EHM The Blue Line

Aucoin has signed with the Blue Jackets. I am very happy with my decision to release him, I didn't want to at first but in 25 games with the BJs he has only 4 points (all assists) and a 7.08 rating. He is on a $3 million contract for them. Bickell has turned out to be a surprisingly good choice as Homegrown Player. As of now, in 38 games he is 6+11 and has a 7.21 rating from my fourth line of Bickell-Bolland-Vrbata, which is much better than I expected. I have found that if after say 2 periods I am down a couple of goals, just changing my breakout style or forecheck style seems to often turn things around. My first line players (Heatley, Drury, Ruutu, T. Kaberle, Visnovsky) keep on 'needing a rest' and it is getting quite annoying to keep on changing my practices for them. But all in all, things are OK, at least I have no injuries...yet.

laskey 16 wrote:But all in all, things are OK, at least I have no injuries...yet.

I couldn't have jinxed myself more. 3 of my players got injured in my 41st game of the season . Vanke, Visnovsky and Kaberle, to be precise. Kaberle is out for 2 weeks, Visnovsky is luckily only out for a few days, and Vanek is unluckily out for 3 months. Oh well, it was bound to happen eventually.

And now Niitymaki is out for 3 months. I have done a deal to replace him whilst he is injured as Noronen is OK but not great, the deal is for David Aebscher with Montreal. I give Chad Kilger and Kris Beech (both claimed off waivers) plus the rights to Martin Bartos (my 2007 7th round choice) for Aebischer and Chris Higgins, who I may or may not keep. Hopefully Aebischer can hold the fort till Niityamki is back, at which point I shall probably trade Noronen away.

I had a lot of luck with injuries during the regular season, but just in time for the playoffs, here we go...
Looks like another first round loss, can't compensate all the injuries and Khabbi is not really reliable in net. He's even unhappy now because I haven't re-signed him yet. When I try he says "he doesn't think the team can meet his demands" though
At least I'll get Grabovsky back for game 6.

Hmm I'm a little confused now. Grabovsky, whom I intended to use as HG wasn't eligible because he was apparently too old when joining the team according to our rules (turned 24 in Jan 08, his HG season would've been 08-09, so he was already 24 joining the team). He was however eligible to win the Calder Trophy, which he did eventually.

1. A player with less than 25 games REGULAR SEASON NHL experience in his entire career (including games prior to 2006-07 season), who is under the age of 24 when he joins your NHL team in year 2 (2007-08) In other words, the player must be eligible to win the Calder Trophy.

Yeah, I think we realized that after the rules were out and people had already picked their first homegrown. You can win the Calder at 24. We didn't want to change things up in mid-stream though. It would be unfair if people had already passed on using 24 year olds and then other people got to.

Okey, just wondering one thing about this homegrown player business... If I trade for say Marc Staal during the 2006-2007 season and he already was signed to a contract by the Rangers. Do I still need to wait 'til the 2008-2009 season before I can use him as a homegrown?

Btw, I just resigned 46-goal scorer Jeremy Roenick to a 1-year deal. Now the only major player left from my Cup winning team that remains unsigned is JR's linemate, Trevor Linden... Not sure I can afford him though.

bruins72 wrote:Yeah, I think we realized that after the rules were out and people had already picked their first homegrown. You can win the Calder at 24. We didn't want to change things up in mid-stream though. It would be unfair if people had already passed on using 24 year olds and then other people got to.

So, what is the right rule ? He must be under 24, or he must be eligible to win the Calder ?

Must be under 24 and eligible to win the Calder. I don't know if we just overdid it explaining the requirements or if it is wrong. For this challenge though, it's under 24. It's got to be kept as it is in the rules because people have already made plans and played based on under 24.

white knight, you would have to wait to use Staal until the 08-09 because even though he was signed by the start of the game, he wasn't on your roster.

Alright, I went with the 24 rule anyway, just wanted clarification.

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Gotta love the guy, scores 20g, wins the Norris and takes another paycut

Niedermayer rocks. He took home the Norris for me too, while logging just over 33 minutes a game during the regular season and 37 minutes a game during the playoffs. Second in line for Hart and Conn Smythe too, just loosing out to Todd Bertuzzi.

I have finished my second season and am now trying to prepare my team for year 3. I have lost Visnovsky and Heatley to free agency, from which they signed for my than I was willing to pay anyway. I have traded Andy McDonald + Andy Delmore to the Thrashers for Ilya Kovalchuk to replace Heatley. McDonald had a slightly disappointing year last season and he was only a second line centre anyway, and I have picked up a great player in Kovalchuk. For my homegrown player this season I am undecided. I could use Chris Bourque, Ryan Parent or Evan Brophey, but I would like to know whether some of my other players are eligible. I have Eric Fehr who I got on 24th January 2008, Patrick Kane who I got on 25th June 2008 and Ryan Wilson who I signed in July 2008, although Wilson agreed a contract long before then but it was a future transfer. Which players could I use as HGs? Thanks.

b.by draft day the season prior to declaring your homegrown player as one of your roster players. (For example he must be either on your farm team, or a signed prospect by Draft Day 2007, to be eligible to be your homegrown for the 2008-09 season). THE PLAYER MUST BE SIGNED BY THE PREVIOUS DRAFT DAY to be considered “in your system”.

That's taken directly from the challenge rules. So if a player is signed to a contract and either assigned to your affiliate (or on your NHL roster by some chance) or signed and sent back to his junior ream by draft day 2007, he's okay. If he's agreed to a transfer but isn't there until July, I don't believe that counts because they don't actually sign the contract until that point in July when they join the team. They've only agreed to the contract, not signed it.

So Fehr, Kane and Wilson are ineligible for the 2008-09 season?

Yes.

Ok. Thanks Bruins72.

WOW! I killed in my final 22 games of the first season. 18-2-2 for that block! You've gotta love that Sedin trade! He had 32 points in 24 games on the second line for me. He also improved the performance of his wingers. So there's no second thoughts about that trade now! Visnovsky has worked out well too. He's got 16 points in 25 games.

Everyone in my core has their required games, even the goalies. Looking back, I wish I hadn't taken the two of them. My team would've won more games with different goaltenders. There are a few core choices I would've done differently if I could go back and do it again. Still, it was a successful season. Now I've just got to make the right choices for my core in the second season. I want to drop one of my goalies and Bochenski. I can hold onto Duncan Keith for another season. Now it comes down to deciding between Holmqvist and one of my top 2 RWs. Both Havlat and Vrbata put up great season totals. Havlat had 99 points and Vrbata had 94. The problem is, they were both very streaky. They could be dominant for a stretch of games and then have a bunch of games where they logged 6 or 7 ratings. Havlat might be the more talented of the two but I'm leaning towards getting rid of him. He just makes so much money. My homegrown for next season will almost certainly be one of my RWs down on the farm, either Blundun or Bolland (C but plays RW). I haven't decided yet. Then the other one could be the homegrown for the following year.

I also offered contracts to all of my unsigned prospects that have the potential of making the team someday. There are a couple that are playing in Europe and I figure they'd be better off playing in the AHL. Plus I've got Toews in the NCAA. He's not making enough progress there for my liking. I'm going to try to sign him and send him to the junior team that drafted him. I've also got a couple guys in junior that will be 20 before next season, so they'll be ready to play in the AHL. I've offered Price a contract and he might actually end up on the Blackhawks roster if I can't find a good goalie to play with whichever of my current goalies that I keep.

Having Boucher and Lalime in the core is a nightmare Well, Lalime plays decent for me, but Boucher sucks badly and i know i need to score at least 5 goals to win when he has the start. Once he'll have his 2100 minutes, he won't see that much of icetime and will go out not only of my core, but off my team!

I have the same problem with Havlat and Vrbata: they play by stretches. Hopefully, i didn't select Havlat in my core, so i can get rid of his 6M$ whenever i want (within the legal trade periods, of course )

As for Toews, i signed him by the first days of August to send him down to major juniors (at Tri-City, if my memory serves) and he is doing well there with over a point per game and an average rating over 7.60, and his attributes are already improving!

But on the goalie prospect side, you got Price, i only have Varlamov...

Shadd-Make sure you do not dump Boucher til the offseason. He has to be on your year end roster, but I am sure you know that.

I have Harding! I have Harding....blah blah blah.

I too have Toews in jr. But my Toews did not even make Team Canada for the U-20. What up with dat?

Whoops--forgot to say.

I have an offer for Demitra out there. Saprykin and a prospect who is 25 (some Finnish guy) for Pavol as trade deadline approaches. I know it won't push me over the cap and will leave me with this:

Heatley-Demitra-Havlat
Michalek-Handzus-Vrbata
Arkhipov-Roy-Lapointe
Holmqvist-Hamilton(Richards)-Blunden
Worrell-Richards (Hamilton)

Seidenberg-Aucoin
Kukkonen-Seabrook
Keith-Salo
Volchenkov (in and out for the above 6)

Emery
Lalime

Not sure..this team is way overperforming...do not want to mess up the weird chemistry it has. When Havlat scores he gets 3, when Vrbata scores he gets 3. In each case, Heatley gets 3 assists. Jesus.

I am still not quite ready for the start of season 3 and need to dump some salary, but I should be able to. I will have two awesome top lines, I have signed Teemu Selanne and Scott Gomez as UFAs at pretty good prices. I think I have actually upgraded my team if anything, although I have lost two 100+point scorers in Heatley and Ruutu. Funny thing about Ruutu was he was like Aucoin. He wanted 4million and I thought that was a little much based on his attributes so I decided instead of losing him for nothing as a UFA I would sign the 4million deal and then trade him. Well, like Aucoin, no-one wanted him when I offered him to all or placed him on the block and then offered him round. So he went on waivers again and cleared! So, like Aucoin, I released him again. No one as of yet is interested in him, and I can't sign him as I have got my two free agents already.

batdad wrote:Shadd-Make sure you do not dump Boucher til the offseason. He has to be on your year end roster, but I am sure you know that.

Don't, worry, i know i'm stuck with The Butcher ("Boucher" means "Butcher" in French ) until the end of the season... Sad but true

laskey: sometimes i wonder if you really read the rules... Won't say more. You're a big guy, you can find by yourself what's wrong in your last sentence

Shadd666 wrote: laskey: sometimes i wonder if you really read the rules... Won't say more. You're a big guy, you can find by yourself what's wrong in your last sentence

Do you mean i can sign Ruutu because he is classified as one of my own free agents?

I am soooo ready to get rid of Boucher after the season! It's funny, in the preseason he was the stronger goalie. Lalime has actually been pretty solid for me if I don't start him every game. He can't start more than two games in a row. Boucher... sometimes he'll do fairly well and other times he's be terrible. The one thing I've noticed is that my team scores more with Boucher in net. The funny thing is, they really need to score more when he's in net!

Well, I'm a few games into my first round matchup against Colorado. IIRC, we're tied at 2 games a piece. All the prospects that I offered contracts to accepted. Most will be joining the team in June and one or two in July. Either way, between those guys, Blunden, Bolland, Syvret, O'Marra, and maybe even Barker... I should be set for homegrowns for a few seasons.

O'Marra rocks! You should usually start him right in the lineup for the 07-08 season and he would do well. However, giving him some AHL seasoning may make him even bigger, but i've never tried to.