I understand what you are saying and get that its more a positional thing which I did try to teach them along with changing strategies. It was more me trying to relay the options of the new player experience when trying to play CHEL.
When we enabled clubs we found more teams where it was only exploits. That was why we turned it off in the first place. Maybe your team plays more on skill but that is not a large part of the NHL community that we saw.
I do agree that max level doesn't always determine skill cause we beat teams that had players like that. Its more the fact that the lack of variety for some teams/players you play against sucks the fun out of the game (not yours).
I'm not the highest knowledge on the in's and out's but if the mindset of the community is what was stated in the above comment then how is EA NHL trying to bring in a younger audience? That was basically what I have meant from the start. Due to factors like no matchmaking and OP builds, One-tee + green Tee, the LT exploit it shows a new player that the experience you are offering is not worth it for them to play or buying the game.