S72 Marauders - Where are they now?

[bigAL 2,176]

S72 was a big, big time for the VHLM. It was the start of a new chapter, a chapter that included one more team than before. The Miami Marauders were awarded to GM Kris Rice in S71, and he got his ducks in a row for the S72 dispersal draft. Four seasons later, it’s a fair time to revisit that initial draft and find out where are they now?

 

 

Believe it or not, the expansion Marauders traded away their first round pick for an absolute haul. From the Minnesota Storm, Miami netted two S72 picks, four S73s, and a S74 pick. 

 

Therefore, our look back in time starts with Miami’s first pick, 23rd overall, Andre LeBastard. LeBastard was a huge part of the early Miami days. He was the first ever captain, and really did a great job stepping into that role. As an Aussie, he was able to keep the room active through degen hours. He was a very positive influence on the younger members in our group. Andre was respected as a leader and certainly earned his C. On the ice, he finished fourth on team scoring with 76 points, while facing the league’s toughest lines as the 1C on Miami. LeBastard really earned his money in the S72 playoffs. During a Cinderella run that lasted 7 games against the eventual champs, Andre scored 12 points and kept the team rolling as challenge after challenge faced the young squad. 

 

Since S72, Andre has become a bit of an enigma. He spent one more active season in Miami before graduating to the VHL. In the S73 VHL draft, he was a first round pick by the Prague Phantoms. Unfortunately, at the end of S73, Andre went inactive. He was juggling a lot in his real life, and as Australia opened up their covid-free island, he got pulled away from the VHL. Andre played two seasons with Prague, never doing much of anything, and is now a forever free agent. The league is worse off without the humour and spirit of Andre LeBastard.

 

With that sad story, let’s focus the rest of our article on the active players still kicking. The next pick by Miami, 26th overall, the Marauders took Kosmo Kramerev. An EFL main, Mongoose is known as the Seinfeld guy with the Kramer render. He’s a gfx guy who earns his teeps by making low-effort, high humour graphics. He’s a terribly inconsistent earner: sometimes he claims affiliate PTs, sometimes he makes VHL gfx, some weeks he doesn’t even click the welfare button. That’s all fine though, because Kosmo is a kool dood. On the ice, he was the leading scorer on the inaugural Marauders squad. The big Dman put up 106 points in 72 games while crunching a wild 30 minutes per night. Like so many on that Miami squad, Kramerev played himself into a first round pick. He went 11th overall to the Calgary Wranglers. In his fourth season in Calgary, Kramerev has seen his role diminished. RJ Jubis converted to defense, which pushed Kramerev down to the second pairing. In the big leagues, Kramerev hasn’t reached his sky-high VHLM offensive stats… yet. His career high was last season, with a nice 69 points in all 72 games. Look for Kosmo to top that as he enters his prime in S76.

 

It wouldn’t be a Miami Marauders article without mentioning the legend, the all-time goal-scorer, the overager who feasted on kids for too long, the one, the only, Dakota Lamb! It’s hard to believe it now, but 48 picks were made before Miami stole Lamb in the fourth round. He had a measly 52 TPE when drafted, and just cracked 800 this week. Not bad Lamb, not bad. In his rookie season, Lamb led the team with 37 goals and 93 points. That performance earned him another Miami first round pick, as the expansion Warsaw Predators took him at 10th overall. Lamb famously spurned his VHL team to run it back with Miami in S73. The gamble paid off for him immensely: he made it to the Founder’s Cup finals and taught the kids on Miami how to win (they did in S74.) Even more importantly to Lamb’s career, he joined the VHL as a super rookie and put up a filthy 90 points with Warsaw in S74. That was good enough for him to take home the Christian Stolzschweiger trophy as rookie of the year. Lamb stirred up some excitement this off season as he entered free agency, but ultimately chose to spend his prime years with the team that drafted him, the Warsaw Predators.

 

Another notorious member of those S72 Marauders joined the team via waivers. Florent Vericel was an important member of the team, earning himself a spot on the top line alongside LeBastard and Oh Sens. This tough assignment, and his low TPE, likely factored in his disappointing season stat-wise. Vericel put up 47 points, the lowest in his long, illustrious VHLM career. However, his stats highlighted his skill as an all-around offensive threat. Vericel almost broke even with goals and assists, scoring 22 and 25 respectfully. Following his time with Miami, Vericel was drafted to the Saskatoon Wild. Here, he broke out and flourished. The fart won a Founder’s Cup with the Wild in S75, and twice broke 110 points (121 and 114 in S74 and 75.) Unfortunately, Vericel retired after S75, unable to complete his life-long goal of eight seasons in the VHLM. 

 

Finally, the last active player from that team (rip Bacon, goalies are voodoo so I don’t count em) is Miami’s token Latvian, Oh Sens. Osens the young player from Japan was a workhorse on the LeBastard top line, putting up 63 points and leading the team in +/-. Never the flashiest player, Oh Sens was a reliable presence and more than happy to shut down the other teams’ stars. Osens came over from the EHM with dlamb, so Miami drafted the pair together. Oh Sens was picked with the expansion pick, number 52 overall, between rounds 4 and 5. Oh Sens is the only good player in this article who fell to the second round, where the Helsinki Titans scooped him up 18th overall. Oh Sens marinated in the M for another season, playing alongside fellow d+1er Lamb, and scored at almost exactly a point-per-game pace with 73 markers. Change was soon coming for Sens, as the Titans made a blockbuster of a trade. Without ever having played a game in the VHL, the Toronto Legion gave up a haul of draft picks including a 3rd and two 4ths to take on the winger. Since then, Oh Sens has flourished, putting up a career high 82 points in S75 with Toronto. With the Legion in the midst of a rebuild, Oh Sens is the most experienced forward on the team. Look for him to continue to put Toronto on his back and carry them throughout S76.

 

It’s worth noting that Miami was built with an eye on culture over production. Each of the players listed here are first-gen members. Of course, first-gens are high risk / high reward projects. Miami’s case study illustrates that perfectly: there are two complete busts (LeBastard and Vericel), two successes (Lamb and Oh Sens), and a serviceable depth piece (Kramerev). It’s worth investing in first-gens because, with good management, you can hopefully get more Lambs than Vericels.

 

And there you have it folks, four players from the inaugural Miami Marauders team who made an impact in the league, for better or worse. A team is only as memorable as its players, and these players helped make Miami a premiere destination for waiver signees and draft-eligible prospects.  Big ups to Ricer for putting this squad together from scratch and for etching his place in VHLM history.

 

Spoiler

Tags cause why not: @dlamb@osens@Ricer13@Mongoose87@Andre LeBastard

 

[Mongoose87 384]

Hold up, when did I not even claim welfare???

[dlamb 1,326]

Where my love for VHL started! Could not have asked for a better place to land to get me into this league. Although we never won it all, we had an awesome group, its too bad LeBastard and Stansson went AWOL. Great article Al!

 

P.S. @Ricer13 VHL GM WHEN??????

Edited February 4, 2021 by dlamb

[Xflexz 179]

Fantastic read. My favorite articles are those that look back on teams and players. BEAUTIFUL (Indent your damn paragraphs!!!!!!!!) 9.9/10 because you didn't indent smh

[bigAL 2,176]

2 hours ago, Mongoose87 said:

Hold up, when did I not even claim welfare???

Ha literally once last week and now that I scroll back into your update log it’s pretty good actually! I should do more research next time eh?

[Mongoose87 384]

18 hours ago, bigAL said:

Ha literally once last week and now that I scroll back into your update log it’s pretty good actually! I should do more research next time eh?

Ah, that one. PT team determined I needed to make my graphic more disgusting.

[osens 297]

DAMN I AM NOT EVEN A BUST, TAKE MY LOVEE BIG AL!