Ratings all over the place

[StormCloudsGathering]

Elias Lindholm:
He seems to be practically the second coming of Patrice Bergeron in this game, while he's a good two way center, the way you've rated him I may switch him to a dman, since the game doesn't give feedback on how to use two-way-centers, he's quite difficult to use with his IRL linemate Tkachuk... but also, why is his skating where it is? watch the guy play... he can skate. Also should be a center, that's his majority position IRL.

Matthew Tkachuk
Should be LW, but besides that... really? 12 speed, 11 acceleration? Only 15 hitting, and 9 fighting?! 10 aggression? This kid is a massive trouble maker IRL, and he's significantly faster than Chara IRL, unlike the ratings of +1 better speed and accell than Chara... this is laughable. He should also have chemistry with Elias Lindholm, they started playing together last year and its been good. and mikael backlund... anyone remember the 3 m's line?

Noah Hanifin
11 Defensive read?! are you nuts? if you want him to be bad, just lower his skating... because as he is he may aswell be a forward, since he can barely play defense. IRL his main gift to the flames has been his defensive play. Also, no chemistry with anyone?

Giordano
He's been declining since his Norris season, ingame however he's still an undisputed top D. It would be reasonable to make him worse, he's 37 for god sakes, he's getting old. also... he literally has no chemistry with anyone?!

Valimaki
IRL he's the flames top prospect and a projected top pair dman... whether or not he becomes that is another story, but he should atleast have such potential ingame... yet he has under 700 of both defensive and offensive potential... huh? where's the research? Same with Dube while im here, he will likely become little more than 4th liner/fringe 3rd liner ingame due to his potential.

Monahan
another play who's too slow... also a minor nitpick but his best attributes IRL are being able to get open for a shot. thats just opinion however i guess.

Mangiapane
Again a player who has seemingly meagre skating... watch him play or ask some scouts/fans/anyone. He's a quick, agile little guy, he has to be due to being so small. Should be RW.

Backlund
Minor nitpicks is his speed/agility/stamina should be lowered to 16 and... his defense? BACKLUNDS DEFENSE? He's been the flames best defensive forward until Lindholm's breakout season this year, and even then, he's absolutely better than 12 defensive read, he's sent out to shut down the other teams top lines.

Lucic
Lucic is also not as slow as Chara. Come on now.

Dustin Wolf
I know goalies take along time to reach their potential, but considered to be one of the flames top prospects and winning CHL goalie of the year, dont you think he should atleast have NHL potential mentals instead of what he actually has?

Connor Zary
Find a scout report, press CTRL+F, and search skating. "Very good agility and edgework"... 12 agility ingame. oops.

TJ Brodie
As a fan of the team he used to play for... why the absolute heck is he better than ALEX PIETRANGELO?? Why is he an elite defensive D? has anyone here done research?



I tried to make most of this 'stuff you didnt need to see these guys play this season to know'... so there you go.

[skunt3m]

I actually think the research in this year's version is very good. With so many players to tune, I don't mind some of them being rated on reputation. Other than the Flames, haha. I'm with you on Lindholm, I ding his defense and slightly improve his skating. Backlund has always been underrated in FHM. Monahan's skating is rated about average and I think that's accurate. I looked at changing Valimaki but, looking around the league, that ~700ish offensive potential is actually high for a defenseman.

One thing to keep in mind is that the ratings in FHM are not always entirely subjective. Attributes like hitting, for example, are derived from players' actual hits per minute played over the past several seasons. Matthew Tkachuk's 15 in hitting will produce accurate totals. Same with aggression - it along with temperament and sportsmanship are used to tune PIM totals. Aggression is actually a weird one because the scale isn't relative to the modern game, it's relative to the entire history of hockey. A 20 is like a Rob Ray with 300 PIMs. There's nobody like that in the modern NHL. A 10 in aggression is very high for a modern top-six player in FHM. Same goes for the fighting attribute.

As far as physical attributes go, 13-14 are about average for NHL quality players in the game. I'm OK with Tkachuk being a few ticks below average. I agree that Lucic is not as slow as advertised.

[StormCloudsGathering]

Originally Posted by skunt3m

I actually think the research in this year's version is very good. With so many players to tune, I don't mind some of them being rated on reputation. Other than the Flames, haha. I'm with you on Lindholm, I ding his defense and slightly improve his skating. Backlund has always been underrated in FHM. Monahan's skating is rated about average and I think that's accurate. I looked at changing Valimaki but, looking around the league, that ~700ish offensive potential is actually high for a defenseman.

One thing to keep in mind is that the ratings in FHM are not always entirely subjective. Attributes like hitting, for example, are derived from players' actual hits per minute played over the past several seasons. Matthew Tkachuk's 15 in hitting will produce accurate totals. Same with aggression - it along with temperament and sportsmanship are used to tune PIM totals. Aggression is actually a weird one because the scale isn't relative to the modern game, it's relative to the entire history of hockey. A 20 is like a Rob Ray with 300 PIMs. There's nobody like that in the modern NHL. A 10 in aggression is very high for a modern top-six player in FHM. Same goes for the fighting attribute.

As far as physical attributes go, 13-14 are about average for NHL quality players in the game. I'm OK with Tkachuk being a few ticks below average. I agree that Lucic is not as slow as advertised.

Valimaki: His offensive potential is actually pretty decent, but his defensive potential seems really low to me. Idk. Maybe i'm asking for too much on this one.

Monahan: That's nitpicky from me and opinion. Totally understand if peeps disagree.

Tkachuk: He isn't an average NHL quality player, though, find any rating list for IRL players, he's very high up, and its consensus among many people that he's just better than Gaudreau... but with the way he is rated ingame, he will probably never perform this way. Maybe I just struggle to find the right tactics for a Tkachuk-Lindholm-Mangia/SimonDube line, but I can't seem to get it to produce at all, whereas Gaudreau-Monahan produces without question and very easily. Again he's nearly as slow as Chara... just not realistic imo

[skunt3m]

Originally Posted by StormCloudsGathering

Valimaki: His offensive potential is actually pretty decent, but his defensive potential seems really low to me. Idk. Maybe i'm asking for too much on this one.

Monahan: That's nitpicky from me and opinion. Totally understand if peeps disagree.

Tkachuk: He isn't an average NHL quality player, though, find any rating list for IRL players, he's very high up, and its consensus among many people that he's just better than Gaudreau... but with the way he is rated ingame, he will probably never perform this way. Maybe I just struggle to find the right tactics for a Tkachuk-Lindholm-Mangia/SimonDube line, but I can't seem to get it to produce at all, whereas Gaudreau-Monahan produces without question and very easily. Again he's nearly as slow as Chara... just not realistic imo

Yeah, I'm not saying you're wrong about everything you've posted. Just sharing the things (I think) I've learned about how players are rated/how ratings work. Gaudreau and Monahan produce a little too well for my tastes. I usually reduce Monahan's offensive ratings.

I haven't played enough to see how often Valimaki becomes a stud. Hitting his max potential in the game would make him a #2-3 D. Darnell Nurse has similar defensive potential (and less offensive potential), for example... but I don't fully understand how development works in FHM. I know players don't typically reach their max.

As for Tkachuk, I was just making the point that it's tough to argue that his skating is better than average. If the average is 14, I could see bumping his speed up 1 or 2 points but not further than that. Maybe he needs compensation elsewhere to reflect his ability (I've considered improving his puckhandling), but again, many of his attributes are derived from his real-life performance. An 18 in passing equates to around 45 assists (+/- depending on linemates, usage, luck, etc). On paper, as currently rated, he SHOULD have it in him to score 35-40 goals and 45-50 assists.

Usage definitely has huge effects on production in FHM. If you're deploying Lindholm in a two-way role, and you haven't modified Mangiapane on your own, you may want to acquire a better puck carrier to play there instead of #88. Dube, as he is currently rated, is unfortunately not good enough to play on a second line. I also wonder about roles as far as improving production. The AI will almost always use Tkachuk as a grinder and that seems to suppress his numbers.

[dmacgreg37]

Actually agree on most but Lucic might actually be slower than Chara. He’s among the slowest players in the league at this point.

[StormCloudsGathering]

Originally Posted by skunt3m

Usage definitely has huge effects on production in FHM. If you're deploying Lindholm in a two-way role, and you haven't modified Mangiapane on your own, you may want to acquire a better puck carrier to play there instead of #88. Dube, as he is currently rated, is unfortunately not good enough to play on a second line. I also wonder about roles as far as improving production. The AI will almost always use Tkachuk as a grinder and that seems to suppress his numbers.

I've tried using him myself. As a garbage collector and powerforward mainly, with Lindholm either running twf, or playmaker, ive had no success, while I struggle to find anything but success for gaudreaus line. its quite annoying, im not sure what tactics i need to be using

[skunt3m]

Originally Posted by StormCloudsGathering

I've tried using him myself. As a garbage collector and powerforward mainly, with Lindholm either running twf, or playmaker, ive had no success, while I struggle to find anything but success for gaudreaus line. its quite annoying, im not sure what tactics i need to be using

In my one Flames run I got rid Rittich and Mangia to clear cap space and acquired Nikita Gusev for the second line with Backlund and Tkachuk. Gusev is very inconsistent (was ice cold for me in his first 15 or so games) but he brings almost everything Tkachuk lacks. I ran all the offensive tactics that mention "best used with wingers with good skating/passing/puckhandling skills" to try and encourage the game to let Gaudreau and Gusev carry the puck and make plays (high attacking, low backchecking, very high tempo for them too). Backlund and Lindholm were my defensive guys, Monahan and Tkachuk were my finishers. Wish I still had the save but I believe I got 35~ goals out of Tkachuk.

I think the 2nd line you're running is missing some speed/puckhandling. Another scheme that seems to work for me with other teams is retriever/playmaker/finisher. You might try setting Mangia as an aggressive forechecker, Lindholm as a playmaker and Tkachuk as a sniper. As far as tactics, if all else fails the most basic ones seem to be a good fallback for me. Strict positional, balanced attack, etc.

[PACMAN]

Lindholm is so good in my save that he is paid 11 mil per year.

However, as someone said, the ratings are pretty good. There are so many players to rate. It's understandable that we won't agree with all the ratings.

[mschinner]

Could scouting error be involved? Do your own scouts give you accurate/exact ratings of a veteran player (Aa scouted) player on your own team? Or does a less effective group of own scouts rate your own players poorly?

[AndreSod]

I'm not an Ottawa fan but I do follow prospects a lot (been in a pretty hardcore fantasy keeper league going on its 11th season). Norris and Bathersson are obviously underrated in the game. They're pretty much useless, and not with great potential.

Pretty strange concerning the hype, and Norris being maybe the best player in the AHL as a 20-year-old.

Am I the only one with the impression that the semi-late bloomers aren't really there in FHM? The obvious elite prospects IRL are that in the game too, but the tier below them isn't really represented, and unless a player has at least 15 in enough categories to be good in a role they're pretty much useless in the NHL.

[Hoiles]

Yeah, wondering if any changes are planned to take into account current season performance. It’s a shortened season, but for many rookies, even the 20 or so NHL games from this year add some useful information on their ability that adds to the info from 60 games in minors/Junior last year, and should be reflected in ratings. For example, Lafreniere’s struggles so far aren’t reflected in his ratings. On the other hand, Norris’ Calder-like start could be reflected too. As a Habs fan, I’m a bit biased as I’m hoping for a boost to Romanov’s ratings so he’s at least NHL calibre.

[Smetana]

Originally Posted by Hoiles

Yeah, wondering if any changes are planned to take into account current season performance. It’s a shortened season, but for many rookies, even the 20 or so NHL games from this year add some useful information on their ability that adds to the info from 60 games in minors/Junior last year, and should be reflected in ratings. For example, Lafreniere’s struggles so far aren’t reflected in his ratings. On the other hand, Norris’ Calder-like start could be reflected too. As a Habs fan, I’m a bit biased as I’m hoping for a boost to Romanov’s ratings so he’s at least NHL calibre.

I'm actually spending quality time this week looking at mid-season re-ratings.

[Hoiles]

Originally Posted by Smetana

I'm actually spending quality time this week looking at mid-season re-ratings.

This is great, thanks a lot. Always appreciate your work.