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Hall of Fame Article - Kallis Kriketers


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Kallis Kriketers - Class of S71


Position: G
Birthplace: Latvia
Height: 5-ft-10
Weight: 194 lbs.
Drafted: n/a (GM Player claimed by Riga)
Username: @hedgehog337


Kallis Kriketers was a highly-touted young netminder when he came into the league with the Riga Reign, and he represented his home country's VHL squad for the vast majority of a spectacular 8-year career. Kriketers wasn't big, like the traditional goaltender of today, but he was a technician between the pipes; he was incredibly quick and always in position, with phenomenal rebound control. By the time he retired, Kriketers was a hero in Latvia - a hometown boy turned star netminder that brought the Reign a Continental Cup in S63 and was a huge reason the team was a perennial contender during his career. In addition to making the playoffs every season of his 8-year career, Kriketers brought home a slew of hardware as one of eight three-time Aidan Shaw Trophy winners, the only four-time Greg Clegane Trophy winner, and three All-VHL First Team selections. Kriketers came into the league near the end of Norris Stopko's reign and claimed the mantle of VHL's Best Goaltender for his own, a title he'd hold a rightful claim to until he retired after S70.


Career Awards
S63 - Continental Cup Champion (Riga Reign)
S64 - Greg Clegane Trophy (Lowest GAA)
S65 - Aidan Shaw Trophy (Top Goalie)
S65 - Greg Clegane Trophy (Lowest GAA)
S65 - All-VHL First Team
S66 - Aidan Shaw Trophy (Top Goalie)
S66 - Greg Clegane Trophy (Lowest GAA)
S66 - All-VHL First Team
S69 - Scotty Campbell Trophy (Most Valuable Player)
S69 - Brett Slobodzian Trophy (Most Outstanding Player)
S69 - Aidan Shaw Trophy (Top Goalie)
S69 - Greg Clegane Trophy (Lowest GAA)
S69 - All-VHL First Team


S62 (VHLM - Ottawa Lynx)
68 GP | 46-18-4 record | 0.897 SV% | 2.08 GAA | 6 SO
Playoffs: 9 GP | 8-1-0 record | 0.923 SV% | 1.53 GAA | 2 SO


Kriketers joined the Ottawa Lynx for his pre-draft season, a strong team that featured several names that VHL fans would find familiar now - including Ryan Kastelic, Joseph McWolf, and Randoms. He held down the fort as one of the two best goalies in the VHLM, leading the league in save percentage while finishing second in wins, GAA, and shutouts. But it was the playoffs where Kriketers really made a name for himself. There was a distinct divide between the third and fourth best teams in the VHLM in S62 - Ottawa, finishing third, had close to double the points in the standings as Oslo, finishing fourth (103 to 57) - and Kriketers would go up against the top two teams in the league in Halifax and Las Vegas in the playoffs. He completely shut the door on both, allowing just 14 goals during the entire playoff run and posting a .923 SV% (his nearest competitor in the playoffs was just .881) as Ottawa cruised to a surprisingly easy Founders Cup title. The Lynx only lost one game in the playoffs, and Kriketers was named VHLM Playoff MVP.


S63 (VHL - Riga Reign)
69 GP | 48-10-5 record | 0.915 SV% | 2.24 GAA | 9 SO
Playoffs: 11 GP | 7-3-0 record | 0.894 SV% | 2.62 GAA | 0 SO


The S62 Riga Reign were an extremely young, but extremely talented bunch - they had four 100-point scorers the season before, including a whopping 174 points from Podrick Cast and 140+ from Edwin Preencarnacion, and they were the second-highest scoring team in the league - but they lacked defense and even more glaringly, they lacked goaltending. The timing was perfect for Latvian-born Kriketers to take over for his hometown team. Kriketers was still young and raw, and his .915 save percentage ranked tied for 5th in a league of 8, but it represented a massive upgrade over Arvid Aamo, who posted an .899 save percentage - by far the worst mark in the league - the year before. That improvement (among other things) propelled the Reign to the top of the VHL standings with a 51-13-8 record in S63, and while Kriketers had some struggles in the playoffs, the Reign were able to defeat Quebec and then Calgary in the playoffs, and Kriketers could lay claim to another title - one of few players to backstop a team to a Continental Cup as a rookie.


S64 (VHL - Riga Reign)
64 GP | 42-13-3 record | 0.913 SV% | 2.30 GAA | 10 SO
Playoffs: 7 GP | 3-3-0 record | 0.922 SV% | 2.51 GAA | 0 SO


Two years into Kriketers' pro hockey career, all he'd known was winning, and the Reign were a good young team in position to keep his championship streak intact. The core was all returning and Rylan Peace joined the club for his rookie season. They didn't repeat at the top of the standings in S64, but they were nonetheless dominant all year and finished 51-16-5, just a point behind Seattle. Kriketers himself posted a stellar 42-13-3 record and 10 shutouts, while capturing a Clegane Trophy for the lowest GAA in the league - but a .913 save percentage ranked him 7th in the league as his individual play stagnated. Kriketers hoped to redeem himself in the playoffs, and he played well, but the Reign lost a heartbreaking seventh game against Helsinki, watching a 2-1 lead evaporate after allowing three goals in the third period.


S65 (VHL - Riga Reign)
67 GP | 45-15-4 record | 0.920 SV% | 2.12 GAA | 9 SO
Playoffs: 5 GP | 1-3-1 record | 0.872 SV% | 3.19 GAA | 0 SO


Kriketers began to show the VHL that he was more than just a product of a strong team in S65. To be fair, Riga were still a very strong team, but now Kriketers' numbers increased to a level that got people talking as his .920 save percentage ranked second in the VHL while he also lead the league in wins, GAA, and shutouts. This earned him the first Aidan Shaw Trophy of his career, and a First-Team All-VHL selection to go with it, along with defending the previous season's Clegane Trophy. For a second straight season, the Reign would finish second to Seattle by a slim margin in the VHL standings, and looked poised to make another run. The playoff run opened smoothly, with a 7-2 thrashing of the Toronto Legion. However, it was all downhill from there; behind a sparkling performance from Toronto goaltending counterpart Johnny Havenk Carison, the Legion would win the next four games of the series and send Riga packing early for a second straight season.


S66 (VHL - Riga Reign)
66 GP | 39-16-6 record | 0.922 SV% | 2.31 GAA | 9 SO
Playoffs: 4 GP | 0-3-1 record | 0.929 SV% | 2.70 GAA | 0 SO


With Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Mikko Aaltonen joining the existing core and Kallis really entering his prime, expectations were high in Riga ahead of S66. The league had split into two divisions with expansion and the Reign, despite a revamped and younger defense core, seemed poised to keep contending. Kriketers would rank high in most goaltending categories again, including a career-high-to-date .922 SV% and another 9 shutout campaign to lead the league, and the Reign finished with the second-best record in the VHL for a third straight season. However, finishing with the second-best record in the VHL had become a bit of a curse for Riga and, unthinkably, they were swept by Davos in the opening round. Kriketers' .929 SV% was the second-best playoff mark in the league, but his own strong performance was wasted by an inability to get the offense going; the team was only able to score 4 goals in the entire 4-game series. Despite the playoff disappointment, Kriketers' trophy case grew again on awards night, with a second-straight Shaw Trophy, third-straight Clegane Trophy, and another First Team All-VHL selection.


S67 (VHL - Riga Reign)
66 GP | 33-23-7 record | 0.922 SV% | 2.49 GAA | 5 SO
Playoffs: 12 GP | 7-4-1 record | 0.932 SV% | 2.48 GAA | 1 SO


Significant changes were ahead as the Reign went through a mini-rebuild ahead of S67. Podrick Cast had retired, Ryan Kastelic switched to forward while Edwin Preencarnacion moved to the back end, Joseph McWolf was acquired in an off-season trade with the New York Americans, and future star Lincoln Tate was promoted for his rookie year. The European Conference was extremely close this year, with Helsinki taking the division crown with a win on the last day of the regular season - they finished at 87 points, followed by Moscow at 86 and Riga at 85. Kriketers was as good as ever, matching his prior season's .922 SV%, though it wasn't enough this time around to continue his streak of Shaw trophies. And once again, Kriketers would try to put Riga on his back in the playoffs. They would meet Helsinki in the semi-finals again, and again play in a Game 7, but would lose 3-1.


S68 (VHL - Riga Reign)
64 GP | 39-17-4 record | 0.918 SV% | 2.40 GAA | 8 SO
Playoffs: 11 GP | 5-4-2 record | 0.921 SV% | 2.35 GAA | 1 SO


S68 brought another extremely-tightly-fought European Conference race, with the top three teams finishing at 98, 96, and 95 points. Riga was that second-place team and were clearly a step ahead of the S67 team - one which was ever-so-close to reaching the finals. Could Kriketers get back to the finals? His play wasn't quite as airtight as it had been, but a .918 SV% was still very respectable, and with him between the pipes, a Riga team that struggled to score goals compared to some of the other teams (they were 7th in the VHL in GF in S68) posted a 46-22-4 record. Another playoff matchup against Helsinki was on deck. After Riga fell down 2-1 in the series, Kriketers shut the door. A 24-save shutout in Game 4 would prove to be a turning point in the series; he then held down the fort in narrow 3-2 and 2-1 wins as Riga returned to the conference finals. Unfortunately for Kallis and the Reign, however, Malmo would prove to be too strong in the second round.


S69 (VHL - Riga Reign)
69 GP | 45-17-2 record | 0.931 SV% | 1.66 GAA | 11 SO
Playoffs: 17 GP | 10-7-0 record | 0.921 SV% | 1.94 GAA | 3 SO


S69 was the year everything came together for both Kallis and for Riga. The team was stacked, and Kriketers would put on the season of a lifetime. He didn't just lead the VHL in GAA and SV%, there was nobody even close as he posted numbers that hadn't been seen at the VHL level in quite some time with a .931 SV%, 1.66 GAA, and 11 shutouts. Riga won the European Conference in the regular season and went through the first two rounds with an 8-3 record, finally getting back to the finals. Their opponents were a young, hungry, Seattle Bears squad led by an incredible S67 draft haul that had begun to mature. They traded wins for the first four games before Seattle took a series lead in Game 5. Then, the Bears jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period of Game 6.  The Reign did everything they could to come back, outshooting Seattle 31-12 over the last two periods of the game; they cut the lead to 4-3, but they couldn't tie it up. Seattle were champions, and Riga would lose out on the best chance they'd had since S63. Kriketers would gather a third Shaw Trophy and fourth Clegane Trophy at awards night and was named First Team All-VHL again. He also captured both the Scotty Campbell and Brett Slobodzian Trophies as the league's Most Valuable and Most Outstanding Player. But the finest season of Kallis Kriketers' career would fall just short of the ultimate prize.


S70 (VHL - DC Dragons)
65 GP | 33-22-6 record | 0.915 SV% | 2.37 GAA | 4 SO
Playoffs: 6 GP | 2-4-0 record | 0.924 SV% | 2.10 GAA | 0 SO


In the S69 off-season, Riga picked up Finn Davison from Moscow - a younger option between the pipes. It seemed unthinkable they'd move on from Kriketers after the season he'd just had, yet shortly after acquiring Davison, Kriketers was traded to DC for a couple of draft picks. It was known that Kriketers had only one year left before he'd retire, but the Dragons were ready to make a charge in the NA Conference and needed a short-term answer in net. However, Kallis had begun to show his age and while still a more-than-competent VHL netminder, he'd put up a rather pedestrian .915 SV%. In helping DC make the playoffs, Kriketers would become a member of a somewhat exclusive club (40 players in VHL history) of players who'd played 8 seasons and made the playoffs every time. However, Calgary would knock DC out of the playoffs in a 6-game first-round series, sending Kriketers into retirement.


Career Stats
528 GP | 324-133-37 record | 0.920 SV% | 2.23 GAA | 65 SO
Playoffs: 73 GP | 35-31-5 record | 0.918 SV% | 2.37 GAA | 5 SO


Kallis Kriketers never tasted a championship after his rookie year, and perhaps his playoff record isn't quite what he'd wanted to be; the closest thing to a blemish on his sparkling VHL legacy. Yet he was the kind of goalie that would give his team a chance to win on every night and was always a threat to steal a game when his team had an off night. At times, he put his team on his back in playoff runs, and he throughout a remarkable 8-season run, he was almost always regarded as one of the best goalies in the VHL. There aren't many players with 3 Shaw Trophies to their name, and Kriketers authored a season for the ages in S69. 65 shutouts over an 8-season career is truly remarkable, and his 324-133-37 record is not rivaled by many goalies over the history of the VHL either. Notably, Kriketers was also a force on the international stage, posting a career .918 SV% and 31-21-3 record in 55 games of best-on-best international competition, and in S64 with Team World, Kriketers won a gold medal to put himself in the Triple Gold Club.


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We reached out to Kriketers after his induction to get some of his thoughts on a fantastic career:


Can you take a minute to just reflect on/summarize your Hall of Fame career from your point of view?


"I'm feeling that I still could've done better. Maybe I'm still stuck at S50's when I grew up watching goalies posting .930 like no business, but sometimes I was being frustrated by inconsistency. I was pulled from the net very often because Riga had strats to pull the goalie after 3 goals and who knows what could've happened if we had 5 goals instead of 3. Anyways, I had a good career despite my flaws. Grabbed some awards too so I guess I'm just hard on myself. I'm usually like that when I'm not performing like I'm expecting."


What went into the move to DC for your last season?


"The GM had acquired a younger goalie, Davison, for prolonging Reign's contention window, so I was in an odd position. At that moment DC had only Pouta left after JB Rift was gone, so they needed a higher TPE goalie. It made sense for both sides for Riga to trade me overseas for some picks."


What would you consider the biggest highlight of your career?


"There was the S62 VHLM playoff championship run plus playoff MVP award. A championship in S63. Some awards then. But I'm still remembering S69 more fondly. Except the final two games, I was complementing our high-powered defense led by Hackett and Tate, and finally was more or less consistent. At the end of the day I managed to post a low GAA and a .930 save percentage which was a rare sight in modern VHL. Needless to say, I was happy with that season."


Note: the answers to the interview questions are hedgehog's, but slightly re-written with permission, so as to be from the perspective of Kriketers.

 

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Wanted to continue with the nice touch that @fromtheinside started of giving the HoF player/member a chance to talk about their career a bit. Congrats to my GM and goalie hedgehog, and hopefully there will be one of these for Sirkants one day too!

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I truly think you are the best at this. Your attention to detail is incredible and I think hedgehog will be very proud of this effort.  I really liked the Career Stats bit at the end too as a nice summary.  Truly a masterclass of an article, great job tcookie :)

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26 minutes ago, hedgehog337 said:

this is great. was waiting for a moment for Kallis Hof article tbh. I'm also a fan of a little interview from members themselves, something fresh. kinda reminds me of VHL history articles.

 

thanks @tcookie25 :cheers:

 

the pressure was on writing an HoF article for my GM ... haha ? glad you liked it!

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