The Penguins win their 2nd President's trophy in as many years.

We have both D Letang & Provorov nominated for the Norris trophy, G Murray is nominated for the Vezina and Crosby for Hart & Lindsey trophies. HC tk43 is nominated for the Adams trophy...

The Pens had 5 30+ goal scorers on their roster and 5 80+ point players only 2 other teams had 3 each of 80+ point players (Panthers & Flyers)

roll on playoffs...

Nice...

Go Penguins

Go Wild

What happened to the Blue Jackets this season? How did they finish?

The season ends in a dissapointment for the Pens... After beating the Maple Leafs in the first round 4-1, the Penguins lost the Battle of Pennsylvania 4-1.

It was a disappointing loss and changes are looming for the Penguins veterans in the off season....

The Florida Panthers beat the San Jose Sharks in the Stanley cup final 4-2...

The Blue Jackets had a disappointing season....

It was a busy offseason for the Penguins...

After the disappointment of being eliminated in the 2nd round of the play offs, GM tk43 decided to make the team more balanced as well as prepare for the next offseason where several of the players will enter the last year of their "bridge" contracts...

We managed to sign D Pietrangelo to a very good ( unrealistic ) 3 year deal with an average value of 4.7mil a year.

We traded RW Rust and a 7th to the Flames for C Lazar and a 5th rounder, saved 2.4mil a year on salary cap

We traded LW Guenzel, the rights to a 4star potential prospect and a 1st and 4th round pick to the Flames for LW Tkachuk, which added 2.4 mil a year in salary cap

After that we decided to trade away D Letang and a 4th round pick who was a main contributor on O and the winner of the last 2 Norris trophies to the Capitals for their 1st round pick. Saved 7.25 mil a year on salary

Than we created a BLOCKBUSTER 3 way deal with the Capitals and the Panthers where the Caps got C Malkin a 3rd and 6th round picks from the Pens for Kuznetsov and a 1st round pick and we moved him to the Panthers together with a 1st, 2nd and two 3rd round picks and got C Barkov. Saved 3.6 mil a year in salary

Some other minor free agent signings were carried out too...
RD Hamonic to replace RD Schenn who got traded to the Ducks together with a 7th rounder for a 3rd round pick ( didn't play well and was dropping attributes fast )
RW Watson to add grit and an agitator
C Lewis for depth in the bottom 6

We resigned LW Rantanen to a 2 year 4.6mil/year contract and C Lowry to a 6 year 3.65mil/year contract

We have set the line up for the opening night and are set for at least the next 2 years with the current squad. The next off season will have several players due for a big pay day....

We got to the trade deadline and seen one notable trade where the Capitals sent D Letang ( 3.5 stars, 33 years old ) to the Hurricanes for RW Aho ( 3 stars, 23 years old )

The Pens are still top of the league, but we lost D Lindholm for 2 months and D Voynov for 3 months, they should be back in time for the play offs...

It's playoffs time and the Pens reach it once again as the winners of the President's trophy. After last years disappointment, can the Pens go all the way?

C Crosby led the younger Pens team in scoring cracking the 100 point mark once again, but our young stars aren't developing as fast as thought ( D Provorov, RW Laine, RW Boeser, LW Rantanen & LW Tkachuk all started with a 5 star potential but none of them reached it, RW Laine is on 4 stars, LW Tkachuk is on 3 stars & the rest is on 3.5 stars ability and their potentials are started to dropp )

D Voynov is still out injured and will be missed

The Pens met the Devils in the first round of the playoffs and the series went all the way to the 7th game. After last years frustration, the Pens weren't going to settle for the Presidents trophy and destroyed the Devils 12-2 in the 7th game

In the second round it was the Flyers again, same as last year, but this time around the roles changed and the Pens dispatched them in 5 games with relative ease

Eastern conference finals, the Tampa Bay Lightning await, but an unfortunate knee soreness injury takes star C and captain of the Bolts out of the series for all but the last game and the Pens have no issues and progress to the Stanley cup final winning the series 4-0 (seen a thread mentioning that minor day to day injuries in the Playoffs shouldn't stop players playing)
The trip to the final came at a costly price as D Klingberg suffered a concussion and is sidelined for the next 8 months

The Stanley cup final paired the Pens against the Ducks. Missing C Getzlaf, the Ducks roster didn't stack up against the Pens more youth full line up, C Crosby was lost for the last 2 games with a minor wrist injury and D Lindholm with a similar minor injury which in real life would never stopped them from playing in the final ( Crosby was out for 4 days and Lindholm for 6 ) After going up 3-0 the Ducks won game 4 but that was all ant the Pens won the Cup in game 5

Might be a coincidence but in all 3 seasons so far the cup was won on the 31st of May

D Klingberg won the Norris and the Lady Bing
G Murray won the Vezina and Jennings
LW Tanew won the Selke
D Lindholm won the Conn Smythe ( missed 3 games in the playoffs, better options available)

It's opening night in Pittsburg and the Pens went through a fairly quiet off season....
We traded D Klingberg ( injured for the next 6 months, not sure if anyone in the league would trade for a player out with grade 3 concussion ) D prospect Phillips, 2x 6th and a 7th round pick to the Sabres for D Ristolainen

We signed a few players to new contracts...

D Ristolainen to a 8 year deal with a 5.45mil/year cap hit
D Lindholm to a 8 year deal with a 5.75mil/year cap hit
C Barkov to a 3 year deal with a 7.95mil/year cap hit
RW Laine to a 2 year deal with a 7.28mil/year cap hit
LW Tanew to a 4 year deal with a 1.65mil/year cap hit
RW Aston-Reese to a 4 year deal with a 0.85mil/year cap hit

In the Pre season we had a major injury where C Barkov ruptured ulnar collateral ligament and will miss 6 months...

opening nights roster is as follows... and after the latest update C Draisaitl had his cap hit on the same contract drop from an 8.5mil/year hit to a 4.84mil one???

Frankly speaking, those trades are redicolous, IMHO. Not that the trades are that bad per se (except the Dahlin one), but mostly since I highly doubt that teams would trade away players that good and that young, no matter the price.

I'm not sure. The game does give out 10-million deals, that is 1/8 of the cap. Thus if some players get low deals at 4.5 or 5.5 million, it's not "the cap is not raising", but rather a non-optimal design of the finance model.

I agree with you 100%, the trade engine needs improvement same as the contracts engine where young stars don't ask for bridge deals ( this should've been addressed in the last update )

The Pens finish the season once again as winners of the Presidents trophy... managed to do this playing most of the season without C Barkov.

He will have to step up big in the Play offs as C Crosby was lost in the last game of the season with grade 3 concussion and is done for the next 8 months...
D Pietrangelo suffered a torn plantar fascia tendon and is done for the season...

From being favourites to being underdogs in one game...

All 3 D nominated for the Norris trophy play for the Pens...

No Crosby, No problem...

C Barkov knew he had to step up in the Play offs after C Crosby was injured in the season finale and boy did he step up!

The Pens breezed through the first round beating the NY Islanders 4-1

In the second we met our nemesis the Capitals and the series went the distance, where in game 7 the Pens HC tk43 decided to go out all guns blazing setting an attack an shoot tactic and the Pens won the game 7-4

The tactic that worked so well was kept for the conference final against the Bolts, who unlike last year, had a full squad this year. It didn't matter at all as the attacking style helped the Pens to a clean sweep...

The Stanley Cup final, the Avalanche avaits... we keep our attacking tactic but the gaps that creates in the D are exposed by the Avs and we drop game 1 5-2, we keep the hope and end up losing game 2 7-1. a 2-0 hole after 2 games at home. HC tk43 changes the tactics to more defensive, less shooting and more pressure and it pays off as the Pens take game 3 with a score of 2-1. Never change a winning tactic, we head to game 4 and win again, this time 6-3. Game 5, back in the 'Burgh and with the same tactic we win 4-1. game six, can the Pens repeat? not so easy, we lose in OT 3-2 and head for game 7 back home. A slight offensive adjustment for more shooting and we take game 7 with a score of 3-1scoring the 3rd into an empty net with 2 seconds to go...

That's 3 Stanley cups in 4 years for the Pens....

C Barkov wins the Conn Smythe
G Murray gets Vezina & Jennings
D Provorov gets the Norris
LW Tanew gets his 2nd Selke in a row

There's a difficult off season ahead of GM tk43, the decision has been made that the face of the franchise is getting traded!
C Crosby is 35 has a grade 3 concussion and we don't think he will be back to top form!
D men Pietrangelo is entering the last year of his deal and we will try to upgrade him
D Voynov is asking for too much for a 3rd string D and will be traded before his contract runs out
D Hamonic is getting traded as his contract will be to heavy for a 3rd pairing too...
We might upgrade our bottom 6 through free agency if there is a sensible contract to be found

It's opening night and the Pens have only 3 players surviving from the original roster... G Murray, G DeSmith and LW Aston-Reese...

A 3 way Blockbuster seen C Crosby a 5th and a 6th round pick go to Washington for G Samsonov, LD Hughes and a 1st round pick and right after the Pens moved newly acquired G Samsonov, D Lajoie a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks to the Avs for C MacKinnon.

It's interesting to see that most Pens players with a NTC accept trades to Washington ( Malkin, Letang, Crosby, Voynov )

D Voynov who's contract was expiring got his rights traded to Washington for a 4th rounder

D Hamonic was sent together with prospect McKenna to the Ducks for a 3rd rounder

D Pietrangelo and a 7th round pick went to Arizona for a 1st rounder

We signed free agent D Trouba to a 5 year deal with a 4mil/year cap hit, LW Ratcliffe and C Morand ( both 4.5 star potential and 2 star ability and 23 years of age ) to 2 year deals with .925mil/year. RW Girgensons to a 5 year deal worth 1.45mil/year.

Extensions to our new core players took place too
G Murray 8 years for 7mil/year
RW Boeser 3 years for 4.85mil/year
LD Provorov 2 years for 5.45mil/year
LW Rantanen 2 years for 5.95mil/year
LW Tkachuk 2 years for 4.66mil/year
C MacKinnon 8 years for 7.65mil/year

bottom 6 players got new contracts too, lots of them took less than on their current deal ( see salary obligations pic attached )

We are very healthy cap wise this year, but our current roster would be 0.8mil over the cap next year ( we can have 22 players on the active roster and we will be ok )

opening nights roster and salary details attached...

These moves make less and less sense. Why in the world Colorado would trade away McKinnon in their prime? Why other GMs keep on strengthen your team?

Based on team needs, i think it´s questionable - based purely on asset managment it´s a great deal for Colorado.


I think that´s what Seb meant when he mentioned that a good trade engine which takes everything into consideration is the holy grail for coders ;)

A great deal for Colorado? They traded away the face of their franchise for next to nothing! A wannabe starting goalie and a bunch of placeholder stuff for their franchise player! Who is 26 (twenty-six) years old!
How is this a great deal for Colorado? :confused:

Got to agree with Alessandro... terrible trade for Colorado. Real life names aside I think there needs to be some more focus on team needs too. Also, again names aside there should be some underlying coding that takes captains into account, contracts, etc. - in this case a team with a 26 year old all start captain with a team on the uprise should analyze this and deny that trade.

I got to say (why maybe fun for tk43) a lot of these trades are pretty bad... not to derail your dynasty thread, sorry.

What you need to look at is the negotiating rating of your opposing GM too.
I always try to upgrade mine after the first season to 20 and it makes trading a little easier.

For the MacKinnon trade the Avs GM (Joe Sakic) has a 13 rating so might'n be the best negotiator... there is a few lopsided trades in the NHL ( Hall for Larson comes to mind )