VHL Magazine 270
Hall of Fame
VHL Magazine Edition 270
PLAYO F F TA L K FRE E AG EN C Y VICTO R R ETU R N S & MO R E!
Moment of the Week League commissioner and Helsinki Titans GM, William Shaw, has come under fire recently after claims of game-fixing and result manipulation this season. The loudest voices in this disgraceful witch hunt have been from the Agents of Dynamo winger Simon Valmount and Americans defenseman Thaddeus Humbert, who claim that Shaw had somehow managed to manipulate results in order to favor the Titans. Of course game-fixing is possible, but for the VHL to continue to function there needs to be an element of trust and faith placed in the men in charge and as such, they should be given more respect by those who earn a living playing here in the VHL. Perhaps the agents of Valmount and Shaw should be more focused on the skill levels of their respective players, who both performed poorly this season and seem ready to blame everyone but themselves for their lackluster season 46.
Lottery
Credits
9-0-7
Advantage
1M - Carried Over
Ahma
Molholt
9-6-2
boom
Solas
8 TPE - Carried Over
brovy
Toast
0-8-7
Christmas
3 TPE - Carried Over
CowboyinAmerica
iRockstar
Victor
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Victory Three
By Toast
HAP PY H O L IDAYS
From all of us at the VHL Magazine, we hope that the holidays were a great time for all of our members. The Blue Team decided to treat the members to a fantastic Christmas gift and announced on the 25th that they would be handing out a free Doubles Week to anyone who posted in the thread itself. I’m sure there are no issues if anyone were to go post in the thread late to make sure that they get their points (assuming it’s not past the deadline), so if you haven’t done so yet, make sure to get that done! The free Doubles is one of a few in recent memory and comes soon after the Doubles week from the failed Team Point Task in the previous off-season. While you’re at it, make sure to get your donations in for the upcoming season to make sure you’re eligible for a whole bunch of rewards. Here’s to a good season! FRE E AG EN C Y
Arguably the biggest free agency crop the league has seen in quite some time hit the market on January 2nd officially. The class was dominated with S40 draft picks it seemed, with the likes of Thomas O’Malley, Mason Richardson, Lloyd Light, and Tyler Cote all opting to choose where they’ll chase that final championship. Many free agents with over 600/700 practice hours were available to teams willing to do what it took to get deals done. The biggest losers of the free agency period
though had to be HC Davos, who saw pretty well the entire roster head to free agency, crippling the team after several runs for a championship. The biggest winners thus far at the time of writing would have to be the New York Americans, who got O’Malley and Light signed to deals and the Riga Reign, who brought in Richardson and Jerrick Poole to help lead their team as well. S 4 7 E NT RY DRAF T
The Entry Draft will have come and gone by the time this article is released, but will anyone have even noticed? While the S47 draft does feature some nice prospects, like John Sleeman, to pick up with the first few picks, it seems as though this draft will go down as one of the weakest Entry Drafts known in league history. There seems to be no hope for the draft even getting picks done in the second round, so while GMs may be excited for a no-stress night with only a few picks coming early, it seems that this draft will have a rippling effect on the league that will see a lack of talent brief ly with barely any stronger prospects coming from this class. With a fantastic S48 Draft right around the corner though, with a massive amount of players set to retire and their player agencies bring in young hopefuls, maybe the league will be all right with a weak draft class. Hopefully recruitment will be stronger going forward though.
By the Numbers By Advantage
6 There are six players on the Calgary Wranglers who have recorded at least a point per game in this year’s playoffs. While much of this is due to their easy matchup with the Toronto Legion, which saw Calgary score twenty-two goals in four games, this is still very impressive given their tough matchups with New York and Helsinki. Milos Denis leads the way with an impressive twenty-two points in thirteen games,
while Brady Stropko, Tyler Cote, Marcus Hurley, Lloyd Light and Tim TebowGow round out the other five. Shadhu Rathod Jr. deserves a shout out too for his six goals and ten points in their thirteen playoff games. The Wranglers are in tough though as they are down 3-1 at the time of this being written. Whether or not they will come back will depend on a lot of the names above and of course on Bernie Gow.
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“Aleksi Koponn has taken over the Helsinki Titans offense.”
12 Aleksi Koponen has taken over the Helsinki Titans offense and is leading the team to a potential Continental Cup victory. Koponen’s twelve points in nine games only puts him eighth in playoff scoring, but given he has played four less games than six of the players ahead of him, and also never got to play against a weaker team like Toronto, this is a very impressive total. While the playoff series is not over, if the Helsinki Titans pull it out, there is a good chance that Koponen will win Playoff MVP. Clegane has not been overly impressive during their playoff run, and the rest of the offense is a step behind Aleksi overall. Only way this changes (under a Titans win) is if the series goes an extra couple games and Christoph Klose takes over the points lead from him.
18 It has been a very fast playoffs this year with only eighteen games played to get through the first four series’ of the VHL’s S46 Playoffs. The first round saw both the Davos Dynamo and Calgary Wranglers sweep their opponents, and the second round saw Calgary and Helsinki win their matchups in five. The final round is looking similarly quick with the Titans up 3-1, but perhaps this is an indication that the league isn’t as full of parity as believed? Then again, Calgary beat New York in five, but the Americans were the ones who led the North American Conference at the end of the year. Some teams just seem better prepared for playoff games.
Kesler Unfiltered
By brovy
UP
The Stockholm Vikings. After some very serious seasons of competing Stockholm this season found themselves at the bottom of the European conference. Although the team had some elite talents such as Lloyd Light, Lord Karnage and Jody 3 Moons the team was missing some major components. Blake Campbell dipped off in free agency and headed to the New York Americans, this was a huge loss to the Vikings as he was a former first round pick by the Vikings and was their much needed goaltender. They also were missing some depth up front and without having a goalie there really was no point in trying to fill the holes. So Stockholm had a bit
of an interesting season 46 campaign, they certainly were not as bad as the Muete or Bears (as a matter of fact they would have made the playoffs if not for being in the European conference). Stockholm was trying to sell of a lot of their older assets like 3 Moons and Light. After only finding a trading partner for Lloyd Light, Stockholm still had an alright team that was not going to make the playoffs. Heading into the draft lottery Stockholm had the fourth overall pick but still had a 25% chance at acquiring the first overall pick. Luck was in there favour and they ended up securing first overall. This puts Stockholm in an interesting
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position, they can take the obvious first overall pick in John Sleeman or try and move it for a piece that could maybe help them now because they still do have players that could win a cup. DOWN
The Toronto Legion. At the beginning of the season 46 campaign most people would not have expected the Toronto Legion to make the playoffs. Well they did and this will hurt Toronto in the long run for sure. Because of the play of players like Max Molholt, Zach Perechkin and when they had Joseph Row III they were able to pass Quebec in the standings and make the playoffs only to lose in four straight to the Wranglers. The season 46 draft was a huge one for the Legion, having 6 picks in the first 13 (11 because of the picks that were voided). The Legion clearly made the right picks on the majority but also had some busts that have seriously dropped off since the
draft. Third overall pick Sean Blacker built up a lot of hype come draft time and really worked his way up the rankings due to have an experienced agent backing him. This was one of the reasons why he was drafted so high, well since the draft Blacker and his agent have almost disappeared. Players that were drafted later in the draft have already surpassed Blacker in training hours and unless he straightens his stuff out this pick will look like a bust on Toronto’s side. Another pick that has been very underwhelming for the Legion was Saul Hackett who was selected seventh overall. Hackett was looking like a promising first generation player come draft time, he slipped down the ranking just a bit but since being drafted has not earned any training hours. Toronto clearly has their future offense set with players like Molholt, Perechkin and Stockton but their defensive core is looking quite weak especially with Hackett disappearing.
VHLM Spotlight PLAYO F F EX PEC TAT I O N S
The S26 Playoffs have come and gone, and at the end the Ottawa Lynx of the North American Conference have come away with the title, beating the Moscow Red Wolves in a 6 game series. Teams have already started to look forward to the next season, however we haven’t gotten a chance to analyze what happened. The North American Conference happened just about as we expected. The Saskatoon Wild were the weakest playoff team going in, and the first round showed it. The team scored a grand total of 5 goals in four games, three of them coming from Sir William Covington III. Goaltending was absolutely dreadful as well, as Dmitri Dadonov ended with a save percentage of .858 and a GAA of 3.27. Upon the demolishing of the Wild, the Lynx had their shot at the Blades, and while this series was closer, it was the dominant regular season team that came away with the series win. The Blades actually surprised the Lynx by taking it to them in their own building 4-1 in game
By Christmas
1. They almost took game 2, but the Lynx were able to hold on and win in a thrilling overtime victory. After that, the Lynx completely dominated play and outscored the Blades 11-3 in the final three games to take the series. The European Conference had an interesting matchup in the first round. The Storm and Royals featured a wealth of talent up-front, and while the Royals were considered the better of the two, the Storm had plenty of weapons to make it an interesting series. The Storm took game one in a close matchup, but in games 2 and 3 were unable to compete as the Royals outscored them 8-3 in the two matchups. Oslo came back with another close game in game 4 to tie up the series, and it looked like they could steal game 5 and potentially win the series at home. However they were shut down in game 5, as Ryan Price shut them out to pull within one game of the conference finals, and took care of the Storm 3-1 in the last game. After that, it was between Moscow and Bern, which saw the Royals fight hard but fail to deliver
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in a 4-1 series loss. The backbreaker was game 4 and with a chance to tie the series, the Royals completely fell f lat and were trounced 7-2 at home. The finals came around, and it was the Ottawa Lynx and the Moscow Red Wolves for all the glory. Game one was well fought by both sides, both goalies needing to pull out the leather on many occasions. The Lynx managed to take a 3-1 lead midway in the second, but Moscow roared back to tie the game and force overtime. This one proved to be a classic, not ending till the second overtime as Kasey Morgan scored his first of the playoffs to take game one. Game two was another close matchup. Ottawa took a 3-0 after the first period, but the Red Wolves scored four straight to answer back, then both teams responding to make it 5-4 Moscow early in the third. However Ottawa tied the game up shortly after, and ended it in regulation with a late goal to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Game 3 was all Ottawa, scoring two early goals in the game, then adding two late goals in
the 2nd only 15 seconds apart, cruising to a 4-1 victory and a 3-0 series lead. Moscow had other plans in games 4 and 5, winning by a 3-1 score in game 4 and then shocking Ottawa in game 5 in triple overtime after failing to hold on to a 4 goal lead in the second period. Game 6 in Moscow proved to be another classic game, with the Red Wolves down 1-0 midway in the third period but able to tie the game to force a third overtime game in the series. Overtime would not last long, however, as Geoff Reid would score his first goal of the playoffs and seal the victory and Cup for the Lynx. All in all, the VHLM was much better this season than seasons prior. Yes, the top team in the regular season once again did their work in the playoffs, but the action was much more intense this year, with much more parity and more interesting matchups this time around. It is very possible that we may be seeing a changing of how these playoffs play out, and we may see more upsets in the future. I am very excited for S47, and I hope you all are as well.
Rookie Watch Sandro Clegane, a right-handed goalie from Switzerland. Sandro is the other one of the Clegane brothers in the VHL. They both are goalies and they both were drafted in the Season 45 Entry Draft. Sandro Clegane was drafted 4th overall, 2 picks behind his brother, Greg. Sandro Clegane was one the four goalies drafted in the first round. Cologne Express was the team which drafted Sandro. Sandro Clegane entered his rookie season with 4 VHLM major awards, 2 individual (playoff MVP and Top Goalie) and 2 team awards. He was the best goalie in the VHLM. Sandro jumped straight to VHL. His rookie was not the worst, but not the best either. He played in older Cologne team, and they almost made it to the playoffs. Sandro was a solid through the season. His 2.82 GAA isn’t that good, but that category is affected by the team ahead of him. Sandro’s Save Percentage was ok as well, but it could have been better. 0.906SV% can be improved a lot. But he got the wins for the Express, 33 wins and 26 losses (4 OT losses). So to say, Sandro Clegane has a lot of potential and can improve a lot. He has a bright future ahead of him! Regular season is over, how happy are you about your success? Happy? I’m not fucking happy at all. Happiness is a lie people tell themselves
By Ahma
so they don’t fucking kill themselves. My team was shit and couldn’t defend a puck if it was the only thing they had to do. It’s a little difficult to be successful with a team full of duds and has-beens isn’t it? The franchise is doomed at this rate, but as long as I get a paycheque, I don’t give a damn. Davos and Cologne had a little playoff race, but Cologne didn’t make it, why? Both teams are full of miserable useless shits, and I guess Davos managed to be slightly less shit. Probably doesn’t hurt that their CoachReilly is in the Board of Governor’s pants. These governing bodies don’t give a shit about “parity” or “equality” like they’re always rambling about. As long as they get the status quo results. Aye, but Davos at least had the spine to try to compete this season. Our coward GM just tried trading everybody to cover up for his own failures of putting together a decent team. That’ll do you in every time in this world. Do you feel like you’re in Greg Clegane’s shadow? People seem to think the whole world is in my brother’s shadow, but he bleeds just the same as the rest of the miserable wretches in this league. I’m sure all the stupid adoring fans think they love Greg and his Knight-like talents, but the moment he crosses my path is the moment I finally have to kill him. We’ll see how much his “fans” enjoy that, huh? Hah!
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When you’re in net against Helsinki Titans and Greg is in net on the other side of the ice, thoughts of that? Would you call it a “rivalry”? Hah! Yeah, a rivalry, that’s certainly a word you sports-types would like to use to describe it. My thoughts are that Greg is the biggest cunt the VHL has to offer, and his path here is one paved with blood and crime. I suppose none our games together so far have gotten too out of hand yet, but that won’t last. Greg’s got a temper, and his ruthlessness has earned him a lot of shiny awards so far. He’ll try to take those awards from my dead body when it inevitably becomes my turn to win them, but that’s the day I put him in the ground once and for all.
Cologne Express’ is an older team, how good is Cologne’s future looking? The Cologne Express don’t have a future. It’s a team of tired old men and useless green boys who couldn’t hold a stick if it was permanently shoved up their arse. That being said, as long as I’m saving pucks for them, they won’t find themselves dead in the water. I don’t give a damn what Lord Harbinson has planned, as long as I can take everything my brother claims to hold dear when the opportunity comes. Which team you would most like to see win the Continental Cup? Fuck the other teams, and fuck the Continental Cup.
The Beat By CowboyinAmerica
SO W H AT H A PPE N E D W AS ...
By the time this magazine comes out, it’s likely that we’ll be in the Finals and the first round matchup between Davos and Riga will be ancient history. Still, it’s worthwhile to look back, just because of how weird the outcome was.
But looking back, there were certainly weak points for the Reign, and the Dynamo seemed to exploit all of them. These are the key three reasons why Davos got out of the first round with a sweep. 1 . P OWE R P L AYS
I don’t say this from a personal standpoint, despite the fact that Hans Wingate was traded to the team midseason. I say this from an objective standpoint. The teams by all measure would seem to be even, including shots: Davos only outshot Riga by five the entire series, just over one shot per game. And it’s not like the regular season was an indicator — in fact, Riga won their final three games against Davos by a combined score of nine to three.
During the regular season, the Reign penalty kill in particular was unparalleled. The team finished the regular season with an 87.7% PK rate, just over the Titans and more than a percent and a half over the third place team, which just happened to be the Dynamo. Couple that with a secondplace power play rate (the Dynamo were sixth), and it’s safe to say that the Reign had the best special teams in the league. But there’s a funny thing that happens with a small sample size – penalties can
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be extremely random, and the results of those power plays can be even more random. That randomness absolutely killed the Reign, as they received 16 power plays over the course of the series and scored on exactly none of them. Meanwhile, Davos received 23 power plays, scoring on three of them. While that penalty kill rate isn’t far off Riga’s season average, the power play certainly was, which can be heavily attributed to strong defensive play from Davos’ penalty kill first line. 2. I ’L L TA K E O N E S I NCL AI R
It’s obvious that Callum Sinclair is a major reason for Davos’ victory, ending the four game series with an astronomical .965 save percentage. During the regular season, Sinclair had a .917 save percentage, while potential Shaw winner Wingate (Riga’s goalie in this series) finished at .923. Some people could call Sinclair’s play surprising... but is it really? For starters, Callum Sinclair has 563 applied Total Points Added (TPA) to his player, per YEAH’s last update of the list on December 11. This places him second overall in the league, 28 above third place Blake Campbell and 134 above fourth place Greg Clegane. With this alone, Sinclair should have likely been playing higher than tied for third in save percentage during the season; he actually underachieved. But even the 200+ TPA he is behind Wingate isn’t as much as it seems. Since all attributes take four TPE to go one point once an attribute reaches 90, the gap between Wingate and Sinclair isn’t as large as, say, between Sinclair and Gow. Indeed, Sinclair
has five different attributes at 90 or above, and his style control is at 99. 3 . S HOT M I S S E S T HE NE T
The triple overtime game in Game 3 may be the one that all Riga fans point to and remember, but Game 2 may have been the back breaker. The two teams each had 25 shots and each were about equal on face offs. Davos had six power plays to Riga’s two, sure, but that was only part of what I find is a much more intriguing stat: shots that are intended for net. Riga had an absolutely ridiculous 18 shots blocked during the game, with five coming from winger-turned-defenseman Kurtis Hunter alone. Granted, many of these could have come during the power play, but it shows that Davos may have actually had worse luck with their shots than they should have. Of the shots that actually reached Wingate, a decent percentage of them reached the back of the net, and it’s reasonable to speculate that even more would have if defenders didn’t lay out. On the other hand, the play-by-play reveals a ridiculous number of Riga shots that missed the net entirely. By my count, Riga had 10 shots that completely missed the net. This reared its head the most in the third quarter; the team started out with three straight missed shots by Aksel Thomassen and James Faraday in the very first shift. They would then follow that up with just two shots on goal for the entire remainder of the period. With no offensive push, Riga would fall just short, a common theme throughout a series in which they lost three onegoal and one two-goal games.
Hometown Heroes By iRockstar
It’s the most...wonderful time...of the year! And for hockey fans you know that that’s not Christmas. Playoffs have been underway now for a few days and we’ve got a few breakout superstars on each of the teams in the playoffs, but unfortunately for them, only one can be highlighted. This time around we’re highlighting a player from the Calgary Wranglers that really wasn’t their best player during regular season but easily one of their most consistent players. Milos Denis was one point shy of hitting the 80 point mark and did bring a lot of assistance to the Wranglers squad. Because of this, and his exceptional playoff performance thus far, he is our Hometown Hero for the holiday. The Wranglers have played a total of eight games so far, and in their first series it was all uphill for them. In the very first game Denis opened up his scoring spree with a four point night, allowing the Wranglers to take down the Legion easily 6-1. He had an “assist hattrick” with three assists and added a goal for those four points. In the second game of the series, Denis would tally another two points in a blowout win of 5-0 for the Wranglers, adding a goal and an assist to his totals, putting him up to 6 points in two games, a huge feat that got him ahead in the scoring race early. In a stranglehold game three, Denis and the Wranglers would prove dominant once again where Denis would
only pot one point in a 3-1 victory for the team, trying to sweep off the Legion and move to the second round early. In the fourth and final game, the Wranglers would do just that, with Denis leading the scoring again with a whopping SIX points, knocking out the Legion with a slap to the face victory of 8-0, a disgusting way to go out. With those six points (3g, 3a), Denis would finish the first round with 13 points, which put him ahead of anyone else in the scoring race and gave him a fair lead moving into the second round. The second round started shortly after as most of the games finished fairly quick. The Wranglers were looking to continue their domination as they came up against the former VHL champions in New York, however they were knocked off of their highhorse with a loss to the Americans at a final score of 5-2, but despite their loss Denis would add a point to his total putting him up to 14 points in five games, let’s be honest that’s just incredible. Despite their game one loss, the Wranglers came in guns blazing and forced the Americans into Overtime where they(Wranglers) would win the game by a score of 3-2. Denis unfortunately went pointless in that game, but he wasn’t done just yet. Come game three and he was back at it again, tallying another point to help the Wranglers squeak in another win in overtime, with a final score of 5-4.
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For those that have lost count, Denis would now be up to 16 points in seven games. In the final game that’s been posted, the Wranglers would look to put the Americans on edge and they would do just that. In a close game that would end 3-2, Denis would add an assist to his totals finishing this portion of the series with 17 points in 8 games, two points ahead of any other player in the playoffs currently. The Wranglers have been a highscoring powerhouse team trucking
through their opponents and looking like a very possible VHL cup winner. If the Wranglers and Denis can continue their rampage, I truly believe there will be no other team to take them down, regardless of who makes it with them to the finals of the playoffs. Do you agree that Denis is the Wranglers hidden gem in the playoffs? Who would you like to see be highlighted next? If there is a good enough response to this article I’ll take your suggestion and make a highlight of them, but we want to hear from you!
Historical Significance By Victor
During my time of consistently pumping out Historical Significance articles on a weekly basis, my #1 rule was to avoid talking about my own players or teams unless something truly historic happened and instead focus on what people really like to read about: themselves. Acknowledging the achievements of others remains the goal of this column but getting reacquainted in a sense with the VHL will take time and in any case I am planning only semi-regular submissions for the time being (and don’t get your hopes up for that either). At this current moment, it is the safest and easiest option to write about something I am familiar with, but realistically speaking I don’t think I could have avoided this topic even at the peak of my activity, for the Helsinki Titans have truly made history in Season 46. Although the so-called “repeat curse” was not something I ever got on board with – after all, four teams had repeated before – it is fair to say that it had been a while since we saw one last. Many teams came ridiculously close in recent years, with Riga, Cologne, and Calgary falling just short in quick succession despite making it all the way back to the finals. The previous decade saw Davos and New York unsuccessfully chase the coveted backto-back championships, instead having
to settle for two in three seasons, and in truth it was probably me having a better memory of older seasons more than anything else which made me think Season 25 had just happened. In fact, it was almost half the league’s history ago that a champion managed to repeat and claim the Continental Cup for two seasons’ running. RE P E AT CHAM P I ONS :
S2 + S3 Calgary Wranglers S4 + S5 Seattle Bears S18 + S19 Calgary Wranglers S24 + S25 HC Davos Dynamo S45 + S46 Helsinki Titans Undoubtedly a historic achievement and one which surpassed the expectations of anyone in Helsinki, despite many of us understanding that we lucked out and fell into the right place at the right time when the team was constructed through a couple blockbuster trades and the top two draft picks between Seasons 44 and 45. However, while it is significant to achieve a repeat in this day and age, possibly (not really though) breaking a curse, for me the biggest achievement of the S46 Titans is breaking what felt truly unbreakable: the dreaded rematch curse. Due to the even lower likelihood of the same two teams making the finals in two consecutive seasons, we haven’t
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seen a lot of finals rematches, but despite seven such occasions, the spoils were shared every time between the two rivals. Often this could be easily explained by the champions standing idly or dealing with departures while the runners-up stocked up for an even better run, but it reached farcical levels when Davos and Toronto kept alternating Continental Cups for three straight seasons. This season, at last the streak was broken as Helsinki defeated Calgary in the final twice in a row. Fortunately, the Wranglers managed to get one in S44 to lessen the pain.
S1: Vasteras defeats Calgary 4-2, S2: Calgary defeats Vasteras 4-0 S9: Toronto defeats Riga 4-3, S10: Riga defeats Toronto 4-3 S20: Davos defeats Toronto 4-3, S21: Toronto defeats Davos 4-1 S32: New York defeats Riga 4-3, S33: Riga defeats New York 4-2 S36: Davos defeats Toronto 4-3, S37: Toronto defeats Davos 4-0, S38: Davos defeats Toronto 4-2 S40: Riga defeats New York 4-1, S41: New York defeats Riga 4-3 S45: Helsinki defeats Calgary 4-3, S46: Helsinki defeats Calgary 4-1