The official EHM league changes/expansion thread

[ElQuapo]

I want to try something different for my next EHM game, so I thought I would bring back the Quebec Nordiques to the NHL.

My idea is to move the Nashville Predators to Quebec, as people seem to agree that they are one of the least financially viable teams in real life - so moving them would seem fairly realistic.

Anyway, I have a lot of questions for NHL experts, as I would like it to be as realistic as possible

I will let the Nordiques play at the Colisée Pepsi, which holds 15399 people.

- What would be realistic average, minimum and maximum attendances for the team? Are the fans hardcore? Passionate? As I understand it they did not have a great attendance when they existed.

- How would training facilities in Quebec be? Nashville has "17" out of "20" in the editor. Most NHL teams seem to have 17-18.

- Market size? I guess they would compete with Montreal, so maybe not that high?

- Rivals? Montreal and Toronto? Anyone else?

- Affiliates. I am thinking of just keeping the Milwaukee Admirals - but maybe another 2nd affiliate than New Mexico or only the AHL affiliate.

- I was thinking of placing them in the Northeast division, by moving the Bruins to the Atlantic and the Penguins to the Central. Is this realistic? It seems okay geographically, but maybe there is something I don't know about NHL rivalries, history etc.

- Should I move some AHL/ECHL team to Nashville now that they have lost their NHL team?

Also, I found Catchup's exellent vintage logoes :



...but I am missing a background logo for the Nordiques - like the ones Archibalduk & Minstrel have made for the other NHL teams :



Does anyone by chance have one of these for Quebec? I tried making one myself but it looks bad


darn that was a lot

Thanks a lot in advance for any answers


mod note: We have had 1 or 2 of these before. Now it becomes a thread for everyone to discuss changes to league structures, as well as creating expansion teams etc....keep it all in one spot....batdad

[flea]

- Should I move some AHL/ECHL team to Nashville now that they have lost their NHL team?

Wow, I think I really missed something!!!

Have the Preds moved at the end??? In their official site they are still called Nashville Predators and they even are selling season tickets!!!



Dont know, I have heard something at the beginning of the offseason that the Preds could move, but I thought they didnt at the end...


Edit: or maybe I have got it wrong all the way....I guess u have "converted" the Preds to the Nordiques, right??

Man, that was slow from my part....guess I have to take some sleep...

Sorry bud, nevermind!!!

[ElQuapo]

Edit: or maybe I have got it wrong all the way....I guess u have "converted" the Preds to the Nordiques, right??

Man, that was slow from my part....guess I have to take some sleep...

Sorry bud, nevermind!!!

Yeah, I am moving/converting them into the Nordiques. So game wise, there will be no hockey team in Nashville - which might be unrealistic, as some minor league team would surely move in IRL if the Predators moved?

[jackknife77]

The Nordiques never had attendance problems. The problem is that the pepsi colisee is lacking of corporative loge. They moved because they were not able to get a new arena buildt.

[ElQuapo]

The Nordiques never had attendance problems. The problem is that the pepsi colisee is lacking of corporative loge. They moved because they were not able to get a new arena buildt.

Thanks for the info.

How would you put their attendance? Would they sell out the Arena every game? Would they be able to fill a 20.000 capacity Arena?

[corinthian]

Place Toronto in the Central Division (Red Wings & Hawks Rivals) that is the only change i would make.

The fans are hardcore but the market size is small.

[Mike_The_Strike]

I think that the Colorado Avalanche should be a interesting rival...

[ElQuapo]

I think that the Colorado Avalanche should be a interesting rival...

Yeah good idea

I have got the game set up though, and went with Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa as rivals.

I will post some screenshots later sometime

[ElQuapo]

I decided on another approach as I was tired of having the Nashville roster.

So now the story is, Florida Panthers have folded, with all their players becoming free-agents.

An expansion franchise, Quebec Nordiques, is formed and chooses a roster in an expansion draft with one player from each of the remaining 29 teams :

Anaheim : St. Jacques, Bruno
Atlanta : Boulton, Eric
Boston : Štastný, Ján
Buffalo : Card, Mike
Calgary : Godard, Eric
Carolina : Peat, Stephen
Chicago : Lalime, Patrick
Colorado : Laperrière, Ian
Columbus : Fedorov, Sergei
Dallas : Lessard, Junior
Detroit : Langfeld, Josh
Edmonton : Hejda, Jan
Los Angeles : Roussin, Dany
Minnesota : Veilleux, Stéphane
Montreal : Côté, Jean-Philippe
Nashville : Staal, Kim
New Jersey : Mogilny, Alexander
New York I. : Gervais, Bruno
New York R. : Kasparaitis, Darius
Philadelphia : Picard, Alexandre
Phoenix : Rhéaume, Pascal
Pittsburgh : Nasreddine, Alain
San Jose : Biron, Mathieu
St. Louis : Sejna, Peter
Tampa Bay : Fedotenko, Ruslan
Toronto : Aubin, Jean-Sébastien
Ottawa : Malec, Tomáš
Vancouver : Hansen, Jannik
Washington : Giroux, Alexandre

I tried modelling the story on what I have read about other expansion drafts on Wikipedia - and selected only players I thought the teams would not have protected.

Does it seem realistic? Or have I accidentally chosen a player who's team would never give him up?

[corinthian]

I think Sejna, Fedotenko & Malec would be protected.

Just 2 questions: Can I change the Conference setings? (using old one like Campbell, Smyth...) & change the schedule for whole season? (all that using only the pre-game editor, right?)

[batdad]

If you think Vancouver would not have protected Hansen you are on crack. But of course there was no nationalistic pride in that selection or anything...

[ElQuapo]

I think Sejna, Fedotenko & Malec would be protected.

I need Fedotenko to get above the cap

I will see if I can change the others maybe - thanks for the reply.

Just 2 questions: Can I change the Conference setings? (using old one like Campbell, Smyth...) & change the schedule for whole season? (all that using only the pre-game editor, right?)

No sorry, you can only use the current format. So you have to move teams around keeping the same amount of teams in each division etc.

[batdad]

Changed the title of the thread to have this become the official league changes, expansion thread...we have had topics like this before, and now we have the official version

That way when I Create the Vancouver Millionaires and put them in the Eastern conference, and draft only guys over the age of 41...I can note it here too!

[ElQuapo]

If you think Vancouver would not have protected Hansen you are on crack. But of course there was no nationalistic pride in that selection or anything...

Hehe, yeah you are right - I have kept away from Frans Nielsen for that reason, but I argued with myself that Hansen was not considered that great at the start of the season as later on - but yeah, maybe I should take someone else from Vancouver

[ElQuapo]

Peter Sejna changed with Konstantin Zakharov.
Jannik Hansen changed with Lee Goren.

I Fedotenko and Malec as they would involve redoing alot of stuff.

BTW - here is a list of other stuff changed.

- Bruins to Atlantic.
- Penguins to Central.
- Predators to Southeast.
- Nordiques in Northeast.

Nordiques get Rochester Americans as AHL affiliate, and Johnstown Chiefs as ECHL - Tampa Bay lose Johnstown but take over Florida Everblades instead - this seems reasonable geographically that they would wan't to switch to Everblades when Panthers are out of the picture.

Quebec Remparts (QMJHL) go down a bit in attendance - and Quebec Radio X (LNAH) go down a lot now that a NHL team is in town.

[ElQuapo]

Can any of the graphics folks explain how to make the background logo seem blended and unsharp?

I simply cannot get it to work - and don't really want to start a game without logo's