This dynasty won't have a centralized focus on any particular team, and I will be starting in the 2018-19 season as I originally didn't plan on having a dynasty for this session. There will also be an international program where empty spots on all NHL rosters will be filled with created players. The seasons in this dynasty will be divided into 4 parts: Preview, 1st Half (October-December), 2nd Half (January-April), and Playoffs. It may be a while between parts, so please be patient.

2018-19 SEASON: PREVIEW
Our dynasty begins with some unfortunate news for Yotes fans: It was announced that Arizona would lose its franchise after the conclusion of the 2019-20 NHL season, the franchise relocating to Seattle to be rebranded as the Grunge.

As for playoff hopes, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins look to repeat after beating the Dallas Stars in 6 games in the final, and the Cinderella story of last playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes (and it's kind of been their shtick throughout the years in real life and in this dynasty.) hope to build on their unexpected success. Led by captain Ilya Kovalchuk, Carolina upset both the 1st-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in a sweep of the first round, and the Washington Capitals in 5 games before being finally stopped by the aforementioned Bruins in 7, so you can bet that Mr. Kovalchuk is going to be in the nightmares of Pittsburgh and Washington fans for years to come.

Expansion was on the horizon as 2 new franchises entered the NHL, both based off of historical teams: The Quebec Nordiques and the Kansas City Scouts. Among the players picked by Quebec in the expansion draft was Ilya Kovalchuk, who for some inexplicable reason, despite nearly leading them to a Stanley Cup final, was left unprotected by the Canes.

Now the international program: Only two players filled in spots for its test run: Tae Sun-yung, from South Korea, and Thibaux Girard, out of France. Tae Sun-yung was signed by the Carolina Hurricanes and has a Current Ability rating of 4.5 stars and a Potential Ability rating of 5 stars. Girard was signed by the Kansas City Scouts and has a Current Ability rating of 4.5 stars and a Potential Ability rating of 4.5 stars.
We'll see how the season goes, as three teams are favorite to take home Lord Stanley: Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Winnipeg.

Bad news: My previous savegame wouldn't advance past Oct. 8 without crashing for whatever reason, so I've been forced to start a new one. I apologize. This time, the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Washington Capitals in 6 games to win their second Stanley Cup. As for the Pittsburgh Penguins, they still managed to choke in the first round, this time after they had a 3-1 series lead against the 4th-seeded New York Rangers. Also I tried to put the international players on the same teams as last time even though they were full for the sake of fairness, and for some reason, I could only expand by one team at a time, so only Kansas City, Kansas got a franchise this time.

2018-19 Season: 1st Half

The 1st half started with the early-season signing of Joe Thornton by the Dallas Stars, who needed depth at the Center position. Another team who needed depth at said position was the New York Rangers, who ended up signing Pavel Datsyuk. The only other major signing of the season was Ilya Kovalchuk (and you people thought you were gonna get away with not hearing about this person) to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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The Kansas City Scouts may have had a terrible outing as a team, placing dead last in the league, but their star player Thibaux Girard's shot-blocking heroics cannot be questioned. Among the young players who shined early in the season was Canucks Right Winger, um excuse me here, BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOCK Boeser (sorry, the joke was there), who nearly led the league in goals, assists, and points at one point in the season, before being overtaken by Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.

Carolina's Tae Sun-yung started off the season in the worst, or should I say, the most emo way possible: By slitting Brad Marchand's throat with his own skate after being slewfooted by Marchand earlier in the game. Tae Sun-yung wouldn't get into any more trouble afterwards and Marchand appeared to have learned his lesson after that near-death experience.

One of the biggest trades of the season came when Jeff Carter and eventual AHL player Mikko Kalteva were traded to the Ottawa Senators for Colin White and AHL player Nate Thompson late in the 1st half of the season by the Los Angeles Kings. Needless to say, the Kings staff thought they were joking.

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and now for the rest of the Central Division...

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As you can see, Minnesota is on top of the league standings. Efforts from Devan Dubnyk in goal have helped the team keep pucks out of the net.

As for the Hurricanes, even though they have been one of the most successful teams this season, have had their Capacity Use % stuck at 80%, good for 29th out of 32 teams. I guess you can call them the Anti-Toronto Maple Leafs. There were talks of moving the Hurricanes to Quebec City or Houston, that is until a certain someone from my NASCAR Racing 2003 Season universe who is a WRA and NASCAR legend, and is the biggest donor to the club (and who also just happens to be the person running this dynasty), named Josh Drake, said no. This created a ton of ill-will towards Drake from hockey fans in Quebec City and Houston, who badly wanted a franchise and objected towards Drake using his celebrity to keep the franchise in Carolina. Who knows, maybe we can have a heated division rivalry in the Metro between the Canes and the Nordiques that always ends in riots and useless politicians being deposed and World War III and the end of time as we know it? Furthermore, he even wanted a 25,000 seat arena built in Shelby, North Carolina, a city that has a population of 20,260 people. Most people across the NHL thought he was crazy, building an arena that had more seats in the building than people in the city itself, but Drake was determined to make this work. He even convinced the GM of the Canes to have heavy metal acts perform during the intermissions, as Drake was known for his love of the music genre.

Who will make the playoffs? Find out in the 2nd half of the 2018-19 season.

Originally Posted by Tangerino (Post 4255461) how did gaudreau get traded to detroit!?!

2018-19 Season: 2nd Half

And the Buffalo Sabres' arena floods with raw sewage. IN OOOOOOOOOOOVERTIIIIIIIIME!!! - Rick Jeanneret

Yeah, that was a thing that happened in this dynasty. Kind of symbolic of the Sabres' entire season.

Here are the All-Star Selections for 2019:
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...and now the stats for the 2nd half of 2018-19:
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As you can see, there was no touching Thibaux Girard in terms of blocked shots, and look who are tied for 3rd in goals... the same people who got into a fight earlier in this dynasty... man, they just can't stay away from each other.

So nothing of note that I can remember really happened other than the race for the last East spot in the playoffs between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. It went down to the last day of the season, and Tampa Bay won their game and Florida lost. Tampa Bay ended up advancing on goal difference over Florida.

Here are the standings at the end of the season:
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And with that, the playoff picture looks like this:
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Several interesting matchups in this playoff, particularly the Pittsburgh-Carolina rematch from the savegame that decided to be a wonderful little thing and corrupt itself, but this time Ilya Kovalchuk will be on the opposite side of the series. Who will come out on top? Who will choke in the first round? (Spoiler alert: Pittsburgh's probably gonna be one of them.) When will I stop mentioning Ilya Kovalchuk? I don't really know, but maybe, someday, that will come to fruition.

2018-19 Season: Playoffs

"Well, at least we're not the only one choking in the first round and having to speak 'broken English' this time..." - Evgeni Malkin

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Yep. That's right. The unthinkable just happened in this savegame. Not only did the absolute pipedream of the Arizona Coyotes making the playoffs in this session come true, after they beat the Chicago Blackhawks out for the last West playoff spot on goal difference, they won a series coming back from a 3-0 series deficit on an overtime goal Nashville fans, you have some explaining to do and some towels to wet. The defending Cup champion Anaheim Ducks also made a big comeback of their own, beating the San Jose Sharks after being down 3-1 in the series. Another interesting fact was that 6 of the 8 series in the first round went to 7 games.

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This time, every single series in the 2nd round went to 7 games. I don't know what this playoff's infatuation with 7-game series is, but it's starting to become quite memeable at this point. Carolina almost blew a 2-0 series lead over New York, but came back from a deficit themselves later in the series, down 3-2. Also, Arizona, somehow, someway unlocked the code to advance past the team with the most NSFW nickname in the NHL, the Minnesota Wild. Boston narrowly eked out another victory against a team they should've dominated, winning 4-3 in the series over the Ottawa Senators.

Also came across this interesting last name...
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So much for 'Unlocking The Code'...
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As you can see, the dream has come to an end for the Coyotes. In the 5th and final game of the series, they were demolished 11-1 by the Edmonton Oilers. In the other semifinal, Carolina made another 3-2 series comeback, this time against the 1st-place Boston Bruins, avenging a semifinal exit from the previous savegame, and with that, we are down to a rematch of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, Edmonton vs. Carolina.

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Nice going, Connor McDavid. Just when your team was on the verge of becoming the first Canadian team in 26 years to win the Stanley Cup, you couldn't resist the temptation to hyperextend your elbow. The Oilers managed to choke away a 3-0 series lead over the Carolina Hurricanes. Memorable moments in the series included a 2-1 OT win for Carolina in game 6 and the clinching 6-0 game 7 win to bring back Lord Stanley to Raleigh Carolina has won their second-ever Stanley Cup title.


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2019 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS
2019 EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS (98 POINTS)


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2019 WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS (95 POINTS)

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2019 PRESIDENTS' TROPHY WINNERS (110 POINTS)

2018-19 Season: Awards

Little bug that I discovered with the All-Rookie Teams...
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2019 NHL All-Stars
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JACK ADAMS AWARD (Best GM): Bruce Cassidy (Boston Bruins)

TED LINSAY AWARD (Player's MVP): Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers)

MARK MESSIER LEADERSHIP AWARD (Leadership): Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks)

BILL MASTERTON TROPHY (Dedication): Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks)

LADY BYNG TROPHY (Sportsmanship): Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles Kings)

JENNINGS TROPHY (Least Goals Allowed): Braden Holtby (Washington Capitals)

ROGER CROZIER SAVING GRACE AWARD (Highest Save Percentage): Pekka Rinne (Kansas City Scouts)

JAROMIR JAGR AWARD (Best Plus-Minus): Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Arizona Coyotes)

ART ROSS TROPHY (Most Points): Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs)

MAURICE RICHARD TROPHY (Most Goals): Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs)

FRANK J. SELKE TROPHY (Best Defensive Forward): Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks)

HERB BROOKS MEMORIAL TROPHY (Best GM): Don Sweeney (Boston Bruins)

CALDER TROPHY (Rookie Of The Year): Tae-Sun-yung (Carolina Hurricanes)

NORRIS TROPHY (Best Defenceman): Kevin Shattenkirk (New York Rangers)

VEZINA TROPHY (Best Goalie): Braden Holtby (Washington Capitals)

CONN SMYTHE TROPHY (Playoff MVP): Tae Sun-yung (Carolina Hurricanes)

HART TROPHY (MVP) Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers)

2019-2020 Season: Offseason

Regina, Saskatchewan and Quebec City, Quebec have been awarded NHL franchises.

ARIZONA COYOTES:
*This will be the final season for the team in Arizona, as they will relocate to Seattle for the next season.

BOSTON BRUINS:
*Charlie McAvoy has been let go by the Boston Bruins (why they've let him go, I have no Earthly idea.)

BUFFALO SABRES:
*Maxwell Willman was signed by the Buffalo Sabres.

CAROLINA HURRICANES:
*Max Pacioretty, Connor Hellebuyck, and Eric Staal have been signed by the Carolina Hurricanes.

*The Carolina Hurricanes have moved to a new arena, the 25,000 seat Sun Drop Dome in Shelby, North Carolina, near Charlotte. The stadium also holds 52,000 seats for baseball games (foreshadowing of my future projects on OOTP maybe?)

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS:
*Sergei Bobrovsky was released by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

EDMONTON OILERS:
*Tyler Kelleher was signed up by the Edmonton Oilers.

KANSAS CITY SCOUTS:
*Rick Nash, Charlie McAvoy, Cam Talbot, Steve Mason, and Niklas Hjalmarsson have been signed by the Kansas City Scouts.

*LD Kevin Jomo-Gbomo, and International Program player from South Africa, was signed by the Kansas City Scouts. He has a CA of 4 stars and a PA of 5 stars.

LOS ANGELES KINGS:
*Drew Doughty was released by the Los Angeles Kings.

MINNESOTA WILD:
*Matt Duchene was signed by the Minnesota Wild.

*Eric Staal was released by the Minnesota Wild.

MONTREAL CANADIENS:
*John Carlson was picked up by the Montreal Canadiens and named Assistant Captain.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS:
*Drew Doughty was signed by the New Jersey Devils.

NEW YORK RANGERS:
*Rick Nash was released from the New York Rangers.

OTTAWA SENATORS:
*Daniel Sedin was picked up by the Ottawa Senators.

*G Francesco Monticello, and International Program player from Mexico with the United States as a second nationality, was signed by the Ottawa Senators. He has a CA of 2.5 stars and a PA of 4 stars.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS:
*Tyler Myers was signed by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

*Owner Bob Tory left the club after only 1 season and was replaced by none other than Pittsburgh legend Mario Lemieux.

QUEBEC NORDIQUES:
*Notable players drafted in the Expansion Draft included Jake Guentzel (Pittsburgh), Bobby Ryan (Ottawa), Mikku Koivu (Kansas City), Scott Darling (Carolina), Brandon Sutter (Vancouver), Sam Gagner (Vancouver), and Mattias Ekholm (Nashville).

SASKATCHEWAN STORM:
*Notable players taken in the Expansion Draft included Josh Ho-Sang (New York Islanders), Paul Stastny (Philadelphia), Derek Stepan (Kansas City), Patrick Marleau (Toronto), Jimmy Howard (Tucson Roadrunners), Olli Maata (Pittsburgh), Sean Couturier (Philadelphia), and Malcolm Subban (Vegas).

VANCOUVER CANUCKS:
*Daniel Sedin was let go by the Vancouver Canucks. His brother Henrik, however was resigned. So much for unbreakable bloodlines.

*Sergei Bobrovsky was signed by the Vancouer Canucks.

*G Ahmed Al-Dossari, an International Program player from the United Arab Emirates, was signed by the Vancouver Canucks. He has a CA of 1.5 stars and a PA of 3.5 stars.

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS:
*Malcolm Subban was released by the Vegas Golden Knights.

WINNIPEG JETS:
*Dmitrij Jaskin was signed up by the Winnipeg Jets.

As a side note, It'll probably be a while before the next post as I'll be attempting another dynasty on OOTP18 similar to this dynasty.