The VHLM's Biggest Upset, Part 2

[solas 1,951]

The VHLM's Biggest Upset, Part 2: An Unstoppable Force

This is part two of my series of media spots, “The VHLM’s Biggest Upset”, on the Season 26 Vasteras IK J-20/Baby Eagles/whatever you want to call them.  In order to see part 1, which is an introduction to the series, click here.

 

In order to fully understand the background of how this S26 team came to be, it’s important to look at the history of “superdrafts” in the VHL - and more specifically, the Season 18 VHL Draft.  Since the VHL’s relatively recent uptick in activity, draft classes have been much deeper than they were in the past.  For a long time, though, drafts were relatively hit-or-miss.  You might get one particularly deep draft due to a good recruiting class (rare), or you might get a draft with a couple generational talents, but not much else.  Some would be essentially barren, not really offering much at all in the way of useful or interesting players outside of a couple second-liners.  

 

Season 18 was a unique draft class though.  To this day, it’s firmly in the argument for best draft class of all time. It produced six hall of famers (only Season 1 has had more): recent induction Mathias Chouinard, first overall pick Daisuke Kanou, Aidan Shaw, Jukka Hakkinen, Anton Brekker, and Tarik Saejis.  Kanou and Shaw both placed themselves in the conversation for greatest goaltender of all time, and would also lend their names to the Playoff MVP and top goaltender trophies respectively.  Saeijs was one of the elite scorers of his time and had the trophy cabinet to back it up despite never winning a continental cup.  Brekker was a key part of the cup-winning Davos teams of the S20s and a member of the triple gold club.  Hakkinen was a great goalscorer who didn’t quite get the limelight of his S18 compatriots due to his loyalty to a largely unsuccessful New York Americans team.  And Chouinard was a solid scorer who finished his career with over 600 points in only six seasons and achieved an individual three-peat as part of both Calgary and Davos.  That’s not to mention notable players like Olivier Scarlett, Peyton Nydroj, Michael Angelo, Joey Clarence, Pekka Jarmuth, and still others.

 

This draft class was a legendary crop of players that was just about unmatched by any other in league history.  For many of the same reasons, the Season 27 draft was gaining a similar amount of hype.  Because recruitment wasn’t nearly as good at the time, many draft classes would rely on recreates rather than first-gens.  In this case, it meant that the members who had been a part of the great Season 18 class would now be recreating at around the same time.  And many of those players would end up in the S27 class, joined by recreates from other members and (gasp!) even some first-gens.

 

Daisuke Kanou, one of many to come from the legendary Season 18 draft class

 

Meanwhile, moves were being made in the VHLM.  Tyler Edgar (@Edgar), who had become GM of the VHLM version of Vasteras in Season 19, had been paying just as much attention to the upcoming draft class.  Knowing what was coming up, Edgar decided to go all in on the S26 VHLM draft.  He made one of the most aggressive series of moves that the VHL or VHLM has ever seen.  Through a series of trades, Edgar was able to acquire every single draft pick in the first two rounds.  This was unprecedented to say the least.  In both the VHL and the VHLM, nobody had acquired every single pick in any single round come draft day, let alone two.  Let alone the first two.  Let alone the first two in one of the most hyped-up draft classes in league history.

 

And yet it happened.  Draft day rolled up in the VHLM, and here came Vasteras with the first sixteen picks in the draft.  In order, here’s who they selected:

G - Satan @Bushito
G - Marius Henchoz @Frank
C - Phil Rafter @Phil
LW - Ying Qin @tfong
D - Kraphf Dringus (Kraphf)
LW - Zack Curry (don’t know their username)
C - JaMarcus Simmons @Spangle
C - Gunnar Rask @Advantage
D - Nic Riopel (Ree_21)
D - Elijah Incognito (Toswammi)
C - Alexander Chershenko @Victor
RW - Jaakko Vitikka @James
LW - David Smalling @Knight
D - Xavier Joyal @23qwerty
D - Klaus Müller @solas 
D - Emerson Byer @frescoelmo

 

People who are familiar with the VHL’s history might recognize some names on that list.  Within those sixteen players, there are:

Nine recreates by members whose previous player had been a hall of famer: Henchoz, Rafter, Qin, Simmons, Riopel, Chershenko, Vitikka, Smalling, and Byer
Seven players created by members who would create hall of fame players in the future: Satan, Henchoz, Rafter, Qin, Rask, Chershenko, and Müller
Eight players created by members who are currently in the hall of fame as a builder: Henchoz, Rafter, Qin, Rask, Riopel, Incognito, Chershenko, and Smalling
Four players who would become hall of famers: Rafter, Incognito, Chershenko, and Smalling

 

Center Alexander Chershenko was one of four future hall of famers to join Vasteras IK J-20

 

It’s safe to say that Vasteras got what they traded for.  Even the players that don’t feature on this list were still significant.  Dringus was selected twelfth overall in the S27 VHL draft and would eventually win a cup with Davos, Curry was the seventh overall selection in the S26 VHL draft, and Joyal was the recreate following Roman Andreev, a solid player from the S18 VHL draft who had helped the Calgary Wranglers to a cup in Season 23.  

 

Vasteras IK J-20 had built a Death Star of a team, looming over the rest of the VHLM and threatening to demolish any team that dreamed of getting in their way.  And it was almost entirely made up of players that had only joined the team in the previous offseason.  The eyes of the VHL were upon Vasteras in a way that it had been for no other VHLM team, as everyone was looking forward to see just how good this team could be.

 

So it goes without saying that they were pretty damn good in Season 26.  Vasteras won the Prime Minister’s Cup in dominant fashion with 130 points and a 64-6-2 record.  Almost half of those wins came from a massive 28-game winning streak starting around the middle of the season, following a surprising three-game losing streak (which made up half of their losses in the entire regular season).  They held a 53-point lead over the European Conference’s second place team, the Bern Royals.  The Brampton Blades, winners of the North American Conference, only had 101 points.  Vasteras was one of three teams in the entire VHLM to have a positive goal differential with an absolutely ridiculous +179.  Every single other team allowed at least 317 goals against that season.  Vasteras IK J-20 only let in 179.  This team was running roughshod on the league.

 

On an individual level, there wasn’t much success for the skaters.  This wasn’t necessarily concerning, however - the number of talented players on the team meant that ice time was at a premium.  The most minutes any player averaged per game was 24.55, by defenseman Kraphf Dringus, and no other player on the team reached 23 minutes on average.  For comparison, many other VHLM teams with thinner rosters had top players averaging 26-27 minutes per game.  As a result, the only player to make the top ten in points was defenseman Nic Riopel.  Goaltending was a different story, though.  Satan, who had been selected first overall, was absolutely dominant in net.  He posted a .910 save percentage when the closest mark was .883, and a 2.35 GAA when nobody else in the league was below 4.25 en route to being crowned as the league’s best goaltender with a Sawchuk Trophy.

 

Future Davos goaltender Satan shut down the VHLM in Season 26

 

It’s entirely possible, however, that this team wasn’t quite as dominant as expectations would suggest.  As covered before, no other team had this many early draft picks, especially not in what was an incredibly hyped-up draft class.  One would think that this would lead to a season that was not only dominant (which it was), but also record-breaking.  Not quite.  Three VHLM teams had reached the 130-point mark before.  Five had reached 64 wins.  The S18 Brampton Battalion were 67-5-0 with 134 points, a season which Vasteras was unable to surpass and a total that was unbeaten until Season 69 (nice) by the Saskatoon Wild.

 

But when push came to shove, this was still a team that was by far the comfortable favorite to win it all.  Some players hadn’t quite met the expectations of being a top prospect thus far and fizzled out (Gunnar Rask, for example, retired from hockey before the Season 27 VHL draft happened), but the core of the team that had been assembled through the previous draft was still fairly active and updating for the most part.  These were elite VHLM players.  Of the 11 players who ended up being eligible for the upcoming VHL draft, the lowest any player in that group would get drafted was 14th.  Vasteras players made up the entire first round in S27.  How could this team not win the Founder’s Cup?

 

...Well, you’ll see.

 

1,550 words, good for three weeks

Edited May 28, 2020 by solas

[frescoelmo 1,276]

4 hours ago, solas said:

 

Eight recreates by members whose previous player had been a hall of famer: Henchoz, Rafter, Qin, Simmons, Riopel, Chershenko, Vitikka, and Smalling

 

Am I correct in saying Byer (Saeijs) should be here as well

[solas 1,951]

10 minutes ago, frescoelmo said:

 

Am I correct in saying Byer (Saeijs) should be here as well

Yes, you are.  Ironic considering I’d already mentioned Saeijs earlier in the article haha.  Fixed it

Edited May 27, 2020 by solas

[Victor 10,940]

3 hours ago, frescoelmo said:

 

Am I correct in saying Byer (Saeijs) should be here as well

You were the Brampton GM though weren't you, you traitor.

 

Good stuff @solas. That team should never have lost a game.

[frescoelmo 1,276]

6 hours ago, Victor said:

You were the Brampton GM though weren't you, you traitor.

 

Good stuff @solas. That team should never have lost a game.

 

shhhhhhhhh  

[Baozi 1,658]

I vaguely remember this so I'mm preface this with a "huehuehuehue". Also death star is a great allusion to what comparatively happens next I think.

 

Great content here. Formatting is on point and you even have pictures for me! (Well and of me) Ideally what any media spot should look like as well. Great job! Will be looking forward to refreshing my memory with what happened with this series next.

 

10/10

Edited May 27, 2020 by tfong

[solas 1,951]

Claiming for week 2/3

[solas 1,951]

Claiming for week 3/3