EHM The Blue Line

So I'm still chugging along with this challenge. I've been pretty slow due to a vacation and some business at work but I've made some progress this week. I'm in my final quarter of season 3. It looks like this year we'll finally be a playoff team! At the 60 game mark I was third in the conference. Right now I'm second. It's been a fairly tight race for most of the season but right now we're gaining some distance from the teams behind us and we're closing in on the top spot. Earlier on in the season, I had tried to do with my two young defensive centers, Zubarev and Bishop, on the third and fourth lines and Boyko centering the second line. That just wasn't working out. Boyko's wingers were suffering for it. Also, the two young defensive centers just weren't ready. So to turn things around, I brought up Matt Barzal, who I had traded Fiala to the Senators for over the summer. He had been doing quite well down in Worcester. Shortly after that I was able to get Joel Eriksson Ek (and a 5th) out of Edmonton for Wingels. I had Wingels playing third and fourth line RW, so even though I liked his play, he was expendable. So now I've got Bennett (last season's key acquisition) centering the first line, Barzal and Eriksson Ek alternating between the second and third lines, and Boyko centering the fourth. I've also brought up Konecy to replace Wingels as a bottom 6 RW, with a little second line duty at times. Goldobin has been good as a first line LW (replacing Fiala) but he's had a couple injuries, being out for 2 and 3 weeks each time. Our power play problem seems to have been resolved this season and now we're one of the best PP's in the league! We're also one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Our penalty kill still isn't that great though. But it's also not the worst in the league.

I'm hoping we can keep up this pace throughout the rest of this last quarter of the season and carry that over into the playoffs. Maybe this will be our year?

Bruins - any chance to extend this challenge for couple of weeks? I am also going to the last part of third season now.

bruins72 wrote:Great wall of text of China

You know what the enter key is for bruins? My phone got a heart attack.

Blah! You shouldn't be trying to do forums on your phone.

Yes, we'll be extending this one further. It's just not feasible to start another challenge when things are so slow around here. Once it's closer to the new season starting up and a new DB coming out, things will pick up.

Season 3 really turned this team around! We won the Stanley Cup! We only lost 1 game in the playoffs too. Sorting out my center situation really helped this team.

So I've extended this challenge through October 1st. I just figured I'd set it for that since we definitely won't see a new version of the rosters before then.

I see, that visualdarkness is rebuilding almost every season, heh

Starting the 21/22 my team looks quite different. I traded away older big guys like Couture to rebuild (yeah, this season too! ), I couldnt bring myself to trade Wingels though. I am running three total scoring lines with a slightly more balanced fourth line.

Huberdeau - Hischer - Coyle
Hans-Göran Ericson (rookie) - Eriksson Ek - Wingels
Nieto - Hertl - Konecny
FIala - Kalfirt - Henrik Samuelsson
Albin Wallin (rookie)

I now only got one single defensive defender and most cant hit. They are all good playmakers though. Im not entirely happy with Bowey in there and depth. especially on the right side, is atrocious. I dont even want to show my RDs in the farm, it is embarrassing.

Chychrun - Dumba
Chad Krys - Meloche
Dennis Lundström (rookie) - Madison Bowey
Siegenthaler (rookie)

I am starting to hate Säteri, he is so inconsistent and loves to let in goals in the first and the last minute in the games. He cant save a shot on the PK either. None of my other goalies are ready yet and possibly never will be.

Säteri
Marcus Högberg

So far so good, ten games in and we are nr 1!

Dumba is out for two weeks and this is what replacement I got for the right side. Yeah...

Regarding goalies - I am still going with Alex Stalock as a starter and Fredrik Bergvik as his back-up. They are both very solid (AvG, %, SO..).
In the system I have following group of "prospects":
Matt Murray - good for AHL, but his attributes are very similar to Bergvik's
Dereck Baribeau - dtto
Callum Booth - good for ECHL, but attributes are very low..
Jack Lafontaine - very mediocre attributes, not over 10-11

It does not look good for the future... Stalock is already 32 in my current season.
It is very difficult to develop really good goalie. Exceptions were Demko in last challenge, and maybe Daniel Vladar..

I haven't had the time to play past the third season but going in to the fourth season I'd still have Stalock as one of my goalies. Ullmark played the full third season in the NHL but really didn't take the reigns as a clear #1 until the playoffs. It was more like 1A and 1B.

This was nail-bitingly close.

Challenge 38 - Season 3

After a 2nd Round Playoff loss against the Kings, we decided to change some things. with Couture , Johnson and Smith on our possible trade-list we hit the market. Suddenly, as Groesnick decided to leave the team for Free Agency, we were in need of a backup goalie. There were only a few targets left (Ullmark 25, and the price for Demko, Vasilevsky was much too high) so we decided to bring in a young goalie with strong upside in Mason McDonald.

Out:
Groesnick left for FA, Tarasov, Tennyson, Doherty traded for picks
Couture, Smith, E.Johnson and Boyko got also traded.

In:
Goalie Mason McDonald + 5th Round Pick traded for Johnson/Smith/Tennyson
Aaron Ekblad and Goalie Daniel Vladar + 4th Round Pick traded for Couture/Doherty
Sam Reinhart traded for Boyko.

Lines:
Nieto (Goldobin) - Matthews -Wingels
Hertl - Monahan - Nylander
Goldobin (Fiala) - Reinhart (Dano) - Konecny
Dano - Kalfirt - Hartman
(Fiala, Emanuelsson and Boyko served as substitutes)

Müller - Ekblad
Murray - Ristolainen
Zadorov -Larsson
(Djoos)

Stalock - McDonald

The season preview had us 30th (won the cup) and 29th (lost in 2nd round to sc-winner) the last two seasons. For 2018/19 they ranked us No.1. - i couldn't hold back a grin, when i saw that. Let's see how the changes work....
Last Seasons Achilles-heel, the PP, got off a strong start and was good throughout the whole season (18% - which is much better than last seasons 12%).Our "1st line shuts down opponents 1st line" tactic was sucessfull again.
New 1st line center was Matthews. Our high scoring 2nd line with Hertl - Monahan - Nylander was outstanding again. With a Midseason trade for Sam Reinhart we got some scoring points that Boyko couldn't give us. Also on the 3rd line with rookie
Konecny was our "breakout player of the year" Nikolai Goldobin. He scored 62 Pt. while Konecny (51p) was Runner-up for the Calder.

Our Defense got much better with the additon of Aaron Ekblad (47pt), but it was Ryan Murray who sparkled the offense with his 57 points. This season Alex Stalock (88% SV) couldn't put up the numbers from the years before, in which he was excellent. In the middle of the season, McDonald (91,8% SV) won the starting Job and had some stellar performances.
This year William Nylander hit the 100 Pts, after 91p and 92p the seasons before, and won the scoring title. But he couldn't solve the 50goal mark again - 41g-49g- 46g Tomas Hertl was 3rd in scoring with 88pt.

We also had some disappointments: Auston Matthews again was ok, but not more. Wingels got off a slow start, but rescued himself with strong performances in the second half. Hartman was demoted to the 4th line - despite his very good 45 points last year. Rookie Konecny got his spot, cause he has more upside. But thats not Hartmans fault, so i blame myself for this one. My 3rd Line D-Combo Zadorov / Adam Larsson was average. Especially Zadorov don't develops the way i hoped. That's a problem i need to address next season.

The last two years, we lost the Presidents Trophy and the no.1 seed in the last week of the regular season.This year got to the playoffs on a 7 game winning streak an won the Trophy.
Playoffs:
W-Conference Final vs. Kings 4-0: We took gruel revenge for last years playoff-loss. Hey Kopitar/Toffoli....we kicked your Crownjewels.

W-Conference Semifinal vs. Ducks 4-0: A 3rd Year in a row we ousted the Ducks. Hey Getzlaf/Voracek/Perry...we plucked you.
Sharks PP over the first two series: 16/55 = 29,1%

W-Conference Final vs. Predators 4-0: This was harder than the result say. Hey Rinne.....stood on his head - now he got headache.

Stanley-Cup Final vs Rangers 4-2: What's after Rinne?? Lundqvist. He was the reason i lost my only two games (in ot) in this playoffs, and he held the games tight. Hey Lundqvist/Nash.....wait another year.(the little devil in me: )

Thanks to the Goalies (Rinne / Lundqvist) our PP was lousy 2 for 36 over the last two series.
So we finished the playoffs 16-0-2....
As always, the winning goalie gets the Conn Smythe Trophy: Mason McDonald

Trophys:
Art Ross: Nylander won, Hertl was 3rd
Maurice Richard: Nylander 2nd
Pearson Award: Nylander won
Calder Trophy: Konecny was 2nd
Lady Byng: Hertl won
Hart Trophy: Nylander was 2nd
Adams Award: Guy Boucher won.
Conn Smythe: McDonald won, Hertl was 3rd
Masterton Trophy: Nylander was 2nd
First All-Star Team: Nylander
Rookie All Star Team: McDonald and Konecny

BTW: At the Trade Deadline Chicago traded Patrick Kane to Philly for Claude Giroux......

Our Draft Picks 2018:
25 David Levin
55 Joel Huhtanen
85 Zoltan Gratton
90 Laurent Potvin
116 Antonin Grman
122 Luciano Lord
145 Stanislav Klempa
175 Rickard Werner
205 Erick Jelitto

Plan for next season: Trade Stalock, Emanuelsson, maybe Zadorov/Larsson.

Got a few days off and I think I'm going to obsess on EHM all night tonight.

This challenge is super fun. I don't now the Sharks that well so it's fun to tinker with their roster.

Devils88 wrote: Out:
Groesnick left for FA, Tarasov, Tennyson, Doherty traded for picks
Couture, Smith, E.Johnson and Boyko got also traded.

In:
Goalie Mason McDonald + 5th Round Pick traded for Johnson/Smith/Tennyson
Aaron Ekblad and Goalie Daniel Vladar + 4th Round Pick traded for Couture/Doherty
Sam Reinhart traded for Boyko.

You got some very good value in your trades! I couldn't get much of a return for Boyko. Doherty never got me much either but I'm guessing Couture was the key to landing Ekblad. I ended up using Couture to get Bennett.

Nice work!

Yeah, these trades were really good for me. I'm spending a ton of time, looking for the right guys and reasonable value.
Boyko has good atributes, but i couldn't get him scoring. I caught a time were Buffalos trade-rating for Reinhart was just 3*. so i hoped and it worked. they have given up on him (played only 4th line)
Couture was wanted by Florida. So i guess thats why i got so much for him. I never thought that they accept the deal, including Vladar also (he looks very promising at the moment).

I use guys like Doherty to get 4/5/6 Round Picks. I really hate, to loose players to FA. I always want some return, but sometimes they leave for nothing (i'm used to, as a devils fan ).
in my game: Groesnick (missed to trade him at the deadline), Emanuelsson and Yakupov.

BTW. Couture for Sam Bennett is a very good trade.

This one is a bit challenging. I've spent way more time on this game than I normally would since I'm trying to avoid mistakes and maximize value.

Played my first ten games and I'm 3-5-2.

It's going to take some time for my team to gel and my defense is putrid right now because I got focused on getting cornerstone players and haven't been able to find the right defense yet. Trading Mueller was a bad decision.

Right now I'm rolling with

Logan Couture - Jack Eichel - Matt Nieto
Andre Burkakovsky - Mark Scheifele - Charlie Coyle
Nick Ritchie - Mikhail Grigorenko - Travis Konecny
Eriah Hayes - Liam O'Brien - Martin Frk

Erik Johnson - Rasmus Ristolainen
Dylan Mcllrath - Jamie Olesiak
Andrew O'Brien - Damon Severson

Andrei Vasilevsky
Alex Stalock

That defense will look a lot different by the deadline.

FireBenning wrote: Trading Mueller was a bad decision.

It looks like you're in season 1. Sorry to tell you, but you're not allowed to trade Mirco Mueller. There are age restrictions for trades in this Sharks Challenge.
2016-2017: Players aged 29 or older may be traded, as told in the Challenge Section.
2017-2018: Players aged 28 or older may be traded
2018-2019: Players aged 27 or older may be traded

With 10 games in season 1 you can start new again.

Whoops.

These challenges are way deeper than I thought they were. I just found all the rules beyond the basic trading rules I found. Um... disregard everything I said lol.

If you think those are deeper, you should check some of the previous challenges I found the latest rules to be very relaxed and easy to follow!

Devils88 wrote:Yeah, these trades were really good for me. I'm spending a ton of time, looking for the right guys and reasonable value.
Boyko has good atributes, but i couldn't get him scoring. I caught a time were Buffalos trade-rating for Reinhart was just 3*. so i hoped and it worked. they have given up on him (played only 4th line)
Couture was wanted by Florida. So i guess thats why i got so much for him. I never thought that they accept the deal, including Vladar also (he looks very promising at the moment).

I use guys like Doherty to get 4/5/6 Round Picks. I really hate, to loose players to FA. I always want some return, but sometimes they leave for nothing (i'm used to, as a devils fan ).
in my game: Groesnick (missed to trade him at the deadline), Emanuelsson and Yakupov.

BTW. Couture for Sam Bennett is a very good trade.

I'm like you. I hate to let a player go with no return! I always want something. Yakupov is a total dud in this version of the DB. For some reason, he really does well in the AHL though. Looking at his attributes, he doesn't look like he should even do well there.

Yeah, you've got to be careful on trading. You should re-start since you're so early into the challenge.

We've definitely relaxed the rules on the recent challenges and I enjoy them far more now. You get a lot more flexibility in trading (and a lot more of it allowed) but it's still very challenging.

bruins72 wrote: Yakupov is a total dud in this version of the DB. For some reason, he really does well in the AHL though. Looking at his attributes, he doesn't look like he should even do well there.

Yeah, in this Save he can't even score as AHL-Player. In my 2 Canucks Challenge seasons he was a stud for me. My Scoring Leader with 92 and 73pts.
A strange dude in this Challenge is Kevin Fiala. His attributes are like Yakupov's (except that he's much quicker) and you expect not more than 10 pts. / season. But for me (and some others) he plays really good. He scored 60 pts. in 100 NHL Games for me. He's only a call-up for me when someone is injured, but if he's called for help, he delivers.
That's why i didn't trade him til now.
The opposite is Vladislav Boyko. Very good offensive attributes, i gave him good minutes and linemates, but he managed only 4 pts in 46 games. Even after his trade to Buffalo he has now 10 pts in 111 NHL Games.

Yeah, I had success with Fiala in the first couple seasons but I just didn't like him. I ended up trading him to make room for Goldobin, who I felt was a similar type of player but much better. Boyko is VERY frustrating! Based on his attributes, I thought he'd be a perfect fit as my 2nd line center but he just held back him linemates. By the end of the 3rd season he was on the 4th line, IIRC.

Things are going great for me in season six but now the game crashes due to the scheduling for the Olympic games getting messed up so my players are on national duty. So when I check or send up a random number of players in the farm or try to start the game it just crashes. Bummer....

Yikes. That stinks. I didn't know about this issue.