Websim’s mid-season evolution is the time when – for the most part – all of the league’s older players age a little faster, while the younger players mature a bit.
Stockholm HC benefitted the most this season, with four players whose OV and PO ratings went up 2 points. Forwards Adrian Kempe, Daniel Sprong and Temuri Vedyapin; as well as defenseman Roope Laavainen (pictured) all benefitted from GM Derwin Y’s strict, spartan (some call it cruel) training routine. All went up 2 in their OV ratings. The team also had 17 other players go up 1 point. But in a very strange turn of events – and this is a disastrous one for the team’s future goaltender – 25-year-old Carter Hart saw his OV rating drop a point. Management had hoped that number would have gone in the other direction. The only Stockholm players whose OV ratings went down were veterans Olli Maatta, age 30, and Hart’s goaltending buddy Braden Holtby, 35.
Bratislava, whose general manager is tight with the league’s director of player safety and discipline, Sepp Blatter, somehow had the next best evolution, with three players whose ratings went up 2 points and another 8 who improved by a point.
Six teams got older more than the other 18 teams did. Each had two starters whose ratings dropped 2 points:
- Amsterdam (Gustav Nyquist and Jack Campbell)
- Belfast (Alex Pietrangelo and Slava Voynov)
- Dublin (Travis Hamonic and Danis Zaripov)
- Helsinki (Brendan Gallagher and Anze Kopitar)
- Munich (Adam Henrique and Tomas Nosek)
- Paris (Steven Stamkos and Jakob Silfverberg)
- Helsinki (Brendan Gallagher and Anze Kopitar)
Tidbits:
The oldest of the league’s 35 players to improve by 2 points: Roope Laavainen (Stockholm), age 28, 75 to 77 OV.
The oldest pro team player to improved by 1 point: Thomas Powell (Dublin), age 34, 80 to 81.
The oldest pro team players who didn’t get worse: 36 year-olds Philip Larsen (Amsterdam) and Jakub Voracek (Paris).
Youngest pro team player to drop by 1 point: Martin Necas (Oslo), age 24, 77 to 76 OV.
Youngest pro team players to drop by 2 points: 30-year-olds Jack Campbell (Amsterdam), Vladimir Roth (Prague), Tomas Nosek (Munich) and Colton Parayko (Geneva).
