48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

[Elphalpha]

Milwaukee Canadiens?

With the season underway, Milwaukee made several moves involving multiple Montreal Canadiens.



Many expected there to be a bigger market for Josh Anderson with all the teams with cap space, but Milwaukee managed to pick him up for a 6th-round draft pick alongside Joel Armia + Paul Byron. Kent Hughes, GM of the Montreal Canadiens reportedly quoted outside a Montreal salon saying "Holy ****! If these expansion teams didn't exist, I'd be in salary cap ****. I can't believe Mark Bergevin signed those contracts."
Milwaukee is happy with this considering they have players who are willing to pay for them on long-term deals.

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The team also managed to pick up Milan Lucic and a 4th for a 6th-round pick.


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Lastly, while calling around the league looking to move two 4th round draft picks receive a call-back from the Avalanche about Artturi Lehkonen. It's assumed that Colorado regrets the 5 year 4.5 million pay signed over the offseason.


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[Elphalpha]

Lineup

I finally figured out how to take snapshots relatively easily which makes it a lot easier to show off how the dynasty is going. Before I started this, I was 10 games in so I'm backtracking for the most part. I'm not going to get every single move I made, but most of them aren't worth talking about. Everything should be up to date from this point forward.


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This team isn't great, but it's better than sending out a bunch of AHL scrubs every night. I'd like to see our team show some fight versus the NHL teams, and hopefully, crush the expansion franchises.

[Elphalpha]

Rough Start - Bucks Start 2-7-1

My initial expectations were that we'd be competitive, however, that wasn't the case in most of the games I played.

Starting off the first-ever game for the Milwaukee Bucks was against Tortorella's Flyers at home and I was super excited. We played a solid game and managed to keep it close, but blew it away late in the third. We lost 5-4 but showed some fight. Something about the Flyers being weak compared to their ratings made me raise the difficulty adjustment after the game.

Every game since then has felt infinitely more realistic and games feel a lot better to play.

In the second game against Saskatchewan, we fell down 2-0 at home before coming back with 3 straight goals. It was a back-and-forth effort, but we managed to grab the first win for the Milwaukee Bucks NHL team!

Unfortunately, that's where luck ran out. We went to California and lost in OT, and then tried to rebound in Utah which was a nightmare. They weren't a better team, but they were bailed out by their goalie so many times.

With the new sliders, we had to play Philly again (thanks EA scheduling) and they showed they were a legitimate NHL team. 5-2 at the end of the second period, and I simmed the rest of the game.

Thankfully we got the chance to play the Roughriders and snuck out a win in OT. Looks like we're their kryptonite.

We play three NHL teams after that, and each one felt like we lacked the talent to compete with them. Funnily enough, I had the chance to take out our first NHL team in Winnipeg and we blew it away in the 3rd period.

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We'll see where we go from here. I'm really not sure where our team finishes in the standings, but we'll find out in the next few games.

[SENS_AK27]

I'm always to see a new Chise start up here. Welcome. You also are pulling off a really cool Expansion Concept. Hopefully we can watch you grow into a powerhouse.

As a native Haligonian, I'm now vested in how well the Mariners do. Hahaha

Good Luck.

[Elphalpha]

Frustrations mount as Bucks lose 9 of 10

The expectation coming into the year is that the Bucks wouldn't be competitive, however losing as much as they have in the fashion that they have is incredibly disappointing. They've lost heartbreakers while leading in the third to teams like Edmonton and Winnipeg while looking lost against the Quebec Nordiques which would be a bottom-feeder in last year's AHL season. Thankfully they managed to pull a win against the Cleveland Growlers in a 5-4 shootout.

Sitting at 3-16-2 is not what anyone expected out of this team, but there is a glimmer of hope in the offseason. Both central scouting and rumors out of Milwaukee say that this is an incredible year for the draft. Headlined not by Connor Bedard, but by American phenom Randy Tarnasky who compares to none other than Wayne Gretzky.




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Important Note: When I set up the house rules, I thought I would be able to push through all of the games during the season. Unfortunately, I don't think I have the time or motivation to play 84 games in a season. I simmed every time we went down 3 goals which happened pretty quickly against most of the teams I played (we're down 20 overall points against mostly every team) and it still took 4 or 5 hours to play through over the course of two days.

I have a better option though. I plan on simming the first two periods and playing as long as we're not down by three goals. This should make this season, and the following seasons go by much more quickly. I still plan on playing full games of the playoffs if I ever get the chance to get there lmao.

Also, I'm going to change the team + league updates to once every 21 games, so the franchise is updated 4 times in a regular season (not including the trade deadline).

[Elphalpha]

League Update - Season 1 - Quarter Mark Standings

NHL Eastern Conference - Updated: Nov 12, 2022
RK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS
1	Pittsburgh Penguins	15-5	44
2	Tampa Bay Lightning	15-4	43
3	Philadelphia Flyers	15-5	42
4	Columbus Blue Jackets	15-6	42
5	Boston Bruins	14-4	41
6	New York Rangers	14-5	40
7	Carolina Hurricanes	13-5	38
8	Toronto Maple Leafs	11-6	33
9	Buffalo Sabres	11-6	31
10	Florida Panthers	10-8	30
11	Ottawa Senators	11-7	30
12	New Jersey Devils	10-9	29
13	New York Islanders	10-9	27
14	Washington Capitals	9-8	24
15	Nashville Predators	8-10 *	23
16	Montreal Canadiens	8-9 *	21
17	Quebec Nordiques	6-12 *	17
18	Halifax Mariners	6-14 *	17
19	London Royals	6-15	16
20	Hartford Whalers	6-15	15
21	Orlando Solar Bears	4-12	12
22	Atlanta Gladiators	4-14	11
23	Cleveland Growlers	4-15	10
24	Hamilton Tigers	3-17	8

* indicates team is in wildcard position

NHL Western Conference - Updated: Nov 13, 2022
RK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS
1	San Jose Sharks	16-6	46
2	Detroit Red Wings	15-8	42
3	Colorado Avalanche	15-6	42
4	LA Kings	15-8	42
5	Vegas Golden Knights	14-2	41
6	Minnesota Wild	14-2	40
7	St. Louis Blues	14-6	39
8	Winnipeg Jets	13-9	39
9	Calgary Flames	12-8	34
10	Chicago Blackhawks	11-6	33
11	Seattle Kraken	12-9	33
12	Vancouver Canucks	11-11	31
13	Dallas Stars	9-11	27
14	Edmonton Oilers	9-13	26
15	Arizona Coyotes *	10-12	26
16	Utah Stealth *	8-11	23
17	Anaheim Ducks *	8-11	23
18	Saskatchewan Roughriders *	6-9	16
19	Portland Redhawks	6-16	15
20	San Diego Golden Seals	5-14	12
21	Milwaukee Bucks	3-18	8
22	KC Scouts	3-20	7
23	Indianopolis Fuel	2-19	6
24	Houston Astros	1-18	3

* indicates team is in wildcard position

[Elphalpha]

League Update - Season 1 - Quarter Mark - NHL News


Trades

KC Scouts traded 3rd in 2023 + 3rd in 2024 to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Connor Murphy (82 OVR, 29, RD, 4.4M for 4 years)

Grade for KC : D - They didn't need to give up draft capital to acquire a player that they could've acquired in the offseason. Murphy won't help them til his contract runs out. Questionable decision.

Grade for Chicago: B+ - The team won't miss the playoffs this year with the expanded rosters, but they'll eventually use the draft capital and space for something better.

Arizona Coyotes have traded Shane Gostisbehere (85 OVR, 29, 4.5M for 1 year) and Troy Stetcher (78, 30, 1.35M, 1 year) to the Detroit Redwings for William Wallinder (69 OVR, 20, Top 4 DPOT), C. Hanas (67 20, Top 6 F Pot), and 3rd round pick 24'

Grade for Arizona: B - The team could've acquired more assets during the deadline, but they picked up some solid prospects that might turn into something.

Grade for Detroit: C+ - Detroit is winning, but how much of that is because of their schedule? Very little reason to pick up a rental for players that could potentially be great.

Notes

There were a ton of FA signings, but most of them were inconsequential. A lot of the expansion teams picked up some of the players left in the FA pool. Don't think it's worth the effort to mention some of the insane pickups like martin marincin signing a one-year deal with the Golden Seals lol

[Elphalpha]

Team Update - Season 1 - Midway Point - Playoff Bound?

The Milwaukee Bucks are playoff bound? Only a month ago, the team had 3 wins and considered firing their coach after a disastrous start. Now the team is 1 point ahead of the San Diego Golden Seals with control of the final wild-card spot.

Most fans didn't give up hope after watching them narrowly lose close games to the Arizona Coyotes and Edmonton Oilers. Their belief was rewarded when Milwaukee went on the road and managed to steal a game away from the New York Islanders with their first win against a pre-expansion team.

The team fell apart after that victory losing its next 8. Fortunately, the team finally believes in itself (and the sim engine does too) and grabbed two victories from the LA Kings and a stunner on the road in Vancouver in OT. With a shootout-sealing win from the OT hero Josh Anderson 2 games later on the road in Halifax.

Despite all the wins the team managed to accumulate during their run, they fell apart losing the next two. Pressure began to mount as the two teams behind them, Indianapolis and Hamilton both fired their head coaches within the span of two days. Many wondered whether Stanley Vajihollahi would keep his job. Milwaukee reportedly explored options but decided to stick with him for at least the remainder of the year.

They were rewarded with a 4-1 finish to reach the midpoint of the season with wins against the Fuel, Solar Bears, Golden Seals, and Blackhawks.

For what it's worth, the Milwaukee Bucks are 12-29-2 with control of their playoff destiny. Should they keep it the question, or do they "trust the process" for some of the Elite players that headline the draft? The excitement that the fans put on might be worth the chance at a run.

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