The Athens Fighting Centaurs: The Possible Vegas Golden Knights of the UMEBA

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lordtoffee
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The Athens Fighting Centaurs: The Possible Vegas Golden Knights of the UMEBA

Post by lordtoffee » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:57 am

As we get into the meaty part of the season, the biggest surprise by far is the performance of the expansion franchise in Athens. The Fighting Centaurs currently lead their division by .5 a game over Bucharest, and have a little cushion in the Wild Card picture. Most people expected that Athens would struggle at first, especially because of the lack of an expansion draft like newer teams in the BBA have faced. GM Neil Thomas has got to be the early favorite for GM of the Year in the UMEBA, and you could make a compelling argument that he has done something that is very impressive. But why is Athens maybe like the Vegas Golden Knights?

(It's at this point where I admit that we are crossing from the BBA world into our world, but it's what I have to do in order to make this point.)

The Vegas Golden Knights are the most recent NHL expansion team that is actually playing games. In their first season, they reached the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals, eliminating the Winnipeg Jets, San Jose Sharks, and the Los Angeles Kings. It was one of the most impressive sporting feats in the history of North America, as this team literally was built out of nothing and became a very good team overnight. GM George McPhee clearly had a plan in place, and valued speed as his primary strategy in building his team. It was clear that the Knights had a couple of things going for them that helped them be successful right away.

First of all, the Knights were coming into the league as a sole expansion team. McPhee and his staff didn't have to concern themselves with another expansion team and worry about pick order, what the other team was thinking about, and how to react if other players were taken that they wanted before they got a chance to pick. The Minnesota Wild reached the Western Conference Finals in their third season after joining the league in 2000, but they have never gotten back to that round of the playoffs in subsequent years. The other 2000 expansion team is the Columbus Blue Jackets. It took them 8 seasons to make the playoffs, 13 seasons to win a playoff game, and 18 years to win a playoff series. So, it takes time for expansion teams to be good.

The second reason why the Knights were so good is that the NHL wanted to make it so that they were competitive right away. The Knights were the first major pro sports team in Las Vegas, and the league needed expansion to be a success. The rules for the expansion draft were much more conducive to early success. Teams could only protect 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, one goaltender, or one goaltender and 8 skaters regardless of position. In other words, you can't protect your entire core, and are going to probably lose a good player. An excellent example of this is that the Pittsburgh Penguins had two good goaltenders in Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury. The Penguins chose to protect Murray, and the Penguins got a Stanley Cup winning goaltender and a great goalie for nothing.

The final reason for the Knights being successful is the other GM's looking for relief from terrible contracts. Like the BBA, the NHL has a fairly ironclad salary cap structure, and a front office has to decide whom to pay and whom not to pay on the open market. We've seen our share of bad contracts in both leagues, and it happens to the best run teams. Every GM in both leagues will sign a bad contract at some point, no matter what their intentions. An excellent example is the Florida Panthers. The Panthers were looking to get Vegas to take Reilly Smith, because Smith had a 5 million dollar salary. So, Florida offers Jonathan Marchessault, a 30 goal scorer the year before entering the prime of his career in exchange for a 4th round pick and the Knights picking Smith in the expansion draft. For the price of a 4th round pick, the Knights got two key pieces of their team. It's highway robbery, quite honestly.

So why has the Centaurs been so good lately? Well, Neil Thomas has a couple of differences from George McPhee. First, Thomas had to worry about Kuwait and what they were going to do. It wasn't like Thomas could raid the entire league in order to build a team. Second of all, there was no expansion draft in the UMEBA this past offseason. Thomas couldn't have the luxury of unprotected players. Third, the free agent pools have all the league looking in them, and that means bidding wars. The salary a GM wants to pay may not be the salary the GM actually pays a player depending on the market. But there was one advantage that Thomas had this offseason that was undervalued by some.

The biggest reason that Athens is leading the division right now is that he could spend up to the salary cap from nothing. What I mean by this is that the existing teams had to worry about cap room, and how that fit into their plans in regards to free agents. Every team had good and bad contracts, and contracts that they inherited from previous GM's. Neil didn't have those worries, because he had no bad contracts at all! He could sign free agents to the contracts that he wanted, and in a strange way set the market. As a rival GM, I didn't figure that out until the season started, and had assumed that Athens would take some time to build up, as even BBA expansion teams had needed some time to be successful.

An example of the timeframe I am talking about is the Jackrabbits. They have been in the league a decade plus, and have a couple of Landis titles. Still, they had years of losing at the start before they won their first title. And the Jackrabbits are a well-run franchise that makes smart choices. Yes, the BBA had expansion drafts and all that, but even with that supposed advantage that observers thought when discussing UMEBA expansion seems to not hold up.

So are the Knights=Athens? It's still early. But for now congrats to Athens for setting the bar high for future UMEBA expansion.
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Re: The Athens Fighting Centaurs: The Possible Vegas Golden Knights of the UMEBA

Post by Clayman » Mon Apr 13, 2020 3:35 am

Very good read, bit of luck thrown in. Cant remember them all but about four free agents I signed, one being Chip Saunders actually stated they had offers from BBA teams but would rather sign with Athens so luck and surprise with them. I also think we're punching above our weight, Jerusalem and Bucharest are punching below their weight. Long may it continue though ;)
Athens Fighting Centaurs 2051 75-87
Athens Fighting Centaurs 2049 72-81
Valencia Stars 2045-2047 185-301
Beirut Cedars 2044 90-72
Athens Fighting Centaurs 2042-2043 112-118
Cairo Chariot Archers BC 2041 8-5

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Re: The Athens Fighting Centaurs: The Possible Vegas Golden Knights of the UMEBA

Post by johnd2442 » Sun Apr 19, 2020 6:50 pm

Really nice op-ed and tying in the example of another expansion team. Athens has certainly set the bar high and they are lucky they don't have to play Cairo in the Burt League. :)
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Re: The Athens Fighting Centaurs: The Possible Vegas Golden Knights of the UMEBA

Post by Clayman » Sun Apr 19, 2020 11:08 pm

johnd2442 wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 6:50 pm
Really nice op-ed and tying in the example of another expansion team. Athens has certainly set the bar high and they are lucky they don't have to play Cairo in the Burt League. :)
Playing you wouldn't be bad, it's all that sand, gets everywhere no wonder other GMs nickname you the nut scratchers. Maybe a future rebrand Cairo Nut Scratchers.
Athens Fighting Centaurs 2051 75-87
Athens Fighting Centaurs 2049 72-81
Valencia Stars 2045-2047 185-301
Beirut Cedars 2044 90-72
Athens Fighting Centaurs 2042-2043 112-118
Cairo Chariot Archers BC 2041 8-5

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