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 Believe it or not this past season marked the 5th year anniversary of the Phantoms/Dragons expansion draft of Season 68.  Time really flies here in the VHL and now we're here going through yet another expansion but with double the amount of teams being introduced.  During the last five years the Phantoms organisation seemed to have been able to build a solid team culture and enjoyable locker room environment. Not only that, the Phantoms truly gained an identity. Since their inaugural season the Phantoms have always iced a team that would play on the edge of the line and would play a heavy, physical brand of hockey and just try to intimidate their opponent throughout the game. Every year you can guarantee that the Phantoms would end the year being one of the VHL leaders in Penalty Minutes. In order to celebrate the 5 year milestone of Phantoms hockey, I'll be reviewing the Phantom's top individual seasons to date in my opinion. 

 

Season 68, D, Wolf Stansson Jr. @Cornholio

 

WSJ has been the prime example of consistency over his tenure with the Phantoms. Every season he's played he's been among the Phantoms top scorers, and currently has 5x 45+ point seasons under his belt despite being a defense man. He also leads in three all time phantom catagories as he leads the team in total games played (tied with Pearson + Perrin @ 360 Games) , assists (197) and points (269). Season 68 wasn't WSJ's best season per say but it was the most impressive one to date. Season 68 was Prague's first season and they iced a team where 75% of it's players were rookies in the VHL. They only had one veteran player on the squad in Mountain Thunderfist but lets face it he was never considered great at his peak, let alone on the last leg of his career. The team stunk hard as they finished near the bottom of the standings that season and was able to score the 1st overall pick of the next draft (Cinnamon Block). WSJ however turned heads that year as he finished his rookie year with an incredible 58 points. He ended up leading all Phantoms players in ice time that year playing almost a whopping 30 minutes a game! Sadly due to how poor the team was right out of the gate and just how often he was on the ice, he ended the season -35 in plus/minus and forever tarnishing his career plus/minus totals just from that one season. Considering this was an expansion season I would still deem this season to be one of the best ever in a Phantoms jersey. 

 

Season 69, F, Alex Pearson @Jayrad28

 

Alex Pearson is a four time 50 point getter for the team and was versatile enough to be used either at center at wing throughout his Phantom's career. This year is rumoured to be Pearson's last season as years of rough Phantoms brand hockey and partying has finally started catching up to him so it's only fitting that I feature him on this list. Pearson wasn't always the old fuck you know today as for a while Pearson was one of the Phantoms top offensive players, there's a reason why he's 2nd on the Phantom's all time scoring list. For me his season in S69 stuck out to me as being one of the best season ever had by a Phantom. Season 69 was the darkest time in the Phantoms short history as they finished near the bottom of the VHL standings and out of the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row.  However one bright spot on that terrible year was Alex Pearson. He didn't end up leading the team in scoring either after finishing 2nd after Erik Draven. However he was the only member on the whole squad that year that ended the year above even for plus/minus. 

 

Season 70, F, Roll Fizzlebeef @TacticalHammer

 

Fizzlebeef was acquired from the Calgary Wranglers after Season 69 in return for a 1st round pick (General Zod) and a third rounder (KSI) and his impact was immediate. He was the team's primary offensive weapon for a couple seasons when the team was just starving for offense and were mainly just playing boring shutdown hockey reminiscent of the NHL's New Jersey Devils of the early 2000s.  Fizzlebeef ended up leading the Phantoms in scoring in two out of his three seasons here including Season 70. In S70, he managed to lead the team in scoring by 18 points as he ended the year being the only player on the team to reach the 50 and 60 point marks by hitting 66 points for the year. He also added quite a bit of energy to his team with his team leading 214 hits that year further solidifying Prague's reputation of a team everyone dreaded to play against. 

 

Season 71, D, Cinnamon Block @omgitshim

 

After being selected 1st overall in the S69 VHL Draft, Block was beyond ready for the VHL when she was drafted as she finished her last year in the minors with over 80 points and being an insane +82 playing for the Los Vegas Aces. Since her rookie season she's been the main piece of the Phantoms big three on the blue line consisting of Block, WSJ and Perrin. Her year in season 71 was her breakout year, it's the season she truly became elite. She dominated at both ends of the ice while maintaining the Phantoms rough style of play. She lead the team in scoring that year with 69 points and plus/mins (19) and this still stands as the best season ever by a Phantom's defense man. 

 

Season 71, G, Brick Wahl @BladeMaiden

 

Wow has it already been a year since Wahl's retirement? It felt like it was just yesterday that we witnessed Wahl absolutely clean up at the S71 VHL Awards Show after winning 5 awards. He won the Dustin Funk Trophy for most improved player, the Brett Slobodzian Trophy for most outstanding player, the Greg Clegane Trophy for the lowest GAA, the Aidan Shaw Trophy for top goaltender and the Scotty Campbell Trophy for league MVP. So it's easy to say that the year Wahl had is by far the best season ever had by any member of the Phantoms to date. The only thing that was lacking to make that it the perfect season is a Continental Cup Win to add to that long list of awards. But, their playoff inexperience caused them to crash and burn in the first round of the playoffs. Still, what a way to bow out of the VHL.

 

Season 72, F, Thomas Landry II @Doomsday

 

Season 71 was a good year for the Prague's long time offensive woes. It featured 5 different 60 point players and the team's very first 30 goal scorer! Landry was drafted in the first round in S70 and had his breakout season this year and became the team's first player to hit to 30 goal mark with 34 goals as he's looking like he's set to be one of the VHL's next premier goal scorers for a long time. Not only did Landry set a new career high but so did both of his line mates, Ondrej Ohradka and Roll Fizzlebeef.  

 

Season 72, F, Roll Fizzlebeef

 

Like I mentioned earlier on in this media spot, Fizzlebeef lead the team in scoring twice during his three year tenure as a Phantoms. One of them was featured earlier on in my media spot the other was in Season 71 playing with two goal scorers in Landry and Ohradka. Old man Fizzlebeef  who was on his last season of his career like the rest of his line mates had a career year. He finished the season 9 points ahead of WSJ for the team lead with 76 points which is the most points scored by a Phantom in a season. This is also the first ever point per game season ever had by a Phantom! The retiring Phantoms always have  funny a way to leave the VHL with a lasting impression. 

 

 

Originally I was only going to list 5 in this article to represent the 5 seasons of Phantoms hockey but I just couldn't make my mind up on just 5.  

 

Edited by Seabass
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