How's it going in EHM2007? What team Are You?

mig174 · Post by **mig174** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:35 am

turned the Leafs around in 2 years:

1st year: Missed the playoffs, but traded up in the draft to end up with 1st and 3rd overall picks, selecting Tavares and Lander. Drafted a late-round gem in Steve Chaffin and traded some of my stars for Doughty, Pietrangelo, and Esposito.

2nd year: Got Erik Cole on free agency who is an absolute McDavid-ing beast. Makes any linemates that play with him put up 1-2 pts a night. Also picked up Scott Niedermayer off FA, who has been decent, but probably not worth the 5.75M/year. Board pressured me into resigning Kubina for 5.75M/year, but he has played very well. I then got Briere and Sharp for Esposito, bunch of prospects and picks. Made the playoffs, went up 3-0 in the series against TB, then lost 4-3...

3rd year: Dominating the surprisingly weak Eastern Conference (2nd team 14 pts behind me), 2nd overall behind Canucks (who are tearing it up with Kovalchuk). Erik Cole 2nd in scoring behind Kovalchuk. Toskala asked to be traded, so sent him + pick + prospect for Jay Bouwmeester. Fans and board were furious

but Toskala was Adam Oates, anyway. .899 SV and 3.4 GAA.

It's strange, though. I picked up Sam Ganger (first line potential, formed EDM prospect) on FREE AGENCY. Seems like something Kewin Lowe would do, I guess. Also, Tavares is a PPG player in his rookie year, but his stats haven't improved at all and he's rated as 'most overrated' by my assistant GM (who is 18-18 in Judging Ability and Judging Potential). I hope he is not a bust. All my other scouts say he's first line potential, though. But then again, they've been saying that about Steen ever since first season, and he has barely improved...

Post by **batdad** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:56 am

Hi mig..

1st off Welcome to TBL. Please go and introduce yourself in the arrivals thread.

2ndly...it is always good to hear stories, and we would love you to continue. There is even a blog if you wish. Great stuff!

3rd...Please watch your language, and since you are new make yourself familiar with the other rules in the announcement thread.

4th...if you make enough moves you can turn the Leafs into a 1st place team in a week. Now...when it is done without making any trades...that will be big news.

Congrats though on making the Leafs a dominant force. That is something that has not been done in real life..well not in my life and I am old.

gagner as an FA is not a big shock. As you get familiar with him if you ar using the original database you will realize....he is highly underrated in EHM as are several guys. Check out the other dbs out there that have edited players. In EHM Steen is useless.

mig174 · Post by **mig174** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:22 am

lol thanks batdad.

I'm using lidas' latest db, so it looks like I have Schenn, Doughty, Pietrangelo and Chaffin all maturing pretty soon

All the coaches and scouts are going nuts over Schenn (as they are for Tavares), but he hasn't shown much at NHL level yet...

Also I'm assuming it's a bug in lidas' db, but some prospects are signed to ridiculously rich deals when the game starts - Schenn is signed to 2.5/yr, Pietrangelo, 2.75/yr, Doughty 3.5/yr. Bodker, Kulemin etc all have 1.5+/yr. Tavares settled for 450K/yr..

I'm trying not to cheat by trading for guys on IR. However, I'm pretty sure I've already abused the engine in other ways. For example, a team puts an OK player on waivers, I claim him, wait a few weeks, flip him for a 3rd or 2nd round draft pick.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:30 am

No not a bug. Bonuses are included in the slaraies the youngsters are paid, like they are in real life in the NHL this season, because of the hard cap this year, where you cannot have the bonus (if the player makes it) come off the next season. This is because the NHLPA has chosen in RL to leave open the chance to renegotiate the CBA this offseason. Long winded explanation, but it means that until a player cannot possibly reach a bonus this season (ie games played, assists, goals) in real life...those $ count agianst the cap.

In the db, unfortunately those $ do not drop off as the player misses the bonus in question. It is just the way it is.

Ain't chaeating...the AI allows that. But to me it makes the game boring to do that stuff. Up to you as it is with all others. I just find it makes things silly and I try to play realistically and am not a fan of stories that do not.

hey..I went through my trade for stars with 22 ninth line prospects too....but it was 2 1/2 years ago, and lasted like a week.

binchnunker · Post by **binchnunker** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:17 am

In the dub, I tried to trade a young Right Winger Jared Irwin plus a 4th round pick to Moose Jaw for Horst Hradecky (Hasek Regen) they rejected, so I tried same guy, plus a 9th round pick and $60,000 (soo tempting to use money...) according to the gm/head coach they would take it. It got rejected.. so i took out the player and the pick.. offered just the 60k. They took it. I tried to stay away from just using picks (since theres 15 of them per year).. and money... but they wouldn't accept due to "roster issues" so money it was.. said he wants to play Major Junior.. but so far he won't accept a contract without an NHL Release Clause.

also, the 2 Euros i picked in the CHL Import draft. Marian Knebl and Stefan Toivanen.. anyone ever take either of them in any game? or could you see if they exist in your games, and give me an update, thanks. They were unranked, but my scouts loved them.

mig174 · Post by **mig174** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:45 am

yeah I guess... but I have no idea why any team would waive someone like Paul Gaustad (7.3 AvR) - so I had to pick him up bc imo he deserves to stay in the NHL.

matt44 · Post by **matt44** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:59 pm

Just starting season 2 with the Coyotes after getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by eventual winners Anaheim Ducks.

The only major transaction was trading Morris for Whitney from Anaheim.

My team for this coming season looks like being:

Bryzgalov
Toivonen (trying to ease Toivonen in gently to eventually get rid of Bryzgalov's wages)

Jovanovski - Komisarek
Eminger - Whitney
Pardy - Semenov

Umberger - Jokinen - Lisin
Hanzal - Mueller - Doan
Fedoruk - Brodziak - Mair
Carcillo - Svitov - Lidell

Svitov is on trial, he has a high wage for a 4th line player so the jury is out.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:31 pm

Finally captured the first Stanley Cup Championship in Atlanta Thrashers history to cap off the 2014-2015 season!!!!

Took a major 3 game to none lead over Anaheim in the Stanley Cup finals before letting them back in the series. Took the Cup with a 4-3 victory. Kovalchuk scored twice, and J.P. Dumont netted the game winner to clinch it on the road.

Most of my squad is back to try and repeat. Al Montoya left as a free agent to make way for Van Alexander (11th overall pick in 2011) who has been waiting in the wings. John Madden, while being instrumental on my penalty kill, was not resigned as a 41 year old.

As of right now, the team looks like this:

Ilya Kovalchuk - John Tavares - Marion Gaborik
Ansel Henry (21st overall 2011) - Marc-Antoine Pouilot - J.P. Dumont
Alexi Mihknov - Brooks Laich (18 pts in 23 playoff games) - Tomas Simo (4th overall 2009)
Petr Majercik (6th round 2010) - Mark Smith - Aaron Asham

Paul Mara - Jay Bouwmeester
Henrik Tallinder - Ryan Wilson (Norris 2014)
Emmanuel Bourgeouis (14th overall 2013) - Ilya Nikulin (2nd round 2004)
Alex Plante (8th overall 2007) - Nikolai Lukyachikov (LA 1st round (#28) 2007)

Van Alexander
Curtis Sanford

I'll be keeping my goaltending options open, just in case Alexander isn't quite ready for prime time. He wasn't seeing much over the last few years backing up Montoya, but his stats in the AHL were insane.

Post by **batdad** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:23 pm

Okay so season over. With the following line up I won the cup. It would be much more impressive without Mats Sundin if I had done it, and without Roberto.

Interesting though: Won game 4 of the final over Buffalo in OT. 2-1. Game winning goal:

Landon Wilson 1 (Darcy Hordichuk, Kevin Bieksa). Love that Darcy did it. My other goal in that game was Burrows (Kesler, laperriere). Where were Mats, Daniel, Pavol, Henrik, Steve, Taylor? My deadline day move (Lappy) and my waiver wire pick up (Wilson) paid off!

Anyway final 2006-07 lineup:

D. Sedin-H. Sedin-Demitra
Welwlood-Sundin-Bernier
Burrows-Kesler-Laperierre
Hordichuk-Johnson-Wilson
Pyatt (injured) Oulett

Mitchell-Salo
Ohlund-Edler
O'Brien-Bieksa
Davison

Luongo
Labarbera

On to the draft. 1st to note is that I have dealt Michaal Grabner and a 5th to Philadelphia for Atlanta's 3rd rounder( 60th overall). I almost moved Sanford and Nycholat for picks but changed my mind. In real life they would not get that much. (Of course in real life, Grabner may bring more than a 3rd, especially adding in a 5th rounder)

Next up: NHL draft report (boy is it lean--clearly gotta finish up the WHL and Q in the Lidas db.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 5:38 pm

So I'm playing a game as the Bruins with the Lidas 1.1 rosters. It's July after my first season and I'm getting news items about Henrik Sedin signing with the Canadiens. Out of curiosity, I decided to see if his brother Daniel signed elsewhere or if he was a UFA (he had actually extended with Vancouver before his contract expired, while Henrik went the UFA route). Rather than searching for Daniel Sedin, I decided to go to Henrik's profile via the news item and then go check Favorite Staff on the Information tab. Henrik has Luongo, Sundin, and Demitra listed as his favorite staff but not his brother Daniel. So I go and do the old fashion player name search and check Daniel. He's got his brother, as well as Luongo and Demitra, listed as his favorite staff. So the result of this is... Daniel likes Henrik more than Henrik likes Daniel. It sounds like there's an interesting story buried there.

Post by **batdad** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:27 pm

What is funny about that...is it is EXACTLY the same in my game. Me thinks Lidas forgot?

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:03 pm

Nope. I'm betting it stems from some deep resentment over who Mommy loves most. Either that or Henrik has a crush on Mats Sundin.

Post by **batdad** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:10 pm

Yeah...well Milan Lucic lists Henrik has his fave in my game...So lets see..

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:47 pm

Ugggh! No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm starting to think that many of the "Favorite Staff" are happening fairly quickly after starting a new game. I know some were set in the DB but many seem to be happening based purely on who they play with. I think everybody on my team has at least one. Is that because of that DEBUG line in the extra_config?

mtsouth · Post by **mtsouth** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:53 pm

My 08-09 Canes are starting to steam roll again. After playing around with matching lines and watching the team go in a funk, I dumped that idea and went back to rolling out my guys and letting them go. My current lines are:

Ladd-Staal-Marian Hossa (FA for around 7 mill a season)
Fehr-D Roy-Pominville
Walker-Brindy-Williams
Dingman-Betts-Ortmyer

Eminger-Vaananen
Gleason-Van Ryn
Sopel-Morrison

Hossa,Staal, and Ladd are 1-3 in scoring for the league. Hossa leads in goals and Ladd leads in assists. I picked up Roy and Pominville near the deadline for Vrbata (who had near 100 points playing in Hossa's place last year), Leino, and the rights to Aaron Marvin. Buffalo had them on 3rd/4th line duty and they can do so much more. Ladd got suspended two games during which Pominville registered a hat trick and 5 total points in his place. Both Roy and Pom reupped for 2 more years so my top 6 should be set for the forseeable future.
I've got Sutherby on IR and he'll replace either Walker or Dingman when he gets back. I'm enjoying having one stud line and 3 balanced lines. It makes it feel realistic. I have not abused the AI by making deals on or around draft day and have tried to find my own players to pick and grow. I figure Brindy might not be around long, but I have Colin Wilson and Zack Torquanto as my last two #1 picks and somehow Bogosian slipped into the 2nd last year so I got him too.

Post by **Manimal** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:43 pm

I'm playing with the Plymouth Whalers in the OHL. Currently I'm first in the Conference with 10 wins in 15 games.
Jeremy Smith is providing me with stellar goaltending(1.61 GAA, .939 save& and an 8.83 rating) and Chris Terry, Joe Gaynor and Matt Caria are my top forwards.
Added some depth FAs but no deals yet. Trying to be patient(I'm usually not very good at it).
I'm gonna have to make a decision on my over-agers when Lee comes back from injury. Carolina Hurricanes sent me Brett Bellemore and even though all my staff loves him, he hasn't played well.

binchnunker · Post by **binchnunker** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:52 am

So... my blues.... Not as terrible as last season.. but can't get going. I have a goaltending Fiasco going on..

My current record is 26-27-9, currently 11th in west 5pts out of the playoffs.

My lines look like:

D. Heatley - S. Gomez - S. Kapanen
M. Kahnberg - T. Oshie - F. Pisani
B. Eager - T. Fleischmann - D. Brown
M. Rucinsky - K. Stewart - P. Thoresen

C. White - E. Johnson
J. McKee - S. Lund (31st overall in 2007)
A. Dubinin - K. Dykhuis

K. Barulin
R. Fiala

couple of decent trades

Traded Brett McLean to Vancouver for Patrick Thoresen
Traded Dave Bolland to LA for Dustin Brown
Picked up Ben Eager for a 6th rounder

Well.. in Sexsmith's 3 game call-up he never managed a win, but never lossed in regulation.. ya, 3 shootouts, facing 126 shots stopping 116 of them. first game was a 1-1 game against the Bruins where he posted 46 saves, lost the shootoout because heatley blew it. sure scores 70 goals a season, but misses every shootout... ok well, he's got 46 goals in 62 games.

Once my goaltending gets settled i'll be much better off.. oh and my PK.. seem to give up 2-3 goals a game on the pk

My board wants the playoffs.. well I can't make magic happen.. but we'll see if I can string together some wins

binchnunker · Post by **binchnunker** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:42 am

Well, my team fell apart.. literally.. Heatley went out 2 weeks, gomez out for a week, both my goalies out for a week to ten days. Colin White keeps gettin himself suspended... i'm far out of the playoffs now. about 15 points with 6 games left.. so ya.. we'll see if my job survives

The Hutch · Post by **The Hutch** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:13 am

Just about to hit the trade deadline, Canucks are holding firm with their usual second overall, while the Leafs are sitting in the eight spot with only a two point cushion.

Toronto's been hit with a serious injury bug this season, both seperate and coincidental time spent on the IR for most of my core players. There's not enough cap space to rent a difference maker, so the name of the game for the deadline will be to improve depth. If the team falters again (Either missing the playoffs or a first round exit) this could wind up being Paul Maurice's last season as coach. He's under contract for a while, so if I can't find who I would consider an improvement behind the bench, then I'll ride it out and try to improve the team in other ways.

Does Ken Hitchcock hate Toronto in this game? He got fired by the Flyers, and has a desired salary for Vancouver (Checked it out as a comparison) but has absolutely no interest in coaching for the Leafs. If he wanted in, I'd drop Maurice in a second.

jbsnadb · Post by **jbsnadb** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:04 pm

Had to make a few salary cap related moves, including unloading J.P Dumont and his $2.3mil salary (who I had signed as a free agent during the previous season when Ilya Kovalchuk went down for 4 months) on the Leafs for a second round pick, and later on ended Ilya Nikulin's 7+ season Thrashers career (Mark Crawford never though much of him, even though he played well for me). Got a 3rd rounder for him, opening up enough salary to recall Emmanuel Bourgeous from Chicago.

Got off to an absolutely dreadful start. 2-6-0 before a 9-8 shootout win over the Rangers snapped the squad into shape, kicking off an 8 game winning streak. Now, we're sitting at 20-7-0 at the end of November, going 12-2-0 for the month. Kovalchuk and Gaborik are 1-2 in points (51 and 48 respectively) and 6 Thrashers sit in the Top 50, with 5 of my top 6 forwards already with 10 goals or more (Kovalchuk, Tavares, Gaborik, Ansel Henry and Tomas Simo).

The best part is, this is all my head coach. I don't touch tactics at all. My repeat chances so far are looking pretty good, but I won't have any cap room to make any deadline moves at this rate.

gibson41 · Post by **gibson41** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:08 pm

Recently I acquired Zdeno Chara at the trade deadline for 1st,1st,2nd and a prospect, and he made a huge impact since the day one. Oilers now are 9-3-0 in Chara's 12 games...he's 3-5-8, 14 +/-, 8.92 rating and look at this:

Going to the playoff, the teams looks like this:

Grebeshkov - Chara
Vishnevski - Visnovsky
Smid - Staios

Hemský - Gagner - Cole
Penner - Horcoff - Pisani
Moreau - Schremp - Tucker
LaCouture - Betts - Ortmeyer
Reddox

Osgood - Drouin-Deslauriers

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:16 pm

Chara is a monster! He had an 8.96 average rating and 40 points for me in season 1 on my current game. It always drives me nuts to see the Bruins trade him away when I'm playing another team for a challenge or something. He's the cornerstone of their team!

gibson41 · Post by **gibson41** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:19 pm

bruins72 wrote:Chara is a monster! He had an 8.96 average rating and 40 points for me in season 1 on my current game. It always drives me nuts to see the Bruins trade him away when I'm playing another team for a challenge or something. He's the cornerstone of their team!

Yeah, I was actually surprised they let him go, but they were struggling, so I took a shot. Actually they accepted a 1st,2nd and a prospect for him, but I didn't feel that would go through in real life, so I tossed another 1st draft pick. I have never been good at getting my defense play good, so I wanted a big guy for my defense who doesn't need right tactics to play tight. I was battling for play-off spot when I acquired him. I struggled to acquire any good D in the offseason (both Blue Jackets and Oilers game), so I decided to do it this way.

But weirder things happened at my game. Check Trashers line up in second season: Sundin, Datsyuk, Kovalchuk, Nagy, Zednik, Mara, Dumont, Spacek, Kalinin, Kozlov, Pahlsson. They sure did some good moves and trades x(

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:46 pm

gibson41 wrote: Yeah, I was actually surprised they let him go, but they were struggling, so I took a shot. Actually they accepted a 1st,2nd and a prospect for him, but I didn't feel that would go through in real life, so I tossed another 1st draft pick. I have never been good at getting my defense play good, so I wanted a big guy for my defense who doesn't need right tactics to play tight. I was battling for play-off spot when I acquired him. I struggled to acquire any good D in the offseason (both Blue Jackets and Oilers game), so I decided to do it this way.

Sadly, the Peter Chiarelli in EHM isn't quite as smart as the one in real life. He usually dismantles the team in a season or two and doesn't get prime value for the players he trades away. In one of my games, I saw him trade Chara to the Coyotes for Hanzal plus a little (picks or prospects, I can't remember). This was the game I was playing for the Saint John challenge. I took got an offer to take over the Bruins and took it (because the challenge was ending). After 2 seasons, they were last place in the NHL and had drafted first overall. They had a couple big names but overall, it wasn't good.

matt44 · Post by **matt44** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:28 pm

Well my season 2 with the Coyotes is going from bad to worse. ABout 6 games in Doan goes down with an ACL for 4 months. Then 8 games later Mair, who was the main guy on my checking line and doing great goes down for 2 months.

Garrett Bembridge come up on waivers and I saw his 18 Speed and 17 Passing and Wristshot so thought i'd take a punt on him. I put him on the 1st line with Jokinen and Umberger to utilise his passing abilities and he goes off to a flier! 11 points in 7 games so I think I have decent injury cover for Doan...........then HE blows his ACL and is out for 3 months.

In the meantime Svitov was sucking big time so traded him away for a 2nd rnd pick to the Sabres whilst I still could. SO its been alot of chopping and changing, bringing up guys from the AHL.

Currently sitting at 18 wind and 19 losses. Just the chance to play a settled side for 5 or 6 games in a row would be nice! lol

Umberger isn't doing nearly as well as last season, but then he hasnt been on a settled line.

On the brightside the defense are starting to shape up and Toivanen is looking great inbetween the pipes. I played him in a few games early on and he sucked SO bryzgalov took over and did well before hitting a slump so Toivanen came back in and has gone up to a 9.09 SV% from around 8.68% after 10 games.

I'm still missing a solid second line scorer, or even a franchise LW so I can knock Umberger back onto the 2nd.