so you had younger defensemen like 70+in your lineups when you won? im trying to figure this out myself because i tried everything from the fantasy draft like older players, mixing youth and vets, all snipers and offensive defensemen. i just cant figure this out. heck i even tried all rookies that were 60 and 78 overalls, that never worked.
i dont know maybe the engine favors young star rookies.
The players were still 80+, they were just young. Also, I dont know if this affects it, but for young players I notice a lot of the time they are listed improperly. Like a defenseman would have 78 Off. awareness, 77 Passing, 89 Def. awareness, and 95 shot blocking, but is listed as an offensive defenseman. Because of that I edit the players playing style. With stats like that I change them to defensive defensemen or maybe a two-way defenseman.
So I dont know if that helps/hinders or does nothing, but it is something I do with all of my players whether they are real current players or made up draft picks. I hate how lazy EA is and how many players are just listed as two-way forward or two-way defenseman. It drives me crazy, so I edit all the players to what I believe is their real style. I usually only have 5-10 2-way players in the NHL by the time Im done. (Bergeron, O'Reilly, Couturier, etc.)
There are 2 ways I have won Cups in the past 2 NHL games.
1) I line combos/depth. I like to use the old style line up of having a playmaker, sniper, and grinder/powerforward on each line. It is not exactly that for every line, but it feels weird to me to have 2 players on the same line with the same style of play. So I try to mix up the lines and not worry about the overall of each player too much. By not worrying about the overalls I feel like it creates more depth on the team. If I had 2 playmakers on a line at say 85 overall I dont feel bad about dropping one to the next line for an 82 sniper, grinder, or two-way forward because now that next line is a little stronger.
2) I pay close attention to the player relationships. One time I had a weak team overall-wise but we were winning and I realized it was because I had a lot of players that had high team chemistry playing together. I like to make up names for certain lines on my team and one line had 3 guys that each were one of the others best friend, and who ever was not their "highest chemistry" was the 2nd highest on the team, so I named them the "BFF line." Having lines like that increases locker room chemistry of the team and by doing that the team usually wins more than they probably should.
With all that said, and my recent change of heart about player overall's I still try to keep everyone on my team over an 80.
