Share your Experience :)....

[Duranium]

Curious how you guys are running your franchises
What´s your tactical approach to the season ?
How do you usually set up your lines (passer,scorer,grinder or else) ?
How do you set up your scouting system ?
...etc,etc,etc....

I´m really, really interested to read from all of you how you try to become a legendary GM

[Crombeen]

I don't really play this game like you should play a game like this because it's not much fun yet.

So I just activate a few leagues and let them sim through the seasons while I only view the stats and results that happen.
It's getting better by each update but still not what I had hoped for around this time a year.

Example:
You see the GM of Barrie (OHL) getting fired just a few days before the playoffs start because he finished 3rd in his conference.
Thats a huge turn-off for me in a sim game.


Right now I'm playing FM 2014, little more fun..

[pucku33]

I try to play the same way as I would in real life. A physical player, a passer and a scorer make up the top two lines. Defensive/speed players make up the third line (cogliano types) and fourth line are typically physical/fighters. with rookies sprinkled in.

However, three of my top-six refused to sign with me. two signed in europe and the other is hoping for a better offer, despite being a RFA. Due to this being mis-coded, I am likely giving up at this point. Hopefully playing past 1 season is more enjoyable in the next release.

[BlackIce]

I always play as the Calgary Flames. I seem to like the challenge of building the team up from within. I'll make maybe one or two trade's the whole year and it must make sense!

For instance my last few trades:

I initiated was sending Shane O'Brien's contract worth a modest 1.07Million/2yrs and was basically rotting on the Farm and sent it to Minnesota who in return exchanged another contract in Niklas Backstrom 3.4Million /3 yrs who had been playing on the Wild's Farm team for most of the year.

I figured I could take the risk of having him as I am in full rebuild and pretty much have no intentions on spending anything on UFA's during the Free Agency blitz in July, unless it makes sense to me. Backstrom would be an upgrade to anything I have now including my goaltending prospects who are still a good few years away from being anything extrotenairy. Worse case scenario he rots on the Farm but he has played great for me this year.

Another trade I made was ridding myself of top prosepct Sven Baertschi, he has excellent potential don't get me wrong but he's not what I want to build around in terms of size, skill and toughness. I sent him to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for another blue chip prospect and a very good two way defenceman in Hampus Lindholm.

My lines for the season look like this...

Cammalleri Monahan Hudler
Glencross Backlund Colborne
Bouma Stajan McGrattan
Westgarth Byron Jones

Extras: Galiardi

Giordano Brodie
Russell Wideman
Smid Lindholm

Extra: Butler

Backstrom
Ramo

Top Prospects in organization who I ranked are:
1. Sean Monahan
2. Hampus Lindholm
3. Markus Granlund
4. Johnny Gaudreau
5. Morgan Klimchuk
6. Emile Poirier
7. Max Reinhart
8. Patrick Sieloff
9. Joni Ortio
10. Kenny Agostino

[Duranium]

cool....especially love the Lindholm trade - this guy develops into a beast in FHM14 (probably in reality too) and Bärtschi could very well become the next Luca Caputi

[tictacktoe5]

I always start as an unemployed Solid GM and only have the CHL, NHL, AHL, and ECHL active and see what jobs I get offered. From there, I work my way up to the NHL.

I try to find players with decent hockey IQ or players that are eager to learn. It makes training players easier because I can have them focus on their skills rather than where they need to be. If I'm in the CHL, I'll mix up the offensive/defensive skills with some skating training as they still have some room to grow in those departments. Once I'm in the NHL, I'll just focus completely on their niche as, more than likely, they have already hit their peak growing age and I'm better off focusing on their offense/defense than teaching them how to skate.

I use my top playmaking centers on the first two lines, if at all possible. I like to put my most elusive winger (the ones that are the best at getting open) and my best defensive winger in one of the top two lines. This will give my offensive a good offensive/defensive balance. My third line will usually consist of my best faceoff center and some checking wingers that have good positioning and defensive read, but I will change it up and have some scoring in their if we can't get enough scoring. The fourth line (in everything except the ECHL as they only allow for 18 dressed skaters) is my ever changing line. It's usually the one I change the most. But usually it has my highly aggressive, big time hitting forwards on their. Sometimes I'll keep another highly adept faceoff specialist in the fourth line.

[asilvermtzion]

i tend to pick the worst team in the nhl, calgary or buffalo in this game, and build. dump all ufas for young players or prospects, dump all players over 30 for the same and build through the draft. i try to sign no more than 2-3 ufas to fill bottom 6 roles.

[Bigby Wolf]

I prefer to acquire 3-4 young stud prospects and after seeing early success, I tend to switch from a rebuild into a reload mentality. I'm also developing a disturbing tendency to trade most of my yearly draft picks.

Great tip on Lindholm! If this game could develop into a Football Manager legacy of annual wunderkids - well, that would be awesome

[tictacktoe5]

I have another experience to share. In one of my franchises I ended up running the Washington Capitals and I lead them to the conference finals and lost. San Jose made it to the finals and after one loss in the finals, they fired their coach and GM.