Looking at and Grading Every Expansion Team

[Gustav 6,407]

...did somebody say EXPANSION? Funny how one word can send the entire league into panic mode and give @Beaviss a dopamine rush to rival his greatest "this one time I got wasted at the club" stories. Since I joined the league, expansion has never quite ceased to be a topic of conversation--either we were bringing in new teams in any given season, or people were talking about it and saying we needed to do that (and you can take a guess as to whomst). This season saw the biggest expansion in VHL history--take the big news of Prague and DC back in S67 and double that. We have four new teams, and that means a hell of a lot more work for me the next time I want to do a "look at every team in the league" article. I digress, as I'll save myself from that this week. This week, we look at expansion teams only--how they did in the expansion draft, how they did in the regular draft, and then, everybody's favorite, an overall rating for each. Hopefully this is accurate, reasonable, and not too boring. Let's get on with it.

 

 

CHICAGO PHOENIX

GM: @JeffD

 

The Expansion Draft: I can't say I loved Chicago's choices early on, but they made some nice ones at later points here. Would draft position be an early-expansion-draft consideration had Chicago chosen to go for a player or a pick at second overall rather than the first draft slot (among the expansion teams) in the VHL draft? It could be hard to tell. Personally, I like Arthur Dayne (who was picked at 3) as a solid choice at #2, but let's not get too hung up on that. All things considered, though, I'm a fan of most of their other picks here. Future draft picks are always good (and, might I add, are more valuable than the expansion draft made them seem) and there are easily solid players left to be had in the early second round--that 21st overall in S74, picked at #15, will likely be scary with that being the S66 recreate class. Syreck, dan, and Shaposhnikov all have second-line potential on a solid team, meaning that Chicago may have put their future supporting cast (Hi Victor! I promise I'm getting to that HoF article of yours) in order already.

 

The Draft: Chicago put their prime draft real estate to work with their first pick, the fairly high-risk, high-reward Jean Pierre Camus. Whether this pays off remains to be seen--solas' last player was underwhelming, but he's also made the Hall of Fame twice and is still relatively proven as a league vet. Matty Socks was a solid second-round choice, I'm a big fan of S Kuchar at 27th overall, and Joromir Jogr could end up being a third-round steal if a week of inactivity doesn't signal his demise. For a bit of a cherry on top, Chicago earns the title of "best name selected" with XxMouthCreamxX going in the 4th.

 

Overall: 6/10. Jeff has done a great job finding solid options later on, but I'm not entirely convinced that Chicago made the right choices at the top. This could go either way.

 

 

LONDON UNITED

GM: @McWolf

 

The Expansion Draft: You'd be hard-pressed to find a team who came out of the expansion draft with more on the player side than London. Jay Jones, left unprotected by Riga, was the pool's most promising prospect by far, and so it follows that he became the first player selected. James Rose is another young active while Keith Krestanovich is a league vet and a consistent, proven commodity. Throw this together with a 22nd-overall selection in S74, and it's a strong class already--oh wait! I forgot! Guy Lesieur went to London in the expansion draft too! Here's a high-earning vet who doesn't quite figure to be a part of the team's long-term future, but could make them more successful than the rest for now if he stays around and will also be a highly flippable asset should team management choose to move him elsewhere. All in all, probably the best expansion draft we've got.

 

The Draft: The regular draft was a tiny bit less impressive than the expansion. The big news came in the first round with the selection of Alec Volchenkov at 12th. While not necessarily a bad choice, Volchenkov, like Camus, also raises an eyebrow or two as being a player whose agent went inactive after the draft in S66. The Terrible Trivium could end up being a solid depth option, but per his agent he won't be a max earner anytime soon. After that, one player to keep an eye on is Tim Kamashev, a practice-facility-only player picked up in the third round. If properly contacted and given instruction by team management, Kamashev might end up developing at a faster rate and turning into an instant steal.

 

Overall: 6/10...but for entirely different reasons. I love everything about London's expansion draft, but the entry draft could leave something to be desired. Maybe Jeff did have the right idea going for the higher draft slot after all...

 

 

LOS ANGELES STARS

GM: @Josh

 

The Expansion Draft: It's incredibly difficult to judge the merits of LA's expansion draft as it wasn't until the selection of Gary Neal at #20 that they ended up with an immediate asset who even has a chance at being a part of the team's long-term plans. With the second entry draft position, two picks, and two players who will likely be flipped for younger players or picks at some point (Sigard Gunnar and Markus Nygren), a lot remains to be seen for the Stars. Regardless, I like what LA got--the lack of players already developed (at least, those which Josh probably intends to keep around on a long-term basis) brings about quite a bit of "what if," and there is definite risk involved, but the picks selected, and the probable value of the players, equates to a whole bunch of second-round talent. If this leads to even one player who far exceeds second-round expectations, LA's done great. Of course, any team has the ability to do this--but LA will have more shots at it than any other.

 

The Draft: Jeffrey Pines will probably end up on the wrong end of this season's edition of "Bust or Lick," but it's my opinion that he's the best first-round choice out of the expansion teams' picks. A first-gen talent with whom I was largely unfamiliar, I was surprised to see his hiring as Hounds AGM come so soon into his VHL career--but lurking around Hounds Discord as all good former GMs should, I can vouch for his activity and dedication, with the only red flag being first-gen status. Mikeal Keef is a nice, consistently earning defenseman, and the team may have found their goaltender of the future in Drew Minott. Jiggly Gumballs, per my lurking experience in Houston, is one of the draft's most underrated players, and even third-round choice Janiina Juutila is a consistent welfare earner. There's a lot to love about this class.

 

Overall: 8/10. I'm really impressed by how the entry draft went for the Stars, and with a crop of players like the ones they've got from there, they're in perfect position to use the pool of future assets they picked up through expansion to gather players based on need and hunt for steals. LA might peak a bit later than the others, but they're on track for the most success at the moment.

 

 

WARSAW PREDATORS

GM: @.sniffuM

 

The Expansion Draft: Aside from the second-to-last Entry Draft slot, Warsaw ended up with a grand total of three picks and two players. Though I'd stick with my general feeling that London won the expansion draft, Warsaw made it a tough decision--three 2nd-rounders plus two of the more solid players in the pool is great. Though Infernal has been guilty of disappearing once (or twice maybe? I don't remember), Dayne is a great earner, while Alex Bridges has endured a hiccup or two to remain active but figures to be a solid player at the beginning of Warsaw's good seasons. Throw in the picks and the Predators have a solid group of assets.

 

The Draft: I'm a fan! Dakota Lamb, first-round selection at #10, is quite active in the league server and one of the best first-gen talents of the class, while Ajay Krishna a few picks later represents the team's possible franchise goaltender once he overtakes incumbent Nicolas Fomba. Victor Grachev is a solid pick while Jeremy Lin could find his way onto the team's second line at some point. Maybe not the quantity of players picked up by the Stars, but good scouting was done and solid picks were made. 

 

Overall: 7/10. Barring some good use of assets on Josh's part, Warsaw easily had the second-best expansion draft. Solid choices continued to be made in the entry draft, and though the Predators probably aren't the best-set-up team, they do enough to stand out that they've earned a notch over Chicago and London so far.

 

 

I do hope this is a fair interpretation of current affairs; maybe in five seasons' time I'll follow this up with an article about how wrong I was about everything here. I'll just have to remember I said that...

 

 

 

1,533 words and good for three weeks. You know the deal.

[Plate 386]

Review

You need to do this with every team sir. If you stop coming up with good ideas then you can find the time to at least finish some of them! I don't know what it is about the league and preferring the middle margin text look, but honestly I'm not on that train. As for the article itself, you gave pretty conclusive reasons as to why you thought a team ended up where they did. Rather, why a team ended up with the score they did. I thought Chicago was actually a bit lower than where they should have been. Building for the future makes you worse early on, but better the more time passes. It's way harder to pull off too. I assume London wanted to trade down farther in the first to pick Alec Volchenkov, but couldn't make a deal happen beyond the 12th selection. I really liked the pictures to break up the text and it flowed pretty nicely. The only thing I would recommend is when you do a score system. Rating things out of 10, that you establish the criteria for the rating at the start. In this case you could say rating the teams out of tradeable assets, draft selection, and future picks. Other than that it was really solid. 

 

Score

Content: 9/10

Format: 8.5/10

Flow: 9.5/10

 

I really liked this article. The reason why I give it such a low score on the format is because the text isn't left margined, but I might be the only person on that train. I can't wait to see you do one for the rest of the league. 

[Victor 10,940]

11 hours ago, GustavMattias said:

cast (Hi Victor! I promise I'm getting to that HoF article of yours)

tick tock tick tock

[eaglesfan036 4,603]

I feel like we should give expansion teams more assets they come in too weak

[Victor 10,940]

2 hours ago, eaglesfan036 said:

I feel like we should give expansion teams more assets they come in too weak

we tried that with Malmo and look at them now

[Gustav 6,407]

This got interrupted by the birthday triples week, but here's my week 2 claim.

[samx 1,173]

Review:

 

Nice Job!! This was very well written. Good detail and explanation to the grades have to each team. The formatting was good. It was easy to follow and very clear on to what you were talking about. I like that you added images to this to give it a pop of color. One of the best articles I have read recently.

 

9/10

[Rhynex Entertainment 481]

As a new player coming into VHL. This is an amazing overview of the expansion and growth of this gaming league! I didn't even know there was a growth of 4 new teams (being I joined after the expansion). Very nice design! Great job well done! 10/10

[Gustav 6,407]

Third and final claim on this article