VHL Magazine 269
Hall of Fame
VHL Magazine Edition 269
PLAYO F F TA L K O’MAL L EY F O R M VP ? FRE E IN TERV IEW & MO R E!
Moment of the Week Calgary’s Jaime Hill has continued his run as the VHL’s angriest player. With a league leading 5 fights through 69 games, Hill’s willingness to drop the gloves on a regular basis is something that teams love in a defenseman. It’s a pity however, that despite being involved in those 5 fights, he has only been on the winning end once. That 20% record could be even worse if he had not beaten up Quebec’s Francis York Morgan in Calgary’s first game of the season. You would think that an agitator would have a better grasp of the fundamentals of fighting but Hill’s mouth often gets him into trouble that his fists seem incapable of solving. When Thomas O’Malley(4F 1W/25%) has a better record in fights, you have an issue that needs addressing.
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VHL Magazine 269
Victory Three PLAYO F F TIM E
By the time that this article is even released for the public eye, it will be time to start up the playoffs. It seems obvious that in the European conference, it will be a repeat as it was last year. The Riga Reign will be taking on HC Davos in a remarkable matchup while Helsinki will once again get the bye, and the Victory Cup it seems. Everything is all locked up over in the North American conference too, with the Americans getting the bye while Calgary and either Quebec or Toronto will battle it out. While Calgary is certainly the favourite to win the series, could Toronto go on a potential run with all the high scoring they have put up so far this season? That will certainly be something to follow once the series starts up, if they do manage to pass Quebec for the third spot anyways. The playoffs will be a can’t-miss event as always, with it not seemingly clear who will claim it all this season. NATIO N S PR EPARI N G
And with the playoffs right around the corner for the VHL, that means that players of the league will also have to prepare for the World Cup that is set to happen in the off-season after its three season break. Back in S43, Western Europe was able to shock everyone, making a dominate run for the gold medal in the tournament while they were led by Hans Wingate and Bismarck
By Toast
Koenig. As the team is more developed than it ever was now, it seems the team will have a strong performance once again. It could be anyone’s tournament however, as every nation has some power house players and if the Western Europe team from S43 can do it, then there isn’t any reason that any team in the tournament could go on a miraculous run as well. If you’re interested in taking up a GM role in the tournament, make sure to keep an eye out for the job posting as that will come out sometime after playoffs begin. RE ADE RS HI P P LUM M E T S
The VHL Magazine is still trying to find its groove again after recent changes, there is no doubt about that. But last week’s edition is arguably one of few editions that had so few comments. Just one to be exact. While it was posted a little late, in the early hours of Monday morning, it still seems odd that there would be nothing to comment on. While there are those who will like the topic that it was posted in, we need to see some actual comments or feedback on the pieces that we put out every week! There is some great work that is featured every week that deserves to be acknowledged as well. You could claim that the lack of activity due to school exams and stuff is the reason, but it’s still very surprising that not even the Mag could drive in some comments. Let’s fix this for the next edition!
By the Numbers By Advantage
129 It seems like a mere formality at this point when discussing this year’s Most Outstanding Player. Once again, Thomas O’Malley will be bringing a significant amount of hardware home as he has already locked up the Top Scorer Trophy. While he finished second in both goals and assists, Thomas O’Malley once again had a tremendous season as he led his team to a Victory Cup. It seems like an absolute guarantee that he will win the Scotty Campbell Trophy as well this season, as he had thirty-six more points than any other
Titan. In addition to the consistently tremendous offense he provides, O’Malley led the league in face off percentage (66.43%) and was very disciplined for someone that plays as much as he does (6 minor penalties). On a team where no other player that played the whole season with the Titans had more than ninety points, it seems absolutely ridiculous for Thomas to record the numbers he did. While Molholt had more goals than him, once again this is O’Malley’s year to shine.
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“It seems like a mere formality at this point when discussing this year’s Most Outstanding Player.”
84 It might finally be the year where Mason Richardson wins the Sterling Labatte Trophy. Despite being a favourite for the majority of his career, Richardson has finally stepped up by finishing second for defenders in points. The only player higher on the list is Joseph Roy III, who played forward for the majority of the season before being traded to New York. Richardson recorded 84 points, 184 hits and 108 blocked shots while playing over thirty minutes per game. He was a work horse and while he is probably winning in what should be considered a weak year (if excluding Roy III, only Richardson was a pointper-game) he will win nevertheless due to his solid play for the Dynamo. While there are defenders who recorded more hits and blocked shots (like World B. Free and Francis York Morgan), Richardson’s offense and the fact that he didn’t have to rely on his team for great defensive statistics should give him the decisive victory in the voting.
72 While it may seem unfair to him, Hans Wingate got to pay seventy-two games this year. Due to the trade that happened mid-season, Wingate was in a position where his team did not have to play the backup any more, and his old team had yet to play their backup. Due to this rare occurrence, Wingate racked up the starts leading the league in the category. However, what matters is what he did with those extra games. Wingate led the league in wins (49), save percentage (.923) and shutouts (11), while finishing third in goals against average. While the likes of Blake Campbell were edged out and will likely fall short, Wingate continued to improve as the season went on and came up big for Riga after the trade. Despite his slow start to the season, Hans looks to be the favourite to win the Shaw Trophy, but his goal is likely a lot more important than that this season. With the Reign in the playoffs, Wingate has a chance to shine where many goalies shine the most.
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UP
Tim TebowGow. It seems over the past few season the amount of star power in the VHL has been slowly diminishing. There are still elite talents in the league like Hans Wingate, Thomas O’Malley and the likes of Bismarck Koenig. But due to the weaker drafts in the past few seasons there are less elite players entering the VHL and making an impact. Tim TebowGow has certainly been an elite trainer since joining the league in season 44. Though he is only second in his draft class in training hours TebowGow is certainly ready to become an elite player in the VHL. His season 44 rival is Edwin Reencarnacion who is also having a
By brovy
similar season to TebowGow and is also close to entering the peak of his career. Reencarnacion may have more training hours but TebowGow is keeping up with him in points this season only being one point behind him and having an arguably harder position at center. TebowGow is tied for eighth in the league with 87 points (28 goals and 59 points) with arguably one of the best players in the league, Bismarck Koenig. It is fair to say Koenig is not having a lights out season like he used to but credit should be given to TebowGow. UP
Seattle Bears. To be good, you must be bad. To have your high points you
VHL Magazine 269
must have your low points. This could probably sum up the Bears motto right now. Seattle in 63 games only has 3 wins, yes only 3 wins. To finish off their record they have 54 losses and 12 overtime losses, the Bears have allowed the most goals in the league and have scored the least amount in the league. Both are not things the Bears are proud of, but there is a light at the end of this terrible tunnel the Bears are in right now. Along with Seattle owning all there picks in the coming drafts they have already been drafting strong, especially on the back end. Bubba Nuck was a former first round pick, he was drafted 8th overall in the season 45 draft and he looks like we will
become a good defensemen that will maybe fit in as a nice number 2 type guy. Due to the General Manager rule Arcturus Mengsk became property of the Seattle Bears in season 45, Mengsk looks like he could become an elite defender with his training hours so far and how well he has performed at the VHL level. Adding to their strong defensive future the Bears drafted Jeff Hamilton in the most recent draft with the second overall pick. Hamilton’s agent is very well known throughout the VHL community and is known for making truly amazing players. Seattle is looking good on the defensive side of the puck but without a goaltender it may be tough for them in the future.
VHLM Spotlight
By Christmas
PLAYO F F EX PEC TAT I O N S
It has finally arrived. The S46 playoffs are right around the corner and with all the games being played, we have our final matchups of the season. As we anticipated, Moscow kept their winning ways going through the end of the season, and were able to steal the top spot in the European Conference from the Bern Royals and earn that first round bye. This means the Royals will be facing off against the Storm in the first round. As for the North American Conference, none of the standings changed, with the Lynx taking the first round bye and the Blades facing off against the Wild in round one. The North American Conference is shaping up to be an absolute bloodbath. The Blades finished the season with 90 points, a +46 goal differential, and a .625 winning percentage. The Saskatoon Wild are quite frankly just happy to be in the playoffs at all. They finished with 37 points, a -123 goal differential, and a
.257 winning percentage. The teams are about as far apart as talent is concerned and Saskatoon is going to have to pull off some sort of magic for them to win this one. As far as individual players are concerned, Markus Muller remains a top-tier performer, and the onetwo punch of Muller and Sleeman is going to be a sight to see. Don’t forget Hyvarinen also on defense, either. Surprisingly enough Saskatoon might have the better top-tier talent of the two, with Sir William Covington III and Stabby McFullO’Schmidt as their forward defensive combination. Looking at individual matchups, the Wild’s only chance to win this series will be for their two monster players to outperform the depth of the Blades. The odds of it actually happening? I think they are very slim. Even if they do make it past the first round, they will be absolutely torn apart by the Lynx, who have been firing on all cylinders for the entirety of the season.
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The European Conference may be a little different. While there is a pretty decent gap between the Bern Royals and the Oslo Storm, the two teams haven’t exactly played all that differently in the late stages of the season. Both teams have 6 wins in their last 10, and the Royals have been in a bit of a tailspin with the Red Wolves unseating them for the top spot in the conference. Goal differential has a very large disparity with the Royals at +94 and the Storm at even. However this could be an advantage for the Storm as they have shown they are more capable of winning close games with their play. Bern has a similar team structure as Brampton, in they have a very solid group of depth players who can all chip in if need be. They finished with 11 players with 40+ points on the season, and while their leading scorer Skovgaard only had
88 points, they have 5 players with at least 50 points. The team has a lot of weapons offensively, and will be hard to contain all of them in any given game. The Storm also have a good set of depth players, with 8 of them in the 40+ point range. Their top-end talent is clearly superior, however, with Super Cock and Lucas Galeano leading the way in the charts. This one could go either way when simply looking at the individuals who make up the team. Do not be surprised for an upset here, even though you could argue it wouldn’t quite be an upset. Whichever team makes it out of the first round should prove to be a solid challenge for the Red Wolves. The Wolves have a lot of talent and have been on fire, though, so both teams will need to be on their A game in whatever second round matchup occurs.
Rookie Watch This time we have World B. Free on Rookie Watch. The young righthanded defenseman came into VHL from a good season in the minors. In the Season 46 VHL Entry Draft, Free was drafted in the second round, 13th overall. He was the 4th defenseman drafted in the S46 Draft. Right after the draft, the tough playing defenseman from Cologne, Germany, made a hard decision between staying in the VHLM for one more season or go to play in the VHL? He decided to go to play with the big boys. And that decision has paid off positively. World B. Free has had an amazing season so far. With 66 games in the season, Free has compiled total of 54 points. But he isn’t a goal scorer or a shooter, he has only 71 shots and 7 goals. But he is a skillful passer. He has been feeding Max Molholt and Zach Parechkin with great passes, so Free has 45 assists. On the other hand, World B. Free is a physical presence on the ice. With his 226lbs. body he has racked 271 hits and only 55 hits taken! But he is lonely in top of the leagues penalty minutes. He has 194 penalty minutes, with quite a big lead to 2nd player in the PIM list. Free’s 173 shot blocks are very impressive also and his +/- is +6, which is good too considering that he plays on a rebuilding Toronto team. World B. Free will be an exciting player to follow in seasons to come. But he may have been “overplaying”, because he is only at 194 practice hours. What were your thoughts when Toronto Legion announced that they drafted you?
By Ahma
I was very pleased. The Toronto GM got in touch with me after the start of my full VHLM season and I developed a great liking of that organization. In fact, there were the only franchise to contact me before draft day, so I think I ended up in the right location. Looking at this right now, I can’t do anything but underline these words. The city of Toronto welcomed me with open arms and helped me adjust to being a true professional. You have had a quite good season so far, opinions? Personally, I’m the most puzzled one of all people. The decision to play all 8 eligible seasons with the pros in the VHL wasn’t an easy one, but looking back at it now I’m really happy with what I did. Of course, I’ve had my ups and downs throughout the season stretches where I played really well, stretches where I probably should have even gotten up that morning. But that’s part of being a rookie, and I believe I have coped well with it. If this is what my rookie season feels like, I’m more than eager to see what the next years will be like. Toronto is having a playoff race with Quebec City Meute, do you think Toronto can beat them? It would be a great pleasure for us to reach the playoffs once the regular season ends, but I don’t think we’re quite ready yet. We’re just rookies, so I think we lack some of the experience that is needed to win these close games
VHL Magazine 269
that are needed for playoff eligibility. Also, we traded away a couple of integral parts of this season’s team lately, and the adjustment period is taking longer than I expected. We’re still giving it our all, but unfortunately I see Quebec making the playoffs over us. Nevertheless, we’ll still fight until the last puck before we give up. What do you think about Toronto’s rocky season so far? To be honest, we performed a whole lot better than I expected us to do. We don’t have a lot of young talent, or talent let alone whatsoever to account for, so the whole regular season is a learning process for us. I think we did pretty well there seeing how we put up quite the fight for some teams and some goals. Going into next season, I think this is something that we can work with in the future. Our mentality, and our chemistry, seems to be there already and I can’t wait see how this will develop further. How do you like playing with Molholt and Parechkin? It’s been great. Like for real, it has been really awesome to bond with these two guys so early in my career. Seeing how they both have had some stellar seasons individually, I’m really happy to have them on my team. It just makes life easier for you if you know
that there people on your squad who have the awareness to do the right thing every time they are on the ice. People don’t credit them enough for the stellar season we’re playing. What about DAV C? Ay, that son of a woman working in the horizontal business is the worst. Basically, nobody in the whole world knows why he ended up on our roster so it’s all a great mystery. He is detrimental to any synergy developing within the squad. I can’t wait for the moment he leaves the team, because greatness will ensue. Where do you see yourself and Toronto Legion in few seasons? Hopefully at the top of the standings. I believe that our management is clever and insightful enough to keep their stellar work up. When they drafted me, they presented me a long run-down of what the future hopefully looks like here in Canada. A year and a half later, this still stands and my faith in the front office has been strengthened. We’ve had a great draft last year, and I think they will build on it this offseason. There are still one or two waiting to come up in the VHLM, and with the picks we have this year it’s only a matter of time before we rise and shine - hopefully. Thank you Stevo for this interview!
Transaction Central By StevenStamkos91
ALL-T IM E D R A F T T E AM PART 2
S E AS ON 2 , ROUND 1 , 7 T H OVE RAL L : DE F E NS E M AN S T E RL I NG L ABAT T E
(S1) Scott Boulet - (S1) Brad Janssen - (S2) Edward Eldred (S1) Reg Vaillancourt - (S1) Cody Banks (S2) Sterling Labatte (S1) Shawn Howard (S1) Lucas Smith - (S2) Tommy Brown (S1) Jeremy Lambourghini (S1) Drew Barclay (S2) Joseph Baker *bold indicates new draftee*
Question, who is the greatest VHL defenseman of all-time? Many would argue over a question such as this. Really though, there can only be one right? My answer is simple. Sterling Labatte is the greatest defenceman in VHL history. How could he not be the answer? VHL brass named the best defenceman trophy after him. Just look at his career stats. He played in 648 games which is tied for 2nd all time. He scored 210 goals which is 2nd all-time for defenceman who played defence their whole career. He assisted on 562 goals which is 2nd all-time.
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He has 772 career points which leads all defenceman in VHL history. He is also the only defenseman to crack the top 23 all-time in the history of the VHL. He played in 9 wonderful seasons which is a record. His accolades include 3 Continental Cups, 1 Gold Medal, 2 Bronze Medals, 4 Victory Cups, 3 Bobby Orr Trophies (now Sterling Labatte Trophy), 2 Gordon Howe Trophies (now Daisuke Kanou Trophy), 1 Mark Messier Trophy (now Grimm Jonsson Trophy) and 4 time all-star. Whew did you get all that? that is quite the mouthful isn’t it. That is just a little blerb on why Sterling Labatte may be the best defenseman in VHL History, if you’re sill not sold, go look at his Hall of Fame article. He is a Season 10 inductee. SEASO N 2 , RO U N D 2 , 15 T H OVE R A L L : D EF EN S E MAN TOMM Y B ROW N
Tommy Brown was the 2nd defenceman taken in this draft by the Wranglers. He had a solid albeit short career that spanned 192 games in which he scored 27 goals and assisted on 114 goals for 141 points. He played on championship winning teams for the Wranglers before calling it a career at the end of Season 3. Solid depth defenseman that makes good teams great.
S E AS ON 2 , ROUND 3 , 2 0 T H OVE RAL L : GOALT E NDE R J OS E P H BAKE R
“JoBa” came into the VHL like someone lit a fire under his ass. Yet, he stopped practising after awhile like the fire blew out. He has a solid career record of 62-16-2 but he has a less than impressive 0.884 save percentage. He also has a career 2.56 goals against average. He only played parts of 2 seasons as a starter/spot starter but he was part of the Season 2 Continental Cup winning squad. S E AS ON 2 , ROUND 5 , 3 9 T H OVE RAL L : RI GHT WI NG E D WARD E L DRE D
Edward Eldred had a very solid career for a 5th round draft pick. He played 5 seasons in the VHL which totaled 360 games. In those 360 games he scored 145 goals while assisting on 218 goals for a total of 363 points. Not too shabby for someone who was picked next to last in the draft. He also won 2 Continental Cups while playing for the Wranglers. He also has a Bronze Medal hanging up somewhere in his house from Season 2. Edward is a running joke though, because Kendrick likes to say the sore loser on the site should get an award for well being a sore loser.
Transaction Central By StevenStamkos91
GOAL IES O N TH E M OVE
Welcome to a very eventful edition of Transaction Central. Molholt has been to busy playing W WE 2K16 to realize that he missed my last writing and didnt put it in so we get 2 in this edition! My other writing was an AllTime Draft edition so this part will be looking at a trade that happened before this deadline. Enjoy. To Calgary: Bernie Gow Season 48 Riga 1st Round Draft Pick Griffon Simmons To Riga: Hans Wingate Well this is a trade no one at all saw coming. Wingate was the backbone of many Wrangler teams since being drafted by the franchise back in Season 43. Hell he led the to the cup in Season 44 and all the way back to the finals in Season 45. So to say this caught many off guard is an under statement. So far in Season 46, Wingate just keeps on trucking along proving he will go down in history as one of the best goalies in VHL History. He has a record of 187-1 with a 0.924 save percentage and a 1.85 G.A.A with the Reign. Combine that with a record of 31-13-2 and a 0.923 save percentage with a 2.17 G.A.A he had with Calgary you get a very fine season. His season totals were 49-20-3, 0.923 save percentage and a 2.05 G.A.A with 11 shutouts and 7
assists you get a very fine season. Riga is definitely going or it this year and you should expect Wingate to be the backbone of any success they have. Calgary on the other hand received a goaltender who is struggling. He works hard at every practice to it’s quite odd it doesn’t translate to games. Before the trade he was 32-11-3 with a 0.909 save percentage and a 2.03 G.A.A. After the trade he was 13-7-3 and a 0.915 save percentage and a 2.15 G.A.A. Pretty odd that his save percentage increases but his stats decrease. That would leave one to believe that he is facing more shots which he likes but the team in front of him isn’t that polished defensively. As it stands Wingate > Gow. However, there is more to the trade than these 2 goalies. Calgary also got Griffon Simmons who is putting up 4 goals and 1 assists for 5 points in 26 games. He provides great depth on a team that was lacking. But wait there’s more! Calgary also acquired a Season 48 Riga 1st Round Draft Pick. If this trade happened last season and it was a Season 47 pick this would be a terrible deal for the Wranglers, but since it is a S48 pick, we will have to wait and see wht happens, but that draft really is turning out to be a good one. As it stands, Hans Wingate > Bernie Gow + Griffon Simmons, the wildcard is the Season 48 Pick, if it turns out to be good, Calgary very well might win this trade.
VHL Magazine 269
Hometown Heroes By iRockstar
With the very unfortunate news of a recent retirement announcement, this Hometown Heroes edition is a special one. The Riga Reign have been on a tear as of late, and their season has been going as expected. Just recently, the team clinched their playoff berth allowing them to have free ‘reigns’ to the playoffs. While the team has a few major stars on that team, there is no doubt in my mind that one of the greats is about to leave the league with his head held high.
against the Titans where he would go on to have a four point night, notching two goals and two assists to help bring the Titans down with a final score of 5-4, a great effort from one of the leagues all-stars. The final statistic for Faraday is adding a shootout goal that would unfortunately not be enough to help the Reign overstep their second game against the Titans as they fell 2-1 in that shootout, luckily for them they had clinched the playoffs at this time, so it didn’t really matter.
James Faraday is easily a hall of famer in the making and someone that a lot of fans in Riga look up to when it comes to having hopes and dreams of becoming a promising VHL superstar. Faraday has proven since his early years in the VHLM that he would be a star, and has made due with his promise to achieve greatness. This week alone, Faraday proved to the league why he’s still one of the games best, and why he plans to go out on top.
So what’s next for the likely candidate for the HOF? Well I’d assume he’s going to attempt to achieve over one hundred points before seasons end and it’s very likely that he will do just that with eight games left in his season. Currently he has 37 goals, 57 assists for a total of 94 points, meaning that if Faraday can even achieve one point in each of the next eight games, he’ll go just over that 100 mark, which is hard for a lot of superstars to even say they achieved. His agent seems to have found another player to introduce to the league, so it’s very possible Faraday could become somewhat of a mentor to the new guy until he’s ready to stand in this league on his own. Regardless of what he does, the Reign fans and the league thank him for an amazing career, and hope that he does great things throughout life.
In the seven games the Reign would play this week, despite going just over .500% winning percentage (four wins, three losses), Faraday impressed scoring five goals and adding five assists to his large total of points for the season tally thus far. With his point totals, his best game by far was the most recent