EHM The Blue Line

Lidas wrote: I believe it's all in setting your players' personal tactics. My performance went down during the end of the season, so before the playoffs I checked my tactics, and noticed that about half of the personal tacs had been resetted. I wonder why that always happens... I re-set all the tactics, and boomed through the playoffs 16-0.

I totally agree! Not all players fit a standard tactic. Every player has his own strengths and weaknesses, so you've got to set personal tactics to take advantage of that.

I have no idea why they reset like that sometimes. Usually I see it if a player has been out of the lineup for a bit and replacements have been called up from the minors. It's like the game can only remember personal tactics for a limited number of players at once.

You seem to be riding your best players pretty hard, don't they get tired/injured? I just checked my player stats for season three and I don't have a single forward averaging over 19 minutes and only one D-man over 24 (Weber at 25:53) in the regular season. Maybe I'll try working them harder next year.

As for season three you can add me to the list of people who captured their first cup! We beat the Flames in six games with another crushing victory of 9-2 in game four and went on to face the Rangers in a pretty tight final, winning the series 4-2.

Awards:
Colin Wilson - Calder
Jean-Pierre Dumont - Conn Smythe
Jason Arnott - Conn Smythe runner-up
Barry Trotz - Jack Adams
Shea Weber - Norris second runner-up
Victor Hedman - Les Cunningham (AHL MVP), Eddie Shore (AHL best D-man)
Andreas Thuresson - John B. Sollenberger (AHL leading scorer), AHL Best Forward

In the Euopean draft (top North American prospect ranked at #43) we drafted:
C/RW Tamas Just (#22), 1st line pot., more talented Jason Spezza
G Miika Laaksonen (#73), backup pot., poor man's Rick DiPietro
RD Jonas Macholda (#79), 5-6 pot., poor man's Nick Boynton
LD Otto Törnqvist (N/A), 3-4 pot., like Brent Burns
C Jani Fredriksson (N/A), 2nd line pot., slower Patrice Bergeron
LW Eddy Rainer (#149), 3rd line pot., like Fabian Brunnström
LD Vener Grushin (N/A), 5-6 pot., quicker poor man's Francois Beauchemin

But seriously, what's up with teams not making qualifying offers to their young players with great potential? A quick look through the UFA listings shows that Doughty, Stamkos, Turris, Bodker, Berglund and Tikhonov are all unrestricted. I'm sure there are more examples but those were the names that jumped out at me.

With our latest prospect signings we have way to many D-men under contract now. We're looking at 8 in the AHL and 3 in the ECHL/Juniors next season. I'll try to use my trades to adjust that, I'm not really looking to add anything at this point except maybe a top-six natural LW. I'll probably try to move Grabovsky as well since he doesn't seem to have any intention of learning how to play defence, in fact he just got even worse (attributes in the red now) at it after he suffered a four month injury in the playoffs. He did score 37 goals last season though so he is nice to have on the PP.

Just had one of my worst free agent frenzies ever. I planned to go tier II and get a "very good" left winger and a "good" defense man. I offered deals to Avery, Hagman, Saprykin, Semin, and Sharp. None of them wanted to go to the Stanley Cup Winners. Weird.

Only player I managed to pick up was Jeff Finger, who will act as 7th defenseman (instead of Koistinen). Minor upgrade. I'm now over the salary cap, and need to make a trade as soon as I'm allowed to. I want to offload Arnott and replace him with a new left winger (since I failed signed an UFA). Wilson will then move in to take the 2nd line center spot.

I'm not sure how I'll get under the cap before I can get rid of Arnott (5.5M). I guess I'll have to risk losing someone on waivers.

This is only my 2nd post here (1st was in the challenge recording) but I've been lurking for a couple years and have played EHM 07 since it came out (original EHM a bit before that but never very much). I switched to Vista and EHM stopped working and I only recently got it working again. I like the rules and want to actually finish a couple seasons for once, so I thought I'd see how far I could get before the challenge ends, and prepare myself for doing another one down the road.

So...

Started off with some staff changes.

Let go:
Paul Fenton - Ass. GM
Brent Peterson - Coach
Lucas Bergman - Scout
Tuomo Silvennoinen - Scout (he was actually hired and immediately let go when a better scout came along - poor form on my part but oh well)

Hired:
Darwin Bennett - Ass. GM
Janne Kelalainen - Head Scout (promotion)
Guy Charron - Ass. Coach
Marian Schulz - Scout
Michael Akesson - Scout
Ylverton Carlsson - Scout
Udo Damar - Scout
Ron Harris - Scout
Jesse Thoren - Scout

Resigned the majority of my unsigned prospects (I wanted to fill up my system with homegrown players - I also run the AHL / ECHL teams).

Signed prospects of note:

Colin Wilson - signed and sent to the WHL. 35 points in 25 games with a 7.52 Rating.
Denis Platonov - signed and assigned to the AHL. 16 points in 17 games with a 8.06 Rating.
Matt Ellison - signed and assigned to the ECHL. 15 points in 11 games with a 7.64 Rating.
Jonas Andersson - signed and playing in Nashville. 7 points in 20 games with a 7.00 Rating. He plays third line with the occasional call-up to the second unit PP and top 2 lines as injuries dictate.

The rest are AHL / ECHL players who will potentially be moved for the same as situations dicatate.

So far this year we've had some minor injury problems - Legwand has missed 5 games, Arnott 4, and Weber 3. Ryan Sutur is an absolute stud on defense, playing over 30 minutes per game in all situations, but his ratings have been cut down (6.95) due to a couple blowout performances where the entire team has collapsed.

On the big team Arnott is the only player with a rating above 8 - he's currently at 17 points in 16 games with a 9.13 Rating. Other names of note are Sullivan (26 points in 19 games, 7.63 Rating), Erat (26 points in 20 games, 7.90 Rating), Legwand (17 points in 15 games, 7.87 Rating) and de Vries (199 PIMS, 7.75 Rating). Joel Ward has been a huge plus as well. Despite only getting 10 minutes of ice time per game on the second line (no PP) he has managed to rack up 14 points in 20 games - 6th on the team in scoring.

Ellis has been adequate, Rinne has been awful. Thing is, I don't blame them for many of the losses. For the most part the defense has been spotty and hanging the goalies out to dry quite a bit. Ellis started the season off on a tear but has come back down to Earth in the last couple games and has a woeful .882 SV%. Rinne meanwhile has a 7.35 GAA but to be fair I've only ever played him in blowouts.

The last couple games I've adjusted the tactics quite heavily (personal / PP) and we've seen some improvements, especially in the PP. My powerplay was at one point sitting at just over 3%.

The AHL / ECHL teams have not been doing that much better. They're mainly stocked with my players and have trouble competing some nights. In the AHL Jessiman has been a stud, putting up 24 points in 17 games with a 8.18 Rating, and Platanov (as mentioned above) has been excellent as well, playing sound defensive hockey while putting up points. He's currently rated second on the team in rating. The goalie Drew MacIntyre won the starting job out of camp and has put up some decent performances. His backup Rustam Sidikov hasn't been nearly as impressive. The Admirals are 6-8-3 and sit 5th in the Division, tied in points with the 4th place Rivermen, but one back in wins.

Cinnci is currently 2-6-3 in the ECHL. The bright spots on the team are O'Reilly (9 points in 5 games), Matt Ellison, Mark Dekanich and Antti Pihlstrom. Overall nothing to write home about though.

Going forward we obviously can't make any moves until the end of the season, but the goal is to get the AHL / ECHL teams into playoff contention and to have Nashville sitting somewhere between 7-10th by the end of the season. My scouts have been hard at work preparing for the draft and trying to uncover gems playing over in Europe or on college teams. Looking forward to getting through this first season and seeing what else we can do to improve the team.

7hm wrote:...Resigned the majority of my unsigned prospects...

No edit button, so -

This should actually read Signed, not Resigned.

Is it too late to start the Nashville challenge now?

It's not too late at all, however all stats will need to be posted by the 26th of July.

Welcome to the challenge to you both!

As jbsnadb said, the final cutoff date for logging stats is July 26th, so get in as much as you can in the next couple weeks or so. Some people can pull of a season per week. Some of us can't. I've been playing steadily through since the start and I just completed season 4 not long ago.

Good luck and welcome aboard. You should introduce yourself over in the arrivals forum, 7hm.

So in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft I had the last pick of each round again (due to my 2nd Cup win). Still, I think I was able to land some good prospects. I'm sure most, if not all, are regens at this point so it's unlikely that any will be recognized by name.

Rd 1 30th Jean-Christophe Deschamps RD 5'11" 165 lbs CAN

He's a skilled d-man with 1-2 potential. Scouts project him as a smaller but better version of Daniel Tjarnqvist. Was ranked 24th overall. I needed to add some defensive prospects and he was best available, IMO.

Rd 2 60th Eduard Petrenko C 6'3" 185 lbs RUS

Offensive power forward with 1st line potential. Scouts project him as a more talented version of Ryan Getzlaf. I really like this kid. His "Flair" attribute is 20 and many of his offensive skills are already somewhat developed. His weakness is his inconsistency. He could probably do okay in the AHL right away but I don't want to rush him. Let him play in Russia for another year or two first.

Rd 3 90th Al Gillings C/RW 5'7" 147 lbs CAN

He's a two-way forward with 2nd line potential. My scouts project him to be like Derek Roy. Gillings is a little fella but he's a speed demon. He's got a booming slapshot and nice defensive abilities already. I could see him as a 3rd line guy that also plays one of the points on the power play.

Rd 4 120th Matthew Mitchell G 6'3" 183 lbs USA

A starting goaltender that plays a stand-up style. Scouts project him as a more talented version of Brent Krahn. I figured I could really use to build up some goaltending depth. This guy may not end up a starter but he had a good scouting report card that made me think he was worth a chance. He's a long term project, I think.

Rd 5 150th Lui McCann LW 5'11" 196 lbs CAN

Two of my scouts watched him play and there is some disparity in their opinions on how he projects. Both scouts were 20/20 scouts, so I'm guessing the one that ranks him lower saw him on a bad day. The better report says he's a defensive power forward with 2nd line potential. He projects him as a slower but more talented version of Ryan Hollweg. The other scout says he is a defensive power forward with limited potential. He projects him as a poor man's Tristan Grant. I'm hoping he turns out like the better projection. Either way, he looks like a good goon. He's got a 20 in Bravery, 17's in Hitting and Determination, 16's in Acceleration, Agility, Stamina and Teamwork, and a 15 in Strength. On the down side, he's got Poor Self-Confidence and really low Anticipation. Oddly, he's got the US College route.

Rd 6 180th Vojetch Kelner G 6'3" 174 lbs CZE

Starting goaltender with an acrobatic style. Projects as a poor man's Rick Dipietro. Another scout says he is a backup, same projection. I just thought he was too good of a goalie prospect to pass up at this point in the draft. I don't think he's the Hasek regen. 18 in Flair? His Reflexes, Positioning, and Balance are all really low right now. Still, he was worth a chance. Playing for Plymouth of the OHL.

Rd 7 210th Patrik Mraz LD 6'0" 174 lbs SVK

Skilled defenseman with 3-4 potential. Projects to be like Andrei Markov. The last player picked in the draft. He's got great Determination and Positioning (17's) already. He's also a good passer (16). Playing for Erie of the OHL.


So that was my draft. Not too bad! I lost a couple guys to Free Agency after that. Ryan Kesler and Ossi Vaananen both left as UFAs. Kesler ended up with the Thrashers ($2.8M per for 2 seasons) and Vaananen went to the Lightning ($5.1M per for 3 seasons). I might have been able to retain them but not for the kind of money they were asking for. Ellis left the team as an RFA. I brought him into camp and he looked okay (it's still mid-September) but I don't think I'm going to offer him a new deal. I'm going to go with Pickard as my backup. Zanon took us to arbitration and was awarded $608k per season, which I accepted. That's a decent price for a 7th defenseman. I also decided to let Cody Franson go from my farm team. His contract expired and he wasn't going to make my NHL roster. I didn't want to keep him on my AHL roster. He was taking icetime from my young prospects.

I did NOT sign any UFAs this time around. I'll be looking to make a Waiver claim at some point in the season, I guess. I liked what I had for a team and the only way I was going to sign someone is if I could get a Star player to sign as a Tier 1 and get them to take a serious discount. I tried for Kovalchuk and Staal. Neither would sign for our limit of $4.5M, so I didn't sign anyone. I already mentioned that Pickard was replacing Ellis as Howard's backup. To replace Vaananen as my 3rd pairing LD and 1st pairing PK LD, I brought up Nick Petrecki. I had picked him up with Michalek when I shipped Sullivan and Bonk out to San Jose. He spent the rest of the 08-09 season and all of the 09-10 season down in Milwaukee and really impressed. He won the Eddie Shore plaque in 2010 and was named to the AHL's First All-Star Team. To replace Kesler I brought up Andreas Thuresson. Ortmeyer will move up to 3rd line RW and Thuresson will be 4th line RW. He had played for Nashville a little bit here and there when we had injuries and at 24 years old it was time to either give him a real shot or let him go. Since we didn't have anyone else who really looked ready, I decided to give him a shot. I suppose I could've brought up either Hornqvist or Karamnov but both of those guys are suited toward more offensive roles while Thuresson is a two-way player. Anyhow, I'm going to play him on the 4th line and give him a little PK time too.

So that's it. I'm still in Training Camp right now. I didn't make any trades in that July window, so I'll see how we're looking when trading opens up in October. Maybe I'll even hold off until the trade deadline and be able to pull off something crazy? I wouldn't mind shipping out Legwand for the right kind of player in return. Legwand won the Lady Byng this past season and that's really not my type of player. I could either trade him for another center or move Wilson over to center and take a stab at a LW. We'll see what happens!

I hate welcome forums / threads. Duno why, just do. I'll make an effort though.

In any case, I had a lot of time tonight while waiting for the kid to fall asleep / chill out, so I played through the second quarter of the season.

A much better quarter overall.

The Preds currently sit 11th in the conference at 2 games under .500 and 4 points back of the 8th spot. They have a record of 17-19-4.

The Admirals have jumped back into playoff contention, briefly holding the #2 spot in the division before falling back to 4th. They are above .500 though, and have a record of 15-14-3. The play is still inconsistent but it's positive for the most part.

The best improvement was actually with the Cyclones of the ECHL. They jumped up to 3rd with a record of 13-11-5. They have gone 7-2-1 in their last ten games.

So all in all, things are looking up.

The lines have finally been set (for the moment) in Nashville, though there is tweaking to do. An injury to Sullivan and Ward gave Hugh Jessiman an opportunity to shine, and boy did he take advantage of it. After dominating in the AHL (34 pts in 22 games) he has put up 21 points in 13 games to fly up to the 19th spot in Rookie Point Leaders. Nobody else is even remotely close to his PPG. Jessiman averages a 8.23 Rating with the big club and puts up quality first line minutes.

Arnott continues to be the team's MVP (his 9.28 Rating is second in the NHL), and I would suggest that that's a big part of Jessiman's success.

The top line of Jessiman-Arnott-Erat is simply dominant right now. They're good for 2 goals a night most nights.

The second line of Dumont - Legwand - Ward continues to play well. This line has been fairly consistent all season. Dumont is tied for team lead in goals at 20, Legwand (though he has missed some games due to injury) has 48 points, and Ward is a PPG guy playing only 13 minutes a night.

The third line is pretty rough though. I've added Sullivan (who also gets PP, PK, 4v4 time) to the line to give it more of an offensive bent, but at the end of the day it's still centered by Bonk. Bonk has been pretty useless for me this season, providing neither defense nor offense (I can't coach / design tactics around defense yet), and while Andersson has been a decent player (on pace for 20 points this year) he is hardly a stud. Sullivan hasn't yet found a groove with these guys, but when he does the spread out offense should help the team.

The fourth line is awful. I don't play them much. Nichol / Fiddler / Ortmeyer bring me nothing but heartache (and amusment, when I had Nichol set to encourage fighting to shake things up). At the moment that line is a combined -28. My top line, by contrast, is +38.

So there remains work to be done, clearly.

Other notables:

Platonov continues to excel in the AHL. He has missed time due to both injuries and suspensions, and thus has only played 28 games, but he remains a PPG player with an 8.11 Rating.

O'Reilly (who will never be anything in the NHL but still) has been absolutely awesome in the ECHL. He's got 40 points in 21 games as well as a number of ECHL player of the week / month etc nominations but the injury bug has hit him hard and he's out of the lineup yet again as a result.

Matt Ellison is developing well in the ECHL. He's second in the league in points with 45 in 29 games.

Colin Wilson is putting up decent numbers in juniors (1.25 PPG in the under 20s and just over PPG in the dub). Nothing outstanding though. He will definitely need more seasoning before he comes near the Preds.

Jonathan Blum is in the same boat as Wilson. He's putting up good numbers in Vancouver (46 in 33 as a defenseman as well as being +15) but nothing spectacluar. His under 20s performance has been below average - a dissapointing 6.67 rating after 6 games.

Other notes:

My goalies are still middle of the pack in every league. We let up bad chances, especially the third / fourth lines. We've had a couple bigtime scorefests. Luckily the team is starting to develop the ability to score goals. I don't mind winning 7-5, as long as we win.

For any complaints about Ellis, I do have to say that he is a workhorse. I barely let Rinne see the ice he's so bad. Ellis has a 7.75 Rating and is credited with having played every game so far. He was pulled 4 times and that's the only time Rinne has been able to play. I see no reason to stop playing Ellis like this.

Goal continues to be to have my two farm teams in playoff contention (they should be firmly entrenched with 22 games remaining in the season). And to have the Preds remain in the mix for the last couple playoff spots, fighting somewhere in that 6-10 slot by the end of the season. If we can make the playoffs this season will have been a success.

20 games into season four and I've made both my trades early on once again.

I was unable to pick up a premium free agent LW so I went for youth instead by signing Berglund, Tikhonov and Bodker at Good reputation. Berglund was the only one to make the team this season.

At first I thought that I would just stick with Sullivan and Wilson for the top two LW spots but I soon noticed that Sullivan was exhausted after every game. I tried playing Grabovsky and Wilson instead but that didn't work very well. Off to the phone to work out the first trade of the season:

To Pittsburgh:
C/LW Mikhail Grabovsky
RD Cody Franson

To Nashville:
LW Chris Kunitz

In the middle of the Sullivan struggles, Kulyash went down for four months with an injury which, after a failed attempt to use Teemu Laakso, resulted in the second trade:

To Philly:
RW/C Andreas Thuresson

To Nashville:
RD/LD Barret Jackman

I really didn't want to give up Thuresson since I already had him penciled in to replace Ortmeyer next season but because of the addition of Tikhonov and Bodker I decided to make the deal anyway. I'm pretty happy after all though, Jackman adds the enforcing ability that I lost from Kulyash being injured and leaving Grant and Belak on the sidelines for this season.

Lineup at game 20:
G
Niittymäki
Weekes

D
Suter-Jackman
Hedman-Weber
Hamhuis-Yonkman

F
Kunitz-Legwand-Dumont
Wilson-Arnott-Ryan
Sullivan-Berglund-Jessiman
Schaefer-Platonov-Ortmeyer
(Grant-N/A-Belak)

Not going to write another novel for this update.

Quick notes:

Injuries have hit the big team fairly hard. The last twenty games have been fairly dissapointing, going one game under .500 during that stretch. Sitting at 10th in the conference there is still an outside chance at a playoff spot, but realistically it would mean significantly better play and some of the other teams letting us in. The PP is better than it was, but the PK unit has started to really struggle.

Bonk is basically done for the season, as is Greg Zanon. To replace Zanon, Wade Belak has been switched over to a D-man and has done surprisingly well. He's no worse than Zanon at least. Platonov was called up from the AHL to replace Bonk. He had 50 points in 45 games and was having the best year in Milwaukee. I didn't want to call him up but I really didn't see any options. I really want to make a push for that playoff spot.

In the AHL the Admirals flirt with a couple games above .500. They make it there with 3-4 game winning streaks, but then slowly give all the ground they made back. They currently sit 4th in the division, only one spot out of non-playoff contention. A couple small moves were made to bolster the farm team when injuries hit, and also when the board started complaining about the budget. O'Reilly has been called up to replace Platonov. A major goal, which was accomplished after moves being made to clear space, was to re-sign Stephen Werner - with Platonov up with the Preds, Werner leads the team with 48 points.

Ellison and Pihlstrom are 2/3 in ECHL scoring and have led the Cyclones to 2nd in the division - Cinci sports a 26-16-5 record. O'Reilly has been hit very hard by injuries, but was sitting at 47 points in 33 games when he was called up to the AHL.

Goal remains to make it competitive going down the stretch and hopefully make the playoffs in season 1. From there - anything can happen.

Another season, another cup. The road was a little tougher this time though with two series going all the way to game seven.

The highlight of the playoffs was Victor Hedman, I had limited his icetime during the regular season but in the playoffs I let him loose and he didn't disappoint. Playing an avg of almost 29 minutes per game he led the team in +/- and had the best avg. rating of the defensemen. Another clutch performer was Chris Kunitz who finished with no less than 17 goals.

The biggest disappointment was Barret Jackman who finished the playoffs with an avg. rating of 6.79 and will be my best paid player next season... I made a mistake re-signing him for sure, Yonkman provided pretty much the same thing at almost $4M less. I'll look to move Jackman as soon as he has been with the team for the required full year.

The Admirals won the Calder cup with a little help from Victor Hedman and Martin Laumann Ylven (2008 6th round pick) in the finals. Ylven played 23 playoffs games for the Predators when Jessiman went down with an injury, scoring 4G 3A -3.

I might have him replace Jessiman full-time next season. Ostapchuk (2008 3rd round pick) will probably replace Sullivan.

Awards
Miika Laaksonen - Finnish Suomi Division Player of the Year, FSD Best Goaltender
Victor Hedman - Calder, Rookie All-Star Team
Jason Arnott - Conn Smythe, Plus-Minus Award runner-up
Chris Kunitz - Conn Smythe runner-up
Bobby Ryan - Conn Smythe second runner-up, Lady Byng runner-up, Rocket Richard runner-up, Plus-Minus Award, Second All-Star Team
Antero Niittymäki - Vezina second runner-up
Colin Wilson - Plus-Minus Award second runner-up
Barry Trotz - Jack Adams
Greg Poss - Louis Pieri (AHL Coach of the year)
Vitaly Karamnov - Jack A. Butterfield (AHL Playoff MVP), AHL Best Forward and John B. Sollenberger runner-up (Thuresson won them again, looks like Philly ended up the winners in that trade)
Ondrej Pavelec - Jack A. Butterfield runner-up
Sergei Ostapchuk - Jack A. Butterfield second runner-up

Draft
#30 RW Fredrik Horan (#23), Skilled forward, 1st line pot., more talented Marian Hossa
#60 C Aaron Mattersdorfer (#73), Power forward, 1st line pot., poor man's Tuomo Ruutu
#90 LD Griffin Goulet (#86), Stay-at-home defenseman, no. 3-4 pot., Like Jan Hejda
#120 LW Murray Sullivan (#143), Skilled forward, 1st line pot., more talented Dan Fritsche
#150 G Laurent Vincent (N/A), Backup pot., poor man's Dan Ellis
#180 RW/C Justin Devine (#132), Skilled forward, 2nd line pot., slower Lee Stempniak
#210 LD René Sárka (#78), Skilled defenseman, no. 3-4 pot., Like Matt Carle

UFA
Wade Belak
Steve Sullivan
Triston Grant

RFA
Nolan Yonkman

Ryan, Niittymäki and Kulyash got significant raises. We also resigned Kunitz (yay!) and Jackman (nay!) for four years each at over 4M. Arnott returns for a final(?) season at 3.7M.

Free Agency plan: stand pat unless a bargain shows up, we only have 3.2M of cap space now...

bruins72 wrote:

Lidas wrote: I believe it's all in setting your players' personal tactics. My performance went down during the end of the season, so before the playoffs I checked my tactics, and noticed that about half of the personal tacs had been resetted. I wonder why that always happens... I re-set all the tactics, and boomed through the playoffs 16-0.

I totally agree! Not all players fit a standard tactic. Every player has his own strengths and weaknesses, so you've got to set personal tactics to take advantage of that.

I have no idea why they reset like that sometimes. Usually I see it if a player has been out of the lineup for a bit and replacements have been called up from the minors. It's like the game can only remember personal tactics for a limited number of players at once.

I've seen this if I scratch a player. If a player is injured and goes on the IR, personal tactics are retained. Not sure why, but that's how it's worked for me.

Ok so season 2 was a bit of a wash.

It started off as a slight improvmnet over season 1, but still near the bottom, then Dan Ellis went down for 4 months. And back to the basement I went.

So I went for a Tier I goalie, and struck out on every one. So I still have the duo of Ellis and Rinne. I don't think Rinne will be lasting very long.

The good news is that Season 3 is starting as an improvment over both 1 and 2. I signed Lilja and Sestito as my tier II players. Tavares is my second line center this year. Hopefully I can get into the playoffs this year.

Half-way through season five and the team has been struggling a bit because I just can't keep myself from completely reworking my tactics every time I get a new idea in my head, even if they were working just fine. Atleast the defensive part of the game was working in segment two when we only gave up 48 goals.

But enough is enough, I'm going back to the setup I used last season for now. That means using one up tempo, offensive, skating tactic and one more conservative physical tactic, both with limited personal instructions. I ran the offensive tactic until the team started slumping and then I switched to the physical style until they got back on track. In the playoffs I switched them around to make the more physical style my default.

I made one trade in July, moving Hamhuis for two RW prospects to play for the Admirals. With Hedman in the lineup we had four natural LDs, three of them considered top-four material, and Hamhuis was the odd man out. To replace Hamhuis I brought back RFA Nolan Yonkman to give me three proven natural RDs as well. This more or less ruled out trading Jackman but he leads the team in +/- right now so as long as I limit his role in the playoffs he should be fine.

I claimed Blair Betts from waivers before the start of the season simply because Platonov had earned himself a suspension for game one.

The second trade was made in November when I traded Arnott and Tikhonov for Van Riemsdyk and Tjärnqvist, the latter just being a throw-in the let the Capitals stay under the cap. He seems to make a decent no. 7 man though, he was ok in the 5 games he has played so far.

The second trade allows Wilson to play his natural C position with Van Riemsdyk at his wing, making our current lineup as follows:

G
Niittymäki
Weekes

D
Hedman-Weber
Suter-Jackman
Kulyash-Yonkman
(Törnqvist-N/A)

F
Kunitz-Legwand-Ryan
Van Riemsdyk-Wilson-Dumont
Ostapchuk-Platonov-Jessiman
Schaefer-Betts-Laumann Ylven
(N/A-Berglund-Ortmeyer)

Berglund has not played well this season, only putting up 11 points in 28 games while spending time on the second PP unit. Tikhonov and Bodker did not have a good camp either, maybe there was a reason that they didn't receive qualifying offers from their original teams after all.

Wow...mid season 3 (after game #61) just as we were starting to pick....I got fired. GRRRRR...

DOH! Due to poor performance?

Poor performance and overwhelming fan pressure

Go ahead and re-add yourself as a new GM. Just make sure to take a screenshot of your finances to prove that you weren't fired from crazy budgetary reasons.

did so...and also realized that I lost ALL my scouting info. I'm just glad there's enough time to rescout for the draft.

Yeah, that's one of the downfalls of getting fired. Bummer! At least you've got another week to work on your game. I'm really doubting I'll be able to make it through season 5 before the deadline.

So major improvments in Season 3. We failed to make the playoffs but were in the race up until the last two games of the season. It is our best season so far.

Although my two years of having a Predator as top scorer and poitn getter in the league is over. Dumont went down late in the season with a major injury (8 months) and his status for the start of season 4 is in question. Sullivan was closing in on top points, but he also went down near the end and ended up one point short of the title.

Tavares had a great rookie season and based on the fact the he only missed one month in the 'Rookie of the month' award he will more than likely be getting the Calder trophy.

My quest for a bonifide number ione goalie is still unsuccesful so we will have to see who is available as of July 1st and see if we can sign them. I may be losing a few UFAs of my own as Arnott and Eminger are refusing to sign. I'm not too worried about losing ARnott given Tavares' performance this season, and I have enough D-men that I should be able to recoup Eminger's loss.

Cass Mappin spent one more year in junior so seeing his performance in season 4 will be interesting.

On with the post-season (which sadly I'm still not a part of.) and here's hoping I can get Season 4 in in time for the deadline.

That's it for me, I'm done! I start my summer vacation tomorrow and plan to stay far away from EHM so I wrapped up season five in a hurry, no listings of awards or draftees this season.

Anyhow, we won another cup... I'm almost tempted to keep playing after I return from the vacation just to see how many years it would take not to win one. Once you get a good team set up it seems to just keep rolling, doesn't it? The Admirals improved "slightly" this season, destroying the AHL with a 67-10-3 record and winning the Calder Cup so the prospect pool seems alright as well.

Thanks for another fun challenge guys, I hope I'll see you in the next one.

Until then I leave you with the July 1st 2011 Team Report for my Nashville Predators. Give them a hand folks, they've earned it!

Nice job!

So just how long are you going on vacation and how long are you staying away from EHM? We've got something really fun in the works for Challenge 14 and it would be a shame to miss it.