Challenge 16: Edmonton Oilers (Discussion Thread)

Post by **visualdarkness** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:43 am

Just ended season three which had a really heartbraking end as I lost the Conf. Final game 7 in overtime. Losing Suter, Stone and Hemsky in the long battle against the Ducks sent me out of the play-off's.

My team played really great at home, both in the season and in the PO's, and I finished first in West.

Awards:

Calder/"Rookie Allstar": MPS without any dubt, he was great all season long!
Having him (superb rep) signed long-term for 2.2m looks really cheap.

Norris/"Allstar team"/Hart: Souray, the old uy knows how to play and took a salary cut!

Richards was runner up for Art Ross behind Ovetchkin.

The lack of rookie defensemen resulted in a spot on the "Rookie Allstar" for a completely awful player called Jonathan Sigalet. Heck, he didn't even have a team during the award cermony.

Now time for the draft and hopefully at least one goalie prospect!

Post by **visualdarkness** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:51 am

Oh, I forgot to mention that Souray had 83 points in 81 games, not bad for a D-man.

Post by **visualdarkness** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:13 am

Finished the draft:

Round/Pick/Ranking

1/28/21 - Andrée Ericsson - A more talented Marleau, although unambitious. Consistency of 18 sealed the deal!

2/58/155 - Maxim Voronin - Jack Johnson/"more talented Rivet" who will be needed on the right D in the future.

3/88/118 - Ondrej Lang - Back-up who already looks ready for tough competition, a safe shot.

4/118/124 - Valtteri Junnila - Second line Mikko Koivu, quick forechecker.

5/148/150 - Vitaly Zayonchkovsky - 5/6 teamplayer who looks NHL-ready with his laser-shot! Looks a lot like Visnovsky with his size.

6/178/147 - Jani Rosenberg - 2nd line poor mans Savard who works hard and makes tape-to-tape passes.

7/208/none - Tim Fuchs - Probably the Gerber regen and a future back-up who is somewhat inconsitent (8).

Marsac · Post by **Marsac** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:52 am

Wrapped up the first 20 games of season four yesterday and while we lead the conference there have been some struggles.

First of all our special teams are absolutely terrible with PP at 12.2% and PK at 78.8%. I think I can provide a simple reason for that in one word: Souray. The biggest reason for the weak PK is the lack of solid defensive D-men, I only have two on the team right now in Gilbert and Plante in my opinion. Fowler and Gudbranson will solve that but I don't want to rush them into the NHL.

I claimed Andrew Alberts off waivers to solve the issue but injuries coupled with suspensions forced me to send him to the AHL for salary cap reasons and he was claimed on re-entry waivers when I tried to bring him back up so there's my UFA/waiver claim wasted. I still have my trade available so maybe I'll end up using that to adress the issue as well.

On the forward/offensive side of things MPS is doing well in his rookie season with 7G 6A +9 in 9:44 of average ice-time. Meanwhile Cogliano is sophomore slumping hard with 3G 2A -1 in 12:45 of average ice-time with 4:46 of it spent on the PP which would be part of the explanation for the low PP percentage.

In the AHL Roy (8.50 AvR), Fowler (8.46), Gudbranson (7.50 in two games due to 3 month injury), Motin (7.69), Lander (8.31), O'Marra (8.00), Eberle (7.92) and Rajala (7.77) are doing well.

So to summarize what the team needs right now is short term defensive D and what we have available is mainly Petry, Smid and Cogliano. Also, the future (which I probably won't get to play before the challenge is over) looks bright.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:51 pm

visualdarkness wrote: Awards:

Calder/"Rookie Allstar": MPS without any dubt, he was great all season long!
Having him (superb rep) signed long-term for 2.2m looks really cheap.

I just brought him over to my AHL team in season 3 because I forgot to sign him right away at the start of the game. So by the time I was able to offer him a deal, I had to wait another year. He's done great in the AHL though. If I have the time to play a season 4, I'll definitely be bringing him onto the NHL roster!

Post by **visualdarkness** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:08 pm

bruins72 wrote:
visualdarkness wrote: Awards:

Calder/"Rookie Allstar": MPS without any dubt, he was great all season long!
Having him (superb rep) signed long-term for 2.2m looks really cheap.

I just brought him over to my AHL team in season 3 because I forgot to sign him right away at the start of the game. So by the time I was able to offer him a deal, I had to wait another year. He's done great in the AHL though. If I have the time to play a season 4, I'll definitely be bringing him onto the NHL roster!

Do so and hope that he doesn't end up lika Cogliano for me. No effort, no results and sadly no trade-value.

I got a disturbing cap-problem but no really good trades to solve it. I'm thinking of trading Pouliot and Penner for Higgins and Foligno, but I don't knoe if I'm ready to let go of Penner. Pouliot and Nilsson for two young decent prospects would free up some money and two rooster-spots.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:15 pm

visualdarkness wrote:
bruins72 wrote:
visualdarkness wrote: Awards:

Calder/"Rookie Allstar": MPS without any dubt, he was great all season long!
Having him (superb rep) signed long-term for 2.2m looks really cheap.

I just brought him over to my AHL team in season 3 because I forgot to sign him right away at the start of the game. So by the time I was able to offer him a deal, I had to wait another year. He's done great in the AHL though. If I have the time to play a season 4, I'll definitely be bringing him onto the NHL roster!
Do so and hope that he doesn't end up lika Cogliano for me. No effort, no results and sadly no trade-value.

Cogliano has been really good for me. He had 47G 47A in my first season and 52G 48A in my second season. His scoring is down in my third season, 30G 46A in 72 games so far, but the whole team's scoring is down. Overall, I've had more success with him than some of the other guys other people seem to favor.

Post by **Manimal** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:06 pm

I'm back playing the game! I've spent the past weeks doing work on the Lidas-db. Creating lots of canadian junior players, mostly.
As for the Oilers, I'm still in season two. I added Bryzgalov in the summer and he is playing well for me. I did not sign any UFAs(tried to get a few but none wanted to join) I thought the team lacked grit so I picked up Nick Tarnasky on waivers. In his first game he had a goal and an assist for a 10 ranking!
Hopefully, I can find the time to finish the season before the deadline

Post by **visualdarkness** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:14 pm

bruins72 wrote:
visualdarkness wrote:
bruins72 wrote: I just brought him over to my AHL team in season 3 because I forgot to sign him right away at the start of the game. So by the time I was able to offer him a deal, I had to wait another year. He's done great in the AHL though. If I have the time to play a season 4, I'll definitely be bringing him onto the NHL roster!
Do so and hope that he doesn't end up lika Cogliano for me. No effort, no results and sadly no trade-value.
Cogliano has been really good for me. He had 47G 47A in my first season and 52G 48A in my second season. His scoring is down in my third season, 30G 46A in 72 games so far, but the whole team's scoring is down. Overall, I've had more success with him than some of the other guys other people seem to favor.

Mikhnov and Pääjärvi have simply made Cogs lousy play expendable but sadly I got too many expensive players so I really have to make other changes than the ones I want to make.

Post by **McQwak** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:53 pm

I can't believe how many guys played (and recored) 5+ seasons

Looks like this challenge's got good timing with right team

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 8:10 pm

Yeah, I'm very pleased with the participation on this challenge. We've had a lot of new people taking part in this challenge too and they've been some of the ones that have played several seasons. It's all good! I just hope we get as many interested in the next challenge.

Post by **McQwak** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 8:47 pm

I'm getting ready for the next one. I couldn't participate on this one due to heavy work in past months, but I hope it's slowly changing

Regarding canadian juniors challenge: will someone be able to write brief notes about rules in that league? I'm afraid not all of us are familiar enough with such league. I mean min/max age, some vets limit, drafts in league, possible clauses, salary cap...
I know batdad, Manimal, Ceebee will propably laugh but many of us will surely appreciate it.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:00 pm

I'd be interested in that too, McQwak. You might want to post that over in the Challenge Comments and Questions thread. Hopefully somebody can give a rundown of that stuff. I've only played a few seasons with junior teams in the past.

Post by **visualdarkness** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:46 pm

I finally made my trade now and as I had to dump salary I only had few options on who to ship out.

To Nashville
O'Sullivan + Pouliot

To Edmonton
Colin Wilson + Shattenkirk

I brought in one more physical younger offensive player (I always have more success with that type) signed to a cheaper contract than O'Sullivan and locked for two years! Shattenkirk was way to cheap as he looks like a future first pairing d-man who I'm able to send down this season and I got to send away that expendable guy Pouliot!

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:59 pm

That's not a bad deal. I liked Colin Wilson when we had him during the Nashville challenge.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 5:40 pm

I'm finally getting closer to wrapping up my third season. I've been busy and haven't had too much time for it. I finished the regular season and won the President's Trophy. Now I'm facing Calgary in the first round of the playoffs. We've played one game and won it but lost Gilbert for 3 weeks due to an injury in that game. We'll see how things go.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 9:41 pm

So I made it through the first round by the skin of my teeth! The Flames took us to 7 games. Injuries were the main cause of this. I lost Gilbert in that first game but had Smid coming back from injury, so it worked out okay. Then I lost Toskala about 6 1/2 minutes into game 4. We were leading the series 3-1 after game 4. JDD held on for the win in game 4 (he let in 1 goal when he came into the game in relief of Toskala. He then lost the next 2 games and let Calgary even up the series. We pulled off the win in game 7 though. Of course, we lost Cogliano in that game. He's now out for 2 weeks with a fractured wrist. So MPS is up with the big team earlier than I had anticipated!

Círyatan · Post by **Círyatan** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 7:03 pm

bruins72 wrote:I was just reading something today suggesting that Linus Omark has left the KHL. He might actually be heading to the Oilers. The real life team might accomplish something none of us were able to pull off in the challenge.

I think I saw Omark on the Oilers roster on one of the screenshots... not sure whose though.

Anyone? Or am I wrong? If I'm right, I'd still like to know the magic formula you used to get him across the pond.

I've been really busy lately and I haven't even touched EHM since posting the Season 2 summary screenshots. Too bad. Maybe I'll have the time to play one more season over Easter... If not, I hear there's an OHL Challenge coming on after this one? Never played Canadian Junior before, so it should be fun.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:32 pm

Only a few more days to finish up your challenge!

I know I've got to get through my current playoffs and get to July 1st so I can post my stats.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:53 pm

I finished my playoffs with a Stanley Cup victory over the Buffalo Sabres! Awards time...

Horcoff : Ross 2nd runner-up, Conn Smythe, Pearson 2nd runner-up
Penner : Conn Smythe runner-up, Richard 2nd runner-up, Plus Minus second runner-up
O'Sullivan : Conn Smythe 2nd runner-up
Hemsky : Lady Byng
Moreau : Selke
Souray : Second All-Star Team
Visnovsky : Norris
Petrecki : Calder 2nd runner-up, Rookie All-Star Team
Tom Renney : Jack Adams award

I won't get to my draft until tomorrow. I'll do my draft then and get my stats posted. 3 seasons will be it for me. I wish I could have done more but I got too busy.

outdooral · Post by **outdooral** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:13 pm

Right down to the wire to finish season 3, and what a season.Heres a little recap.
Picked up Carcillo from waivers,and traded Comrie and Brule for Vermette.We had a good start and were kind of cruising along mid pack until Jan.Then the wheels fell off.We went 2-12,Conklin was terrible,ok the whole team was as well.Some line changes, and tactics were revamped,and JDD got to be #1 in net and we rolled off a 10-13 run in Feb.the only dark spot was losing Gilbert for 3 months.Decided to go with size and strength so called up T.Peckham.
Up and down through March and JDD goes out with a broken finger.We finish in 5th with 97 points and get to face Calgary who finished in 4th with 117 points.They also had dominated us in the regular season 7-1,and outscoring us 25 -15.We upset them in 7 games but lose Moreau for 3 weeks.Conklin plays well.
Then we get 1st place Vancouver.Conklin stands on his head and steals us a series. We win in 5.
The Ducks come next and the series is higher scoring but we sweep the series.
For the Finals we get 4th place Florida who came from behind after being down 3-1 against the #1 Rangers.
We get lots of rest ,Moreau and Gilbert come back and we win 4 straight to take the cup.

Thanks for all the fun in this challenge.I'll keep this going for a bit.I want to see if Gagner keeps improving and how Fowler does.
In other news Souray resigned for a discount for 2 more years(4.1/season) .And for you Bruins fans Tim Thomas retired due to injuries.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:22 pm

I Finally got my stats in too. I brought MPS up for the playoffs and he really paid off! Cogliano missed good portions of the playoffs and MPS stepped in to cover very well. He had 21 points in 17 playoff games on the way to our 2nd Cup!

Post by **joehelmer** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:32 pm

I forgot that I hadn't recorded my stats for my corrupted game, will now record my last segment for season 2 and then record my third season.

Post by **joehelmer** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:33 pm

In my third season I managed to get things together and we won the Stanley Cup.

I wish my save hadn't became corrupted as I think I had built a good team together.

Salming · Post by **Salming** » Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:23 am

when is next challange? i am bored and got exams today so i can play alot next 1-2 weaks

gonna do a 10 seson in a weak again