I can't stop playing this game. So deep. So many things to do. So many decisions to labor and then grieve over. Decent community.

Then I added facepacks and modded a little to fix some small details. I'll probably be side-playing this for at least....forever.


I'm not sure if any of the other people that lived in my house are still here. Haven't been out in a while

This is coming from the perspective of someone that played NHL GM Modes up to NHL 14. The games after that, except maybe for NHL 15 on the PS3 and X-Box 360 didn't improve anything in GM Mode, so I came in knowing the ins and outs of the GM Mode in the NHL games at their peak regarding simulation. This is also after one full season, so look at this reason.

As far as realism, I would say it is fairly decent, but obviously it cannot be 100% accurate, as it cannot always predict when players will have off or good seasons. In my season with the Kings, I made it into the finals in year one and faced the Tampa Bay Lightning. While initially unrealistic, Tampa didn't have Stamkos most of the year and almost made the playoffs, and in this game Kopitar and Gaborik had good years, as the Kings main problem was scoring, not allowing goals, even when Budaj was the starter. As for the simulation engine, the best testament to it's realism is being able to watch and coach the games. How you do this is your own choice. I believe you can have the games be coached by an AI, but that takes the fun out of the game in a way. And this indirectly leads to this game's double edged sword: time. While you become more accustomed to the day to day job of a general manager/coach, there is a heavy amount of time to be invested in a single season of this game. As I said earlier, I only played one full season (including the playoffs) and it took me over 20 hours. However, this one season was definitely fun as I got closer to the team and was satisfied with the simulation and the way stats worked for the most part, and the many coaching options the game gives you. The trading system is also very interesting as it allows you to offer a player to the league and see what offers teams give you. The spread of trade rumors also adds to the fun of the situation.

Another great thing about this game and being able to coach them and watch them, is the addition of the amount of personality that goes into this game. This was best characterized by a series I had with the San Jose Sharks. In I believe it was game 2 or 3, the Kings were pounding the Sharks, and I remember us having 7 goals or something crazy at the end of the game. After the first or second period, Drew Doughty was injured by a Sharks player and I went crazy and adjusted a lot of my players so that they could fight and have them target Sharks players like Couture and the guy that injured Drew, who seemed to be some nobody. At the beginning of the third, a line brawl broke out and even the goalies joined in, though this would cost Quick a suspension and the Sharks backup would get the suspension, not Jones as he was pulled. After the line brawl I'm not sure if a fight broke out in the game, but it was a crazy moment, one you literally cannot have in EA NHL GM Modes. Drew came back for the next game and we lost the next game, but it wasn't the fault of the goaltender as we didn't get enough done in regulation. In the end, we won the series in seven games. To me, this is what a rivalry series was supposed to feel like, crazy, intense, hard-fought, and brutal. This single series made me fall in love with the game.

So should you or should you not buy this game? While I've only played one season all the way, I definitely enjoyed that one season. I cannot accurately judge player growth as I haven't invested much time into the game. From what I experienced, if you're willing to invest time into this game and want a realistic hockey sim, go for it, this may be the best one out there, but I haven't played Franchise Hockey Manager 3 so I can't compare it to that game. If you're not patient enough to essentially "play" as the coach then this game may not be for you.

One more thing, you need to download NHL rosters from the workshop if you want to use those.

tl;dr If you're willing to invest time into a realistic hockey sim, this game is for you as it adds a ton of personality to being a general manager. If you aren't patient enough, maybe manager games aren't for you.

I had never played EHM prior to yesterday, I had followed the NHL afew years ago but had only recently watched ice hockey during the Olympics. The reason I gave this a go was because of its low price and the fact it seemed on the face of it similar to Football Manager. Whilst daunting at first I quickly got to grips with the interface and the basics of the game, whenever I hit terminology or anything I was unsure of a quick google was more than enough to gain an understanding of what I need to know.

If you're someone who enjoys Football Manager but would like an alternative to play I'd highly recommend it, especially at the price it's at. If you love hockey then this should be a no brainer.

I'd also highly recommend downloading roster updates and graphcis packs should you get the game to give yourself a more complete experience!

(9.6 / 10) Well worth the eight year wait - Author: archibalduk of EHM The Blue Line

More than eight years after the Eastside Hockey Manager series was put on indefinite hold, the undisputed king of ice hockey management is back. A lot has changed since EHM 2007 was released in September 2006; not least the rise of the likes of Steam and social media. These platforms make niche games cheaper to launch and easier to market. Indeed, Eastside Hockey Manager: Early Access (or EHM:EA for short) is being released exclusively on Steam and is likely to be heavily marketed using platforms such as Twitter and hockey forums such as The Blue Line and HFBoards. Against this background maybe, just maybe, the game will become a more viable project than it was before.

This new iteration is being released as an Early Access game. The game will be continuously developed over the coming months with regular updates being pushed to users via Steam. To call it a beta version would be grossly unfair and inaccurate. The game is highly polished. It’s simply that the game will be developed whilst we play. The thinking behind this approach is to test the waters. If the game generates enough sales then it will return as an annual release. If not, then it won’t.

Full Review -> http://gmgames.org/eastside-hockey-manager-early-access-ehm-ea/review/

I'll list out what happened to my team in history and you be the judge. NOTE: This was after loading the real league DB
- Selected the Flames
- Had a mediocre first year. Ended up 4th last. Wideman was a superstar!
- Was able to Draft Austin Matthews 4th overall.
- Young stars played well but asked for small bridge contracts (3.5 for Gaudreau and 5 for Monahan) in the end.
- Was able to trade assets like Juri Hudler and Jonas Hiller for young stud prospects like Kerby Rychel, Oliver Bjorkstrand and John Gibson
- This salary dump and low contracts allowed me to get Jamie Benn of Free Agency for 3 years at 8.5 mil
- Existing Flame prospects Poirier, Klimchuk, Anderssen and Bennett started to shine.
- The next year with these players resulted in an early playoff exit against the OIlers, with Poirier getting the Calder trophy on a line with Monahan and Gaudreau. Damn you McJesus!
- The second year ended up losing in the quarter finals to the Stars who went on the win the cup with Voracek in place of Benn, Klimchuk started to whine about his ice time and the Calgarian Media.
- The third year, refused to comment to media about our chances and won the cup in dominating fashion. Majority of players were in that 24-27 sweet spot. Gibson won the Conn Smythe. Hartley won the Jack Adams
- The following year, couldn't afford Benn despite letting an old Wideman go to free agency, Matthews wanted 5 mil a year. Managed to get 35 year old Pavelski and 31 year old Simmonds on sweet deals in free agency. So far, I'm 3-5-2 though. Feeling the cup hangover as there has been LOTS of little injuries to start the season and a T.J. Brodie 3 game suspension.

All things considered. The game is fun, largely accurate, though not fully believable in some aspects. The free agent list is obsurd. The salaries that some quality players are asking for are rediculously low. High end talent costs a LOT in dollars (8 million plus). The salary cap never goes up. There are some bugs regarding team record notifications that make no sense and are poor english. Some menus are tedious to mantain. Trade system is fairly good. Scouting is annoying as it doesn't auto reset for Entry Draft scouting - scouts go idle. I'll likely play another two seasons and stop forever, but worth it if your a GM junkie.

Excellent game for anyone wanting to be the gym of their favorite team and bring them a stanley cup(except for the Maple Leafs, that's impossible pls).

If your favorite teams are the oilers, hurricanes, panthers, hurricanes, etc, it will take a few years to get the Stanley cup. You need to build the team with good depth players, have good rookies in your system, and a decent top 6.

Time will fly as you are trying to build the perfect time. There's a lot of depth in this game. You can control coaches, scouts, practices, analysis the draft, team tactics are really detailed(there are individual tactics for each of your players and also for each of the lines you can either choose or ask your coach).

Overall, this game satisfy my constant need of hockey when there is no game to watch.

+Currently the best hockey manager
+Live community and developers
+Clear tables, gameplay
+HW requirements

-Lttle innovation since the last EHM (gameplay,graphics, tactics, training.. ) it would need new ideas?!
-Licence player and competitions
-Crash game
-Easy difficulty (lots of finance,unrealistic transfers)


The best hockey manager with some bad things, which community and developers is repair. I hope...I trust them!

A wonderful managment game, 100% recommend it to all hockey fans out there. Don't get confused by the initial impression of having no real life rosters in-game. Go on ehmtheblueline and download all of the databases, facepacks, rinks your heart wants!

In a lot of ways EHM:EA is just an updated version of EHM 2007, same layout and design, but with better coding to improve the game in many areas. After downloading the newest roster update from TBL, it feels almost as if I picked up right where I left off last time I played EHM 2007. However, for new players the game still has a very difficult learning curve. More detailed explanations of game features, statistics, etc would go a long way to helping more players understand and enjoy the game.

This game makes the EA NHL series Be a Gm mode an obsolete artifact. I recommend to anyone who loves hockey and anyone who likes sports management games.

Every element of this game is greatly expanded from the EA NHL GM Mode.

You can expect improvements in:

Scouting - Hire up to 12(?) scouts and assign them to leagues, regions, countries or teams. Scout amateur players for the draft, pros for trade, or even AHL players with hidden potential.

Coaching - You can design a gameplan for your team down to the most minute detail. Different sliders for lines and d pairings. Or you can let the coach take over.

Staff - You can also hire assistant coaches and head coaches with various skills as well as physio, assistant gms, and as mentioned above full teams of scouts.

Trading - Trading is much more balanced than the NHL games. You can't really 'cheese' the draft system although you can definitely stockpile picks and make good trades thanks to good scouting. I found it relatively easy to build a dynasty in the game and that's a good thing IMO. IT's not as easy as it is in EA but that's also a very good thing imo. It's entirely possible to build a team with the best intentions, miss the playoffs repeatedly, miss your window, and be forced the rebuild.

Development - Amazing development in this game. Your players development is dependent on a few things. How good is your coaching staff? How do they perform during the season? And also what practice routine do you set for them? Practice is a very fleshed out gameplay element that allows you to customize how you want your players to improve. It's a lightyear ahead of EA NHLs somewhat random system. Potential can change if a player has an amazing seaosn, improving, or get worse if you're playing the player at a level below their current skill (Like placing a NHL ready third line player int he AHL for example).

Fantasy Draft - it has a fantasy draft with a lot of settings.

Community - Amazing community that uploads roster updates for FREE EVERY YEAR. EA would charge you 80 dollars for what this community releases for free.

Actual simulator: It's nothing special. Design is reminicsent of 'table hockey' you might play in a Canadian basement. You don't have to watch the games but I find watching them pretty entertaining.

The balance - Balance of players and teams is very strong. it's hard ot win with one good line and three lines of plugs. It's hard to win without good goaltending. It's hard to win without defense. You can build a defense first team or a run and gun team.

Overall: Recommend this as a must buy for fans of GM mode and NHL. There's nothing even close. I tried the older FHM but not the newer one.