How's it going in EHM2007? What team Are You?

[batdad]

SO....the Manitoba Moose in 2014-15 are something special. I drafted a Swedish 6,5 C in 2013 in the 1st round....30th overall without realizing who he was the regen of. Now I know...He is lighting it up in his rookie year.

in 73 games 46-53-99.

THe team has some strong players on it that are regens and Yakupov just got sent down. Ryan Johansen cannot get past the third line, even when the big team has injuries.

This team has WON 30 consective games, and its overall record is 64-7-2. Pretty ridiculous.

Oh yeah have some Russian Regen in net in his rookie year...only 6.1 207 so not sure off hand who it is....but his record in rookie year is 55 Games-51-3-1 1.47 .937 8.73 rating, and 11 shutouts.

The team is insane, and there are 5 or 6 guys that are over 8 ratings and ready to play for me next season. And that does not include Yakupov.

[batdad]

2014-15 NHL UPDATE>..VANCOUVER CANUCKS....UUDB 6.1

Okay...here we go.

As always salary cap problems to start the year. Chris Higgins dealt for Atlanta 2nd round pick to give myself some room.

Season Start roster

Sedin-Sedin-Backes
Moulson-Loktionov-Vlasanek
Cracknell-Bjugstad-Callahan
Yakupov-L Leblanc-Kassian
Fred Bourque-a regen, Thomas Hertl

McDonough-Hjalmarsson
Ohlund-Shattenkirk
Vishnevsky-Berdyukov
Martine

**Lost Edler in Free agency in offseason to Rangers. Big huge contract. He did not play well there.
**Signed Hjalmarsson to replace at half the cost...Thought Ohlund may retire and was concerned young D (Forbort) not ready yet. Good move. Got him 3.5 per year for 2. Signed Backes as my RW was looking weak after not resigning Ponikarovsky (trade deadline rental).

Also time to get some of the kids in the lineup--Kassian, Yakupov, Bourque, Leblanc, Hertl, Ryan Johansen, Forbort and Niemi would all play a bit for me.

*Trade deadline...Picked up Andrew Ladd from Carolina for Johansen and Hertl. It would not be the best deal I have ever made, Hertl did well in Carolina, and Ladd did not in Vancouver. Oh well.

Decided not to resign Ladd, Callahan and let them both go.

Oh...won the Pres Trophy, and lost to Luongo and his Avalanche in the freaking semi final.

This is not the story of the year..the story of the year were the Manitoba Moose....WoW

Amazing year...Lost 7 games in regulation in the season plus 1 in overtime and DID NOT LOSE IN THEIR LAST 38 games. Won em all.

Then in the playoffs...sweep series 1, sweep series 2, sweep series 3. FINALLY LOST IN GAME 2 of Final....but then won the CAlder Cup in 5 games.

So all in all that team went 51 games without a loss. Insanity.

Great Russian rookie goalie, great Swedish rookie C, Great Czech rookie RW, great Swedish rookie D...all except the Czech will likely make the Canucks in 2015.

Shattenkirk--Trouble.....took me to arbitration, as he wanted upwards of 4.5 million. Offered 3. No deal,

Arb award was 3.3 for one year. After which SHATT would be UFA.

Still...Ohlund is not retiring, but he is still a solid #4 dman (skating down to 11, but dang positioning 20, checking amazing, 17 shot. Still has alot at age 38. >.>>> HE GOT 5 mill for me as he will play for me til he retires.

So that left me in a tough spot...Had to deal Shattenkirk...I forgot about the real life rule cannot trade for a year.

So...I sent him to the Rangers to join Edler and Bieksa on their D corps.

In echange I received a 22 year old Russian Rd with 75 points in 3 seasons with the Rags and a great price tag, as well as a prsopect RW who looks like may be a stud.

Oh, and Leblanc was moved to Minny for a very slow LW> Need to balance my roster a bit. Only had 2 LW on the team last year and Vlasanek and Cracknell played alot on off wings.

The 2015 draft...

I took a few good regens and it looks like it was a decent draft, came out with 7 guys, 6 of whom are rated as good or excellent prospects as I go to next camp and 1 who looks like a dud (5th round guy)

Also I got a non regen in the draft in the 4th round...local Vancouver boy (suburbs) Matthew Barzal *in real life is playing for Seattle in WHL as a 16 year old, and was first overall in his WHL draft year* in game, Barzal is going to college, as is a young man who went 10th overall in the draft...CONNOR McDavid.... WHAT???? Islanders got McDavid.

So team looks a little younger this year...but not much...projected line up as I head to camp.

Sedin-Sedin-Backes
Moulson-Bjugstad-Vlasanek
Salomaki(guy for Leblanc)-Loktionov-Cracknell
Yakupov-Stenstrom-Kassian
Fred Bourque
Kass and Yak should move up the lineup a bit and likely will during the year. Kassian started to score at the end of 2014-15 and had 5 PP goals in the playoffs. (which was 1 more than his total for the entire season, and he scored 3 of those in the last week)

McDonough-Hjalmarsson
Ohlund-Arzsamastev (Russian in Shatt deal)
Forbort-Vishnevsky
Marine or Berdyukov. Other will be waived, unless Forbort not ready still.

Outside chance to make team is my 2013 2nd round pick Erik Sjogren the Swedish D who lit it up in AHL in rookie year 14-44-58 in 80 games...but a 7.6 rating ( I like to bring them up at age 23 or if over 8 rating prior to that)

Oh right I dealt Kevin Poulin for a 3rd round pick just prior to the draft as my 2012 1st rounder Russian Goalie Anatoli Chernov is ready to be the back up to Schneider.

So Goalie

Schneider
Chernov

I was shocked when the pre season rankings came out to see I was at #1.

WHatt was more shocking:

#2 Calgary Flames
#4 Edmonton Oilers
#5 Colorado Avalanche
#24 Minnesota Wild

Um....going to be real tough to win this division. Oy vay!!!

Here we go.....

[batdad]

LOL. John Tortorella is the Flyer GM in my game. He was hired in March 1914. It is now December 2015. In August 2014he hired some guy Rich Thibeau as coach. This guy has the WORST stats I have ever seen for a head coach in the NHL. Tactics are 5. He is red in all categories except you guessed it...Discipline and Man Management. Anyway....Thibeau was fired in January 2015 with team in last place. Then he coached until April and got to 12th place. Then he hired Rich Sutter as head coach in April 2014.

In November 2014 he hired Thibeau back as a scout. Sucks at that too.

In December 2015 in 15th place he fires Rich Sutter as coach.

Guess what are the only good attributes Rich Sutter has? At least this time his weakest ones were orange and not red. LOL

Torts---wow.

[batdad]

I click continue....next day. Torts packs his bags. LOL

[nickflyers]

Philadelphia Flyers, UUDB 6.1

Missed the playoffs 3 straight years(12th, 13th, and 15th) amazingly enough I've kept the job. This team is really weak besides Pitkanen-Picard and the Dueces Wild line. About to start the 2009-10 season and we are finally on the upswing. Swung a deal with Nashville(They drafted Bobrovsky and have Vokoun still) for RFA Pekka Rinne along with signing Jonas Hiller the year before while trading Forsberg to Colorado for a 1st(Gabriel Bourque). It's been tough because no one signs with me despite offering more $$ than they want. Especially defenseman

Prospect is full of talent and hopefully we make a playoff run this year.

[nickflyers]

I click continue....next day. Torts packs his bags. LOL

Good riddance....geez Torts ruined the Orange and Black

[Tupe]

A little lousy effort by me when it comes to posting about my games.. but,

Currently running UUDB 6.1 + realism patch and in season 2028-29

Noticed something kinda cool, there are currently five finnish GMs in the NHL:

Jukka Jalonen (Capitals)
Juha Junno (Coyotes)
Jari Kurri (Oilers)!
Erik Kakko (Canadians)
and myself as the Devils

Also so got MacKinnon to score 143 and 166 (56+110, +101) points in a season. His previous season best was 93 points with the Bruins. Filip Forsberg of the Blue Jackets was second in scoring with 118 points. Never seen that kind of points with realism patch (and this is only nice to see that kind of point production few times in 20 years).

[batdad]

Wow. One of the things I have noticed in my 6.1 UUDB...Sean Couturier....6 foot 8, 239. LOL

There are quite a few other weird height variations. But this is because these guys are put in the db at a young age for the 2006 db.

[batdad]

2015 trade deadline. Guess who gets traded to Ottawa? Bet ol Mr heatley is really happy. LOL

[batdad]

2015-16 Season

Canucks start the season with the following lineup.

Sedin-Sedin-Backes
Moulson-Loktionov-Vlasanek
Cracknell-Bjugstad-Kassian
Stenstrom-Bourque-Yakupov
COrey Cain (2010 2nd round pick-finally gets a shot)

McDonough-Hjalmarsson
Ohlund-Azsamanstsev (kid for Shattenkirk trade)
Vishnevsky-Berdyukov
Forbert-Niemi

Scheinder
Chernov

On this roster...9 years into the game

4 orginal database Canucks (Sedin, Sedin, Ohlund, Schneider)
2 unrestricted Free Agent signings (Backes, Hjalmarsson) with previous NHL experience
3 unrestricted undrafted or released NHL drafted and no NHL experience Free Agent signings--Vlasanek, Berdyukov, Vishnevsky (Dallas 2006 1st--released without signing)
5 players acquired through trade.
4 first round draft picks-Loktionov 2008, Yakupov 2011, Chernov, 2012, Stenstrom 2013. None was selected higher than 26th overall.
3 second round picks--McDonough 2007, Cain 2010 Fred Bourque 2012
1 fifth round pick-Forbort 2010
1 seventh round pick-Niemi 2010

But this is not the way the roster would end up. Sjogren does not make the team yet. Still needs a little more time. Started off like a house on fire scoring 35 goals in my first 4 games, and giving up 4. Then things started to happen. INJURY time for this team.

Vlasanek gone for 6 months with wrist surgery (back just before playoffs)
Stenstrom gone 6 months wrist surgery--(back just after playoffs)
Sedin D misses 10 games
McDonough misses some time.
Hjalmarsson misses time
Schneider out for 20 days during the year.
Arzamastsev out for 14 days during the year.
Moulson out for 10
Loktionov out for 10 days and 5 games.
Niemi out for 2 months.
Bjugstad for 3 weeks,

Basically the only guys who stayed healthy were Cracknell and Henrik....

But I still managed to win PRes TRophy.

Salomaki who I brought in for Leblanc struggled mightily in the preseason. Brutal acutally. And I warned after three straight 5s. He took offense and asked for a trade. I dealt him to Boston for their 2011 3rd round pick Christian Pelletier, who will go to Manitoba and maybe make the team next season as 4th line guy.

Then at the deadline....made one more move trading my 2014 4th rounder Lance Robinson to Detroit for RW Ted Purcell, who I hoped would provide some flex on right side with Yakupov and Kassian being so young, and having to move guys around so much due to injury.

Tons of young guys got time with the team this season. I used 30 skaters and 3 goalies. Most prior to this was 26 and 3.

So Purcell comes in and like Salomaki sucks. I waived him to sign a couple of my junior prospects and Carolina picked up my scrub. By Purcell. Who cares.

Stenstrom did real well in the 37 games he managed to get in going 9-13-22 and 7.97 rating basically as 4th line C, with the occasional time on 3rd line as LW to fill in for injury and some time on 2nd unit PP.

Bourque was good too, and will stick around. He was maybe going to be shopped.

Niemi was the surprise. Avg rating of 7.85 for 46 games. Going to allow me to move Vishnecksy.

Ohlund at age 39 finally decreasing. down to 7 speed. However....defensive ratings and play still solid. Average rate in 50 games was 7.25 and he played well. He got a new deal at 3.5 just because I am hopeful I can have his number retired. He never went to UFA and has always had 2 on his back. Not sure it will happen, but testing an old theory.

if he does not retire will be my 7th d man in 2016.


Oh yeah....stats

1st time in this game where one of my players

a. Reached 50 goals--Daniel (2nd to ovi 51 goals)
b. Reached 100 points-1st in league Henrik 38-68-106

What is interesting about this....I NEVER PLAYED OVERLOAD, I never matched lines, I only played Equal forward time for my forwards and defense...for the ENTIRE REGULAR SEASON, save one game (was widdled at Colorado for g1 from last year and lit them up 8-1 LOL)

They were on the 1st PP unit all year, but just 1st line pp, 1st line regular on EQUAL all season long and 50 goals 106 points. Oh and 4-4 line 1.

Beat Minny round one 4-1
Beat St Louis round two 4-2
Beat Columbus (who knocked off Colorado yay) 4-1

in the final faced Ottawa with this line up
Kovalchuk-Wennberg-Heatley
Cammalleri-R Strome-PM Bouchard
Nikushkin-Filatov-O Moller
Taylor Pyatt-Mike Fisher-Nick Foligno

R Whitney-Meszaros
B Stuart-L Schenn
M Greene-A Beadoin
F Meyer

Ray Emery
Grubauer

So amazing how much Ottawa has kept from the original team in the db. AI that actually kept a fair number together. Sure all new top line, but Fisher, Foligno, Meszaros, Emery all with them right from the start.

Four does not seem like many...but in EHM it is a bloody ton to have after 9 years. I mean I only have 4 left.

[CJ]

My second season (1999/2000) with Ottawa (My '98 database)

Finished 3rd, went pretty well (Had lots of injuries, Hossa 4 months away at one point)


Traded away key players like Alfredsson (asked too much money), Yashin etc. Got Selänne & Forsberg.


And then finally...


Only lost 1 game in the whole playoff.

[batdad]

If you can trade Alfreddson for Forsberg and Yashin for Selanne in your db or vice versa....you got some work to do young lad.

No way in hell anyone would have made those deals for Teemu and Foppa without some serious draft pick and prospect and 2 other players. Certainly not for Yashflop. LOL

[Tupe]

So UUDB 6.1 + realism patch

As it is with realism patch Selke trophy is not awarded, until... in 2030 NHL decided it was time again and selke was awarded to Red Wing Ben Miller with 12 NHL games played. Yet to know if this was just an anniversary award to honor Selke or was Miller's performance so dominant that something had to be done and the award was re-installed.

Also Nashville Predators GM Ken Gernander made the headlines in 2028 when he drafted Osman Murat Ece from Turkey with the 4th overall pick. Ece had full two games of experience in the WHL, so I think it's safe to say that Predators pick was based fully on potential or they knew something others did not.

[batdad]

Daniel and Henrik are starting to show signs of aging. 36 years old now. And skating starting to drop as is strength. Daniel has 13 points in 22 games and Henrik has still 24 in 26, but they are not getting things done as well.

THankfully...Yakupov is starting to score with 14 in his first 25.

Team for 2016-17

Sedin-Sedin-Yakupov
Moulson-Bjugstad-Backes
Vlasanek-Loktionov-Cracknell
Stenstron-Bourque-Kasssian
McGinn (FA 525)-Hornak

McDonough-Hjalmarsson
Arszamastsev-Berdyukov
Forbort-Niemi
Sjogren

Ohlund thankfully did retire for me at the end of July. Phew.

Schneider
Chernov

I had the top 3 ranked prospects in the league...Chernov, who is showing stud like attributes, Stenstrom (also in spite of 6 mo injury for surgery last year showing stud like), Sjogren(a little behind pace.)

Daniel was still ranked as #2 LW to Ovenchicken (as has been the case since about 2008) but that will now change I am sure.

Team ranked 1st again.

[batdad]

2017 Trade deadline.

Shea Weber becomes available and is a pending UFA. I have two solid goalies, one who is on the verge of becoming a star young player (Chernov) but has not a ton of experience and of course Cory Schneider. Nashville is dead last and in dire need of a goalie (Traded Rinne first season, and have nothing to replace him.) I have need for a key dman since Ohlund retired.

So....decided to take the risk and this is perhaps way too early in terms of goalies.

Schneider, two 4 star prospects (Jimmie Jensen LD 6th rounder 2015 who starred for Swede U20 team this season) and also 2015 3rd round pick LW THayne Perna who played for Canada) Both players are rated to be top level guys. Perna a 1st liner, and Jensen a 1-2 dman by all of my scouts.

Also to balance the dollars sent my RD Berdyukov along in the deal, and got a Swedish back up goalie age 25 Lukas Collberg who was Nashville 4th rounder in 2010.

Alot to give up but the fans love it.

Eariler in the year I sent Matt Moulson to Anaheim for a player who is very similar to him, but much younger. Anaheim asked for Moulson after I made him available, and offered this guy. Derrick Pouliot who was MOntreal 1st round pick in 2013. Pouliot is now playing on my 3rd line.

Also...Ryan McDonough is an upcoming UFA and I am likely just going ot let him go. I have him available as I have Loktionov available as neither is willing to sign. Have a feeling I will lose one if not both of them to UFA. But it is okay as I have some young guys needing more time. and it allows me to resign Weber.

[batdad]

16-17 regular season just completed. Weber was a great addition scoring 17 points in his 19 games. Rating was 8.95, and Chernov in spite of a short term injury has held his own well.


team wins pres trophy again.

Scoring was amazing this year. I only had one guy over a point per game. Bjugstad with 87 in 81 games

After really bad 1st half (5 goals in 41 games) Daniel Sedin got things together in the second half and ended up with 22.

However, I have NINE....count them NINE 20 goal scorers on the roster

1. Yakupov 39 (Dang...but he went 10-12 in shootouts)
2, Bjugstad 32
3 Henrik Sedin 29 (dang)
4 Gote Stenstrom 29 (first full year...63 points mainly on 3rd line, and some PP time, not much though)
5 Radek Vlasanek 28 (just keeps scoring....Not bad for undrafted FA)
6 Andrei Loktionov 26
7 Daniel Sedin 23 (18 in last 41 games)
8 David Backes 22 (not a strong year, very inconsistent)
9 Nicklas Hjalmarsson 20 (FIRST TIME A DMAN SCORED 20 for me in EHM in a LONG LONG TIME--think I had one do it way way back in a challenge)

No one else over 10 goals. But to have 8 forwards and a dman over 20 goals...ridiculous.

Anyway...on to the playoffs. Will post about them and offseason together. (

BTW--I Have not been able to resign two pending UFAs---McDonough and Loktionov, plus RFA to be Zach Kassian.

I should be fine in terms of moving on without Loktionov. McDonough is replaced by Weber who signed a 2 year deal with me for 5.3 each year. WIth losing McDonough had to try and sign Weber. Was shocked I got him at that value.

Danny and Henrik--these guys at 6 mill each is going to be a big problem next year. They may be third line guys now.

[CJ]

9 Nicklas Hjalmarsson 20 (FIRST TIME A DMAN SCORED 20 for me in EHM in a LONG LONG TIME--think I had one do it way way back in a challenge)

Congrats! That's VERY rare. I don't think I've ever had a d-man with 20+ goals.

[batdad]

Yeah it is pretty rare. I have seen guys do it, but it is usually when they play the guy on all 3 pairs and the PP. Hjalmarsson averaged 23 minutes for me, as my top level dmen always do.

Come to think of it...that may have something to do with why I do well defensively in the game. I am very careful to not overplay guys. I never have a guy in the top 10 in minutes and rarely top 25.

[batdad]

BAH. GOING WITH CHERNOV IN NET was not the right choice.....still to young

Defeated Anaheim 4 to 3 in first round
Defeated St Louis 4 to 1 in second round
Lost to Los Angeles 4 to 3 in third round

LA vs NYR for Stanley Cup.

Oh well..saying good bye to McDonough, Loktionov, and maybe Kassian.

Going into rebuild mode now as the twins are looking old. Both were not very good in the playoffs. Need some younguns to take big steps over the summer.

Projected 2017-18 lineup (and note this is in May, it could change)

Vlasanek 28 -Bjugstad 25-Yakupov 25
Pouliot 23-Stenstrom 23-Backes 34
D Sedin 37-H Sedin 37-Hornak 22
Cracknell 32-Bourque 24-Chuck Jackson 24 (part of SHattenkirk trade 2 years ago)
Ouimet-24 (And Rinkinen 24 or Kassian 27 if I end up resigning)

Arszamastsev 25-Weber 32
Forbort 26-Hjalmarsson 30
Sjogren 22-Niemi 27
Suomainen 25

Chernov 24
Collberg 24(from the Schneider deal that got Weber as well)

This team is going to be quite young as you can see. Lots of 24 and 25 year olds.

it will be odd to play with a team I do not expect to win every night. It is rare that I have one, but the rules I have set out for myself and broken only infrequently have really kept me from having a superstar team.

The biggest thing is forcing myself to keep the big salary veterans like Ohlund, Naslund, Sedin and Sedin around so long.

I have always had cap trouble in the past, but may not for the first time in a year or two when the twins finally pack it in. Although Chernov will probably cost be 20 million by then and Stenstrom 300 million.

Oh well...off to the draft and the off season.

I am also looking at maybe having my coach retire on me. Don Hay is 63. I am not sure what I have as an assistant that can step up, but it will be an assistant, I will not go out and hire a coach from another organization.

The head guy may end up being my youngest coach, who I hired to fill out the roster of coaches (I only keep 4 assistants and let Bowness go when I canned AV)....37 year old Jamie Visser.

We shall see what happens this off season with Don and the twins.

Oh yeah...Manitoba and Victoria are both in their league semi finals as well.

[batdad]

For fun thought I would post lineup of Rags and Kings for the 2017 Stanley Cup Final in my Canuck game

Rangers
Alex Frolov- Artem Anisimov- Kyle Palmieri
C Macarthur-J Silvferberg- M Afinogenov
D Moss-P Kessel-M Grabner
T Moen- F Nielsen- N Zherdev
David Krecji-John Macfarland (may be a regen)

Shattenkirk-Edler
K Dallman-Z Michalek
MA Bergeron- N Pageau
M Gilroy-D Hale

H Lundqvist
Alex Bertrand (Possibly only REGEN ON THE TEAM)


LA KINGS

Heatley-Jordan Schroeder-David Booth (LOL at the C and RW)
Hartnell-PA Paranteau- Justin Williams
Ales Kotalik-Dylan Strome (6'9 19 year regen)-Aaron Voros
Ryan Malone-TJ Hensick-Patrick Eaves
Dustin Boyd-Brian GIonta

R Suter-C Erhoff (LOL)
Cristian Backman-Justin Faulk
Murray McInnis (2013 1st - regen)- Jamie McBain
Bruno Labelle (2015 7th-regen)- Mark Pysyk

Cam Ward (he who killed me)
Scott Munroe (35 year old journeyman)

INteresting at the 3 real life Canuck or former Canuck players on this KIng team, and of course the dmen of MY Canucks on the Rangers. NY Should thank me for developing their top pair.

[philou21]

Feels good to be back to EHM!

DB 6.1 with CSD. Colorado Avalanche. God they suck, the season is going to be loooooong.

Here's the line-up for season 13-14.

Landeskog-Duchene-Parenteau
Tanguay-Stastny-MacKinnon
Talbot-O'reilly-McLeod
McGinn-Mitchell-Cliche

Hejda-Johnson
Holden-Sarich
Hunwick-Beniot

Varlamov
Giguere


I don't have depth at all. If someone gets injured for a long time I'm in big trouble.

I'll let MacKinnon play his 10 games and see how he's doing. If not so good I will not hesitate to send him back to Halifax even though it means losing one of my best (already) foward.

Defense is goddamn awful. Their defense stats are ok but their offense one....except from Johnson NOTHING. Benoit is on the second PP LOL I set my team priorities to find a #1 d-men as well as a good #3-4.

Season's gonna be tough for sure. The board expect me to make the playoffs but I think they're dreaming. At least this will give me a good position to draft maybe.

I've done three trades so far, small ones though just for cleaning useless salary.

Bordeleau to NYI for a six rounder.

Wilson and a fourth for Tampa Bay second rounder.

Brad Malone to WIN for a young d-men named Melchiori. 21 years old with a small potential of going #5-6, we'll see.

[batdad]

Okay..so 2017 summer did not go the way I thought it would. Some changes have happened in the off season.

1. Surprisingly at the end of July Daniel Sedin called it a career.1261 games, 1019 points all as a Canuck.
2. This left me with a great big hole on LW. I am always using Vlasanek as one already and he should primarily be a RW. Yakupov and Cracknell get moved over to left side a ton as well...so....I had to do something.

6.5 million in savings. I looked through available to trade guys..there was NOTHING there

3. I had to resign Zack Kassian who is a RFA and had decided to go to arbritration. HE is not doing a darn thing for me, and is not strong enough to win any fights. I was hoping he would just go to Europe but no....

Anyway arbitrator gives him 1.3 and he was asking for 2.0. So I WIN ARB AGAIN!!!

Except I do not want to pay him that much. Oh well.

Back to LW hunt....Dustin Penner is UFA. he has scored 25 goals three times and has one 40 goal season. After 2 seasons with the Ducks he has played a TON with the Avalanche and one year with Islanders. So I decided to offer him a deal (he was asking 4.4 which I do not want to give him...and offered 3.9 for one year with NO TRADE. Not really expecting him to accept but will go with very young lineup if he does not. (Penner is 35 now, and clearly overrated in the database UUDB 6.1 if scoring like a machine)

So Penner signs, and I Think I am all set for camp. I decide to do what you cannot do in real life as I HATE ZACK KASSIAN IN EHM.,,,and I put him on the block.

Absolutely shocked during camp when Washington who is 2 mill over cap comes calling and offers me a guy named Georgi Gutsevich. From Russia, Gutsy as he will be known is a 22 year old, 6'2 218 lb player, who was drafted 2nd overall by Washington in 2014. YES 2nd OVERALL.. He has scored and scored.In 2 NHL seasons dude already has 57 goals and 85 assists. Yeah it is Washington and yes he played with Backstrom and Ovenchicken. But I cannot say no.

I have to make the deal, but it will put me a few bucks over the cap, and I need to stay under...SO I add in underachieving RW Chuck Jackson who makes 900 to the deal, and pick up a scrub prospect RW from Wash to play on my 4th line in Manitoba.

Now...Keaton Ellerby is available on waivers. He makes 550 and is a Left side D. My 7th dman (Suomainen) floods my right side and is not very good and makes 800 with the big club. Small savings. Claim Plante and move Suomainen to Buffalo for 1st after offering him to whole league. Buffalo only one to respond and accepted their offer.

SO 2017-18 Vancouver Canucks look like this

Penner-Bjugstad-Yakupov
Gutsevich-Stenstrom-Backes
Pouliot-H Sedin-Vlasanek
Ouimet-Bourque-Hornak
Cracknell-Rinkinen

Yes 25 year old former 2nd round pick Thatcher Ouimet finally makes the team. Drafted 60th overall in 2011, and performed with gradual increases and slowly developed in Manitoba to the point where now he will fit in as a good 4th line and PK Guy for cheap.

Bourque is going to get PP time and likely 3rd line time. Hornak will get PK time and likely some third line time as well.

Arszamastsev-Weber
Sjogren-Hjalmarsson
Forbort-Niemi
Ellerby

Arsy is primarily a RD...but I cannot justify playing him on 3rd pair, although when Ellerby comes in for Niemi he will. But then will play top line PP and PK for me as well.

Chernov
Collberg

So a couple of changes from my original lineup thought. ADding Penner as cheap as I did surprised me, getting Gutsy was shocking to me, and Ellerby on waivers. Up from the farm are Ouimet and Rinkinen. Gone are McDonough (Signed with Boston), Daniel Sedin (retired), Andrei Loktionov (yet to sign with anyone), Zack Kassian and RW Chuck Jackson (Who likely would have made team leaving RInkinen on farm),plus Suomainen.

HERE GOES 2017-18.

[batdad]

I just love the AI.

1. ANAHEIM DUCKS--overspend, and waive Matt Moulson. No one picks up.
2. WASHINGTON CAPITALS--overspend and send me that Russian dude Gutsy. Now they have made Kassian Available.
3. ST LOUIS BLUES--overspend and are waiving Ryan Johansson (not that good)

Just funny as all 3 are my guys.

4. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS...$100K over cap with MA Fleury on the IR for a FEW DAYS.....they have made him available and their other two goalies are ECHL Calibre

[philou21]

In my game Ryan Wilson that I sent to Tampa Bay is already on the block 4 weeks after the trade.

[philou21]

Mid-season update!

REally surprising, standing at the fourth place and two points away from Vancouver and the first place in the west. 30-12-4.

As expected my defense is mediocre except from Johnson and Hejda who are doing a fairly decent job but my offence is really surprising me. My first two lines are on fire, maybe a little too much IMO. Might check to drop their consistency with the save game editor. My top six are all over a point per-game.

Tanguay 46 in 45. Duchene 52 in 42. Landeskog 61 in 43 (!). Stastny 59 in 46. MacKinnon 53 in 44 (!) and Parenteau with 47 in 40. Parenteau and Tanguay are way too high in points IMO. The others at least have the potential to achieve this but I'll adjust their consistency as well probably.

For now I have two big things to deal with. Stastny and O'Reilly.

O'reilly is making 5.6 already and he sucks. 20 in 46 and a 7.41 ratio. He played most of the season on the third line, yes but I was expecting more. I give him PP as well and he's not doing so well. Now he's asking for 6.2 for two years! LOL Like I'm going to pay that for him. I think trading him at the deadline for picks or a good prospect might be a good idea.

Stastny is making 7.4 and so far doesn't ask for a new contract. I'd prefer to keep him instead of O'Reilly but darn he's going to ask something like 8.5 millions a year! BUT, if I trade O'Reilly this will clear space to sign him at least. Batdad any thoughts?

Oh and I never had PP problem like this EVER. 23 position with 13% but in the first half I was staying around 8%! I don't know if the fact I don't have any good offensive d-men around destroys my PP chances but my lines are the same as my even strenght so I don't understand.

Anyway, things are looking good and the draft too.