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
- 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.
- Recalc is On: Players will be roughly the same skill level as historically.
- 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!