BE A GM Thread - Part II (NHL 16/NHL 15/whatever)

[GrnEggsNHam]

WSH Rules and Roster Edits | WSH/HER 16-17

Game: NHL 17
Teams: WSH Capitals / HER Bears
Rosters: September 9, 2016
Owner Mode: On
Fantasy Draft: Off
NHL Salary Cap: On
GM Firing: On
CPU Trades: On
Morale Meetings: Off
Waivers: On – As an added challenge I may not claim players on waivers.
Assistant Coach Edits Lines: Off
Auto Rotate Goalies: On
Auto Finances: Off
Accept Relocation: Off
Auto Sign Free Agents: Off
Game Style: Full Sim 4/4
Difficulty: Superstar
Injuries: On
Trade Difficulty: Hard​

I want this to be a challenging and interesting GM experience. My goal was to remove undesirable players or contracts in hopes of increased trading or free agent activity. The following contracts have been terminated:

ANA Ducks – San Diego Gulls
2
After Moves: 43/50 players and $5.508M remaining salary
D Stu Bickel

ARZ Coyotes – Tucson Roadrunners
:coyotes
After Moves: 47/50 players and $9.511M remaining salary
C Dave Bolland
RW Stefan Fournier
LW Michael Bunting
C Tyler Gaudet
LW Garret Ross
C Matia Marcantuoni
D Dysin Mayo
D Chris Pronger
D Derek Smith

BOS Bruins – Providence Bruins

After Moves: 44/50 players and $5.168M remaining salary
D Chris Casto

BUF Sabres – Rochester Americans

After Moves: 46/50 players and $8.168M remaining salary
D Erik Burgdoerfer

CGY Flames – Stockton Heat

After Moves: 44/50 players and $7.525M salary remaining
RW Daniel Pribyl
LW Jamie Devane

CAR Hurricanes – Charlotte Checkers

After Moves: 45/50 players and $17.742M remaining salary
LW Bryan Bickell
C Patrick Brown

CHI Blackhawks – Rockford Icehogs

After Moves: 38/50 players and $7.940M remaining salary
RW Spencer Abbott
C Martin Lundberg
D Cameron Schilling

COL Avalanche – San Antonio Rampage

After Moves: 48/50 players and $1.170M remaining salary
RW Mike Sislo
LW Dennis Everberg
RW Trent Vogelhuber
C Sam Henley
C Turner Elson

CBJ Blue Jackets – Cleveland Monsters

After Moves: 44/50 players and $7.745M remaining salary
RW David Clarkson
D Jaime Sifers
D Jesse Dudas
D Ilari Melart
LW Brett Gallant
D Oleg Yevenko
D Markus Nutivaara
D Jacob Graves

DAL Stars – Texas Stars

After Moves: 44/50 players and $0.805M remaining salary
D Andrew Bodnarchuk
D Dustin Stevenson
D Mattias Backman
D Chris Martenet

DET Red Wings – Grand Rapids Griffins

After Moves: 47/50 players and $1.673M remaining salary
C Joakim Andersson
D Nick Jensen
D Adam Almqvist
D David Nosek

EDM Oilers – Bakersfield Condors

After Moves: 43/50 players and $8.505M remaining salary

FLA Panthers – Springfield Thunderbirds

After Moves: 40/50 players and $3.527M remaining salary
C Dryden Hunt
D Linus Hultstrom
LW Juho Lammikko

LA Kings – Ontario Reign

After Moves: 46/50 players and $2.990M remaining salary
LW Paul Bissonnette
LW Joel Lowry

MIN Wild – Iowa Wild

After Moves: 44/50 players and $1.560M remaining salary
RW Marc Hagel
D Zach Palmquist

MTL Canadiens – St. Johns IceCaps

After Moves: 47/50 players and $2.707M remaining salary
LW Bobby Farnham
D Joel Hanley
D Ryan Johnston
RW Mark MacMillan

NSH Predators – Milwaukee Admirals

After Moves: 47/50 players and $6.297M remaining salary
D Scott Valentine
D Kristian Nakyva
C Cody Bass
LW Adam Payerl
LW Simon Moser
D Jaynen Rissling
LW Harry Zolnierczyk
D Corey Potter
LW Mike Liambas

NJ Devils – Albany Devils

After Moves: 39/50 players and $15.880M remaining salary
C Marc Savard
C Carter Camper
LW Harri Pesonen
D Yohann Auvitu
D Andrew MacWilliam
D Alexander Urbom

NY Islanders – Bridgeport Sound Tigers

After Moves: 42/50 players and $4.875M remaining salary
LW Eric Boulton

NY Rangers – Hartford Wolf Pack

After Moves: 38/50 players and $4.375M remaining salary
LW Daniel Paille
D Mat Bodie
RW Marek Hrivik
D Tommy Hughes

OTT Senators – Binghamton Senators

After Moves: 43/50 players and $6.855M remaining salary
RW Zack Stortini
C Chad Nehring

PHI Flyers – Lehigh Valley Phantoms

After Moves: 45/50 players and $4.755M remaining salary
LW Greg Carey
LW Petr Straka
D Maxim Lamarche
D Andrew MacDonald

PIT Penguins – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

After Moves: 41/50 players and $1.140M remaining salary
LW Pascal Dupuis
D Reid McNeill

SJ Sharks – San Jose Barracuda

After Moves: 40/50 and $1.293M remaining salary
RW Petter Emanuelsson
D Tim Heed
D Patrick McNally

STL Blues – Chicago Wolves

After Moves: 48/50 players and $3.520M remaining salary
C Wade Megan
D Jani Hakanpaa
RW Jacob Doty

TB Lightning – Syracuse Crunch

After Moves: 47/50 players and $1.572M remaining salary
D Luke Witkowski
LW Yanni Gourde
D Daniel Walcott
D Matt Spencer
RW Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond
C Cameron Darcy
LW Henri Ikonen

TOR Maple Leafs – Toronto Marlies

After Moves: 45/50 players and $6.807M remaining salary
C Marcel Muller
D Juraj Mikus
D Justin Holl
RW Nathan Horton
D Stephane Robidas

VAN Canucks – Utica Comets

After Moves: 40/50 players and $5.797M remaining salary
LW Bill Sweatt
D Chad Billins
C Jayson Megna
LW Alexandre Burrows

WSH Capitals – Hershey Bears

After Moves: 39/50 players and $0.875M remaining salary
LW Paul Carey
C Zach Sill
RW Garrett Mitchell
D Connor Hobbs
C Travis Boyd

WPG Jets – Manitoba Moose

After Moves: 42/50 players and $8.725M remaining salary
C John Albert

-----------------------------------------------------------------
WSH Capitals/HER Bears 2016-2017

Since I was the one who “trimmed†all the rosters I’m going to step back and hope to see some action. After the first slew of signings I’ll throw my hat in the ring. I’m hoping it’ll be quite active and if it is I’ll mention the notable signings. Looking forward to checking out this "new" Franchise mode. I'm thinking anything has to be better than last years iteration.

 

[GrnEggsNHam]

WSH Preseason 16-17

Previous Posts
WSH Rules and Roster Edits | WSH/HER 16-17​

WSH Preseason 16-17

Owner Goals:
Primary - Win the Stanley Cup
Secondary - Sell 95% of season tickets | Boost team chemistry to 76​

The beginning of free agency was a little disappointing so I just decided to start making offers after the first wave of signings:
NJ – D Eric Roy 1yr
CAR – D Ryan Sproul 1yr
CAR – LW Sean Bergenheim 1yr
WPG – RW Joachim Rohdin 1yr
NJ – RW Kris Versteeg 1yr
As you will see below, after all the trades, there was plenty of talent left out there. It doesn’t make sense to me. But, whatever I need to win the Stanley Cup, per my owner’s expectations. After I made some offers other teams started coming into the sandbox to play. I lost a few offers that I was counting on and that’s exactly the kind of action I wanted to see. NJ continued to be very active and signed one of the bigger fist left out there, D Dennis Seidenberg.

Trades:
WSH-

DFD Brooks Orpik 85ovr 35yrs – Exact Top 6 D – 3yr $5.500M
NSH-

2017 2nd NSH
2017 7th NSH​

I happily rid myself of this hideous contract. I was surprised with the return but this is a good trade for both sides. The Predators blue line is now complete and should be one of the best in the NHL. I just honestly hate the DFD player type, sorry Alzner LOL. They tend to turn the puck over more than TWD and OFD in my experience.

WSH-

TWD Matt Niskanen 87ovr 29yrs – Top 4 D – 5yr $5.750M
LW TWF Daniel Winnik 83ovr 31yrs – Bottom 6 F – 1yr $2.250M
OFD Aaron Ness 75ovr 26yrs – Low AHL Top 2 D – 2yr $0.615M
LW GRN Liam O’Brien 67ovr 22yrs – Low AHL Top 6 F – 1yr $0.625M
HYB Joe Cannata 71ovr 26yrs – Low AHL Starter – 1yr
BOS-

TWD Zdeno Chara 89ovr 39yrs – Elite – 2yr $6.920M(Retained $3.460M)
HYB Malcolm Subban 80ovr 22yrs – Elite – 1yr $0.865M
2017 4th BOS
2018 4th BOS​

Matt’s contract wasn’t atrocious but it also wasn’t pretty. I’m not fretting over the loss of talent either with the glut of free agents available. Both Niskanen and Winnik are huge additions for a team seriously lacking. Boston knows Chara is declining and the pace of the game is increasing. He’s too slow and old to be a number 1 or 2 defensemen. I think I can utilize him to his maximum potential for however long that may be. I imagine him and I talking like that scene from the movie Moneyball(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210166/), where David Justice is getting the leadership talk from GM Billy Bean. Chara is my Justice and I’m going to squeeze every last ounce of hockey he’s got left in him. I also picked up a talented young goalie in Subban and dealt some unwanted contracts.

WSH-

DFD Karl Alzner 87ovr 28yrs – Top 4 D – 1yr $2.800M
C TWF Jay Beagle 81ovr 30yrs – Bottom 6 F – 2yr $1.750M
CAR-

2017 2nd NYR
2017 2nd CAR
2018 3rd CAR
2018 4th CAR
2019 4th CAR​

It was inevitable that I would trade Karl, with my disdain for DFD types. I decided to just pull the trigger on this, seeing as I seem to be a defensive dealer. I wanted to find a team that he would get top pairing minutes and I think he will pair nicely with Justin Faulk. I do like Jay Beagle but for some reason his offensive awareness(79) took a hit in this iteration of the game. I was quite happy with the bevy of draft picks I received in return. I made this trade mainly because I went a little crazy with my free agent offers(see below). I wanted to make room in case they all accepted, LOL.

WSH-

TWD Colby Williams 63ovr 21yrs – High AHL Top 2 D – 2015 6th WSH(173rd)
LW SNP Chris Bourque 77ovr 30yrs – AHL Top 6 F – 2004 2nd WSH(33rd)
BUF-

2017 3rd WSH
2017 5th BUF
2017 7th BUF
2018 4th BUF​

This was an excellent return for 2 players I don’t have any real need for. Chris Bourque is an AHL luxury and I can sign plenty of free agents who are more talented than him for this supplementary role.

WSH-

C SNP Tim McGauley 64ovr 21yrs – High AHL Top 6 F – 3yr $0.665M
LW PLY Nathan Walker 70ovr 22yrs – Med AHL Top 6 F – 1yr $0.635M
DFD Tyler Lewington 69ovr 21yrs – High AHL Top 2 D – 2yr $0.665M
FLA-

2017 2nd FLA
2017 4th FLA
2017 5th FLA​

This was a monster win for me and the return was sensational. I got rid of some undesirables and made plenty of room for free agent signings. In previous iterations of the game I’ve developed Tyler Lewington into a decent top 4 D. However, he’s a DFD player type now instead of TWD. I’ve also never had any luck with McGauley or Walker and gladly let them go.

Free Agent Offers Rejected:
RW SNP Alexander Semin 83ovr 32yrs – Top 6 F – 2002 1st WSH(13th) – 1yr $2.500M(Offer rejected, signed with NYI, 1yr $2.720M)
TWD Kyle Quincey 83ovr 31yrs – Top 6 D – 2003 4th DET(132nd) – 1yr $2.500M(Offer rejected, signed with NJ, 1yr 2.570M)

Free Agent Acquisitions:
TWD Andrej Meszaros 82ovr 30yrs – Top 6 D – 2004 1st OTT(23rd) – 1yr $1.250M
TWD Andrew MacDonald 82yrs 30yrs – Top 6 D – 2006 6th NYI(160th) – 1yr $1.275M
OFD Teemu Eronen 73yrs 25yrs – Low 7th D – 2011 7th STL(192nd) – 1yr $0.575M
TWD Kristian Nakyva 69ovr 25yrs – Med AHL Top 2 D – Undrafted – 3yr $0.575M
C TWF Antti Suomela 63ovr 22yrs – Med Top 9 F – Undrafted – 3yr $0.575M
C PLY Oula Palve 73ovr 24yrs – Med Bottom 6 F – Undrafted – 1yr $0.575M
C GRN Kyle Chipchura 81ovr 30yrs – Bottom 6 F – 2004 1st MTL(18th) – 1yr $0.575M
C PLY Derek Roy 81ovr 33yrs – Top 9 F – 2001 2nd WSH(32nd) – 1yr $0.575M
RW TWF Tyler Kennedy 82ovr 30yrs – Top 9 F – 2004 4th PIT(99th) – 1yr $1.500M
LW SNP Jiri Tlusty 82ovr 28yrs – Top 9 F – 2006 1st TOR(13th) – 1yr $1.675M
LW PWF David Booth 82ovr 31yrs – Bottom 6 F – 2004 2nd FLA(53rd) – 1yr $1.325M
C TWF Mike Richards 81ovr 31yrs – Bottom 6 F – 2003 1st PHI(24th) – 1yr $1.300M
G HYB Ilya Bryzgalov 85ovr 36yrs – Starter – 1yr $4.550M
TWD Evgeny Medvedev 83ovr 34yrs – Top 4 D – 1yr $1.800M
LW PLY Tomas Fleischmann 81ovr 32yrs – Bottom 6 F – 1yr $1.200M
TWD Kris Russell 85ovr 29yrs – Top 4 D – 1yr $4.850M
HYB Joni Ortio 81ovr 25yrs – Med Starter – 1yr $1.000M
OFD Christian Ehrhoff 81ovr 34yrs – Top 6 D – 1yr $1.00M
LW SNP Martin Havlat 82ovr 35yrs – Top 9 F – 1yr $1.400M
RW TWF David Moss 81ovr 34yrs – Bottom 6 F – 1yr $0.575M
LW SNP Patrik Elias 82ovr 40yrs – Top 9 F – 1yr $1.575M
OFD Dan Boyle 82ovr 40yrs – Top 6 D – 1yr $1.600M​

I stayed away from Russell for a long time and ARZ was courting him. When pre-season ended and I saw he had rejected their offers, I decided to make my move.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Thinking of starting up an expansion team GM mode complete with doing mock trades/buyouts before the expansion draft but just gotta wait to see if I win a PS4 bundle in the Tim Hortons hockey card contest.

That, and I am procrastinating with editing the rosters/potentials since so many players are so far off.

Does anybody know in Legacy/15 if there is a way to fix the first 2-3 drafts so that they don't auto generate a top 10s that are filled with goalies? If I create 4.5* prospects and populate them in the CHL for those draft years, will they show up in the draft instead of those beast goalies?

 

[GrnEggsNHam]

WSH Regular Season 16-17

Previous Posts
WSH Rules and Roster Edits | WSH/HER 16-17
WSH Preseason 16-17
​

WSH Regular Season 16-17

Soon after I made the trades below I got a call from my scout advising me not to trade away players I’ve acquired so recently. Specifically how it would negatively affect my GM reputation, which I found very comical. Considering the GM rep area has been removed for the past 2 iterations of the game, LOL EA. So my scout’s advice will fall on deaf ears until I can perceive some negative effects. After the trades I picked up a couple more talented free agents to fill in the roster. I also dove into the new financial management section. I’m not sure I am going to like this part but I took the time to meticulously set all my pricing. I upgraded the concessions, team store, and the parking lot. I then began building a second parking lot but scaled the timeframe so that it was cheaper to build. I don’t anticipate needing it until next season, after we’ve won the Stanley Cup!

Trade:​

I made these trades right at the start of the season.
WSH-

LW PLY Marcus Johansson 86ovr 26yrs – Med Top 6 F – 3yr $4.585M
CHI-

2017 1st CHI
2017 3rd CHI​

For whatever reason Chicago didn’t add to their roster in free agency?! I don’t need Marcus anymore after all the veteran guys I’ve picked up in free agency. So he’s great trade fodder for me and has terrific value. I wasn’t a big fan of the contract he was signed too either. Honestly he’s decent but I think his overall point totals are exaggerated, because he played on a line with Ovechkin and Backstrom for most of his career. He never took off even though he was with all that talent and was merely mediocre. You see guys like Brad Marchand with similar skill sets(perhaps less than) and they’re scoring big points alongside their star players. I think Marcus was incorrectly developed into a winger when he should be a center. I love him as 3c on this team but I can’t afford to pay my 3rd line center $4M+. Basically I’m saying his numbers are inflated and he was being carried by Ovi and Backy for the first few years of his career. I can’t deny he’s developed into a top 9 forward but, he’s overrated IMO. I’m quite happy with this return.

WSH-

DFD Jonas Siegenthaler 70ovr 19yrs – Low 7th D – 2015 2nd WSH(57th)
RW TWF Brad Malone 77ovr 27yrs – Bottom 6 F – 2007 4th COL(105th)
2017 3rd WSH
2017 7th BUF
CHI-

2017 2nd CHI​

I noticed Chicago was interested in these guys while concocting the previous trade and decided to hit them up for another draft pick.

WSH-

LW TWF Lars Eller 82ovr 27yrs – Top 9 F – 3yr $3.500M
ANA-

2017 3rd ANA​

The ducks needed another LW and Lars will play in their top 6. It sucks because I loved him as a bottom 6 forward and PK specialist. However, $3M+ is a high salary for those duties. The previous GM signed him to a bigger contract than I felt he deserved. Not unlike Matt Niskanen or Marcus Johansson. Good players but overpaid in my opinion.

WSH-

LW SNP Martin Havlat 82ovr 35yrs – Top 9 F – 1yr $1.400M
2017 2nd CAR
2017 3rd CAR
2017 5th WSH
2017 5th FLA
MTL-

2017 1st MTL​

Montreal was shallow on the left wing and this allowed me to put together a nice little trade.

WSH-

LW SNP Patrik Elias 82ovr 40yrs – Top 9 F – 1yr $1.575M
OFD Dan Boyle 82ovr 40yrs – Top 6 D – 1yr $1.600M
2017 2nd CHI
2017 3rd ANA
2017 4th WSH
OTT-

2017 1st OTT​

After the deal with Montreal I decided to look for a team interested in a similar deal. The Senators were interested in 2 of the veterans on my roster. I’m quite pleased and find it curious Ottawa didn’t attempt to sign them as free agents during the preseason(just as I had).

Free Agent Acquisitions:​

RW TWF David Jones 81ovr 32yrs – Top 9 F – 2003 9th COL(288th) – 1yr $1.250M
C TWF Dave Bolland 80ovr 30yrs – Bottom 6 F – 2004 2nd CHI(32nd) – 1yr $0.575M
DFD Matt Bartkowski 81ovr 28yrs – Top 6 D – 2008 7th FLA(190th) – 1yr $1.000M

Top Prospects(not in NHL):
HYB Malcolm Subban 79ovr 22yrs – Low Elite – 2012 1st BOS(24th)
HYB Joni Ortio 81ovr 25yrs – Med Starter – 2009 6th CGY(171st)
TWD Madison Bowey 79ovr 21yrs – Med Top 4 D – 2013 2nd WSH(53rd)
TWD Lucas Johansen 59ovr 18yrs – Med Top 6 D – 2016 1st WSH(28th)
RW SNP Brett Connolly 81ovr 24yrs – Med Top 9 F – 2010 1st TB(6th)
RW SNP Jakub Vrana 78ovr 20yrs – Med Top 6 F – 2014 1st WSH(13th)
RW SNP Riley Barber 78ovr 22yrs – Med Top 9 F – 2012 6th WSH(167th)
C TWF Antti Suomela 63ovr 22yrs – Med Top 9 F - Undrafted​

WSH Lines:
(92OFF – 92DEF – 94GOA)
Grr...having problems with my tables

WSH Line Strategies:
Grr...having problems with my tables

HER Lines:
(79OFF – 83DEF – 81GOA)
Grr...having problems with my tables

HER Line Strategies:
Grr...having problems with my tables


Like 6 months ago I had tested this site out for converting my spreadsheets into tables and it worked well. Now the [tr] and [td] tags are not being read properly by this site...

 

[Tak7]

Does anyone know when the draft lottery is in franchise mode?

I know it pops up this year, but does anyone know when?

Is there a day I can save, simulate up a day to do the draft lottery, and then re-load the save if I don't like the results?

I know in 16 it occurred on the final day of the regular season. Does anyone know about this yaer ?

 

[Tak7]

Does anybody know in Legacy/15 if there is a way to fix the first 2-3 drafts so that they don't auto generate a top 10s that are filled with goalies? If I create 4.5* prospects and populate them in the CHL for those draft years, will they show up in the draft instead of those beast goalies?

Yes, or just bump real prospects that show up in the later rounds in potential to have them go higher and you'll avoid that problem.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Does anyone know when the draft lottery is in franchise mode?

I know it pops up this year, but does anyone know when?

Is there a day I can save, simulate up a day to do the draft lottery, and then re-load the save if I don't like the results?

I know in 16 it occurred on the final day of the regular season. Does anyone know about this yaer ?

I don't know, but what are you trying to accomplish?

I'm not sure if trade AI has improved on next gen since I am still on Legacy, but if your goal is just to get a higher draft pick trading up in the draft, especially when it is only a few spots are the easiest cheese trades to accomplish. It seems like it'd be easier to trade up than it would to constantly save/re-sim playoffs/retry if it does in fact get calculated on the last day of the regular season.

 

[Tak7]

I don't know, but what are you trying to accomplish?

I'm not sure if trade AI has improved on next gen since I am still on Legacy, but if your goal is just to get a higher draft pick trading up in the draft, especially when it is only a few spots are the easiest cheese trades to accomplish. It seems like it'd be easier to trade up than it would to constantly save/re-sim playoffs/retry if it does in fact get calculated on the last day of the regular season.

I'm trying to find a spot where:

*I can save.

*Do the draft lottery

*See the results

*Reload the save if I don't like the results

*Do the draft lottery again

*See the results

*Etc.

 

[dropdeadjoey]

I don't know, but what are you trying to accomplish?

I'm not sure if trade AI has improved on next gen since I am still on Legacy, but if your goal is just to get a higher draft pick trading up in the draft, especially when it is only a few spots are the easiest cheese trades to accomplish. It seems like it'd be easier to trade up than it would to constantly save/re-sim playoffs/retry if it does in fact get calculated on the last day of the regular season.

I can't speak for NHL 17 (yet, I'm picking it up tomorrow) but I found in NHL 16 that trying to move up in the draft was rather difficult, even if it was only a few spots.

 

[eternalbedhead]

I don't have NHL 17 so I just went back and did a miniature roster update to NHL 16 and started up a GM with the Ducks.

I got a couple surprises in potential to start it up and long story short, I've now got 6 defenders over 85. I wanted some advice on what to do.

Hampus Lindholm - 91. Made him 88 with medium elite and he jumped to high elite when I loaded up the GM for the first time. Out of the question as far as trading.

Sami Vatanen - 87. Made him 86, he jumped to medium elite and grew one more overall, his defensive game actually making it to 5 stars. His physical category sucks (I buffed his defense and really knocked down his physical) but he's otherwise an excellent defender. Trading him is an option, but I'd really prefer not to.

Shea Theodore - 87. Good shot, passing, 4.5 star defense. One of the less attractive-looking defenders on the team but he's only 21 and has high elite potential so I'd prefer not to trade him.

Cam Fowler - 87. 5 star defense, mediocre to only decent everywhere else. He's getting traded.

Brandon Montour - 85. 4.5 star defense with his current morale boost (he's playing like an 87), very good shot, good passing and offensive awareness, good skater. Another young player and the only quality offensive RHD I have in the system outside of Vatanen. I'd really prefer not to trade him, but I'm open to it as a last resort.

Josh Manson - 86. Made him 84 with medium top 6 potential, he jumped to medium top 4 when I loaded the game up, then jumped to medium elite following his first season. He's 24 though, and though he's 5 star defensively, he lacks talent anywhere else. However, the locker room loves him (I hate morale) and he'd be the perfect bottom-pairing guy. Yet he's listed as a top 4 and I don't want him getting pissed.

So I have three options under consideration:

Move Fowler and Vatanen, roll with a top 4 of Lindholm, Montour, Theodore, and Manson. Not awful, everyone there has 5 star defense with the exception of Theodore, but when I move Vatanen out, a nice bottom-pairing OFD has to come back because Manson is going to be awful on the power play and my next best defender right now after these 6 listed is Clayton Stoner at 79. (or Simon Despres at 84 once he's done being mad at me)

Move Fowler and Manson. Roll with a top 4 of Lindholm, Theodore, Vatanen, and Montour. I can pick up a good bottom pairing defensive defender to pick up on the PK if Vatanen doesn't stick there for some reason. Doesn't sound too bad, but once again, Manson is a fan favorite in the locker room. I don't want to tank my team chemistry by trading him, and once again, the depth drops off quickly afterwards unless Despres stops whining. Which brings me to the final option.

Move just Fowler. Run with the top 4 in the previous example and run Despres-Manson on the bottom pairing. Make up for Manson's lack of top 4 time with top-pairing PK time. Unfortunately, I don't know if he'll be happy with this concession. Does this work? Can I put Manson (who once again is listed as a top 4) on the bottom pairing, but make up for it with PK time? I played Despres (who's an 84) on the bottom pairing last year and he got pissed, but he wasn't getting any special teams time so I don't know.

 

[Igor Shestyorkin]

I don't have NHL 17 so I just went back and did a miniature roster update to NHL 16 and started up a GM with the Ducks.

I got a couple surprises in potential to start it up and long story short, I've now got 6 defenders over 85. I wanted some advice on what to do.

Hampus Lindholm - 91. Made him 88 with medium elite and he jumped to high elite when I loaded up the GM for the first time. Out of the question as far as trading.

Sami Vatanen - 87. Made him 86, he jumped to medium elite and grew one more overall, his defensive game actually making it to 5 stars. His physical category sucks (I buffed his defense and really knocked down his physical) but he's otherwise an excellent defender. Trading him is an option, but I'd really prefer not to.

Shea Theodore - 87. Good shot, passing, 4.5 star defense. One of the less attractive-looking defenders on the team but he's only 21 and has high elite potential so I'd prefer not to trade him.

Cam Fowler - 87. 5 star defense, mediocre to only decent everywhere else. He's getting traded.

Brandon Montour - 85. 4.5 star defense with his current morale boost (he's playing like an 87), very good shot, good passing and offensive awareness, good skater. Another young player and the only quality offensive RHD I have in the system outside of Vatanen. I'd really prefer not to trade him, but I'm open to it as a last resort.

Josh Manson - 86. Made him 84 with medium top 6 potential, he jumped to medium top 4 when I loaded the game up, then jumped to medium elite following his first season. He's 24 though, and though he's 5 star defensively, he lacks talent anywhere else. However, the locker room loves him (I hate morale) and he'd be the perfect bottom-pairing guy. Yet he's listed as a top 4 and I don't want him getting pissed.

So I have three options under consideration:

Move Fowler and Vatanen, roll with a top 4 of Lindholm, Montour, Theodore, and Manson. Not awful, everyone there has 5 star defense with the exception of Theodore, but when I move Vatanen out, a nice bottom-pairing OFD has to come back because Manson is going to be awful on the power play and my next best defender right now after these 6 listed is Clayton Stoner at 79. (or Simon Despres at 84 once he's done being mad at me)

Move Fowler and Manson. Roll with a top 4 of Lindholm, Theodore, Vatanen, and Montour. I can pick up a good bottom pairing defensive defender to pick up on the PK if Vatanen doesn't stick there for some reason. Doesn't sound too bad, but once again, Manson is a fan favorite in the locker room. I don't want to tank my team chemistry by trading him, and once again, the depth drops off quickly afterwards unless Despres stops whining. Which brings me to the final option.

Move just Fowler. Run with the top 4 in the previous example and run Despres-Manson on the bottom pairing. Make up for Manson's lack of top 4 time with top-pairing PK time. Unfortunately, I don't know if he'll be happy with this concession. Does this work? Can I put Manson (who once again is listed as a top 4) on the bottom pairing, but make up for it with PK time? I played Despres (who's an 84) on the bottom pairing last year and he got pissed, but he wasn't getting any special teams time so I don't know.

I'd say moving just Fowler is the best option.

 

[eternalbedhead]

I'd say moving just Fowler is the best option.

I'm just worried about Manson getting pissed because he IS an 86 and listed as a top 4. Despres was 84 last season and got pissed for being played on the bottom pairing. I'm just not sure if Manson will be appeased by getting the top-pairing PK time I'm planning to give him.

 

[Igor Shestyorkin]

I'm just worried about Manson getting pissed because he IS an 86 and listed as a top 4. Despres was 84 last season and got pissed for being played on the bottom pairing. I'm just not sure if Manson will be appeased by getting the top-pairing PK time I'm planning to give him.

I don't think he'd be too angry if he's given top pairing PK time, if he's on the top PK unit he'd still be getting 17-20 minutes a night i'd assume.

 

[GrnEggsNHam]

GrnEggsNHam WSH Update

I'm still frustrated about my tables not working but decided to give up. I'll just post little updates like this from now on.

2020-2021
Only 2 of my draftees have made it to the NHL thus far. I've got quite a few playing down in Hershey though. I picked up Cederholm and Vejdemo in free agency a few years ago and developed them. Marchand and Gustafsson were also free agent acquisitions. I traded for a disgruntled Evander Kane, he was 82ovr, on the cheap and also acquired Steel and Bigras via trades. Steel was undeveloped but Bigras came right in and started on my NHL team last year. As you can see I've traded away most of the original roster. It's been fun developing the young talent already existing in Washington. Jakub Vrana has been outstanding, he played a full AHL season(57pts) before he made the NHL squad. He's now played in 243 NHL games and scored 151pts. Riley Barber has not been as impressive but seems to be turning a corner. He scored 49pts last season blowing his previous 2 NHL seasons away. In 241 NHL games he's scored 101pts. Finally there is defender Madison Bowey. In 228 NHL games he's recorded 52pts. I feel like he's about to hit a breakthrough in the offensive department. His big slapper has been steadily progressing and he now has 85ssa and 91ssp.

A. Ovechkin 91 - E. Kuznetsov 92 - J. Vrana 90
E. Kane 86 - N. Backstrom 90 - A. Burakovsky 85
S. Steel 82 - D. Brassard 87 - T. Wilson 84
B. Marchand 87 - L. Vejdemo 85 - R. Barber 82

J. Carlson 89 - T. Liljegren 83*
M. Bowey 85 - C. Bigras 87
E. Gustafsson 83 - J. Cederholm 84

B. Holtby 92
F. Gustavsson 86**

*TWD Timothy Liljegren 83ovr 21yrs - Med Elite - 2017 1st WSH(1)
**HYB Filip Gustavsson 86ovr 22yrs - Med Starter - 2017 1st WSH(29)

We should win the Stanley Cup this year as I feel we are a bit stronger than last season. Last year we made it to the Cup finals and lost to the NYI. We won the Cup in 17', 18', and 19'.

 

[eternalbedhead]

I don't think he'd be too angry if he's given top pairing PK time, if he's on the top PK unit he'd still be getting 17-20 minutes a night i'd assume.

Alright, I'll try that. Thanks!

 

[GrnEggsNHam]

I'm still frustrated about my tables not working but decided to give up. I'll just post little updates like this from now on.

2020-2021
Only 2 of my draftees have made it to the NHL thus far. I've got quite a few playing down in Hershey though. I picked up Cederholm and Vejdemo in free agency a few years ago and developed them. Marchand and Gustafsson were also free agent acquisitions. I traded for a disgruntled Evander Kane, he was 82ovr, on the cheap and also acquired Steel and Bigras via trades. Steel was undeveloped but Bigras came right in and started on my NHL team last year. As you can see I've traded away most of the original roster. It's been fun developing the young talent already existing in Washington. Jakub Vrana has been outstanding, he played a full AHL season(57pts) before he made the NHL squad. He's now played in 243 NHL games and scored 151pts. Riley Barber has not been as impressive but seems to be turning a corner. He scored 49pts last season blowing his previous 2 NHL seasons away. In 241 NHL games he's scored 101pts. Finally there is defender Madison Bowey. In 228 NHL games he's recorded 52pts. I feel like he's about to hit a breakthrough in the offensive department. His big slapper has been steadily progressing and he now has 85ssa and 91ssp.

A. Ovechkin 91 - E. Kuznetsov 92 - J. Vrana 90
E. Kane 86 - N. Backstrom 90 - A. Burakovsky 85
S. Steel 82 - D. Brassard 87 - T. Wilson 84
B. Marchand 87 - L. Vejdemo 85 - R. Barber 82

J. Carlson 89 - T. Liljegren 83*
M. Bowey 85 - C. Bigras 87
E. Gustafsson 83 - J. Cederholm 84

B. Holtby 92
F. Gustavsson 86**

*TWD Timothy Liljegren 83ovr 21yrs - Med Elite - 2017 1st WSH(1)
**HYB Filip Gustavsson 86ovr 22yrs - Med Starter - 2017 1st WSH(29)

We should win the Stanley Cup this year as I feel we are a bit stronger than last season. Last year we made it to the Cup finals and lost to the NYI. We won the Cup in 17', 18', and 19'.

We won the Cup and Derick Brassard was our leading scorer with 16pts. Kuznetsov was right behind him with 15pts and Holtby won the Conn Smythe for being Holtby. Lukas Vejdemo had an offensive breakthrough with 11pts, 5th on the team in the post-season.

The Hershey Bears struck out in the playoffs but there was one sparkling star. OFD Marius Johansen(2017 140th overall selection) scored 12 goals and 57 points during the regular season. He improved upon his rookie year(51pts) and his 94oa and 88pas is just exceptional and impressive. With that being said, a lot of my defensive prospects are blooming. 2016 28th overall TWD Lucas Johansen also looks poised for an NHL roster spot. 2019 81st overall selection OFD Marek Zednik is also looming after an impressive sophomore season(16pts vs 6pts his rookie year).

 

[NYRcupboundyessir*]

Hockey season baby. Its like Christmas time, get the same butterflies. Look forward to sharing some GM modes again once I get started lol. Used to share a lot, been a while

My conflict is that I hate next gen NHL & may stick with Legacy + updated rosters. I love the Star potential system from old gen. Hate the new stuff. I'll figure something out lol

 

[Lescanadiens99]

MINNESOTA WILD GM MODE NHL 17​

RULES: Medium trade difficulty,Morale meetings off, owner mode off, realistic trades, YES/NO button for whether or not UFAs walk away from the team.

BREAKING NEWS, MINNESOTA WILD GM CHUCK FLETCHER FIRED!​

A big piece of news in the hockey world today, Minnesota Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher has been relieved of his duty's after almost 10 years of service sunday. "Chuck served us well in his tenure with us and we thank him for his services but we have not been trending in the right direction under his leadership, we need to start winning as soon as possible and we have not been getting any better as of the last few seasons so we decided to make this change, the replacement GM will be Steve Staios of the Hamilton Bulldogs in the Ontario Hockey League."- Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold when asked about the firing.

Tuesday Afternoon Press conference

Any big moves planned for your first few days as gm?
"Nothing to big, getting settled in and getting to know the players and staff mostly, i have contacted a few free agents about potentially coming to training camp but nothing huge."
There seems to be a log jam when it comes to defense with seemingly quite a few NHL ready defensemen, anything on who will start the season?
"Well our top 2 pairings are pretty well set, a young D could suprise and take a top 4 spot but theres a slim chance, as for the bottom pairing the preseason will take care of that it will be up to the younger guys to play hard, impress the coach and get on the opening night roster."
Main aspirations for this season?
"Well ultimately we want to make the playoffs and go deep, i think this team is good enough to make it we are missing a couple pieces but they will come with time."
Any big names on the team your hoping to move throughout this season?
"Not necessarily, I think we have a good group of guys here but there are some needs we need filled so if the right trade pops up i wont hesitate to pull the trigger for the good of the club."

Minnesota Wild Preseason​

Game 1, MIN VS. DAL​

Starting Lineup

LW|C|RW
Parise|Koivu|Niederreiter
Stall|Granlund|Pominville
Zucker|Coyle|Stewart
Schroeder|Haula|Fontaine

LD|RD
Suter|Dumba
Brodin|Spurgeon
Scandella|Reilly

G
Dubnyk
Kuemper

The Minnesota Wild start the game off slow and trail 1-0 at the end of 20 off a goal by Remi Elie. Elie scores another to put the stars up by 2 early in the second but Jared Spurgeon brings the Wild back within 1, a goal by Tyler Seguin puts the stars up 3-1 going into the third, the Wild explode in the third period for 6 goals, Coyle nets two, Fontaine nets two, Pominville gets one and Zucker scores one late in the game to give the Wild the 7-3 win. Surprisingly the depth forwards for Minnesota showed up big time in this game, with the 3rd and 4th liners scoring a combined 12 points on the night. The player to watch out for was Mike Reilly who is believed to be the favorite to play the right side on the 3rd defensive pairing for the Wild when the season begins, he was held pointless but was a +2 in 14:54 of ice time.

Confirmed with link:Minnesota signs 3 players to professional tryouts, RW David Moss, LW Brandon Pirri and LW Martin Erat.​

Game 2, MIN VS. COL​

No line changes for Minnesota accept Darcy Kuemper will start in goal.​

The Minnesota Wild come out swinging in preseason game 2, with Chris Stewart, Charlie Coyle and Eric Stall each scoring a goal in the first period within a 5 minute span. Jason Pominville scores 5 minutes into the second and Darcy Kuemper continues his flawless game and we enter the third period with Minnesota leading 4-0, Mikko Rantanen ruins Kuempers shut out but the Wild take it 4-1. Another Pointless game for Mike Reilly but he finishes with a +2 again in 13:00 minutes on the ice.

Confirmed: Jordan Schroeder first cut from Minnesota Training camp. Schroeder had 2 assists and was a plus 1 in 2 preseason games with the Wild".

Game 3, MIN VS. NSH​

Starting Lineup​

LW|C|RW
Parise|Koivu|Niederreiter
Stall|Granlund|Pominville
Zucker|Coyle|Stewart
Pirri|Haula|Moss

LD|RD
Suter|Dumba
Brodin|Spurgeon
Scandella|Bartley

G

Stalock​

Dubnyk​

The Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators leave the first period both with a perfect goaltender, Parise scores early in the second to put Minnesota up 1-0. Less than 2 minutes later Haula follows his lead and puts the Wild up 2-0, Zucker ices the game with a goal near the end of the period and the Minnesota Wild take the game 3-0 Stalock records the 32 shot shutout and definitely earned him self at least one more start in the preseason. The Wild are now 3-0 in the preseason. The players to watch, Victor Bartley, Brandon Pirri and David Moss all had decent games, Pirri notching an assist and a +1 in 11:32 of ice time, David Moss was a +2 and pointless in 11:46 of ice time and Bartley was pointless but a +2 in 17:37 of ice time, which is good news for Mike Reilly as a very strong showing by Bartley more than likely would have made Reilly get cut from the team.

Game 4, MIN VS.CHI ​

No line changes for Minnesota, Kuemper to start.​

The game starts with the first period relatively quiet in Chicago until the last 5 minutes of the period where Parise opens the scoring for Minnesota followed by Stewart less than a minute later, Tootoo brings the Hawks within 1 before the end of the first, 2-1 Minnesota. Hartman ties the game less than a minute into the second period with a rocket slap shot from the hash marks, Zucker takes the lead back for Minnesota 4 minutes later. Patrick Kane ties the game again on a breakaway goal with two minutes remaining in the second, the period ends with the game tied 3-3. Campbell takes the lead for Chicago 5 minutes into the third period but with 9:51 remaining in the third Matthew Dumba blasts a slap shot from the point past Crawford and the game is tied again, nobody can be a third period hero and we are going to overtime. The Chicago Blackhawks begin the OT period in a dominant way, keeping the Wild in their zone for most of the period, Minnesota finally gets a very good scoring chance on a Zach Parise breakaway but he cant beat Crawford, the puck goes the other way and Jonathon Toews is on a 2 on 1 with Patrick Kane, Kuemper has no chance and Toews scores the winning goal with 2:37 remaining in the overtime period, the game ends 5-4 Black Hawks. The players to watch, Brandon Pirri and Victor Bartley both had something to prove this game but could not produce on the score sheet, Pirri had a mediocre game with a +/- of 0 and no points in 11:44 TOI, he may have sealed his fate after this game. Bartley had a decent game with a +2 and no points in 15:07 TOI. Its safe to say Darcy Kuemper will not be starting the next game.

Game 5, MIN VS. STL​

Starting Lineups​

LW|C|RW
Parise|Koivu|Niederreiter
Stall|Granlund|Pominville
Zucker|Coyle|Stewart
Erat|Erikkson Ek|Moss

LD|RD
Suter|Dumba
Brodin|Spurgeon
Scandella|Folin

G
Stalock
Kuemper

The game in Minnesota starts off fast and both teams are playing hard, Jason Zucker opens the scoring 5 minutes into the first period and Alex Pietrangelo ties the game with a bomb from the point with 7:56 remaining in the first, Granlund regains the Wild the lead with a goal with less than a minute left in the first, 2-1 Minnesota. The second period is relatively quiet other than a Koivu goal that brings the Wild a 3-1 lead going into the third period. Caron tries to get the Blues going with a goal 6 minutes into the third to bring the game to 3-2 but St. Louis cant capitalize on there chances and a Pominville empty netter ices the game for the Wild who win 4-2. Stalock has another good game and might force a difficult decision on Steve Staios. The players to watch, Christian Folin and Martin Erat both had very mediocre games, each having a +/- of 0 and no points to show for themselves.

Confirmed: Minnesota cuts 2 more players from training camp, Joel Erikkson Ek and Christian Folin. Folin had a +/- of 0 and no points in 1 preseason game and Eriksson Ek had a +/- of 0, no points and two shots in one preseason game with the Wild.

Game 6, MIN VS. WPG​

Starting Lineups​

LW|C|RW
Parise|Koivu|Niederreiter
Stall|Granlund|Pominville
Zucker|Coyle|Stewart
Erat|Haula|Moss

LD|RD
Suter|Dumba
Brodin|Spurgeon
Scandella|Reilly

G
Stalock
Kuemper

The game starts off with a bang for the Minnesota Wild as Stewart scores on the first shot of the game, Shawn Matthias ties the game with 5:56 remaining in the first and Alex Stalock wont allow another goal for the rest of the game, Granlund gets the game winner on Pavelec as the Minnesota Wild dominate the Winnipeg Jets with shots being 41-22 and winning 2-1. Alex Stalock has come in and absolutely robbed the backup job behind Devan Dubnyk away from Darcy Kuemper, this game was for Stalock to prove his 2 monster games were not a fluke and he has done a good job proving that. Mike Reilly and Martin Erat both had decent games at best and its hard to determine which players are going to be cut in time for the season opener in St. Louis.

Confirmed: Minnesota releases LW Martin Erat from PTO, the Wild also offered there other PTO players Brandon Pirri and David Moss each 1 year $725,000 contracts, Final cut from camp being Darcy Kuemper. GM Steve Staios says both Victor Bartley and Mike Reilly will start in the NHL this year.

Post Preseason press conference​

How will the keeping Bartley and Reilly in the NHL work?
"Our Coach will do most of that decision making but one will act as the 7th defenseman when scratched, The scratch to start the year will be Bartley and we will switch them out as we see fit."

Joel Eriksson Ek is widely considered to be your guys best prospect why give him a single game on the 4th line and then cut him?
"Yes i knew this question would come up, its really simply that there was nowhere for him to play even if he was ready for the NHL, we would much rather him growing and dominating the AHL playing 20 minutes a night as there first line center in Iowa then have him play 12 minutes as the 4th line center in the NHL, we let him play a game to see where he stood in his development thus far, we believe he will be a star for us one day soon and we need to make sure we develop him properly."

A bold decision cutting Kuemper from camp instead of Stalock dont you think?
"Yes it has the potential to bite us hard. But with the way Alex played in the preseason vs the way Darcy played i could easily tell who was the hungrier goaltender for a spot in the NHL and we want the guys who are hungry to win playing on the Minnesota Wild, Alex came here, we gave him a chance to steal the backup job and he kept his head down played his heart out and he did just that."

The Minnesota Wild were the most dominant team in the NHL in the preseason with a record of 5-0-1, do you think this success will translate over to the regular season?
"Well i sure hope so hahah, no but seriously i do think this team has all the right pieces to be a dominant force in the National Hockey League and i see no reason why our success cant continue on into the regular season."

Any trades lined up for the near future?
"We have been contacted by a few teams about some players but its just talks right now nothing big planned for now."

Projected Minnesota Wild Lineup for start of the season​

LW|C|RW
Zach Parise(A)|Mikko Koivu(C)|Nino Niederreiter
Eric Stall|Mikael Granlund|Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker|Charlie Coyle|Chris Stewart
Brandon Pirri|Eric Haula|David Moss

LD|RD
Ryan Suter(A)|Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin|Jared Spurgeon
Marco Scandella|Mike Reilly

Victor Bartley​

G
(S)Devan Dubnyk
(B)Alex Stalock

Sorry it was so long you guys lol! if you liked it let me know i had a good time makin it, and dont worry the rest wont be so long cause i wont be going game by game just did that for training camp/ Pre season. Lemme know if yall like it or if anyone would want me to go game by game cuz i enjoyed it ill definetly do it!

 

[MikePancake]

NHL vs CHL

So Im 2 years into my franchise mode as the Sabres and in the last draft I picked Nolan Patrick 2nd overall and Maxime Comtois 4th overall. Nolan Patrick was a 71 overall and Maxime Comtois was a 66 both with med elite potential. The first year they both had to go to the CHL but the second year I can send Patrick to the AHL but Comtois Still has to go to the CHL unless I bring him up to the NHL. They are currently both at 78 overall. So my question is do players develope better in the CHL , or do they develope better getting top NHL line minutes even if they're not quite ready for them yet? I'm not sure what to do because Patrick is a clear first line AHL player but Comtois can't go to the AHL and isn't a top line NHL player yet.

 

[GrnEggsNHam]

So Im 2 years into my franchise mode as the Sabres and in the last draft I picked Nolan Patrick 2nd overall and Maxime Comtois 4th overall. Nolan Patrick was a 71 overall and Maxime Comtois was a 66 both with med elite potential. The first year they both had to go to the CHL but the second year I can send Patrick to the AHL but Comtois Still has to go to the CHL unless I bring him up to the NHL. They are currently both at 78 overall. So my question is do players develope better in the CHL , or do they develope better getting top NHL line minutes even if they're not quite ready for them yet? I'm not sure what to do because Patrick is a clear first line AHL player but Comtois can't go to the AHL and isn't a top line NHL player yet.

I prefer to leave them in the CHL if at all possible. I only move players up when I think their stats are ready. This does bring up something I've been pondering about this years game. I noticed they included ECHL and Norway hockey league(2 teams?) rosters. Anyways as most probably noticed or know during the NHL entry draft a players country is listed. Next to that it will also display the team that prospect is playing for. In previous iterations of the game I would use this to determine if I should sign a prospect or not. If they were in the CHL, SHL, etc. I would leave them unsigned until they were older/more developed. Thus far I have not noticed a single draft pick coming from the US or Norway displaying any team information. I would like to believe they are playing in those respective leagues but alas there is no way for us to tell .

 

[GrnEggsNHam]

Skipped ahead a year.

WSH 2022-2023
The Ovechkin era is coming to an end and we've won 4 of the past 5 Stanley Cups(18,19,21,22). Somehow the Islanders snuck one in back in 2020. I traded Holtby to acquire the 2021 1st overall pick at the draft that year. Malcolm Subban was in net for our 2022 win. Ovi began regressing last season but was still a solid 89ovr. However, at the beginning of this season he's down to an 83ovr and his endurance(80), defensive awareness(78), and passing(77) are shot. I think he can still put up 20-30 goals(24g and 60pts last year), but with 2 years left on his contract I'm a little worried. Luckily in 2022 I had one of the best drafts ever!!!

2022 Draft:
60th - OFD Sergey Safronov 69ovr 20yrs - Med Top 6 D
120th - TWD Francois Menard 67ovr 20yrs - Low Top 6 D
122nd - BUT Vincent Vauclair 68ovr 19yrs - Low Fringe Starter
150th - LW SNP Ron Breitkreuz 76ovr 20yrs - Low Top 9 F
152nd - C TWF Oleg Shirokov 66ovr 20yrs - Low Top 9 F
180th - C TWF Johnathan Esche 68ovr 19yrs - Low Top 9 F
182nd - RW GRN Ruslan Suglobov 64ovr 19yrs - Low Bottom 6 F

Probably going to make some trades before I finalize my lineup for the 2022-2023 season. I currently have 2 first overall draft picks battling each other for a roster spot. Ideally I would trade away an older defender above them on the depth chart.

Edit:
After perusing trade blocks and staring blankly into my depth chart I finally decided to make some trades. I kicked things off by trading away P.K. Subban 89ovr(acquired at the trade deadline last year) to free up a spot on the blue line. However, I then decided to trade another superb defender, Chris Bigras 87ovr. I've got a lot of defensive talent waiting in the wings that I want to give minutes to.

J. Vrana 91 - E. Kuznetsov 92 - A. Burakovsky 86
D. Brassard 86 - N. Backstrom 89 - A. Shaw 84
A. Ovechkin 83 - L. Vejdemo 86 - B. Marchand 84
G. Smith 81 - S. Steel 82 - B. Osgood 81*

P. Kaigorodov 86* - J. Trouba 90
M. Bowey 85 - J. Carlson 89
L. Johansen 81 - T. Liljegren 84*

M. Subban 84
M. Mazanec 81

B. Pirri 81, B. Connolly 81, J. Cook 81*

*Drafted by me
OFD Pavel Kaigorodov 86ovr 21yrs - Med Elite - 2021 1st WSH(1st)
C PLY Brendan Osgood 81ovr 22yrs - Med Top 6 F - 2020 1st WSH(16th)
TWD Timothy Liljegren 84ovr 23yrs - Med Elite - 2017 1st WSH(1st)
TWD Jose Cook 81ovr 23yrs - Med Top 6 D - 2017 1st WSH(28th)

 

[Lescanadiens99]

MINNESOTA WILD GM MODE NHL 17​

Minnesota Wild 2016-2017 regular season​

Minnesota Wild dominant in preseason action going 5-0-1​

-Zach Parise was one of the big highlights of the preseason who flew under the radar due to the depth players battling it out and catching everybody's attention, Parise had 11 points in 6 preseason games on the first line left wing.

Opening Night Lineups

LW|C|RW
Zach Parise(A)|Mikko Koivu(C)|Nino Niederreiter
Eric Stall|Mikael Granlund|Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker|Charlie Coyle|Chris Stewart
Brandon Pirri|Eric Haula| David Moss

LD|RD
Ryan Suter(A)|Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin|Jared Spurgeon
Marco Scandella|Mike Reilly

G
(S)Devan Dubnyk
(B)Alex Stalock

-Marco Scandella tweaks his knee in the first game of the season, nothing serious expected to miss 1 game.

-The Minnesota Wild go 5-3-2 in the first ten games of the season and sit third in their division with 12 points. Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise seem to be clicking, each have 10 points in 10 games, Ryan Suter is dominating with 12 points in 10 games but pulls his groin in Buffalo and is projected to be out for 2-3 games. The biggest story for Minnesota is Alex Stalock whom they took a big chance on sending Darcy Kuemper down and keeping Stalock with the big team, it is still early but it looks to be biting Minnesota now with Stalock having a 4.65 GAA and a .866 SV% in 3 games, not nearly good enough for a Playoff teams backup. The Wild have a 3.20 GFPG good for 8th in the league, they also have a 3.30 GAPG good for 24th in the NHL, this needs to be improved as soon as possible if the Wild expect to make a strong playoff push this year, their PK percentage is 79.2% and their power play is 15.2%, 20th and 21'st in the league. Not good numbers for a team who in preseason looked like they would be a Stanley Cup contender.

11/13/16 Confirmed trade with link:OTT/DET. Ottawa acquires C Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit acquires a 2018 first round pick, No salary retained in deal.

-The Iowa Wild have a 13-4-0 record half way through November and its all Darcy Kuemper winning them games, he is absolutely dominating the AHL going 12-1-0 with a 1.73 GAA and a .939 SV%, its looking more and more like Steve Staios made a big mistake cutting Kuemper from camp instead of Stalock who is 1-2-0 with a 4.65 GAA and a .866 SV%, dont be suprised to see Stalock waved and Kuemper recalled within the next few weeks.

12/15/16 Confirmed trade with link:DET/PHI. Detroit acquires a 2018 first round pick and D David Bernhardt, Philadelphia acquires D Niklas Kronwall.

12/19/16 Confirmed trade with link:ANA/MTL. Montreal acquires LW Martin Erat, Anaheim acquires C Michael Pezzetta and D Brett Lernout

-The Wild have a 21-12-3 record at the end of December and are playing much better than they were through the first 10 games of the season and sit third in the Central Division and 7th in the NHL. Most of the Wilds numbers have drastically improved over the course of the season, they currently sit 4th in the leauge with 3.03 GFPG, 9th in PP% with 21.6%, and 10th in PK Percentage with 81.2%. The one stat the Wild need to work on is GAPG, they sit 26th in the NHL at 2.94 GAPG. Ryan Suter is completely dominating and it looks to be a Norris Trophy type season for Suter who in 35 games has 10 goals and 43 points, good for 1st in the league for defense men, the closest one to Suter is Erik Karlsson with 35 points. The rest of the team needs to really start picking up their slack as the closest point man to Suter is Zach Parise with 28 points. Devan Dubnyk is having a good year with a 19-9-1 record, a 2.61 GAA (which in EA sports sims aint half bad.) and a save percentage of .914. Alex Stalock continues to make Steve Staios look like a fool for keeping him in the NHL with a 2-3-0 record, a 4.05 GAA and a .874 SV%, Expect that he get waved within a few days and Kuemper brought back up. Mike Reilly to be scratched and replaced by Victor Bartley for the next few games.

Hockey Central

James Duthie: Welcome to Hockey Central, so guys this season has been pretty interesting for a few teams and Detroit would be one of those teams, trading away Henrik Zetterberg AND Niklas Kronwall for 1st round picks, what do you think bob?

Bob Mckenzie: Yes James your right it is very interesting, it seems like Detroit just gave in trying to win when they lost Pavel Datsyuk to the KHL this summer, which really does not make sense to me, Henrik Zetterberg is getting up there in age but he is still an elite center in the National Hockey league, and while Kronwall is no number 1 defense man hes still the type of player to help mold your young D into, potentially number one defense men, it really does not make sense with Larkin still learning and growing, with some good trades potentially for Jacob Trouba and players of that caliber to shore up their defensive core, the Detroit Red Wings could have put themselves back into playoff contention but it seems they threw in the towel on the next few seasons.

James: Yes Bob thats quite weird for the Red Wings, given their history and the playoff record you would think the trades they make would be to try and keep winning as long as Zetterberg and Kronwall were still in the NHL but i guess they have a plan. Now the New York Rangers, its been a down season for them, Nick what do you think is going on with the Rangers?

Nick Kypreos: Well James most people would go on and say that its Henrik Lunqvist's Decline but in reality it is not, yes Hank is going to be on the decline very soon but for a goaltender whos starting for a team who is playing so horribly hes got very good numbers, .915 SV%, a 2.52 GAA and a record of 14-19-0, these numbers are no different for Hank then any other season where the teams playing well and winning games, to me the whole reason the Rangers are in such a funk this season is the veterans on their blueline with the big contracts who are not producing anywhere near enough such as Marc Stall whos got 6 points and is a -19 in 48 games this season, Ryan McDonagh whos got 11 points and is -13 in 48 games, and Dan Girardi whos got 3 points and is +3 in 48 games, these 3 players have a combined cap hit of 15.9 Million which is putting New Yorks management team in a jam because they cant trade those contracts with the players producing so poorly. The best blueliner on the Rangers this year has been Kevin Klein whos got 10 points and is a +5 in 46 games which is just not good enough for the rangers, they are stuck praying their veterans wake up and start producing like they have in past years to start winning them games.

James: Yes Nick Im thinking your probably right, now Bob the team that alot of people have been talking about as of late, they fired there GM over the summer who had served them for nearly a decade, and took a risk on a rookie GM from the OHL, the Minnesota Wild, they have been playing well trending in the right direction but there has been some glaringly obvious rookie GM mistakes, whats your take on the wild?

Bob: Well James i personally have all the faith in the world in Steve Staios, yes there has been some growing pains like the Alex Stalock saga, Steve saw something in Alex that clearly was not there and cut Darcy Kuemper and now Kuemper is dominating the AHL with a 18-8-0 record, a 2.17 GAA and a .922 SV%. This isnt a huge deal for this year because Stalock can be waved and Kuemper can be called up still but it might have hurt the relationship between the Wild and Kuemper but it can still be repaired. He also only played Joel Eriksson Ek in one preseason game which was probably a mistake but i doubt he would have made the NHL this year anyway, look out for Eriksson Ek to make the jump to the NHL next season for sure, hes having a good year in the AHL with Iowa hes got 30 points in 43 games and looks almost ready for the big league. With how good Steve Staios has been doing behind the scenes the Pros outweigh the Cons by far, He's yet to make a trade but my reports tell me that the Wild and the Buffalo Sabres have been in talks and i have been hearing names like Jason Pominville and Cody Franson. A trade shipping Pominville out of town is very likely to happen because the Wild need to resign one of their top dmen Matt Dumba, Their first line RW Nino Niederreiter and their future first line center Mikael Granlund all to new contracts this summer, dont be suprised to see a few moves that may slightly weaken the Wild for this year so they have the cap room to resign these players who are a huge part of their future. Something else thats gotten much better since Steve took over is the Coaching, Ryan Suter has absolutely flourished under Steve's team hes got 11 goals and 48 points in 45 games while being a +5 and hes the favorite to win the Norris Trophy, all in all i think with more experience and time Steve could be the next Stan Bowman with the potential he shows as a General Manager.

James: Ok thank you Nick and Bob, till next time on Hockey Central Im James Duthie, have a good night.


-Brandon Pirri strains his neck and is expected to miss 6-7 games, he has 5 goals and 17 points while being a +6 as the 4th line LW, a quiet leader for the Wild and a good signing by Steve Staios.

1/28/2017 Confirmed:Minnesota Wild place Alex Stalock on waivers, Darcy Kuemper recalled from Iowa.

1/30/2017 Confrimed:Minnesota Goaltender Alex Stalock clears waivers, will report to the Iowa Wild in the AHL

1/30/2017Confirmed Trade with link:BUF/TB Buffalo acquires G Connor Ingram and D Daniel Walcott, Tampa acquires a 2017 3rd round pick(WSH) and RW Cody McCormick

-Brandon Pirri re-injures his neck in his first game back and is expected to miss the rest of February, the Wild have lost 8 of their last 10 games and need to do something soon if they expect to make the playoffs, as of right now they are 4 points up on the Dallas Stars for the final Wild Card spot.

-The Minnesota Wild try some line changes before doing anything drastic to try and get back to their winning ways.

New Lineups:​

LW|C|RW
Zach Parise(A)|Mikko Koivu(C)|Jason Pominville
Charlie Coyle|Mikael Granlund|Nino Niederreiter
Justin Fontaine|Eric Stall|Chris Stewart
Jason Zucker|Eric Haula|David Moss

LD|RD
Ryan Suter(A)|Jonas Brodin
Jared Spurgeon|Matt Dumba
Mike Reilly|Marco Scandella

G
Devan Dubnyk
Darcy Kuemper

2/3/2017Confirmed Trade with link:NYR/NJ New York acquires LW Sean Bergenheim. New Jersey acquires LW Robin Kovacs and LW Tim Gettinger

2/15/2017Confirmed Trade with link:NYI/MTL New York acquires C Will Bitten and D Dalton Thrower, Montreal Acquires LW Jason Chimera

2/25/2017Confirmed Trade with link:STL/DET St. Louis acquires LW Thomas Vanek, Detroit acquires G Luke Opilka and D Petteri Lindbohm

-Jason Zucker gets a broken nose in a game against Los Angeles and is expected to be out 1-2 weeks. The Minnesota Wild stumble into the trade deadline with a 32-24-5 record and part of the Wild going downhill must be partly on Ryan Suter slowing down incredibly he now has 55 points in 60 games which is still Suters best season to date but he has fallen out of the Norris Trophy talks and is no longer on Point Per Game pace, another reason for the Wilds downfall is the lack of scoring from their big guns Parise, Niderreiter and Koivu none of which have hit the 45 point mark yet in the season, the Wild need to acquire more scoring and shore up their defense on this deadline day if they expect to make a strong push in this years playoffs.

TRADE DEADLINE​

James Duthie: Welcome to the National Hockey League Trade deadline, im here with Pierre Dorion and Bob Mckenzie, the boys at the Trade Breaker table will be Nick Kypreos. We'll be breaking down the trades that happen today, now Bob which team were you expecting to see the most action out of today?

Bob Mckenzie: Well James i expect the Minnesota Wild are going to be very busy today on the phones, first and foremost they are no longer playing up to standard and are playing themselves out of a playoff spot and need to make some kind of change, and another thing they are probably thinking about is that this summer is a big resigning summer for there young RFA's Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Matt Dumba, they need to look to bring back a cheap asset who can help their team push for a playoff spot while at the same time opening up some cap space for this summer, they are in a very tricky spot here as they are battling it out with a hungry Colorado Avalanche team who want to make the Playoffs badly and have almost stolen the last wild card spot from Minnesota.

Pierre Dorion: Yes Bob i completely agree, they have a lot of players on that team who have not been producing and who have large contracts, they need to find a player on a team who is underrated and cheap, and i hope they have been doing their research because they are in a very tricky spot and have made no trades to date and they dont have very long left to make one.


James: Another team thats been in the news as of late is the Florida Panthers, they seem poised to make a very deep run into the playoffs this year, your thoughts, Pierre?

Pierre: Yes the Panthers are a monster team this year and are serious contenders for the Stanley Cup, look for them to go out and acquire a bonafide Number 2 defenseman to play beside Aaron Ekblad on his left side, someone who can play big minutes and kill penalty's for them, if they find the right dman there will be no stopping the Panth-

James: Sorry Pierre we've got a trade coming in hearing its the Wild and the Sabres, Nick over at the trade breaker table?

Nick Kypreos: Yes James it is a deal between the Wild and the Sabres, hearing the trades based around a Pominville for Franson deal, i will fill you guys in as the details emerge.

James: Well Bob, a Cody Franson for Jason Pominville deal, what do you think?

Bob: Well i think there is almost certainly more to it than Pominville for Franson but going off what we know, this is a good deal for both teams, it brings in a much needed top 6 or top 9 veteran winger to the Sabres, and it shores up the right side of Minnesota's defensive core, Cody Franson is known as an Offensive Defenseman but he is very much underestimated in his own zone, hes got 1 year left on his contract at a fairly cheap price of 3.1 million and it frees up cap space this summer for the Wild to resign their young RFA's. Any more news on the trade Nick?

Nick: Yes i think we got the whole thing, Im hearing its Marco Scandella and Jason Pominville for Cody Franson, Derek Grant and Minnesota gets their 2017 second round pick back from a previous trade.

Bob: Yes that makes more sense to me, Slightly, Marco Scandella is a solid defenseman whos been underutilized in Minnesota due to their depth on the left side with Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin their lefty d men, so it makes sense they wanted to trade him partly so they could develop Mike Reilly properly on the left side and to get rid of his 4 million dollar cap hit, as i said before Cody Franson is a cheap solution to their right side in the top 6 for this year, and can teach the young Defenseman a thing or two throughout the rest of this season, as for Derek Grant the second round pick and Jason Pominville, Buffalo has the cap space to take on these contracts and they needed a top 6 left winger and a good top 4 left handed defenseman desperately, Derek Grant is an very good AHL center and can be utilized on the 4th line center role which is where he will most likely play for Minnesota, the second round pick im hearing was absolutely demanded by Steve Staios. Good trade for both teams in my opinion.

~5 HOURS LATER~​

James: Well the trade deadline show is officially over with the only trade of the whole day being Minnesota and Buffalo, signing off now Im James Duthie, have a good rest of your day.

New Minnesota Lineups:​

LW|C|RW
Zach Parise(A)|Mikko Koivu(C)|Nino Niderreiter
Eric Stall|Mikael Granlund|Charlie Coyle
Brandon Pirri|Eric Haula|Chris Stewart
Justin Fontaine|Derek Grant| David Moss

LD|RD
Ryan Suter(A)|Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin|Matt Dumba
Mike Reilly|Cody Franson
Victor Bartley

G
Devan Dubnyk
Darcy Kuemper

-The Minnesota Wild end the month of March with a 38-28-11 record and sit 5th in the Central Division, they have a 3 point cushion over a hungry Colorado Avalanche team for the final wild card spot in the west with 87 points, the acquisition of Cody Franson doesnt seem to have hindered the wild as they have gone 6-4-6 since the trade that sent Jason Pominville and Marco Scandella out of town and brought Franson back, Franson has 7 points in 16 games with the Wild since being acquired at the trade deadline.

-The Minnesota Wild end the season with a 41-30-11 record, they beat out the Avalanche by 1 point to squeak into the playoffs with 93 points for the last wild card spot in the Central division, the Wild have a tough hill to climb as they face the 50-22-10 Los Angeles Kings in round 1 of the playoffs.

Minnesota Wild Season point totals​

Player|GP|Goals|Assists|Points|+/-|PLM
D, Ryan Suter|81|13|52|64|-4|24
LW, Zach Parise|82|32|26|58|-14|12
C, Mikko Koivu|82|17|40|57|-17|40
LW/C, Eric Stall|82|20|31|51|+4|32
RW, Nino Niederreiter|82|14|37|51|-15|23
C/RW, Charlie Coyle|82|13|27|40|-10|27
C, Eric Haula|82|19|17|36|+5|13
C, Mikael Granlund|82|12|21|33|-9|14
D. Matt Dumba|82|11|20|31|-4|42
LW, Jason Zucker|77|13|17|30|-12|20
RW, Chris Stewart|82|8|17|25|-12|31
LW, Brandon Pirri|71|7|16|23|+1|4
D, Jared Spurgeon|82|7|13|20|-15|4
RW, David Moss|82|10|10|20|+1|20
D, Cody Franson*|84|11|8|19|-8|6
D, Jonas Brodin|82|5|10|15|-13|35
D, Mike Reilly|80|3|8|11|-13|14
RW, Justin Fontaine|16|4|2|6|+1|0
C, Derek Grant*|21|1|5|6|-6|6
D, Victor Bartley|8|0|0|0|+2|6

Goalie|GP|Wins|Losses|SOL|GAA|SV%
Devan Dubnyk|65|34|22|6|2.66|.912
Alex Stalock|14|5|5|0|3.85|.881
Darcy Kuemper|07|2|3|0|2.88|.900

*=Acquired mid-season.​

 

[kinger8998]

New York Rangers Franchise Mode

GM Preview

------------------------------------------------

Below is every change I've made to the rosters:

POTENTIAL CHANGES

• sam bennet (medium elite)
• martin frk (med bottom 6)
• zach werenski (med elite)
• jamie benn (high franchise)
• stephen johns (med top 6)
• dylan larkin (med elite)
• leon draisaitl (med elite)
• aaron ekblad (med franchise)
• artturi lehkonen (low top 6)
• mikhail sergachev (med elite)
• pavel zacha (med elite)
• pavel buchnevich (med top 6)
• oscar lindberg (med top 9)
• jimmy vesey (med top 6)
• mika zibanejad (med elite)
• chris kreider (med elite)
• sean day (low elite)
• shayne gostisbehere (med elite)
• conor sheary (med bottom 6)
• bryan rust (med top 9)
• joonas donskoi (med top 6)
• andrei vasilevskiy (high starter)
• jonathan drouin (med elite)
• connor carrick (low top 4 d)
• jvr (med elite)
• mitch marner (med elite)
• pierre-luc dubois (med elite)
• olli juolevi (med elite)

POSTION CHANGES

luke glendening (rw-c)
richard panik (rw-lw)
kevin hayes (rw-c)
oscar lindberg (lw-c)
loui eriksson (lw-rw)
jonathan marchessault (rw-lw)
charlie coyle (c-rw)
j.t miller (c-lw)
pavel buchnevich (c-rw)
kevin hayes (rw-c)
rick nash (lw-rw)
oscar lindberg (lw-c)
josh jooris (rw-c)
michael grabner (lw-rw)
bryan rust (c-rw)
tomas hertl (c-lw)
david backes (c-rw)
ryan spooner (c-lw)
dylan larkin (c-rw)
gustav nyquist (rw-lw)
darrem helm (lw-c)
riley sheahan (c-rw)
luke glendening (rw-c)
andreas anthanasiou (c-lw)
steve ott (lw-c)
bryan rust (c-rw)


ROSTER MOVES

dylan strome (erie-arz)

G

tuukka rask - 91
chad johnson - 82
calvin picard - 83
segei bobrovsky - 87
antti niemi - 85
jimmy howard - 84
james reimer - 85
jonathan quick - 90
thomas greiss - 84
steve mason -85
michal neuvirth - 85
matt murray - 84
andrei vasilevskiy - 85
jacob markstrom - 84

D

john-michael liles - 81
brandon carlo - 75
jaccob slavin - 82
brett pesce - 82
stephen johns - 81
brian campbell - 85
aaron ekblad - 88
dan girardi - 84
marc staal - 86
adam clendening - 82
brady skjei - 80
sean day - 65
erik karlsson - 94
shayne gostisbehere - 87
kris letang - 92
brent burns - 93
roman polak - 82
connor carrick - 82
olli juolevi - 72

RW

shane doan - 85
david pastrnak - 83
tyler ennis - 85
martin frk - 77
oliver bjorkstrand - 79
ales hemsky - 84
alexander radulov - 85
jesper fast - 82 (2way forward)
pavel buchnevich - 79
rick nash - 88

LW

brad marchand - 90
matthew tkachuk - 76
artemi panarin - 88
richard panik - 82
artturi lehkonen - 78
jimmy vesey - 83
brandon pirri - 82
chris kreider - 88
conor sheary - 80
joonas donskoi - 83
jvr - 87

C

mike fisher - 84
pavel datsyuk - 70 at most
noel acciari (bos) - 74
connor mcdavid - 90
brayden point - 78
pierre-luc dubois - 74

------------------------------------------------

* No 85% rule for UFA's. If I cannot match their request, they walk.
* Yes/No Wheel for if UFA's want to resign(http://wheeldecide.com/index.php?c1=YES&c2=NO&c3=YES&c4=NO&c5=YES&c6=NO&c7=YES&c8=NO&t=YES+or+NO. 10 parts, 5 yes, 5 no. Each time I win a cup the number of yes parts go up. The highest I can go is 8:2 ratio of yes:no. If I fail to pass the third round (when not in rebuild, if it happens) the number of yes parts go down until a minimun ratio of 2:8 of yes:no.
* 2 posts per season...(Years) NHL Season and Playoffs and Offseason.
* Trade Difficulty is Medium
* Will not be reviewing ticket prices etc. lol
* Most of log will be standard recap by me. Trade Deadline will be a rendition of a few of James Duthie, Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger, Jamie McLennan, Ray Ferraro, Aaron Ward, Gord Miller, Craig Button and Pierre Lebrun. (a few each year)

Next Post: 2016-2017 NHL Season!​

 

[kinger8998]

already started nyr gm mode but if anyone has other suggestions for me to edit for next franchise mode, let me know

 

[kinger8998]

New York Rangers Franchise Mode

2016-2017 NHL Season

Jeff Gorton Steps Down as Rangers GM, Rookie GM Brant King Takes Over.​

Season Preview

After a disappointing first round exit at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the New York Rangers got younger and faster. Their forward core is as deep as ever but their defense is the biggest question.

In order for the Rangers to succeed, they will need Henrik Lundqvist so have another 2011-2012 Vezina worthy season. The defense is just bad and with their new, high-octane offense, the forwards will be taking a few more risks with their newfound speed. Antti Raanta will be needed now more than ever to play more games. New GM Brant King said he would like to see Lundqvists workload kept to around 60 games. The Rangers are in arguably the toughest division in hockey so they will need both their goaltenders on the tops of their games.

GM Brant King didn't dress it up, he knows his defense is his biggest question mark and he knows it could drown the team. Dan Girardi and Marc Staal each hit a massive decline in performance last season, and they lost Keith Yandle to free agency. Perhaps there is hope Girardi and Staal could turn it around, but it's difficult to see. Ryan McDonagh will have to be a workhorse and be the best he's ever been for this team to succeed. Looking at a second 40 point season would be reasonable. Kevin Klein will have to be his reliable self again, and newcomer Nick Holden was brought in to be a steadying bottom pairing player for this club. The most enticing player is Adam Clendening, who made the team as a sixth defenceman during training camp, and will run the second PP. If Girardi struggles, he and Clendening could swap places. This guy could finally find a home on this club after bouncing around for the first part of his career. Brady Skjei was expected to make the opening night lineup but when asked about why he didn't GM King said "Skjei needed some major minutes and he wasn't going to get that up here. He may eventually return at some point but for now he's our top d-man in the minors."

This will be the savior of this team. The Rangers offense is the best anyone has seen in a long time. The speed, the size, the smarts; everything is here. Chris Kreider looks poised for his breakout season and Rick Nash could has a renaissance playing with him. Derek Stepan and Mats Zuccarello should have seasons on par with their recent ones, but the question mark on their other wing is Jimmy Vesey who is an unknown as to what he could do. The third line of J.T Miller, Kevin Hayes and Michael Grabner is the best third line the Rangers have had since Pouliot, Brassard and Zucc back in 2014. On the fourth line the Rangers went with skill and reliabilty. Brandon Pirri brings a shooting element we haven't seen on the 4th line in a decade, while Jesper Fast is Mr. do it all as he can play anywhere in the lineup and get the job done. Oscar Lindberg started off last season with a bang but then cooled down and lost his spot in the lineup. This year he's back after hip surgery and he looks poised to be a force down the middle. Perhaps the single thing that could turn this offense from great to unstoppable is Mika Zibanejad. Coming over in a trade for Brassard, he has improved his point total every year. That trend shouldn't stop now as he's play in between budding star Kreider and rebound candidate Nash. It's likely he tops 60, but don't be surprised if he breaks 70.

NYR Lines

LW | C | RW
Kreider 88 | Zibanejad 87 | Nash 88
Vesey 83 | Stepan 88 | Zuccarello 86
Miller 85 | Hayes 84 | Grabner 83
Pirri 82 | Lindberg 81 | Fast 82
Jooris 80 | |

LD | RD
McDonagh 90 | Girardi 84
Staal 86 | Klein 85
Holden 84 | Clendening 82
McIlrath 80 |

Starter | Backup
Lundqvist 92 | Raanta 82

First Half in Review

Rangers claim Xavier Ouellet off Waivers from Red Wings.
Rookie Defenceman has 1 goal in 4 games. Goes to minors to play on 2nd pair, leaving Dylan McIlrath in the 7th spot.​

New York Rangers

Record | Home | Away | Division | Conference | NHL | Playoffs?
21-15-5 | 10-6-5 | 11-9-0 | 4th | 6th | 11th | Yes (1WC)

Top 5 Scorers

Player | Goals | Assists | Points
Mika Zibanejad | 9 | 26 | 35
Mats Zuccarello | 12 | 19 | 31
Chris Kreider | 6 | 22 | 28
Rick Nash | 15 | 11 | 26
J.T Miller | 11 | 14 | 25

Goalies

Goalie | Record | SV% | GAA
Henrik Lundqvist | 15-12-4 | .913 SV% | 2.59 GAA
Antti Raanta | 6-3-1 | .939 SV% | 1.57 GAA

Henrik Lundqvist is in the midst of his worst statistical season ever. He should be able to keep the 30 win streak alive, but his play has not been good enough. Menwhile, backup Antti Raanta is having a stellar standards while exceeding all expectations. Maybe he could get in a few more games, and don't expect his numbers to stay this high. If they do, it's a bonus.

Ryan McDonagh is looking good to hit 40 points this season which is just about the only good news on the blue line at this time of year. The only thing which is remotely close to good news is that Dan Girardi is not playing awful, in fact, hes playing pretty good on the top pair. Marc Staal has underwhelmed. It looks as if he forgot how to play hockey. He was the one expected to rebound but he has failed to. Kevin Klein and Nick Holden have been great complimentary pieces and Adam Clendening is aiding the Rangers PP tremendously. Claiming Ouellet was an interesting move as they already have young lefty Skjei down in the minors. The only way to make sense is that there is a trade brewing for possibly multiple d-men on the roster.

Mika Zibanejad has been the brightest spot on a forward group full of them halfway through the year. On pace to hit 70 points, whoever plays on his line seems to gain tremendously in the points section. Mats Zuccarello has continued to be the heart and soul of the club while Rick Nash looks to hit 30 goals again. J.T Miller, Oscar Lindberg, Brandon Pirri, Jesper Fast and Michael Grabner has all exceeded expectations and are contributing very nicely in the bottom 6. Chris Kreider hasn't scored nearly as much as hoped but he has been putting up points. Jimmy Vesey has been a wonder kid for the Rangers. The only two difficulties have been Derek Stepan and Kevin Hayes. Stepan has had a difficult time finding the scoresheet and might not even hit 50 points. For 6.5M he needs to be better. Hayes has been frequently injured and when playing has not looked quite right. It will be interesting to see how he performs at 100%.

Down in the AHL, Pavel Buchnevich has been great, putting up 27 points in 34 games so far during his rookie season. That places him 4th among rookies.

RANGERS NEWS: Rangers one of 3 teams remaining in on the Jacob Trouba saga.
Jacob Trouba wants out of Winnipeg and the Rangers remain in on the budding star. The other teams remaining are Boston and Detroit. Trouba is strugglin g this season with just 7 points and a -4 rating through half the season.​

Trade Deadline

BREAKING NEWS: Rangers acquire Jacob Trouba from Jets

To NYR | To WPG
Jacob Trouba | Nick Holden (84 OVR)
| 1st '18
| Tim Gettinger (61 OVR, Med Bottom 6F)
| 3rd '19

Player | OVR | Age | Position | Potential | Player Type | GP, G-A-P | Years | AAV
Jacob Trouba | 86 | 23 | D | Low Elite | 2 Way Defender | 64, 5-9-14 | 1 | 0.895M

The Rangers won the Jacob Trouba sweepstakes. It looked like the Rangers were done with trading away 1st round picks but for a 23 year old defender it was a steal. This deal worked out well for both sides. The Rangers get their young RHD and the Jets get a dependable defender Holden that not only can eat up top 4 minutes behind Tobias Enstrom, but he's only being paid 1.65M a year. The Jets also get a 1st Round pick and 3rd Round pick with a prospect that has top 9 scoring upside.​

Duthie: Welcome to the 2017 NHL Trade Deadline Show here on TSN. I am James Duthie here with Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger, and Craig Button. We already have our first piece of big news as Jacob Trouba has been traded to the Rangers. The Rangers payed a high price but is could be well worth it. Bob what do you think?

McKenzie: Well James, I think the Rangers overpayed for Trouba. Yes he's young but his numbers have declined each season in the NHL and he's in the midst of a terrible season. Kudos to the Jets though who got a first and third round pick along with a cost efficient top-4 defender in Holden.

Button: This doesn't happen often but I agree with you Bob. The Rangers overpayed for Trouba. But it's more justified than going out to get another Eric Staal. The first round pick they traded wouldn't have gotten them anyone better than Trouba, and Trouba replaces Holden instantly in the lineup. This trade also solidifies their RHD as they weren't strong enough. Right now Troubas paired with Staal on the second pair but just wait till you see a first pair of McDonagh-Trouba. Nightmare to play against.

Dreger: I'm getting some news of a Trade between Detroit and Ottawa...sounds like Kronwall and Vanek heading to Canadas Capital for a 2017 1st and and 2017 3rd. More on that when we come back after the break.

Season Recap

The New York Rangers finished in 3rd place in the Metropolitan Division with 96 points. It was a subpar season and the playoffs run through the Penguins again in the first round.

Henrik Lundqvist turned his season around in the second half en route to another .920+ SV% and 30 win season. He will have to be even better for the Rangers to beat the Penguins but he had yet another great season. Backup Antti Raanta had a wonderful season. Although the Rangers would've liked him to play more games, he was durable and consistent all year. He put up stellar numbers and was worth every penny.

Ryan McDonagh fell short of 40 points but was the best defender on the Rangers all year long. His partner, Dan Girardi, missed only 1 game, but seen his production fall to 4-4-8. That being said, his +/- was 24, the highest of his career.Marc Staal had himself a resurgence in the second half bringing his +/- up from -2 to +6 and finished te season with 25 points, which was his third most productive season of his career and best since before his eye injury. Kevin Klein had a down year with 15 points (in 82 games) after 2 straight 26 point seasons (in 65 and 69 games), which could see him on his way out with the Rangers needing cap space for Zibanejad and Trouba. Adam Clendening had a decent offensive season, registering career highs in goals, assists and points but was not good enough on the other side of the puck as he finished with a -3 differential, the only defender with a negative +/- on the team. Deadline acquisition Jacob Trouba put up 5 points in 19 games with the Rangers.

The Rangers boasted the the 10th best offense in the league, but had the most spread out forward core, with a league leading 6 players having 20 goals. Rookie Jimmy Vesey had 53 points (2nd among rookies) and led rookie players with 26 goals. His centerman, Derek Stepan had points in all but 2 games after the deadline to salvage a season in which he wouldn't have hit 50 points. The top line duo, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, had good and great years. Zibanejad continued his growth, posting career highs in goals, assists, points and PPG. His 62 points were 2nd on the club. The top 2 RW, Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello, each played well. Nash hit 50 points and scored 25 goals, a vast improvement on seasons past, while Zucc had a career best season at age 29. This is a guy that could retire a Ranger. Kevin Hayes had an atrocious season, registering just 10-18-28 in 62 games, while not looking like himself. Even with him struggling, his LW J.T Miller had another 20 goal season and hit 50 points for the first time in his young career. Oscar Lindberg and Jesper Fast both had productive seasons, while Michael Grabner stunned with his speed en route to a 25 point season. Brandon Pirri, who was stuck on the 4th line, didn't quite score as much as he wanted to, but he will need more ice time and better opportunities to finish with more than the 8-20-28 he garnered this season.

New York Rangers

Record | Home | Away | GFPG | GAPG | PP% | PK% | Division | Conference | NHL | Playoffs?
43-29-10 | 24-9-8 | 19-20-2 | 2.87 (8th) | 2.43 (2nd) | 12.4% (30th) | 82% (6th) | 3rd | 5th | 8th | Yes (3rd Metro)

Scoring

Player | Goals | Assists | Points
Mats Zuccarello | 21 | 47 | 68
Mika Zibanejad | 22 | 40 | 62
*Jimmy Vesey | 26 | 27 | 53
Derek Stepan | 21 | 32 | 53
Rick Nash (79 GP) | 25 | 27 | 52
J.T Miller | 21 | 30 | 51
Chris Kreider | 13 | 38 | 51
Ryan McDonagh (80 GP) | 13 | 24 | 37
Oscar Lindberg | 10 | 19 | 29
Kevin Hayes (62 GP) | 10 | 18 | 28
Brandon Pirri | 8 | 20 | 28
Marc Staal | 2 | 23 | 25
Michael Grabner | 11 | 14 | 25
Jesper Fast (79 GP) | 10 | 13 | 23
Adam Clendening (81 GP) | 6 | 14 | 20
Jacob Trouba (83 GP) | 8 | 11 | 19
Kevin Klein | 4 | 11 | 15
Josh Jooris (26 GP) | 5 | 6 | 11
Dan Girardi (81 GP) | 4 | 4 | 8
Dylan McIlrath (6 GP) | 0 | 0 | 0

Goalies

Goalie | Record | SV% | GAA
Henrik Lundqvist | 32-21-8 | .922 SV% | 2.32 GAA
Antti Raanta | 11-8-2 | .929 SV% | 2.16 GAA

* Indicates Rookie

Next Post: 2016-2017 NHL Playoffs and 2017 Offseason!​