All of those are definitely important! But The survey, in my understanding, is just their way of finding out what they should discuss first, with the rest following afterwards. I'm sure all of those aspects will be in the game, if they want us to pay to play it at least..

With the draft.. Baseball is unique in that their amatuer draft is done 'during' the season. Every other pro league, it's done between seasons. Also, baseball is unique in that you can't trade picks.. the others you can.

I'm sure this creates some difficulty in the designing of this part of the game on many levels. 2 Examples: Having at the beginning means newbies get thrust into one of the most important part of a dynasty game BEFORE they know anything about the game etc. Also, you have to consider the owner who trades away a bunch of picks for a shot at the cup; then decides to leave... New owner has very few (if any) picks etc etc

In HBD they follow Major League Baseball so the draft is 1/4 of the way thru the season and you can't trade picks... so both of the above points are not an issue.

Also baseball has the largest farm system of any of the sports as well... Hockey teams have 1 team, as well as some players contracted to independent teams AND some still in the Juniors etc.

The key thing here is: we have Mr Welch who knows hockey at the helm so I've no doubt he is aware of this (and more).

It will be very interesting to see how they will manage the minors since it is very different than baseball and also, international players are draft in hockey, they are not free.

Mike, could you make sure that every few seasons there is the spectre of the IIHF - NHL Player Transfer Agreement hanging over the off-season?

Truly psyched that you were able to push this through. Thanks for all your hard work.

There are international signings in hockey. Google Jonas Gustavsson

Quote: Originally Posted By carpetbagger on 3/31/2010
all five sections of the second question should be incorporated. mirror HBD as closely as possible, adding all the current simleague hockey functions.

I'm with this guy. I have founded a few 6 season hockey dynasties now and I spend very little time on them with the exception of full drafts. They are fun but I am spending most of my time on HBD. Love it! It is brilliantly designed, feels authentic and true to the real life game in all aspects. I think all components of the HBD game, which are reflected in the second question, are equally important. I hope you give them all the same value when developing the hockey dynasty. Looking forward to seeing the final product. I'll definitely be one of the first in.

Quote: Originally Posted By shobob on 3/31/2010There are international signings in hockey. Google Jonas Gustavsso

Yes, but not as many as in baseball.

It will be interesting to see in what city we will be able to have our franchise, how many cities in each world, how we will handle coaches, the draft, etc.

With the draft being off-season, is it better to have it before or after the rollover I wonder? I hope that all current and former NHL and AHL locations would be available

Damag and I of course would push for all WHA cities to be included as well.

LOL mais oui, and I was also thinking that yogsloth would want fictional teams available too!

Yep, got to a good selection of cities.... Unlike baseball where the 'stadium effects' determine how you build your team. Every rink is the same size in the NHL.. SO, location/rink isn't factor... it's more a just what the owners want.

As for the draft, I've got an idea. Have the draft just before the Regular season starts. You do your budgeting etc... then during a 10 exhibition game schedule the prospect list is generated. So the during the ex games, owners can scout and rank the propsects maybe make trades..... Then hold the draft and give owners 2 days to sign the picks OR assign them to ... Also you finalize your rosters etc. The on to the Reg season..

Just a thought. In HBD the Spring Training games are a pretty boring time (just trying to get guys playing time AND praying for no serious injuries). This way you can plan your draft, maybe trade UP OR trade a high 1st rounder for something you need..... Wheel & Deal for those 5 or days of exhibition games. Also, this will allow a newbie to get at least a feel for the game/ratings etc before the draft..

I'm pretty sure the no trading draft picks is just a baseball thing, right? I would suggest that it be disallowed here too. Allowing trading of draft picks would open a big can of worms I think. Or maybe not

Yep, baseball is the only sport in which you can't trade picks. Also, in baseball you can't trade a drafted player in the season you drafted him. That too is unique to baseball as is the Rule V draft, 40 man roster.... Baseball has some pretty strict guidelines regarding players etc.

I don't think you should ban the trading of picks..but limit it. Picks only in the upcoming draft AND maybe max #, say 2 or something. This is what is done in a lot of Prog/Reg Theme leagues. The idea is to prevent an owner from trashing the future of team...

The thing is you don't want to limit owners ability to make deals...it's part of the fun. In most of my HBD worlds, you should see the amount of wheeling and dealing that goes on during the time before the reg season starts!

In HBD WIS has tried to model it after the actual MLB rules etc. So it's very close to being the GM/Owner of an actual team. Same decisions have to be made etc...

Bring it on!

With most of the progressive and regressive leagues I was in you were never allowed to trade draft picks more then 3 years in advance which I agree with and I don't think you should be able to have less then lets say 3 draft picks in a given year to make sure a person doesn't cause a team to tank for a shot at the cup. It would take a bit more programing (but we are worth it right mike?) that if you have purchased X number of seasons you would be able to trade away more of your draft picks. For example, lets say I have 5 seasons purchased I could trade draft picks up to 5 seasons away because I know that I'm stuck with that team regardless of what happens.

Ps - I didn't get a survey.

Pps- I really miss progressive and regressive leagues. Sadly this is the wrong time of the year to be missing them as I'm probabally heading up to Thunder bay in a month but I'll probabally join a prog or reg league come september. I'm hoping I can join this as well when it rolls around.