NHL 20 Franchise Mode Deep Dive

[Better Call Sal]

This makes me very happy.

 

[East Coast Icestyle]

Being able to tune scoring is amazing. So sad seeing 128 points lead the league in real life and getting 95 tops in sims

 

[n00bxQb]

Being able to tune scoring is amazing. So sad seeing 128 points lead the league in real life and getting 95 tops in sims

95 is low for the leading scorer (but not really that low), but 128 is also extremely high, too. Last season was highly unusual, primarily due to the goaltender equipment changes, but league wide goal scoring was up massively in the first quarter of the season and then returned closer to normal by the end of the season. I expect, without any major changes occurring for this coming season, that we'll probably see scoring closer to the norm this season than what we had last season.

Most of the past 10 seasons (6) have only had a single 100-point scorer.

In the past 10 seasons, the leading scorers IRL have been:

Season: Player (Points) [# of 100-point players]

09-10: H. Sedin (112) [4]
10-11: D. Sedin (104) [1]
11-12: E. Malkin (109) [1]
12-13*: M. St. Louis (102*) [1*]
13-14: S. Crosby (104) [1]
14-15: J. Benn (87) [0]
15-16: P. Kane (106) [1]
16-17: C. McDavid (100) [1]
17-18: C. McDavid (108) [3]
18-19: N. Kucherov (128) [6]

*12-13 only had 48 games due to the lockout, so the figure is based on an extrapolation to 82 games.

 

[East Coast Icestyle]

95 is low for the leading scorer (but not really that low), but 128 is also extremely high, too. Last season was highly unusual, primarily due to the goaltender equipment changes, but league wide goal scoring was up massively in the first quarter of the season and then returned closer to normal by the end of the season. I expect, without any major changes occurring for this coming season, that we'll probably see scoring closer to the norm this season than what we had last season.

Most of the past 10 seasons (6) have only had a single 100-point scorer.

In the past 10 seasons, the leading scorers IRL have been:

Season: Player (Points) [# of 100-point players]

09-10: H. Sedin (112) [4]
10-11: D. Sedin (104) [1]
11-12: E. Malkin (109) [1]
12-13*: M. St. Louis (102*) [1*]
13-14: S. Crosby (104) [1]
14-15: J. Benn (87) [0]
15-16: P. Kane (106) [1]
16-17: C. McDavid (100) [1]
17-18: C. McDavid (108) [3]
18-19: N. Kucherov (128) [6]

*12-13 only had 48 games due to the lockout, so the figure is based on an extrapolation to 82 games.

Sure it's high. But even after editing overalls I've had maybe 2-3 sims all year where players like McDavid, crosby or Malkin walk out at ppg. The top point scorers are always high goal scorers. I've seen 70 goals more times than 110 points so the ability to edit scoring is desirable.

 

[Cor]

One thing I still want is player's interest in going to teams. So a vet would like to be on a contender to win, but his interest rises in rebuilders the further he is in free agency and so on.
I swear they had that in a previous game before the console jump, but maybe I'm just mistaking it for 2k.

Innnnnn NHL 09 I believe, they had a bar in free agency where it should the top 3 teams a player was interested in going to.

I can't remember if it had that big of an affect on it, or if it was just sorta there, but they had something like that.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Wow, they finally made actual improvements to franchise mode? I was gonna skip (at least) pre-ordering this year, but this is a game-changer since that's basically the only mode I play.

 

[the paisanos guy]

Anyone know if they will have proper name generation this year instead of recycling old names in a bizarre way?

Why am I even asking this question when I already know the answer?

 

[tsujimoto74]

Anyone know if they will have proper name generation this year instead of recycling old names in a bizarre way?

Why am I even asking this question when I already know the answer?

Do you not like drafting Canadian players named Tiny Ovechkin?

 

[belair]

Interesting adds. But I'm very doubtful they pull it off. They've had salary retention for several years but the trading system has been broken the entire time rendering the retention useless.

 

[n00bxQb]

Anyone know if they will have proper name generation this year instead of recycling old names in a bizarre way?

Why am I even asking this question when I already know the answer?

It really shouldn’t be difficult to punch in every historical player’s name and country into a database and randomize the name based on country. I mean, I could throw it together in less than a day for current players in Excel using the random number function and lookup tables.

Professional coders shouldn’t have much difficulty getting something like that into a game I’d hope.

 

[MadDevil]

Do you not like drafting Canadian players named Tiny Ovechkin?

I once drafted an American named Bear Kovalchuk. He was awful, but worth it for the name alone.

 

[WeThreeKings]

What would really make it better for me as far as player generation goes:

Franchise needs to be a bit more common and for the most part the curve needs to toward C's.

There also should be a tier above called Generational. They will be extremely rare and should put their offensive stats in a range other players can't access and would allow them to score a lot more in sims than players in tiers below.

Ovechkin is a generational winger but a guy like Kane would be franchise.

 

[tsujimoto74]

What would really make it better for me as far as player generation goes:

Franchise needs to be a bit more common and for the most part the curve needs to toward C's.

There also should be a tier above called Generational. They will be extremely rare and should put their offensive stats in a range other players can't access and would allow them to score a lot more in sims than players in tiers below.

Ovechkin is a generational winger but a guy like Kane would be franchise.

Yeah, I feel like they need to make the distinction between franchise and generational, too. E.g., guys like Eichel and Matthews are clear-cut franchise centers, but I hate bumping their potential up to rival McDavid's because it doesn't IRL. There's just not enough room for distinction in the game at the top end. You can't adequately differentiate between average 1st line players, good first line players, franchise cornerstones, and truly remarkable, once-in-a-generation talents.

 

[rajiabu]

I’d like to know if they will have the actual NHL coaches all will they all be random generated names etc.

 

[Hypernova]

I’d like to know if they will have the actual NHL coaches all will they all be random generated names etc.

pretty sure they are all made up

 

[The Crypto Guy]

I’d like to know if they will have the actual NHL coaches all will they all be random generated names etc.

Random

 

[Shnooks]

Now can they just get the missing prospects put into the game within a reasonable time frame, and not in December?

They need to make it so if you draft a bottom-6 guy and he does really good, he can improve to a top-9 or even top-6 guy.

At least they made an effort here though...I'm really excited about the changes.

 

[Panthaz89]

Now can they just get the missing prospects put into the game within a reasonable time frame, and not in December?

They need to make it so if you draft a bottom-6 guy and he does really good, he can improve to a top-9 or even top-6 guy.

At least they made an effort here though...I'm really excited about the changes.

pretty sure they discussed that the coaches have a big impact on whether the player's potentials can change up or down.

 

[Shnooks]

pretty sure they discussed that the coaches have a big impact on whether the player's potentials can change up or down.

Nice, I didn't catch that...that's great news.

 

[mk80]

I like all these updates and fine tuning of things if it works well.

While they're at it I hope they fixed the issue of making an AHL trade and every game I actually play they talk about it being the guy's first game with my AHL team. Minor issue but it's really annoying.

 

[Cor]

I forget who, but one of the game changers said they sat in a room for 4 hours talking about Franchise Mode and what needs to be done with the guy in the video.

Apparently the guy in the video took over the Mode this year, and they are excited with where this guy wants to take the Mode.


The Auto-Owner Mode is exciting to me for some reason. Kinda like they realized that a lot of people don’t have a want to manage an arena that falls apart at record speeds, or care about how much they charge for hot dogs, so it can be automated and the other features of owner Mode can still be used, however they didn’t do what EA usually does, and remove it completely, and those that enjoy that stuff can still use it.

The fact that you can customize scoring rates from relatively normal, to higher or lower.

If this new guy realizes that not everyone plays Franchise the same way, like it appears he does, that’s a big win and perhaps we are heading to a Franchise with a lot of customizability and sliders, like NBA 2K.


I’m excited. NHL 19 was the least amount of NHL Franchise and NHL overall I have ever played. I pretty much played 3’s with friends every once and a while and that’s it.

Hopefully the game changers and this new Franchise team fights to get roster sharing into the game.

 

[Saitama]

While I'm still not at all happy that they appear to be ignoring BaP, these changes do sound good. I wish that someday they'll sit and talk for 4 hours about what needs to be changed/added to BaP!

 

[Hypernova]

The Auto-Owner Mode is exciting to me for some reason. Kinda like they realized that a lot of people don’t have a want to manage an arena that falls apart at record speeds, or care about how much they charge for hot dogs, so it can be automated and the other features of owner Mode can still be used, however they didn’t do what EA usually does, and remove it completely, and those that enjoy that stuff can still use it.

Turning on Auto-Owner mode will be the first thing i do when I start my franchise. I'm not sure who in their right mind would have asked for this.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Turning on Auto-Owner mode will be the first thing i do when I start my franchise. I'm not sure who in their right mind would have asked for this.

Auto-owner sounds like a dream. I always piss off my fanbase because I increase the ticket prices for playoffs and forget to turn them back down for regular season

 

[Hypernova]

Auto-owner sounds like a dream. I always piss off my fanbase because I increase the ticket prices for playoffs and forget to turn them back down for regular season

Been there haha. I wonder if the owner goals are going to be more interesting this time since that part is basically going to be ignored. It's not like they have any good ones now. There's "win your first game" which is dumb and they always have something like trade for a 1st when I have already stockpiled 3 firsts from the previous year. So if I go 81-1, losing the first game whilst also having 3 1sts in the next draft, the owner is to fire me?