EHM The Blue Line

I got bored of starting a standard game as an NHL team, so I'm giving myself a challenge. I'm aiming to bring an NHL team to glory using only European players. I wanted to pick a team with at least two great European youngsters, and isn't overly stacked with developed Europeans. With this, I decided on the Winnipeg Jets, trying to build a team around Laine and Ehlers as the young talent. I'll be using the 9.4 TBL rosters.



I tried to make rules that would ensure that I would have to build the team mostly from within:

1) No waiver claims
2) No UFA signings
3) No RFA signings
4) A max of 1 trade-down per draft pick

I wasn't overly concerned with making amazing trades as I was looking for a challenge. I ended up with over 20 draft picks for the 2017 draft plus some other picks for future years. It took a while to get rid of all of the Canadian/American players and unsigned prospects, but when I finished, the team looked something like this.



Other notable acquisitions not shown:

Dmytro Timashov (LW)
Carl Grundström (LW)
Andreas Johnson (LW)
Tobias Lindberg (RW)
Erik Cernak (RD)
Marcus Högberg (G)
Peter Budaj (G)



No one is exactly looking for us to be successful in the first season. After trading away key pieces such as Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba, and Blake Wheeler, there is no chance in hell we are making the playoffs. My goal for the first season is to stay out of last place. But then again, there's nothing wrong with tanking for the first pick...

Excited to see how these Europeans adapt to this Canadian hockey town.

Well we're midway through the first season and we aren't doing so hot.

The tank will commence, and with that I'll try to offload some players for picks. Yet, no one wants my players as they have all been playing badly. The only trade I'm able to complete before the deadline is Jakub Nalkadal for Nikita Jevpalovs and a 4th.

Funnily enough, the 3 teams which I sent my best players to have been doing surprisingly well. Pittsburgh is in 1st with Trouba, Toronto isn't far behind with Blake Wheeler, and Edmonton has managed to get a playoff spot with Scheifele.

Hoping I can use the 2017 draft to build up my team.