Challenge 24: Swift Current Broncos (Discussion)

[MacPhal]

Double Post

[bruins72]

Yikes! This team is brutal!

So I've finished my first regular season of this challenge. My team did NOT make the playoffs. We ended up 6th in our division and 20th (out of 21) in the WHL. My PP was pretty good, 5th in the league. My PK was abysmal! We had the worst PK in the league (73%!).The funny thing is, our special teams came into play the least often out of all of the teams in the league. We had the least PP opportunities and the least PKs. We probably had the most misconducts in the league because despite having the least PKs in the league, we had the 7th most PIMs in the league.

Well, now I've just got to get through to where I can take my screenshots and record my stats.

[bruins72]

I don't understand this. If my team finished 2nd worst in the WHL, why am I picking 13th overall in the Bantam Draft? The Edmonton Oil Kings, who finished 1st in the league, have the 1st overall pick. Lethbridge finished with the worst record and they're picking 17th. This has nothing to do with trades. These are the original pick owners.

I'm really confused.

[Loosie]

possible roster update bug? I'm still in the middle of my season on won't be done until probably after nest week. I don't see much playing time happening at the cottage.

[Manimal]

I have heard about that bug before but I do not know of any reasons for it or how to fix it.
I can't see what in the roster updating could be the case for this to happen. It would have happened in the NHL as well then and I've never heard of that

[bruins72]

Maybe it's something with the CSD and the way it changes things? I don't know. It kind of stinks that the top team in the league picked first and two of the worst picked so far down but it's not the end of the world.

So I'm still slowly chugging along try to get to where I can post my screenshots.

Awards time!

Nedomiel came in second on the voting for the Bill Hunter trophy. And that was the only one we were in the running for.

Oh and my draft was terrible! It just seems like nobody is worthy of drafting at this point. It's hard to weed through what the scouts rank the players too because they give just about everyone 4 or 5 stars.

[Manimal]

Maybe it's something with the CSD and the way it changes things? I don't know. It kind of stinks that the top team in the league picked first and two of the worst picked so far down but it's not the end of the world.

No, it has happened before that

Oh and my draft was terrible! It just seems like nobody is worthy of drafting at this point. It's hard to weed through what the scouts rank the players too because they give just about everyone 4 or 5 stars.

It is very hard to predict how these young guys will look in the future. I think I will go a lot by mental attributes when I get to the draft(if I do, I spend all my time roster editing instead of playing). That and skating. Tech attributes will grow as the season progress(I hope)

[CeeBee]

The draft bug goes back to at least v 3.x and doesn't fix itself in future years AFAIK. Kinda ruins playing the Dub if drafting is your cup of tea
p.s. I don't think I ever tried V2 so I don't know if it was an issue there or not.

[timmy_t]

Maybe it's something with the CSD and the way it changes things? I don't know. It kind of stinks that the top team in the league picked first and two of the worst picked so far down but it's not the end of the world.

No, it has happened before that

Oh and my draft was terrible! It just seems like nobody is worthy of drafting at this point. It's hard to weed through what the scouts rank the players too because they give just about everyone 4 or 5 stars.

It is very hard to predict how these young guys will look in the future. I think I will go a lot by mental attributes when I get to the draft(if I do, I spend all my time roster editing instead of playing). That and skating. Tech attributes will grow as the season progress(I hope)

I do the same as Manimal. Determination, Workrate, Bravery, then skating. I also am a size queen. I like them big, so that's next on my draft list.

[smokey]

Oh and my draft was terrible! It just seems like nobody is worthy of drafting at this point. It's hard to weed through what the scouts rank the players too because they give just about everyone 4 or 5 stars.

Second season always changes everything in the Bantam draft with all the regens etc, too bad with this lineup I'm not sure I'll ever get that far. Luckily there's at least limited talent among the unsigned prospects who might be able to play in season 2.

[Manimal]

Second season always changes everything in the Bantam draft with all the regens etc, too bad with this lineup I'm not sure I'll ever get that far. Luckily there's at least limited talent among the unsigned prospects who might be able to play in season 2.

The regens are gone

We researchers were fed up with the fact that the real young players couldn't match up so we removed the retired players from the db, thus reducing the regens a lot

[bruins72]

Just starting out my second season. I made my trade in that short July window. I traded Heatherington for Greg Chase, a center from the Portland Winterhawks (who was playing on their farm team in season 1). Since Vause is gone, Chase is my new #1 center. Oh and Chase is ranked 28th in the NHL draft in the initial ISS rankings (Colby Cave was our other ranked player, he was #122). Heatherington just wasn't my type of player. He had a 3 in Determination. That's not something I like.

I wish I could use more 16 year olds than 2. I like a lot of my younger players more than I do the older ones. I was fortunate enough not to lose any players to the NHL yet. Lowry, Nedomeil, and Gordon (drafted by Montreal over the summer) got invites to NHL training camps but were returned. Scarlett's rights were traded from NJ to Montreal last season and Montreal signed him in the off season. I was a bit worried that they were going to keep him but they finally sent him back too. He only missed out on a couple games (like my guys on NHL tryouts). I'm not really sure who my starting goaltender is going to be. Smith didn't impress me last season and Todosychuk is untested. I'll just alternate until one of them earns it I guess.

[Manimal]

Did you pick up a good import?

[bruins72]

I didn't pick in the import draft until late, so I didn't get one of the great ones that wanted to come play in Canada. I ended up drafting Alexander Barkov. He's a Russian born in Finland. He's a very talented center that would tear it up in the WHL. He's ranked #2 overall for the upcoming NHL draft. My scouts say he's a bigger, better version of Patrice Bergeron. Of course, I can't get him to sign with me. The funny thing is, if you look at his Information page, it says that he wants to play Major Junior hockey. So what gives? Why won't he sign?

[Manimal]

I didn't pick in the import draft until late, so I didn't get one of the great ones that wanted to come play in Canada. I ended up drafting Alexander Barkov. He's a Russian born in Finland. He's a very talented center that would tear it up in the WHL. He's ranked #2 overall for the upcoming NHL draft. My scouts say he's a bigger, better version of Patrice Bergeron. Of course, I can't get him to sign with me. The funny thing is, if you look at his Information page, it says that he wants to play Major Junior hockey. So what gives? Why won't he sign?

Because he has a contract in Finland

If you want player to come over directly then you need him to be a FA at season's end
Or maybe if he has a contract with an European junior team, he might come but not if it is with a men's team

[timmy_t]

I had a miserable first season. My goalies are so bad that I was thinking of putting Nedomlel in there...

The bad news is that I am crashing when I advance from August 22nd to the 23rd.

I'll try another save after the drafts and see if I can get past it.

[bruins72]

Did you try going on vacation for a day or two to see if it will go by it?

Oh and Barkov is under contract with Tappara A-Jrs.

[Manimal]

Oh and Barkov is under contract with Tappara A-Jrs.

OK. That means anyone under contract for upcoming seasons most likely will not come over

[bruins72]

Yeah, I'm pretty much out of luck with him. He's signed for the next few seasons. Oh well!

Despite not getting my foreign player to sign, my team is doing very well to start the season. 12 games in and we're leading our division, 4 in the league. Not bad!

[timmy_t]

Did you try going on vacation for a day or two to see if it will go by it?

Oh and Barkov is under contract with Tappara A-Jrs.

Thanks for the tip- I just simmed three days and it made it past the glitch. I did have another problem earlier with Riley Welsh. He was contracted to a team with the name () and when I tried to sign him or any other team tried to sign him the game would crash. I just released his rights and didn't' have any other problems.

I always configure my draft list by first checking the box for the assistant to filter unrealistic targets. That way you don't even scout people who will more than likely never sign with you. It really helps in the league drafts because it filters all of the guys who want to go to college instead of major junior. Also, I do the same as Manimal on the import draft I specifically look for people who aren't signed.

I picked up a Swedish goalie named Mathias Israelsson and brought him over after July 1st. His technical skills aren't the greatest but he has good mental skills. He's my number one goalie on the depth chart right now (but only because the other goalies are that bad)

I'll try and do a good write up today if I get more time.

[bruins72]

Man, what a difference a season makes! I just logged my second quarter stats for season 2 and I'm leading my division and second in the league. I even lead the league for a bit. Those of you who are getting discouraged with the team's poor performance in the first season, just hang in there. Some of these guys get a little better. I also signed some of my unsigned prospects and also signed my two underage players. These things seem to make a difference.

My current lines...

Lowry-Chase(my trade)-Gordon
Cave-Leth-Bews
Dale-Rossignol-Magnus
Howorko-Bloom-Smith

Walker (usually Craig but he's injured)-Scarlett
Nedomiel-Bevan
Evans-Zinkan (usually Walker but things have been shuffled due to Craig's injury)

Smith-Todosychuk

[smokey]

Second season always changes everything in the Bantam draft with all the regens etc, too bad with this lineup I'm not sure I'll ever get that far. Luckily there's at least limited talent among the unsigned prospects who might be able to play in season 2.

The regens are gone

We researchers were fed up with the fact that the real young players couldn't match up so we removed the retired players from the db, thus reducing the regens a lot

Was this in 4.0 or 4.1b? Since if they were removed something strange happens in the game two seasons in no matter what, making all the 14-15 year olds stats jump up quite significantly. Second or third season bantam drafts were filled with players with good AHL-level, mediocre NHL-level stats. Haven't played with the 4.2b rosters that far, so time will tell, but if the regens are gone, then this is excellent news. I was pretty fed up with 5th round bantam draft picks looking like NHL ready players.

[visualdarkness]

Two games in. First game was a brutal 6-0 loss but I was missing Lowry, Nedomlel and Scarlett because of NHL try-outs. Second game Became an improved 5-6 OT loss with all my players back. The bright spot was my first line of Lowry-Vause-Gordon Nedomlel-Scarlett but after that the quality falls quickly. Lowry is already my favorite, he's a goal scoring beast!

[bruins72]

Lowry had a nice scoring streak for me. He went on a 10 game goal and point streak in season 2. He and Coda Gordon were my top 2 goal scorers in season 2.

[smokey]

Alright! Barry Melrose signed as head coach for season 2.