Philadelphia's Toronto Be a GM Mode

[Wynne - Retired Flyers GM]

Inspired by Edmonton's Be a GM Mode, I have done my very own.

Let's get going now.

So the boss is looking to get 37 wins this season. I'm not sure if he saw the roster we have right now or not, but let's see if we can work some magic.

The assistant coach scouted a few players for me;

D Stan Gordon
D Georges Dumont
RW Stan Smyth
RW Tomas Kvasha
LW Trent Crosby


So the draft begins;

1st Round - Drafted LW Bjorn Backer
2nd Round - Drafted D Stanley Aarnio
3rd Round - Drafted D Antti Pitkanen
4th Round - Drafted D Dan Parrish
5th Round - Drafted D Rory Linzen

So with 4 out of 5 picks we took defensemen, but I like my defense, so I am building our defensive corp up.

We got a fair amount of trade offers throughout the draft.

Offers:

NSH - Jeff Finger, Kyle Rogers
TOR - Steve Sullivan, Alexander Sulzer

Done deal.

PHX - Francois Beauchemin, Garnet Exelby
TOR - Shane Doan, Chad Kolarik

Very intriguing offer, it really took a while to decide on this one, but I turned it down.

BUF - Colton Orr, Andre Deveaux
TOR - Henrik Tallinder

Yeah, no thanks Sabres.

BOS - Colton Orr, Andre Deveaux
TOR - Matt Hunwick

I took this right away. I really like the thought of Hunwick/Schenn.

MTL - Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin
TOR - Brian Gionta, Andre Beniot

No, you are Montreal.

WSH - Garnet Exelby
TOR - Mike Knuble

Another offer that I did like but I wasn't quite sure about. I turned this one down.

CAR - Ryan Hamilton, Garnet Exelby
TOR - Jussi Jokinen, Bryan Rodney

I kind of liked Jokinen, but not for Ryan Hamilton.

So I got all of 2 trades done during the draft. I was hoping someone would take Grabovski of my hands, didn't happen.

Notable Trades:

BUF - Mark Streit, Jeff Tambellini
NYI - Paul Gaustad, Cody McCormick, Craig Rivet

WSH - Nathan Oystrick, Aaron Ward
CAR - Joe Corvo, Keith Aucoin

No real big splashes at the draft.

Because of the lame draft, my GM Rep went down and I lost a phone.

Time to sign my prospects. I re-sign all 5 of them and also buy-out the contracts of Mike Van Ryn and Jonas Frogren. I decided to buy-out Frogren for roster space.

July 1st - Free Agency Begins

A very fun time for hockey, free agency. I look through the list and I only see 1 guy I am interested in, prospect Tomas Pollock. I offer him a contract and a few days later, he accepts. So I got the guy I wanted, but I don't like my forward situation, so I revisit the offer I got from Washington, Mike Knuble for Garnet Exleby, and it is still on the table, so I take it.

No big free agents were available, so there weren't any notable signings. There were some very notable trades come August however.

TB - Evgeni Nabokov
SJ - Martin St. Louis

What does San Jose have up their sleeve?

MTL - Marty Turco
DAL - Michael Cammalleri

I guess a 2 goalie controversy in Montreal wasn't enough, why not add another?

CAR - James Wisniewski
ANA - Sergei Samsonov

Not huge, but kind of notable.

ANA - Cam Ward, Steven Goetzen
CAR - Steve Eminger, Scott Niedermayer

I guess Anaheim doesn't want defense, they want goaltenders!

BOS - Andrei Markov, Shawn Belle
MTL - Milan Lucic, Steve Begin

Big move here, nice one though.

MIN - Antoine Vermette, Zenon Konopka
CBJ - Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Andrew Ebbett

Columbus is finally trying to bring in a center for Nash.


Well it is finally time to start the season. Here is how the lineup is looking for opening night.

Mike Knuble - Mikhail Grabovski - Phil Kessel
Steve Sullivan - John Mitchell - Nikolai Kulemin
Viktor Stalberg - Tomas Pollock - Bjorn Backer
Fredrik Sjostrom - Rickard Wallin - Jamie Lundmark

Dion Phaneuf - Tomas Kaberle
Francois Beauchemin - Mike Komisarek
Matt Hunwick - Luke Schenn

Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Jonas Gustavsson


Right before opening night, the boss contacts me again. He is hoping that we make the playoffs, but won't be mad if we don't.

So we start!

Promising start, we beat Montreal 5-3 opening night. After that, we came back down to earth. We finished October 4-7-1, I guess not too bad considering, but not too great either.

We start November. I am hoping for a better record from October. We finish November with an overall record of 11-13-1, so we were over .500 this month with a 7-6-0 record!

Just when I thought we were getting better, we go 6-8-2 in the month of December, so we now sit with an overall record of 17-21-3, good for 12th in the East.

To start off January, we claimed Brian Elliot off waivers from Ottawa. Maybe he can eventually end up with the big club, but for now, he will play with the Marlies. We end up going 7-8-0 in January, and now sit with a 24-29-3 record. Can't say I'm surprised.

Now it is time to start thinking ahead. We are entering February, and with only 6 games before the Trade Deadline, we need to find a direction to go in. In the 5 games in February, we go 2-1-2, not bad, so I am beginning to think, should we sell, or just stay put?

We enter March with a 26-30-5 record, and just 6 points out of a playoff spot. We have 1 last game before the deadline, against the Carolina Hurricanes. We win that game, 5-1, so I don't think we are going to sell at the deadline.

March 3rd - Trade Deadline

So I am hoping for a few trades offers that I like to come our way today. My wish comes true, some what.

Trade Offers:

ATL - Francois Beauchemin, Mike Komisarek
TOR - Ron Hainsey, Todd White, ATL 2nd

Ron Hainsey and the 2nd really interest me, but not for Komi and Beauch, so no thanks.

CBJ - Jay Rosehill, Ryan Hollweg
TOR - Rostislav Klesla, Andrew Ebbett

I really like Klesla and if I get him, Beauchemin becomes expendable for a decent forward, done.

EDM - Francois Beauchemin
TOR - Dustin Penner

I had been trying to get Penner off Edmonton since January, and finally Edmonton comes with an offer in the final hour. This is definitely done.

Notable Trades:

LA - Brad Boyes
STL - Michal Handzus

This game has a boner for Handzus, you can get anyone for him.

PHI - Ed Jovanovski, Derek Morris
PHX - Chris Pronger, Mike Rathje

Phoenix makes a HUGE splash and gets Pronger off Philly, wow.


Here is the lineup heading into the final stretch of the season;

Mike Knuble - Phil Kessel - Dustin Penner
Steve Sullivan - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Viktor Stalberg - Tomas Pollock - Bjorn Backer
Fredrik Sjostrom - John Mitchell - Jamie Lundmark

Dion Phaneuf - Tomas Kaberle
Rostislav Klesla - Mike Komisarek
Matt Hunwick - Luke Schenn

Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Jonas Gustavsson

Let's see how this tweaked lineup does.

March was depressing. Maybe I was expected a bit much, but whatever. We end up going 7-6-3, so we are now 33-36-8, and we still have a shot at the playoffs.

We have 5 games left in April and we are only 4 points out. Maybe we can pull this off.

I guess it wasn't meant to be. We go 1-2-2 to finish the season and finish 6 points out, sitting on the outside look in. I can't say I expected playoffs, but when you are this close, you kind of get upset.

The Marlies failed to make the playoffs aswell so this is going to be a long summers. Expect big changes in the off-season.

The boss contacts me. He is mad that we couldn't make the 37 wins he asked for at the beginning of the season. He hopes I've got a plan for next season. I do, don't worry.

I quickly sim to June to see the winners.

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the Los Angeles Kings in 5 games to win the Stanley Cup!

Peoria defeats Rochester in 7 games to win the Calder Cup!


Point Leaders:

Mikhail Grabovski - 81 PTS - 38 G
Mike Knuble - 74 PTS
Phil Kessel - 70 PTS
Dustin Penner - 70 PTS
Steve Sullivan - 53 PTS
Dion Phaneuf - 45 A

It is apparent I need to find some secondary scoring.

NHL Leaders:

Marian Gaborik - 118 PTS - 63 G
Sidney Crosby - 114 PTS - 53 G
Alexander Ovechkin - 113 PTS
Rick Nash - 105 PTS
Alexander Semin - 104 PTS

Gaborik had quite the year eh?

That is where I will leave off. Next time, we prepare for next season. We get ready for the draft and look to make some big trades.

Hope you have a good read

[Allabouthockey - Former CGY GM]

coolies

[The Admin Account]

Nice read.

I'm surprised Michal Handzus didn't get dealt for Simon Gagne, that happens in almost every Be-a-GM I do.

[New York Islanders GM]

Turco always gets traded to montreal for a foward In My game LOL

[Detroit Red Wings GM]

Nicely done, I'm glad someone else decided to do one also.

[Hemskyfan - Former Carolina GM]

thats awsome thanks philly i may do one with oilers or something somtime soon

[Wynne - Retired Flyers GM]

Alright, time to do some more of this.

So we have just finished Season 1 and we are ready to move on from that disappointing year.

We start it off with retirements. I wasn't worried here as I didn't have anybody too old.

Notable Retirements:

Chris Chelios
Mark Recchi
Rob Blake
Bill Guerin
Alexei Kovalev
Teemu Selanne
Brian Rolston
Dwayne Roloson

Time to prepare for the draft. My assistant coach gives me a short list of players to look at;

LW Shane Sipotz
C Boris Schastlivy
C Ladislav Sejna
LW Marcus Sedin
C Jimmy Rollings

Before the draft starts, I update my trading block and add Mike Komisarek, Mike Knuble and my 2nd round draft pick to the block. I also take a look at other team's block to see if anyonce catches my eye. I see 3 players, Samuel Pahlsson, Rich Peverley, and Simon Gagne. I am going to make a push to get Gagne.

The draft begins. We start off round 1 with an offer from New Jersey.

TOR gets: Zach Parise
NJ gets: Mike Komisarek, TOR 3rd

You know when you make a trade, sometimes you get a message from the other team saying they almost feel guilty accepting? I really felt guilty saying yes to this one.

The 2nd offer is from Montreal.

TOR gets: Brian Gionta
MTL gets: Dion Phaneuf

I laughed and moved on.

With our 1st pick in the draft, we select D Marshall Lashoff. With Komisarek gone, I felt we could use a solid defenseman.

2nd - Drafted LW Shane Sipotz
4th - Drafted G Timo Numminen
5th - Drafted G Travis Kostopoulos

That's what autoing the rest will do for you, take 2 shitty goalies.

Other offers we got were;

TOR gets: David Jones
COL gets: Fredrik Sjostrom

Accidently pressed accept, fuck me.

TOR gets: Bryan Allen, Ville Koistinen
FLA gets: Alex Berry, Mike Knuble

Doesn't help me, no thanks.

And that was it for us.

Notable Draft Day Trades:

STL - Milan Hejduk
COL - Barret Jackman

DAL - Dan Boyle, Serge Couture
SJ - Brendan Morrow, Stephane Robidas

ANA - Andy McDonald
STL - Lubomir Visnovsky

DET - Kevin Bieksa, Andrew Alberts
VAN - Valterri Filppula, Robert Nilsson

COL - Mike Commodore, 5th
CBJ - John-Michael Liles

DET - Shane Doan, Radim Vrbata
PHX - Pavel Datsyuk, Kris Draper


Now we get ready for the next big day, free agency. We've got a good number of players with contracts up, and I don't expect to re-sign too many of them. I am also kind of short on cap space, expect Giguere to go for nothing.

I offer out contracts to the following players and they accept;

Nikolai Kulemin
Rostisav Klesla
Christian Hanson
Jonas Gustavsson
John Mitchell
Wayne Primeau
Darryl Boyce

I then go and buy-out the contracts of Mike Knuble and Steve Sullivan. This team is heading in a different direction and they are no longer needed.

We finally get to July 1st, huge day.

We start by taking a look at the free agent list and making a short list. The list includes;

Paul Ranger
Blake Wheeler
Denis Grebeshkov
Guillaume Latendresse
Shaone Morrisonn
Brandon Dubinsky
Kyle Quincey
Ian White
Matt D'Agostini
Niklas Hjalmarsson
Nick Foligno
Patric Hornqvist
Olli Jokinen

I was hoping to have a big name center available, but that didn't happen, so I will have to try and trade for one.

After sending out offers to Ranger, Wheeler, Dubinsky, Quincey, and Hornqvist, I check out the trading block. I add Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Dustin Penner and Mikhail Grabovski to the list. I then take a look on other team's block, hoping to see a big name center. I see 2, Brad Richards and Joe Thornton. I will first try for Thornton.

After negotiating for a little while, we come to an agreement.

TOR gets: Joe Thornton
SJ gets: Dustin Penner, Mikhail Grabovski

This trade doesn't leave me with much cap space, so Giguere needs to go, for anything.

I move Giguere to the Cam Ward-less Carolina Hurricanes for a 5th round draft pick. That opens up $6,000,000 in cap space for free agents now.

I send out a few more offers to Nick Foligno, Shaone Morrisonn and Olli Jokinen.

After a few days, the replies start coming in.

Blake Wheeler, Brandon Dubinsky, Matt D'Agostini, Niklas Hjalmarrson, Nick Foligno, and Patric Hornqvist have accepted their offers.

Kyle Quincey and Shaone Morrisonn decided to take a different offer. I really wanted Quincey, so I may need to try and acquire him via trade.

A day later, I get an offer from Dallas.

TOR gets: Brad Richards, Jeff Wotwitka
DAL gets: Dion Phaneuf, John Mitchell

I laughed and said no.

Tampa Bay then sends an offer my way.

TOR gets: Vincent Lecavalier, George Parros
TB gets: Joe Thornton, John Mitchell

I prefer Big Joe, so no thanks.

We got the free agents we wanted, so now we wait. A few days go by with nothing, then I remember about Kyle Quincey. I start trade talks with Ottawa.

We finally come to terms after 6 or 7 different offers.

TOR gets: Kyle Quincey
OTT gets: Carl Gunnarsson, Dan Parrish, Darryl Boyce

It may seem like a lot, but I got my guy and only really had to give up Gunarsson, the other two were AHL plugs. I also free up two roster spots for players I may want futher down the road.

Edmonton then comes to me with an offer.

TOR gets: EDM 2nd, EDM 3rd
EDM gets: Alexander Sulzer

I will take that, thank you.

I think I am ready for the start of Season 2 now.

This is what the starting lineup for Season 2 looks like;

Zach Parise - Joe Thornton - Phil Kessel
Nick Foligno - Olli Jokinen - Blake Wheeler
Nikolai Kulemin - Tomas Pollock - Patric Hornqvist
Viktor Stalberg - Brandon Dubinsky - Matt D'Agostini

Dion Phaneuf - Tomas Kaberle
Luke Schenn - Kyle Quincey
Antti Pitkanen - Rostislav Klesla

Jonas Gustavsson
Brian Elliott

I really like our depth situation aswell. These are the players sitting in the minors.

C Tyler Bozak (79)
C Christian Hanson (78)
C John Mitchell (78)
C Greg Scott (76)
C Wayne Primeau (75)
LW Bjorn Backer (77)
LW Luca Caputi (76)
RW David Jones (78)
D Matt Hunwick (77)
D Marshall Lashoff (77)
D Juraj Mikus (77)
D Niklas Hjalmarrson (77)
D Keith Aulie (77)
D Stanley Aarino (77)


So we start October very nicely, we start 5-0. The boss ahs a message for me. He knows we have to take a long term approch to success so he won't be mad if we fail to make the playoffs. He might not get mad, but I'll be pretty mad if we don't make the post-season.

We finish October with a 9-1-1 record, good for 2nd in the Conference, behind the NY Islanders by 1 point. Hopefully we can maintain this awesome start.

November starts off very shakey, we go 0-3 to start November.

Half way through November we get an offer from Detroit.

TOR - Patrick Eaves
DET - Nikolai Kulemin

No thanks, let's keep going.

Amatuer Scout calls saying it will be a good year for rookies. Glad to hear that, we've got 4 picks in the first two rounds already.

We got back on track in November and finished with a 9-5-0 record. Our overall record is 18-6-1 now. We are still holding down 2nd place in the Conference, trailing the Islanders by 4 points now, but we've got 2 games in hand.

Olli Jokinen has been great thus far, 10G, 20A for 30PTS in just 25 games. Joe Thornton hasn't been the force I was hoping for. He only has 17 points. I hope he can step it up. Nikolai Kulemin's days in Toronto might be coming to an end. He wasn't very great last season and through the first two months this season he has just 3 points in 25 games, that's not acceptable. I may bring someone up from the AHL to play a few games in his place.

That is all for now.

[Allabouthockey - Former CGY GM]

awesome read man good job with that team thus far

[Hemskyfan - Former Carolina GM]

teams doing great good job