn’t worthy of the first-overall pick, let alone worthy of a first-round pick. He retires with barely over 500 points, 116 of which came in his first season. He hasn’t won any individual award. But in the end, it wasn’t that bad. Sure, it was an erratic career, but a fun one to watch unfold and the league won’t be the same without him.

 

This retirees’ class was a fun one to watch play. They were among the last to get to play in a more open Victory Hockey League, that is before the boom that started around the middle of the 60’s, meaning that were already established players when the mid-60’s prospects entered the league. Now, so many strong players retiring all at once brings the eternal question back up: where do they stand compared to past legends and what are their odds to make the Hall of Fame? Honestly, it’s hard to say if any of these eight players are Hall of Fame-worthy. On one hand, you have Jake Davis, who now ranks 78th in the all-time point list, but lacks any individual award or Continental Cup. On the other hand, you have decorated players like Maxim Kovalchuk and Rauno Palo, who both earned a couple of awards, but lack the career stats, either because they changed position midway through their career or just started painfully slow. I suppose a couple of them will see their names on the ballots, but it’s tough to say when they will be inducted. Maybe it will take a couple of worse retirees’ classes for them to be voted in retroactively - if ever. Either way, it was fun to see them play for the last eight seasons; the league is definitely not going to be the same as we enter the next decade without them.

 

Farewell Piotr, Ismond, Shane, Paolo, Jesse, Elias, Jake, Maxim, Dan, Rauno, Rylan, Diljodh, Leph.

     

 

Players mentioned: @majesiu @Spade18 @gorlab @leafsman @Victor @flyersfan1453 @monkeywrench15 @SidTheKid87 @Jubo07 @Sonnet @Nykonax @StamkosFan @Josh @pennypenny @Velevra @Beketov @Banackock @BarzalGoat @jRuutu @Enorama @Peace @Dil @DollarAndADream

     

VSN Writer McWolf

[jRuutu 2,303]

Palo´s refusal to shoot or pass the puck early in his career was honed out with iron fist of the Quebec/Vancouver management. After every season trade requests and screenshots of one's name being listed in the trade block were exchanged, but in the end both parties benefitted and even won a championship together.

 

 

[Banackock 7,642]

Amazing work @McWolf

 

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

Twinger tha God.

[McWolf 3,111]

28 minutes ago, DollarAndADream said:

Twinger tha God.

Sman*

[BarzalGoat 728]

So nice to see that you honored Monty

[McWolf 3,111]

3 hours ago, BarzalGoat said:

So nice to see that you honored Monty

Thank the Valiq