Looking at Moscow's many draft steals

[Victor 10,940]

 

In an effort to prepare the general VHL populace for the inevitable, I would just like to go on record and say that I won't be Moscow's GM forever. I was not far off from calling it quits following our back-to-back trips to the finals in S70 and S71 which marked the end of our first competitive cycle, but a big activity boost from the S72 draft convinced me to aim for my initial stated goal of staying in the GM role for 10 seasons. That mark has now passed – the Menace are now in our 11th season – but as we are firmly in cup contending status I am persevering for now. However, the end is nigh, and with that comes an opportunity for some reminiscing.

 

It's been a whirlwind of a GM tenure, with some disappointments but a lot more pleasant surprises and great achievements. Perhaps one facet that has surprised me the most is my sudden ability to unearth gems in the later rounds of the VHL draft. It's part of the evolution of the league's recruitment and unprecedented rise in draft depth, but it nonetheless feels like Moscow has hit gold late on in the drafts more frequently than the average VHL team. That is quite a turnaround from my previous GM run in late 30s Davos where I developed a Devise-like propensity for trading all my draft picks, albeit more for 1- or 2-year-old prospects than veterans in a bid to accelerate the rebuild. It worked, but by our second cup in S38, the Dynamo had 1 homegrown player – S35 1st overall pick Lennox Moher plus my own guy (undrafted under old GM player rules), Matt Bentley. By contrast, the S70 Menace squad had 8 players drafted by me, as well as expansion draftee Dan Baillie.

 

So, without further ado, let's dive into some of the draft steals who, along with the big names of the Menace's young history, have made this possible.

 

S66

Mat Tocco @Matmenzinger

Dean Clarke @Kyle

 

A lot of my early picks in my Moscow tenure were duds. In S65 I picked Mitch Matthews and Justin Cole with our two picks and they achieved nothing. I had also traded a 1st rounder for Mark Gebauer, whose early promise quickly fizzled out. One season in and things were not looking rosy at all, to the extent that trading my 1st overall pick for two 1st rounders was the most sensible thing to do to get some depth in the system. One of those – Dimitri Volosenkov – didn't work out either, although Jet Jaguar did in a big way. Owen May however, picked 11th overall to replace Cole as the franchise goalie, was another who flamed out early on in his career. The ratio of busts to steals was not in my favour at all.

 

Enter the outrageous depth of the S66 draft, until S75 quite comfortably the deepest draft in VHL history, standing at 80 players selected. I won't pretend I hit a home run on all of our picks (Edgar Tannahill, Emil Passerelli, Devin Gabella anyone?), but the two I did made an unquantifiable contirbution to Moscow's future success. I knew very little about Mat Tocco at the time of picking him at start of the 4th round, but I liked the upside of a quiet guy going about his business and picking up TPE very efficiently. He'd retire with 1,000 TPE and already by his 3rd season I was so keen that he wouldn't jump ship to Prague at some point that I signed him to a lifetime contract. Dean Clarke on the other hand was a punt on Kyle, a guy who joined the VHL pretty much the same time as me some 11 years ago, but who hadn't made a good player in about half that time. He would go on to spend his whole career in Moscow, becoming team captain in S73, and providing the assist for Smitty's overtime cup winner in S70.

 

Tocco and Clarke sit 5th and 6th in Moscow's all-time scorers, both in the regular season and playoffs, and were very cap-friendly and key pieces of our best seasons – Tocco the 2nd line sniper who got an All-VHL Second Team nod in S70 and Clarke the right-hand man to Smitty on the top defensive pairing. To say they were crucial to Moscow's success would probably be an understatement.

 

S68

Nate Telker @Telkster

Killy Foilen @Aye my name jeff

 

Other than Jaguar and the two studs above, the first 3 Moscow drafts didn't provide much to the future cup-winning roster. Then in S68, I struck gold in a big way, on a draft day in which I made a whopping 4 trades which have effectively come down to trading Luciano Valentino for Raymond Bernard, Will Clarke, Oskar Lagesson, Nate Telker, and Killy Foilen. Not a half bad haul if you ask me.

 

Only 5 S68 draftees have won the Continental Cup – the Menace drafted 3 of them. While Bernard was a slam dunk franchise goaltender pick at the third time of asking (with an assist from Davos picking Samuel Ross one pick ahead of him), the two forwards picked in the 3rd round were far from guarantees. Telker was almost a carbon copy of the Tocco pick – a late joiner whose trajectory was better than many players' picked ahead of him but who slipped on account of a low TPE total (127 on draft day, lower than 13 players drafted later). However, I gambled by letting DC have a chance on Telker with the pick before, all because the pick before that was Foilen, a guy generate a lot of activity in the draft chat.

 

In their own ways, both proved indispensable in the Menace's future. Telker was a sophomore and Foilen a rookie in S70, splitting time as the third wheel in the Randoms-Jaguar bromance, but that forward depth proved essential in our march to the cup. Foilen sadly never quite broke out following early retirement, but I'm sure he would have had I not traded him in S72. Telker on the other hand has been a loyal servant for his whole career, now captain for 2 seasons, and another who hit 1,000 TPE, playing out his last couple of seasons as very much a leader and not a depth piece.

 

S69

Oskar Lagesson @fever95

 

In a way, S69 was a continuation of the S68 draft flurry, as both our picks of note – Clarke and Lagesson – were acquired then. It also wasn't nearly as deep a draft as the previous few, with the quality dying out after the 2nd round, and while Clarke may have won 3 cups with 3 teams in his first 3 seasons, I'm not sure he really qualifies as a steal retiring with 401 TPE as a 13th overall pick.

 

Lagesson on the other hand was drafted just about late enough to make the cut. Splitting time with Clarke (Will, not Dean) as the depth defencemen in S70, he has since become the new Clarke (Dean, not Will) as the steady, reliable presence on defence, an essential piece of the modern cup contender. Fittingly, like Clarke (of the Dean variety), Lagesson was the return of a member with previous great players, but some 20-30 seasons removed from his prime. I'm pleased that Moscow has proven a place for comebacks of two fine members who I believe will be sticking around for a while this time around.

 

S72

Cole Newhook @GrittyIsKing09

Pietro Angellini @okifenoki

 

The next two drafts were low on both quality and quantity for Moscow, as we pushed on full speed ahead for that maiden championship. The prospect pool was drying up and I was relatively certain a full scale rebuild was on the horizon. Instead, the S72 draft (the first one I was present for since S68) went so well that the rebuild became a retool and we were back in cup contender status by S74. The big names in the S72 draft were Alex Letang and Lucas Brandt, who remain key pieces today, while Vin Calia was also acquired just before the draft to former the new young core. What really made the draft for Moscow and propelled us to the league's best prospect pool by the following season was the picks from the 3rd round onwards.

 

Cole Newhook was straight from the Telker/Tocco playbook, the classic case of late joiner who was more keen to earn more than just the bare minimum welfare. The rise from 79 TPE on draft day to 411 today is a clear success story and Newhook is also the heartbeat of Moscow's forum presence, in the locker room and just around the league. Pietro Angellini I can barely take any credit for, as there were two players who I expected to fall to the penultimate pick of the draft, of whom I knew one would go to Prague with the pick before. Prague therefore dictated which one of Ernie King and Angellini we got and boy am I happy they gave us Angellini. From 47th overall, he is now 20th overall in TPE among S72 draftees and still rising, while become a key component of our forward core. Newhook and Angellini are clearly essential to our continuing playoff streak (now aiming for 7 straight seasons).

 

S73-present

Since S72, I have again not been able to make it to a few drafts and have delegated that responsbility to a combination of Spartan and Hatter (mainly the latter), the unofficial Moscow brain trust. Although I have been involved in initial scouting, VHL drafts are highly unpredictable, especially in the later rounds, as my own experiences in S66, S68, and S72 proved. Therefore, some of our finest picks in Fat Palloon (S73), Breeze Ladrian (S74), and the host of late S75 selections have actually had little input from me, which is appropriate I think in this passing-of-the-torch phase of my GM tenure. Here's hoping that these recent selections live up to the now-established tradition of Moscow draft steals.

 

@Kelsier @Anthony Suzuki @Owen Taylor @Grapes-Tophat_Clan- @BiPsen @correllvincent

 

[mediocrepony 1,216]

MOSKAU MOSKAU MOSKAU

[Kyle 667]

[Victor 10,940]

1,600 something words so week 2 of 3

[Mr_Hatter 1,608]

MOSKAU MOSKAU MOSKAU 

 

Quote

Since S72, I have again not been able to make it to a few drafts and have delegated that responsbility to a combination of Spartan and Hatter (mainly the latter), the unofficial Moscow brain trust.

dunno about that one Though I take all credit if they do well

[Victor 10,940]

7 minutes ago, Mr_Hatter said:

MOSKAU MOSKAU MOSKAU 

 

dunno about that one Though I take all credit if they do well

That was definitely meant to say former lmao  

[Victor 10,940]

week 3 of 3