Challenge 39 Rebuilding the Bruins - Discussion

[Peter_Doherty]

Yeah, i'm going that route aswell, so probably not making a deal but have to see what deals are out there, if any LW in Providence shows me they HAVE to go up to the big team then i'll trade Beleskey. Closest now are DeBrusk (top goalscorer in AHL this season in his first pro season, will give him one more season in AHL tho) and Novikov (2nd rounder16) who my scouts and AGM LOVE, he just came over though so will probably get a full season in AHL. I have no idea what to do with Spooner/Phillips/Koko tho, they all seem like more or less the same kind of player, don't have room for all three, barely have room for two of them. My C is super clogged aswell with Brown and Keller destroying OHL (Keller can play LW too) and then i have my top pick from 17 in Khodorenko aswell. Add to that a solid bottom 6 C in Forsbacka Karlsson. I lack RW depth though and i could use another goalie or two in the system aswell so that's where i'll focus my next draft apart from the first pick where i'll just take the best player.

[stone169]

In training camp for season 3 right now and my two best unsigned players are Matus Kovac LW (2nd overall in 2017) and Lukas Wernblom C (5th overall in 2018). I have a strict policy (ever since EHM2005) not to sign 18 year olds unless they are actually listed high enough in the depth chart that would be considered to be on the opening day roster. Wernblom is not there. He's close, but he's not there.

Matus Kovac (19 year old), will probably be on the team next year. The kid is a beast.

I made my first cuts and not much got sent down. Lots of players fighting for spots. There are few who should be sent down, but I'll wait until everyone else puts their players on waivers. I'm hoping these guys get claimed. It will make my life easier.

[stone169]

Despite the fact that Luke Green and Tye Graham were two of my best defencemen, I decided that it would be best if they were sent down to Providence. So falling into the holes left by Cross and Miller leaving are Zboril and Nurse.

A couple of changes at forward, but nothing too major. Opening day lineups are as follows:

Skinner - Spooner - Senyshyn
Marchand - Bjugstad - Pastrnak
Crouse - Sheahan - Hayes
Dal Colle - Tierney - Ho-Sang

Krug - Gudbranson
Morrow - Andersson
Zboril - Nurse

Subban
Husso

[Peter_Doherty]

Tough decision here, i did what i said and dangled the players out as bait, mostly got bad offers so i just rejected, then i got to Spooners offers and saw that Sens offered their 1st (around #20) and their 4th for him. Do i trade him and let Brown, Koko (preferrably stays as 4C since that's where he performed the best), Visuri, Novikov (really a LW but can play C), Phillips, Forsbacka Karlsson and Keller fight for that 3C spot or do i stay patient with all the kids and reject the offer?

I'm torn.

[bruins72]

Despite the fact that Luke Green and Tye Graham were two of my best defencemen, I decided that it would be best if they were sent down to Providence. So falling into the holes left by Cross and Miller leaving are Zboril and Nurse.

So despite nor having the best Av R, I was fairly pleased with Nurse in season 1. He managed 33 points, mostly assists. He also did quite a bit of hitting and shot blocking. I had to ignore his Av R because most of my team has bad ones.

[Peter_Doherty]

I won 2nd place in the draft lottery, means i'm getting one of Veleno, Addison and Wernblom, i'm happy with either.

[Peter_Doherty]

Prospect updates for 2017/2018.

Providence went all the way to the Calder Cup finals where they were up against Charlotte Checkers, sadly Providence lost game 7 in OT2

Atlanta won the Kelly Cup.

In the OHL Windsor - with Bruins prospects Logan Brown and Clayton Keller - got all the way to the Memorial Cup where they lost in the semi-finals, Keller got awarded with the Wayne Gretzky Trophy for the best player in the playoffs. Both had fantastic seasons, with Brown being the better in the regular season but got injured for a few weeks right before playoffs, then Keller stepped up and carried the team during playoffs.

Some stats:
Providence
ProvidencePlayoffs
Logan Brown, OHL; 39 + 47 in 64 games with +21, 86 PIM and an 8.31 Av R. In the playoffs he was 4+16 in 17 with an 8.12 Av R.
Clayton Keller, OHL: 31+35 in 63 games with +13, 32 PIM and an 7.71 Av R. In the playffs he was 13+22 in 21 with an 8.29 Av R.

Khodorenko and Stephens kept improving in college and both were better then the previous season, they will stay in college for now.
Novikov and Visuri earned contracts and will fight for a roster spot next season, most likely they will play AHL though.

On to the draft!

[Peter_Doherty]

Hmm, have to decide on Spooner now, delayed it as long as possible, still have no idea what to do.

Edit: Made my decision, keeping Spooner, trying to trade Phillips instead. Spooners (apparent) two-way ability weighed over.

Edit2: Could only get a mid 3rd for Phillips so postponing that until waiver time, i don't expect him to pass through waivers so unless he makes the team i'll trade him.

[Peter_Doherty]

Draft time where we start with pick #2.

#2: Calen Addison, LD/RD with a great season in WHL behind him. My scouts compare him to Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Ryan McDonagh, sounds good to me
#37: Danila Galenyuk, RD/LD.
#39: David Levin, LW.
#53: Sebastian Gröhn, LW.
#67: Pierre Cedric Baker, RW.
#79: Charles-Édouard Hout, RW.
#83: Aaron Bailey, RD.
#97: Russel Henderson, LD.
#127: Lukas Henze, RW.
#157: Alexander Perevozchikov, LD.
#187: Jere Huhdanpää, LW.

Done spamming for a bit now

[bruins72]

So I finally got through to the draft after season 1. I managed to win the draft lottery (which I really needed since I was worst in the league) and snagged Nolan Patrick. I usually don't sign players right after drafting and I can't recall the last time I played an 18 year old in a regular season game but that will be the case this season. He can't be any worse as #2 center than Spooner. Can he?

I got Owen Tippett with the first pick of the second round. He looks like he'll be a nice scoring RW. Beyond that, I don't think this draft had much to speak of.

[bruins72]

I just proved to myself why backup saves are needed. I just advanced to July 1st before I logged my stats. Good thing I have a save from a week earlier!

[Peter_Doherty]

I just proved to myself why backup saves are needed. I just advanced to July 1st before I logged my stats. Good thing I have a save from a week earlier!

I did the exact same thing

[axepig]

Despite being dead last lottery fluffed me over, I have the 4th overall pick

Luckily Addison was still avaible!

#4: Calen Addison, 3/5 Star, more talented McDonagh with smaller frame

#31: Milan Frk, 4/4 Star

#61: Gerard Bergeron, 3/4 Star, like Jeff Carter

#91: Mathias Emilio Petterson, 3/4 star

#121: Sebastian Grohn, 3/4 Star

#151: Helmer Eliasson, 3/4 Star

#181: Jin Nihey, unscouted but he's a 18 year old defensive dman from Japan and he's been very solid in the Asia league for 2 season. I'll have to learn him english!

Overall a very meh draft, I haven't scouted enough this draft. I've sent my scouts to draft the NHL draft but I need to scout some players personally to obtain their comparison, more detailed scouting report and their mental attributes.

Nolan Patrick, Clayton Keller and Logan Brown should be ready for next season. They've dominated their league last season and I really need better centers, my scouts compare them to Kopitar, Kuznetsov and Kevin Hayes respectively so it looks pretty good.

Evan Fitzpatrick is a 4/5 star now and he's comapred to Holtby, I hope he and Makarov can be good enough to fight for a playoff spot.

[Peter_Doherty]

I'm gonna have some massive roster decisions come late September, it's so much harder when you don't see the attributes aswell Biggest decisions, do i go with Brown as my 2C (which would send Zibanejad to the wing) or send him to Providence? What do i do with Keller? Is this the time for Zboril? Kylington? Fabbro? all came from good/great seasons in AHL. Then i have the unknowns, my scouts and AGM love both Novikov and Visuri, do i trust my scouts? Both players come from low tier leagues. And all those decisions in turn determines what i do with my "veterans" like Marchand (probably not going anywhere), Beleskey, Lindberg, Connolly, Randell, Trotman, C.Miller (who got some play time again when i traded K.Miller and he was actually good again) etc...

I love this challenge but it frustrates the hell out of me that i can't use attributes to help me

[axepig]

I also struggle with deciding who does to Providence and who stays on the big team but last season's reckless decision of playing 31 games in September REALLY paid off. I tested some lines, put some players on every position (top 6, bottom 6, top pairing, bottom pairing...) and some players were clearly not ready, I thought Keller was good to go but he wasn't that good in preseason. I'll do the same thing this season and I may start my "equal lines" tactic because I have a lot of depth, I don't have any player who I want to have a 4th line grinder role (except maybe Hayes and Connoly)

[Peter_Doherty]

I don't do the normal top-6 bottom-6 thing, i have Spooner centering my 3rd and Khokhlachev centering my 4th line, i've never gotten the defensive bottom-6 to work on FM ever, all the players always get super bad +/- and Av R when i do that.

[axepig]

I decided to fire Don Hay (my Head coach). I think he wasn't bad but it's time to change after 2 season that we're dead last. I hired Andy Murray who was Nolan Patrick and Braylon Shmyr coach, I want to recreate that duo that got 80-90 pts back to back season and they went to the Memorial Cup twice.

I don't do the normal top-6 bottom-6 thing, i have Spooner centering my 3rd and Khokhlachev centering my 4th line, i've never gotten the defensive bottom-6 to work on FM ever, all the players always get super bad +/- and Av R when i do that.

I usually try to get small and speedy players top 6 and bigger stronger bottom 6 and they are usually above 6,7 ~6,8 when I have a good team (not the case in this rebuild) I usually pick players like Bergenheim and Tyrell for my bottom 6 and they do wonders every game, Bergy is a perennial 7s and Tyrell is a clutch guy who scores your SCF GWG every season. I was super bummed that they were too old to acquire for this challenge

[bruins72]

I usually run my lines equal, sometimes switching to normal for a few games. I will also switch to just three or overload mid-game if I need a push. I always run my defensive pairings on equal. Special teams assignments takes care of the rest.

[Peter_Doherty]

I mostly do normal on the lines and equal on the d-pairs, i still try to have pretty balanced lines though.

[axepig]

Great Andy Murray just retired a week or so after being hired for 4 years... Time to hunt for a coach

[bruins72]

Great Andy Murray just retired a week or so after being hired for 4 years... Time to hunt for a coach

I think that happened to me last challenge.

[Peter_Doherty]

Logan Brown is having a monster camp, he's definitely in the lineup as my 2C when the season starts, now i just have to figure out who gets left out

Edit: So with Brown making the team it became crystal clear that Phillips was not going to make it so i looked for a trade, sent Zack Phillips to Minnesota Wild in exchange for their 2019 2nd round pick. That's my underage trade, gonna have to make sure i don't make another one

[diag]

So I just lost the game 7 in the SCF in OT against the Flames in my 3rd season. Wow that feels bad. Guess the Porier - Monahan - Bennett line was just to good.
Anyway, this team is so good! Played Lindholm as RW as he didn't thrive as C and wow did he produce, 46-47-96 and 2d place for the Richard
All of Lindholm, Pastrnak, Marchand and Senyshyn scored 35+ goals with 70+ points, and my Brown had 27-40-67 in 72 games.

The 2C is still a bit weak as I play one of Phillips or Khokhlachev there. Neither of them are producing despite the quality of the wingers. Thinking of putting Marchand on the block to see what he can fetch. And might try to move Toffoli as he doesn't fit into my top6. Will be a interesting offseason for sure!

btw, love the hidden attributes!

[barnaby05]

hi im new to this challenge

[bruins72]

Welcome! Don't be afraid to ask questions if you're not sure about the rules and such.