The tinkering I did around the trade deadline seemed to have paid off. I had certain players that weren't really performing well anymore and I was able to work a couple deals, tweaking the roster until I got the guys I wanted. Unfortunately, I had to give up a young player I would've liked to have held onto but you have to give quality to get it.
Here's a look at my trades. I wasn't going to post them until I was done because I thought a couple of them were pretty darn good trades. A couple of them I'm upset with myself for making now. Weiss was annoying me because he just didn't seem to be performing like I thought he could. In retrospect, I should've been able to get much more in return for him. That's okay though. That trade lead to the trade that got me the Sedin twins. I've never played as the Canuck and I've never bothered to go after those two but I'm sold on them now! They were great down the stretch for me and really stepped it up in the playoffs. I had two killer scoring lines and a third line that could chip in some too. I benched my 4th line for most of the last segment of games and just about all of the playoffs. I tended to fare better with just 3 lines. Here are the lines I used at the end of the season and in the playoffs. Sometimes I would switch D Sedin and Kopitar up.
I should be looking good moving forward if I decide to play a second season. I've only got 3 players on my roster who are 30 years old or over (the oldest being 31). Most of my guys are in their mid-20's. I also like the mental attributes of my team. Only 2 players have a Teamwork rating of less than 14... and they don't get to play very often. Nobody is below 10 in Determination or Workrate. These guys have good character. The downside of all the trading I have done is that I've only got a couple decent prospects in the system. Shea Weber and Nick Parrish are the only guys on my farm team that are really worth anything or have a legit chance of playing in the NHL. I've got 3 young goaltenders that I'm kind of up in the air about... Dan LaCosta, Ryan Munce, and Jonathan Bernier. None of them really knock my socks off. Oh yeah, I've still got Derek Nelson (Jack Johnson) playing in the NCAA. I've have some decent picks in the early stages of the draft though. I've got 3 1st rounders, 2 2nd rounders, and 1 3rd rounder. I traded all the rest.
Well, I'm going to see what I get in the draft. I don't know if I'll continue on to a second season. I've been thinking about playing as either the Blackhawks or Sabres for a while now. Then again, I've thought about playing as the Bruins again, but doing things differently. Maybe it would be smarter to wait and start a new season once the patch comes out? Any idea if there is going to be any updates to the roster (trades or whatever)?
