moore4807

Training Camp - DefenseThis will be a bit more detailed than the goalies section and I will have three different views for your review. My discussion begins that this appears to be the greatest strength of the Panthers franchise, yet it has some scary things going on depth wise too. from the first .jpg is the Info screen that shows the "value" the scouts assigned the rearguards. Brian Campbell (8.0a/8.0a) is a good offensive defenseman who is way overpaid IMHO. His skills are maxed out and will only decline in the short term as he is 34 y/o. Campbell can play both D sides which is a bonus. Eric Gudbranson (7.0a/7.5a) is a 21 y/o good two way defenseman who has grit and isn't afraid to mix it up. My concerns for him is his conditioning is average at best (12) and his skating is barely good enough for my system. However he is young and can play both D sides. I NEED to resign him this season. Mike Weaver (7.0a/7.0a) Another greybeard blueliner with good defensive skills and awareness. He is 35 y/o and on his last year of his contract. sort of a bubble player for me. Good enough for 2nd or 3rd pairing and can fill in on offense/ PP if needed, but skill decine will take it's toll shortly. Trade bait is my first impression. Tom Gilbert (6.5a/6.5a) A 30 y/o better than average across the board defenseman. Sort of surprised his skills are capped at 6.5, also in his last year I anticipate signing him for another 3-5 years as a reliable 2nd pairing rearguard. Dimitri Kulikov (6.5a/7.5a) A youngster at 21 y/o and good upside, he too is on the last year of his $3M deal. WoW!!! As much as I like his skills and upside, he will undoubtedly be difficult to re-sign and will probably want top $$$. Two words Trade Bait! Matt Gilroy (6.0a/6.0a) A 29 y/o who is good defensively, a decent shot and good puckhandler, but has no skating skills to make him attractive to my system. His biggest upside is he is cheap at $700K and on the last year of his deal. Ryan Whitney (6.0a/6.0a) An offensive defenseman with good playmaking, puckhandling and shooting skills. Ryan is a decent skater and defensively weak. He is here on a one year deal after playing for the Edmonton Oilers the past four years - impressing no one but my predecessor apparently! Mike Caruso (6.0a/6.5a) This 25 y/o is an enigma player, projects to be a decent player while his defensive skills are very good, he just cannot skate, shoot, pass or puckhandle any better than average yet the Panthers kept him at the NHL level for the past four years!!! He played in two games last year and of course did nothing! Maybe we can get him straightened out but looks gloomy at first glance. Colby Robak (6.0a/6.5a) a 23 y/o defensive defenseman without much upside, but some grit and skill. Colby puckhandles well (15) and his playmaking and hockey sense are slightly above average. Colby will drop his gloves at the first invitation, but he seriously needs to boost his strength and conditioning if he wants the enforcer title. This former second round pick has two years left on his split contract at $650K/$100K then an affordable one way $700K second year. Mike Mottau (6.0a/6.0a)This 35 y/o player seemingly has been around forever and it shows. Puckhandling and good defensive skills are all that keep him in camp right now. a $700K/$300K. Skating is atrocious and so is his conditioning. Racine, Petrovic and McFadden are AHL with only Petrovic having a cup of coffee shot at playing, unless they really up thier game.

Training Camp - GoaliesI will be breaking down my needs and wants for the Panthers as well as my tactics and strategy for surviving my first season at the helm. Starting with the goalies... Well, its more of an ending than a starting point... Tim Thomas will likely be my starting goalie at 39 years old. This is not a comfortable feeling especially considering Scott Clemmensen is 36 years old too! I definitely see Jacob Markstrom as my future goalie but his weakness in technique and high shots (both 13) keep him out of the running for starting nod right now. Michael Houser makes a nice AHL netminder for this year, but I need to see him reach his development potential to warrant his staying with the Panthers. Forecast - I NEED a younger goalie to back up Thomas and challenge for the starters job next year. One of my draft priorities for next years draft.

Week four 9/9 - 9/16Again Bonehead is standing pat and appears to be going into his first season set with his young Panthers in rebuilding mode. Some fans are grumbling that it's more of the same, but wiser heads are saying its a good thing that Bonehead is not trading away all that young talent before a proper evaluation can be done. Well at least one NHL trade occurred and its not a blockbuster but a nice puzzle piece fitting. Columbus has traded 27 y/o Blake Comeau LW(20)/RW(18) 6.5c/6.5c to the Buffalo Sabres for 22 y/o defenceman Brayden McNabb LD(20)/RD(19) 6.5d/6.5d. Both players are in the last year of their contracts, Comeau is $1M and McNabb is a split $840K/67.5K for his final season. All in all a even swap and hopefully it will be a productive trade for both sides. Nothing else of note occurred and we will start next week with training camps opening across the league.

Preseason Week three 9/2 - 9/9A b s o l u t e l y nothing happened this week league wide. I don't think I've ever seen that playing this game. No call ups no send downs, no injuries before training camp opens... strange. Well moving right along, training camp opens on the 17th, so things will likely pick up next week.

Week two 8/27 - 9/2Nothing happened locally (GM stupidity comments here!) No trades or FA signings other than teams signing their own draft picks. Moving right along.

Draft List by AbilityThe previous Panthers regime has some good draft picks, but 2/3rds of these players are never-will-be's and my 3 year goal is to get that number down from 66% to around 50%. (I edited the percentage to the correct amount.) I Pakarinen would have made an excellent signing to start his Panthers career for me, but I now will have to likely wait until next off season to get him.

NHL NEWS Special EditionHere's the draft pick signings that led to my tardy awareness correction.

Fla. Draft PicksWell I'm already into the whoops! part of the program. I advanced day by day and was going for Monday when I looked at the NHL news screen. HEY! everybody is signing their draft picks! This is why I chose Bonehead for my nickname... Well here is the list and I will also post a screenshot of their skills evaluation by the previous Panthers regime. I'm going to try and see if I can still sign somebody - but I doubt it...

Development Report Aug 2013Well half a month in and literally nothing positive has happened as far as development goes! Way to go, Bonehead!

8/26/13 Injury list This is an afterthought...

8/26/13 Top Trade list The same as the free agents, the trade list is organized by existing skills evaluation.

8/26/13 Top Free Agents If I can remember to post this weekly, I will organize the lists for top free agents and trade lists by ability evaluation. This weeks free agents is completely grey as none of the scouts have had time to make reports. There is not much F O W with these ratings, as soon as the scouts get done the players are invariably right where the game starts em at.

Week one 8-15/8-26No action or reports locally I am going to go with a Monday to Monday report period. This makes week one a little long but not much to report. When I report on trades and moves I will attempt to put the player rating in parenthesis but only when they are in green or blue (14 or above) I also will include salaries and my own $.02 opinions. (feel free to disagree!) There were two trades this week and I'm already feeling a little jealous and left out. 1) The Winnipeg Jets sent 29 y/o Adam Pardy LD(20)/RD(18) 6.0d/6.0d and rights to 23 y/o Jordan Samuels-Thomas LW(20)/RW(16) 4.5e/5.5e to the Carolina Hurricanes. In return the Hurricanes send Jay Harrison LD(20)/RD(19) 7.0b/7.0b and rights to 19 y/o Brendan Collier LW(20) 3.5e/5.5e to Winnipeg. This is a steal for Winnipeg, The only reason I can see for the trade is cost cutting by Carolina. Harrison is two years at $1.5M while Pardy is a paltry $600K one year deal. The baggage players will never see quality NHL time and are a wash. 2) The Montreal Canadiens shook things up a bit and came away with a quality defenseman at the cost of 29 y/o Brandon Prust LW(20)/RW(18) 6.5c/6.5c a well known enforcer, and 22 y/o forward Dustin Walsh C(20)/RW(18)LW(14) 4.0e/5.5e. In exchange for Prust and Walsh the Ottawa Senators traded 28 y/o Marc Methot LD(20)/RD(15) 7.0b/7.5b. This trade is a little closer but still curious as the Senators are not known for having great defense depth. Prust is lugging a 3 year $2.5M price tag while Methot is also slightly overpriced at two years $3.25M followed by a $3.75M anchor. This is probably not the last move these two teams make before the start of the season.

Starting the ball rolling - OK, all the players have been moved up to the parent club, all players have been shortlisted, and now its time to start simming days to the season's start. BEFORE you start getting upset that I'm not putting overpriced players on the trade block... I make sure my best scout gets a chance to evaluate them first and that takes around four weeks to complete. There are almost never any major surprises from the initial scouting, BUT I have played the Panthers before and the 6.0/6.5 Brad Boyes put up 30+ goals his first two years as a first line RW - even though by the evaluation he should only be a weak second or strong third line player... I have also commented here on the forums that some players blossom when paired with another player - where they were definitely playing below capabilities earlier in the year. I have not seen a definitive answer to this, but think its like a chemistry bonus in the background of the game. Any requests/ coments before we begin?

Scouts - assignments to begin the scouting game I choose regions, especially if the scout is already familiar with that region (regions/leagues are highlighted in green). I also have regions/leagues where more than one scout is familiar, the top rated scout will get first dibs on it. After assigning all regions but The Rest of the World, I'm left with three unused scouts, Madden is above average in both skills, Mahovolich is good at evaluations and average at potential, and Stewart is very good at evaluations and average at potential. These three will do quick evals of players and trades I am considering, and at least one will be doing the shortlist and free agents when the season rolls around.

Coaching - Final I hired two coaches and fired one... Coach Murphy was called in first and told to pack his bags... I'm sure he will be employed very quickly at the NHL level and probably by one of my fiercest rivals! My decision on keeping Coach McCabe was his youth and likelihood of getting better at coaching and his good skills at player management which will counterbalance Coach Tyulin's shortcomings. As we all agreed, my fifth asst. coach will be Adam Pauwelyn for his evaluation of potential and prospect coaching. Both of the new coaches came cheaply but will have to work hard to keep their jobs and improve their skills, just like the players!

Scouts - Final I decided against doing the scouts the same way as the coaches, because of the sheer number of selections to go through. I'm attaching the final list and will start assigning the scouts to what I want them to accomplish. I want to note I did not get 4 scouts who were very good or above for evaluation, so I'm violating my own "rules". However there are 4 scouts who are very good or above in potential scouting and 7 of the scouts are also good evaluations along with above average or better in potential. So I feel pretty comfortable with this group.

We all agree that coaching candidate Adam Pauwelyn is the best candidate for the open fifth asst. coach. However I'm a little surprised that neither of you opted to hire coaching candidate Eduard Tyulin to replace either Gord Murphy or Bryan McCabe. Tyulin's scouting ratings (15/12) are clearly superior to both coaches, his coaching defensemen (19) and forwards (16) is better than anyone currently on staff. Now his shortcomings are in player management and adjustments and he has virtually no patience. But in keeping one current defensive coach and adding Tyulin's forward coaching skills to shore up Coach Ramsay's are an overall improvement to the team IMHO. The goalie coaches have impressive coaching skills, but not enough to warrant the upheaval at this time. Both of you noted that Pauwelyn is outstanding at potential evaluations and should handle any duties assigned to that skill set.

First steps - I want to see if my coaches can be upgraded, then my scouts. I will try to make this as interactive as possible so feel free to join in. I selected four candidates for the assistant coach position, either adding as the fifth asst. or replacing one of the existing four. Each of the candidates has strengths and weaknesses and I'd like to hear why you would select your candidate over the other three or the current staff. Next up Hiring Scouts;

Finally the players! Since I chose the opening day rosters for 2013-14, I'm not going to try making huge or wholesale changes the first year. Now that's not to say I won't make trades or waiver wire pick ups (I wont grab AI "dumps" because I feel that's an AI problem and the AI can give them to another AI team - no harm to me, where if I pick them up it harms the AI) My very first step is to bring every signed player up to the big club. In this case it brings the number of players to 47/23. Now doing this limits me to doing day by day turns, otherwise if I sim the days, the AI automatically sends down what it considers the weakest players to the farm club(s) to get back to the 23 player limit. First since the AI is doing the training, I don't have to check each player to see what skill they are lacking or need training in, which is a huge time saver. Second I get a look at where my depth positions are and what I need to upgrade. Here is the current roster and I welcome comments and constructive criticisms along with the suggestions to fix what I got wrong.

SCOUTS This area has been a point of discussion and I think its vastly underused by most players based on the posts I read here. No of course I'm not talking about you. Depending on the team/budget the number of scouts varies, Florida starts with 15 and that should be plenty to accomplish your goals of finding the best player, the hottest prospect, or who's finally slipping in oblivion skills wise. From the attachment is the list of scouts currently employed by the Panthers. The AI obviously picked Garrett Doyle to scout the Entry Draft and from his Excellent rating at evaluating potential, I should get a pretty accurate report of the potential of the top prospects. Ideally I like to have just over half of my scouts from North America and I have them scout one area to build up the skills in that area. Think of it as the scout getting familiar with the juniors teams and coaches, as time goes on the scout gets better information on the prospects because he becomes a familiar face to the coaching staff. Whether you choose 9 or 10 North American scouts, it is important not to overlook overseas scouting. Former USSR is a gold mine of talent if you can get them signed and kept out of the KHL. Nordic scouting also breeds talent and needs watching. The same principles apply to overseas scouting and trying to keep that scout in his assigned area brings benefits of better scouting over the long haul. Now as to ratings for the scouts, they are the lifeblood to a good draft. You need to identify both the BPA (best player available) and getting solid prospects that fit your system of play. Remember the scouts sometimes have coaching skills in forwards/defense/goalies - this does affect their efficiency in scouting reports as much as the potential or existing skills such as learning or ability to absorb instruction. (See Frank Mahavolich's attachment) Using this information, I sometimes have a scout do a 4 to 8 week research of a player or position if I'm going after them because the scout is accomplished at that position as well as evaluating skill. My final comment is the ratio of Excellent/Very Good skills should be a minimum of 4 scouts per 15. Conversely if you have a below average or poor skilled scout - dump them! There are far too many good scouts available in the pool to be wasting your time with this handicap.

Coaches continued - Bryan McCabe - 38 y/o former NHL blueliner (like his counterpart Gord Murphy) Bryan is slightly less proficient with the rearguards (13) but better with prospects (13) than Coach Murphy. Coach McCabe has a good reputation but is merely average at evaluation and below average at potential evaluation. Again all of the coaches come at a bargain price (>$150K) so upgrading the position is a consideration, but not vital at this point. Robb Tallas - 40 y/o goalie coach with a good reputation and good goalie coaching skills (14). However in a familiar refrain his player management skills are average, as is his evaluation skills. Coach Tallas' potential evaluation skills are also below average. I would most likely make a change here as I know the Panthers have good young goaltenders (Markstrom) and maximizing his progress is a priority for me. There is one other alternative as I am allowed to hire five assistant coaches. I have sometimes found obscure and odd foreign born coaches who have outrageously good ratings, to hire them as the fifth coach invariably brings bad reputation ratings but awesome skills or evaluation ratings. Its a crapshoot but one avenue to consider for upgrading the coaching corps.

My first oops - I couldn't get more than one .jpg to post and I just found out I have to use the paste tool above to get more than one in....

Now we get to the scouts and assistant coaches. Understandably - I'm pretty weak in the coaching dept. My assistants are: Craig Ramsay - A 62 y/o with a good reputation who emphasizes defensive play. Craig primarily works with forwards (14) and is merely average working with youngsters (12) I will probably keep him for his skills with forwards and his cheap salary. I will look for an upgrade but not reach for one. Gord Murphy - a 46 y/o with a good reputation and utilizes standard tactics. Gord works with defensemen well (15) but only has above average player management skills and average evaluation and below average potential evaluation skills. This is another position to look at upgrading - Gord will be fine with an experienced group of rearguards, but if I have youngsters I would want someone who could relate to them and help them grow better than Gord would. We'll see the other coaches in the next post...