vsnsc S72 Future Watch: NA Conference

[Patrik Tallinder 1,073]

 

Welcome back to Future Watch! Since last season, we have seen many graduations, trades, and most importantly, we’ve had a draft to restock our VHL teams back up with talent. In this series, we take a look at all of the VHL prospect pools and rank them by conference, and by the league as well. This time around, our focus is on the North American Conference. 
 
Before we begin, I’d like to make it known that VSN has some new content coming! VSN Scouting is starting up with myself and @Spence King, as well as more coverage of both leagues from @Hylands33 and @diamond_ace! With @Matt_O returning to deliver some more great history articles too, VSN’s new changes are going to lead to some amazing results. That being said, let’s see what North America has to offer!
 

 

CALGARY WRANGLERS | 6th in NA | 12th Overall

Top Prospect: John Poremba - S72 3rd Round (31)

 

Calgary’s prospect pool doesn’t budge in our rankings, but it has gotten significant upgrades since our last checkup. What keeps them down here is the lack of positional variety. Both of the Wranglers top prospects are goaltenders, and they don’t have much else to offer. Forward Justin Goatman claimed practice facility weekly for a long time but has recently fallen inactive. Their two goalie prospects, John Poremba and Nils Friedriksen have been nearly identical in terms of TPE their entire careers, and look to be potential fringe-starter goalies at the VHL level. They consistently earn in the neighbourhood of 8-12 TPE every week, on top of occasional weeks of higher productivity. Overall, Calgary has themselves a group with some value, but little variety.

 

 

 

DC DRAGONS | 5th in NA | 11th Overall

Top Prospect: Liam Flaten - S72 2nd Round (16)

 

With leFlamant graduating from the VHLM this season, the Dragons really didn’t have anyone to replace him in their prospect pool, until the draft came around. They found themselves a new top gun, by the name of Liam Flaten. Flaten is a defenseman with an unbelievable ability to shoot the puck, which he has frequently displayed this season. His 11 goals in 18 games is a sneak peek of what the 19-year-old could become. He is fantastic offensively, but no slouch defensively either.
 
A bit of a wildcard in this organization is S72 4th round pick Alek Andreshnikov. After being a player who solely claimed practice facility for just about his entire career up to the draft, Andreshnikov immediately posted a week of 26 TPE following the draft. So far this week, he has earned 6, but there is time for more. If the Kings’ centre can maintain this recent advancement in his development, D.C. could find themselves with another solid player.

 

 

 

NEW YORK AMERICANS | 4th in NA | 10th Overall

Top Prospect: Arthur Dayne - S72 3rd Round (34)

 

Once again, we find ourselves with a team who hasn’t moved in the rankings since last season. Like the previous two, they have also made notable improvements. There are three pretty interesting prospects here, with the top one being Arthur Dayne in my opinion. The Canadian is putting up some solid numbers this season, with 10 goals and 23 points in just 18 games with Mexico City. A few weeks ago, he had a week of inactivity, but since then, his production of TPE has been pretty good. He usually earns about 6 TPE a week, though that has gone up lately.
 
I considered making John Brewitt the top prospect, as his TPE earning has been quite good, earning from 8-12 TPE per week on most occasions. His 50 points on a weaker Hounds team last season was nice to see too. However, Brewitt’s 42 defence rating is a bit concerning. But despite this, he is still an exciting prospect who could very well end up as the best of the bunch.
 
The last prospect to discuss here is goalie prospect Bacon. He has seen his TPE production rise lately, but his capped TPE production has also gone down. Now, this is not a big deal if the 18-year-old Bacon starts earning more capped TPE once the uncapped opportunities start to fade, but it is a small concern for the time being. A combined 4 capped TPE over the last 2 weeks isn’t ideal, but 30 total TPE is great to see from him. All of the New York prospects seem to have a little bit of risk attached to them, but their potential is undeniable.

 

 

 

SEATTLE BEARS | 3rd in NA | 8th Overall

Top Prospect: Timothy Brown - S72 1st Round (12)

 

Seattle drops one spot since last season, with the graduation of Sheilds, and the trade of Zyrok12 stinging quite a bit. Returning from last season’s group are Bo Burrows and Erik Hjalmarsson. The latter has been claiming practice facility fairly consistently for a while but hasn’t taken any steps to show much VHL potential so far in his career. Burrows is likely in his last VHLM season, sitting at 221 TPE right now. He earns an average of about 8 TPE per week, with it often ranging from 6-10. He is a physical defender with a powerful shot from the blueline, and will almost surely be a solid defenseman at the next level.
 
The high-profile newcomer this season is Canadian winger Timothy Brown, whom Seattle selected in the first round this past offseason. Averaging an astounding 27 TPE over his last 6 full weeks, Brown is a prospect on the rise and one who is just about ready for the big leagues. One quarter into the S72 season and he’s already quickly approaching last season’s totals. The other player that the Bears elected for in the league’s latest draft was Connor Tanner, who is an interesting case. After a 2 month absence from the league, Tanner came back to claim 6 TPE a couple of weeks ago. He hasn’t updated again since then, unfortunately. He did show some promise early on in his career, but it didn’t sustain for long. Seattle’s group has the star power that was lacking in the groups before them and has some added depth with Burrows.

 

 

 

TORONTO LEGION | 2nd in NA | 6th Overall

Top Prospect: Joseph Gainer - S72 2nd Round (22)

 

Toronto made some huge additions to their prospect pool in the S72 Draft, including their top prospect, Joseph Gainer. Gainer has missed out on only 2 capped TPE since joining and has earned plenty of uncapped along the way as well. Being a late joiner, he had the task of catching up to the others in his draft class, which he has done incredibly well to this point. His build is very balanced, making him quite useful in any situation you put him in.
 
Selected the pick prior to Gainer, was Michael Mac. While Mac likely would’ve been the top candidate for Toronto’s top prospect at the time of the draft, he has since seen his production of capped TPE go down significantly, with just 4 in the last two weeks. Despite this, his overall TPE earning has stayed at a nice level, and his upside as a sniper is tremendous. He is a great shooter with some shifty hands, and could definitely end up an extremely important piece for this team.
 
Two more players were picked by the Legion in that draft, and I would consider both of them wildcards. First off is Adam Frence, whose potential looked to be pretty high, with his activity in the community, and job with VHL Twitter. Seemingly out of nowhere, he disappeared shortly before the draft and hasn’t come back since. The other is Ziarie Anigbogu. While definitely not as big of a wildcard as Frence, Anigbogu is an interesting case because of unpredictability in earning TPE. The Reapers’ defender has gone through periods of earning moderate amounts of TPE, low amounts, and most recently, high amounts. This positive trend has been great to see and will result in a fine player one day if maintained. Anigbou moves the puck very well and has demonstrated that so far in S72 with 15 assists in 18 games.
 
The last two to speak on from Toronto are the returnees from last season. Jeff Blaze was the team’s top prospect last time we checked in, and now he has surrendered that title. He is still producing around the same rate, with about 6 TPE per week most of the time. Blaze won’t be a superstar but will add some quality depth for the Legion in the future. S70 draftee Dick Cheezy also returns, after slowing the momentum that he had at the time of our last article. Cheezy has had his fair share of inactive weeks lately, and whenever he’s active, it’s just a practice facility claim. Yet, he is still close to being a VHL calibre player. If he could pick it back up to where he was in early-mid April, this is another quality depth piece for the team.
 
Toronto has a great prospect pool. Star potential and depth in abundance are a wonderful duo, and the Legion definitely has them.

 

 

 

VANCOUVER WOLVES | 1st in NA | 5th Overall

Top Prospect: Gregg Stallion - S72 2nd Round (15)

 

Vancouver’s ranking has dropped quite a bit in the overall standings, but they remain on top of the North American Conference. They have lost two significant prospects since last season, but have kept a lot of them as well, and even added a new face to the group.
 
Let’s start off by returning to the three players who were picked with consecutive picks in the S71 Draft. Xavier Hills and Blake Bridges still struggle with inconsistency but show flashes of VHL potential. I said this last time, and my point still stands; If Hills could claim his 6 TPE welfare every week, he would be a very solid prospect. Bridges has moments of brilliance but often dips in activity as well. The third pick, Raiens Grasis, is the opposite. He has been consistent his whole career, but only with claiming practice facility. To this point, he still hasn’t earned one capped TPE, and for that reason, I can’t see him in the VHL unless something changes.
 
Next up we have another returning pair from the S71 Draft. Second-round pick Squirrely dan has progressed nicely and is at a point now where he is fully ready for the VHL. Currently playing for Minnesota, he has provided a well-balanced forward option who seems to fit in wherever he plays for the team. A few picks later, Vancouver selected Kazimir Komarov, who was trending upwards at the time of the last article. For the most part, he has kept up his higher TPE production, besides one slip-up a couple of weeks ago. Komarov has had an amazing start to his season, with 39 points in only 18 games.
 
We also took a look at an undrafted prospect in last season’s North American Future Watch, being Hunter Harrison. He went inactive for a couple of weeks, but is back in business now, with 45 TPE in his last 4 full weeks. Harrison is a massive defenseman with a physical edge and could end up a nice depth piece on the Wolves’ blueline.
 
The last player we’ll cover is the best of them all. Picked in the latest draft at 15th overall, Gregg Stallion seems to be on the road to becoming a star in the VHL. He has never earned below 14 TPE in any given week, and has had some really good numbers in the VHLM as well. His 56 goals in 86 career games is outstanding, and his 117 points are also impressive. I expect Stallion, dan, and Komarov to be VHL players in S73, and some of the others will get there with time.

 

 

In the next article, we will come back to the European Conference’s prospect pools. I wish the best for all of these players, and hope you can make an impact for whichever VHL team you’re trying to make!

 

Players mentioned: @Goatman @CrlineDijohn14 @Biggreen10 @flatl99 @PuckPushers @Infernal @JBrew42 @Bacon @Walter Fizz @Erik @a_Ferk @Keygan @joeg @LastOneUp @Kachur @ngine4 @NyQuil @goldenglutes @inflastud @Blake Bridge @raiens @jacobaa19 @Gooningitup @I'll change this later @SweatyBeaver

[Bacon 40]

I appreciate the advice, its what i needed to know.