NHL 20 GM Mode Logs & Conversation

[haveandare]

Not sure if this happens in other modes, but I only play GM. Do other people get the bug where random goals for random players are "first career goal?" Also, do other people get goalie stats at the start of the game that are just completely incorrect and often identical stats for both teams' goalies?

Weird to me the game cut down the intros a lot too. It's always just goalie stats and that's it now.

 

[Cor]

Not sure if this happens in other modes, but I only play GM. Do other people get the bug where random goals for random players are "first career goal?" Also, do other people get goalie stats at the start of the game that are just completely incorrect and often identical stats for both teams' goalies?

Weird to me the game cut down the intros a lot too. It's always just goalie stats and that's it now.

I get the first career goal one a lot.

Interesting to see Joe Thornton score his first career goal in 2020-21 after scoring 15 earlier in the year lol

 

[OB5]

Not sure if this happens in other modes, but I only play GM. Do other people get the bug where random goals for random players are "first career goal?" Also, do other people get goalie stats at the start of the game that are just completely incorrect and often identical stats for both teams' goalies?

Weird to me the game cut down the intros a lot too. It's always just goalie stats and that's it now.

All the time. And the "first goal since being traded" when that player hasn't been traded.

 

[haveandare]

I get the first career goal one a lot.

Interesting to see Joe Thornton score his first career goal in 2020-21 after scoring 15 earlier in the year lol

All the time. And the "first goal since being traded" when that player hasn't been traded.

Such weird little bugs to still have this long after release

 

[Dylonus]

Every time I try to start a franchise on NHL 20 it crashes when I name my GM. Seriously... f*** this franchise. I have no desire to buy this or Madden anymore.

It doesnt involve more money like Ultimate Team so EA doesnt care.

 

[Soedy]

I did an expansion draft with my created team yesterday and all the guys with one year left that I had taken (like Barrie, Pietrangelo, Vatanen) were moved to FA immediately. Is this a bug or am I missing something with the draft process?

 

[elias026]

I did an expansion draft with my created team yesterday and all the guys with one year left that I had taken (like Barrie, Pietrangelo, Vatanen) were moved to FA immediately. Is this a bug or am I missing something with the draft process?

When Starting a Franchise mode with an expansion team you have to pick "add and extra year to all contracts" option. Its found when youre picking all the options like owner mode, fantasy draft etc.

 

[Kellogs]

So does anyone have any useful tips on how to develop defensemen. Ever since '19, I've only really successfully developed 3 defensemen past 84 OVR.

Most high value d-men prospects I acquire/draft end up crapping out in value. If they make it top three NHL, they typically max out at 80-82.

 

[Emery]

​

When the NHL mysteriously vanishes... a new league emerges! The League and all owners have agreed to take on the rosters of all 25 ECHL franchises, as well as 6 randomly chosen Liiga (Finland) teams. All AHL franchises, and prospects that were drafted by a previous NHL franchise, are also absorbed by the new league. Unrestricted Free Agents are also eligible to play. From there, 31 new franchises are established, and a league wide fantasy draft is initiated. Some of the new teams include:

Vancouver Storm (home) and Burnaby Blazers (away)

Philadelphia Pythons (home) and Pittsburgh Pioneers (away)

Detroit Hogs (home) and Kitchener Stealth (away)

Here are all 31 new teams, grouped by Division:
​

Canada A​	Canada B​	USA A​	USA B​
Burnaby Blazers​	Calgary Knights​	Boston Brutes​	Chicago Royals​
Hamilton Hustlers​	Edmonton Outlaws​	Detroit Hogs​	Colorado Vikings​
Kitchener Stealth​	Halifax Huskies​	New Jersey Hawks​	Dallas Mustangs​
London Dragons​	Regina Grizzlies​	New York Liberty​	Las Vegas Aces​
Montreal Admirals​	Saskatoon Seamen​	Philadelphia Pythons​	Los Angeles Snipers​
Ottawa Renegades​	Victoria Warriors​	Pittsburgh Pioneers​	Minnesota Howlers​
Quebec Eagles​	Vancouver Storm​	Tampa Bay Tropics​	St. Louis Ninjas​
Toronto Bulldogs​	Winnipeg Wizards​	Washington Tigers​	​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

The new franchises are split evenly between Canada and the United States. As for how the draft went, here is a pre-season ranking of the League's Top 50 Players:

50. Juuso Riikola (78), D, Detroit
49. Karl Alzner (78), D, Chicago
48. Alex Petrovic (78), D, Quebec
47. Mark Letestu (78), C, Los Angeles
46. Oscar Lindberg (78), C, Victoria
45. David Schlemko (78), D, Quebec
44. Jordan Schmaltz (78), D, Detroit
43. Riley Sheahan (78), C, Colorado
42. Valeri Nichushkin (78), RW, Vancouver
41. Anders Bjork (78), LW, Chicago
40. Brian Gibbons (78), RW, Detroit
39. Josh Ho-Sang (78), RW, Dallas
38. Caleb Jones (78), D, Toronto
37. Nick Merkley (78), C, Boston
36. Maxime Comtois (78), LW, Quebec
35. Cody Glass (78), C, Montreal
34. Scott Darling (79), G, Los Angeles
33. Ben Lovejoy (79), D, Las Vegas
32. Luca Sbisa (79), D, Victoria
31. Anton Forsberg (79), G, Tampa Bay
30. Dmitrij Jaskin (79), LW, Minnesota
29. Xavier Ouellet (79), D, Colorado
28. Dan Girardi (79), D, Los Angeles
27. Jamie McGinn (79), LW, Edmonton
26. Martin Frk (79), RW, Burnaby
25. Dion Phaneuf (79), D, Hamilton
24. Devante Smith-Pelly (79), RW, Pittsburgh
23. Tristan Jarry (79), G, Edmonton
22. Adam McQuaid (79), D, London
21. Sonny Milano (79), LW, Colorado
20. Noah Juulsen (79), D, Pittsburgh
19. Mike Condon (80), G, New York
18. Eric Comrie (80), G, Pittsburgh
17. Brian Boyle (80), C, Las Vegas
16. Calvin Pickard (80), G, Saskatoon
15. Michael Stone (80), D, Hamilton
14. Chad Johnson (80), G, Hamilton
13. Jason Pominville (80), RW, Quebec
12. Ben Hutton (80), D, Tampa Bay
11. Michael Hutchinson (80), G, London
10. Dennis Cholowski (80), D, Winnipeg
9. Kaapo Kakko (80), RW, Las Vegas
8. Patrick Maroon (81), LW, Victoria
7. Thomas Vanek (81), LW, Edmonton
6. Patrick Marleau (81), LW, London
5. Niklas Kronwall (81), D, Dallas
4. Cam Ward (81), G, St. Louis
3. Derick Brassard (82), C, Hamilton
2. Jake Gardiner (83), D, Minnesota
1. Joe Thornton (84), C, Calgary​

The team I will be using is the London Dragons. Here's how my team ended up looking after the draft:

Patrick Marleau (81) - Jean-Sebastian Dea (76) - Seth Griffith (75)
Chris Kunitz (77) - Michael Chaput (75) - Patrick Eaves (76)
Zac Dalpe (73) - Phil Varone (74) - Jeremy Morin (73)
Max McCormick (74) - Gabriel Dumont (73) - Josh Currie (72)

Bowem Byram (77) - Adam McQuaid (79)
Brandon Davidson (75) - Trevor Carrick (74)
Seth Helgeson (75) - Frank Corrado (74)

Michael Hutchinson (80)
Jeff Glass (71)​

In the system: Samuel Poulin, Philip Tomasino, Colton Point, Filip Hallander

Here's who the other 30 teams will be looking towards for success this season.

Boston Brutes; N. Merkley (78), C. Gibson (75), N. Beaudin (72)

Burnaby Blazers; M. Frk (79), I. Lundestrom (77), M. Puempel (75)

Calgary Knights; J. Thornton (84), J. Coreau (77), D. Dube (75)

Chicago Royals; K. Alzner (78), A. Bjork (78), L. Brown (75)

Colorado Vikings; S. Milano (79), X. Ouellet (79), A. MacDonald (77)

Dallas Mustangs; N. Kronwall (81), T. Brouwer (78), J. Ho-Sang (78)

Detroit Hogs; B. Gibbons (78), J. Schmaltz (78), J. Riikola (78)

Edmonton Outlaws; T. Vanek (81), T. Jarry (79), E. Tolvanen (77)

Hamilton Hustlers; D. Brassard (82), M. Stone (80), C. Johnson (80)

Halifax Huskies; J. McGinn (79), B. Hickey (73), U. Luukkonen (73)

Kitchener Stealth; M. Condon (80), K. Dach (76), G. Forsling (76)

Los Angeles Snipers; D. Smith-Pelly (79), D. Girardi (79), S. Darling (79)

London Dragons; P. Marleau (81), M. Hutchinson (80), A. McQuaid (79)

Las Vegas Aces; K. Kakko (80), B. Boyle (80), B. Lovejoy (79)

Minnesota Howlers; J. Gardiner (83), D. Jaskin (79), G. Olofsson (77)

Montreal Admirals; C. Glass (78), J. Hayes (78), E. Etem (76)

New Jersey Hawks; N. Baptiste (75), K. Rychel (74), S. Prince (74)

New York Liberty; U. Vaakanainen (77), B. Seney (76), P. Cehlarik (73)

Ottawa Renegades; G. Smith (77), C. Wolanin (77), A. Lindholm (76)

Philadelphia Pythons; K. Kostin (76), M. Luff (75), I. Scott (74)

Pittsburgh Pioneers; E. Comrie (80), N. Juulsen (79), C. Wideman (77)

Quebec Eagles; J. Pominville (80), D. Schlemko (78), A. Petrovic (78)

Regina Grizzlies; S. Koekoek (78), M. Kruger (78), R. Boucher (77)

Saskatoon Seamen; C. Pickard (80), J. Morrow (77), K. Gravel (77)

St. Louis Ninjas; C. Ward (81), R. Sheahan (78), F. Claesson (77)

Tampa Bay Tropics; B. Hutton (80), A. Forsberg (79), J. Lehtera (76)

Toronto Bulldogs; C. Jones (78), A. Formenton (76), A. Stolarz (75)

Vancouver Storm; V. Nichushkin (78), J. Dotchin (78), B. Gaunce (77)

Victoria Warriors; P. Maroon (81), L. Sbisa (79), O. Lindberg (78)

Washington Tigers; D. Cozens (76), J. Quenneville (75), T. Fritz (75)

Winnipeg Wizards; D. Cholowski (80), N. Kerdiles (78), T. Wotherspoon (77)

With preseason just around the corner, the question of what to expect from this new league will surely be answered.​

 

[Clint Eastwood]

So I have what I'd call a very decent team at the moment and I had a season with 50+ regulation losses. I realized I'm dumb and my coaching staff chemistry is 24%. I plan on re-doing the whole coaching staff. How should I go about doing so? Any tips before hand so I know what I'm doing?

 

[ETTHAKING67]

Who should I rebuild ?
The New Jersey Devils, the obvious choice right now.
or
The Columbus Blue Jackets, I can compete year one, and try to compete for the next couple of season but I will also need to add a couple of important piece to the group. (Dubois,Jones and Werenski are big piece but there is not much to build on for the futur).

If so any hidden gem or player you thought we really fun to play with in their system ?

 

[Snipes10]

In 2015 the owner of the Kansas City Royals John Sherman has decided to change sports. He wanted to make a hockey team in the city. Exceptions were to have a team by 2018/19 season but the arena wasn’t finished. He finally got his wish though the following year and introduced a new brand of Royals into the hockey world. The NHL welcomed the Kansas City Royals into the league for the 2019/2020 season.



Kansas City Royals 2019/2020 Season Year 1

Welcoming to the 2019-2020 NHL season is the Kansas City Royals

Royals Gm Jack Groulx hired Graham Valk to become the first coach in Royals History

Expansion draft has come and gone Jack Groulx has selected

—————————————————————————

2019 DRAFT

Minutes into the NHL draft the newly gm of the royals made some moves to gain some extra assets. First he moved J. Moore to the Boston Bruins for 2020 3rd rounder and 2019 3rd (95th).
He also sent Sam Bennet to St.Louis for a 2019 2nd (64th) & 2019 3rd (96th) pick in this years draft.


With Kansas having the 5th pick overall in the draft Jack Groulx selected the first ever player choose in Royal history 5”11 Defensemen from Toronto, Ontario Karl Snider.

Jack Groulx also selected

2019 Draft Selections

1(5) D - Karl Snider
2(35) G - Taylor Gauthier
2(64) LW - Nando Eggenberger * Via trade St.Louis 2019 (S. Bennet)
3(67) LW - David Levin
3(95) RW - D’artagnan Joly * Via trade Boston 2019
3(96) C - Jonah Baumgartner * Via trade St.Louis 2019
4(99) C - Liam Hawel
5(131) D - Tobias Akerman
6(163) C - Kyle Topping
7(195) LW - Daniel Antropov


Following the first draft for the Kansas City Royals, General manager Jack Groulx resigned Jake Muzzin to a 4 year/5 million price tag for the former 5th Rounder, along with

Anthony Cirelli - 3 x1.6
Vinnie Hinostroza - 4 x 2.2
Julius Honka - 2 x 1.4
Jacob Larsson - 2 x 2.2
Wayne Simmonds - 2 x 2.47
Anthony Duclair - 2 x 2.2
Robyn Lehner - 5 x 4.8

If it hasn’t been busy yet for the new General Manager, the off season officially starts during July 1st Free Agency opening

Some of the big UFAs this year are Taylor Hall, Jumbo Joe, 2 key players from Boston Zdeno Chara and Troy Krug, along with players like Pietreangelo, Hoffman and RFA Sergachev


Groulx didn’t waste any time going out and signing some players on the first day

Jason Spezza - 2x2
Tyson Barrie - 5.5x5
Ilya Kovalchuk - 4.5x1
Ron Hainsey - 1.7x2

Groulx traded D. Savard to the Calgary Flames in exchange for 2020 1st Round pick & 2020 3rd.

Royals went 4-2-0 in the preseason with Kovy leading the way with 8 points. Good to see the veteran start off great for the Royals.

The Royals have named Jason Spezza the first Captain in Kansas City Royals history. As well Jake Muzzin and Tyson Barrie have been named Alternate captains.

“We thought we brought in some great leadership and veterans to help the younger guys and they deserve to be led by them” Groulx said to the media about the choices the team has made.

Opening Day Roster

Forwards

A.Steen J.Spezza I.Kovalchuk
A.Duclair N.Acciari V.Hinostroza
J.Armia A.Cirelli W.Simmonds
L.Eriksson L.Komarov A.Watson

Defense Goalies

J.Muzzin T.Barrie R.Lehner
J.Gardiner R.Hainsey C.DeSmith
R.Graves J.Larsson

Extra
LW - M.Mersch
D - J.Honka

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Opening 26 games

Royals started off with a 3-8-1 record, since then they have come together as a group and have a 12-13-1 record.

GM Groulx made a minor deal to try help the defensive side of the team by sending a 2020 4th round pick to New York islanders for A.Ladd

The top 5 teams are Blackhawks (38), Maple Leafs (36),Sabres (35), Nashville (34), and Arizona with 33 points.

Royals are sitting 6th in the Central division with 25 points 5 points back of Dallas Stars in 3rd


League Leaders

A. Ovechkin 33 pts
E. Kuznetsov 32 pts
N.Mackinnon 31 pts
P.Bergeron 31 pts
S.Crosby 31 pts

—————————————————————————————

Kansas City Royals Team Leaders
*End of season will have full roster stats*

Player	Games Played	Goals	Apples	Points	+/-
W. Simmonds	26	11	9	20	5
A.Cirelli	26	6	9	15	-2
J.Spezza	26	5	9	14	-14
A.Steen	26	4	10	14	-6
J.Armia	26	6	7	13	5
I.Kovalchuk	26	3	10	13	-12
N.Acciari	26	5	7	12	-10
J.Muzzin	26	2	9	11	-7
T.Barrie	26	3	7	10	-10

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

——————————————————————————————

ALL-STAR GAME in St.Louis

Pacific Div Central Div
EDM C - C.McDavid * Captain DAL C - T.Seguin* Captain
VAN C - E.Pettersson WPG RW - P.Laine
ARI RW - P.Kessel COL N.Mackinnon
ANA C - R.Getzlaf CHI RW - P.Kane
LA C- A.Kopitar STL RW - V.Tarasenko
SJ D - B.Burns NSH LW - F.Forsberg
VGK RW - M.Stone MIN LW - Z.Parise
CGY D - M.Giordano KC RW - W.Simmonds
EDM C - R.Nugent-Hopkins COL D - C.Makar *R
CGY G - B.Holtby NSH G - P.Rinne
EDM G - M.Koskinen STL G - J.Binnington
ARI G - A.Raanta MIN G - D.Dubnyk

Atlantic Div Metro Div
FLA C - A.Barkov * Captain WSH LW - A.Oveckin * Captain
BUF C - J.Eichel PIT C - S.Crosby
TB C - S.Stamkos PHI C - C.Giroux
DET C - D.Larkin NYI C - M.Barzal
BOS LW - B.Marchand CAR C - S.Aho
OTT LW - T.Hall NJD RW - E.Dadonov
TOR C - A.Matthews CBJ D - A.Pietrangelo
MON C - M.Domi NYR C - M.Zibanejad
FLA LW - J.Huberdeau WSH D - J.Carlson
TOR G - F.Anderson PHI G - C.Hart
TB G - A.Vasilevskiy CBJ G - J.Korpisalo
BUF G - L.Ullmark CAR G - P.Mrazek



Rest of Year 1 in next post.

 

[Conor Edwards]

Fellas I have a problem.
Into year 2 of my Franchise Sim, I've taken a leap forward and my line look like this:

Zadina (85) - Larkin (90) - Mantha (90)
Debrusk (86) - Veleno (82) - Bertuzzi (87)
Fabbri (82) - Bozak (81) - Rasmussen (79)
Grabner (80) - Svechnikov (78) - Vesey (79)
---------------------------------
Seider (88) - Pietrangelo (89)
Cholowski (80) - Hronek (85)
DeKeyser (82) - Nemeth (80)
----------------
Holtby (89)
Bernier (81)

I have Askarov on the way as a 69 OVR, and I'm hoping my players grow, but at the trade deadline I'm 15th in the Eastern Conference at 26-31-8.
Pietrangelo is nearly point per game, but Holtby has let me down. What appears to be my problem is I don't have scoring depth, as I'm sitting with a 2.75 GPFG average.

How can I remedy this team? I don't have my 1st, and there's only ~20 games to turn this around.

 

[JustJokinenAround]

has anyone found gameplay sliders that make the game competitive and nearly equal in SOG and time on attack. i play my games on superstar and will routinely outshoot the opposing team by 15-20 and have 6-7 minutes more of time on attack and every game i end up getting goalie'd. i'm playing with the wings and i have an 81 overall Bernier in net, i'm aware that is not good at all, but getting an .800 SV%? thats just dumb

 

[542365]

Started my first franchise of the year last night. Did an expansion draft and win the Stanley and Calder Cups the first season. Lost the first three games and then won 4 straight to win the Stanley Cup. It was pretty sweet.

Now I’m in year 4 and I’m in trouble. Mackinnon only has one year left, and Ben Bishop has dropped to an 81 overall. Probably going to have to trade someone important to get a goalie because I have nothing in the system. Looking around the league I don’t see many young goalies that are any good. It’s like the Sim engine just decided not to create any good goalies for the drafts.

 

[GAMO1992]

Fellas I have a problem.
Into year 2 of my Franchise Sim, I've taken a leap forward and my line look like this:

Zadina (85) - Larkin (90) - Mantha (90)
Debrusk (86) - Veleno (82) - Bertuzzi (87)
Fabbri (82) - Bozak (81) - Rasmussen (79)
Grabner (80) - Svechnikov (78) - Vesey (79)
---------------------------------
Seider (88) - Pietrangelo (89)
Cholowski (80) - Hronek (85)
DeKeyser (82) - Nemeth (80)
----------------
Holtby (89)
Bernier (81)

I have Askarov on the way as a 69 OVR, and I'm hoping my players grow, but at the trade deadline I'm 15th in the Eastern Conference at 26-31-8.
Pietrangelo is nearly point per game, but Holtby has let me down. What appears to be my problem is I don't have scoring depth, as I'm sitting with a 2.75 GPFG average.

How can I remedy this team? I don't have my 1st, and there's only ~20 games to turn this around.

look for players using 'advanced stats'. basically, look at their Shots, and giveaway-takeaways.
The more they shoot the better the scorer they are, or can be. Players like JFK from Boston shoot an abnormal amount and could be 30 goal scorers with a good passer(a player that shoots very little). you want a very high shot volume shooter to play with a very low shot volume player. and then throw on mid tier shot volume guy, preferably someone that has the super high takeaway to giveaway ratio

giveaways to takeaways shows how often they have the puck. the higher takeways they have to giveaways means they're spending MORE time on offense, or at least having the puck, which means your shooter and passer can amass more points.
you also want to look at body checking and blocks for more defensive players. players with high numbers there should be on your 3rd or 4th lines(unless they have a high overall, then play them with the shooter/passer) and can be decent PK'ers.

just by looking at the surface of your bottom 6 it looks very mish-mashed, as in, no real shooters besides maybe grabner and all the other guys seems like they are either mid-tier shot producers or more defensive players(which isn't bad, but you want at least 1 guy that can shoot on the 3rd and 4th lines, IMO).

Just take a look at your bottom 6 and see who's been giving the puck up a lot(Giveaways) and who isn't shooting enough or is just kind of 'there', as in none of their 'advanced stats' stand out or are at all special(no high numbers for any)

Use that method when looking for players to trade for. Some guys that shoot a lot can have low trade value.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Sometimes I turn off Fog of War, fire all my Pro scouts and have 4-5 scouts in each of OHL, WHL, QMJHL, but still barely get any information on prospects for the draft. Super annoying. Decent scouts, too, with Bs in prospect discovery and effficiency.....

You have to manually set your scouts if you want good info. Go to draft board, sort by league, and pick each player and what to scout. Potential is the most obvious thing to scout. Maybe it is different in NHL 20. In NHL 19, I found amateur scouting way too easy to the point that I had to restrict myself because uncover elite players or franchise goalies in the mid-late rounds of every draft made things extremely boring.

A big problem with the game is that there is not incentive to keep a full staff of pro-scouts. It's easy enough to figure out trades with 1 or 2 pro scouts. That lets you stack up on amateur scouts and uncover a lot of high potential players.

You also should look at how big each region is. Some regions are bigger than others and might benefit more from scouting because of that.

 

[ETTHAKING67]

What would you say is the biggest rebuilding challenge after the trade deadline ?

I'm looking to start a franchise soon either with an expansion (Is there a way to start with the first draft being the 2020 one ?) or a new challenge.

 

[SPV]

What would you say is the biggest rebuilding challenge after the trade deadline ?

I'm looking to start a franchise soon either with an expansion (Is there a way to start with the first draft being the 2020 one ?) or a new challenge.

Not sure about challenge, but Ottawa is pretty loaded with draft picks. So that could be a fun team to start with.

 

[ThePuckStopsHere]

So does anyone have any useful tips on how to develop defensemen. Ever since '19, I've only really successfully developed 3 defensemen past 84 OVR.

Most high value d-men prospects I acquire/draft end up crapping out in value. If they make it top three NHL, they typically max out at 80-82.

They finally did defensemen right this year. Elite D’men are few and far between, and puts more of a premium on them. I have had a few elite potential defensemen get up to 90, but not many.

I try to have a ‘defensemen’ coach with a high teaching value in the AHL, and over cook them there. Seems like rushing a young defensemen to the big league craps our growth.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Got the game, wish I had logged my Habs year one but oh well. Wanted to tank, team was better than I thought with a good coaching staff. Made minor trades (Kinkaid for a 6th, multiple mid round picks for Michael Stone when my coach bitched me out for the amount of goals we gave up). Team was far better than I thought heading into the deadline and I decided to acquire Thornton for two picks and give him a shot at the cup. Unfortunately, Danault, Weber and Price got injured at the same time in the playoffs and we were eliminated in the second round.


Draft day trades included trading Tatar to Florida for 13th overall and a 1st round pick in 2021. Tatar was awesome in the regular season but he no showed in the playoffs, so I moved on. Drouin, Poehling & a pick were traded to Anaheim for Hampus Lindholm. Original thought coming in was I’d rebuild, but the team performed well and I figure I may as well make the most of what I can with Price and Weber. Calgary also trades me 10th overall for Fleury & 23rd overall, and Quinton Byfield dropped to 10th. I wanted Holtz too, so I traded pick 13 & a few other picks to move up to pick 11 to take Holtz.


I don’t understand how drafting works as I have a lot of grey areas and it’s all a crapshoot, but oh well. I guess it’s realistic that way even though I’ve seen enough videos on YouTube to know I’m doing something wrong.

I signed Corey Crawford (backup), Pat Maroon, Anthony Duclair, Mattias Janmark and Brenden Dillon. A lot of role players that fit into the coaches schemes. Maroon is even on my first line to open the season with Kotkaniemi and Gallagher.


Kotkaniemi and Suzuki saw crazy growth. Suzuki from 80-85, Kotkaniemi from 80-87.


I’ll probably go all in and try winning a cup instead of rebuilding in this one, and maybe log an expansion one after.

 

[Serac]

Well it's finally time to re-start my expansion team. Stepping their way into the league once more, the British Columbia Monarchs.

To remind people, or if new users see this:
Injuries: Off (just want fun)
Trade Difficulty: Hard
Fog of War: Off (ew)
The goal with the playthrough is to draft a garbage team, building my way up through drafting and trades.
Trading, I will be a little flexible on, but generally speaking I'll only trade for players on the trade block and the opposing team wants.
Lastly, I cannot sign good free agents (because why would a good free agent sign with this dumpster fire). The exception to this if a player is going through the entirety of the summer without being signed, then I'll throw my hat into the ring. So generally, I'll only be signing mid-tier players at best, UNTIL I am comfortably competing for the playoffs (which given past experience, can take a handful of years).

With the rambling over, expansion draft time:

Spoiler

ANA - C. Djoos | D | 78 OVR | 24 YO (Top 6 D)
ARI - C. Garland | RW | 79 OVR | 23 YO (Top 9 F)
BOS - S. Kuraly | C | 79 OVR | 26 YO (Top 9 F)
BUF - C. Lazar | RW | 76 OVR | 24 YO (Top 9 F)
CGY - A. Nielsen | D | 74 OVR | 22 YO (Top 6 D)
CAR - A. Nedeljkovic | G | 74 OVR | 23 YO (Starter)

CHI - J. Quenneville | LW | 75 OVR | 23 YO (Top 9 F)
COL - V. Kamenev | LW | 75 OVR | 22 YO (Top 9 F)
CBJ - V. Vehviläinen | G | 71 OVR | 22 YO (Starter)
DAL - J. Honka | D | 77 OVR | 23 YO (Top 4 D)
DET - K. Wood | D | 75 OVR | 23 YO (Top 6 D)
EDM - J. Khaira | C | 78 OVR | 24 YO (Top 9 F)

FLA - D. Hunt | C | 74 OVR | 23 YO (Top 9 F)
LAK - M. Luff | RW | 75 OVR | 22 YO (Top 9 F)
MIN - L. Johnson | C | 75 OVR | 24 YO (Bottom 6 F)
MTL - G. Olofsson | D | 77 OVR | 24 YO (Top 6 D)
NSH - Y. Trenin | C | 72 OVR | 22 YO (Top 9 F)
NJD - M. Mueller | D | 78 OVR | 24 YO (Top 6 D)

NYI - M. Dal Colle | LW | 75 OVR | 23 YO (Top 9 F)
NYR - P. Di Giuseppe | LW | 76 OVR | 25 YO (Bottom 6 F)
OTT - M. Klimchuk | LW | 74 OVR | 24 YO (Bottom 6 F)
PHI - C. Bigras | D | 73 OVR | 24 YO (Top 6 D)
PIT - R. Barber | RW | 74 OVR | 25 YO (Top 9 F)
SJS - K. Middleton | D | 71 IVR | 23 YO (7th D)

STL - J. de la Rose | LW | 76 OVR | 24 YO (Top 9 F)
TBL - M. Stephens | C | 72 OVR | 22 YO (Top 9 F)
TOR - N. Petan | RW | 76 OVR | 24 YO (Top 6 F)
VAN - N. Goldobin | RW | 75 OVR | 23 YO (Top 9 F)
WSH - J. Siegenthaler | D | 77 OVR | 22 YO (Top 4 D)
WPG - E. Comrie | G | 80 OVR| 23 YO (Starter)

One 80 overall player taken, and a handful of decent potential players taken. Passed up on tons of good players (mainly young Top 4 D) so I'm comfortable with this.

Players of note for me: De Giuseppe & de la Rose were on my nhl19 expansion team, so I had to take them. Sorry guys...
Also all 3 goalies I took were medium starter potential guys. With the change in goalie trade value, I figured this would be fine.

With the expansion draft done, next up is the fictional 18-19 NHL Entry Draft!

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Got the game, wish I had logged my Habs year one but oh well. Wanted to tank, team was better than I thought with a good coaching staff. Made minor trades (Kinkaid for a 6th, multiple mid round picks for Michael Stone when my coach bitched me out for the amount of goals we gave up). Team was far better than I thought heading into the deadline and I decided to acquire Thornton for two picks and give him a shot at the cup. Unfortunately, Danault, Weber and Price got injured at the same time in the playoffs and we were eliminated in the second round.


Draft day trades included trading Tatar to Florida for 13th overall and a 1st round pick in 2021. Tatar was awesome in the regular season but he no showed in the playoffs, so I moved on. Drouin, Poehling & a pick were traded to Anaheim for Hampus Lindholm. Original thought coming in was I’d rebuild, but the team performed well and I figure I may as well make the most of what I can with Price and Weber. Calgary also trades me 10th overall for Fleury & 23rd overall, and Quinton Byfield dropped to 10th. I wanted Holtz too, so I traded pick 13 & a few other picks to move up to pick 11 to take Holtz.


I don’t understand how drafting works as I have a lot of grey areas and it’s all a crapshoot, but oh well. I guess it’s realistic that way even though I’ve seen enough videos on YouTube to know I’m doing something wrong.

I signed Corey Crawford (backup), Pat Maroon, Anthony Duclair, Mattias Janmark and Brenden Dillon. A lot of role players that fit into the coaches schemes. Maroon is even on my first line to open the season with Kotkaniemi and Gallagher.


Kotkaniemi and Suzuki saw crazy growth. Suzuki from 80-85, Kotkaniemi from 80-87.


I’ll probably go all in and try winning a cup instead of rebuilding in this one, and maybe log an expansion one after.

Year 2 lineup to open:

Patrick Maroon (79) - Jesperi Kotkaniemi (87) - Brendan Gallagher (87)
Max Domi (87) - Nick Suzuki (85) - Anthony Duclair (82)
Matthias Janmark (80) - Philip Danault (83) - Joel Armia (81)
Arturri Lehkonen (80) - Paul Byron (79) - Jordan Weal (79)

Hampus Lindholm (86) - Shea Weber (88)
Brenden Dillon (82) - Jeff Petry (87)
Victor Mete (81) - Noah Juulsen (81)
Brett Kulak (79)
Karl Alzner (78)

Carey Price (91)
Corey Crawford (85)

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Year 2 lineup to open:

Patrick Maroon (79) - Jesperi Kotkaniemi (87) - Brendan Gallagher (87)
Max Domi (87) - Nick Suzuki (85) - Anthony Duclair (82)
Matthias Janmark (80) - Philip Danault (83) - Joel Armia (81)
Arturri Lehkonen (80) - Paul Byron (79) - Jordan Weal (79)

Hampus Lindholm (86) - Shea Weber (88)
Brenden Dillon (82) - Jeff Petry (87)
Victor Mete (81) - Noah Juulsen (81)
Brett Kulak (79)
Karl Alzner (78)

Carey Price (91)
Corey Crawford (85)

Well this team collapsed but on the bright side I won the draft lottery, going from 6th overall to 2nd overall.

 

[Serac]

Heading into the make believe 2019 draft, my supposed leading scorer of the team is N. Goldobin with a whopping 27 points in 63 GP.
I start the draft with a projected...$18.5M in cap spent. Leaving me just under $63M in cap space.

#1: DET - C. Mceachern | D | 79 | Elite
#2: COL - M. Rodgers | D | 70| Elite
#3: LAK - M. Burish | D | 68 | Elite
#4: BCM - Y. Koltsov | D | 77 | Elite
#5: NJD - N. Franson | LW | 66 | Top 6 F

Spoiler: Draft Trades

CAR acquire: BCM 2019 2nd (35th)
BCM acquire: FLA 2019 2nd (46th) & BUF 2020 3rd
(Trade finder)

NYR acquire: FLA 2019 2nd (46th)
BCM acquire: C. Själin (D | 61 | Top 4 D) & DAL 2020 3rd
(Trade finder)

#67: N. Dadonov | LW | 49 | Elite
#99: E. Pearce | C | 56 | Bottom 6 F
#131: J. Paquette | D | 62 | 7th D
#163: M. Sadikov | C | 48 | Bottom 6 F
#196: Z. Mckinlay | RW | 47 | Top 9 F

With the mediocrity being picked around me, I risked trading some picks for future picks. Kind of backfired on me once, as the player I was considering taking with #46 wound up being Med Top 4 D...
Bright side is it wasn't the team I gave the pick to who got him!
Pleased I got the rare Low Elite in the 3rd round though.

EXTENSIONS
J. Honka | D | 77 - 1M x 2
C. Själin | D | 61 - 700k x 3

NOTABLE FREE AGENTS
T. Vanek - 81

Like, that's literally it

Spoiler: BCM Sign

J. Bergman | D | 73 | Top 6 D - 850k x 3
R. Chartier | C | 74 | Top 9 F - 900k x 3

Unfortunate cheese:
E. Lack | G | 78 - 16M x 1
D. Moore | C | 77 - 16M x 1

VAN signs T. Vanek - 2.075M x 2

Spoiler: Free Agency Trades

PIT acquire: J. Thornton (83), T. Heed (78), PIT 2021 3rd
SJS acquire: P. Joseph (71, Top 4 D) & PIT 2021 5th

BCM acquire: M. Staal (78), NYR 2021 2nd, NYR 2020 4th
NYR acquire: BCM 2020 7th

BCM acquire: J. Neal (81), EDM 2021 3rd, EDM 2021 4th
EDM acquire: BCM 2020 6th

BCM acquire: D. Backes (77), NSH 2020 4th, ANA 2021 4th
ANA acquire: Z. Mckinlay (47)

BCM acquire: M. Grabner (79) & ARI 2020 4th
ARI acquire: P. Di Giuseppe (76)

BCM acquire: C. Schneider (77) & VAN 2020 1st
NJD acquire: BCM 2020 5th
(Wasn't actually expecting them to take this deal)

Spoiler: 2019/2020 Roster

M. Grabner (79)	S. Kuraly (79)	J. Neal (81)
N. Petan (76)	D. Backes (77)	C. Garland (79)
J. De La Rose (76)	J. Khaira (78)	M. Dal Colle (75)
V. Kamenev (75)	D. Moore (77)	C. Lazar (76)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

M. Staal (78)	C. Djoos (78)
M. Mueller (78)	G. Olofsson (77)
J. Siegenthaler (77)	J. Honka (77)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

E. Comrie (80)

E. Lack (78)

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

My team is clearly stacked going into their first year.
OFF: 76
DEF: 80
GOA: 78