Rakennusmestari

So disappointing to hear. Probably the game didn't sell well enough then.

I've now had two summers with the current patch, and it seems to me that the free agent market is pretty dry compared to real life. Most of the big name pending UFAs end up extending with their current teams, which leads to a quiet summer. During the first season players like Ladd, Backes, Eriksson and Okposo all ended up extending their deals.

I would like the willingness of Russian players (and generally players in the KHL) to move to the NHL increased. Currently it seems close to impossible to make signings like Chicago did last year with Panarin and Tikhonov.

And how often these days do we see big name players being traded IRL? Besides, often the AI teams do give away really big names already.

After the first season both Anze Kopitar and Steven Stamkos hit the market as UFAs. Another issue is that Stamkos even entered the market, as currently in the Blueline rosters there's something wrong and he's set to become a RFA, so Tampa for some odd reason didn't even qualify him. Nevertheless, I entered into negotiations with both, and their initial ask was over 10m. No AI teams were interested in either of them, which seems really odd. Over 10m $ is indeed a lot, but imagine this happening in real life. There would be a lot of teams lining up to sign Kopitar or Stamkos, and if needed, they would clear salary to be able to accommodate them! So in the end both remained available well into August, by which point I signed both of them into 7,9m $ contracts. Then came next summer, and amongst others Jamie Benn and Alexander Steen were available as UFAs. Again, no AI interest in either. Benn was asking a lot, but eventually on 7th August he signed with me for 7,78m $. It's now the 2nd of September, and Steen is still unsigned. It seems to me that the players mentioned should be targeted by a lot of teams, despite their high salary demands. I'm using the current patch.

Please enlarge the pre-season TOP10 listings (NHL) to, say, the 20 best. Also the coding behind the choices could use some tinkering, there are often some really odd choices in the listings!

The reactions seem quite illogical at times. As an example: after the first season as the GM of Florida I traded Dave Bolland away in return for a 2nd round pick. As is well known, he has a horrible contract and also had played really badly (av.rating 6.00), but despite that, I got a negative reaction for the trade. Then I proceeded to sign both Anze Kopitar and Steven Stamkos as free agents. One would expect fireworks and whatnot, right? No, absolutely no reaction from the board nor the fans. Then, to clear salary and to get rid of bad performers, I sent Bjugstad (av.rating of 6.47 last season) & Kampfer to Arizona in exchange for Connor Murphy (45 points, av.rating of 7.29), and there was rage..? Finally I sent Jussi Jokinen (salary a massive 4m and last season's rating 6.60) packaged with a 4th round pick to LA, getting a first rounder in exchange, Again, rage. And currently my job security is "very insecure". So I added Steven Stamkos, Anze Kopitar and Connor Murphy, plus a 1st and 2nd round pick, and sent away Dave Bolland, Nick Bjugstad, Steven Kampfer, Jussi Jokinen and a 4th round pick. The new player's cap hits are in total 18,371m $, while the former player's combined hit was 14,212m $. I fail to see why I should be sacked for adding two world class players and two useful picks, while shedding bad contracts and players who really didn't perform.

Ah, okay! I'll have to check the situation when July 1st comes. Bit if it is indeed how you think, it would be much better if the game displayed the correct length already in the negotiation screen.

I'm managing the Panthers, and after the first season I'm notified that I must sign Jayce Hawryluk to a contract or lose his rights. Fair enough, he's a promising youngster. He's 20 years old, so why can I offer him only a two-year entry level contract? I did some googling, and it seems that players between the age of 18-21 must sign three year entry-level contracts?

What are your power play and penalty kill pairings? I'd imagine Streit and Del Zotto being 1st choice PP defencemen.

Shouldn't we be able to sign staff from other NHL teams?

There seems to be one available via EHM Blueline, it's called EHM:EA Assistant.

Is it just me or is it impossible to have a happy squad? I've been wondering about this for multiple seasons now, but here's one example: my team has won 10 games in a row, and of the 23 players on the roster only 3 have very good morale. 4 have good, and then the rest are at OK, low (2) and very low (2). Of the players that have only OK morale, my first choice GK's recent ratings are 8-8-10-8-8, 2nd best D has 8-7-8-8-6, 3rd C has 7-8-7-6-8, and no-one has particularly bad ratings, so I don't believe that to be the reason for only OK morale.

It would be really useful if the contract negotiations screen (in the NHL) would show which years are RFA and which UFA years when offering a deal.

Please add the possibility of teams picking up a part of of a player's salary in a trade! In my save just before the second season Ryan Kesler was made available by the Ducks, but I'm definitely not taking his full 6,875m $ salary on my books...