EHM The Blue Line

The further along you go, the more teams get in trouble with the salary cap and can't re-sign players. It seems like every season (after the first couple season) there is at least one star player that isn't signed and if you get him late enough in the season you can get him to sign a ridiculously cheap contract. It's a flaw in the game. I try to avoid making the cheap signing but of course the computer controlled teams don't.

sometimes it really bad and you get like 5-6. i'm coming up on january 2011 and right now the big name FAs no-one is signing are:

Jason Allison
Dany Heatley
Jaromir Jagr
Jere Lehtinen (sp?)
Oleg Saprykin
Ryan Miller
Ossi Vaananen
Manny Legace
Jose Theodore
Robert Esche
Sean Avery
Francis Buillon

to name a few, its actually quite annoying for me as it isn't realistic and more imporantly i already set up my plans so i can't sign any of them lol

Raising salary cup might help. It's annoying I know, one of many bugs

I think when I will start a new game I will raise it up to 53m or so...

I love to use NHL teams, but I tend to feel that playing in the CHL always gives me a better chance to have fun year after year. Half the time you can't keep the same players as the year before and if you do, then it's just maybe a couple of players.

Not the whole team.

Which in my opinion is more fun if you have to go out and grab tons of players to build a new team, you know?

Anyway, I started off with the Rocky Mountain Rage of the CHL. I took the Rage all the way to the Cup the first season. Finished with the best record in the league as well.

The second season was a different story, I finished with the best record. But fell short at the end to the Youngstown Steelhounds. No big though, they deserved to win the Cup. They gave me a good series during the regular season and during the playoffs as well.

Aside from that, I've pretty much had the best group of players each of the seasons as well. Had defensemen lead in all categories, many offensive players lead in categories, won many awards, had the best coaches, and overall just have been doing great.

I am looking to go far with this team. I want to honestly go 50 to 100 years with this team. I have only got about 11 years into any game that I have started in EHM. I just want to go really far, because nobody around here or other places has shown where they have gone that long.

Might be fun to see what it looks like, you know?

Some guy has made it to the insane 100 year mark.

I like your story, you should work out a blog, would be fun to read...I deffinitly should try out one of those minor leagues in America, or QMJHL ,or whatever but not NHL.

I think that when you have to basically start with a fresh new team every single year. It's more fun and you tend to see what kind of players are actually out there for you to grab.

Personally, I love going after the young guns. Many players in the OHL and QMJHL always are willing to jump aboard my team. On top of that, they are highly skilled players who are going to make it into to the NHL sooner or later. I feel that me giving them a chance will only make them stronger in the long run.

Considering that I give great coaching and teaching on my team with the staff that I sign.

Plus, it's fun to see how well they fair in the CHL. I know the league isn't as competitive as the AHL or even the ECHL at times. But it's fun to see if they can hold their own against CHL veterans who have scored 100's of goals and 1,000's of points.

I might go ahead and start my game over to do the blog.

To jump off of this thread for just a second. I have been at this place numerous times before. Much of me having the new name is due to me deleting most if not all my email accounts in the past. Which means, I can not get my password for my account on here and plus, I would rather just start fresh anyway. I know that might be wrong or against the rules and if it is, sorry, but it's just what I wanted to do personally.

If it is that big of a deal, I can give the former names so that you can delete them off of this forum.

Now to get back on topic, I am currently sitting pretty in my 3rd season as the Rage GM.

Got some great players and maybe the best 1st line ever. Considering that they have gone for over 200 points all together.

First post!

Using the Leafs (finished the first season) to get into the new game..haven't really played EHM since the original freeware, which I played the pants off of. Might try a career game soon though, once uni dies down a bit...

Hah! Great avatar!

Welcome to TBL

About to kick off my 5th season with the Wild.
Last 2 seasons have seen my team crowned as Stanley cup champions.
It was really fun to win the first one, didnt expect it that season since the team had only managed to win 2 play off series in the past 2 years, but in my 3rd season I managed to build a winning team. And to really make that season special I found my self top of the draft list in 2009, the Taavares draft. Ho did that happen? Well at the start of the season I had to get under the cap with about $1m and Schultz was getting some attention from different teams. I also needed a little more aggression in the line up so I made a trade with Montreal, their first + Komisarek for Schultz and a 3rd. Both their GM and my self thought it was a good trade, little did I know that Habs would turn in to the worst team in the league, they where top ranked when the season started. Well, well. More the joy for me.
Only one of my players who have been top 20 in points is Gaborik who came in 15th with 90 points. But the overall production have been very good.

But now I am with out coach Lemaire and star defense man Chara. Chara moved back to Boston and Lemaire signed with the LA Kings. I how ever had the opportunity to sign Lemaire but for $1m less I managed to get Hanlon who had done brilliantly with a young Caps team taking them to the latest final. (working with youngsters 19) so I signed him to a 4 year deal.
My oldest defender is now John Adams at age 27. Burns and Barinka will be my corner stones this season and they are just only 25. Atleast the board have asked me to only improve the roster this coming season. But I still have a feeling some one on D will step up big time this season now when Chara is gone.

Michalek - Richards - Gaborik
Pouliot - Parise - Bouchard
Voloshenko - Fisher - Kane
? - Leino - ? (I will play some rookies on the 4th line, perhaps trade/sign a veteran grinder who can drop them)

Barinka - Burns
Coburn - Johnson
Adams/Petrecki/Dubinin

Nittymäkki
Harding

My main focus was to resign the current roster and with fresh 3 year deals for both Richards (c/h @ 5.8) and Parise (c/h @ 5.5) I am set at center for the nearest future. With Taavares in the system it looks even better. And Fisher who have worked his way up to the 3rd line is starting to look like a real steal when I claimed him off waivers first season since he only have a cap hit @ $1.5m and was signed for 6 years.
Michalek signed for 3 more years and so if Gaborik. So I hope to win a championship once more in 3 years time if they can stay healthy I think I can. I have a few millions left before I reach the cap limit but I will save that for the trade dead line. Might have to get a veteran defender if the burden is to big on my young D-corp.

I just started a wild franchise as well, after my first one got corrupt, and its going well in season 1 with an 8-4-1 start, good enough for 5th place in West so far. Manny Fernandez started off horrible in goal, ended up turning to Josh Harding who went 2-0 with a shutout in his first two starts. But then Fernandez caught fire, he has form of 8-10-10-9-9. So I sent Harding to Houston to get more playing time. The only problem is Brian Rolston is out for a few weeks, so im looking for a top six forward to provide some depth. Lines look like:

Demitra-White-Gaborik
Parrish-Walz-Bouchard
Dupuis-Koivu-Foy
Veilleux-Pouliot-Radivojevic

Carney-Shultz
Johnsson-Skoula
Burns-Foster

Fernandez
Backstrom

Havent made any changes yet as you can see, I wont as long as the team keeps winning.

Hmm

I see what people mean about the sometimes-flawed AI. Blue-chippers tend to be untouchable, but some trades I've done over the past season and a half are...interesting (default roster/version)

-Pohl, Ondrus and the rights to Aki Berg for a shopped-around Chris Drury from Buffalo
-Jeff O'Neill for the rights to Nicklas Backstrom from Washington
-Bates Battaglia for Chris Clark from Washington
-Wellwood, Stajan, Jeremy Williams and the rights to two 'meh' prospects...for Gilbert Brule. CBS then put Wellwood on waivers, and I took him back...this seems weird to me. I can't see any team trading Brule for 3rd-4th line talent, event two of them, but meh.

I also managed to grab Nittymaki for Hal Gill and Andrew Raycroft. But that's just Philly being Philly.

Hunter on your 4th line LW. Is that Trent Hunter or a different Hunter? I don't really play with the Oilers, so I don't know if they've got another. If it's Trent Hunter, move him up to your 2nd line RW. You say your 2nd line has been doing really well? I'd be a bit concerned with having Scatchard as my 2nd line RW. He's more of a checking line (3rd line) kind of guy and he's usually better as a center.

Trent Hunter played last season in 2nd line with Horcoff and Scatchard, scored 90+ points. I moved him to 4th not because of his play, but because I bought Kvasha and I think he's more offensive skilled then Hunter. Scatchard is playing over his head all the time at his position, he is two-times Selke winner so far and with 100 points this season - and top avg rating - I have little doubt about he'll get another trophy this year. Scatchard is fast, but not tough enough for 3rd line - that's my opinion about him.

Fedorov must be getting a little old by this point. Is he slowing down? You might want to look at replacing him. Even keeping Fedorov, I don't know if I'd like him playing on the RW. Who is J. Black? Is it Jason Blake? I'm not sure who you've got in there but your 1st line LW should be one of your best players. Is O'Marra ready to take the 1st line center duties? I know O'Marra ends up pretty good (I had him in my Blackhawks challenge team) but I don't know if he's ready for this in the 3rd season. Horcoff might be better suited to that role. How does Shremp stack up to O'Marra at this point?

Fedorov is slowing down a bit, and I think of letting him go after this season. Last one he scored 120 pts, so I left him in 1st line for this season, but seems like it his last. Jason Blake was my top-scorer first season, and never failed to score less then 90 points per season, so I think he's good enough to stay in top line. O'Marra is still a bit young (he's 21) but I wanted to introduce him in squad as early as it'll be possible, btw, he became my top assister this season. I prefer him to Shremp because Shremp is physically weak and even his offensive skills are at least equal to O'Marra's, I choose the latter.

Overall, I'm seeing a lot of guys that are playing outside of their natural positions. I'm a big stickler for having players play in their natural positions if at all possible. That's where they're going to perform their best. If they're "unconvincing" in a position, I don't play them there. If they're "competent" in a position, I will use them there in a pinch (maybe if injuries force it) but not regularly. For example, you've got Jay Pandolfo playing RW and he's much better as a LW. Half your forwards are natural centers.

Nope. 2/3 of my forwards are natural centers:-), and I got another 2 centers - No. 1 draft picks from last two years. Sooo... I guess there gonna be BIG center offload after this season ends:-).

As for your defense, your top 4 are really good but I'd worry about Cairns and Trnka being my bottom pairing. I wouldn't have much confidence in them. I'd put Clymer as the RD on the 3rd pairing and then look for a couple new LDs. You've got 3 goalies and you only need 2 of those guys. I'd go with Budaj as my starter, keep Lalime as my backup (as long as he's making cheap money), and use Thibault in a trade to upgrade my defense.

I agree 100% with this. Cairns is getting old, and even his fighting skills are very good (first season he won 36 fights out of 37), I'll need to find another toughguy (Boogard is sitting in reserves right now). With Cairns sitting almost every match on the bench, I'm playng actually with 2 def pairs and that's not gonna do me any good. Budaj played well during season - but still letting at least 2 goals per game - and Lalime is unbelievable in playoffs (I passed Coyotes and Ducks in first 2 rounds), so I'll trade Thibault for sure.

Anyhow, these are just some ideas. We've all go our ways that we like to play the game and this is what I would do.

Thanks for your ideas, I find they are matching my ones in a way, but that's what I wanted to hear:-).

Alex.

I recently started over with my Rage franchise. Most of this was due to me wanting to just go ahead and start over to do my blog.

I find that I won't even have enough time to do my blog as much as I might want to do so, but whatever I guess.

Aside from that, I've got some great talent signed to my team for the first season. Just hoping to win the Cup the first time around.

I started a season with the Port Huron Flags, inspired by an old story posted on this board (and I am posting a storyline on my own board as I play along). So far, despite signing very talented players, my Flags are 2-8-0 and ensconced in second-to-last place.

Not gonna lie

In the midst of my first conference-challenging race. Completely overhauled the Leafs roster in three seasons (Kaberle, Steen (re-acquired) and technically Suglobov all that remain from the old Leafs) and have a run at ending the Cup drought at 43 years...this is intense

Wild season 2012/13 is about to start. Have just dont the draft, had the 30th pick...again

And again none of my players really had a spectacular season in term of points, but most players chipped in with some goals and assists, in the playoffs Mike Richards really stepped up his game and was later on voted MVP.

The team had a stable season, and after the trade dead line where I managed to get a 34 year old Redden in a deal with Colorado the Wild really started to look dangerous cause what was missing was a veteran leader on D and once we got that things started to look very interesting. I had to give up Coburn, Harding and a prospect to get him but since we again won the cup it was all worth it. The only other trade I did was Leino for Blunden straight up but that deal was made before the season started.


Michalek - Richards - Gaborik
Pouliot - Parise - Kane
Staal - Fisher - Hagman
Voloshenko - Tavares - Blunden/Aliu

Redden - Johnson
Barinka - Burns
Adams/Petrecki/Dubinin

Nittymäkki



Other then seeing Richards lifting the cup as captain, Tavares won the Calder. For the upcoming season I traded Parise, a highly rated goalie prospect and 2 2nd round picks for Mark Staal. Ok, I gave up a lot but Staal really have developed in to a elite defense man, I he is signed for 2 more years a 5m. Parise, a franchise forward earning about the same did really well but with Tavares ready for a bigger role and my need for a leader on D (Redden was UFA) made me do the deal. Fisher and Hagman left the team after the season since they asked for big bucks and I cant afford that.

Hey guys,

50-odd games into the season I got what I thought was a great Defense:

Gauthier - Pronger
Jovanovski - Morris
Morrisson - Boynton

And indeed, after 2 or 3 games to settle in, I went 11 games where no team scored more than 2 goals against me and I was banging them in the other end. I was rubbng my hands together thinking STanley Cup here I come........

THEN all of a sudden I start haemorraging goals and cant score more than 2 a game!

I've tried swapping a couple of lines around but hasnt worked. In the last 14 games since the collapse i've only won 4 games!! Before I was top of the league.

HELP!!! lolol

Sounds like the AI has caught up to your tactics. Try another tactic for the rest of the season, you should be able to turn it around. Use your first tactic in the playoffs.

dybbuk wrote:Sounds like the AI has caught up to your tactics. Try another tactic for the rest of the season, you should be able to turn it around. Use your first tactic in the playoffs.

Similar thing has happened to me...I have played Aligators (renamed Coyotes), and i went 16-0-0 in first 16 games, then suddenly drop to 14th place in conference by the end of the season. That was horrible. Of course, it was back in ol days with EHM 2005, when i wasn't so much skilled.

The whole point of me starting out in my new game was to have a little fun and see how far I could go into the game. Right now, I am 13 seasons deep and currently in about 45 games with my 14th season. I have done this all in about 8 days as of right now.

In my first 13 seasons, I have finished with the best record in the NHL and lifted the Stanley Cup in each of them and basically I tend to do the same this year as well. Although much of my time that was good has mostly retired or forced to retire on account of injuries.

Kind of bad to see it go that way, but that's a good thing on me having many good prospects in the back who are ready to step up to the plate and help me out.

Below are the standings from each of my last 13 seasons and the current road I am on right now for the 14th season.

1st Season: 65-14-3 133 Points
2nd Season: 67-11-4 138 Points
3rd Season: 66-11-5 137 Points
4th Season: 72-9-1 145 Points
5th Season: 74-5-3 151 Points
6th Season: 73-6-3 149 Points
7th Season: 72-8-2 146 Points
8th Season: 73-6-3 149 Points
9th Season: 77-2-3 157 Points
10th Season: 71-7-4 146 Points
11th Season: 75-5-2 152 Points
12th Season: 72-5-5 149 Points
13th Season: 80-2-0 160 Points
14th Season: 44-5-1 89 Points

The record for myself as the GM of the Maple Leafs is as follows below.

Games: 1,345
Wins: 1,164
Lost: 135
Draws: 46
Goals Scored: 6,775
Goals Against: 2,633
Players Acquired: 97
Players Shipped: 53

Now for the draws column, I suppose you can go ahead and put those in the lost column. Cause in all reality, I lost the game in the end. Whether it be in the shootout or not, you know?

To get off of the stats of myself and my team in the standings. There are some great player stats that I have had happen as well.

The best by far is Ovechkin in my opinion. I have had him for each of my full 13 seasons and he's doing great in his 14th.

As of right now, he has played in 1,093 games for the Maple Leafs. Scoring 805 goals, assisting on 933 others, and totaling for a great 1,738 points. Heck, he is even close to 1,000 penalty minutes with 986 total right now.

If the game doesn't basically retire his jersey with the Maple Leafs by the time he retires, then I don't know what I would have to do to make that happen.

The other great player that I have had on my team is Antero Niittymaki. Believe it or not, I've turned him into the best goaltender the NHL has ever seen or in my opinion I have, because he holds all the records right now and I don't see me going 50 years into the game and seeing any future goaltender take that away.

In all his years with the Maple Leafs, he's played in 1,021 games. Getting 892 wins, 86 losses, and 34 ties. He's played for 60,925 minutes with 2,143 goals against him. The overall GAA for him is 2.02 and his SV% is .918 with the amazing total of 143 shutouts.

The only thing that he didn't and I don't think it will happen, because he is close to getting out of the hockey world in my game, is getting 22 shutouts in a single season. The best that he did was 17 shutouts in my 9th season.

There were many other players who I had on my team that ended their career with great numbers and I was proud to have them, but as of right now. Those are the only two players I have remaining on my team from the start and until now.

I know Ovechkin has another 4 to 6 seasons left in him atleast and as for Niittymaki, his stats are going down fast. So I would assume that he is about done for in maybe 2 seasons if not this current one.

All in all, I am having a great experience in my career and I am looking to go as far as I can with the team.

I have had few runs go. I have one that in the 17-18 Season as the Leafs. There is another one were I started out as a the Sudbury Wolves GM and moved on to teh Florida Everblades of the ECHL. I did have a season where I played as the Rage for a bit but that one is lost. I also had another season where I started as the Hornets of the Danish league (wanted something different)

And if you look up in the blogs I started another season as the Sudbury Wolves GM. Overall they are all for fun...the hardest by far was the Hornets and the Rage seasons. THe Florida season is somewhat wasy becuase they have four parent affiliates (2 NHL and 2 AHL teams), so there iis never a shortage of players being sent down.

Before I started my new game. I had worked my way up from being the GM of the Cardiff Devils (Elite League) all the way up to being the GM of Chicargo Blackhawks (NHL) in about 2 and a half seasons, with a short stay at the Red Deer Rebels in the WHL.

I'm hoping that I this can be acheived again... Oh well only time will tell...

I am about to start my game up again with a new career. I am planning on being unemployed and then go from there to get offered a job or find a team who needs someone and apply as needed.

JPoolTX wrote:I am about to start my game up again with a new career. I am planning on being unemployed and then go from there to get offered a job or find a team who needs someone and apply as needed.

Can you actually get a NHL job that way? How about your reputation? Or are you looking to get lower league job first? I have been thinking of doing the same my self.


I once started a game as unemployed then added a new GM (for the Leafs) two week before the transfer deadline, with them being dead last. The board wanted me to reach the playoffs?!?!? I had a fire sale... and kept my job.

It's extremlly difficult to get an NHL Job unless you start unemployed and with a high experience level (or with NHL only). I've done a few unemployed starts but never got really far with one.

I may do one but I've got about 3 different GM's I rotate right now and I also wnat to join a challenge, so that may have to wait.