[snowdrift]

Just thought of adding this here for future reference, as I'm not sure it's been brought up anywhere else.

If for some reason a save file can't be repaired, the last resort is exporting it to a spreadsheet, re-importing the spreadsheet into a Roster save, and starting a new Franchise from that save. You can change the start year of the franchise in the editor.

Downsides:
1. You lose player stats and contract data.
2. You have to restart the current season.
3. The spreadsheet has to be manually edited, because a roster save can only hold so many players, with limits on each type. I'd sort the spreadsheet by team first, then by overall rating to make it easy to delete and edit lower-overall players without depleting the NHL rosters.

Never import directly into a Franchise or Season save. This will break things even more.