AI still not trading draft picks...

[handsome]

i've simmed two seasons and noticed that the ai still isn't trading draft picks in the nhl. of the 92 trades that have taken place only 4 involved draft picks. it is a little better in the junior leagues or atleast the ohl where 78 trades were made 29 of them involved draft picks.

[JeffR]

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out the exact cause of this. The AI doesn't seem to have a problem taking them in a trade with a human GM, and the AI-AI trade system actually makes fairly extensive use of them to balance deals. My best guess right now is that it may be too many teams being at the NHL 50-contract limit, which makes a pick-for-player deal impossible for some of them. So the solution may be either somehow forcing them to keep a contract spot or two in reserve for trades, or, if a team's at the contract limit, having them include their worst minor-leaguer as a throw-in to make the deal work (but that's going to be tricky.)

[Sebmono]

How in the heck are so many teams at the 50 contract limit when teams IRL are rarely, if ever, at that limit?

Also, are you including the exception that 18- and 19-year old players with remaining major junior eligibility, or a player who is drafted from a European team who is then selected in the CHL Import Draft, does not count toward the contract limit until he has played at least 11 NHL games, if the player is assigned to his major-junior team?

I think a solution to this problem (and potentially other roster problems) would be an economic one, assign opportunity costs to the roster limits. These would be exponentially increasing costs so that the first 30 spots or so would be relatively costless but they would increase faster after that. This should keep room based on the decision valuation of "Does this player and their potential have a value equal to or greater than that or the next available roster spot?" That could be followed by "is the cost of cutting a player and opening up the next least cost spot less than the value gained by signing this player?" This would all be part of roster management AI and something similar could be extended to govern trade AI

[AEWHistory]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out the exact cause of this. The AI doesn't seem to have a problem taking them in a trade with a human GM, and the AI-AI trade system actually makes fairly extensive use of them to balance deals. My best guess right now is that it may be too many teams being at the NHL 50-contract limit, which makes a pick-for-player deal impossible for some of them. So the solution may be either somehow forcing them to keep a contract spot or two in reserve for trades, or, if a team's at the contract limit, having them include their worst minor-leaguer as a throw-in to make the deal work (but that's going to be tricky.)

Playing history mode a few days ago I finally got the computer to give me a draft pick... a first rounder no less! Of course I traded a young Chico Resch, a 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 8th for Detroit's 1st Round pick (#8), so I didn't exactly fleece them (that's a deal that could easily look bad in a couple years). Nevertheless, I thought it was worth noting that I got one of these deals completed and in a very realistic sort of way IMHO.

[Duranium]

Originally Posted by AEWHistory

Playing history mode a few days ago I finally got the computer to give me a draft pick... a first rounder no less! Of course I traded a young Chico Resch, a 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 8th for Detroit's 1st Round pick (#8), so I didn't exactly fleece them (that's a deal that could easily look bad in a couple years). Nevertheless, I thought it was worth noting that I got one of these deals completed and in a very realistic sort of way IMHO.

there´s still some need to balance out the trade value of 1st rounders in historic mode. Before the hotfix it was too easy to get them, now with 1.6.8 AI controlled teams mostly don´t trade them at all. Had to cut some salary and offered Guy Lapointe 9.0/9.0, a franchise d-man and not one team didn´t even consider moving the pick for him (normally you should get a boatload of picks AND other assets for him). Anyway, i´m sure they will improve this in the future and i already talked to Seb and told him to make a list with the many glitches still existing in historical mode.

Btw - Chico Resch develops into an approx. 7.5 starting goalie