Sea Dogs - Challenge 11 - Discussion Thread

bigargon · Post by **bigargon** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:27 am

one good thing about being sucky is won the number pick in the draft lotery and got despres . I should have an awesome blueline for season two ..but the rest of the team is shaky (except sparling and FGC)

stacker_s · Post by **stacker_s** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 12:07 pm

My FGC sucks and sucks hard. Despres, on the other hand, is really good so far. I got him 4th overall last year. Through 36 games, he has 11 points and is my best defensive defenseman already. I'm having trouble on the PP in Season 2, but I've been ranked in the top 5 of the CHL almost the entire year. Not sure how I'm doing it, but I'm not going to complain so long as they keep rolling along.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 1:59 pm

Coyote of the Sea wrote: Acadie took Kelen Corkum (projected 8th)

Kelen Corkum was projected 8th? And he was interested in playing Major Junior? I got him in the 11th round, #198 overall, and he's set to join the U of Maine on July 1st 2008. Is there actually some randomness over whether a player will play college or major junior?

I'd love to get Corkum to sign with my team.

Post by **batdad** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 5:35 pm

Corkum went late in my game, and he is not all that special. Despres? Just okay but was ranked 1 overall, and went 5. Just before me...would have had to choose between him and Randell...BTW RANDELL not RANDALL.

My pp is so hot and cold it is scary. 20 games at 10%...then 20 games at 25% I just don't get it.

FGC is doing okay in Charlotte ECHL. 40 games 9-15 averaging 6.5 kind of like with me. But in a higher league.

In his 10 games since I dealt him...KGC has lost skating, and offensive attributes. He is also averaging 5.20. Ugh. Glad I dealt him while he still had some value.

On the other hand..the guy who was widdling me off the most: Marchand...is 3-6-9 in his 10 games on his new team, averaging 7.2. For me he had those same totals in like 25 games. With a 6.2 rating. So good on him for going to a better fit. The prospect I got back is lighting it up in Mirimichi...4-4-8 in 3 games. Averaging 8.67. And he is a dman.

Post by **Manimal** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:13 pm

darn, it's hard to sign free agents! Everyone I really wanted signed elsewhere. Settled for an OA-Goalie and a lesser RW.

stacker_s · Post by **stacker_s** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:32 pm

Holy draft picks Batman. 2008 NHL Draft:

1(7) Yann Sauve
1(15) Kevin Charland
1(29) Pascal Amyot
2(49) Alex Leduc
5(124) Matt Stoddard.

Poor Sparling got passed over again.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 3:22 pm

WOW! That's some draft. You've just got to hope they don't make their NHL teams too soon! I guess I'm in the minority with Sparling. He got taken in the first draft in my game.

Congrats on winning the Memorial Cup, BTW.

stacker_s · Post by **stacker_s** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:25 pm

Thanks Bruins72. I still don't get Leduc. He's horrible on my team, but the scouts seem to absolutely love him. I must be missing something. Either way, I expect that my team will be pretty bare come the start of the 2009 season when those guys, Stich and Grant are gone to training camp.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:24 pm

Stich and Grant are both at camp for the teams that drafted them in my game (Sept of the 2nd season). I've definitely missed them!

My scouts aren't all that impressed with Leduc. He looks like he'll be okay for me though. I really need help at the center position. After that last draft I got a lot of help at RW, which was a weak spot for me last season. While I'm excited about my Swedish LW, Robin Sjoren, the Top Ten QMJHL LW's included my 16 year old rookie, Real Drouin. I still think he needs some time (I'm playing him on the 3rd line and PK until he warrants more ice time) but they seem to think very highly of him. He was my first pick in the draft though.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:55 pm

I had Stich Grant and Lund all at camps. Expecting at least 1 to get signed away from me during the season somewhere....Oh well.

Leduc sucks sucks sucks in my game. Almost all ratings are red, and putting up consistent 5's for Mirimichi.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:14 pm

Okay... initial ISS rankings for the 07-08 season are in. Here are my guys...

#1 Sauve
#37 Amyot
#47 KGC
#174 Stoddard

I'm kind of surprised that Stamkos wasn't even in the top 10 (he's #12). Let's see if Sauve can retain his #1 overall status throughout the season.

Post by **joehelmer** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:20 pm

Great, I got 8 overagers for the third season, but I've also signed my most talented draft picks, except those belarusians.

Grant, who was my only player to get drafted in 2007, has not yet been signed by Devils, and they aren't even interested in him yet, but I'm just in July 2008, so I think he may be on try-out when my season begins and all my five who got drafted in 2008 may also be on try-out. But I hope some other players will step up to the challenge he first games.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:37 pm

WOW! Sauve must be awesome in your game. That is way above his usual

Post by **joehelmer** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:50 pm

Sauvé was drafted in #12 in my game, and I thought that was good. #1 is just awesome!

Oh, and another question, how many seasons is this challenge on?

Post by **batdad** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:51 pm

SAme as ever...Play as much as you want and we will do stats for the number of seasons that have 4 or more participants once the deadline ends.

Coyote of the Sea · Post by **Coyote of the Sea** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:17 am

bruins72 wrote:
Coyote of the Sea wrote: Acadie took Kelen Corkum (projected 8th)
Kelen Corkum was projected 8th? And he was interested in playing Major Junior? I got him in the 11th round, #198 overall, and he's set to join the U of Maine on July 1st 2008. Is there actually some randomness over whether a player will play college or major junior?

I'd love to get Corkum to sign with my team.

He's set to join Maine on my save as well but he also wants to play Major Junior Hockey

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:31 pm

batdad wrote:WOW! Sauve must be awesome in your game. That is way above his usual

He's been my best defenseman since I took over the team. I'd like to see his skating get better but otherwise he's looking good. Grant on the other hand... his attributes look great but I've seen him struggle at times.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:53 pm

Coyote of the Sea wrote:
bruins72 wrote:
Coyote of the Sea wrote: Acadie took Kelen Corkum (projected 8th)
Kelen Corkum was projected 8th? And he was interested in playing Major Junior? I got him in the 11th round, #198 overall, and he's set to join the U of Maine on July 1st 2008. Is there actually some randomness over whether a player will play college or major junior?

I'd love to get Corkum to sign with my team.
He's set to join Maine on my save as well but he also wants to play Major Junior Hockey

I had that happen with Bryan Barr in my game. Barr showed interest in both Major Junior and NCAA but he accepted my offer to play. In my game Corkum doesn't show ANY interest in Major Junior and that's a shame. He'd be one of my top players if he wanted to play for us. Still, he was drafted sooooo much later in my game.

I've got 10 games played in the second season now. I've starting to see that some of the plans I had for who would play where weren't working out and I've made adjustments. Robin Sjoren was slated to be my top LW, playing on the 1st line and the top PP unit. He was getting all 5's and 6's in that role. I've dropped him down to the 4th line and he's gotten 8's in the 2 games that he's played down there. I think I'm going to keep him down there and give him some occasional PP time and hopefully he'll be able to play a bigger role later in the season. He's 18 years old and very skilled but his strength is only a 6. Maybe that's his problem? We'll see what happens.

On the flip side, Real Drouin, who I didn't think was ready to play at this level, has exceeded my expectations. He was suspended for the first 2 games of the season and missed one due to low condition (I played him too much in the previous game, I think) but in the 7 games he's played he has just 2 points. That doesn't sound very impressive but he's got a 7.57 rating with 33 hits and 12 blocked shots. Now he's playing as the 1st line LW and on the top PK unit. At even strength he makes room for his linemates (currently Sparling and Grimard) to work their magic.

My RW has been strong. Both Barr and Grimard have 7 goals and 3 assists. Barr is a +4 though and Grimard is 0. Grimard is scoring like he does purely because of his acceleration (18) and agility (also 18). Other than that he doesn't look very impressive. Barr is much more evenly balanced. He's got acceleration (16) and agility (17) but he's also got incredible bravery (19) and better technical attributes than Grimard. One RW that was working his way up the depth chart was Wade Campbell. He's a big (6'4") 16 year old. He's got to work on his skating but he's got very good strength and stamina and also nice mental attributes. His technical attributes weren't bad for his age either. He had 3 goals in 9 games, playing mostly on the 4th, then 3rd line and the PK. Unfortunately, he's out for 3 or 4 weeks with a hip flexor strain.

Going into the season, I was concerned that my goaltending wasn't going to be strong enough. So far, they're holding their own. My one concern is that they're inconsistent. Fullerton will play great for a couple games and then bomb one. Dopud has a better GAA but Fullerton has a better rating. Maybe I shouldn't go with a starter and a backup? Maybe I should rotate them every few games instead? I'll be keeping an eye on these two.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:12 pm

Barr has been a MONSTER for me! He's got 17 goals in 15 games and 8 assists to go along with it. He's really been clicking with Sparling lately (and I think Drouin is helping them do this). Barr has had 2 hat tricks in his last 3 games. Sparling missed a few games due to injury and in the 3 games since he's been back, he's had 10 ratings in each game and notched 11 assist in those 3 games. My top line is looking good!

The rest of my lines seem to be in flux though. I've been getting injuries, so I have to keep shuffling them. I lost KGC for 2 or 3 weeks. Cook was out for a bit. Campbell has been injured (back soon). Grimard just went out for a few days. We had brought up Brett McGinnis to fill in for some of our injured guys. Now he's out for 4 months.

My defense has been healthy (knock on wood) and consistent though. I've got some serious offensive power on my defense and they've all got better than 7 average ratings.

My team has been winning some games by high scores lately. Our last 3 games have been 7-4, 8-2, and 9-2 (all wins in our favor). We've had some other high scorers before that too. Oh yeah, Barr is leading the league in points and Grant is 4th. Not too bad!

Post by **batdad** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:35 pm

Must be playing Lewiston alot!! I beat em 9-1, 8-0, and then the next day gatineau beat em 14-1

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:41 pm

Actually, in my last game vs Lewiston, we lost 4-2. That was my only game vs them so far this season. The 7-4 was vs Moncton. The 9-2 and 8-2 were vs PEI. My other high scoring games have been pretty spread out against different teams.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:44 pm

So odd...I have low scoring games with PEI, and blow out Lewiston. Weird.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:31 pm

It's probably just a matter of who the teams have signed or drafted, injuries, and trades. 1 season into the game and I'm sure several teams are pretty different in our two games.

BTW, I still haven't made a trade. Part of the reason is that I can never remember when I can trade (between our no trade periods and QMJHL's no trade periods). I didn't sign any UFAs either. I didn't see anyone worth my time.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:10 pm

The American Ice Hockey Association has offered me the job of GM for USA. If I accept this, am I going to leave my job as GM of Saint John? I never take any of these job offers but I was curious.

Post by **joehelmer** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:18 pm

No, you'll still keep your job. But I think it says somewhere in the rules that we're not allowed to accept jobs as National GMs.