EHM The Blue Line

Version 8.3.0 (2023/24) (10 October 2023)

General Updates:
- Latest notable transactions including non-playable league roster refreshes
- Re balanced PA across the DB for current and future real-life players to better cluster for quality NHL and CHL league drafts in 2024 and later. Prospect Generator will be added after the 2028 draft class. -- thanks imactuallyanotter!!
- Updated staff for most playable leagues -- thanks Manimal!!
- Updated various team colors/names for Dani9
- Updated Prospect Generator: Tweaks to Consistency and Important Matches value distribution. -- thanks imactuallyanotter!!
- Updated officials across multiple leagues -- thanks GerardS0406!!

NHL Updates:
- Updates for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Entry Draft class notables
- Updated depth charts and captains post training camp - more detailed re-rates to come later in the year
- Updated season starting injuries
-- NOTE: Lots of guys have Chest or Twisted ankles/knees for the first 3 months, this is to ensure they will be day to day injured at start of season for cap reasons to match IRL. These injuries were chosen as they will not have potential re-occurrence, if you want to remove these edit the extra_config.cfg file in a text editor before you start your game!

Austrian Updates:
- Updated/added Austria U20 International as playable and updated clubs

Danish Updates:
- Added U18 division

German Updates:
- Updated affiliates across all leagues -- thanks Matt!!

Japanese Updates:
- Corrected number of teams in Stage 1 -- thanks to those who reported this!!

Russian Updates:
- Updated KHL transfer rules -- thanks Снеговивичок!!

Swedish Updates -- thanks Aahlstroem!!
- Re-rated SHL and HA players, goalie stats and staff
- Updated SHL and HA captains, financial data, affiliations, arenas, rivalries and retired numbers
- Updated J20 Nationell transfer rules
- Updated J18 Nationell and U16 SM rosters

Ukrainian Updates:
- Updated UHL clubs, rosters and league structure

United States Updates:
- Fixed crash involving Minnesota High School Hockey clubs -- thanks Dani9!!
- Updated NCAA staff, some of these lists haven't been touched in years

Version 8.4.0 (2023/24) (11 November 2023)

General Updates:
- Latest notable transactions
- Transactions and roster refreshes across several smaller leagues -- thanks and welcome back Matee!!
- Adjusted player aggression, dirtiness and agitation to bring penalty minutes into closer alignment with real life numbers -- thanks IAmActuallyAnOtter!!
- Updated several club names and colors for Dani9's logo pack

Continental Play Updates: -- thanks PabloSanok!!
- Updated several leagues linked to the Continental Cup, including shuttering some smaller leagues who are not active over the next few years.
- Updated CCup and CHL licenses for accurate teams in 2023-24

NHL Updates:
- Updated rights for some players in the KHL -- thanks AngryDuck!!
- Updated 2024-2027 draft classes based on several early watch lists/rankings (for 2024) and statistical analysis of DB and Prospect Generator tweaks -- thanks IAmActuallyAnOtter!!
- Fixed/tuned attributes of many players to allow for better growth with better attributes selected per player roles -- thanks IAmActuallyAnOtter!!

Austrian Updates:
- Updated transfer rules for win2day ICE Hockey League and Alps Hockey League -- thanks mat.liebl!!

Canadian Updates:
- Fixed OJHL league structure

Czechia Updates:
- Updated clubs and staff -- thanks Matee!!

Finnish Updates:
- Updated II-divisioona clubs -- thanks Ahmat!!

German Updates: -- thanks mat.liebl!!
- Updated and re-rated DEL and DEL2 players and staff
- Updated reputations and captains for clubs in DEL, DEL2, Oberliga and DNL
- Updated financials for DEL2

Polish Updates:
- Updated arenas and clubs -- thanks PabloSanok!!

Russian Updates:
- Fixed Olympic year schedule template -- thanks Filip85 for the report and penguinrevolt for the fix!!

Slovakian Updates:
- Updated TIPOS hokejova liga clubs -- thanks Dani9!!

Slovenian Updates:
- Updated IHL league structure -- thanks Filip85!!

Spanish Updates:
- Updated clubs, players and staff in LNHH

Version 8.5.0 (2023/24) (11 December 2023)

General Updates:
- Latest notable transactions
- Updated currency exchange rates -- thanks Rass!!

NHL Updates:
- Scattered rating update work based on data from NHL EDGE, Evolving Hockey and The Pro Hockey Group/CapFriendly Premium, working with IAmActuallyAnOtter to create sustainable processes to make updates more consistent and easier using these data sets.
-- These updates are league-wide and sporadic based on what data is available of quality, full organizational re-rates will happen over the off-season
- Updates to notables for 2025 Entry Draft class
- Updated CA/PA of NCAA players who should garner NHL attention for ELCs

Prospect Generator Updates: thanks IAmActuallyAnOtter!!
- Updated PG potential levels to match the level of talent seen in the 2019-2024 drafts inclusive to give more consistency in talent in longer-term saves
- Created some new player archetypes, particularly on the defensive defencemen and forward roles
- Created more targeted mid-level ability prospects to help fill in the gaps between PA level 140-150 and 160-170
- Created "fill-in" players for the 2028 NHL draft year (last draft year between IRL prospects and the PG kicking in). These players are available to be immediately drafted in CHL league drafts, removing the need to use "Generate Extra Junior Players" if you play as a GM in those leagues
- Increased the floor of most major nation players to 110 from 90
- Lowered the ceiling of most non-major nation players from 140 to 120

German Updates:
- Updated free agent players -- thanks Mat.liebl!!

United States Updates:
- Updated AHL and ECHL transfer rules

Version 8.6.0 (2023/24) (16 January 2024)

General Updates:
- Latest notable transactions
- Increased the Upper Age Limit of some junior leagues by 1 to work around EHM limitations involving real-life player situations which could lead to them being dropped at sim start and leading to poor or no development

NHL Updates:
- Continued scattered re-rating update work based on data from NHL EDGE, Evolving Hockey and The Pro Hockey Group/CapFriendly Premium covering NHLers, prospects and future draft picks.
- Updated 2024 draft class based on NHL CSS Mid-Term rankings

European Updates:
- Updated several lower-level European leagues and nations -- thanks Matee!!
- Updates of UFAs for various nationalities, some club and league name and color updates.
- Refreshed players in the top junior level U20 leagues for top IIHF nations
- Updated several Czech and Slovak future NHL draft prospects -- thanks RastosTheKodo!!!

North American Updates:
- CHL and CJHL league trade deadline transactions processed, draft picks updated best as I could follow
- Updated clubs, competitions and players across various junior leagues -- thanks Archibaulduk!!
- Updated several Canadian club names to support the new release of the logo pack -- thanks Dani9!!
- Fixed a bunch of incorrect AHL/ECHL contracts and re-rated most players under contract

Version 8.7.0 (2023/24) (20 February 2024)

General Updates:
- Latest notable transactions
- Updated Euro Hockey Tour stages -- thanks Vik3tbotselektor!!

Prospect Generator Updates:
- Fixed most players having a favourite number of 1
- Reduced amount of Canadian players with secondary nationalities

NHL Updates:
- Tweaked financial data for NHL based on feedback and testing
- Removed players from the 2018 WJC team charged with sexual assault
- Updated LTIR minimum days to 28 from 24.
- Various NHL team re-rates including feedback from fans -- huge thanks to those who have helped so far!
-- Anaheim Ducks - Dart
-- Boston - jesarino
-- Chicago - Seanie
-- New Jersey - Spade18
-- Washington Capitals - DrCornDog
Re-Rates by xECK29x:
-- Colorado Avalanche
-- Edmonton Oilers (thanks SwayHeyKid for spotchecking)
-- Florida Panthers
-- New York Islanders
-- Ottawa Senators
-- Pittsburgh Penguins
-- Tampa Bay Lightning
-- Toronto Maple Leafs
- More tweaks to the 2024 NHL Draft class based on mid-season ratings from various publications

Asian Updates:
- Updated all levels of hockey in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, this includes comps, clubs, arenas, players and staff -- thanks Vik3tbotselektor!!!

Swedish Updates:
- Programmatically re-rated Hockeyallsvenskan based on feedback, likely needs some manual tweaks -- thanks ItWasJustified!!

Version 8.8.0 (2023/24) (8 March 2024)

General Updates:
- Latest notable transactions
- World Cup now hosted by a random participant nation each draw -- thanks Celtic for reporting!!

Prospect Generator Updates -- thanks IAmActuallyAnOtter!!
- Fixed an error that was causing "1" to be the majority of favourite player numbers
- Full renewal of player names to reduce prevalence of second nationalities in the first few season of prospect generation. Thank you Chat-GPT.
- Added a three-way select option so that in the PG you can either "duplicate" existing and historical star players, create "sons" for them, or not have any recognition of these players in the database
- Reduced average player heights across the board by ~2-5cm.
- Changed formulae to give wider variation of mental and technical attributes at player generation stage (no change to physicals)
- Re-balanced nationality distribution at the top end (less obscure nationalities at the top of the NHL level)
- Created "Day 1" younger non-players that have the potential to grow into NHL level staff

NHL Updates:
- Updated Trade Deadline date
- Further tweaking of the 2024 NHL Draft class based on mid-season ratings from various publications
- Continued NHL team re-rates including feedback from fans -- huge thanks to those who have helped so far!
-- Anaheim Ducks - Dart
-- Colorado Avalanche - greger_jens
-- Detroit Red Wings - KingShark
-- Montreal Canadiens - Treb
-- Washington Capitals - jesarino/DrCornDog
- Re-Rates by xECK29x:
-- Calgary Flames
-- Carolina Hurricanes
-- Dallas Stars
-- Los Angeles Kings
-- Minnesota Wild
-- New Jersey Devils w/ feedback from Spade18
-- New York Rangers
-- Seattle Kraken
-- St. Louis Blues
-- Vancouver Canucks w/ feedback from IAmActuallyAnOtter
-- Vegas Golden Knights w/ feedback from Comb
-- Winnipeg Jets
- Updated notable CHL/NCAA and European free agents who may/have secure(d) NHL ELCs (The EP Rinkside 2024 CHL Free Agency Guide and Pronman: Top college, CHL and European free agents for NHL teams)

AHL Updates:
- Updated Trade Deadline date

Swiss Updates -- thanks petteri33!!
- Updated MyHL/SL clubs
- Updated transfer rules for NL and SL

Version 9.1.0 (2024/25) (8 September 2024)

General Updates:
- Latest notable transactions worldwide for playable leagues
-- Automated re-rates for all players/staff for all notable and playable leagues! If you do not agree with these changes please offer to help and suggest changes!
- Extensive cleanup of UFA players/staff - ~10k of entries removed! Thanks ArchibaldUK!!
- Cleanup and refresh of player rights for junior leagues
- Cleanup and assignment of preferred jobs for specific staff roles (such as management and physios)
- Extensive player career history refresh including massive additions of goalie stats -- thanks ArchibaldUK!!
- Cleanup and fixes to Nation data such as nationalities and abbreviations -- thanks Vik3tbotselektor!!

NHL Updates:
- RIP Johnny & Matthew Gaudreau, Johnny's number has been retired on Columbus and Calgary in memorium
- Prospect Generator reverted back to an older version (from 2023-24) with tweaks and minor updates. After doing some A/B testing myself I feel the more modern "balanced" sheet that the game expects....just wasn't fun! Today's NHL has more players jumping right into the league and making an immediate impact, even down to 2nd rounders in some cases, the PG should be similar. Further tweaks will be made to this generator to add in the fixes to the bottom six/pair type players that are solid in the modern PG.
-- I can say with testing there should be NO MORE gaps in draft quality, you will see impact players in 2026+ right away. No more high potential players with awful mentals or other flaws.
- Latest signings and trades and staff lists updated
- NHL/AHL re-rates for various players/prospects -- thanks Seanie for sharing!!
- Aligned roster limit end date with trade deadline day
- Adjusted max years allowed for contracts (game was adding an extra year)
- RFAs now count against the Reserve List
- Updated affiliations
- Updated several staff and player DOBs, sorry if it broke your pictures!
- Updated club player records

Austrian Updates:
- Tweaked dates for ICEHL

Canadian Updates:
- Updated name for QMJHL, sorry for the logos breaking Dani9 will update eventually!
- Updated schedules for OHL, QMJHL and WHL
- Cleanup and updates for several playable/non-playable junior leagues

Czechia Updates:
- Updated Extraliga and Maxa Liga schedules

Denmark Updates:
- Updated Metal Ligaen schedule

Finnish Updates:
- Updated Liiga and Mestis structures and added Suomi-Sarja as playable again-- thanks Vik3tbotselektor!!

French Updates:
- Updated Ligue Magnus schedule

German Updates:
- Updated DEL and DEL2 schedules
* We have Oberliga ready for release but running into issues with promotion/relegation, this will be patched in once fixed.

Great Britain Updates:
- Updated EIHL schedule

Italian Updates:
- Updated clubs and IHL league structure

Russian Updates:
- KHL and VHL schedules updated based on 2024-25 fixtures but all dates moved back one month due to game limitations, cannot have playoffs starting in late March being they need to be completed by April 30th.
** DO NOT USE THE JUNE RUSSIA START DATE OR THE GAME WILL CRASH **
-- If the community does not like this option we will create a randomized schedule for this season or do our best to move it back a little shorter.

Swedish Updates:
- Updated schedules for SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan

Swiss Updates:
- Updated NL and SL schedules

United States Updates:
- Updated ECHL schedule and sort rules
- Updated AHL and USHL schedules
- Cleanup and updates for several playable/non-playable junior leagues
- Reduced NCAA roster and reserve list size to 26 per new rules

Version 9.2.0 (2024/25) ([TBC] 2024) [NOT YET UPLOADED - CHANGELIST IS WIP]

Big thank you to this community for your understanding, patience and support in what has been easily the must frustrating stretch working on this project.

​Massive change list (July -> November updates):

General Updates:
- Rosters refreshed for all playable and some non-playable leagues
-- I tried to keep European clubs as close to their start of season rosters as possible
- Added a lot more real junior players (through 2010 YOB) globally
- Updated Aggressiveness/Dirtiness/Agitation across the DB -- thanks Imactuallyanotter!
- Updated clubs/competition names and colors -- thanks Dani9!!
- Updated several leagues which was using the sort rule "Own Match" to determine points tie breakers. This sort rule has been found to be buggy in the game and has been lowered in priority, should result in some more accurate standings sorting. -- thanks Kywoo Rae!!
- Fixed many scheduling inconsistencies and incorrect priority values -- thanks Riz!!

International Updates:
- Removed World Cup and Euro Hockey Tour for now until it comes back for real to reduce the amount of international tournaments the game has to worry about and schedule
-- I tried re-using the World Cup by moving it to February to turn it into the "Four Nation Faceoff" but the game will not allow it to use NHLers.
- Loosened date placement to give more flexibility for the game to schedule tournaments, date placement may not align to real life but we need to reduce potential crashing and increase stability long-term.
- Updated Olympic Tournament dates -- thanks Weepy!!

NHL updates:
- Updated injuries, positions and jersey numbers from PuckPedia Depth Charts
- Updated dates of arena moves for Calgary and Ottawa (guess I was way too optimistic!)
- Relocated ASG to February 16th which should fix the issue where teams were getting rescheduled duplicate games -- thanks CJMattias!!
- Cleaned up RFAs
- Retired out LTIR players such as Ellis and Price
- Updated prospect pools based on rankings and season roundup scouting reports from EliteProspects (https://eprinkside.com/category/prospect-pool-rankings)

Canadian Updates:
- Updated OHL draft picks, will eventually get around to QMJHL and WHL, it's a lot of updates!

French Updates:
- Updated U20 and U18 clubs and competitions

North American Updates:
- Cleaned up junior rights for players with 2004 YOBs
- Updated Alberta AA leagues and clubs

Russian Updates:
- Fixed issues with KHL structure by reverting to older version.
- Cleaned up some conflicting transfer rules causing issues -- may not align to real life, but we have to work within the limits of the game.
- Updated KHL Transfer Rules -- thanks Wolski!!
- Updated KHL salaries and award history -- thanks Angry Duck!!

Slovak Updates:
- Updated schedule and league structure for Extraliga - slight date changes needed to accommodate max length of playoffs
- Updated clubs and league structure for 1.liga -- thanks Džuradž for the report and testing!!

Swedish Updates:
- Updated affiliations, captains and rivals in SHL, HA and HE -- thanks Aahlstroem!!
- Updated starting injuries in SHL and HA -- thanks Aahlstroem!!
- Updated J20 Nationell clubs and playoff format -- thanks Aahlstroem!!
- Updated U16 and J18 clubs -- thanks Aahlstroem!!
- Updated HockeyEttan clubs, and league structure, some teams promoted to Ettan to make league an even 40 teams to allow for consistent promotion/relegation -- thanks Vik3tbotselektor and Aahlstroem!!
- Updated HockeyTvåan clubs in preparation for it becoming playable in a future update -- thanks Aahlstroem!!
- Updated clubs in lower level junior leagues and added affiliations -- thanks Aahlstroem!!