Challenge 39 Rebuilding the Bruins - Discussion

[stone169]

Something weird is going on with the Stats again. I just went to upload my stats for Q4 of the 2nd season and instead it tried to put them into Q1 of the 3rd season, which I haven't even started yet.

It looks as though it automatically filled up my 2nd season Q4 stats with my 2nd season Q3 stats.

Not sure if anyone else had or is having the same issue. Is it possible to get this fixed?

I'll pass it along to Archi and see if he can fix it.

Thanks.

[Peter_Doherty]

Koko did alot worse when i gave him a bigger role, so he's back running my 4th line, he does play on the 2nd PP unit now though. Marchand out for 2 months and Griffith just sucks so brought up Blidh for the 4th line, Lindberg takes the spot in the 1st line in order to try to get him going again.

[bruins72]

Something weird is going on with the Stats again. I just went to upload my stats for Q4 of the 2nd season and instead it tried to put them into Q1 of the 3rd season, which I haven't even started yet.

It looks as though it automatically filled up my 2nd season Q4 stats with my 2nd season Q3 stats.

Not sure if anyone else had or is having the same issue. Is it possible to get this fixed?

I'll pass it along to Archi and see if he can fix it.

Thanks.

For now, just write down your stats so you can enter them later and continue playing.

[diag]

So I'm about to start my 3rd season.
First of all, what a fun challenge! (actually my first one aswell)

The trades I started off with was:
Tuukka Rask for Elias Lindholm
David Krejci and Dennis Seidenberg for Andrei Vasilevskiy
Patrice Bergeron for Seth Jones
Loui Eriksson and Adam McQuaid for Tyler Toffoli
Zdeno Chara for Julius Honka
The goal was to try to only get future core players with a 1C in Lindholm, 1D in Jones and 1G with Vasi.
And as almost everyone else, I picked Logan Brown with the 15th OV hoping he could develop into a 1-2C.

The first season went bad, like very bad. Finished 4th to last. Some bright spots was Vasi actually performing as a 1G with a 91.5% avg.SV. and Jones being the 1D that I was hoping he could be. Toffoli finished with 34-34-68 and Pastrnak with 32-38-70.

Anyway. My lineup for the 3rd season is as following

Pastrnak - Brown - Senyshyn
Marchand - Khokhla - Lindholm
Kovak - Philips - Toffoli
Debrusk - Sundqvist - Hayes

Krug - Jones
Zboril - Honka
Morrow - Parayko

Vasi
Subban

Both Brown and Senyshyn had amazing rookie seasons with 23-35-58 and 34-45-79 statlines with the Calder going to Senyshyn. Managed to get Babcock as the HC for the upcoming season, so will be interesting to see what damage this squad can do!

[Peter_Doherty]

Halfway through season 2 and i'm bouncing between 9th and 14th in the East. Two big injuries to Mrazek and Marchand has severely lowered my chance of playoffs, Subban has been really solid (.915 SV% and 7.50 Av R) but he plays almost every game now. Overall my team is pretty solid but special teams has ruined us, PK is sitting around 80% while the PP is just a smidge over 10%, also we're losing ALOT in shootouts.

Positives; Mrazek was better before the injury and Subban has been really good. Faulk is a beast, Zibanejad has elevated his game after being moved to the 2nd line. Marchand-Hayes-Pastrnak has decent production, with a better PP they would all be close to PPG. Skjei has a solid rookie season next to Faulk and Khokhlachev has been a monster on my 4th line (worse when i moved him up the lineup so now he's back where he belongs ) with 25 points, almost all on even strength. Adrian Kempe has been a really good addition. Trotman has surprised me by playing like an actual NHLer, he's not great or anything but he's been OK.

Negatives: Lindberg forgot how to play hockey, he's been a bit better the last few weeks though so hopefully he's back to the solid player i expect him to be. Spooner scores some points but seems to be a black hole nevertheless. Griffith and C.Miller are not NHL calibre players, Miller was decent last season but he started this sooo bad that he's done for me. Krug is woeful defensively, Kevan Miller next to him has taken a big step back from last season aswell and i have no idea why, might be trading him on deadline day along with Jimmy Hayes (hasn't been bad but need the roster spot for Senyshyn) who is a UFA in the summer. Did i say that Lindberg COMPLETELY forgot how to play hockey?

In AHL Providence is doing great, they lead their division and all my top prospects are doing more or less good. Vladar in net has a .913 SV% in his first year, the first line with DeBrusk-Phillips-Senyshyn is producing at a PPG pace, my top 3 D-men in Zboril, Kylington and Fabbro all have over 7 Av R (Kylington and Fabbro both have over 20 points). Also doing good are Forsbacka Karlsson and Grundström on the 2nd line, solid prospects. The one prospect i had some hopes for that's doing poorly in Providence is Brandon Carlo, he's doing really really bad.

The rest of the prospects: Logan Brown has 23+24 in 35 games with 8.35 Av R, he was injured for a few weeks but he's destroying OHL. He's definitely fighting for a roster spot next season. His teammate Clayton Keller has woken up after a slow start and is at 13+16 with a 7.41 Av R. Russian kid Novikov is signed for next season and he's doing great over in Russia right now. Campoli seems to develop nicely judging by his numbers (g, a, avr), they are all up from last season. My two top picks from the last draft are both doing great in college and in WJC, both center Khodorenko and offensive D-man Stephens are at PPG right now. Then we have Eemeli Visuri that's destroying the Finnish second division, he'll be coming over to NA next season aswell.

[visualdarkness]

It is amazing how much you start to rely on stats like junior scoring over anything else with hidden attributes. If a player that my scouts love cant produce I have no idea why and have to send him down, if a guy with "limited potential" scored in every league his been in and continues in the NHL he finds his way to the first line.
Just look at our lineups, despite having mostly the same players I see completely different lines in this thread.

[bruins72]

Yeah, it's pretty crazy how the game changes with hidden attributes. This is totally different from how I usually play. I think that's a good thing because I know I used to focus too much on attributes and not as much on performance.

[Peter_Doherty]

Made two trades on January 30, sent Jimmy Hayes to Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for their 2nd and 3rd rounder in the next draft. The same day i sent Kevan Miller to Calgary for Austin Carrol (probably just an AHLer but needed to add a contract for them to make the deal, he was 2* but has played well in AHL.) and their 2nd rounder. Made the deals mostly because Miller and Hayes were not in my long term plans, also because both Zboril and Senyshyn seems to be NHL-ready so wanted to give them 1/3 of a season to get into it.

Edit: Senyshyn has a goal in his debut He's straight on the 2nd line with Zibanejad and Beleskey (maybe Marchand when he's back, haven't decided yet) and also on the 2nd PP (1st 5on3). Zboril is on a pair with Morrow and is on the 2nd PP-unit 5v4, he's not on the PK for now.

[stone169]

Edit: Senyshyn has a goal in his debut He's straight on the 2nd line with Zibanejad and Beleskey (maybe Marchand when he's back, haven't decided yet) and also on the 2nd PP (1st 5on3). Zboril is on a pair with Morrow and is on the 2nd PP-unit 5v4, he's not on the PK for now.

I called Senyshyn up a couple of times. He seem to look at the start, but then just kind of fades. At least he did for me. He was great in Providence with 22G 24A in 64 games. With Boston though he only had 1G 3A in 17 games on my second line. I'm actually looking at making a trade before the 2018 draft and he might be the guy I trade.

[Peter_Doherty]

Edit: Senyshyn has a goal in his debut He's straight on the 2nd line with Zibanejad and Beleskey (maybe Marchand when he's back, haven't decided yet) and also on the 2nd PP (1st 5on3). Zboril is on a pair with Morrow and is on the 2nd PP-unit 5v4, he's not on the PK for now.

I called Senyshyn up a couple of times. He seem to look at the start, but then just kind of fades. At least he did for me. He was great in Providence with 22G 24A in 64 games. With Boston though he only had 1G 3A in 17 games on my second line. I'm actually looking at making a trade before the 2018 draft and he might be the guy I trade.

For me he was PPG first season in OHL (36+32 in 63) and second season in AHL (22+17 in 39 games before i brought him up), more goals then assists too. So far so good in NHL aswell, 2+2, +4, 7.60 Av R in 5 games

[Peter_Doherty]

My team is doing really bad in the 3rd quarter though, no chance for playoffs which is also why i traded Miller and Hayes. I'm bouncing between 13th and 15th now in the East, not great.

[bruins72]

So even though we're already 3/4 of the way through the season, I decided to send Anthony Mantha down to Providence. He was floating between my top three lines, mostly on my third, and wasn't really able to get any traction. A good part of that was probably because the team stinks. I decided to send him down and get lots of ice time. In 2 games down there he's got 4 points already. To replace him, I decided to bring up Koko. Many of you have reported good performance out of him, so I'll try him out in this last stretch of the season. He's got 2 goals in 2 games so far. I'm using him on my top line with Kuznetsov and Pasta.

Ned has been struggling in net lately. This has led to starting Pickard more often. Neither one is really doing that great lately but Pickard has stepped it up a little. I might have brought Subban back up but he's been out with torn cartilage since around X-Mas. He had also missed a few weeks before that. He's only played 11 games in Providence this year and 6 in Boston.

Colin Miller didn't do much when called up to replace an injured Kevan Miller. So he got sent back down when Kevan returned to the roster. On the other side, I called up Tommy Cross to fill in for Irwin when he was injured. I ended up keeping Cross in the lineup because I liked what he brought to the table more than Irwin.

I really hope I win the lottery. Nolan Patrick would be a nice help!

[stone169]

I sent Pastrnak down twice during the second season because of a lack of production. After being recalled the second time, he became one of my more productive forwards down the stretch. Didn't make the playoffs mainly because of a bad Q3, but I did still lock up 14th spot in Season 2. Lots of improvement all around from a lot of players and the younger kids that I called up didn't look too bad. Season 3 should be a big season for the team. I'll find out if everything I've been doing is putting the Bruins on the right path or if I'll have to make a huge change to get them on the right path.

Thanks to Archibalduk I was able to get my Q4 stats for Season 2 uploaded and the this team improved in all areas.

[Peter_Doherty]

Horrible Q3 for me aswell, went 6-12-2 and i'm out of playoff contention. I mostly blame my horrid special teams, PP just over 11% and PK just over 78%

Senyshyn is beast, 3+4 in 7 games and over 7.50 Av R on my second line with Beleskey and Kevin Hayes.

[stone169]

I had to make a trade that I didn't really want to make because of having too many contracts. Dealt Cross and Miller. I didn't really want to trade Miller, but at the same time I have a lot of young guys really pushing for a spot.

Traded to LA for a 1st, 3rd, and a 4th. The Bruins faithful was not pleased with me.

[Peter_Doherty]

Wow, you got ALOT for two 3rd pairing d-men, great trade even though it might weaken you short term. In other news Senyshyn has 4+7 in 10 games Him and Hayes are on fire right now, sadly my entire first line (Marchand-Zibanejad-Pastrnak) are struggling instead.

[axepig]

Since I'm again at the bottom of the league I decided to trade Hayes and I found Fabian Zetterlund. He was compared to Malkin and everyone gave him 5 potential star and he has a big scouting report. Sadly they didn't accept Hayes but they did accept Marchand! Now that he's in my hands my scouts compare him to Filpulla (which isn't that bad) but yeah... It also says that he could have trouble adapting to life in the USA, I've had a player like this before and he sucked. Hopefully it isn't the case now.

My C look fine now with Logan Brown, Clayton Keller, Nolan Patrick, Forsbacka, Nathan Noel and Zetterlund as my prospects. I only have Spooner who I like on my roster, Khokhlaachev is definitely a winger for me and Griffith is also a winger. Philips is just bad.

I really don't know what to do this upcoming draft. I feel like every position is good for at least 10~ years (unless there is cap issues) I just have to develop my players now and that is one hell of a task for me

[stone169]

Rasmus Andersson won the Calder and made the Rookie All-Star Team. He had a fine rookie season posting 9G 35A and finished the season with a +9.

2017 Draft
1st round 5th overall Lukas Wernblom
1st round 18th overall Ty Smith
2nd round 34th overall Riley Stotts
3rd round 64th overall Skyler Gates
3rd round 78th overall Rudy Lariviere
4th round 91st overall Doug Bohmbach
4th round 94th oeverall Ryan Chyzowski
5th round 124th overall Charles-Edouard Huot
6th round 154th overall Filip Westerlund
7th round 184th overall Mateas Jacques

I was really surprised at how far Ty Smith had dropped and felt pretty lucky to get him at 18th. Really didn't like this draft. The last two drafts I really felt confident that I grabbed a gem or two in the late rounds, but not this draft.

Well, on to season 3. There will be some bigger expectations for the team and a few changes. I won't be resigning Claude Julien. I think it's time for a change at the head coaching position. He is not in my plans moving forward.

[Peter_Doherty]

Nice, you got Wernblom, have my eyes on him aswell, he's #2/#3 on my list.

In my game i can tell you that Senyshyn is still PPG (why didn't i bring him up earlier? ) and he has by himself raised by PP% from 11% to 14%.

[Peter_Doherty]

Just finished the regular season, we had a pretty good Q4 which brought us away from a top pick, ended up 12th in East and 23rd overall. Most of that Q4 success is on the shoulders of 21 year old Zachary Senyshyn, what a monster. In 29 games he had 13 goals, 17 assists was a +8 and had an Av R of 7.59, he single handedly raised my PP% by 3%. A very up and down season is over, i look forward to next season though, i feel pretty confident that we will be a playoff team by then.

Now let's see if Providence can win the Calder Cup, i sent Senyshyn and Kempe down to help out.

[stone169]

Nice, you got Wernblom, have my eyes on him aswell, he's #2/#3 on my list.

In my game i can tell you that Senyshyn is still PPG (why didn't i bring him up earlier? ) and he has by himself raised by PP% from 11% to 14%.

The strange thing is, Wernblom was actually 5th or 6th on my list behind Ty Smith. I had the 5th overall pick and knew that I needed a forward and the ones that I had rated higher than Wernblom were gone. Smith was second on my list and that's why I was so surprised to get him with the 18th overall pick.

I will be giving Senyshyn every opportunity to step up in the top 6 forward role in season 3. Maybe spending two seasons down in Providence has helped him.

Just looked at my staff in Providence and a lot guys need to be replaced.

[Peter_Doherty]

I obviously want Veleno if possible, playmaker that scores points for fun, scouts say "a more talented Kyle Turris". After that it's either Addison or Wernblom for me, Lundmark is ranked between them but there is something about him that just doesn't do it for me. I have Wahlstrom as my 4th guys, if i get one of those 4 with my top pick then i'm a happy camper.

[stone169]

New staff in Providence has been hired. I think I have a better goal tending coach down there now with Brady Robinson.

Ryan McGill is the Bruins new head coach. Should be better with the younger players. Joe Sacco has been brought back as an assistant.

[Peter_Doherty]

My system is getting clogged with talent Not a bad spot to be in but it will mean some pretty hard roster choices going forward, especially my LW and C is super clogged. Might see what i can get for Beleskey, Spooner, Phillips, Lindberg and Koko at the draft. Probably only trading one if anyone, but might aswell see what offers are out there.

[stone169]

I'm starting to get to that point. I'm going to take that opportunity to continue with my veterans and give the kids a chance to develop down in Providence. Something I didn't do in past challenges.