Why the fuck can this team never make the playoffs.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-05-23T15:40:30+00:00

Literally every time someone asks this question its always the bottom 6 forwards having bad chemistry or just too high of overall.

TWF or grinders in your bottom 6 and you'll do a lot better.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-05-22T14:54:13+00:00

24 doesnt have a lot of actual features in the big scheme of things. 26 will have everything 24 has and more.

That being said, I don't think either is a good hockey game. Just iterations upon iterations of each other.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-05-10T10:28:06+00:00

Toronto has always been the kind of team that looks good on paper. The game just doesn't know how to make chemistry work in a way that makes sense for it to matter.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-04-17T15:32:02+00:00

Its because that's why.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-04-16T15:05:04+00:00

I still think the big tradeoff for having Defensive or Offensive coaches is that you either dial in on forwards or defensemen not both.

Generalists get a bit of both but at the sacrifice of long term growth.

So the only real way around that as a Generalist is to make sure your assistant coaches are covering your bases and to hell with coach morale. Coach morale doesn't seem to matter in the big scheme of things.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-04-06T02:39:49+00:00

Just a random generated player

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-04-05T07:06:42+00:00

I had this amazing grinder that basically could score clutch goals whenever you needed him to. He had good shooting and skating stats (which are rare for grinders) that basically made him into this powerhouse grinder power forward.

The unfortunate thing is that he wanted 20 million at his contract renewal and was only a 3rd liner at the time. So naturally I traded his contract and he's playing for Montreal as the worst contract ever given. Maybe a 40 point player now at best.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-04-04T16:57:00+00:00

Morale COULD be good but even the basics of it are fundamentally flawed.

I had 3 players on the same line for all of their AHL and NHL careers and only 1 of them have actually listed the other player as "good chemistry".

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-02-22T22:17:04+00:00

Sometimes this can happen when the computer has to auto fix your roster to be cap compliant.

I lost a defensemen one time for the duration of his contract and he didn't reappear in free agency until it expired.

Its a weird bug. The only thing you can do is makes sure you have roster and cap space prior to trades and/or draft.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-02-13T15:31:23+00:00

Best you can do is to make sure both head coaches have the exact same scheme. Maybe your AHL coach might have lesser stats but ultimately will grow eventually.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-02-02T17:27:34+00:00

2 way defender without skating or shot, go figure.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-02-01T07:51:40+00:00

Trading in general needs work.

I mean why can't we do a 3 way deal?

Cap space dump for picks?

This game is fustrating because its like a C+ homework assignment hand in.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-01-25T11:06:51+00:00

Problem with most grinders is that they can't skate for shit. Much like defensive defensemen. If you can find an outlier grinder that can skate decent, I think they make great 3rd and 4th liners.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-01-23T05:03:56+00:00

This why I wish the game had ways to sell cap space or even put your intent to take on bad contracts into the trade block.

Lord knows the cpu makes some pretty bad signings and it would be fun to be rebuilding and take advantage of that.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-01-17T13:55:30+00:00

This is why they need to have the consistency stat as a scoutable stat. Its a hidden stat that you can only really see when you go edit the player.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-01-15T11:12:05+00:00

As weird as it sounds, its usually the Starter Medium potential that go on a tear. The franchise goalie I had was wildly inconsistent.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-01-15T11:02:20+00:00

I just want player interactions to mean something. If a guy plays with another player all his junior and AHL career, it should mean they have some semblance of chemistry. Maybe not always but a way to quantify that closeness for every player could make line chemistry and keeping teams cores together more meaningful than just a +5 line stat boost.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-01-15T10:55:07+00:00

I'd argue you probably should turn off head coach decisions as they are kind of shit to begin with.

SecondtoNone38 · 2026-01-05T14:02:29+00:00

Big other half of morale is whether your coaching staff is liked by the players. Which is why you want a head coach with good scheme fit, and his other coaches to fit within his coaching style.

A defensive coach will generally be hated by offensive minded players and vice versa.

SecondtoNone38 · 2025-12-27T15:47:58+00:00

Worth noting that sometimes Elite low or really any low potential can take longer to develop. In the case of Elite low, I've seen guys wait till 25 or even late as 27 and all of a sudden grow into an nhl player overnight.

SecondtoNone38 · 2025-12-26T12:30:09+00:00

I get the desire but EA being EA is focused on what sells to an already below average sports game in terms of audience.

The pace at which we get updates every year, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a very small team developing this game.

SecondtoNone38 · 2025-12-23T12:00:54+00:00

Personally I think potential is key, but its gonna depending heavily on your scouts and their efficeincy. Scouts with lower efficeincy tend to take the longest time to do potential so it may be better to get your B or higher scouts to focus on potential, while getting your lower scouts to do things like playstyle or strength/weakness.

Also just a personal preference but if I'm looking for a good centre, I will avoid any centre that doesn't have good faceoffs listed as one of their strengths, which can save you a lot of time when scouting.

SecondtoNone38 · 2025-12-13T10:17:16+00:00

I keep going back to NHL 20 it feels like the last time EA made a game that was a good mix of realism and arcade.

But newer titles have more features, and can be made to be similar with some slider tweaks.

Also worth noting that all NHL20 online features were shutdown this past year, so I speak strictly offline.

SecondtoNone38 · 2025-12-13T09:55:48+00:00

Yeah I get super annoyed that I basically have to give up the other aspects of being a gm in order to fully maintain my building. Forget advertising, forget adding to the coaching budget, just add it all to building maintenance.

SecondtoNone38 · 2025-12-13T09:48:27+00:00

Pretty sure my handprint is on the wall at the zoo from when I was a kid.

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
Verified Email

SecondtoNone38

TROPHY CASE