VSN Presents: S76 VHLM Power Rankings #1

[fromtheinside 1,290]

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The VHLM Power Rankings are back for another season and the VHLM landscape has changed dramatically since last season. Season 75 playoffs wrapped up and saw the Philadelphia Reapers conquer the Mexico City Kings in 6 games. The Reapers championship was well deserved as they took out both the Kings and the San Diego Marlins, both  teams widely considered among the league's very best last season. Congratulations to DMaximus and his Philadelphia Reapers on their second ever Founder's Cup title in franchise history! As we officially close the book on S75, we now jump to the present and things have changed dramatically. It is a vastly different season this time around. The S76 Draft Class while good, was much smaller than the mega draft class of S75, and as a result their seems to be less parity in the league. Last season you had 7-8 super competitive teams and it was a true dogfight during the season. This season is a little different, there is one undeniable powerhouse that reigns above the rest, two or three teams who look to potentially compete, and everyone else is just sort of there, opting to focus their sights on competing in future seasons. So without further ado, let's break it down and see how the teams look this season.

 

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The undisputed number one team in the VHLM this season are the Houston Bulls, and it's not really close. In fact, I would say they are a lock to be #1 in the Power Rankings for the entire season. They have built a juggernaut for this season by doing a mixture of things. They had a formidable list returnees from last season to start. On top of that they had a ton of assets in the draft, and Bulls GM rjfryman put on a masterclass in the first round. When it was all said and done and the dust settled, Houston took 5 of the first 6 players taken in the draft. This included the top three coveted recreates and two of the best first-gens to boot. If this wasn't enough, they went on to sign elite recreate Reylynn Reinhart on waivers prior to the start of the season. There are stacked rosters, and then there are the S76 Bulls. They could potentially be a threat to smash some records this season if things go well for them. And if the first week of sims is any indication, they are well on their way. They opened up the season on a massive 11 game win streak and just dropped their first game last night. Asher Reinhart and the Webber brothers have led the way offensively so far, but multiple players have been off to hot starts with 9 players already notching 10 points or more.

 

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After a miserable Season 75, the Storm are back and making a surge in Season 76. They brought back a couple bodies from last season including their starting goalie Tater Tot. The bread and butter of the storm's roster came in via the draft though, as the Storm boasted a ton of 2nd and 3rd round picks. Having a ton of picks doesn't always guarantee success though, and credit has to goto Rayzor for hitting on alot of his picks and getting great value by snatching up guys that fell in the draft. Post-draft, Minnesota also made a big trade landing defenseman Logan Moore, who immediately would step in as the leader on the blueline. The Storm have jumped out of the gate red hot and are sporting a 9-1-2 to start the season. Minnesota drafted Brandan Telker, after having him on their roster in S75. The Storm must have liked what they saw in him last season as he is off to a fantastic start with 21 points (11G, 10A). Like the Bulls, Minnesota has gotten a ton of production throughout their entire lineup. Left winger Brian Moreau  is one of the aforementioned players who dropped in the draft, and so far Moreau is making the teams who passed on him pay dearly. He leads the team in scoring with 24 points (10G, 14A) and seems poised to have a breakout year. It's still early, but the Storm seem to be in good position to be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. 

 

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Coming in somewhat surprisingly at #3 are the Mexico City Kings. When you lead the league in points the prior season, usually in the VHLM that means you went all in for the chance to win a Founder's Cup and the after effects of that usually includes an extensive rebuild. I suppose this is a testament to the great job GM Hylands has done during his tenure. While they lost a handful of great players to the VHL this season, they managed to have some decent returnees. While they didn't have an earth-shattering draft, they did manage to execute a couple of major trades before the season got underway. First they traded for the elite offensive defenseman Clinton Giftopoulos from Halifax in exchange for a 1st and a 3rd round pick next season. Then they turned their focus to offense and snagged Jon  Strider from the San Diego Marlins. After 12 contests the Kings are sitting second in the West with a 9-3-0 record. Returning winger Magnus Verlander has set the tone offensively for Mexico City with 24 points (10G, 14A) including an impressive 3 shorthanded goals! When you have a player who can be an a threat on offense even on the penalty kill, you are doing something right and the Kings management has to be thrilled with his play thus far. Speaking of Kings management, the Kings brought on Juice as their new AGM as rory was promoted to GM of the Halifax 21st. Juice is a saavy user with excellent people skills and surely will be an asset to Hylands going forward. Both on and off the ice, the Kings are looking stellar.

 

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Yukon opens the season at the 4 spot and are another team in the mix to be competitive this season. Last season the Rush were amongst many of the teams duking it out with playoff aspirations. Midway through the season the Rush made a decision to sell off some players at the deadline to re-focus for this season. Before the draft took place, Yukon struck a deal with Miami  that would secure them their goalie for S76. For a 2nd and a 4th they acquired Matthew Sovick Jr. They had a pair of first round picks in the draft and took the elite winger Abe Roque and highly touted recreate MacGruber. Following the draft, they sought to bolster their roster further. They brought back center Jim Allen for another season after signing him to a one year deal in hopes he could solidify their team down the middle. Finally, the Rush inked defender Ernie King to a one year deal to help bolster the blueline. The Rush have gotten out to a mostly positive start at 9-5-0, but they look to improve. Roque has been red hot, scoring 13 goals in 13 games, which is good for third in league scoring. Returnee Michael Scmidt is also off to a great start with 20 points (10G, 10A). While the Rush were frustrated to drop a pair of games to the San Diego Marlins, they can at least hang their hat on the fact that they were able to snap the Bulls' undefeated streak at 11. 

 

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Much like the Kings, I'm surprised to see the Reapers check in on the Power Rankings in the upper half of the list. Coming off of their S75 Founder's Cup, they are back again with another solid nucleus of players. Their certainly has been no Cup hangover as the Reapers have started strong with a 7-5-1 record. The club does not have much quantity or depth, but their top line on offense is absolutely dominating. Returnees Kjell Nilsson and Thomas King are sitting 1-2 in league scoring with 15 and 14 goals respectively. On defense, the Reapers were able to land big time recreate Nixon Caldwell, who is sure to develop nicely this season and could potentially be a player worth watching this season as we go into the S77 VHLM Dispersal Draft or maybe even the S77 VHL Entry Draft. It's hard to say whether the Reapers will try to compete this season. The Reapers have options but my guess is that DMaximus will be measured in his expectations and perhaps sell off his big guns at the deadline to stock up for the future. Until then though, the Reapers first line barrage makes them dangerous and they are good enough to be in the 5 spot!

 

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After a major shakeup this offseason, the 21st is under new leadership this season. Manning the anchor is GM rory. Since coming in, rory has done a nice job throwing together a respectable roster.  Their top forwards Phillip Stein, Eeli Rantanen, and Willy Myers all were scooped up in the draft by Halifax and will be relied upon to do most of the heavy lifting this season. The boat gang has also had a decent amount of success acquiring talent off of waivers so far this season. Adding recreates Shawn Glade IV and Joe Madison were great additions, and both players should be reliable to develop their players at a decent rate this season. These rookies will be worth keeping an eye on this season. Halifax also scooped up free agent tender Dexter Vaughn, giving them a two-headed monster situation in the crease. Vaughn will battle Jurgis Kalvelis Blazevicius for ice time in net and the two should provide healthy competiton amongst themselves. Stein has been the team's best forward so far with 29 points (10G, 19A) and Glade has proven to be a solid puck moving defensemen already, with an impressive 14 assists. Halifax has managed to go 6-6 so far this season, and I think they could beat up on some of the weaker teams in the Eastern Conference this season and sneak into the playoffs, much like how they did last season.

 

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This one may seem a bit odd at first glance. The Aces have fumbled out the gate and sport an ugly 2-7-3 record which is good for dead last in the West. That being said, I don't expect them to be there for long. Two of these contests were OT losses to the powerhouse Bulls squad. Spartan is a savvy GM that will always find a way to compete. He had key returnees including top tier netminder Aksu Maronen. Up front Angel Wachiure and Andy Nexber are also doubling down for another season before making their jumps to the VHL next season.  The Aces also drafted super-sophomore Lenny Sanderson to add to their firepower up front. Post-draft Vegas continued to improve as they signed back defenseman Joakim Lund for another season. Lund was part of the brick wall the Aces had last season on defense. Finally, the Aces made a big time waiver pickup when they secured blueliner Rolf Fizzlebeef Jr who is a highly respected recreate that is expected to make an instant impact for Vegas.  The previous mentioned returnees Nexber and Wachiure have been responsible for most of the offense for Vegas thus far with 19 and 17 points respectively. I think that while Vegas is far from a complete team, they are too good to stay at the bottom of the standings. Look for them to bounce back sooner rather than later.

 

 

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The 8 spot is a bit of a shocker to me. I had pegged the Marlins to be amongst the bottom of the league this season. The Marlins were a team last season that went all in to go for a Cup and came up short when they ran into the eventual champs in the semi finals. The Marlins didn't make a pick in the S76 Dispersal Draft until the 7th round. On top of that they only had 4 players returning for this season, mind you they are all good ones, and will definitely be the key to any success the Marlins might have this season. Post-draft the Marlins has 5 players on their roster. The newly formed management team of Thad and Prout definitely had their work cut out for them. Thus far it seems the rookie management duo has been up for the task. They have signed a handful of players off waivers, and that could largely be thanks to the impressive recruitment video the Marlins have deployed on their waiver claims. Additionally, the Marlins signed free agent forward Theodore James St. Louis for this season. St. Louis was one of the best forwards in the entire VHLM last season and is a huge signing for San Diego. They also inked goaltender Darcy Cat to a contract. Although the Marlins are 4-8-0, I think they have a chance to hang around and round up some wins this season. The Marlins may opt to sell their big guns at the trade deadline, but I think they have the firepower to gather up some wins this season if they choose to stay the course. 

 

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The next couple of teams are fairly close and are pretty much interchangeable. The bottom quarter of the league are all teams I would consider to be in full rebuild mode. While Miami has a decent group of forwards, they just don't have the defense to compete this season. In a lot of ways, this is a league-wide issue. There is a real shortage on quality defensemen right now. This has been supplemented a little bit with most of the recreates rolling d-men, but there are still many teams with less than 4 players on their bluelines. On top of their woes on defense, the Marauders are rolling with netminder ClapbombsRUs. While Clapbombs is a great developing player, he is still a ways away from being a difference maker for a VHLM team. Season 77 could be a huge year for Clapbombs, but for now, with a thin defensive core in front of him, their will be struggles. Phoenix Dawson will be on his victory lap this season before moving up to the Bears next season. Look for him and Alexander The Great to lead the way offensively for Miami. I think these two forwards could both be shipped out for picks come trade deadline, but Ricer loves to compete, so we will see how it goes. Also congrats to tinafrombobsburgers on the promotion to AGM. The brotherly tandem in Miami will be a strong one and I can see these guys doing big things for along time in Miami.
 

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The Hounds, much like the Marlins, are under new management this season as Zetterberg and tcookie have teamed up to take the reigns of Mississauga. Despite having a massive arsenal of picks at their disposal for the S76 draft, the rookie management team decided to defer this season and really load up for Season 77. I think this was an intelligent move. They didn't have a ton in terms of returning players for this season, and with a draft pool that wasn't super deep in high end talent, opting to compete next season instead makes a lot of sense. That being said, there are still some interesting players to watch. Recreated player Druss Deathwalker will surely lead the way offensively for the Hounds and I would expect to see him get dealt by the deadline. There are some really good players that could develop into solid players next season for Mississauga. Miks Sunish and Elvis Michael could be key players for them in Season 77.  Much like the Marauders, the Hounds are short on defense, but the recent waiver pick up of Kirby Pandora seems like a solid addition and Pandora could be solid player worth watching going forward. In net, Luke Spinelli will look to develop another season and could potentially be the high end guy the Hounds need next season when they are ready to compete.

 

 

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After fielding a playoff-caliber team for many seasons in a row, the Wild were due for an offseason and this is definitely it. After a coming up just short in a 7 game war versus the Aces in the playoffs last season, the Wild are picking up the pieces and in full rebuild mode. The only remnants of last season that remain are Braxton Hunter and Gabriel Johnson. The Wild were unfortunately in a rough spot going into the first week of the season as they were not able to land a starting goalie to play for their squad until late into the week. Luckily they struck a deal with the Hounds that saw them pick up netminder Andrew Bowman. Bowman served as a backup for Yukon last season and he is definitely worthy of getting a shot as a starter in his sophomore season. If the Wild reload for next season, Bowman should be primed to be a major piece of the puzzle for Saskatoon. For now though, the Sasky Boys will have to endure a long and painful season. Like I said before though, they were due. It was quite a feat in itself that the Wild were competitive for as long as they were. Look for Doomsday to deal Hunter and Johnson come trade deadline time. 

 

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Sadly for Ottawa and their fanbase, this season will be Team Rebuild 2: Electric Boogaloo. Another season ushered in, and unfortunately it's another season at the bottom of the power rankings. The Lynx were in rough shape last season but what made matters worse was they didn't even have their first round pick to reap the benefits. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they don't have their 1st round pick for next draft either. Much like last season, they find themselves with only one defensemen to start off the season. That means more "MAXIMUM ICE TIME" ads to be had in waiver claims this season. While they do have a half decent record, don't expect the Lynx to stick around for too long before falling back down to the basement of the Eastern Conference. They do have a solid goalie in Barry Taffe but he could be making the jump to the pros next season. For the meantime it will be rookie watch from here on out as maybe Ottawa will produce another prime rookie like Philip Stein from season 75. 

 

That's it for this week everyone. If you made it to the end thanks for reading! It certainly is a different feel in the M this season. There is a steep decline in the bottom half of the league this year. And even then, the teams at the top will have a hard time trying to compete with Houston, who is already pretty much in playoff form. Last season I did the power rankings as a weekly feature because their was so much competition, but I think this season it will be a lot of the same results over and over so I may do them bi-weekly for the remainder of this season just to avoid things getting repetitive and boring for the reader. All the best to all the teams and players in the M. Keep earning and developing! Cheers!

 

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by fromtheinside

[Juice 641]

AWWWW YEAH POWER RANKINGS BACK!

[rory 1,916]

15 minutes ago, Juice said:

AWWWW YEAH POWER RANKINGS BACK!

Didn't even mention the elite connect 4 match. Wow.

[diacope 1,696]

Look out Western Conference.. Vegas bout to go on a run! Everybody emptying their gas tanks too early, Aces aren't even close to empty

 

 

[BOOM 8,758]

Awesome writeup. 

[Cornholio 182]

Second Boom's comment. Great read, hope to see this on a weekly basis... hope Minnesota's able to keep up and eventually overtake Houston