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

[batdad]

Poor joe.

[Animal31]

LOL at the Canucks and the Vezina. The Vezina goes to the team I believe...at least the team of goalies. But to have your name in there when you are clearly an injury replacement. Classic. Scott Stacjer is the new Rory Fitzpatrick.

Vezina goes to the best Goalie in the league

the Jennings goes to the Goalie tandem with the best GA

[batdad]

Right...always get them backwards.

[doublesky]

Okay guys, let me tell you shortly about my last achievements.

Save #1 (Vancouver Canucks, start from Fantasy Draft).
I had a good team during my first season for Canucks. I always coach games by myself with opportunities to find the tactics which can help my team to win the Stanley Cup.
At the deadline I traded in Stephane Robidas because I needed a top four defenceman (Kyle Quincey wasn't him, for my opinion) and David Desharnais (center). It was a good season, I was in the top of conference but was beaten by Red Wings in game 7 overtime of WCF (before I beat the Stars 4:3 and Blackhawks 4:0).
When season was finished I signed the UFA Marcus Johansson (he spend his first season in Detroit, which had won the Stanley Cup in 2012/2013), Steve Eminger, Troy Brouwer and traded away Cory Sarich and Kyle Quincey to St. Louis Blues for a 1st round draft pick to get my salaries below salary cap.
In the start of second season I had a better team and in the season preview Canucks was named as strongest Stanley Cup contender:
Cory Schneider (s)
Karri Ramo (t)
Duncan Keith (s) - John Carlsson (s)
Joni Pitkanen (s) - Stephane Robidas (t)
Adam Pardy (s) - Steve Eminger (t)
Marco Scandella
Andrew Ladd (s) - Ryan Kesler (s) - Marian Hossa (s)
Max Pacioretty (s) - Marcus Johansson (t) - Troy Brouwer (t)
Steve Ott (s) - Manny Malhotra (s) - Chris Neil (s)
David Booth (s) - David Desharnais (t) - Greg Nemisz (s)
Curtis Glencross (s) - Joe Vitale (t)
(s) - players, were in my team after Fantasy draft
(t) - players, which joined to my team during these two seasons.
During this season I tried to use special tactics for each line (use unit tactics switched on), not one settings for all lines. A set up offensive tactics for two first lines and defensive tactics for 3rd and 4th lines and used line matching.
I think that this experiment was successful beacuse Vancouver Canucks had won the Stanley Cup 2014
On the playoff way my team eliminated Minnesota Wild (4:1), Phoenix Coyotes (4:0), Los Angeles Kings (4:1) and New York Rangers (4:1).
When no trade period ended I traded Mike Green from Buffalo Sabres for 1st round draft pick (STL) and at the end of the season Stephane Robidas had left my team because I didn't offer him the new contract. I think that the next season will be good.

[doublesky]

So, I'd like to write here my second story.

Save #2 (Philadelphia Flyers, start from fantasy draft)

My way to the Stanley Cup with Flyers was more longer. I'd won my first cup only in the 2024/2025 season. Before this I tried to do everything to win the Stanley Cup except coaching games by myself. I've changed 3 or 4 head coaches before this main success. My start roster was full of talented players like Keith Yandle, Claude Giroux, T.J. Oshie, Joe Pavelski, Frans Nielsen, Dustin Brown, Corey Crawford etc. But in the first seasons my team hadn't progressed in the playoffs further second round and when I lost another one series to New Jersey Devils (I had big troubles with this team in playoffs all 13 seasons) I understand that it's time to do big changes in my roster. I traded away all my star players (some for draft picks, some for any young and good players). After some time I collected Evgeny Malkin, Shea Weber, Mike Green, Brent Burns, Mike Richards, plus Dustin Brown still was in my team and several young and talented players in every line. When my youngsters strengthened I saw noticeable progress in the playoffs: my team was in the Stanley Cup finals where we lost in the game seven overtime to Calgary Flames and it was big shock for me. I tried to save all my core players for the next season and try again but my head coach left the team on the way to Ak Bars
In the next season my new coach with my recent addition Jordan Eberle tried to play with team with another, attacking style and we were 2nd in the Eastern Conference, but in the first round New Jersey Devils swept the series with 4:0 score. In the off-season Mike Richards, Dustin Brown and Brent Burns left my team because they had a very poor physical skills and I decided to release them as an UFA's. When 1st July came, I signed Niklas Hjalmarsson, Jonathan Bernier (my previous starting goalie had perfect skills except Reflexses - it was even 6), Marcus Foligno and a core center forward (sorry I forgot his name ). So in the NHL Season Preview Flyers second behind Washington Capitals.
It was a remarkable season for my team and they had won President's Trophy with 110 points. I understood that this playoffs may be latest chance for Shea Weber, Mike Green to win the Stanley Cup and I hoped that they could do it.
My playoff run looks so:
WCQF: Flyers 4:2 Maple Leafs
WCSF: Flyers 4:3 Lightning
WCF: Flyers 4:2 Jets
SCF: Flyers 4:2 Stars
I'm pleased to win the Stanley Cup with Flyers

[CanucksFan1993]

Started the season off with the Florida Panthers once again, who came off of a Stanley Cup victory the year before. I had to tweak the rosters just a bit as the team was getting pretty close to the maximum salary cap, however it didn't hurt us in any way as there were plenty of young depth players in the minors who could step in and help out in case of any injuries.

The season was successful, the team won the President's Trophy with a 119 points. We also had the best penalty killing percentage in the league with a 89.6% in terms of power play, the team was ranked 7th at 16.4%

At the trade deadline, I traded away a 1st round pick of the current year, along with two young prospects in exchange for Erik Karlsson from the Ottawa Senators. This gave the Panthers an offensive boost and improved the power play which was ranked 11th prior to the trade deadline. The trade also solidified the top six defensive core.

Going into the playoffs, we were up against the 8th seeded New Jersey Devils, who were out looking for a vengeance after being humiliated last year in the playoffs. Every game was close and every single game went to overtime, it was that intense.

Game 1: 2 - 1 (OT) Panthers won

Game 2: 1 - 0 (OT) Devils won

Game 3: 4 - 3 (OT) Devils won

Game 4: 3 - 2 (OT) Panthers won

Game 5: 6 - 5 (OT) Devils won

Game 6: 3 - 2 (OT2) Panthers won

Game 7: 2 - 1 (OT) Devils won

The Devils won the series 4 - 3 and the defending Stanley Cup Champions were sent home packing.

The Devils went on to the Stanley Cup finals but were ousted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 6 games.

[bradleykerr]

I just won my third straight Memorial Cup as GM of the Kamloops Blazers but I am getting worried that things won't be as good for the next few years starting next season. My Head Coach is moving on and I only have two or three players returning that are left over from the "glory years", may be some rebuilding in my future. This coming season I should get pretty far, I'm quite confident I won't make the Memorial Cup this year but I'll try my best.

[bradleykerr]

UPDATE: I simmed the entire season, letting the coaching staff wreak havoc. I stopped simming a few times a year just to get my good players out of developmental league purgatory. Seriously, what's the deal with the AI putting my good players in the farm team and leaving them there? Makes me crazy for real. This is the result of the simmed season:



Didn't even make the playoffs this season, but as a bonus I (and by I, I mean the AI) have likely stalled the promising career of one Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. I was on the lucky end of a lopsided trade that sent him to me, go figure I gave up a dog and I got one of the top players in the league in my game. One of my interventions came a little late for him this season, when I stopped simming I noticed that he had been stuck in developmental for 21 games(!!!!) though in that time he had helped out tremendously scoring 25 goals and getting 26 assists and a +/- of 31 haha.

[bradleykerr]

An interesting (to me anyway) development occurred in my game. I meant to skip a few days by going on vacation, got distracted and three hours later two full seasons have gone past and I'm part-way into the 2012/2013 season. Oops.

[philou21]

Hhahaha great job!

[Tyees]

Completely changing around the league stuff, going to make the AHL, ECHL, CHL, and UHL all separate, no more affiliations. Adding Development teams for each NHL franchise, going to try it out and see if it changes development much in prospects.

[batdad]

Good luck with that. The game is not exactly stable if you are switching things around. Affiliations won't be a problem, but if you are changing any league structures....you may have issues. Let us know how it works out for you.

[Tyees]

No real playable league structure changes.

Made 3 new non playable leagues, the NHL Development League (All 30 teams get a farm team), a Sr Mens Division (30 Teams affiliate with 10 Teams) and another private league to "challenge" the NHL.

With all that, the AHL and ECHL should be more challenging to play as now you get the slim pickings of whats left. Pretty much my whole goal

[bradleykerr]

Thought I'd see what happened if I went on vacation all night. Woke up with my game at 2028 and I'm apparently now the GM for the Carolina Hurricanes.

[helmespc]

Win any cups?

[bradleykerr]

Win any cups?

Not since I actively helmed the Kamloops Blazers to three straight Memorial Cups. Here are my sad stats:



EDIT: Looking at my goals for / goals against I can't believe my record is as shoddy as it is. My only explanation is the Blazers teams were VERY dominant, I didn't spare any expense to make them as good as I could. I think I'm going to play around with this save a bit, do a lot of simming, see how far I can go before getting bored. That's always been my problem, I'll generally go under ten seasons before moving to a new game hah.

[timmy_t]

I think I have more fun the longer the game goes because I like trying to build a team and keeping it together after winning the cup. I think that's the hardest part, along with drafting and developing players that fit your style.

[CanucksFan1993]

Managing the Florida Panthers, came off a terrific regular season as the 1st seed in the eastern conference. Ended up facing the 8th seeded Carolina Hurricanes, now you'd assume a 1st seeded team would have no problem against a team that barely made it into the playoffs, right? WRONG... we got swept.

[bradleykerr]

^^^ hahaha

During my long simming sessions I guess I managed to ravage the Carolina Hurricanes over the course of five or six seasons. The board was seriously angry and the fans were calling for my head hahaha. I did the right thing and retired from the team, let them hopefully rebuild with someone better, they replaced me with an up and comer named Malcolm Cameron so I wish them luck. Hoping to get back in to the CHL, preferably the WHL.

[CanucksFan1993]

I think I have more fun the longer the game goes because I like trying to build a team and keeping it together after winning the cup. I think that's the hardest part, along with drafting and developing players that fit your style.

True that, the reason I was able to help the Panthers to their first cup was because the team was stacked that year. After that, I had to let go of certain players to stay below the salary cap. Since then, the team hasn't even made it passed the second round.

Edit: I've honestly never made the team my own, I just picked up where the previous GM left off, so it wasn't difficult for me to build a Stanley Cup contending team. But the time for rebuilding is coming!

[CJ]

I just started a new game with Columbus. I picked them cuz I wanted a real challenge. But it's going surprisingly well.

[bradleykerr]

Just got NHL 13 on an impulse, so I'm a few games into a Blazers season and have been neglecting EHM for now. I'm stuck a bit I think, unemployed and waiting impatiently for a WHL team slot to open up, been simming the season watching the job openings. I don't think I'll get a job with my preferred Blazers because the guy they have now Dana McCann has incredible stats and a great record, he's the top ranked guy for reputation in Canada but he doesn't have a contract signed with Kamloops so hopefully I'll get lucky and an NHL team will hire him.

[bradleykerr]

Quick update, I spent some time as the GM of the Medicine Hat Tigers, I think I did well for them in the time I was there, we were middle of the pack record-wise the last season with them but I made a few personal mistakes and had to resign as GM while they still had a chance to recover. After that I decided to do another sim marathon, going on vacation right before bed and stopping the sim when I got up. Turns out another nine years went by and apparently I have been the GM of the OHL Saginaw Spirit for the past 8 seasons.

Repercussions: Matthew Gorrie, a guy I took in Medicine Hat and put on the path of super-duper-stardom until I tried to use him in a personal power play which backfired and he ended up hating me. 8 years later I am still his only disliked person haha. Federik Hull, another guy I was watching and waiting for, who was on the path to superstardom with no real barrier in front of him is now sitting in Lowell of the AHL without having played one NHL game. He's only 23 though and is now the subject of an NHL bidding war so hope he breaks out big time.

[bradleykerr]

Date: Saturday October 30th 2055; After a long 40 year wait I have finally been re-hired as the GM for the WHL Kamloops Blazers, having just recently been splitting my time between the NHL Flyers and the Austrian national team. The Blazers fired me back in 2015 after 9 seasons which included 3 Memorial Cup championships so I am looking forward to seeing what I can offer them now that I'm an old geezer.

[Reedy12]

Only recently got into NHL as a whole and was delighted to find that there was a Sports Interactive game, so of course I proceeded to acquire it (Being a massive fan of the Football Manager series). I had a little play around season with the new jersey devils where we won the president and stanley cup but I will admit to saving and reloading several times.

After getting the hang of the game I started again, as The Devils, and this is how it's going (Currently on the 10th of Jan '07 using latest unfaking DB):

27-10-6, PP% 15.4, PK% 87.3. (Also having a nice switching battle with the Rangers for 1st in the conference as they are only a point behind me in the divison at the moment).

Lines consist of: 1. Elias-Gomez-Brylin
2. Saprykin-Weiss-Gionta
3. Parise-Madden-Tukonen
4. Rasmussen-Zajac-Pandolfo

D Lines: 1. White Rafalski
2. Pardy Eminger
3. Tulupov Martin (Only trcently recalled tulupov to see how he performs as we are conceding alot lately, usually have Hale with martin).

As you can see I've been busy in the trade center, main transfers include (several bargains I think!):

Brad Lukovich+5th Round Pick 2011 for Steve Eminger (Lukovich currently has an average rating of 6.46 and only 1 point comapred to Emingers Avg of 7.35 and 17 points)

Jamie Langenbrunner for Dave Scatchard followed by Dave Scatchard for Lauri Tukonen.

Peter Vrana and 3rd round pick 2007 for Stephen Weiss

Tuomas Pihlman for Oleq Saprykin (Recent trade and he's been scoring well so far!).

All in all I'm happy but would like to improve my powerplay %, it's improved since Saprykin arrived so we'll see how that goes. Also trying to sort out a better Defence but I'm unwilling to trade anyone good away for a good D (But I may have to push myself to take the chance).