Dream (Player/Manager) Team: Reno Style!

[Renomitsu 934]

Reno’s Dream Team: Pulling From A List Of My Former GMs

 

W1a Julius Freeman @rjfryman – C1 Rylan Peace @Peace – W1b Elias Dahlberg @Nykonax

D1 Ryan Sullivan @Advantage – D2 Alex Letang @Spartan

G Kallis Kriketers @hedgehog337

 

The first thing you might notice is the variety of old and new heads in the league: while the likes of Nykonax, RJ, and Spartan have been around for two years or less, there’s a contingent of this team – namely Advantage and hedgehog – that feature very prominently in league history. We’ll start from the defense on up, but the criterion for this list is clear: you must have managed one or more of my players in some way, shape, or form to make this list. It narrows the list considerably, but hey, that makes it really easy for me, right?

 

The goalie for this squad shouldn’t be any surprise: it’s Riga’s long-time elite netminder Kallis Kriketers (hedgehog337). Apollo Hackett played with Kriketers for four seasons of his career and put part of a championship-level defense together for multiple seasons. He’s a four-time Clegane, three-time Shaw, and one-time Slobo and Campbell winner, and perhaps one of Apollo’s greatest career regrets was never getting Kriketers back to the cup. But Hedge has been sleeping in his Riga office as long as most current players in the league can remember, and there’s little dispute that he’s able to put together a perennial playoff contender no matter how bleak the chances are. As far as I’m concerned, in spite of his one title Kriketers is one of the all-time greats at goalie and has set a standard for netminders in this era.

 

Admittedly not everyone here has been my GM since I returned to sim leagues: in fact, Advantage and I go way back in sim leagues. Like, ten years or more in sim leagues. He was around when I first made my foray into the VHL in Season 16 with my defenseman Hiro Renomitsu, and even before that when we played in a long-defunct sim league in Madden Madness. He’s the one remnant of sim leagues that I can remember from the early days (well, except for maybe Bushito, but he goes further back in sim leagues than I’ve lived as far as I’m concerned) as the GM of the Thunder Bay Titans. We competed for CB of the Year every single season along with Taylor Green, and I can’t imagine a better guy to have by my side on a dream team. I may have never played with Advantage in the VHL so long as I’ve been active, but he and I have known each other for way too long not to include on this list. Plus, he's managed my player at some point in the distant, distant past - that still counts!

 

The second defenseman here is a relatively recent hire in Spartan – who’s really only been at sim leagues for a handful of months but has managed a clear impact on both the VHL and EFL thus far with his podcast The Spartan & Fishy Show, a VHLM GM position, and an EFL minors (ECFA) athletic directorship in spite of his relative newness. Though he’s just two seasons into his VHL career proper (as he did spend two full seasons in the M), he’s proven a rock-solid consistent earner and an increasingly high-impact player on a Moscow team that few expected to dominate the league in the fashion they have thus far. He’s not afraid of crossing over between the two leagues and has proven a top commodity in both: while Letang was drafted at 11^th overall in the S72 VHL Draft, an envious position for a first-generation player, he was drafted at No. 1 in two consecutive EFL Drafts with his wide receiver and linebacker. While I’ve only been his player for a fraction of a VHLM season, my interactions with him go back to when he first started with sim leagues. Wouldn’t you want him on your Dream Team?

 

Our first forward is now-retired winger Julius Freeman, who’s managed by none other than rjfryman. A defining member of the VHL Scouting Combine for lord-knows-how-many-seasons, Fryman has only been a part of the VHL for a couple of years (joining back in mid-2018). Most current members can’t imagine the pre- and post-draft TPE rankings or recruitment without him, and he set the pace of the S66 class with his earning on Freeman. Indeed, were it not for Beaviss, Freeman would have been a clear #1 for the Season 66 Class with a massive 1,741 TPE at the end of his career. He’s as decorated as nearly any forward in VHL history comes, with three Brooks trophies, two victory cups, a championship, and a Scott Boulet Trophy on top of it all for good measure. RJ was Aloe Dear’s VHLM GM for a full season, which technically puts him just a smidge over Spartan in terms of longevity.

 

Shoring up the defensive pair could have been Peace – who has a fantastic defenseman in Erik Killinger in the thick of his career currently. But I’d argue that he’s perhaps better known for his eponymous centerman Rylan Peace, who himself managed a Founder’s Cup and Victory Cup but could never grab a hold of the ever-elusive championship in his six short seasons. Though his owner considers him a disappointment, Rylan Peace was a centerpiece of his franchises and perpetually lifted Davos and Toronto to higher heights than they’d otherwise be able to.

 

And how could I not include Nykonax in the mix? He seems to follow me wherever I go: at this stage, he’s been my VHL AGM and teammate (twice!), EFL GM, ECFA teammate, SMJHL GM, and ISFL/DSFL teammate. He’s inescapable. I don’t understand how we always end up on the same team in some way, shape, or form. And while his deadpan style of humor may not be everyone’s cup of tea, he’s certainly been influential in my sim league career since returning a year and a half ago. I’ve earned VHL, EFL, and DSFL championships with him, and we’ve won awards as part of a massively successful team together in the ECFA. He probably makes more fun of my status as a deeply-indebted med student than anyone else and seems to know his way around managing a team (even if I meme him for it on a regular basis). Dahlberg earns criticism for having just one over-the-top season (a 105 point affair across S65 that earned him a Funk Trophy), but there’s little doubt in my mind his player would gel well with the high-earning fanatics in Freeman and Peace.

 

(~1,100 words, for Theme Week)

[Spartan 4,562]

58 minutes ago, Renomitsu said:

rock-solid consistent earner

I hope folks aren't still concerned with first-gen burnout anymore . Honored to be on your dream team