48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

[Elphalpha]

Hey All! With NHL 23 going on sale, I decided to give it a shot after hesitating with the poor launch state. One of the things that really excited me was the option of custom franchises. Having immense flexibility and some unique options intrigued me into trying this out. With some of the settings, I really am guessing at this. Not sure what to expect, but hopefully it turns out all right.


All expansion teams will be starting with ECHL rosters, so it's going to be an uphill battle. Bedard watch should be fun!

There's no reason to clutter the forum with posts of every game, so I'll give 21 game updates (84 games in a year, so during the quarter points of the season) for the Bucks along with some league updates.

Also, I typically play games unless I'm up by 3 or down by 3 (which I'll usually sim). Around game 15, I decided to only play third periods unless I'm up by 3 or down by 3. This will make seasons go by more quickly. I still plan on playing all of the playoff games.

I'm not very good at the game either, but I play on AlTitos Sliders with All-Pro and 1/6 CPU difficulty adjustment. I changed it from 0/6 to 1/6 after the first game and then later to 3/6 in game 30 of season 1.

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

House Rules

Can re-sign RFAs and pending-ufas to at least 90% of value. I can't adjust the years on the contract.

Can only sign UFAs for what they're asking for *no lowballing

User-signed FA Players must play 70 percent of their contract before being traded. EXE: signing a player at 7 years means they can't be traded until their 5th or 6th season. Unless a player's morale is low enough that they'd rather be traded then stay with the organization.


TRADES..make it make sense for BOTH teams. Can only trade green-value for red-value.

1-year FA: Can trade at the Deadline

2-year FA: Can be traded at the year 2 deadline

3-year FA: Can be traded at the start of year 2

4-year FA: Year 3 Start

5-year FA: Year 3 deadline

6-year FA: Year 4 start

7-year FA: Year 5 Start

8-year FA: Year 5 deadline

DRAFTING..

MAX 12 picks.

SCOUTS + Coaches fit under budget, can't offer contracts on the first day of free agency.

NO trading players until 1-2 months after free agency starts.

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

Custom Franchise Settings

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NHL League Setup

48 Teams

2 Conferences

8 Divisions

Salary Cap: ON

Salary Cap Inflation: ON

Player Salary Scaling: OFF. Taking a risk here, but I've had experience in NHL 22 when the cap goes up and 80ovr D-Man are asking for 5 to 10 Mil

Cap Max: Default

Cap Min: Changed to 20M to ensure that AI doesn't get punished because they can't reach the floor in the first year.

NHL Schedule

Games: 84. Added two just because I thought it would be fun to see if any interesting record get broken.

Division Games: 18

Conference Games: 34

Interconference Games: 32

NHL Standings Format

3 Points Per Regulation Win

2 Points Per OT Win

1 Point Per SO Win

0 Points for any losses

NHL Playoff Qualification

Playoff Reseeding: YES

Wild Card Round: Yes. The format doesn't change too much except that the WC game is hosted by the team with more points. Only 1 game decides who goes on.

Teams that qualify per Division: 4

Teams that qualify per conference: 18. 24 Teams in a conference. So 6 teams will miss out on the playoffs. Ensures that the worst teams get the best possible draft picks, and makes for an incredible playoff gauntlet

Teams that qualify for the playoffs: 36. 12 teams will miss out on the playoffs.

AHL Changes

All conferences are removed. Teams will compete in a 34 team playoff bracket to determine who hosts the Calder Cup

Playoffs and season changes are nearly identical to the NHL

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

Meet The Expansion Franchises

1. Atlanta Gladiators. An ECHL import that will attempt to finally have a successful franchise as an NHL team in Atlanta. Can they succeed this time?

2. Cleveland Growlers. Dawg Pound! The Blue Jackets aren't alone in Ohio anymore. With the ECHL team moving from Newfoundland, they'll do their best to compete at the NHL level.

3. Halifax Mariners. Another ECHL team, but this time they get to compete in a market that's hungry for professional Hockey. Can the Maritimes have a team to be proud of?

4. Hamilton Tigers. Toronto is filled with money and die-hard hockey fans. Can the former NHL team capitalize on its long-suffering fanbase, or will it choke it all away?

5. Hartford Whalers. A storied NHL franchise in a small market. Ownership is banking on nostalgia toward success. As long as they don't play in a mall again they should be alright.

6. Houston Astros. MLB Ownership hopes to succeed in hockey by utilizing its baseball franchises' marketing. Certainly doesn't hurt that they're in one of the largest markets in the USA.

7. Indianapolis Fuel. ECHL team transferring directly to the NHL. Indy has proven it can have financial success in sports as long as it can win. Will it work with Hockey?

8. KC Scouts. Former NHL team returning to Kansas City. I'm actually surprised something like this hasn't happened. Imagine Patrick Mahomes wanted to diversify some of his income and purchased a Hockey team.

9. London Royals of Canada. The Golden Horshoe supposedly can support three NHL teams. We'll see how much success this team can scrape away from the GTA.

10. Orlando Solar Bears. Yet another ECHL import looking to capitalize on the NHL market. Florida finally gets a third team to compete for market share. Doesn't hurt that those UNIS look nice.

11. Portland Red Hawks. I honestly picked the name because I didn't feel like changing anything with the team that was already created by another user. Either way, this team should become Oregon's pride and joy over the historically mediocre Trailblazers.

12. Quebec Nordiques. Makes zero sense this team isn't already in the NHL considering how much Canada loves hockey. Easy win for whoever buys the team. Will they be able to compete with the Habs is the question.

13. San Diego Seals. San Diego gets a team owned by someone who hopefully won't move it. The Golden Seals come back with all their branding and everything to a city that doesn't have a team. Hey, and it's kinda interesting that a team with a huge naval presence has a team named the Seals.

14. Saskatchewan Roughriders. A CFL team turned hockey gets to go to Saskatoon and be the only team in the province. Should be a fun rivalry between some of the other Canadian teams.

15. Utah Stealth. I really didn't want to re-make the Grizzlies and decided to choose the premade stealth bomber. Either way, the logo, and unis look cool.

16. Milwaukee Bucks. Lastly, the team I will be controlling in this franchise. I've always wanted a team to truly support, and having to choose between several teams has never felt right to me. I never really liked the Wild, and the Blackhawks were already good before I was interested in hockey, so it felt like bandwagoning. Right now I currently support the Maple Leafs, but if Milwaukee got a team, then I'd support them right away. Now they have one!

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

Divisions

Eastern Conference - Northern Division Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Toronto Maple Leafs	0-0
Montreal Canadiens	0-0
Ottawa Senators	0-0
Buffalo Sabres	0-0
Hamilton Tigers	0-0
Quebec Nordiques	0-0

Eastern Conference - Northeastern Division Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
New York Rangers	0-0
New York Islanders	0-0
New Jersey Islanders	0-0
Boston Bruins	0-0
Hartford Whalers	0-0
Halifax Mariners	0-0

Eastern Conference - Central Division Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Pittsburgh Penguins	0-0
Philadelphia Flyers	0-0
Columbus Blue Jackets	0-0
Nashville Predators	0-0
London Royals	0-0
Cleveland Growlers	0-0

Eastern Conference - South Eastern Division Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Tampa Bay Lighting	0-0
Carolina Hurricanes	0-0
Florida Panthers	0-0
Washington Capitals	0-0
Orlando Solar Bears	0-0
Atlanta Gladiators	0-0

Western Conference - Midwest Division Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Chicago Blackhawks	0-0
Minnesota Wild	0-0
Detroit Red Wings	0-0
St. Louis Blues	0-0
Indianapolis Fuel	0-0
Milwaukee Bucks	0-0

Western Conference - Plains Division Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Winnipeg Jets	0-0
Dallas Stars	0-0
Colorado Avalanche	0-0
Utah Stealth	0-0
Houston Astros	0-0
Kansas City Scouts	0-0

Western Conference - Northwest Division Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Seattle Kraken	0-0
Calgary Flames	0-0
Arizona Coyotes	0-0
Edmonton Oilers	0-0
Portland Red Hawks	0-0
Saskatchewan Roughriders	0-0

Western Conference - Pacific Divisions Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 23, 2022
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
San Jose Sharks	0-0
LA Kings	0-0
Anaheim Ducks	0-0
Vancouver Canucks	0-0
Vegas Golden Knights	0-0
San Diego Golden Seals	0-0

[Elphalpha]

Season Expectations and Goals for 2022-2023 NHL season

Stop-Tanking.jpg

Nobody expects anything out of an expansion franchise, or at least they didn't until Vegas went on its miracle run a few years back. However, this year is different. There's zero expansion draft, teams don't get an option at drafting prior to the season, and all 16 teams are forced to roll into the season with ECHL rosters.

Our expectation isn't to roll over and die. I play nearly every game, so I'm not going to throw in the towel for 84 games. That doesn't mean I'm trading away assets, but taking on salary cap dumps might be OK as a goal. We can improve while also getting valuable assets in return. We have 20M in cap space at the moment, so it only makes sense to do so.

I'd still like to get a lottery pick, but I'm not going to tank to do it. Especially since it would kill our team morale (I play with morale on).

[johnstone1987]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

Wow all this can be done with NHL 23? I gotta check it out!

[Elphalpha]

Pre-Season and Early Season Trades

Milwaukee making noise by trading for major assets during the early season picking up Nikita Zaitsev, Patrik Nemeth, and Erik Gudbranson for draft assets. All of these teams managed to get rid of their bad contracts at a cheap value.



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nemeth.PNG

zaietsev.PNG

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

Milwaukee Canadiens?

With the season underway, Milwaukee made several moves involving multiple Montreal Canadiens.



Many expected there to be a bigger market for Josh Anderson with all the teams with cap space, but Milwaukee managed to pick him up for a 6th-round draft pick alongside Joel Armia + Paul Byron. Kent Hughes, GM of the Montreal Canadiens reportedly quoted outside a Montreal salon saying "Holy ****! If these expansion teams didn't exist, I'd be in salary cap ****. I can't believe Mark Bergevin signed those contracts."
Milwaukee is happy with this considering they have players who are willing to pay for them on long-term deals.

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The team also managed to pick up Milan Lucic and a 4th for a 6th-round pick.


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Lastly, while calling around the league looking to move two 4th round draft picks receive a call-back from the Avalanche about Artturi Lehkonen. It's assumed that Colorado regrets the 5 year 4.5 million pay signed over the offseason.


Artturi-Lehkonen-Avalanche-scaled.jpg

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

Lineup

I finally figured out how to take snapshots relatively easily which makes it a lot easier to show off how the dynasty is going. Before I started this, I was 10 games in so I'm backtracking for the most part. I'm not going to get every single move I made, but most of them aren't worth talking about. Everything should be up to date from this point forward.


Milwaukee Bucks forwards.jpg

Milwaukee Bucks Defense.jpg

goalies.jpg


This team isn't great, but it's better than sending out a bunch of AHL scrubs every night. I'd like to see our team show some fight versus the NHL teams, and hopefully, crush the expansion franchises.

[Elphalpha]

Rough Start

Rough Start - Bucks Start 2-7-1

My initial expectations were that we'd be competitive, however, that wasn't the case in most of the games I played.

Starting off the first-ever game for the Milwaukee Bucks was against Tortorella's Flyers at home and I was super excited. We played a solid game and managed to keep it close, but blew it away late in the third. We lost 5-4 but showed some fight. Something about the Flyers being weak compared to their ratings made me raise the difficulty adjustment after the game.

Every game since then has felt infinitely more realistic and games feel a lot better to play.

In the second game against Saskatchewan, we fell down 2-0 at home before coming back with 3 straight goals. It was a back-and-forth effort, but we managed to grab the first win for the Milwaukee Bucks NHL team!

Unfortunately, that's where luck ran out. We went to California and lost in OT, and then tried to rebound in Utah which was a nightmare. They weren't a better team, but they were bailed out by their goalie so many times.

With the new sliders, we had to play Philly again (thanks EA scheduling) and they showed they were a legitimate NHL team. 5-2 at the end of the second period, and I simmed the rest of the game.

Thankfully we got the chance to play the Roughriders and snuck out a win in OT. Looks like we're their kryptonite.

We play three NHL teams after that, and each one felt like we lacked the talent to compete with them. Funnily enough, I had the chance to take out our first NHL team in Winnipeg and we blew it away in the 3rd period.

first 10.jpg

We'll see where we go from here. I'm really not sure where our team finishes in the standings, but we'll find out in the next few games.

[SENS_AK27]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

I'm always to see a new Chise start up here. Welcome. You also are pulling off a really cool Expansion Concept. Hopefully we can watch you grow into a powerhouse.

As a native Haligonian, I'm now vested in how well the Mariners do. Hahaha

Good Luck.

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

Frustrations mount as Bucks lose 9 of 10

The expectation coming into the year is that the Bucks wouldn't be competitive, however losing as much as they have in the fashion that they have is incredibly disappointing. They've lost heartbreakers while leading in the third to teams like Edmonton and Winnipeg while looking lost against the Quebec Nordiques which would be a bottom-feeder in last year's AHL season. Thankfully they managed to pull a win against the Cleveland Growlers in a 5-4 shootout.

Sitting at 3-16-2 is not what anyone expected out of this team, but there is a glimmer of hope in the offseason. Both central scouting and rumors out of Milwaukee say that this is an incredible year for the draft. Headlined not by Connor Bedard, but by American phenom Randy Tarnasky who compares to none other than Wayne Gretzky.




NHL® 23 Xbox One (4).jpg




Important Note: When I set up the house rules, I thought I would be able to push through all of the games during the season. Unfortunately, I don't think I have the time or motivation to play 84 games in a season. I simmed every time we went down 3 goals which happened pretty quickly against most of the teams I played (we're down 20 overall points against mostly every team) and it still took 4 or 5 hours to play through over the course of two days.

I have a better option though. I plan on simming the first two periods and playing as long as we're not down by three goals. This should make this season, and the following seasons go by much more quickly. I still plan on playing full games of the playoffs if I ever get the chance to get there lmao.

Also, I'm going to change the team + league updates to once every 21 games, so the franchise is updated 4 times in a regular season (not including the trade deadline).

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

League Update - Season 1 - Quarter Mark Standings

NHL Eastern Conference - Updated: Nov 12, 2022
RK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS
1	Pittsburgh Penguins	15-5	44
2	Tampa Bay Lightning	15-4	43
3	Philadelphia Flyers	15-5	42
4	Columbus Blue Jackets	15-6	42
5	Boston Bruins	14-4	41
6	New York Rangers	14-5	40
7	Carolina Hurricanes	13-5	38
8	Toronto Maple Leafs	11-6	33
9	Buffalo Sabres	11-6	31
10	Florida Panthers	10-8	30
11	Ottawa Senators	11-7	30
12	New Jersey Devils	10-9	29
13	New York Islanders	10-9	27
14	Washington Capitals	9-8	24
15	Nashville Predators	8-10 *	23
16	Montreal Canadiens	8-9 *	21
17	Quebec Nordiques	6-12 *	17
18	Halifax Mariners	6-14 *	17
19	London Royals	6-15	16
20	Hartford Whalers	6-15	15
21	Orlando Solar Bears	4-12	12
22	Atlanta Gladiators	4-14	11
23	Cleveland Growlers	4-15	10
24	Hamilton Tigers	3-17	8

* indicates team is in wildcard position

NHL Western Conference - Updated: Nov 13, 2022
RK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS
1	San Jose Sharks	16-6	46
2	Detroit Red Wings	15-8	42
3	Colorado Avalanche	15-6	42
4	LA Kings	15-8	42
5	Vegas Golden Knights	14-2	41
6	Minnesota Wild	14-2	40
7	St. Louis Blues	14-6	39
8	Winnipeg Jets	13-9	39
9	Calgary Flames	12-8	34
10	Chicago Blackhawks	11-6	33
11	Seattle Kraken	12-9	33
12	Vancouver Canucks	11-11	31
13	Dallas Stars	9-11	27
14	Edmonton Oilers	9-13	26
15	Arizona Coyotes *	10-12	26
16	Utah Stealth *	8-11	23
17	Anaheim Ducks *	8-11	23
18	Saskatchewan Roughriders *	6-9	16
19	Portland Redhawks	6-16	15
20	San Diego Golden Seals	5-14	12
21	Milwaukee Bucks	3-18	8
22	KC Scouts	3-20	7
23	Indianopolis Fuel	2-19	6
24	Houston Astros	1-18	3

* indicates team is in wildcard position

[Elphalpha]

Re: 48 Team Franchise : The Milwaukee Bucks of Hockey

League Update - Season 1 - Quarter Mark - NHL News


Trades

KC Scouts traded 3rd in 2023 + 3rd in 2024 to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Connor Murphy (82 OVR, 29, RD, 4.4M for 4 years)

Grade for KC : D - They didn't need to give up draft capital to acquire a player that they could've acquired in the offseason. Murphy won't help them til his contract runs out. Questionable decision.

Grade for Chicago: B+ - The team won't miss the playoffs this year with the expanded rosters, but they'll eventually use the draft capital and space for something better.

Arizona Coyotes have traded Shane Gostisbehere (85 OVR, 29, 4.5M for 1 year) and Troy Stetcher (78, 30, 1.35M, 1 year) to the Detroit Redwings for William Wallinder (69 OVR, 20, Top 4 DPOT), C. Hanas (67 20, Top 6 F Pot), and 3rd round pick 24'

Grade for Arizona: B - The team could've acquired more assets during the deadline, but they picked up some solid prospects that might turn into something.

Grade for Detroit: C+ - Detroit is winning, but how much of that is because of their schedule? Very little reason to pick up a rental for players that could potentially be great.

Notes

There were a ton of FA signings, but most of them were inconsequential. A lot of the expansion teams picked up some of the players left in the FA pool. Don't think it's worth the effort to mention some of the insane pickups like martin marincin signing a one-year deal with the Golden Seals lol