Franchise Hockey Manager 6 is $2 on Steam right now.
edit: I put quite a few hours in last night and this morning. It's scuffed Eastside Hockey Manager. Just play that (with the Steamworks additions of real rosters, logos, and face packs). Six iterations of Franchise and it's still not as good or intuitive.
For $2, sure, but Franchise strains under the weight of being a hockey game. I don't look at the NHL. I tried the ECHL. Bootleg rules to approximate a development league. Ended up not being able to play a game after some recalls, and restarted with Syracuse. Should be easier. Can't PTO the ECHL. Can't sign them either for some reason.
Took over the Swift Current Broncos. My Eastside thing is that I find the real life last place team in a league I want to play and build that team. Swift Current was last in all of Major Junior. WHL is a bit trickier to implement plans because of a bantam draft, so you've got two years before any of your picks even reach your lineup. Ok, so I need free agents (which exist) to sort of float the team in the meantime. Doesn't list any. Apparently no one drops anybody. The 20% of WHL players who never got drafted don't exist.
None of these things are issues in Eastside, although that game ain't perfect either. Probably because the base is Football Manager, and having lots of different rule quirks is in line with soccer, whereas Franchise is probably built on OOTP Baseball. A very different sport.
There are a few quality of life improvements in Franchise over Eastside. Having the AI assign the scouts is theoretically useful, although it didn't assign anyone specifically to the Bantam or Import Draft, but if a casual fan decides to play DEL2, where are they even supposed to look, you know?
Franchise Hockey Manager 6 also respects the Solar Bears colors.