A Muffin's Take on A S20s VHL Dream Team

[.sniffuM 1,741]

I apologize for the unattractive look of the stats in quote tags. I didn't know the league was horrible monsters and got rid of the spoilers tag.

 

With this season’s theme week being dream teams, I wanted to shine a light on an era that is very near and dear to my heart but that doesn’t get as much love because of time passed: the S20s. Our index archives go back to S20, allowing me to paint a full picture of this era that following the league-defining S18 superdraft. I’ll go through each of these ten seasons, note the key teams and players for them, and then build a S20s VHL dream team based on the 12 best INDIVIDUAL season performances of the decade. Let’s get it.

 

Season 20

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

Tarik Saeijs, Riga (F) – 71G, 86A, 157P, 12.35% SHT%, 99HIT

Max Kroenenburg, Riga (F) – 70G, 87A, 157P, 12.73% SHT%, 217HIT

Lars Berger, Toronto (F) – 70G, 72A, 142P, 16.02% SHT%, 213HIT

Jardy Bunclewirth, Calgary (F) – 61G, 69A, 130P, 13.32% SHT%, 278HIT

Patrick Bergqvist, Davos (D) – 30G, 114A, 144P, 170HIT, 159SB

Voittu Jannula, Davos (D) – 35G, 87A, 122P, 138HIT, 138SB

Japinder Singh, New York (D) – 31G, 82A, 113P, 225HIT, 260SB

Aidan Shaw, Toronto (G) – 50-13-3, .929SV%, 1.98GAA, 7SO

Daisuke Kanou, Davos (G) – 50-10-3, .922SV%, 2.12GAA, 10SO

 

Season 20 is when a talented Toronto team really took the next step in VHL contention, as can be seen by Aidan Shaw’s ridiculous statline in net against a high-flying era of scoring. Davos, of course, was no slouch either, with key S18 draftees Anton Brekker and the most-hyped draft prospect of all-time Daisuke Kanou establishing themselves as top-flight players. A top-heavy Riga Reign team made for a solid third wheel in this season, but in the end they didn’t have the goaltending necessary to keep pace with the aforementioned teams, although they still pushed Davos to seven games in the European Conference Finals. Once these two giants did clash, it was Davos who would win the last two games of the series to take home the cup in seven games.

 

There is no shortage of elite performances to pull from here. One thing I wanted to mention that is this era in a nutshell is that, not only did defenseman Patrick Bergqvist reach 100 assists, but a second defenseman did as well: Toronto’s Frans Spellman. But, with 28 hits and 123 shots blocked, his peripheral numbers were not quite impressive enough to put him over Bergqvist’s linemate Voittu Jannula or Japinder Singh, the New York Americans rookie who benefitted from being on a bad team to put up one of the most legendary rookie performances in league history.

 

Season 21

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

Jardy Bunclewirth, Calgary (F) – 59G, 77A, 136P, 13.53% SHT%, 243H

Markus Strauss, Seattle (F) – 60G, 73A, 133P, 12.30% SHT%, 53H

Cam Fowler, Seattle (F) – 55G, 53A, 108P, 13.45% SHT%, 320H

Geno Esposito, Seattle (D) – 31G, 63A, 94P, 119H, 141SB

Voittu Jannula, Toronto (D) – 22G, 70A, 92P, 182H, 108SB

Japinder Singh, New York (D) – 25G, 64A, 89P, 202H, 243SB

Aidan Shaw, Toronto (G) – 50-11-3, .932SV%, 1.86GAA, 8SO

Daisuke Kanou, Davos (G) – 39-22-4, .926SV%, 2.61GAA, 3SO

 

Sanity returned to the VHL, as not a single team topped 300 goals after half of the teams in the league did the previous season, and scoring in general dropped over 11%. The Toronto Legion remained the cocks of the walk thanks to Aidan Shaw’s legendary goaltending, but conference rival Seattle was able to make the moves necessary to be more of a threat for the Continental Cup. Davos was forced to re-tool some, dropping them below Riga in the regular season standings, but most considered the Toronto-Seattle North American Conference Finals to be the true matchup of the best teams.

 

Lo and behold, Toronto was able to pull out the Bears series in seven games, with Lars Berger burying the series-winner in triple overtime. Davos, meanwhile, was able to see off a stronger Riga team to set up a finals re-match, but this time Toronto would prevail, finally giving this superteam a Cup win.

 

As you can see from the Key Player Performances, the drop in scoring hit the players pretty hard. Whereas two defensemen picked up over 100 points last season just off of assists, no defenseman in Season 21 reached that mark overall. Japinder Singh continues to rack up good numbers on a bad New York team.

 

Season 22

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

Markus Strauss, Seattle (F) – 61G, 70A, 131P, 11.13% SHT%, 39HIT

Lars Berger, Toronto (F) – 47G, 73A, 120P, 11.19% SHT%, 277HIT

Anton Brekker, Davos (F) – 57G, 61A, 118P, 12.50% SHT%, 257HIT

Geno Esposito, New York (D) – 29G, 57A, 86P, 152HIT, 157SB

Vadim Volkov, Davos (D) – 24G, 67A, 91P, 37HIT, 149SB

James Bencharski, Toronto (D) – 17G, 72A, 89P, 182HIT, 101SB

Aidan Shaw, Toronto (G) – 57-4-2, .933SV%, 1.62GAA, 10SO

Daisuke Kanou, Davos (G) – 43-13-8, .922SV%, 2.17GAA, 7SO

 

This season was dominated wire-to-wire by Toronto, who won 27 of their first 29 games en route to finishing 62-8-2, a 126 point total that was 27 points ahead of the next-best team. Seattle and Riga both entered rebuilds, with Calgary and Helsinki, respectively, taking their places in the Cup running. Toronto would run into issues come postseason, though. They lost the first two games of the series and three of the first four, with two of those losses being shutouts, before Aidan Shaw put the Legion on his back and got them to a game seven where the offense finally woke up to win the series. On the other end, Helsinki and Davos were evenly-matched, with both teams finishing the regular season at 99 points and this series also going to seven. Helsinki would start the series up 3-1, but Davos would storm back before running out of steam against the upstart Titans.

 

Toronto’s series against Calgary may have been surprisingly sweaty, but they still had to be the favorite over Helsinki. The Titans would claim the first game of the series, however, before faltering in game two. Games three and four would see Helsinki continue to stifle Toronto’s offense, with both games ending in Titan wins and setting the team up for a big upset. After struggling to score and dropping game six, Helsinki was able to pull it off, winning 4-3 in game six to end the Legion’s repeat bid.

 

Overall, there were no particularly dominant performances for players, so it remains to be seen if this season will claim a spot on the dream team. I will also take a second to pour one out for my homie Joey Clarence, my first successful VHL player; for a second straight season, he played well but was the clear third-best goalie behind Shaw and Kanou.

 

Season 23

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

Tarik Saeijs, Helsinki (F) – 58G, 68A, 126P, 12.69% SHT%, 114HIT

Jukka Hakkinen, New York (F) – 57G, 64A, 121P, 13.35% SHT%, 177HIT

Lars Berger, Toronto (F) – 53G, 59A, 112P, 12.10% SHT%, 308HIT

Anton Brekker, Davos (F) – 40G, 70A, 110P, 10.10% SHT%, 314HIT

Adam Schultz, Davos (D) – 36G, 61A, 97P, 159HIT, 142SB

Fantastic McAwesome, New York (D) – 25G, 52A, 77P, 320HIT, 208SB

Japinder Singh, Davos (D) – 21G, 73A, 94P, 192HIT, 114SB

Jakob Kjeldsen, Helsinki (G) – 46-15-3, .927SV%, 1.77GAA, 11SO

Daisuke Kanou, Davos (G) – 48-10-6, .926SV%, 1.89GAA, 8SO

 

Scoring continued to dip, with Season 23 down a full 27.5% on goals compared to Season 20 and even down 17% from a much more subdued Season 21. Davos was able to successfully re-tool into the best team in the VHL, finishing at 111 points, just ahead of the reigning champion Helsinki Titans, who had 107 points. The North American Conference saw a repeat for its playoff teams as well, with Toronto leading at 97 points and Calgary finishing just behind at 96. The European Conference was able to flip the script after being seen as the definite weaker conference just two seasons prior.

 

Helsinki was able to win the duel of the VHL’s best teams, disposing Davos in six games. In the NA, meanwhile, Calgary was dominated by Toronto 5-2 to open their series, before Joey Clarence allowed just three goals on 71 shots against in the following four games, all Calgary wins. Thus, the Wranglers and the Titans would meet in the Season 23 Continental Cup Finals, a matchup of the “other” S18 goalies, Clarence and Kjeldsen. Although Calgary would start out down 2-1 and later 3-2, the team was able to win the Cup in seven with a Joey Clarence shutout, giving me my first ever VHL Cup win.

 

There are some solid two-way seasons for forwards in here, but overall the scoring blight can continue to be felt. Fantastic McAwesome replaced Japinder Singh as the New York defenseman that puts up big numbers on a bad team, Japinder Singh went to Davos and helped establish them as a strong team once again, and Joey Clarence once again finished just barely third among the goalies I would put in the Key Player Performances.

 

Season 24

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

Mathias Chouinard, Calgary/Davos (F) – 57G, 67A, 124P, 13.19% SHT%, 33HIT (74GP)

Peyton Nydroj, Toronto (F) – 58G, 63A, 121P, 13.24% SHT%, 32HIT

Lars Berger, Vasteras (F) – 57G, 51A, 108P, 11.68% SHT%, 261HIT

Phil Gerard, Toronto (F) – 49G, 73A, 122P, 12.28% SHT%, 143HIT

Adam Schultz, Toronto (D) – 25G, 59A, 84P, 112HIT, 110SB

Dante Terragni, Calgary/New York (D) – 20G, 62A, 82P, 143HIT, 151SB (73GP)

Fantastic McAwesome, New York (D)- 25G, 42A, 67P, 274H, 119SB

Aidan Shaw, Toronto (G) – 47-13-4, .931SV%, 1.77GAA, 9SO

Daisuke Kanou, Davos (G) – 51-10-1, .928SV%, 1.73GAA, 11SO

 

This season would take the crown from S22 for the least goals scored in the decade so far at 1,610, now less than 70% from the insane S20 total. The European Conference would see Helsinki and Davos reign supreme once again, while New York took the re-tooling Calgary’s spot alongside Toronto in the NA. In the playoffs, New York did not have the quality to hold up against a revitalized Legion squad, falling in five games; Davos and Helsinki, however, was a matchup of two talented teams that battled hard all season, with Davos barely taking the regular season edge against the Titans 5-4. So they met up in the playoffs and… Davos rolled to a win in five, holding Helsinki to six total goals in the series and setting up a huge series between the VHL’s best teams.

 

At this point, Shaw and Kanou had already secured themselves as legends of the game; this season would mark the fifth consecutive year a Season 18 goalie wins a cup, but would see the two legends duel to be the first of these goalies to do it twice. Both defenses would play stellar, with Davos in games two and six being the only instances in the series that a team eclipsed 30 shots. Despite Aidan Shaw’s best efforts, however, his Legion would fall to Daisuke Kanou’s HC Dynamo, losing in six games.

 

Obviously with scoring continuing to trend down, individual players didn’t really shine here. It is worth noting that nine of the first ten goalie spots we’ve seen so far have been occupied by the two goalies that have defined the generation, Shaw and Kanou. Also, recent Hall-of-Fame inductee Mathias Chouinard makes his first appearance on the Key Player Performances list.

 

Season 25

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

Pavel Koradek, Helsinki (F) – 64G, 71A, 135P, 12.05% SHT%, 121HIT

Matthew Boragina, Helsinki (F) – 55G, 56A, 111P, 13.10% SHT%, 166HIT

Leeroy Jenkins, Davos (F) – 40G, 65A, 105P, 13.07% SHT%, 275HIT

Kevyn Hesje, Riga (F) – 47G, 46A, 93P, 10.54% SHT%, 310HIT

Adam Schultz, Davos (D) – 33G, 77A, 110P, 138HIT, 113SB

Japinder Singh, Davos (D) – 25G, 78A, 103P, 148HIT, 138SB

James Bencharski, Vasteras (D) – 20G, 81A, 101P, 124HIT, 106SB

Benjamin Glover, New York (G) – 39-21-4, .919SV%, 2.19 GAA, 9SO

Aidan Shaw, Toronto (G) – 38-23-3, .916SV%, 2.32GAA, 7SO

 

Scoring had finally started rebounding towards the levels of the earlier seasons of this decade, as teams topped 1,700 goals for the first time since S21. For the first time in this article, Toronto did not finish as the top team in the North American Conference, but still made the playoffs at 90 points while New York came ahead with 98. Helsinki re-tooled a bit, and surrendered their playoff spot to Vasteras, who would come in at 101 points, one behind Davos for tops in both the EU and the VHL as a whole.

 

Despite New York being the better team in the regular season, I’m sure most were expecting Toronto to win the series off the back of their immense experience. In one of the most shocking results of the decade, the Americans swept the Legion, never even trailing at any point in the series. On the other side of things, there was some hope for an upstart Vasteras team that they’d be able to slay their own giant following a series-opening 3-1 win, but Davos’ offense came alive from there, and the Dynamo ended up winning the series in six. The Americans would improve their overall playoff record to 5-0 by beginning the finals with a 3-1 victory, before being outscored 13-5 in four consecutive losses to give Davos their second straight cup win and third of the Kanou era.

 

Although overall scoring rebounded, three defensemen put up 100+ point seasons after none had been able to reach that mark since S20, and Pavel Koradek ended a two-season leaguewide drought of 130+ point scorers, the numbers still don’t look to impressive for the guys on this list, at least not when compared to S20.

 

Season 26

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

Leeroy Jenkins, Helsinki (F) – 66G, 86A, 152P, 12.72% SHT%, 414HIT

Pavel Koradek, Helsinki (F) – 63G, 77A, 140P, 12.09% SHT%, 37HIT

Joe Nash, Toronto (F) – 60G, 63A, 123P, 11.67% SHT%, 333HIT

Evgeni Fyodorov, Seattle (F) – 66G, 73A, 139P, 11.83% SHT%, 194HIT

David Walcott, Helsinki (D) – 34G, 111A, 145P, 166HIT, 160SB

Kristian Carlsson, Riga/New York (D) – 27G, 81A, 108P, 149HIT, 128SB

Kasey Braun, Seattle (D) – 24G, 81A, 105P, 53HIT, 126SB

Claudio Martucci, Helsinki (G) – 44-18-2, .921SV%, 2.34GAA, 5SO

Benjamin Glover, New York (G) – 47-12-4, .918SV%, 1.91GAA, 6SO

 

 

Offense has returned to the VHL! Huzzah! With Aidan Shaw and Daisuke Kanou joining Joey Clarence and Jakub Kjeldsen in retirement, the VHL was in a heavy transitional period at the goaltender position, yielding a season that saw over 1,900 goals scored. Toronto and Davos fell into deep rebuilds following the losses of their franchise goaltenders, marking this as the first season since at least S20 that neither of them would see the postseason. New York climbed to the top of the North American Conference with their third straight playoff berth, while Seattle would occupy the second playoff spot from the NA with a strong 109-point season. Vasteras would progress into the VHL’s best regular season team, while Helsinki successfully re-tooled themselves into the second-best European conference team, leapfrogging Riga who had been rebuilding for longer.

 

As you may know, my most successful player, Tukka Reikkinen, was on Vasteras at this time. Thus, this postseason (and season in general) holds a high place in the lexicon of Muff’s VHL history. Vasteras was able to cruise past Helsinki, outscoring the Titans 19-8 in a five-game win. New York, meanwhile, dominated Seattle in game one of their series 7-3, before dropping the next two games, including a 1-0 loss in game three. The Americans rebounded with a shutout of their own in game four, however, and then won the following two games without ever trailing as well, setting themselves up with their first finals appearance of the era.

 

It would end up taking New York over 145 minutes of gametime to score their first goals against Vasteras goalie Andreas Bjorkman, as the Iron Eagles shut out the Americans in each of the first two games of the series. Vasteras would really put New York on the ropes with a 5-2 game three win, and although New York won game four 4-3, the Iron Eagles would end up securing their first cup win since the VHL’s inaugural season with a 3-2 victory in game five.

 

With offense trending back up, this season should be well-documented on the final dream team. David Walcott’s performance is right up there with S20 Patrick Bergqvist for the best at defenseman so far, and Leeroy Jenkins has, at the very least, the most impressive non-150+ point season to this point as well, breaking the league’s single-season hit record. One thing about me is I got so excited about the boom in offense that I almost forgot to include goalie stats in the Key Player Performances. Lastly, shoutout to CAL G, who had 11 shutouts as a rookie for Seattle.

 

Season 27

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

 

Tukka Reikkinen, Vasteras (F) – 78G, 74A, 152P, 13.13% SHT%, 123HIT

Lasse Milo, Vasteras (F) – 67G, 80A, 147P, 12.86% SHT%, 112HIT

Leeroy Jenkins, Helsinki (F) – 61G, 78A, 139P, 11.78% SHT%, 305HIT

Pavel Koradek, Helsinki (F) – 64G, 63A, 127P, 11.81% SHT%, 47HIT

Ansgar Snijider, Riga (F) – 54G, 58A, 112P, 11.71% SHT%, 331HIT

David Smalling, Davos (F) – 37G, 48A, 85P, 11.21% SHT%, 423HIT

Daniel Braxton, New York (D) – 28G, 75A, 103P, 212HIT, 117SB

Mitch Higgins, Seattle (D) – 24G, 73A, 97P, 170HIT, 74SB

Japinder Singh, Helsinki (D) – 18G, 73A, 91P, 126HIT, 126SB

Andreas Bjorkman, Riga (G) – 46-17-1, .931SV%, 1.78GAA, 10SO

CAL G, Seattle (G) – 53-8-4, .928SV%, 1.60GAA, 19SO(!!!)

 

 

Offense dipped back to S25-levels as the second guard of goalies really got their shit together in a hurry. Seattle was the VHL’s top team this season, winning their last 17 games to finish 59-9-4, at 122 points. New York fell in the standings some, to 95 points, barely scraping by Calgary’s 27 points to make the playoffs once again in the NA. Helsinki repeated in the European Conference, but this time as its top team, and was joined by Riga, as Vasteras had to transition into a rebuild under a new General Manager: me! If you’d like to read about my horrid run as Vasteras’ GM, Corco did a terrific rundown of it here.

 

The Helsinki-Riga series would be seen as the more intense of the two, with the reigning cup winning goalie Andreas Bjorkman taking on the terrific Claudio Martucci, but Helsinki was ultimately able to see off Riga in six games. Meanwhile, in the NA, New York would win game one in quadruple overtime, outshooting a gassed Seattle team 16-0 in that fourth overtime to take the initial dub. CAL G would then shut out New York on 30 shots in game two. The alarms would begin to sound as G allowed ten goals in the next two games, both New York wins, giving the underdogs a 3-1 advantage. CAL G did all he could to secure back-to-back 2-1 victories and force a game seven, but in the end New York would secure the big upset. They would carry this momentum into the finals against Helsinki, winning the first two games of the series, before falling flat on their faces to lose the next four and allow the Titans to net their first win of the Martucci era.

 

This season is arguably Reikkinen’s most famous, as it was a goal-scoring explosion that hadn’t been seen since the very early days of the league. In reality, Reik and Lasse Milo benefitted from being the only good players on their teams. David Smalling had to get a spot here for breaking the single-season hits record, set by Leeroy Jenkins just one year prior. Claudio Martucci could have very well secured a spot among the goalies with a .930 save percentage, but CAL G’s ridiculous 19 shutouts were too much to ignore.

 

Season 28

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

 

Nikolai Lebedev, Seattle (F) – 61G, 67A, 128P, 11.21% SHT%, 84HIT

Felix Peters, Seattle (F) – 51G, 54A, 105P, 13.01% SHT%, 68HIT

Leeroy Jenkins, Seattle (F) – 43G, 81A, 124P, 10.44% SHT%, 217HIT

Tukka Reikkinen, Vasteras (F) – 51G, 43A, 94P, 12.06% SHT%, 285HIT (and 117SB to boot but apparently that’s not good enough for top 2-way forward and yeah I played for a shitty team but like shut up)

Mitch Higgins, Seattle (D) – 30G, 81A, 111P, 222HIT, 111SB

Daniel Braxton, New York (D) – 35G, 74A, 109P, 236HIT, 133SB

Genghis Khan, Helsinki/Calgary (D) – 30G, 62A, 92P, 145HIT, 135SB

Kasey Braun, Davos (D) – 20G, 81A, 101P, 142HIT, 120SB

Benjamin Glover, New York (G) – 51-8-5, .929SV%, 1.65GAA, 9SO

Satan, Davos (G) – 47-15-2, .922SV%, 2.10GAA, 7SO

 

 

Season 28 saw crossover join the fold for the VHL for the first time, and boy was it well-timed. This means that a 95-point Calgary Wranglers team that would have fallen by the wayside in a loaded North American Conference instead made it over 59-point Riga, facing the 115-point Seattle Bears who got the top seed based on whatever tiebreaker was used versus New York who also had 115 points. Instead, the Americans would face 102-point Davos in the postseason.

 

While New York would take three of their first four and ultimately beat Davos in six games in the league’s first-ever cross-league semifinals series, the Bears would see all kinds of problems trying to get past the frisky Wranglers. The teams would trade 3-2 victories to start things off, and although Seattle took game three in overtime, Calgary would rebound with a game four shutout, and win game five 5-3 to come within one game of eliminating the favored Bears. Seattle would explode for a 6-2 win in game six, then put the clamp on Calgary 2-1 to win the series in seven. This meant two North American teams would face each other in the finals for the first time, New York playing in the finals for the fourth consecutive season while Seattle made it for the first time all decade. Although the Americans and the Bears would trade wins in the first four games to make it a best of three, Seattle would end up clutching the series out, allowing New York to score eight goals overall in a six-game Bears win.

 

Scoring dipped a small amount in this season compared to the previous one, but this time Vasteras was too shitty to even propel a player to a dominant season, and no other top-line players had the luxury of farming big numbers. This season would be a continuation of the great Daniel Braxton-Mitch Higgins rivalry for the top defenseman of the era, but otherwise it has little of note statistically.

 

Season 29

 

Key Player Performances

Quote

 

Alexander Chershenko, Calgary (F) – 49G, 57A, 106P, 9.26% SHT%, 32HIT

Jason White, Toronto (F) – 36G, 71A, 107P, 8.80% SHT%, 53HIT

Leeroy Jenkins, New York (F) – 39G, 57A, 96P, 9.85% SHT%, 347HIT

Dougie Daniels, Toronto (F) – 48G, 50A, 98P, 12.97% SHT%, 54HIT

Daniel Braxton, New York (D) – 32G, 66A, 98P, 221HIT, 162SB

Vladimir Boomchenko, Calgary (D) – 24G, 79A, 103P, 24HIT, 108SB

Nic Riopel, Toronto (D) – 22G, 57A, 79P, 101HIT, 131SB

CAL G, Seattle (G) – 43-15-6, .932SV%, 1.70GAA, 10SO

Alexander Labatte, Toronto (G) – 46-11-7, .922SV%, 1.92GAA, 12SO

 

 

As you may be able to tell from the point totals above, scoring dropped to its lowest point of the era, as only four players reached 100 points. Toronto had swooped in and become the top team in the VHL at 107 points, followed by Seattle at 102, then New York at 92, and Davos as the lone European Conference playoff team at 91 points. However, the league was giving home-field advantage to the top team from each conference with crossover, so New York was left to battle Toronto in the first round, a battle the Legion would take in six games. Across the pond, Davos and Seattle would engage in a sweaty battle that would see the two teams combine for nearly seven goals per game in the seven-game series. Davos would be able to recover from an 8-2 drubbing against Seattle to capture game seven and finish our decade off with one more classic Toronto-Davos finals matchup.

 

The Dynamo would take game one against the Legion 3-1, before losing three straight games by one goal, including game four in triple-overtime. Davos would recover to take games five and six, the latter coming in overtime, but surrendered four goals in the first 11 minutes of game seven, ultimately losing both that game and the series 4-3.

 

Pretty simply, there wasn’t anything nuts about this season from a player performance standpoint. Daniel Braxton had a great season statistically as a defenseman on a good team, but he’ll still probably be drowned out by the bigger point producers. CAL G had one of the best save percentages of the era, but with only two spots going to goalies, it remains to be seen if that is enough for him.

 

The Dream Team

 

Boy, was that a fun trip down memory lane or what? Anyways, before I get into this Dream Team, I want to point out the rules I will be applying to this team:

 

          1. Each player may only be represented once.

          2. Limit of 2F seasons, 2D seasons, and 1G per season. In cases where I’m considering multiple Fs or Ds from the same season, I’ll try to lean towards using a different season for a slot if it’s close.

 

With that, let’s pick this dream team!

 

F – S20 Max Kroenenburg, Riga – 70G, 87A, 157P, 12.73% SHT%, 217HIT

F – S26 Leeroy Jenkins, Helsinki – 66G, 86A, 152P, 12.72% SHT%, 414HIT

F – S27 Tukka Reikkinen, Vasteras – 78G, 74A, 152P, 13.13% SHT%, 123HIT

F – S20 Lars Berger, Toronto – 70G, 72A, 142P, 16.02% SHT%, 213HIT

F – S21 Jardy Bunclewirth, Calgary – 59G, 77A, 136P, 13.53% SHT%, 243H

F – S25 Pavel Koradek, Helsinki – 64G, 71A, 135P, 12.05% SHT%, 121HIT

D – S20 Patrick Bergqvist, Davos – 30G, 114A, 144P, 170HIT, 159SB

D – S26 David Walcott, Helsinki – 34G, 111A, 145P, 166HIT, 160SB

D – S28 Daniel Braxton, New York – 35G, 74A, 109P, 236HIT, 133SB

D – S28 Mitch Higgins, Seattle – 30G, 81A, 111P, 222HIT, 111SB

G – S22 Aidan Shaw, Toronto – 57-4-2, .933SV%, 1.62GAA, 10SO

G – S27 CAL G, Seattle – 53-8-4, .928SV%, 1.60GAA, 19SO

 

For the forwards, only being able to pick one season per player had me deciding between the best seasons of some Key Player Performance staples, like Leeroy Jenkins and Lars Berger. I was pretty heavily debating between Berger and Bunclewirth to take the second slot for S20 after Kronenburg, but between S20 being Berger’s best season and Bunclewirth also putting up a terrific season in S21, it all led to a decision that made a lot of sense to me. S26 Joe Nash and S18 Tarik Saeijs were very close to making the list, but with the limitations I put in place to make sure a big season wouldn’t dominate the leaderboards, Nash being a potential second spot for S26 and Saeijs being another S18 saw them passed up by S25 Pavel Koradek.

 

At defenseman, it felt even more like highlighting the best overall guys of the era’s best seasons. S20 Patrick Bergqvist and S26 David Walcott were truly ridiculous seasons, while Daniel Braxton and Mitch Higgins saw their rivalry hit a fever pitch in S28. Otherwise, I felt pretty good about this list and didn’t really feel like there was a big debate for these spots, as Japinder Singh would be the only other guy that I would feel should have a spot but he put up his best statistical seasons on bad teams.

 

Obviously, an Aidan Shaw season had to find its way on the list. For the other goalie spot, there were quite a few seasons with better save percentages, but CAL G’s S27 season still came with a strong .928 mark and I’m a sucker for good periphery numbers like 19 freaking shutouts.

 

Bye.

[BOOM 8,817]

Great read. 

[.sniffuM 1,741]

Claim 2 of 4.

[.sniffuM 1,741]

Claim 3 of 4.

[.sniffuM 1,741]

Claim 4 of 4 (for week of Nov. 1st).