Quote:
Originally Posted by cubboyroy1826
Well at least you are progressing in the playoffs.
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That's something, Won a playoff series, back-to-back playoffs with the lowest payroll in the league, but do I get nominated for Exec of the Year? Nope. Are the fans happy? Nope. They started as "Disloyal" then jumped up to "Normal Loyalty" after the first playoffs, but now they've dropped back down to "Disloyal".
2031/32 Playoffs
After dumping out Anchorage Huskies, San Jose went onto the Western Conference final to face the St Louis Blues and that's where their run ended. St Louis onto the Stanley Cup from the West.
In the Eastern Conference it was fellow expansion team Hartford who won out, they got into the playoffs as a Wild Card but then beat the top team in the Metropolitan division (Carolina), the second team in the Metro (Columbus) and the second team from the Atlantic (Detroit) to get to the Stanley Cup final.
The Stanley Cup final was where Hartford's luck ran out, they got swept by the Blues. St Louis with their first championship of the dynasty.
2031/32 Off Season
I'd been seeing a few more good quality players sitting out most of the season waiting for somebody to seriously overpay them, a few 3.5 players saying "if nobody is going to give me 6.5mil per year, I'm staying home". Allegedly increasing the salary cap every few seasons helps with this, so this year I finally remembered to add 3mil to the salary cap, we'll see if that works. It wont make any difference to the Anchorage budget, the Anchorage owner is sticking to a salary budget that will now be about 17mil less than the max.
For Anchorage, money's too tight to mention. A few important players were up for new contracts, Mews got paid, Hemming got paid (overpaid?), Easten Turko got his first big-boy contract (only 1.5mil per year but not sure he deserved it) so we're right up to the team salary budget but with roster gaps to fill. The original plan was to move on top line RW Vasili Podkolzin and free up his 6.8mil salary and replace him with rookie Jeff Martin (4th pick in 2030). That plan was shelved because nobody wanted Podkolzin and his salary, plus I was not sure about trading away the team captain. Also Jeff Martin isn't a replacement for him, he's currently a bottom six hitter not a top line scorer. So it was onto Plan B, it was G Sebastian Cossa who went to cut salary.
My rule is that I can shop a player, but that I can't negotiate an offers, it's apparently a bit too easy to fleece the AI if you negotiate. So Sebastian Cossa gets shopped and a few teams offer a 1st round pick for him, or a prospect and a lower round pick. Best offer was Vegas offering their 1st round pick, so Cossa goes and we got a lottery pick this year. Vegas needed a goalie so it makes sense for them I guess.
A couple of years ago we picked up an undrafted backup Evan Maillet from the AHL, he shone for one season in the NHL as a backup, played 17 games, but then asked for a huge pay raise so we let him go. He wasn't the superstar he thought he was and a year earning 11k playing for the Knoxville Ice Bears in the Southern Professional Hockey League has made him a bit more willing to rethink the huge salary demands. He's back to partner youngster Lucas Wall as our 1a/1b goalie tandem for next year.
Rookie Draft
With the draft pick we got from Vegas, we had an interest in the draft lottery. It started off as the 9th pick, but the balls were kind to us and we ended up as minor lottery winners, we move up to second pick overall. Not a bad return for Cossa, I got the "I fleeced the AI" feeling. Luckily the draft class wasn't great, so we didn't fleece them too much. 18 year old Swedish winger Borje Svensson was the pick, he's years away from being ready so will be staying in the Swedish leagues for a year or two. Our own pick in the 1st round was 26, RD Mark Dollack. Again he's years from being ready so he'll be staying in the Canadian juniors. The draft isn't the place for players to help immediately.
Free Agency
It's quiet for Anchorage. A few players leave because they'd be too expensive to resign (Aidan Dudas, Samu Partanen, Jiri Mendl, Tarin Smith, Jake Sanderson), one player leaves because he was confusing (D Josh Glavin, I accidentally started him at center a couple of times because his name is too much like Jordan Gavin), D Jackson Gillespie gets a new contract, a few rookies get their entry level contracts (welcome to the big team Jeff Martin and David Prudek), and we're at the salary limit and ready to go into the new season. I'm not even sure there's enough money left for waiver pickups.
| Name | pos | Age | Nationality | Current | Potential | Years | Salary |
|---|
| Goalies | | | | | | | |
| Evan Maillet | G | 26 | CAN | 3.0 | 4.0 | 2 | 750 |
| Lucas Wall | G | 20 | CAN | 3.0 | 4.5 | 3 | 750 |
| Jacob Gibbons | G | 25 | CAN | 3.0 | 3.5 | 2 | 750 |
| | | | | | | |
| Defensemen | | | | | | | |
| Weston Knox | LD | 28 | USA | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2 | 3,986 |
| Easten Turko | LD | 23 | CAN | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3 | 1,550 |
| Alfred Hansson | LD | 24 | SWE | 2.0 | 2.5 | 2 | 750 |
| John Fireman | LD | 21 | CAN | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2 | 750 |
| | | | | | | |
| Henry Mews | RD | 26 | CAN | 4.0 | 4.0 | 5 | 8,510 |
| Tomas Lavoie | RD | 26 | CAN | 3.0 | 3.5 | 1 | 5,492 |
| Jackson Gillespie | RD | 25 | USA | 2.5 | 3.0 | 3 | 3,710 |
| Steve Peters | RD | 24 | USA | 2.0 | 2.5 | 1 | 878 |
| | | | | | | |
| Forwards | | | | | | | |
| Jordan Gavin | C | 25 | CAN | 5.0 | 5.0 | 2 | 10,440 |
| Oskar Vuollet | C | 26 | SWE | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3 | 4,997 |
| Kaden Pitre | C | 26 | CAN | 3.0 | 3.5 | 2 | 2,547 |
| Nicholas Moldenhauer | C | 28 | CAN | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1 | 750 |
| Brandon Svoboda | C | 27 | USA | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1 | 750 |
| | | | | | | |
| Lucas Karmiris | LW | 25 | CAN | 4.5 | 4.5 | 2 | 4,873 |
| Urho Mattila | LW | 25 | FIN | 3.5 | 4.0 | 2 | 3,368 |
| Prokhor Poltapov | LW | 29 | RUS | 3.0 | 3.0 | 1 | 2,272 |
| Jeff Martin | LW | 20 | CAN | 2.5 | 4.5 | 3 | 834 |
| Taylor Walton | LW | 21 | CAN | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2 | 750 |
| | | | | | | |
| Vasili Podkolzin | RW | 31 | RUS | 3.5 | 3.5 | 1 | 6,770 |
| Emil Hemming | RW | 26 | FIN | 3.5 | 4.0 | 3 | 7,540 |
| Jorgen Palm | RW | 24 | SWE | 3.0 | 3.0 | 1 | 750 |
| Aleksandr Yeremey | RW | 24 | RUS | 2.5 | 3.0 | 1 | 750 |
| David Prudek | RW | 21 | CZE | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3 | 878 |