[AEWHistory]

Taking a quick look at HockeyDB, the '74 draft is clearly stronger than '75, which makes sense now that I know the history. However, it isn't as lopsided as one might expect. I'd say an extra 10% worth of talent came out a year early. As it is right now, the game gives about 90% of the '75 talent to '74 (I don't know if I'm phrasing that right, but hopefully what I'm trying to explain comes across).

It seems to me that there is another option, although I don't know if it is easy to code. Allow only a certain number of 18 yr olds--say 18--to come out in '74. It would be a random selection of 18 year old players, so it might be an amazing group, or a bunch of duds, but what it shouldn't be is every good player from '75 and '76. How does this sound Jeff?

I think limiting '74 to eighteen or so random 18 yr olds could be really interesting and add some nice flavor. This way you get the same general issue that occured IRL: some peeps would have come out to play and others would have waited. OTOH, if you let players choose, they'll will strip all the top end talent! This way is just as random as IRL. You can leave the draft as it is and teams will have to choose between getting players who are good but VERY young and won't produce for awhile or older players who will produce much sooner.