Even though the game is becoming better and better every year, there are some things which break my immersion really easily. I can think of a few things off the top of my head:
1) Transfers to the VHL
Most of the time, I play with teams from either the Czech or the Slovak Extraliga. One thing that bugs me endlessly is the way how teams from these leagues give up their youngest, brightest stars and send them to the VHL, which is just unrealistic. An 18 year old kid who has NHL potential would never sign in the Russian minors. I don't know if there's a way to fix this, but if there is, please make it harder for VHL teams to sign players. I'm asking a lot, I know, but it really breaks my immersion into the game.
2) Stars signing in the minors (lowering the budgets of non-playable teams)
Jiří Hudler, a former NHL star, just signed to SK Kadaň of the Czech first division in my game. Since this annoyed me a lot (because Kadaň in real life is last in the standings by a long shot and has virtually no budget), I decided to check out their roster, only to find out that they have also signed Roman Červenka. Kadaň was the only team that had the finances to sing these players... why? Why does a Czech minor league team have more than a million dollars to sing free agents? In order to fix this really annoying feature, I'd lower the budgets of these clubs.
3) Players gaining new nationalities
While this is a cool feature to but in the game, some of these are just unrealistic. Sidney Crosby gaining an American citizenship and then going on to play for the USA at the Olympics literally made me stop playing for a few weeks, just because of how stupid it is. If it would be possible, I'd make it impossible for Canadian players to gain American citizenship or vice versa. Or, I'd make it impossible for European players playing in the NHL to gain the citizenship of the country they are playing in. I'd hate to see, say, Petr Mrázek getting an American citizenship and then representing the US, just because he spent a few seasons in Detroit.
4) New Leagues
It's awesome how you guys expand the game every year and add more and more playable leagues. In the following installments, I'd love to be able to play with teams from the NCAA, U Sports, the Alps HL and the WSM Liga. Just food for thought...
