From the lowest league (EPIHL) to the NHL

[Sucker Punch]

I'd like to attempt to take on the challenge of starting with the lowest rep possible, and building toward working in the NHL. I've never done it before, so I have a few questions;

1. Which is the worst league? I thought I read somewhere it was Austria, but I'm not sure.

2. How do I apply for other positions? Just wait for a firing? And when there is one, what screen do I apply for the job in?

3. How do I know whether a new job will improve my rep? Like, would going from Austria to the UK help at all? I'm just not sure what steps to take.

4. When picking leagues, do I just check all of them, and leave the one I'm playing to enhanced? Or can I leave some out?

5. Any other general tips for someone who is new at this kind of thing? And who has actually done it? How long does it take?

[inSTAALed]

Well I guess I can answer a couple of your questions...

1) I'm pretty sure it's Denmark.

2) The screen to apply for jobs is the Available Jobs screen under the General Manager drop down list. It displays all of the teams looking for GMs. Just click the teams name and in the bottom left of their main screen should be an apply for job button.

3) I dunno.

4) I put them all on enhanced so I wouldn't know.

5) Ask Shadd... I think he's working on it...

[B. Stinson]

2. How do I apply for other positions? Just wait for a firing? And when there is one, what screen do I apply for the job in?

Whenever a GM gets fired, you can go to the team that just fired him, and there will be an 'apply for job' option in the bottom left 'actions' box.

4. When picking leagues, do I just check all of them, and leave the one I'm playing to enhanced? Or can I leave some out?

You can use whatever league "configulation"(inside joke word) you want. If you have a slower computer, you'll probably want less leagues running, since more leagues will only give your machine more to process.

5. Any other general tips for someone who is new at this kind of thing? And who has actually done it? How long does it take?

I always play this way, however, I don't start out low while looking to take stepping stones to the NHL. I start unemployed, and then let everything unfold from there... with the goal of eventually getting ot the NHL. So, basically, I just let it all flow and happen naturally rather than setting a path to follow in a certain amount of years. I have yet to actually get to the NHL though... I usually have too much fun in the OHL, and end up staying there.

One tip though: If you ever decide to start unemployed, be prepared for extreme bordom. When you start unemployed, you will feel more isolated from the world than you would if you lived on the moon. You get hardly any news about anything meaningful, and if you want to monitor a certain league, you'll have to navigate to it every time after you hit continue(since the game "defaults" to the dead news screen everytime).

[Sucker Punch]

If I'm unemployed, will I still be told whenever a new position opens up? Or will I have to keep checkng regularly?

[B. Stinson]

If I'm unemployed, will I still be told whenever a new position opens up? Or will I have to keep checkng regularly?

The "available jobs" panel on your home page will always inform you of any open jobs. As for getting news about open jobs, I have noticed that they only come from big teams, like NHL teams. So, if you're looking for small job openings, you'll have to stay up to date via your home page rather than your news inbox.

[Shadd666]

1. Which is the worst league? I thought I read somewhere it was Austria, but I'm not sure.

Austria and Denmark are told to be the two worst playable leagues in the game. I can't tell you which one is worse, as i only played in Denmark. I know that the regular season in Denmark is only 36 games, against around 50 in Austria. In general, there are less games in a league to reduce the costs of the travels, what means that there is less money in this league, and so the level is weaker, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule...

2. How do I apply for other positions? Just wait for a firing? And when there is one, what screen do I apply for the job in?

When you have a new saying that someone has been fired from a team, you should also right-click on the name of that team, and you'll have the "apply for job" option. So now you know all the possibilities

3. How do I know whether a new job will improve my rep? Like, would going from Austria to the UK help at all? I'm just not sure what steps to take.

Check out the EHM05 guide, wrote by Archibalduk and Minstrel, in our download section. At the end of the guide, there is something about the reputation of the leagues. Thereare new leagues in EHM07, so you won't have them all, but it will give you a start
Other thing i do is to check my world reputation as GM, in 'general manager stats/ reputation/ world reputation'. So i can see where i am, and in which leagues are the GMs that are just above me.
Also take a look at the average salaries in a specific league, it would give you an indicator about the quality of the players. In general, the best players ask for the best salaries. But here again, it's not a hard-and-fast rule...
Of course the best way to improve your reputation is to win! I never leave a team while i haven't win the title or get promoted. Since i haven't do so, i consider that it means that i still have things to learn at this level of play, so i continue in this league and with my actual team.

4. When picking leagues, do I just check all of them, and leave the one I'm playing to enhanced? Or can I leave some out?

Personnaly, i check them all as enhanced and then put the ones i'm not playing in to 'quick sim' in the preferences. Having all the leagues checked (enhanced or standard) will allow you to move to any league you would want to play in.

5. Any other general tips for someone who is new at this kind of thing? And who has actually done it? How long does it take?

Not really a tip, but just a little thing i apply in my game... Loyalty is an important thing in hockey, so when i move to a bigger team, i impose myself to bring at least two members (players or staff) from my old team for at least two years. It gives them a chance at a higher level.
About the time it takes to make your way from the weakest league to the Stanley Cup title, well... it mainly depends on how good your are as a GM! I can't tell you more on it, it's the first time i do so and i'm only in my second season.
Just a little tip: in north-america, AHL is often considered the second best league in the world (even if it's wrong) so it could be a really good step to make your way to the NHL. It's maybe possible to jump directly from big european leagues (Russia, Finland, Sweden) to the NHL, but if you can't do it, go in the AHL and get success there will open you a lot of doors

Hope that helps
And good luck in your GM world tour

[hluraven]

I would be very shocked if the second division of GB wasn't worse than Austria or Denmark's top league. When Nottingham play Salzburg in the continental cup (and SonderselkE (sp) of Denmark) in the Continental cup they are considerably worse, and Nottingham are a long way better than anyone in the lower league of GB.

The English premier league, below the British Elite League, is not professional and very very low standard. There is also no promotion out of it. This I would think was the hardest challenge in game.

Main tip I can think of is being an international manager, of any nation, considerably improves your worldwide reputation making it a lot easier to get jobs in different nations. You can often be the best manager in a small nation but unheard of in other nations. Being a national manager seems to remove this and your reputation improves considerably outside your country.

EDIT to add: If you have the editor, you can see the reputation of all leagues. If no-one else has this I will post it tonight when I'm home. It will show both the lowest reputation league to start in, and if you keep it will show you the answer to your question 3

[miked1991]

1. Which is the worst league? I thought I read somewhere it was Austria, but I'm not sure.

I've looked in the editer and the playable league with the lowest reputation is the English Premier League. It is also weaker in terms of standard. Look at 2 results from last season for the Coventry Blaze. They beat Herning (Denmark team) 5-4 in the Continental Cup. They then beat Hull (EPL team) 12-1 later in the season! Big differance. Its got a rating of 3 for its reputation. Only thing with the EPL is it gives good access into the English Elite League which is quite a well heard of league. The weakest team in the league are the Wightlink Raiders. In reality, they have 2 points from 18 games so far!!! Their fan base is non existant!

[hluraven]

As promised:

NHL - 20
Swedish - 14
Russian Superleague - 13
Czech Extraliga - 13
Finnish SM-League - 13
DEL - 12
AHL - 12
Slovakian - 11
ECHL - 10
Swedish Allsvenskan - 9
Austrian - 9
Canadian Juniors - 9
CHL - 8
UHL - 8
Norweigan - 7
Danish - 7
Finnish Mestis - 7
Slovenian Elite - 6
Interliga - 6
British Elite - 6
Finnish Suomi - 5
Interliga 2 - 3
English Premier - 3

Pretty clearly the English Premier is the worst league, as I believe all teams in Interliga 2 also play in better leagues? British Elite is all you can really aim for and that's the worst league as a country's top flight.

Wightlink should be the worst team but all EPL teams have the same rep and budget in the database and Wightlink actually have more fans than quite a lot of the others. They are awful though and probably make the hardest challenge in the game

[noctambulist]

I was actually thinking about doing something similar recently to add some spice to the game. I was thinking it would kind of be like "role-playing" a GM from scratch instead of just taking over an NHL team like I usually do. Thanks for posting this.

Gotta win the Cup with the Bruins first though

[inSTAALed]

I ended up in the worst league in the world in my game without knowing it.

Turns out I'm with Wightlink too!

I'm in for a tough year. Almost every free agent that would sign with me is better than every player on my team.

My foreign players are worse than my GB players.

ONWARRRRRRRRD!

[miked1991]

I ended up in the worst league in the world in my game without knowing it.

Turns out I'm with Wightlink too!

I'm in for a tough year. Almost every free agent that would sign with me is better than every player on my team.

My foreign players are worse than my GB players.

ONWARRRRRRRRD!

Only just got mine going but looks to be a hard challenge. What with starting with just 1 centre and 2 left wingers!!! Just sign some decent brits!

[Shadd666]

hluraven: thanks a lot for the list or the league reputations! I was hoping this one for a long time. Now i know from where i'll start after the release of patch 3.0.3!

Thanks again

[hluraven]

Glad to help, anything else just ask

[miked1991]

I ended up in the worst league in the world in my game without knowing it.

Turns out I'm with Wightlink too!

I'm in for a tough year. Almost every free agent that would sign with me is better than every player on my team.

My foreign players are worse than my GB players.

ONWARRRRRRRRD!

Hows your season turning out. I'm into my second season now. Second place in the league only by a couple of points last time around behind Peterborough, and then lost to them in the playoff final aswell! I basically made a whole new team at the start! Now with all the free agenst for my second year I'm hoping to dominate! Currently top by a point after about 8 games.

[inSTAALed]

Well, I'm just starting my first season.

I basically released everybody off of my team with the exception of 2 or 3 players and signed like 23 or 24 guys.

I haven't won a game yet but I've tied 2 and lost 1.

[joehelmer]

I've just started a game with Wightlink. Lost two pre-season games and won three. Soon i will have my first match in EPL Cup.

[3nigm4]

Awesome idea!! this will take forever!! and by the time i reach NHL from Wightlink Crosby will retire!!
lol

[joehelmer]

This was the first time the fans has been happy to get a GM which only merits is recreational player.

[inSTAALed]

This was the first time the fans has been happy to get a GM which only merits is recreational player.

Haha!

Same here!

Joe, get on MSN sometime and we can compare our teams and stuff while we are playing.

Me and my friend used to do that with EHM 2005 and it was fun.

Same goes for anyone else, if you want to just add me on MSN.

[joehelmer]

This was the first time the fans has been happy to get a GM which only merits is recreational player.

Haha!

Same here!

Joe, get on MSN sometime and we can compare our teams and stuff while we are playing.

Me and my friend used to do that with EHM 2005 and it was fun.

Same goes for anyone else, if you want to just add me on MSN.

I will. Sometime, long time ago since last time. I think it's time to get online soon again....

You other guys can add me too. i promise I will get more active MSN.

[miked1991]

Hurray, won the Championship in season 2. Won both the league and the playoffs. Funny thing was I looked through the leagues wages. I had 35k, the next cheapest team had 70k, and Bracknell had 200k!!!

How did I win that?

Oh well, now where do I go now. Really don't like the look of a canadian development league so I may just hang around for a bit until a job in Europe comes up.

[Loosie]

So I have a career going where I am trying to take a turning a GMing a team in every league. The catch is I can only go 'up a level' when I win the league. On for refernce I am using this reputation list: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 939#p22939

I started off as GM of the Wghitlink Raiders in the British Elite League.

The first two years were rough finishing 9th and 10th. Then in the third year we won the EPL Cup. As this qualified for winning I could now move on to either the Inerliga 2 or the Finish Suomi division. Partway int he fourth year the GM role at Forssa opened up. So I applied and was offered the job. And Forssa was my first failure. Hired during the 09/10 season I was fired after 7 years during the 16/17 season.

The Finnish Suomi division was a learning curve, trying to get a good team under a tight budget. The first season was really a take over and avoid relegation. Which I was able to do, we placed ninth but was able to avoid relegation. The next year we placed 2nd but failed to get promoted. A couple more 9th place finishes followed, and a contensius time with the board as I was constantley over budget. The next two years we were in the 'safe zone' of (5th to 8th place) so no post-season play for me.

Finally in my last year with Forrsa we had a rough start but were finally starting to turn the season around when I guess managment finally ahs enough an fired me. The team themselves continued thier upward trend and finished 3rd, but once again promiotion failed them. Finally the next year they finished 1st and were also promoted.

As for me the rest of 16/17 I was unemployed. Since I didn't win anything in the Suomi division I was confined by British Elite Interliga -2 and Finish Suomi, I notice at this point that not a lot of GMs lost thier jobs in Interliga.

Anyways a team was promoted from the Finish Lower division so I applied and started the 17/18 season with Nummela. Learning from my mistakes with Forssa I tried to stay as close as I could to my teams budget. And I found that this meant is could not carry any 'spare' players. The first year we avoid having to play in the ply-outs and relegation by finishing 8th. Again it was a series of up and down years as the next year we finished 2nd on the strenght of a young goalie, who in the preivous of season was taken in the CHL Import draft. He ended up getting injured right a tthe end of the season so we didn't have him for the playoffs and failed to qualify for the Promotion group. He ten would not sign a new contract with and signed with his OHL team.

So the next year we were 9th as I strugelled with my goaltending. We avoid relegation and the next two years finished in the top four again, the first year we won our first round of the playoffs but lost the second round and again failed to get into the promotion group.

The next year we finished 4th, and swept both rounds of the playoffs to get int ot the promotion group where we dominated, we went 4-1-1 tying our first game and losing our last (when it didn't matter). Finally PROMOTION!

And now we are entering our first season in to the Mestis League where I expect to get stomped as were didn't get much of an improved budget and had a hard time bringing in new talent. We'll see how it goes.

[kadri43]

So I have a career going where I am trying to take a turning a GMing a team in every league. The catch is I can only go 'up a level' when I win the league. On for refernce I am using this reputation list: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... 939#p22939

I started off as GM of the Wghitlink Raiders in the British Elite League.

The first two years were rough finishing 9th and 10th. Then in the third year we won the EPL Cup. As this qualified for winning I could now move on to either the Inerliga 2 or the Finish Suomi division. Partway int he fourth year the GM role at Forssa opened up. So I applied and was offered the job. And Forssa was my first failure. Hired during the 09/10 season I was fired after 7 years during the 16/17 season.

The Finnish Suomi division was a learning curve, trying to get a good team under a tight budget. The first season was really a take over and avoid relegation. Which I was able to do, we placed ninth but was able to avoid relegation. The next year we placed 2nd but failed to get promoted. A couple more 9th place finishes followed, and a contensius time with the board as I was constantley over budget. The next two years we were in the 'safe zone' of (5th to 8th place) so no post-season play for me.

Finally in my last year with Forrsa we had a rough start but were finally starting to turn the season around when I guess managment finally ahs enough an fired me. The team themselves continued thier upward trend and finished 3rd, but once again promiotion failed them. Finally the next year they finished 1st and were also promoted.

As for me the rest of 16/17 I was unemployed. Since I didn't win anything in the Suomi division I was confined by British Elite Interliga -2 and Finish Suomi, I notice at this point that not a lot of GMs lost thier jobs in Interliga.

Anyways a team was promoted from the Finish Lower division so I applied and started the 17/18 season with Nummela. Learning from my mistakes with Forssa I tried to stay as close as I could to my teams budget. And I found that this meant is could not carry any 'spare' players. The first year we avoid having to play in the ply-outs and relegation by finishing 8th. Again it was a series of up and down years as the next year we finished 2nd on the strenght of a young goalie, who in the preivous of season was taken in the CHL Import draft. He ended up getting injured right a tthe end of the season so we didn't have him for the playoffs and failed to qualify for the Promotion group. He ten would not sign a new contract with and signed with his OHL team.

So the next year we were 9th as I strugelled with my goaltending. We avoid relegation and the next two years finished in the top four again, the first year we won our first round of the playoffs but lost the second round and again failed to get into the promotion group.

The next year we finished 4th, and swept both rounds of the playoffs to get int ot the promotion group where we dominated, we went 4-1-1 tying our first game and losing our last (when it didn't matter). Finally PROMOTION!

And now we are entering our first season in to the Mestis League where I expect to get stomped as were didn't get much of an improved budget and had a hard time bringing in new talent. We'll see how it goes.

I don't know how you this. I always start with a NHL team and his affiliate because it's difficult for me to be promote. In one of my games I won 3 Memorial Cup in 6 years and I've never been promoted in the NHL snif snif

[gazzw87]

Nice to see the thread alive again! I love and for some reason can only play the game this way! I does get abit lonely waiting for jobs, especially if you get fired or quit from a team but the journey through all the teams and leagues is great!