Old Stuff

[kmo429]

The thing for me is i really really like the line of Bergenheim Fisher Hecht. That has so much potential to be a shutdown line and score some big goals.

Really good offensive 3rd line, Defense is good but I think youre overrating it a bit. Still a great 3rd line overall.

[IAmARanger18]

Tough match-ups here.

[Shaiza]

East
#1 Pittsburgh Penguins def. #5 New York Rangers (12-8)
#2 Boston Bruins def. #3 Florida Panthers (12-7)

West
#1 Vancouver Canucks def. #4 Detroit Red Wings (16-3)
#2 Los Angeles Kings def. #3 St. Louis Blues (13-6)


All higher seeds have the home ice advantage.

Eastern Conference Finals:

2. Boston Bruins vs. 1. Pittsburgh Penguins


Western Conference Finals:

2. Los Angeles Kings vs. 1. Vancouver Canucks

Voting link: https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_ezH75qLD9AEczJP

[Shaiza]

Any arguments can go here. There are 4 teams left.

[Shaiza]

Wanted to keep it short but a lot of people to list. Here are the list of GMs that will be going on the poll:

Carson005 (Vancouver Canucks)
JerzeyFresh (Philadelphia Flyers)
The Top Shelfer (Montreal Canadiens)
BranWingss (Winnipeg Jets)
kmo429 (New York Islanders)
Grkgawdofwalkz (St. Louis Blues)
shaiza90 (Los Angeles Kings)
Celts22 (Boston Bruins)
OneManIsNoMan (Columbus Blue Jackets)
T.O. Rapz--Le@f (Toronto Maple Leafs)

The poll will more than likely be listed in the main NHL forum (still thinking about it). You should try to appeal to them in the write-ups regardless, really stress the fact that you made the moves to keep your team a great team, made the future bright, and ultimately made your team better.

I thought about doing arguments but there are a lot candidates. Everything should be pretty straight forward. People who aren't nominated and are reading this, please kindly read over what the GMs have to say as well!

Would like two things from the GMs.

One sentence to describe why you deserve it (will be put next to your name in the poll, keep it short):
A write-up that can go here, but ultimately, I'd like to see it in your clubhouse:

[Shaiza]

Wanted to keep it short but a lot of people to list. Here are the list of GMs that will be going on the poll:

McJoe (Nashville Predators)
Sexicano31 & Da Jam Hammer (Dallas Stars)
Carlznerson (Washington Capitals)
Shaunriching7 (Calgary Flames)
kmo429 (New York Islanders)
IAmARanger18 (Carolina Hurricanes)

The poll will more than likely be listed in the main NHL forum (still thinking about it). You should try to appeal to them in the write-ups regardless, really stress the fact that the future of your team is brighter than others.

I thought about doing arguments but there are a lot candidates. Everything should be pretty straight forward. That doesn't mean I will stop you. People who aren't nominated and are reading this, please kindly read over what the GMs have to say as well!

Would like two things from the GMs.

One sentence to describe why you deserve it (will be put next to your name in the poll, keep it short):
A write-up that can go here, but ultimately, I'd like to see it in your clubhouse:

[Celts22]

Made it through.

Congrats to boilerguy, really built a contender in Florida.

[carson005]

Canucks acquired phenomenal talents like Eberle and Whitney, shored up the defense from 1-6, all while keeping their top 2 prospects.

[kmo429]

I established the Islanders as a legit best future contender and improved my team from top to bottom (offense, defense, everything), meanwhile making smart signings and avoiding dangerous ones and keeping a large amount of cap space to help me out in the future.

^One sentence.

New York islanders:

To start, I'd just like to thank Shaiza for running this so well and to all the GM's who participated and made this game fun to be a part of.

As for my case for best GM, here goes nothing. I feel like I definitely improved my team from top to bottom, and strengthened my future big time with the acquisition of many really good prospects. I also kept a very large amount of cap space and avoided giving out foolish contracts.

First, I improved my current roster a great deal. People look at losses like Streit, Tavares, and Grabner and it's easy to think I didn't improve, but in fact I did. Streit is coming off a terrible year. Yes, he had 47 points, but his D is just bad nowadays. If last year can show the future, he's now longer a 1st pairing defenseman. I replaced him by signing Sheldon Souray to a very friendly contract (2 years, 2.75 M per year is great for a veteran 2nd pairing dman these days) and I also improved the rest of my D. I added Dmitry Kulikov who is quite solid and who has top pairing potential. I also added Ian Cole who will bring stable 2-way play to the 3rd pairing and he also has 1st pairing potential. My #6 is Matt Carkner and he brings size and physicality to the D core, something the Isles missed big time last year. Overall, my D is much deeper, much younger, and much better than last year.

Now for the offense. Tavares and his 80+ points and ability to create will be missed, but I feel like I made up for him with the many offensive acquisitions I made. I also lost Grabner, but I got great value in return for him and let's remember he's coming off a brutal season and his future is unpredictable. I added David Desharnais who's coming off a 60 point season, his 1st full year in the NHL as a 25 year old, with the offensively mediocre Habs. I feel liek I added a guy who can definitely be a #1 C here. I added TJ Oshie, who's a great physical 2-way 2nd liner who's capable 55-60 + points and with 1st line potential. I added Tuomo Ruutu who in a good year can provide a ton of physicality and 50+ points on offense to my 2nd line. I added Marcel Goc who is a great 3rd line C. He's great defensively and he's just about a .5 ppg player, ideal for a 3rd line. I added Tomas Kopecky to my bottom 6. In recent years, he's become a good 2-way forward and a reliable secondary scorer who can chip in 10-15 goals and 30-40 points. Lastly on offense I added Joel Ward who proved for 3 years in Nashville can be a very good 3rd or 4th line player if put in the right role. That about wraps it up for my offense. I lost JT and Grabner who was no more than a 3rd liner this year and replaced them with 3 really good top 6 forwards and 3 really good bottom 6 forwards.

Lastly I would like to focus on the future I have maintained and built upon. I had the pleasure of starting the job with 2 of the best prospects in the NHL, Nino Niederreiter (8.0C) and Ryan Strome (8.0C). To that I added Haden Schwartz (8.0B), Ty Rattie (7.5C), Richard Panik (7.5C), Tyler Johnson (7.5D), Quinton Howden (7.0B), Ian Cole (7.0B), Peter Holland (7.0C), Alex Killorn (7.0C), Cade Fairchild (7.0C), Jani Hakanpaa (7.0C), and others. I also added many young high potential NHLers like Dmitry Kulikov, David Desharnais, TJ Oshie, et cetera. Lastly in addition, I made 4 picks in the top 40 in this years draft and got some really solid prospects like Olli Maata, Phillip Di Giuseppe, Ville Pokka, and Brendan Gaunce. I started with the 3rd rated prospect system on Hockey's Future not including young high potential players like Kyle Okposo, Travis Hamonic, Josh Bailey, Matt Martin, Andrew MacDonald, and I added all of the above, which, in my opinion, makes me one of the top candidates for the Best Future Award.

Lastly I would just like to add that I kept an immense amount of cap room which will help me re-sign all my good young players and help me to be a major player in free agency when Im ready to contend. My team's cap hit right now is $47,165,000 including the $4,500,000 for DP's awful contract and Yashin's $2,204,000 buy-out hit which is gone soon, which leaves me with anywhere from 17 million to 23 million in space depending on where the cap is set.

To summarize, I think I established the Isles as a legit Best Future contender, I improved the team from top to bottom (overall offense improved in terms of talent, depth, and 2 way play, overall defense improved in terms of depth, physicality, and the lack of Mark Eaton, Milan Jurcina, and Steve Staios), and I made smart signings and re-signings and avoided potentially bad ones which left me in financial heaven for the future.


2012 NHL Entry Draft:

Round 1, #18: Olli Maatta, D
Round 1, #25: Brendan Gaunce, C
Round 2, #34: Ville Pokka, D
Round 2, #40: Phillip Di Giuseppe, LW
Round 3, #65: Devin Shore, C


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Islanders' Top prospects:

Centers:

1. Jaden Schwartz, 8.0 B
2. Ryan Strome, 8.0 C
3. Tyler Johnson, 7.5 D
4. Anders Lee, 7.5 D
5. Brock Nelson, 7.0 C
6. Corey Trivino, 7.0 F
7. Casey Cizikas, 6.5 B
8. Justin DiBenedetto, 6.5 C

Right Wingers:

1. Ty Rattie, 7.5 C
2. Richard Panik, 7.5 C
3. Kirill Kabanov, 7.0 C
4. Peter Holland, 7.0 C
5. Kirill Petrov, 7.0 D
6. Rhett Rakhshani, 7.0 D

Left Wingers:

1. Nino Niederreiter, 8.0 C
2. Quinton Howden, 7.0 B
3. Alex Killorn, 7.0 C
4. David Ullstrom, 6.5 B
5. Johan Persson, 7.0 D
6. Jesse Joensuu, 6.5 D

Defenseman:

1. Ian Cole, 7.0 B
2. Alex Petrovic, 7.0 C
3. Matt Donovan, 7.0 C
4. Scott Mayfield, 7.0 C
5. Calvin De Haan, 7.0 C
6. Cade Fairchild, 7.0 C
7. Jani Hakanpaa, 7.0 C
8. Andrey Pedan, 7.0 D
9. Aaron Ness, 6.5 C
10. Ty Wishart, 6.5 C
11. Mark Katic, 6.5 D

Goaltenders:

1. Anders Nilsson, 7.0 C
2. Kevin Poulin, 7.0 C
3. Mikko Koskinen, 7.0 D

I know many won't read this, but to those do I greatly appreciate it and I hope to persuade you to vote for me Thanks to everyone once again.

[kmo429]

One Sentence: I took over the HF's 3rd best system and one of the best young teams in the NHL and added many great prospects, really good young high potential players, & 4 top 40 picks this year, while trading none/almost none of my prospects and keeping a ton of cap space.


I would like to focus on the future I have maintained and built upon. I had the pleasure of starting the job with 2 of the best prospects in the NHL, Nino Niederreiter (8.0C) and Ryan Strome (8.0C). To that I added Haden Schwartz (8.0B), Ty Rattie (7.5C), Richard Panik (7.5C), Tyler Johnson (7.5D), Quinton Howden (7.0B), Ian Cole (7.0B), Peter Holland (7.0C), Alex Killorn (7.0C), Cade Fairchild (7.0C), Jani Hakanpaa (7.0C), and others. I also added many young high potential NHLers like Dmitry Kulikov, David Desharnais, TJ Oshie, et cetera. Lastly in addition, I made 4 picks in the top 40 in this years draft and got some really solid prospects like Olli Maata, Phillip Di Giuseppe, Ville Pokka, and Brendan Gaunce. I started with the 3rd rated prospect system on Hockey's Future not including young high potential players like Kyle Okposo, Travis Hamonic, Josh Bailey, Matt Martin, Andrew MacDonald, and I added all of the above, which, in my opinion, makes me one of the top candidates for the Best Future Award.

[Celts22]

Added a sniper in Hossa and improved our PP with Carle while having the least amount of cap space of any team.

[The Top Shelfer]

Good luck to all the other GM's nominated, you all did an excellent job with your respective teams.

My goal coming into this was to build a team I was proud of and I have to say that I am proud of the team I have crafted here in Montreal. Now I didn't build a Stanley Cup winning franchise nor did I stock pile a massive amount of rookies. I built a team here in Montreal that can compete with the best of them and give the Canadiens' fans something to look forward to.

My goal was to add to a franchise loaded with uncertainty and questions, a group of veteran players who are both native to the Quebec area and have a wealth of experience to help ease our young players into the high demands of playing in the hockey mecca. Pascal Dupuis, Stephane Robidas, and Mathieu Garon were all players I had targeted the second it was announced I would be taking over this franchise and I got them where they belong. You can even ask the teams I acquired them from, they all had messages in their inbox on day one of the game regarding these players.

On draft day I added a major cornerstone to the Canadiens franchise in Alex Galchenyuk, while some may say he was handed to me based on the pick I had I would tell you this, he was a player I planned on taking regardless of real life's outcome. I also added Pontus Aberg whom I believe to be a steal at the position I got him, Alexandre Mallet a native of Quebec who was coming off a stunning season in QMJHL, and Joonas Korpisalo a goaltender I felt my organization needed given its lack of goaltending prospects.

To play with Galchenyuk I orchestrated a deal to bring in Vladimir Tarasenko whom I believe to be the future ROY this upcoming season and the perfect companion for Galchenyuk going forward. Yes I moved Desharnais but his small stature was a concern in a fiercely competitive Northeast Division.

I was also able to move the albatross of a contract that is Scott Gomez and brought in two high end fourth line players in Boyd Gordon and Taylor Pyatt who with Travis Moen will help fortify our bottom six. This is something we have lacked and I feel I have addressed it. I also traded the lazy and streaky Rene Bourque for Michal Hanzus to help fortify my third line along with Lars Eller and Pascal Dupuis.

In free agency I added Mark Dekanich whom I believe to be capable of filling a back up roll in the future and provide organizational goaltending depth. I added Stephen Gionta to help give my forward core depth. I also grabbed Roman Hamrlik to play with Tomas Kaberle on my bottom pairing. He is a guy we feel can step in and play big minutes should Markov go down as well as lending yet another veteran voice to the team. He was IMO the Washington Capitals best defenceman in the playoffs last season and he is on our bottom pairing.

This is basically my point, The Canadiens as a team are a nightmare. They have so many heavy overpaid long-term contracts on their roster it was nearly impossible to add to this team. As many of you have observed already; I did not have much to work with and yet through determination and careful planning I was able to craft a Montreal Canadiens team that can compete and is on the right track to become a team of prominence once again.

This is the best defense that Price has ever played behind and the presence of Garon will allow him to rest more often and maintain focus throughout the dog days of the season. This offense, while not elite, will fight every single night and will never give you an inch. To put it simply, this team is better and arguably the most improved team in the Mock.

Cole-Plekanec-B. Gionta
Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Tarasenko
Eller-Hanzus-Dupuis
Moen-Gordon-Pyatt
S. Gionta

Markov-Gorges
Subban-Robidas
Kaberle-Hamrlik
Diaz

Price-Garon

prospects: Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Galchenyuk, Nathan Beaulieu, Jared Tinordi, Pontus Aberg, Alexandre Mallet, Joonas Korpisalo, Brendan Gallagher.

Thank you all for the nominations

[jakub]

Why I'll beat the Bruins:
Better Offense
Better Defense
Better Goaltending

[OneManIsNoMan]

Took a consistent NHL cellar dweller and turned them into what I thought was a playoff team. We added talented youth for a bright future and kept a good part of our d-core together.

^blurb

To start off, I was able to move Nash for a package of nice young depth. I was able to bring in a true #1 goalie and bring in a #1 Center (Statsny). Not only did I do these two major things but I also added some significant pieces to my defense while keep both JJ & Wiz on the team. I kept arguably me best prospect on the roster (Johansen) and was able to put some solid players on his wing (Prospal & Read).

Sadly what most likely cost making the playoffs was the fact that I missed the start of free agency. I was out with an illness for roughly a week and a half. During this time (though no fault of his own) my co didn't make any moves via trade or FA. While we'll never find out if they would have signed, I missed out on the cream of the crop for free agents i.e. Suter & Parise. Going into FA I had nearly $13 million in cap space w/ Nash on my roster and could have major impact on the FA market.

I should also note the complexity of trying to trade Rick Nash. With his NTC it was extremely difficult to move him. I had him in a deal for Bobby Ryan + Justin Schultz + #6 overall pick ++. In another deal I had Nash going to PIT for a package of Staal and MAF. The last deal that fell through I had Nash going to PHI for a package including Bryz. Clearly the deal that finally went through w/ PHI was not the best one but we needed to move Nash.

JVR - Statsny - Voracek
Prospal - Johansen - Read
Wolski - Letestu - Pouliot
Gillies - Mackenzie - Boll

Johnson - Wisniewski
Meszaros - Tyutin
Methot - O'Brien
7th - Schutlz

Pavelec
Ellis

We have a young skilled team that nearly made the playoffs. While I did have to unload some decent prospects, we're set up to be a contender within as soon as next season.

[jakub]

Visnovsky doesn't want to play for the Islanders haha