Eastside Hockey Manager - Part VI

[GBHockey]

Started a new Canucks save a week or so ago, currently in 2022 and had something happen which I've not seen in any of my previous saves.

Petrus Palmu requested to be traded for 'personal reasons' so I put him on the block and offered him to all teams, to which I had no trade requests. So then I see 'Give leave of absence' on the drop down menu and initially it says it's a two week leave of absence so I proceeded to do that and next thing I know, he's on a 10 month leave of absence!

As annoying as it was to happen, it's pretty cool!

 

[xECK29x]

Started a new Canucks save a week or so ago, currently in 2022 and had something happen which I've not seen in any of my previous saves.

Petrus Palmu requested to be traded for 'personal reasons' so I put him on the block and offered him to all teams, to which I had no trade requests. So then I see 'Give leave of absence' on the drop down menu and initially it says it's a two week leave of absence so I proceeded to do that and next thing I know, he's on a 10 month leave of absence!

As annoying as it was to happen, it's pretty cool!

There are so many little things in this game that people still haven't experienced, it's incredible.

 

[frisland]

I've played both, and still to this day, FHM is not tactic friendly or draft friendly!

They really need to streamline things, like taking less than 4-5 clicks to make a contract offer, or other things i cant remember right now...also i dont care what player numbers are, dont i need to hear about it everytime i make any roster change...

 

[GBHockey]

There are so many little things in this game that people still haven't experienced, it's incredible.

In addition to this, I signed Tyler Madden to an entry level contract and sent him straight to Utica where he was playing pretty well, almost at a point per game after 30 games, and then it appeared he didn’t like Utica/AHL and went abscent without notice/permission.

Come the end of the regular season and start of playoffs, I lost Horvat for 3 weeks and Alex Newhook for 2 weeks so called Madden up in an attempt to get him back playing.. Pops up on the mail screen saying something along the lines of that he’d become interested in playing hockey again so became part of the active roster and did pretty well for me in the playoffs.

Won the 2022 playoffs and just got to free agency, debating whether to trade Madden for his ‘I’m too good for the AHL’ ego, haha!

 

[Chessarmy]

Anyone else notice that defensemen barely ever score in this game? Is it the rosters I’m using or the game engine? I’m using ECK rosters.

 

[saxonmiller]

Anyone else notice that defensemen barely ever score in this game? Is it the rosters I’m using or the game engine? I’m using ECK rosters.

I've noticed that too. Pile up apples but rarely get double-digit goals from my D. I have my tactics set as offensive and barrage shooting, and even set my offensive d-men's personal tactics to get them to produce more. Oh well.

 

[xECK29x]

Anyone else notice that defensemen barely ever score in this game? Is it the rosters I’m using or the game engine? I’m using ECK rosters.

Pass tendencies for D usually are pretty high, I can try adjusting this for some of the bigger goal scorers. The Norris caliber D should be getting close to a PPG though.

 

[Chessarmy]

Pass tendencies for D usually are pretty high, I can try adjusting this for some of the bigger goal scorers. The Norris caliber D should be getting close to a PPG though.

I appreciate your response. Perhaps a small tweak could alleviate the issue, but I think it has more to do with the game engine itself. I did a Google search and saw people complaining about this issue when EHM first came out on Steam.

It's not a game-breaking problem or anything. I've set my offensive D-men to be offensive minded and to shoot first, so that might help a little.

 

[abo9]

Crap...looks like the promotion/relegation NHL concept isn't going to work. The NHL has some specific hard-coded rules and the entire draft system causes an error as well. I was able to get teams to promote/demote but they wouldn't schedule properly and the fact is when the worst team in the league drafts Jack Hughes at #1 overall and a few weeks later are demoted, that pick can now walk as a free agent.

So my next concept which should be very "do-able" is to bring back the WHA and populate it with the expansion teams and a bunch of entirely new clubs in major markets and regions that are missing top-flight hockey. I'd position the WHA's reputation and finances just a shade under the NHL's - but enough hopefully that WHA teams could legit compete for NHL-level talent like back in the 70's.

The other thing I could do with the WHA is really play around with the rules...the WHA back in the day was something of a rebel league and I'd like to position the new version in the same manner. Maybe use the larger IIHF rinks to attract more European talent and open up space, use a 3-point system for wins, count shootout goals in a player's stats, etc.

I cannot add a WHA draft because drafts are hard-coded, which is a bummer. But I could change the minimum age for the league from 18 to say 17 or even 16 to try and see if teams may be able to sign top level phenoms like Hughes of Kakko or Lafreniere before they are selected in the NHL draft. And lift the limit on the entry level contract salary. So in theory, the WHA's Houston Aeros could sign Lafreniere this season to a big money 3-year deal and he could be playing professionally right now. When the 2020 draft rolls around, he could still be taken with the first pick in the NHL draft but that team would now have to potentially fend off his WHA team for his services and would still be limited to an NHL-standard entry level offer. Thus it would be up to the player whether to stick in the WHA for money or jump to the NHL because it is still the world's preeminent league.

This is all theory of course until I start testing but I actually think this could be quite interesting...

That would be crazy :O I love playing EHM and to see how you are able to modify the game makes it so fun!

I think I have seen that idea somewhere too but idk if its been implemented/doable but playoffs for winning teams of each of the major leagues? Especially if you put the WHA in there that would be very fun!

Thanks for the hours of fun I had with the Quebec Nordiques too

 

[BKarchitect]

The low-scoring D is definitely not just an issue with x's rosters. My NHL36 database does the same thing. Pretty sure it's the game. If you turn detail to minimum or quick sim, I find that it sims much higher outputs from offensive defensemen in general. The only issue is that a low quality setting like that also tends to produce way more just "wacky" stats. Generally though on normal sim detail levels, I see top offensive defenders (even Karlsson who in my DB is rated 190 CA and has like 18, 19 and 20 across the board in offensive attributes and 20 for offensive role) top out around the 50's and 60's in point production. But when I sim with "minimum" detail level, I've seen EK and Hedman and the like go for 90-100 points.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Anyone else notice that defensemen barely ever score in this game? Is it the rosters I’m using or the game engine? I’m using ECK rosters.

Have you tried changing personal tactics? All of the players are set to 'pass first' by default. Perhaps if you change them to 'Shoot' it should have a bigger impact. I've never noticed, but i'll take a look at my game when I get home from work.

 

[BKarchitect]

Have you tried changing personal tactics? All of the players are set to 'pass first' by default. Perhaps if you change them to 'Shoot' it should have a bigger impact. I've never noticed, but i'll take a look at my game when I get home from work.

This is good for increasing output on the team you manage but what about just scoring across the sim in the league? I'd be curious what you see in your game.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

This is good for increasing output on the team you manage but what about just scoring across the sim in the league? I'd be curious what you see in your game.

So (before I left to go to a haunted house tonight), I took a quick glance to see points wise my defense players are at. Although I’m in the offseason, I noticed my top defenseman had almost 70 points? (Doing it by memory), and the second best who left for free agency had around 55.

My forwards get balanced scoring, I don’t have one high-octane line, I have a scorer and playmaker on each line. My default TBL rosters (with fake players), I have Jake Wise who developed into a great Selke winner each year.

I was always in awe how people got 150+ points in EHM07, I could never crack that.

 

[abo9]

I was always in awe how people got 150+ points in EHM07, I could never crack that.

My guess is it still happens, abusing tactics and loading your team with stars up front and giving them bunch of TOI.

The closest I've been is during my current run on the 36 teams database I have to players who consistently put 100+ points, one peaking at 127 and 123, but I did abuse the AI GM by trading my 1st overall against another expansion team's 1st for their next 4 lol so I had an overload of young stars/generational talents on my roster for a while.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

My guess is it still happens, abusing tactics and loading your team with stars up front and giving them bunch of TOI.

The closest I've been is during my current run on the 36 teams database I have to players who consistently put 100+ points, one peaking at 127 and 123, but I did abuse the AI GM by trading my 1st overall against another expansion team's 1st for their next 4 lol so I had an overload of young stars/generational talents on my roster for a while.

My current game that I’m in mid season with, my top scorer has only a 10 in stickhandling, wristshot and slapshot, but his deking, deflections, and anticipation is all 20s. His physical categories help out as well, 15+ in speed and acceleration.

I have a hard time trading for firsts, it seems to me it was easier to do it in 07 (trade quantities for first round quality)

 

[abo9]

My current game that I’m in mid season with, my top scorer has only a 10 in stickhandling, wristshot and slapshot, but his deking, deflections, and anticipation is all 20s. His physical categories help out as well, 15+ in speed and acceleration.

I have a hard time trading for firsts, it seems to me it was easier to do it in 07 (trade quantities for first round quality)

One of the funniest games I've done I had the fog of war activated (you don't see the attributes). So I was picking players based on scout reports, point totals , ratings etc.

It can be surprising to peak at their attributes at times



For the firsts, I find it very difficult to trade up but trading down is a joke. Especially 1st OA has seemingly infinite value almost.

I would not do it again but I kinda wanted to screw their new franchise for a while...

 

[francis246]

One of the funniest games I've done I had the fog of war activated (you don't see the attributes). So I was picking players based on scout reports, point totals , ratings etc.

It can be surprising to peak at their attributes at times



For the firsts, I find it very difficult to trade up but trading down is a joke. Especially 1st OA has seemingly infinite value almost.

I would not do it again but I kinda wanted to screw their new franchise for a while...

I always play with fog of war activated

 

[Perceptor]

Same. It's way more fun. BTW, Auston Matthews' salary is off on my save. He's making upwards of 8 mil even though he should still be on his ELC. It doesn't impact his salary demands much though as I was able to re-sign him for a lot less than IRL