[Critch]

2033/34 Free Agency
The problem with doing well in the playoffs is that everybody thinks they're integral and deserve to be paid big, so this is a summer for not affording to pay everybody. Jordan Gavin gets his increase, Lucas Karmiris gets his increase, Kaden Pitre gets his increase and there's not a whole lot left to pay the rest. It's time to say goodbye to Paul Mayer, Matthew Paranych, Weston Knox, Urho Mattila, Rick Claycomb and Evan Maillet (plus a few other nobodies), and try to fill the gaps with rookies and retreads. I'm starting to think giving 6.5mil per year to the crumbling husk of team captain Vasili Podkolzin wasnt a great plan.

First issue is our goaltending, last year's starter Evan Maillet is gone so we're down to only one goalie, 22-year old Lucas Wall. Wall has played 28 games in 3 seasons for Anchorage, it's now his time to be full time starter but he still thinks of himself as a backup. It's time to sign him up to a long contract while he still thinks he's a backup. His 750k entry level contract ends at the end of this season, but he re-ups for 1.5mil per year for the next three years. So we're cheap and secure in goal for 4 years, so long as his "vulnerable" injury rating chest and arms doesn't kick in. We get a cheap backup (former Arizona Coyotes backup, current Arizona Coyotes cast off Thomas Kiesewetter) and a cheaper emergency option (former Anchorage prospect Viljar Tveit) and we're good in net.

In defense we lost a few starters (Knox, Mayer and Paranych) so we have spaces, they're all filled with prospects from within. We still have Mews, Gillespie, Turko and Mendl so it's really a bottom pairing we're looking for. Welcome to 4 2.5 star rated youngsters, 20 year old Matt Leader, 23 year old John Fireman, 21 year old Johan Dahlberg and the positively ancient 26 year old Alfred Hansson. They've all been in the Anchorage system for a few years (other than Leader, he came in from Boston on a trade last year), and a few of them will be getting big team jobs this year.

For the forwards we're in a good place. Only Mattila, Claycomb and a couple of backups went, incoming is 2032 no2 overall pick RW Borje Svensson from the Swedish League and RW Jorgen Palm returning from injury. So we're set.

The problem is next summer looks to be the same routine, players needing paid or shipped out.

It's time to do something drastic. One of the players looking for a big increase to re-sign next summer is Emil Hemming, he's got one more year of 7.5mil and he wants 10mil per year to return. He's played 520 games for Anchorage, 102 goals, 202 assists, he's the defensive right winger on our top line. We brought in one top RW prospect this year (Svensson), two last year (Pettersson and Hrovatin) and Palm is returning from injury, do we really need a good but expensive top line right wing? The decision is made when I see Urho Mattila is sitting on free agency and he's now returning calls and saying he'd love to play for his favorite team again for a reasonable 3.6mil per year for 3 years. So Hemming is out, he goes to the Flyers for next to nothing (it seems no matter what you're trying to shift the AI offers a 4th and a terrible prospect or a 6th and a not quite as terrible but still longshot prospect), and Urho Mattila is signed. Unfortunately he's spent the summer getting fat on whatever Finnish people eat (seals and vodka?) and he shows up too unfit to play, but at least he's back where he's supposed to be.

2033/34 Rookie Draft
We have all our own picks, 35th in each round, so anybody half decent will be long gone by the time even our first pick comes around.

For the first time since the dynasty started there's a prospect who would come straight into the NHL as a top player. C Jerry Megna is 18 years old, 4.0 current 5.0 potential rated, and scored 106 points in 60 games for Spokane Chiefs in the Western Hockey League, somebody is getting an instant top 6 center, he's better than Beddard was in the first draft. I dont think I've seen anybody with a better than 2.5 current rating in the draft before. First pick is St Louis and they don't pick him, they go for a 1.0 current 5.0 potential 18 year old Russian defenseman Dmitry Partasov, drafting for needs I guess. Megna goes number 2 to Arizona, he's already listed as their best center so we'll see how he does.

For Anchorage's picks, we go unintentionally multinational. I didn't notice til I looked over them now but we picked 8 players from 8 different countries. First round is a Polish goalie Chwalislaw Janiszewski, then a Canadian Center Spencer Ecclestone in round 2, followed by a Lithuanian, a Dane, a Swiss, a Finn, an American, and a Kazakh.

Nobody who'll be mentioned again for a year or two.

And with that we're back to pre-season games. Doesn't the time fly by? It seems like the Stanley Cup was just yesterday.