Hartford Whalers Dynasty: Brass Bonanza
 

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INTRODUCTION

Howdy, and welcome to my Hartford Whalers dynasty. I'm playing FHM for the first time and very excited. I have thousands of hours in Football Manager and OOTP, so I'm no stranger to sports management sims. Growing up in Canada my favourite sport was hockey, and I played defense from Novice to Bantam. So FHM is definitely a good fit.

I'm starting the dynasty in 1979-80, the Whalers' first season in the NHL. They have a carryover team from the WHA, including the legendary Gordie Howe and his two sons Mark and Marty. The more I think about it, the more I find reasons to be nostalgic for the Whalers. For one, they have absolutely amazing uniforms, and had the best goal song ever. And they also represent an interesting small market in Hartford, Connecticut, a place which my ancestors have ties to.

I'm calling this one Brass Bonanza because of that great song, and because I want to set this team up to be a high scoring offense. Slick passing, high scoring, and a smart zonal defense that avoids penalties. We're going to be lighting the lamp and playing Brass Bonanza all the way until 1997. My goal is to do better than the Whalers did historically, which shouldn't be too hard as they only had 1 division title and 1 playoff series victory.

LEAGUE SETTINGS

1. League Evolution is Automatic: We'll be seeing the NHL rules and teams change as they did historically. Once we hit about 1982/83 it's pretty stable until the 90s.
2. Recalc is On: Players will be roughly the same skill level as historically.
3. Players are Imported to Historical Teams, Not Drafted: I feel like this setting goes with recalc well. It also saves time, and also gives teams (especially mine) their own flavour.

So I know which players I'm getting and roughly how good they'll be. Therefore the only way to do better than Hartford did historically will be to have better tactics, and better players by assembling a quality roster through trades and free agency.

We'll be in the Adams division for most of the dynasty, which is tough with the likes of the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. Hartford struggled against these teams in real life, but we'll turn that around. I do expect to make the playoffs most years as I believe there's basically a 4/5 chance in the Adams division.

Hope you enjoy!

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RON FRANCIS: THE HERO OF OUR STORY

"Ronny Franchise" was the best ever Hartford Whaler, leading the team in all major statistical categories historically. I'm going to build my team around him when he comes to us in the 1981 draft. He's got the 2nd most assists of all time in the NHL after Gretzky, and he's 5th in total points.

Historically the Whalers traded Francis to the Penguins in 1991, and he would go on to win the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh back-to-back. With how stacked that Pens team was in 1991, you could argue that Francis was only their 4th best player, behind Lemieux, Jagr, and Coffey. But in this universe Francis is going to be our franchise guy throughout.

For now though, I'm going to focus on the Whalers team that's given to me, and build a foundation for when Francis and some other decent guys arrive via the draft in the early 80s.

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THE HOWE FAMILY

The Whalers come into the NHL with the Howe Family on the roster -- Gordie, Mark, and Marty. At this point Gordie is a living legend and is regarded as the best hockey player ever. He's in his age 51 season and historically still put up a decent year in 1979/80 with 15 goals to finish with 801 total, the most ever until Wayne Gretzky. Even though he's retiring at the end of this year, I don't think there's any point in trading him so we'll try to get him to 800 goals at least.

The real superstar of the Howe family at this point in time is Mark Howe. He's an elite defenseman and the Whalers' best player upon entering the league. He also fits our style perfectly. Much like with Ron Francis, I'm going to avoid trading Mark Howe in his prime like the Whalers did historically. We'll try to get him a Norris Trophy at some point in the 80s.

Marty Howe is a depth defenseman and will rotate into the 6th spot at times this year. Mark and Marty's profile pages are a bit bugged and don't recognize Gordie as their father, probably because he's still playing! When Gordie retires I'll be sure to edit the pages if they don't change automatically.

DAVE KEON, MIKE ROGERS, BLAINE STOUGHTON, & JOHN GARRETT

Dave Keon is another NHL legend who joins the Whalers along with Mr. Hockey after a foray into the WHA. Although he's 39 years old he still has great ratings, and a leadership rating that's perfect for his role as captain. He slots in as our #2 center and best penalty killer. I tried to trade him back to the Leafs where he belongs in a deal involving Joel Quenneville, but for some reason it worked in my trial run but not in the file I'm using now. Oh well, we'll keep him for now.

Mike Rogers and Blaine Stoughton are 2 guys I hadn't heard of before I started researching the Whalers in anticipation for this dynasty. But boy did they ever light it up for in the early 80s. Mike Rogers had 3 straight 100 point seasons, and Blaine Stoughton had a ton of goals including a league leading 56 (!) tallies in this 1979/80 season. Unfortunately for their hockey legacy, they spent some of their prime years in the WHA, and both of them really regressed when they hit 30 years old. For the future of the Whalers it's important we trade these guys at their peak, though hopefully don't ripoff the AI teams too bad.

John Garrett is our starting goaltender and pretty good, at least for now. It's funny how a lot of the former Whalers ended up in broadcasting. John Garrett, Ray Ferraro, Garry Galley, Greg Millen...

Another trade I was able to do in my test run but not the current file involved Mike Liut for Mike Rogers, John Garrett, and some depth players. I really want to get Mike Liut to solidify our goalie situation for the decade, so we'll keep trying. He was one of the better goalies of the 80s, and starred for the Whalers in real life. That's always going to be a bonus factor when I look for trades.

But it's probably for the best that I'm rolling with the team that I was given at the start, and not make to many crazy trades right away.

TACTICAL SETUP

As I mentioned in the opening, I want to play a slick passing offensive game. I believe that's reflected in my tactical setup, but having never played FHM I may have to do some trial and error.

I want to take advantage of our strong playmakers at center, like Mike Rogers, Dave Keon, and the future Ron Francis. Therefore I'll be funneling play through the center of the ice, setting up a triangle offense, and playing from behind the net on the power play. All of these strategies favour good playmakers in the middle. The triangle offense also takes advantage of a quarterback on the point (Mark Howe), and a strong overall passing game.

On defense I want to play strict zonal, with limited aggression. I really hate penalties and want to be on the PP far more than on the PK. We'll try to overcome the lack of aggression by being strong positionally and getting a great goaltender. I plan on trading for Mike Liut for the 80s, and Sean Burke for the 90s. As it should be in Hartford.

EDIT: I've since refined my tactics in this post here.
EDIT 2: I've further refined my tactics in this post here.

As someone who currently manages a team in an online league with a similar desired style of play - i am very curious to see how your tactical setup works out!

SYSTEM & LINES

To go along with my tactical style, I've designed a setup for my lines that is very rigid in its approach. Rigid in the sense that I want all positions to play a certain way, and have a certain type of player.

And I want it to be the same throughout... so the 1st Line will have the same ideals as the 4th Line, the only difference will be player quality. I don't believe in a "checking" line, at least in this Hartford Whalers dynasty. Every line is trying to score on you.

Here is my system:

CENTER: Playmaker; This guy will be the player who is tasked with creating offense. The play will run through him, and he'll generate a lot of assists. Ron Francis will be my #1 in a few years, and ideally my other centers will be in his mold. Someone like Adam Oates, Pierre Turgeon, etc. Don't know if I can get that quality of players but we'll see.

LEFT WING: Two-Way Forward; I want a bit more of a conservative player in my LW slot, to help balance the quarterback at LD. I feel that traditionally the LW position has been more gritty, defensive, or more of a power forward than the RW position (there's also the LW lock). Guys like Keith Tkachuk, Brendan Shanahan, and Dave Andreychuk come to mind when thinking of left wingers. I don't want my LW to be a power forward or take a lot of penalties though, just be more balanced in his game.

RIGHT WING: Sniper; I want a goalscorer at RW, pure and simple. In contrast to the LW position, I feel the RW position has had more finesse and skilled scorers, i.e. Jaromir Jagr, Teemu Selanne, Alexander Mogilny, etc. There's always exceptions to my LW/RW perception though. Even with historical Whalers LW Sylvain Turgeon and RW Kevin Dineen, who are the opposites of my perception. Anyway my RWs will be tasked to score goals and are given a bit of license to float defensively.

LEFT DEFENSE: Quarterback; Mark Howe is my best player right now and he fits here perfectly. I love offense from the back, and we'll be looking for Paul Coffey types here. We probably don't have the assets to get Coffey, but Howe is great as a #1 LD anyway. Most defensemen in the NHL, and every one of them on my team, are left-handed shots so there will be more offensive defensemen to choose from.

RIGHT DEFENSE: Two-Way Defenseman; I was originally thinking of having a stay-at-home defenseman here, but further to my plan to score as many goals as possible, I'll try the two-way version first. We want the RD to cover for the floating sniper on the right flank, but also not be afraid to add some offense. I prefer to have same-handed defensemen on each point, so I'll be looking for right-handed guys here. There's a shortage of these in the NHL (I was a right-handed D as kid, how come I didn't make it???) and I don't have any righties yet, so I'll have to acquire them.

I've attached the lines for the opening game of the season. I can't quite fully setup my system yet, it'll take a couple years to get all the right players. And Mr. Hockey wants to play power forward so we're gonna let him! He's paired up with Dave Keon on the 2nd "Old Man" Line. Mark Howe is the only guy we are planning to keep long-term, the rest will have to be moved within the next few seasons.

There's also the annoying rule in the NHL at the time where you can't dress enough guys to make 4 lines, so we'll have to work around that for a couple years. I suspect I'll actually change my setup soon and run 3 centers with 4 sets of wingers.

1979-80 SEASON PREVIEW & FIRST GAME

I've attached the season preview, where it says that the Montreal Canadiens are the Cup favourite. Mark Howe is mentioned as one of the top 3 defensemen in the league.

I played out the 1st game in Whalers NHL history manually, but I will be going through most or all of the regular season games quickly via simming. It was actually pretty exciting, as Dave Keon scored the winner on a breakaway with 1:31 left in the game. We're 1-0 so far!

1980 MARCH UPDATE

I've played through until March, and the Whalers are doing pretty good in their first NHL season. We're sitting 2nd in the division behind the Canadiens, and have a goal difference of exactly zero. So we're not a bad team by any means. Mike Rogers is among the league leaders in points and assists.

I've made some minor transactions, but nothing earth shattering. This good performance is a bit of smoke and mirrors, as some of our best players are old and going to retire, and others will drop off in the recalc either next year or soon after.

The AI is pretty stubborn when it comes to my trade offers, but the challenge is welcome as I don't want to dominate too easily. As I approach the trade deadline on March 10, I wanted to take a bit of a break and see what deals I could make, if any.

In other news, Gordie Howe is having a great season, and did hit 800 goals in January (against the Red Wings which was fitting). So he'll surpass his final real-life totals which is pretty cool. Give Gretzky a more ambitious target to reach.

1980 TRADE DEADLINE DEALS

I've figured out how to deal with the AI... before I didn't realize you often have to trade for the same number of players given the 50 contracts rule. I kind of discovered an exploit of sorts, as the AI loves to dump contracts of old players even with no salary cap and plenty of budget room. So I try to avoid taking too much advantage, but I'm not totally against turning a balanced deal into an accepted one.

I've brought in my biggest targets, goaltender Mike Liut and defenseman Joel Quenneville. I've also picked up Greg Millen to backup/rotate with Liut throughout the 80s, and Ken Morrow as a right-handed defenseman. Of the exits, Dave Keon (my #2 center) & Jordy Douglas (my #1 LW) are the biggest losses. Both of my goalies are out, but they were obviously replaced.

I'm now quite weak at wing, and Dave Keon was excellent this year so he's a loss for sure. But I'm quite happy to sacrifice a bit now for the future, as I don't think we're good enough to go deep in the playoffs.

I've attached all the trades.

SYSTEM UPDATE

Ahh yes, system update... the fear of every Windows user. I wanted to tweak my system a bit to get more of the kind of play I had in mind. I've attached the new tactics below.

The changes are that I've set Hitting and Aggressiveness to the lowest setting possible, while increasing Backchecking and Pressure a notch. The C, LW, and LD use these global settings. My RD is set to be a bit more defensive and my RW a bit more offensive.

Basically I want my players to be have more urgency in defense and transition, and put pressure on the puck without being physical. I think the zone defense will work with this too. Overall this will be beneficial to puck possession and my PP/PK ratio. All that's left to do is find the right players for the system.

From what I can see, it's working so far.

The Whalers are:

3rd in Faceoff %
3rd in Takeaways
5th fewest Giveaways
Dead last in Hits
Dead last in PIMs

This tells me my system is working as intended, and once we have a nice set of players we'll be better off in other categories too like goal difference (+7) and special teams (101.9% PP+PK).

EDIT: I've since bumped the Tempo slider up one point.

1979-80 END OF SEASON

In reaching the end of the Whalers inaugural NHL season, I'm happy to say that we finished exactly .500! We had a nice 35-35-10 record. We were .500 going into the final game, and I definitely didn't want to fall under that mark. But then we ended up in a tie against the Red Wings which was neat. I miss ties, overtime losses are dumb.

The real 1979-80 Whalers finished with 73 points, so our 80 points is an improvement already. I've attached the final standings -- we're in the Norris division now but will settle into the Adams soon for most of our run in Hartford.

Deadline acquisition Mike Liut was among the league leaders in the net. Mike Rogers finished 2nd in assists and 6th in points which is good for him. He had 105 points in real life so the sim is pretty accurate. This is the Gretzky era though, and Wayne ran amok in his first year in the NHL. More on him later.

I've also attached the Whalers players end of year stats. We were very reliant on Rogers, Stoughton, and Mark Howe for scoring. Gordie Howe definitely overachieved in his final season, and we got a nice contribution from our Finnish player Matti Hagman.

1980 PLAYOFF PREVIEW & GRETZKY WATCH

Initially after the WHA merger/expansion, the NHL had a strange playoff format based on #1 to #16 seedings. The teams weren't organized geographically yet either. Regardless of division, #1 played #16, #2 played #15, and so on. In real life the Whalers played the end-of-their-dynasty powerhouse Canadiens and got swept. This time we're up against the potential new dynasty Islanders.

FHM doesn't get these playoffs quite right, as they seem to tie division winners into the seedings somehow. Based on my look at the standings we should really be playing the Blues. But I don't blame the game too much as the early 80s was an awkward transition period for hockey, before we got to the geographic setup.

Also wanted to take a look at Wayne Gretzky in his first NHL season. He finished with 70/70/140. Normally you'd expect Gretzky to pile up a lot more assists than goals, but he really had to do it all himself on these Oilers! If you look at the rest of the team, no one else had even half of his production. Looking on Hockey Reference, this is kind of similar to what actually happened on the 79/80 Oilers, before Messier got good and they picked up more secondary scoring. But right now Gretz is just a teenager carrying the new NHL team on his back.

1980 PLAYOFFS

Well, that was over quick. The Whalers got swept by the Islanders, and it wasn't really close. Not really worth talking about. They had the better team certainly, and probably have some great hidden "big game" ratings due to their early 80s dynasty. The likes of Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin, and Mike Bossy ran over us in every game.

The Islanders ended up making the Stanley Cup Finals, but lost to the surprising St. Louis Blues! At least in my alternate history, the Blues won the Cup ~40 years earlier than they did in the real timeline.

I feel alright about this one, especially because I pulled a trade with the Blues (Mike Liut) that likely favours me in the long run. That's the biggest thing I'm worried about when trading, is fleecing the AI. Well anyway they won the Cup so that's a small price to pay for them.

Onto the offseason next.

1979-1980 AWARDS & ALL-STARS

Wayne Gretzky won most of the awards he was up for, including the Hart and Pearson. The Whalers actually had a decent showing though, with Mike Liut winning the Vezina and getting 1st Team All-Star. Gordie Howe also won the Masterton Trophy in his age 51 year.

I can't take much credit for Liut winning the Vezina, as he was with St. Louis for most of the year. Hopefully he's not too upset about being traded away from the team that won the Stanley Cup. We'll just have to win one or two in the 80s.

This is definitely one of the most transitional years in hockey history, with the WHA merger, Wayne Gretzky's first season, and Howe's last season.

1980 RETIREMENTS & NEW PLAYERS

As has been discussed, Gordie Howe retires at age 51. In this universe he finished with more goals and points. 810 goals and 1863 points are the new marks that Gretzky is aiming for.

I've also attached the new players that are drafted or assigned to teams this offseason. The Oilers have an absolutely ridiculous draft, getting Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, and Andy Moog in the 1980 Draft! That's gotta be the best draft class of any team in history, as far as I know. Even previously in the 1979 Draft the Oilers grabbed Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, and Kevin Lowe... which is about equal in value. Gretzky's supporting cast is arriving for the dynasty.

In contrast to the Oilers' pickups, the Whalers don't have anyone of note coming from the draft in 1980. But that's fine because I know the next 3 drafts will be quite good for Hartford. I like the setting where players go to their historical teams... it gives more flavour to the game.

1980 OFFSEASON TRADES

I made several moves in the offseason, and I won't list them all here. Basically I wanted to clean up the roster and get every position filled with players that fit my system. I will highlight 2 big trades though.

The first trade involved Richard Brodeur. Last season I picked him up on the waiver wire as a 3rd goaltender option. He had a 1.5*/1.5* rating, but I remember him being a "name" goalie in the 80s. He was the best tender named Brodeur... at least for a while. Lo and behold, the offseason recalc pumped him up to a 4.5* goaltender, and one of the best in the league. I didn't expect this, but I definitely didn't mind taking advantage.

I decided to ship Brodeur off to Philadelphia straight up for LW Brian Propp. Propp was one of the best LWs of the 80s, and he's easy to pencil into my top line for a while. He's just what I'm looking for in the LW position, offensive output combined with the ability to play two-ways and not take an excessive amount of penalties. Plus, Propp played for the Whalers in his final season which is a bonus. Brian Propp won the Calder Trophy as top rookie for Philly last season too.

I also decided to ship out Gordie Roberts, who's my 2nd best defenseman and has a lengthy career ahead of him. Reason being is that he came to preseason out of shape, takes a few too many penalties, was injured for a while last year, and is a lefty shot in my RD spot. All of these things sort of combined to make me fed up with him. He goes to the Blackhawks in return for Keith Brown, who's a righty shot that's more disciplined. I also upgraded one of my RWs in the deal.

1980-81 SEASON PREVIEW AND LINES

I've attached the 1980-81 Season Preview, along with the Whalers' lines to start the year. All-in-all it's a pretty big upgrade all around, and I've got the right players to fit into my system. This year will be a test to see if it all works.

Aside from the previously discussed Brian Propp and Kevin Brown, we've got some other names you may be familiar with like Darryl Sutter suiting up in green and white.

1981 NEW YEAR UPDATE

I've attached the settings on January 1st of 1981, and the Whalers are doing pretty well. We're above the .500 mark and sit in 2nd place in our division to the (obvious) Montreal Canadiens.

Good news is our play style is still producing some intended results, as we're at the bottom in PIM and hits, and at or near the tops in takeaways and avoiding giveaways.

The bad news is we're still kind of stuck near equal goal difference, and I believe the main culprit is lack of PP goals. We're dead last in power play opportunities and I'm not sure why. Perhaps a lack of PIMs also somehow results in fewer power plays for your own team? Is my lack of agitators and enforcers somehow a detriment?

Also, our top players for some reason all have awful plus/minus stats. Now I know plus/minus isn't the greatest stat of all-time, especially when comparing players of different teams. But I think it's relevant when looking at your own team.

Anyway I'm going to tweak a couple of things for the 2nd half of the season. I'm bringing in an agitator and an enforcer for my 4th line. Main reason being is that it's not a complete line yet due to our ability to only dress 19 players. And these players never play much or affect outcomes too much. So we'll see if it helps draw penalties and protect our stars.

I'm also going to reduce the ice-time a bit for my top lines. Perhaps my top guys are getting tired and giving up more goals in the late game? Hence the poor plus/minus? Anyway if we draw more penalties and play better at even strength that'll be most bases covered.

Let me know if you're an FHM veteran and have ideas for my conundrums.

1980-81 END OF SEASON

The season has ended and the Whalers have finished 3 games above .500. Pretty good, and certainly better than the historical Whalers who missed the playoffs a few years running at a time when most teams made it.

We were very streaky though, and had hot months and cold months. In some ways we played worse than last season, as we finished with a -13 goal difference.

I brought in Howatt as my enforcer and Brackenbury as my agitator. I'm not sure if this made any difference, as we were still dead last in power play opportunities. I also changed my RD guys from two-way to stay-at-home types for now.

Anyway we roll onto the playoffs, and by the standings and playoff system in 1981, we should be facing the Islanders again. But instead we'll be facing the Maple Leafs. At least we try out a couple different teams before we face the Bruins and Canadiens all the time, but I am looking forward to that playoff system and the rivalries it will generate.

As far as the stats for the season go, Blaine Stoughton was the highlight as he sniped 56 goals including 25 on the power play. If only we got more power play chances! Unfortunately Mike Rogers failed to hit 100+ points, and I'm not sure why given that he had Brian Propp on his line this year, who played well himself. I guess the points are more spread out now?

Secondary scoring was pretty good, although we seemed to give up too many goals. But we were around the middle in both goals for and against, so I think going forward I'd rather just score more... which means more Brass Bonanza... the point of this dynasty!

1981 PLAYOFFS

Well we did better in the playoffs this year, taking the Maple Leafs to the full 5 games after going down 0-2. The home team won every game in the series which was interesting. I've attached the scorelines. Dave Keon played quite well in the series for the Leafs, getting some bragging rights over his former team (while on his former former team?)

The Stanley Cup Final was an interesting matchup between the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins. The Sabres made short work of the Bruins, capturing that elusive title that they haven't so far in real life. What's with my crazy dynasty that has the Blues and Sabres avoiding long Cup droughts? I think it's well-deserved though, as the Sabres have done very well in the regular season and have been tough to score on. They have the legendary Scotty Bowman as coach so I'm sure that factors into it.

We're seeing a bit of a different 1980s so far, with no Islanders or Oilers dynasty as of yet. I'm keen to play on and find out what's next. Hopefully the Whalers can enter the conversation at some point.

I forgot to screenshot the league leaders and things like that, but Gretzky was tops in points of course. Kent Nilsson actually led the league in goals for the newly minted Calgary Flames.

1981 OFFSEASON

A busy offseason arrives as there's 2 big storylines for us:

1. The switch to a geographic division-based NHL format and playoffs
2. The arrival of Ron Francis!

We're preparing for life in the Adams Division, and I'll have an in depth look at that in the next post. And of course Ron Francis headlines the new NHL arrivals along with Chris Chelios. The rich get richer in Montreal as our division rivals now have Larry Robinson, Rod Langway, and Chris Chelios at the point....

Awards season was quiet in Hartford, as we only had Brian Propp pick up the 2nd Team All-Star spot at LW. The Canadiens have 4 out of the 6 1st Team All-Stars!
Don Cherry was fired by the Rockies, which is a funny history meets reality story. More surprising was Glen Sather being fired by the Oilers, so someone else will have to lead them to greatness.

I did 2 notable trades in the offseason, bringing in Joe Mullen and Mike O'Connell. Joe Mullen will be a mainstay at RW and a goal threat for a long time. I fleeced the Blues a bit in that trade, but I don't mind because they won their Cup. The Mike O'Connell trade was more fair, sending future Cup winning coach Joel Quenneville to his Blackhawks. O'Connell bring more of a two-way game and a righty shot to balance out our defensive corps 3L/3R.

MEET THE ADAMS FAMILY

The 1981-82 season marks the beginning of the Hartford Whalers' membership in the Adams Division, where we will be for most of our existence. I believe this to be the toughest division in hockey, so we'll have our work cut out for us. Historically Hartford was a bit of a punching bag in this division, and was often the 5th team in the standings, and therefore missed out on the playoffs. But now that I'm managing the Whalers and contending, how will it all shake out?

Our division rivals...

MONTREAL CANADIENS

The powerhouse of the division and the winningest team in hockey history. The Canadiens have been one of the best teams in the league so far in my game. They're aging a little bit from their dynasty in the 70s, but still won the Cup in '86 and '93 in our timeframe on the back of Patrick Roy.

Right now they will be tough to score on, as they are led by elite defensemen and defensive forwards like Larry Robinson, Rod Langway, Chris Chelios, Bob Gainey, and the up-and-coming Mats Naslund and Guy Carbonneau. Guy Lafleur is entering his 30s but can still light the lamp. Just an all around great franchise... to have any playoff success in the Adams Division, teams will have to go through Montreal.

BOSTON BRUINS

We don't know how the future will shake out with playoffs and everything, but the Bruins have a leg up on being our biggest rival from the get-go. Sharing the New England territory, Boston is our rival from a geographic sense. They're a tough team and we'll have to go through them as well. Last season they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals but lost against yet another team in our division...

The Bruins are led by another elite defense pairing in the veteran Brad Park and the young stud Ray Bourque. They're pretty well-rounded and have some guys who can score like Rick Middleton, and notable grit from Terry O'Reilly. If they have a weakness it's in goal, where they don't have an elite netminder unless they trade for one or draft one. I can't recall if they had any good drafted goalies historically, I just remember they had Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin who started on other teams.

BUFFALO SABRES

It's funny that the Sabres are only the 3rd team to come to mind as I'm listing the Adams Division, and they're the defending Stanley Cup champions! In truth I'm not as worried about them long-term as the Canadiens and Bruins, because a lot of their core is aging. Perhaps why they overachieved and why I should be more worried is that they're led by the legendary Scotty Bowman.

On offense, the Sabres have 2/3 of the French Connection in Gilbert Perreault and Rick Martin, both entering their 30s. Danny Gare was hot in the first couple of years but is on the decline. Craig Ramsay is also still good but aging, and Don Edwards has been one of the best goalies in the league thus far. To me it seems like they're due for a dropoff, but who knows? Scotty could get some more mileage from this team. The Sabres are a bit of a wildcard, we'll see what happens.

QUEBEC NORDIQUES

And last but not least, we have our fellow WHA import Quebec Nordiques. This team is actually sneaky good, and part of the reason why I don't think there's any pushovers in this division. Every year will be a battle for making the playoffs amongst all the 5 teams. And then the rivalries will only get deeper as we play for 2 rounds in the postseason.

The Nordiques are led by the Stastny brothers, the best of whom is of course Peter Stastny. Did you know he was 2nd in scoring for the 1980s decade behind only Wayne Gretzky? The Stastny brothers defected from Czechoslovakia and are some of the first great NHL players from behind the Iron Curtain. The Nordiques also have the excellent Michel Goulet, another top player of the 80s. They also have a young Dale Hunter and Real Cloutier, the latter of whom was super elite for Quebec in the WHA. All in all a solid team, and they'll pick up a couple of elite players later on in Joe Sakic and Eric Lindros.

1981-82 SEASON PREVIEW

I've attached the season preview... apparently the game thinks I'm one of the top 3 teams in the league? We'll see. Also, Mike Liut gets a shoutout as one of the better goalies.

The new divisional setups are here and looking good. It's the Rockies' last year before they become the Devils and adjust things a bit more.

Our lines look pretty good... I think this will be the last year I have the Rogers/Stoughton connection, so we'll see how they do. Against my better judgment I'm also rolling with the Enforcer/Agitator wingers as my extra skaters. We'll see if it helps us draw penalties.

I'm also playing Ron Francis as my 3rd center, although I think he's a bit underrated in his rookie season. In reality he was a point per game guy from the start.

1981-82 HALFWAY POINT

It's the halfway point of the season and the Whalers are in trouble. A point back of the Nordiques for the final playoff spot in the Adams, and we also have a losing record. Even worse, our best player Mark Howe just went down with an injury for 2 months.

I decided I have to shake things up. Gone are the enforcer and agitator, they were never part of my style anyway. I've also bumped the tempo setting up by one, as I noticed my players were faster than average. It fits with my ideal of a quick and effective offense too.

I've had to make some minor trades here and there, as especially on the blueline guys were getting injured a lot. Ronny Francis is also sent to the AHL as he wasn't effective... the game doesn't have him rated quite right in his rookie season.

We'll see how we get on in the 2nd half of the season, but it's going to be tough without Howe.

1981-82 END OF SEASON: SO CLOSE YET SO FAR

My changes seem to work, and Hartford mounted a valiant effort in the 2nd half of the season to go above .500 and finish the year strong. Even without Mark Howe for 2 months. But we missed the playoffs! By 1 point! It came down to the final game and we lost to the Bruins, where a win would have sent us through. We improved a lot, but Quebec had a great second half too.

I can't complain too much as Quebec was the better team, with a noticeably better goal difference. But man! The Adams Division is tough. Even tougher than I expected. Without a wildcard system like the one that exists today, you can have crazy scenarios like this one where my 83 point Whalers miss out and the 61/60 point Penguins/Canucks get in. Remember, 16/21 teams make the playoffs, so it's bizarre the Whalers are one of the teams who miss out.

I still like this old playoff system though, to be honest. Fun, with good rivalries and stories.

I've attached the final standings and point totals. Blaine Stoughton had a fantastic year with 54 goals and 105 points. Mike Rogers was injured for a bit which hindered his chances of reaching 100 points. League-wide, it was the Gretzky show again. But the Montreal pairing of Robinson/Langway was ridiculous.

We're still not quite there yet, and I want to re-tool for next year and give it another go. We've been hit by some misfortune but I still like our underlying philosophy at Hartford.

Hey, awesome idea! I am looking to do something similar for fun with the Quebec Nordiques, how did you get it so that players got automatically drafted to their in real life team? Cheers, keep up the good work.

Glad you enjoy. There's an option when you start a historical game to turn off the draft. The tooltips guide you in the right direction when you click it off I think. Give it a try, beating the Canadiens is tough!

Yes I think I found it, thank you! Keep up the good work like I said I look forwards to seeing the progression of this franchise.

1982 PLAYOFFS & INTO NEXT SEASON

I'm playing this series on 2 different computers, so in transferring back and forth sometimes I forget to take screenshots and miss stuff. When in doubt I just forge ahead.

Anyway, in this season's playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens went all the way and defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the 1983 Stanley Cup Finals. Gretzky and the Oilers were up 2-1 and 3-2 in the series, but failed to close out the well-rounded Habs. That's 2 straight seasons with Adams Division champions raising the Cup. The Oilers still have to wait for their first.

For end of season awards, I think we only had Brian Propp getting 2nd Team All-Star at LW.

As the season rolls over, we have the Colorado Rockies moving to New Jersey to become the Devils, and there will finally be some stability in the NHL teams until the 90s expansion. Although 21 teams is kind of an odd number, I do like this era of the NHL... no team feels out of place in their division or in the league.

In more interesting news, Don Cherry is named the coach of the Maple Leafs which I'm sure is a dream come true for him!

1982 OFFSEASON & SEASON PREVIEW

Finally we can run 4 full lines as the NHL now permits 18 skaters, so I adjust my team accordingly.

The big offseason move was the acquisition of Larry Murphy, who I grabbed from the Kings. The deal basically amounted to Murphy and Patrik Sundstrom for Mike Rogers and Blaine Stoughton. The Rogers/Stoughton era in Hartford is officially over. They leave as the all-time assists and goals leaders respectively in Whalers history.

Larry Murphy is obviously a premier defenseman. He's a bit more offensive than Mark Howe, and a right-handed shot. So I decided to mirror-image my tactic and turn my RDs into quarterbacks and my LDs into two-way guys. The LWs and RWs have been flipped as well. We'll see how it works out. I'm happy to have an elite #1 pairing, something that was missing when compared to a team like the Canadiens (Robinson/Langway). Murphy won the Calder Trophy in 1980-81 so we've traded for guys who were back-to-back Calder winners in Propp & Murphy.

Ron Francis has had a boost to his attributes thankfully, and the game even thinks he'll be involved in the scoring race. It'll be a seamless transition to him as my #1 center, and he takes over captain duties as well. The Whalers are starting to look pretty good and get a shoutout in the season preview.

I've also changed from Snipers to Perimeter Shooters, as my guys were more suited to that. I've run some testing and this kind of role switch doesn't make that big of difference anyway. I've started to pick up a few Swedes including Sundstrom and Hakan Loob, who will both be very good in the future.

1982-83 END OF REGULAR SEASON

Jumping right to the end of the season here, as there were no major complications. The Hartford Whalers put aside the disappointment of missing the playoffs last season, and finish in 2nd place in the Adams Division behind the Montreal Canadiens. I think we got 97 points or something like that. Forgot to take a photo again!

My philosophy is working well now, and I've attached some stats to show it. We're 5th in goals and somehow 2nd in goals against, despite playing offensive hockey. A key factor is being last in PIMs, and also having the top penalty kill in the league and 3rd ranked power play. It all adds up to 79 power play goals for, and only 27 power play goals against. That's what I've been looking for!

Our top line of Propp/Francis/Mullen did very well, with Francis' bid for 100 points only derailed by a short injury. Also, our top line finally has a healthy plus-minus which I attribute to their improved two-way play (in contrast to Rogers & Stoughton). And probably to the acquisition of Larry Murphy.

The Adams division placings went like this:

1. Canadiens
2. Whalers
3. Nordiques
4. Bruins
5. Sabres

So we'll have 2 good matchups in the 1st round, MTL/BOS and HAR/QUE. We'll try to enact revenge against Quebec for beating us to a playoff spot last year.

1983 PLAYOFFS

Hartford has won its 1st ever playoff series! We were favoured against the Nordiques and delivered, beating them 3 to 1 in the best of 5. I was happy about that, but it set up a 2nd round matchup against the defending champion Canadiens.

The series with Montreal was tough, and we almost pulled it out. We were down 2-0, before storming back to win 3 straight. Unfortunately a Game 6 loss at home sealed our fate, as we were blown out in Game 7. I attribute the loss to not having a hot goaltender. I don't know if I fully agreed with the hot-or-not indicator, as I believe Mike Liut should have been heating up a bit more, especially after his 3-0 shutout against Quebec.

We were also a bit devastated by injuries during the playoffs, especially to our defense corps. I've attached a photo of the kind of thing I was dealing with.

In the broader playoff picture, the Oilers won it all against the Rangers to claim their first championship. Wayne Gretzky was actually injured mid-playoffs, so he missed the final. But Mark Messier lifted the Cup in the end. The game has Moose as captain ahead of Gretzky anyway, I guess because of his strong leadership.

1983 OFFSEASON

Mike Liut picks up 2nd Team All-Star, and we get Sylvain Turgeon in as a rookie. In real life he hit the ground running as a teenager and had an excellent rookie campaign. But his ratings are poor right now and I learned my lesson with Ron Francis... he'll spend a year in the AHL. I think the recalc doesn't quite take into account super-teenagers, aside from Gretzky. Probably a lot of manual work for the researchers?

We also bring in Pierre Larouche, who was a great goalscorer and also played for the Whalers historically. I ship out Darryl Sutter as I have a plan to tweak the players/tactics a bit for next season. There was some other trades I think, but I won't list them all... just the new tactical approach in the next post.

1983-84 NEW TACTICS AND LINES

I've decided to go with a tweak to my tactical approach this season. I hope it's both more offensive and more defensive! What I'll be doing is adding more goalscorers and removing my two-way forwards from Lines 1-3. So it'll be a playmaker flanked by a sniper and a shooter. And then Line 4 will be a shutdown defensive line, that's prioritized to take defensive draws, play against the opposing top line, and also play on the penalty kill.

I've noticed that the bottom lines don't really get enough ice-time to score all that much, so it's a bit of a waste to have goalscorers and playmakers there. They usually end up being minus players. So I've given the 4th Line a new purpose, and freed up the Top 9 guys to score more goals. Now the wingers are all focused solely on putting the puck in the net, so hopefully we'll be hearing Brass Bonanza more often in Hartford. The sniper/shooter combo gives a bit of a different attacking approach on each line, though I don't know how much that matters to the game engine.

The cool thing about my setup now is that the 4th Line is matched up against the opposing 1st, freeing up my other lines to match up against slightly weaker lines. My 1st is matched against their 2nd, 2nd matched against 3rd, and 3rd matched against 4th. So hopefully that'll allow them all to be better than the opposing players and score more goals.

For the 4th Line... we've picked up Gaeten Duchesne in a trade, Brent Peterson on waivers, and drafted Greg Gilbert in-house. They're all playing as backchecking forwards and have their sliders set to defend only. I've also tweaked their tactics a bit to dump the puck in, slow the tempo down, and play a less skilled game. They're there to prevent goals. We'll see how it goes.

I know I'm deviating from my original philosophy of no checking lines. But one should never be inflexible, there's always opportunity to adapt. I think because of how icetime works, there's a certain percentage of time in a game where you have to focus on defense... whether it's on the PK, against a skilled line, or a defensive zone faceoff. Plus it'll be fun to have 6 wingers all set to sniper/shooter and have the centers and defensemen feeding them.

1983-84 END OF SEASON: WHALERS HARPOON THE WALES

Just a fantastic pun in the title there. I never really thought about how fitting it was that the Whalers were in the Wales Conference until now.

A great season for Hartford as we finish with 110 points, our best ever showing and tops in the division and conference. Only the Oilers with a whopping 136 points had more in the NHL.

I like our tactical/lines setup now for sure. A lot of our success comes down to having a lot of good players now, but I believe the changes helped as well. If you check the player stats, our 4th Line members were 2, 3, and 4th in the league in GA/60. That's remarkable and more than anyone could dream from a checking line. Gaeten Duchense also got a Selke nomination.

Also, we were #2 or #1 in all major statistical categories. Tops in PP and PK %. But still near the bottom in drawing penalties, I guess that's the price you pay for playing less aggressively. Joe Mullen was 2nd in goals with 68, half of them on the power play. Ron Francis was near the top in assists and points. And everyone's plus-minus is much improved too. Our goalies were almost an even platoon, with Greg Millen seemingly hotter.

Millen will get the nod against the Buffalo Sabres, who we face in the 1st Round.

1984 PLAYOFFS & AWARDS

I don't have any screenshots of the playoffs, but it was a disappointing 1st Round exit to the Sabres, who barely squeaked into the playoffs. Amazingly Buffalo went all the way to the Cup final, only to be swept by the juggernaut Oilers. We've built a good team, but you need some extra luck sometimes in the playoffs. Especially in our tough division.

We've picked up some postseason hardware, which is nice. Joe Mullen won the Lady Byng, which is a trophy that I hope our team wins a lot with our low PIM style. He had a really nice season with 68 goals and 124 points.

Gaeten Duchense also won the Selke, which is a great nod to our checking line. Duchense played high pressure minutes against opposing top lines, was prioritized for defensive faceoffs, and played on the top PK unit. And he still finished with an excellent +16 rating! I highlighted before how our 4th Line guys were so good at preventing goals this season.

Greg Millen was nominated for the Vezina and finished as a 2nd Team All-Star. It's kind of annoying that he was hot, because I want to emphasize Mike Liut on these 80s Whalers. Having a hot goalie seems to mean a lot in FHM. The Oilers swept the 1st Team All-Stars, wow.

Also, we scored 98 PP goals and only gave up 33 PK goals. That's gotta be some sort of record on the PK. Special teams is working as designed for sure. We'll get that Cup eventually. I hope. But even if we get through the Adams Division we'll probably have to face the Oilers!

1984 OFFSEASON

We pick up a couple of cool players in the intake -- Ray Ferraro and Sylvain Cote. I think Hartford has a pretty dry spell for much of the rest of its history in the draft. So we'll really have to protect and recycle the assets we do have.

Super Mario comes into the league this season, so he'll be the best chance to challenge Gretzky's crazy numbers. Ron Francis was listed as one of the better players in the NHL the last couple of seasons, but now there's some big talent starting to come up. Patrick Roy also joins the Canadiens. Great. :(

We've sent Engblom and some OK depth to the Jets for Dave Babych. I've been decimated by injuries to defense in past years, especially during the playoffs. Larry Murphy missed the playoffs last season. I've brought in Babych (who played for the Whalers IRL too) to play equal minutes with Howe/Murphy on the 2nd defense pairing. The hope is that spreading the minutes around will limit injuries. And it's nice to upgrade the team too.

We've dropped all pretext of being fair in assembling this team, it's a juggernaut now. We have to compete with the Adams Division and the Oilers too. The 1984-85 season preview has us as Cup favourites. Go Whalers!

This last picture, is that setting for 4th line ?

Yes, that's right. They're on their own settings while Lines 1-3 play more offensive.

Can You please post pictures of your 1st,2nd and 3rd line unit settings ? :)

They're in the same post here, 2nd image: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...2&postcount=35

Only change for individual players is that I bump Shooting up 1 notch and Backchecking down 1 notch for the wingers.

I think there's a few more settings that need scrolling down like DZ Coverage. It's covered in this image: https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...1&d=1593463306

Except I have since changed SH DZ Coverage to Aggressive Box.

1984-85 SEASON PREVIEW & LINES

The game has us as the Stanley Cup favourite, though we place 2nd in the positional rankings to the Oilers.

Our lineup is pretty darn good, with Dave Babych giving us a 3rd elite defenseman. He arrives along with the returning Joel Quenneville. These two moves increase our mustache power exponentially. I suspect we may have the best Stache/60 in the NHL.

Sylvain Turgeon has also got a big ratings boost, and I can easily call him up to the show to serve as a sniper. He'll slot in on the first line with Ron Francis on a bid to get him the Calder Trophy. That leaves Brian Propp as our 2nd Line LW which is amazing. Him and Hakan Loob have no business being 2nd Liners, but our team is that good. And yet still we are maybe a touch behind the Oilers in strength!

I've swapped the snipers/shooters around via LW/RW, if you're keeping score. It suited the current lineup a little better.

1984-85 HALFWAY POINT

As we turn the calendar over to 1985 I have a quick update. We sit in 1st in the Adams, just a bit above Montreal. Sylvain Turgeon is having a great rookie season, and is near the top of the league in points. Our goaltending/defense has also been great.

But the bad news is that Mark Howe got injured in December... a 5 month elbow injury! Ouch. I've had some rotten luck with defensemen injuries. He'll maybe be able to come back if we make a deep playoff run. But it'll hurt us in the meantime. Glad I picked up Babych who can easily slot on the 1st pairing with Larry Murphy.

At least Ron Francis was named best role model...

1984-85 END OF SEASON

The Whalers top the Wales again! Beating the Canadiens out by 1 point. It's the Sabres turn to be aggrieved, as they miss the playoffs on 84 points, while the 57 point Flyers make it in. That Adams Division...

Ron Francis was #10 in points and #5 in assists. Also #5 in faceoffs, just an awesome all around player. And already a legend in Hartford. Gretzky is the first player ever to eclipse 200 points, as he grabs 205. He was having some sort of endless point streak until it was stopped by the Whalers though!

Sylvain Turgeon was having an awesome rookie campaign, but unfortunately he missed a lot of time due to injury. Nevertheless, 95 points in 62 games is really impressive. He should win the Calder over Mario Lemieux, who isn't quite unstoppable yet.

We were 2nd in most offensive categories to the Oilers, and 1st in most defensive categories.

The Adams Division playoff has Hartford taking on Quebec, and Montreal against Boston. I would like to see us get past the 2nd Round this time. We'll see.

1985 PLAYOFFS: 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS

The Whalers have made it to the Conference Finals for the 1st time! We swept Quebec, not much to discuss there. The 1st game was a crazy 8-6 shootout.

In the 2nd Round we got our revenge against (who I think is our biggest rival) the Montreal Canadiens. It was a tight series with 2 OT games, even though we won 4-1 overall. Larry Murphy came through in the deciding Game 5, with 2 goals from the point including the winner in OT.

That sets up a Wales Conference showdown with the New York Islanders, a team that has been a constant in the playoffs but never quite got over the hump.

The game considers the Islanders as my potential rival, and I have no main rival. It's kind of weird considering there have been a few seasons of Adams Division hockey. I believe the rival system values PIMs quite highly, and we never have games filled will too many penalties. I guess since we were swept by the Islanders way back when in the playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Islanders, Denis Potvin is injured, so we have the clear advantage on defense even though Mark Howe is still injured and Dave Babych is day-to-day. They also have mediocre goaltending with Kelly Hrudey not at his best yet. But they do have some great forwards, with Mike Bossy still scoring and Bryan Trottier a great player. Pat Lafontaine also got 100 points, seemingly from the 3rd Line?? Also cool that the AI is playing 2 of the Sutter brothers together.

Over in the Campbell Conference, the Hawks have their hands full with the Oilers. All-in-all I'm glad we get to face NYI, who are probably the class of the Patrick Division at the moment. Go Whalers!

Fast forward to what everyone's been waiting for!

1985 STANLEY CUP FINALS PREVIEW

There's not much to discuss with the Conference Finals. As shown in the previous post, our Whalers and the opposing Oilers both swept our opponents. The Oilers even have an undefeated playoffs going so far. The game now considers the Islanders my main rival, which is strange considering the only 2 playoff series' between us were one-sided sweeps. I believe it takes PIMs into account quite a lot, and the Islanders are more physical.

Anyway, I've attached some photos showing the Whalers and Oilers points so far in the playoffs, and our lineups. Francis is leading the way with 21 points, while Gretzky has 31 for the Oilers already. He's just on a different level. We'll have to hope that our better depth will help us prevail.

The other worrying thing is that Grant Fuhr comes to the series with maximum hotness, while Mike Liut only has 1 flame. I don't necessarily agree with how the game assigns goalie hotness, and it's very hard to generate if you don't give up a lot of shots.

Whatever happens, we're Prince of Wales champions, and already much more successful than the historical Whalers. Go Hartford!

1985 STANLEY CUP FINALS

The 1980s Edmonton Oilers, one of the greatest teams of all time (probably even the greatest) are battling it out with the upstart Hartford Whalers managed by yours truly. I was excited to kick things off, and here's how it broke down:

Game 1: HAR 3 @ EDM 4
A fairly even affair, with the shots 38-32 for the Oilers. Edmonton took advantage of the Whalers' Stanley Cup jitters as the scored 2 first period goals. Gretzky had a goal and an assist, with Coffey as the 1st Star.

Game 2: HAR 2 @ EDM 3
Another close game, with Paul Coffey again picking up 1st Star with a goal and an assist. Penalty minutes are low in the series, 4 PIMs each for the Oilers and Whalers in both games so far. Two skilled teams going at it.

Game 3: EDM 5 @ HAR 2
This was a tough result to take. The Whalers pounded Grant Fuhr over and over with shots, and he shut the door. Shots were 42-34 in favour of the Whalers, as we drop the first ever Stanley Cup game played in front of Hartford fans. Paul Coffey again picked up the 1st Star, with a goal and two helpers. The Whalers are in danger of getting shutout, and the Oilers could sweep the entire playoffs.

Game 4: EDM 3 @ HAR 4
A miracle comeback in Game 4! Whalers win, and deny the postseason sweep! Down 3-2 going into the 3rd period, we scored 2 in the final frame, including the winning goal with 4 seconds left by Hartford legend Mark Howe. Keith Brown finishes as the 1st Star for some reason, although Brian Propp picks up 3 assists.

Game 5: HAR 3 @ EDM 2
Yet another close game, as Hartford pounds Grant Fuhr with 42 shots and we pick up the win to stay alive back in Edmonton. Brian Propp had 2 goals, and Patrik Sundstrom picked up the 1st Star with 2 assists. The Oilers' discipline is starting to unravel, as they had 14 & 16 PIMs in the last two games, compared to the Whalers zero.

Game 6: EDM 5 @ HAR 1
Unfortunately, what was a close series ends in embarrassment as we're outgunned on home ice. Gretzky picks up 3 assists to get the 1st Star and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Although we put up a good effort and denied the postseason sweep, we're still a step behind Edmonton and they go on to win their 3rd straight Stanley Cup.

I've attached photos of the overall playoff picture, as well as the Game 4 Miracle -- the highlight of the Stanley Cup Finals for Whalers fans. We'll be back at it next year for another shot!

1985 OFFSEASON

I didn't make any major moves in the offseason for I think the first time? Basically we'll be running with the same team and give it another go. Maybe it will help to build up the chemistry as much as possible.

As far as awards go, Ron Francis picked up the Lady Byng Trophy along with 2nd Team All-Star honours. I've got the Byng on lockdown! It's his first major award although it unfortunately doesn't show as an icon on his profile. He was also in the running for the Selke but lost out to teammate Gaetan Duchesne, who won it for the 2nd time in a row. Mike Liut picked up the Jennings for fewest goals against. And Sylvain Turgeon got the Calder Trophy for his great rookie season, just as I was aiming for.

All in all a good year for the Whalers. We're predicted as Cup champions for next season, though I'm sure the Oilers aren't far behind in the ratings.