Challenge #37 Discussion - Blowing Up The Canucks!

[Peter_Doherty]

gl b72, i also drew Ducks in my first playoffs with this team in season 2, they crushed me badly

[bruins72]

And we went 4 and out! The first two games were close (1 goal games) but the next two games were 3-0 and 3-1. Well... at least we made the playoffs. That's an improvement over the first season.

[kennec]

I am wagering on having some C problems in year three. But Bonino just does not do enough for me. I am through first round of playoffs in year 2. Took care of the Blues easily, and now up 2-0 on the Ducks as well.

Linden Vey continues to perform for me in the playoffs. I dunno why he does so well for me and not for anyone else. I saw one guy had him at 30 goals but not many have really pushed him. He has done so many great things and got the team going, and scored so many big goals (or set em up)

My team scored 295 goals in year 2. Think that is the most I have ever had in a challenge. And...what is odd about it? Jensen scored 38 and was my top scorer. Vey and Bartschi had 27, Nelson 21 Scheifele 20 and Shinkaruk 19. BOnino and Morin both had 18. Conacher, Kassian Rakell 15. Jacob Trouba led the dmen with 10.

Twelve guys with 10 or more goals. 11 with 15 or more. Not bad.

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?i ... nstats.png

Agree about Vey. I just finished my first seson and making an write up and submitting the stats.
Vey made 81p in my team, he played 2line mostly but 20-30 games on 3rd line also. Somehow he made 2-3 points in important matches. Hes much better then hes attributes, mayby good mentals or hiddens? A real papertiger.

[visualdarkness]

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?i ... nstats.png

Agree about Vey. I just finished my first seson and making an write up and submitting the stats.
Vey made 81p in my team, he played 2line mostly but 20-30 games on 3rd line also. Somehow he made 2-3 points in important matches. Hes much better then hes attributes, mayby good mentals or hiddens? A real papertiger.

Just basically quick simmed through the rest of the pain called a season.
Vey did nothing for me even though he gt his chances in the top two lines and on the PP, he only scored 4-6-10.
I may have overestimated Dillon as a top-pairing guy as he finished with -62.

I doubt that I will be able to turn this around at all and almost already giving up.

[bruins72]

So let's look at what my players have done in the 2 seasons since the initial purge of veteran to start the challenge.

Hamhuis:
15-16: Blues 3G 21A +8 34 PIM 6.87 avr
16-17: Rangers 3G 14A -8 44 PIM 6.72 avr
16-17: Coyotes 3G 6A +4 6PIM 7.05 avr

Daniel Sedin:
15-16: Blues 34G 27A +6 30 PIM 7.28 avr
16-17: Blues 24G 33A -5 42 PIM 7.26 avr

Henrik Sedin:
15-16: Blues 17G 33A +16 32 PIM 6.91 Avr
16-17: Blues 16G 21A -14 34 PIM 6.45 Avr

Ryan Miller:
15-16: Blues 20-17-6 2.46GAA .913SV% 7.47 avr
16-17: Blues 22-20-2 3.07GAA .895SV% 7.11 avr

Alex Burrows:
15-16: Panthers 10G 6A -17 55 PIM 6.64 avr
16-17: AHL

Jannik Hansen:
15-16: Panthers 11G 15A +2 34 PIM 6.97 avr
16-17: Panthers 8G 5A 13 PIM 7.16 avr (spent half season in AHL)

Radim Vrbata:
15-16: Ducks 18G 24A +10 18 PIM 7.12 avr
16-17: Playing in Czech league

Alexander Edler:
15-16: Ducks 9G 31A +2 42 PIM 7.13 avr
16-17: Ducks 8g 39A +26 24 PIM 7.18 Avr

Kevin Bieksa :
15-16: Rangers 5G 27A +1 75 PIM 7.03 avr
16-17: Coyotes 4G 20A -6 60 PIM 6.90 avr
16-17: Bruins 1G 5A +8 19 PIM 7.00 avr

Chris Higgins:
15-16: Flames 11G 12A -12 26 PIM 6.84 avr
16-17: Flames 5G 4A -10 22 PIM 6.75 avr
16-17: Ducks 2G 6A +6 0 PIM 7.05 avr

[batdad]

My feelings on Vey--You have to be patient with him, and let him go through some bad times without taking his ice time away. As soon as you take it away...you have to start over with him. He is definitely streaky, but he has played in SOOO many spots for me.

2nd line RW
2nd line C
3rd line RW/C
4th line RW/C
PP1 RW/C
PP2 RW/C

Big games...he plays his best. I lost both games i played to TB in year 2, scored 3 goals in those two games. Vey had all of them.

But I also get why people do not be patient with him. If he starts poorly...he starts poorly. And gets a bad rap from his coaches and they dump him. In some ways I was patient out of necessity with him, since I only had Jensen, Morin, Kasssian and Vey as RW ability of any kind when I started up the first season. Morin started slowly for me, so Kass and Vey got bumped up a bit on ice time. Morin is now scoring, and is also very streaky....he and Vey need to be on and off in proper rotation to make things work for me. So far that is the case.

Orignally he would have been the first of the four to go for me. Now I think it is Kass. Even though he has done well too. But I also need his size and fighting ability.


Made a couple of deals June 18

Dillon to Columbus for a fave of everyone...Eriksson Ek. Board was widdled at me, but Dillon was doing nothing. Second lowest rated dman out of 8.

Stanton goes to Detroit with Matthias for Paul Bittner. Bittner is a big LW, who in this game is developing nicely. 20 years old, and 14 skating 16 wrist shot. Gets open, and managed 20 points as a 19 year old on the wings (Sent down end of year and scored 5 in three games.)


So my projected lineup...although I still have a few I could move, but need LW/RW have alot at C

Bartschi-Scheifele-Jensen
Nelson-Rakell-Morin
Shinkaruk-Eriksson Ek-Vey
Conacher-Horvat-Kassian
Grenier Kenins

Sbisa-Trouba
Muller-Tanev
Tommerennes-Weber
Clendenning

Markstrom
Demko

I have let both Bonino and Eriksson go UFA....well I Will once July 1 hits. May need to draft or trade for an older Goalie as well, one that is at least out of junior so that I have another with Nedelkjovic in Utica.

VIrtanen will get a solid shot to make the big club this year (Competing with Grenier) and so will Connor (Competing with Horvat and Kenins)


I may also be sending out Conacher in order to make room. Do not care what I get back for him.

ETA: Interesting that your guys have all done just okay. Mine are the same. I would report on them but would take forever...lol

[Peter_Doherty]

I just got my revenge on Ducks, beat them 4-0. Markström had to start game 1 since Demko took a fight in my 8-1 thrashing of Avs so he was suspended for game 1, managed to win that game in OT. Then "The Demko Show" started, 5-2, 4-0, 4-1. His stats so far in these playoffs are 1.03 GAA, 0.960 SV%, 2 shutouts and 8.75 AvR.

batdad - Be patient with Virtanen, he started really slow for me but he picked his game up and now he's beasting it in playoffs on my 3rd line without PP, he has these stats in 7 games, 4+4, +6, 7.57 AvR. What do you mean with ETA:?

Edit: I've been thinking about trading Conacher about twice every season just to make room in my top-6 for a "more fun" player, but i just can't do it, he's too good. Now he's leading my team in scoring in playoffs and he's had over 70 points each season.

[TheEpicOne258]

Finally done trading. Here is what i got in return...
2 2015 1st round picks
1 3rd round pick
4 4th round picks
2 5th round picks
1 6th round pick
Duncan Siemens
Jacob de la Rose
Cedric Paquette
Slater Koekkoek
Mark Barberio
Andre Burakovsky
Connor Carrick
Tom Wilson
Shane Gostibehere
Scott Laughton
Nikita Nesterov

Then came the draft.
11th overall:Mitchell Marner
12th overall:Oliver Kylington
29th overall:Nikita Korostelev
42nd overall:Matthew Spencer
79th overall:Sebastian Aho
101st overall:Dmytro Timashov
102nd overall:Beau Rusk
108th overall:Louis-Philip Guindon
118th overall:Parker Wotherspoon
119th overall:Mason Kohn
125th overall:Kevin Spinozzi
132nd overall:Les Potter
144th overall:Liam Dunda
147th overall:Jesper Lindgren
161st overall:Jake Curadi
162nd overall:Joey Ratelle

[visualdarkness]

Atleast I got the QMJHL top scorer, however he only got decent potential ans is already oldish.

[radiskull]

Season 4, Q3 is done. Again insane 18-1-1. And again it's frustrating because I don't know why exactly. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to win, of course. But.. I didn't change anything. They just decided to win everything. Well, I guess, this team is just really really strong. I'm literally just sitting and doing nothing at all with tactics and roster rotation. Just watch games like that:
And that guy, rookie Max Jones. I don't know from what planet he came to Earth but he's already my leading scorer with 38 goals in 60 games. And 27 assists to sweeten the pot. Mostly on a 3rd line and 1st PP. He scored 21 goals on PP. Monster. That's how you start your NHL career.
I think maybe after several in-game years level of competition from AI just drops? He's not capable to gather and maintain good balanced rosters like a human player can?

[Peter_Doherty]

WOOHOO! Won the cup season 3, beat Caps in the finals 4-3. Bärtschi with 17 goals in the playoffs including the game winner in game 7. Demko with insane stats aswell, wonder who gets Conn Smythe. I had alot of injuries during the last 2 series, Subban, McCann, Horvat, Puljujärvi and Fuchs all came up from Utica and got games. Fuchs played only one game, game 7, and he had 1+1 Shinkaruk was insane in the first 3 series, over PPG from the 3rd line with 1 point in total on PP, he did slow down against Caps though, think he only had 1 or 2 points.

Think i'm trading both Tanev and Bjugstad in the off season, both had kind of bad seasons and Tanev was horrible in playoffs, i also have Rasmus Andersson in the pipelines to take Tanevs role.

[Peter_Doherty]

Made a big trade with Pens before the draft, sent them Tanev, Bjugstad, Clendening and Lowry, for that i got Teodors Blugers and their first rounder (#29). Blugers has amazing attributes but he hasn't performed great because of limited ice-time behind Crosby and Malkin, hopefully he explodes as my #1 C

Edit: Made one more trade before the draft, sent Conacher and Andrey Pedan to Habs for a 2nd and a 3rd. Had to make room for Puljujärvi so Conacher had to be sacrificed, he was a stud for me though so it's a little bit sad to trade him

[batdad]

Demko looks good there, wonder if that will happen for me. He is 16s right now, but the rest is not far off either.

ETA is edit to add.

Blugers is a weird looking dude, almost as though he has the player role on him in the game.


Jay Merkley in the Q....that is that STUPID bug. He is Nick's brother and should only be playing in the WHL> I hate that bug. I am so not looking forward to seeing guys I know from the W drafted to the NHL From Erie and Charlottetown. Stupid thing.

[Peter_Doherty]

batdad - I assume Demko will keep progressing for most people, he's a stud.

Oh, okey, you learn something new every day

Agree that Blugers is a weird one, he's not small but has some attributes like a midget and has no bravery at all and he can barely skate. But i'm betting on the fact that he can do great stuff with ice-time and great wingers, his technical attributes are insane. We'll see how it works out, i kind of need him to play on the PK aswell but i'm scared to do it with his bravery.

Edit: Just went through the draft, looks like a pretty weak draft so i have no high hopes, hopefully some of them turn out good.
#29 RW Charlie Janssen
#30 LW Christopher Henley
#36 LW Ulf Hedblom
#41 C Gabriel Marks
#60 RW/C Pier-Olivier McCullough
#66 LD Nic Lindsey
#90 G Rickard Dahl
#120 LD Henry Jackson
#150 LD Larry Guerin
#180 C/RW Logan Barber
#210 LD Tomek Auger

Edit2: Lindgren won Calder Trophy, Conacher 3rd for Lady Byng, Claude Julien (My headcoach) won Jack Adams and Demko won Conn Smythe before Bärtschi

[McSkippy454]

Just started, and I'm new to the Challenges! I found trading the Twins for a decent return to be tricky. I ended up getting Forseberg and Salomakl from the Preds for them. I couldn't get much else for them, without splitting them. I feel I got a decent return. I know I can make Forseberg a great player.

[pavelbure]

first time poster, long time player

I focused on grabbing impact players over a wealth of picks because there was no sense having a ton of picks for a draft you're ill-prepared for

Edler and Higgins to Philly for Couturier
Vrbata and Miller to the Sens for Stone
The Sedins to Winnipeg for Scheifele and Blomqvist
Burrows, Hamhuis and Hansen to the Stars for Klingberg
Bieksa to the Jackets for Dansk

[radiskull]

Second Cup in a row. Unfortunately Demko was injured for 4 month at the end of the regular season, but Markstrom did a decent job. I guess you don't have to be awesome at goaltending if you have this crazy playoff crew in front of you:

Playoffs went 16-1-1. I think for this team there is no real competition out there. Big part of that is that I got incredibly lucky with the first draft lottery, I'm sure. McDavid does some nasty things. I even feel cheaty because of that.

[bruins72]

So I had something unexpected happen in my game. The Oilers won the Stanley Cup! They finished 7th in the West and managed to beat the Lightning 4 games to 1 in the Stanley Cup Finals. Their big moves that got them where they needed to be? Draisaitl, Dansk, and rights to Marner to NYR for Nash! They also traded a few prospects (nothing crazy) to the Panthers for Erhoff. And they had Scrivens in net!

So this draft was terrible. I picked mid-first round and picked up some guy that was just okay. The rest of the draft was just sifting through a trash heap. Bleh!

I made a deal once trading opened up on June 15th. I sent Conacher, Markstrom, and Archibald to the Senators for Lazar and Wikstrand. I don't know if they were valued lower because their contracts were up but they were easily re-signed. I finally rid myself of Conacher!

Awards time rolled around. Tarasenko won the Hart, Ross and Richard and was a runner up for the Byng. He was also a first team all-star.

I think I'm sorted out on defense. It's not perfect but removing Clendenning from the equation and inserting Savage seemed to be a good thing. I've also got Wikstrand, who can be used as a 7th defenseman or sent to Utica. My main issue is going to be figuring out my center problem. Bjugstad would be much better as a #2 center but right now he's my #1. My team report actually has the newly acquired Lazar listed as my best center. Looking at his attributes, I'm not sure I see it but I might have to give it a shot. They've also got Nick Merkley (my 1st draft pick of this challenge... just signed having finished his junior career) listed as third, jumping over Tierney and Burmistrov. I think Weal is totally out of the picture. They've got him listed as my 8th best center, falling behind McCann and Horvat. I think Merkley will spend at least this season down in Utica. He's coming along nicely but I don't think he's NHL ready.

[Peter_Doherty]

You wanted to get rid of Conacher that bad? He was great for me, over 70 points all 3 seasons, only traded him now to make space for Puljujärvi who is a stud.

Marner, McCann and Horvat are finally developing for me, Marner had a great pre season but i will keep him in Utica for another year anyway. Horvat, McCann and Fuchs are still fighting for spots on the team. Puljujärvi is straight into my top-6 at 20 years old, he had 36+40 last season in Utica.

On defence i got Rasmus Andersson taking Tanevs spot on the lineup and Wikstrand is my new 7th D. Kylington just keeps developing, he's a beast. 5 of my 7 D-men are Swedish, didn't even mean to do that, it just happened

[bruins72]

Conacher couldn't perform consistently on any of the top 3 lines for me in season 1. When season 2 rolled around, he was benched a good chunk of it. He played 42 games and only had 8 points. He just wasn't a good fit for me.

Horvat wasn't performing well for me in Utica in season 2, so I sent him to the ECHL affiliate in Kalamazoo. He did better there. I think I'm going to keep him there for season 3. Shinkaruk has done well in Utica but I still don't think he's NHL ready. The same goes for McCann and Virtanen.

[Peter_Doherty]

Aight, some players just don't work under some coaches i guess

Shinkaruk is NHL ready, don't just look at his attributes, he's amazing. He even performs without lots of ice-time. Virtanen is close season 3 though, i played him in NHL and he got better and better but it was a close call.

Edit: Saw now that you are very stocked on the wings so maybe you don't have a spot for them right now

[bruins72]

Maybe Shinkaruk will get called up if I have injuries. I've got no room for him right now though. These are my lines...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpl5ihsttzet9 ... 5.png?dl=0

[Peter_Doherty]

Yeah, i saw that, you have some great wingers. These are my probable lines right now, i really want to change Girgensons for a better C that's better on the PK though. McCann and Horvat are still in with a shot at making the team aswell.

[bruins72]

I'm liking the looks of your defense!

I think my biggest mistake has been putting too much focus on my wingers and not getting top flight centers. I usually work the opposite from that. I've found that if you've got excellent centers, you can make wingers perform better.

[Peter_Doherty]

Yeah, i love my defense. Would like to swap out Weber but he's my only shooter so i can't. I tried to get Zadorov to fill that role but Sabres wanted nothing to do with it so i got Reinhart instead, he's got a decent shot but he's still no shooter. I have no D with a great shot in the pipelines either so Weber is here to stay

I'm not strong down the middle either, i'm taking a gamble on Blugers, if he works out i'm fine there otherwise i'm weak aswell. I'm really looking for a 3C that can PK though.

Edit: Made 2 trades right before the season started, first off i sent Kassian to Coyotes and in exchange i got my #3C who can PK in Samuelsson. Then i noticed that Horvat and Fuchs both were waiver eligable and i only had room for one of them so i looked for a team that wanted Fuchs. Coyotes were interested, i guess they realised they needed a C after they traded Samuelsson or something? So i got their 1st rounder for Fuchs, now my team is set for the start of the season. Team will be like in the image above but with Samuelsson as my 3C and Horvat/Girgensons at 4C. Wikstrand is my 7th D-man. The guys closes to a call-up from Utica are Orban and Subban on D and McCann on F.