EHM The Blue Line

Okay, I've got the first 20 games of season 2 for this challenge done. I'm going to post here but if one of the mods wants season 2 in a new thread, go ahead and move this and I'll continue over there.

So I made one trade since I last reported (before training camp). I was finally able to land a goaltender. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to unload Lalime and his $2.4M salary. Right now I've got him as my backup. I'd love to trade him for a pick or a prospect. So back to the trade! The Sabres hadn't resigned Ryan Miller. They decided to go with Biron as their starter and sign a cheap backup. They only valued Miller as 3 stars. I approached them to trade for Miller. I tried offering my various goaltenders (Lalime, Anderson, and Bacashihua) plus odds and ends but they weren't interested. They came back with the rights to Okposo and my3rd rounder for Miller and their 2nd and 3rd. I would've liked to have held onto Okposo but I couldn't pass this one up! I signed Miller to a 3 year deal (plus my option) right after.

I signed a few of the young UFAs that I invited to training camp. The most noteworthy of these has been Stuart Kerr. He's a 22 year old LD with nice size (6'4" 200). He had played last season with Trois Rivieres Caron and Guay after finishing his junior career with Moose Jaw (Red Deer and Spokane before that) of the WHL. I didn't think he was ready for the AHL, so I sent him to Alaska of the ECHL. He's really done well there. In 14 games he has 12 points (11 of them assists). So far he's been named ECHL player of the week 3 times and player of the month once. Not too shabby!

After a few games into the regular season, I saw that Brad Richards and Olli Jokinen hadn't been signed. I was all set at LW and C, so I left Richards alone (he still wanted over $3M). I wasn't happy with Lupul as my second line RW (he must not have really clicked with Cole and Handzus), so I approached Jokinen. He ended up signing for 2 years (plus my option) for $2.2M per. I've had Jokinen on my top line in other challenges and he's done amazingly well for me. It's nice to be able to put him on my 2nd here!

After signing Jokinen, I had to juggle my lines some. Fritsche got sent down to the AHL. He had been struggling on the 4th line and really needed the playing time. I can't send Mueller or McArdle down to the farm yet, because they're still too young. I moved Lupul down to the 4th line and shuffled the other guys around. Also with the addition of Witt, Martinek has become a spare part. He's my 7th defenseman (Dallman is my 8th). I've already had to use Martinek to fill in when Hale went out for a half a dozen games. I moved Witt over to the left side for that stretch (but kept him on the right for the PK) and played Martinek on the right.

Here's my current lineup...

Gagne - Marleau - Havlat
Cole - Handzus - Jokinen
Hedstrom - Fisher - Hollweg
McArdle - Mueller - Lupul

Mitchell - Brewer
Hale - Witt
Kloucek - Suchy

Miller - Lalime

I've been thinking of shuffling my top 2 lines a bit. Havlat was tearing it up for the first week or two. He was actually at a 3 point per game pace for a few games. He got player of the week twice and player of the month for October. Of course his linemates did well over this stretch too. Once I signed Jokinen, it seemed like my 2nd line took over. Jokinen has 19 points in 13 games. Havlat is still 4th in the league in scoring but he was 1st or 2nd for the couple of weeks. Anyhow, I might switch up Gagne and Cole to see what happens. If it doesn't work out, I'll move them back. I'd just like to balance out my scoring some.

Miller has been amazing for us. He's got a record of 11-1-0 with a 2.00 GAA and .929 SV%. Lalime hasn't been so hot though. He's got a record of 7-1-0 but his GAA is 3.46 and he's got a .889 SV%.

I don't really see me making any other deals this season other than for picks and prospects. This is one of the best lineups I've had. I can't wait to see where this season takes me!

I've split the 4.1 thread so this will be the Official[sup]TM[/sup] St. Louis Blues challenge 4.2 thread.
Keep all 4.2 chat in here and Official Announcements[sup]TM[/sup] will be put in here, that is once everyone has caught up with you B72

Not much of a change since the last 20 game segment. I haven't made any new deals. The most I've really done is re-sign a couple of guys to new contracts. There really aren't many changes that need to be made to this team. It's one of the best rosters I've had since playing the game! And they are playing up to the talent. They're really tearing up the league. It's a good thing I didn't trade away Martinek though. I lost Suchy to a dislocated shoulder. It's been over a month now that he's been out. I should have him back in another couple of weeks or so.

Well, despite the fact that nobody else seems to be playing anymore... I'm still chugging along. Despite the fact that my team was a juggernaut, I decided to thinker with my lineup a bit. I saw that Brad Richards was still a UFA by mid-January, so I made him an offer. He ended up signing for about half of what it would've cost back in July. I signed him for 2 years at $1.7M per, plus my option. This lead to some lineup juggling. I didn't want to waste another skill player by having him play on the 3rd line or something.

I wasn't totally sold on the right side of my defense, so I sent Radek Martinek and Michal Handzus to the Wild for Derek Morris. They had signed Morris as a UFA in the off-season and had him rated very highly (5 stars I think). They couldn't pass up this deal. Handzus was great for me but he wasn't as effective on the 2nd line as he was the 1st.

After that I was just fishing around for draft picks with some of the lower ranked teams. I was looking to see if I could dump Kevin Dallman for a decent pick. He doesn't make much but he's okay for an extra defenseman. I've already got Suchy for my extra guy on defense though. I didn't deal him away but I got a strange counter-offer from Montreal. I sent Stuart Kerr, rights to John Armstrong, rights to Paul Kucerba, and Buffalo's 2nd rounder to Montreal for their 1st and 2nd round picks. I thought this was a decent deal for me. Montreal is sitting right outside a playoff spot (10th in the East) right now. I should get nice mid-round picks. Armstrong and Kucerba were both 3rd round picks in the last draft. Kerr was a young (22) UFA that I signed early in the season. I sent him to my ECHL affiliate and tore it up! By the end of December he had won ECHL Player of the Week 4 times, Rookie of the Month twice, and Player of the Month twice. He was also selected to the ECHL All-Star game. My scouts don't expect him to develop much more though. So in essense, I was able to get Montreal's 1st round pick in exchange for two 3rd round picks and an minor leaguer, plus we exchanged 2nd rounders. Not too shabby!

So my lines have been shuffled now. I plugged Richards into Handzus' spot centering the 2nd line. Since making that move, my 2nd line has struggled a bit. I guess they have to gel and hope for some chemistry. I've experimented with juggling wingers on my top 2 lines but it hasn't done much. Even though they're struggling a bit now, I've still got one of the best team's in the league. I'm just hoping they come together a bit more in these last 20 games.

In Entry Draft 2006 I drafted Bryan Little (pick #2), Ryan Wilson (pick #20), Blake Geoffrion (#109) and Ivan Maximkin (#137).

I started season #2 by not re-signing Hal Gill, Nolan Baumgartner, Steve Poapst, Matt Walker and Mike Mottau. Instead I signed free agents Anson Carter, Derek Morris, Jay Pandolfo and Georges Laraque. I dumped Byron Dafoe to Devils for 5th Round Pick in 2007 (NJ) and Antti Laaksonen to Sabres for 5th Round Pick in 2007 (BUF). I also traded Trent Whitfield to Wild for 5th Round Pick in 2007 (MIN) and Boyd Devereaux to Stars for 3rd Round Pick in 2007 (DAL).

A bigger deal was to trade Steve Konowalchuk and 5th Round Pick in 2007 (STL) to Rangers for Hugh Jessiman and 3rd Round Pick in 2007 (NYR). Konowalchuk was the captain of Blues and as I previously told he was very important player in play-offs, but because he didn't produce in regular season and because of signing Pandolfo and Laraque I decided he wasn't needed anymore.

I also signed my two first round picks from the Entry Draft, Bryan Little and Ryan Wilson. I wanted to try if they were as ready to play with the big team as they looked like.

Then I acquired Blake Comeau from Canucks for the Sabres 5th Rounder I got earlier. I acquired Jason LaBarbera and got also 6th Round Pick in 2007 (LA) from Kings for Jay McClement. This was not the kind of goalie deal I was thinking but I just couldn't get anyone better. I'm gonna try every now and then to get a better one during the season.

And of course Eric Brewer got injured for four months in the last exhibition game and I got to get one more D-man. I traded Timofei Shiskanov to Oilers for Marc-Andre Bergeron and when I had done that Lightning put Nolan Pratt to the block. So I traded Jason Bacashihua for him and waived Kevin Dallman.

And in the beginning of November I made a tough decision and gave up Jaroslav Balastik. Nearly all of his rates started dropping and I wasn't able to change his training schedule in the way the rates would have improved again. And I still don't know what happened because he was the only player whose rates started dropping... Anyway, I got 1st Round Pick in 2007 (TOR) from Maple Leafs for him and I let him go. And I have to tell that he hasn't been even as good in Toronto as he was with us. He played 10 games for Blues and had stats of 6+0=6 and -1 and had average rating of 6.90. In Toronto he has played now also 10 games and has stats of 0+2=2 and -5 and average of 6.60. I'm gonna follow his stats during the season with interest.

In the middle of November I acquired Mike Ricci from free agency after sending Bryan Little to juniors for the rest of the season. He played 11 games with Blues scoring 1+1=2 and +1 but started to be unhappy all the time, so I thought it was better to him to play in minors. Ryan Wilson played in all of pre-season exhibition games and wasn't bad, but he didn't fit in any regular season game setup.

My roster has been living so much that the play hasn't settled yet, but at least my special team game has been good in both power play and shorthanded. I hope Ricci will get my 3rd line play better and stronger and instead of struggling in 2nd and 3rd quarter of the season as usual they will improve their play towards the end of regular season.

My season has been hard, once again and this time I don't even know why. I thought I got a good one this time, but after 64 games we are ninth in West and losing important games one after another. There hasn't been so many injuries, but anyhow they just don't produce. My special teams have been better whole season, but recently they have not been as good as earlier.

In the end of November I aqcuired Shawn Horcoff from Oilers for 5th round pick in 2007 (MIN) and Antoine Vermette whose development wasn't so good as I had hoped. In the beginning of December I tried to get some trade (don't remember what) done with Avalanche. They didn't accept my proposal, but proposed me a trade I took. They got rights to Blake Geoffrion and Ivan Maximkin (look at the beginning of my previous message) and I got their 1st and 2nd round picks in 2007! In the end of December I off-loaded Jay McKee to Lightning and got young Stanislav Lascek in trade.

Blue Jackets put Marc Denis in block in January and I decided to get him. And I got him for 5th round pick in 2007 (NJ). The trade put us over the cap, so I had to get rid of some players rapidly. Maple Leafs wanted Jason LaBarbera and gave 3rd round pick in 2007 (TOR) for him. Georges Laraque had been unhappy during the winter and wasn't giving team what I expected so I tried to sell him. Unfortunately no-one wanted him so I had to waive him. NY Islanders claimed him from waivers. After that I was looking for a cheaper power-RW and ended up to trading for Ryan Hollweg. Coyotes traded him for Justin Maiser and 4th round pick in 2007 (STL).

There are all the trades I made, because the roster freeze just started. Now Blues is in danger dropping out of the playoffs and I have 18 games left to get things straightened. It may be possible and there is lots of experience in team so the playoffs could be a success - if we get there.

I've been thinking I'm gonna either take a break in playing Challenges or just stop trying to win them. First, these two-season Challenges are not the way to me to develop as a "GM". The rule which says it's not allowed to trade future picks is good, but I can still trade all the rights of hot prospects team has, leaving them empty-handed after those two seasons. And what comes to trying-not-to-win -thing I mentioned, I think in future I'm gonna try to play EHM purely or as purely as possible as a GM only, letting coaches do the practicing and coaching staff. If I do so I believe (in the beginning at least) my stats are not going to be so darn good they nowadays are...