NHL 16 Roster Update Available (12-17)

[brianski71]

Quote: Originally Posted by Efbomb

I just have to say that I don't understand EA's thinking. I noticed that if a player has signed a PHPA and is moved to an ECHL team, they delete them. He is property of the NHL team. Why delete them? It's weird because if a player has signed an AHL contract and moved to the ECHL, they leave them on the AHL team. Don't you think it should be the other way around? As far as the update goes, they added 18 new AHL players. Calgary: Jakub Nakladal Columbus: Oliver Bjorkstrand, Dillon Heatherington, Joonas Korpisalo, Dean Kukan, Sonny Milano, Nick Moutrey, Peter Quenneville Minnesota: Zach Palmquist, Mike Reilly Nashville: Max Gortz, Vladislav Kamenev, Kristian Nakyva Ottawa: Vincent Dunn St. Louis: Jordan Schmaltz Washington: Christian Djoos, Vitek Vanecek, Jakub Vrana 2 players are on CHL teams: Michael McNiven (MTL) - Owen Sound Jaedon Descheneau (STL) - Kootenay

Or here's a novel idea...how about they just put the ECHL in the game? Maybe I'm biased, because I'm a huge hockey fan and live between Pittsburgh and Wheeling and go to both Pens and Nailers games...but to me it's absolutely unacceptable not to have the ECHL in the game. It's been standard since the days of MVP Baseball to have AAA and AA teams in baseball games. And they don't even have the license to put the real players in. EA already has the license to put the players in, because they're part of the PHPA that the AHL players belong to. They'd just have to secure rights to the teams and league. Am I the only one who thinks that it'd make 500 times more sense to have the third-highest level North American League than all the stupid Euro teams that NOBODY ever uses anyway? It's frustrating to have to scratch 10+ prospects on your AHL team in BAGM because you have no ECHL affiliate to send them to. (Although you never update the rosters until December) you have the main feeder system for draft picks in the CHL, you have the top minor league in the AHL. So why is the ECHL the missing piece, yet you can play with 100 crap teams from overseas that no one knows or cares about. Wake up, EA. Hell even if you don't want to pay for the team licenses, just brand them as the city and make them play in generic arenas with generic uniforms. At least it'd make player development in BAGM realistic. And YOU ALREADY HAVE ACCESS TO THE PLAYERS!

[Fiddy]

Yup, zero reason the ECHL isnt in yet. Heck, the ECHL probably would say go ahead and add us for free. LOL.

[franch1se]

Even if they don't add the official ECHL teams, at least have a slot for them as non-playable teams similar to MLB The Show. They have AAA and AA you can use, with A just a placeholder for players.

Would be nice to have an extra place to stash players in GM mode.

[Efbomb]

I have asked for the ECHL in every wish list thread since '08.

Not because I live near an ECHL team or am a big fan. It's because it is a professional league located in North America and is a place that NHL teams can put players that are too old to return to juniors and not quite ready for the AHL.

It really should be in the game.

As far as Euro leagues go, they're only in the game so Europeans that buy the game can play with their favorite local teams, but I don't want EA to remove them. They have players that end up in the AHL at some point and I can add them to their teams at will.

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by brianski71

Or here's a novel idea...how about they just put the ECHL in the game? Maybe I'm biased, because I'm a huge hockey fan and live between Pittsburgh and Wheeling and go to both Pens and Nailers games...but to me it's absolutely unacceptable not to have the ECHL in the game. It's been standard since the days of MVP Baseball to have AAA and AA teams in baseball games. And they don't even have the license to put the real players in. EA already has the license to put the players in, because they're part of the PHPA that the AHL players belong to. They'd just have to secure rights to the teams and league. Am I the only one who thinks that it'd make 500 times more sense to have the third-highest level North American League than all the stupid Euro teams that NOBODY ever uses anyway? It's frustrating to have to scratch 10+ prospects on your AHL team in BAGM because you have no ECHL affiliate to send them to. (Although you never update the rosters until December) you have the main feeder system for draft picks in the CHL, you have the top minor league in the AHL. So why is the ECHL the missing piece, yet you can play with 100 crap teams from overseas that no one knows or cares about. Wake up, EA. Hell even if you don't want to pay for the team licenses, just brand them as the city and make them play in generic arenas with generic uniforms. At least it'd make player development in BAGM realistic. And YOU ALREADY HAVE ACCESS TO THE PLAYERS!

I think the best solution would be for them to totally overhaul their GM Mode. I'm not sure how possible it would be to simulate the seasons in the background (I feel like the processing power should be there with the system) and have the players actually accrue stats and points based on their rankings (which is yet another thing that would need to be overhauled) and have the players actually have up and down seasons that affect how they get drafted.

It would be great to keep up on an active season, have your scouts send reports back "Still watching Tyler Barnes, he's currently 3rd in the league in scoring" or have your guys tell you when someone is playing above their expected level. It would be great to track players as they rise and fall in the draft order, while you take a gamble and draft a guy who was ranked 3rd but dropped to 30th.

I think if EA works to make the gameplay in general more dynamic, it could really be a lot of fun. Having rookies come up and dominate, giving them a temporary boost (maybe have that be randomized to represent real life. You might get lucky and have a rookie that's projected to be a "7th D, High" who after the first half of the season gets upgraded to "Top 4, High". It would be based on luck, but, that's NHL scouting, isn't it?

Players being able to have their value rise and fall with their performance (maybe have something to where their points are tied to their expected potential. A player ranked as a "Bottom 6, Med" player on the last year of their contract could demand more money in the off season based on their numbers, forcing players to decide if they want to gamble based on one season, but a player like Crosby (as much as reading the online forums might seem otherwise) wouldn't lose my value just because of one down season.

The main issue (at least to me, outside of gameplay itself) has always been that the Be a GM mode just felt stale. I existed in a vacuum, and nothing mattered. I don't have pro-scouts to send out and look at teams, my trading block doesn't matter (I've got Shattenkirk and Backes on the block, and I'm getting 3 low round picks for Scottie Upshall...come on). The trade deadline is just another day...nothing that's exciting about NHL hockey is exciting in the game. I don't hear about playoff pushes, I don't hear about rookies that have been dominating. Players don't really have hot and cold streaks, it just seems to be a matter of how often you force it (Brodziak is currently dominating with 5 short handed goals). I just want EA to force me to be interested. I was happy about the idea of the morale, but it doesn't really seem to matter. Sure, players get bummed when I trade the team captain...but who cares? They don't play noticeably worse. Can't fire my coach. Pulling the goalie doesn't matter. I'm stuck "pretending" so many factors about the game just to make up for what EA hasn't brought to the series. It would be awesome if games against rivals were more chippy and hard hitting. Maybe have rivalries brew with repeated post season fights against each other.