Challenge #48 - Los Angeles Kings - Discussion Thread

Post by **archibalduk** » Sat May 04, 2019 9:45 pm

All conversation about Challenge 48 goes here! Good luck everyone!

A massive thank you to jesterx7769 for setting this up (and for the cool graphic).

Post by **jesterx7769** » Sun May 05, 2019 3:07 am

Big thanks for Archibalduk for running the site all these years and giving me a chance to choose the challenge which I've always enjoyed

I also didn't make the graphic, so not trying to claim credit for that lol Google images found it for me so props to the Kings fan that did it.

Big surprise, I've spent my afternoon playing the challenge so I could get through the draft.

I was pretty sure I was going to trade for two first round picks, but then decided to spread it out. I traded for the 10th overall pick and then traded with Detroit for all their 2nd-5th round picks, board is mad of course but whatever that's the point of the challenge.

1.03- Kaapo Kakko, RW. Lots of thoughts going into this pick as we all will have. All 3 centers look like studs, so still good choices if not #1 for Hughes. Center is also a serious issue for the Kings, but do have two C prospects who knock on wood work out. RW is a strength for Kings with Toffoli and Rempal coming up. However in the end I liked alot the Center depth talent in the draft and I figured most people would end up with one of the C's with their first pick so I wanted my team to look different than most others doing the challenge for fun.

1.10- Xavier Parent, LW. Similiar story to above where I thought about Center but there were lots left on the board. Parent is small like Caulfield, but has really good mentals and some surprising checking/hitting. Parent also has 15 Wristshot already like Kaapo, so I figured I just drafted my two franchise Wingers.

1.20- Tobias Bjornfot, LD There are alot of LD's in this draft and not many RD, I was targeting Mironov but he went at 14. With Bjornot falling from his ranking it seemed time to grab a top LD. Once again with center, most of the ones I wanted were still on the board.

2.01- Dylan Cozens, C Very surprpised Cozens is still here. A big power forward C with good all around attributes. Not as developed as the top 3 C's of course but I figured he's a good start

2.05- John Beecher, C Took another C as I was debating between him and Cozens in prior pick. Great mentals and good Faceoff ability so just have to wait to develop.

2.07- Spencer Knight, G Lots of actually decent looking goalies in this draft and actually considered Maeir for a moment in round one. Still on the board and after already selecting 2 C's, LW, RW, LD, and no RD's I like out there seemed like an easy pick.

2.29- Nolan Foote, LW A couple of guys I was targeting went in between these last two picks so took awhile to decide. Once again no real RDs to love and ended up with Foote as the balance to my earlier LW Parent pick size wise.

3.01- Owen Lalonde, RD About time I grabbed a RD, good determination but kind of hit or miss attributes the rest of the way which seemed to be the story of all RDs in this draft but has good size and skating.

3.07- Axel Bergkvist, RD Was looking between the two of them before so same story as the C's I grabbed RDs back to back. Good mentals and some good offense skills but terrible D skills, so we'll see how the 5'8 guy develops.

3.25- Henry Thrun, LD Needed another LD, didn't love this pick as he only has 2 hitting but hopefully that develops as all the scouts loved him.

4.01- Jack Duff, LD Well pretty much addressing everyone position before end of 3rd round it took awhile to make this choice, as normally by this many picks the draft is just about winding down and I look for some older developed guys to plug in on 3rd/4th line or help my AHL squad. Duff is one of those 100% defensive attirbute guys with his 1 passing and 1 stickhandling (im imagining him in practice!) but if those develop a little he can sit on the 3rd line and PK for me.

4.07- Kirill Nizhnikov LW/RW highest Wristshot in draft and good determination, hoping to use a 3rd line win filler where the LW/RW designation is helpful.

5.01- Adam Gajarsky, C good mentals and actually good scouting so surprised he's still on the board. Some low red attributes drag him down but we'll see if he lives halfway up to his scouting report as a late 4th rounder.

5.08 Montana Onyebuchi, RD Same defenive only defender but now for RD. But I mean first of all is name is Montana, and i have no idea how to say his last name, so this is fun.

6.01 Brendan Budy, LW/C/RW Another fun name, scout had him at 5* potential and has great mentals but not super hopeful. Probably will help my AHL team.

7.01 Brett Leason, C 15 faceoffs, 20 det and 20 work rate. Not bad stats for a 6'5 guy so we'll see what he can do. Thinking maybe end up as my 4C and PK C.

And that's it! woof that took me a long time to draft. Let's see how they work out and how everyone else does.

OldGregg · Post by **OldGregg** » Sun May 05, 2019 8:50 pm

Should be a fun challenge! Ended up with 2OA after the lottery and got 10 and 11 from Edmonton and Buffalo. At 2 I basically flipped a coin to pick Turcotte over Newhook, and then grabbed Suzuki, Soderstrom, and Podkolzin in the first round. With Turcotte and some of the existing prospects like Kupari and Thomas I should be able to put together a respectable forward group in 19-20, but defense will definitely be an issue. Soderstrom looks ready for year 1 and some of the existing prospects + Martinez look OK, so if guys like Clague/Durzi have some growth it might be half-decent.

I doubt he'll come over but I'm going to try throwing money at Prokhorkin, he'd be a huge help to add in year one since we can't add any veterans through UFA and we have tons of space after trading Kopitar and Doughty.

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Mon May 06, 2019 2:21 am

Sounds great. I played my first challenge (Vegas) way after it was over and made it through that first season with a second round playoff exit (came back from 3 games to 0 deficit vs San Jose in the first round).

I was getting ready for the off-season in that sim when I saw this posted. Wonderful to get in at the beginning. I cleaned house with scouting and coaching. Kept Mike Futa as Asst.GM and I believe that Ranford was the only coach left standing. I setup GMs for both Ontario and Manchester which is probably overkill but not much more work doing that.

Just entered May and wondering when that Draft Lottery actually takes place. It was much earlier in real life this year.

Thanks for putting this together, I plan to unload both Doughty and Kopitar for first rounders.

Post by **jesterx7769** » Mon May 06, 2019 3:40 am

Just entered May and wondering when that Draft Lottery actually takes place. It was much earlier in real life this year.

Happens the week before the draft in EHM

Vasz · Post by **Vasz** » Mon May 06, 2019 7:02 pm

It's been almost one year since the last challenge and I'm so pumped for this one, so here we go!

Traded Kopitar to the Arizona Coyotes for the 10th overall pick and Doughty to the Rangers for all of their picks for this year draft (except their 1st). I ended up with a grand total of 19 picks for the 2019 Draft. I also was lucky enough to win the draft lottery. Here is some of my noticeable picks:

1 - 01 - Jack Hughes : Not much to say about him, he was the best player available in my book. He is NHL ready and probably going to end up playing in my first two lines next year.

1 - 10 - Victor Soderstrom : Very surprised to see him drop to 10th OA as he was probably one the best defenceman available this draft. He looks NHL ready as well. At this point, I already have Kopitar replaced by Hughes and Doughty replaced by Soderstrom

1 - 20 - Pavel Dorofeyev : This winger is a risky pick. Not quite sure how good he will become but he had a solid first year in the KHL with 13 points in 45 games while being +11. He is most likely going to play one or two years in the AHL before stepping up into the big league.

2 - 32 - John Beecher : Two-way centerman who is being compared to Jonathan Toews. His ceiling looks high but he still needs a few more years in college before being NHL ready. Hopefully he can become a solid 2nd line center.

2 - 59 - Nolan Foote : Most of my scouts thinks he'll become a very good goalscorer. This winger already has a 16 wristshot and 13 slapshot. My only concerned is his low det (8) and low creativity (7).

3 - 79 - Owen Lalonde : 19 y/o defenceman with very good speed and stamina. His technicals are also very good for his age. I honestly think he might have a chance to make the lineup next season considering how poor my defence is with the recent departure of Doughty and Muzzin. Very excited to see what he'll become.

6 - 172 - Axel Bergkvist : Very solid offensive Swedish defenceman. His technicals are very good and he also has excellent mentals attributes. The only major problem is his consistency

7 - 187 - Roman Zitny : 21 y/o prospect with very good puckhandling skills who managed to get 26 goals and 28 assist in 54 games in the Slovakian league. While his defensive skills aren't the best, I wouldn't be surprised to see him start in the NHL next year.

I am very satisfy with my all of my picks this draft, the future of the Los Angeles Kings looks good. I signed Ryan Walter as my head coach and replaced all of my assistants coaches during this summer. As I am about to enter the first game of the season, I'm expecting the 2019-2020 season to be a hard one. Kovalchuk and Carter declined quite a bit which is going to make this harder for me and meanwhile I'll need Quick to be playing his best hockey all season long while remaining healthy. Here is my projected starting lineup:

Best of luck to everyone entering the challenge!

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Mon May 06, 2019 8:30 pm

jesterx7769 wrote: Mon May 06, 2019 3:40 am
Just entered May and wondering when that Draft Lottery actually takes place. It was much earlier in real life this year.
Happens the week before the draft in EHM

Thanks, I started fine and got through the draft and actually was happy with the results after winning the draft lottery. I *totally forgot* that EHM completely releases your RFAs if you don't sign them before July 1st.
With a completely depleted roster and not being able to sign/trade I am going to have to reset.

Big learning lesson. Stuff I have learned from my practice run on the previous challenge#47 was setting up the scouting and doing well hiring staff. Reboot to probably end up with a 4th overall selection but I'm cool with that.

Post by **Manimal** » Tue May 07, 2019 12:03 am

Are we allowed to acquire all 2019 picks from a team (not their 1st) in a trade for Doughty or Kopitar?
There are teams that has more than one 2nd round pick, for example

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Tue May 07, 2019 2:00 am

Manimal wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 12:03 am Are we allowed to acquire all 2019 picks from a team (not their 1st) in a trade for Doughty or Kopitar?
There are teams that has more than one 2nd round pick, for example

I interpreted that rule as: one of each round and the spirit being their "own pick". Which is complicated in practice but that would have been my interpretation of the rule.
My $0.02

Post by **jesterx7769** » Tue May 07, 2019 2:27 am

Manimal wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 12:03 am Are we allowed to acquire all 2019 picks from a team (not their 1st) in a trade for Doughty or Kopitar?
There are teams that has more than one 2nd round pick, for example

Yes, you could get all their rest including multiple round picks. I figured no one would do it if it was just one 2nd, one 3rd, one 4th, etc

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Tue May 07, 2019 4:02 am

jesterx7769 wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 2:27 am
Manimal wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 12:03 am Are we allowed to acquire all 2019 picks from a team (not their 1st) in a trade for Doughty or Kopitar?
There are teams that has more than one 2nd round pick, for example
Yes, you could get all their rest including multiple round picks. I figured no one would do it if it was just one 2nd, one 3rd, one 4th, etc

Oh, interesting. Now I need to look for teams with options. Down the rabbit hole I go.

Post by **Manimal** » Wed May 08, 2019 9:53 am

I traded Doughty to Philly for 10 OA and Kopitar to Detroit for 3x2nd, 3, 4, 2x5th picks

I fell to 4th in the lottery but Kakko fell at the draft so I picked him.
We had a whooping 18 picks in the draft!
Got Söderström, Dorofeyev, Beecher and Zegras

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Thu May 09, 2019 3:25 am

Progress so far. I'm currently at August 2nd, 2019.

My big issue is that I am under the cap floor. I'm thinking that I should have renewed a contract at a higher value to meet the floor since I cannot trade/acquire a player to get cap on the roster.
We'll see what happens.

I signed all of my 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks but probably need to be careful with keeping as many veterans on the roster to make it to the floor.

18 draft picks!

Cleaned out coaching staff, cleaned up scouts and physio to get that all rocking.
Ryan Walter is my head coach, Ranford stayed on and hired 4 new assistant coaches.
Practice schedule setup to get everyone into Fitness schedule, "Academy" setup for the newly drafted once they signed.
Traded Doughty to Arizona for 10th overall pick in 1st round
Traded Kopitar to Detroit for all their 2nd-6th round picks. Funny, they flat out refused to include the 7th rounders.
Ended up 3rd pick in the draft.
1st round picks: Kakko, Söderström and Philip Broberg in the first round
2nd round picks: Artemi Knyazev, Anttoni Honka, Spencer Knight
3rd round picks: Matej Toman, Henry Thrun, Tag Bertuzzi
4th round picks: Samuel Polin, Yegor Sokolov, Isaiah Saville
5th round picks: Montana Onyebuchi, Kirby Dach, Jake Lee
6th round picks: Danny Weight, Michal Teplý
7th round pick: Bailey Peach

I've setup some exhibition games for the preseason and getting ready for training camp.

kev26 · Post by **kev26** » Thu May 09, 2019 3:09 pm

I never play in a challenge. I want to know how it's work? Can someone help me?

Post by **Manimal** » Thu May 09, 2019 10:08 pm

kev26 wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 3:09 pm I never play in a challenge. I want to know how it's work? Can someone help me?

We all download the same savefile. Then we have rules to follow(limited trade and FA, mostly) and we upload our stats during the season and we talk here and compare our progress and brag about our victories

kev26 · Post by **kev26** » Fri May 10, 2019 1:13 pm

Manimal wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 10:08 pm
kev26 wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 3:09 pm I never play in a challenge. I want to know how it's work? Can someone help me?
We all download the same savefile. Then we have rules to follow(limited trade and FA, mostly) and we upload our stats during the season and we talk here and compare our progress and brag about our victories

thanks

but where can i find those rules?

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Fri May 10, 2019 2:04 pm

kev26 wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 1:13 pm
thanks

but where can i find those rules?

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but this is the reference that I use:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19187#p235790

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Fri May 10, 2019 2:23 pm

Well, I made it to game 20. Quick got injured in game 3 (October 10) and was out until game 12 on October 29th and we only won a single game in that month (in overtime in Chicago).

So we are *bad*. Kakko struggled in 6 games with the Kings and was not happy so I sent him down to Ontario and he is tearing it up down there with Söderström (played 2 NHL games) and Broberg (18 NHL games before I decided to send him down to).

Yeah, it looks bleak for the rest of the season but we managed to win our latest game against Anaheim in regulation which is our first regulation win for the year.

Sean Walker, who had just been called up and in his 2nd NHL game of the year was ecstatic:https://imgur.com/EVdLKSk

kev26 · Post by **kev26** » Fri May 10, 2019 5:46 pm

kenbauer wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 2:04 pm
kev26 wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 1:13 pm
thanks

but where can i find those rules?
Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but this is the reference that I use:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19187#p235790

thanks

hulkster5 · Post by **hulkster5** » Fri May 10, 2019 9:15 pm

Trade Kopitar for Buffalo #10
Trade Doughty for Detroit 2-6 picks

Draft:
1. 4.Kakko, 10, Söderström, 20, Byram
2. 32. Lang, 36.Zegras, 38.Cozens, 60.Knight
3.63. Lalonde, 69.Zaitsev
4. 88.Wolf, 94.Poulin, 100.Caulfield, 117.Bertuzzi
5.131.MacPherson, 132.Guskov, 146.Gajarsky
6.156.Kuntar,162.Teply
7.187.Harley

So far doing great. 2.west ( 77-games)

Iafallo - Carter - Kakko
Kovalchuk - Kupari - Toffoli
Thomas - AndersonDolan - Kempe
Grundström - Dudas - Brown

Söderström - Martinez
Clague - Phaneuf
Forbort - Brickley

Quick - Campbell

Post by **jesterx7769** » Sat May 11, 2019 6:15 pm

Finished second to last in first season which was expected as I loaded up Ontario in the AHL who won the Calder atleast whoop! Kupari led AHL in scoring playing from LW.

We'll see how this draft ends up and the moves I can make in July. C is def a weakness so will prob grab one somehow and then keep good players up in NHL to atleast make playoffs

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Sat May 11, 2019 11:39 pm

Question: the rules do not specify if you can make waiver claims in 2nd season+. It does list about putting players on waivers and states:

5.2 No trades, waiver acquisitions or UFA acquisitions may be signed whatsoever during Season 1

What is the rule for Season 2 and onward?

Post by **jesterx7769** » Sun May 12, 2019 1:15 am

Looks like it was changed so you can't make any waiver claims. I think before it was you got two claims if you chose not to sign a free agent.

kenbauer · Post by **kenbauer** » Sun May 12, 2019 2:32 pm

jesterx7769 wrote: Sun May 12, 2019 1:15 am Looks like it was changed so you can't make any waiver claims. I think before it was you got two claims if you chose not to sign a free agent.

That sounds reasonable. I inferred that but it would probably be a good plan to make it clear.
Cheers and thanks!

Post by **Manimal** » Sun May 12, 2019 10:08 pm

Rule 7.5 of the gameplay rules is clear to me.

7.5 Instead choosing one of the UFA signing tiers, you may sign one player from waivers at any point during the year and without restriction as to annual salary. If you take this approach, you will not be able to sign any UFAs during that season.