We let our Goalie Coach go and fire Skill Coach Chris Chelios (my advisor, Ron Hextall, didn't like him).
Anyway, we hire two new assistant coaches and 4 new scouts.
44 yo Jared Boynton is the new Goalie Coach. 15 training Goalies and 17 training Prospects. Now all I need is a goalie prospect.
47 yo Tom Carbaugh is the new Skill Coach. 15 training Prospects and 17 training Physical skills. Hopefully he will help our guys get a little faster so we can forecheck better
To make it easy, we signed two scouts with Great Evaluate Ability and two scouts with Great Evaluate Potential. Most of our guys are Very Good or worse, so we improved our scouting a little, even though the guys are late 50s early 60s guys. I like to get guys who will be around a longer time.
Now on to free agency. My best player right now is Shane Gostisbehere, who is 3.5/3.5. I have 3 other 3.5 star potential players, ALL defensemen. I have one 5 star potential in Kaliyev, who is 3.0/5.0 and a rookie this season. I have 3 players who are unsigned draftees that are 4 stars or higher potential, so there is some future for us. Right now, I need a top tier goalie and maybe a top tier C or RW, if I can find them. My financial page says I have $33M available to sign free agents, so that will help. Of course, I have 47 players currently under contract so not much space unless I start dropping players. Let's see if anyone is available to pick up.
Three 4 star guys available, none American. Led by Ovi and Dougie Hamilton. Two 3 star American players available, both LW. I already have Kaliyev and JVR at LW, so no real upgrade there.
When I was resigning players last season, Nick Bjugstad wanted over $5M. Now, in free agency, he's asking for a little over $2M. I can do that! I would have given him $3M last season, but he got greedy.
I put in offers for RW Cole Bardreau (2.5/2.5) and C Nick Bjugstad (2.5/2.5). I still have space for one more contract and I will start considering buying out some players if both these guys sign.
Received several national team offers, declined them all.
Bjugstad signs on the 5th, 3 years, $2.04M a year. After a bit of a bidding war, I sign Bardreau as well, 2 years, $1.85M a year. I shop RD Eric Jeremiah (1.5/1.5) and am offered a FOURTH round pick for him. This is an easy accept, especially since the few other offers were players that were old or bad or both. I tried to shop around 1.5/1.5 Center TJ Tynan, but somehow he has a no trade clause, so I put him on the trade block. I also add a couple of 27+ minor leaguers to the trade block. I may shop more later, but I should be good with 2 spots open.