mrlincolncity wrote:Morning all! Can someone help me out? Im struggling to sign/trade any decent players for my capitals team in my first season. Iv all but given up trying to get a 4star very good reputation player in, tried offering 4star players to trade but its just not happening. All i can get is basically rubbish nobody else wants.
Any ideas?
To be fair the AI is very reluctant to give up anything good unless you offer something good (that they want) in exchange. If you do then you can get much better deals. From what I can tell the basics are really:
1. If it says untradeable, then it's untradeable.
2. If it's a 5 star player, expect to give up a couple 1sts or a 5 star of your own(unless the player is on the block).
3. Your best bets are:
a. UFA (unrestricted free agents), pick these up at the end of the season for nothing, mostly they are depth players but occasionally something good comes up.
b. RFA (restricted free agents), again at the end of season these come up but go to offer sheets (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offer_sheet) - you'll give up a pick or two for these so decide if it's worth it. You can offer whatever you want, but they can decline, there is also the option for their team to match it if they accept so if you go too low you might not get the player at all as it'll get matched.
c. Waivers - teams are looking to drop some cap by assigning to the minors - so you can claim them on the way through. Again it's mostly depth players but occasionally something good shows up.
d. Players on the block - teams are looking to trade these guys, often for cap room so you can get some good players if you have room.
4. If the player is rated 2 stars or less, adding them in will only make the deal LESS attractive. This is sometimes true of 3 star players depending on AI needs.
5. 6th and 7th picks are essentially worthless.
6. Although you can offer a lot of 3 star players for something good, it's likely to put them over the roster limits or cap, so rarely does this go through.
7. As above, choosing the right team to trade with is everything, some GMs are more willing to deal, they have different needs and ratings for your players, or just more cap and roster room to play with.
8. It may be easier at the trade deadline, but again it comes down to needs. Teams out of the playoffs won't want to give up picks easily, but might be interested in yours. The opposite is true at the top. If you're after picks you'll get more trading early, but it's a gamble on where that time might finish.
9. Use the 'Gauge interest' option frequently. If it doesn't say "we'll need to take some time to think about this" or something more definite then don't waste time offering it, but you can use this button a lot til you get an idea what they want - then you just have to decide if it's worth it.
10. Use your picks wisely to fill the gaps, it's not all about picking the highest player possible(unless there really isn't anything else worth having), and it's unlikely you'll be able to trade up significantly in the draft (although it is possible).
Basically just be realistic, if you wouldn't take it, chances are the AI won't. That's not to say they don't do some bizarre things and give you some great deals, but you have to get lucky to get those.