How is the Swedish Hockey League?

[Peter-]

Hi guys. A few questions and thoughts. How is the SHL (Swedish Hockey League) updated in this game around squads and teams overall? And are the league rules like in real life? Only interested in playing SHL in this game and if I'm gonna play the game I want it to be as IRL. Would be interesting to hear from you who have tried it, checked it out or something 🙂

[Sammalinen]

Originally Posted by Peter-

Hi guys. A few questions and thoughts. How is the SHL (Swedish Hockey League) updated in this game around squads and teams overall? And are the league rules like in real life? Only interested in playing SHL in this game and if I'm gonna play the game I want it to be as IRL. Would be interesting to hear from you who have tried it, checked it out or something ��

Hejsan från Finland!

Haven't tried Elitserien but played Finnish Liiga for a season to get an idea are European leagues left without tlc or not. I'd assume Elitserien or Liiga are pretty same, when it comes to detail level, league rules etc. Apparently NA leagues receive most of focus as it's the biggest market.

First of all, squads and teams are pretty well in shape. Staff as well. That's not the issue. Well done. Financial model works ok too.

Biggest headache is dealing with players, signing and trading. No showstoppers, but there's stuff that needs to ironed out. I've played a game ~10 hours, so these are my initial findings:

Trades and searching players:
* It seems every league has its own "trading block"? Universal transfer list is missing. Understandable, but in Europe, player transfers from nation to another is a common thing and browsing through the leagues to find transfer listed players is tiresome
* no tryouts, no loans --> no possibility to hire temporary replacement for injured players or youngsters in WJC
* player search filter: can't filter drafted players
* contract buyout sums are extraordinary low - to buy out a 1 year $325000 contract --> around $15 000?
* contracts expire in end of June, not in end of April. (Ok, could be a game engine restriction. All league seasons start from 1st July)
* lots of unnecessary trading activity in end of June, teams swapping or trying to swap players running out of contract in couple of days
* can't sign u21 players (free agents) from other nations -> Message: "xxx hockey association will not approve the transfer of this player due to his young are". Even 20 year old Canadian or Danish players can't be signed. Seriously?

NHL contracted players send back to Europe:
* Youngsters having just signed a NHL contract and assigned back to Europe are reporting having difficulties adjusting to a "new club", to the same team they've been all the time! Kids are so spoiled these days...
* After assigned back to Europe (NHL contract), I can't assign those kids to minor teams such as a farm team or u20 team
* ...trading those players is possible, but AI teams overestimate the transfer value - AI doesn't understand after the season is over, loans expire and AI holds the bag

Misc
* unnecessary Waiver tab and screen in UI is some places

[Peter-]

Thank you very much for the details. Then I'm not sure if I gonna buy the game unfortunately 😞

[Sammalinen]

Originally Posted by Peter-

Thank you very much for the details. Then I'm not sure if I gonna buy the game unfortunately 😞

Understandable. It's a catch-22 issue - no finetuning for European hockey leagues, no interest to buy a game - and we have a vicious circle...

But that's the current status of game. When I saw the detail level NA junior leagues such as NCAA and QMJHL got in a recent update, I wish one day there's a similar content update for major European leagues as well.

[matt#5]

Did some Euro-Saves in SHL and DEL and can confirm the impressions from Sammalinen.

FHM is ok to play in Euro Leagues but there are some topics that should improve some day (I hope so) - buy it if you like or wait for Steam Sales ;-)

What I´d like to add:
1) Roster Movements are sometimes pretty crazy after the first season.
Teams in DEL and SHL started Pre-Season without contracted goalie in their roster

2) Teams had three goalies with 3 Stars or above in their roster and sold one of them in september to lower league teams

3) alot of roster movements in goalies (one Team from DEL hired & fired 4 goalies during one season) during season - no injury reasons (they sold one and made an urgent signing few days later)

4) Free Agency is a bit unrealistic
At least in germany many FA from Scandinavia come from Liiga, SHL to DEL (in real life not so many players from SWE, FIN are in DEL - more from CAN or USA)

many NA players (played last season in ECHL, AHL) prefer to go to 'beer league level' in NA instead of moving over to Europe.


@Sammalinen
did you saw the same issues in your saves?

[Lappaacco]

Originally Posted by Sammalinen

Trades and searching players:
* It seems every league has its own "trading block"? Universal transfer list is missing. Understandable, but in Europe, player transfers from nation to another is a common thing and browsing through the leagues to find transfer listed players is tiresome
* no tryouts, no loans --> no possibility to hire temporary replacement for injured players or youngsters in WJC
* can't sign u21 players (free agents) from other nations -> Message: "xxx hockey association will not approve the transfer of this player due to his young are". Even 20 year old Canadian or Danish players can't be signed. Seriously?

Yes I remeber tehese from old FHM -versions:
can't sign u21 players (free agents) from other nations -> Message: "xxx hockey association will not approve the transfer of this player due to his young are

On FHM8 I had 19 year player from Romania that I wanted to sign. But Romanian hockey association thinks it's better to let him play in Romanian juniors rather than Liiga or finn a-juniors. That would never happen in real world

Loans is also one thing I wish to be added on European leagues. Normally teams loan players from other teams from same league or same country lower tier teams or juniors. Also sometimes from other European leagues.

Trading block would also be nice. I almost every year search league by league for every teams and trying to find interesting players to put trade offer for those teams.

Also one thing is that some star caliber players on European leagues. Are playing on low tier league with 1k-5k salaries and refuse all offers and don't want to get paid or play in bigger league. I remember in FHM8 some finnish NHL players did not make to NHL so they played their best years in Suomi-Sarja and Mestis. Joona Koppanen and Veini Vehviläinen was couple examples of those. That is also one thing that is very very rarely would happen in real world. I understand that they would sign with those low tier teams on start of season when they did not get contract that they wanted. But I don't understand why they don't want to play in bigger leagues or get paid. They prefer to play in low tier league with poor salary even they are in their best age. Same with Czech league and probably all others?

Not played FHM9 yet but I will definitely give it try when I have time on early december.

[Sammalinen]

Originally Posted by matt#5

Did some Euro-Saves in SHL and DEL and can confirm the impressions from Sammalinen.
....
@Sammalinen
did you saw the same issues in your saves?

Just finished my first season, so can't yet say much about 2nd and further seasons and squad transactions.

I agree it's surprisingly difficult to get NA players to play in Finland. IRL, season or two in Europe is a good alternative for grinding your way through ECHL and AHL. IIHF contracts include automatically NHL release clause, so one can't get stuck in Europe and miss a big buck deal. Maybe it's the Finnish habits such as never-ending chitchats and small talk that terrifies NA players...

Haven't followed do NA players sign more eagerly with domestic lower class clubs, though. My initial hunch is the possibility to sign a free agent is higher, if player is from a country such as Denmark or France, a less well-known hockey country. Maybe there's some kind of country reputation system giving a bias which countries are preferred choices.

[Colorado]

Guys, if there problems like this with coding then let the Devs know and hopefully they might be able to improve it.

[Sammalinen]

Originally Posted by Colorado

Guys, if there problems like this with coding then let the Devs know and hopefully they might be able to improve it.

Sure, but as I haven't played FHM9 much yet, I'd prefer to collect a proper list of things that need to be adjusted or re-designed.

As a software developer my self, I've a hunch what might be a simple bug (reported already some) and what are features that require a more serious game engine modification.

[clamel]

Serious stuff this guys.
So sad to read that this game hasn't come further when it deals with hockey in Europe.

So this is not the version to jump on yet. The issues you presents are serious, but guess our friends from across the pond don't see it that way, and maybe not have the time and eager to iron out how it would be to play with teams in Europe.

Understand that the game should center around NHL, but it's not the 70's anymore where NHL was the true king of hockey and everything else the backyard.

What's need to be fixed are those issues with how transfers works in and between European leagues (outside KHL) with younger players often travels and live in countries like Sweden, Finland and Germany. Outside of hockey they get a top notch education added to them, and even better shot at getting seen by NHL scouts for upcoming drafts.
Any 17-19 year old from another country will jump at the oppertunity to play in those top leagues, even if at start only offered to be in U20 teams.

So main thing to fix is how players moves around when it comes to outside the American continent.
Lets hope for FHM10 then, or maybe still FHM11.

[Lazion]

Yeah, there are still many issues in Euro leagues that are getting slowly corrected. FHM8 made some huge improvements in player career paths, finances etc. while 9 had mostly focus on college, so not many improvement in European side.
Player loans and try-outs would be pretty huge addition. I know that Jeff once looked into loans but it did not work well with current transaction system and idea got scrapped.

[Alessandro]

A thing I have noticed in the KHL and in other European leagues is that often small- and middle-budget teams after one season get money almost on par with the richest ones...does it happen in the SHL as well in the game?

[matt#5]

just a short update after spending some hours in standard save (new save game after the latest update of FHM9):

- you can sign now youth players from other countries (this feature was added in the latest update)

- unrealistic transfers of players (for example in FHM8 Starting Goalie of DEL team get´s transfered to second Austrian League) don´t happen any longer

- FA Signings at the start of first season are pretty OK and realistic

keep you updated when I got through the Free Agency after first Season.

But so far (from my point of view) FHM9 is a huge step forward in case of European Leagues.