FA is Flooded with high-end prospects teams should have signed

[jeff218]

I've been seeing a lot of 4+-star potential prospects hitting FA at 20 or 21. What's more, if I make standard, 850k/3yr offers to them, they seem to accept at a 90%+ rate.

There is no way teams should be letting these guys walk, but they routinely do. I've taken to manually assigning them back to their previous franchise to keep things balanced, but it seems like there is some sort of issue that needs resolving.

The attached screenshot is from a standard (non-custom) game on July 1, 2027. It doesn't show the 5-star, 20-year-old, first-overall pick I already manually put back on the Habs.

[RedMachineNeverBreaks]

I get this in historical games sometimes but usually only about 4/5 players per season

[thesmokeshow]

I've also noticed this especially when you're 2-4 years in to the save. It seems to happen more around that point.

I also do what the OP says and just attach them back to the team that drafted them. But it does get a bit laborious to have to do this every offseason.

[Mancandy]

Yeah the game tends to get pretty unplayable 4-5 years into a save if you care about immersion and realism. Have you looked at the draft classes once you get past the real life players? It’s ugly. There’s like 5-7 first round caliber players, a handful of 2nd/3rd round caliber players, a few late round/undrafted free agent types, then a couple hundred players who should not only going undrafted but not even turning pro after the draft. Guys who shouldn’t even be playing low level junior hockey are getting drafted into the NHL in the 3rd round.

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by Mancandy

Yeah the game tends to get pretty unplayable 4-5 years into a save if you care about immersion and realism. Have you looked at the draft classes once you get past the real life players? It’s ugly. There’s like 5-7 first round caliber players, a handful of 2nd/3rd round caliber players, a few late round/undrafted free agent types, then a couple hundred players who should not only going undrafted but not even turning pro after the draft. Guys who shouldn’t even be playing low level junior hockey are getting drafted into the NHL in the 3rd round.

What year does that usually start? I've not experienced it to that extent, do you have any screenshot examples of the draft classes? I'd love to see what they're like if that's the case

[bandwagonfan]

First 3 year draft classes are absolutely stacked and after that everything goes as Mancandy described. After those players are signed literally every team in league has 2/3 of their lineup U-22 and 3 star players in 4th line. Not even mentioning that many team dont even sign their 1st round picks and let them go to FA.

[GoldenAcetate]

yeah something is very wrong with the draft classes, hopefully they can fix this soon since it really ruins the game after a few seasons.

[GoldenAcetate]

bumping so Jeff/Adam see this

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by jeff218

I've been seeing a lot of 4+-star potential prospects hitting FA at 20 or 21. What's more, if I make standard, 850k/3yr offers to them, they seem to accept at a 90%+ rate.

There is no way teams should be letting these guys walk, but they routinely do. I've taken to manually assigning them back to their previous franchise to keep things balanced, but it seems like there is some sort of issue that needs resolving.

The attached screenshot is from a standard (non-custom) game on July 1, 2027. It doesn't show the 5-star, 20-year-old, first-overall pick I already manually put back on the Habs.

Did this start in a particular year? In FHM8 I experienced this but I have not had it in FHM9.

What year are you in? I'm currently in 2026 and this is the FA pool by potential.

I'll say it's worth nothing that on the recommendation of someone on here I changed my 'Talent from Stats' rating to be 30 which I believe is 10 points below the default. I changed it initially with the hope of altering some waiver tendencies where high rated players who were having poor statistical seasons were getting waived. Perhaps this has also helped with the FA pool too.

[Javs]

I don't know, but maybe the problem is teams are at their contract max and cannot sign these prospects between June 23 & June 30 because they don't have the room?

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by GoldenAcetate

bumping so Jeff/Adam see this

I'm aware, working on fixes for this for the update.

[kibasan]

Originally Posted by JeffR

I'm aware, working on fixes for this for the update.

Jeff, do you know if the draft class fix will work with current saves?

[Hockey13Playa]

Originally Posted by kibasan

Jeff, do you know if the draft class fix will work with current saves?

Bump...I am wondering this too? I need to finally take a break from making jerseys and I don't want to start if this will require a new save.

[KevT90]

Originally Posted by kibasan

Jeff, do you know if the draft class fix will work with current saves?

Would like to know as well !

[KevT90]

I believe it was addressed in the most recent patch, if retroactively, is the fix retroactively applied to saved games ?

[JeffR]

Yeah. the fixes will work retroactively with older saves, there's nothing data-dependent in them.

[BlueLemming]

I'm still seeing tons of top prospects in UFA with v9.2 build 78. This is a new save that I made after the update.

(realized I cut off the date - 2026 UFA, July 1)

[JeffR]

Check their draft history, are they first/second-rounders or later?

[BlueLemming]

Yup, these are their draft positions:

Sale - 8th overall
Barlow - 9th overall
Cristal - 4th overall
Halttunen - 62nd overall
Oremba - 47th overall
Van Mulligen - 104th overall
Musty - 22nd overall
Lallier - 28th overall

I've since simmed ahead, but here's the transaction history of the first 3:

[Swedishgamefreak]

Originally Posted by GoldenAcetate

yeah something is very wrong with the draft classes, hopefully they can fix this soon since it really ruins the game after a few seasons.

Yeah the draft classes are terrible after a while. I'm in 2027 draft and there are a couple top prospects but after first and second round, there are a bunch of 1-2 star potential players. It's almost like players doesn't develop like they should be doing. :/