Devise

I'll add you to PSN here and maybe at some point we can play some Evolve. How has the community been? People giving you an opportunity to learn the classes and such without yelling and what not?

He bought the purchase already. Switching from D to center.

Eh it's got some good reviews. I saw enough footage of it that I decided there is enough classes/modes/stuff to do that I don't think I'll get bored. All the progression systems and how each class has different "people" that in essence plays and functions like a new class seems interesting.

This past off season the Cologne Express made a series of changes after yet another early playoff exit in Season 41. Shedding longtime goalie Blaine Olynick and replacing him with Calgary Wranglers stud Martin Brookside. Veteran Andrey Zadorav and depth player Azmet Ali were swapped for the younger Alistar Graves and Chris Raymond. Nicolas Caprivi who spent Season 41 as a fourth defender learning the ways of the game even switched to center, a position he told coaches he would feel more natural at. The Express also have a "part two" of a deal in the pipe, one has to assume it will be a deadline deal to acquire another piece. So the question is. Will these changes matter? Does the Express roster now look better than it did in the past few seasons? One can argue that regardless of some of these side changes the Express will look better simply because all stars Thomas O'Malley and Mason Richardson are developing past just being rookies. In their third seasons in the league it's hard to look at anybody on any team who practices and pays as much attention to the little detail. The little rivalry between them only seems to fuel their work ethic. However is an upgrade in net, and a restructuring of the depth, combined with the evolution of the core of the Express going to help take them over the edge? Season 42 is going to be a big make or break season for Cologne, and GM Ryan Power seems to know it.

I just bought it last night. I'll get my feet wet but I'll be down to play on PS4 if your down at some point.

If this trade happened I'd seriously clap. Pro move by Helsinki honestly.

Congrats to winners. Gorlab I love you and please don't make me feel that bittersweet fade as I voted Zoidberg.

Man that Super Cup schedule looks iron clad....

The drama this off season, my goodness. I was debating on giving you an offer Greg as you are a good member who fit on our roster. However after going in a different direction and my cap being taken I figured no point wasting your time. Good luck in Davos.

I offered Draper all my picks before off season started but he turned me down. Now I may have to actually draft a player at some point. #BlameDraper

I wish I could still keep you. Cologne will do it for Munk dat frreal cmish sauce in S42.

Olynick for a third, Salo goes to waivers. Another win for you Homesick. Remember when Seth said he'd be better than you? Ahh, those were the times. The hilarity to me is that Olynick is a steal of a player at third, and I honestly think Toronto loses in this claim. They have to waste cap space on Seth.

Sandro as much as some of the advanced statistics are things that I do think have merit a lot of times, I still am one of those hockey "purists" that subscribes to the notion that there are intangibles to the game that aren't measured. Things like a key fight, or a key hit a point in the game being more important than just a "hit" on the score sheet. Buffs presence in front of the net, his agitation skills, his ability to consistently get a goalie or a prominent defender off their game, and to focus on him instead of a star player are things I felt he did well. He did them amazingly imo in that playoff run with Chicago. The fact that he potted 17 goals as a forward to me is proof that he still gets on the scoresheet enough to justify running with the other aspects. Plus he isn't stepping up to make a big hit, and then leaving opportunities for odd man rushes, something I think he's been guilty of more with the Jets. But you guys are entitled to your opinion, and there is denying as an offensive minded defender he puts up good points.

Also Flyers Leighton wasn't great but the series did go 6. Pronger was a big factor for you guys all playoffs long. There was other reasons you lost too of course but Buff was a stud in front that whole playoffs and in that series.

Fine then I try to have a little fun with my opinion when I present it and I get shit on haha. I guess I'll just stick to my boring uninteresting long posts with no offensive text that nobody reads. Also Caps stole two points out of the Shark Tank. #Beagletime

Can only Stockholm and Davos bid on the few good free agents. Let's just heat this damn rivalry up even more.

Add me to the list of Sterling/Kendrick/Smarch and people who seem to get hockey. How at all is Buff better at D? OH MY GOD STATS ARE EVERYTHING! Ask Chicago how good he was at forward. They only probably won a Cup because Buff was able to agitate, forecheck, and all around manhandle/frustrate Pronger arguably one of the top defenders in the playoffs the year Chicago won that year. Buff is also a defensive liability. Sure he has a cannon of a shot. So you know what you do? Make him a power play roamer who comes from the point to the front of the net depending on how the opponent is penalty killing. Done. Otherwise he works great in the slot, and as a screening/crease crashing powerhouse up front.

Frank your a boss.

I would gladly have Kessler on a show if him and Jericho could promise me not to have a pissing contest the whole time.

Yeah regarding Spidey. They need to play on the audiences expectations imo. If he is introduced in another movie in the MCU, which I think he will be. Don't go into heavy detail on his origin story. We all know it. His uncle died blah blah. Even the casuals know it by now. In regards to X-Men I don't know. Some of the crossover X-Men and Avengers stuff has been awesome. I always felt Civil War was just as good in regards to the X-Men stuff as it was to the others, because for the first time so many heroes had to learn to be hated by the public/government, just like the X-Men storyline. Plus I'm a huge fan of the Bendis New Avenger stuff (which Wolverine is apart of) and I always felt the dynamic between kill and don't kill was a great line that was walked between Captain America and Wolverine. That realization that there are horrors dark enough that you need someone on the team willing to go just as dark for Cap was chilling, even if he fought it the entire way. I really find those type of storylines compelling. In regards to Fantastic Four I one hundred percent agree with you. Doom is arguably one of the best all around Marvel villains. Any of the "larger" story arcs often feature him as just a villain to the entire MCU. But I do think there was always a charm to having all the "smart" heroes work together to do crazy shit (Negative Zone, stopping Galactuc etc etc.) was cool. Sadly Mr. Fantastic is apart of that. A world in which Doctor Strange, Bruce Banner, Mr Fantastic Ant Man and Tony Stark could get together in movie form would be pretty great tbh

See what irks me is that people think this is some type of "arrogance" thing. Like I'm saying "your guys are not good enough." Laich isn't a franchise player, so people with whatever TPE less than him can score whatever they want. When I say guys from S40 have the capacity to be franchise players it's in the future other than Green/Kendrick since Green/Kendrick earned so much TPE already. It's just a definition difference. Kesler was offended the inquired about the availability of a player that has less than 300 TPE two seasons into his career. That is my issue. The difference in opinion on franchise player is simply a difference in opinion. To me a franchise player is someone you'd build your franchise around. So if your rebuilding? You'd grab 1 or 2 or maybe 3 of these type of players. Given that you don't always "know" if a guy is going to be a franchise player or not, it's tough to tell that stuff at draft. Member history, previous experience, TPE earned since showing up, league jobs. All of this comes into factor. Denver has a lot of that stuff covered, but he earns slightly less than some of the guys likely to be considered franchise season to season and to top it all off he started at a huge TPE disadvantage. None of that says anything about how much TPE someone can earn or how well they can do in the sim. That isn't at all what I'm really debating. Also I didn't "value" Catrall at all. I simply said "you really think he is a franchise player?" To Kesler. I never once made a formal offer on what I think the trade value for Denver at his current pace would be. I have no idea how anyone could of been offended or insulted by what I said to him.

I should clarify I never made an offer to Kesler. I expressed interest in Cattrall, and said I was likely shipping Zadorov, I then followed it with, you interested in working out a deal. To which he rudely informed me Denver was a "franchise player" to which I disagreed. At no point did I insult him, or his players. Although I certainly disagreed with his assessment. Kesler Denver is on the BoG, on a mag and earns 7 TPE+ per week currently. He's an active solid member in this league. However. He joined at a late time and was at a disadvantage TPE wise when he was drafted. He had 55 TPE when he was drafted. He currently sits at 279. Which means since September of last year when he was drafted he has earned 224 TPE. That is very solid. But franchise player? Look at his own draft class, and I'm even going to ignore Green and Kendrick since they are in the god tier levels of TPE that very few ever get to. Tyler Cote drafted 3rd overall. Cote did have a 200 TPE advantage on Cattrall at the draft. But lets not look at his TPE advantage, lets look at what he has earned since being drafted. Cote had 265 at draft, and currently sits at 520. He's earned 255. Not much more than Denver I'll grant you that, but Cote has kind of slowed down a bit. Move on to Jerrick Poole taken fourth overall. He had 243 at the draft, currently sits with 532 for 289 TPE earned since draft. Zoidberg, who only had 157 when he was drafted, currently sits at 519. He earned a whopping 362 in that exact same time frame. All those players I listed started with more TPE than Denver and earned more TPE. Due to recreating at good times and earning good amounts of TPE they have the chance to truly evolve into franchise level players in my mind. I could probably name a few others. The one trend you notice though? They are entering their third season, over 500 TPE. Which by season 6 of their careers (when they hit depreciation) they should be at 700+ TPE. Which is about where you want to be to be considered a franchise player by the time you start handling depreciation. Although that is obviously still an opinion. Denver started at a severe disadvantage in TPE at the draft and despite solid activity it will be tough for him to make up for it and transform himself into a franchise player. He sits under 300 TPE entering his third season. Again I state, there is nothing WRONG with this. It isn't an insult. But when you gauge trade value of a player, and I was nowhere saying the trade value on Cattrall was a straight across for Zadorav, but when you gauge trade value you look at factors like this. The fact that Denver is active and around is great for him, great for you, great for the team, great for the whole league. But that doesn't change the fact that it will be a tough road for him to look at hitting something like 1000+ TPE by the time he retires unless he uptakes his TPE earning. Thus it would be hard for me to be able to consider him "franchise player."

People aren't excited about another version of Spiderman. Most are actually bummed if we get another "re-boot." But the X-Men, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four licenses for films were owned by a studio that is not Marvel studios. Ergo things like Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man, which all operate in the same film universe, was not shared with popular other marvel characters, such as Spider Man and X-Men. While we still need to wait on X-Men, all this news means to fans getting exited is that Spider-Man will make appearances in Avengers, Captain America Civil War (probably) and that has people hyped. I'm in the camp that while I think Spider Man is a fucking awful lame character, if you are going to do a marvel cinematic universe to replicate the comics, you kind of need to have all the staple characters. Spider-Man is one of them.

RIG Receives: S44 Col 2nd COL Receives: Alistar Graves This is part one of a two part deal. I accept. Easy negotiations, over payment by me (on both parts of the deal) but I needed to make something happen here and fill up my forward slots.

Sure you could. Sim the entire 30 game schedule on the first sim on Day one. Sim the first round series on day two, second day three, and finals day four. (6 teams all make it if I recall correctly.) While that is possible, kind of makes the entire event feel like no fun. Drawing out the season into at least two days is imo a smart idea.