EHM The Blue Line

Think i have a new plan, Goldobin will start in AHL and i'll just plug the holes with guys like Goodrow/Tarasov/Emanuelsson/Paquin-Boudreau. Don't want to rush my young guns, Buchnevich will make the team though, he had a great season in AHL 15/16.

New plan on lines is this:
Nieto-Couture-Wingels
Buchnevich-Hertl-Brown
Goodrow/Melkman-Smith-Hartman/Melkman
Plug-Tierney-Hayes

bruins72 wrote: I had Pearson in the last challenge and he was very good. He was my #2 LW for quite a while.

I had Lindbohm and Greenway in the last challenge. Lindbohm was a decent bottom pairing defenseman. Greenway never developed into anything.

Looks like we went after some of the same Habs. As a Bruins fan, I almost feel dirty for doing so.

Trust me, no one likes dealing with the Habs less than this Sens fan right here.

My Draft:

1st round 1st Jakob Chychrun
2nd round 36th Chad Krys
2nd round 42nd Brandon Saigeon
3rd round 71st Dylan Wells
4th round 96th Kenny Huether
4th round 98th Keenan Reynolds
4th round 101st Robin Kovacs
5th round 126th Andrei Bannikov
6th round 156th Jared Bethune
7th round 186th Nick Heid
7th round 193rd Joel Daccord

So I had to split up Couture and Coyle. They just weren't clicking. Both were getting poor game ratings and the top line just wasn't effective. I moved Coyle down to 2nd line RW and he seems to be doing better down there after a couple games. Couture has done better too. I'm not sure how I feel about Wingells as my top line RW though. I might have to do some shuffling and get Pelly-Smith over there.

Yeah, i don't like that i will have Wingels as my top line RW either but i'd rather do that and let all the young guys play Juniors/AHL then rush them. I don't expect to do great in the first season anyways since i never do, i ALWAYS struggle in the first season so might aswell save the kids

Which is also why i'm still kicking myself for losing Stalock, don't want Ullmark in net if we are losing all the time

Getting ready for the draft after finally making all my trades. I saw what you guys did and tried to be as different as I could, but it is darn hard to get value for deals. Having said that, I think I made out OK considering what I want to do:



I couldn't get Sateri to sign, but brought Grosenick in and he will back up Stalock who I'm trying to re-sign. I really wanted Barrie so I was glad to get him to be my #1 d-man for the foreseeable future. I also signed a lot of my unsigned prospects to maintain some semblance of depth in the system while I draft and develop. I have 2 1st rounders so that should help.

See alot of people trade for Yakupov, he looked super bad in my game i thought

Nice that you got Barrie, i chose between him and Murphy but decided on Murphy solely on the fact that he's a better skater

Yeah, when I traded for Yakupov, I was thinking about what he became in the last challenge. He seems quite a bit worse this time around.

Trades done and due to the awful scouts I skipped picks and went for trading for players instead (like Chiarelli did with the Oilers last draft). I'm not sure I did well, but better than the last challenge.

Burns, Vlasic, Niemi for Dumba, Coyle
I should have went went with the first offer accepted of Niederreiter, Dumba and 11th pick, but they wouldn't bite a second time. Dumba should be a sure thing though.

Marleau, Braun, Pavelski for Huberdeau
I wanted a star this time and if I went for Tarasenko I wouldn't have gotten Dumba.

D'Agostini, Kostka, Thornton for Marincin, Sheahan, Yakupov
Needed depth badly and some players for the PK. Yakupov was a last resort. He scored 47 goals for me in the last challenge but seems way way worse in this DB.

I know he looks bad, but I'm hoping somehow he will score in my free wheeling system. Thornton was probably the hardest to move as no one offered much other than a 3rd rounder. PD, I looked at Murphy too but realized you got him, so I wanted to see how things would go with Barrie.

At the draft and did you guys all pick Brown? Mahar is being compared to Crosby by Burke so this might be tough.

Pickings for assistant coaches are slim. I like my assistant coaches to be technical. I kept Robinson and signed Jay Leach, who are both technical with high ratings working with forwards and defenceman. Both retired during the off season.

If you plan on retiring, then why sign a contract...

stone169 wrote:Pickings for assistant coaches are slim. I like my assistant coaches to be technical. I kept Robinson and signed Jay Leach, who are both technical with high ratings working with forwards and defenceman. Both retired during the off season.

If you plan on retiring, then why sign a contract...

Same thing happened to me. Leach retired the day he signed his contract.

Just went through the draft and I feel that it was decent, I got players for every spot on the team.

#1 Jacob Chychrun - (Should be a solid two way D soon)
#36 Chad Krys - (Like a worse version of Chychrun)
#42 Keenan Reynolds - (Playmaking C with some decent atts in key areas. Compared to Backlund)
#96 Zachary Sawchenko - (I wanted a goalie prospect and he was the best available)
#126 Hans-Göran Ericson - (All-offense guy with great hockey sense and a good wrister. Burke says he is like Filppula and at the draft he called him a Crosby! )
#156 Nikita Makeyev - (Great skating D with some offensive flair. He can't defend so no wonder he dropped from #80)
#186 Nick Heid - (Nothing special but Burke seems to like him and nice personality traits.)
#193 Jonas Siegenthaler - (All defense guy, nothing special standard guy.)

Worthwhile to control the Minor league team? I'm not sure I want to sink all the time in it

Prowl wrote:Worthwhile to control the Minor league team? I'm not sure I want to sink all the time in it

The only thing I do with the minor league team is take control, hire the best staff possible, and then sim and let your assistant GM do the rest. I usually look in on them every 10 days to make sure everything is going good. When I started doing this in the last challenge, my younger players were NHL ready a lot faster and my team started to turn around.

bruins72 wrote:Good job, VD! How did you get him to sign?

I was stubborn and offered him max money a couple of times and somehow he finally took the bait. I guess I just got lucky and threw the paper in front of him at his night out at the pub .

Prowl - Barrie and Murphy are really even so it's kind of same/same They should both do well for us!

I just take over the AHL affiliate to fix the coaching staff then i retire. Want good coaches that do well with youngsters in there.

So I'm the only one who went with Dumba?

I tried to get him but i couldn't find a deal i liked.

Hello. Thought I'd try to participate in my first challenge here and wanted to say hi and ask a question.
Do I have to sign up for the challenge or does it just involve posting results?

visualdarkness wrote:So I'm the only one who went with Dumba?

Wild wouldn't give him up. I tried for a lot of D-Men, but Murphy and Barrie were the only ones I could realistically get

I could get Dumba but i didn't want to give up premium for him, i wanted Murphy first since i needed a #1 and Dumba ain't that yet.

Forgot to add my draft results:



Just getting ready for training camp. Counting on Couture, Couturier, Nieto, Fiala, and Wingels to produce offensively while hoping that my prospects develop well

Hi Fellas,
I'm a newly registered user, but have been reading here for some time. Last challenge caught my attention and it looked like a lot of fun, so really wanted to join in this time.
If I understand correctly then it's just to start playing and post screens after every season, and stats every quarter, right?

Lot of us drafted Nick Heid it seems.

Vemboy wrote:Hello. Thought I'd try to participate in my first challenge here and wanted to say hi and ask a question.
Do I have to sign up for the challenge or does it just involve posting results?

Just post results. Make sure you have back up saves at your 20, 40, 60, 82 game marks and other key points(Easy rookie mistake to make....I made it last challenge)