The Road to Escondido

[Smarch 3,209]

The Road to Escondido

After a horrid Regular Season last year, the San Diego Marlins went into the Season Seventy-Three VHLM Draft Lottery with a twenty-fiver percent chance of nabbing the First Overall draft pick. That’s exactly what happened during the live stream of the Draft Lottery, as General Manger InstantRockstar watched one of San Diego’s twenty-five balls drawn first.

With a mountain of picks to work with outside the First choice, the Marlins looked set to move into the draft looking to make a splash. The Marlins ended up making eleven selections the night of the Season Seventy-Three VHLM Dispersal Draft, including three picks in the first round. In this week’s media spot we will take a look at some of those draft picks and the impact they may have on the roster as the season goes on.

 

John Merrick (1^st Overall):

When you get the First Overall pick in a professional sports draft, you damn well better hit a home run. Luckily for San Diego that’s just what they did with the selection of Merrick. After joining the Mexico City Kings at the trade deadline last year, Merrick showcased his talents with an impressive sixteen points in twenty-six games. He also followed that up with ten points in eighteen playoff games. Impressive numbers for a player that joined the roster more than half-way through the season. Now with that half a season of experience, and being one of the best players in the league and on the Marlins roster, big things are going to be expected of the American forward.  Merrick will be looking to add a Founder Cup with the Marlins to his young resume before he heads off to Toronto to pull on a Legion jersey in Season Seventy-Five.

 

John LeClair II (9^th Overall):

LeClair is another draftee that joined the league last season at the trade deadline. At the time of the VHLM Dispersal Draft, LeClair has the lowest points earned of the First Round Draftees. San Diego clearly saw something they liked in the winger, as they used their second draft choice, ninth overall to pick LeClair. LeClair will bring his style of hockey to San Diego, which for those of you don’t know is punishing the opposing players. LeClair showed a little bit of that style of play in this twenty-two games with the Philadelphia Reapers last season, throwing thirty hits in his short season. LeClair ramped up his physical play in the post-season, putting up thirty-four hits in twelve playoff games. Fans in San Diego should fall in love with LeClair very quickly in the season if he continues those numbers.

 

Ryan Schwarz (12^th Overall):

The third straight draftee that was selected by the Marlins that joined the league at the deadline, Schwarz turns a lot of heads when he is first noticed on the ice. Schwarz tops the scales at 6’8 and 250lbs, but the main competent of his game is surprisingly not throwing that big body around.  Schwarz’s scouting report raves about the Germans ability to put the puck in the back of the net. After joining the Houston Bulls with twenty games remaining in Season Seventy-Two, Schwarz wasn’t able to really show those skills with a team that only one eight games last season. Now on a roster that should be an improvement over last season, the thought is that Schwarz should see much better numbers than his two goal and three-point performance with Houston.

 

 

Doug Dimmadome (14^th Overall):

The first goaltender off the board during the draft, Dimmadome comes to San Diego with a lot to prove. After only appearing in two games last season with Las Vegas, the fifty-year-old looks to be in line for a full season workload for the Marlins in Season Seventy-Three. Dimmadome should have a strong defensive core in front of him, that will hopefully help cut down on his workload each night, the Marlins are also hoping that Dimmadome will help steal a few games while the young roster grows early on in the year. After being drafted there was a point of confusion for Dimmadome and fans of the Marlins when the franchise selected another staring caliber goalie Calvin Harvey with the final pick of Round Three. After some quick discussions with the other franchises in the league, Harvey was shipped off to Minnesota, leaving Dimmadome as the only man between the pipes for the Season Seventy-Three Marlins.

 

Lucifer Olivier Leveque (19^th Overall):

Leveque is an interesting draftee for the Marlins, as he likely has the highest expectations of all of the Marlins draftees’ thanks to his agency. Leveque just happens to be represented by the team’s General Manager InstantRockstar, who also runs a respected VHL agency. Leveque is coming off a twenty-two game trial run in the league with the Las Vegas Aces, a trail run that didn’t go as expected fort Leveque. Leveque is billed as an offensive defenseman in his VHL scouting report, but he just couldn’t find his footing with the Aces. Leveque managed only two assists in those twenty-two games with the Aces, while also putting home only one goal in the Aces six playoff games. Leveque has the second highest points earned amongst defenseman on the Marlins roster heading into the season, so fans of the Marlins can expect those number to be improved on this season.

 

Bjorn Wilhelm von Luxembourg (31^st overall):

The Marlins dipped back into the forward pool with the Thirty-First selection in the Dispersal Draft with the selection of German center Bjorn Wilhelm von Luxembourg. Another latecomer to the VHLM last-season, Luxembourg is a past first centerman, a rarity in this day and age of VHL hockey. Luxembourg joined the last place Bulls last season for the final twenty games of the season, putting up two assists in those twenty games. With only seventy-five practice hours heading into the season, Luxembourg will need to continue to show up to practice each week, but if he does the Marlins should have a quality player for this season and possibly next season as well.  

 

*Claiming for 2 weeks(Jul 12-18 & 19-25)

 

[Smarch 3,209]

 

Claiming week 2/2

Edited July 26, 2020 by Smarch