EHM The Blue Line

What's your take on really important players wanting to change teams?

Is there any point arguing against it and keep them against their will?

I just had my star, Ville Viitaluoma, requesting a move because he wanted to go to a bigger team. He was my 1st line center with 26+45=71 points in 55 games on the first season, and 10+9=19 out of 14 games so far this season. Many of my other players were saying "Hopes the team can hold on to Ville Viitaluoma".

I granted his wish and gave him a price tag of € 200 000 - way more than I've ever sold any player for. Jokerit (who're known for spending alot of money for players in the real world as well) offered me 220 000, and off he went.

Result: Two players go UNH for selling the team's star players to another team.

But I'm thinking: if he doesn't want to stay here I'm not going to force him, right?

You can "force" him to stay, but will eventually loose him for nothing when his contract expires. So if it was his last season of contract, i think you made the right thing by selling him.

However, i'm pretty sure you should have make a bit more money out of this player... I would have tried to sell him around 350-400 K€, maybe a bit more...

As for the players going unhappy, nothing you can do with this... It's either them or your star player, but you should have ended with unhappy players anyway.

I agree.If it's the last year of the contract then I guess it's fine.
I have Murley on my squad who've requested for the move last season(was unhappy with the icetime).

I never put him on the block,he's still playing for San Antonio.And to be honest with you,I haven't noticed any difference from the moment he requested the move.I even signed him for one more year.

So I think if the player is important to your team,don't let him go.At least it paid off for me.

I tend to grant them their wish too. If you don't want to play for my team, then off you go, methinks. Was just wondering if there's a way to wait it out and the player would then withdraw his request.

Yeah, I propably could've taken a whee bit more muni for him, but 220 000 was more than his wage for the year (180 000) and I was afraid to push it too far and then be left with a grumpy star primadonna on my team pulling every one else down with him.