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Vader named co-head of Austria
announces unassigned transfer
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hockeyis66Registered S36 Challenge Cup Champion
*ready to be graded*
 Recently, Vader was named as co-head of the Austrian hockey federation joining Gala as the two leaders of Austria going forward. Aside from being drafted 5th overall to Minnesota in the season 27 draft, this is Vader’s major award/honor that he has earned so far. “With the other head of Austria looking like he had been inactive for a few months, we inquired about it and got permission to be one of the co-heads of the Austrian federation. It is quite an honor to take on a position like this at the international level and hopefully lead Austria back into medal contention each year. Taking on any position to help improve your country is very important to me.†As documented before, the past couple of tournaments haven’t been kind to Austria. It has been quite a while since Austria has even sniffed being in the top 4 of their conference after the round robin portion of the IIHF tournament. Austria only won 2 games last season (1 in regulation), 3 in the previous three seasons and 4 in season 22 which is the last time Austria did not finish in last place. Unforetunately though, Austria still finished in 5th place and did not qualify for the medal round. Vader’s first order of business was to announce an unassigned transfer to help bolster the offense in Austria as well as hopefully to attract other players to come to Austria as well. From none other than Italy via the Hamilton Steelhawks, Austria is proud to announce the transfer of the Italian Stallion, right wing , Don Pellegrino! “We saw Pellegrino’s post about looking to transfer and got in contact with him right away to gage his interest. After a little bit of a waiting period to finalize the move to co-head of Austria, we were able to seal the deal with him. We feel this is quite a coup for us and will help us to start to build up an active roster of players and give us more depth. We are glad he was patience with us and will be a valuable asset to Austria going forward.†Even with the addition of Pellegrino, Austria will still be looking for some active players to head their way. Austria still needs another center or two, a winger or two for some depth and a couple more defensemen. “The goal is to have 3 solid lines that we can throw out there night in and night out during the international tournament. We are not going to set the world on fire this season or maybe not next season, but with the continued development of our younger players and hopefully a couple of transfers over the course of the next couple of seasons, we feel reaching the medal round is not out of the question. We haven’t reached out to anyone yet about transferring but certainly if there are players who feel they will not be playing for their country anytime soon or do not feel they are getting the proper ice time, we will take a hard look and hopefully give them the chance with us.†Lets take a look at some of the younger players so far this season:  Don Pellegrino – LW, RW, Hamilton Steelhawks – 22 games, 4 goals, 2 assists, -3 in 18 minutes per game. Pellegrino has solid passing, offensive and defensive skills. He can play either wing and will be working hard to improve his skating, endurance and puck handling. He will be counted on to jump on a top 6 role and provide that secondary scoring to take pressure off our #1 line and keep the other countries from loading up defensively against our top line. Lord Vader – D, Minnesota Chiefs – 22 games, 1 goal, 7 assists, +1, 45 hits and 29 shot blocks in 23 minutes per game. Another rookie in the SHL like Pellegrino, Vader has continued to improve under the great leadership in place in Minnesota. He is seeing a ton of action in all three phases of the hockey game and continues to work hard in improving his skating, strength and puck handling. Vader came into the SHL with a chip on his shoulder and through the halfway point in the season, he will look to continue his early success. Brandon Pomery – D, New England Wolfpack – 22 games, 3 goals, 6 assists, +3, 42 hits and 26 shot blocks in 22 minutes per game. Pomery will be another workhorse on the backend for Austria and is a solid offensive defenseman. He is reliable in his own end, but has great offensive and passing skills to help lead the rush up the ice. He isn’t afraid to take the body either and will be counted on to continue to give Austria a solid 1-2 punch from the blueline. Eugene Feist – C,LW, St Louis Scarecrows – 23 games, 8 goals, 10 assists, -1 in 20 minutes per game. Feist continues to work on his game in his second season in juniors and is a monster in the face offs while providing a solid two way game in both ends of the ice. He will be counted on to provide depth down the middle for us. Marc-Andre Malkin – D,LW, St Louis Scarecrows – 23 games, 4 goals, 8 assists, +1, 30 shots and 19 shot blocks in 23 minutes per game. Another young player that is developing his game in his first season in juniors. Malkin will provide some much needed depth on the blueline and will probably see some significant action on the international stage. He definitely needs to work on his strength and puck handling, but can skate and pass while being effective in his own end. Maximillan Watcher – LW, RW, Vancouver Whalers – 23 games, 4 goals, 5 assists, +1, 44 hits and 28 shot blocks in 17 minutes per game. Watcher continues to improve all areas of his game – he can play some defense, he can provide some offense and he can hit. He had a solid tournament for Austria last time around and we will expect big things out of him again. He can play either wing and he will continue to be a key piece of our top 9 forwards throughout the next few years. Lukas Berger – G, Vancouver Whalers – 23 games, 10-12-1 record, .884 save percentage and a GAA of 2.78 in 23 games. Berger stepped out on the international stage last season as a true rookie and started off great for Austria, but the last handful of games didn’t go well for the team and you could tell that Berger got a little tired. Since then, he has not only worked on his endurance, but also a lot of his reflexes like rebound control, hand speed and reaction time. Having Berger in place is a key component to getting Austria back into medal round and can build from the net out.Xavier Lane -- LW, RW, Montreal -- 32 games, 8 goals, 8 assists, +14, 24 PIMs, 55 hits. Lane is a big power forward who can play a solid two way game. Even though he is 6'4", he can skate very well and can find the open teammate with his vision and passing. One area he will work on improving will be his puck handling, but we are excited to have his aggressive nature and playmaking/scoring abilities as a part of our top 9 for seasons to come. Lehner and Wick are also in the fold, but haven’t been active in a while which is a bummer because they could help provide a solid top 9 for Austria in the next couple of seasons. All of these players plus the veterans in place like Kinsler, Brojled, Bursyuk and King will hopefully start to move Austria up toward the medal round within the next three tournaments. “Once again, we are not going out on a limb and saying Austria is going to set the world on fire on anything like that these next couple of tournaments, but we want to show steady improvement over the constant 2 or 3 win seasons we have been having recently. Hopefully we can get a couple more well positioned transfers as well as some more young active players to give us some depth and a solid base going forward. Combine that with my 8+ years of experience with the sim as a commish and GM, the future looks bright for Austria and hopefully in the not too near future, we can bring home some medals to our country cause its been long overdue.†Code: 1426 words
hockeyis66Registered S36 Challenge Cup Champion
updated with Lane whom I originally missed
bbpRegistered S20, S21 Challenge Cup Champion
Vader as the new co-head of Austria do you plan on laying claim to the Hungarian crown and establishing a new Habsburg dynasty to rule Europe?
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