NHL Prospect Research help wanted

[Most Excellent Bro]

Hi Manimal. I'd be happy to do the Detroit prospects.

[Most Excellent Bro]

Should I get thousands of errors when opening the sheets where I input players stats?

Which stats do I input? Those of this current season or of all seasons combined?

[Manimal]

Have you set the tab called 'General Settings'?
Use stats only from the 09/10 season.

[Most Excellent Bro]

I think my problem is that I'm using OpenOffice rather than Microsoft Excel.

[visualdarkness]

I think my problem is that I'm using OpenOffice rather than Microsoft Excel.

It works perfectly for me at least.


One question about the attributes. How should I handle players who are elite in or two skills? Like Pääjärvi whos speed (both with and without the puck) makes most other "speedy" guys look like snails and Eberle who got vision, anticipation and positioning like a skilled veteran?

Especially the mental "non-changing" atts have to be spot on from the start but when looking at already scouted young guys barely any got over 13-15 in any skills, even if they are elite in that aspect.

[Most Excellent Bro]

Alright, I'm an idiot. I have two versions of Open Office and the one that was opening on default was an old, naff version.

PROBLEM SOLVED BROS

[Most Excellent Bro]

Alright what the heck, so do I do one team's prospects per Excel file?

Eg. I enter "AHL" in General Settings, then do all the Grand Rapids Griffins players from last year?

Then do a separate file for OHL players, NCAA, etc?

[Leeman14]

Alright what the heck, so do I do one team's prospects per Excel file?

Eg. I enter "AHL" in General Settings, then do all the Grand Rapids Griffins players from last year?

Then do a separate file for OHL players, NCAA, etc?

In last year's thread, the most helpful posting (for me, at least) was from Bruins72 who posted the following:

If you guys want an example of what I gave Lidas for my Bruins prospects research, you can download my research data...

http://cid-fb7413398c44e509.skydrive.li ... search.xls

That should show you what I did. When I was doing this, I had the spreadsheet open, as well as the Pre-Game Editor and Firefox. In Firefox, I had one tab open on Hockey's Future (http://www.hockeysfuture.com/ and then go to whatever team you're doing), another tab open to http://www.thebreakaway.net/forums/show ... php?t=4539 , one open to http://www.hockeydb.com/, one to http://www.nhl.com/ice/playersearch.htm ... |PLY|Plyrs , and then another that I would use to search for a specific team if I needed additional info. I would start entering player info onto the Player Changes tab of Lidas' Research Sheet. I'd take the vital info from the Hockey's Future page for that player. Then (even though Lidas says you don't have to do CA) I'd figure out his CA using the General Settings and CA tabs of the Research Sheet. Hockey DB is good for stats but they don't include +/- in their stats. So I'd look at either NHL.com (if they're signed by the team) or maybe the team they played for last season. Then once I got the CA, I'd do the PA based upon what Lidas said earlier in their thread. After that I'd enter all of the data on the Player Changes tab of the Research Sheet. I'd take the info from what the Pre-Game Editor already had on the player. Then I'd adjust things that look wrong based on what the Talent Analysis at Hockey's Future said or my own knowledge of the player. If certain attributes were set to zero (which leaves them random), I would fill them in based on those same sources (HF and personal knowledge). A good basis for what kind of numbers to use for their attributes is the chart at the bottom of that Breakaway.net link. It has the Average, Minimum, and Maximum attributes based on CA. You can use it as a guideline.

Anyhow... that's what I did. I hope it helps anyone that is looking to help out Lidas with research. The more team's prospects we get done, the better the DB will be!

Basically, open up Hockey's Future and do all of the Top 20 prospects for the team you've volunteered for. If at all possible, continue with that team's Notable Prospects also. Some players won't have anything written under the Talent Analysis section of HF but I simply continue with some research at EliteProspects or other websites.

Where you see zeros in the pre-game editor, you should add a value that reflects the player's current ability there because leaving a zero there will just make that skill for that particular player random upon game startup.

And it's easiest for Manimal if you simply input the values which require changing onto the spreadsheet. If not, leave it blank so he's not trying to check one skill at a time.

I hope I have this accurate and to your liking, Manimal.


Cheers and good luck,

Leeman

[Most Excellent Bro]

That's cool, but I still don't understand what the "General Settings" tab is for. All the prospects for a team obviously don't play on a single team so how do I fill in that tab?

Also what is the pre-game editor? I feel as though my enthusiasm for this project vastly outstrips my technical knowledge...

[Manimal]

One question about the attributes. How should I handle players who are elite in or two skills? Like Pääjärvi whos speed (both with and without the puck) makes most other "speedy" guys look like snails and Eberle who got vision, anticipation and positioning like a skilled veteran?

Set them as you believe they should be. Pääjärvi has ,for example, 17 in acceleration and 18 in pace.

[Manimal]

I hope I have this accurate and to your liking, Manimal.

Thanks, Leeman. Some good pointers there

[Manimal]

That's cool, but I still don't understand what the "General Settings" tab is for. All the prospects for a team obviously don't play on a single team so how do I fill in that tab?

Also what is the pre-game editor? I feel as though my enthusiasm for this project vastly outstrips my technical knowledge...

After you have calculated a prospects CA, put that value in the tab called player changes. Then go back to the general setting and change them to another league.

The pre-game editor is the program that we use to input all changes to the database

[Most Excellent Bro]

Ahhh thank you, that makes sense!

[visualdarkness]

One last question (for now!), were should I draw the line for who to class as a prospect?

[Manimal]

One last question (for now!), were should I draw the line for who to class as a prospect?

That is up to you. A ggod start is the guys listed on HF.com

[visualdarkness]

Maybe somewhat OT but should't KHL have a bit higher reputation?
NHL got 20 (correct) but KHL as low as 15, only one point ahead of the Swedish league. I mean, they should be able to steal really good players from the NHL and the current rankings just makes KHL worse for every season.

[Manimal]

Maybe somewhat OT but should't KHL have a bit higher reputation?
NHL got 20 (correct) but KHL as low as 15, only one point ahead of the Swedish league. I mean, they should be able to steal really good players from the NHL and the current rankings just makes KHL worse for every season.

Other than Radulov and Jiri Hudler(who went back), I don't think the KHL has stolen many good players form the NHL. Mostly over-the-hill europeans and borderline NHLers. They should be better than the SEL, though, so perhaps we should raise their reputation slightly. Anyone else with opinions?

[Leeman14]

Leafs are almost finished and I should be moving on to the Jackets tomorrow evening.

[bruins72]

One question about the attributes. How should I handle players who are elite in or two skills? Like Pääjärvi whos speed (both with and without the puck) makes most other "speedy" guys look like snails and Eberle who got vision, anticipation and positioning like a skilled veteran?

Especially the mental "non-changing" atts have to be spot on from the start but when looking at already scouted young guys barely any got over 13-15 in any skills, even if they are elite in that aspect.

For those mental attributes that don't change, I would go with what you actually think the player should get, using the full 1-20 scale. Just try not to be "homer" and over-do it on your favorite prospects. For the regular stats like, acceleration and speed (pace), you could use the chart on the tab called "Att Scale by CA". Look up where that player's CA falls and then use something towards the Max value for that CA for his elite skills. For example, if a player has a CA of 115 and he had elite passing, I would give him a 16 in passing. As for vision (anticipation does improve!)... compare him to the best in the NHL and see where you think he falls.

[Panfork]

I could do Anaheim, if need be.

[Manimal]

I could do Anaheim, if need be.

Great! Thank you!

[rfroese]

Maybe somewhat OT but should't KHL have a bit higher reputation?
NHL got 20 (correct) but KHL as low as 15, only one point ahead of the Swedish league. I mean, they should be able to steal really good players from the NHL and the current rankings just makes KHL worse for every season.

Other than Radulov and Jiri Hudler(who went back), I don't think the KHL has stolen many good players form the NHL. Mostly over-the-hill europeans and borderline NHLers. They should be better than the SEL, though, so perhaps we should raise their reputation slightly. Anyone else with opinions?

Wouldn't it make sense to set the KHL at 17 so it's halfway between the SEL and NHL?

[visualdarkness]

Maybe somewhat OT but should't KHL have a bit higher reputation?
NHL got 20 (correct) but KHL as low as 15, only one point ahead of the Swedish league. I mean, they should be able to steal really good players from the NHL and the current rankings just makes KHL worse for every season.

Other than Radulov and Jiri Hudler(who went back), I don't think the KHL has stolen many good players form the NHL. Mostly over-the-hill europeans and borderline NHLers. They should be better than the SEL, though, so perhaps we should raise their reputation slightly. Anyone else with opinions?

Wouldn't it make sense to set the KHL at 17 so it's halfway between the SEL and NHL?

Yeah, that would probably at least keep some of the good russian prospects from leaving for NA. Or am I wrong? Already in season 2011/2012 many of their older good players start to fade away and from there and one no real refilling of the league will occur. Anyone else who noticed that problem?

[rfroese]

I think the big problem with the KHL/RSL in EHM is the goaltending rule. I know it's hardcoded, but not having many Russian goalies becomes a huge issue when it switches to Russian keepers only in year 3. Then the league slowly deteriorates from there and it doesn't place as well in international club tournaments (not sure if they impact the leagues rating). Would it be a super bad thing to add Russian citizenship to some goalies who have played in Russia for a while so they can stay? (See Robert Esche, Jeff Glass, Travis Scott, Martin Prusek) I know it would compromise the game a little for the first couple years, but it would help long term.

[Saapas]

And maybe modify the amount of years to get the nationality?