EHM The Blue Line

krownroyal83 wrote:AI needs seems to not understand the concept of rentals. Taken from reddit: "I'm trying to trade Vlasic(he's 34 with one year left on his contract) to the top teams of the league but they all refuse and say they refuse because they are not interested in a pending free agent such as Marc-Edouard Vlasic."
This should be looked at and fixed.

For me, I'm not sure someone on reddit complaining they can't trade someone is evidence that something needs to be "looked at and fixed" and I'm not sure why you would think so.....clearly trading can be done, clearly it's harder to trade in EHM:EA than it was in EHM07 (which is a good thing), and clearly getting the trade AI optimized is an ongoing task

Whenever I try to figure out things (like CA growth, or Attribute growth) I always question my results due to sample size even when I used many dozens of players and multiple tests, let alone one anecdotal example!...the most recent Challenge (and it's focus on making trades) has shown me that trading "works" in general. I don't recall noticing other complaints about this particular issue myself (IMO most complaints about trading are users wanting the game to be easier, and I feel the opposite...I'm OK with it not always being possible to move players and/or not always being possible to get an optimized return, as I believe that is realistic)

nino33 wrote:(IMO most complaints about trading are users wanting the game to be easier, and I feel the opposite...I'm OK with it not always being possible to move players and/or not always being possible to get an optimized return, as I believe that is realistic)

That exactly. Now you have to sometimes really ponder what do you want to give up and will it hit you back, will it hurt your depth in a position and do you really need the guy you are trying to trade.

In the distance future it would also be nice to see AI reject taking bad contracts. Now you can dump players like Richards, Clarkson or Scuderi for a pick when ever you want and get rid of their cap (actually you can get a 1st rounder for Richards at least).

Sometimes you see lopsided trades and GMs getting fooled, but that's the game and it's fine. So for me making trading challenging and feel more like part of the game, not just throwing players around for fun, works like a hammer to a nail.

So far, I simulated 9 NHL seasons and it was satisfying. I started a QMJHL career and it went pretty well until I had to sign up my two top draftees. I offered them what they asked for and gave them a better bonus but they chose to sign with teams from an inferior league. So I was unable to sign them for the next year. It is not realistic at all. I can understand if an American prefers the university to canadian major junior but to prefer some lesser known league for the top junior league, I don't get it.

Handel wrote:So far, I simulated 9 NHL seasons and it was satisfying. I started a QMJHL career and it went pretty well until I had to sign up my two top draftees. I offered them what they asked for and gave them a better bonus but they chose to sign with teams from an inferior league. So I was unable to sign them for the next year. It is not realistic at all. I can understand if an American prefers the university to canadian major junior but to prefer some lesser known league for the top junior league, I don't get it.

I agree that having top draftees not wanting to sign seems odd...can you really offer Major Junior players "what they asked for and a better bonus"?
I thought as amateurs all Major Junior players made the same amount (IRL a few hundred a month to help with daily expenses, not a wage/salary & and no bonuses)

By "what they asked for" I mean the regular junior salary. But you can increase the bonus. I think I offered 5000$ to the top draftee and 3000 to the second one.

A small rant: How does a player who has been saying he doesn't want to negotiate a contract all year, reject contract after contract for 3 months, then when listed as available with 10 days left in their contract say they are "Shocked at being shopped around"?

Follow up on my previous comment regarding the signing of midget draftees who committed to teams from an inferior league than the major junior. I loaded my game and was able to propose an offer to my two top draftees who committed to teams from an inferior league. The next season, I offered a better bonus to my top draftees and they all signed up with my team so I guess it is the trick.

Handel wrote:Follow up on my previous comment regarding the signing of midget draftees who committed to teams from an inferior league than the major junior. I loaded my game and was able to propose an offer to my two top draftees who committed to teams from an inferior league. The next season, I offered a better bonus to my top draftees and they all signed up with my team so I guess it is the trick.

This doesn't seem right to me, but I'm no expert (I can't understand how/why bonuses are playing a part in Major Junior...I've never heard of such a thing before)

The bonus thing was there in 07 as well and was often the only way to sign have your drafted players. Otherwise they would happily go play in the AHL, BCHL SJL or even junior B. Even 1st round bantam draft picks would do that half the time. Frustrating and weird but true.

CeeBee wrote:The bonus thing was there in 07 as well and was often the only way to sign have your drafted players. Otherwise they would happily go play in the AHL, BCHL SJL or even junior B. Even 1st round bantam draft picks would do that half the time. Frustrating and weird but true.

Does the bonus thing exist in real life? I've never heard of it before (and if it does exist, is there a limit?).....if it doesn't exist IRL it shouldn't be in the game

nino33 wrote:

CeeBee wrote:The bonus thing was there in 07 as well and was often the only way to sign have your drafted players. Otherwise they would happily go play in the AHL, BCHL SJL or even junior B. Even 1st round bantam draft picks would do that half the time. Frustrating and weird but true.

Does the bonus thing exist in real life? I've never heard of it before (and if it does exist, is there a limit?).....if it doesn't exist IRL it shouldn't be in the game

AFAIK it does not.

The correct answer can be yes and no! What I mean is that in real life it's truly existing, but maybe not so systematic. For core plyers of course they preffer to play in the higher level in the hope of beeing drafted. But for some sure future NHL draftees it's happening, especialy for europeen youngsters. Do you think Radulov choosed the QuébecRamparts because the city is beautiful or for the reputation of the team? At least in the QJHL (for star/europeen players) the bonus is a way for conturning the restrictives salary rules. It's maybe not totaly accidental that most of the actuals regulars contenders of Memorial cup are controled by ex-NHL players...

I'm aware of alleged under the table payments (I recall a WHL overage goalie getting an apartment and use of a car when I was a kid), but it's not official/allowed is it? If just based on rumors (and those rumors apply to a minority of players) then I wonder if it should be part of the regular Major Junior signing process in EHM:EA

I'M not a junior Hockey specialist by any means, but this is one of the main arguments for the NCAA to not considering canadian major junior as amateur : the economical rules are not totaly clears.

Now returning to the main subject : is someone tested the new ( ver. 70) game engine. I'm particularly interested in the corrections in regard to the defencemen shooting tendency (amount of shots).

Spartacus70 wrote:I'M not a junior Hockey specialist by any means, but this is one of the main arguments for the NCAA to not considering canadian major junior as amateur : the economical rules are not totaly clears.

NCAA hockey has a vested interest in players not choosing Major Junior


I spent some time looking into this last night...
I want to be clear that my purpose for bringing this all up is not to debate the issue, but to determine what to best suggest to Riz in regards to how the in-game play should work when it comes to Major Junior players and contracts.

From what I could find bonuses should not be in Major Junior hockey.
Players receive free room & board + a small per diem for " living expenses"
Apparently the maximum per diem (for overage players) for all 3 CHL Leagues is $150 weekly https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/jrhoc ... 35939.html

The attempt to unionize by getting the US courts to call the players employees failed http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/union ... -amateurs/



There are additional monies that a player can receive to cover transportation costs. I found this thread with an unofficial but interesting breakdown of "player payments" for the QMJHL from 2008 (see markofthebeast's post http://qmjhleast.proboards.com/thread/1 ... r-salaries)

Among the many webpages/articles I looked at there were a few other interesting ones...
- on billeting http://saintjohnseadogs.com/page/billeting
- HF Boards thread on player pay http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/showt ... p?t=970963
- OHL prospective player information http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/page ... nformation
- ex-OHLers address goals of junior hockey players’ union http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2012- ... ing-chlpa/

I definitely found stuff on lower leagues paying players, such as this from 2010 http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ ... tle-secret
And the WHL's Winterhawks were caught and punished over "player benefits" in 2012 http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Port ... story.html
And the OHL for example is trying to address concerns/police itself better http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/20 ... rules.html

Playing the 2006 UUDB game. For some reason after 1 season the Canadiens fail to sign Price to a contract. So he becomes UFA at 19 and signs with Philly for 3x0.865. Seems weird that the Canadiens would let a 19-year old starting goalie with phenomenal potential just walk like that.

One thing that annoys me is how bad the AI is with staff hirings. NHL teams hire guys with 2 in tactics and mediocre stats in the rest of the areas, scouts with with scouting stats in the 10-14's and ass. coaches who are bad at everything.

What is really controlling this? Many of the brutal staff don't even have any history and nothing special when it comes to reputation.

I don't know what happened after the patch that altered attributes, but my goalies play very inconsistently... Few good games and then a total disaster. I have never before had ratings 1-3 for any of my players except for maybe after game miscoducts...

I have noticed a weird thing about ice time. My 1st liners who also play 1st PP get about 12-13 min per game, while my 3rd liners get 16-17 min per game while only being assigned to the 2nd PK unit, or sometimes to nothing special at all. Sometimes defensemen who play together on all units are sometimes 6-8 min per game difference from each other. I tried to play around with line matching, but it doesn't seem to make any difference...

Not sure where to put this but...I noticed today that there are current and future ratings on the scout report page of a player, but for some players the ratings are empty. What do I need to do in order to see them for players that currently don't show them? Scouting a player doesn't seem enough.

Im noticing that my team is scoring a lot of goals each game. Im averaging 4.20 goals per game thru the first thrid of the season with the Islanders. And my Center's are not scoring goals.

I've watched this happen in a few sims that I've run - the first where I was actively GMing the team, but I tried as well just simming seasons without running a team to make sure it wasn't just my influence.

I've noticed defencemen seem to stop shooting as seasons progress. At first I thought it was just the newer players being made, but it also seems to be with established veterans so it seems like it's either a specific strategy going league-wide.

For example, using the most recent release (15.8.0b) and the TBL 7.4c rosters, I ran up through the 2021-22 season without taking over a team. Looking at the league leaders of scoring defensemen, there were 7 that had at least 100 shots.

In contrast, in the 2014-15 season, the NHL had 78 players that had at least 100 shots.

Some players, like Erik Karlsson and Drew Doughty, were fine, but other normal shooting defensemen like P.K. Subban, who had over 250 shots in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons, sunk down to ~70 shots by the 2019-20 season. Newer draftees like Ivan Provorov and Noah Hanifin never reach the 100 shot barrier, and the #10 scoring defenseman in the NHL in 2021-22 season had a whopping 31 points.

Are other people running into this? Have you found a way around it? I feel like defensemen are getting undervalued as a result.

I've noticed that Defensive Defensemen tend to not rate particularly high in EHM:EA. The only defensemen breaking 7.00 average ratings are Offensive Defensemen (who are far more productive than I'd expect) and Skilled Defensemen. Stay-at-home D tend to be in the 6.5 range and the best of them just barely sniff the 6.9 range.

I believe right now quick sim messes up defensemen scoring. Even the best offensive defensemen end up with 10-20 points and very few shots. On normal settings though I routinely have the PP defenseman lead my team in shots.