AlexanderRasputin

#6 is Team USA
As most of you would think they should be higher in GPHM rankings than in real life.. yes, you are right. They have a pretty epic team! The best players could be (only rating wise, I don't know the GHL players that well..(yet?  )) Coronado, Jolly and the captain Spiers. They have a few old people in the lineup, so experience may be a factor (just look at the goalie trio) But there are a few prospects who already made the squad (like Asay or Ham ) Their problem can be however the lack of true leaders, the nervous guys when they come close to win something, and also lack of ambition. The defensive squad is pretty tough also, so penalty killing could also be crucial for them.  At first sight, they could be a strong candidate to play in the finals.
 
 

The next squad is Träger der Adler (Bearers of the Eagle)
They have a few  elite players at first look: the young star center Dieter Hauk, forward Gerber who is playing for Hamilton, and top D-line  Rothe and Kaya. Another strength could be their good leadership and ego traits, that can help them in harder times. On the downside They are lacking in defense depth a bit, a BHL player made the squad, but he can improve a lot. The goalies look pretty good to be fair. They look really like a top-mid team, right where their rank is.
 
 
 

Getting to the top 8 of the world rankings, next up is La Nati or the Eisgenossen.
By overall ratings they have the best player of the world, Defender Sven Keller, and his possible pairing, Hodel looks neat too..They have 4 defenders rated 90 or higher, for a 8th seed its very impressive! However they don't have this kind of depth at the other positions: only one 90 rated attacker looks a bit thin against better teams, but who knows how can the others contribute. Their best goalie is 85, which is also a so-so, but he is heroic, and also he is a rare sight, right handed (was his hero Jonas Hiller?  ) I quickly checked, Denmark, and Slovenia have 2 right handed goalies in the squad, and the 3rd string Italian keeper is strange too. Their problem can be that they have quite a lot of Nervous Nellies. But they have quite good prospects, like Baumann and Zollinger
And at the end some fun facts about them. Their captain, Wyss just got relegated from SHL, and he is assigned to the affiliate despite being 85 OVR.. and their backup keeper plays in the home league.

So regardless of if I win the upcoming relegation playoffs, I'm wiping the team. 
Everyone is up for grabs except Kosir, Kaila, Vaslik, and Willman. 
Looking for good prospects and draft picks 

^That. Discord communication adds a LOT to this game. Don't overlook it and join us!

#9 in the rankings is  a former world champion: Naši chlapci (Our boys)
They have pretty tall players, but what is more important is that they are very experienced players all over the squad. However they have a top talent, Martin Oravec, who plays for the Frost Giants. Their first D-pair is absolutely elite, but as  you can see, they have only 4 players playing center, so depth is missing there, and also leadership is something they are lacking in, even with their experience. However, they look serious about hockey, and their first line with Sille and Stuk can cause some problems for the opponents.
 

Next up is the best of the 3 baltic countries in terms of ice hockey: Latvia.
They have a very talented, but lazy young goalie, Jauzems from the Warman Fighters. Their first D-pair is elite, and both playing for the Bandits, so chemistry has to be high too. In other aspects they are a very mixed team, maybe on the downside we can mention the lack of good centers, and big games issues, We will see in the power rankings how they do. Fun fact. They have 2 players from CHL, one from RUHL 2 and tons of powerforwards.

^That. Discord communication adds a LOT to this game. Don't overlook it and join us!

There's plenty of managers here who totally need to join the discord server. Having that community of managers adds so much to the game so come over and join the fun. Discuss your team, other teams and anything else. 

Since we already track all player stats and records season by season, it is even clear post-reset that a historical league leaderboard is needed to make league seem more “living”.
Many of us would see huge value and added motivation if the League History page displayed player categories like Most Career League Goals/Assists/Points  in a Top 20 format. 
 
This could be extended to a team format as well, with categories like Team Wins in [League Level], clearer records like Most Wins in a Season, etc. 
 
With elements like Team Stories and the blog becoming more active, these categories will let us keep better track on the league history and create more storylines to follow for our teams. 
 
Anders, I hope this is something you consider adding, as this was mentioned multiple times by a fair number of managers. 

#11 is again a North European team: Isbjørnene (The Polar Bears).
As you can see, their first line is very impressive: 85-90-84; 92-89;91. But after that there is a rather huge gap, and the rest of the team could have problems against most teams. Especially as 11 people from the squad of 25 is without club.  Most guys look a bit cocky and they have problems in other personality aspects too, even their best players. They only have Daniel Jenssen and Tom Johansen as good prospects, but who knows, maybe some other future stars will pop up soon. Their top level goalie can help them a lot, but he is not a best in big games, and some can be said about his backup. So overall this is a very interesting squad I would say.
 

Next in the world rankings is Зубры (Bisons). 
They have the 3 Maxims leading them: the center Navitski of South Pole, winger Sadowski of Mississauga, and defenseman Kavalchuk of the Tornadoes. Their starter goalie Kovalevich is young and decent, but... an injury to him can quite bury this team. They have an impressive first line, winger depth looks good too, and lots of experienced guys on the roster (with hungry youngsters waiting to take their places already). In the cons column next to the goalie "depth" there is the lack of quality d-men, and they look like struggling in ambition, and it seems they find it hard to motivate themselves for big games..(maybe because of the lack of ambition?  )
 

Well, I started with random small teams, and when l started again, first went through the already done teams, then with the new ones l decided to go according to the IIHF world rankings. The last "original" small team is Les Bleus.
They have a few elite players, like Rodolphe Jahic of the Bandits, or the young gun El Madkouri, who is trying to build himself up in the SHL. Their core looks quite fine, and on forwards side depth is good also. But their lack of leadership (2 of their designated leaders would barely make the line up, at least they are young) and anxiety of big games could cause them serious problems. Also they have a lot of playmakers, but no scorers..:D  And at last... where the hell are the french goalies in the game? They should really look for a middle-high tier canadian guy with french name if they want to be competitive!

Next team is Risi (meanin Lynx).
At first they look like a good middle tier team, who are very nice off the ice, but kinda tough to meet them at the game. It looks like they have 2 quite good lines, and then quality drops a bit, but for a small nation like them, I guess it's normal. Their top attackers are Jan Kosir (Golden Flyers) and Dominik Oresnik (Razorbacks) who can pull this team in their prime years. On the D side, by far the top pair is Davor Novak (Hawks) and Alexander Pirjevec (Outlaws), who are stilly very young, so the future looks bright. In goal 3 kinda similar players: Uros Horvat looks the best, and he is quite Heroic, but here form can be a big factor when picking the starter
 

Next up are the Eagles. 
If you look at them, their core team looks like a good, stable average one, with no real stars but reliable guys all around. The D has plenty of talent with the already grown youngsters. They have even younger forwards who are not elite level, but could be good depth players in the future (didn't look at ratings..:D ). Key players will be Sandro Koch from the Black Devils who looks very good at the age of 23, the same could be said about Foresters' D-man Angelo Braun, and Razorbacks experienced  goalie Yannik Meyer. They look like a good mix in every aspects of personality traits also. (By the way, if anyone knows how to represent Belarus flag in excel, heeelp. that white-red stripe on the left is killing me, l tried, but looks lame..  )

So, continuing with S11 teams. I won't upload Italy again, as only a few changes: 2-3 old guys retired, but no young superstar or anything else came across. So let's go forward with Team Ukraine( Yellow and Blue). In real life they are the worst in the world rankings of the nationalities in the game. 
But they have 5 defenders playing in GHL, and their D line is in very good age. In offense they have the legendary Kyrylo Voloshin, 800+ GHL regular season and almost 100 playoff match, close to point/match in both categories. Then there's Pavlo Savaryn, who looks like gonna continue Kyrylo's fame, and his best years are still to come. Their offense is quite old tho, but they have good talents on the way. Their only problem could be the goalie depth, if Fedorenko is injured, they will be in massive trouble. But with this brutal firepower on their best day they can be a huge challenge for the big teams too.
 

Yes sure. I did 4 or 5 back then. If l find the files, and refresh, l can post them. Hopefully during the weekend l can do that

Rankings are updated as of Day 7 prior to the season opening games.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

WESTERN CONFERENCE

 
TOP 5 OFFENSES:
1) Slaughterville Red Tide
2) Sheshegwaning Dragons
3) Big Delta Stealheads
4) Enigma Rage
5) Eastern Outlaws
TOP 5 DEFENSES:
1) Victoria Regals
2) Rome Trojans
3) Sheshegwaning Dragons
4) Pittsboro Plastic Attack
5) Slaughterville Red Tide

So just like last season, list your manager, team, individual goals for Season 6 below.  
Here are Elite's:
Team Goals -
1. Win 45 games not counting OT.  Have 41 and 40 last two seasons, but should finally be consistent enough to get 45 wins.
2. Get passed the second round of playoffs and then anything is possible.
Individual Goals -
1.  Yatchenko 40+ goals.  The future franchise player.
2.  Veres 50+ assists.  This will require several on PP, but as the other franchise player, he needs to continue his rise to keep the title.
3.  Goalies combine for 45+ wins, with Amick taking the vast majority but the new permanent backup Svoboda getting at least 10 wins in his first full season.  
4.  Newly acquired Steve Sessions (F) adds to my team of "late bloomers" and has a career season in points, with at least 30 goals.
Manager Goal -
1.  Know when to hold them, know when to fold them.  When does the old age become more a liability than asset?  Knowing when to shift out some major players at the end of their career, but not too soon.  So a subset of this is to not panic if this season starts poorly, but not wait too long to do something about it either!  
 

END OF SEASON UPDATE:
 
1)   Elouan Scott - (94 F):                                                                      Ovechkin + Gretzky trophies (Goals, Points*), Most shots* 
Close, but went cold in the last 3 games to finish just off in both key categories.                             
2)   Simon-Delorme - (92 D):                                                               Most Points by a Defenceman, Highest +/-
Not even close. Hugely disappointing season on a top offensive team. Questioning his necessity to this squad, and may be moving on next season.
3)   Henry Lux - (86 F (rookie)):                                                            Most Rookie Points
Likely would have got this without the injury that sidelined him for 8 games. Still, hugely impressive debut campaign with limited ice time and often in a defensive role. 41 points, +16, nearly 60% CF.
4)  D Sharshin, D Nazarov, F Patrushev, C Stalin, C Putin        100 combined points by Russian players
DONE. 158 points total.
                  4a)                                                                                          At least 1 goal scored + assisted by ONLY Russian players
Actually did this, Patrushev from Sharshin and Nazarov. Surprising.
5)   Sagiv Schuppan - (87 G (rookie)):                                                  40 wins 
31 wins, 4 shutouts, and finally settled in and been amazing late in the season with a couple of shutouts. Living up to his potential and 40 wins next season is not unthinkable. 
6)   Roger Muller - (92 C):                                                                     FINALLY HIT GODDAMN 50 POINTS
DONE! Just - exactly 50 points on the season. Frustrating, but there is progress.
Team Objective:                                                                                   Score 300 goals, win 45 games
DONE. 54 wins total including OT wins, good for 1st in the East. 318 GF. Record 1866 CF, and 57.9 CF%. This team absolutely destroyed at even-strength.

Congratulations to everyone on yet another fantastic season! 
This series of awards has been crowdsourced via Discord, and discussions were had. I am making a judgement call on a couple of the awards, but generally, there was clear consensus, and as usual, discussions AND ADDITIONAL TROPHIES are welcome.
You know the drill.
 
GOLDEN CUP CHAMPION: BIG DELTA STEALHEADS (Paul T)
Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP):

JEREMIE CLINE (Big Delta Stealheads) - 19 points - (16GP - 9G/10A/+19)
 
GHL East Champion: SLAUGHTERVILLE RED TIDE (Alexander Rasputin)
GHL West Champion: ENIGMA RAGE (Wendel Clark)
 
Manager of the Year: Jutsela (Coos Bay Commandos)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 
ART ROSS TROPHY (Most League Points)
JOESPH RACKLEY (Enigma Rage) - 92 points - NEW LEAGUE RECORD    
Fabrice Marinier (Vortex)
Brendan Rowlett (Rage)
 
OVECHKIN TROPHY (Top Goalscorer)
SHMUEL ELIE-BRETON (Sheshegwaning Dragons) - 45 goals              
Jerald Whitely (Trojans)
Matej Brincko (Duhawks)
 
 GRETZKY TROPHY (Best Playmaker) 
FABRICE MARINIER (Maxville Vortex) - 57 assists           
Valery Gibazov (Rage)
Patrick Gornell (Red Tide)
 
VEZINA TROPHY (Best Goaltender)
JEAN-FRANCOIS SHORE (Enigma Rage)               
Kwesi Cutter (Regals)
Michele Amick (Bangers/Elite)
 
 
ORR TROPHY (Best Offensive Defenceman)
JAYDEN GARZA (Maxville Vortex)                        
 
NORRIS TROPHY (Best Defensive Defenceman)
GABRIEL LINDHOLM (Enigma Rage)                       
  
ORR - Points leader among defencemen
NORRIS - Calculated with the following formula among D-men [+/- + BKS - GVA + TKA], PER also taken into consideration 
 
SELKE TROPHY (Best Defensive Forward)
JEREMIE CLINE (Big Delta Stealheads)                   
Elie Cuillerier (Elite)
Valery Gibazov (Rage)
Calculated with the following formula among F: [PTS + BKS - GVA + TKA] Hits and +/- also relevant.
 
LADY BYNG TROPHY (Most Gentlemanly Player)
VALERY GIBAZOV (Enigma Rage)               
Brendan Rowlett (Rage)
Maksim Yatchenko (Elite)
Calculated with the following formula [PTS - PIM]
 
 HART TROPHY (League MVP)
 FABRICE MARINIER (Maxville Vortex)   
 Joesph Rackley (Rage)
 Joaquim Harter (Trojans)
 
CALDER TROPHY (Best Rookie)
MARCUS BEAUPARLANT (Canuck Red Dragons)
Sagiv Schuppan (Red Tide)
Henry Lux (Red Tide)
 
GOOD SAMARITAN AWARD (Most Giveaways)
MATEJ BRINCKO (Mango Duhawks)   
 
ROID RAGE TROPHY
RICHARD YILDIRIM (Minnedosa Supersonics)
(Most Hits + PIM + MP)
 
LATE-BLOOMER AWARD
WESLEY SOUDERS (Eldred Elite)
 
*Notes: Calculations may not be entirely accurate due to limited visibility and inability to sort by position and outside Top 20 in GPHM stats format - if anyone sees mistakes, let me know and I will fix.

Congratulations to everyone on an epic Season 10! 
I have been doing these awards for Cage for a few seasons now, and I am going to import them into Buzzer, to recognize the outstanding players and performances we have season over season. Input is welcome on Buzzer-specific awards or anything else.
 
I am making a judgement call on a couple of the awards and attempted to be transparent as to formulas - but feel free to discuss.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
GOLDEN CUP CHAMPION: VERMILION BLACK DEVILS (Alexander Rasputin)
Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP):

NIKITA MINEYEV (Vermilion Black Devils) - 12W 2L / 2.04GAA / 92.8SV% / 1SO
 
GHL East Champion: VERMILION BLACK DEVILS (Alexander Rasputin)
GHL West Champion: WARMAN FIGHTERS (Wick Schozen)
 
Manager of the Year: Insera Reflex (Frost Giants) - 2nd place in Eastern Conference, playoff Conference Final first season after promotion
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 
ART ROSS TROPHY (Most League Points)
AWALE PRUDHOMME (New Haven Ramblers) - 93 points     
Boleslav Zibrin (Lynx)
Simon Mineault (Outlaws)
 
OVECHKIN TROPHY (Top Goalscorer)
BOLESLAV ZIBRIN (Wyoming Lynx) - 51 goals (New league record)             
Pavel Statnik (Frost Giants)
Veijo Janhunen (Foresters)
 
GRETZKY TROPHY (Best Playmaker) 
JEAN-FRANCOIS MALONE (Hamilton Sea Warriors) / JASON MELLOR (Warman Fighters) - 54 assists        
Simon Mineault (Outlaws)
Kyrylo Voloshyn (Lynx)
 
VEZINA TROPHY (Best Goaltender)
AHTO KNUUTILA (Warman Fighters)               
Arnaud Belle-Lagrenade (Frost Giants)
Nikita Mineyev (Black Devils)
 
ORR TROPHY (Best Offensive Defenceman)
NICKOLAS MCCOLLOUGH (Harrow Hawks) - 74 points                        
 
NORRIS TROPHY (Best Defensive Defenceman)
MICHAEL BUXTON (McMurphy Golden Eagles)                       
  
ORR - Points leader among defencemen
NORRIS - Calculated with the following formula among D-men [+/- + BKS - GVA + TKA], PER also taken into consideration 
 
SELKE TROPHY (Best Defensive Forward)
YANIS CHAMBERS (New Haven Ramblers)                   
Jamie Coursol (Buccaneers)
Dustin Karacan (Hawks)
 
Calculated with the following formula among F: [PTS + BKS - GVA + TKA] Hits and +/- also relevant.
 
LADY BYNG TROPHY (Most Gentlemanly Player)
PAVEL STATNIK (Fairford Frost Giants) - 86 points / 2 PIM              
Sylvain Monciau-Desormeaux (Frost Giants)
Boleslav Zibrin (Lynx)
 
Calculated with the following formula [PTS - PIM]
 
 HART TROPHY (League MVP)
 AWALE PRUDHOMME (New Haven Ramblers)   
 Boleslav Zibrin (Lynx)
 Pavel Statnik (Frost Giants)
 
CALDER TROPHY (Best Rookie)
PETER RINGBOM (McMurphy Golden Eagles) - 64 points
Martin Oravec (Frost Giants)
Dmitry Mandrykin (Black Devils)
 
GOOD SAMARITAN AWARD (Most Giveaways)
JESSE MAILLE-MAYER (Blenheim Pirates) -  92 giveaways (New league record)
 
NEWTON AWARD (Highest Plus/Minus)
JACHYM PAULIAK (Warman Fighters) / SANDRO KOCH (Vermilion Black Devils) / LOUKAS GADSBY (Vermilion Black Devils) -  + 58 
 
ANTI-NEWTON AWARD (Lowest Plus/Minus)

JESSE MAILLE-MAYER (Blenheim Pirates) - -114
 
ROID RAGE TROPHY
GARY AUCOIN (Batchawana Tornadoes)
(Most Hits + PIM + MP)
 
LATE-BLOOMER AWARD
ZIKMUND BOWMAN (Metairie Buccaneers/Mississauga Movement) - 40 years old, 41W, 2.84 GAA, 90.2 SV%

Notable Retire Season 5 - Manuel Wyss - Defenseman
A team is only as strong as its weakest link.  The big contracts, the scoring titles, and stars of the game often go to the household name stars, but it's the players battling it out on the front lines lower on the depth chart that make or break a team's true success.  Manuel Wyss was always in the trenches shoring up his teammates' weakest links.  In only five short GHL seasons, he played on five different teams, often going unnoticed on each change in scenery, but always over performing above his expectations.
Beginning in Season 1, Wyss began with the Lake Viking Bulldogs.  To say it was a tumultuous start to a new league and new team would be an understatement.  At 30 years old and a rating of 83ovr, Wyss found himself in a top 4 roll with the Bulldogs.  After an 8-12 start, the Bulldogs continued to juggling their lineup, going through 10 D-men on the roster during that first year.  Wyss found himself a casualty of that slow start and was traded to Enigma Rage in a swap that included Mario Vuillermet and Rowan Talbot-Gervais (step-brother to Ricky Gervais).   Wyss was able to solidify a roster spot, getting 19 pts (8-11) for the remaining 60 games of the season and a 7th place playoff spot.  After netting a goal in a hard fought 3-2 series loss to the West Chicago Hawks, Rage's season was over and so would be Wyss's time with the team.
At the start of Season 2, after being waived unceremoniously by Rage, the Lightning Bolts picked him up for a two year stint as the team underwent the transition to the Miami Angels.  Teaming up with the goalie George Mercredi,  Wyss continued to show his ability to outshine some of his teammates as he scored 33 pts (15-18) in a strong depth role.  However, once again Wyss found himself on the losing end of a first round playoff loss after going down three games to two in the five game series.  The transition to Miami Angels for the team was not successful and Wyss only found himself starting 48 games and by far his worst year of his career.  
Following Season 3, at the start of Season 4 perennial under performers Eldred Elite picked Wyss up on a no frills one-year, $1.5 million contract.  It was a chance for Wyss to prove he belonged in the GHL and Elite to garner some defenseman depth.  Starting the season in the AAHL, Wyss made the best use of his opportunity and had 34 pts (17-17) in 49 games before being called up to the top six of Elite and finished the season with 13 pts in 24 games and a 0 +/- rating and a Corsi of 51.7%, all which caught the attention of Elite management of his ability to be a clutch performer in a depth role.  With Wyss in his role on the the 3rd line D corps, Elite crawled up the standings to finish strongly in fifth place.  Unfortunately, both for Wyss and the Elite, the playoffs ended almost as quickly as they had started and were swept out by the eventual Western Conference champion Victoria Regals.  
Now at the age of 35, Wyss resigned with Eldred Elite to try and continue both teams late season 4 success at a very paltry $1,147,000 for another year of service.  Wyss continued to make the most of his time on the ice putting up a career tying 33 pts (12-21) in 80 games and a +8 with averaging only 14 mins a game, his lowest total ice time of his career.  After a strong season both for Wyss and Elite, the storybook season came to an end during game five against the West Chicago Hawks in the conference semi-finals.  Wyss played strong for the club putting up four points (1-3) in nine games in limited action as the #6 d-man. 
Following the season, Wyss was offered another one-year contract by Elite and all indications were that he would return as a strong veteran to help transition the defensemen corps to the new guard that will lead the team over the next 5-10 seasons.  Unfortunately, facing age 36 and the current health crisis facing the world, he decided he would now take some time to spend with his family and go out on a high note with his season with Elite.  Some champions never get rings, but will always be remembered by the fans and fellow players for what they bring to the rink each and every day.  
Manuel Wyss finished his career after five GHL seasons with  310 games, 50 goals, 75 assists, and a takeaway to giveaway ratio of 85/8.  

First up - GEORGE MERCREDI (Goalie)
As Cage took off in Season 1, George Mercredi, the then 89 overall keeper, found himself in a tough scenario as backup goalie on the St. Thomas Stray Cats.  The team appeared dominant from the get go, but he sat behind 28 year old Gregoire Wright (95 overall) on the depth chart.  Looking to clear cap space to build out his roster, manager Erzac scoured the league for potential suitors for Mercredi when he came across the Deferiet Leopards (now Big Delta Stealheads) and noticed that their goalie situation was garbage (two 83 overalls).  Erzac quickly messaged the Leopards manager, Paul T, looking for a trade.  The asking price... a mere GHL 2nd round pick.  Not knowing what the upcoming drafts would look like, Paul T hesitated for a split second before accepting the offer, which thrust Mercredi into a starting role.
Mercredi's confidence after the trade seemed to be sky high as he led the Deferiet Leopards to a 20-0 start, making them the last team to lose a game in any game world after the GPHM refresh.  Mercredi would finish the season with a 35-11-3 record with a .936 save percentage and 1.92 GAA.  Unfortunately Paul T was aware that Mercredi was aging and jumped at an opportunity to acquire a much younger goalie at the time in Zach Woodley.  The 23 year old 91 overall Woodley appeared to be the long term solution for the Leopards in net, but the love affair never really worked out.  Both goalies posted respectable season 1 numbers, but the Leopards were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the #7 seed Bulldogs 3-1.  Mercredi's old team, the Stray Cats, ended up winning the Gold Cup in season 1 leaving Mercredi wondering what could have been.  The Leopards decided to move on from Mercredi at the end of season 1 and they would regret it a few seasons later. 
After his dominant stint with the Leopards, Mercredi went on to guard the crease for the Parkland Lightning Bolts (season 2) and Miami Angels (season 3).  Both teams would relegate and Mercredi would comtemplate retirement.  After long talks with his family and agent, Mercredi decided to test the waters in season 4 and signed on with the newly promoted Bodmin Bangers.
Season 4 with Bodmin turned out to be highly successful as he went 37-18-3 with a .914 save percentage and 2.63 GAA and a 4th place finish.  In the 2nd round of the season 4 playoffs, Mercredi found himself facing a familiar opponent, his old team, the Big Delta Stealheads (formerly Deferiet Leopards).  After going down 0-2, the Bangers, led by Mercredi, turned it around and ended up winning the next 3 games to defeat his old club.  Unfortunately the run came to an end in the conference finals where they lost to the eventual champions, Dragons.
At the end of season 4, Big Delta showed an interest in acquiring back their old keeper as they were frustrated with their current goalie Michele Amick for his lackluster performances in big games, and they were not confident that 83 overall Henri Pohl was the answer either, despite a dominant season 4.  Mercredi was traded for Amick and he decided to give his career one more shot with his old club, despite multiple opinions around the league that he would retire.  Mercredi returned for season 5 knowing that he would be completing with Henri Pohl for the starting job.  Both Pohl and Mercredi struggled early on and Big Delta played musical chairs in goal, eventually settling on 19 year old Colby Gloria.  With Pohl's skills fading quickly, Mercredi earned the backup job mid season and throughout the playoffs.  The season ended in dream fashion with Big Delta winning the Gold Cup.  After captain Jeremie Cline hoisted the Cup, he immediately handed it to Mercredi.  His glory had finally been achieved as he skated around the Delta Dome with the Cup held high over his head.
At the end of season 5, at age 40, George Mercredi decided to call it quits.  His career complete.  He will go down as one of the greatest Cage goalies of the early seasons.

I am creating this thread so managers can document retirements for players that were important to their team or the league.  Players that should be remembered.  A eulogy of sorts.