What player roles are the hardest to find?

[SprongShowHKY]

Grinders tend to be the easiest for sure. I've seen very few players deployed as Garbage Collector when browsing through the lines however.

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by SprongShowHKY

Grinders tend to be the easiest for sure. I've seen very few players deployed as Garbage Collector when browsing through the lines however.

This is an interesting question!

I often browse other teams lines when they're doing well to see if there are any undervalued player roles.

I basically never see Garbage Collector and I've never seen 'Playmaking defenceman' and yeah, if you want to hang around in this league for a long time, be a Grinder!

[SprongShowHKY]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

This is an interesting question!

I often browse other teams lines when they're doing well to see if there are any undervalued player roles.

I basically never see Garbage Collector and I've never seen 'Playmaking defenceman' and yeah, if you want to hang around in this league for a long time, be a Grinder!

Damn, I didn't even know playmaking defenceman was a thing thats how rarely I see it. Usually I'll find a screener if I want a net front presence but I usually can't play them as a garbage collector unless I'm losing a couple of role points.

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by SprongShowHKY

Damn, I didn't even know playmaking defenceman was a thing thats how rarely I see it. Usually I'll find a screener if I want a net front presence but I usually can't play them as a garbage collector unless I'm losing a couple of role points.

I only know of Playmaking Defenceman as I'm trying to find a role that Thomas Harley will actually perform well in but yeah I dont think the AI uses it very often!

Yeah in my current save I'm using Boone Jenner as a screener though I wonder if his offensive production may increase if I tried him out as a Garbage Collector. I use a sniper on my first two lines and I think there is an element of screening involved in that too so I think that's another role which may provide net front presence as a secondary element.

Are you loyal to any roles in particular for your saves? or do you experiement?

[SprongShowHKY]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

I only know of Playmaking Defenceman as I'm trying to find a role that Thomas Harley will actually perform well in but yeah I dont think the AI uses it very often!

Yeah in my current save I'm using Boone Jenner as a screener though I wonder if his offensive production may increase if I tried him out as a Garbage Collector. I use a sniper on my first two lines and I think there is an element of screening involved in that too so I think that's another role which may provide net front presence as a secondary element.

Are you loyal to any roles in particular for your saves? or do you experiement?

Well im a chronic historical save start and restarter so I might try to experiment in my next leafs save lol

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by SprongShowHKY

Well im a chronic historical save start and restarter so I might try to experiment in my next leafs save lol

Interesting, I'm a new fan to hockey so not sure about the real life game of the past but do the roles stack up in line with their prevalence throughout history? As I'm sure they must have changed over time irl?

[jumpSeat]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

Interesting, I'm a new fan to hockey so not sure about the real life game of the past but do the roles stack up in line with their prevalence throughout history? As I'm sure they must have changed over time irl?

Well, 'Gretzky's Office' is definitely new since the 80's. Fair to say he revolutionized the game by creating a hitherto (mostly) unknown/unused role.

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by jumpSeat

Well, 'Gretzky's Office' is definitely new since the 80's. Fair to say he revolutionized the game by creating a hitherto (mostly) unknown/unused role.

Yeah that's true. I suppose I was more intriguied about if the AI selects roles that are era appropriate. So for instance if you start a game in the 1930's would the AI be using Gretzskys Office for some of its players? or does it know what roles were used authentically for that time period. I suppose if no player had attributes suitable to play that role up until Gretzsky then it wouldnt make sense to use that role but i think that's probably unlikely surely.

[Adam B]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

Yeah that's true. I suppose I was more intriguied about if the AI selects roles that are era appropriate. So for instance if you start a game in the 1930's would the AI be using Gretzskys Office for some of its players? or does it know what roles were used authentically for that time period. I suppose if no player had attributes suitable to play that role up until Gretzsky then it wouldnt make sense to use that role but i think that's probably unlikely surely.

Gretzky defined the role, but there was other players who played similar styles (although maybe no to the same ability). Roles change somewhat over time, and what we consider a Power Forward now isn't quite what they would consider one 50 years ago.

What you'll see is a change in terms of how players play, for instance 25-40 years ago in hockey, every single team had a handful of goons/enforcers and stay-at-home defenseman. Nowadays you're fortunate enough if you saw maybe 1 or 2 of them roles on a current team.

[SprongShowHKY]

Originally Posted by Adam B

Gretzky defined the role, but there was other players who played similar styles (although maybe no to the same ability). Roles change somewhat over time, and what we consider a Power Forward now isn't quite what they would consider one 50 years ago.

What you'll see is a change in terms of how players play, for instance 25-40 years ago in hockey, every single team had a handful of goons/enforcers and stay-at-home defenseman. Nowadays you're fortunate enough if you saw maybe 1 or 2 of them roles on a current team.

Yes gretz was largely inspired by Clarke