Mattti0

11-13 may be a tad high but 9 or 10 million for a star player is completely reasonable imo.  Especially since we aren't paying coaching staff salaries, large buyout penalties, retaining salary, etc.  So I still even think that the high salary deals are fair and at least keep the game interesting.  If no one had to deal with cap-hell then no one would be inclined to trade or waive players.

Not even part of buzzer but... anyways if you think about NHL, those are very fair salaries to be giving in this game if you think about what the star players make in real life.  Those contracts could handcuff a team but that is the commitment and sacrifice you make for talent.

That’s just crazy big money - those of us in lower leagues don’t even have that for our cap - LOL!

This would be cool if it were in the game. Also Prince of glawing trophy lololol

Team trophies:The Prince of Glawing Trophy,  Awarded to the Eastern Conference season champion.
New Hartford Whalers
The Granberg Bowl,  Awarded to the Western Conference season champion.
Prince Rupert Regals
The GPHM Trophy,  Awarded to the club finishing the regular season with the best overall record.
Prince Rupert Regals
The Buzzer Cup,  Awarded to the league playoff champion.
Eastern Conference,  Luzerne Highland Cavaliers
Western Conference,  Nipawin Thunderhawks  Individual trophies and awards:
The Fishbowl Trophy,  Awarded to the "player judged most valuable to his team".
Sergey Lavrentyev,  Prince Rupert Regals
 
The Mitts Trophy,  Awarded to the player who exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.
Michel Borgström,  Pettisville Steelers
 
The Biscuit Trophy,  Awarded to the league's top goaltender.
Vladislav Belousov,  Prince Rupert Regals
 
The Clapper Trophy,  Awarded to the league's most outstanding rookie player.
Not awarded for season one, will start with the season 1 draft.
*Must play 9 games to qualify for the award. (8/80 is 10%)
 
The Howitzer Trophy,  Awarded to the player who leads the league in total points at the end of the regular season.
Nima Westerberg,  New Hartford Whalers
 
The Tripod Trophy,  Awarded to the defenseman who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.
Sergey Lavrentyev,  Prince Rupert Regals
 
The Dangles Trophy,  Awarded to the top goal scorer in the regular season.
Jeffrey Doucet,  Cape Girardeau Craze
 
The Lumber Trophy,  Awarded to the most valuable player for his team in the playoffs.
Isto Junttila,  Nipawin Thunderhawks 
 
As always looking for ideas and encourage other GM's to pick up the format to do their own leagues. 
 

Yes Ander's team was a pain and may have tired me out to much to compete in the first cup game.

I disagree, it's a different system here an does not need to perfectly replicate NHL rules. Here, when a guy is given a 1-way deal he is being guaranteed his full salary and top-team play time. However, if he is doing horribly, or to expensive for a team he can be placed on waivers for others so that he may continue with others with his negotiated deal. Or else if your waiver slots are full, you can buy him out whenever. Also, if 1-way deal just had to wait out waivers for a couple days and then be able to get sent down, it would also enable hoarding of better players which has been an issue in the past.
 
Waivers are there to give you an out to 3 horrible contracts at a time. Whether you signed those deals yourself, or else a previous manager, it opens up salary so that you aren't locked and forced to control a bad team for a number of seasons.

Just to confirm, we have now made a change so new free agents will only be generated during pre season. And as was already the case, only if there’s a very low number of available free agents.
 
The reason for generating new free agents in the first place was to let the system calibrate itself and generate new players as long as there was need for them. But I realize this caused more trouble than good.
 
Thanks for all the feedback!

No more free agents after the start of the season please! Unless they r low rated players. Maybe a roster cap size so people cant hoard players?

This. Any sort of FA spawning should be kept to minimum, and timed at one certain point (start) of a season.
 
The most frustrating thing is when you acquire a player in a trade, and then see a better one magically appear in FA a day later.

I hope that upcoming reset is going to fix this issue. Player development speed is lower and hopefully we don't see anymore full team of +94 ovr players with ridiculously low salaries

Nolan Daugherty http://www.gameplanhockey.com/player?gpid=15016
 
Nolan is not technically retired, but at age 41 he is waiting for contract offer and with declination from 94 OVR to 82 OVR, one can see he is no Jagr. But I think there might be big fat contract waiting for him in Russia. 
Nolan was for really long time the best or at least among best centers in the GHL. His 99 faceoff skill was really valuable and thus 56.7 FO% si among highest in GHL (he won stunning 6594 faceoffs in his regular season career). And for the Protons, he was top line center in all our 5 cup teams. 
Nolan was mostly known for his great two-way play and as top line center for most of his career, he played average TOI of 20:30 with lots PP and PK time. In 839 GHL games, he collected 706 points (257+449), +207 in +/-, 40 SHP, 2568 shots, 1808 hits. He also played 87 PO games with 63 points (23+40) and 56.2 FO%. 
He had most points in GHL in S8 - 76 points in regular season. 
This tough and nervous guy was a nightmare for PP of the other team (even at age of 41, he still has defence of 99)

If you'r afraid that your draft will be fckd up, because of not having time to log on later iirc you get the picks of whom you just beat so you can go and check what picks he has and do your drafting based on it.

This seems to be fixed

I don't know if this topic has been brought up or discussed before, but the logic behind affiliate games faceoffs might need to be reconsidered? I think centers would need to have higher priority than they do now. It looks like they have some priority, but even 1 or 2 point higher overall wingers and even defenders do seem to take more faceoffs than for example second highest center with even highest faceoff skill.
 
Examples from last season from my Dangles AAHL team:
Winger French, higher overall than Clear, faceoff skill 40: 363 faceoffs in 57 games.
Defender Blackmore, higher overall than Clear, faceoff skill 40: 86 faceoffs in 61 games.
Center Clear, lower overall, still slightly more icetime than French, faceoff skill 76: 61 faceoffs in 62 games.
 
So, winger taking over 6 faceoffs per game without skill, center not taking even 1 with skill, and even defender taking more. Centers seem to develop some faceoff skill even without taking or taking very little faceoffs, but isn't it so that the amount of faceoffs taken is a big factor considering how well they develop in that skill? And winger faceoffs seem to be a waste considering development: French has taken over 700 affiliate game faceoffs and his faceoff skill is still flatline 40.
 
Thoughts?

For possible fall release... I think having a trade deadline earlier in the season would be beneficial for a few reasons.  I will use Days 55 as an example (which falls around Game 50). 
 
Also to go along with this suggestion, I would also recommend that those players who are "happy with their current contract", be open to re-negotiating or flat our refusing to re-sign around Day 45 (around Game 40).
 
1) First, I think it would add some excitement to the game mid-season, giving managers another milestone to look forward to.  Preparing for the draft is exciting.  Silly season/free agency is exciting.  The playoff race toward the end of season is exciting + actual playoffs.  Why not add something in the middle for managers to look forward to?
 
Around Day 45, players are either willing to re-sign with your team or refuse to re-sign.  You then have 10 days to get your trades in before Day 55.  Personally, I think it would be an exciting 10 days of managers trying to wheel and deal before the deadline hits.  Then all managers must live with their decisions for the remaining 10 regular season games and through the playoffs.
 
2) Second, it would require managers to be proactive and take calculated risks based on their expected finish.  It would eliminate teams from making those final day trades to stack their teams for relegation - and would also not allow managers to trade expiring contracts on the final day of the season, which caused an issue this past season.
 
3) Finally, this is how professional sports are run - and I know that as a fan, I get really excited around the trade deadline every year in anticipation of what trades will be made.
 
Thoughts??
 
 
 

I totally agree with everything you said.  Just would be great if it was consistent across leagues.  I think a GHL cap reduction would help... and also something I've been harping on for a few months is when players are traded down from GHL to SHL, the salary shouldn't be 25%.  It should be at least 50% (I suggested the salary should stay the same, but other managers tore me up ).  Otherwise we are going to run into a scenario where it won't make sense for SHL teams to try and re-sign their own players or in free agency because the asking price will be too much and they will just attempt to build their team via trades with GHL.

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.

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

I collect data of all the teams top 20 players (12 forwards, 6 defensemen, 2 goalies), add them all up and compare what the league is looking like every year. This year I thought I’d share my data (players on waivers were NOT counted even if they were better than some players dressed, I DID include players on IR if they were better than a dressed player at their same position, I DID NOT include players in the minors).
Legend:
-number before team name is total team overall
-number in parentheses to the left of the team is their ranking in terms of overall
-list is in order of league position at the time when data was collected
- +/- number to the right of team name is how many overall points away from the average total overall they are
-number to the right in parentheses is teams average overall
 
(8) 1845 Pittsboro +3.3 (92.25)
(2) 1877 Stony Brooke +35.3 (93.85)
(1) 1903 Unity +61.3 (95.15)
(4) 1856 New Castle +14.3 (92.8)
(7) 1848 Burnside +6.3 (92.4)
(5) 1853 Forest Park +11.3 (92.65)
(12) 1819 Mountain Lakes -22.7 (90.95)
(3) 1862 Palm Harbour +20.3 (93.1)
(6) 1851 Nottingham +9.3 (92.55)
(10) 1838 Parkland -3.7 (91.9)
(9) 1840 Victoria -1.7 (92)
(7) 1848 Goderich +6.3 (92.4)
(14) 1799 Wyoming -42.7 (89.95)
(14) 1799 Tahsis -42.7 (89.95)
(11) 1820 North Atlanta -21.7 (91)
(13) 1809 Northdale -32.7 (90.45)
 
Total overalls: 29,467
Average: 1841.6875
 
320 players
Average overall: 92.0

I meant to respond to this post when it was first made, then forgot about it.  I think more tactical options (or anything that adds more depth to the game) is a great thing.  My suggestion here was going to be allowing teams to pick a different tactic for each line.  A smaller faster line for transition rushes... a bigger physical line who can crash the net, etc.  I think it would allow managers to get more creative with their lines.  Even if teams were only fully familiar with 2 tactics instead of all 4 to keep some sort of identity.  Just some ideas...

Wanted: playmaker with two-way ability center and top-line (for league low-end) forward to the big role.
 
I'm manager of Northdale Wild, currently placed 15th. If you found your players from description plese contact me and help my team to climb some positions. Feel free to offer any kind of trade offer.

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

Hey, just saw this post. I'm Jack, and I am the manager of the Palm Harbor Legends. I have been in game world Howitzer since its BETA days. I really enjoy how the game has evovled and meeting the new managers is great; in the beginning no other manages talked to each other a lot, but with new and great managers like Wick(New Castle, GHL)  and Gator(Unity, GHL), and Jusu(Stony,GHL) the in game communication has improved and has been amazing....

Player Awards:
 
Top Forward: Pasi Eskola - Forest Park Lumberjacks (4)
The leagues leading point scorer with 62 points takes out this seasons top forward award. Eskola with four votes beat out last years winner of the award Alexandr Gavrikov who came in second with two votes. Season 23 saw Pasi Eskola set a new career high in both goals and points. An achievement even more impressive when done on a non-playoff team.
 
Top Defensemen: Pedar Andreasen - Burnside Bombers (5)
Pedar Andreasen was the talk of the year for the first half of the season. Andreasen’s breakout year had him lead all defensemen in points and finish 6th in overall league scoring. With five votes Andreasen takes home the top defensemen award handedly over last years recipient Dalibor Kosegi who finished with two votes. 
 
Top Goaltender: Thor Landstrom - Stony Brook Steel (5)
There’s no split decision this year. After sharing the award in season 22 Thor Landstrom wins the Top Goaltender award for the second straight season. Landstrom's save percentage of .929 was second in the league even with the second largest workload of any goaltender playing 2674 minutes. This is also while receiving the fifth most shots against, there is no doubting that Landstrom had his work cut out for him to retain Top Goaltender.
 
Most Outstanding Player: Pedar Andreasen - Burnside Bombers (5)
Along with receiving Top Defensemen honours, Pedar Andreasen was voted the Most Outstanding Player of Season 23.  One of three new categories to the ballot this year, Andreasen is crowned with the most impressive performance of all players for this year. The hulking 6’7 defender, taken outside of the top 10 at 11th overall at the season 18 draft has developed in a game breaker for the Burnside Bombers. Spending most of the year leading all players in points, it wasn’t until the last quarter of the season that forwards were able to catch up to his production. 
 
Most Desirable Player To Build A Team Around: Anir Vigneault - Newcastle Fighters (3)
Goaltender Anir Vigneault takes out the Cornerstone Award for season 23, narrowly edging out the emerging star center Filips Birznieks. Vigneault, 24 years old, has consistently finished in the top 5 for save percentage since entering the league in season 17. Finishing 5th in save percentage this season and having the leagues best save percentage in Season 20, Vigneault’s size, age and intangibles endeared him to voters this  season.  
 
Best Under 21: Artem Belyakov - Pittsboro Predators (3)
Artem Belyakov is the first recipient of the Best Under 21 award. With the intent of highlighting the top up and coming player the first overall pick from the Season 20 draft helped guide the Pittsboro Predators to their second consecutive appearance in the GHL playoffs posting 36 points from the blueline. While this is his last year of eligibility of the award his previous performances of 40 points as an 18 year old and 35 at 19 years of age could have seen him sweep this award since his debut into the league. Belyakov with have to settle with being the inaugural recipient of the award before he ages out of contention. 
 
First Overall Consensus of Previous Draft: Dylan Diop - Goderich Goblins (6)
There was little deliberation with who the top choice of last season draft was. Dylan Diop who was selected first overall retains that opinion at the end of his first season in the league. The 18 year old centerman transitioned into the GHL well putting up 28 points. At 6’4 and displaying maturity beyond his years Diop looks like the real deal as he looks to be the cornerstone of the Goderich Goblins who narrowly missed the playoffs this year in only their second season in the GHL.
 
 
Manager Opinions:
 
Most Important Position: Goaltender (4)
Goaltending is still the most valued position by the GHL managers receiving the highest number of votes for the second straight season. Only one team got into the playoffs without a goaltender ranked in the top 8 for save percentage and the play of Daniel Crapper almost propelling Goderich into the playoffs, there is a clear correlation between team success and the performance of their goaltender.
 
What Team Will Win The Most Cups Over The Next 10 Seasons? Stony Brook (4)
Stony Brook again is considered to be the best contending team for the next 10 Seasons. Stony Brook is chasing down their third consecutive GHL cup and fourth in five seasons. Unless Stony Brooks is hit with a flood, the GHL cup doesn’t look to be in any hurry to leave the grips of that town.
 
What Team Will Need To Rebuild In The Next 5 Seasons? Burnside (3)
The Burnside Bombers have enjoyed at healthy run in the GHL with either a 4th or 5th place finish for the last seven seasons. The voting managers in the GHL believe that health is on it’s last legs as Burnside is this years recipient of the rebuild kiss of death. Last years ‘winner’ Palm Harbor Legends saw there team regress this season to an 8th place finish, just narrowly holding onto a playoff spot.
 
What Team Do You Not Want To Meet In The Playoffs? Stony Brook (6)
It’s no surprise if your considered to be the most dominant team for the next decade you’ll be the most feared in the playoffs. Stony Brook received almost a unanimous decision for the second straight season. This comes on the eve of just stamping their ticket to the second round after defeating Palm Harbor in games one and two of the first round. Regardless of the regular season workload, Landstrom will likely gets lots of opportunities to familiarise himself with the bench in meaningless game three during the playoffs.
 
Are You Satisfied With The Current Playoff Format? No (6)
A new question presented to the managers this year and dissatisfaction with the current playoff format was almost a unanimous decision. Ranging from a desire for an extended series to wanting meaningless games eliminated after qualifying for the next round, a playoff reform looks to be a hot topic moving forward. 
 
 
 
 
Thank you to all managers that participated in the second annual GHL managers poll. We saw submissions from a couple new faces this season but failed to receive ballots from returning managers, we’ll place the blame on the postal service and hope for more engagement next season. Best of luck to the teams in the playoffs and all teams in their preparations for next season.