LucyXpher

i will not dispute this

I can appreciate this, much respects ... but also...

Awesome choice! Congrats @Ricer13!!

yes

I mean there is tho. A clean hit is when it records you hitting someone and knocking them off the puck, not taking a penalty. That has value because now you have the puck. But I'm sure you're right that it just randomly assigns penalties after a number of hits, which is why DI seems to just decrease total hits to help with pims. There definitely is still some other stuff going on to help limit total hits and pims tho. Like how Viktor Jensen ever had 0 Pims in a VHL season in S92 is crazy. I think it was S92... I take your point, and yeah, you're probably not getting a goal for your team on 5% of your hits. But that also doesn't take into account the value of stopping the opposition. Every hit and turnover means the other team can't score on that possession. It would be very hard to see the full value of that parsed out I think with the stats STHS provides on the index, and you're probably still right that not having CK is probably better. But in the hybrid model we still need CK for high DF and I think it's worth it. Still on the fence about whether adding DI is worth it because it essentially just doubles the TPE cost of that extra DF

And here I thought you were accusing me of tanking Prague's season on purpose just so I could get a better 2nd round pick for Malmo! But yes, PA needs SC since SC is where it either ends in a goal or it's turned over. Also wtf are these Prague sims. Two more losses, 3-2 in each game, outshooting opponents 38-32. Allowed 4 PPG on 10 PKs. This is more than an offense issue, but an extra goal or two would have helped.

The hybrid model makes sense for this just to keep things somewhat realistic-- unless you're Viktor Jensen. I do believe that hits, even with the PIM trade off, are valueable tho, or at least valuable enough not to feel it's necessary to cancel it out by spending more TPE. Like successful hits result in a turnover. I'd love to see someone scrape the index for a season to see if there's actually more value in those turnovers on average than the PK goals against from resulting penalties.

right except hits are actually good if they're clean... so there's definitely a line somewhere where DI can actually just waste the points you invest in CK. Like if you don't want to hit or take pims, why invest in CK? Or maybe there is something to Spartan's theory where the top rated CK players get the lions share of hits and pims because STHS just compares stats to determine who does what anyway. Point being, don't invest in DI if you have less CK than 2-3 other players at your position? idk lol

Interesting theory, this actually makes some sense tbh so that could be part of it. I also didn't notice much difference between PIM totals before and after adding DI so I wasn't sold on keeping it. I think this is the point I'm trying to make. I think there's much more to point scoring in context than there is in pure player build. I mean Simon's Worst Nightmare with 59/61 PA/SC is 3rd in defensive scoring, which suggests to me that in the right environment, PA/SC matter much less than DF, PH, and SK. SWN has 94 DF, 85 SK, and 86 PH. It's not super shocking when you realize he's been the best defender on a team with Gunner and Targaryen. The points come easy then. Maybe with an SC dominant build i could have 10 more points with the current roster construction-- maybe-- but is that getting us in the playoffs? I'm still curious to see if this build can actually work, but I could also just let depreciation "fix" it for me and reallocate the points if need be.

I mean it's impossible to say how my player would perform with SC over PA. On Prague this season, maybe I would score more, but under different circumstances with different teammates and build chemistry, who knows. I don't think anyone really understands the relationship fully between PA and SC builds which is why most just go for the SC primary build and call it a day since that generally performs better. You're still missing my point about how SC costing more means I can't have 96 DF, 97 PH, and 96 SK to go along with 84 PA. The trade off is dropping each of those down by at least 3-4 points each. And sure that probably works, but I still think that those 3 stats being higher has more value than having a SC primary build and I haven't seen enough of a sample size to convince me otherwise. That's the experiment. Also, technically, my player is a SK primary player since there's more than a 10 point gap between SK at 96 and PA at 84, also PH at 97 and ST at 90 help my player keep and control the puck (in theory). As per the decision making formula from Simon himself, SK, PA, and SC are all primary decision making attributes: Theoretically, if Prague had some strong finishers, I think my player could really have a strong season. We just don't have that roster right now. Prague has a scoring issue, sure, but I'd put that down to a lack of SC primary forwards and lack of depth DF. Prague has the 5th most goals against right now and the 6th fewest goals for so safe to say both offense and team defense have been a struggle. I'd argue that improving team DF though would easily help solve alot of the scoring issues more than having another SC primary player. Except last season I had 115 pims with 99 LD and 61 DI. This season I have 40 so far with 0 in both attributes.

So I should have kept my 99 LD and 61 DI? I was told that would be trolling... I like the new build better and I think on paper most would agree not knowing which is which.

Yes, so first, I am aware that SC primary defenders do score more. I won't dispute that, which is why PA is cheaper to add. That being said, scoring points isn't the only consideration for a build. In order to get high SC in the 1250 TPA range (which is where I have to be generally to avoid depreciation), you have to give up a few points in DF, PH, and SK. I made the decision to prioritize those attributes over SC and that has it's own benefits (which I don't think have been realized this season, but may come out when the team is better in the future). It's somewhat of an experiment, but to say that the build I've decided on is "bad" is hyperbolic, that's all I'm saying. It may not be ideal if you're aiming for points over all else, but there's a lot more to sims than points and investing in DF, PH, and SK are typically a good move. Also, from @Pifferfish: Maybe SC primary collects more points over the course of a career, but there's clearly alot of value in PA primary builds as well and with my other attributes being higher than basically anyone on this list, i'm could easily land in this range under different circumstances. I think it has much more to do with team synergy than anything else. I'm pretty sure my player would put up comparable (if not better) numbers than most of the players on this list if I simply replaced them for the season. Something just hasn't worked for Prague in S98.

Yep, but if everyone built the same way, the league could get boring and taking the PA option means I get to have 96 DF, 97 PH, and 96 SK to go with 84 PA. Anyone calling my build bad is trolling. and yes, those are the lines, but I bet Shotzky would perform pretty well Ironhide and Rave. I wonder if they've tried that @McLovin?

Well not exactly, you seemed more focused on the fact that I decided to go for PA over SC in the part that I responded to, even going so far as to humorously suggesting that this choice was to potentially tank the team's season lol-- that's a huge stretch. I don't necessarily disagree though that there's a few players that could have built a little more effectively with the TPE they had, but not so much in terms of SC/PA, but for DF and other core attributes like SK and PH that I think every player should have. I have no issue with the critique that Prague needs better depth though. It is what it is and this team probably looks better next season and the one after. Well offensive help for an individual scorer starts with passing-- which we have-- but yes, we could use a couple more 85+ SC players to help him out that way. Realistically, though, I think having more forwards fill that hole makes more sense than pointing the finger at my decision to bias passing when we have two other high earning defenders who are leaning SC-- in a couple seasons, we'll have plenty of SC. Probably more of a development timing issue than anything. As for line shuffling, I have no idea if changing more is bad, but I personally don't change Malmo lines all that often since I'd rather see a larger sample size before deciding what works. Tet is in charge so that's a question for him since I really don't know how often they were changed, but they certainly were not static.

Prague lines have been shuffling all season so Daffleck is definitely not only a L2 player. Currently he's on L1 so... And Stefano is on L2 right now... not sure that holds up. Seems to me good players on L2 seem to score more on average so actually L2 +/- would tend to be better for top players unless they literally have no help. Anyway, it's only +/- and very unreliable and circumstatial so I'm not stuck on it, but still weird.

plz no lol, I like Tet

So for full disclosure, I had a chat with Prague managment before the season about my build plan and everybody was good with it and offered feedback to get it tweaked to where it ended up being-- including starting the season without the 70 TPE in passing and then potentially adding it later depending on how things went. Safe to say, we didn't start the season on fire so I added the the 70 TPE to passing hoping that might help a bit. The focus of the build was on the the three core stats of DF, PH, and SK, wanting to get them as high as possible, while also making the build possible to maintain throughout my last 4 full seasons. I'm not sure if another player in the league right now has higher combined attributes between those three categories so that was the main experiment. Passing is simply just more TPE efficient than SC. If I had invested those 70 TPE into scoring attributes, I wouldn't even crack 80 SC-- which isn't bad, but also not great, and certainly not high enough to be considered a top SC option. You're probably right though that we need more scorers, though the way I kinda saw it, somebody else who is still earlier in their career with points to earn and spend can fill that void-- especially since most people tend to go the SC route over PA anyway. This season has definitely been catastrophic for the team, and it hasn't been great for my player either. I want nothing but success for Prague and my player and there is no way in hell I would try and tank the season for a better 2nd round pick lol-- though I know you weren't seriously suggesting that. Anyway, maybe somebody else can reroll this offseason to balance out builds since that does seem to be an issue right now as you pointed out, or maybe the team makes some further trades to figure that out. I'm still confident my build can be great, but I'm realizing that it might not be a build that works offensively without some real scorers on the team. To be perfectly honest though, I don't think the main issue is that we have 3 players that are pass first so much as it is that we lack scorers. I think any top team needs both and I decided to fill the PA role with my reroll trying to prioritize DF, PH, and SK while planning for depreciation. I mean look at Helsinki right now who are at the top of the league with the best goal differential of +64: Three things make this team work imo: 1. Great DF across their players 2. Good balance of high end passers and scorers 3. Lovstrom being a great goaltender It's no shock that they're good, but they have more committed passers than Prague with those ratings being higher-- the difference is also having scoring to compliment that which Prague lacks right now. I do think the lack of balance between PA and SC is a problem right now, but I can't own that personally. What I do think is a more glaring issue is the lack of DF that the team has on average. At the top end, we have a handful of strong DF players, but the depth is very lacking compared to a team like Helsinki also. This, along with goaltending that just isn't fully developed yet results in the league worst PK% right now at 76%. No amount of SC vs. PA is going to fix that number, that's a DF and goaltending issue-- and some bad luck honestly. In what universe should Prague, even with the current roster, have 9 more PK goals against (60) than my other team, Malmo (51). Note also that Malmo also has 578 pims to Prague's 577. What gives lol? Regardless of the build balance, Prague should not be in the same conversation as teams like Malmo, Chicago, and Warsaw this season-- and yet we are. I really think it has more to do with bad luck-- or perhaps bad momentum with a really tough schedule to start the season which quickly spiralled into an awful losing record. I feel like resimming this entire season multiple times, this result might be an outlier. Note also that Prague ranks 13th in PP attempts. That hurts. And yet the PP% of 15.49 is in the same ballpark as teams like Vancouver, Calgary, LA, and New York. I think the lack of PP attempts and dismal PK actually account for most of Prague's losing this season. A few more PP goals for and a PK that's 5% better could make a huge difference in close games-- but that's still not really a PA vs SC issue as far as I can tell if the PP is near league average. Final point, it's interesting that all but 4 players on the Prague roster have a positive +/- rating: And even then, those minus players are not completely getting caved at -5 and -6 at worst. Funny also that one is Pan Daffleck who, by all accounts, has a great build with a strong DF rating of 90, and an offensive bias of 80 SC - 63 PA. Seems to me this is the build you think we need more of, though apparently that translates to the lowest +/- on the team? Very strange, I really don't understand it. Anyway, it's weird that the team comes out at a -20 goal differential when the team average is +4.7 (check my math, but that seems right lol). Also, pat on the back me for a +12 Conclusion: Maybe we could use some more scoring, but that's not why Prague is bottom 4 in the league. Lack of depth DF, goaltending that isn't fully developed, and bad luck (especially with special teams) is where I'd say we have the biggest issues.

I'm soooo glad you're back! Love the rebrand and awesome podcast!!

It begins!!

Prague to the postseason

we've been made...

Confirmed for condition Thanks for the easy trade talks and I hope to be sending that extra 2nd your way soon! @xNJDevilsFanx You were a player we'd been targetting in Malmo for quite a while and I'm still very excited to be able to add you to our young core of up and comers! I hope you'll stick around, keep earning, and can be a huge part of our team going forward! You're very much wanted in Malmo

I love this, filling it out now... wish this could be a fantasy zone event once per year for a few tpe... no idea how it would be scored, but even just for fun, it's a great idea!