Let’s Re-Do the 2015-16 New Jersey Devils Season in EHM: Preseason

Six days ago, I made, uploaded, and posted a video showing off the hockey simulation game, Eastside Hockey Manager, and an idea. The idea is that with our knowledge of what happened in real life last season, perhaps we could see what would happen if we did some things differently. So I would be running a season in EHM for the Devils as the general manager - effectively pretending to be Ray Shero - only I’m guided by you, the watcher, listener, and reader, to tell me what moves I should make. The reaction to the idea was positive and so we’re doing it.

In that video, I had you all make an important choice. Do we try to make the playoffs in 2015-16 or do we tank harder than what happened in real life? You all made your voice clear. The votes were tallied and the decision is to “go for it.” So we will try to make the playoffs. That will be my mindset as I do the day-to-day tasks in the simulation and it should be yours as you suggest the player moves I should make. Know that failure is an option.

To get things started, I already simulated the season through to preseason. Thanks to a suggestion by norton-nemesis, I named the GM “Kevin Lomax.” I also noted something alslammerz pointed out in the comments as an occurrence in the game. (Aside: I apologize for not knowing you two beyond your usernames in the video. My bad.) As I do these videos, I’ll try to highlight the game’s engine, the level of detail, and its quirks. While preseason itself was short, this video is pretty long as I’m showing off the players, the tactics, the personnel, the news, the trading block, and how games are actually run.

With that said, here’s the post-preseason video. Again, this is best viewed in full screen. My commentary, well, it is what it is:

The lineup is pretty much from last year’s only with Bobby Farnham (he arrived later in October 2015, IIRC), without Tyler Kennedy, Jordin Tootoo on IR, Reid Boucher up with New Jersey because Tootoo is on IR, and Patrik Elias is actually healthy (and did well in preseason). While preseason went well in this re-do of 2015-16, improvements could still be made.

So please let me know in the comments what moves you want me with the player roster - I explained in the video why I can’t just dump all of the scouts - to make and why. You can even suggest player numbers; I just found out after recording that I assign them shortly after preseason. 30 and 27 will be kept off the list; let me know in the comments if you want to see something specific like Jiri Tlusty keeping #91 too. Suggestions will be credited and those with pithy explanations have a better chance of being tried than not. In a few days, I’ll start playing through October and plan to have that video up in the following weekend. Thanks for watching, listening, and reading.