How's your Franchise Mode Going?

[pauliev]

Quote: Originally Posted by mbergh22

When does custom arena becomes avaliable? Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

I've been wondering this myself - I'm 4 seasons deep and the TD Garden my Bruins play in is 24 years old....would be great to get a budget to maybe do some customization or build a new arena in Boston

[pauliev]

So - another season down - after finishing 1st in the East and winning the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons I was offered a 3 year contract at almost $4M/year. About 8 other teams were also trying to retain my services. Some of the offers were ridiculously low ($800K) others were comparable to the Bruins offer but being somewhat of a loyalist (and proud of the team I helped build) I decided to stay in Boston.

My first off season with my new GM contract is set to start today with a draft in which my highest pick is a 4th rounder. I currently have about $15M in cap space and really no over-priced or ageing veteran players I would be interested in unloading to obtain picks.

My untouchables on the team would be Bergeron, Marchand, Larkin, Patrick, Holtby, Nurse and Pastrnak. Most of the other players I would consider moving but it would have to be an exceptional deal.

Looking at age, salary and potential, any moves at this point is tough but I also have some young players that I believe are ready to make the next step in development and move up to the NHL

I've placed Trevor Van Riemsdyk, Ryan Spooner and Jimmy Hayes on my trade block to see if anyone bites at the draft - not great, but all 3 have had solid seasons the past couple of years, are still young and relatively cap friendly to interested GMs

I guess we'll see how it goes.

Oh and after spending $4M on arena maintenance last year (my budget ran out just before the playoffs) my facility is a mess! I'm hoping to get a significant operations increase but not holding my breath. Maybe at some point in the game I can build a new arena in Boston...

[pauliev]

During this morning's draft I ended up trading Spooner, Hayes and Van Riemsdyk. Took future and current picks for them all in separate trades and feel my draft went as well as it could.

During free agency I was able to sign Matt Duchene and a couple of bottom 6 forwards to round out my roster for the season.

Currently my lines look like this:

Forwards:
J. DeBrusk - N. Patrick - M. Duchene
F. Vatrano - D. Larkin - D. Pastrnak
B. Marchand - P. Bergeron - S. Griffith
M. Belesky - A. Czarnik - J. Marchessault

Defense:
B. Carlo - D. Nurse
T. Wotherspoon - N. Hanifin
J. Zboril - C. Miller

Goalies:
B. Holtby - M. Murray

Offense - 91
Defense - 90
Goalie - 94

Played a lot of rookies in the pre-season and went 3-4-0. My locker room chemistry dropped from 81 to 74 though - that's a concern but I'm guessing the new players have a lot to do with it. Hopefully the growing pains don't last too long

[pauliev]

After a horrible start to my season I had to shake things up. Traded Holtby and prospects to Anaheim for John Gibson and Matt Duchene to Buffalo for Sam Reinhart. Also packaged Seth Griffith and a couple picks to Columbus for Ryan Murray.

Cap space may be a little tight in the upcoming off season but got an instant boost in team chemistry

[SomeoneSuperBad]

About to finish my first full season play through. Looking for a guide to who the best players are in the first NHL draft. Does anyone know where to find a post about this? Any good sleepers or high potential players to be had later in the 1st or 2nd round?

[Quarthon666]

I just started one last night with the Sabres. I was trying to focus mostly on concession and ticket prices to make a profit the owner wanted. I kept the prices in the range where the fans were mostly neutral. Only had a few sellouts and missed the playoffs. Fans were at 85 happiness when the season ended but I still didnt make the owner the profit he wanted. I simmed all the games and had the assistant coach auto line changes.

So I tried again with Pittsburgh. I set all my prices so the fans were happy and amazed at prices. Had many sellout games and the fans remained happy most the time. Sold a lot of concessions but in the end still didn't turn a profit for the owner. Just as previously I simmed all the games.

This is where Im really disappointed in this mode. Pens record was terrible and many of the simmed games were totally unrealistic. Getting beat by the Sabres 9-4 and other bad teams just whopped the Pens butt.

So Im wondering if anyone has turned a profit for the owner and do you have any tips on how to accomplish this. Im thinking maybe you need to make the playoffs to make the target profit. Any help would be appreciated.

[pauliev]

Quote: Originally Posted by SomeoneSuperBad

About to finish my first full season play through. Looking for a guide to who the best players are in the first NHL draft. Does anyone know where to find a post about this? Any good sleepers or high potential players to be had later in the 1st or 2nd round?

I traded up to draft Nolan Patrick - in his first year he progressed to an 82 overall and scored 20 goals. Timothy Liljegren is probably the top D-man to draft. I missed on the chance to draft Simon Stransky ended up trading for him before the season started. He's fast and also progressed to a mid-80s overall in his first year.

[onlybygrace]

Hey guys...I'm video streaming game by game highlights on my dynasty thread here in the hockey dynasties.


here is the linky...enjoy. its pretty sweet.


http://www.operationsports.com/forum...al-thread.html