Let’s Re-Do the 2015-16 New Jersey Devils Season in EHM: January 2016

Another month down in the simulation re-do of the 2015-16 New Jersey Devils, and it’s another successful month. The Devils continue to do things that would surprise many. Things such as continuing to win games - even by the shootout, continuing to lean beyond heavy on Cory Schneider, and Tuomo Ruutu actually making contributions to the squad. What didn’t happen? Well, moves. Moves weren’t made. I explain in the video.

How did the Devils perform? Please watch the video and find out. Please watch the following video in full screen and in 1080p if you can. My commentary is as expected:

In the previous post, I received a lot of good suggestions. But the AI-general managers turned them all down. As explained in the video, I only realized that each player has “value” within the game world when simulating January. Given that Eric Gelinas, Keith Kinkaid, and so forth do not have high value, teams were quick to reject all manners of deals. Factors like their contract also matter, although I found it odd that John Quenneville could be called “overpaid” as he is actually a prospective player. In any case, I do feel bad that I never picked up on this in earlier attempts in deals and never communicated it. that could have helped all of you out. Hence, the longer video. But here’s the long and short of it.

• In order to get high value players - who have been mostly suggested - high players must be offered. For the Devils, that’s Damon Severson, Cory Schneider, Mike Cammalleri, and Pavel Zacha. Everyone else carries normal value or less. Draft picks seemingly don’t carry listed value.
• Inquiries don’t really work unless the team seemingly has enough valuable players. I learned that from inquiring about Matt Moulson - something I did on a whim as the computer GM of Buffalo put him on the trading block. Even then, AI-Tim Murray told me that while they didn’t have any interest on their own, they’d listen to a specific offer. Specific offers are therefore encouraged.
• Overpaid contracts aren’t attractive. Which is unfortunate for Travis Zajac.
• Since “value” appears to only be available in the trading window, I can look up what the value looks like for future deals going forward.

Again, I thank everyone who’s provided me suggestions so far. I hope with this information, we can make potentially more effective deals in the near future. Which is good because the trade deadline is coming up. Only two other items of note from January that I amazingly forgot in the video: 1) The U.S. won the World Junior Championships and Zacha led all skaters with 5 goals. 2) Devils’ lone all star was Cory Schneider, who did relatively well for Team Stamkos. Team Pietrangelo did win, namely by hammering Henrik Lundqvist with goals.

Anyway, the trade deadline is next, so I’ll simulate the game until the 20th as promised to allow for one last round of suggested moves. In the meantime, please leave your thoughts, reactions, questions (I’ll boot up the game to answer anything you may want to know), and roster suggestions in the comments. I plan on simulating February by around the middle of the coming week. I’ll leave a comment summarizing what I plan to do ahead of it, so look for that. Thank you for watching, listening, and reading.