Forging a Dynasty

[Hooligan_Tactics]

Hello to whoever may be reading. I've been playing EHM for a few years, but unfortunately haven't done so in several months when my old PC died. Only recently (as in today) did I get around to figuring out how to put the game on my laptop, and now that it's working I think I'll try to build another top-notch team. On my previous attempts, I created a powerhouse before unfortunately walking right into the declining attribute bug. That won't happen this time around thanks to 3.0.4. I'm still shocked I didn't have it on my PC.

My task is to take the Colorado Avalanche, my favorite team, and try and make them into a dynasty. I'm starting with the default rosters for the 06/07 season. Oh the nostalgia of these rosters. The Avs have a joke of a roster. I'm glad that we're long gone from the days of Tyler Arnason as a second line center. The overall look of the team is rather depressing. The last line of defense is Jose Theodore with Peter Budaj backing him up. Beyond that, we're dreadfully short of good goalie prospects. The defense has an intriguing mix of players and prospects, but it could be better. In previous games, I always specialized in drafting and developing defensive talents, so this can be resolved. Won't be an overnight fix, though. Up front, the team is aged and low on depth. Wojtek Wolski, Chris Stewart, and Brad Richardson all have some promise, but beyond that the pickings are slim. It's going to be a long road to respectability, much like the real-life Avs.

It's the eve of my first training camp with the team. Already, I've been attempting to get familiar with the team and our assets and setting up a plan. The way I see it, this is the first phase of the rebuild. My scouting department is already hard at work (and I've added a scout to help out the workload). And training camp will have some tough battles between some marginal players. For instance...

- Who's the number 1 goalie? Theo's got the experience and is further up the depth chart, but Budaj is highly regarded by the scouts. I'm content with splitting time, but I think a number 1 can come out of the duo.

- Which defender is the odd man out? I started with 8 on the roster: Patrice Brisebois, Brett Clark, Ken Klee, Jordan Leopold, John-Michael Liles, Kurt Sauer, Karlis Skrastins, and Ossi Vaananen. I prefer having 7. Unfortunately, all of them are on 1-way deals. Brisebois and Klee will have to fight especially hard to stay on, as I'm less keen on keeping the oldest of the bunch, although Sauer is considered the 8th on the depth chart.

- Will the young guys stay? Right now, Wolski, Richardson, and Paul Stastny are all considered starters by the depth chart, and if you haven't noticed yet, I live by the depth chart. However, I've had bad luck previously by rushing prospects. Who to keep will be the hardest choice. Our offensive depth is otherwise lacking, but trusting our offense to three rookies could be too big of a risk.

As training camp is set to begin, with my prospects and the scrubs who come in due to open camp (some of whom I've signed in previous games), the hard questions will inevitably be answered by the way my players play. Their fate rests in their own hands. It's a long season, but the work starts now.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

1 day into the game and I'm hooked again. I've made it to the end of October so far. I sim through the games and let the coaches take care of most business, although I decide who plays and who sits. I'm very much keen on looking through statistics and making decisions based on them. Enough about that though. How about the end of training camp and the storylines I followed?

- Starting goalie position is still up for grabs. Theo and Budaj followed up excellent performances in the preseason with some seesaw play through the beginning of the season. Theodore's had the majority of the starts, mostly because his numbers (8 games, 3-4-1, 3.33 GAA, .896 S%) have been far superior to those of Budaj (4 games, 0-3-0, 4.52 GAA, .871 S%). And even these numbers are rather brutal. Theodore's 3 good games have been ruined by his 5 bad ones. I'm hoping for more consistency from either or both.

- I kept all 8 defenders on the roster. At least immediately after training camp. Liles was injured during camp so I kept everyone in because of it. But with him back in the lineup, an 8 man rotation was a bit much. Some nights would see 7 defensemen in the lineup. But around the end of the month, Edmonton offered me a good trade to take Klee off of my hands. Klee hadn't really done much in the lineup. The Oilers offered Danny Syvret, another defenseman, but one with a 2-way contract, along with defense prospect Todd Sertich and European winger Dragan Umicevic. I think I did the team good here, as we were able to solve the defense surplus problem without giving someone up for nothing.

- A mixed bag on the prospects so far. Wolski was the only one who I kept after camp. He's been a good fit for the team, mostly on the second line, and has 4 goals and 9 points in 10 games. I think he'll be on the roster all year if he keeps it up. Stastny and Richardson, meanwhile, were reassigned to Albany. Stastny has proceeded to score 6 goals and 10 points in 4 games, and he's also earned himself a call-up for injuries. Unfortunately, he hasn't been used as much or as effectively here (5 games, 0-2-2, minus-3), so it's evident that he plays best with big minutes and should stay in the AHL. Finally, Richardson still has a lot to prove, with 3 assists and a minus-5 in 7 games in the AHL.

Not surprisingly, our rag-tag bunch of veterans and castaways has put together a 3-7-1 record through October. We've kept games close, which is a positive. Also, we're 13th in the conference, so someone is worse than us! Our 35 goals for is 13th-best in the league, but the 41 goals against is tied for last. Randomly enough, we've got the best powerplay in the league at 22.4%. So this team could very well make some noise in the coming months. Top right winger Milan Hejduk is on a 10 game point streak, with 12 goals and 5 assists in that time. And, much like the real Avs, we've already fought through some injuries, with Joe Sakic, Marek Svatos, and Ian Laperriere being out of the lineup for a time. Hopefully that list stays short.

My next update will be at least halfway through the season, and I'll discuss my preparations for the trade deadline and the playoff race. Until then, I've got some playing to do.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

The season is well into March and I've been a very busy manager. The season has been very up and down so far, with a few strong winning streaks surrounded by more numerous and longer losing streaks. We sit in 14th in the west with a 28-36-5 record, well out of the playoff race unfortunately. This placement in the conference doesn't surprise me too much, as beyond one scoring line, there's not much to like about the roster. So, I've spent much of the season going crazy with trades. In actuality, it's not so much craziness as it is a good kick-start to the rebuilding process.

My first task as GM in my rebuilding process is to reverse the aging process of the roster. The roster at the beginning of the season was full of older players who wouldn't be around for too much longer. In some situations, this is still the case. But those veterans can be traded to teams in contention, or even really desperate ones, for more youthful assets. So, we've shipped out forwards Andrew Brunette, Ian Laperriere, and Antti Laaksonen (with the way Laaksonen played for us I'm surprised anyone would take him), along with defenders Patrice Brisebois and Karlis Skrastins, and in return obtained a favorable load of players. I even took care of a potential salary cap headache by sending off Theodore. In return, these deals have added forwards Dustin Penner and Boyd Gordon, goaltender Dan Ellis, and Dmitri Kalinin, Eric Brewer, Braydon Coburn, and prospect Ben Wright in the back. Seems a bit much, right? Perhaps.

Here's the justification. As of right now, I can put together a top 6 defensive group of 26-year-olds between Liles, Leopold, Kalinin, Vaananen, Sauer, and the slightly older Brewer. At the beginning of the season, it included 4 players over 30. So now I have my defense set for the next several seasons through those moves. With the defensive prospects added as well (Coburn, Syvret, Wright), the cupboard is not nearly as empty as it was at the beginning of the year. The results will hopefully speak for themselves in the future.

With the defense taken care of for the most part, the focus now turns to the forwards and goalies. There's a lot of work to do. With Joe Sakic and Pierre Turgeon both 37, depth at center will take a hit soon. Adding Penner up the middle gives size and youth to the mix. The left wing is extremely shallow, especially after the trade of Brunette, but thankfully Wolski has played well enough to make up for it. Left wing will be a focus of the draft and free agency. The right wing is in much better shape. Still, the team needs some more skilled forwards and some complementary depth forwards. In net, Budaj has been given the job to run with and has typically performed well. He can only get better from here. Dan Ellis, meanwhile, has the distinction of owning our only shutout. Beyond that, the goalie pool is shallow, as the Theodore trade, which netted me a first-rounder and Ben Wright, also cost me another goalie prospect.

Despite the work that is to be done, and the lack of success this season, there are a few positives. Milan Hejduk has dominated for us, with a 15-game point streak and 12 goals in a 5 game goal streak highlighting his 55 goal, 104 point season so far. The Captain, Mr. Sakic, has quietly put together a 30 goal, 87 point season while fighting a few injuries. Rookie left winger Wolski, who's strong play helped the Brunette trade, has 24 goals and 56 points in his 58 games. Kalinin has somehow been a plus-1 in his 46 games with us. Stastny, who's hopped between us and the minors, has 11 points in his past 6 games. Our top 3 defenders, Liles, Leopold, and Clark, have combined for 23 goals and 75 points. All around the roster, I get the feeling that we're close to being competitive. And, just because it's interesting to mention, prospect Kyle Cumiskey, who was released by Albany at the beginning of the season, went to school, joining Alaska-Anchorage. I've never seen a player do that before.

Anyhow, that's about all for now. Soon it will be time to watch the playoffs, and then work begins on figuring out who to draft. Until next time.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

As expected, the first season was a disappointment. We finished in 14th in the west, with a 31-42-9 record with 71 points. The good news is that 4 other teams in the league finished worse than we did. The bad news is that regardless of this, we still sucked. We were 15th in goals for and 29th in goals against, while we had mixed special teams, with an 18.2% power play (good for 2nd in the league) and an 82.1% penalty kill (27th). So we've been doing something right. And that bit of "something right" was seen at the awards, where Milan Hejduk took the Maurice Richard trophy with his 59 goals and Joe Sakic won the King Clancy. Those two were instrumental in every bit of our small portion of success, with Hejduk finishing 2nd in the scoring race with 115 points and Sakic 12th with 99 points. Our rookie class fared well, too, considering how I was considering keeping them in the minors. Wolski finished tied for 2nd with his 69 points, midseason acquisition Penner was 8th with 37, and Stastny was 12th with 31 despite only spending half the year with us. So the year definitely has positives.

The draft has also come and gone, and after a draft day trade that sent Brett Clark to the Rangers for center Dwight Helminen and their 2nd round pick, we found ourselves with 6 picks in the top 100, and 8 overall, as we sat without a 6th rounder for reasons I'm not certain of and I traded our 7th rounder for Dan Ellis. Our first pick came at 6th overall, as Boston had the good fortune of winning the lottery and moving past us. My draft strategy is mostly best player available, with some emphasis on balancing out by position and player type. I go by the feedback of the staff a lot, but also ignore them from time to time. The draft is my favorite part of the season because it's like Christmas and anything goes. So, a pick-by-pick recap:

6th overall: D Mark Katic. The first 5 picks of the draft were forwards, leaving me the best available defender. Katic finished his season with 23 goals and 60 points to go with a 7.43 rating. He's small for a defenseman (5'11"), but his upside and overall skill will cancel that out.

25th overall: G Justin Leclerc. This was the 1st rounder from the Theodore trade, and it's fitting it was a goalie. He's got good potential and put up 30 wins for Lethbridge, the same team that Ben Wright plays on. His save percentage of .882 was concerning to me, but goalies take time and I think he'll be better next year.

35th overall: D Stephen Lund. Lund was pretty high on our list for most of the season, and when the 24th ranked skater was available, I had to grab him. Unlike Katic, size is no concern for Lund (6'4", 200 pounds), and as one of the youngest players in the draft, he'll have even more room for growth. He's projected as a top-pair defender, but is also a bit of a long-term project.

57th overall: C Dustin Jeffrey. This was the 2nd from the Clark trade. Jeffrey went from being 38 points to 76 points while improving a -5 into a +10. He's got a bit of size at 6'2", and is good on faceoffs.

65th overall: RW Aleksei Cherepanov. He had 36 goals in 40 2nd-division Russia games, so the scoring ability is there. His speed is excellent, and his offensive skill set is well-developed already.

95th overall: RW Anthony Peluso. Scouting reports on Peluso have him as a power forward with 1st line potential in the mold of Shane Doan. His size at 6'5" and 222 pounds was a key part of taking him. He's only been in the OHL for 2 seasons, going from 5 to 17 goals, so I'm anxious to see how he improves.

118th overall: LW Evan Trupp. This was Washington's 4th rounder that we got with Boyd Gordon for Antti Laaksonen. Great trade, considering how I waived Laaksonen a week before and they could have gotten him for nothing. All gloating aside, Trupp seemed like a good call. Although he's the smallest player I drafted at 5'9", he'll be moving on to college hockey with North Dakota and will have plenty of time to develop. His season was very successful, with 54 goals and 107 points in 55 games for Penticton in the BCHL, along with 5 assists in 7 games at the WJC.

125th overall: C Kevin Baker. Our final pick of the draft is also our oldest. The 20-year-old Baker made a very good impression on scouts, as he "oozes class" and "is captain material". He's a two-way center, and his character was a key part in drafting him.

So congratulations to all of these picks and best of luck to them as they try and make it to the top of our organization. The hard work doesn't stop here though. This looks like a good place to look at the highs and lows of our prospects already in the system. The picks above can all be considered highs. Joining them are guys like D Joey Gaustad, whose freshman year in Wisconsin gave him 26 points in 43 games with a plus-24 rating, D Raymond Macias, with a rating of 8.12 and 50 points in the WHL, C Peter Fournier, finishing his collegiate career with another 52 point season and an NHL contract, C Codey Burki, runner-up to several WHL awards after a 91 point season, RW Graham Reid, whose senior season at UNH was worth 25 goals, 23 assists, and a signing, and RW Victor Oreskovich, with 69 points and a rating of 8.11. Not all was fair in prospect land, as some players disappointed us. These include RW Chris Stewart, who went from 37 goals and 87 points to 15 goals and 29 points, C Paul Blum, whose Cornell career ended with only 6 goals and 9 points with a rating of 6, and every goalie in the system.

With that comes the fun of the offseason. On the shopping list for free agency includes plenty of help on the left wing, probably a goalie, and plenty of young free agent talent that's willing to sign to the system. Players like Pierre Turgeon, Tyler Arnason, Brad May, Brett McLean, and Mark Rycroft are all heading out, so there will be plenty of spots up for grabs. Guys in our system right now could get them, but I'll keep the options open. A lot of players need to step up this year. I'll give an update before the start of the season with what all has been done with the team.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

The offseason. The other Christmas-like part of the season. In the last post, I looked at a few different parts of the team that needed fixing, and with free agency open, I had to address those. Free agency started with an unfortunate surprise, as I somehow lost the rights to Dustin Penner. I'm thinking my QO was a tad cheap. He initially signed in Chicago before their board vetoed the signing, and then, rather than accept my offer, scurried off to Minnesota. Great. Now I get to play against my mistake even more. This changed the plan heading into free agency a bit. I was going to have Penner in the top 6 forwards with a lot of ice time. Now, my top 6 group was something along the lines of Sakic, Hejudk, Wolski, Stastny, Svatos, and Matt Murley. Yikes. By all accounts, I have at least two open spots in that group. With Svatos suffering a 20 goal dropoff and Murley only appearing in 10 games, we need a bit more help up there. The eternal quest for forward depth continues as well. With the team projected to be under the cap floor, we have the resources to add whatever parts we need.

As per my usual free agent plan, we targeted a few players for contract offers. There's always the necessary "throw a contract at the best player available" part, along with bidding on several other components who don't have a lot of teams fighting over them. Then the waiting game begins, as they don't sign July 1st like in the real world. My first signing came on the 5th, with the addition of C Radek Bonk. Besides having a great sound effect as a last name, Bonk brings some of the size up the middle that we lost in the Penner fiasco. He's versatile enough to play center on any line as well. On the 6th, we had a flurry of signing activity. Goalie Dan Ellis, who was an RFA, finally came to an agreement, although the same day signing of veteran Patrick Lalime relegated Ellis to 3rd-string. Up front, we nabbed a pair of veteran left wingers in Ray Whitney and Craig Adams. In Whitney we get a consistent scorer who can be a top-6 left winger and take some pressure off Wolski. Adams gives us a gritty penalty killer who can help improve our horrific PK. And then comes the surprise signing. It turns out that the earlier strategy of throwing a contract at the best free agent actually works. We re-acquired Peter Forsberg. Never mind he has a 6 million dollar price tag (the advantages of being under the cap floor), but Forsberg gives us a dominant 2-way center to round out and star in the top 6. He had a 9.08 rating with 94 points, so just by signing Forsberg, we became a lot better. The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. The fans were extremely happy with the addition of Forsberg, and signing him changed the board's confidence in me from "extremely unhappy" to "a little disappointed". Having not expected him to sign, I was also thrilled. The rest of the summer was highlighted by the signing of LW Pascal Dupuis, partially to add depth, and partially to get back at Minnesota for taking Penner, along with some other depth components, such as C Daniel Winnik, goalies Gregg Naumenko, Josh Disher, and Alex Archibald (Who? Exactly.), and wingers Gary Friesen and Henry Kuster. With the exception of the 30 year olds in Naumenko and Kuster, the signings are all under 22, giving them plenty of potential.

And with that opens my second training camp with the franchise. This next season is going to be a big one, as we're predicted to finish 11th overall in the league, and training camp can't be taken lightly. As with last season, we enter training camp and the season with many key questions.

- Who's the number 1 goalie? This sounds exactly the same as last year, but the situation is slightly different. Budaj wound up with the job last season but this year is his chance to build on that and start playing like the number 1 he's supposed to develop into. Lalime presents him a huge challenge though, as he's come off of a few rough seasons between St. Louis and Chicago and wants the job badly. And don't forget Ellis, who has exactly one more shutout than Budaj last season.

- Does the sophomore slump really exist or is it just a myth? For Dustin Penner I hope it's a nasty slump (I'm quite bitter about the Penner fiasco), but for Wolski and Stastny, it could happen, and we need to be prepared. The addition of the players we added can certainly offset any difference in production for our two top prospects while serving as good role models on the team. The hope is that Wolski and Stastny will improve this year rather than regress.

- Is the defense actually better than last season or am I just hyping it? Of course I'd like to imagine that the younger, bigger defense I've assembled is better than what I was handed last year, but every GM wants to sugar coat what they've done. In the end, they have to prove that they're better and make me look good with less effort on my part. This season, Vaananen, Sauer, Coburn, Syvret, and Sanny Lindstrom are all fighting for the 5 and 6 slots on the club, and it's a good fight.

So once again, lots of questions, fewer answers, and 82 games of hockey to be played to find the rest of these answers. I expect there to be some growing pains, as the first month of the season will be a learning experience with so many new faces up front. I also expect a competitiveness that we were lacking last season. Here's to another season, one that won't fall apart.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

After a rather busy stretch of time for me, I think it's time for the update on how the season is going. As of right now, we have completed 63 games, so it's about the time of the season where the fight for the playoffs heats up to extremes. You may recall that we were predicted to finish 11th in the league. The good news is that we're in 10th. The bad news is that's our conference standing. I'm pleasantly surprised by our successes this season, as I realistically thought finishing that high would be quite the miracle. At 31-27-5, our 67 points put us 1 point outside of the playoffs and 2 behind 7th. It's a dogfight that I'm pleased to be in. We've been heating up lately, which improves our chances dramatically. We have as many wins now as we did all of last season, meaning it would take a monumental collapse to call this season a failure. Our biggest problem is still giving up goals, as we've had many frustrating outings of taking a big lead, giving it up, and either regaining the lead late or blowing the game. At least our offense can keep pace with the goals we give up. We had a huge 2-0 win over 7th place Nashville in the past week which tightens the race up considerably. Yes, we actually got a shutout. That was Patrick Lalime, who may have the worst win-loss record of our goalies at 5-9-4, but also has the best stats with an .899 S%.

Goalies. They make up the majority of my problems right now. As mentioned earlier (and as it was last season), the starter's position was up for grabs, and Lalime and Budaj would fight it out. After we struggled immensely out of the gate, an interesting solution popped up. San Jose put Vesa Toskala on waivers. Being in 15th in the conference, I couldn't resist adding another talented goalie to the mix. He dominated the first few starts, with a 46 save performance against Ottawa being a highlight, before regressing into the typical state of Avalanche goalies with a save percentage of .887. He's out injured currently and has a 10-11-1 record with a bloated 3.89 GAA. Budaj has slightly better numbers than Toskala at 3.49 and .888, but he's overtaken Lalime for the starter's job simply because his record is 16-7. It really doesn't matter how ugly his stats are this year, because he finds a way to win games. So, this terrifying 3-headed goalie monster gets to continue to fight out the starter's position for the rest of the year. With all 3 signed beyond next season, this will be the case for a while, or at least until someone can dominate enough to force me to trade one of the others.

The rest of the team continues to chug along at a rate much higher than the mediocrity of the netminders. We're carrying 8 defensemen on the roster right now. Ossi Vaananen missed several months with injuries, which forced me to call up the gritty Sanny Lindstrom, who's done enough to stay around. Liles, Leopold, Brewer, and Kalinin all have broken 20 points, giving us plenty of options for power plays. Coburn continues to creep up the depth chart with his reliable play, while Sauer mainly sticks around because he's the only RD (as opposed to Brewer, Kalinin, and Leopold, who are all LD/RD). Brewer has proven to be my best acquisition, as he picks up timely points and has a rating slightly under 8 with a plus/minus of 3. Up front, Forsberg and his 76 points pace the team in scoring (along with Hejduk's 76 points), and Whitney, when he's not injured, has been stellar, with 50 points in 50 games. Elsewhere, our valiant captain has 56 points, Stastny has improved on last season with 38 points, Svatos is only 5 points behind his career year of 50, and Wolski, even with a slower scoring pace, is finally a plus player and will probably break his best in assists. I'm thinking that if our forwards can keep up the strong work, we'll hit the playoffs. As long as they can compensate for our goaltending...

[Hooligan_Tactics]

Apologies for the long delay between posts. Busy college classes and a spring break trip both helped to interrupt my playing time. When we left off, my Avs were still very alive in the playoff hunt. Unfortunately, those playoff aspirations fell short, and we finished 10th in the conference. At 39-36-7, we finished at 85 points, only 5 out of the playoffs. Untimely injuries to both Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg played a large part in our miss, as well as our hilariously inept goaltending trio giving up bad goals at bad times. As the board didn't expect me to make the playoffs, I claim the season to be a success. We had a 14 point improvement and scored 35 more times than the previous season with 284 goals. But, 296 goals against was 6 higher than last season. Also, our special teams were much more meager than last year, so that's a target for improvement. While I was severely disappointed that we fell short of the playoffs, the focus shifted to the draft. Once again, we ended up with 8 picks, but overall not as high as last season. The continued focus is on defense. Recapping my second draft with the franchise:

9th overall: D Tony Vidgren. The Finn beat out several other prospects for our pick, which was one of the most difficult decisions I made. He improved tremendously in the Finnish Junior League last season, setting career highs in all major categories. He's already committed to Saint John in the QMJHL for the next season, which was also appealing. His size is decent at 6'2" and 189 pounds, and has tremendous potential.

39th overall: D Ryan Hegarty. He was the best defender on the USNTDP, and had 48 points and 102 PIM in 59 games. Two way ability is clearly no issue. He's going to South Bend for collegiate hockey, which should allow him some time for seasoning and to bulk up on his 6 foot frame.

69th overall: D Blaz Gregorc. Incredibly versatile, playing RD, LD, and C. He's a rarity in being a Slovenian defender, and having performed well in Slovenia's top league, Gregorc finds himself in Mississauga of the OHL for the next season, which will help measure his skill better than staying in Slovenia would. He's a bit lanky, but of our top 3 picks, he has the best defensive ability and throws the strongest checks.

83rd overall: LW Jordan Trach. Our first forward taken, Trach's last season for Prince Albert in the WHL saw modest improvements in goals (24), assists (30), and points (54). He has good speed and offensive instincts but still needs to take that next step offensively, along with rounding out his defensive game, as he has never been a plus player. There's a project.

99th overall: RW Scott Brannon. A lot like Trach in terms of ability and upside. He took big strides in improving his overall game this last season for Cape Breton in the QMJHL and faces the same challenges as Trach. They're pretty much the same player, but on opposite wings in opposite parts of Canada.

116th overall: RW Toni Jalo. Another Finn, Jalo worked his way to the top Finnish league with strong play last season, and will continue to stay there next year. He needs to bulk up, but has great defensive ability and doesn't take shifts off.

159th overall: D Cory Syvret. Because having Danny Syvret as a defensive prospect just wasn't enough. Syvret has skill, but has yet to score a goal in 124 OHL games between London and Mississauga. This is partially because of a lack of opportunity. Syvret is a long term project, and will need to prove himself (and more importantly score a goal) this next season.

189th overall: C Patrick Gaul. Along with Syvret, he's one of the wild cards of the draft. The biggest case against him is his 5'9" frame, but he'll be given time to mature at South Bend, much like Hegarty. He was also one of Hegarty's teammates for the USNTDP but had 1 fewer point.

In all honesty, I'm not feeling as much confidence in this year's batch of prospects (but don't tell them I said that ). Last year I felt like we had several home runs and those prospects really proved themselves well. Anthony Peluso, Kevin Baker, and Stephen Lund all made massive improvements, while the rest of the group also performed well. This year's group though seems a lot more risky. Only time will tell which crop is better. If anything is obvious at this point, it's that the defense has been restocked and is now overflowing. 7 of our top 10 prospects (according to my reliable assistant Greg Sherman) are on defense (Mark Katic, Vidgren, Raymond Macias, Hegarty, Gregorc, Lund, and Joey Gaustad), and beyond that there's still Ben Wright and Kyle Cumiskey among others. The one area we can still improve is goaltending prospects, and it didn't help that we didn't see any goalies we liked this past year. Justin Leclerc is the only goalie I've drafted to this point, and while his save percentage has improved from .882 to .911, he's far from being handed the starter's job.

The next great part of the offseason is free agency. I am still unable to resist the urge to throw out contracts to high end offensive players rather than something our team needs, like, say, a goalie that can stop more than 10 shots without giving up a gaggle of goals. And that's the story of how I ended up with Dany Heatley as our marquis free agent acquisition. With him hampering our cap space, that means the goalies will continue to be the terrifying three headed monster of Lalime, Budaj, and Toskala. Out the door are C Radek Bonk, who achieved absolutely nothing in an Avalanche sweater, and D Ossi Vaananen, whose injury early on ended up costing him a spot (and landed us a draft pick). At this point, our offense is borderline terrifying, featuring talents such as Heatley, Forsberg, Sakic, Milan Hejduk, Ray Whitney, Marek Svatos, Paul Stastny, and Wojtek Wolski. At the very least, we won't have any goalies complaining about no goal support. The top 6 on defense still stacks up nicely as well. The biggest change on defense, besides the absence of Vaananen, was the addition of James Wisniewski, brought in on the Vaananen trade. He was essentially the plan B for the John-Michael Liles situation that had developed. Liles was an RFA and didn't want a contract, but I avoided a Penner mishap and ensured we retained his rights. He took us to arbitration and settled for a salary of just under 2 million. I was tempted to trade him, but couldn't find any good offers. With him in, our top six also includes Jordan Leopold, Eric Brewer, Dmitri Kalinin, Braydon Coburn, and Kurt Sauer, with Sanny Lindstrom and James Wisniewski as spares.

So, we set higher standards for ourselves this season. It may be a tough climb, but the talent's there. The one final change that was made to the team in the offseason was in the assistant coach ranks. Dave Tippett steps in for Jacques Cloutier as an assistant, and Vladislav Tretiak replaces Jeff Hackett as our goalie coach. Both of these coaches are experienced and should help our club up the next step.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

Another season is in the books and it's the eve of free agency in 2009. By all means, we had a successful season, improving by 13 points and winning the Northwest Division with a 45-29-8 record. Unfortunately, that success didn't carry on to the postseason, as Los Angeles knocked us out in 5 rather easily. It's still a young group so I shouldn't be too unhappy with that result. Getting the division title exceeded my expectations, as Calgary seemed to have a stranglehold on it. And even if they didn't win the division, they still got the cup the past two seasons. So we have work to do. To give a recap of the situations that happened over the season...

- We went into the season with a salary cap nightmare, sitting at $48 million and needing to cut $4 million out of the team. I lost sleep trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, the situation worked out well for us. Patrick Lalime, Kurt Sauer, Ray Whitney, and Pascal Dupuis were all waived in a frenzy and none went claimed. I was a bit disappointed to have to waive Whitney and Dupuis in particular, but it was either them or Milan Hejduk. Easy choice. The situation further remedied itself when Los Angeles offered to take a pricey Marek Svatos off our hands for the appealing price of defenseman Derek Nelson. Nelson is the original database's version of Jack Johnson. He has top pair, defensive defenseman potential and at a mere 22 years old is a great prospect to add. With Svatos gone, Whitney was called back to the team and posted 54 points the rest of the way. Svatos, meanwhile, only had 30. Nelson shot up the depth chart and appeared in 35 games, getting 6 assists and 77 PIM.

- Svatos wasn't the only one traded. Impending free agent Jordan Leopold was traded to Toronto for a package of right wing Nikolai Kulemin and defenseman Andy Wozniewski. Leopold proved why I didn't find resigning him a good idea by being a minus-22 in 40 games for the Leafs. Kulemin made his NHL debut late in the season and put up 6 points in 8 games. Wozniewski, meanwhile, has only served to confuse fans between him and James Wisniewski. I can't wait for the Wisniewski - Wozniewski defensive pair next season.

- Our goalie coach Vladislav Tretiak has a superb reputation, and it showed this year in the play of Vesa Toskala. He posted a .907 save percentage, beating last year's .889 by a long shot, and got 34 wins as well. His taking over the starting job gave me the freedom to trade Peter Budaj to Phoenix for a handful of picks. Toskala actually being able to stop the puck helped us out in a lot of games, and his 2 shutouts were exactly 2 more than he had for us last year. If he builds on last year, we won't be nearly as easy to dispose of in the playoffs.

- Offense, not surprisingly, was the club's strength last season, and we shattered the 300 goal mark with our 304 scored. Not surprisingly, a big part of this was Dany Heatley, the Maurice Richard and Art Ross winner with 55 goals and 111 points. His dominance helped Peter Forsberg top 100 points for the third time of his career. Elsewhere around the lineup, we got solid contributions from many of our top players, like Joe Sakic (22-50-72), Wojtek Wolski (30-43-73), Milan Hejduk (36-32-68), Paul Stastny (16-30-46), Whitney (18-36-54), and even a bit from Boyd Gordon (17-12-29).

- Each season brings some new surprises to us, and this year a few players helped out in better ways than expected. Wisniewski, owner of 6 points over 56 games between Chicago and St. Louis, fit in as a solid 2nd pair defender and power play specialist and had 3 goals, 22 assists, and 25 points with a plus/minus of +19. His play was a big part in trading Leopold. The other big surprise was Victor Oreskovich. The second-year pro made the team out of training camp and his rookie season saw him appear in 75 games, adding 10 goals, 18 points, and 50 PIM between the bottom two lines. He was solid and consistent all year for us.

- This year was another great one for prospects. The system has come so far since I took over. Most of the defensive prospects from that time are currently in the LNAH, showing exactly why the previous system was too shallow. A few players from the team I started with remain and have developed nicely, such as D Raymond Macias, with 40 points in his first AHL season and 4 assists in a 7 game call up. D Joey Gaustad, an imposing collegiate defenseman, finished his junior year at Wisconsin with 58 points in 50 games and an 8.18 rating. Up front, centers Cody Burki and Peter Fournier and winger Chris Stewart all topped 30 points in their first AHL seasons and all earned time in the NHL. The prospects I drafted have done stellar this year, mostly. Our top 3 major junior defenders, Mark Katic, Stephen Lund, and Tony Vidgren, combined for 55 goals and 171 points in their combined 186 games. Good numbers for each, espeically considering Vidgren was in his first major junior season. Elsewhere, Justin Leclerc, the lone goalie prospect, won 40 games with a .919 S%, winger Dragan Umicevic had 62 points in 61 AHL games along with 7 in 13 Avs games, Linus Videll won the ECHL rookie of the year with his 86 points in 72 games, and Anthony Peluso had the highest rating among prospects at 8.35. The bad news is that RW Scott Brannon missed all but 2 games with a torn ACL, and LW Jordan Trach had 30 goals and 52 points in 46 games before suffering the same injury. But both are poised for big bounce back seasons.

I'm pleased with how things have gone to this point. With free agency here, we'll be losing Eric Brewer (which is extremely hard since he's been our best defenseman the past 2 seasons), John-Michael Liles, and Patrick Lalime, so those holes need to be filled. While I believe the defenders can be replaced from within the system, we need a backup goalie. After Budaj was traded, it was left to Dan Ellis (Lalime couldn't fit under the cap) and that was a minor disaster. Toskala will need help. Since this is already rather lengthy, I'll put the post draft report in a different post. Otherwise, it's time for free agency.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

Continuing right from where we left off the last time, the 2009 draft was my third at the helm of the Avs. The good news for this draft is that after the Budaj deal we ended up with 9 picks. The even better news is that they're not as high up, since we did so well. As much as I love picking in the top 10 of the draft, not getting a pick that high is symbolic of our improved league standing, and I'll take playoffs over top 10 any day. Our obvious need is more goaltending, and that's reflected in the draft, which saw 4 defenders, 3 goalies, and 2 forwards taken. To recap:

25th overall: D Steve Chaffin. Quite lanky at 6'4" and 189 pounds, but his rookie season in the WHL got him 39 points in 71 games, respectable numbers. He also found the time to serve 140 PIM, so he plays with an edge. He already has a superb two way game, so the biggest needs for him are to bulk up and get some more seasoning, which should be easy given our depth at D.

33rd overall: D Luis Paquet. Interestingly enough, Paquet also had 39 points on the season. He's not as big at 5'11" and doesn't have the same upside as Chaffin, but his attributes in many areas are better and he plays a better skill game. Definitely a long-term project though.

55th overall: RW Jeffrey Bourque. Small with a lot of skill, scouting reports compared him to Milan Hejduk, which made Bourque an easy pick. His rookie OHL season saw him get Sarnia 24 goals and a rating of over 7.

63rd overall: G Andrei Gordeev. Our first pick in net, Gordeev posted 20 wins in the Russian junior circuit with a save percentage of .897. He's poised to be a starter in the top Russian league, which will help us determine how soon to bring him to North America.

85th overall: G Tracy Hartley. Hartley's size is the most intriguing aspect of his game, as he weighs in at 5'9" and 213 pounds. His rookie OHL year had 26 wins in 48 appearances. Obviously he'll be in the system for a while to develop, as his save percentage was a lowly .878.

115th overall: C Scott Timmins. A year after being traded from Kitchener to Sudbury, Timmins had a breakout campaign of 27 goals and 75 points in only 68 games. He's very similar to fellow prospect and another Sudbury draftee of ours, Kevin Baker. Defensive play is currently an issue, but he went from a minus-17 to a minus-4 so there is an improvement.

145th overall: D Shaun Couture. Having put up back-to-back 17 goal seasons for Moose Jaw, Couture proved that he's consistent. Now, since he was traded to Medicine Hat during the offseason, the challenge is going to be if he can replicate those results in unfamiliar territory. He's already 6'4" and 213 pounds, so he can hold his own defensively.

175th overall: G Chet Pickard. The real Avalanche have his younger brother Calvin. Chet, however, is the only Pickard of relevance in the game though. He's a big goalie at 6'4", a far cry from Hartley, and has continued to improve over 4 seasons between Tri-City and Regina in the WHL.

205th overall: D Elliot Richardson. Small and untested, Richardson may be the wild card of this year's bunch, as he was a first-round OHL pick. He had 12 goals in 46 games his rookie year for Sault Ste. Marie, and we're eager to see how much he can improve on that.

An interesting trend to note is how many players we've drafted from the same teams. Last year, it was defenders Blaz Gregorc and Cory Syvret out of Mississauga. This year, Hartley and Richardson join Dustin Jeffrey as picks out of Sault Ste. Marie. Bourque played on a Sarnia club last season that also had top prospect Mark Katic. Oddly enough, this would be explained in a real life situation by simple scouting philosophy. If a scout goes to watch Sarnia, for instance, to watch Katic play, they'll notice the play of Bourque and add him to a list. In further observations of Katic, they'll have the chance to observe Bourque more as well, becoming more familiar with his game. Then, by the time draft day comes around, they'll encourage the GM to pick Bourque because they're much more familiar with his game. Neat stuff.

So, with the draft out of the way comes free agency. As a GM, I've matured in the sense that I'm not making signings that would give us a cap nightmare come September. While I still throw out the obligatory contracts to the superstars, I don't immediately finalize the contract without looking at the cap implications. In several cases this time, I had to cancel the transactions. As a result, our marquis free agent signing was the addition of Jussi Markkanen to the goalie lineup to back up Vesa Toskala. The two reasons we signed him are that as a team we needed more Finnish goalies (because San Jose has proven that you can never have enough of them between Kiprusoff and Toskala back then and their modern rotation including Niemi, Niittymaki, and prospect Harri Sateri), and that Markkanen's the goalie on the default background of EHM. Joking aside, the reality is that he was cheap, skilled, and since he thwarted us several times since I've been GM when he was in Edmonton, I was familiar with his game. So, he was the logical fit. Technically, my other free agent signing was Eric Brewer. He spent 5 days as a free agent before taking a raise to return. I'm glad he did. Getting him was still the best trade I've made. Karlis Skrastins, who was shipped out to St. Louis, is now with the Rangers, and only played in 38 games last year. He's only scored 6 goals since being traded, a number that Brewer has hit each season.

Despite such little activity, our team will look significantly different this coming season. Our beloved captain, Joe Sakic, didn't sign a new deal. He didn't retire either. He's still a free agent. I invited him to training camp, but it appears that his age has caught up with him, as Coach Q told me to cut him. It's going to be tough to replace his 70 points, but I knew this day would come. His rating slipped all 3 seasons, and I can't afford to throw 4.5 million at a 40-year-old. Thanks for everything, Joe. We'll miss you. The other significant difference will be the absence of Milan Hejduk. Hejduk will find himself on the wing of Sidney Crosby this coming season, as we traded him in exchange for RW Jiri Hudler and D Ryan Whitney. Hudler has good potential and will get every chance to prove himself and beat career highs of 6 goals and 16 points. Meanwhile, in Whitney not only does that give me two players that can be referred to as R. Whitney but also a highly skilled defenseman coming off of a 43 point season. He's big too and only 26, and I sure love getting players like that on defense. So those are the big changes. Since I haven't given a good roster overview recently, I'll give the rundown of the roster.

Dany Heatley - Peter Forsberg - Ray Whitney
Wojtek Wolski - Paul Stastny - Jiri Hudler
Craig Adams - Brad Richardson - Boyd Gordon
Victor Oreskovich - Dwight Helminen - Nikolai Kulemin
Dragan Umicevic and Ryane Clowe as spares.

Eric Brewer - Ryan Whitney
Dmitri Kalinin - Derek Nelson
Braydon Coburn - James Wisniewski
Sanny Lindstrom as the spare.

Vesa Toskala - Jussi Markkanen

Fun fact: Of this roster, at the beginning of my fourth season, only 1 player from the 2006 opening night roster remains, and that's Wojtek Wolski. 2 others, Stastny and Richardson, started that season in the AHL, and 2 others, Oreskovich and Lindstrom, were unsigned prospects. 11 players on our roster were acquired in trades (Brewer (because his going into free agency briefly doesn't really count), Kalinin, Ryan Whitney, Coburn, Nelson, Wisniewski, Helminen, Hudler, Gordon, Kulemin, and Umicevic), 5 players were signed as free agents (Forsberg, Markkanen, Heatley, Ray Whitney, and Adams), and 2 were picked off of waivers (Toskala and Clowe). More random trivia: To make these trades, the players shipped out were Karlis Skrastins, Ken Klee, Patrice Brisebois, Andrew Brunette, Marek Svatos, Brett Clark, Milan Hejduk, Antti Laaksonen, Jordan Leopold, Ossi Vaananen, and a 5th round pick. Brisebois and Brunette are both retired, Laaksonen and Klee are no longer in the NHL, and Skrastins, Clark, and Vaananen are no longer on the teams they were traded to. I think I got the better end of all of this.

With all of that said, the dawn of a new season is upon us and there is still work to be done. With a lot of prospects turning pro this year, there's a lot to monitor. And with expectations higher than ever, we can't sacrifice success now for the future. It's going to be a good time.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

Has it really been half a month since my last update? This is unacceptable. Apologies for the long delay, but I've been busy in the real world and have been taking this season a bit slower. No, I am still not finished with the year. And I don't want to update the whole thing until I get to the playoffs. We're about 60 games in and sitting in position to take a playoff spot, jumping between third and fifth depending on the night. However, to spoil a few things for later, there have been a few minor tweaks on the roster and Jiri Hudler is nowhere near as good as I was hoping he would be. Also, the 50 contracted player limit sucks. With that said, I think I've spoiled enough about the season.

What am I going to fill this post with then? We're going to look at goaltender development. Some may find this to be unnecessary filler material, but others may enjoy the insight on this from me. In previous runs with this game, I've always managed to churn out some pretty good goalies. One particular season, my team faced former goalie prospects in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Not surprisingly, we didn't score much on them. This follows the typical organizational thought process of building from the back on out. Strong goaltending allows the offense to make more mistakes knowing that the goalie will be able to bail them out frequently. That's not exactly encouraged, but it allows for higher risk offensive plays which can lead to more goals. And while the solution can always be to throw a lot of money at an elite free agent, winning the Stanley Cup is so much more satisfying knowing that you brought that goalie up from the draft, through the minors, and to the pinnacle of the sport. With that in mind, here's what I typically do to make the most of my young keepers.

1: A crowded crease is a good thing. I'm much more comfortable with having several good goaltending prospects. Even if there are 3 AHL quality goalies under contract, it helps when injuries hit and keeps things competitive.

2: Goalies take time. I never sign a goalie early out of junior or college. I've left an NHL ready goalie in the AHL for 3 full seasons before even considering granting him a call up. When he was eventually called up though, he was ready and took the starting job with little difficulty. Seasoning is crucial for my goalies.

3: Goalies can't develop without getting starts. If I have two goalies fighting for AHL time, I look to loan one of them to another AHL team that needs goalie help. They'll need to handle a heavy workload at some point, and that's more easily accomplished with each getting 60 starts apiece on separate teams than 35 starts each on the same one.

4: Veteran backups sure help. They can step in when the young goalies hit rough patches as well as serve as mentors.

5: There are always exceptions to the rules. Even if I live by these general guidelines, every goalie is a unique case and has to be treated as such. Not every goalie needs to spend a lot of time in the minors. One goalie in an older game had to step in as our starter out of junior at 19 when injuries forced us to keep him with the club. He excelled with us. That's a rarity, but one that must be acknowledged.

With my current team, I intend on keeping these guidelines in place. Our first-rounder in 07, Justin Leclerc, is 21 right now and in his rookie ECHL season. He's already #3 on the depth chart, and is 28-14-0 with a 2.22 GAA, .914 S%, and a rating of 8.38 so far. The talent is sure there, but I'd still like to see him seasoned a bit more. Depending on our organizational outlook next season, he may end up in the ECHL again. 22-year-old Alex Archibald, who was signed as a free agent out of Chilliwack of the WHL, played his rookie pro season in the ECHL before being moved to our CHL affiliate, the Arizona Sundogs, for the past two seasons. 6th rounder Chet Pickard, 20 years old, was cut from Regina in the WHL after he suffered an injury, so we gave him a contract and assigned him to the SPHL. The lanky Andrei Gordeev may be playing in the top Russian league, but he's only had 10 starts in the past 2 seasons. So all of these guys are long term projects. Could Leclerc move faster up the charts than we project him to? Certainly. Could he be a bust? Potentially. Is Gordeev worthy of being in the system? That will have to wait until next season when we send him to the OHL. The point is that goalies are tough to develop, but it's possible and we hope these guys will be our keepers for a long time to come.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

This update isn't just a filler. I have finally completed the 2009-2010 season and have our season recap on the table. The good news is that the season finished with us winning our second consecutive division title, finishing with a 46-28-8 record and 100 points. This is nearly identical to last year's totals with the difference of one more win and one fewer regulation loss. We moved 6 goals up to scoring 310 goals and our biggest improvement was defense and goaltending, as we surrendered 26 fewer goals this season, for a total of 253. While it's still a GAA of over 3, it's a noticeable difference from my first two years and us giving up 290 goals a season. Our team last year had a lot of veterans added to help us make a decent playoff push. We had a midseason signing of winger Eric Lindros, who added 50 points in 29 games alongside of our dominant top line. Dany Heatley was ever dependable, and finished with 52 goals and 108 points in 74 games. Peter Forsberg had a few injuries in a few bad spots, and managed 93 points in 65 games. Elsewhere around the lineup, a lot of guys stepped up in big ways. Ray Whitney topped 70 points at 37, not too bad of an output. Eric Brewer tied his career high for goals and added new ones for assists (30), points (38), and rating (8.21). Paul Stastny took another huge step in taking over as a legitimate first line center when Forsberg was down and had 21 goals and 67 points with an 8.18 rating, all career highs. Nikolai Kulemin proved that you can lead the NHL in rookie scoring with 23 goals and 50 points and still not win the Calder. The ever-steady Wojtek Wolski added another productive year, with career highs in goals (36) and points (74). To show how consistent he's been, this is his fourth consecutive season of 30 goals or more and has had point totals of 69, 72, 73, and 74. Brad Richardson finally had his breakout season, and when he needed to play on the second line, he did well, getting 16 goals, 29 assists, and 45 points, shattering previous marks of 6-13-19. And newcomer Ryan Whitney, acquired in the blockbuster Hejduk deal, led the blueline in scoring with his 45 points. Of course, not everything was good on the team, such as James Wisniewski following up his 25 point year with a measly 2 assists in 45 games or Vesa Toskala being his normal dismal self. And speaking of Toskala, he's no longer with the team. We had the Toskala-Markkanen tandem at the start of the year, but Toskala went down for a month, and with no immediate help on the farm, we had to sign another goalie, Josh Harding. Harding's performance was stellar, and he ended up stealing the starter's job, making Toskala expendable. Toskala was sent to Washington in exchange for gritty center Brooks Laich and a massive defensive prospect, Pat Patrick. Harding finished the season with a 21-8-2 record to go with a GAA of 2.68 and a save percentage of .914.

But the regular season isn't what matters. It's all about the playoffs. Our division title granted us the #3 seed in the West, just like last year. Our playoffs would be against division rival Vancouver, who had beat us 5-4 on our home ice in the season finale. We took the first two games at home 4-3, winning by tight margins, before the Canucks won game 3 on their home ice. We answered right back by peppering Luongo and the Canucks with 48 shots in a 5-2 win before taking the series at home in game 5 with a comeback 4-2 victory. In the second round, our opponent was the 2nd place Central Division champion, the Chicago Blackhawks. We weren't ready for game 1, losing 3-4 and being outshot significantly, but after that, Harding stole the series for us, giving up 6 goals in the next 4 games while the offense put up 17 goals. It came down to Braydon Coburn putting up a 3 point night, including the series-winning overtime goal, in game 5. In the conference finals, we were up against the Anaheim Ducks, a team we struggled against during the regular season. We had our moments, such as a 3-0 shutout in game 3 and a 3-1 triumph in game 5, but when we were on the verge of forcing game 7 on home ice, we couldn't finish and lost in the 3rd overtime to lose the series 4-2. A sad way to end the season, but I'm not too upset. We've now established ourselves as contenders. We were the bubble team last year when we made the playoffs, but now we're a serious threat. Our younger guys got some much needed playoff experience from that 16 game run, and all around the lineup some guys could have carried us the whole way. Heatley had 16 goals in those 16 games. Harding raised his save percentage to .921 and stole the Chicago series for us. Coburn had 2 career goals in the regular season over 264 games before adding 3 in the playoffs. So I'm proud of the team, but there's still work to be done.

In the offseason, we were very busy sorting out contracts and things to do with the team for the next year. We had a lot of young players worthy of spots on the team and a few too many veterans holding those spots up. So out went Ray Whitney, Eric Lindros, Dmitri Kalinin, Sanny Lindstrom, Craig Adams, and Brad Richardson, bringing in a good load of prospects and picks for us, including Russians Aleksandr Vasyunov and Viktor Tikhonov. We stayed busy at the draft, with 9 picks on the day. So, it's time for the annual draft review.

10th overall: G Petr Vlasak. The significant movement of picks in our offseason veteran purge landed us with a stud in net. Vlasak played 35 games in the Czech second league, winning all of them with a save percentage of .966. He already has incredible ability, with a lot of flair and a very unorthodox style. He's moving to the QMJHL and Gatineau this season, so we'll see how well he adjusts to the smaller North American rinks.

57th overall: LW Juri Korolev. He's an excellent offensive prospect playing for Kazan - 2 in Russian's second league. A long term project due to being only weighing in at 167 pounds, Korolev impressed in his previous season, with 7 goals and 15 points playing against men. As he has Canadian CHL rights, I'll probably bring him over next season.

86th overall: D Yuri Smirnov. Another Russian prospect, the defensive defenseman put up a 7.06 rating over the season for the second division Moscow D team. He'll move up to the top league this year. What stood out was his extremely high work rate and teamwork ratings, 20 and 18, showing that he's certainly not lazy. He also has Canadian junior rights.

111th overall: LW Kirby Nadeau. Splitting time between Kamloops and Chilliwack in the WHL, Nadeau put up a modest 27 points last season. He has great two-way ability as well. His ice time dropped by 7 minutes per game after his trade, so this will make him work harder to get ice time.

116th overall: LW Marc-Antoine McRae. Projected as a third line power forward, McRae isn't the largest player for his role, but is incredibly strong and has great skating abilities. He moved from Erie to Belleville over the summer, so he'll be facing a challenge this year. Of minor concern was his production dropping from 27 goals and 53 points to 17 goals and 40 points, but his rating went from 6.40 to 6.90.

146th overall: D Andrew McCutcheon. At 6'2" and 176 pounds, McCutcheon still has a long way to go to fill out his frame. He had a standout rookie season for Ottawa of the OHL, getting 41 points and 80 PIM in 67 games. He's a team leader and has great defensive awareness.

176th overall: D Joey Smith. I seem to pick a lot of guys from the OHL's Greyhounds, with Smith following Dustin Jeffrey, Elliot Richardson, and Tracy Hartley. Smith is stuck on the lower part of the blueline right now with prospects such as Richardson and Zach Bogosian taking up most of the minutes, so the mobile and smart defender has his work cut out for him.

177th overall: RW Patric Lindahl. He's excelled the last few years in Sweden's junior leagues, and with size at 6'2", 202 pounds, he should fare well in the Swedish Eltserien. He's very competitive and looks to be a great fit on a checking line a few years down the road.

206th overall: D Hans Peter Targa. Here's the wild card. Targa is huge at 6'6" and has great defensive abilities. He's shown he can put up numbers. The problem is that he plays in Italy. He's a star of the Italian league. With junior rights, I may have to move him across the pond to get a better read, as he could be a stud or a dud, depending on how well he survives there.

Besides Vlasak, the rest of the group is definitely made up of good depth players. I see a lot of developing left for us to do. But really, we don't need too many more key pieces. Our current prospect group and our core is very good, and adding more huge parts just makes it tougher to decide who to keep. Moving on, there's one good fleecing that I'd like to mention quickly before discussing the upcoming roster and free agency. Ottawa thought I would accept a deal of Nikolai "Should have been the rookie of the year" Kulemin for former Kings first round goalie Jonathan Bernier. I thought this was a silly trade so I offered undrafted free agent and third-string potential goalie Alex Archibald. They accepted. I'm proud of that one. Now we have a really crowded crease. Interesting trivia for the day: Bernier in the game catches with his right hand, unlike in real life.

So with the offseason hitting us, most of our moves were filler material. Ray Whitney ended up retiring, so we added him as an assistant coach. Such a good player for us and a real class act in the real world. It was fitting. We added Anaheim's backup Ilya Bryzgalov to push Harding and to say "Ha ha Anaheim, how will you beat us in the playoffs without Bryz sitting on the bench?" Also, I decided to have fun with offer sheets, and nabbed LW David Booth and RW Igor Grigorenko, both from the Red Wings. Avs fans would understand how satisfying it is to take two good young players from Detroit. With them added, our team opens the season with an average age of 25. We have such a young team that this might be another season of not making it all the way. If anything, we'll have as much skill and resiliency as last season. Opening training camp, our roster looks as such.

Dany Heatley - Peter Forsberg - Igor Grigorenko
Wojtek Wolski - Paul Stastny - Nikolai Kulemin
David Booth - Brooks Laich - Victor Oreskovich
Boyd Gordon - Peter Fournier - Chris Stewart
Jiri Hudler and Codey Burki as spares.

Eric Brewer - Ryan Whitney
Braydon Coburn - Raymond Macias
Ryan Wilson - Derek Nelson
Pat Patrick as a spare.

Josh Harding - Ilya Bryzgalov

3 rookies are in the opening lineup, with 5 on the roster overall. I must say that I'm excited for this season. This could be a defining year for us. A lot of the guys are free agents and I won't be able to keep them all after this. Heatley, Forsberg, Stastny, Coburn, and Whitney are already pricey and need new contracts, while guys like Kulemin and Macias will be up for raises. Something will change, so I'll have to see how this season plays out before making any decisions.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

And we're back! I've finally gotten to the conclusion of my fifth season at the helm of the Avs. It was a good one as well. We finished with a third consecutive division title and our first conference championship by clinching first place with a 51-23-8 record. In addition to the 326 goals we scored, we have improved in all of the important categories every year I've been in here, from wins (31, 39, 45, 46, 51), points (71, 85, 98, 100, 110), and goals for (249, 284, 304, 310, 326). Goals against is a different story though, as we gave up 13 more goals than the season before with 266. While our offense was more than enough to offset this, it's concerning. Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

Moving on, due to the impressive nature of our offense, we had plenty of career high seasons and took the show at the NHL awards. Our three best players, forwards Peter Forsberg and Dany Heatley and defenseman Eric Brewer, all made the first all-star team. Heatley put up a superb season with personal highs in all major offensive categories by scoring 62 goals and 125 points, good for both the Art Ross and Maurice Richard trophies. Forsberg's season didn't lag far behind, getting 44 goals and 68 assists for 112 points. Newcomer Igor Grigorenko, whose previous career high for points in Detroit was 40, clicked immediately with Forsberg and Heatley and posted 87 points in 67 games. Paul Stastny continued his excellence on the second line, playing all 82 games (and, with Braydon Coburn, becoming the first player since I've been GM to do so) and scoring 87 points. Aleksandr Vasyunov ended up being a revelation by scoring 40 points in 46 games and making the all-rookie team. Nikolai Kulemin built on his solid first year by getting 61 points. Our defenders this year were superb as well. Brewer blew past his career highs with an 18 goal, 55 point season while also being a plus-34. His typical defensive partner Ryan Whitney beat him out with a plus-41 as well as adding 14 goals and 47 points. Raymond Macias in his first full campaign was good for 3 goals and 34 points. In net is where things got a bit nasty. Ilya Bryzgalov took the starting job, with a total of 37 wins, but had low numbers otherwise (3.06, .894). Josh Harding, with 14 wins, wasn't much better (3.15, .896).

Unfortunately, all of that is irrelevant. We set out to win the Stanley Cup this year. Our quest left us with some epic matchups along the way. Our first opponent was our longstanding enemy, Detroit, who clinched the number 8 seed. They came out strong and set a defensive tone for the series with a 2-1 win on our home ice. Finding this completely unacceptable, we beat them at their defensive game the next two games with 3-2 and 2-1 wins before opening back up to take the series 4-1 with 5-2 and 5-4 victories. The series clinching goal belonged to David Booth, a Michigan native and a Red Wing last season. With that, we were on to the second round and a newer rival. This next series was against the Calgary Flames, a bitter divisional opponent. Our overall dominance continued the first two games, with 5-1 and 3-2 games before the Flames attempted to make a series out of it by taking Game 3 4-2. After smothering them 5-0 in Game 4, they fought back hard in a game filled with little defense, but we took the game 6-5 in overtime to move on. The hero of this game was Chris Stewart. With the conference finals at hand, we expected our opponent to be the traditionally dominant Anaheim Ducks, who had crushed us last year. But the Ducks were upset in game 7 by an even tougher division rival of ours, the Vancouver Canucks. We set the tone of the series early, quickly jumping out to a commanding 3 games to none lead with 4-0, 4-3, and 6-5 wins. Vancouver had other plans, though, and stifled our offense in three consecutive games with 3-1, 2-0, and 2-1 wins to tie the series and force a dramatic game 7. We jumped out to a 3-1 lead in that game, with Wolski, Heatley, and Kulemin finding the net, but the Sedin twins tied it late in the third to force another overtime. Thankfully, we survived what would have been an epic collapse when Wolski added a second goal. On to the finals and the Ottawa Senators. The Senators were the toughest team of the bunch, heating up at the right time to beat the President's Trophy winning Rangers to advance. We won a pair of close contests at home before being thoroughly dominated in game 3 with a 4-1 massacre (the shots were 47 to 18 for them). We bounced back in game 4, blowing a 5-1 lead and being forced to settle for a 6-5 win in overtime. The resilient Senators took game 5 2-1, and in game 6 poured everything they had on us. In the end it went to overtime, when Boyd Gordon scored the Cup-winning goal. Finally, a Stanley Cup Championship! With all of the concerns I had about our defense going into the playoffs, I was pleasantly surprised by how we were able to adapt a more defensive style when necessary. Bryz improved up to a .919 S% in the playoffs, and stole some games we had no business winning, like his 45 save performance in Game 6 against Ottawa. He was superb, and Harding was excellent in relief when called upon (he made 4 saves in relief appearances against Ottawa and Vancouver). We had to survive most of the 2nd and 3rd rounds without Heatley, and Grigorenko missed a good amount of time as well. Forsberg put up 23 points to take the Conn Smythe. Elsewhere, we had solid contributions in goal scoring from Wolski (11), Vasyunov (9), and Gordon (3 goals, all game winners). We even had two rookies who had played sparingly in the regular season help us out. Center Kevin Baker scored 4 goals and 9 points in his 19 playoff games and stepped up his game when others didn't contribute as much. Defenseman Joey Gaustad also added a goal and 9 points. If this is how the future looks, I'll be happy with it.

Speaking of the future, with our Stanley Cup wrapped up, the time came to focus on the draft. With less time to prepare, it was a tougher draft, but one that I think went well regardless.

30th overall: RW Iivo Malkia. The skilled Finn really impressed us with his first season in Finland's top league, getting 5 goals and 5 assists in his 27 games. He has some sick hands and is good at making the pretty plays. The biggest knock on him is that at 5-foot-10 and 154 pounds, he's an absolute twig, so we're trying to bring him over to North America and junior hockey as soon as possible.

52nd overall: D Niko Tuominen. Tuominen looks like the Finnish Scott Niedermayer. After spending a year dominating the Finnish National League, Tuominen will play for Owen Sound next season. He's not the biggest at 6-foot-1 and 171 pounds, but with the way he plays, he doesn't need to be.

61st overall: C Devan Mason. Another draftee spending next season with Owen Sound, Mason forges his game around his excellent skating skills. In Owen Sound's Memorial Cup run in 2010, he put up 7 assists in 5 games, so he can play under high pressure. We're eager to see him build on his most recent 15 goal, 40 point campaign.

90th overall: D Sakari Korhonen. Our Finnish scouting was clearly excellent this year, which is why 3 of our first 4 picks were Finns. Korhonen's second Finnish Junior season got him 52 points in 34 games. He still has some bulking up to do, but he's already playing bigger than his frame and has a mean streak going.

120th overall: LW Conor Knight. Following the theme of drafting players who need to bulk up, Knight seemed like the obvious choice with an intimidating 6-foot-2 frame with only 169 pounds on it. His first junior season went well with 53 points in 64 games, but he was also a minus-21, so he needs to step up his defensive play.

150th overall: C Kevin Laliberte. He's not the most skilled player, but he makes up for it with his leadership and grit. Not only did he put up 47 points in 70 games for Rouyn-Noranda, but he added an astonishing 375 penalty minutes. He has a definite future as an agitator or enforcer with the way he's developing.

180th overall: C Marc Mayer. In his freshman season for Yale, Mayer put up 22 goals and 40 points in 50 games. There's not one part of his game that stands out, which speaks volumes about how well rounded he is. Consistency is an issue, but he'll have plenty of time to work that out in college.

210th overall: LW Joaquin Mitchell. A very solid physical player, he's a long-term project as the last pick of the draft. He also plays for Sault Ste. Marie, like recent draftees Dustin Jeffrey, Tracey Hartley, Elliot Richardson, and Joey Smith. The Greyhound factor is really why we picked him.

I think we have a very good draft class. All of them need to bulk up, but it's a physical and tenacious group. Our focus is clearly shifting to forwards, which is why we drafted 6, but Tuominen and Korhonen are still solid prospects back there.

Now, the focus shifts to the offseason. We recently got Heatley back under contract, but guys like Forsberg, Gordon, Brooks Laich, and John-Michael Liles are all on the way out due to cap problems. Forsberg will be a tough loss, but at 37 he's almost out of gas, and Stastny is more than ready to be our first line center. Since we have an abundance of NHL-ready prospects, I don't think we'll be big players in the free agent market. In the next update, I'll fill you in on our team's roster, burning questions, and season outlook.

[Hooligan_Tactics]

Remember me? After a ridiculous 6 month break from posting a blog, I have returned with an update! I've been playing on and off for the last couple of months and am halfway into my 8th season as GM, so I still have 2 full seasons of updates left to provide. To save some reading for later, I'll post the entirety of these updates over the next couple of days. Where we left off, I had just brought the franchise to a Stanley Cup win and was preparing for free agency. As I mentioned earlier, the team was right against the cap, so there wasn't much room for addition. A lot of guys were ready for larger roles, though. And even with Peter Forsberg out of my budget, second line center Paul Stastny was ready for more contributions and youngster Codey Burki had the skill to slide in to the second line center slot. So, I just more or less ignored the free agent pool. At training camp, we still had plenty of firepower. Burki earned a good spot, and defenseman Joey Gaustad slots in on defense as well. To recap in the form of a depth chart,

Dany Heatley - Paul Stastny - Igor Grigorenko
Wojtek Wolski - Codey Burki - Nikolai Kulemin
David Booth - Dwight Helminen - Aleksandr Vasyunov
Jiri Hudler - Kevin Baker - Chris Stewart
Jay Morin and Anthony Peluso as spares.

Eric Brewer - Ryan Whitney
Braydon Coburn - Raymond Macias
Derek Nelson - Joey Gaustad
Mark Katic as a spare.

Ilya Bryzgalov - Josh Harding

There are a lot more young players in this year's edition. We still have considerable offense, as demonstrated by the trio of Russian right wingers in Grigorenko, Kulemin, and Vasyunov. All three can put the puck in the net and make the players around them better. In fact, our first two lines our arguably still among the league's best. The one concerning thing about this team is the lack of center depth. Baker is still a rookie despite a spectacular playoff, and beyond him my options are Jay Morin or Viktor Tikhonov, who don't have much experience. The last thing I need there is a glut of injuries. The rest of the offense shapes up nicely. We're not as gritty this season, but rookie Anthony Peluso brings serious nastiness so when he's used the bottom six gets significantly tougher. On defense, we're probably better off, as everyone improved last season and has a year more of experience. Even Gaustad, despite being a rookie, was along for the cup win. In net, no change to the status quo. It worked for us last year, and it should continue to this year.

The season was a difficult one, as I had projected. A cup hangover was in the works for one thing, and for another thing, it's nearly impossible to replace Peter Forsberg and his 112 points. We struggled out of the gate before pushing back up to .500 by late November. The offense was struggling consistently. Then, to worsen our problems, Paul Stastny breaks his thigh, and his season is over. Even when healthy, Stastny wasn't producing as much as we wanted, scoring 8 goals and 26 points in 29 games. This leaves Burki as our number one center and Morin as our number two. We get a bit of momentum going to get back in the playoff race, but right before the trade deadline, Burki tore his ACL. I knew our depth at center was thin, and injuries to centers would prove challenging, but I wasn't expecting my top two centers to be injured for such long amounts of time. The coaching staff rotated the lines more, moving Wolski to the first line center slot, Morin staying as number two, and Vasyunov jumping to the left wing in Wolski's old spot. Even with this sad string of injury replacements, we fight through the season to secure the number 5 seed in the conference, behind our division rivals Vancouver and Minnesota. Our task in the playoffs was against Minnesota. The first game went poorly for us, but we were boosted in the second by Stastny returning from injury earlier than expected. Stastny, along with a sudden hot streak by recent call up Tikhonov, helped boost the offense and stretch the series to seven games, until Minnesota's Drew Stafford eliminated us in game 7 overtime.

What went wrong this season? Obviously, injuries played a part in that. But also, the offense fell off a cliff. We scored 56 fewer times than our cup-winning season. That's just a huge drop-off. Heatley slumped to 42 goals and 83 points, which isn't horrible, but represents 42 fewer points than last year. Grigorenko (73 points) and Wolski (72) put up good numbers in support, but Grigorenko missed large stretches as well. In fact, Wolski was one of the few players not to get injured. Beyond that, Kulemin (25 goals) and Vasyunov (58 points) put up good support numbers, and rookie centers Burki (51 points in 59 games before injuries) and Morin (30 points in 69 games) helped a bit too. On defense, we had the luxury of having three guys topping 30 points in Whitney, Brewer, and Macias, and Gaustad put up 26 as a rookie. Even with all of this, we fell short in the end. With the postseason upon us early, several of our players in Macias, Gaustad, Stastny, Booth, and Morin made the US team for the World Championships and look to get some good experience. Otherwise, it's time for some scouting and preparing for the next season. In the next update, I'll fill in about the 2012 NHL draft and what we did to address our scoring problems.