Challenge #37 Discussion - Blowing Up The Canucks!

[batdad]

For as much as I have talked about Vey....Hunter Shinkaruk is even more insane.

In 32 games this season Shinkaruk is 15-13-28. He has only not scored points in 3 of his last 20 games. He has a 7.67 AvR. All of his #s are well above the other rookies. Connor McDavid is closest to him 7-10-17 (Tampa Lineup). He is 2nd on the team in goals, as only Jensen with 19 has more (Vey is third with 13). Shinkaruk is plus 25. Hunter is only getting 13:48 per game 5th among all rookie forwards.

Oh yeah. one other guy I have not spoken about is Trouba. Third on team in points, he is 5-25-29 leads in assists in 34 games,8th in the league among D men in goals, 3rd in assists and 2nd only to Ryan Suter in points. Suter has played 1 more game and has 3 more points.

And just noticed this...Weber Sbisa and Tanev all have 18 points.

[bruins72]

Just out of curiosity and I know this challenge still has quite a bit of time left on it... would everyone want to do a challenge like this one for our next challenge or would you prefer to go back to our regular ones?

[Peter_Doherty]

I love building a new team from the draft so i'm up for another one, but anything is fine with me

[bruins72]

I'd really like to see us try this style of challenge with the Red Wings or Rangers but adjustments would have to be made.

[Vadim10]

Just out of curiosity and I know this challenge still has quite a bit of time left on it... would everyone want to do a challenge like this one for our next challenge or would you prefer to go back to our regular ones?

I find this challenges quite interesting and more demanding than the standard ones. I would like to play challenges like this one more often, but not solely.

[Shanedawg]

I'm indifferent on the next challenge, so it'll be a wait-and-see for me.

I think after season 2, I'll have another vet shakeup. I have a number of players(7 or 8) or the right age to trade away and most are effectively depth or farm players. I don't expect much in return, although maybe packaging some will get me more decent farm players.

My scouting staff have been all over since the 2016 draft. The majority of my scouts saw Hotchkiss as the second coming of Crosby, but once he got to training camp, they whistled a new tune. Now, on the eve of March 2017, 1 scout refers to him a Jeff Carter and the rest as a poor version of Grabovski. That, to me, is almost on par with the Canucks scouting staff IRL when it comes to drafting 1st rounders!

For the 2017 draft, basically any player ranked above #28 has a "limited" potential. So, this draft could be an absolute crapshoot.

[Peter_Doherty]

Maybe sim a few more seasons for the next one? There are some pretty obvious gems in the first few drafts i have found... After 2-3 drafts though it's almost completely random, would make it somewhat harder

[bruins72]

Yeah, definitely.

[Peter_Doherty]

One thing i've noticed is that the kids don't really develop slowly but surely, instead they stay the same then BAM +2 in everything over night.

[sao.phim]

I dont have too much free time for this challenge unfortunately. Last weekend I did my initial trades, then went through pre-season and now I am in the end of Q1. So far it has been disaster.

I traded almost everyone for 2015 picks, so my prospect pool is amazing - used 5 or 6 first round picks.

I brought three players only - D.Hamilton & M. Rielly for defense and R. Sheahan up front. Actually we sit on last place in the West. Sheahan has been playing very poorly, have to find more effective tactics for him.

[batdad]

I have been thinking about next one..

Thought one was junior....but too many things not right there yet.
Thought two was expansion draft--like we did before. We protect certain guys on all the teams, and go from there....each of his does his own draft.
Thought three was sell off everything from the previous year's Stanley Cup Champs and start over, with no extra draft picks allowed, and a cap allowance of the cap floor. (meaning that is the most you can spend) No extra picks in the first two rounds for first season anyway. This would be a saved game.

[Peter_Doherty]

I think we should do one where we simulate 3 seasons or so and pick a suitable team and blow them up with some good rules.

[mpronger]

Guys,

After the 2015/2016 season ends and trade is allowed within the NHL, we are allowed to begin trading as per season 2 vet age rules? I just finished my season, currently June 5th 2016.

[batdad]

June 15 allowed to start trades re season 2 rules

[batdad]

Season 2, 40 game mark

16-2-2 in last 20 games. Team was really interesting in that some guys are starting to replace guys on the lines above them.

1. Chris Tanev has been ridiculously good. In his last 15 games he has 9 points. He is plus 33 on the season and has only had 2 games all season where he was a minus player.
2. Linden Vey--yeah him again, sorry....is on a ridiculous point streak of 19 points in his last 15 games. He has 3 games in that time period without points. He is now 3rd on the team in points with 33, just behind Jensen 35 and Bonino 41
3. Hunter Shinkaruk--started to slow down a little last 3-4 games collecting no points in 2 of the last 3, but the one he did he scored twice. IN his last 15 games... he has 12 points and sits fourth in the team in scoring, 2nd in goals with 17
4. Jacob Trouba--14 points last 15 games, now leads all NHL defensemen in scoring by 1 point.
5. Markstrom has started the bulk of the games-31 of the 40 and is 25-3-3 in those games (Eriksson is unbeaten LOL I just realized that. Markstrom has a 1.95 GAA and .930 save percen. Only Kuemper has a better GAA 1.91 and Markstrom leads in save %


On the farm:

Utica Comets tied for conference lead with Milwaukee, but the Admirals have 3 games in hand. Portland is 8 points ahead of them for league title.

Player notes:

Jake Virtanen Tied for the league lead in goals with 6 other players at 22 goals. He is 6th in points and leads all rookies in goals, plus minus (2nd in points), shots on goal, and is just behind Perlini in AvR.
Thatcher Demko is 3rd among starters in GAA at 1.76 and 4th in Save % at .929. 4th in AvR and 5th in shutouts with 5.
Bo Horvat-Just doing well. all around player leads the team in plus minus at plus 27. Point per game guy.
Kyle Connor is having a decent rookie season as well....3rd on team in scoring and 25th in rookie scoring at 11-14-25.

The Comets are looking to repeat as Champions, just like their parent team.

[bitterjoy]

I have been thinking about next one..

Thought one was junior....but too many things not right there yet.
Thought two was expansion draft--like we did before. We protect certain guys on all the teams, and go from there....each of his does his own draft.
Thought three was sell off everything from the previous year's Stanley Cup Champs and start over, with no extra draft picks allowed, and a cap allowance of the cap floor. (meaning that is the most you can spend) No extra picks in the first two rounds for first season anyway. This would be a saved game.

I'd really like to try the third one batdad, seems pretty challenging.


Btw, my season 2 just ended and I just missed playoff by 2 points. That's devastating.



one question, is any of you used Demko as your number one goalie in first two season?

My Demko stats:
season 1 - 51 games, 3.30 GAA, .898, av.R 7.06
season 2 - 68 games, 3.18 GAA, .897, av.R 7.10

Much much better than Markstrom, Ericsson and Lack

[Peter_Doherty]

Nope, Demko will be my starter now in the 3rd season though.

[bruins72]

Demko in season 3 for sure.

In regards to next challenge, I definitely want to keep the rules simple again for next season. The core and homegrown thing is fun and challenging but I think it can be a bit daunting to newcomers and we've got an awful lot of new people joining these days. I really don't want to turn anyone off. I want this to be something that draws people in to EHM and TBL. Accessibility is what we need to be all about. A difficult challenge but easy and simple rules.

[Peter_Doherty]

Sounds good, we can go back to the core and homegrown rules much later.

[nickflyers]

I like it!

Maybe blow up a team that's on the cusp, but just can't finish the job(ex. San Jose, Pittsburgh, Washington, Nashville, etc.)

[stone169]

Utica has won the Calder Cup now for two straight seasons. This is a good thing considering my failures during the regular season. Another thing to be really happy about is that Zachary Sawchenko won not only won the 2019/20 Jack A. Butterfield Trophy (for the second straight year) with an impressive 16-2-0 record, 1.32GAA, and a save percentage of 0.931, he was also named to 2019/20 NHL Rookie All-Star Team. I'd say that things are looking up.

Then again, I say that every year.

[stone169]

Final season ticket figures heading into season 6...A whopping 8841 season tickets sold.

[Peter_Doherty]

Ur having a rough time with this team

[stone169]

Ya, but I'm still having fun and that's all that matters to me. Although I do think things are starting to turn around.

I know the mistakes I made and I've made some changes starting a couple of seasons ago and I've been rewarded with Utica winning the Calder Cup two straight seasons.

[Peter_Doherty]

Aight, having fun is the most important part, good luck