FA is Flooded with high-end prospects teams should have signed

[artlan]

This has been the case with FHM8. Hopefully Jeff can provide some clarification.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by BlueLemming

Yup, these are their draft positions:

Sale - 8th overall
Barlow - 9th overall
Cristal - 4th overall
Halttunen - 62nd overall
Oremba - 47th overall
Van Mulligen - 104th overall
Musty - 22nd overall
Lallier - 28th overall

I've since simmed ahead, but here's the transaction history of the first 3:

Ah, from the screenshots this looks similar to something that was reported the other day, a few players who aren't getting returned to their NHL-contracted team properly at the end of a year in which they're loaned to a CHL team. That's leading to them eventually getting released at 20 as if they're property of the CHL team. Not sure hoe that's happening, but we'll get it figured out. Not likely an AI issue; with them stuck on the junior teams the NHL team's AI doesn't have a way of renewing the contract when it needs to.

[BlueLemming]

Originally Posted by Swedishgamefreak

Yeah the draft classes are terrible after a while. I'm in 2027 draft and there are a couple top prospects but after first and second round, there are a bunch of 1-2 star potential players. It's almost like players doesn't develop like they should be doing. :/

Yeah, it gets pretty rough. By around 2027~ I'll edit the league to 3 or 4 draft rounds (since it's 1.5 stars at best after that), and then I start drafting by highest current ability.

This FA issue and the quality of generated prospects are the 2 big pain points for me. Hopefully this FA issue fixed, but a way to edit quality of prospects would be really nice too.

[bandwagonfan]

Originally Posted by BlueLemming

Yeah, it gets pretty rough. By around 2027~ I'll edit the league to 3 or 4 draft rounds (since it's 1.5 stars at best after that), and then I start drafting by highest current ability.

This FA issue and the quality of generated prospects are the 2 big pain points for me. Hopefully this FA issue fixed, but a way to edit quality of prospects would be really nice too.

Yeah, I agree. The first 3 years are absolutely stacked. You can literally draft a player in 6th round who will turn out to be 3 star player. After those first few years anything after 1st round is garbage. They need to balance it.

[reverist]

Originally Posted by bandwagonfan

Yeah, I agree. The first 3 years are absolutely stacked. You can literally draft a player in 6th round who will turn out to be 3 star player. After those first few years anything after 1st round is garbage. They need to balance it.

I'm not sure about this. That is to say, in real-life NHL, I think it's somewhere around the fourth round that you see it becoming rare to have a stable NHL career, much less a solid three-star player (which, as best I can tell, is a top 6 forward or a top 4 d-man). There also are dud drafts irl, at least in comparison to others. Do you mean that, over a course of a sufficient number of seasons after the first few (say, 15 years into a save) that the average number of prospects in the draft who become regular NHL-ers is lower than real life? If it is about in line with real-life proportions, then I think it is OK.

Perhaps not, though: not everyone wants everything to be just like it is in real life. If so, that is definitely your prerogative.

[Whomario]

Originally Posted by reverist

I'm not sure about this. That is to say, in real-life NHL, I think it's somewhere around the fourth round that you see it becoming rare to have a stable NHL career, much less a solid three-star player (which, as best I can tell, is a top 6 forward or a top 4 d-man). There also are dud drafts irl, at least in comparison to others. Do you mean that, over a course of a sufficient number of seasons after the first few (say, 15 years into a save) that the average number of prospects in the draft who become regular NHL-ers is lower than real life? If it is about in line with real-life proportions, then I think it is OK.

Perhaps not, though: not everyone wants everything to be just like it is in real life. If so, that is definitely your prerogative.

In FHM7 at least and the few available YT videos i saw from FHM8 (that went to later season 7,8,9 years in), which i skipped, every draft after the first couple was weak to the point that even late 2nd rounders barely ever had anybody available with more than 2 star potential.
Maybe part of the issue was/is in fact some inflation of current prospects and early draft prospects as well as a misunderstanding what, say, 2* means (still a valid NHLer for many teams). But it also was true that later drafts, not just the 4th or 5th but all after, were much weaker than the early ones. Suggesting it was both to do with lack of real prospects in the database (todays 14,15 year olds which ideally should be supplemented by the game adding Regens*) but also with the game generated later prospect pools.

As an aside it also always felt too linear to me in terms of sleepers/busts.

I decided to give the game another go in the current sale, at least partly due to encouraging posts by Jeff re: this issue (that 1) the early real prospect quality was spread out better and 2) game generated pools maintain the level of these) but haven't gotten far enough in my save to judge it myself.

* I literally don't follow IRL hockey a ton, much less the juniors so couldn't tell if that is happening or not without going on a google expedition.

[Whomario]

Originally Posted by BlueLemming

Yeah, it gets pretty rough. By around 2027~ I'll edit the league to 3 or 4 draft rounds (since it's 1.5 stars at best after that), and then I start drafting by highest current ability.

This FA issue and the quality of generated prospects are the 2 big pain points for me. Hopefully this FA issue fixed, but a way to edit quality of prospects would be really nice too.

Wouldn't another possible workaround be manually adding X amount of 2,3,4,5* potential players via the Edit Screen (Create Player Option)?

You can create them with a random name so unless you specifically pay attention it should not be an issue of recognizing them, especially since presumably it would be best to add them a few years before their draft eligibility (so in essence every season create a bunch of 13 year olds spread out over the different positions and nationalities). Push comes to shove this might be sth. worth trying.

[bandwagonfan]

Originally Posted by reverist

I'm not sure about this. That is to say, in real-life NHL, I think it's somewhere around the fourth round that you see it becoming rare to have a stable NHL career, much less a solid three-star player (which, as best I can tell, is a top 6 forward or a top 4 d-man). There also are dud drafts irl, at least in comparison to others. Do you mean that, over a course of a sufficient number of seasons after the first few (say, 15 years into a save) that the average number of prospects in the draft who become regular NHL-ers is lower than real life? If it is about in line with real-life proportions, then I think it is OK.

Perhaps not, though: not everyone wants everything to be just like it is in real life. If so, that is definitely your prerogative.

What I meant by that is this. 6th/7th round full of players who can easily play in NHL if there were more roster spots. NHL average skill level in FHM universe after 5-6 years has increased massively. I may be wrong, but it shouldnt be like that.

[viperswhip]

I definitely wouldn't mind if there were weak draft classes and then randomly every few years a good strong one and every 10 years or so a generational player like Bedard.