Challenge Questions & Feedback Thread

[Peter_Doherty]

I think Panthers young core is too strong, would make it a bit too easy IMO... Wild or Senators would be fun though, i like the look of your brainstorm Maybe make the rules even simpler though? I really like the idea of dumping everyone over 30 right away and setting some rules for that, but after that it should be less rules... We can't be rebuilding forever Set restrictions on trades after season 1 dump and UFA signings.

[bruins72]

Hmm.... I don't know. I like the idea of dumping all the 30 plus guys to begin with. But I think then we should be allowed to build, and not have to deal the guys when they get to whatever age. Or am I misunderstanding? I Read this as though every year the oldest guys you are allowed to have get a year younger?

To me....need to just dump them all, and then rebuild.

You've misunderstood a little bit. You don't HAVE to deal players once they reach that season's age. You CAN trade them. Before the draft, dump all 30 plus guys. Then we play the 2015-2016 season. In the 2016-2017 season we're allowed to freely trade any players that are 29 or older at that point. We don't have to though. You can keep whoever you want at this point. You're not forced to trade anyone else. You're only allowed to trade 1 player under 29 that season though. You don't have to do that either but you're allowed.

Does that make more sense?

[Peter_Doherty]

Wild looks like a good challenge actually since both Parise and Suter are 30

Edit: Also need some restrictions on trading for 1st rounders right away, something along the lines that we can only trade for 1st rounders from playoff-teams? Or someone is going to have McDavid-Eichel-Hanifin...

We don't need to take a team in the lottery either, both Canucks and Sharks look good to rebuild aswell... My top 4 teams would be Wild, Sens, Sharks and Nucks.

[Unknown User]

In the game I'm playing now I dumped all my old players except one at the trade deadline for draft picks only in first season. I like the building your team with draft picks rather then trading so I would prefer to only be able to acquire draft picks. If you can trade for young players you can still get a pretty competitive team fast. If you make it only draft picks or limited at least player acquisitions it will be much tougher to use the reserve list for the first few years at least. I would like to see that you can only trade your older players for draft picks in the first year. Maybe be able to bring in one player only in first year. Unless your siming to draft first year in which case you wouldn't have to play it. Then trade all the players at draft? My ideal challenge would be play first season to trade deadline. Then you blow up team regardless of position for draft picks with very limited player acquisitions then build with those picks...

[bruins72]

I think Panthers young core is too strong, would make it a bit too easy IMO... Wild or Senators would be fun though, i like the look of your brainstorm Maybe make the rules even simpler though? I really like the idea of dumping everyone over 30 right away and setting some rules for that, but after that it should be less rules... We can't be rebuilding forever Set restrictions on trades after season 1 dump and UFA signings.

I think you may have misunderstood like Batdad. The only time you're forced to trade/dump players is before that first draft. After that, those are the restrictions.

As for the Panthers, sure they've got some really good youngsters but dumping the 30 plus guys is going to make quite a few big holes. They'll be without an NHL goalie. They'll have Michael Houser and Sam Brittain. I see 5 guys I could use for NHL defensemen. For forwards I only see Barkov, Bjugstad, and Huberdeau as the really good ones. They've got others that'll fill in roles nicely though, like Trocheck, Hayes, and Pirri. I don't think this team is as good as you might think.

The Senators will only lose 6 NHLers. Phillips, Neil, Legwand, Anderson, Michalek, and MacArthur. That's not much of a hit. In fact, it might be doing them a favor. They'll still have Lehner in net. They'll also have 5 pretty good defensemen, one of which is Karlsson. Then they'll have guys like Ryan, Stone, Chiasson, Condra, Turris, Smith, and Zibanejad as forwards, plus some others.

Now the Wild would lose a lot of big name guys right off the top. I'm talking guys in their early 30's that are really the core of the team. They'd be losing a lot and wouldn't have much left. I'm talking like a very small handful of NHLers. This would almost be too much!

[Peter_Doherty]

Yeah, maybe Sens is too easy and Wild too hard, i still don't really like Panthers for this though... So maybe we just skip the lottery and go with Sharks or Nucks?

I still like WIld though, you would have some good young goalies, 4-5 good young D-men without having a stud, and up front you would have Nino, Granlund, Coyle etc...

Is this done with the deadline rosters or the before season roster?

When would this start? How many is actually still playing the current challenge? I'm itching for something new but having a hard time finding a team to play with without the challenge

[sao.phim]

Hey, wait for the end of May! I hope to catch up with your tempo soon, next week maybe

For next challenge, SJ seems to me like good idea - just have to trade all guys 30+ away for picks in draft 2015 and 2016.

[Peter_Doherty]

I also like the idea of Sharks, building around Couture.

[batdad]

Hmm.... I don't know. I like the idea of dumping all the 30 plus guys to begin with. But I think then we should be allowed to build, and not have to deal the guys when they get to whatever age. Or am I misunderstanding? I Read this as though every year the oldest guys you are allowed to have get a year younger?

To me....need to just dump them all, and then rebuild.

You've misunderstood a little bit. You don't HAVE to deal players once they reach that season's age. You CAN trade them. Before the draft, dump all 30 plus guys. Then we play the 2015-2016 season. In the 2016-2017 season we're allowed to freely trade any players that are 29 or older at that point. We don't have to though. You can keep whoever you want at this point. You're not forced to trade anyone else. You're only allowed to trade 1 player under 29 that season though. You don't have to do that either but you're allowed.

Does that make more sense?

Yes much more. Kind of liking the thought process now.

Thinking along same lines as B72, but really because I want a shot at the lottery.

I love the idea of taking over the team at the deadline. Well...would have to be a few days before the deadline so we could dump all the scrubs. You could sim to the week before deadline day, and then we would vote on which of the bottom 5 teams we would want to take over? Give their roster and go from there.

What would be awesome is if it was one of the teams that already dealt a couple of good players away, so we have no say in the matter.

Plus I love the challenge of taking over a team at deadline that is way out of playoffs, and then making it. LOL. That would be good stats for first season for me. Heh.

But ... I would not. I would tank huge. Bottom up line up. 4th line on 1st etc.

Keep simming until you get one where the Canucks suck and miss the playoffs.

I mean can you imagine having that team without the twins, Bieksa, Hamhuis, Miller, Burrows, Vrbata, Higgins. Top line, plus 2nd line and top two dmen, and starting goalie GONE

Now that would be a challenge.

[Peter_Doherty]

I'm liking this aswell, just wishing it could start earlier then a month from now

[bruins72]

As much as a part of me wants to jump right into this, I don't think it would be too fair to end the challenge early on people. We did that on the last challenge but that was only because EHM: EA was going to be released and you know that nobody was going to continue their old challenge game when there was a new version out.

I do see the appeal of the Wild. I really want to have Coyle on my team. Maybe if we did the Wild, we could let everyone pick one 30 plus player to keep? I just looked at the Canucks and the Sharks and I'm just not feeling them. Unknown User suggested allowing only trades for draft picks in that pre-draft player dump. That could work with most teams, maybe with the exception of the Wild.

[Peter_Doherty]

Yeah i understand

I don't think we should keep 1 player over 30 though. I'm really feeling Wild but i'm OK with whatever you decide in the end I don't think we should be limited to only trading for picks though, but we can limit the amount of players we trade for i guess, remember that we do need to make the salary floor

And as i said earlier i think we need to set a rule to not trade for 1st rounders that are in the lottery, would make it too easy, especially with Wild.. Both Suter and Parise would probably easily get you a lottery 1st-rounder.

Personally i like simming until the end of the season like B72 just did more then going to the deadline.

[batdad]

Basically I am good any which way and how. Just throwing things out there.

[bruins72]

I'm not totally against trading into a lottery pick. Maybe limit it so that you can only acquire one Top 5 pick? We're going to be tearing about a team and stripping it bare. I'm thinking if we did the Wild, maybe stipulate that half of those players can be dealt for picks and the other half for players? We will need to have enough players to field a team.

Maybe I'll do a little testing...

[Peter_Doherty]

I really don't think we should be able to trade for a lottery pick, especially if we have one already with the team we are.

[bruins72]

So the Wild have the 5th worst record. It's pretty unlikely that they'll get the top pick. My guess is somewhere between 3 and 7. Could they actually land one of the top 3 picks via a trade? Even if that happens, I doubt you'll see somebody get 2 out of the top 3 picks. I could see somebody picking something like 1st and 6th. That wouldn't be too bad. We'll see. Testing!

[Peter_Doherty]

Do we know how the AI value picks close to the draft? Thing is that the draft year is so strong that i just don't like it. What if Wild win the lottery and you trade for the #2 and #3 picks with Suter and Parise, suddenly it's not much of a challenge, just have to wait until McEichelfin is ready.

[bruins72]

We'll have to see. I'm going to run a test and see. I still think it's pretty unlikely though.

[Peter_Doherty]

It should be almost impossible to trade for a lottery pick in this draft before the lottery, and it should be impossible to trade for a top-pick after the lottery is done and almost impossible to get a top-8 pick. If the AI values it close to that then we can have it i guess

[batdad]

If the AI makes things to easy to deal for the lottery pick, we should ban that.

[bruins72]

So in my test, the Coyotes have the top 2 picks in the draft. I forget which other team's first round pick they had but they ended up with 1 & 2 overall. In my test I've done an "offer to all" on all of my 30 plus guys. I've tried offering any one of my highly regarded guys for one of those top picks and I've got turned down. That's not to say, I haven't gotten offers for other teams' 1st round picks though. I guess I could try to trade 2 of those big name 30 plus guys for one of those lottery picks but if you do that, you're giving up an awful lot of your assets that you've got to use to rebuild your team.

I've got to do a bit more testing.

[Peter_Doherty]

If you are doing more testing then do some for the picks in the 3-7 range aswell, since this draft is so strong those should be almost impossible to get aswell

[bruins72]

So this is the draft order...

http://1drv.ms/1OTZCPr

After making tons of offers, I've gotten deals accepted for

1st round picks from the Ducks (for Pominville)
the Sharks (1st and a 4th for Pominville)
the Blue Jackets (for Koivu)
the Stars (1st and Faksa for Vanek)
the Predators (Juvonen, Jensen, and a 2nd for Vanek)
the Blues (Husso, Paajarvi, and a 2nd for Vanek)
the Islanders (Reinhart, Cizikas, Lee, and a 3rd for Parise)
the Canucks (Horvat and Shinkaruk for Suter)

Backstrom might have to be waived because deals got killed due to his NTC. I don't think there is enough time to make him want to leave. Leopold, Ballard, Carter, Brodziak, and Bergenheim generated NO interest when offered to all. Also, guys in the AHL that are 30 plus (Cooke, Veilleux, Curry, and Harding) had no teams interested.

Using the players on the NHL roster and not touching the under 30 guys on the AHL roster (the only one who might be useful is Blum), I've got 2 goalies (pretty good one too), 5 defensemen, and 6 forwards. So we'd need to acquire 1 more defenseman and fill out 2 more forward lines after dealing away our over 30 guys.

[batdad]

Try 2 for 1 trades with those guys who got no offers. Discipline Backstrom a few times and he will waive no trade. See what happens if you do that? And OMG--the team for Arizona's other pick is freaking Chicago? How in the name of god did they finish so low? Wow.

[bruins72]

Chicago finished 20th in the league. All it takes to have a chance at the top pick now is to miss the playoffs. It's a small chance but they truly hit the lottery. Still... they should be better than that.

I found out that the guys who got no offers didn't get any because their contracts were expiring. I think if we did this challenge we could say that those guys can't be given new contracts and then dealt. They've got to be released.

It looks like I could get the #1 overall pick if I give the Coyotes both Suter and Parise. With the exception of the top 2 picks, I can't even see any 2 for 1 deals that would really be worth it for the Wild. You'd be better off dealing them for young players. We'll have 5 (6 if you drive away Backstrom) players that we'll be able to trade away and use to fill out our team. For me... I don't know if I'd want to trade more than 1 of those for a pick alone. You need bodies right away.