EHM The Blue Line

I'm having a hard time getting excited over the Islanders-challenge and went looking for something new and decided to try and play in the DEL. I have never done that before.
I'm looking for any kind of tips regarding the DEL; good places to scout, how to work the transfer system well and such.
Since I have relatives from Hamburg I chose to play with the Freezers. They have some decent players, but I'm not too familiar with most of them.
Looking forward to an interesting change from NA hockey

Here are my tips for playing an DEL-Team (I've played with Iserlohn and Duisburg, but I think these are generals for the DEL)

Playing the Freezers is also a good choice, because the have a big ice hall (important for gate receipts) and some good players.
1. The main leagues to scout are the AHL and the ECHL. Especially look for players with an expiring contract. The players age ist not thatt important, but you should set a maximum age of 32.
2. Give the foreign players only a contract for max two years
3. Don't use all the foreign squad places. If your No 1 Goalie or your Top-Scorer falls to a long injurie, you'll need a Backup and releasing injured players is a bitter loss of money that you'll need at other more important places.
4. Watch out for released NHL-Players during the season. Sometimes there a players who can play a franchise role in the DEL
5. Your coaches and trainers have to be able to work with young players. And use as much assistants, trainers and scout as you can afford (long time contracts!)
6. Watch the junior teams all over Germany and try to get every young player you can, because you'll need an amount of homegrown players on the roster every season. Those players you can give long contracts 'till they reached an age of 23/24. If the players aren't able to play a role in your team, let the contract roll out.
7. You have to scout in Austria too, because sometime there are very good foreign players you can hire for the next season.
8. Scout in Scandinavia (Sweden) an Czech Republic, sometimes there will be decent players released during a season
9. If you have players who aren't playing in your team, try to loan them to other teams in Germany. But loan them only out for a month, perhaps you'll need them in a few weeks, when some players are injured...
10. Try to loan players from other teams. This will cost no transfer fee and only a part of the player-salary
11. Pay as less transfer fees as possible. Better keep on scouting for released players or players with an expiring contract.
12. Sometimes the are players who were born in a foreign country but with a second german passport (Often in Canada/USA, sometimes in Czech Republic and Russia). Look out for those players. They might be able to play a important role in you team

Sorry for my bad English and the late answer

I wanted to play the DEL a while back, but was turned off by the gray player bug. I think if you're at the maximum foreigners limit (or maybe it's homegrown players?), the game will give your roster a handful of those disposable gray players. And it didn't seem to be too uncommon for the AI to use these players if they had them, which would theoretically leave holes in league and team stats. It's certainly not a big bug, but I personally couldn't ignore it once I knew it was there .

Also (Ive never played DEL but i think it's a nice league) sign, if possibly Tore Vikingstad!

B. Stinson wrote:I wanted to play the DEL a while back, but was turned off by the gray player bug. I think if you're at the maximum foreigners limit (or maybe it's homegrown players?), the game will give your roster a handful of those disposable gray players. And it didn't seem to be too uncommon for the AI to use these players if they had them, which would theoretically leave holes in league and team stats. It's certainly not a big bug, but I personally couldn't ignore it once I knew it was there .

I this is a "help" from the designer of the game: when you are not soooo familiar with the DEL rules (homegrown players, players age and so on) this feature is a little help by the game designer.


And Tore Vikingstadt is a really decent player, but he won't improve that much Better sign Michael Wolf