Now this may not be for everyone, but I still figured I'd bring it up anyways as I'm sure some will find it cool. I'm not trying to advertise for the game or anything like that, just passing it along in the hopes of even a few history of hockey fans taking notice as to how neat it is.
OOTP Developments has recently released its third iteration of its hockey manager: FHM 3. It's historical mode is actually pretty damn awesome and could be a fun little tool for hockey historians to play out past seasons and even simulate an alternate NHL history dating back to the 1931-1932 season to present day. I've been having an absolute blast. It's not perfect, as FHM is still a fairly new game, but it has improved leaps and bounds since its original version a few years ago. And I'm sure it will continue to improve every year with each new release.
Start date: You can choose any season dating back to 1931-1932. They may eventually add the earlier seasons, but for now that's the earliest you can begin. From there, you begin managing/coaching/simulating and the NHL will automatically evolve just as it did in real life. The league will expand, teams will relocate and scoring will change according to the actual eras.
Start-up rosters: When you choose a season as a starting point, you will have the option to either use the real-life rosters according to that time, or you can start fresh with a fantasy draft. That means if you start in say 1990, the entire league's player pool will be put into a draft for the entire league to pick from. It's a pretty neat feature.
Play style: You can play the role of GM, coach or GM+coach. Or, my favorite way to play..spectator/commissioner and just watch the league unfold.
Rookie's entering the league: After simming your first season, newer players will start being generated into the game world. You have two options as to how this will happen. You can either choose to have players appear on the teams as they did in real life - as an example, Mario Lemieux will appear on the Pittsburgh Penguins roster in the off-season before the 1984-1985 season - or you can choose to have players enter via the entry draft. Maybe in your sim the Minnesota North Stars draft Lemieux? Maybe the Calgary Flames draft Mike Modano? I personally prefer using the draft to see which players end up on which team.
Player development style: One again there are 2 options. For those who want to follow the NHL's real history in terms of specific player performances as close as possible, you should use the "re-calc" option. What this does is re-calculates each players ratings before the start of each season based on their real-life performance that year. If a player had a breakout season in real-life, expect to see a hike in his ratings. If he had a down year the next season, then you can expect to see a drop in those ratings. Or, as a second option, you can let the FHM development and retirement engine take over. This is for players who want to simulate alternate histories and to see how players perform in that alternate history. In my experiences, it still stays pretty true to form, but there can be some surprises with players either not living up to their actual careers, or players ending up as disappointments. I once had Bobby Clarke as the all-time leader in points - edging Gretzky by 200 I think it was. It's fun to see how the NHL's history unfolds when using this option.
I'll post some random screenshots to give you guys an idea of what it looks like. And don't pay attention to player numbers. They can be random but you can always go in and edit them.
OOTP Developments has recently released its third iteration of its hockey manager: FHM 3. It's historical mode is actually pretty damn awesome and could be a fun little tool for hockey historians to play out past seasons and even simulate an alternate NHL history dating back to the 1931-1932 season to present day. I've been having an absolute blast. It's not perfect, as FHM is still a fairly new game, but it has improved leaps and bounds since its original version a few years ago. And I'm sure it will continue to improve every year with each new release.
Start date: You can choose any season dating back to 1931-1932. They may eventually add the earlier seasons, but for now that's the earliest you can begin. From there, you begin managing/coaching/simulating and the NHL will automatically evolve just as it did in real life. The league will expand, teams will relocate and scoring will change according to the actual eras.
Start-up rosters: When you choose a season as a starting point, you will have the option to either use the real-life rosters according to that time, or you can start fresh with a fantasy draft. That means if you start in say 1990, the entire league's player pool will be put into a draft for the entire league to pick from. It's a pretty neat feature.
Play style: You can play the role of GM, coach or GM+coach. Or, my favorite way to play..spectator/commissioner and just watch the league unfold.
Rookie's entering the league: After simming your first season, newer players will start being generated into the game world. You have two options as to how this will happen. You can either choose to have players appear on the teams as they did in real life - as an example, Mario Lemieux will appear on the Pittsburgh Penguins roster in the off-season before the 1984-1985 season - or you can choose to have players enter via the entry draft. Maybe in your sim the Minnesota North Stars draft Lemieux? Maybe the Calgary Flames draft Mike Modano? I personally prefer using the draft to see which players end up on which team.
Player development style: One again there are 2 options. For those who want to follow the NHL's real history in terms of specific player performances as close as possible, you should use the "re-calc" option. What this does is re-calculates each players ratings before the start of each season based on their real-life performance that year. If a player had a breakout season in real-life, expect to see a hike in his ratings. If he had a down year the next season, then you can expect to see a drop in those ratings. Or, as a second option, you can let the FHM development and retirement engine take over. This is for players who want to simulate alternate histories and to see how players perform in that alternate history. In my experiences, it still stays pretty true to form, but there can be some surprises with players either not living up to their actual careers, or players ending up as disappointments. I once had Bobby Clarke as the all-time leader in points - edging Gretzky by 200 I think it was. It's fun to see how the NHL's history unfolds when using this option.
I'll post some random screenshots to give you guys an idea of what it looks like. And don't pay attention to player numbers. They can be random but you can always go in and edit them.