Guide to Managing in the WHL (or any Canadian Major Junior League)

Managing in leagues other than the NHL is a fun way to experience a completely different challenge in FHM6 and learn more about global ice hockey in the process. The Major Junior Leagues of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) present a completely different set of obstacles than the NHL to overcome as a general manager, including player age restrictions, limits on foreign players, and low-ability, high-potential players who make up the vast majority of the talent pool. Coupled with the fact you can draft and trade (within your own league) and sign free agents, I find the CHL -- especially the Western Hockey League (WHL) -- very enjoyable, and the below guide is a summation of tips from the things I've learned over 250 or so hours of play. Enjoy, eh!

Intro to the WHL - Overview

Why GM the WHL?

If you're used to only playing management sims like FHM at the NHL level, you may enjoy the completely different challenges presented by managing in a development league like the CHL. All have very similar (maybe even identical) rules, but my favorite CHL league is the Western Hockey League, or WHL, so this guide will introduce you to the basic concepts through examples from the WHL specifically, as well as provide you some of the tips I've accrued through more than 250 hours in game (though not all of it in the WHL).

WHL Challenges and Considerations

You won't care about salary caps, contract negotiations or team budgets. Every contract will be $3000 (most common), $1000 (occasionally) or free -- if the player is under contract to an NHL team (usually not more than one per team). The challenges you face in Major Junior are age restrictions, foreign player restrictions, and how all of that matters in a league where most players are very short on current ability and high on potential... potential they will almost never realize while on your squad. In a way that's far more intense than in less restrictive leagues, you are managing not only against the other teams in your league, but against the calendar. You have your players for about four years, starting at age 15 or 16, and you are trying to build a team that can win this season while also keeping a constant eye on what next year's team will look like as your best players -- the ones who are finally reaching some of their potential -- leave you to go on to other leagues or life outside hockey. The lack of current ability on every squad will change the way you manage, as I'll detail later on, and test your ability to wheel and deal your way into a winning squad while also managing the development and impending departure of your players.

Where do my players come from?

One of the great things about the WHL is that you have a number of options for acquiring your players. You will have two drafts per off-season: a Bantam Draft where you draw high potential players with almost zero current ability between the ages of 14-15, and the CHL foreign draft where you can select up to two players from foreign leagues who are of WHL playing age right now and may have some decent current ability. You can also sign free agents from the WHL Free Agent Center or from a general player search -- just make sure to filter between the ages 16-19 and tick the box that says "Signable" or you'll get players you can't actually sign. Finally, you can trade with the other WHL teams but not other MJ leagues, like the OHL, etc. nor the Junior B teams that act as your "farm club" in only the narrowest sense.

But enough overview! Let's dive into the rules and get started.

WHL Rules and Rosters

The on-ice rules of the WHL are no different than most other leagues. There are perhaps some stricter penalties for certain actions like fighting, since this is a development league for younger players down to the age of 15, and there is always some variation from league to league about overtime rules and the points awarded for wins and overtime losses, etc. If you really want to know all there is to know about the WHL, you can find the official rulebook here[whl.ca].

For our purposes, we care mostly about the rules pertaining to the roster. This includes the number of players you can carry on your roster, how many you can dress, how many you can protect and have under contract, the age and foreign player restrictions, and how the drafts and trading work.

If you're unfamiliar with Major Junior Leagues, I believe it's worth a quick look at the WHL Prospects FAQ[prospects.whl.ca] before playing the WHL to get a better understanding of how the Bantam Draft system works. I will go into some practical considerations in greater detail in the guide below. FHM does a great job of incorporating real rules into their playable leagues, and the WHL is no exception.

Let's take a look at the rules as presented by FHM6, and then I'll discuss some of the most important ones to you as a GM.


Above are the FHM6 rules for the WHL. Let's zoom in on some of the ones we care about as GM.


First, there are age restrictions. The minimum age is stated as 16 and the maximum is 20. But there's more to the story that FHM6 isn't telling you here. First, you can sign players as young as 15, but it can't be the first year you drafted them, and they have to be turning 16 during the season. Second, 20 year old players (and some 19 year olds) are considered "overage," and there is a maximum of three overage players allowed on your active roster, dressed or not, in the regular season and playoffs (you can try out more than three during the preseason). As I'll show you on a later screen, sometimes only the 20 year old player is displayed in the roster screen as "OA" for overage, but if you try to sign another 19 or 20 year old, you are told by a popup window that you already have too many overage players. This is because some of your 19 year olds are turning 20 during the season and are considered OA, even though the game doesn't tell you that. This is one reason why, as I'll detail later, managing your roster's ages is one of the important challenges of the WHL.

Let's look at the roster rules from within the game:


Here we see that we have a large active roster of up to 25 players, which gives us some nice flexibility, and we can dress 20 of those. We can keep 50 players on our protected list -- these are all the players we have under contract (including those playing in the lower Junior B league and higher leagues like the AHL or NHL now) plus those we have unsigned rights to because of past drafts. This number sounds large but you will often run into the 50-player protection limit when trying to draft into the later rounds in the Bantam Draft. More tips on that later. You can have 30 players under contract. This means only five more than you can have on your active roster (not including any AHL/NHL players who count against your protected list, but not your contracts). This is not a whole lot and must be managed. Lastly, and this is another of the vital challenges, you can only have two foreign players on your roster. Does "foreign" include Americans? The best answer I can give you is I don't know. Unlike with the OA marking for overage players, the game does consistently flag foreign players with an "F" by their name, so you can keep track that way. We'll talk about strategies for managing both overage and foreign players in a later section.

The Drafts: WHL Bantam and CHL Foreign

Let's start with how you will draft players, though this is often not the most common way you will get your players, if you are trying to win championships. Here I'll cover some of the ground rules that may not be obvious in the game (for more detailed information, click here[prospects.whl.ca]), as well as my preferred strategies and other considerations regarding the drafts within FHM.

It's key to remember that ABILITY is rare in the WHL and the search for it will affect every decision you make. So, I'll start with this rule of thumb: Draft Bantams for potential; draft foreigners for ability.

The Bantam Draft - Selection

Once a year you will have the opportunity to draft 14-15 year old players for future signing rights. These players will all have only 1/2 star of current ability, but a huge number of them will have 5 star potential. Obviously the high potential players are the guys you want to look at first, but the quantity is so large, and the difference between 5, 4, and to be honest even 3 star potential when they will likely not reach that potential while on your team, means you can really shop around and find players you like. While any draft, especially ones involving 14 year old kids, is a dice roll, you should be looking at positions where you have a lot of 19 year olds leaving the team, and looking at things like physical size which may give a player an advantage when they hit the league a year or two later.

In the draft, you'll have the option to make each pick manually when your turn comes up, or you can set a draft list and let the computer pick based on who remains from your list -- in order -- when your turn arrives, or you can just click auto-pick or even end draft with no further picks at any time. Remember that you can only have 50 protected players, so if you already have 30 under contract, maybe 12 unsigned draftees from previous years and maybe an NHL/AHL player or two who still technically fall under your protection, you aren't going to be able to draft beyond, say, the 6th round. This is why it's never a good idea (as we'll discuss in the Trading section) to accept draft picks past about the 5th round in trades, except in specific circumstances. Fortunately, if you run into the Protected Player limit while drafting, you can switch to your protected list and release some rights, then click back to resume the draft if you're really determined to draft more players. I would recommend caution, though. Remember that no matter how great the potential looks of the player you want to draft, he will almost assuredly still be 1/2 star ability when he joins your team, and is unlikely to rise past 2 or maybe 3 star ability while with your squad. It can happen, but it doesn't often. With that in mind, it may not be worth tossing away previous years' picks who you could sign right away, or giving up the rights to an NHL player who might yet get sent back down to you in time to help the club.

The Bantam Draft - Signing

One thing the game doesn't make clear is that you will not be able to sign new picks the same season you draft them, regardless of their age. The game will even send you a cheerful email right after the draft concludes, telling you to go sign your players and wishing you luck. But you can't sign this year's picks. That email reminder is a good time to go to your Unsigned Draftees page and try to sign previous years' picks. These you will be able to sign, even if they are 15, so long as they are turning 16 sometime this season. Trial and error is the easiest way to find out... just offer them a contract and the game will either let you or tell you they are too young. Remember that you can only carry 30 contracts! You'll want to use the same criteria you used in selecting this year's draftees to decide who you want to sign from previous years. They will almost all certainly still be only 1/2 star ability, and as long as Major Junior is their preference on the signing screen, they will unquestionably sign with you. Just don't sign a bunch of low-ability youngsters if it's going to eat up the last of your contract slots with the foreign draft and new round of free agency yet to come. These low-ability, high potential players are for filling the holes in your roster once you have the key stars in place. You can sign your draftees at any point during the season, so there's no hurry in doing it right after this year's draft. A last note about signing: not everyone wants to play Major Junior hockey. When you look at your Unsigned Draftees screen (below), you will see that about half of the players you drafted in previous years have decided they prefer to go to college.


These players will not sign with you, no matter what. Try to trade their rights to other WHL teams to see if you can get rights to better players who do want to play Major Junior. The opposing team AI is savvy about age and foreign player considerations, as I will discuss later in the Trading section, but it seems clueless about whether or not a draft pick is willing to sign with the WHL. On many occasions, I've traded for an older pick who has some current ability, or a foreign player draftee (if I have room on the roster) with mad skills in exchange for a draftee who was not going to sign with me anyway. It's literally getting something for nothing, and you can use those other player rights as trade bait. If no one wants your unsignable players, release them and clear space on your protected list -- and immediately do the same for any low-potential draft picks that may be leftover from the AI GM's selections before you got hired. You don't need rights to low potential players taking space on your protected list -- guys like that are a dime a dozen from other sources, like free agency agency or trades.

The CHL Foreign Draft

Unlike the Bantam Draft, which is all about potential, in the foreign draft, you are going for current ability. Some of these players are as old as 19 or 20, and many drafts may have players with serious current skills. Don't pin your whole season on getting a star from the CHL Draft, though; as in don't trade current sure-thing players for draft picks thinking you're going to land a big fish. First, unlike the Bantam Draft, which is exclusive to each league, in the CHL Foreign Draft, you are competing with the entire CHL -- teams from all four leagues. You might be picking 64th or something, and this year's crop may only have a few good players. I've often left the Foreign Draft without bothering to take a single player -- and you can only pick two. Let's bulletize the considerations for this draft:

• Look for the best CURRENT player you can find. If you already have two foreign players, the person you're drafting should be either BETTER or YOUNGER than your current crop.
  
• Do, however, take anyone with decent ability. If they are young enough, you may be able to "bank" them -- keep them unsigned or send them down to Jr B while your better foreign player holds a spot on your squad, or you can try to trade them for a similarly skilled Canadian player. Just be advised, the AI GMs do take foreign status under consideration and will often value foreign players a bit less if they already have two on their team.
  
• Like your bantam picks, a foreign player may not want to play in the WHL. The higher their ability rating, the less likely they are willing to play for you. It doesn't mean you can't sign the occasional 4.5 star goalie or skater, just don't put other things at risk counting on it.

Managing the Roster

Above is a typical WHL roster. First, notice how few players have any current ability. This affects every decision you will make.

Get at least one BIG star

With so few talented players on all the teams, a single powerhouse player can carry your team to a championship (as long as he doesn't get injured or called up). So, the first thing you want to do is get a player with 3.5 or more ability if you don't already have one. You should be looking for players who can influence games on their own: goalies or goalscorers (forward or defenseman). A superior defensive player can't stop the whole other team, but a great goalie can, and a great goalscorer -- whether from the point or the slot -- can find the net often enough to win games. All else being equal, you want a player under 19, so you can have him more than one season and maybe even develop another half a star on him, but those players are rare and you shouldn't hesitate to invest overage and foreign slots on high-ability players. Once your star player is in place, you can start getting the best current ability players you can to support him: defensive defensemen for your star goalie, playmakers for your star goalscorer, etc. Remember, in this league, one star is pretty good and two is above average. You don't have to fill your roster with 3-5 star players -- in fact you won't be able to -- just get that one superstar and give him some helpful teammates. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Manage ages and foreign players

Anyone 19 or older, and both of your two foreign players need to have some good current ability stats or they aren't worth keeping. Young players with good stats aren't completely unheard of (and if you see one, do anything to try to get him), but usually your 3+ star players are overage, foreign, or both. So you can't afford to waste overage or foreign slots on substandard players. I use about 3* as my cutoff for foreign players and 2.5 for anyone over 19. Below that, I trade them away or, if I have to, cut them to clear space under the restrictions. Any 1/2 and 1 star players on my roster might as well be young. A note about trading in this circumstance: the opposing AI is pretty age-conscious, so if you are trying to trade away a 19 or 20 year old, they will likely not bite or only give you draft picks. This is one situation where the draft pick may be acceptable, even if it's in a round you know you'll never see. Unloading an under-performing old or foreign player for "nothing" is cheaper than buying them out and sometimes better than keeping them. Similarly, don't renew contracts for pending free agents who are 19 or foreign unless that player is going to be one of your three big star players. The game will let you get into a bind renewing the contracts of players who will be too old to play on your roster the following year.

Training - Look at All That Potential!

The WHL is a league for developing young players. Few in the league have a lot of current ability, and plenty have no real potential either -- but plenty do. Unfortunately, it's the rare player who comes anywhere close to reaching their potential by age 20 and the end of their WHL career, but it does happen and you need to do all you can to encourage it.

Coaching Staff

The first thing you need to do is build a staff that can help your players grow. Step one in this process is getting rid of your scouts. I remain unconvinced that scouts in FHM6 serve any valuable purpose. There are star ratings right there on every player's info, as well as numerical ratings for their key attributes and their skills in specific roles. Sometimes the league, the player's team and your own scouts may disagree by a few stars, but this is so infrequent and insignificant, it's not worth wasting a staff position on. And the text scouting reports are laughable to me. The good news is, you may not have to actually release your scouts. If you go to the info tab on the right side of the screen and select TRAINING, you may be surprised to discover that some of your scouts, like Sterling Johnson below, have Excellent and Very Good ratings in some training areas. All you have to do is right click them, Change Job to Assistant Coach, and assign them to a task -- like Offensive Coach -- where their rating exceeds that of the guy already in the job!


Even if there are no open slots, FHM takes into account the training skill of the assigned coach plus whichever one coach has the highest rating besides him, so even if you don't assign your converted scout to a coaching role, their presence on the team as a coach may contribute to your training.

If not, release them. No more annoying scouting reports about 35 year old NHL players you can't even sign anyway. Then go to the Free Agent tab on your staff screen, select TRAINING from the info menu and sort by whatever role you need help with. Try to hire the EXCELLENT or VERY GOOD experts in each role, and sign them for as long as you can. As far as I know, the size of your coaching staff is limited only by how much money you have to spend. Remember, there's no benefit beyond the person in the role and the best rated coach who is not in that role, so don't go crazy. Last tip, this is a league of developing young players... try to get at least a couple of guys with very high COACH PROSPECTS ratings.

Once you have your staff hired and assigned, it's time to assign training. On the Training screen above, I like to sort by potential and then look to the left to see who is already at or really near it. In the WHL, that's a rare occurrence unless their potential is really low. Whatever the case, I don't waste training points on players who are really near their potential, be it high or low. Take B. Ogle down at the bottom. I wouldn't waste training time on him, especially since the training is spread thin -- down to 4/20 and 5/20 effectiveness in some areas (note: the example image above is not a team I am GM'ing right now, the training decisions depicted are AI-made and I don't endorse them). In the WHL, you'll also have a large number of players with an "x" in the block saying they are too weak to learn much from their current league. For this league, that applies to anyone below 2 stars of current ability. In some cases, your young players may be better served in Junior B, but honestly I don't think it makes a difference to their development. Your superstars are going to grow by a couple of stars while on your team, and the average players you'll be lucky to get a half or maybe a full star of growth from. This is why I keep saying CURRENT ABILITY is king in this league. Potential is as smoke in your nose...

Trading -- Where the Game Really Is

I've saved Trading for last, but it's the most important and most fun aspect of managing in the WHL. You've built your roster from the Free Agent pool and fleshed it out from your draft picks. You've carefully managed your older and your foreign players, and you've set up your staff and training program. Now you've set your foundation and the work/fun really begins! Some of the below is recap from earlier sections, but in case someone Tl;dr's this long guide straight to here, I want to capture all the points, since this is potentially the most important section. Remember: CURRENT ABILITY IS KING. You care far less about potential than current ability at any age, but you must demand it in your 19 and 20 year olds and your foreign players.

Try to trade away your unsigned draft picks

As I said in the draft chapter, any pick who says he doesn't want to play Major Junior is never going to change his mind. This is one area where the opponent AI is a bit soft. You can often get another team to give you something for the rights to a player who doesn't want to sign with you -- or them, and they just don't know it. You won't often get much -- and rarely an actual signed player, but if you're studious, patient and crafty, you can sometimes land a good signable prospect in exchange for one who was just taking up a spot on your protected list. And with that said, if your attempts fail, just release the rights to free up said spot.

Shop 'til you drop!

I always start my GM character as a Wheeler Dealer and then max out my negotiation skill whenever I get end-of-season points, but the impact on trades that I offer is rarely noticeable. AI teams just seem suspicious when you initiate a trade. Shopping players is another story, though, and it's my favorite part of the game. A lot of times, you'll get offered crap that is almost insulting, like guys two stars lower in both ability and potential, or nothing but a bunch of late-round draft picks. But enough times to be worthwhile, you'll be rejecting your way through a pile of garbage offers and find a gem. I've picked up 16-year-old players with 3.5 star ability and 5 star potential by adamantly shopping my players in rotation whenever I have shop slots available. Shopping a player doesn't seem to affect his happiness, so there's no harm in shopping even your stars to see what you might get. You may be getting great production from your 20-year-old center with 4 ability stars, but what if you get offered a 17-year-old with the same ratings?

Trade potential for ability!

ABILITY IS KING, but the AI doesn't always understand that. The AI is very rarely outright stupid, but you can often trade a player with 5-star potential and pretty much anything, even a half star, for ability and get something better in return, because while the AI may value ability more, it can't resist those shiny five stars in potential. Sometimes your "scout" (why didn't you fire them all?) or assitant will tell you that you're "offering too much" when you throw a 1/5 rated player across the block for a 2.5/2.5, but you know better! That kid you sent packing is never getting above 2.5 a couple of seasons down the road and by then, you'll be bruised from sleeping on a pile of championship trophies.

Weigh all the factors

Ability is king, but you have to remain cognizant of other factors like age and foreign status. Sometimes it makes sense to send away a mediocre to above average young prospect for a dynamite older or foreign player, but you have to make sure you can clear the space on your roster without breaking the system. You'll most often see this when you shop a medium-age, medium skill player and get offered (among the crap) a couple of overage (or soon to be) players with better stats. The AI is considering the age and the stats, and you should, too!

Beware of draft picks for players

There are times when you just want to get rid of a player who is taking up a valuable spot on your roster (overage, foreign, or just the contract list) and you don't care what you get -- anything is better than having to pay to release them. That's just about the only time it's worth taking a draft pick for someone -- and yes, the WHL opposing AI will offer draft picks, especially if the player you are shopping is over 19 or has very low ratings. As I said in the section on drafts, you will rarely have the contract space to make it past about the 5th round of the Bantam Draft (and don't need a ton of low ability draftees anyway) and for some unknown reason, you rarely see Foreign Draft picks offered. So accept it when it makes sense, but realize draft picks are basically Blockbuster Video coupons -- they're worth nothing most of the time.

Be patient and trade up in increments

Trading a kid you like but who is only 1.5 stars for another player who is 2 may not sound like much of a gain; but a 2-star could garner some 2.5 or even the occasional 3 star offer. That in turn could cross the breaking point where the AI will throw some serious talent your way when you shop the newly acquired 3-star. So while there's not much point in making even trades, any little gain can be exploited to climb a little higher with a series of trades over even a short period of time. Just remember to keep the age and foreign status in mind, or you could be the one holding the Old Maid.

Keep an eye out for trade bait

Related to that idea, any player with talent (or even potential because the AI doesn't always weigh it as objectively as you will) is worth making a pitch for, even if you don't need the position filled, because they become a piece of currency you can spend for something you do need. A good example is goalies. Everybody needs a great one, but you don't really need more than one great one -- especially if you're playing with Commissioner Mode as an option so you can occasionally reverse FHM6's unholy appetite for injuring your star players. So anytime I see a 3 or 4 star goalie, I try to acquire him even if I've got good goalies galore, because I've never had a hard time profiting from shopping a great goalie.

Summary

All of the tips in this guide come back to one core concept in GM'ing the WHL (or any CHL league): CURRENT ABILITY IS KING. You want to draft and train potential as a side business, as your attempt to "cover the long shots;" but high finishes and playoff wins go to the team that has at least one 3.5 or higher current ability player, surrounded by a supporting cast of mostly 2-star-and-higher, and as few 1/2 star players (the bulk of the other teams' rosters) as possible. Where other leagues challenge you to build a whole team of high-caliber players with your primary hurdle being finances, the WHL only asks you to build one with one superstar and a better-than-the-very-low-average lineup, with age and nationality being the key barriers. If you adhere to this plan, while managing your roster's age and reserving foreign and overage slots for only the most skilled players you can get, you will be successful in the WHL. You may not win the championship, because anything can happen in a short series, in FHM as in real life. But you should finish high in your league and at least make the playoffs, and hopefully have fun along the way.