Challenge #40 - All-American New York Rangers - Discussion

[Asher413]

Such a fail 3/4 of the way into the first season, we were last for a bit... THEN we started winning! Seems like there's a lot of 3rd/4th line parts, but no one can really score. (At least with my coaching!)

[m0fownz0r]

Unless you finish in the bottom half of the table, I suggest people trade their draft picks away for whatever depth, prospefcts they manage because the draft is a real crapshoot.

[Peter_Doherty]

Where we finish don't matter that much since we don't have a 1st round pick anyway

[MWE]

Sitting in 8th after 20 games. Atkinson top scorer with 29.

[sjgoglin]

Don't forget that you don't have your first round pick. If I did, I would have tanked, and if I didn't win the lottery, trade my pick and my best player for Auston Matthews. Stepan is a good player, but I need a franchise centerman. And I can't pry Eichel, Matthews, or Larkin, and to a lesser extent, Tyler Johnson, away with only two assets going out.



The smilies are not an exaggeration. I would give my whole team for one of those guys (Except Johnson)

[Peter_Doherty]

Sitting in 8th after 20 games. Atkinson top scorer with 29.

Atkinson on 29? That's crazy, have him on a high TOI or is he just on a hot streak?

sjgoglin - Personally i think Stepan is more then good enough as a 1C for this challenge, would be nice to have Matthews though but won't break the bank for him.

[sjgoglin]

Unless you finish in the bottom half of the table, I suggest people trade their draft picks away for whatever depth, prospefcts they manage because the draft is a real crapshoot.

I thought we were only allowed to trade picks to move up in the draft.

[MWE]

Sitting in 8th after 20 games. Atkinson top scorer with 29.

Atkinson on 29? That's crazy, have him on a high TOI or is he just on a hot streak?

sjgoglin - Personally i think Stepan is more then good enough as a 1C for this challenge, would be nice to have Matthews though but won't break the bank for him.

High TOI was on a good streak too

[sjgoglin]

I think I'm just obsessed with Franchise Centermen. In my history with this game, that is always the one thing that pushes my team over the top. But I will have to learn to win with a good first line center. It is, afterall, a challenge.

[Asher413]

Where we finish don't matter that much since we don't have a 1st round pick anyway

Didn't notice that. Well, that sucks . That will make the Coyotes scary in my game, as they will likely have the top pick and another top 3. At least I've been sucking while trying instead of intentionally tanking (I do in single player, but won't in challenges)! The real question from seeing you guys talking about this draft is maybe I should consider just cashing out of the draft to improve the roster.

Has anyone else had trouble getting a lot of the UFA's to resign? I have a lot of situations where the board won't let me offer 60-70% of the player demands.

Sitting in 8th after 20 games. Atkinson top scorer with 29.

Atkinson on 29? That's crazy, have him on a high TOI or is he just on a hot streak?

sjgoglin - Personally i think Stepan is more then good enough as a 1C for this challenge, would be nice to have Matthews though but won't break the bank for him.

I think Stepan is really a great #2/ a servicable #1, unless he develops more. As for there being a #2 in this group...

[Peter_Doherty]

Asher, try changing the role they have on the team "set player status", the more important you set them as, the more you can offer them in salary.

Stepan is good for me, Hayes has surprised me by being a good #2 aswell, he wasn't good for me in the last challenge.

[bruins72]

With the 1st season in the books I;m now torn between getting some depth or getting some draft picks
BTW, camn we move picks from other draft yearS?

Stick to trading draft picks in the same year. I'll update the rules.

[braeden]

Kreider-Stepan-Atkinson has won me so many games singlehandedly this year...

When are we allowed to re-sign our players and sign drafted prospects? Thx

[Peter_Doherty]

Whenever you feel like it

[Peter_Doherty]

Season 1 is over, pretty solid season which ended in heart ache, lost game 7 in OT against Islanders

Overall i'm pretty happy with the season, production wise i got alot more out of this group then i thought i would. My entire top-6 ended up with over 20 goals, 48 points (Arcobello at 20+28 after he got moved up mid season) and my top-3 D-men all ended up with over 38 points aswell. Goals did dry up fast in playoffs though, so something might have to be done anyway.

Only real negative was Nelson at 3C and my bottom pair (McCabe-Lovejoy), McCabe is young so it's fine that he wasn't great, the others need to be swapped out though, might swap out Etem on my 3rd line aswell just because i don't like him, also need some PK help. One of the spots will likely be taken by Brickley who had an amazing year in Rochester (they are still in playoffs as we speak) with 33+66 for 99 points during the regular season, the other spot i'll try to find someone that can help on the PK aswell. Not sure what i'll do to my 4th line, i like Foligno so he'll stay, Vitale probably have to stay because of his PKing then i had Watson on RW, he wasn't great so we'll see about him.

Goaltending was OK, nothing more though, Miller with .911 SV%.

Onwards to the rest of the AHL playoffs and the draft!

[Asher413]

Just finished season 1 (There is some benefit to having a newborn, lots of time not really sleeping but she'll stay in my lap... so EHM time!)

So far this challenge highlighted common themes for me: I'm usually decent at PP goals and chances (lower on chances with this group than I normally am), but I am terrible at 5v5 hockey (compared to the rest of you). We were terrible at generating shots (3rd to last), last in shooting percentage, scoring, were shoutout 10 times, and worst at drawing penalties. Not a recipe for success.

At least the way I used them/what I got out of them, I seem to have about 5 guys that will stay in the top 9 discussion if they can keep form, but the best was a little over two games per point for Stepan. On the blueline Yandle, Leddy and McDonagh were solid. Miller was pretty good in goal, and Zatkoff had a good AvR, but came in 59th in save percentage (and he refuses to resign...)

Time to rework the roster, I have no solid plan going into the offseason. I'm initially focusing on seeing if I can turn two guys into a better one as often as possible. Looking at the talent pool of Americans, it looks like there's really not a lot of better offensive talent out there, just more complete talent. We'll see, but I'm not sure at this moment if there are any 'big' moves on the horizon for a quick turnaround.

EDIT: Fitting that Team USA with 7 rangers underperforms and is out in the quarterfinals of the worlds...

[MWE]

Finished my first season 4th in the Conference after losing only 5 games in the last 22 only to be beaten 4-0 by Pittsburgh in the play offs

Chris Kreider was a beast scoring 102 points.

Draft went really badly didn't get anyone of note going to be losing 4 of my first team to free agency as well as they wouldn't sign new deals will have to try and get some good trades in.

[m0fownz0r]

I feel, the team is pretty weak at C after Stepan, both Hayes and Nelson are more suited to the Wing, imo. So, I'm thinking of moving R.Miller and Nelson for Dubinsky. However, on one hand, I'm not sure how I feel letting Sparks and Helleybuck(sp?) to run the show, on the other - I'm not really sold on Dubinsky. The market is pretty shallow though...

PS: Helleybuck was my starter during the playoffs and he did fairly decent.

[Peter_Doherty]

Just went through the draft, my strategy was to get quality instead of quantity so i made a bunch of trades leading up to the draft. I knew it would cost too much to get up into the top-10 where i could get Matthews, Tkachuk or Jones so i set my aim to get 2 picks close to #20 where a bunch of American prospects were ranked (Brown, Krys, Keller, McAvoy and DeBrincat), in the end i managed to get #18 and #24, i used those picks to take Logan Brown and Clayton Keller (deja vu from the Bruins challenge ), i wanted Krys with #24 but he got taken as #22

In the trades before the draft i also managed to get my hands on Cole Cassels and Paul Bittner, two solid prospects. Notable players i traded away were Brock Nelson, Emerson Etem and Brian Lashoff, along with some AHL-players and draft picks.



After the draft i began trying to "fix" my D, it bugged me the entire season that all my top 3 D-men where lefties, so i started negotiating to get a stud right handed D for my top pair, i offered Yandle + X for all of them until one team finally accepted. Jacob Trouba is now a Rangers player, back to Jets i sent Keith Yandle and Garret Sparks, very happy with that trade.

I'm probably not done trading but we'll see.

[bruins72]

After a nice start, my first quarter of the first season fell apart. We had lots of minor injuries messing with the lineup, a bunch of under-performers, and then some longer injuries. Justin Braun went out a bit with a rotator cuff strain and that's really exposed how weak the right side of my defense is. We're also struggling with center on the 3rd and 4th lines. RW is an issue too, once you get past Atkinson on the first line.

I've really got to turn this team around, especially since we don't have a first round pick in the upcoming draft. It's no good to tank if you don't benefit from it.

[Peter_Doherty]

Made a few more trades, added two veterans and a young d-man, first i sent Ryan Bourque and a 3rd rounder to Nucks for Chris Higgins, then i sent Austin Watson to Sabres for Chad Ruhwedel and lastly i just had to get Captain Fantastic for this challenge so i traded Mark Arcobello to Lightning for Ryan Callahan!

I added quite a bit of salary so i will have to keep an eye on that for a bit, might have to make a cap move to stay under $65m.

[bruins72]

To clarify, anyone we get has to be BORN in the U.S? So we cannot draft someone like Chychrun or Alex Nylander that have U.S as their 2nd nationality? Clayton Keller is born in the UK but is a full U.S National, can we draft him?

I was just looking online and Clayton Keller's place of birth seems to be an error. Either the researcher that entered him got it wrong or the game didn't find his place of birth in the U.S. and instead placed it in Great Britain. He was actually born in Swansea, IL not Swansea, GBR. I looked this up because we actually have a Swansea in Massachusetts too.

[stone169]

So I'm giving this one a whirl. Not really off to a good start 2-4, but my tactics weren't set properly so that had something to do with it. Biggest problem I'm having right now is how I prepare throughout the season for the draft as now I have to check all recommendations to make sure they are American players. Also my biggest hole right now is the backup goaltending. I could use some help in my bottom six too. I already have a few players I'd like to target, but I have to wait until season#1 is done.

Hopefully I won't be handing someone Auston Matthews or might have to make a trade to get that pick back.

[pucku33]

"No UFA signings EVER."

So we can go after RFA, as long as they are American?

edit: first time doing a challenge here

[Peter_Doherty]

No, no RFAs either, also you can't trade for the RFA rights.