Off-season for Riga

[hedgehog337 3,480]

Long story short: this was the most exciting week in a while because off-season. Drafts, trades, free agency etc. A short breakdown of events that were surrounding Riga and me specifically:

 

- not much trades so far. Back in the days I was doing so much. But this time I only did one deal so far. However, this was a big one. The cap was starting to catch up on us and having three heavy TPE defencemans was too much. So an elder one, McWolf was traded to a European rival Malmo. For a first, two thirds and Jack Lynch. I was contemplating to send Jack somewhere else immediately after the deal happened. But then I took more time for thoughts, looked up to his build and realized that there's not much of a sense to trade him. His solid scoring build should do good things for us and we were suffering from a lack of firepower last season. His possible 50-60 point season is definitely gonna help us with that.

 

- the draft was something else. I clearly wasn't in the best shape when I was picking players due to lack of sleep prior to this event. And a birthday celebration in workdays wasn't helping my case either. I was taking help from Nyko, especially in later rounds because at that time my brains were already fried completely. However, if you think I did this choices just because I wasn't feeling very well - now that's a meestake. I had Guy Sasakamoose at third since Wednesday and I was just following my plan. The same for Ben Storm and Patrik Tallinder, I liked their builds and their activity so this went very well for me. As I said, the second and later rounds were assisted by Nykonax and some of picks (like Shush Nyko and Nicolas Fomba were influenced by him). They know each other from SHL I guess and I have some of more guys who has that league as the first priority. Perhaps @bluesfan55 retired too early eh? Also, picked up two more steals in Richard Fitzwell and Elliot Porter. So despite of my conditions and weird moment at pick 6, the draft went good for us. I think our future should be fine.

 

- Ok, now about the free agency.

 

 

What else can I say. Except for the fact I'm really doing nothing there for I don't even know which season in a row. In 15 seasons of GM'ing, only S63 could be considered as the successful off-season for me if we're talking about FA. At this point, this is the sixth off-season in a row when I didn't sign any free agent. Even an inactive one. If someone would write an article about current GM's and point out their strengths and weakness. The FA would definitely be my weak point. Although this is not a complaint at all. First of all, I didn't have a moment when I really needed a free agent at all. And I don't think my pitching skills are great either. I'm good with only drafting and trading, it appears that this is still enough to create a good team. Ok, now this sim needs to stop doing it's shenanigans against us and give us a win finally. It's been a while since S63...season sixty-three. Mhm, maybe I should've thought about bringing a good free agent to my team. Welp, we're fucked now.

 

 

In overall, this off-season was a 50/50 for me. The draft was great for us and I think we have a good team aka the best darkhorse team in this league. And then some failures. Not being able to secure a first OV (ok, this didn't hurt me a lot). And then having a chance to take a first rounder for a player to just not securing a deal; and then seeing that other GM'' could bring two players in his team for two firsts. That sucked way more. Now I still have a cap problem and most likely I won't take a lot of assetes for players eithers. I guess I'm good with only drafting and tra...wait, I already said that.

 

I'm recycling words now so this article is done.

 

That's it and I'm out.

 

6 TPE for Kallis.

[Victor 10,828]

I definitely see people writing you off even though you were IMO, on paper the best team in Europe last season. Just because you made no flashy moves doesn't make Riga less of a contender in my eyes.

[zepheter 586]

Thought you did just fine in the draft. Same should be said next draft.