Operation Sports Forums - Be A GM Community Wishlist

**PLEASE VIEW THIS LIST IN FIREFOX. OTHER BROWSERS SEEM TO HAVE A HARD TIME WITH THE FORMATTING OF THIS LIST FOR SOME REASON.**

Thanks to the overwhelming number of ideas from the community, I've split the list into 3 categories: game changers (HUGE additions), moderate additions, and small additions. Let me know if you guys think one of the items in the list belongs in a different category!

FIRST OF ALL: I want to thank everyone who helped put this list together. And I want to thank anyone in advance for adding more ideas to this list. It is absolutely awesome!

Anyways, this is a Be A GM community wishlist for NHL 13. It started out with just 9 of my ideas. So, you can see how far it has come!

If you think of anything, post it here! I'll try to update the list with what the community thinks are good ideas.

Ideas that could improve Be a GM:

I don't know what's going on with the formatting. Every time I fix it, it shows up different when I save the post. I don't understand what's going on.

*****
Game Changers (HUGE Additions):
*****

<o:p1<o:p. Letter Grades Instead of Exact Numbers for Other Team's Players' Attributes. When you go to view another team's player's attributes, you should only be able to see letter grades instead of the exact numbers. These letter grades should be based on groups of attributes (shooting, playmaking, checking, etc.). These letter grades should start out inaccurate when the player is young and unkown. As a player gets older, the accuracy of his letter grades should increase because that player is more well-known. The accuracy of a player's letter grades should also increase if you make your pro-scout scout that player (similar to the scouting system for rookies now). The number of times you send out a pro-scout should have a yearly limit so you can't go crazy with this. This would add a lot of realism because in real life, GMs do not know exactly how good opposing players are. Not knowing other team's players' exact attributes would force us to look at what real GMs look at in real life: statistics, scouting reports, and player traits. The following is an example of how these letter grades can be utilized:<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p

Example: <xml><w:worddocument><w:view></w:view><w:zoom></w:zoom><w:trackmoves><w:trackformatting><w:p<w:val idateagainstschemas><w:saveifxmlinvalid></w:saveifxmlinvalid><w:ignoremixedcontent></w:ignoremixedcontent><w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> </w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext><w:D</w</w:validateagainstschemas></w</w:trackformatting></w:trackmoves></w:worddocument></xml>Say you are the GM of the Los Angeles Kings in your 5th year of your BaGM. As the trade deadline approaches, your team has a great defense, good playmaking forwards, but you lack that goal-scoring forward. You decide to look for a goal-scoring forward to trade for. You go to the Trade Block screen and you see that the New Jersey Devils are interested in trading young forwards. You then look at their young forwards, and you see that Joe Smith has an inaccurate letter B for his shooting attributes and has 15 goals so far this season. You decide to send a pro-scout to the next Devils game to scout Joe Smith. After the game, the pro-scout reports back to you with an updated, slightly more accurate version of Joe Smith's attribute letter grades. You see that Joe Smith's shooting attributes are still a B, but now it is a more accurate reading. So you now decide to go ahead and attempt to trade for Joe Smith.

<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p
THAT is a much more realistic trading sequence.

2. Better Trades. Some unrealistic trades still exist. Make the players' trade values have a broader range. Maybe add a team's interest meter so we can see how likely it is that they will accept our trade. Also, have the computer offer us counter proposals to our trades. Another point about trades- we never see any blockbuster deals between two CPU teams. This needs to be in the game; however, it must be rare so they are not happening all the time. Also, could we maybe get an Assistant GM to help us with trades? Maybe scope out possible trade targets and what you'd have to give up for that player.

3. Real life budgets. Right now, any team can spend up to the cap limit. This is unrealistic because teams like the New York Islanders, the Phoenix Coyotes, the Colorado Avalanche, and others simply are not given this kind of budget to work with. This could be implemented in Be a GM. In NHL 13, teams should earn bigger or smaller budgets based on their performance. They could tie this in with the owner's goals given to you in the beginning of the season. If you achieve the goal, you get a slightly bigger budget. If you fail to reach the goal, you receive a smaller budget.

4. Full Customization. We want everything to be customizable, and we want to be able to share our files with everyone else in the NHL community. We want things like custom season length, custom divisions and leagues, custom schedules, better create a team and create a player, let us create a player/prospect during Be A GM, etc etc etc. Another BIG factor of Full Customization is to allow us to edit everything about players and prospects in the midst of BaGM mode, including: attributes, height and weight, hometown, gear, etc. This way, we can keep our BaGM mode more current by updating the attributes of the players/prospects to how they are playing in real life. This can also make us feel like the game is our own, unique game because we can edit the players/prospects to fit how we like. If you give us a great game, the community could make it even better.

5. Coaches and other Staff. Let us hire/fire our coaches and other staff members. Our team budget (see “Real Life Budgets”) should determine who we can hire, just like real life. We should have to use our budget wisely, too. For example, if our team has bad goalies but a good offense, we could spend a little more on our goalie coach and goalie scouting than our offense trainers and offense scouting. Have the coaches/staff have attributes that can increase/decrease certain attributes for your players. Also, let us hire players as coaches once they retire. Other staff members could include assistant coaches, individual scouts, goaltending coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, etc. Your head coach may want to have a say in who you hire for your other staff members as well.

Have a screen that lists the current coaches in the league. Make this sort of like the Team Rosters page in the main menu. Have a sort of "free agents" list of coaches where we can hire new coaches from. We should also be able to promote other members of our staff, including assistant coaches, goalie coaches, AHL coaches, etc to become our new head coach after we fire our current one. When players retire (especially the skilled players), some of them should show up in the "free agents coaches" list. In the "free agent coaches" list, we should be able to view their coaching attributes and skills, just like how we can view the players' attributes. These free agent coaches should have different wants like a rebuilding team, contender, skilled roster, high GM reputation, large budget, etc.

6. Dynamic Trade Values. The trade values should be more dynamic. A player's trade value (as well as their attributes) should increase if they are having a good season. A player's trade value should increase if they have a good bang-for-your-buck contract. A player with one year left on their contract should have his trade value increase a little bit around the trade deadline (this way, we would get rental-players into the game). A player's trade value should increase if they are good on special teams. Things like underperforming, having a bad contract (Scott Gomez), and being injured too often should decrease a player's trade value. Draft picks' trade values should increase as the season progresses, especially at the trade deadline.

7. Dynamic Rivalries. Right now, we have rivalries that are based on divisional rivals and if you offer a team a bad trade. Let's keep those, but let's expand on them much more. You should be able to go to a "Rivalries" page that details your current rivalry state with every team in the NHL. Every team in the NHL should have their own rivalry bar that fluctuates up and down. A full bar means and intense rivalry, and a low bar means the teams are pretty friendly. The bigger the rivalry, the more intense the AI will be. The AI will be more aggressive, fight more, and have more post-whistle scrums (which, by the way, also REALLY needs to be worked on).

Ways that could RAISE the rivalry bar: your team injures a player on another team (cheap hit like boarding raises it more), another team injures one of your players, lots of fights in a game (pretty much more than one fight in a game), playing a team in the playoffs, playing a team often (like a divisional opponent), players or coaches can call out the other team, running up the score, offering a team a bad trade, etc.

Ways that could LOWER the rivalry bar: having clean games with one or no fights, having games with few penalties, offering a team a good trade, not playing a team for a while, if the team gets new staff members (especially a new head coach), etc.

8. Intensity in Big Moments. Right now, there is no difference in the way teams play in a preseason game and a game 7 in overtime. Let's have the players bring a new level of intensity in big situations. There should be several levels of intensity. For example (1 being lowest, 7 being the highest):

1- Preaseason game<o:p
2- Mid-season game<o:p</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o
3- First game of season<o:p</o
4- Towards end of season (especially if a team is fighting for a playoff spot)<o:p</o
5- Playoff game<o:p</o
6- Game 7<o:p</o
7- Stanley Cup Finals game

The intensity should also increase in the 3rd period and in overtime.

9. Player Traits. There should be different traits for players. The following are examples of traits:

Leadership, early bloomer, late bloomer, expensive contract signer, cheap contract signer, iron man, playoff performer, playoff choker, streaky, offensive-only minded, defense-only minded, good penalty shot taker, diver, rarely takes penalties, often takes penalties, agitator, shot blocker, powerplay QB, powerplay scorer, PK specialist, enforcer, clutch, hard-worker, sniper, playmaker, garbage goal-scorer, hip-checker, calm with the puck, big hitter, net-driver, board player, contact avoider, puck-hog, lazy, consistent, good forechecker, anticipator, aggressive, speedster, puck-dumper, good locker room guy, bad locker room guy, etc.

These traits should be able to be gained and lost throughout your BaGM. And let us actually view these traits and do NOT make them "under the hood" additions.

10. Better Presentation. If we are going to have an awesome Be A GM mode, make it look awesome as well! Have a weekly newspaper or even a radio show that talks about many things, including: player stats, hot and cold streaks, award front-runners, hot and cold teams, trades and signings, 3 stars of the week, 3 stars of the month, game of the week, surprising game results, etc. Also, make the menu easier to use. EA should also try to get a license for a hockey network like CBC, TSN, NBCSN, or NBC. They could use this license to make the games have a "real" broadcast presentation. The announcers also need to mention things like point streaks, hot/cold streaks, if a goalie is doing well lately, etc.

11. Create a larger gap in attributes and overalls between superstars, 1st liners, 2nd liners, 3rd liners, 4th liners, AHL players, CHL players, etc. This would help the superstars and good players stand out more. Players are given attributes on a scale of 1-99, but right now it seems like they are on a scale of 50-99. For example: superstars' overalls could be in the 90's, 1st liners 83+, 2nd liners 79-83, 3rd liners 75-79, 4th liners in the 70-75, AHL players who are borderline NHL players 65-70, and AHL players 55-65.

12. Emotion Engine. The A.I. should start to get frustrated and show some emotion in certain scenarios. Examples of this are when a team is losing by a huge margin, losing an important season ending game, having their star players hit and agitated after the whistle all night long, etc. Teams should retaliate like they would in real life by starting to play dirty, taking stupid penalties, making poor decisions, getting into lots of post-whistle scrums, etc. This could also be reflected based on how teams play in real life. Teams like the Red Wings hardly ever get rattled like this, and they do not play a very physical game. Teams like the Flyers and the Bruins are very physical teams and they should get more emotional more often.

So, having some sort of emotion engine where some teams are more mentally tough than others based on player age, experience, play style, role, etc. would be pretty awesome. This would affect teams’ ability to perform in playoffs when down in the series, help prevent late game antics and suspensions, help with late game comebacks, etc. Team build types would therefore directly affect your team’s ability to deal with different scenarios, and how much emotional punishment you can dish out in a game. Big time experienced superstars should be much harder to rattle and get off their game, but not completely immune to it, as we have all seen superstars lose their cool before (think Crosby and Giroux in the 2012 playoffs).

This emotion engine should contribute to rivalries in BaGM. If a really emotional game is just played, the rivalries between the two teams should increase.

13. Storylines. The EA NHL devs should look at FIFA for this. They should incorporate things like the owner's reaction to signings and trades. They also need to add media interaction with you, your players, the coach, the owner, etc.

14. Playoff Atmosphere. The playoffs should feel like the playoffs. The crowds should be insane. And the insanity only increases the deeper you go into the playoffs. Crowds should erupt when a goal is scored. The players should celebrate more when a goal is scored (AS A TEAM! None of that custom individual celebration garbage). Teams should have rally towels that are their team's colors. You should be able to have white outs, red outs, orange outs, etc. Just bring the playoffs to life!

*****
Moderate Additions:
*****

1. Give us the option of full control over all 30 teams. That way, if some of the problems in this list are not fixed, we can at least fix them ourselves! The other 29 teams should still run by themselves, this would just give us the ability to edit all of the teams' lines, stop unrealistic trades from occuring, adjust player attributes mid-franchise, and sign free agents to different teams that should not sit in free agency for an entire year.

2. GM Tracker- Improve it, or take it out. Right now, there are a lot of strange things that either give you points or cause you to lose points in the GM Tracker. For example, when you offer a player some more money so they sign for longer than they ask, you lose points in the GM Tracker. The idea of the GM Tracker was a good one, but either improve it, or take it out so other things can be added and worked on.

3. Make the CPU teams play their best players. Right now, CPU teams will play players who are rated lower than some of their scratched players. In some cases, these better players may also get sent down to the AHL. For example, a player ranked 82 overall might be in the AHL while that same team is starting a 74 overall player at the same position. However, potential must also be taken into consideration here. A player with high potential can, and should, play above some other veterans, even if the veteran's overall is a little higher.

4. Goalie fatigue. This is important because as of right now, there is really no reason to have a reliable backup goalie on your team.

5. Hot and Cold streaks. Bring these back! Players in real life are very streaky. Have their attributes increase/decrease based on performance.

6. Multi-player Be A GM. This is self-explanatory. So many people want this implemented. Make it happen.

7. User-controlled Finances. Let us control all of the finances of our team. A GREAT example of this is in the MLB The Show series. It really adds to the immersion. We should have to higher or lower ticket/concession/parking/etc prices based on our team's performance.

8. User-controlled Stanley Cup Celebration. This one is a huge one. Let us feel rewarded for a great season by allowing us to skate around with the cup. Have different buttons raise the cup in the air, kiss the cup, pass it to a teammate, etc. And DO NOT put a time limit on this! Let us skate around for as long as we want and have the user end the celebration when we want! For example: After skating around for a while, we could hit start which would take you to the team picture. After the team picture, show us the team celebrating in the locker room! Let's pop those "ginger ale" bottles (remember- keep the E rating) and spray them everywhere! And then maybe show the city's parade with the players on trucks/floats with the Cup!

9. Line Chemistry. Bring the line chemistry from HUT over to Be A GM. Have good line chemistry increase that line's players' attributes, neutral line chemistry do nothing, and bad line chemistry decrease their attributes.

10. Prospects' Trade Values. Right now, the trade value for prospects (especially some of them) are too low. A prospect's trade value should be higher if they have good potential.

11. Better Preseason. Let's incorporate training camps and prospect/rookie camps. For the training camps, we should be able to make our players practice in certain areas of their game (shooting, playmaking, etc) so they will improve in that respect. Also, let us invite players to training camp on a try-out basis, just like in real life. There should be a "Position Battles" screen that shows us the battles for each position. For example, there could be a battle for the #2 Center on your team, so the "Position Battles" screen would show the players involved and their stats. For this to be the most effective, the preseason should be a little longer than 4 games. Make the preseason the same length as it is in real life.

Editing lines should be much easier in preseason. Instead of having to go to the roster moves screen to call AHL players up from the minor leagues, every one of your players should be on your NHL roster. This includes all of your NHL players, AHL players, CHL players, and any players in the Euro Leagues. This way, we can edit our lines much faster to the exact players we want playing in preseason. At the end of preseason, you should have to decide who makes your NHL roster and who gets sent back to the AHL/CHL/Euro-leagues, just like in real life.

12. Scouting. The scouting system right now could really use some more love. Let us scout individual players. Make it similar to Madden 12's scouting system. Have us be able to scout a certain amount of players per month (based on the upgrade level of our scout). Have us be able to unlock the full attributes for a few prospects before the draft.

13. Player Resignings. Have players sign contracts based off of a combination of skill, potential, previous years' statistics, age, team location, amount of potential playing time, and playoff experience.

14. Player Morale. There needs to be a morale system for the players. Things that should impact morale are: individual performance, team performance, salary, etc.

15. Player Interaction. There should be more communication between you and your players. An example of this can be if a player is getting old, he might tell you that he's planning on retiring at the end of the year. Another example is if a player is getting old and your team is out of playoff contention by the trade deadline, that player might ask to be traded to a playoff contender. Players should request trades if their morale gets very low. Players should just talk to you more in general. They should let you know if they have a nagging injury, if they like playing on the same line as another teammate, if they want to train in something specific, etc.

16. No-Trade Clauses. Let's get these in. This is a big part of why trades are unrealistic still. So many guys in the NHL today, especially the good players, have these. And of course, have the players be able to waive their no trade clause.

17. Better Free Agent system. Let us see what other teams are offering the players. Let the players have specific interests in what they want in a team that we can view. Some examples of this are: older/younger team, skilled team, gritty team, significant playing time, players from his country, big/little market teams, hometown team, etc. Make the players want no trade clauses sometimes. Make it more difficult to sign a free agent, too. Right now, it's too easy to get any player you want. You should have to basically bid on free agents, sort of like how Madden and MLB The Show do it. This would cause teams to overpay for the top free agents at first, while the less-talented free agents get signed later for a more reasonable price.

18. Better Player Training. Right now, the player training in BaGM seems like it has little effect on which areas the players improve in over the course of the season. For example: if I have Claude Giroux training in playmaking, he might gain attribute points in fighting, stick checking, and shot blocking. The majority of improvement for players should be based on what they are training in. However, players should still improve in other areas besides what they are training in. These attribute points should be rewarded (or taken away) based on performance during the season. For example: say through 40 games of a season in BaGM, Claude Giroux has gained an attribute point in each of his playmaking skills. In addition, he also gained a point in wrist shot accuracy because he has 20 goals.

19. Prospect Tracking. We should be able to track how our prospects that are "in the system" are doing. We should be able to click on them to pull up their current stats in their respective league (OHL, WHL, QMJHL, NCAA, etc). Also, we should be able to track their attribute progression as well. Our scouts could give us a monthly report of how well our prospects are doing. In this report, he can tell us if a prospect is hot/cold, ready to be called up, is a bust, etc.

20. Better Trade Deadline. All of the teams should label themselves as Buyer, Seller, or Neutral. The Buyer teams should list what they wish to acquire (like a top 6 forward, an offensive defenseman, etc). The Seller teams should list who they'd be willing to part with (this should many times include players on the last year of their contract). Neutral teams should be comfortable with their current roster and not want to make any moves. Players on the last year of their contract should play a BIG part of deadline deals. Rebuilding teams should be more willing to part with one of their top players for the right price.

21. Locker Room Guys. In real life, you always hear about players being "great locker room guys". This could be implemented into Be a GM. Have skilled veterans, guys with playoff experience, very skilled players, and guys with Stanley Cup rings be "great locker room guys". Having these guys on your team will give a certain boost to player morale and a little to player attributes. Guys can also be bad locker room guys, where they would have negative effects on player morale and attributes. You could have one of the coach's abilities be to be able to make guys better locker room guys.

22. Revamped GM Firing. Right now when you get fired, there is a list of around 5 new teams you can become the GM for. This is unrealistic because that many GM's never get fired at one time. So here is what they should do. They should have a list of all the GM's in the league. You should be notified if one gets fired or retires. Then that team has a few options to pick for their new GM: call a currently unemployed GM and ask him or promote someone already in their organization. So when you get fired, you may have to wait a little bit before you get hired by another team. During this waiting period, you should be able to play any game around the league. This way, you can still have fun while you're temporarily unemployed.

23. Team Fatigue. Have teams get fatigued after back-to-back games, long road trips, a long flight to an away game, and as they get deeper into a series in the playoffs. So if your team just won a 7-game series in the playoffs and your next opponent swept their last series, your team should be more fatigued than the team you are playing. Team fatigue should temporarily decrease some of your players' attributes like endurance, speed, acceleration, agility, and strength. DO NOT overdo this though! If they do add team fatigue, they MUST fix the schedule generator so you do not have to play back-to-back games regularly, have huge road trips, or have back-to-back-to-back games.

24. Include Full Waivers System. This includes re-entry waivers where the team who claims a player only has to pay half of the contract, while the other half is paid by the team who waived the player. Players coming back from Europe must clear re-entry waivers. This also includes the special rules for after the trade deadline. Make sure waiver priority and waiver exemptions are correct, especially the waiver exemptions due to experience.

25. Contract Extensions during the season. In real life, contract extensions during the season take place all of the time. Let's bring this to the game.

26. Be the GM of Any Team in Any League. This is especially important for the people who live in Europe. They want to be the GM of their favorite team in the Elitserien, SM Liiga, etc. You should be able to be the GM of any team in any league. This means that you could be the GM of a team in the CHL, the Elitserien, etc. You should be able to switch leagues too. So if you start out as the GM of an OHL team, you could eventually go over to the SM Liiga, and then over to the Elitserien, and keep jumping around if you want.

27. More Realistic Injuries. Right now, injuries occur too often. Be careful NOT to tune it down too low- we still want injuries! Maybe give us a slider so we can adjust the amount of injuries during simulation. Also, there should be less long-term injuries and more day-to-day injuries. Maybe have the trainer come up to you and say something like "Dany Heatley has a sore back (-5 Speed, -3 Puck Control, -7 Endurance, -3 Overall). Do you want to edit your lines?" From here, you could put Heatley on a lower line, take him out of the lineup, leave him where he is, etc. The player can also come up to you and inform you that he is hurt. Players should get hurt sometimes during practice and pre-game warmups. (But first, we need practices and pre-game warmups!) Players should also have normal, everyday injuries like bumps and bruises that only affect their attributes slightly.

28. Playoff Crowds and Traditions. We need the fans to be CRAZY during the playoffs. We need a lot more chants, louder cheers during goals, etc. For traditions, we need things like the Flames crowd being all red, the white out in Winnipeg, the orange crowd in Philly, etc. We also need things like Florida's rats thrown on the ice, etc.

29. Ability to Go Over the Salary Cap during Off Season. This would allow us and the other teams to sign big name free agents. Then it would be our job to get under the cap before the season.

30. Realistic 50-Contract Limit. Players playing in the CHL or in another league should not count towards the 50-contract limit for the NHL club.

31. Overseas Players. Newly drafted players (and anybody for that matter) have the ability to play over seas in another league if they so choose. They should not count towards the 50-contract limit (see Jarnkrok, Brunner and Pulkkinen for examples of this).

32. Make Simulation Speeds Faster. This is especially true for the PS3. Right now, they are ridiculously slow.

33. Smarter Assistant Coach. Right now, the "assistant coach" feature in BaGM is not very smart. It should be more performance-based rather than overall-based. To begin the year, the lines should be done based on overalls. But as a season goes on, the assistant coach should alter lines based off of performance. He should look at hot and cold streaks and alter the lines accordingly. This includes PP and PK lines as well.

34. Add More "Minor" Leagues. More minor leagues should be added to create depth. Like the ECHL, NCAA, etc.

35. "Live the Life" in BaGM. Bring some aspects from the "Live the Life" features in Be a Pro to BaGM. Players should voice their problems with the team, whether it be about team performance, personal performance, playing time, etc. Leaders should call out their teammates when they think that they gave a poor effort that night. Players should also request trades and stuff like that.

<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o :p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p <o:p<o:p

*****
Small Additions (But still important!):
*****

1. Make player progression for average players slower. Right now, too many young players progress too fast and end up becoming great players before the age of 25. This makes it hard to distinguish between the superstars and the average players in the league after a few years into BaGM. Superstar players should progress quickly while average players should progress slower.

2. Make old players have larger decreases in ratings. Right now, too many old players are remaining great players. There are only a rare few that are Lidstroms.

3. Make the occurence of players developing into good players/superstars more rare. Right now, after a few years into Be a GM, there seems to be a big clutter of players ranked in the mid 80's or higher.

4. Don't let players get "stuck" in free agency who should not be there. Right now, there are still players who are ranked in the mid to low 80's who do not get signed in free agency. I think this has something to do with too many players being ranked too high. If ideas 2-5 are addressed, I think it would help solve this issue.

5. Ability to View Player Stats and Team Standings when Offered a Trade. You should have the ability to view player stats and team standings when you are offered a trade. This way, you can see how well the player is performing. When offered a draft pick, you should be able to view team standings so you can see how high of a draft pick you will probably get.
<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o :p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p<o:p <o:p<o:p

6. Team Practices. Team practices were in the game at around NHL 04. This was a pretty cool feature that had a positive/negative affect on your players' morale, fatigue, and attributes based on how long the practice was. Maybe you could even make it a little more in depth. Examples are: shooting practice, special teams practice, bag skate, etc.

7. Full stat history. Have every player's full stat history, including awards that they have won. You could also include a record book which would add to the immersion.

8. Attendence. Make attendence based on how well the team is performing. High ticket prices, concession prices, and parking prices can also negatively affect attendence. You should also be able to advertise for your team.

9. Suspensions. They were in before, let's bring them back. Have virtual-Shanahan give out a few game suspensions for first-time offenders, and lay the hammer down on multi-time offenders.

10. Hall of Fame. The Hockey Hall of Fame should be added. Have all of the players currently in the Hall of Fame have us be able to look at their stats. Have outstanding players be inducted into the Hall of Fame after they retire.

11. Playoff Beards. Just a small addition, but it would be cool. Don't have all of the beards be the same though. For example, some players grow a lot more facial hair than others. Some rookies can't even grow facial hair. You can let us customize this so the community can make all of the players have the correct beard once playoff time comes.

12. Playable Olympics, World Championships, and World Juniors. First of all, we need the olympic break to be incorporated into the game. If we do get this, it would be really cool to be able to play in the olympics and the other major tournaments. Maybe we could be the GM of our NHL franchise as well as the GM of a national team. This way, we could scout and select which players we want on our national team. The World Juniors would also be a great way to scout for our NHL team. If we can't be the GM of a national team, maybe we could at least view the rosters of each national team and select who we want to play as in the tournament (that is, of course, if we want to play the tournament).

13. Better All-Star Break. Let's see the skills competition and the fantasy draft that leads up to it.

14. Winter Classic. Put the Winter Classic into Be A GM. Have it happen once a year on New Year's day every year. Put in a bunch of stadiums (maybe get Madden and NCAA Football's help here) and then maybe a generic one or two. Make sure you mix up which teams play in it. You can also throw in the Heritage Classic.

15. Viewable CHL and Euro-Leagues. You should be able to view CHL and Euro-league games, results, schedules, playoffs, and statistics. Basically, everything you can view about the AHL right now, make viewable for the CHL and Euro-Leagues as well. This would be great for scouting because we could see who was doing well and who was underachieving. Also, as previously mentioned, CHL and Euro-league players should progress based on a combination of potential and their performance. So a sniper with B potential who ends the year with 10 goals should progress less than a sniper with B potential who ends the year with 40 goals.

16. Realistic Player Buyouts. Right now, we rarely (if at all) see the computer buy out a player. Let's have the computer-controlled teams buy out some more bad contracts. But do not make this happen too often! Also, if the amnesty clause is added into the NHL next year, include that too!

17. Allow the user to Retire Jersey Numbers. Self-explanatory.

18. Custom Jerseys for all 30 teams. Allow us to create new jerseys (home, away, and alternate) for all 30 teams. This way, we can keep the jerseys looking fresh as we go deeper into the BaGM.

19. More Stats. Let's get shootout stats in the game. Players' shootout stats should be in the player stats screen. Also, during a shootout when playing a game, have each player's shootout stats for the year (and maybe career) come up as he's getting ready to take the shot. Also, include the goalies' shootout stats. Let's also get blocked shot and time on ice per game stats into the game. More powerplay stats are also needed, like powerplay assists and points. This would help us gauge whether or not a player is contributing to the powerplay unit. Let's have the goals that were scored on the powerplay be indicated on the boxscore as well.

20. Create an Arena. Bring this back! Add new options like what we want at center ice, sponsors/writing on the ice, on the boards, the design of the seats, the red line, etc. For the logo at center ice, the sponsors/writing on the ice, and the advertisements on the boards, have a create-a-logo editor similar to Forza.

21. Team Specific Strategies. The game strategies could use some love. Teams like Detroit should play a really pretty game. Teams like Boston should play a really physical game. Let's add some more strategies to better differentiate between teams.

22. More Award Ceremonies. Let's see award ceremonies for all of the awards that are given. Have the ceremony in front of the home crowd like the banner raising. You can also have ceremonies for jersey retirements.

23. More Milestone Recognition. Have the announcers announce when a player reaches a milestone. Also, have the announcers say something like, "John Smith only needs 3 more goals to reach 100 career goals." Let's have the crowd react appropriately to these milestones too.

24. Commentary should Recognize History between teams. For example, in the playoffs, if your team meets the team that knocked you out of the playoffs the previous year, the commentators should say something like, "These two teams had a great series last year, with Montreal eventually winning the series in 6 games. Will we see another great one?" Another example could be if the commentators say something like, "The last time these two teams met, Rick Nash scored a goal and had 2 assists. Will we see a similar performance from him?"

25. More Realistic Expectations and Goals. The owner should give you more realistic goals. The goals should be like winning the division, making the playoffs, finishing 1 spot higher in the standings than the previous year, advancing to a certain round in the playoffs, etc. The owner should also recognize if you are in rebuilding mode. If you are rebuilding, your goals could be to free up a certain amount of salary, obtain more draft picks, trade away an older player, trade away a player that is on the last year of his contract, etc.

26. Conditional Draft Picks. Let us be able to include conditional draft picks in our trades. An example of this is you trade away a 2nd round pick that would become a 1st round pick if you make the Conference Finals.

27. Claimed Players from Waivers should go to NHL roster. When you claim a player off waivers, theys should be assigned to your NHL team. If you want to send him down to the minors, you have to send him through waivers again. Just like real life.

28. Option to Turn Off the Ticker Bar on the Bottom of the menu screen to prevent screen burn. The reason I put this in the BaGM thread is because when you're playing BaGM, you tend to be on the main menu of the BaGM screen for extended periods of time. My TV recently got the bottom ticker bar burned into the screen. I've been running screen washes, and they are not working too well. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has suffered from this because many (if not all) of EA Sports games have these ticker bars. They can create significant image retention. So let's have an option to turn off all ticker bars.

29. Have Draft Picks in the Player Movement Screen. This way, we can update our rosters AND draft picks before we start our BaGM.

30. Dynamic Edit Lines screens. The edit lines screen should reflect your strategy, especially for special teams. Let's say your PK strategy is diamond. Then the PK Edit Lines screen should show your line in a diamond instead of a box. This would help in placing players in the exact positions you want. Let's say your PP strategy is umbrella. Then the PP Edit Lines screen should show your line in the umbrella shape rather than 3 forwards and 2 defensemen.

31. Full Ownership. Let us relocate our team. This relocation could involve going into create-a-team to change your team name and jerseys if you want. You should also be able to choose stadium upgrades, sponsorships, advertisements, and TV contracts- sort of like MLB The Show.

32. Draft Lottery. Each team should have the corrrect amount of ping pong balls, and the maximum number of spots you can move up is four. Just like in real life.

33. Player Call-Ups take time. Make it take 1-3 days for a player you call up from the minor leagues to arrive to your team, based on how far away the minor league team is located. This would also make it important to have a few scratched players on your NHL roster.

34. Pep Talks. Sort of like Football Manager, make us able to give a player, a group of players, or the whole team a pep talk before, during, or after games. Have it so if you say different things they can have a small impact on the performance of your team. The assistant coaches can help give you an idea of what to say during these pep talks.

35. Dealing with the Media. Sort of like how Football Manager does it, make us able to be interviewed by the media. Make us have to go to press conferences, give us the option to call a press conference, etc. Also, have the media interview the players as well. Maybe the players can have different traits like "good with media" and "bad with media".

36. Quick and Easy Way to Select Backup Goalie for Simulating. There should be a much quicker way that you can play your backup goalie. Right now, you have to go back to your edit lines screen, change the goalies, go and simulate the game, go back to edit lines and change the goalie, and then go back to the calendar. This should be made with the click of a button or something much easier and faster.

37. View Stats of All Players and Teams in All Leagues. You should be able to view the player and team stats of all leagues, including the Euro leagues, the CHL, etc.

38. Pop-Up Windows for Trophies. There should be a pop-up window where we can view the trophies won by our team, past players, current players, etc.

39. Ability to Wait a Little Bit Before Accepting/Rejecting a Trade. This way, we would be able to evaluate our team a little bit and where we stand before accepting or rejecting the trade.

40. Player Fatigue. Players should be a little sluggish during certain situations, like during the second game of back-to-back games, during a long playoff series, towards the end of the season, etc. This cannot be overdone though. A player should never be benched for a scratched player just because he's more fresh. This never happens in real life. Also, the whole team should fatigue faster in the 2nd game of back-to-back games. This way, you would be forced to play all 4 lines.

41. Live Draft. Right now, you can only make trades at the start of each round in the draft. I want the ability to make a trade at any time during the draft. In the middle of rounds, at the end, at the beginning, anywhere I want. Maybe make it so each pick is timed just like real life. You should be able to speed up or slow down the time between each pick.

42. Player Search. Have the ability to search for a player by name, position, etc so you can more easily find a player you are trying to trade for. This would also be EXTREMELY useful in the player movement screen on the main menu, as it would help us roster editors.

43. Career Stats. Have an option to view players' career stats. Right now, players' career stats show up for like the past few years, but that's it. We want to view their stats over their entire career. They could also show things like a list of your franchise's best players of all time so you can see where a player currently ranks amongst the greats.

44. More Realistic Penalties and PIM. Right now, there are some players who don't get a penalty all season long. That is unrealistic. Players like Carcillo should get a ton of penalty minutes while players like Datsyuk should only get a few. All players get penalties, nobody is perfect.

45. Edit Lines During Off Season. You should be able to edit your lines during the off season so you have a better idea of who you need to draft/sign/trade for.

**Once again, if you think of anything else, post it here and I'll update the list!**
</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o