To be able to create two rival leagues to compete against each other league the NHL and WHA

Maybe something like rivalries? For example, if you're a rival with another team, the games will be more physical and heated, and it will be difficult to negotiate trades with them.

This is a must.

Haven't played FHM in a very long time. Bought FHM5 and I love it. I hate being critical but here goes:

I started playing the Red Wings in 1970 (as I am old...lol). I am the GM only. When drafting and picks were slim there were Russians that had good potential. What the heck, I picked them. They developed but I can't sign them. What I did find out is that I could use them for trading. I stockpiled Russians when drafting and have built an all-star team by trading the rights of the Russians and a late draft pick. I haven't traded a single player from my team. I'm not sure when Russians are allowed to sign in the NHL but I am in the 1986 season and I still can't sign them, so I continue to trade them for great prospects or young established players. This is way too easy !!!! It's fun to win...when you work to get there.

I agree that the GM has to have more input. After drafting, signing, staff, renewing contracts and trading with the rights of my Russians there isn't anything for the GM to do but click "next game, "next day". The above is all done between July 1 and July 4....I do really enjoy these 4 days but there really needs to be more. I'm complaining with no solutions...sorry. Not sure what the GM could do but this is why you guys make the big bucks...lol.

Triple A.......What exactly is happening? They have the worst coaching staff but I can't fire any of them. What is the purpose of the AAA scouts? My NHL scouts cover every draft pick and FA's. As GM of an NHL team I should have control of what is going on in my farm club and change what I feel needs changing. So....who is coaching the AAA players? I get reports and they are making really good progress. I know they are not progressing from the crap coaching staff in the minors. Are the rookies in AAA being coached by the NHL coaches ??......and if so...why / how ???????

That's it for now. Thank you very much for listening to the fans of FHM5. I hate to criticize, but I still love the game.

Maybe there could be an option for the AI to automatically pick numbers.........for those of us who don't care who has what number.

Also would like to retire numbers, at least I don't know there is an option for that.

Numbers are retired automatically....

Absolutely, this is a problem. To me there are a few things that should be done to make this part better. First of all, renewing contracts is too straightforward of a process. You click renew contract, the player asks, you accept and the next day the contract is signed.
Renewing a contract should be a much deeper process, especially with high end players. It should include meetings with agents, discussions, there should be space of maneuvr for us. Now you can just obey what the player dictates.
Similar things should happen when you want to sign free agents. There should be more players who take their time. We should also get more inner news, reports from our coaches and assistants. Simulation of contracts, trades, buyouts, contracts burying, and the likes.
It's an area of the game that has a lot of room for improvement.

Not to discuss about players' behavior, especially in european leagues...

Agree
 

Absolutely agree with the above

How does that work? That never happened to me.

Simple. If player played enough years on your team and had very good/great numbers you will get notification in your news about retiring his number when he retires...

A way to disable automatic expansion like in OOTP.

This is more of a technical thing, but I would love to see players just sitting a year out if they don't land a contract they want. Like, if Malcolm Subban becomes a free agent and no one offers him a contract, he gets transfered to a "team" called "Did not play" and he'd show up in free agency again next summer. The stats would then look like this:

2021/22 Boston Bruins NHL
2022/23 Boston Bruins NHL
2023/24 Did not play
2024/25 Metallurg Magnitogorsk KHL

I'm getting kinda tired of seeing star players play in terrible leagues like the Ukranian one. That stuff is just dumb, but I get it has to happen in order for the game to work properly.

Also, try-out contracts and loaning players out/requesting a player to be loaned to you in European leagues!

I'll echo this post. It doesn't bother me so much that the game isn't as far along as OOTP in terms of graphics and other features. I'd just like the game to be fully customizable like OOTP. As of FHM 5, it still seems like you're pretty limited in what you can do to customize your league/franchises/players. And maybe there are ways to do some of these customizations. However, the UX is not as clean or easy to navigate as OOTP.

I mostly play custom fictional leagues (in OOTP) and would prefer to do so in this game, so that's why FHM hasn't scratched the same itch for me.

realistic training camp .

50 man contracts only for regular season so you can properly sign all your unsigned draftees in the offseason before July 1st. Expiring deals can not count against the contract limit after the playoffs maybe?
Realistic training camp as others mention.
Have salary retention in trades
Optimization of leagues outside of where you are a GM. A lot of crashes seem to be from issues with rosters in leagues around the world that you have no control over, also a lot of teams seem to be able to play with 1 goalie dressed or less then 20 players dressed.

For running an online league
These things must manually be edited or handled by the commish as they don't hold on export properly:
-Staff Signings, re-signings and firings (have to manually edit them in still) and staff role changes
-Player buyouts do not hold on export
-UFA Entry level contracts seem to go in alphabetical order to teams thus we have to run a lottery offline and edit the players to the winning team rather then trusting the in game mechanics
-Make the in game file import/export work
-Have a submit trade in game (as OOTP 20 does now) so Human GM's can submit a trade on export and see the financial implications of a deal
- Human GM options to have minors play balanced, more vets or prospects must be set by the commissioner. Also it would be nice to manually let Human GM's control minor league teams (AHL and ECHL if you are the Human GM)

Goalies who play more aproximate to thier star ratings. I know there are many factors into how well a goalie should perform, and teh stars are just a guide to thier ability, but a 5 star goalie shouldn't have the worst save percentage in the league and a 1 star goalie shouldn't be racking up shutout after shutout after shutout.

Bring back the jerseys one things I liked looking at in the older games when looking at the custom teams players was looking at the players jerseys

Be able to change how many people of a certain position can be protected in the expansion draft.