NHL 19 Franchise Mode Thread

[Lays]

*numbers indicate overall
89 PWF-90 PLY-89 SNP
84 SNP-89 TWF-87 PLY
85 PWF-85 TWF-83 TWF

88 DFD-90 OFD
88 TWD-84 OFD
81 TWD-87 DFD

85 HYB

This team just missed the playoffs for the 2nd season in a row. Locker room chemistry is pretty good, no one with bad character or anything on the team. 4th line are all 80-81
I know stacked teams do bad in EA, but this is ridiculous. I don’t know what else I have to do to fix the team. I have 3 “leaders” in the locker room and 2 with a “presence.” Most of the guys vary in age and it’s a solid core. Before we missed the playoffs twice we were a pretty good team but couldn’t get past the 2nd round. My 90 overall OFD has won the Norris twice and my 1st line all puts up 85 ish points. No one has low morale with anyone either. What can I do to fix this? EA’s sim f***ing sucks. This is a perennial cup caliber team on paper. I’m running out of cap space as well, this is a young team

 

[belair]

Loving how the game just ignores the stats of goaltenders. My 85 rated starter would lose 82 games if I didn't remove him from the starters role. Meanwhile his 78 rated backup posts Vezina-worthy numbers, going on a 32-6-1 run.

Does my assistant GM pick up on this fact? Nope.

I could ride that goalie to a Championship and he'd still start next season as a 78 rated AHL starter with no trade value and a sub $1m salary.

 

[Emery]

Loving how the game just ignores the stats of goaltenders. My 85 rated starter would lose 82 games if I didn't remove him from the starters role. Meanwhile his 78 rated backup posts Vezina-worthy numbers, going on a 32-6-1 run.

Does my assistant GM pick up on this fact? Nope.

I could ride that goalie to a Championship and he'd still start next season as a 78 rated AHL starter with no trade value and a sub $1m salary.

Very odd, in my Senators franchise my goalies are Bobrovsky and Anderson (fantasy draft) and so far Anderson has been the surprise starter between the 2. At age 39 he had a career year with 39 wins, and went from an 83 —> 89 overall, meaning I now have a tandem with him and a 90 overall Bob. I have noticed low overall goalies standing on their head in the past though

 

[belair]

Just lost in the AHL Conference Finals to the Colorado Eagles (34-40-8). 11th in the Conference and 25th in the league overall. Hmmmmmm.

 

[Bolt32]

One thing I wish they could change. Have it where you could do your AHL teams signings only. Have a 20 year old 68 over all Franchise potential goaltender who I figure. Sure would be a great back up in the AHL for a season until he improves and steals the starting job. Then the AHL team signs some 72 overall 31 year old scrub and Has my future netminder benched the whole season. Tee's me off. If I do manual line changes then they ask me like every other day to change shit, becomes to tedious. I would rather have control of the Guys I sign to an AHL only deal. Least that way I'm getting people with potential (Even slim) to be NHL ers that would get game time in case of injury.

Also, anyone find out how to save cash on the Franchise? 10 years in and I'm spending 14 million dollars a year for my stars. I have three guys in the overall range of 88+ and they want 14+ million a season with only like a 90 million dollar cap. How in the blue hell am I suppose to afford anything? lol. Any secrets on negotiations to lower the amount for the home team would be appreciated.

 

[notredame1228]

One thing I wish they could change.

Also, anyone find out how to save cash on the Franchise? 10 years in and I'm spending 14 million dollars a year for my stars. I have three guys in the overall range of 88+ and they want 14+ million a season with only like a 90 million dollar cap. How in the blue hell am I suppose to afford anything? lol. Any secrets on negotiations to lower the amount for the home team would be appreciated.

Usually if they want an extension or want to come back you can offer them say they want 10million for 5yrs multiply 10million ×.85=8.5 million and they usually always accept. Not the biggest savings but its 1.5 you can put elsewhere across 3 players that's 4.5mill

 

[Kiros]

One thing I wish they could change. Have it where you could do your AHL teams signings only. Have a 20 year old 68 over all Franchise potential goaltender who I figure. Sure would be a great back up in the AHL for a season until he improves and steals the starting job. Then the AHL team signs some 72 overall 31 year old scrub and Has my future netminder benched the whole season. Tee's me off. If I do manual line changes then they ask me like every other day to change ****, becomes to tedious. I would rather have control of the Guys I sign to an AHL only deal. Least that way I'm getting people with potential (Even slim) to be NHL ers that would get game time in case of injury.

Also, anyone find out how to save cash on the Franchise? 10 years in and I'm spending 14 million dollars a year for my stars. I have three guys in the overall range of 88+ and they want 14+ million a season with only like a 90 million dollar cap. How in the blue hell am I suppose to afford anything? lol. Any secrets on negotiations to lower the amount for the home team would be appreciated.

Couple of things. Make sure that your team has enough players in the NHL/AHL and your AHL team won't sign random players. The computer will add players to your AHL roster if you don't have enough players to fill out both teams. Same thing goes for injuries. If you only have 20 players in the AHL and you have to call one up to the NHL to cover for an injured player, then the CPU will sign another AHL only deal to keep a full roster. Avoid signing too many junior prospects to contracts straight out of the draft if they can't play. You should normally be able to run with a roster of 22-23 NHL players and then 23-25 AHL players. Ideally your NHL roster should only be about 21-22 players if you want one extra forward/defenseman. If you ran a full 23 man NHL roster and then had 23-25 AHL guys, then that still leaves at least 2 roster spots open if you want to sign a junior player early.

For contracts you can use the tip above to sign players to 85% of their asking price. Also be patient and watch how player's contract demands change based on the years they ask for. Using this in conjunction with the 85% tip can help. For example - a player may ask for 3 years at 4mil and when you up it to 4-5 years they are asking for 5mil. If the player flat out asks for 4-5 years they will be asking for 4.55 instead. Typically the longer term the less money the player is asking for, so avoid making long-term offers when the player is only asking for 2-3 years. Planning early and trying to resign guys during the year is your best bet. If they only ask for a short term deal, then try simming a week, and see if their desired term changes.

My other piece of advice would be not to focus too much on overall ratings. I've had guys that were 90+ OVR asking for 12-14mil while only putting up 60 points. As a restricted free agent I could flip that player for an established 88-89 OVR player that puts up the same points or more for 6-8mil. To keep cap flexibility only sign guys to huge deals if they are actually producing at rate that warrants that type of money. Sadly, offensive numbers are low in this game, so most players won't be worth it. Quantity over quality seems to be the better bet this year.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Having some troubles offensively in my franchise mode. I can score goals but the only way to do it consistently is to...

1) Cut into the slot, wrist shop top corner
2) Breakaway/streaking up the boards and beat the last defender for fronthand-backhand goal
3) Slap shots from Dmen high in the zone

I'm scoring 3-4 goals a game but its getting repetitive and a little boring. I'd really like to be cycling the puck and creating chances organically but it seems impossible. I can hardly cycle the puck because the only option that opens up for me is I can have the winger on the boards skate the puck down low, then pass it back to the dman high on the boards who passes it to the other dman near the other boards. Rinse and repeat. My wingers and center never get open, they just stack themselves in pretty much a straight parallel line with the faceoff dot and never get open. It's like all I can do is cheese and it's not fun.

Is this just a strategy problem? Unavoidable AI issue? Any help would be great. I play on All-Star for what it's worth

 

[Speed McQueen]

Got a question to the NHL pros on here about the Franchise GM mode:

Had always played with 32nd team and standard Rosters so far.

Now I have created a new team and there, in order to save it, ala "Expansion Draft" created a own Team. Have also 3 self-created players recorded.

Now I starting the game mode (button on the far right) with 32. Team and CUSTOM ROSTERS. But then the game starts (same as in standard squad / button middle) with the expansion draft?!? I can not play my own seleced Team? Is this a bug?

 

[Emery]

Got a question to the NHL pros on here about the Franchise GM mode:

Had always played with 32nd team and standard Rosters so far.

Now I have created a new team and there, in order to save it, ala "Expansion Draft" created a own Team. Have also 3 self-created players recorded.

Now I starting the game mode (button on the far right) with 32. Team and CUSTOM ROSTERS. But then the game starts (same as in standard squad / button middle) with the expansion draft?!? I can not play my own seleced Team? Is this a bug?

If you’re trying to play with your custom players, you could try substituting your team for say Arizona instead, though you’d have a 31 team league in that case. You’d have to go to create team and make your team and add your guys to the roster then sub them in when starting a new franchise mode
If you want 32 teams and the expansion draft, maybe try making your custom players free agents then sign them post draft? It’s a risky ploy, but the only way to have a 32 team league with your custom players included as far as I am aware. Unless you put the custom guys on an NHL team and traded for them post draft, which could also be risky if they’re high value

 

[tucson83]

*numbers indicate overall
89 PWF-90 PLY-89 SNP
84 SNP-89 TWF-87 PLY
85 PWF-85 TWF-83 TWF

88 DFD-90 OFD
88 TWD-84 OFD
81 TWD-87 DFD

85 HYB

This team just missed the playoffs for the 2nd season in a row. Locker room chemistry is pretty good, no one with bad character or anything on the team. 4th line are all 80-81
I know stacked teams do bad in EA, but this is ridiculous. I don’t know what else I have to do to fix the team. I have 3 “leaders” in the locker room and 2 with a “presence.” Most of the guys vary in age and it’s a solid core. Before we missed the playoffs twice we were a pretty good team but couldn’t get past the 2nd round. My 90 overall OFD has won the Norris twice and my 1st line all puts up 85 ish points. No one has low morale with anyone either. What can I do to fix this? EA’s sim ****ing sucks. This is a perennial cup caliber team on paper. I’m running out of cap space as well, this is a young team

i think the sim loves vet players, i think having more vet players will probably make the team win cups.

 

[RememberTheRoar]

i think the sim loves vet players, i think having more vet players will probably make the team win cups.

The game also loves physical players, right?

High age, poise, physical, and offensive/defensive awareness seems to be all that matters for sim.

There are a few player exceptions.

 

[m1a2lt]

If you haven't been there, there is a NHL Franchise forum at Operations Sports that allows you to do your own thread or communicate your franchise a little easier. Plus, they are looking for some new blood:

Hockey Dynasties - Operation Sports Forums

 

[ShiftyNoBrakes]

I’m getting into Franchise mode lately. I’ve read all 30 pages of this thread in two days! Awesome information that I have used already. Thank you to everyone who has answered a question here.
My two questions.
Can I straight up release an unsigned player? Is there a time frame I might be unaware of?
With the ‘unknown number cap’ bug for total players on your team, I was just looking for confirmation that the ONLY way to clear those players is by trade.
2nd
Corey Crawford’s durability is at 88. If I wanted to be realistic, that number in your opinion’s?? I was feeling 79/80
I know its as small of a detail as a visor type but you know how we get sometimes.
Thanks

 

[Tak7]

I’m getting into Franchise mode lately. I’ve read all 30 pages of this thread in two days! Awesome information that I have used already. Thank you to everyone who has answered a question here.
My two questions.
Can I straight up release an unsigned player? Is there a time frame I might be unaware of?
With the ‘unknown number cap’ bug for total players on your team, I was just looking for confirmation that the ONLY way to clear those players is by trade.
2nd
Corey Crawford’s durability is at 88. If I wanted to be realistic, that number in your opinion’s?? I was feeling 79/80
I know its as small of a detail as a visor type but you know how we get sometimes.
Thanks

Regarding unsigned players - in each off-season, once you get to the resign phase (after the draft, before free agency), you can select players with either UFA or RFA status on your team, and release them. Or, you can leave them unsigned, and once the resign phase finishes (7 days), all players that have remained unsigned (UFAs, Non-qualified RFAs), those players will automatically be released.

Keep in mind that prospects work slightly differently - all prospects remain apart of your organization unsigned until they are 21. For example, if you draft a 19 year old prospect, but don't want to give him a contract (a very good idea if you are close to your 50/50 contract cap, or if the prospect plays in the Canadian Hockey Leagues), he will still be apart of your team for another two years (until he's 21), until he hits UFA status (at which point, you either have to sign him up or let him go to free agency).

All of this information is presented to you on the contract page of franchise mode though, so don't stress too much about missing out - the game will give you prompts as you near free agency, reminding you that you've forgotten to sign key players or prospects, etc.

Regarding Goalie Durability - This is a tough one. In my experience, goalie durability doesn't really matter - meaning, goalies with lower durability seem to get injured just as often as goalies with higher durability. For example, I drafted a Starter Medium goalie who eventually became my NHL goalie. His durability was 61, but he didn't pick up a single injury for almost 7 years - my backup for whatever reason (Grubauer) got injured 3 times during that same period.

For Crawford, I'd even consider setting it much lower (in between 70-75) and seeing if you get any luck that way. I'm not sure whether durability effects frequency of injury, severity of injury, or both. If you end up finding anything interesting, do report back.

Hope that helps.

 

[BigRig4]

I'm wondering what the most important goalie stats to look for are? Especially against the CPU. I have Gibson in my franchise mode and he's gone up to a 90 and he still lets in huge softies. Is it just because he's not that tall? I've heard height/size is everything for goalies but wanted to see what you guys think.

 

[Tak7]

I'm wondering what the most important goalie stats to look for are? Especially against the CPU. I have Gibson in my franchise mode and he's gone up to a 90 and he still lets in huge softies. Is it just because he's not that tall? I've heard height/size is everything for goalies but wanted to see what you guys think.

Height.
Glove High.
Glove low.
Stick High.
Stick low.

 

[SH15]

Apologies if this has been answered, but is there a work around for Year 1 trades not being allowed because it puts you over the cap next year? How dumb is that! It must count all 50 contracts or something when assessing Year 2 cap situation?

I'm trying to strip down a team at deadline and add future pieces, but because the player I'm moving out is UFA and the new player in is 850k next season it says not allowed. Gah!

 

[BigRig4]

Height.
Glove High.
Glove low.
Stick High.
Stick low.

In that order?

 

[Tak7]

In that order?

Not in any particular order - I basically ignore all the other ones (Rebound Control gets half a mention if you are someone who plans to play, instead of sim, a lot of games)

 

[RememberTheRoar]

Do you guys basically treat your lines as ice-time slots while you're simming, or do you actually try to build lines that work well together during sim?

The more I do sims, the more it seems like player types and whatnot just don't make a difference for sim lines, and you only end up hurting your better players (by giving them lower ice-time) when you try to actually create lines that make sense.

I've gotten to the point where my sim lines look much different than the lines I use when I actually play games.

 

[malkin71]

Has anyone seen franchise skaters in the draft of this game? I’ve done about 15 drafts so far and the only ones I’ve seen are my edited/created guys (Hughes, Lafreniére, Savoie, and Wright). Obviously there are a ton of goalies but how rare are franchise skaters?

 

[RememberTheRoar]

Has anyone seen franchise skaters in the draft of this game? I’ve done about 15 drafts so far and the only ones I’ve seen are my edited/created guys (Hughes, Lafreniére, Savoie, and Wright). Obviously there are a ton of goalies but how rare are franchise skaters?

Yes, I have a computer-created one in my 19-20 draft. Others have popped up in other drafts as well. It’s very random though and there isn’t one in every draft, which there shouldn’t be.

 

[AreUmadBro96]

In this game I have taken a much different approach. I used to sign every prospect I drafted as I never really ran into getting close to max contracts in previous NHL games. I ran into that issue very early in this game so sans any sure fire elites, I don't sign my prospects for at least a year so I can see what I am getting. Those "Gems" though, they really are good. I also found a franchise goalie in the later rounds on a scouts recommendation.

I have noticed that their are a **** ton more DFD and TWD than their are OFD.

I find using mostly TWD is the way to go anyway.

 

[Field of Dreams]

I find using mostly TWD is the way to go anyway.

I find having atleast one DFD is critical for simming