This won't be a good season for the Black Flag. I didn't expect to win promotion to GHL so I didn't plan the team very well. Also, there aren't too many good free agents, so improve the defense is not an easy thing.
Bouncer: Yes multiple players might be traded at once. I'm not sure on how to solve the free agent market just yet, but sure you have a good point. But it's not easy to trade three mediocre players for one great player. Hopefully the trade value will be smart enough to prevent bad trades and there is always the issue with salary cap space on the team to fit three new players.
Draft is coming and yes draft picks will be tradable
Not all players will drop in confidence when put on the trade block, only loyal players that don't handle pressure that well will get a slight decrease
That's a great question Daen00. I've not got that far yet but it's reasonable to think that the players confidence will drop and therefore might affect his game play.
I'm now into my second season with Game Plan Hockey Manager, really enjoying playing so far! I actually really like the fact that all the players/teams are made up as it forces you to look deeper into the stats and decide how a player fits into your team, rather than relying on the fact that a player is good in real life so therefore must be good in the game.
Anyway, just thought I would share a few ideas I had for improvements:
Minor Injuries - Players should be able to pickup minor injuries which don't stop them playing, but reduce their effectiveness. Maybe a major injury becomes a minor injury for a couple of weeks before a player returns, allowing you to risk them in the lineup or they become injured further?
Pull the goalie - There should be an option in tactics to pull your goalie in the final minute of the game, perhaps you could set this to 'never/if down by one goal/if down by two goals'?
Outcome of fights - We're notified when a player takes a penalty for fighting, but does anyone actually win the fight? is there a positive/negative effect on the team. If so, could we set if our team should fight only if needed or go looking to fight and intimidate the other team
Per game tactics - I thought it would be good if you could set additional tactics that apply to only the next match. For example, if you feel the other team has a particular line/player that is dangerous, you could focus on shutting down that line/player. This could work both ways as focusing too much on a particular player could open up space for others.
Also it would be great to be able to agitate a particular player, maybe to put a star player off his game?, this could be countered by adding a tough player to the line to provide protection if the start player is 'gentle'