Some observations from a 10-year NHL sim in FHM 2
 

Hi all,

For those keen on getting some new information, here's some results from a decade-long sim I did with Franchise Hockey Manager 2.

Please note: This sim was run on a much earlier version of FHM 2, earlier in the Beta test, so things definitely have changed with the simulation engine, results, etc. But it still gives you a nice look at some unique things that unfolded in this game world.

Cup Droughts Remain:

One of the things I wanted to see in this sim is if some long-time Stanley Cup droughts would be ended. Would Toronto finally lift Lord Stanley’s mug again? Would teams like Vancouver or Washington win their first in franchise history?

Here are the yearly champions, including where they finished in the league that season:

2014/2015 - St. Louis - 1st in conference/league (108 points)
2015/2016 - Detroit - 7th in conference (93 points)
2016/2017 - Los Angeles - 6th in conference (92 points)
2017/2018 - Chicago - 1st in conference (103 points)
2018/2019 - Colorado - 5th in conference, 11th seed overall in league
2019/2020 - Anaheim - 1st in conference (107 points)
2020/2021 - Chicago - 2nd in conference (102 points)
2021/2022 - Los Angeles - 3rd in conference (99 points)
2022/2023 - Nashville - 8th in conference (87 points)
2023/2024 - Chicago 6th in conference (94 points)
2024/2025 - Philadelphia - 8th (91 points)


So as you can see - one Cup drought came to an end season one with the Blues taking it!

Philly also ended their drought and in terms of a dynasty, it sure looks like Chicago, with three championships over the sim.

Some notable absences - no Canadian teams win the Cup!

The Maple Leafs did make the playoffs five of the 10 seasons simmed, but never got farther than into the second round of the playoffs.

Underdogs can get hot: What I also enjoyed seeing was some lower-ranked team went on a tear and won the playoffs, despite not having the most stellar regular season. Nashville certainly wasn’t a Cup favourite in 2022/2023, but they saved their best hockey for the righit time.


The Great 8: Despite Alex Ovechkin going on to a Hall of Fame career - and doing it all with Washington, they also could never win a cup. He retired at age 37 and what was neat ...he would go on to coach a U-14 team in his home country and then a couple years later, up to a U-16 team .. Coaching a cousin, perhaps?


Breaking all-time records?:
While Ovechkin had a great career, one who definitely stood out was Steven Stamkos.

When this sim ended, I don’t recall exactly but I believe he was nearing 800 goals, had moved into 3rd all-time in NHL scoring and was poised to pass Gordie Howe, with a chance to even pass Wayne Gretzky for 1st overall depending how long he kept playing. He appeared to still be going strong - I wish I still had the save to see how it turned out!

From Sweden to award winner:
Another neat case was Jordan Binnington, who won the 2023/2024 Vezina trophy. What was especially unique was the career path he took.He spent some time in the NHL, but never really got a big chance to play. He then signed for the Swedish Hockey League, before coming back to the NHL and excelling (and likely playing over his head) the year he won the award. It was a definite surprise and it was kind of neat to see the career arc and to see him do well once finally getting a chance between the pipes.

Those are some of the things that stand out.Feel free to ask questions, although as noted I no longer have this saved game, so I will have to go mostly by memory. I may do another longer sim soon with a newer build to see what else we could get.

My question is about the draft. Do you recall any good players emerging from rounds 6 & 7? Also were there any number 1 picks who bombed?

Where there any expansion teams during that time period and if yes,how did they perform?

Cole, you're responsible man!

Philadelphia wins a Cup?

Yeah, I would have deleted that save, too, Cole...

:laugh:

I know for a fact the player development engine had been tweaked heavily after this sim (as mentioned I did this sim quite some time ago), but that being said I definitely do recall some 1st round picks who didn't really pan out into having fantastic careers - some of them not even spending a very long time in the NHL before going off to lower leagues. In fact, I recall Jack Eichel ended up having a pretty pedestrian career (at least the first 10 years of it).

As for the 6th and 7th rounders, it wasn't really something I was looking for, as I was pretty much just simming and not really diving deep into the statistics.

No expansion teams, no. I was in commisioner mode and just simming through.

How did McDavid do? How did he stack up against Crosby?

IIRC, he got off to a solid, albeit unspectacular start to his career. He was generally in the 20 to 30 goal per year range, but never really led the league. Crosby was a more consistent scorer throughout the earlier years of this sim.

I am going to be doing some more sims soon to focus on McDavid, so stay tuned for more.

I've got an idea. Would it be possible for you, Cole, to create a save game in FHM and to show every day (or two, or threee) one of the screens of the league? For example, today you show the screenshot of the leaderboards, in three days you show the screen of league standing or the Hall of Fame.

Just an idea. I think maybe developers wouldn't consider it to be good idea, but it would satisfy at least some craving of the impatient fans. Something like that IMHO would be great.

Good to see the Kings winning a couple of titles. Kopitar and Doughty still doing well I guess. Nashville and Philadelphia now there are a couple of surprises. Makes it a bit more realistic if a couple of outsiders win a few titles.

To be fair, the Binnington's story is quite a bit like Tim Thomas.

A few questions :
- Was there a few perennial cellar-dwellers or teams that were nowhere close to be competitive over that stretch? (think, 1 playoff berth in 10 years)
- Was there a few cases of spectacular busts? By that, I mean "Alexander Volchkov bad". 4th overall was a decent 3rd liner... in the AHL, that is.
- Was there a few well-known names that turned into coaching? Good or not?

I just want to say thanks for doing this Cole, definitely fun to read! And even better the Wings won atleast once!

As I mentioned, this wasn't a sim where I stopped to smell the flowers too much. I was mostly simming to see who would win Cups, what droughts would end, etc. So I didn't catch a lot of the details.

There were definitely teams that didn't perform overly well. I don't recall Ottawa doing anything of significance, for example.

I'm sure there were draft busts but again, it wasn't something I was watching over. One cool screen in the game however is one where you can go back and look at future draft classes and get a quick look at all their stats thus far, it's a good way to quickly evaluate draft classes and see booms/busts, etc. I don't even remember if that has been shown yet ... maybe this is a teaser in itself :p Might be something I have to get a screenshot to you all soon.

Ovechkin is the only one that comes right to mind that got into coaching, but again, it wasn't something I was looking for.