Depending on how fast vacant teams can be filled, the next season of the EURO League should start in late January at the latest. As of Sunday afternoon (ET), three teams remain unpaid. The NHL regular season will end April 6 and look for the next batch of Websim future players to be entered into the system a week later.

That’s when Gayle Rock will look like a total genius. In the Season 8 draft, Rock used the 9th pick overall to pick center/right wing Elias Pettersson. The 20-year-old Swede is on pace for a 42-goal, 82-point season with the Vancouver Canucks, so expect him to be inserted into the Fighting Irish lineup – or if she trades him, into another team’s lineup – immediately.

Another player who will burst onto the scene with great attributes will be Miro Heiskanen of Peter Ott’s Prague Sparta. The 19-year-old is averaging 23 minutes with the Dallas Stars and he will have excellent shooting and offensive numbers. Ott picked Heiskanen 5th overall in the Season 8 draft. Should Prague win the draft lottery, they could have the two brightest defensemen stars in Heiskanen and Rasmus Dahlin.

Igor Kirunov’s second second-round pick in the Season 6 draft will finally start paying good dividends when Colin White of the Ottawa Senators enters the league. The center might be a slight injury concern, but he is on pace for attributes based on a 20-goal, 48 point season at 15:37 ice time per game. Kirunov picked White 44th overall.

There could be some other decent players entering the league in April including defenseman Henri Jokiharju of Jukka Tuominen’s Helsinki Jokerit.

But in Websim world, in a virtual evolution league like EURO, some prospects turn into duds because they are stuck forever with their first NHL season’s stats. Brendan Lemieux (Athens), Vladislav Kamenev (Geneva) and maybe Jacob Forsbacka-Karlsson (Helsinki) are in danger of falling into that category.