Challenge #43 - 2003 Blackhawks Discussion Thread

[Aladyyn]

My first big move in the office made both the fans and the board happy!


I found Ott to be fairly expendable with Sami Pahlsson on the team, and Liles looks like just the kind of guy I need on this team. Brian Campbell was appealing, but a bit too expensive (Daze + Hannan didn't get it done, Daze + Phillips is too much value to give up). This means I might not dangle Daze just yet and try to use Hannan + a spare part to acquire a top 6 C.

Carter and J-Bo look like they can handle the NHL, but I'll probably keep them down. I don't have the wingers for Carter yet and I don't want to rush Bouwmeester. Hartnell too, no reason for him not to be in the AHL.

[bruins72]

Finally got my first trades in the books. One of those deals was celebrated as a steal by the board and fans.

Sent Guolla to the Canucks for Brad Ference

The other deal was sending sending Kevin Dean to the Stars for Sheldon Brookbank.

[Aladyyn]

This is what I'm going with to start the season

Daze - Marek - Rosa
Sturm - Brown - Cleary
Miller - Pahlsson - Bartecko
Vesely - Pronger - Belanger

Liles - Phillips
Hannan - Tremblay
Haller - Dean

Thomas
Kidd

We were rated as the worst team coming into the season and well, we might just be . Definitely wouldn't mind getting my hands on Ovie

[ronrein]

Hi everyone. FIrst time being a challenger and already I made a huge, dumb mistake. Is it possible for me to replay my first quarter as I stupidly used 2005 draft picks for several trades? Somehow completely missed that text in the rules .

[bruins72]

How many trades involving 2005 draft picks did you make? I did update that announcement post with the rules earlier because I forgot to include that bit about future picks.

[ronrein]

I made four trades with those picks. I have a backup save with 5 games played that doesn't involve those trades, so should I use that one?

[m0fownz0r]

How many trades involving 2005 draft picks did you make? I did update that announcement post with the rules earlier because I forgot to include that bit about future picks.

I know the rule yet I still managed to fux this up. I acquired 1st round pick in a trade ,can add myself and reverse it? Trade away the 1st? Should I restard teh challenge?

[saberhagen83]

These challenges are a lot of fun, will give this a go as well.

Just finished my 1st draft and I'm not sure how exciting or well done it was, but these were my picks:

1 Eric Staal (Made the most sense, all around type of fast C...just what I'm looking for.)
19 Alex Gologoski (Game teased me with Suter falling to 17 Next best thing I guess.)
31 Brian Elliott (Between him and Halak...Elliott seemed like the better goalie at this point at least.)
61 Nail Mitroshkin (Off the board pick. I like the look of this guy. Could be a decent top 9, 2-way player I hope.)
91 Mike Lundin (Probably best defenseman that remained.)
121 Daniel Winnik (Decent looking checking forward, should be a good bottom 6 player.)
151 James Thomas (Nothing interesting to pick I found. This guy I took for decent speed and decent enough defensive stats and looks like a hard working guy.)
181 Eero Kilpeläinen (Another goalie to add some depth hopefully.)

Now the fun will soon begin. I have so many moves I want to make and this time there is less restrictions (except salaries) so should be good fun.

[stone169]

Right now I'm working the phones and trying to make some deals to make the team better for that final playoff push. I just traded Daze and Rosa to LA for Duncan Keith. With Keith right where he belongs now, that opens the door for Tverdovsky to go. I wouldn't mind finding another right handed shot at D and a top-6 forward.

[Peter_Doherty]

My opening night lineup:

Dazé-Drury-Rosa
Sturm-Green-Cleary
Brylin-Brown-Korolyuk
Guolla-Påhlsson-Bartecko
McNeill

Tverdovsky-Klee
Phillips-Clark
Laukkanen-Spacek
Wilkie

Thomas-Snow

I'll probably shuffle the lines quite a bit since i have plenty of similar players, whoever performs will get the ice time. On D i'm going with 'equal' ice time 5v5 to spread the ice time, Phillips-Clark is the real 1st pair but i want Tverdovsky out there with my 'offensive' line so that's why i have them lined up this way

[Peter_Doherty]

Right now I'm working the phones and trying to make some deals to make the team better for that final playoff push. I just traded Daze and Rosa to LA for Duncan Keith. With Keith right where he belongs now, that opens the door for Tverdovsky to go. I wouldn't mind finding another right handed shot at D and a top-6 forward.

Duncan Keith is a really nice grab, even if it cost you Dazé who i really like.

[Aladyyn]

My depth is atrocious atm, had a couple injuries to my top 6 centres and the team straight up can't handle it. We can barely score with Curtis Brown in the lineup and when he's down it gets oh so much worse . The silver lining is Mike Green waiting for me at the draft. Another shining beacon is my PP, off-season acquisitions Liles and Tremblay are helping there a ton.

Carter is murdering the OHL, Bouwmeester underwhelming on a weak team. In the AHL Moulson is doing well, probably going to use either him or Pommers as trade bait (even though I'll feel terrible about it).

Oh and my backup is literally unable to win any games. Tank is in full swing whenever we're on a b2b

[Canadian Passport]

So who won the Cup in everyone's game?

EDIT: Penguins won in my game.

Montreal won in my game, beat the Red Wings 4 games to 1.

[stone169]

I tried desperately to get Derek Morris from the Flames, but they just weren't budging. I think if I would've tried a bit hard, I probably could've gotten Corvo.

I did manage to trade Tverdovsky to the Islanders for Shawn Horcoff and Chuck Kobasew, so there's a bit more scoring depth for the team.

Right now I'm sitting 7th in the conference. It's going to be a battle all the way to the playoffs.

[bruins72]

I made four trades with those picks. I have a backup save with 5 games played that doesn't involve those trades, so should I use that one?

Yes, use that save. Did you upload your stats for the 20 games?

[bruins72]

How many trades involving 2005 draft picks did you make? I did update that announcement post with the rules earlier because I forgot to include that bit about future picks.

I know the rule yet I still managed to fux this up. I acquired 1st round pick in a trade ,can add myself and reverse it? Trade away the 1st? Should I restard teh challenge?

It would probably be best to restart. Have you logged any stats yet?

[m0fownz0r]

How many trades involving 2005 draft picks did you make? I did update that announcement post with the rules earlier because I forgot to include that bit about future picks.

I know the rule yet I still managed to fux this up. I acquired 1st round pick in a trade ,can add myself and reverse it? Trade away the 1st? Should I restard teh challenge?

It would probably be best to restart. Have you logged any stats yet?

I have. I rather traded it away for a 7th now, instead of a starting anew. Would that be ok?

[bruins72]

Right now I'm working the phones and trying to make some deals to make the team better for that final playoff push. I just traded Daze and Rosa to LA for Duncan Keith. With Keith right where he belongs now, that opens the door for Tverdovsky to go. I wouldn't mind finding another right handed shot at D and a top-6 forward.

It seemed so hard to find right handed RDs! Looking at my lineup it seems like 3/4 of my whole roster is left handed.

[bruins72]

I know the rule yet I still managed to fux this up. I acquired 1st round pick in a trade ,can add myself and reverse it? Trade away the 1st? Should I restard teh challenge?

It would probably be best to restart. Have you logged any stats yet?

I have. I rather traded it away for a 7th now, instead of a starting anew. Would that be ok?

You want to trade that 1st away for a 7th? Okay, that will work.

[Aladyyn]

Right now I'm working the phones and trying to make some deals to make the team better for that final playoff push. I just traded Daze and Rosa to LA for Duncan Keith. With Keith right where he belongs now, that opens the door for Tverdovsky to go. I wouldn't mind finding another right handed shot at D and a top-6 forward.

It seemed so hard to find right handed RDs! Looking at my lineup it seems like 3/4 of my whole roster is left handed.

Mine has 3 right handed players Only 2 natural RWs too, everyone wants to play on the left

[bruins72]

That's pretty frustrating for me. My OCD makes me want everyone playing on the right side to shoot right.

[m0fownz0r]

You want to trade that 1st away for a 7th? Okay, that will work.

Done. Gave the Sabres their 1st back in exchgange for a 7th round pick. (Initial trade was K. Dean + 2nd for 1st + 3rd)

In other news, Im currenty sitting at 7th with .535%. It's 18th of Jan, have about a month do decide whether to embrace the tank or make a final push...

[bruins72]

This is going to be a rough first season for me. I'm not in love with my moves. I've had such a hard time landing players I wanted that I think I may have gotten off track and too focused on certain deals while overloooking others. Looking at my lineup now, I'm seeing that I have a very physical team but not a very talented or fast team.

So since my deals acquiring Sheldon Brookbank and Brad Ference, I've made the following deals...

Sent Daze to the Canucks for Jochen Hecht and Aaron Miller (needed a playmaking center and Daze was my best bargaining chip, also needed RD)
Sent Nasreddine to the Canucks for Martin Biron (Snow suddenly retired in July)
Sent Bartecko to the Kings for Kirk Maltby (brought some veteran leadership and defensive forward)
Sent Reirdon to the Predators for their 4th
Sent Kip Miller to the Sabres for their 3rd

I also signed Markus Virtanen as my UFA for $910k per season for 2 years.

I signed Boumeester, Buffy, and Bergeron but I'm fairly certain that I'm going to send them back to juniors after training camp. They just don't look ready yet.

[stone169]

It's been an interesting month since the trade deadline. Just when Horcoff was finally starting to gel with the team, he goes down for 2 weeks. Then just before he comes back, Keith is out for 10 days. Horcoff comes back, plays one game and then he's out for two weeks after being injured in practice.

Really struggled during that period until Keith came back, and then we started to string together a couple of wins. Horcoff came back just in time for the playoffs and helped us clinch a playoff berth.

The Red Wings were so close behind me for that final playoff spot, that fans in Chicago started calling them the Detroit Brown Wings.

[ronrein]

I made four trades with those picks. I have a backup save with 5 games played that doesn't involve those trades, so should I use that one?

Yes, use that save. Did you upload your stats for the 20 games?

Yeah, I did upload it so I would now need to upload my new stats.