The Current State of EHEC

[Virtual Jarmo]

I don't think anyone would disagree that this has been the worst season in the five seasons that we have done this league. My micromanaging of the Rulebook and trying to cover up for all of EHM's shortcomings has gotten to the point where it has done more damage than good. It has limited transactions, forced far too much confusion with league finances, and has led to a growing sense of discontent among the GMs. There have been some immature squabbles that have taken away from the overall experience. Instead of trying to fix these issues on the fly, I took an apathetic approach, in part because of more responsibilities in my personal and professional life, but also because I knew that the Rulebook was out of control very early in the season and my hands were tied until the summer.

One, or many, of these concerns likely caused us to lose one of our best GMs and one of the league's biggest assets. It was the wake-up call I required to realize that the league needs special attention at this point in time. With the exception of Phoenix, we're operating at full capacity, which is really impressive for an EHM sim league, 15 years after the program was released.

My request to all of you is that you find the best way to deal with this season before Pat and I can make the necessary adjustments for next season. Pro-ration will definitely be gone. We will try to re-work the AHL minimum salaries and adopt more NHL concepts that are simpler than ours, including a change in the waiver rules. I will be looking into ways to make the arbitration process run more smoothly and with less work for myself and the agents. We will evaluate the draft slot salary system and see if changes are necessary.

Before I go any farther, I have to give Pat a tremendous level of appreciation for what he has done this season. I have found myself delegating a lot of things to him and he has never once bitched or complained. Whether it was something I simply didn't have time to do or didn't want to do, Pat has been the glue that has held this league together this season and I'm not sure anybody else could have done the job that he has done.

I'd like to hear from you guys. We've had discussions on rule changes and things in the past and some ideas were good, some not so good, and some should have been implemented that weren't. I've zapped the fun out of the league and I want you guys to have a say in how to bring it back. My goal for next season is to bring EHEC back to the same excitement level it once was while making the day-to-day obligations of everybody much simpler, especially Pat and I so we don't get bogged down.

I've been doing EHEC for you guys, despite wanting to just walk away on several occasions over the last few months. I don't want to be "that guy". I don't want to simply let all of your hard work and time go for nothing, whether you've built a consistent winner or are building a team that will win in the future. But I would like to go back to getting some enjoyment out of it myself and having a simpler, more efficient, more user-friendly league will go a long way. I owe you guys the same respect that you've given me and the best way to show that is to continue to run this league to the best of my ability and return it to the level it once was at.

So, please, I ask you guys for your honest opinions about what's wrong with the league, what can be improved, what is still working that we should keep. I won't take offense to anything that's said in this thread. I'm asking for honesty. I've let the league down while others have built it back up. That's on my shoulders, my responsibility, and I'm sorry for it. That's why I'm relying on you to help me get myself back into it and bring it back up to the standards we set.

[SharksGM]

Comments on waivers:

Two-way clauses are a thing of the distant past and haven't had anything to do with waiver status for a while now. The NHL's waiver rules are not too complex (summary here). Basically anyone 25+ is waiver eligible, and even younger players can be eligible if they've played a lot of NHL games. You could probably simplify the rules to: 25+ or 23+ and 60+ games played and be done with it. I think this is a pretty fair alternative to the current system, which basically allows anyone making under 1.5M with a two-way to be buried in the AHL indefinitely. And fortunately, because regular waivers are fairly generous for players, re-entry waivers are gone in the newest CBA.

For cap relief, there's basically a max of 1M in cap relief for anyone buried in the AHL. So I propose relaxing the salary restrictions on AHL players, but only giving up to, say, 1.5M in relief (considering that the current AHL max is 1.5 right now). This way you can choose to bury really bad and expensive players in the AHL, but you can't escape the brunt of the cap hit and have a serious choice whether to buy them out altogether or not.

[Virtual Jarmo]

I like those two ideas. The constant shuttling up and down of players is a little bit unrealistic in the sense that we don't have to worry about the logistics of travel. More strict waiver rules would force teams to carry a couple of extras, like NHL teams do because of the waiver rules. It would also be a means of forcing financial responsibility because you'll have to plan to carry at least one extra forward and an extra defenseman.

We've found that signing a bunch of AHLers to expensive contracts isn't a very viable way of adding depth because a lot of teams don't have the cap room to bring those guys up in the event of a short-term injury. This would also solve that problem.

I think a change like this to waiver rules would also force a reduction of the minimum salaries of free agents, especially those that have been unsigned for a full season because of money concerns.

[Penguin]

I have been enjoying myself since day 1. The reason for the lack of hype lately is that we are 4 years in, so teams are pretty much set in stone, not many trades to be done and it's the most fun of the league. As for Parker, I'm also very disappointed, he's having different life priorities right now and I'm sure he will be back. Pussy for quitting though!

What I think would help the league be more fun is a participation points system. 1 pt for sending lines, 5 pts for writing a minimum of 5 team news, 5 pts for attending draft day, etc. I remember they had that when I was in ITC. Then, at years end, you can spend those points on rewards, such as CON/LE points.

I also find that we develop our young prospects too fast. I once thought of a Junior system, where your players get +1 ceiling points for every year you keep them in juniors.

As for Pro-Ration, scrappppppppp it. Waivers, same thing we have now (based on standings), no more re-entry. No more fucking around with contracts, what it says in EHM is what it is.

As for NEW GM's, I believe we should have a 1 month trade ban, for the GM to really learn the ropes. And, assign one of our veteran GM's to ''train'' the new GM.

And, last, as much as it can be entertaining sometimes, no more bitching at each other on the forums like little kids. Have some respect for each other.

[GM Office Q]

My $0.02:

IMO EHEC is still the mecca of EHM leagues, the problem being it seems like there are probably about 35 English speaking EHM GMs that are still wanting to play. Even if there was a bigger number, inheriting a bad team that becomes available (besides Phoenix) and one with little resemblence to its current NHL roster are likely two of the biggest reasons why there wouldn't be a lineup of people asking to join, especially in an already established league where many of the veterans have made the big moves they want leaving very little room for trades other than lateral moves. I'm interested to see what ideas other people come up with. On the surface, I do like the activity points thing, but at the same time I wouldn't want it to seem like a job, further discouraging new people to play. Other than a roster re-set, I don't know how much making rule changes can help. Personally, I would probably enjoy the league more if we could find a way to re-calibrate some of the NHL players, (i.e. Ryan O'Reilly is 73 OA, Nikita Gusev is 80 OA?), however this is probably impossible without a re-set. However, if we are satisfied that there is a core of 20-25 of us that will always make up EHEC and if we're all looking for something new, why not just re-set the rosters and re-start with a new set of rules if we'd all get a natural kick start from it? That's right Pat, Nathan MacKinnon would be an Av, finally!

There is probably a big market for guys that would participate that haven't heard of EHM before, but, this would likely require more coding on my part to make downloading EHM completely optional. For Windows users, asking them to install an outdated game with a few finnicky steps (runtime errors, run as administrator, etc.) on the surface seems like "too much effort". For Mac users, it's even worse. For instance, our former STL GM Drake, a friend of mine and Tim's, just couldn't get in to it because between the two of us we couldn't figure out how to get EHM installed on his Mac. We both knew it could be done, but if the two of us couldn't figure it out together, it isn't reasonable to expect a newbie to get it working on his own either. I haven't opened EHM once all season, but that's only because I read .ehm and .lns files like the matrix. There is a lot of work to be done to make EHM optional, but it probably can be done. If I were to do this, a website re-design would probably be in order too, which would probably take an entire offseason on my own.

Other items: Pro-ration - I agree it should be dropped. New GM trade ban - I don't think this is a good idea or necessary. The committee already exists to ensure trades are fair, and for some new people that have to wait X days to make their first move may be a deterrent from joining. In fact, I think the trade committee should only be for new GMs. Getting trades overturned is very frustrating, and if you're in the game long enough where your probation period is over, you shouldn't need it. Besides, the committee didn't stop me from trading what turned out to be the best first overall pick of the best draft class of all time for Zach Parise. Lines - I think we should nuke the line rules, other than maybe a restriction of HnG. I want the maximum flexibility for GMs to play around with their team and acquire players of any type, and as I've said before, the less converging of lines to the 'correct' orientation, the better (which is why HnG naturally needs restriction as allowing 4 lines of HnG would be counterproductive to flexibility).

[Bruins_GM]

I've busted my ass, but at the same time I'm ok blowing it up with a fantasy draft of new rosters.

[Montreal Canadiens]

I think things are going well. I'm pretty excited with my team, (even more excited than Day 1 - that team was awful).

I agree scrap the pro-ration, or at the least keep it only for trade deadline deals, it makes a lot more sense handling pro-ration at trade deadline rather than starting from day 1.

I wouldn't be in favour of a fantasy draft, but a re-rate for every GM wouldn't be a bad idea, there are some bad attribute guys. People like Ryan O'Reilly, PK Subban come to mind. Although I think someone like PK Subban should be ineligible as I let him go due to the fact he's not NHL good enough. Someone that you've had for a long time would make sense to be eligible.

I would also be in favour of the 1 month trade ban. I'm sorry, but the committee has not done a good job at all at protecting new GMs whatsoever, and I'm not sure the reason for it. Could be due to what Adam was saying where maybe this is becoming too much of a hassle/job as to something that is for fun, and just doesn't have the time to handle that part, im really not sure that would be his answer not mine, I'm interested to know the answer. When was the last time a trade was overturned? November 5th, because a new GM wasn't aware of POT boosts, and the one before that was September. I can think of about 10 without looking it up that should have been rejected that involved New GMs. Couple of teams have had revolving door for GM's that come in and scrap the team for absolute junk and then disappear, then someone new comes in, and has nothing to work with. Not going to name name's or mention specific deals, this isn't the thread to single people out, but I'm sure we all can think of deals where it should have been stopped.

I would be in favor of keeping the line's rules as is. Seeing NZT on everybody's 4 lines was a complete joke, and I'm glad we have limited restrictions on that, I think they are perfect. You can do whatever you want with your lines pretty much, there is 5 different strategys to pick from, and experiment with them all.

The activity reward participation points isn't a bad idea, but I wouldn't want to see this file turned into a super file. I left the other EHM league I was in, because it was a super file, and just ridiculous to go through. We already have rewards for CON and LE with the older fellows in the file. You could use it for say PEN, I know I would be in favour of writing 10 articles to make Marc Savard's PEN a bit higher.

Also would be fun to see summer tournaments. Lot of work, but would add more fun and appeal to the summer, and I'd be glad to help put that together.

That's my 0.04 cents.

[TorontoGM]

I'm an EHEC lifer.

[Commish Bub(NYR)]

Guys, thanks for all the ideas and suggestions so far. It's really good to see that people are committed to the league and thoughtful about a variety of topics.

Now, my two cents about some of those topics...
...I like the thoughts about scrapping pro-ration and changing the waiver rules. Make GMs still have to work to maintain their rosters, but clear things up a bit;
...not a fan at all of some kind of fantasy lineup rearrangement, or even a mass or partial rerate of players in the file. If we're going to rerate the PK Subban's of the world into EHEC-level players, then downgrade the guys who are EHEC stars but will never sniff the real NHL. Never mind the work any of this would make for us during the off-season, I just think you need to take what you get with player ratings, and make what you have work.
...trade bans, meh. I could go either way, really, but I think the less, the better. It's finding the balance between letting an EHM newbie get his feet wet vs. handcuffing someone who does know his (or her, I guess it's possible that there's a woman somewhere in the world who plays EHM) way around the game. I know I'm not the world's best trader, but I would be irked if I joined a new league tomorrow and had to wait a period of time to make trades.
...I like some of the prompts Adam has come up with in the past to encourage activity and give guys a chance from among a range of bonuses for their team. I would be in favor of continuing this, and perhaps adding to what we've done in the past (season reviews, draft previews/reviews, etc), but not at the risk of making the EHEC a job, or by penalizing someone who doesn't write well or doesn't have the language fluency to feel comfortable doing a big write-up.
...Like Brad said, you gotta be careful with bonuses and player improvements, since you run the risk of having a super file. Still, I like the possibility of being able to make small tweaks to players that could slightly alter your draft, or something like that. For example: perhaps you could build up bonus points (like Bern's idea) to add, say, one inch to any player under the age of 24. You could turn that 6'1" guy into a 6'2" hitter. Little things like that.

[CapsGM]

- From the guy who has to calculate pro-ration, I wouldn't mind seeing it gone.
- However, the contract system isn't an issue and we should be able to use the the model to calculate extensions this off-season.
- Waiver rules should be adjusted.
- Don't like a fantasy draft idea.
- Don't like re-rates. It's too subjective and the teams have changed too much for it to be "realistic". Does Dany Heatley get go from fuckin' All-Star to a fringe AHLer? Each file will have its flaws and we're 4.5 years too deep to change it now.
- I'm okay with participation bonuses to some extent, i.e. capped per month/season, along with maximum ceilings/CON/LE boosts or whatever is given out. If I remember correctly ITC didn't do the greatest job of capping anything, so douchebags like Brad got to make 90OF/90DF players by spamming news stories. Adam's done a great job preventing a super file and I don't see why boosts can't still be realistic, especially with the real-time pace of the league.
- On that note, maybe give points to "Best Article Of The Week" or something.

[Jets GM]

I'm an EHEC lifer.

QFT.

The consensus appears to be to simplify the financial system. I still would be in favor "drop date" pro-ration for mid-season (50%) and the deadline (75%). I think that would encourage some activity around trade deadline time.

Re-rates and a new gamefile I am vehemently against. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has grown fond of certain players on our rosters. In addition, I sucked the last two years to put myself into a position to contend. Other teams have done that as well. To have all that time wasted would be frustrating.

Participation points would increase activity on the team news front, which means GMs would get to know each other better along with their teams. I think were all hardcore enough that minimal boosts/rewards would result in full participation in whatever the program/system is. Historically, I know Adam has been against this given the amount of time he puts into EHEC bonus free. I can understand his viewpoint.

I have suggested this before, but maybe we look into a system where the amount of salary that can be moved in a deal (total, or per team) is correlated with how long you have been in the league. 1m, 3m, 6m etc. Depending on what limits were set, it would allow for new GMs to tweak their teams but still prevent veteran GM taking advantage of them. Also, maybe after a certain time spent in the league you would be omitted from having your trades voted upon, if your trading partner was in the same bracket.

Ban U20 AHL'ers to slow development? Or maybe adopt NHL rules.

[jamesredwings]

How about slightly increasing the value of an unsigned free agent. For example Daniel Alfredsson, he wouldn't go unsigned in the NHL. Giguere or Vokoun, Gionta, etc etc

Would pump up the otherwise boring free agency period and would give a boost to the trade market. I'm sure teams would have to make decisions in order to be under the cap when signing these guys.

Just throwing this out there

[Jets GM]

How about slightly increasing the value of an unsigned free agent. For example Daniel Alfredsson, he wouldn't go unsigned in the NHL. Giguere or Vokoun, Gionta, etc etc

Would pump up the otherwise boring free agency period and would give a boost to the trade market. I'm sure teams would have to make decisions in order to be under the cap when signing these guys.

Just throwing this out there

I think this has to do more with the minimum salary for those players, then their ratings.

[Virtual Jarmo]

How about slightly increasing the value of an unsigned free agent. For example Daniel Alfredsson, he wouldn't go unsigned in the NHL. Giguere or Vokoun, Gionta, etc etc

Would pump up the otherwise boring free agency period and would give a boost to the trade market. I'm sure teams would have to make decisions in order to be under the cap when signing these guys.

Just throwing this out there

I think this has to do more with the minimum salary for those players, then their ratings.

Both. Draft pick goaltenders, 20-year-old starting goaltenders, younger players that can develop at cheaper prices.

[Virtual Jarmo]

My concern with doing bonuses for activity is that our file is already quite good as it is and is filled with players who are experiencing high levels of success at very young ages. I think the better route to go would be more participatory things like Justin's endless desire to handpick the WJC rosters. It's a simple international switch, not a complete file overhaul like the Olympics, so Pat and I would be able to do that with relative ease. Maybe not have GMs pick the rosters like we did for the Olympics, but simply submit their players to participate.

If I did do rewards for participation with writing articles and whatnot, it would probably be geared towards stuff like created staff members and LE and strength boosts for prospects. I wouldn't want to alter CONs or ceilings, except for special cases like the draft previews/reviews.

A summer tournament seems very unlikely. It seems like a lot more work than there would be time for in the summer. I'm out doing things, Pat's out doing things, we're already doing the draft, free agency, and we'll have to discuss these Rulebook changes in the summer. A lot of file manipulation would have to go into it with generating a schedule in a playoff format that EHM won't recognize because of the 16-team limitation.

Keep the ideas coming, guys. I'm happy to listen to and consider anything you propose.

[Montreal Canadiens]

- From the guy who has to calculate pro-ration, I wouldn't mind seeing it gone.
- However, the contract system isn't an issue and we should be able to use the the model to calculate extensions this off-season.
- Waiver rules should be adjusted.
- Don't like a fantasy draft idea.
- Don't like re-rates. It's too subjective and the teams have changed too much for it to be "realistic". Does Dany Heatley get go from fuckin' All-Star to a fringe AHLer? Each file will have its flaws and we're 4.5 years too deep to change it now.
- I'm okay with participation bonuses to some extent, i.e. capped per month/season, along with maximum ceilings/CON/LE boosts or whatever is given out. If I remember correctly ITC didn't do the greatest job of capping anything, so douchebags like Brad got to make 90OF/90DF players by spamming news stories. Adam's done a great job preventing a super file and I don't see why boosts can't still be realistic, especially with the real-time pace of the league.
- On that note, maybe give points to "Best Article Of The Week" or something.

I don't remember having enough time to write articles, lol, but yeah i remember handling the Participation points and it was too easy to hit the top level.

I would be against handing out heigh increases, as thats how we would be turning 5th & 6th round pick into potential all-stars.

[AnaheimGM]

I don't like the idea of a fantasy draft or rerate, i love the file we've got. If i have one suggestion to do is for the UFA (The good one) that are still UFA at this point of the season. The problem is because the rule'' 3. Winning bid yearly salaries cannot be less than 75% of the previous season’s salary. (ex: prev salary 2M, new 1.5M min.)''. The problem with this rule is that some players got the salary they signed in the true NHL, before the league starts. If we take the exemple of Patrick Elias, he is still UFA just because it will be to difficult to take his new salary on our salary cap system. I think that we should decrease the % that is on now. Maybe 50% should be good so we could sign them at a good price.

[Jets GM]

-- Adam, a separate gamefile is not required for what I was asking for re: WJC. It would be cool to have a more in-depth WJC experience; however, what I requested was the ability to send U20 NHL/AHL players back to juniors when the game selects the squads. This way, the players history would be updated automatically with WJC info and would only involve tweaking the gamefile a bit before the selection process and after the tournament. I also suggested to Adam small LE boosts to encourage GMs to release their players for the WJC since it would slow their development. +4 for Gold, +3 for Silver, +2 for Bronze, +1 for participation.

-- I think boosts/rewards should mainly target attributes that are static, or are incredibly hard to develop. Penalty, Endurance, Leadership, and Staff Attributes. Minimal CON and Ceiling increases are okay, but I think they should happen rarely. Also, making them available to recent draftees only would probably be a good idea. Changes the dynamic for drafting, and would increase activity around draft time.

-- As far as unsigned UFA's, I think the rule that ANA quoted should be removed. I'm not sure why it was implemented, but let supply and demand determine the market value of the player. GMs should decide, not the rulebook. Plus, it would let a lot of players get off the sidelines and back into the game.

-- Please no new roster or rerates. As far as the fact were 4.5 seasons in being the reason their haven't been as many blockbusters, I would have to disagree. The current financial system has made it incredibly difficult (for me anyway) to make trades, because it involves a lot of calculations. A new system would set off a lot more activity in the trade forum I think.

-- I'm not sure who remembers BEML, but it was a very old league that was completely web-based. Even if our website was, I would continue to use EHM; I found it faster because of how long I had been using it. However, for new EHM and MAC users, a web-based system might be better and attract more long term GMs. I don't have the skills to develop it, and my Photoshop skills have really regressed, but I would help Quinn with whatever I could this summer if he wanted to take on the project and/or create a new design.

[Virtual Jarmo]

-- As far as unsigned UFA's, I think the rule that ANA quoted should be removed. I'm not sure why it was implemented, but let supply and demand determine the market value of the player. GMs should decide, not the rulebook. Plus, it would let a lot of players get off the sidelines and back into the game.

Because the bidding time limits may allow a team to grab a very good player at an immense discount that is unrealistic.

As for WJC, I know it wouldn't. I was just too lazy to do it.

[TorontoGM]

[CapsGM]

-- As far as unsigned UFA's, I think the rule that ANA quoted should be removed. I'm not sure why it was implemented, but let supply and demand determine the market value of the player. GMs should decide, not the rulebook. Plus, it would let a lot of players get off the sidelines and back into the game.

Because the bidding time limits may allow a team to grab a very good player at an immense discount that is unrealistic.

As for WJC, I know it wouldn't. I was just too lazy to do it.

This.

I'm in favour of lowering the maximum offer percentage, but it's more realistic that our UFAs play in our fake KHL than have them sign for the league minimum because everyone was sleeping/busy when a bid occurred. Maybe a scaling rate that decreases as the season goes on, i.e.:

90% minimum bid after July 1st
75% after opening night
50% after January 1st
and 33% for a player that has been unsigned the previous season.

[Jets GM]

Ahh, I see. I like Tim's proposed plan, but scrap the initial 90% level imo.

[AnaheimGM]

Ahh, I see. I like Tim's proposed plan, but scrap the initial 90% level imo.

Agree with that!

[Brett-SensGM]

Don't know if I should really post as I am the newb, but I do play way too much EHM and even Mod in one league so "I think" I sort of have a good handle on what works and what doesn't. And I apologize beforehand if none of this is all too cohesive, not the best with linguistics.

Might be simplifying things a bit but doesn't this all come down to a spectrum with EHM on the left side and the NHL on the right? Guess I mean, do you want this league to mimic the NHL or do want to follow the software? Or does it turn into a happy medium and mimic to more or lesser extents existing EHM leagues already out there.

I love the realism or integration of the NHL CBA, or at least things that EHM can support from the CBA.
I am not a fan of the learning curve of a 35 (guesstimate) page rulebook. Albeit there really only is two things that separate this league from others and that's waivers and contracts, rest is pretty standard stuff.

This league was suggested to me by RKJ the NJ GM about a year ago and I was too intimidated by the rulebook, so I joined another league. Not sure if that happens with other prospective GM's or if I am the only wuss, but judging by the "fullness" of the league I would vote for the later. For fear of being too long winded, here are my thoughts on the more detailed items brought up in no particular order.

Participation Points - Hate writing articles, but love reading them. Always liked the idea as long as it doesn't create superstars. Tweaks to secondary stats, coaches, finances I think add enough value to promote the stuff, but not enough where you have people writing useless crap just for the bonuses.

Waiver System - On the fence, I really like the rules here regarding waivers... but EHM does a decent job self regulating. I would almost suggest a poll on this one to see how the league GM's view this.

Pro-Ration - This is one NHL CBA aspect I am not all that fond of. EHM is anti-pro ration at it's finest and is the extra book keeping really worth it for the mods? Not against the realism it brings, but unsure if it really adds much.

Restart - Only ever a fan of this when the file gets out of hand, ie very top and bottom heavy. Looking over the file I would say there is some serious parity still.

Re Rates - Kind of like the idea. If this league follows the NHL so close, why not 1x re rate per team. Keep it standard across the board, don't create superstars. Unsure if this is an issue here, but always find newer GM's asking why is so and so playing in the AHL when they are a superstar in the NHL. In the 10 year old league (real years) I help run, that is always the first and last question new GM's ask

UFA's - I understand the principal behind the 75%/50% rule... but if we have a system where bidding is done on the forums and it rewards active GM's... is there really a need for this rule? First thing I did when I got here, noticed I like Wade Redden, couldn't afford him, liked JS Gigure, couldn't afford him... old vets on their last legs sign cheap deals fairly often in the NHL, don't see why we can't do the same. Just off the top of my head as well looking at the rules and not knowing what happened last UFA, but as Ottawa ( a limbo type team) I am screwed. I will barely be able to keep a 15th to 25th ovr roster in place for next season, so I more or less have to have a "tank" mentality to win anything in this league. Maybe I am mistaken, but keeping this team together seems near impossible via the contract rules outlined in the rulebook.

Height Raise - Love it, but worst idea ever. Want a superstar file, find a loophole to start raising height no matter what restrictions you put on it.

Line Restrictions - Current set up is god gift to EHM. Go so far as saying the best line rules I have come across. Nothing worse than being in league with 40/50 second NZT traps and a splash of HnG on 75% of the teams in a league. Actually had to put some thought into what I would do here.

Trade Overturns - Probably not the majority, but I like seeing new GM's protected. All my years playing EHM doesn't protect me from knowing that a 2nd rounder in this file is a 3rd/4th liner, whereas another file/league that player will barely sniff the AHL and another file could have that player as a top 6 booster... player A for player B is simple enough, but when picks get involved and when judging quantity vs. quality a new GM is at a serious disadvantage. Seems new GM's don't mind getting trades overturned if they are the ones being taken advantage of, if anything it gives them understanding and leverage. As for vet GM's I like seeing Team Destroying moves vetoed. Whos knows if that GM was spending the whole night before drinking, or had a tragic event in their life and couldn't give a crap... then make a deal and quit the league.

And last but not least summer downtime. Absolutely amazed at how committed the GM's are here, as most leagues go two plus weeks without activity and it's damn near a death sentence. Guess I can't complain if it has worked in the past, but doing anything in the summer to keep things active makes sense to me.

Sorry if any of this was out of line, just figured I would give a newb point of view as everyone here for the most part is a complete vet.

[SharksGM]

EHEC's WJC system of '9 goals erryday' is dumb so I hope we keep ignoring it. The WJCs are basically an irrelevant tournament anyways.

Re: web-based stuff, most stats and boxscores and the file are posted online anyways. The only thing you need EHM for these days is to make lines, but the lines file is all text anyways so you could just manually edit it if you really needed to.

I know everybody hates pro-ration, but that's not why it's hard to make trades - it's hard because most contending teams are at the cap and have no room to add anyone. Removing pro-ration will make it even harder to fit salaries in at the deadline. The old system was okay, but it seemed like cap hits weren't checked all that often and some people were over quite regularly. I guess I'm in the minority in wanting to be stricter about cap hits if we're going to bother to have a cap system at all, but that's my 50 cents.

Tim's suggestions for UFA bids are good. Once the waiver system is fixed, though, I don't think there's going to be much worry about cheap FA signings getting buried in the AHL - they'll have to pass through waivers, and the ones good enough to fuck off to the KHL IRL will just get claimed. I suppose our AHL will fill up with ~70-75 off, low con midget AHL superstars, but I doubt anyone really cares if they're in our mostly fake AHL or entirely fake KHL.

And thanks for the comments, Brett. I've been in MILFH/EHEC exclusively for the last ... decade is it, goddamn. So I don't really have any clue what outsiders think of the league. I know there's still tons of interest in NHL:EHM on hfboards, but I don't think many recruits ended up coming here from there.

[SharksGM]

Also I think we should just get rid of option years entirely, as the NHL did years ago and they don't really add anything.

[Jets GM]

I still think we should keep a simplified version of pro-ration to encourage trade deadline activity. If their were two cut off dates (42GPish = 50%, 1 week before deadline = 75%) it would make it very simple to calculate payroll and check GMs cap numbers.

Good to see OTT's post. Solid.

[Bruins_GM]

Also I think we should just get rid of option years entirely, as the NHL did years ago and they don't really add anything.

I've saw the league on HF Board, but I actually got recruited through SomethingAwful.com.

[Montreal Canadiens]

I still think we should keep a simplified version of pro-ration to encourage trade deadline activity. If their were two cut off dates (42GPish = 50%, 1 week before deadline = 75%) it would make it very simple to calculate payroll and check GMs cap numbers.

Good to see OTT's post. Solid.

This.

Extended to Dan's post, pro-ration has made trading easier (for me anyway as I always keep the team close to the cap , but the caluclating pro-ration from Day 1 of the season as opposed to after January or at the deadline only (as it was a couple seasons ago) has made it a headache.

I don't see anything wrong with the waivers or the UFA bidding. Would be rather annoying to see teams pluck vets off the UFA pool at deadline or whatever at almost minimal cost.

[Virtual Jarmo]

Lot of good stuff here. Brett, I don't care if you have been here for a day or since the beginning, your thoughts are always welcomed.

I hope to get some time to respond to these posts with more than just vague, casual answers today or tomorrow. I definitely want to have enough time to give them the answers they deserve.

[SharksGM]

Also for UFAs, I don't think anyone else mentioned it yet but I'm in favour of lowering the UFA age gradually to about 27 or 28. Maybe lowering the greed threshold to not re-sign, or making high greed pending UFAs demand more to stay with their teams than low greed ones.

[CapsGM]

Also for UFAs, I don't think anyone else mentioned it yet but I'm in favour of lowering the UFA age gradually to about 27 or 28. Maybe lowering the greed threshold to not re-sign, or making high greed pending UFAs demand more to stay with their teams than low greed ones.

I forgot about this. We're still using EHM's pre-2005 CBA system of UFA, which is a bit ridiculous.

Also an alternative to pro-ration and something the 2013 CBA brought back was salary retention:

Teams can retain a percentage of a contract’s remaining cap hit, salary and bonuses in trades. The following stipulations apply:
No more than 50 per cent of the salary/cap hit can be retained
Salary/cap hit cannot be retained on more than three contracts in one season
The aggregate cap hits retained cannot exceed 15 per cent of the upper limit
A contract can be traded only twice where salary/cap hit is retained

Works similar to a more flexible re-entry waiver system.

[CapsGM]

Also I think we should just get rid of option years entirely, as the NHL did years ago and they don't really add anything.

I'm in favour of this.

[Virtual Jarmo]

It's been brought to my attention that there are teams that are using players in illegal positions. Colorado and Dallas have been mentioned to me, but there are apparently others. Players can only play their natural or alternate position in EHM. If a player is a C/LW, he cannot play RW. Defensemen should not be playing forward on the PK.

Please look at your lineup and get these things taken care of if you are in violation of these rules.

[Montreal Canadiens]

Oh hey, I can't remember if this was addressed or not, but how are we handling playoffs?

Just normally through EHM, or following real NHL new playoff rules? Where top seeds play wildcards, etc.

[Virtual Jarmo]

New playoff rules. Standings are available in the standings link atop the page.