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jbaxter · 10-20-2016, 08:09 AM

Scouting should be among the more interesting parts of the game, especially as it is one of the principal causes of interruptions by emails. But the interface is too complicated for most people to bother. I have a few solutions that might be worth considering for a mid-season upgrade.

1) Allow some scouts to be permanently assigned to a league or territory. Having to reassign them every 16 weeks or less is a major pain.

2) Some scouts are very good technically, but have no network for what's called bird-dogging (finding hidden gems in far flung parts of a league). Other scouts with excellent networks aren't really that great at the technical and projecting how a player will ultimately develop. Rare are the David Conte-types who can do both.

You should also break the scouting function into two: amateur and pro. The two skills are very different, as noted in your differentiating between potential and ability.

The scouting budget should be allocated by the GM between the Director of Amateur Scouting and a Director of Pro Scouting. If the team is in rebuilding mode, the GM can move more money into amateur scouting; if it's tweaking the roster during a Cup run, it might want to focus more on the pro side.

3) Fired GMs and coaches often come back to scouting while they wait out their time in purgatory (Rick Dudley). You should break down the hiring barriers (head coach, assistant coach, scout) and allow anyone to be hired to any job. For the head coach job, the player management, strategy and leadership numbers would be most important, whereas for the assistant coaches, the focus would be more on skills and tactics.

Still with hiring and firing, the owner often blocks the firing of a coach. That simply wouldn't happen. If a GM wants to get rid of a coach, the owner has no choice but to let him. That said, there would be a corresponding reduction in the owner's patience in the GM, so it's not without a cost. But the notion that an owner would keep a GM from making the moves that he feels are needed to improve the team simply wouldn't happen.

4) I like what you've done in the personnel window, allowing for assistant coaches to be given different roles. Might I suggest another breakdown would be specialty teams (PP & PK) that would require a top tactics person. The more you invest in top coaches, the better your player development and performance will be.

Another investment here would be a solid "advance scout" or "video scout" whose only job is to give you a scouting report on the upcoming teams.

5) Finally, there's a well-understood adage in hockey that good coaching will win you 5 games and bad coaching will lose you 10. There's always a danger in these games of putting too much emphasis on the coaching, at least at the pro level. At the AHL and other levels, coaches play a greater role in developing talent than in affecting the outcome of games. Coaches come and go. Scouting, drafting and transactions are what make or break teams.

10-20-2016, 08:09 AM	#1
jbaxter Minors (Double A) Join Date: Oct 2016 Posts: 107	Scouting Scouting should be among the more interesting parts of the game, especially as it is one of the principal causes of interruptions by emails. But the interface is too complicated for most people to bother. I have a few solutions that might be worth considering for a mid-season upgrade. 1) Allow some scouts to be permanently assigned to a league or territory. Having to reassign them every 16 weeks or less is a major pain. 2) Some scouts are very good technically, but have no network for what's called bird-dogging (finding hidden gems in far flung parts of a league). Other scouts with excellent networks aren't really that great at the technical and projecting how a player will ultimately develop. Rare are the David Conte-types who can do both. You should also break the scouting function into two: amateur and pro. The two skills are very different, as noted in your differentiating between potential and ability. The scouting budget should be allocated by the GM between the Director of Amateur Scouting and a Director of Pro Scouting. If the team is in rebuilding mode, the GM can move more money into amateur scouting; if it's tweaking the roster during a Cup run, it might want to focus more on the pro side. 3) Fired GMs and coaches often come back to scouting while they wait out their time in purgatory (Rick Dudley). You should break down the hiring barriers (head coach, assistant coach, scout) and allow anyone to be hired to any job. For the head coach job, the player management, strategy and leadership numbers would be most important, whereas for the assistant coaches, the focus would be more on skills and tactics. Still with hiring and firing, the owner often blocks the firing of a coach. That simply wouldn't happen. If a GM wants to get rid of a coach, the owner has no choice but to let him. That said, there would be a corresponding reduction in the owner's patience in the GM, so it's not without a cost. But the notion that an owner would keep a GM from making the moves that he feels are needed to improve the team simply wouldn't happen. 4) I like what you've done in the personnel window, allowing for assistant coaches to be given different roles. Might I suggest another breakdown would be specialty teams (PP & PK) that would require a top tactics person. The more you invest in top coaches, the better your player development and performance will be. Another investment here would be a solid "advance scout" or "video scout" whose only job is to give you a scouting report on the upcoming teams. 5) Finally, there's a well-understood adage in hockey that good coaching will win you 5 games and bad coaching will lose you 10. There's always a danger in these games of putting too much emphasis on the coaching, at least at the pro level. At the AHL and other levels, coaches play a greater role in developing talent than in affecting the outcome of games. Coaches come and go. Scouting, drafting and transactions are what make or break teams. Last edited by jbaxter; 10-20-2016 at 08:13 AM.