Paul T

Sorry, can´t agree :-(...

While there is no question that Drew Brees is a future HoF, it is difficult to see how he would ever be rated ahead of Tom Brady.

We shall see this eason

The Hoodie made Brady who he is.

I think he has one more year left in him, but he's definitely not as good as he has been. Especially without Gronk there to bail him out.

I believe he is all done after this loss to Titans. He still wont admit it.

While I am not a fan of Brady, I do have to agree with Blackbeard that he is one  of the best ever. The truth is, he succeeds because he meshes well with Belichick's system though. If I had to build a team of players from any era, my QB, hands down would be Joe Montana

I'm afraid your situation can't be easily explained.  Think it's a bit of randomness and bad luck at a bad time in the season.  I noticed some of the skaters that were injured had low-ish endurance, but nothing out of the ordinary for your league level - and you definitely aren't overplaying them.  Your goalies also seem to have a nice rotation.  If you or your opponent were playing Hard or Dirty it might explain things a little more, but I have no insight into that.
As far as what leads to players getting injured more frequently in the game, there are numerous factors.
- Injury proneness of the specific player
- Player fatigure... players being exhausted are more at risk of suffering an injury.  There's a few things that impact player fatigue... too much ice time, low endurance, training intensity.
- You or your opponent playing Hard or Dirty
 

As of Day 7.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

 
WESTERN CONFERENCE

 

As of Day 7.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

 
WESTERN CONFERENCE

 

As of Day 7.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

 
WESTERN CONFERENCE

 

As of Day 7.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

 
WESTERN CONFERENCE

 

As of Day 7.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

 
WESTERN CONFERENCE

 

Congratulations to everyone on yet another fantastic season! 
I am making a judgement call on a couple of the awards, but generally, there was clear consensus, and as usual, discussions AND ADDITIONAL TROPHIES are welcome.
You know the drill.
 
GOLDEN CUP CHAMPION: CEDAR RAPIDS MINUTEMEN (Richard Armour)
Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP):

Viteszlav Predajna (Minutemen) - 13 points - (14GP - 5G/8A/+1)
 
GHL East Champion: BIG DELTA STEALHEADS (Paul T)
GHL West Champion: ENIGMA RAGE (Wendel Clark)
 
Manager of the Year: Richard Armour (Minutemen)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 
ART ROSS TROPHY (Most League Points)
ELOUAN SCOTT (Red Tide) / JEREMIE CLINE (Stealheads) - 84 points
 
OVECHKIN TROPHY (Top Goalscorer)
ELOUAN SCOTT (Red Tide) - 40 goals              
 
 GRETZKY TROPHY (Best Playmaker) 
PATRICK GORNELL (Red Tide) - 54 assists           
 
VEZINA TROPHY (Best Goaltender)
ZACH WOODLEY (Eastern Outlaws)               
  
ORR TROPHY (Best Offensive Defenceman)
GUSTAVS KUNDZINS (Bodmin Bangers)                        
 
NORRIS TROPHY (Best Defensive Defenceman)
PIERROT RIDDLE (Victoria Lions)                       
  
ORR - Points leader among defencemen
NORRIS - Calculated with the following formula among D-men [BKS - GVA + TKA], PER also taken into consideration, removing +/- for more fairness 
 
SELKE TROPHY (Best Defensive Forward)
RICHARDS AUNINS (Battlin Bears)                   
Calculated with the following formula among F: [PTS + BKS - GVA + TKA] Hits and +/- also relevant.
 
LADY BYNG TROPHY (Most Gentlemanly Player)
JOESPH RACKLEY (Enigma Rage)               
Calculated with the following formula [PTS - PIM]
 
 HART TROPHY (League MVP)
 ELOUAN SCOTT (Red Tide)   
 
CALDER TROPHY (Best Rookie)
DANICK GRAHAM (Marietta Sand Storm)
 
GOOD SAMARITAN AWARD (Most Giveaways)
COLE ADAMSON (Eastern Outlaws)   
 
ROID RAGE TROPHY
CECIL BRANCO (Shebandowan Natives)
(Most Hits + PIM + MP)
 
LATE-BLOOMER AWARD
BRENDAN ROWLETT (Enigma Rage)

There's plenty of managers here who totally need to join the discord server. Having that community of managers adds so much to the game so come over and join the fun. Discuss your team, other teams and anything else. 

Next in the world rankings is Зубры (Bisons). 
They have the 3 Maxims leading them: the center Navitski of South Pole, winger Sadowski of Mississauga, and defenseman Kavalchuk of the Tornadoes. Their starter goalie Kovalevich is young and decent, but... an injury to him can quite bury this team. They have an impressive first line, winger depth looks good too, and lots of experienced guys on the roster (with hungry youngsters waiting to take their places already). In the cons column next to the goalie "depth" there is the lack of quality d-men, and they look like struggling in ambition, and it seems they find it hard to motivate themselves for big games..(maybe because of the lack of ambition?  )
 

#12 on the rankings are the Danish Lions.
Captained and led by an absolutely top tier center, Ulrik Kristensen. All of them come from GHL and SHL, only one assigned to affiliate. As from a north European team we expected, they are pretty big guys as well  Their talent is amazing, just look at Dam, Lorentzen, Søndergaard, or their top defenseman Rasmussen. In goal they have a very experienced squad, but as their ability is close, they can make each other perform even better..(Honorable mention is North Shore's Argus Søndergaard, who is 40 years old, but since l did the squad, improved to 87 to be #3, and is the best goalie in the SHL with 50 games started! But as he is #1 in his club l think he might be retired from internationals.. ) 
On the downside is their big games traits, I guess they could do with more determined guys, but as #12 in real world, they look like a very decent squad.
 

Well, I started with random small teams, and when l started again, first went through the already done teams, then with the new ones l decided to go according to the IIHF world rankings. The last "original" small team is Les Bleus.
They have a few elite players, like Rodolphe Jahic of the Bandits, or the young gun El Madkouri, who is trying to build himself up in the SHL. Their core looks quite fine, and on forwards side depth is good also. But their lack of leadership (2 of their designated leaders would barely make the line up, at least they are young) and anxiety of big games could cause them serious problems. Also they have a lot of playmakers, but no scorers..:D  And at last... where the hell are the french goalies in the game? They should really look for a middle-high tier canadian guy with french name if they want to be competitive!

Next team is Risi (meanin Lynx).
At first they look like a good middle tier team, who are very nice off the ice, but kinda tough to meet them at the game. It looks like they have 2 quite good lines, and then quality drops a bit, but for a small nation like them, I guess it's normal. Their top attackers are Jan Kosir (Golden Flyers) and Dominik Oresnik (Razorbacks) who can pull this team in their prime years. On the D side, by far the top pair is Davor Novak (Hawks) and Alexander Pirjevec (Outlaws), who are stilly very young, so the future looks bright. In goal 3 kinda similar players: Uros Horvat looks the best, and he is quite Heroic, but here form can be a big factor when picking the starter
 

Next up are the Eagles. 
If you look at them, their core team looks like a good, stable average one, with no real stars but reliable guys all around. The D has plenty of talent with the already grown youngsters. They have even younger forwards who are not elite level, but could be good depth players in the future (didn't look at ratings..:D ). Key players will be Sandro Koch from the Black Devils who looks very good at the age of 23, the same could be said about Foresters' D-man Angelo Braun, and Razorbacks experienced  goalie Yannik Meyer. They look like a good mix in every aspects of personality traits also. (By the way, if anyone knows how to represent Belarus flag in excel, heeelp. that white-red stripe on the left is killing me, l tried, but looks lame..  )

Rankings are updated as of Day 7 prior to the season opening games.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

WESTERN CONFERENCE

 
TOP 5 OFFENSES:
1) Slaughterville Red Tide
2) Sheshegwaning Dragons
3) Big Delta Stealheads
4) Enigma Rage
5) Eastern Outlaws
TOP 5 DEFENSES:
1) Victoria Regals
2) Rome Trojans
3) Sheshegwaning Dragons
4) Pittsboro Plastic Attack
5) Slaughterville Red Tide

Rankings are updated as of Day 7 prior to the season opening games.
EASTERN CONFERENCE

WESTERN CONFERENCE

 
TOP 5 OFFENSES:
1) Slaughterville Red Tide
2) Sheshegwaning Dragons
3) Big Delta Stealheads
4) Enigma Rage
5) Eastern Outlaws
TOP 5 DEFENSES:
1) Victoria Regals
2) Rome Trojans
3) Sheshegwaning Dragons
4) Pittsboro Plastic Attack
5) Slaughterville Red Tide

Some silver lining on the goals above.
1. Bolduc vanished down the stretch and didn't even end up top 5 in goals... but thenhe turned it on in the playoffs and led the postseason in goals.
2. Similar to above, Zluky did not accomplish the regular season goal, but ended up leading all defensemen in points during the playoffs.
5. Same story, Cline led the postseason in +/-.
So basically most of the player goals that I had set for the regular season where accomplished in the playoffs by those same players. 
 

Accomplished on Day 76 by Jeremie Cline.  Receives $2M roster bonus on top of his $8M salary.