MattBerserkers

Currently in the GHL, the playoff structure looks like:
 
Series A: Rank 1 vs Rank 8
Series B: Rank 2 vs Rank 7
Series C: Rank 3 vs Rank 6
Series D: Rank 4 vs Rank 5
 
Series E: Winner A vs Winner B
Series F: Winner C vs Winner D
 
Final: Winner E vs Winner F
 
The current path ensures that there will never be the top 2 teams fighting it out in the finals. It also makes it so that the teams rank 4th and 5th have the highest chance at getting the easiest path to the cup. And since the 5th place team is also entered into a better playoff lottery compared to the top 4 teams, it makes it the ideal position from a purely playoffs and potential future success standpoint. My suggestion is to simply change the following series:
 
 
Series E: Winner A vs Winner D
Series F: Winner C vs Winner B

Currently in the GHL, the playoff structure looks like:
 
Series A: Rank 1 vs Rank 8
Series B: Rank 2 vs Rank 7
Series C: Rank 3 vs Rank 6
Series D: Rank 4 vs Rank 5
 
Series E: Winner A vs Winner B
Series F: Winner C vs Winner D
 
Final: Winner E vs Winner F
 
The current path ensures that there will never be the top 2 teams fighting it out in the finals. It also makes it so that the teams rank 4th and 5th have the highest chance at getting the easiest path to the cup. And since the 5th place team is also entered into a better playoff lottery compared to the top 4 teams, it makes it the ideal position from a purely playoffs and potential future success standpoint. My suggestion is to simply change the following series:
 
 
Series E: Winner A vs Winner D
Series F: Winner C vs Winner B

Currently in the GHL, the playoff structure looks like:
 
Series A: Rank 1 vs Rank 8
Series B: Rank 2 vs Rank 7
Series C: Rank 3 vs Rank 6
Series D: Rank 4 vs Rank 5
 
Series E: Winner A vs Winner B
Series F: Winner C vs Winner D
 
Final: Winner E vs Winner F
 
The current path ensures that there will never be the top 2 teams fighting it out in the finals. It also makes it so that the teams rank 4th and 5th have the highest chance at getting the easiest path to the cup. And since the 5th place team is also entered into a better playoff lottery compared to the top 4 teams, it makes it the ideal position from a purely playoffs and potential future success standpoint. My suggestion is to simply change the following series:
 
 
Series E: Winner A vs Winner D
Series F: Winner C vs Winner B

It's just bad luck when you get a bunch of injuries like that. My worst luck was when I lost my 4 starting centers and half my d-men over a few day for multiple games and a couple have-season injuries.
 
What I find works to prevent injuries is to ensure my players are only playing when they are fully fit. For something more pro-active, I try is to build a team around non-injury-prone players. In my experience, when you check a players home page, look at his current headlines. Injury-prone players will generally have multiple injuries listed over multiple seasons. Though injury-prone studs can hide their past injuries by getting player of the week/stars of the game. I've read somewhere on this forum before that injury-likeliness (durability?) is a hidden stat in this game, but you can sort of guess what it would be just by seeing how often a player gets injured. (I think when this game was first being developed durability was actually a visible stat.) Unfortunately I don't think age has anything to do with injury rates as I've had a bunch of old veterans on my team the past few seasons and none of them have been injured. 
 
TL;DR: It's definitely not a bug.

Completed players (maybe around 25-26) should want to play for the team, no matter of what tier (ideally in the league of their overall) but they should refuse to stay in affiliate (traits could be taken in consideration). There should be possibility that they could terminate contract after season and become free agents or go straight to Europe.
 
Not everybody but some movement is needed and it could work slightly like roster limit.

I'm sure that I've said this before, but I think that there should be a message button right here:
 
 

I think that there is a mini lottery for every 4 picks. So it's not like the best team has a chance to get the 1st pick from his own pick. I like it because teams separated by 4 picks are typically roughly even in strength and probably separated by luck in the regular season. It also adds a bit of excitement for teams finished in the off season. I dislike it because my GHL teams have always been on the losing side of the draft lottery pick

a decending tracker for players on IR.  and possibly an injured player tracker for any play on IR for 7 days or more.

I think that there is a mini lottery for every 4 picks. So it's not like the best team has a chance to get the 1st pick from his own pick. I like it because teams separated by 4 picks are typically roughly even in strength and probably separated by luck in the regular season. It also adds a bit of excitement for teams finished in the off season. I dislike it because my GHL teams have always been on the losing side of the draft lottery pick

I'm willing to move Ulrick Neuville - http://www.gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=34482

Unfortunately, he's growing out of BHL. I'm looking for a good stayathome defender prospect as I already have fairly good guys to take his place, open to other types of players as well, but I'm in a tight spot with salary cap, so prospects preferred. Would love to keep him, but his salary asking will blow through the roof after current contract. I guess SHL should be his future league.

-dw

Depends on the world.  In Biscuit (Slow) for example, a manager is put on holiday after 12 days of inactivity, then fired after another 36 days of inactivity.  Faster worlds go quicker.
 
This post explains it.  http://forums.gmgames.org/topic/4122-manager-absence/?hl=holiday

Add recall / assign actions to player popup for 2w contracted players like there is shortlist/remove from shortlist actions

I am mainly curious to see if anyone still has players on their team from season 1.  I would think this would be more common for GHL teams since it is tough to promote through the leagues and keep the same players.  If so, post them here.
 
I do have 1 player on my SHL team that has been with my team (well, my "franchise") since season 1 in LIHL.  Lucas Hirt.  It looks like he was originally on the Protons roster, then moved to Deferiet (formerly the Red River Red Empire).  I renamed the franchise to the Leopards when I took over late in season 9.
 
Hirt was my 2nd line center in BHL and now centers my 4th line in SHL.  Fortunately for him I don't anticipate promotion to GHL this season so his job is safe for another few seasons at least.
 
http://www.gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=4244
 

Just noticed that those of us that have been in since the beginning and/or have a lot of playoff games are surpassing 1,000 games played! Hard to believe but shows the staying power of this game since each match is no more than once a day!?!? What have I been doing with my life?!?! Haha.

I don't change tactics too often so I'm not completely sure, but I think the amount of time to go from zero in a tactic to perfect takes a little more than half a season. Although,I find that even if the tactic is red and if it fits your team better than your perfect tactic that doesn't fit your team, then you won't have a period where your team gets noticeably worse.

Promotion/Relegation rules have been brought up before, but I like Matt's detailed post.  I went ahead and pinned this topic.
 
Thanks Matt!

You got a couple numbers off, so I'll just write it out.
 
 
EDIT: THE FORMAT OF GAME WORLDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED, AND WHILE THIS IS NO LONGER EXACTLY CORRECT, ITS STILL ROUGHLY RIGHT. CHANGES INCLUDE THAT THERE IS NOW A COPPER LEAGUE BETWEEN THE IHL AND BHL. LEAGUES HAVE ALSO BEEN DOUBLED IN SIZE CREATING AN EASTERN AND WESTERN CONFERENCE. THE TWO CONFERENCES WILL FACE EACH OTHER DURING REGULAR SEASON, HOWEVER WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE GHL, WILL PLAY PLAYOFF GAMES EXCLUSIVELY AGAINST THEIR OWN CONFERENCE.
 
PLAYOFF/RELEGATION CHANGES:
GHL: TOP 8 TEAMS IN EACH CONFERENCE COMPETE IN THE PLAYOFFS (16 TEAMS IN TOTAL) FOR THE GHL CUP
RELEGATION PLAYOFFS: TEAMS 10 AND 11 IN A CONFERENCE WILL FACE EACH OTHER IN A PLAYOFF SERIES, LOSER IS AUTOMATICALLY RELEGATED
PROMOTION PLAYOFFS: TEAMS 3 TO 5 IN A CONFERENCE WILL FACE EACH OTHER IN A COUPLE PLAYOFF SERIES, WINNER IS AUTOMATICALLY PROMOTED
 
The leagues in-game now also have a lot more detail and it should be more clear if you go to league page --> playoff tab.
 
 
GHL:
1st-8th play playoffs for Golden Cup
9th-12th watch the Golden Cup
13th & 14th are in relegation playoffs, they will match up against a team from SHL playoffs and winners will be in the GHL next season, losers in the SHL
15 & 16th are relegated to SHL
 
SHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd - 6th play promotion playoffs
             -3rd vs 6th -> winner plays 14th SHL team (I think) for a chance at promotion
             -4th vs 5th -> winner plays 13th SHL team
             -it's possible that there can be 0 to 2 teams that earn promotion through the promotion playoffs (for a maximum of 4 teams                                                 -promoting and relegating)
7th-12th watch the Golden Cup
13th & 14th are in the relegation playoffs and each match up against a BHL team
15th and 16th are automatically relegated
 
BHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd - 6th play promotion playoffs -> the 2 winners then have to play teams 13 and 14 from the SHL
7th - 12th watch the Golden Cup
13th & 14th play in the relegation playoffs and must match up against an IHL team
15th & 16th are automatically relegated
 
IHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd-6th play promotion playoffs -> the 2 winners must match up against the BHL relegation playoff teams
7th-10th watch the Golden Cup
11th - 14th do relegation playoffs
           -this isn't a situation I've been in nor payed attention too, I'm not sure if there's a mini tournament among themselves and the 2                                           -losers have to play the LIHL playoff winners or if they all have to play LIHL winners. But you should kind of see the pattern of what                                   -is happening now.
15th & 16th are automatically relegated
 
LIHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd-10th play in the promotion playoffs
          -I've been in this situation before, but it's been so long that I forget exactly how it plays out. It's either all 4 winners play the 4 IHL                                        -relegation playoff teams, or there is an extra round and the 2 winners play the 2 losers of an IHL relegation round
11th-16th watch the Golden Cup

Like Rainsilent said, we need to see the roster to be able to help out. Although from your first attached thumbnail, it looks like you have guys playing in a different role than what they're good at. Based on the same thumbnail, check your checking line players to see if they make good grinders, power forwards or enforcers. (Maybe not enforcers, I haven't really chased any so I'm not sure if they are good checking players.) Also check that your two-way defensive lines and stay-at-home defensive lines are good at their role. Another common mistake is teams ignoring teamwork/winner instinct/size. Bad teamwork is a death sentence. Winner instinct is increased by having a good mix of green and blue trait players (eg: heroic, determined, stable). Although a few yellow/red guys won't hurt and too many green guys actually can. Size is less important, but I've found that teams that look good, but have an average height of 5'8" often do bad. Bigger teams also often finish higher than a person would expect.

You got a couple numbers off, so I'll just write it out.
 
 
EDIT: THE FORMAT OF GAME WORLDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED, AND WHILE THIS IS NO LONGER EXACTLY CORRECT, ITS STILL ROUGHLY RIGHT. CHANGES INCLUDE THAT THERE IS NOW A COPPER LEAGUE BETWEEN THE IHL AND BHL. LEAGUES HAVE ALSO BEEN DOUBLED IN SIZE CREATING AN EASTERN AND WESTERN CONFERENCE. THE TWO CONFERENCES WILL FACE EACH OTHER DURING REGULAR SEASON, HOWEVER WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE GHL, WILL PLAY PLAYOFF GAMES EXCLUSIVELY AGAINST THEIR OWN CONFERENCE.
 
PLAYOFF/RELEGATION CHANGES:
GHL: TOP 8 TEAMS IN EACH CONFERENCE COMPETE IN THE PLAYOFFS (16 TEAMS IN TOTAL) FOR THE GHL CUP
RELEGATION PLAYOFFS: TEAMS 10 AND 11 IN A CONFERENCE WILL FACE EACH OTHER IN A PLAYOFF SERIES, LOSER IS AUTOMATICALLY RELEGATED
PROMOTION PLAYOFFS: TEAMS 3 TO 5 IN A CONFERENCE WILL FACE EACH OTHER IN A COUPLE PLAYOFF SERIES, WINNER IS AUTOMATICALLY PROMOTED
 
The leagues in-game now also have a lot more detail and it should be more clear if you go to league page --> playoff tab.
 
 
GHL:
1st-8th play playoffs for Golden Cup
9th-12th watch the Golden Cup
13th & 14th are in relegation playoffs, they will match up against a team from SHL playoffs and winners will be in the GHL next season, losers in the SHL
15 & 16th are relegated to SHL
 
SHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd - 6th play promotion playoffs
             -3rd vs 6th -> winner plays 14th SHL team (I think) for a chance at promotion
             -4th vs 5th -> winner plays 13th SHL team
             -it's possible that there can be 0 to 2 teams that earn promotion through the promotion playoffs (for a maximum of 4 teams                                                 -promoting and relegating)
7th-12th watch the Golden Cup
13th & 14th are in the relegation playoffs and each match up against a BHL team
15th and 16th are automatically relegated
 
BHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd - 6th play promotion playoffs -> the 2 winners then have to play teams 13 and 14 from the SHL
7th - 12th watch the Golden Cup
13th & 14th play in the relegation playoffs and must match up against an IHL team
15th & 16th are automatically relegated
 
IHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd-6th play promotion playoffs -> the 2 winners must match up against the BHL relegation playoff teams
7th-10th watch the Golden Cup
11th - 14th do relegation playoffs
           -this isn't a situation I've been in nor payed attention too, I'm not sure if there's a mini tournament among themselves and the 2                                           -losers have to play the LIHL playoff winners or if they all have to play LIHL winners. But you should kind of see the pattern of what                                   -is happening now.
15th & 16th are automatically relegated
 
LIHL:
1st & 2nd are automatically promoted
3rd-10th play in the promotion playoffs
          -I've been in this situation before, but it's been so long that I forget exactly how it plays out. It's either all 4 winners play the 4 IHL                                        -relegation playoff teams, or there is an extra round and the 2 winners play the 2 losers of an IHL relegation round
11th-16th watch the Golden Cup

Quick update, I'm currently on an 8 game winning streak since I made the adjustments. Thank you for all your help!

Hi, 
 
Hopefully a relatively simple suggestion to enhance the messages feature on the manager page. Recently went through a team haul and signed a few new players. They all accepted at once, which meant I had to individually delete 10-12 messages at once.
 
Is it possible to create an email inbox style page to read messages and select a list for deletion? In fact, replicating an email inbox with mail read, important, unread, etc. functions would be handy.
 
Otherwise, game is built really well. Really enjoying it, thank you!

Had a 1-0 shootout loss today (0-0 after 65 minutes). Was surprised to see my goalie given a 0.969 sv% despite only surrendering a goal in the shootout. This is in contradiction to NHL rules. In this situation, both goalies would be credited with a shutout. The only stats from the shootout that translate to player/team stats in a main table is a +1 GF for the winning team and +1 GA for the losing team. The player credited with the shootout winner in my game is credited with a goal in his season stats too, something that doesn't happen in real life.

Hi everyone,
 
A hockey lover from Finland here. I have been looking for another browser-based management game since hattrick.org started dying a few years back. Does anyone remember that game? A football manager game that had around one million users like 10 years ago. Oh those times...   Played that religiously, although without much success, I was very young at the time. Of course now I have less time on my hands, but match a day here should still be manageable. Once again referring to hattrick.org, there was only one league match and one frindly/cup game per week! The world has changed with all the mobile management games on the market... After that I have played a bit of the Football Manager series but again without too much success, no matter how much I have tried    The browser-based online managers still have their own charm and this finally seemed like a project I could see myself getting behind. And yes, despite the story, I'm still more of a hockey person. My favorite team SaiPa just got eliminated in the playoffs so that frees a couple of evenings in a week for other use such as this...

We should be able to set the trade status of prospects just like we can with players. I think that its especially needed for AI teams because whenever an AI GHL team gets lucky and drafts an amazing player, human managers manage to acquire the prospect in a trade before he can be signed. The trade I just noticed went through that prompted this suggestion would have been autodeclined almost immediately were it sent to a human. I'm not going to call the person out, but the trade was a 35 year old player on an expiring deal + a ghl 1st from a team that just finished in a high spot+ 2 pieces that will never be GHL pieces for a freshly drafted 90 overall prospect. There also weren't many good free agents this season so that 18 year old prospect was the only real asset that the AI had. IMO, just like the AI getting improvements so that they had young stars to their "untouchables", fresh, good prospects should get that same status.
 
 
Also, AI should make more signings sooner and immediately sign any star prospects. The AI hasn't done major team building and its almost day 3. The AI already looks like a guaranteed to be relegating team.

Submissions for the inaugural Howitzer - GHL Managers Poll have ended. This event will take place annually with the GHL managers receiving their ballots after game 30 and have 15 game days to get their submissions in. We received full ballots from 7 teams and a partial ballot from one team. I am keeping the answers confidential but if everyone collectively wanted transparency I can release the ballots of the managers. I like the anonymity with something like this though. With that being said here are the results.
 
Individual Accolades
 
Best Forward GHL - Alexandr Gavrikov, Unity Fire Dogs
Receiving five of the seven votes Gavrikov was the consensus top forward in the GHL. Currently sitting with a healthy 9 point lead in the scoring race, Gavrikov has been a top 5 scorer in the league for the last four seasons straight and looks poised to capture his second scoring title in that span.
 
Best Defensemen GHL - Dalibor Kosegi, Newcastle Fighters
Kosegi grabbed four of the seven votes for top defensemen and with three other individual defensemen receiving votes. Kosegi has been flirting with the league lead in goals and battling it out with former defensive partner Joshua Metts (recipient of one vote) for highest scoring defensemen. The 24 year old Kosegi has eclipsed 50 points in his last two seasons and has a chance to crack 60 points this season. 
 
Best Goaltender GHL - Thor Landstrom, Stony Brook Steel & Gino Vincent, Unity Fire Dogs
Claiming two votes each in the most spread out category, Landstrom and Vincent share will share the title of best goaltender(s) this season. Landstrom has guided his team to two GHL championships in the last three seasons while the younger Vincent looks to take Unity back to the top after being acquired two seasons ago. Landstrom and Vincent are the only goaltenders in the league to hold higher than a .930 Sv% with more than 20 games played. 
 
Number One Player Voted To Build A Team Around - Dalibor Kosegi, Newcastle Fighters & Michal Kadura, Palm Harbor Legends*
Another split decision with each player receiving two votes each, the managers who took part in the poll leaned towards two young defensemen as the best foundational piece for their franchise. Kosegi who took out best defensemen is met by 21 year old Michal Kadura formally of the Nottingham Purple Storm. Kadura while yet to break out offensively looks to take steps forward in that department on a more prominent team in the GHL. Gavrikov and Landstrom also had their name thrown in the mix. 
 
 
Team Assessment
 
What Is The Most Important Position - Goaltender
Goaltending narrowly edges out centerman with four votes to three. With the top two teams in the league staking claim to the top two goaltenders it’s not hard to find why managers hold goaltenders in such high regard. 
 
Which Team Will Win The Most Championships Over The Next 10 Seasons? - Stony Brook Steel
With five of the votes it looks like something special is being assembled in Stony Brook. Already with two championships in the last three seasons, Stony Brooks balance of elite players and youth have them slated to reach dynasty status in the 'Season 20s’.
 
Which Team Will Need To Rebuild In The Next Five Seasons? - Palm Harbor Legends
While only garnering three of the votes that was enough to have Palm Harbor as the predicted team on their last legs before tearing it down. After claiming the season 19 championship on the back of an ageing core, we’ve already started to see the transition of the Legends with the new blood coming in after the regression of Seb Jett.
 
Who Would You Least Want To Face In The Playoffs? - Stony Brook Steel
No surprise for many, Stony Brook’s prowess was established with their playoff performances and even if you hope to get by them in a serious you can be sure it’s going to take three games and letting go of any hope to rest your starting goalie to do it. 
 
 
 
 
Hope you guys enjoyed the Managers Poll. I have a couple additional questions I’ll look to add next season. Hopefully with some more attention to it we can receive a better response to get the leagues complete opinion.