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Critch · 03-26-2023, 02:31 PM

2032/2033 Playoffs
Normally there's a playoffs section on these Close Season posts detailing what happened after Anchorage were out, but this year we won so no need. I'm sure there was an Anchorage Huskies open top bus tour that left the stadium at 12.00pm, slowly circled Anchorage city center, and got back to the stadium at about 12.15pm.

The awards were doled out, Connor McDavid seems to finally be too old to win everything, he's 35 now and is still churning along at way over a point per game pace (47 points in 37 games last season) but is missing a lot of games through injury (nearly 100 games missed over the last two seasons). Now it's Connor Bedard (Vancouver) or Shane Wright (Seattle) who win the Hart Trophy (MVP) and Art Ross Trophy (Most points). This year it's Shane Wright who wins both.

Anchorage Huskies win their first ever award, Henry Mews with the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP), 7 goals and 12 assists and a Plus/Minus of +17 in 24 games. Jordan Gavin (13 goals, 10 assists and +14) would have been my choice, but fair enough. Nothing for me for Exec of the Year or Coach of the Year. Robbed.

I also forgot to mention the All-Star game for the last few years, it used to happen every year with no Anchorage players involved until 3 years ago. Sebastian Cossa was chosen in 2031 and 2032, our only invite. This year G Evan Maillet, D Henry Mews and C Jordan Gavin were all chosen. We've finally made it to all-star respectability.

Free Agency
The original plan was to let Vasili Podkolzin walk as a UFA. He wanted 9+mil per year for 3 years, but he's 32 years old and on the downward slide. We won the Stanley Cup though, and he's team captain so we couldnt let him walk, we've got all those photographs of him lifting the cup all over the stadium and press packs. Luckily his salary request got more reasonable so he's back. $6.5 mil per year for 3 years. He's overpaid, he'll be bottom 6 soon enough, but he's team captain. He had to come back. He used to be a sniper, buzzing about and scoring, but now he's slowed down so he's a power forward using his size and strength instead of speed and acceleration.

Out went Tomas Lavoie, he's been a quietly effective defenseman for 6 seasons, but the last two have been injury plagued (missed over 50 regular season games in each season) so he went to free agency and was quickly snapped up by Calgary Flames. Also out went Prokhor Poltapov (he was looking for 6mil per year, way too much), Aleksandr Yeremey (could only play RW and we have too many RW) and Brandon Svoboda (bad back injury has ended his days as an NHL level player), the three of them are still without a team.

Coming in are a few rookies, Anchorage draft picks from the last few years. RW Peter Hrovatin (2030 1st round, 7th overall) comes in from the Swedish leagues, he's outspoken but cant speak English, I'm not sure what an angry man shouting in Slovenian will do to team morale. RW August Pettersson (2031 2nd round, 68th overall), he's Swedish and 20 years old, he's been in the Canadian juniors for a while so he does speak English, 73 points in 53 games for Saskatoon last year, hopefully he can step up. LD Owen Conrad, he was picked in the 4th round 2027, so he's old for a rookie, 26 years old. Anchorage have tried to call him up before, but he's been in the KHL (Russian League) and too expensive to buy out his contract for a borderline player. A couple of years playing for the Chinese KHL team Kunlun Red Star then a few years for Amur Khabarovsk and now into the NHL. He'll probably be 3rd pair or 7th defenseman, he's fully developed but not very good.

Finally the replacement for Tomas Lavoie, Jiri Mendl returns. He was at Anchorage for one season before moving onto CSKA Moscow for a year. He's back now and will fit into the big gap Tomas Lavoie left. He's a fairly good lower pair defenseman, but looking back through the draft logs he was picked 1st overall the year that Jordan Gavin was picked 4th by us. A rare 1st pick who didnt become a top player.

Rookie Draft
No picks for us until last pick in the 1st round, the slight downside of being the champions. We get C Enzo Landrey, he'll be stating in the Canadian Juniors for a few years. It's a strong draft, the top two picks look like future all stars. First pick LD Nicholas Bracken goes to the Islanders, and second pick G King Coker goes to Minnesota. King Coker is a great name.

The only other action of the off-season is that the Anchorage arena is listed as Poor so in the Annual Budget I set aside $36 million to improve the arena, spend the Stanley Cup Windfall on improvements. When I advance to the next month the arena has improved to "Average" but it cost $112.5mil. I'm not sure if that's a bug or a fair simulation of how much builders go over budget. Anyway, the finances are hosed for a while.

03-26-2023, 02:31 PM	#60
Critch lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Herndon, VA	2032/2033 Playoffs Normally there's a playoffs section on these Close Season posts detailing what happened after Anchorage were out, but this year we won so no need. I'm sure there was an Anchorage Huskies open top bus tour that left the stadium at 12.00pm, slowly circled Anchorage city center, and got back to the stadium at about 12.15pm. The awards were doled out, Connor McDavid seems to finally be too old to win everything, he's 35 now and is still churning along at way over a point per game pace (47 points in 37 games last season) but is missing a lot of games through injury (nearly 100 games missed over the last two seasons). Now it's Connor Bedard (Vancouver) or Shane Wright (Seattle) who win the Hart Trophy (MVP) and Art Ross Trophy (Most points). This year it's Shane Wright who wins both. Anchorage Huskies win their first ever award, Henry Mews with the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP), 7 goals and 12 assists and a Plus/Minus of +17 in 24 games. Jordan Gavin (13 goals, 10 assists and +14) would have been my choice, but fair enough. Nothing for me for Exec of the Year or Coach of the Year. Robbed. I also forgot to mention the All-Star game for the last few years, it used to happen every year with no Anchorage players involved until 3 years ago. Sebastian Cossa was chosen in 2031 and 2032, our only invite. This year G Evan Maillet, D Henry Mews and C Jordan Gavin were all chosen. We've finally made it to all-star respectability. Free Agency The original plan was to let Vasili Podkolzin walk as a UFA. He wanted 9+mil per year for 3 years, but he's 32 years old and on the downward slide. We won the Stanley Cup though, and he's team captain so we couldnt let him walk, we've got all those photographs of him lifting the cup all over the stadium and press packs. Luckily his salary request got more reasonable so he's back. $6.5 mil per year for 3 years. He's overpaid, he'll be bottom 6 soon enough, but he's team captain. He had to come back. He used to be a sniper, buzzing about and scoring, but now he's slowed down so he's a power forward using his size and strength instead of speed and acceleration. Out went Tomas Lavoie, he's been a quietly effective defenseman for 6 seasons, but the last two have been injury plagued (missed over 50 regular season games in each season) so he went to free agency and was quickly snapped up by Calgary Flames. Also out went Prokhor Poltapov (he was looking for 6mil per year, way too much), Aleksandr Yeremey (could only play RW and we have too many RW) and Brandon Svoboda (bad back injury has ended his days as an NHL level player), the three of them are still without a team. Coming in are a few rookies, Anchorage draft picks from the last few years. RW Peter Hrovatin (2030 1st round, 7th overall) comes in from the Swedish leagues, he's outspoken but cant speak English, I'm not sure what an angry man shouting in Slovenian will do to team morale. RW August Pettersson (2031 2nd round, 68th overall), he's Swedish and 20 years old, he's been in the Canadian juniors for a while so he does speak English, 73 points in 53 games for Saskatoon last year, hopefully he can step up. LD Owen Conrad, he was picked in the 4th round 2027, so he's old for a rookie, 26 years old. Anchorage have tried to call him up before, but he's been in the KHL (Russian League) and too expensive to buy out his contract for a borderline player. A couple of years playing for the Chinese KHL team Kunlun Red Star then a few years for Amur Khabarovsk and now into the NHL. He'll probably be 3rd pair or 7th defenseman, he's fully developed but not very good. Finally the replacement for Tomas Lavoie, Jiri Mendl returns. He was at Anchorage for one season before moving onto CSKA Moscow for a year. He's back now and will fit into the big gap Tomas Lavoie left. He's a fairly good lower pair defenseman, but looking back through the draft logs he was picked 1st overall the year that Jordan Gavin was picked 4th by us. A rare 1st pick who didnt become a top player. Rookie Draft No picks for us until last pick in the 1st round, the slight downside of being the champions. We get C Enzo Landrey, he'll be stating in the Canadian Juniors for a few years. It's a strong draft, the top two picks look like future all stars. First pick LD Nicholas Bracken goes to the Islanders, and second pick G King Coker goes to Minnesota. King Coker is a great name. The only other action of the off-season is that the Anchorage arena is listed as Poor so in the Annual Budget I set aside $36 million to improve the arena, spend the Stanley Cup Windfall on improvements. When I advance to the next month the arena has improved to "Average" but it cost $112.5mil. I'm not sure if that's a bug or a fair simulation of how much builders go over budget. Anyway, the finances are hosed for a while. Last edited by Critch : 03-26-2023 at 02:34 PM.