Think you're a good EHM GM? Our GM Challenges dare you to take over a team and make it a winner. The Challenge Forum and Centre are the hubs of our Challenges.
mustardstew wrote:How does this work (in game, and Challenge, I suppose) - if I have to call players up, are they stuck there? It's letting me play right now... when will it stop?
I was below the floor almost whole season and nothing happened. Every month you get some kind of warning from your board but it does nothing. You can freely call players from farm team and then send them back.
Maybe there was some penalty in the end of season that I had to pay in order to reach the salary floor. Nothing major.
grits207 wrote:All in all I don't think my offseason was too bad. I managed to bring in some more toughness and maybe make the team a bit better in our own end. I didn't get the #1 RD I was looking for but maybe I will be able to get one when I am allowed to trade again.
I think this team has enough toughness with guys like Mair, Pahlsson, Ruutu, Battaglia, Tkachuk, Doan all at least decent hitters. I am definitely concentrating on fixing the defense. Numminen retiring means there's one serious hole to fill and it's questionable if off-season signings are capable of doing it. I am also thinking about acquiring a veteran 2nd line centre. With Gagner still developing, and Steen not performing as well as I hoped, I think I will have to look at what are my options.
I managed to fill the gaps I wanted to fill with my two trades. Team is starting to look really good now cuz I brought in Chris Pronger and Marc Savard.
Very nice additions! Savard is amazing for setting up scorers. I've used him many times in my various Bruins careers. I've never used Pronger before but I can imagine that he's pretty impressive.
Oh yeah... just a nit-pick but can everyone please make sure to fill in the challenge number on their Challenge Stat Recording spreadsheets? I see a lot of the stats being posted as "Challenge .1" instead of "Challenge 14.1".
Lidas wrote:I managed to fill the gaps I wanted to fill with my two trades. Team is starting to look really good now cuz I brought in Chris Pronger and Marc Savard.
I will try to stay away from players of this calibre, unless I develop them on my own. Trying to challenge myself!
bruins72 wrote:Oh yeah... just a nit-pick but can everyone please make sure to fill in the challenge number on their Challenge Stat Recording spreadsheets? I see a lot of the stats being posted as "Challenge .1" instead of "Challenge 14.1".
Careful guys, he goes blind when he sees decimals by themselves. Just messing with ya bruins.
Seriously though. I made sure to make the box to enter the challenge number in the spreadsheet colored gold so it would stand out and people would fill in it. Every challenge there are a handful that leave it out. Sure, now we have a stats recording thread just for this challenge but at this point it's a pet peeve of mine. I just like to see things done right.
Back to the challenge itself... my team won The Cup in it's first season. I've already blogged it but I've got to wait until I get to July 1st and can take my Trades screenshot before I can post my stats. I'm really interested to see what I'm going to be able to due when UFA and trading time comes. I hope I can add some grit to the defense and maybe a good setup center with some size and strength.
Good job, Bruins72
I'm just about to start the second season and I'm facing some hard dilemas:
1) What to do with Sam Gagner? He can be still sent to juniors or newly also to minors (San Antonio). In the previous season he played in London and racked up 136 points (50+86) in 53 games and won all player of the month awards, including the final best OHL player award (I forgot the name). I'm not sure what to do. Maybe he is not good enough to play in pro team regularly in top two lines. But is AHL/ECHL good for his development?
2) What to do with Steve Mason? He cannot be sent to minors and I lean to letting him stay with Jets. And then there is question how many games should I give him. Will he be able to play 30+ games? Or even more?
3) Somehow I'm out of defensmen reserve. Only Stralman is able to step in and help the pro team. Then there is only Dogvan, Finley and Joslin. It isn't much depth in D posts. I let Montador go in offseason
I finally had the time to get the first section of twenty done. I am a real slow player.
The team is doing OK. The positives are Selänne,Doan,Toews, Latendresse (7goals in a limited role)Pitkänen. ON the downside is Hilbert and Ference. They have been awful. Wisniewski is soon coming back from injury so Ference can get some time in the press box. I just put HIlbert on waivers and called up Talbot.
San Antonio has been awesome! 15-0-1 with the sole loss coming in a shootout. McArdle,Ryan,Chipchura and Smid are leading the way
Manimal wrote:
San Antonio has been awesome! 15-0-1 with the sole loss coming in a shootout. McArdle,Ryan,Chipchura and Smid are leading the way
They really end up being a great team. San Antonio won the Calder Cup in their first season in my game.
And they are on a good way to win it in my game as well. Anyway, good job b72 with the cup, I want it badly. We'll see. I am hoping to play some games tonight.
I just finished my draft. I've got a few of the regulars that seem to always be drafted (Erixon, Palmieri, and Samuelsson) but I've also drafted some players I've never had before but find very interesting.
Those of you that are entering your second season of the challenge, what kind of budget is the board allowing you? I've been given $54M to work with. That's a huge jump from what we had in the first season. I might have to add some big salary via trade.
So July 1st hits and I'm looking at what I can do for trades before I start offering any UFA contracts. Being a Bruins fan, I decide I want to try going after Chara. So I start off by offering them Montador (who they had at **** interest) and Mojzis, just to gauge where they're at and what they're looking for. They start negotiating without advancing days. It looks like they want to unload Chara's salary. We go back and forth many (and when I saw many, I mean a good 2 dozen or so times) with negotiating. I can't send out more than 2 players and they seem to like the two players I offer but they want to add in another player or pick. Sorry but that just can't happen. So eventually, I end up with half the team and many draft picks on the "no way" list in the negotiation. They throw their hands up and say "Forget it then!". I come back with a new offer, taking the lock off a player and adding one that I previously disallowed. Eventually, I add Gagner to the mix and see that they're interested but my side thinks we're not getting enough back. So I look at the Bruins roster to see if there is someone I can add. I've been wanting to add more grit to my team (of course Chara is grit to the extreme) so I add Mark Stuart to the mix. He's a strong stay-at-home defenseman with some grit. Of course, not the deal is lopsided the other way. And now it's back to negotiations. Finally, I offer Sam Gagner and Anton Stralman to the Bruins for Zdeno Chara and Mark Stuart. They accept! Now I'm second guessing myself and I'm afraid to confirm the deal.
If I didn't aquire Morris from free agency, I'd go for Chara, too. This trade is good in my opinion.
Just for fun I tried to set this trade in my game and Bruins don't want to hear about it. They just say that they are not prepared to talk and can thrash the trade out. Even after I offered them Gagner, 1st 2008 pick and 1st 2009 pick only for Chara I already started the second season so maybe this can be the reason.
Anyway, I'm gonna trade in October/November and I'll see the reactions then. I've no idea who I should go after
bruins72 wrote:So July 1st hits and I'm looking at what I can do for trades before I start offering any UFA contracts. Being a Bruins fan, I decide I want to try going after Chara. So I start off by offering them Montador (who they had at **** interest) and Mojzis, just to gauge where they're at and what they're looking for. They start negotiating without advancing days. It looks like they want to unload Chara's salary. We go back and forth many (and when I saw many, I mean a good 2 dozen or so times) with negotiating. I can't send out more than 2 players and they seem to like the two players I offer but they want to add in another player or pick. Sorry but that just can't happen. So eventually, I end up with half the team and many draft picks on the "no way" list in the negotiation. They throw their hands up and say "Forget it then!". I come back with a new offer, taking the lock off a player and adding one that I previously disallowed. Eventually, I add Gagner to the mix and see that they're interested but my side thinks we're not getting enough back. So I look at the Bruins roster to see if there is someone I can add. I've been wanting to add more grit to my team (of course Chara is grit to the extreme) so I add Mark Stuart to the mix. He's a strong stay-at-home defenseman with some grit. Of course, not the deal is lopsided the other way. And now it's back to negotiations. Finally, I offer Sam Gagner and Anton Stralman to the Bruins for Zdeno Chara and Mark Stuart. They accept! Now I'm second guessing myself and I'm afraid to confirm the deal.
Opinions?
Okay first of all, you EHM maniacs seem to win Cup with whatever team, so it doesn't matter that much after all, does it?. I personally like the deal, since challenges are short-term and it would take a few seasons till Stralman would produce at least a bit similar results to Chara's. He's a beast. I don't know anything about Mark Stuart, but 'strong stay-at-home defensman with some grit' is something Jets are missing in this game. This deal would strengthen your defense ultimately and you won't have any obvious holes in your line up, since you are giving up youngsters which won't step until later seasons, which you might never reach anyway, if you know what I mean. I like this deal from both sides, and if I was strugling Bruin, I would definitely acccept it. It's a fair one.
Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to take the deal. I've used Chara many times in the past when I'd play as the Bruins. I always get mad that the Bruins seem to trade him away for trash when I play as another team. I might as well take him off their hands for a decent deal.
McQwak, I'm pretty sure the reason they won't do the deal with you is timing. I think in my case, this is the first day of the UFA signing period. They want to lower their payroll so they've got some room to work with. They're up at around $55M right now, so they've got very little wiggle room.
Gibson, I wouldn't say I can win with any team. I know in the Predators challenge it took me until season 3 to win The Cup. We just had some serious scoring on this team to start with and capable goaltending. That's always going to give you a good chance to win.
So I'm going to accept the deal. I don't like Gagner's style of play and Stralman seems to have a skill set very similar to some of my other defensemen. Eventually, he'll be a decent # 3 or 4 guy but even then, someone I could easily replace. This is a chance to land Chara. I can't pass this up!
Well, nice to see Slovakian power on the Jets roster I want to make a Slovakian acquisition in the off-season if possible, maybe Handzus or Demitra, since I am looking for an experienced center. Protectionism FTW . OK, but back to reality, I am still at Game 60.
Bruins, I just realized when I was punching in my 4th quarter post I accidentally had 2 extra losses in there can you delete that post and I'll repost my 4th quarter.