Unfortunately, for various reasons, it has not been possible for researchers to update the player attributes for the NHL players. As you will no doubt be aware, it is really important that players' attributes are updated at least on an annual basis. Prospects can develop quickly over the course of a season, some players may have peaked and other players may have performed much worse/better than anticipated.
For this reason, we desperately need volunteers to help rate the NHL players. In order to make things easier, we are looking to concentrate on just a small number of key attributes (height, weight, CA, PA, Offensive Role and Defensive Role). We have also produced a simple guide (below) which will help you rate each of these key areas. We hope that this will make things simple enough for people to be interested in helping research. Unfortunately, if we do not get any volunteers, the NHL player attributes will not be updated for version 5 (rosters and contract details will however be correct). With only a limited amount of time and researchers, it is not possible for us to cover as many areas of updating as we would like - the NHL player attributes being one of these areas.
If you would like to help research, here is what you need to do:
1. Please post which team(s) you will research in this thread.
2. Have a read through the Research Guide below.
3. Download the Research Spreadsheet from here: http://sdrv.ms/Qsu97m
4. Open the NHL Research Sheet.xls and list all of the players currently on the NHL team roster(s) you plan to research. NOTE: You should go by the rosters as they are on NHL.com / the official NHL team site (and NOT according to the Manimal v4.2 Rosters). For each player, you must enter their name, date of birth, height (feet and inches go in individual cells in the spreadsheet) and weight (lbs).
5. Once you have entered all of the player details, you can now enter the CA, PA and Role attributes. If there are any other attributes which you think need changing from the Manimal v4.2 Rosters, use the Additional attributes to be changed column in the spreadsheet to list these.
NOTE: A second spreadsheet named NHL List.xls is included with the zip file you downloaded in step #3. This contains all of the key attributes for the NHL players currently on the Manimal v4.2 Rosters. If you feel that some/all of the attributes in the Manimal v4.2 Rosters remain correct, then just copy these over to your research spreadsheet.
6. Once completed, email your spreadsheet here: ehmtheblueline AT gmail DOT com. Please include your username and teams researched in the subject title of your email (e.g. "Archibalduk - Boston & Winnipeg").
Research Guide:
There are six key attributes we need researched for each player. It may well be that the data currently in the Manimal Database remains correct. If this is the case then please simply enter the same values into the Research Spreadsheet.
- Height
- Weight
- Current Ability
- Potential Ability
- Defensive Role
- Offensive Role
The following is a simple guide to help you rate the players in the key areas:
Height & Weight
Please enter the heights and weights using Imperial measurements (i.e. lbs for weight and feet & inches for height). We need these measurements because we will use these to calculate the Strength attiribute.
Current Ability
This is the overall rating of the player. The very best player to have ever played hockey (e.g. Wayne Gretzky) would be rated as 200 and the very worst player to have ever player hockey would be rated as 1 (this would probably equate to a 14 or 16 year old playing youth hockey). A rating of 190+ would normally only be given to the very best players to have ever played when at the peak of their career.
For the NHL, players should have a CA rating of between 100 and 190. The average player in the NHL should have a rating of 130. Additionally, if the average of the CAs of all players in the NHL were calculated, it ought to be approximately 130. The table below explains how the CAs should be awarded (the most important reference points have been highlighted in bold capital letters). Note that most players should be rated between 115 and 145 (i.e. between Low Average and High Average).
[table][tr][th]CA Rating[/th][th]Description[/th][th]Some very rough examples[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]190[/td][td]TOP[/td][td]Tim Thomas, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]180[/td][td]Very Good[/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]165[/td][td]GOOD[/td][td]Cam Ward, Dan Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Ryan Kesler, Jason Spezza[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]150[/td][td]Above Average[/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]145[/td][td]High Average[/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]130[/td][td]AVERAGE[/td][td]Jonas Hiller, Brad Stuart, Nik Antropov[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]115[/td][td]Low Average[/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]100[/td][td]POOR[/td][td]Jason LaBarbera, Matt Bartkowski, Mike Rupp[/td][/tr][/table]
Some players contracted to an NHL team may have played more in the AHL or ECHL than the NHL. If this is the case, it may be more appropriate to rate them using the CA ranges for the AHL/ECHL. In which case, below are the ranges you should use. You will see that the very best player in the AHL would be rated as 125 and that this is roughly the equivalent of a player who is rated as Average in the NHL.
[table][tr][th]AHL[/th][th]ECHL[/th][th]Description[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]125[/td][td]100[/td][td]TOP[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]117[/td][td]95[/td][td]Very Good[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]110[/td][td] 90[/td][td]GOOD[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]100[/td][td]85[/td][td]High Average[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]90[/td][td]75[/td][td]AVERAGE[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]80[/td][td]65[/td][td]Low Average[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]70[/td][td]55[/td][td]POOR[/td][/tr][/table]
Please note that the table really is just a guide. Don't feel that every High Average AHL player should be rated 100. You could equally rate them as 95 or 105. Just use your best judgement.
Potential Ability
This determines how good a player is likely to become. Players can be split into three categories depending on how old they are:
1. Older Players
If a Goaltender is approximately 31 years older, he should usually have his PA set to the same value as his CA. The only exception to this rule is if he is still likely to improve. If he is, set his PA between 5 and 20 higher than his CA depending on how significantly he will improve (in all likelihood, we would expect goalies not to improve by more than 10 above their CA at this age).
The same rule applies for Defencemen or Forwards who are at least 30 years old.
2. Experienced / Semi-Experienced Players
When setting the player's PA, you will need to take into account their CA. If the player is unlikely to improve much further, set his PA between 5 and 15 higher than his CA.
If the player is likely to improve quite a lot from his current ability (e.g. if he is 27 years old or younger), assign one of the following PAs depending on how good he is likely to become (see the table below). The table below provides details of the range of CA the player will likely achieve with each PA.
[table][tr][th]PA[/th][th]Probable CA & Description[/th][/tr]
[tr][td]-10[/td][td]170 – 200: Likely to become a top NHL player (very rare - e.g. Taylor Hall)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-9[/td][td]150 – 180: Likely to become a very good, or possibly top, NHL player[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-8[/td][td]130 – 160: Likely to become an above average / good NHL player[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-7[/td][td]110 – 140: Likely to become an average / below average NHL player[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-6[/td][td]90 – 120: Likely to become an average AHL player / below average NHL player[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-5[/td][td]70 – 100: Likely to become an average AHL player[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-4[/td][td]50 – 80: Likely to become an average ECHL player[/td][/tr][/table]
3. Young Players
For young players who have only recently been drafted (i.e. within the last few years) and are harder to evaluate, use the following guide:
NHL Draft Spot: PA Rating
1 - 10: -9
11 - 30: -8
31 - 50: -7
51 - 80: -6
81+: -5
Defensive & Offensive Role
This determines how good the player is at playing as a defenceman (Defensive Role) and as a forward (Offensive Role). Use the following tables as a guide, depending on the player’s position / role within the team.
Defensive Role
18 Top defensive skills (when compared with NHL defencemen)
17
16 Good defensive skills (when compared with NHL defencemen)
15 Average defensive skills (when compared with NHL defencemen)
14 Poor defensive skills (when compared with NHL defencemen)
13
12 A poor two-way forward
11
10 The typical NHL forward
9
8
7 An NHL forward who virtually never contributes to defence - i.e. a floater (very rare)
Offensive Role
18 A top forward who is often one of the top scorers in the NHL
17
16 Good offensive skills (when compared with NHL forwards)
15
14 Average offensive skills (when compared with NHL forwards)
13
12 Poor offensive skills (when compared with NHL forwards)
11
10
9
8
7 A stay at home defenceman
NOTE:
* An offensive defenceman should have a minimum of a 12 Offensive Role. Any less than 12 and he won't be regarded as offensive.
* A two-way forward should have a minimum of a 12 Defensive Role. Any less than 12 and he won't be regarded as a defensive forward.
