EHM The Blue Line

Hey Guys, been a long time player of EHM since the freeware days. Decided to try and play a whole GM career, working my way up for the lower leagues in europe right through to the NHL and hopefully a stanley cup. I'm using the LIDAS 1.1. 08/09 Rosters and have decided to start in the English Premier League (EPL) with the Solihull Barons. In reality Solihull are no longer even in the EPL. Citing poor financial situation, lack of attendance and constant loss of key young talent to bigger teams they were forced to drop into the English National League a few years ago. Naturally their hardcoded into the EPL in EHM, so i decided to simply run on the backstory that Solihull have some new backers and have decided to return to the EPL. Though still without the funding to compete with the top end teams for players. They are pretty much in the state of an expansion team, just 3 players on the roster, pretty much just young/developmental players and no backroom staff. Let the challenge commence!!

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August 2nd 2008
Hobs Moat Road Rink, Solihull, England

Solihull Barons announce appointment of new General Manager

One month after the Solihull Barons announced their emphatic return to the English Premier league, the team held a press conference today to announce the appointment of Raymond Mullan as new General Manager ahead of the 2008/09 campaign. The perennial basement dwellers have been mired in difficulties both on and off ice for some time, with recent financial difficulties resulting in the team dropping from the EPL to the ENIHL. However, new ownership and successful re-application to the EPL. Mullan, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland comes with no prior General Management experience, which hardly instills a sense of confidence from the fans and media alike that this restructure will change the Barons fortunes for the better. Mullan inherits a team with just three players on payroll and no backroom staff as yet, quite a challenge for a rookie GM.

Mullan addressed the media in today’s broadcast outlining the challenges ahead.

“I’m not gonna lie to you guys, this is not gonna be easy. Were playing in limited facilities, we don’t have anywhere near the budget of our competitors in this league and we haven’t got many bodies on the roster. But I see a team that’s loved by the locals, that fill this building every night and I feel we need to reciprocate with a decent on ice product. We’re talking about a team with real history here. This team won the first two championships in this leagues history. Granted that’s in the past and financially we’ve found it difficult to compete, but money’s no excuse, at the end of the day its 5 on 5 for the majority of a game. We can offer players a great place to play, passionate fans and a unique place to live and experience.”

“The first step is to address the coaching situation, I want to get a solid backroom staff in place and help develop the talent that’s gonna be here, start treating these players like professionals and I’m sure they’ll in turn play like that on the ice. I will be reviewing the our options with regard the playing personnel over the next couple of weeks and making offers. Unfortunately the timing isn’t great, most of our competitors have already assembled their rosters so the talent that’s left is not exactly deep. Financially, we can’t afford to carry any dead weight so I have to make the right decisions and get the right players.”

When questioned about his expectations for the coming year, Mullan had this to say “A competitive roster and a team of players that come out to play every shift, every night. If they can’t beat the opposition on the scoreboard then I at least expect us to beat them on the ice, I want teams to come here and have a tough time against us, the days of double digit losses and sloppy performances for this club are over.”

Strong words, a season beckons, one in which we’ll see if these words can be backed up.

Roster

G Calum Baker 5’8 19yrs Old Solihull, GBR
LD Robert Perks 6’2 21yrs Old Birmingham, GBR
LW/RW Jimmy Moutrey 5’10 18yrs Old Billingham, GBR
LW/C Stephen Rowlands 6’2 27yrs Old Merthyr Tydfil, GBR

Not much to work with eh?

Pretty much started throwing offers around left right and centre to try and get some sort of a team together. Unfortunately the clubs reputation dosen’t seem to be too great right now, rookie manager, dodgy financial situation and just 3 other players on the roster don’t exactly instill job security in potential employees I guess. Defensemen Karl Hopper turned down an offer from me to join hated rivals Telford Tigers for less money, expect a frosty reception when he visits the moat this season.

Most important of all is of course my imports. A max of four imports are allowed per team. Real life situation is a little more complicated but as per EHM 07 those four players can be made up of EEC (European Economic Community) players or players outside the EU that also hold a valid EEC passport, i.e. A Canadian with British nationality. I got the four imports I wanted:

LW/C Kyle Amyotte 5’8 29yrs Old Bramalea, ON, Canada
Kyle’s a veteran of the british scene most notably in the EPIHL with the Romford Raiders. A 115 point season with the Raiders, I’m expecting him to be our go to guy for goals this year.

RW Darren McKeague 6’3 24yrs Old Toronto, ON, Canada
“Kegger” is a big forward with an eye for the net. Spent his time in the OHA Sr. leagues with the Oakville Blades and put up some decent numbers, just hoping this will translate across the pond.

C Chris White 5’10 25yrs Old Naperville, IL, USA
Chris is a good face off guy with a mean wristshot, expected to be our top line centre. Chris is a product of the NCAA, spending four years with Southern New Hampshire University before hitting the ice in the EPL with the Wightlink Raiders last season. 12 pts in 29 games.

G Antti Jokela 6’0 27yrs Old Rauma, Finland
My biggest coup as GM. Antti is a former 8th round NHL draft pick by the Carolina Hurricanes. Although he never made it to the other side of the pond, he has enjoyed a stable career in Finland bouncing between the Finnish Metsis and SM Leagues with spells at big guns like Porin Assat, Leksand, Brynas, Timra & Lukko. Our highest paid player and hopefully we can rely on him to keep us afloat this season.


Not going to go through the whole squad but heres my squad going into camp (Note: Jimmy Moutrey was released during Training Camp) –

G
Antti Jokela
Calum Baker

LD
Nick Compton
Graham Newell
Robert Perks
Russ Richardson (Released by Manchester Phoenix – Signed as FA)
Chris Wilcox (Training Camp invite)

RD
Sean Donaldson (Released by Edinburgh Capitals – Signed as FA)
David Morrison
Tom Pease (Released by Coventry Blaze – Signed as FA)
Ben Pitchley

LW
Kyle Amyotte
Ben Campbell (Released by Newcastle Vipers – Signed as FA)
Grant Hendry
Gareth Martin
Russ Plant
Stephen Rowlands
Mike Smith

C
Chris White
Gary Wishart
Tom Mills (Released by Northwood Prep – US High School East - Signed as FA)
Nathan Taylor (Released by Newcastle Vipers – Signed as FA)

RW
Paul Graham
Darren McKeague
Nicky Lewis (Released by Cardiff Devils – Signed as FA)
Dean Mills (Released by Manchester Phoenix– Signed as FA)

You’ll notice quite a few signings of EIHL releases. They may be EIHL rejects but hey I haven’t got a lot of choice, so the 18th August when EIHL teams started making their cuts was like Christmas to this small time GM.

My backroom staff was pretty much complete, as well as my scouting and Physio departments. Nobody really to write home about. One knock on EHM that a lot of big names are available to small teams. I coulda hired John Tortorella, Barry Melrose, Butch Goring etc. but that would have been just completely unrealistic. Tried to stay to unknowns who had decent stats to help aid realism.

I had made overtures to Kent Ruhnke to join as my Head Coach. Kent is a former Univeristy of Toronto varsity blue who had a brief tryout with the Boston Bruins playing 3 games in the NHL. Had a decent career in Europe before heading into coaching in the DEL and Swiss National Leagues. However Kent decided to head onto better things becoming head coach of the Montreal Juniour Hockey Club in the QMJHL.

With that in mind I turned my attentions elsewhere and decided to make the bold move in appointing a rookie coach. I had hired Dru Burgess as an assistant coach but decided to hand him the reins as head coach. Dru is a former NCAA product who also had spells in the ECHL and CHL. Has had some success in the British Leagues most notably with the Hull Stingrays. He hasn’t played since the end of the 06/07 season with Hull but at 33 could still make a comeback. Though it seems he has settled to looking into opportunities in the realm of coaching, I’m happy to give him his shot, he’s a guy with good recent experience in the British game and knows most of the players and teams around the country, I think this will stand us in good stead.

Camp completed with no major shocks. Darren McKeague got a nasty hip flexor injury but should be ok for the season start. Paul Graham has struggled throughout camp and the coaches don’t seem to think he warrants a place in the squad. More worrying however was the coaches questioning of Key man Kyle Amyotte whos fitness did not appear to be up to scratch, we are relying on Kyle big time this year, unprofessional attitudes to training cannot be tolerated. Pre- Season continues and the team is playing well, only time for two exhibition games before our cup tie with Sheffield then a few more exhibition games before the start of season proper. On the bright side, Antti Jokela has been impressive in net and youngster Tom Mills has been our best player, kid has really surprised me, not many brits get the chance to play across the pond, his time playing High School hockey in the states must have benefited him greatly.

September 8th 2008 – Shock from across the pond as Martin Brodeur is forced into retirement due to injury!!! What a loss for the game, and Roy’s record remains unbroken..

September 9th – The media release their pre-season predictions. Guildford Flames and Slough Jets are expected to battle it out for the title. Not surprisingly the media place us dead last with no chance at the title.

September 10th – My first official game in charge as we take on the Sheffield Scimitars in the EPL Cup. Our hated rivals Telford Tigers are also in group B with us. We are at home but not expecting this one to be in the W column, but we’ll see. Only 60 season tickets sold going into the season and a paltry 179 people show up to watch this one…….not good.

Appears the fans knew to stay away, were swept aside 4-1 , sunk largely by the exploits of Slovak hot shot Peter Slamiar who grabs a hat trick. Sean Donaldson grabs a consolation goal for us but all in all a poor showing. Particularly from Ben Campbell who spent most of the night in the box. 8 minor penalties for the team overall, just not acceptable, we need to improve.

After the game I get a boost as RW Brian Worrel informs us hes accepted our offer and will be joining up with the squad tomorrow. Brian was recently released by the EIHL’s Manchester Phoenix and will provide some much needed depth at right wing.

September 12th – Guildford Flames have put RD Dominic Hopkins on the block. Hopkins is a big defensive defenceman and would be welcome addition to our pretty shoddy blueline. Unfortunately I have zero money to spend, but chance my arm with a free transfer request. Thankfully, Guildford boss Stan Marple throws me a bone and accepts, negotiations are easy Dominic hasn’t got much choice and we agree terms quickly. Will join the squad tomorrow.

September 14th – A busy busy day. First off I’ve added Alexandre Goldbout to the coaching staff to replace the position left by Dru Burgess’ promotion. Defenceman Steve Lee was recently released and I’ve had a bid in for him, but it appears half the EPL also have the same idea, Lee is a superb defenceman and should be in the Elite League, fingers crossed he accepts our offer.

Guildford Flames boss Stan Marple informs me that LW Terry Miles is available and again I can have him for nothing (I’m beginning to like this guy!!), Miles ain’t anything to write home about but an upgrade on some the guys I have so I’ll happily make an offer. Telford Tigers have also put Defenceman Ashley Stanton on the block, I’ve chanced my arm with a free bid, hopefully their eager to just shed his salary and will be happy to give him away.

Home to the Scimitars again, this time in the league to open the season on the 23rd. Update to follow.


If your reading let me know, appreciate any feedback/opinions etc.

Hey Reymullen .... check out the blog please, that is what it is there for, our stories,


Thanks

batdad wrote:Hey Reymullen .... check out the blog please, that is what it is there for, our stories,


Thanks

OOps!!! My bad, apologies batdad, never knew there was a blog facility, pretty neat. Anyway for anyone who began reading and is interesting in following/contributing to my story - http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/weblog.php?w=89

Many Thanks!