DollarAndADream / Travis Boychuk Builder HOF article

[Victor 11,021]

Joined: January 9, 2014
Positions Held: VHL Head Grader & Head Reviewer, VHL General Manager, Board of Governors

 

DollarAndADream, usually known as Dollar, is a shining example that longevity and hard graft can get your recognition without necessarily having the flashiest roles in the VHL. Instead, it's all about doing what you do well and consistently, and stepping up when it matters. Dollar joined the league under the username travhave, creating S37 draftee Travis Boychuk, an exciting first-gen at an exciting time for the league, still fresh from expansion to 10 teams and still attracting new members. Tagger had made his first active player in S35, Will was about to join in S38 – Dollar now joins them as a Builder in the Hall of Fame, having hardly missed a beat since Boychuk's first week in the league.

 

Boychuk very much set the tone for Dollar's players in the league – a solid contributor, comfortably in the unofficial Hall of Very Good, and a great guy to have in the locker room. Boychuk was captain with both franchises he played for, two seasons in both Calgary and Quebec, a rare feat, and won his first Grimm Jonsson Trophy in S44, the now defunct top leader award. The follow-up, Zach Parechkin, added four more of those, a joint record, while also becoming just the third player ever to captain a franchise for 7 seasons (there are still only 5 who have achieved this feat). In many ways, Parechkin was the pinnacle, but Dollar has continued to be a great locker room presence to this day, and added more cups as captain with both Sebastian Ironside and Leph Twinger. All in all, Dollar is now on his sixth player and only one of them failed to hit 900 TPE (GM player Bo Boeser retiring after just 6 seasons for a variety of GM-related reasons). That is consistency that very few VHL members can match.

 

The above is the extremely solid foundation for Dollar's Builder induction but only tells half the story. First of all, he has not just created likeable players and been a good guy to have around – Parechkin and Ironside are both in the Hall of Fame and Boeser missed out primarily due to that shortened career. Parechkin of course captained Toronto to a famous threepeat in those 7 seasons as captain and the Legion are the franchise that Dollar then GMed throughout most of the 50s, not succeeding in chasing down similar success but setting up another strong rebuild which led to two more championships in S64 and S65. If anything that showed that you don't necessarily need championships to leave a positive legacy as a GM, and how you build and nurture a team is just as important.

 

Lastly, but arguably most importantly, is Dollar's contribution to grading. I don't have the dates to hand, but he joined the grading team early on in his VHL career, during Boychuk's career, as this was a role which was often a stepping tone to future VHL success back in the day. Many reading this article today won't have any experience of grading but it was a hugely important role at the time, possibly second only to simming, as without a grade (or two for much of the league's history), you wouldn't be able to claim your 6 TPE point task. Graders were always in demand and it wasn't about how critical you could be of a graphic or how many grammar mistakes you could find in a media spot – if you were consistent and pumped out grades every week to avoid a league-wide backlog, you would be recognised. Dollar was in the highest echelon of graders and was rewarded for his consistency and longevity with the head grader role, very important for rallying the troops and sorting out any member disputes. Many head graders in the past have ended up receiving Builder inductions and now Dollar is no different, and as the league evolved he didn't lose the role but rather had it incorporated into his current BOG/Head Reviewer/Updater Adviser fusion.

 

There is lots of good that Dollar has done to the league in now over 6 and a half years and we can only hope this continues. The VHL thrives off hard-working members like him and fortunately he is showing no signs of slowing down.

 

@DollarAndADream

[Banackock 8,143]

I really enjoyed GMing against DAAD. Many great talks etc. Also love every time we manage to get him in the LR! Awesome person! 

[DollarAndADream 3,357]

A @Victorarticle to capture the builder induction. Couldn't ask for a better and more respected member to write about me, and it's definitely been a wild ride to this point in the VHL!

 

 

I've also said it before, but I would have been in the VHL earlier if I knew about it. I'm glad that one day @Kendrickmade a recruitment post on the Canucks.com message boards.

[Kendrick 4,741]

Boy am I glad I did!

[OrbitingDeath 3,229]

So Boychuk was your actual name? Or you keeping it hidden? I thought I was the only one crazy enough to use my own name for my first ever sim league player