How's it going in EHM 1? What team are you?

[MWE]

Season 9 with Vancouver runner up in the cup

[VonCurry]

So I've played a couple seasons since the new release... and I've slowly started easing my way into it again..

I only play as the Coyotes as thats my IRL Favorite, and after the first couple gp arounds where Smith was horrendous as was the team (usually taking last place easily... this newest start had the Coyotes finishing in 9th just one point from the playoffs.

I didn't make any additions save for 5 waiver wire pickups to fill my defense out (as well as to let younger players get time in the ahl.)

I guess tactics and personal tactics make a big difference?

[lafontaine83]

Yes, the way the players are set up, who they play with the handedness all make a huge difference.

[redmongoose]

So I've played a couple seasons since the new release... and I've slowly started easing my way into it again..

I only play as the Coyotes as thats my IRL Favorite, and after the first couple gp arounds where Smith was horrendous as was the team (usually taking last place easily... this newest start had the Coyotes finishing in 9th just one point from the playoffs.

I didn't make any additions save for 5 waiver wire pickups to fill my defense out (as well as to let younger players get time in the ahl.)

I guess tactics and personal tactics make a big difference?

The first thing I always do is go to the staff search and grab the very best scouts, and I always keep an eye out in there for the guys with 20/20 scores (judging ability/judging potential). It doesn't effect the salary cap at all and in my experience, they never ask for more than your board is willing to pay. When you have the best scouts you can find, you can draft well, and that way you can replace all the dead wood on your roster. In my first and second seasons (after I had the best scouts), I sold off absolutely anyone who I thought wasn't going to get me a Stanley Cup and keep me in contention year after year - which meant that I traded all but about 5 of the starters on my team and all but about 5 prospects. I traded them for draft picks and used my great scouts to pick a ton of better young players. During this time, I also looked for the best coaches and assistant GM's I could find. This meant that any time a team fired the head coach, if he had really good numbers (for example, Vigneault, Cooper, Sutter, etc.) I approached them to become my assistant coaches or assistant GM. They were almost always willing to come, and once I had them on my staff, they were more or less content to stay. Because their numbers were so good, they helped my young players that I drafted develop and reach their potential - I rarely had really bad busts.

By the time I started to contend for titles, I had more prospects than I could play. That gave me a lot of options: I could trade several of them to upgrade at a particular position, but what was even better (and what I did more often) was turn them into more draft picks - so I was creating a consistent pipeline that was (and still is, 22 seasons later) constantly refreshing itself. I hate having to let great players go every couple of years because of the salary cap, but I have to do it - this way, I've got the younger ones ready to come in and replace them.

That's all probably very obvious and I'm not sure if this helps with anything, but it has been a really good strategy for me. It also allows me to be heavily involved in the draft every year, which is probably the most fun part of the game for me.

[lemming3k]

Just taken my third cup in 4 years against TBL. Although we weren't as strong as last season - Price was disappointing for most of the season, often letting in as many goals as the opposition despite facing a third of the shots. Allen was better and got more starts.
I offloaded Duclair as he was sitting on 3rd line posting average numbers with Stone for some picks and cap room. I can't say I've noticed the difference so probably a good choice right now.
The off-season will be interesting as Hanafin and McDavid come up for renewal, I might have to ship out Price for the cap room assuming I can get a backup from elsewhere unless there's someone in the draft.

[Aladyyn]

Started a game with Sabres to get a hang of the game after trying out the Vancouver challenge made me cry.
2016-17 looked good until we collapsed late in the season and fell out of a playoff spot to 10th in the conference .

Team looked like this for most of the season:

Kane - Ennis - Radulov
Kreider - Reinhart - Possler
Larsson - Girgensons - Hodgson
Foligno - McClement - Condra

McCabe - Sekera
Martin - Ristolainen
Gorges/Oduya - Pysyk

Ramo
Hackett

Radulov scored 42 goals, though about 2/3 of them came during the first half of the season, which was one of the main causes of our freefall. Evander Kane hit 70 points for the first time, Kreider managed 50. Possler hit a bit of a sophomore slump after a great rookie year of 24+24 in 69, but still hit 20 goals and 40 points, similar numbers to Reinhart (18+24 - 4th in rookie scoring behind Ehlers, Mantha, Eichel). Ristolainen had a rough start to the season but rebounded nicely, though declining in his point output again (39, 37, 32 this season). He has a couple of years to up his game, in the meantime Sekera can fill the top pairing position nicely. McCabe was a huge surprise for me, his attributes jumped up to top-pairing levels and he was the most consistently performing defenseman on the team. Gorges and Oduya were disappointing, dragging the not developing Pysyk down. The bottom pairing needs some serious change, one of the pylons needs to be moved in the off-season.

Also Girgensons is seriously underrated in the game, he straight up doesn't develop. In the first 2 seasons he hovered around 50 points but this year he Adam Oates the bed and had the worst AvR on the team. His attributes regressed and I'm probably going to move him, which hurts considering he's one of my favorite players. McDavid is coming to the team this summer so I have to make room for him and Girgensons is good for nothing more than freeing up the roster spot right now.

[hockey17jp]

I've started a new Blue Jackets game and things are going great so far.

Record 13-6 (3rd in Eastern Conference)

Incoming
Gustav Nyquist
Mark Scheifele
Ian Cole
Dale Weise

Departing
Jeremy Morin
Artem Anisimov
Jared Boll
Quite a few draft picks

Team Leaders
Goals - Nyquist/Jenner
Assists - Johansen
Points - Johansen

Still trying to get a hang of a few things as I downloaded the game yesterday but I love it so far!

[Epic]

Also Girgensons is seriously underrated in the game, he straight up doesn't develop.

That is because the human player developement is messed up. He turns out to be a monster for AI teams.

[hockey17jp]

I just traded David Clarkson, Rene Bourque, and a prospect (Josh Anderson) for Grigorenko and Girgensons.

lol

EHM Buffalo is dedicated to the tank.

[lemming3k]

Been an interesting off season in my game. Lots of top players released like Stamkos, Ovechkin, Malkin, Raask, Lundqvist I think were both in there and I'm sure another 2 top goalies? Eichel has been traded for Bodker (darn it why wouldn't they accept that from me?) and I look certain to lose OEL this year as his default demands get higher and higher and he has no interest in re-signing - which is odd as the AI seems to keep a solid grasp on wages, and Stamkos took over a 4 mil paycut. Heck if I'd known he was available I'd have found room somewhere....

I've angered my fans and board by trading away Spooner for a first +. Though I think they forgave me when I picked up Malkin in January (yes, nobody had signed him). Cap room getting edgy but at least I have McDavid signed up, he has turned out exceptionally well.

[Nuk]

Been having fun with this - having a good year with the Canucks so far - still a little inconsistent with the goaltending - but getting there

Horvat-McDavid-Cogliano
D. Sedin-H. Sedin-Nylander
A. Woods-Scheiffle-Jensen
Baertschi-B. Howden-C. Cassels

Edler-Klingberg
Despres-Tanev
Pilon-Corrado

D. Vladar
Pavelec

How I got them.
McDavid - Leafs had both Bernier and Reimer hurt early in 14/15 - Lack, Higgins and 2nd for 1st did the trick. Leafs still finished 2nd last - traded Leafs 1st-Canucks 1st for Buffalo 1st and 2nd.
Cogliano, Despres - Ducks hit cap trouble - waivers
Nylander - Virtanen and a 2nd (Virtanen does not develop well)
Scheiffle - Adam Clendenning + mid-range prospect (on the block)
A. Woods - 6th round steal in 2017 who developed amazingly.
B. Howden - 1st rounder 2017
Klingberg - traded to Phoenix - wouldn't sign - traded for Jannik Hansen and mid-range prospect.
Pilon - 2nd round pick 2015
Vladar - stoned Canada in WJC in 2016 - traded with Phoenix for Larsson (hated to give him up) and 3rd round pick. Fans hated it. But has played well
Pavelec - UFA

[lemming3k]

3 in a row for the Yotes and 4 in 5 years - this time dropping only the 12th game of the playoffs (game 4 against the Preds) and sweeping the rest.

Regular season had all my first line gaining 100+ points and Malkin looking a great addition for next season. Going for the regular theme of trying to keep my best players again though as they're refusing contracts to the last second. You'd think cup champions would have players begging to sign.

[redmongoose]

I got my 10 Cup streak in the books now, up to 19 total for the Flyers heading into the 2039-40 season - five Cups behind the Habs. I've had a strong prospect pipeline for a long time now, which has helped me deal with the constant cap headaches - it really is a lot of work to keep that side of it balanced and it demands constant tough decisions. The league is littered with my former players that I wish I could have kept together. That's the nature of the beast, I guess. There have been several bad drafts in a row now, with few clear-cut prospects and almost no-one that you could accurately forecast as a top-line player for the future. It makes it very difficult to keep the pipeline healthy. Last season's 142 points was my worst in a long time, so I guess it is all relative.

[lemming3k]

I'm assuming you traded away your picks in the bad years? I've been lucky so far with lotteries and AI picks, but when it's a bad year I often just trade them for future picks - they'll probably be higher up the order than mine and the worst that can happen is another bad year I'll trade them again, and when it's a good year or the team I got a pick from finishes low down I get a great prospect or 2!

[redmongoose]

I'm assuming you traded away your picks in the bad years? I've been lucky so far with lotteries and AI picks, but when it's a bad year I often just trade them for future picks - they'll probably be higher up the order than mine and the worst that can happen is another bad year I'll trade them again, and when it's a good year or the team I got a pick from finishes low down I get a great prospect or 2!

I would normally do that, but I kind of got stuck. Every few years my prospect pool will dwindle, through trades especially (for example, if you want to pry a good prospect away from the AI teams, you have to send 2 or 3 of your prospects their way) as I look to replace my cap casualties with strong youth players - while I have drafted well consistently, sometimes it just doesn't work out and I see prospects on other teams I would rather have. So with my numbers down, I was looking ahead and traded during the season to acquire picks, before I had a really good feeling for how the drafts would go. I needed the players in my system, so I went ahead and used the picks. The thing about these drafts that was really confusing was that my scouts - all of whom are 20/20 except for one or two who are 19/19 - were suggesting players whose underlying numbers and rating history looked terrible. I tried to sort of split the difference while drafting - I would trust the scouts on one, then look at the numbers and try my own choice for the next one. Their development so far has been pretty random, but it is still early. My defense, goaltenders and top 6 forwards are killer, and 2 of the 3 third-liners are great too. I just like to have 4th liners I can trust, and I have gotten used to that over the seasons - right now I'm trying to find those bottom 4 or 5 forwards that I can really trust.

[Magus978]

Just started a game with the Devils, & fired Peter DeBoer. Gonna hire Boston University coach Jack Parker, then try to usher in a youth movement. We will probably not win in my first season.

[lemming3k]

I'm assuming you traded away your picks in the bad years? I've been lucky so far with lotteries and AI picks, but when it's a bad year I often just trade them for future picks - they'll probably be higher up the order than mine and the worst that can happen is another bad year I'll trade them again, and when it's a good year or the team I got a pick from finishes low down I get a great prospect or 2!

I would normally do that, but I kind of got stuck. Every few years my prospect pool will dwindle, through trades especially (for example, if you want to pry a good prospect away from the AI teams, you have to send 2 or 3 of your prospects their way) as I look to replace my cap casualties with strong youth players - while I have drafted well consistently, sometimes it just doesn't work out and I see prospects on other teams I would rather have. So with my numbers down, I was looking ahead and traded during the season to acquire picks, before I had a really good feeling for how the drafts would go. I needed the players in my system, so I went ahead and used the picks. The thing about these drafts that was really confusing was that my scouts - all of whom are 20/20 except for one or two who are 19/19 - were suggesting players whose underlying numbers and rating history looked terrible. I tried to sort of split the difference while drafting - I would trust the scouts on one, then look at the numbers and try my own choice for the next one. Their development so far has been pretty random, but it is still early. My defense, goaltenders and top 6 forwards are killer, and 2 of the 3 third-liners are great too. I just like to have 4th liners I can trust, and I have gotten used to that over the seasons - right now I'm trying to find those bottom 4 or 5 forwards that I can really trust.

That is unfortunate. I think scouts are pretty useless really, they seem to be wrong a lot. I'm finally reaching regen territory so the drafts are picking up a bit of depth and talent, some look amazing but I'm told they're 4th line or 5-6 at best so they've already peaked. Seems unlikely but we'll see.
I'll keep an eye out for bad years.

[batdad]

Scouts are not useless..they give you the general idea lemming. THen you have to make the decison as GM. Hey...just like real life. Wow. Cool.

[rancer890]

Still playing my 15.6.1b save with the Sheffield Steelers (just simmed a year and took over an EIHL team that didn't have a GM because it's impossible to get a job from unemployed)...might restart to get the Austrian league, but I'm having fun so might as well keep going for now.

First season was a disaster because I didn't really sign any of the guys and got knocked out of the Quarters, and second season was a bit better, finishing 3rd in the league. But unfortunately another QF exit because our form was terrible down the stretch.

Probably the only annoying thing was Stephen Murphy retiring in July 2017 (some early warning could have been nice?) and had to scramble to find someone with my scouts. Didn't want to use player search, but all 6 of my scouts couldn't find an unemployed goalie and just signed 22 y/o Jake Smith (North Bay at OHL at start). I also got Fabian Brunnstrom and Nathan Walker in the off-season, so really looking forward to making some noise in the playoffs and not a first round exit.

And has anyone gotten hired in another league from the EIHL? Just want to know what kind of leagues I can progress from here.

[lemming3k]

Scouts are not useless..they give you the general idea lemming. THen you have to make the decison as GM. Hey...just like real life. Wow. Cool.

Having all 4 scouts go from suggesting a player is pre-draft 5-6 (high pick prediction so plenty of scouting) to being a 1-2 after only a couple of weeks without playing any games is not giving a general idea, it's flat out wrong. Luckily I figured a top 3 pick wouldn't be that bad and ignored them all.

They shouldn't be 100% accurate, but they just seem to get more wrong than right, often not even close - I can forgive them being a line out or some players being a bust - but too many 3rds,4ths, limited potentials become 1sts all of a sudden, and there seem to be an awful lot of 1st liner potentials that don't have a hope in hell of developing. Maybe that's partly the naff human development penalty, but I don't think they've been great on assessing other players either.

[batdad]

Yep. Let see...scouts make a report on a player when that player has not played any games? Maybe GM fault for sending em to scout while not playing? What did the scout get an accurate read on? The guy .... eating??? Working out in the gym? Practicing? Yeah....those would I expect be VERY accurate reports.

Mine have no problem telling me what is right and wrong for players on a general basis. I have no guys in my game who a scout reports have LIMITED abiltity who are capable of playing in the NHL. I have no first line guys who are playing and playing horribly on the first line. I have a second line guy who scores 30 goals playing on my top line. I have a guy who is supposedly a third liner scoring 30 goals .... playing on my 2nd line.

I have a dman who is a #1-2 guy playing like a superstar. I have a goalie who is a back up goalie who plays quite well...well I traded him.

Sorry...but unless you have something that shows ALL The scouts suck, maybe you need to rethink what you take from the scout reports. They are generally quite good...at least if you have the right type of scouts, scouting GAMES not off season, or when the player is not playing.

Scouting levels in the game, are just fine. Best and most accurate...scout the individual player WHILE he is playing a game.

Second best--scout the team itself. While the team is playing a game.
Third best-Scout the draft. That will tell you some good stuff, but not as strong and accurate as actually watching the guy play.


Oh and do it over and over and over. You see a guy once, he has a great game...scout rates highly. See him again average game...rates a little lower. See him again and he is terrbile...well averages it out. Watching him 1-2-3 times is not enough.

Sorry, scouting is just fine in this game. If you have a hard time reading the scouting reports and understanding them, and doing things the right way...that is not a general problem...that is an individual problem.

They appear accurate to me. Not perfect, but accurate.

Check out the report card part of the report too. It tells you alot. Unless you read the whole thing over and over, you will not get as good a sense of what they are telling you. Read between the lines. A first line potential guy compared to Shawn Matthias? Bet he had a great game while the scout saw him play. A guy with 1st line potential with D's all over his report card and averaging 6 AvR's in junior? Yeah....problem...and your scout saw a good game.

A guy with all A B and A- in report card, compared to SId Crosby and your scout calls him a limited potential guy, but he has ZERO red attributes and is ranked in top 10 for draft, and has over a point a game with a 7.5 rating as a 17 year old in a men's league in Europe? Hmmm......wonder what was wrong there? Scout watched him eating or maybe watched a bad game of the guy?

Dunno what you want lemming...but it appears you want spoon feeding.

[Magus978]

Early days in the season, and we don't look horrible. 2-3-1 after 6 games.

Transations Made
- Traded Jagr to San Jose for two picks (complete salary dump)
- Acquired the rights to Max Domi for 3 minor leaguers & picks
- Fired Peter DeBoer, hired Boston University coach Jack Parker
- Traded Cammalleri & others to Flames for Matt Stajan & Max Reinhart
- Traded Clowe to Sabres for Johan Larsson & Marcus Foligno
- Traded Ryder to Panthers for Quinton Howden & Vincent Trocheck
- Traded Stephen Gionta to Canucks for Frank Corrado
- Traded Damien Brunner to Jets for Keaton Ellerby & Eric O'Dell
- Traded two more rejects to Jets for Carl Klingberg
- Claimed Daniel Cleary on waivers from Red Wings

Still looking to make deals. Except for a 3-1 defeat at home against San Jose, we've lost our games by 1 goal.

I have also noticed that some of the KHL guys could be quality 2nd line or better players. Signed at least one of them, maybe signing a few more.

[MWE]

Season 10 in Vancouver just got into the play-offs had to lose a few players to waivers so I could get Crosby

[Stormsky]

So I got the game working with the 2006 database and think I got the hang of most things. Here is what I have done so far, please tell me if there is other stuff I should do/if some of this is really wrong.

Started as the Canucks:

Invited every prospect to training camp (except those in College, for some reason they can't go?). Played the exhibition games. I wish there was a way for the coach to just pick the players to dress for exhibition games from the roster you have - I want different players and prospects to get the experience, but doing it by hand for one game is a bit of a pain.

I signed one player who seemed pretty decent. More importantly I signed like 5 scouts who all seem better than most of my guys. (Also, a question, EHMAssistant lists a potential for staff - so do scouts/coaches improve over time like players?). What is the maximum number of scouts and other staff you can have? One AGM, one head coach, five assistants, and then ??? scouts and 2-3-4(?) physios? Also, I had a hard time finding the last assistant coach - can I promote guys from within or do something else to get a decent guy there?

I sent most of the scouts to scout my own team for camp and exhibition games. Afterwards I reassigned them. Two to draft, two to youngsters, one to the nhl, one to the ahl, one to eastern europe, one to sweden, one to scandinavia, one for next opponent, one for shortlist (currently my prospects who I still do not have a great report on), and one who gets re-assigned depending on what I feel like. Is this a good way to do it? I figure closer to the draft I will shift some of them towards more specific targets.

I made a minor trade, picked up a guy off wavers, and then cut my roster down. Set lines and tactics. For tactics I just used the pre-sets. I REALLY wish you could assign different pre-sets to different lines. For example, if I assign my second line to run-and-gun it should not mean that I want the whole team to do it, just the second line. I had to save/load line tactics, but I think it worked. Any general advice on these here?

Do you guys change tactics before each game? I know you can set individual tactics for players to follow specific players and such, but that seems tedious. Right now I have it set so that the coach does the coaching while sticking to the pre-set tactics as much as possible. Is that reasonable?

I left the practice up to the coach. Anything specific I should do/pay attention to here?

And any other tips? I am having a blast so far. Canucks are 6-3-1 through 10, which I think is pretty good.

[Prowl]

I started a Blue Jackets save just for fun with the goal of building from within and restraining myself from making unrealistic trades and such. I thought I would see how Red Barrage would work as well with this team.

I signed 2 undrafted 20 year olds from the QMJHL while offloading Boll for a pick in the draft. So far so good as I am off to a 7-0-0 start, despite not having Johansen for the start of the season due to a hip flexor.

Ryan Murray and Jack Johnson have been averaging nearly 2 points a game which is NOT realistic while Boone Jenner and Atkinson are scoring goals like no ones business. Foligno has really struggled with 3 points in 7 games and an ugly -4. I'm probably going to use my own tactic because as much as I like Murray and Johnson, they aren't Bobby Orr or Paul Coffey lol.