In order to have a modicum of success in the simulation hockey league, it starts with management. Usually, you need to absolutely bust in the season to get a guaranteed bonafide top 3 forward, top 2 d man, or all-star generational talent of a goaltender.
Additionally, It is not all about the “top” draft picks, you need to scout guys in a properly curated and estimated Championship Window. For instance, this year Edzus Ozolins had a career year, despite being drafted 27th overall in Season 69. You need your guys to show up, barring career ending injury (inactivity) or other issues (locker room cancer). You need to rely on your guys and know what to expect. Obviously, everyone cannot be a top earner, so management must temper their expectations and start with a good blueprint for their championship window. I dont think necessarily you need to “tank”, if you can get a top 10 pick, you may be just as good as a bonafide tanker. For instance, Atlanta is another team who never missed playoffs since their inception, yet, they’re on pace to enter their championship window right now, and even took the philadelphia forge to 6 games in the eastern conference finals. I think next season, Atlanta comes out of the east against either Los Angeles or San Francisco once more. (224 WORDS, +4 TPE)

I like the structure of our current tournaments. One may argue that we could blend some countries together to make parity a little higher, but I think it echoes real-life IIHF content. There usually is a high concentration of users in the top 4 teams, and that’s ok. Users can realistically make an educated choice as to who they’d like to play for in the IIHF prior to creation. This gives users some control, and the ability to participate in something they want to. I think if anything, skip the every year IIHF and create an “olympics” style tournament, where it only happens every 2 or 3 seasons. This likely would garner more interest in international tournaments. I think world junior should stay exactly the same. If IIHF is having an issue, perhaps another option is naming 8-10 countries, and a user must select one from a drop down menu in order to select their eligibility. Non-hockey nations can be wiped out, and we can have countries like Canada, USA, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, and Latvia rather than JAPAN and IRELAND.
(150+words, +3 TPE)

TRIVA CONFIRMATION WORD: Wrong