EHM The Blue Line

Hello guys.
The purpose of this topic is benchmarking between EHM players. So I ask all desirous to share your philosophies and strategies which you are using to win the Stanley Cup with your team.
The idea of this came into my head when I thinked which players skills are most important to team's success. Now I'm trying to test whether the Mental skills are most important for the players in this game: I'm trying to get into my team only players with mental skills (emphasis for Anticipation, Bravery, Determination, Influence, Teamwork and Work Rate) which are higher than 10.
My idea is to check if the team can be successful if I haven't many star players with huge Technical skills but if all my players are very good mentally. IN my first season I advanced into playoffs from 7th place (I took Buffalo Sabres and started from Fantasy Draft to be able to collect to the team only players which are OK with my requirements (I've filtered all players by Mental skills). In the first round I played against Capitals and my team was very good but we've lost 2-4 and then Capitals played in Stanley Cup final. I hadn't so many star players in my team except Toews, Seabrook, Pacioretty and Oshie, the rest part was mostly young players with poor Technical skills and with good Mental skills. Now my test is still in process and I beleive that it is possible.

So which principles are you follow to win the cup with your team?

Well if you are trying to do it in an unorthodox way (not just sign or trade for best players) I think size and anticipation are big things I have noticed. Size is really overpowered in the game as many people mention. Having a good goaltender is also very important and is the difference in this game from being a playoff team or bottom 5.

I imagine if you focues on all big guys who can skate with anticipation you would still do really well.

Funny though you said you didn't have star players but have one of the best centers and defenseman a great first line makes a really big impact in this game.

good mixture of experiance and youth, 3x star players (i normaly go for Ovechkin and Kopitar + someone that is FA and is a star but would come cheaper), never had D players that are rated or paid like superstars, very good goalie (but never the ones that are paid the most), crazy goon or two (it dont help but i think my best players feel more secure on ice )...

When i see that i start to underperform i normaly start playing with 4D pairs and 3 attack lines for 10-20 games...in playoffs if i start to struggle i play with 3 D pairs and 3 A lines.

Its process that need few season that you finaly find a good mixture.

I like to have a top 4 forwards that are just good, no real style, a good mix. Every player below them has to have the same base mold, IE hard working, defensive responisible, with obvious growth above that, IE player makers and snipers, but they still need to basically all be "Grinder ++". The higher they are on my depth chart, the more ++ they have

My D is always a good mix of O and D, with my bottom 3 either being two ways or specific specialsts, IE ONLY offence, or a stay at home. Otherwise just guys I can throw in anywhere and be safe without one of my top 4, which are also grinder ++s, I dont generally have all star defence, I follow a more New Jersey Devil / Abbotsford Heat style.

In addition to my Jersey/Abby style, I make them play offensivly, and hard working. Strong forecheck, etc. Its not the best, but its what I do. I build my teams around that

For forwards I always have 3 offensive lines and a 4th grinder line. I put a lot of emphasis on having 3 strong centers. Obviously you've got your bonified #1 center but the other 2 centers should be good enough to play on the first line as well. Having really good wingers is nice but it seems that many above average wingers can put up great numbers if put on the 1st line.

For defense I believe you should have at least 1 franchise defenseman, preferably one that can play in all situations and quarterback a power play. Each pairing should have 1 defenseman that can move the puck well (more offensive basically) and a defenseman that's more defensive minded.

Having a franchise goalie can definitely carry your team but isn't necessary. In one of my recent games Robert Esche was the starter for his cup winning team and also won the Vezina.

Obviously players with at least decent mental attributes are nice but I don't think necessary. Although I won't usually draft a player with really low work rate or determination.

Thanks to Joe's post, I don't feel so bad replying to an old post

In the game I'm playing right now, I did a fantasy draft and managed to get a first line of Kessel - Kopitar - St. Louis... Subban and Orpik in the back end and Price in net. I did manage to legitimately win the cup in my 1st season with this team, and I really think goaltending is the key - you can do well without a good goaltender, but I have never won a cup without a top-10. And I never manage to win the Vezina no matter how well I do -- go figure.

What I'm doing now is taking advantage of the AI a bit to build a dynasty team for 4 seasons, then drop them and continue with the last-overall team and play properly again -- I like the challenge.

So my first attempts at manipulating the AI combined with winning 2 draft lotteries in a row (even after winning a president's trophy in season 2) potted me Ekblad and McDavid. I also signed Andrew Ladd in free-agency -- so we'll see what happens.

Goaltending is not really a key to this game. I have won the Stanley Cup with TERRIBLE goalies several times. Look through my challenge history, and quite often you will find that I cheap out on goalies and use guys who are quite average looking in numbers. Sometimes I do have a stud, but it is rare. Right now I cannot think of specific names I have won Cups with, but there are several.

I have won the president's trophy with an average goaltender, only to get knocked out of the playoffs in the 1st or 2nd round.

With average players and a great goaltender, I have ended the season 7th or 8th in the conference and go on to win the cup... Maybe it has something to do with the tactics I was running at the time?

My plan is always build from Center out and have a solid Goalie.
I start with the habs often that have poor centers. In the new ehm:ea i started habs again and my current line up is as follows.

Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Scherback
E.Kane-Mcdavid-Tarasenko
Gallager-Plekanec-McCarron
Prust-Fisher-De-la-rose.

Markov-Subban
Myers-Despres
Beaulieu-Tinordi

S-Price
B-Pavelec

i Lost in the cup final to chicago in season 1 and traded away st-louis and a 3rd n and prospect for 1st overall pick.
i feel like i have a balanced aged team we are currently 4th in the east 40 games in. Price has been carrying us pretty hard while Scherback Mcdavid McCarron are all rookies and having pretty good seasons. they will be fighting it out for the calder this year. All of my Centers are winning 75%+ of faceoffs and beleive me that makes a big difference for scoring goals and saving goals. I would suggest good centers and solid mix of Dmen and a superstar goalie can win you a cup.