EHM The Blue Line

Has anyone else noticed that in offseason between 2008 and 2009 a fantastic coach is always produced? I've been able to sign him in every campaign and always becomes my head coach eventually. It's always a retired player that signs with Praha SI. In my latest campaign, it was Rob Blake who retired and became this super-coach but more often it was a Czech.

in my game, he was french: Arnaud Briand

I haven't noticed. Then again, I usually complete a full personnel overhaul within a year of taking over (except that I rarely switch head coaches) and then go with what I've got for a while.

I'm in 2011, and the only even halfway decent ex-player coach I've come across is Bill Guerin, who has good ratings in coaching but is a terrible people person (man-to-man management and working with kids both in low single digits).

Most season's the regen staff appear around July 1st and there are usually one or two stars per season, often player/non-player.

Not 100% on topic, but has anyone else noticed how easy it is to pick up former head-coaches as assistents?

In my current Wild game, I have picked up two very good coaches - I just offer them jobs as assistents as soon as they are fired as head-coaches. They don't even ask for an extreme amount of money.

Yup, but that only happens if you do it *immediately* after they're given their walking papers. I guess they're still reeling from the shock.

That doesn't really bother me. What does sort of bother me is the way how scouts' egos balloon in this game. If you have a good scout and you sign him for a 4-year, $178,000/year extension, that's invariably going to be his last with your team because after his contract is up, he'll want way more than the quarter of a million per year the board lets you use on a scout.

Mine is the best of the best: Lyle Odelein! Got him around 2008 or so he was lurking in CHL and I promoted him
Coaching style: technical

I see the same thing with good scouts, they never resign during the season. I always manage to get really good scouts during the off season even though I never off more than 1 mil for 5 or so years.

Whenever a coach is fired, I check him out right away. I picked up Jacques Lemaire and Jim Schoenfeld as assistants that way when the never would accept an offer during the off season.

I noticed that most scouts are willing to resign in a late June. I tend to offer an extention to my scouts in the beginning and they often refuse in the middle of June. Then, the second attempt often works.

Yeah, I picked that Super Guy as my Ass.Coach and locked him for 6 years. Ole Eskild Dahlstrom (40 yrs old) is from Norway and has a bright future with my team. The problem is I don't want to lose my current Head Coach (Hitch), so I'll wait a year or so before promoting Dahlstrom. My other Ass.coaches are Peter Laviolette, Ryan McGill, Jan Jasko and Benoit Allaire.

Kekkonen wrote:Yup, but that only happens if you do it *immediately* after they're given their walking papers. I guess they're still reeling from the shock.

That doesn't really bother me. What does sort of bother me is the way how scouts' egos balloon in this game. If you have a good scout and you sign him for a 4-year, $178,000/year extension, that's invariably going to be his last with your team because after his contract is up, he'll want way more than the quarter of a million per year the board lets you use on a scout.

Agree on both points. Paul Maurice got fired, I offered him a job as an assistant coach the same day and he accepted. Funny thing is, I had to fire an assistant coach to make room for Maurice, my fired assistant then became the Leafs head coach a few days later

The scout issue bugs me as well. I've got 3 scouts with expiring contacts now, my head scout amongst them, ratings between 15 and 17 in judging potential, they are requesting silly money as you said and even the max. salary in combination with the max. signing bonus won't help. I'm going to have to find at least 2 new scouts with similar ratings now, have already checked the market for the upcoming offseason and I simply don't see any suitable replacements available.

Danny wrote:

Kekkonen wrote:Yup, but that only happens if you do it *immediately* after they're given their walking papers. I guess they're still reeling from the shock.

That doesn't really bother me. What does sort of bother me is the way how scouts' egos balloon in this game. If you have a good scout and you sign him for a 4-year, $178,000/year extension, that's invariably going to be his last with your team because after his contract is up, he'll want way more than the quarter of a million per year the board lets you use on a scout.

Agree on both points. Paul Maurice got fired, I offered him a job as an assistant coach the same day and he accepted. Funny thing is, I had to fire an assistant coach to make room for Maurice, my fired assistant then became the Leafs head coach a few days later

The scout issue bugs me as well. I've got 3 scouts with expiring contacts now, my head scout amongst them, ratings between 15 and 17 in judging potential, they are requesting silly money as you said and even the max. salary in combination with the max. signing bonus won't help. I'm going to have to find at least 2 new scouts with similar ratings now, have already checked the market for the upcoming offseason and I simply don't see any suitable replacements available.

Uhh... that scout issue! Are you in 2010/2011 season? Because that is exactly my case: 3 scouts with expiring contacts now, my head scout amongst them. The only difference is that these four men were among my 6 best scouts overall (PP about 19, PA about 18). Needed to act quickly. That's what I did:
1) Created a note to approach them next June. And still keep trying to sign'em until October with a huge bonus.
2) Hired two other guys from the pool with average attributes to use'em occasionally($90k for 6 yrs) and for a less important tasks (like trip to Iceland). They would be axed first if I find the right guy.
3)Hired a new Assistant Coach with similar attributes as mine. "Promoted" my own Ass.Coach with very good scout's attributes among others to be my Head Scout.
4) I always have maximum in my Scouting department, so even losing few good fellows, won't kill my future. I hope next year would be better!

No it happened right after the first season for me, maybe it's because I won the cup and they thought they had the right to demand a little more

I was already thinking about promoting one of my assistants to head scout and filling the vacant spot with a free agent assistant coach. Need to do more research first. I've got the draft upcoming now first anyway and I'm loaded with high draft picks I've acquired in trades during the season so lets see
I've got all scout spots filled with guys with min. 15 as well so it's no drama to lose 3, but frustrating nonetheless.