EHM The Blue Line

listro55 wrote:I ended with 6 firsts, 6 seconds, a 3rd, 2 4ths and my usual late rounders.
4th overall: Sean Day
6th overall: Adam Mascherin
12th overall Max Jones
15th overall Evan Fitzpatrick
20th overall: Luke Green
27th overall: Chad Krys

Very strong draft! Expect to have Day, Mascherin and Green in the NHL roster next season, I guess. I don't have Day, but other two are progressing very quick. Green will start 2nd season already in the 2nd D pair. Mascherin is ready, but I think he will start in the AHL and I'll call up him frequently. Also Jones should become pretty good like he did in the last challenge.

Wish me luck!



Edit: YEAH! We won!

I know the age limit for trades will drop 15th of June every year, but can I start trading players older than that as soon as the trade window open, or do I need to wait for the 15th?

First season finished, and it was quite brutal.

It started ok, and at the first quarter we parked on a playoff spot, but after that it went downhill. We allowed so many shots, and I tried and tried but didn't manage to counter it. The biggest problem I think was that we lost way too many faceoffs, usually ending up with around 30%. Centers were definitely my biggest problem, with Hertl playing best at the wing and couture not really doing what was expected.
As posted earlier I gave up on the season completely at around the 70 game mark, putting all my youngsters down in AHL to get some playoff experience and regain the joy of winning.
We eventually ended up on 13th in the conference, 28th overall.

Players that did ok was: Hertl, Wingels, Stalock, Nieto and Muller. Domi was also ok, even though I expected more.

In AHL things ended up a lot brighter, finishing 5th in the regular season we got to the playoff. With the extra players I moved down playoff was a breeze. We swept most teams, with only Utica proving some challange in the final, but we won 4-2 and the Calder cup was ours.

Notable players:
Fiala - Won AHL in points (104, 23 points ahead of the runner up) and goals (55, 12 ahead of runner up). He was simply a beast
Morrissey - Won AHL for Dmen in points (68) and goals (18)
Goldobin - Was my best player in the playoffs scoring points in all games ending up with a total of 29

So future could look bright, if I don't mess it up with bad coaching (probably will)

Now it is trade and draft time

Super busy at work but FINALLY got done with the trades at the drafts. Super excited to play this challenge.

First off, trading in this database feels close to really good. I had a really hard time trading last challenge, and it was much easier this time. However not TOO easy and harder than EHM 07

Onto the Sharks!

TRADES
Thornton & Vlasic to Flames for Sean Monahan. If i learned anything from last challenge center is huge, so I went after them. Could have accepted quite a few center options (Girgensons, Barkov, etc.) but went with Monahan because he is a playmaker role

Marleau and Niemi to Lightning for Andrei Vasilevsky. I was going to role with Stalock but all scouts had him listed as a backup. Considering they list "bad" goalies as starters this was worrying so I went after the top young goalies.

Burns to Sabres for Ristolainen and Zadorov Improving the defense is of course needed and I loved this trade. I wanted to trade Burns (high value) for a stud but was having problems getting a trade I liked. This way I get two very solid second/third line defenseman at the worst.

D'Agostini, Kosta, and Pavelsi to Senators for Mark Stone Right Wing was second biggest need IMO (After LD) and I was having a really hard time getting a right wing I wanted. I targeted guys like Duclair/Saad/Mantha but none were accepted. Stone looks great...but every scout only has him as second line potential. So we will see.

Braun to Avalanche for Siemens I needed a LD still and at worst Siemens can fill in as a defensive third line pairing and help on the PK. Seemed like a safe, solid choice, even if not sexy.


Overall pretty happy and in good shape going forward I feel.

Goalie 3 out of 3 rating,very good moving forward. Only problem is by trading for a goalie I have three on my roster and can't risk sending one down through waivers...so looks like I'm carrying three goalies this year!

Left Defense 1 out 3 rating, still need lots of improving. Not confident Muller is/can be a first line stud. Zadorov/Siemens are more plug ins for now

Right Defense 2 out of 3 rating, Johnson, Ristolainen are both NHL caliber but not studs (maybe R becomes one?). Doherty seems like short term third line defensive minded plug in

Left Wing 3 out of 3 rating. My plan is to put Hertl as second line LW which leaves Zolnierczyk and Goldobin as third liners...which is a good compromise. All things considered LW is in very good shape. Also drafted Dmitri Sokolov in first round to make a different selection than everyone else

Center 3 out of 3 rating. With Couture and Monahan down the middle my 1/2 are set. Third and fourth line are very iffy and I will have to figure out who works best. However worst comes to shove I can put Hertl in as 3C, despite his low faceoff ability. No need to improve it. Also have Boyko coming over at next years transfer window

Right Wing 2 out of 3 rating. Stone looks good but as I mentioned above I'm worried about his potential. Wingels is a good defensive minded guy but should probably be third line. Smith/Hayes would then be good fourth line/PKers

Overall Team Rating: 14 out of 18. Areas to improve in order of priority: LD, RW, RD

Sesyde wrote:I know the age limit for trades will drop 15th of June every year, but can I start trading players older than that as soon as the trade window open, or do I need to wait for the 15th?

You can start trading as soon as the league's trade window opens. The age doesn't adjust until June 15th though.

bruins72 wrote:

Sesyde wrote:I know the age limit for trades will drop 15th of June every year, but can I start trading players older than that as soon as the trade window open, or do I need to wait for the 15th?

You can start trading as soon as the league's trade window opens. The age doesn't adjust until June 15th though.

so can we trade Stalock as soon as he turns 29 and trading opens up? Or we have to wait until end of year and June 15th to trade him eventhough he's already 29

In that case we have to wait until the 15th because there's no trading allowed in season 1 besides the initial purge.

So Hertl came back from injury and I'm looking at Fiala. We played only 7 games in the 3 weeks that Hertl was out (due to the All-Star break). In those 7 games, Fiala had 4G, 2A, +6, and a 7.43 average rating. I can't take him out. The team has been performing much better with him in the lineup. I'll add Hertl back into the lineup at 3rd line LW and 2nd PP RW. I still can't understand how Fiala performs so well, he's attributes just don't look that good.

ah duh my bad

Anyone else's fans despise them? Board is widdled too, mainly started with the "treatment" of Marleau and Thornton and went down hill from there...Being 7-19-3 doesn't help either

Yeah, they'll get over it eventually... or they won't.

Looking at different draft, trades and mostly the stats that people were able to come up with, I think, that's the most captivating thing about the game. The different approach and thought process when building the team and setting up the lanes and tactics.

I have to admit though, struggling with the Nucks was more fun than going all the way in my 1st season with the Sharks.
I also think that my tactics with Vancouver were better, more balanced; however, I also thought they were pretty defensive which judging by the results that I got was far from the truth. Now, after going over the tactics thread a few times, I went with what I thought was super extreme tactics which turned out to be far more effective, and at times defensive somehow..

Let;s see where this takes me, having in mind I didn't make a single trade in my second season, and I don't think I brought in any prospect that will go anywhere near my NHL team, maybe Hartman.

So to sum it up we got to the playoffs with a marginal of one single point.

When I saw that we were facing the Ducks in the playoffs I knew were going to exit in the first round. Surprisingly the team really put up a fair fight and we won two of the games. The Nieto went down the last two games and after Huberdeau went down in the last game the final plug was pulled in our journey. Frederik Andersen was a beast to face and might win the Vezina.

Coyle won Art Ross with 98 points, Huberdeau was the runner-up with 93.
Coyle won the Maurice Richard with 50 goals (and acknowledged me for it!)
Huberdeau stole the Lady Byng with Couture as the runner-up
Coyle runner-up for Hart
Coyle won the Masterton (and acknowledged me again)
Coyle got into the first All-star team.

Trading was hard as I didn't really want to break up my team but I needed to shred some contracts. I felt that the prospect pool was rather shallow so I went for some picks. Decided to get rid of Stalock as he was one with some value that I didn't really need as I had three goalies up and Säteri won the job.

Brent Regner for a 3rd rounder
Zolnieczyck and Stalock for 1st
Oleksyk for 4th
Stålberg for 4th

The draft was decent but not much more.

#15 Kristian Vesalainen - We need a power forward so I think he will fit just fine. That extra space in his name is annoying though.
#25 Denis Morozov - The center pool is weak so I got this Russian playmaker. Poor mans Couture sounds fine as a second line C. I'm having trouble to get him from Russia.
#45 Kimmo Honkanen - Checking forward with good passing and great physical atts.
#70 Jeremy Street - Another one of those offensive D's without any offence.
#75 Dustin Becker - Defensive RW for my PK
#92 Jonny Kilström - Hard-working speedy RW/C and not really much more.
#105 Egor Conrad - Weird D with no physicality or checking but sme decent stats in some other important areas. Wild-card.
#112 Albin Wallin - Big all-offense C with some nice atts. My scouts are all over the place on this guy with everything from 2nd to Limited.
#135 Kevin Dahlberg - All defense C for my PK
#165 Philip Lundbohm - A C with good mental atts but not much else.
#177 Axel Ottosson 21-year old C with experience from the Swedish elite. No real peaks but no real weaknesses either.
#195 Denis Godla - Wanted to fill the void after Stalock and got a 22-year old goalie with 18 reflexes. Might not ever play a game for my but is some insurance.
#199 Otto Mäkinen - Checking C with great bravery and good physical stats but not much else.

Nationalities from the draft were very Eurocentric for some reason:
Sweden 3
Finland 3
Canada 2
USA 2
Slovakia 1
Slovenia 1
Russia 1

bruins72 wrote:

listro55 wrote:First time challenge here.

<snip>

I see people getting Demko... "Rights to..." I thought weren't allowed? Must be under contract?

Welcome! Glad to see another person joining us!

I must have missed that. If someone traded for the "rights to Demko", that's not allowed. Only contracted players can be traded (and draft picks).

That would be me... . I've already inputed stats for 40 games played. How screwed am I?

I think this guy is a shooter.

After 20GP:
9-7-4 57gf 60ga 19.5%pp 87.2%pk. Sitting 9th, tied for 8th in west.

Nieto-couture-wingles
Hertl-Larkin-konecny
Goldobin-O'regan-Hartman
Karlsson-zetterberg-smith
Oleksiuk

Müller-Johnson
Day-gormley
Doherty-Tennyson
Bergman

Subban-grosenick

Nieto just got suspended for 1+2 games, game 20 being his last. O'Regan moved up to first line LW and games 1 and 2 of nieto suspension resulted in Couture and Wingles both netting 7 points each. They are at 23-22 points, Larkin pulling up 3rd with 12pts in 20. Nieto is at 9 in 15. Sean Day has yet to see the score sheet outside of his 18 PIM.

All in all, team needs to find more scoring to continue what marginal success we've had so far. Main priority is improving everyone's fitness to be able to grind thru a seasons worth of games and practice without fatiguing before November rolls around.

Trades and draft for season 2 Not too happy with the result but I suppose it's alright considering the circumstances. I felt after season 1 that I had 4 points to adress:
1. A new top 6 C that is good at faceoffs.
2. A new Defenseman that could replace Johnson.
3. A new RW for the bottom 6.
4. A potential new goalie
I also wanted to do this while at the same time not moving out Couture, as stated above good centers are just way too hard to come by to let him go.

Trades made where:
Eriah Hayes and Erik Johnson to Flames for Shea Theodore
Tommy Wingels to Capitals for William Karlsson and 1st pick
Travis Oleksuk and Harry Zolnierczyk to Devils for Jordan Binnington and Adam Larsson
Callum Booth to Blues for 3rd and 4th picks (this was my underage trade, felt I might aswell use it every year since there are lots that wont make the NHL)

Draft:
#3 Gk - Olle Eriksson-Ek
#25 C - Nico Hischier
#33 C - Adrian Bean
#63 RW - Strat Rousseau
#83 RD/LD - Jérémy Street
#93 RD - Nick Heid
#113 LD/RD - Sebastian Aho
#123 C - Luc Petrecki
#153 LD - Jonas Siegenthaler
#164 C/LW - Otto Mäkinen
#183 C - Albin Wallin
#200 C - Mark Verba

So in the end, I kinda managed 3 of my 4 goals.
* I did get a new C that can play in top 6, even though Karlsson wasn't really who I had in mind to start. Not really sure how he will be, stats are good though.
* I did get a new Dman instead of Johnson, and Theodore should be good, at least in a couple of years.
* And I did get a new potential Goalie. I was originally hoping to get someone like Ullmark, Subban or Vasilevsky. But I suppose keeping Stallock for a couple of more years and then put my hope to Eriksson-Ek is ok aswell. He has been really good in some of my previous games.

Team is still not great, and I wouldn't put any money on a playoff spot this year either. But of course, one can always hope.

I'll just leave it here.
Zetterberg and Luke Green in the middle of 2nd season.




And still I don't have an idea how to get defensive forwards (even great ones like Zett) to produce decent numbers and ratings. Always below 6.8. I guess Anticipation, Creativity and Balance are hurting him. And the fact that he's on the 3rd line. But what an awesome PKer.

stone169 wrote:

bruins72 wrote:

listro55 wrote:First time challenge here.

<snip>

I see people getting Demko... "Rights to..." I thought weren't allowed? Must be under contract?

Welcome! Glad to see another person joining us!

I must have missed that. If someone traded for the "rights to Demko", that's not allowed. Only contracted players can be traded (and draft picks).

That would be me... . I've already inputed stats for 40 games played. How screwed am I?

Honestly, that's a pretty big one. I think it's only fair that you've either got to waive/release him or start over. If you choose to start over, please PM Archibulduk and ask him to reset your stats.

bruins72 wrote:
Honestly, that's a pretty big one. I think it's only fair that you've either got to waive/release him or start over. If you choose to start over, please PM Archibulduk and ask him to reset your stats.

Thanks. I sent a pm to Archbulduk asking him to reset my stats. I just can't see myself waiving and releasing a player like Demko, especially 40 games into the challenge.

Was given a choice to start from scratch or waive and release Demko, which was an illegal trade. My bad and I should've known better considering I was questioned about the legitimacy of a goalie prospect trade in the last challenge concerning my Fucale trade, which was a legal trade. 40 games in I decided I should just restart, because I can't see myself giving up Demko for nothing.

I managed to sign Sateri. Don't ask me how. I just kept offering him the same contract. 925k per year, 401k signing bonus, 69.5k if 10 games are played, 69.5k if he gets 10 wins, 69.5k if he gets 1 shutout, and it's a one-way contract, and I made him a key player. I guess I wore him down.

Season 2 saw the team come close to the play-offs, but once again it was no cigar. Losing the final game of the season to Arizona proved costly, as the Coyotes bumped us out of the third divisional slot by a single point (we were 11 points out of a wild card spot!). When trading opened up, I decided to capitalize on the value of some of my veterans. As the draft approached, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we had won the draft lottery.

Award Winners:

Kevin Fiala, Calder, All-Rookie Team

Trades:

Wingels, Smith, Karlsson to Columbus for Ryan Murray
Johnson to Buffalo for Sam Reinhart

Draft:

1-1: Joseph Veleno, C, Baie-Comeau
2-41: Samy Levac, C/LW, Edmonton
3-71: Richard Earle, C, Moose Jaw
4-101: Jordan Zacharias, G, Dartmouth
5-131: Chip Callen, LW, Clarkson
6-161: Nikolai Kovalenko, RW/LW, Cherepovets
7-191: Matti Ruotsalainen, RD, Assat A-Jrs

Projected Line-Up for 2018-19

Fiala - Reinhart - Nieto
Goldobin - Barkov - Rakell
Hertl - Couturier - Konecny
Tierney - Boyko - Hartman
Hayes
O'Regan

Muller - Ekblad
Murray - Klingberg
Bergman - Severson
Brodzinski

Gibson
Stalock

Trades
---------
San Jose:
Kasperi Kapanen

Pittsburgh:
Antti Niemi
Matt D'Agostini
-----------------------------------------------------
San Jose:
Jake McCabe
Rasmus Ristolainen
2016 1st round pick (18th overall)

Buffalo:
Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Mike Kostka

Fans not happy
-----------------------------------------------------
San Jose:
Justin Shugg
Michael Ferland
2016 6th round pick

Calgay:
Justin Braun
------------------------------------------------------
San Jose:
Dennis Everberg
Duncan Siemens
Calvin Pickard

Colorado:
Brent Burns

Fans not happy
-----------------------------------------------------
San Jose:
Mika Zibanejad
Cody Ceci
Nick Paul

Ottawa:
Patrick Marleau
Joe Pavelski
------------------------------------------------------
San Jose:
Vincent Dunn
Petteri Lindbohm

St. Louis:
Joe Thornton



2016 Draft
--------------
1st round Pierre-Luc Dubois (6th)
1st round Sam Steel (18th)
2nd round Brandon Saigeon (36th)
2nd round Kale Clague (42nd)
4th round Zachary Sawchenko (96th)
5th round Hans-Goran Ericson (126th)
6th round Nick Heid (156th)
6th round Kieffer Bellows (169)
7th round Nikita Makeyev (186)
7th round Jaydan Poole (193)

stone169 wrote: 1st round Sam Steel (18th)

He was great for me after I traded for him in the last Challenge. I wanted him and had an offer for the 15th overall pick but I didn't think he would sink that low so I skipped skipped the trade...