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Critch · 02-20-2023, 02:28 PM

2024/25 season, second half

The season ended with Anchorage well out of the playoff race, in 9th place in the 9 team Pacific division with a record of 28-48-6 for 62 points. Not quite the worst record in the league, fellow expansion teams Hartford and Atlanta finished with 58 and 57 points respectively, Quebec were the runaway winners of the "best expansion franchise" award finishing with a huge 74 points. All four expansion franchises finished bottom of their division though, expansion as expansion should be.

The second half of the season was injury after injury, at one point we had 11 players on the Injury List. Jonathan Toews broke his hip and missed most of the second half of the season, almost everybody was out at some point. We picked up one guy on waivers, LW William Carrier, who made it 5 minutes into his Anchorage debut before being injured and out for the rest of the season. Maybe related maybe not, but I've discovered there is a training screen that I ignored all season. Could that have caused some injuries, or is everybody gets hurt just what happens? I've set training to AI control now, so maybe that'll be better next year.

My plan to trade Matt Murray for a good pick was scuppered by him becoming more and more awful as the season went on, and then breaking his hand right at the trade deadline. Even before the injury he'd lost his starting position to backup Sam Montembeault, at one point Murray had a Goals Saved Above Average over 9.00, by season end he was well below zero. Lots of mistakes as the year went on. I did bin lots of unwanted chaff as the season went on though, turned expiring contracts and old men (if you count 30 as old) into a bundle of 4th and 5th round picks. Gaps in the roster were filled with younger waiver pickups, it felt to me like the team was improving but the power rankings rate Anchorage last in forward strength and last in defensemen strength, so maybe my scouts are wrong. 26th for goalkeepers though thanks to the Sam Montembeault/Matt Murray tandem. The results did improve near the end of the season though, there was a section in the middle of the season when Anchorage couldnt buy a win, you knew it was going to be a loss before pressing the sim button. Anchorage had the worst record in the league before bouncing back to clinch third worst.

For the playoffs, a lot of big names missed out, no Florida, Maple Leafs, Islanders, Rangers, Caps, Penguins, Vegas, Edmonton in the playoffs. Feels like 3 seasons into the career there's been a powershift in the league, particularly in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa and Columbus won the two Eastern divisions, currently 7th and 8th and rebuilding in real life. Western conference is a bit less changed, Colorado still dominant but joined by Connor Bedard's Vancouver.

Stanley Cup went to Ottawa Senators, they beat St Louis by 4 games to 2. Connor McDavid won the MVP and scored most points despite his Edmonton team finishing 5th and missing the playoffs. He's so good some of his "out of 20" ratings are higher than 20, a couple of 21s and 22s in there. Ovechkin has slowed down, 24 goals this season to leave him 39 years old and 13 goals behind Gretzky. He has one more year left in his Caps contract, who knows if he'll make it, or what will happen when he's 40 and out of contract.

For Anchorage top scorer was Philipp Kurashev with 14 goals in 70 games, he also was top for points with 34. Only one player who played more than 2 games ended the season with a non-negative +/-, Yaukeni Aksiantsiuk with 0. Aksiantsiuk also led the team for average Game Rating. And I need to go read up on Corsi and Fenwick to work out what the advanced stats are telling me. I think they're basically saying "most of these guys had a bad year by any metric".

For next year things will be better. There are some rookies who will show up (1st rounder Henry Mews is now 3.0 current 4.0 potential and will be starting next year, 4th rounder Oskar Vuollet has gone from 1.0/3.5 last year to 2.0/5.0 now so if that's not scouting mistakes he may be an apparently rare low drafted star). There will also be quite a lot of salary cap available for free agents, maybe improve the defense and I guess a top scorer with 14 goals kind of says "get somebody who can score goals" too.

Next up will be pre-season preview, FA results and projected lines that look nothing like the ones from last year.

02-20-2023, 02:28 PM	#12
Critch lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Herndon, VA	2024/25 season, second half The season ended with Anchorage well out of the playoff race, in 9th place in the 9 team Pacific division with a record of 28-48-6 for 62 points. Not quite the worst record in the league, fellow expansion teams Hartford and Atlanta finished with 58 and 57 points respectively, Quebec were the runaway winners of the "best expansion franchise" award finishing with a huge 74 points. All four expansion franchises finished bottom of their division though, expansion as expansion should be. The second half of the season was injury after injury, at one point we had 11 players on the Injury List. Jonathan Toews broke his hip and missed most of the second half of the season, almost everybody was out at some point. We picked up one guy on waivers, LW William Carrier, who made it 5 minutes into his Anchorage debut before being injured and out for the rest of the season. Maybe related maybe not, but I've discovered there is a training screen that I ignored all season. Could that have caused some injuries, or is everybody gets hurt just what happens? I've set training to AI control now, so maybe that'll be better next year. My plan to trade Matt Murray for a good pick was scuppered by him becoming more and more awful as the season went on, and then breaking his hand right at the trade deadline. Even before the injury he'd lost his starting position to backup Sam Montembeault, at one point Murray had a Goals Saved Above Average over 9.00, by season end he was well below zero. Lots of mistakes as the year went on. I did bin lots of unwanted chaff as the season went on though, turned expiring contracts and old men (if you count 30 as old) into a bundle of 4th and 5th round picks. Gaps in the roster were filled with younger waiver pickups, it felt to me like the team was improving but the power rankings rate Anchorage last in forward strength and last in defensemen strength, so maybe my scouts are wrong. 26th for goalkeepers though thanks to the Sam Montembeault/Matt Murray tandem. The results did improve near the end of the season though, there was a section in the middle of the season when Anchorage couldnt buy a win, you knew it was going to be a loss before pressing the sim button. Anchorage had the worst record in the league before bouncing back to clinch third worst. For the playoffs, a lot of big names missed out, no Florida, Maple Leafs, Islanders, Rangers, Caps, Penguins, Vegas, Edmonton in the playoffs. Feels like 3 seasons into the career there's been a powershift in the league, particularly in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa and Columbus won the two Eastern divisions, currently 7th and 8th and rebuilding in real life. Western conference is a bit less changed, Colorado still dominant but joined by Connor Bedard's Vancouver. Stanley Cup went to Ottawa Senators, they beat St Louis by 4 games to 2. Connor McDavid won the MVP and scored most points despite his Edmonton team finishing 5th and missing the playoffs. He's so good some of his "out of 20" ratings are higher than 20, a couple of 21s and 22s in there. Ovechkin has slowed down, 24 goals this season to leave him 39 years old and 13 goals behind Gretzky. He has one more year left in his Caps contract, who knows if he'll make it, or what will happen when he's 40 and out of contract. For Anchorage top scorer was Philipp Kurashev with 14 goals in 70 games, he also was top for points with 34. Only one player who played more than 2 games ended the season with a non-negative +/-, Yaukeni Aksiantsiuk with 0. Aksiantsiuk also led the team for average Game Rating. And I need to go read up on Corsi and Fenwick to work out what the advanced stats are telling me. I think they're basically saying "most of these guys had a bad year by any metric". For next year things will be better. There are some rookies who will show up (1st rounder Henry Mews is now 3.0 current 4.0 potential and will be starting next year, 4th rounder Oskar Vuollet has gone from 1.0/3.5 last year to 2.0/5.0 now so if that's not scouting mistakes he may be an apparently rare low drafted star). There will also be quite a lot of salary cap available for free agents, maybe improve the defense and I guess a top scorer with 14 goals kind of says "get somebody who can score goals" too. Next up will be pre-season preview, FA results and projected lines that look nothing like the ones from last year.