Suggestions: Transfers, Nationalities, New Leagues

[vtmx]

Even though the game is becoming better and better every year, there are some things which break my immersion really easily. I can think of a few things off the top of my head:

1) Transfers to the VHL
Most of the time, I play with teams from either the Czech or the Slovak Extraliga. One thing that bugs me endlessly is the way how teams from these leagues give up their youngest, brightest stars and send them to the VHL, which is just unrealistic. An 18 year old kid who has NHL potential would never sign in the Russian minors. I don't know if there's a way to fix this, but if there is, please make it harder for VHL teams to sign players. I'm asking a lot, I know, but it really breaks my immersion into the game.

2) Stars signing in the minors (lowering the budgets of non-playable teams)
Jiří Hudler, a former NHL star, just signed to SK Kadaň of the Czech first division in my game. Since this annoyed me a lot (because Kadaň in real life is last in the standings by a long shot and has virtually no budget), I decided to check out their roster, only to find out that they have also signed Roman Červenka. Kadaň was the only team that had the finances to sing these players... why? Why does a Czech minor league team have more than a million dollars to sing free agents? In order to fix this really annoying feature, I'd lower the budgets of these clubs.

3) Players gaining new nationalities
While this is a cool feature to but in the game, some of these are just unrealistic. Sidney Crosby gaining an American citizenship and then going on to play for the USA at the Olympics literally made me stop playing for a few weeks, just because of how stupid it is. If it would be possible, I'd make it impossible for Canadian players to gain American citizenship or vice versa. Or, I'd make it impossible for European players playing in the NHL to gain the citizenship of the country they are playing in. I'd hate to see, say, Petr Mrázek getting an American citizenship and then representing the US, just because he spent a few seasons in Detroit.

4) New Leagues
It's awesome how you guys expand the game every year and add more and more playable leagues. In the following installments, I'd love to be able to play with teams from the NCAA, U Sports, the Alps HL and the WSM Liga. Just food for thought...

[number1alien]

Originally Posted by vtmx

If it would be possible, I'd make it impossible for Canadian players to gain American citizenship or vice versa. Or, I'd make it impossible for European players playing in the NHL to gain the citizenship of the country they are playing in.

That would be weird and unrealistic, considering a lot of players playing in North America *do* end up acquiring American or Canadian citizenship. Admittedly, this usually happens very early in a player's career (because they moved to North America before becoming draft-eligible), but it is a lot more common than you might think considering that it is much easier to live and work in the United States as a citizen.

The only problem I'll agree with is that it is extremely rare for them to even try to get the IIHF to allow them to switch their international allegiance (the only one I can think of is Petr Nedved, and he switched from Canada to the Czech Republic). The likelihood of a marquee player, especially one that has won major tournaments with their birth country, switching allegiance mid-career is extremely unlikely, but I don't think that it should be made completely impossible. There's some weird characters in the hockey world.

Definitely agree with you on adding more playable leagues, though!

[Alessandro]

Originally Posted by vtmx

Even though the game is becoming better and better every year, there are some things which break my immersion really easily. I can think of a few things off the top of my head:

1) Transfers to the VHL
Most of the time, I play with teams from either the Czech or the Slovak Extraliga. One thing that bugs me endlessly is the way how teams from these leagues give up their youngest, brightest stars and send them to the VHL, which is just unrealistic. An 18 year old kid who has NHL potential would never sign in the Russian minors. I don't know if there's a way to fix this, but if there is, please make it harder for VHL teams to sign players. I'm asking a lot, I know, but it really breaks my immersion into the game.

I have seen this myself. Maybe it's not as dramatic as you write, but it does indeed happen. And it of course makes no sense. I would consider most of these moves very unrealistic if they signed in the KHL, let alone in the VHL.

3) Players gaining new nationalities
While this is a cool feature to but in the game, some of these are just unrealistic. Sidney Crosby gaining an American citizenship and then going on to play for the USA at the Olympics literally made me stop playing for a few weeks, just because of how stupid it is. If it would be possible, I'd make it impossible for Canadian players to gain American citizenship or vice versa. Or, I'd make it impossible for European players playing in the NHL to gain the citizenship of the country they are playing in. I'd hate to see, say, Petr Mrázek getting an American citizenship and then representing the US, just because he spent a few seasons in Detroit.

Well, while this does go on to an extreme in the game, IRL the Americans are "cheating" a lot with this. Every year at the WJC U18 americans squads are full of Russians, swedish, etc. players. Galchenyuk, Pastujov, Lodnia, Wahlstrom
And in the future it will be even "worse" with all of those sons of NHL players

[Kinsella19]

Originally Posted by Alessandro

I have seen this myself. Maybe it's not as dramatic as you write, but it does indeed happen. And it of course makes no sense. I would consider most of these moves very unrealistic if they signed in the KHL, let alone in the VHL.



Well, while this does go on to an extreme in the game, IRL the Americans are "cheating" a lot with this. Every year at the WJC U18 americans squads are full of Russians, swedish, etc. players. Galchenyuk, Pastujov, Lodnia, Wahlstrom
And in the future it will be even "worse" with all of those sons of NHL players

Literally all of the players that you mentioned were born in the United States. Why shouldn't they be allowed to represent the country that they were born in? How on earth is this "cheating"?

[number1alien]

Originally Posted by Kinsella19

Literally all of the players that you mentioned were born in the United States. Why shouldn't they be allowed to represent the country that they were born in? How on earth is this "cheating"?

I'll agree that calling them cheating is definitely inaccurate; according to Elite Prospects, all of them except for Lodnia are dual citizens. If you are a citizen of a country, then there is nothing preventing you from being called up to represent that country.

The point is that 'nationality' and 'birth country' are not the same thing: being born in a country does not automatically make you a citizen in most of the world. Here is a personal example: my having been born on Canadian soil does not invalidate my Polish citizenship, nor does being a Polish citizen invalidate my Canadian citizenship; as a dual-citizen, I would have the choice to represent either country if I was actually talented enough to do so (though, let's be honest: Poland needs more help than Canada).

IIHF rules pertaining to nationality fall in line with this: dual nationals will select one country to represent. This can be changed once during your career, and the IIHF has a list of requirements in order to do so.

Either way, removing dual nationality from the game would not be realistic at all. Considering the fact that professional leagues in North America that are not the NHL are seen as feeder or developmental leagues instead of independent and professional leagues in their own right, there is a dearth of reasonably-paid spots for players in Canada and the United States. Scores of them move to Europe every year so that they can play competitively; many of them stay long enough to become citizens, compete for the national team of their adopted country, and give birth to children that also end up competing for their European national team (this is very common in the Netherlands and Belgium, for instance).

[Alessandro]

Originally Posted by Kinsella19

Literally all of the players that you mentioned were born in the United States. Why shouldn't they be allowed to represent the country that they were born in? How on earth is this "cheating"?

I haven't said that they shouldn't represent the USA. I just said that they are getting some advantage also mostly due to all the NHL players fathers they get.
Lodnia, Chmelevsky, Galchenyuk, Pastujov, and the likes, hardly talk English at home...
Btw, Galchenyuk moved to the US when he was 14. Chmelevsky I am 99% sure that was born in Ukraine (moved to the US very, very young though, I think when he was 2-3)