Legitimate concerns for franchise mode

These are all really great and I remember talking about most of them last year, so I will try to keep this fairly short as I agree with what you have said.

If you haven’t played 22 yet, I will say this. Although the coaching/chemistry could still use quite a few tweaks, (performance based chemistry being my biggest request) the addition of X factors has greatly improved it from what I’ve seen so far. Superstars with X factors can overcome not matching preferences regardless of player type and if these players are put on a line together, they get a good bonus every time. The only downside is that if players don’t have X factors , I haven’t seen anything over +2, but I am personally ok with that as there are very few checking lines with great chemistry in real life.

They should really have the season start waiver wire too...  it's too easy to stack your AHL with nhl caliber players without any chance of losing them to waivers

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@arturowar wrote:

They should really have the season start waiver wire too...  it's too easy to stack your AHL with nhl caliber players without any chance of losing them to waivers

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That’s one of those “self rules” I always use. I wait until after the waiver period to send down anybody who should be eligible to be claimed. 

Majority of my suggestions could easily be patched into the game. For the roster limit it's literally changing a numerical value from 23 to 50 based on a date range. To be honest I just don't understand how so much of it is overlooked in the first place.

Yes, I don't understand why the coach and line chemistry feature doesn't work better given its big unveiling and how central it is to the game. I am trying to play by EA's rules for the game. So I fire my head coach to hire a coach who has strategy preferences in line with how I want to play (tough enough to find that coach given so many are standard offense and normal/staggered defense but I found him).

I then have to go manually update the strategies myself, they stay set to the old coach. I then look at scouting and line chemistry and am not confident it ties to the new coach and the new strategies, not the old stuff. Then I see scouting reports that sometimes even say "In (insert old coach name here)'s system". So then I trade for players the scouting report says should fit and don't get the boost in chemistry I expected.

It could be because my new coach is a B- not the A- guy he replaced, or it could be, and I have a sneaking suspicion this is the answer, I will get to the end of year 1, everything will update for year 2 and I'll find out I traded for a bunch of guys who don't really fit my new system. 

It's a joke, this is how EA wants us to play the game, I can't just go and set my strategies how I want like with 19 or previous versions, but your system doesn't work EA. It's why by January I usually say eff it and go play FIFA, but s-- you make money off me there so what do you care?

Some of these are exactly why having the ability to edit players is required to fix the AI generated players.  I scratch my head every time I scout a center and he has faceoffs listed as a weakness. Why is he a center if he can't handle faceoffs? He should b e a winger if that's the case. 

@grkubNot all Center's are "good" at faceoffs. Boone Jenner is a better winger but his faceoff ability is high. He's only ever been below 55% once in his entire career.

What is more concerning is why EA has faceoff's as a defensive stat. I feel like faceoffs should only be a stat that impacts the overall of forwards, and that impact should be low.

@jjbyrd04  I agree it should be placed under puck skills for fwds only. I'm not talking about the faceoffs rating for  prospects as much as I  am the strengths and weaknesses section when faceoffs is listed as a weakness for an elite potential center.  Just the same as must bulk up as weakness which the AI doesn't do so that 6-2 164 lb elite potential player will always be 164 lbs and knocked around the rink like a ping pong ball and be injured often.  The AHL is where these players bulk up with trainers to be successful and limit injuries. If the AI is unable to make the adjustments then we should be able to do it with the edit player feature we were locked out of.

There are a couple things to unpack here.

1) You can't eliminate "faceoff" from any player, becuase its possible, though highly unlikely you could see a Defenseman act as a Forward.

Prime Example: My 4th Line RW Winger acts as the center for me  PP line 2. My healthy scratch and my 4th line RW were both injured. I used my healthy scratch Defensive player as a sub. Low and behold his face off rating was 65, where my 4th line center and left with were only 64 (it was a line of grinders with no one who actually had a center rating) so yeah, I used him as the center in my PP line for three games and he scores 2 power play goals.

2) Centers should be good at faceoffs. Seriously, its a major function of their game play. If I see a Medium Elite center with no secondary position has a weakness for center, I stop scouting him, becuase they sim engine struggles with Rookies leveling up while playing in the wrong positions.

3) Weaknesses aren't always overcome. You might get a Med Elite who needs to bulk up and becuase he gets batter, he amounts to nothing. Case in point, Nolan Patrick. Dude, went 2nd, to the Flyers in 18. He needed to bulk up, he got smashed around and I believe had migraine syndrome. He'll most likely never be anything more then a 3rd line player. So, I get the disappointment in not being able to edit players but it makes sense in this case. Where it doesn't make sense is a Power Forward with 92 Slap Shot power and accuracy 88 worst shot power and accuracy and a 70 in Sterenght, Checking, and Aggression. Or a center, with a faceoff score of 60, but offense stats out the wazoo. He's clearly suited to be a wingers.