Claimed:Goodbye To The Class Of ’31

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

Goodbye To The Class Of ’31

 

 

Each year the VHL loses some players due to forced retirement, when a player has played for eight seasons in either the VHLM or VHL they are forced to retirement to keep the influx of new players ongoing. The class of ’31 was a great year and there are still some players who are currently on the ice, doing their farewell tour. Let’s have a look at the top three players from this draft year we won’t see any more after this season ends.  

 

 

Tuomas Tukio (undrafted due to the GM rule – Helsinki Titans)

 

 

The first goaltender on the list is Tukio, joining the Helsinki Titans early in his VHL career due to being chosen as the franchise player for them by Mitch Higgins, who was the general manager of Helsinki at that time. After Higgins his tenure as GM ended, it also meant Tukio was on their way out in order to jumpstart the rebuild for their franchise. The Quebec City Meute traded for the goaltender as they had just lost Skylar Rift to retirement. In his last season Quebec also would not be able to compete and they decided to let Tukio go. There were no takers on the trade market and after having no offers for a few days it were the New York Americans who wanted to take a shot at the cup. They signed Tukio to a 1 year deal, meaning their current goalie Brick Wahl will serve as a back-up for one year. The career of Tukio gave him multiple awards and a cup with the Helsinki Titans.

 

 

 

Kameron Taylor (2^nd overall – forced pick by the Cologne Express)

 

 

The S31 draft was one that was one of a kind, due to having an expansion year the draft went different as normal. The Meute got Alexander Valiq as their franchise player even though he got drafted by Riga the year before, while the Cologne Express got Kameron Taylor. Taylor was a free agent due to not having any contract issues with a different team. With Valiq having a contract there needed to be a way to make it fair for all teams involved. In the end the Meute had to trade their 1^st round pick (which was either first or second overall) to the Reign for Valiq. Due to this action, Taylor had to be picked second overall, as the GM rule was non-existent in this case. The first rounder’s were both used on the players of the managers. With Taylor going second overall to the Express he started a career where he would almost remain on the same team for his entire career. It wasn’t until his agent Joey Kendrick stepped down as a GM that he would be on the move from Cologne. For long it looked like there was no team having cap room to acquire Taylor, but in the end it was the Riga Reign that came through. They traded for him at the end of Season 37 to empower their cup run. It almost paid off a Riga managed to push the HC Davos Dynamo to seven games. This year the general slogan in Riga is ‘Do it for Kameron’ as they are trying to finally get Taylor the one thing he has desired his whole career, a Victory Cup in his hands.

 

 

Remy LeBeau (6^th overall – Toronto Legion)

 

 

The steal of the draft, after being passed over by Riga (1^st overall – Josef Heiss Jr.) and Vasteras (5^th overall – Till Lindemann) Remy LeBeau turned out to be a gift from the gods for the Toronto Legion. While he already was regarded as a talent that could really shine in the VHL, teams were not willing to use their earlier draft picks for him. Even the Toronto Legion took a gamble by picking Nikita Lebedev with their third overall pick before selecting the goaltender. Remy LeBeau stayed loyal to his team throughout his entire career and will likely retire as a member of the Toronto Legion. While he got two Aidan Shaw trophies it wasn’t until Season 37 until his career was really complete. After defeating Seattle in the conference final LeBeau really showed what he was capable off by becoming the playoff MVP for Season 37 and winning the Daisuke Kanou trophy. Needless to say, from the ten games he played in the playoffs they won eight as the Legion finally won the cup again for the first time since Season 29.  After winning the cup there was nothing left to get for Remy LeBeau who lost himself to an alcohol addiction this season. While playing each game drunk his numbers have severely went down during the course of Season 38.

 

 

With these three players leaving the VHL we say goodbye to one of the greatest draft classes. A class were three players managed to get over the 1200 TPE landmark. An accomplishment that might be hard to beat.

[BOOM 8,846]

S33 Rules!

 

 

Good read.

[Devise 4,475]

The era's of this league change and flow it seems so quickly. Taylor, Tukio and Remy were fantastic players. Only Taylor is without a Cup so maybe he corrects that this season. 

[Higgins 3,618]

Goodbye!

[Guest Svoboda_3]

Content: 3/3

825 words. A great concept for a great draft class. I thought each player was headlined equally, where you talked about their careers and accomplishments without being too biased towards your own player. All three are probably HOF worthy as well, which makes their careers and efforts all that much more tremendous.

Grammar: 1.5/2

It's always tough to deduct anyone, but there were far too many. In most cases here, missing commas, albeit not a severe mistake, was made repeatedly and often created run-on sentences, where you had to go back and re-read it.

 

general manager = General Manager

Higgins his = Higgins, his

on their way out = on his way out

days it were the = days, it was the

will = would

draft = Draft

contract there needed = contract, there needed

end the = end, the

Express he = Express, he

off a Riga = off, as Riga

Victory Cup = Continental Cup

final LeBeau = final, LeBeau

off = of

playoffs they = playoffs, they

drunk his = drunk, his

were = where

Appearance: 1/1

Looked really good. The layout was nicely presented.

Overall: 5.5/6

Edited June 1, 2014 by Svoboda_3

[Kesler 1,514]

Claimed