VHL Magazine 264
Titans on Top
VHL Magazine Edition 264
S1 TR A D ES DAVO S TO R EBU I L D? BOG U PDATE & MO R E!
Moment of the Week Congratulations to the Helsinki Titans on their comprehensive defeat of the over-hyped Calgary Wranglers in game seven of the Continental Cup playoffs. After surrendering a 3-1 series lead to the Wranglers, Helsinki stormed back into contention via strong performances from the majority of their young but talented roster. Whether this performance paves the way for a Finnish dynasty remains to be seen, but after claiming their first title since S34, the Titans are in a strong position to themselves challenge for back to back Cups, just as the Wranglers themselves were chasing this season.
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VHL Magazine 264
Headlines By Draper
AN U PDATE F ROM T H E BOG
As I did last season, I bring to you today a small update from the Board of Governors. The Board, for those unaware, is a group of VHL folks who discuss and create ideas to improve and innovate the league. This season, the Board wasn’t extremely active, but a few editions ago I wrote about some new faces joining the team and I’m happy to report that things have since picked up rather significantly. Regardless, there certainly was some things spoken about this season. Just yesterday, you saw some of those concepts come to fruition with my announcement. Firstly, the change to new member TPE was something suggested by Flyersfan, and evidently makes a lot of sense. It isn’t exactly giving new members more TPE than the old system, but if giving it to them straight away rather than over the course of a few weeks helps to retain even one member, it was a worthwhile change to make in my books. Next listed in my announcement was the change to the point task upgrade that is available in the player store - this wasn’t a BoG discussion per say, more of feedback to a stated decision by me, but the reasoning behind it is simply that because magazine staff already gets extra TPE on their point task, they shouldn’t be able to get so close to the weekly cap with just one piece of work. Thirdly was regarding the reformation of the VHLM Practice Facility. The BoG
has been discussing this for awhile now and there were probably 5-6 different options on the table, ranging from what I announced to creating some kind of game of the week poll with some kind of integration the VHLM Mag. We couldn’t wholly agree on which options were feasible or not yet, but we did all agree that any of the options are an improvement over the current system and, for that reason, we went with the simplest setup whilst we work on improving it further. Perhaps the largest item being discussed by the BoG at the moment is a recently renewed recruitment discussion, where we have made quite a bit of progress in refining our recruitment strategy. We’ve found a few different places that are feasible for us to place advertisements on, and we’re thinking up ways to provide better incentives during our recruitment drives. We’ve also come to think we should begin to shift much of our focus that is currently on social media to different places, like various hockey forums. Aside from that, we talked about about changing the attributes of bot players, changing the update scale, and looked at adding some new player store options. Other items discussed were put in a media spot by Eaglesfan, so I won’t bother repeating them here. With Season 45 over and a new one coming quickly - here’s to a new season that’s as successful as the last 45.
Do you think there will be more blockbuster trades this offseason compared to last offseason?
43%
57%
Yes
Power Poll Last season, before the VHL Entry Draft even rolled around, it seemed that the GMs were set on making as many trades as they possibly could in one brief period on time. It seemed that everyone in one way or another was making moves to help further their team, with Toronto and Seattle cementing a rebuild while other teams started to buy for a run at the championship. It was Helsinki that was standing tall at the end of everything, building quite the team through the Entry Draft and a couple of those offseason trades. The trades seemed to have an effect throughout the whole
No
By Toast league though, as teams are starting to take their places for what seems to be the next few seasons at least. What makes the series of off-season trades so special is the lack of moves members are used to seeing. Jardy will post a trade deadline thread every season, but it seems that the most that will happen come trade deadline is a few minor trades (this past trade deadline being somewhat rebellious against the quota). So it’s no surprise that members were f loored when it seemed there was a new blockbuster deal going down every single day leading up to the draft and free agency. Heck, the third-overall pick in S45 ended up switching around to four different teams before it settled.
VHL Magazine 264
“It’d be interesting to see some GM’s get a draft pick. I.E Stockholm, Quebec, Calgary or for new York to try move up.” - StevenStamkos91 That’s what brings us to this week’s VHL Magazine Power Poll. The question for this edition was: Do you think there will be more blockbuster deals this off-season compared to last? Surprisingly the votes were pretty close. With six votes, voters seemed to believe that the VHL GMs have gone absolutely nuts and will do whatever it takes to get the spotlight on their team. While Brovy did try his best to get Quebec into the first round of the draft, it just wasn’t meant to be it seems. Many GMs like to f lirt with trade talks though, and there is still time to see one of those ridiculous deals go down. The other eight voters for this poll sided with no. It seems that many
believe that there won’t be too many trades going down this off-season as there was so much that happened in just the previous off-season. While some teams will be moving some pieces around, it seems that teams are pretty well safe from cap hell and whatever else they have to deal with. This leaves team to deal with their positions for a season it seems unless anyone tries to force something. With the S46 VHL Entry Draft concluding the night of this writing, there are still no VHL off-season trades to report (minus Jardy trying to get some attention again), so could this off-season be a complete dud compared to last season? It seems our voters were right.
“I don’t know Toast you tell me.” - eaglesfan036
Transaction Central By StevenStamkos91
Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of Transaction Central. With the offseason set to go into full swing with the Season 46 VHL Entry Draft set to go this Wednesday, we shall look at some trades that pre-date some of these very members here on the site. Maybe a few trades will take place here on Monday up until Wednesday that will change up the whole draft order. These trades that we will look at today did just that all the way back in Season 1, just before the Season 1 VHL Dispersal Draft. To Calgary Season 1 Amstel 1st Round Pick - 6th Overall Season 1 Amstel 2nd Round Pick - 11th Overall Season 2 Amstel 4th Round Pick - 29th Overall To Amstel Season 1 Calgary 1st Round Pick - 1st Overall Season 1 Calgary 2nd Round Pick - 16th Overall
T HE RE S ULT
The Calgary Wranglers did the unthinkable and traded 1st overall. Most people were caught off guard with this decision by then GM Brett Slobodzian. Slobodzian’s reason was quite simple actually. He would rather have picks early in the draft (6th and 11th) than having pick number 1 and wait a long time for pick number 2 (1st and 16th). With these 2 picks, the Calgary Wranglers would shape up their dynasty in the early years. With the 6th overall selection, the Calgary Wranglers selected Hall of Famer, Scott Boulet. With the 11th overall pick, the Calgary Wranglers selected goltender Drew Barclay. Both these players played major roles in years 1-3 (Barclay left in Season 4), making the Wranglers the 1st dynasty in VHL History. Scott Boulet would play 432 games in his career, all with the Calgary Wranglers. In these 432 games he scored 349 goals and assisted on 388 for 737 points. This is ranked tied for 36th all time in VHL History. He is actually in the top 25th
VHL Magazine 264 all time in goals coming in at 23 but his assists are lacking coming in at 73rd all time. However, Mr. Boulet legacy is not in his points, assists or goals, it is in his dedication to the site in the early years and to being a great 2-way forward. He has a trophy named after him and has his name enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Drew Barclay on the other hand, is a winner plain and simple. This may be attributed to playing on such a great team like the Wrangler but his all time career stats look like this: 101 wins - 17 losses - 4 overtime losses. That is amazing, plain and simple. His save percentage of 0.898 maybe not look that great, but compare that to the likes of Maxim Desny an Matthew Pogge its not that bad as they only had save percentages of 0.908 which is 0.010 better than Barclay. He may not be the best goaltender in VHL history, but he is one of the winning-est. The 4th round pick was later traded away. Going the other way in the trade was 1st overall pick goaltender Robert Sharpe and 16th overall pick defenseman/ center Petr Shirokov. Robert Sharpe gets a bad rep when really he never stood a chance. Even if he had an amazing career and won all these things, he will always go down in history as the player picked before Scotty Campbell. He finished with a career record of 144-100-21 and a save percentage of 0.889 and a G.A.A of 3.10. During the early years of the VHL
it was hard on goalies as there were a lot of high powered offence with very little defence. Sharpe is actually tied for 42nd in wins with Hall of Famer Maxim Desny. In my honest opinion Sharpe should be a Hall of Famer. He is tied with or better than a few of those goalies who are in the Hall of Fame. Its been 45 season since the VHL started, maybe its about time we give Robert Sharpe his due. The other man involved in the trade is one of the first inductees into the Hall of Fame and that man is Petr Shirokov. He started out as a centerman but after a need for his team, he made the switch to the back end. He played in only 290 games but 121 goals and assisted on 213 goals for 334 points. As far as I can remember, I’m pretty sure he was only around for 4 seasons, 2 of which for Amstel and then moved about like a nomad. T HE VE RDI CT
The winner of this trade is the Calgary Wranglers. Even though Scott Boulet and Petr Shirokov are Hall of Famer’s which basically write them off as equals, but you can’t. Scott Boulet played his whole career with the Calgary Wranglers winning back to back championships with them. Drew Barclay finished 69-3 in his season with the Wranglers. Robert Sharpe played in a suspension filled season with Amstel while Shirokov played in 2 seasons. Based on this Calgary wins the 1st trade in VHL History.
To Vasteras Season 1 Hamilton 1st Round Pick - 2nd Overall To Hamilton Season 1 Vasteras 1st Round Pick - 8th Overall Season 2 Vasteras 2nd Round Pick - 16th Overall THE RESU LT
The 2nd overall pick turned out to be some guy named Scotty Campbell. He not only helped the Vasteras IK franchise win the inaugural Continental Cup over the powerhouse Calgary Wranglers, but he started writing the VHL record books in the process. He is the all time leader in goals, assists and points. With 2nd place in those categories are 151 goals behind, 59 assists behind and 268 points respectively. Scotty Campbell is the true superstar in the VHL and no one will ever break his records in those categories simply because of the parity in the VHL nowadays. There have been plenty of great players in the VHL but there is only 1 Scotty Campbell. The 8th overall selection became defenseman David Night. He was a pillar in the early years of the VHL,
trailblazing the way that defenseman should be built. He was arguably the 1st great defenseman. He would help shape the Hamilton Canucks into a respectable franchise despite the struggle of the early years. In 504 career games, David scored 164 goals and assisted on 370 goals for 534 points in his career. He is a Hall of Famer as well in his glorious career. The 2nd Round Pick also turned into a defenseman. That defenseman is the lost Staal brother. Alex Staal was selected by the Hamilton Canucks at 16th overall and spent a couple seasons there if memory serves correct. In his 431 games, he scored 57 goals and assisted on 232 goals for 289 points. Neither of these players though helped the Hamilton Canucks win a Continental Cup, unfortunately. T HE VE RDI CT
Well when you acquire the greatest player in VHL history, you probably win that trade hands down. In this case it is true. Scotty Campbell won a Continental Cup with the Vasteras IK while David Night and Alex Staal couldn’t do the same with the Hamilton Canucks. They didn’t even make it to the finals as well if my memory serves correct. All in all, I believe GM Brett Noiles wants this trade back.
VHL Magazine 264
To Vasteras Season 1 Calgary 5th Round Pick - 33rd Overall To Calgary Season 1 Vasteras 5th Round Pick - 40th Overall Season 1 Vasteras 6th Round Pick - 41st Overall THE RESU LT
Vasteras traded up in the draft to select Aaron Hill 33rd overall. Who? Exactly, Aaron Hill played in only 1 season with Vasteras scoring 7 goals and assisting on 20 goals for 27 points. His claim to fame might be winning the Continental Cup over the Wranglers and being the 2nd name on the All-Time Stats list. Calgary proved to be shrewd at trades so far acquiring Hall of Famer Scott Boulet and then followed up that trade by trading for 40th and 41st overall. These picked proved to be great depth players in defenseman Shawn Howard and RW Cody Banks. Cody Banks had a very good career for a 5th rounder and spending most of his career with the Wranglers. Anyway, he scored 118 goals and assisted on 173 goals for 291 points. The 40th overall picked turned out to be journeyman defender Shawn Howard. Shortly after being drafted, Calgary released the defender so he never played a game for the organization. THE VER D IC T
This trade almost turned out to be a wash for both teams. Calgary released the best player in this trade in Shawn Howard. Cody Banks played more for Calgary than Aaron Hill did for Vasteras so this turns out to be a win for Calgary.
Historical Significance By Victor
HI STO R IC A L A WARD CE RE M ONY
I absolutely love it when an awards ceremony falls on a Friday or a Saturday because that makes it very easy to incorporate it into my weekend Point Task routine by writing my favourite recurring feature on Historical Significance: the dissecting of awards in a historical context. These things usually end up longer than expected so let’s abandon introductions and get right to it. THOM A S O ’ M A L L E Y
A good starting point is addressing the elephant in the room, or rather the alley cat, which is of course Thomas O’Malley accumulating yet more awards. When Streetlight compiled career stats after Season 44, I mentioned O’Malley
was on pace to finally break into the elite 400-goal and 800-point club and it felt like a jinx in his early days in Helsinki, until he turned it around and ended up as the VHL’s top scorer anyway. Now with two of those and two Scotty Campbell Trophies, O’Malley is in some legendary company but not quite record-breaking yet, though there are of course two seasons left to go. He has however set a record with three straight Brett Slobodzian Trophies and while this may be because Scotty Campbell retired before the trophy was introduced, it still feels like just the first hurdle overcome en route to O’Malley securing a place in the very highest echelon of VHL’s greats.
VHL Magazine 264 # PHI L ER SH IP
Phil didn’t win the Grimm Jonsson Trophy as Top Leader in Season 44 solely because he wasn’t eligible for it. Now, with Phil Hamilton making his VHL debut, he’s picked up where Phil Villeneuve left off and you have to wonder who can stop him. Phil has always been known as a great locker room presence but his post-Rafter renaissance has been something else entirely, as indeed he had only won this award once previously, back in the early days of Phil Gerrard. Now with three separate players being named top leader, Phil matches Sterling and Slobo’s accomplishment, though he at four awards, he is still some way off Sterling’s record of seven (two with the original Labatte, one with Bencharski and of course four with Jonsson). It seems like a matter of time though, unless of course we get a bit of a Hamilton rivalry for this award. CYCLIC A L C U P D ROUGHT S
A couple of seasons ago there was some banter over the fact that Seattle and Calgary, two of the better franchises in VHL history, had gone some time
without a championship – until of course they won it in back-to-back seasons. It was then not particularly picked up on that Helsinki, another quite successful team, had one of the longest current droughts – until they also won the cup. This means that the general VHL trend has kept going – whenever a franchise which was not once called Vasteras experiences a lean period, they swiftly end it to stop all nonsensical talk of a curse. As for Vasteras though, it’s fairly grim reading for the young Stockholm Vikings, whose cupless run now goes back 19 seasons. The closest team in “pursuit” is Quebec, whose only championship to date came just 10 seasons ago and who have been to the finals since. I bet the Vikings can’t wait until Season 51. And finally, I was quite surprised to find out that Greg Clegane was named the league’s top rookie last season, meaning I only need the most sportsmanlike and most improved awards in the VHL to catch them all. I generally try to avoid my own players in these articles but man needs inspiration after a lay-off.
The Beat By CowboyinAmerica
REPLY H A ZY, TRY AG AI N
TO RE BUI L D
To quote the immortal Bone Thugsn-Harmony, HC Davos Dynamo have reached Tha Crossroads. Long expected to be the major rivalry for seasons to come following the Season 42 draft, Stockholm and Davos have now combined for exact zero finals appearances in the past five seasons. And with Helsinki coming on strong, Riga looking to make another run, and Cologne with some young players in the wings, it’s no guarantee that it will happen again.
1. Timing – Stockholm is currently rebuilding, but otherwise in the European Conference, Helsinki, Riga and Cologne seem to be holding firm. Especially as Riga is getting older, if Davos wants to gear up for another run, the time might be now to stockpile picks. In particular, Sinclair is probably at the peak of his trade value; he has a full four seasons left, making him valuable to teams such as Seattle or Toronto, and his current status as the goalie with the second-most TPE in the league would make him more worthwhile than other options to contenders like New York and Riga.
That’s what makes the current Davos offseason... odd, to say the least. By letting many free agents go, it seems that Stockholm is committing to rebuilding. Davos, however, is not committing one way or the other. Faraday is currently a free agent, and Sundberg retired, leaving the team with only four forwards. They have not made any move to remedy this – as of the writing of this article, 20 hours after free agency opened, the Dynamo have not offered a contract to anyone, not even Faraday. And yet, the team does have key pieces that don’t hit hard depreciation for another couple of seasons. There are certainly worse pieces to build around than McJustice, Sinclair and Valmount. So which way should Davos go, rebuild or retool? We offer up three pros and three cons for each.
2. Draft Picks – Davos already has first round selections from Cologne and Helsinki next year in addition to their own selection; unless Riga and Stockholm are the two teams to miss the European playoffs, that’s at least one guaranteed lottery selection right there. However, historically, teams have had much more success hoarding picks and building around a lot of draftees at one time (i.e. current Helsinki) than reloading and trying to straddle two eras (i.e. current Calgary). If Davos were to go the more failsafe route and build around those S47 picks, they will need more picks to run with. 3. Shake-up – Is change for the sake of change a bad thing? There are multiple ways to look at it. The Toronto teams
VHL Magazine 264
with Remy LeBeau stuck it out through the bad times, and they were eventually rewarded with a Cup. The Seattle teams during that time period, though, never made a change and didn’t even get a Finals birth. Anything can happen once you hit the playoffs, and indeed, Davos did have an opening round sweep this year. But winning will likely mean three rounds of excellent hockey, and there is no guarantee that the team as currently constructed can complete two, let alone three, rounds. Tearing it down and starting over again could simply be preferable to throw something at the wall and see if it sticks.
2. The Challengers – The favorite this upcoming season is Helsinki. Past Helsinki, the favorite is... well, that’s a good question, isn’t it? Calgary still has Wingate and is going hard after free agents, but Koenig may be gone and the team’s getting older. Depreciation severely hurts Riga’s main stars in Thomassen and Hunter. Even if New York does end up with Campbell, that’s still a downgrade from retiring Shaw winner Mikaelson. And nobody else is making a move without some serious help. Davos does have holes, but they’re not necessarily bigger ones than most other VHL teams.
TO RETO O L
3. Have Cake and Eat It Too – Coach Reilly is no fool; he saw how the Davos dynasty of the mid-30s was constructed. The team was built off the back of young guns Lennox Moher, Matt Bentley and others, but the team also relied on older veterans such as Thomas Landry, Jarkko Olsen and Sergey Brovalenko. A similar strategy could be in play with those aforementioned three S47 firsts; just as players like Valmount become expensive, let the older guys go and restock with young, fresh talent that doesn’t kill the cap. It’s a risky way to try and win it all, sure, but it maintains success in a league where the playoffs seem more of a crapshoot than ever before.
1. The Build – Although Helsinki should likely be considered the favorite in Europe for the next couple of seasons, there’s also a reasonable argument to make that this is the season Davos has been building for all along. McJustice and Sinclair are both entering their fifth seasons, the maximum TPE earning slot before depreciation hits. With all that TPE, depreciation isn’t going to affect Richardson at all, and Valmount in his second season certainly looks ready to replace the departing Faraday. Add in $6.5M in cap space for a preseason and/or deadline deal to fill holes, and this may be the best chance Davos has for a while.