EHM The Blue Line

Reading this makes me want to enter the challenge, as I have a fair amount of free time before I start my new job. But the last challenge I was in I screwed up on the home grown rule

Luckily for you, there is no homegrown rule!

Just got underway, and the Thrashers have been busy. They've pulled off three deals: Khabiboulin, Langkow and Ribiero.

St. Louis has also moved Tkachuk, Philly offloaded Hatcher, and guys like Guerin and Lang are on the block.

Hard to sit out...so hard.

This is my season 2 early season update.

My UFA signings were:

Jack Johnson D - no idea why the Kings didn't re-sign him. When i signed him he was rated VERY GOOD and scouted as a 5-6 depth guy, now he's scouted as a 1-2 stay at home.

Zack Kassian RW - 18 year old 6'5 200+ lb. winger with Peterborough. I think I can turn him into a solid NHLer.

My two trades:

Jerred Poopson and Martin Erat to the Kings for Thomas Hickey and Marc-Andre Cliche. Instant value goes to the Kings in ERAT, but with salary concerns and age I felt this trade was a win. Hickey is improving nicely and Cliche is playing well in the A.

Jonathan Blum to Washington for Semen(Simeon) Varlamov. - No brainer for me. Ellis can play as the number one until Varlamov starts to outperform.

My draft was sort of disappointing.

Nazem Kadri fell to me at #15, which makes me happy.
Other standouts

Cole Penner at #45 overall, could be a nice winger down the line. I kind of wanted to focus on LW/RW for the draft, but the value just wasn't there.

In other drafts I've done guys like Ashton and Budish usually fell, but not this time.

I also felt that Taylor Doherty at #105 and Taylor Beck at #107 were good value picks.

In the testing I don't remember any decent goalies on waivers. That was also the 1.2 db as well. I wouldn't expect more than a really good role player.

Okay I've read the rules and I'm gonna give it a crack

bruins72 wrote:
4 - 111 - Thomas Frazee - C

Frazee is a guy I actually took ahead of his ranking (153). He's 19 years old and playing in the WHL. He's a big (6'4") center who looks like he'll be a defensive specialist. He'll be my checking line and PK guy. My scouts say he's a checking forward with 2nd line potential. They compare him to Adam Mair. He's a heck of a skater and he's already got descent defensive abilities.

I drafted Frazee too, in 2nd round 37th pick. He's projected as a skilled forward, 1st line potential, like Mike Ribeiro with a bigger frame. And he is totally an offensive center in my game, D+ in defense and A- in offense in his report card. Just a slight difference there between our games

Sometimes I wish my coaches would tell me things, LOL.

Had a 5 game winning streak, beating the likes of Chicago, Detroit... lost Arnott for 3 weeks (a three week stretch that contains 11 games!!! Yikes! )

Turns out, Arnott was getting such high ratings by playing defense and goaltender as well as leading in scoring, LOL. Now he's gone, no offense, we are pylons on defense, and the goaltenders are leaky.

This team's a one man show even more than the Caps !!!

my team put up 6 against the Hawks....






and we won in the shootout

In my second season it seems like my first line is having problem, they are not as dominating as they was during the first, for example after 40 games Arnott just got 58 points, at this point in season 1 he had 79 points...

Here's my two trades for 2007/2008, in the second I traded Wade Belak for Islanders' Nicklas Grossman as I needed someone who's good both when it comes to offense and defense.

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l296/ ... 7-2008.jpg

I hope it turns up to good for me and that I will be able to make it to the playoff.

Okay I've fired an assistant coach and hired Bobby Carpenter, and I fired a scout and hired a few good scouts, and I signed unsigned prospect Matt Ellison.

I'm really looking forward to this challenge!

getzlaf15 wrote:Yeah, the waiver claim could make or break my season. Last year a couple of big goalies were on waivers. Most notably Khabibulin. I'd love for someone like that to be on again. But if not, I could be stuck with the team i have at the moment.

There are a lot of big players that go up on waivers in the first season but it's not as common for the next couple seasons. Good luck!

eternium85 wrote:

bruins72 wrote:
4 - 111 - Thomas Frazee - C

Frazee is a guy I actually took ahead of his ranking (153). He's 19 years old and playing in the WHL. He's a big (6'4") center who looks like he'll be a defensive specialist. He'll be my checking line and PK guy. My scouts say he's a checking forward with 2nd line potential. They compare him to Adam Mair. He's a heck of a skater and he's already got descent defensive abilities.

I drafted Frazee too, in 2nd round 37th pick. He's projected as a skilled forward, 1st line potential, like Mike Ribeiro with a bigger frame. And he is totally an offensive center in my game, D+ in defense and A- in offense in his report card. Just a slight difference there between our games

I'm guessing he's one of those guys with randomized potential and none of his attributes set. That's a pretty big difference between our two versions of the same guy. The good thing seems to be that both of us got a good player.

sjsharkz wrote:Okay I've fired an assistant coach and hired Bobby Carpenter, and I fired a scout and hired a few good scouts, and I signed unsigned prospect Matt Ellison.

I'm really looking forward to this challenge!

Glad to see you back in the mix!

Even though there are restrictions on trading and stuff, I really think the simplified rules make this a much more fun challenge.

bruins72 wrote:

sjsharkz wrote:Okay I've fired an assistant coach and hired Bobby Carpenter, and I fired a scout and hired a few good scouts, and I signed unsigned prospect Matt Ellison.

I'm really looking forward to this challenge!

Glad to see you back in the mix!

Even though there are restrictions on trading and stuff, I really think the simplified rules make this a much more fun challenge.

I agree, I really like the defensive core of this team alot. I have my top 2 lines playing offensive, and my bottom 2 defensive. I've played 2 exhibition games so far and won 7-1 and 3-1 and my second line has been solid! Dumont Legwand Ward!

The trade for Varlamov must have been the best I've ever done, since joining me he has won 3 out of 4 rookie of the month awards, the fourth was won by Hugh Jessiman!

Oh, and Jason Arnott has won all 4 offensive player of the month awards!

The third quarter of my season 2 has been incredible, I've gone from 12th to 7th.

But there is something weird with Jessiman, on his player profile it says that he's suspended, but in the roster screen he's not.

It have been like this for a while now.

Is he a recent call-up? I can't recall exactly, but I had an issue - Fiddler and Tootoo earned suspensions in the NHl (exhibition game) - had sent them down right after the game... they were suspended in the NHL, but could play AHL... Suspended status didn't clear until I called them back up (had to serve their suspensions)...

just a thought...

I'm still in the preseason and I've actually seen a couple forwards go on waivers that I wouldn't have minded picking up. The Blues put David Backes and Matt Foy on waivers. The Caps put up Brooks Laich. The Coyotes put up Rasmussen. Brind'Amour is old but he was up there and worth a claim. He's still talented. Still, I'm happy with the 3 Tier 3 guys I was able to sign.

I've been struggling with injuries in the preseason. I've had many key guys go out for a week to 10 days and they're missing these preseason games that I like to schedule to get them warmed up. I've also got a couple suspensions coming to start the season Arnott will miss the first two games and somebody else is missing 1, I just can't remember who.

mustardstew wrote:Is he a recent call-up? I can't recall exactly, but I had an issue - Fiddler and Tootoo earned suspensions in the NHl (exhibition game) - had sent them down right after the game... they were suspended in the NHL, but could play AHL... Suspended status didn't clear until I called them back up (had to serve their suspensions)...

just a thought...

No, he's been Nashville for the whole season, he was in AHL during the first season, but for the second he's been in NHL.

That's really odd, joe. Did he maybe earn a suspension in the AHL and it's mislabeled as a NHL suspension on his profile?

Can be, but I won't send him down to Milwaukee to check if it's that, as I have to put him on waivers and I would most likely lose him.

I'm betting that's the case. I seem to recall seeing "NHL Suspension" on my suspended AHL players. I don't blame you for wanting to test it out though. LOL!

With you on that!

Terrible second quarter by the team - started with 5 wins in a row, then just 2 in the last 15... and whereas the losses early in the season were of the 1 goal, close game variety, we were not in most of these games... 3-0, 4-0, 6-2, 9-1 etc...

Luckily Arnott is within a game of being back, and we can reconstruct my killer PP, LOL

The Bruins placed David Krejci on waivers? Obviously he's not as good in the game as he is in real life but he's still not bad. I'm really surprised they dropped him. I will be interested to see who claims him.