EHM The Blue Line

Well my season is underway and my Blues have been completely rebuild on offense. Only one of my starting twelve guys is originaly from the Blues (2 if you count Zigomanis)

I'll spare you all the details of those trades and simply say that in came:

Malkin, Smyth (Ryan), Michalek (Milan), Cole, Handzus, Dumont, Konowalchuk, Hagman, Parise, Ortmeyer, Bergenheim, Auld, as well as a couple more minor leaguers

And out went:

Every '06 draft pick except St. Louis' 1st rounder, any prospect that i could get rid of, Katchuk, Drake, Young, Cajanek, Backman, Sejna, Roach, Wideman, Low and some more minor leaguers

So going into opening night my lines were

Smyth-Malkin-Dumont
Cole-Parise-Michalek
Hagman-Konowalchuk-Ortmeyer
Mcammond-Handzus-Zigomanis

Salvador-Brewer
Jackman-Lynch
Dallman-Walker

Lalime
Auld

As you may have noticed my plan is to score at least five goals a game, and allow six

Go Habs73 wrote:Ok im beginning to think that the trade update is messing up some of the teams.
Examples:

Since Pittsburg starts with Lemieux and Palffy they want veteran players and will get rid of Malkin pretty easily.

I've never known them to get rid of Malkin "pretty easily" and if you are playing with the trade config neither Lemieux or Palffy are on their roster since the retirements process prior to the year... so don't worry about "boring" us and go ahead and post a screenshot of your trades page

Go Habs73:
When posting in the challenge stats recording thread please don't colour your titles, I only change the text to green once i've added them into the GLR page.

Okay, I finished up my first run of 20 games. Man, this team is awful! I was able to make some deals but this team really needs a lot of work. I'm building this team with an eye towards season 2. I should really be able to make an impact on the UFA market. Any-who... this is what I've done so far.

Traded Andy Roach and the rights to Ryan Reaves to the Blue Jackets for Radislav Ruchy. I needed a defenseman that could stay on the ice for a while. The defenseman already on the roster all have bad stamina. Suchy is good defensively and has good stamina.

The Flyers wanted to get rid of Handzus, so I grabbed him. I sent them a 4th round pick in return. I'm sure everyone pulled a deal for him.

I sent Scott Young and the rights to TJ Oshie to Carolina for Erik Cole. I always try to get Cole. He's one of my favorites in the game. Young is old and not what he used to be. This works perfectly for me.

Sent Reed Low, Curtis Sanford, and the rights to Mike Gauthier to the Blue Jackets for Jaroslav Balastik. I think it was Minty (but I may be wrong and I'm too lazy to go back and check) that dealt for this guy in the Carolina challenge and had great results. I figured I'd give him a shot (and he's working out nicely).

Traded Colin Hemingway, Jamal Mayers, Mike Mottau, and my 5th, 6th, & 7th round picks in 2006 to Nashville for Ryan Hollweg. The Predators had managed to pry him from the Rangers for a pair of 4th rounders before I could get him. I dealt for him in my Bruins game I was playing before this challenge started and I really liked him. He's a good young physical forward. I kind of overpayed for him maybe (and the fans and board were mad) but I think it was worth it.

Traded Mark Rycroft to the Flames for Shean Donovan. This was a slightly salary cut for Calgary (I only went after him because they made him available) and I got better speed out of it. Right now Donovan is playing as my 2nd line RW but I'd like to move him down to my checking line once I can get someone better suited to a scoring line.

Sent the rights to Roman Polak, Tuomas Nissinen, and a 3rd rounder to New Jersey for David Hale. Hale is another favorite of my that I always try to trade for. Once he's developed a little, he a strong and reliable defenseman.

Traded Bryce Salvador to the Stars for Willie Mitchell and a 7th rounder. IIRC, they put Mitchell on the market. Salvador just wasn't good enough for me. Mitchell on the other hand is great defensively and has better stamina.

Sent Denis Wideman, Petr Cajanek, Peter Sejna, the rights to David Backes, and the rights to Konstantin Barulin to the Blue Jackets for Danny Fritsche. My fans and board were mad about this one but I wanted Fritsche. I've never been able to deal for him in the past, so I was happy to get him. Unfortunately, he's not ready to be my 2nd line center. He needs to develop. For now, I'm playing him on my 4th line and my 2nd line PP.

The last deal I made was to send Christian Backman to the Senators for 3rd and 4th round picks. Backman was terrible physically. I had to no use for him so I got what I could for him.

My current lineup

Tkachuk - Handzus - Balastik
Cole - Johnson - Donovan
McAmmond - Hollweg - Drake
Fritsche - Whitfield - Zigomanis

Mitchell - Brewer
Hale - Suchy
Jackman - Walker/Dallman

Lalime - Divis

As you can see, my team still needs a lot of work. I'd really like to get a new C & RW for my 2nd line. I also need 1 more RD because neither Dallman nor Walker are good enough. Hopefully I'll be able to work some magic in the next set of 20.

bruins72 wrote:The Flyers wanted to get rid of Handzus, so I grabbed him. I sent them a 4th round pick in return. I'm sure everyone pulled a deal for him.

Sent Reed Low, Curtis Sanford, and the rights to Mike Gauthier to the Blue Jackets for Jaroslav Balastik. I think it was Minty (but I may be wrong and I'm too lazy to go back and check) that dealt for this guy in the Carolina challenge and had great results. I figured I'd give him a shot (and he's working out nicely).

I've never had Handzus be anything but a rock for me; he's got great all-around stats and can really fire it up with good wingers and he'll even get on runs of firing in goals himself. I also use him as 1st line PK center because he's excellent defensively.

I'm a big believer in Balastik too; he's one of those guys that just seems to be able to fill the net; you can also get a lot for him on a trade. He won the Calder on my first year Carolina team with 45g 43a!!

I too picked up Handzus

I think there is something up with the way the rosters work out on the new config file that makes the Flyers want to get rid of Handzus. I don't think I saw this happen so often before the new config. I played a game as the Bruins using it before the new challenge and the same thing happened. I'm not complaining, just saying.

rubbish! I spaced a bit and went past the 40 game mark without stopping to record my stats. What should I do?

Well you have two choices, you're either banned or have to start over...

Just kiddin... you will be punished though since you'll have to look at your individual player's game logs and subtract out their stats to take you back to game 40 (shouldn't be too bad though since you only have to calc your players that are candidates for most goals/assists/points/+/- and PIM. Then from your box scores you'll have to add up your goals for/against powerplay goals for/against etc and subtract them from your current total to get back to your Game 40 numbers. Make sure you double check em though or your numbers won't add up at the end of the season

Thanks for the info. I just went back and did all the math. That was NOT fun!

Well my team played a whole let better over this stretch of games. At one point, I was 1st in the conference. Then I was was 2nd. At the end of the segment, I was 3rd in the conference. Not too shabby for the team I was given!

I was able to make a couple more deals over this stretch. I was able to help my defense with a couple of deals but unfortunately I wasn't able to make any deals for my offense.

First I sent Zack FitzGerald, the rights to Juhamatti Aaltonen, the rights to Magnus Kahnburg, and Dallas' 7th round pick to the Thrashers for Tomas Kloucek. The Thrasher put him on the block and the trade screen only showed him as 3 stars. I sent a bunch of spare parts. None of these players were ever going to help my team but I was able to get Kloucek, a strong defensive defenseman.

That deal allowed me to send Barrett Jackman to the Wild for their 2nd round pick. I really didn't like Jackman. He had no stamina. I could hardly play him. He was a decent passer and a good checker. I already had my LDs for the PP in Hale and Mitchell and he wasn't good enough to hold down spot on the PK. Kloucek fits the PK role perfectly.

My last deal for the segment was to send Steve Poapst, Mike Stuart, and the rights to Simon Skoog to Islanders for Radek Martinek. I got a new item saying Martinek was up for grabs and again, the trade screen showed a low number of stars. I had been trying to dump Poapst all season. He's too old and even though he doesn't make much, his contract is 1 way. Stuart wasn't as old (only 25) but he was even more useless. Skoog was a prospect that didn't look like he'd turn into much and nobody else really had an interest in him. Essentially I gave up nothing for a good 5-6 defenseman with decent offensive skills. With this trade, I'm finally okay with my defense. My offense is another story all together.

I'd still like to make a couple of deals so I can build a better 2nd line to go with Erik Cole. Fritsche isn't really ready for that 2nd line center role. I'm giving him the PP time though. Whitfield and Donovan don't really belong on the 2nd line though. Hopefully I can do something in that respect before the deadline.

I started this Challenge much more aggressively than I've ever started a season - and now, when I've played some 24 games it seems to be a better way to start than my normal "hesitate and wait" -tactic. Surely it wasn't all so easy, I lost my first six games, one by two goals and five by one goal. Then things suddenly started to work and I won three games in a row. In game #9 Kevin Dallman got injured for two months and my game collapsed (Dallman was chosen to the best rookie of the month, when already injured). Next four or five games was like rollercoaster and in last eleven games Blues has taken at least one point in every game (two losses in shootout, one in overtime).

I was able to do many good deals in pre-season and a few very succesful trades when season already had started. And what's best, only one deal was a total flop:

• 2nd round pick BUF (2006) <-> Barret Jackman with Sabres
  Ryan Malone <-> Keith Tkachuk, 3rd round pick STL (2006) with Penguins
  Jaroslav Balastik <-> Christian Bäckman, rights to B.Carroll with Blue Jackets
  Steve Konowalchuk <-> 7th round pick STL (2006) with Avalanche
  David Hale <-> 2nd round pick VAN (2006), rights to S.Jackson with Devils
  Bret Hedican <-> rights to V.Aleksandrov with Hurricanes
  J-P Dumont, Chris Drury <-> rights to R.Reaves & M.Gauthier, 2nd and 5th round picks STL (2006) with Sabres
  Stu Barnes <-> 6th round pick STL (2006) with Stars
  Jay McKee <-> rights to A.Shkotov, 3rd round pick VAN (2006) with Sabres
  5th round pick PIT (2006) <-> Andy Roach with Penguins
  3rd round pick FLA (2006) <-> Peter Sejna with Panthers
  3rd round pick LA (2006) <-> Petr Cajanek with Islanders
  Sergei Brylin, 4th round pick NJ (2006) <-> Mark Rycroft with Devils
  Ryan Smyth <-> rights to N.Drazenovic, 3rd round pick FLA (2006) & 4th round pick STL (2006) with Oilers
  2nd round pick ANA (2006) <-> Bryce Salvador, rights to B.Mitchell with Capitals
  6th round pick NYI (2006) <-> Ryan Johnson with Islanders
  Ryan Hollweg <-> rights to M.Schwarz with Rangers
  Brian Rolston <-> Doug Lynch, 3rd round pick LA (2006) & 4th round pick NJ (2006) with Wild
  Nolan Baumgartner <-> 5th round pick PIT (2006) with Canucks
  Sebastien Caron <-> Reinhard Divis with Penguins
  Hal Gill <-> Scott Young with Bruins
  Antoine Vermette <-> Jamal Mayers, rights to D.Semin with Senators
  Antti Laaksonen, 5th round pick COL (2006) <-> Ryan Malone with Avalanche
  Nick Boynton <-> Dean McAmmond with Bruins

I was amused and stunned, because fans and the board furied for only one trade and it was one of the very first deals I made. No, it wasn't the Tkachuk deal, it was the trade that brought Balastik in Blues Anyway, the only bad deal was trading Tkachuk to Malone, 'cause Malone was inconsistent and lazy and I was very happy when I was able to trade him and even got Antti Laaksonen, whose teamworking is on totally other level than Malone's was. The each one of the five last trades of the list made me very happy, as I was able to get very good players, who kinda completed my team. In the middle of November I bought off contracts of four players including Jesse Boulerice.

• My lines are now:
  
  Smyth - Rolston - Balastik
  Drury - Barnes - Dumont
  Konowalchuk - Whitfield - Drake
  Vermette - Brylin - Laaksonen
  
  Gill - Boynton
  McKee - Brewer
  Hale - Hedican
  
  Lalime/Caron

Nolan Baumgartner is near to get waived when Dallman starts practicing. Caron seems to improve his play and is near taking #1 goalie post.

And as I counted that only four players in my lines are left from "original" roster, have to admit the team needs a lot of work. I've got a good bunch now, I only hope there's not gonna come any injury shockers for my team and especially for the first liners.

Very nice deal for Drury and Dumont! Timing is everything. I usually miss out on getting Drury because I don't want to give up exactly what they want.

Okay, I just wrapped up games 41-60. This was my worst quarter performance-wise but I think that's due to all the roster changes I've made recently. I'm hoping my guys gel over the last chunk of games.

To start this quarter, I shipped off Dallas Drake and a 4th rounder to Washington for their 2nd round pick. Drake isn't bad but he's way too old to be on my roster. I was happy to move up in the draft with another pick.

Next, I sent Doug Lynch and the rights to Nikita Nikitin to the Bruins for Hannu Toivonen. I didn't really like any of the younger goaltenders in my system, so I got Toivonen to groom to take over as my #1. Lynch wasn't looking like he was going to become much for me, so there was no loss there. I would've liked to have held on to Nikitin but I had to give up something to get something.

The next deal was my blockbuster deal. I sent Patrick Jarrett (a UFA signee), Jeff Woywitka, Timofei Shishkanov, Alexei Shkotov, the rights to Viktor Aleksandrov, and the rigths to Marek Schwarz to the Sharks for Patrick Marleau. All of the guys I gave up with so-so prospects. None of them were big names or sure things. The Sharks only had Marleau at 4 stars. They were in the middle of a losing season and looking for prospects. I was happy to snag this deal. Right now I'm putting Marleau in as my second line center even though he's better than Handzus because Tkachuk has chemistry going with Handzus this season. They're working, so I'm not changing that.

My next move angered my board and fans but I feel it was a good one. I sent Shean Donovan, Tomas Troliga, the rights to Dmitri Semin, and a 3rd round pick to the Ducks for Joffrey Lupul. I've been needing a 2nd line RW all season long and I think Lupul fits the bill. He's got a great wrister and stamina, plus he's only 22. I know my fans and board think I gave up too much but I only took this deal after trying dozens of others. Nobody wanted to part with a decent RW.

The rest of my moves were done during the Olympic break. I was finally able to dump off Reinhard Divis (who I had already waived and sent to the farm) by packaging him with Justin Maiser and sending them to the Ducks for Jonathan Hedstrom. I like what Hedstrom brings to my team. He's all about character.

Next, I picked up some salary. I wanted a character guy with good defense to center my 3rd line. Trent Whitfield was okay but I liked the idea of him centering my 4th line better. The Coyotes wanted to get rid of Mike Ricci. He's 34 years old and making $1.5M this season (the last on his contract). I only gave up Mike Glumac for him though. Glumac was a 25 year old career minor leaguer playing in the ECHL. I had no use for him and the risk on picking up Ricci was low. Good deal for me.

My next two deals were player dumps. After acquiring Hedstrom and Ricci, I didn't need Dean McAmmond or Ryan Johnson. I sent McAmmond to the Ducks (a frequent trading partner this season it seems) for a 3rd rounder. I sent Johnson to the Hurricanes for a 6th round.

This is what my lineup looks like going into the last set of games...

Tkachuk - Handzus - Balastik
Cole - Marleau - Lupul
Fritsche - Ricci - Hollweg
Hedstrom - Whitfield - Zigomanis

Mitchell - Suchy
Hale - Brewer
Kloucek - Martinek

Lalime - Toivonen

Dallman, Walker, and Boulerice are my scratched players.

I'm looking pretty good for the draft too. I've got 2 firsts (STL and last in the East CAR), 3 2nd rounders (STL, MIN, WAS), 2 3rds (OTT and VAN), plus a 6th (CAR).

Lets see if I can get these guys in sync before the end of the season. I'm hoping for a strong playoff drive.

The GLR page has been setup for this challenge and the first stats are being entered now

I got Drury & Dumont, 'cause Sabres proposed that kind of deal to some other team and I made my offer once I saw that in news. I've had each one of them separately, but getting them both in one deal was very nice

I am pleased to many deals I made, Hedican from Carolina or Caron from Penguins (and dumping that good ole Divis...) or Hal Gill for Scott Young who I had tried to sell from the very first day of the pre-season. And getting Antoine Vermette from Senators was something I had planned and hoped all the time, he is good and getting better and I'm hoping to re-sign him and maybe play him in the second line next season. He is playing in my second PP line and has done well, in 27 games his stats are 8+5=13.

But there are two deals which thrilled me most of all. They were getting Brian Rolston and Nick Boynton. Getting Rolston was fine, although I had to give up Lynch, who might have been the next in line to take a place in Blues' lineup. Boynton deal was something I didn't believe to take place, I just threw a bone and they took it. McAmmond had already been waived and playing in Peoria and somehow every other team was suddenly giving him four stars. First I didn't get anything for him and then I got first line defenceman

Alright, just played my 40th game of the season. In this segment I made a few deals I was very, very happy about. Both trades were with the Rangers who just had fired GM Sather. I pumped 'em with trade proposal, but only two were accepted. I sent them Dean McAmmond and Trent Whitfield, and in exchange I got third-line mucker Jed Ortmeyer who will play on my #1 PK unit as well.

The second trade was great; Christian Bäckman, Peter Sejna (healthy scratch all season), the Panthers' 2nd round pick and the Penguins' 2nd round pick. The return was budding star goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. How about that, eh? Now I just need to find a new home for Lalime...

In other news Handzus hurt his elbow and was going to be out for 5 months. So I just threw his ass on waivers. Luckily Chicago claimed him.

I've been looking to deal Jackman but can't seem to find someone who wants to give me what I think he's worth. Also, I've been looking to get a top-six winger/centerman. My main target's been J.P. Dumont of Buffalo, but now several other teams have joined me in the hunt for the Quebec native.

kuulapaa wrote:...I've got a good bunch now, I only hope there's not gonna come any injury shockers for my team and especially for the first liners.

After game #41 I am in situation where Hal Gill, Jay McKee, Nick Boynton and Ryan Smyth are all injured for two weeks or more. Kevin Dallman is healthy again, but hasn't found his play yet. So I'm afraid I'm gonna dive unless I'm able to invent a turtle defense which works with my young guys...

This is only game, this is only game, this is only game...

And now when I've played 48 games, there are 6 players on IR-list and they are Hal Gill, Jay McKee, Nick Boynton, Eric Brewer, Ryan Smyth and Chris Drury. But even without five of them (Drury got injured after the game) I won division leading Nashville in two back-to-back games.

I shouldn't have said anything about my players getting injured. I'm sure they all are in IR before we get to game #60...

Oh my God, oh my God! I just obtained Marian freaking Hossa! 'All' I had to give up was Lynch, prospects Nikitin and Gauthier and Carolina's 1st rounder. Yeah!

A couple of other trades: Sent Chris Kunitz to LA for Craig Conroy, and Johnson + Lalime to the Hawks for Curtis Brown. This day rules!

So I finished my season. I ended up as 1st in the West, 2nd in the league (the Devils were #1). My last two games of the season were versus the Red Wings and I beat them both games. Who should end up being my first round opponent? The Red Wings! I swept them in the first round, winning each game by a goal. The first two games went to OT (game 2 actually went to 3 OTs, finishing at just under 106 minutes).

In the second round we faced the Mighty Ducks. We won game 1 and they won game 2. We took the next 3 games (all going into OT) to win the series.

In the conference finals we got put up against the Avalanche. The took the first game and then we took the second. After that they whupped us good. The took the next 3 games to win the series. Game 4 was really a demoralizing blow. They beat us 6-1. I think that took the wind out of the guys' sails. They tried like heck to come back in game 5 though. We took that game to 2 OTs before Joe Sakic finished us off with an even strength goal. Tkachuk had a nice 3 point game for us though. Ricci had been injured in practice the day before but played aways. He showed some great leadership and not only played but scored a shorthanded goal.

So we lost in the conference finals. It's a lot further than I ever expected this team to go when I started this challenge. I've finally got several guys in place that can really play. We've just got a few needs to address in the offseason. I'm thinking of getting rid of Tkachuk and Brewer. Those guys really let me down. Sure, Tkachuk was our top scorer and Brewer was our #2 defenseman in point but their conditioning was always an issue. It seemed like after every game they had a potential injury and their condition would drop so low that I'd either have to play them much less or make them sit. I worked around this in the regular season but in the playoffs it was just too much. Other than that, I'd like to get a better goaltender. Toivonen might develop into a good one but I need a #1 guy right now and Lalime isn't the guy.

Well... now that I'm done with the playoffs, I'm looking forward to the draft. Like I said in an earlier post, I've got 2 firsts (STL and last in the East CAR), 3 2nd rounders (STL, MIN, WAS), 2 3rds (OTT and VAN), plus a 6th (CAR). The Hurricanes were the worst in the East and 2nd worst in the league (so far off from real life!), so I've got a chance at the #1 overall.

Okay, I'm going to post my draft and free agency results here. I'm almost ready to start my 2nd season with the Blues but I'll wait for a new thread to report on that one.

First off, leading up the draft, I saw a news item saying that Martin Havlat was being put on the trading block. I never thought I'd see this but I jumped for it! I think it was due to salary cap space. I offered them Mike Zigomanis, Jesse Boulerice, the rights to Ben Bishop, and the rights to Carl Soderberg. They took it! Sweet!

Right before the draft I also saw that Kenndal McArdle was coming back to the Panthers after being returned to his junior team earlier in the season. I tried to get him because he always seems to develop nicely in my other games. To my surprise he was only 3 stars! I sent the Panthers Jaroslav Balastik for McArdle and Columbus' 5th round pick in 06.

So the draft comes and the Blackhawks won the lottery to get the #1 overall pick. It's only fitting since they had the worse record. So I had the #2 overall pick. I surprised everyone and took Peter Mueller at #2. He was ranked #5 but I liked him better than the others still available. I thought he was most ready to join the team immediately.

With the 28th overall pick in the 1st round, I took Ivan Vishnevsky. I wanted a defenseman and he was the best available at the time. I really wasn't super impressed with the forwards still available at that point either. I love Vishnevsky's slapshot. He'll make a nice point man on my PP one day.

In the 2nd round, # 38 overall, I took Matt Beleskey. He's a LW with a good future as a core player. My scouts compare him to Erik Cole. A few picks later I had another 2nd round pick. At #42 overall I took Anton Pigaro. He's a tall (6'6") defenseman that plays either side. He's not really physical but he's a good playmaker. My last pick of the 2nd round came at #58 overall. I took Kyle Okposo. My scouts seem to think he could be a smaller Bertuzzi.

I had 2 picks in the 3rd round. At #81 overall, I took C/RW John Armstrong. He's supposed to develop into a decent 2way 3rd line kind of guy. At #87 overall I took LD Paul Kurceba. He's supposed to develop into a defensive defenseman.

I didn't have a pick again until the 5th round. At #129 overall I took Jonothan Matsumoto. He's a C/LW for Bowling Green. He's 19 years old but he's got great passing and positioning and nice stamina. He was worth a shot in the 5th round.

My last pick was in the 6th round. At #152 overall I took 19 year old LW Andrei Grankin. He's a bit of a long shot but he's got good skating and offensive abilities with a decent metal makeup. I figured the 6th round was a good place to take a chance again.

Once July 1st rolled around, I saw Mike Ricci leave the team. I really liked him and wanted to keep him around but he wanted too much money. He was asking for around $1.7M - $1.9M for 2 years. I thought that price was a little to high, so I let him go. I had sent Hannu Toivonen down to my farm team once Craig Anderson joined the team. I guess I didn't realize that I hadn't offered Toivonen a contract. I lost him to free agency with no compensation. I'm still a little bitter about that one. It's a mistake I'll learn from though. Nobody else of any merit was lost to free agency.

I did make a couple of nice UFA signings though. I got the big one I was shooting for in Simon Gagne. I got him to sign for 2 years at $3.7 per (plus I got an option year). I always try signing him going into the 2nd season but I usually don't get him. This time I was able to. A couple weeks later, I signed Brendan Witt to a 3 year deal (plus my option) at $2.2 per. I needed to replace Ricci's leadership and I wasn't totally happy with my defense. I tried for a couple of other guys but missed out on them. For a while my board wouldn't let me make a real offer (only league minimum) because my payroll was too high. I made a couple of deals and I was able to make Witt a good offer.

I was able to sign Peter Mueller in the first week of July. He's too good to stay in junior hockey. He's not going to get any better there. I'll probably play him on my 3rd line. A few days later I see that the Senators have put Mike Fisher on the block. Their payroll was too high and they were trimming. I sent them Trent Whitfield for Fisher, straight up and they took it. Fisher probably going to center my 3rd or 4th line but he's going to be one of my main PK guys too.

So at this point I'm over the cap and I've got more top 2 line talent that I can use. I had to trim the fat. Keith Tkachuk was my fan favorite and leading scorer in the first season but he also makes $7.5M per season. That's just too much salary for 1 guy. And he's not that young either. His best years were behind him, so I sent him to the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Maple Leafs. They gave me a 2nd on 07, a 3rd in 08, and a 4th in 09. I'm sure I could've got more for him if I waited longer but I wanted to trim my payroll so I could sign a UFA defenseman (I got Witt).

Since then I've been trying like crazy to trade for a top notch young goaltender. I really don't want to go with Lalime again but the Rangers won't part with Lundqvist. I've also tried for Ward, DePietro, Fleury, Montoya, and a couple others but I haven't had any luck.

So this is where I'm sitting in mid August. Hopefully I can make a deal for a better goaltender before the start of the season. My board told me they expect me to win the Stanley Cup. Aren't their expectations a little high?

Just thought I'd give you guys a heads-up about the latest sets of deadlines in 6 days:
St. Louis 4.1: First 20 games by 21st June

Noticed that quite a few people had started this but not many had posted in the stats recording thread, just wondered if you guys still planned on doing this as I can extend the deadline if you guys want me to

Bonus Points A have been done and added to the GLR page. There will be another announcement about the deadlines coming up soon keep your eyes peeled:thup:
Systemfel 20
kuulapaa 14
Bruins72 10

7th July is the deadline for the first 60 games