NHL 20 Any tips for Franchise Sim?

[IHaveNoCreativity]

If there was i would play this game again. Year 6 i sign on to be bruins GM. They are in desperate need of a rebuild. Before i do anything we win daft lottery. 1st over all. Franchise center 84 overall. Great way to start. Go to my coach. Hates my new franchise playmaker. Plays him on the 4th. Fire the coach and scroll through every coach in the game and not one would play him in the top 6. I didnt just look at head coaches. I looked at every single coach available. What a ****ing joke. So i either turn off coach made lines and injuries So he can play in the top 6. Or i let him rot on the 4th line and lose all value. Game is a disaster.

Yea no it’s overkill.

like I like the aspect but make it player type chemistry not coach type.

you adjust to your players for the most part, I wouldn’t be against say offensive again players not fitting in a defensive minded coaches system but the dump carry block bias is too much.

like it’s a step forward but let’s just keep it at I want say this for my lines as a coach:

line one snp/ply/pwf
Line 2 dang/ply/ply
Line 3 twf/twf/twf

like you get the point.

Have the player types on each line needing to fit the coaches build for his lines. Would be better and more accurate.

 

[milehigh11]

Like you can get ovi for real cheap 2 or 3 years in and he will still be a 90+.

I saw when Ovi was a free agent at age 37 he was still rated an 89 but wouldnt take less than 11 million

The next offseason at age 38 he was asking for 9 million after he put up 43 goals and 89 points.

 

[LeonDraisaitl]

Is it still better to leave your drafted prospects unsigned until you are required to sign them?

and it’s probably well known but if a player is willing to accept an extension, just do what salary he wants and times it by 0.85

4.25X 0.85=3.6125
Makes a nice difference and will be accepted by the player

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

I saw when Ovi was a free agent at age 37 he was still rated an 89 but wouldnt take less than 11 million

The next offseason at age 38 he was asking for 9 million after he put up 43 goals and 89 points.

Damn 11m is rough. I never seen him ask that high.

 

[BfantZ]

I like to build around my best players . Pick your best young forward and start drafting players with the same or similar scheme but also try and pick a mix of playmakers , snipers and power forwards for your top 6 . Pick a coach that matches your top players and build through the draft from there . It seems having the right player styles together is just as important as the scheme fit . Playmakers , snipers and power forwards all on the same line seems to be the best . Also , hire an ahl Coach with the same scheme and it’s much easier to know which prospects are going to fit your nhl team .

 

[Kellogs]

I saw when Ovi was a free agent at age 37 he was still rated an 89 but wouldnt take less than 11 million

The next offseason at age 38 he was asking for 9 million after he put up 43 goals and 89 points.

For me, I lucked out with Ovi. Picked him up in free agency after I failed to resign JVR to a $7m/year deal.

My scouts said his overall was 90, but with only 1 bar accuracy. I was able to pick him up for a two year - $6.7m/year contract after he had scored 37+37 the previous season. He turned out to be 84 the following season and went out to score 50+50 the next season.

I'm not done the season yet on the second year of his contract but he jumped up to 88 overall and he already has 100 points in ~70 games and is leading the NHL in points

I like to build around my best players . Pick your best young forward and start drafting players with the same or similar scheme but also try and pick a mix of playmakers , snipers and power forwards for your top 6 . Pick a coach that matches your top players and build through the draft from there . It seems having the right player styles together is just as important as the scheme fit . Playmakers , snipers and power forwards all on the same line seems to be the best . Also , hire an ahl Coach with the same scheme and it’s much easier to know which prospects are going to fit your nhl team .

In my experience the snp - ply - pwf combo works best with the "overload" line scheme. Even then, your best players don't necessarily need to play on the top line if it doesn't fit the coach's strategy. In my example above, my second line became the defacto first line because my best players were on it and it provided a +5 chemistry bonus. You just need to make sure that they get first line power play minutes and they'll still get 17-19 minutes of ice time.

 

[BfantZ]

For me, I lucked out with Ovi. Picked him up in free agency after I failed to resign JVR to a $7m/year deal.

My scouts said his overall was 90, but with only 1 bar accuracy. I was able to pick him up for a two year - $6.7m/year contract after he had scored 37+37 the previous season. He turned out to be 84 the following season and went out to score 50+50 the next season.

I'm not done the season yet on the second year of his contract but he jumped up to 88 overall and he already has 100 points in ~70 games and is leading the NHL in points



In my experience the snp - ply - pwf combo works best with the "overload" line scheme. Even then, your best players don't necessarily need to play on the top line if it doesn't fit the coach's strategy. In my example above, my second line became the defacto first line because my best players were on it and it provided a +5 chemistry bonus. You just need to make sure that they get first line power play minutes and they'll still get 17-19 minutes of ice time.

How did your defence look ? It seems to be hard to find a coach with a scheme that’s good for forwards and defenseman . Every coach seems to have hold the line in there bottom 4 for strategies and I can’t find 1 defenseman that fits that .

 

[Conor Edwards]

Into year 2 of my Franchise Sim, I've taken a leap forward and my line look like this:

Zadina (85) - Larkin (90) - Mantha (90)
Debrusk (86) - Veleno (82) - Bertuzzi (87)
Fabbri (82) - Bozak (81) - Rasmussen (79)
Grabner (80) - Svechnikov (78) - Vesey (79)
---------------------------------
Seider (88) - Pietrangelo (89)
Cholowski (80) - Hronek (85)
DeKeyser (82) - Nemeth (80)
----------------
Holtby (89)
Bernier (81)

I have Askarov on the way as a 69 OVR, and I'm hoping my players grow, but at the trade deadline I'm 15th in the Eastern Conference at 26-31-8.
Pietrangelo is nearly point per game, but Holtby has let me down. What appears to be my problem is I don't have scoring depth, as I'm sitting with a 2.75 GPFG average.

How can I remedy this team? I don't have my 1st, and there's only ~20 games to turn this around.

 

[Kellogs]

How did your defence look ? It seems to be hard to find a coach with a scheme that’s good for forwards and defenseman . Every coach seems to have hold the line in there bottom 4 for strategies and I can’t find 1 defenseman that fits that .

For defensemen, it's unfortunate, but it seems a major flaw in the new chemistry system is that the optimal combination is dfd-ofd.

Because there are far fewer permutations and combinations that you can do with the defensive pairings compared to the forward lines because of the smaller number of players in defensive pairs, fewer player types, and fewer coaching schemes to align the players to (2 for defensemen vs. 4 for forwards), it's much harder to find players that work well within all coaches' systems.

As soon as I figured out how significant player type plays in the chemistry modifier calculation, I have no issues getting my defensive pairs to be +3 or +5.

Edit to add: from my experience, unless the majority of players have red Xs across the board with the coaching strategy for that line, then you should get an automatic +3 in chemistry by just having the correct player type combination.

 

[jumb0]

How big of an impact does coach's attributes in teaching and coach influence matter?
Especially to younger players if I'm doing a rebuild.

 

[BfantZ]

For defensemen, it's unfortunate, but it seems a major flaw in the new chemistry system is that the optimal combination is dfd-ofd.

Because there are far fewer permutations and combinations that you can do with the defensive pairings compared to the forward lines because of the smaller number of players in defensive pairs, fewer player types, and fewer coaching schemes to align the players to (2 for defensemen vs. 4 for forwards), it's much harder to find players that work well within all coaches' systems.

As soon as I figured out how significant player type plays in the chemistry modifier calculation, I have no issues getting my defensive pairs to be +3 or +5.

Edit to add: from my experience, unless the majority of players have red Xs across the board with the coaching strategy for that line, then you should get an automatic +3 in chemistry by just having the correct player type combination.

Hmmm , so what combinations do you use on defense ? I still can only get the top 4 to plus 1 and bottom 2 to even most of the time .

 

[Kellogs]

Typically always a pairing consisting of dfd and ofd. I just completed the 2024-2025 season and won back to back cups and my pairings were:

Donato(89 ofd)* - A.Larsson (84 dfd) =+5
H.Fleury(84 ofd)** - M. Pysick (79 dfd) =+3
Weber(81 ofd)* - M. Bowey (81 dfd)*** =+3

*CPU generated drafted players
**Changed player type from twd to ofd
***Changed player type from twd to dfd.

Sometimes depending on the opponent I would swap Fleury and Weber because Fleury is a better fit on the third pairing to get +5 chemistry on all three defensive pairings.

 

[Its a Trap]

It’s almost like EA doesn’t realize that coaches change to fit their players. But instead, in the game, my power plays suck because while my coach is a “great fit” for my team, his power play and penalty kills don’t seem to work with any of my top 6 players.

I’m honestly so confused and so happy that I’ve only had this for a month. This coach AND morale combined garbage is so, so, so bad. It ruins everything. And that’s before you get to the AI problems.

 

[sandviper]

Into year 2 of my Franchise Sim, I've taken a leap forward and my line look like this:

Zadina (85) - Larkin (90) - Mantha (90)
Debrusk (86) - Veleno (82) - Bertuzzi (87)
Fabbri (82) - Bozak (81) - Rasmussen (79)
Grabner (80) - Svechnikov (78) - Vesey (79)
---------------------------------
Seider (88) - Pietrangelo (89)
Cholowski (80) - Hronek (85)
DeKeyser (82) - Nemeth (80)
----------------
Holtby (89)
Bernier (81)

I have Askarov on the way as a 69 OVR, and I'm hoping my players grow, but at the trade deadline I'm 15th in the Eastern Conference at 26-31-8.
Pietrangelo is nearly point per game, but Holtby has let me down. What appears to be my problem is I don't have scoring depth, as I'm sitting with a 2.75 GPFG average.

How can I remedy this team? I don't have my 1st, and there's only ~20 games to turn this around.

I still play NHL 19, so I can’t talk about the chemistry and coach influence but looking that the lineup, I would expect you to have a better record.

I get you’re probably trying to develop Veleno, but his numbers aren’t great for a 2C. Also, I’d look into getting a more capable LD on your second pair.

I don’t know Detroit well, but your team looks very young. Earlier versions of the game, I think veterans with high poise really make a difference. My bottom-6 were really older grinders mixed in with 1 or two ELC players. Also, I always tried to put some sort of mix of playmaker/sniper on each line if possible.

That said, 15th in the conference is surprising. I’ll bet if you re-sim, you’ll be a contender. Sim again, a bottom feeder... it’s so random and broken the sim engine sometimes.

 

[Conor Edwards]

I still play NHL 19, so I can’t talk about the chemistry and coach influence but looking that the lineup, I would expect you to have a better record.

I get you’re probably trying to develop Veleno, but his numbers aren’t great for a 2C. Also, I’d look into getting a more capable LD on your second pair.

I don’t know Detroit well, but your team looks very young. Earlier versions of the game, I think veterans with high poise really make a difference. My bottom-6 were really older grinders mixed in with 1 or two ELC players. Also, I always tried to put some sort of mix of playmaker/sniper on each line if possible.

That said, 15th in the conference is surprising. I’ll bet if you re-sim, you’ll be a contender. Sim again, a bottom feeder... it’s so random and broken the sim engine sometimes.

Over the past few days, several developments occurred:
My 1st became 1st overall (You're welcome Boston.)
Growth was surprisingly solid. Everyone I needed to grow grew.
Pietrangelo had 65+ points, leading my team.
I discovered Holtby was a stinker, and traded him to Anaheim for Gibson.
My lines now resemble this:

Fabbri (87) SNP - Larkin (90) PLY - Mantha (90) PWF
Bertuzzi (87) TWF - Veleno (87) TWF - Zadina (90) TWF
Debrusk (86) SNP - Bozak (81) TWF - Rasmussen (83) SNP
Andersson (84) SNP - Svechnikov (78) - Vesey (79) TWF
---------------------------------
Seider (88) TWD – Pietrangelo (89) TWD
Cholowski (85) TWD - Hronek (88) TWD
DeKeyser (82) OFD - -

----------------
Gibson (90)
Askarov (79)

I still have to sign a 3-RD, and hope to get a Center as well in FA.
I'll test the sim soon, and see how this goes, but I crunched the numbers, and I'm well and away the deepest team in the league. (Overall Average of 85.65)

Still wondering if my lines hold up. I feel like I need more DFDs and less 2WDs

 

[sandviper]

Over the past few days, several developments occurred:
My 1st became 1st overall (You're welcome Boston.)
Growth was surprisingly solid. Everyone I needed to grow grew.
Pietrangelo had 65+ points, leading my team.
I discovered Holtby was a stinker, and traded him to Anaheim for Gibson.
My lines now resemble this:

Fabbri (87) SNP - Larkin (90) PLY - Mantha (90) PWF
Bertuzzi (87) TWF - Veleno (87) TWF - Zadina (90) TWF
Debrusk (86) SNP - Bozak (81) TWF - Rasmussen (83) SNP
Andersson (84) SNP - Svechnikov (78) - Vesey (79) TWF
---------------------------------
Seider (88) TWD – Pietrangelo (89) TWD
Cholowski (85) TWD - Hronek (88) TWD
DeKeyser (82) OFD - -

----------------
Gibson (90)
Askarov (79)

I still have to sign a 3-RD, and hope to get a Center as well in FA.
I'll test the sim soon, and see how this goes, but I crunched the numbers, and I'm well and away the deepest team in the league. (Overall Average of 85.65)

Still wondering if my lines hold up. I feel like I need more DFDs and less 2WDs

Looks much better. I haven’t fired up NHL in weeks but I have always tried to keep an 80+ DFD on my roster. I’ve stated in other threads that I play 1/4 of my season and typically opening games and deciding games in playoffs but I had a great 8 year run with 3 cups and on all my winning teams, I had an 86-89 DFD in my top-4.

Just my opinion, but I would consider finding/developing a top-4 OFD also.

 

[SensontheRush]

I had a coach that didn't want to sign with the Sens because of the market size.

I massively overpaid him, and he signed. It can be worked around.

 

[East Coast Icestyle]

A lot of players in nhl 20 are labelled as two way forwards or two way defensemen. I changed a lot when going through the rosters by hand, but I find too many of these player types, especially in your top 6, and your team falls flat.

 

[Barry Amsterdam]

a couple things

- has anyone had a #1 OA be a Defenseman? i’ve played probably 100 seasons worth and gotten all forwards

-after year 10 or so every goalie on the league is max 81 overall. there are no decent goalie prospects and if they are the are 47 overall and take all there development years just to hit 80.

-What’s the most points anyone’s had in a season just simulated. i had a guy reach 320 points (216 goals). had 5 guys on every line playing every minute.

 

[GB124403]

Has anyone here played season mode? I have some questions about that.

 

[Tak7]

Has anyone here played season mode? I have some questions about that.

Not for a few years - Franchise Mode is far more engaging and interesting than franchise mode, imo.

 

[fcpremix88]

Get an Offense coach who is B- or better and you can win the Cup doing something along the lines of what I outline below. The higher rated the coach - the better.

Make sure the coach uses the defense scheme of Pinch Shoot, Pinch Shoot, Balanced Shoot OR Pinch Cycle, Pinch Cycle, Balanced Cycle. Have a younger coach with the exact same scheme fit be the AHL head coach. This helps you develop your prospects. Only bring them up if they're NHL caliber OR they're a perfect scheme fit for your top 6 and signed cheap/long-term.

Find two forwards (I usually pick centers) who fit the 1st and 2nd lines. Build the entire rest of the team around them. Identify players who have a player type and scheme fit instead of searching for the best overalls. Find TWF, TWD, GRI, and DFD who fit the PK.

Find 35+ year old players who fit your team and bring them in at the trade deadline. I love finding older TWD and TWF to help boost the PK during the playoffs. Especially for the guys who haven't won a Cup yet.

I prefer goalies who are 84+ overall, but the only important thing is that they're on a cheap contract.

Lock your top 6 forwards and offensive defensemen into long-term contracts, and you're set. They'll all grow to higher overalls and you can replace them as their contracts run out with prospects from the draft or through trades. You can find a 70-something overall player and put them in the top six for the +5 and they'll grow. You can turn career AHLers and 4th liners into legit top 6 players with the right setup. Kinda like how Cory Conacher was great playing alongside Stamkos but was not NHL caliber with a different team, system, and linemates.

LW	C	RW	Chemistry
84 SNI	90+ PLY	84 PWF	+5
83 PLY	87+ PWF	83 SNI	+5
83 TWF	85 TWF	82 TWF/PLY/PWF	+3 or +1
79 GRI	79 GRI	77 GRI	+5

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

LD	RD	Chemistry
OFD 87+	DFD 84	+5
DFD 84	OFD 82	+5
TWD 83	TWD 82	+3 or +1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

LW/LD	C/RD	RW	Chemistry
PP1
87+ PWF	90+ PLY	84 SNI
82 OFD	87+ OFD		+5
PP2
83 PLY	84 PWF	83 SNI
83 TWD	82 TWD		+3 or +1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

C/LD	RW/RD	Chemistry
PK1
85 TWF	83 TWF
83 TWD	82 TWD	+5
PK2
79 GRI	79 GRI
84 DFD	84 DFD	+5

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Didn’t realize I posted in here a year ago lol.

Anyway, I still maintain the thought where if you take the same ‘All Star team’ and sim it 5 times you will have losing seasons all those 5 times.

 

[GOilers88]

Didn’t realize I posted in here a year ago lol.

Anyway, I still maintain the thought where if you take the same ‘All Star team’ and sim it 5 times you will have losing seasons all those 5 times.

In my experience you wind up with 5 wildly different outcomes. I've never found anything resembling consistency in these games.

One year they'll the the president's trophy the next they'll win the lottery.

 

[sandhu111]

A random question if anyone knows. They realise released a roster update May 5th and I still can't find Dylan Holloway even though he's signed to a NHL contract now