First VHL expansion draft experience.

[Peace 1,518]

So as a GM this was my first time experiencing an expansion draft that actually had long-term implications on the roster that could significant impact the team I was trying to build. In the VHLM I went through this dance before, but honestly with the turnover of players, I now feel like expanding the VHLM never had a true impact on the long term feasibility of your roster. Now it's quite obvious who Toronto protected, and most people assumed correctly, but there were things that happened leading up to the expansion draft that challenged me into making different decisions and forced me to reanalyze my roster. 

In the end... I have to look at it as the Legion were lucky through unfortunate events. 

I'll start off by saying that one of our prospects, Frence, returned from inactivity sometime after selecting him in the draft. When he returned and started updating, we reshuffled our protection list and dropped an otherwise core piece of our roster, so we could protect the future of the Legion. With Frence now protected, I had to leave one of the Gutzwiler brothers' exposed to expansion, despite all the sacrifices and willingness to change for the Toronto Legion. 

I honestly felt -- when I submitted that update on the protection lists -- like I had betrayed the loyalty I was building with them, but I realized that only one of the Gutzwiler brothers was actually active and updating, which is one of those unfortunate events I was talking about. After that realization, I added the active brother back to the list, and dropped a prospect I didn't think anyone would take in the expansion: Anigbogu.  

Surprise! 

Muff tried, but he was again protected just a few days before the lists were finalized, suddenly now a 'good in hindsight' decision. 

Honestly it wasn't, it was just the natural thing to do. 

Leon Gutzwiler was inactive, hasn't updated since the last week of May, so why would I protect him over an active prospect? 

Here's the thing. 

Toronto was kinda burned, and I think I can realistically say that, because the prospect that returned -- Frence -- retired after some petty drama that was exchanged between himself and members of both the Saskatoon and Mexico franchises. When he retired the only logical move was to protect Anigbogu, who was originally on the list anyway, so it all worked out for Toronto in the end, at least I think it did. I'll admit Shaposhnikov was never protected, and he was taken from the Legion late in the expansion draft, but I knew that he was the only piece an expansion team would want after our list was fully finalized. 

Toronto's finalized list had them protecting Magnum, Hextall, Killinger, McDagg, Elmebeck, G. Gutzwiler, Gainer and Anigbogu. 

Fun fact... originally Toronto's protection list didn't have them protecting Killinger. I figured expansion GMs wouldn't pick him because they'd know I wouldn't play for their club, a situation similar to Davos' Jokinen, but I figured I wouldn't be an asshole and protected my player from the expansion anyway. I felt like the spirit of competition, the ethics not the rule, applied to this so I did the right thing. I protected Killinger, even though I wouldn't have played for the expansion teams, when I could have abused the technicality and squeezed just a little more out of Toronto than I was able too. 

Then again... I didn't have to do that, anyway. 

Frence retired, L. Gutzwiler went inactive, and the protection list seemed to just melt into place almost naturally. 

Anyway, that's a wrap for this article. 

Those who actually read it, I appreciate you reading it.

[diamond_ace 3,106]

I only protected Havlova and not Kefka, but I would have played for a team had they taken Kefka - he's old and not that good anyway