Blackhawks Challenge Seasons 5,6 & 7 Discussion Topic

Post by **Calv** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:25 pm

Word.

Post by **batdad** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:49 pm

What? B72 won? No way. Not possible. No how. He is horrible at this.

JK: Well done ...but that is the last time.

thunderbug · Post by **thunderbug** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:26 am

Congrats guys. Maybe year 5 will be the first repeat from this challenge. On a sidenote Luongo is still unsigned and after originally upping his asking price to the 5.5 mill range ( initially he was asking for 4.25 either the same or slightly less than Toivonen) he is now down to about 4.9. If I could fenagle the TBL cap enough to bring him in (read get rid of Toivonen for picks and unsigned prospects and bring him down to Toivonen's level of pay) the Blackhawks would truly be an unstoppable force.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:25 pm

Wow! I was not expecting a win there!

Congrats to the runners up.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:02 pm

Meh. Goaltenders in this game are overrated in terms of helping teams. No question in my mind now.

Right now, 31 games in to the 5th season:

Goalie 1: Peter Budaj. 15 games. 6 shutouts, GA 19
Goalie 2: Carey Price: 16 games, 3 shutouts, GA 23

So...as you can see both are under 2 goals per game. Budaj makes .715 (Deal signed before I dealt for him with Colorado for 5 years)

Price: 1.2 mill for the rest of this season, deal signed after Rookie deal expired.

No way do any of the other goalies...Kipper, Lebongo, etc have those averages. So I think the goalie position is not as important as we originally thought.

Goalies to win cups with me:

Lalime, Emery, Emery, Budaj. I have only played Kipper once and Nitty 2 times. Luongo finally made the playoffs last season and I trounced him out. Turco I have played 3 times and beaten badly 3 times.

Now year 5...who will it be in the playoffs? Price/Budaj? Tyson Sexsmith? Leiland Irving?

Post by **batdad** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:14 pm

DANG!

Double post to say: In my second 20 games, I was 19-0. I freaking lost to Dallas 5-3 in game 40. Ugh. So close.

In other news. I am speaking too soon: BUt I have located a Power play, somewhere.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:12 pm

batdad wrote: In other news. I am speaking too soon: BUt I have located a Power play, somewhere.

Don't fall for it! It's just an illusion. You'll think it's working out and then it will all come crashing down and be worse than before. Trust me!

Post by **batdad** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 3:52 pm

Yeah I know, but it still has not happened yet. Yet I say. So I will enjoy it while it lasts.

corinthian · Post by **corinthian** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:46 pm

Challenge 9.7 final thoughts... ':-k'

Special teams are key to winning (PK is hard to find but totally worth the work). ':thup:'
Joe Thornton is amazing, so far he's the best player in the game. '=D>'
Cam Barker is a little odd (great game ratings but his offensive production doesn't reflect his status!?), he's the only one who remains from season 1 (I'd imagined that at least 3 or 4 players would remain but...). ':roll:'

Season 7: I found my 1st dream line: Kovalchuk (Rocket trophy) Thornton (Conn Smythe, Art Ross, Lester Pearson & Plus-Minus) Lemtyugov (Great season, less than $600,000, Well there're better player than Havlat!) Cam Barker & Kozak (Calder) my only player to win Calder trophy during the challenge. ':-o'

My PK with Horcoff and Ladd was fantastic. ':thup:'

Post by **batdad** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:41 pm

Congrats on completing the full challenge corinthian. Way to go. Not sure who else is done...but way to go with all of you.

Question: have you discovered any players that were Hawks that turned out a whole lot better in the end than you thought? Same goes to everyone else.

For me: Barker has been scary good so far (but defenseman points are hard to come by--ratings from ice time, plus minus etc)

Toews is awesome in spite of the fact that his attributes don't make it look like he should be. Seabrook is as good as advertised. Blunden/Bolland are decent 2nd/third liners.

Dowell has not developed at all. Bickell is awesome, but I dealt him a long time ago to Boston.

Edit: I should say Bickell is awesome because he has developed into what would be a solid 3rd liner. He is by no means a superstar.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:41 pm

Good job, corinthian! I think a couple others finished too but off the top of my head I can't be sure. I think I've completed up to 9.5 but I kind of got out of the mood and I've played several other teams since.

I'm surprised to hear you guys say Barker has been so good for you guys. He just never really did it for me. I kept him on the farm for a few years, figuring it would be better for his development to take it slow with him. Maybe I should've used him sooner?

I found Patrick Sharp to be a great 3rd line center who can also play on one of the top two lines when called upon. He was one of my favorites in the challenge. I liked Blunden and Bolland for spells but their development seemed to stall at some point. I was really taking it slow with a lot of my prospects, so I can't say how some turned out. I think I was working Toews into the lineup (slowly) as my season 5 homegrown. I never got to see how Tavares turned out. I think he's still in junior.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:04 pm

Sharp has been useless in SJ, LA and Mon. averaging 6.5 ratings. Barely getting 10 goals on 3rd line and pk for all teams.

Toews has been very good. Tavares is on my Norfolk team and is winning Rookie of the week awards and ROM awards every single week and month. POW and POM once each.

Anyway, here is Barker in Feb 2011:

Attributes

History

Achievements

He has had 2 articles about him this season, and is a favorite to win an award.

Very happy with him. #1 dman, Top pp unit, 2nd pk unit. Never gets tired.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:21 pm

WOW! Barker has never been like that for me. I guess that little bit of randomness in each person's game can really make a difference. You made me curious enough to load up my challenge game and take a look. I guess he wasn't that bad offensively. In his one full season with the Blackhawks he had 33 points and was a +29. He spent 09-10 with the Habs and had 25 points and was a -4. I guess I just didn't like his purely offensive game.

Sharp, like I said, has been a great 3rd line guy. He usually gets close to 20 goals per season and somewhere between 40 and 60 points. His best season for points production was the first year I had control of the team. He had 20 goals and 40 assists. I'm pretty sure he was my second line center at the time though. After that he took the role of checking line center and lead PKer. He's got a nice balance of skills including a laser of a wrist shot and a very nice face-off rating.

Toews had a decent rookie season in 10-11 with 35 points. He spent almost the entire season on the 3rd line with Sharp and also on the PK. Unfortunately, he suffered a partially torn ACL at the end of the playoffs. He's spending the off-season healing from that.

One of these days I'll have to go back and look at what's become of my starting core. I'm curious to see where they are playing and how they've done.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:44 pm

His D attributes must have sucked in your game. He started low for me, but developed really well in the D category. His checking could be better, but his positioning, hitting, skating seem to make up for it. He breaks up a ton of plays and starts it back the other way fast with a great pass alot.

Toews has been developed the same way as Brule. His attributes have not increased as much,and he is not scoring as much but he is doing well points and play wise. Started in minors (played more than Brule down in the AHL though), moved to 2nd line LW (Brule was on the other side), and then in season 5 to 2nd line C. Next year I may try him as #1 C like I did with Gilbert, but I think because of Toews stamina he may have to stay 2nd. I will be keeping Richards around because of that. Unlike CBJ where I dumped my other #1 C in the off season.

Bolland/Blunden do not seem to develop. The just get slowly better, and keep getting the same points. Others have done much better with them than I have. I have hesitated to give them full 2nd or 1st line duty, and that may be why. Mostly Bolland is C on third line, and Blunden is RW alternating between 2nd and 3rd lines.

Oh...McArdle sucks.

Post by **Shadd666** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:13 am

Barker wasn't fitting my plans, so i dealt him in season 1 to Dallas for James Neal. Now in season 5, Barker is just a decent depth defenseman, averaging barely over 7.00 AvR with the Stars.

Toews develloped well, but i dealt him. The main reason was a low stamina. Even in the AHL, he couldn't play top line minutes because of it. And even on the second line there, he was fastly tired. So when the 2009 draft came in, he was sent to Montreal for the first overall pick, and therefore for Tavares.

Blunden is in his 4th NHL season. He is on the second line since the beginning. After a solid rookie season (29 goals, if my memory serves), his second and third seasons where way less productive, with barely 20 goals. On the other hand, he brings a big defensive presence and seem to become a very valuable two-way power forward in the mold of Brenden Morrow, who is his linemate this season, and a teammate for 3 years i think.

Bolland is just in his second season, and still has things to prove. He's been moved to the right wing in his rookie season. His faceoff ability was too poor, and his defensive play way too weak to let him at center for now on. Now he's switching between 3rd line RW and 4th line C duties, depending on his shape and on injuries.

In his rookie season, Skille had a very difficult first 30 games, but seems to adapt now. He sees only 4th line minutes, and some powerplay duties from time to time, when he's on fire.

Seabrook is THE man in the defense. Since season 1, i moved him to a left defenseman position. He spent 2 years learning with Adrian Aucoin, then 2 years with Derek Morris, and is now with a 37 yo Scott Niedermayer. He won the Norris in season 4 with over 20 goals, and is already close of the 20 goals mark just 45-50 games into season 5. He also leads defenseman in points pretty easily, is regularly in the top-10 of the league in +/-, hits a lot, everywhere, anywhere, blocks a lot of shots, and so far his AvR is around 9.40!

Although not being originally with the Hawks, i'm pretty happy with Marc Methot. His attributes show a n°5-6 Dman, and Shaone Morrisonn was supposed to be on the second pair, but Methot just outplays him and finally earned the spot, and plays really solid as a n°4. Nothing as sensationnal as Seabrook, but i never have to wonder about him, he always do his job... and for cheap!

Bickell is still in the AHL at age 25, but seems to finally devellop into a NHL caliber player. Or maybe it's because he's playing on Tavares' line...

Shutron is also more and more close of moving to the big league. I guess he'll be my season 7 HG. He may be ready for season 6, but Tavares will most likely be my 9.6 HG. In fact, Tavares should have been my 9.5 HG if he was eligible. As he can't, he'll be in for 9.6...

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:05 pm

Oh yeah! Shutron! He's turning out very good in my game. He hasn't made the jump to the NHL yet, except for a 10 game call-up in the 10-11 season, but he's been a top defenseman in the AHL for 3 seasons. His best season was 09-10 season where he had 75 points and was a +60 for the Admirals.

corinthian · Post by **corinthian** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:22 pm

Cam Barker defenceman ratings are really low but he increased a lot his stickhandling and shooting, I gave him a chance playing along with Thornton line (always 1st line, other lines he doesn't show up bruins72!) and he always played really hard (last season, i noticed a lot of 10-9 rating during a long stretch).

I trade a good PK - Sharp - it was a mistake, i only correct it when i contracted Horcoff (season 5).
other good player that i trade for was Davgavins (season 3) really worth the investiment, i don't know if playing along Thornton make anyone better but...

of course i made many mistakes : trading Patrick Kane (he never played well for me, but after i trade him...wow)
I could keep Ruutu (same for Kane) but everytime i played against him... well '](*,)'

One guy that i never expect much was Arkhipov, he really was a good player during 4 seasons.
Duncan Keith is a big ? never played well

Post by **batdad** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:11 pm

Well. Almost through reg season season 5. darn Anaheim. Stole my Norfolk coach, Marc Crawford. However, he lasted 4.5 seasons down there with me. So cannot complain too much. Hiring Peter Laviolette as my head coach now (he has been assisting)...but have to find someone else to assist.

There is nothing available. Nothing. So I am trying to hire a player/coach to see what happens.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:37 pm

rubbish! Season 6 is going to be trouble.

Cheap goalie Budaj just got injured for four months in camp. I am over the cap..and have a few moves to make. Team is young, I dumped Hale and Vlasic and am looking to dump Grabovsky and Brown.

I made a mistake naming McArdle as Homegrown..he sucks rocks. And I cannot move his rubbish ass 1.4 mill. Ugh. I should have signed PM Bouchard for .600 instead of freaking Hartnell for $2.3, I am in so much cap trouble.

Lines now:

Heatley-Richards-Hossa
Vasicek-Toews-Hartnell
Grabovsky-Tavares-Brown
McArdle-Bolland-Skille
Boogaard

Barker-Seabrook
Beauchemin-Doughty
Schultz-Wilson
Petrecki (although he is in Norfolk)

Price
Irving

Budaj on IR

I am over $42 mill. Ugh. Must move guys, and not sure who.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:11 pm

So McArdle really sucks? He's one of those guys I'm always going after but never seem to be able to get. Nice to know I'm not missing anything. I notice a couple of you guys still have Skille. How's he looking? I got rid of him early on. I kept most of my prospects but he just didn't do anything for me.

Definitely dump Brown. He's a good 3rd line, maybe 2nd line winger but eventually he wants too much money. Seabrook has been one of my favorite players throughout the challenge but he starts getting expensive. I think I still had him at the end of season 5 but he was making over $4M. That's a little rich for my blood. To me, your biggest money drain is your first line. Heatley AND Hossa? Seems a little like overkill if you ask me. I'd either separate them (move on down to the 2nd line) or trade one. With two superstars on the same line it's almost too much on the center. Who does he pass it to?

Post by **batdad** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:08 pm

He does not develop. At least not for me. Stays the same, all the time. Mebbe I left him on the farm too long. I dunno.

Skille is playing well, in spite of the attributes not being too high, save his shot. 7's all the time. Brown Bryzgalovs me off.

Seabrook is $4 mill, but keeping all the original Hawks I have left now. Felt bad dealing Blunden.

Oh yeah, I know where the money is. Heatley, Hossa and Richards all making over 4.5 mill. Heater/Hossa over 5. So yeah ... but Heatley is retiring a Hawk, Hossa is too good, and Toews/Tavares not quite ready. Richards likely the one to move when I have to. But I do not have to yet.

Hossa switches back and forth with Hartnell from 1-2 lines all the time. That is how I keep the opposition guessing.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:28 pm

Yup, Brown widdled me off too. I kept trying to give him his big chance but he never grabbed it and held onto it. I'm in the same boat with Seabrook. He's one of my originals and he's never let me down. I don't want to trade him. I just know that it's getting to a point where I may have to. IIRC, I still have Blunden. I got rid of Bolland. Even that felt kind of wrong. Blunden and Bolland are guys that I nurtured and brought up through our system. I had big plans for them. Unfortunately, they just don't have it in them to grow into what I wanted.

This brings up an interesting point about how this challenge and the core/homegrowns has worked out. I think it's made me get an attachment to some of my players, especially ones that I've developed. In the past I'd be all too willing to ship a player out if it got me something I wanted. Now, I really don't like to see some of them go and I'll make other deals to try to keep "my" guys.

Post by **batdad** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:50 pm

Yeah no question there. Definitely have become attached to some. Problem to be solved...Hartnell for Bouchard. Even if I get ripped off. Should have done it that way in the first place.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:48 am

INJURY ! INJURY! INJURY!

Yikes. With no room under the cap (I moved Brown and Grabovsky to get under) I have lost Budaj for four months, Price for 2 weeks, Beauchemin for 2 weeks, McArdle for 2 weeks, Toews for 10 days, and I cannot afford to call anyone up. Yikes!

Post by **Calv** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:13 pm

Bonus points A:
batdad 14
Phreak 9
Lidas 8
bruins72 6
rookier 6
Shadd666 5
corinthian 4

Deadlines:
Challenge 9.5
60 Games: 18th Feb 2008
82 Games: 25th Feb 2008

Challenge 9.6
20 Games: 1st Mar 2008