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Muerto · 05-11-2025, 06:10 PM

The switch to FHM10 - what's changed?

One of the interesting developments in the SHL this season was the switch from running the sims with FHM8 to FHM10. Like many, I wondered what kind of changes this might lead to in how teams operate and the results.

I'm not talking necessarily like UI changes. It is definitely nice to see the Shot Quality stats for sure and I love the ability to set up goalie starts in the Sim is a blessing especially in how it speeds up the sims, not having to pause to change goalies every sim day.

One of the things I do find very interesting was the addition of the 'lines advisor' section when setting up your tactics. The thing I find curious is that very few teams seem to actually care about adopting lines/tactics which have a better 'fit' for more players. Realistically, there hasn't been any change to the meta.
Most teams are running the same tactics, and utilizing the same roles as before. (by meta, I mean high offense, high tempo, high shooting strats and the predominant usage of the Gretzky's Office/Dangler/Power Forward roles). So I would have to say this feature hasn't really changed how most teams are approaching the game.

Probably the biggest areas where I see some major differences are in two main categories: special teams and shots on net.

I realize 3/4 of a season is not the largest sample size ever, but there are a couple of trends which are worth noting.

Let's look at special teams first. Leaguewide there is a significant reduction in powerplay goals scored, and powerplay conversion rates.

At this point in the season, leaguewide we see that the current rate is 1.23 ppg/game. Over the last few seasons the rate has been pretty steadily hovering close to 1.5 ppg/game. The current rate is the lowest it's been since S68. The same trend holds true for shorthanded goals/game, which is currently at 0.31, when the average has been closer to 0.40.

Even more glaring is the powerplay conversion rates. This season, only 3 teams have a PP% more than 20. Last season there were 8 teams above that rate, the season prior there were 12, before that there were 15. So this has been trending down for a bit, but this season is a big drop overall in powerplay scoring. Individually, this trend bears out as well - last season the powerplay points leader had 42 points - the leader this season so far has 23 ... so unlikely to even come close to reaching those levels.

The next area where I see a drastic change in results is Shots on Net. When you look at the Teams leading in this category, ATL is at the top averaging just under 39 shots/game, and 6 teams have a rate of more than 35 shots/game. Last season the leader was at 45+ shots/game, and 13 teams had a rate higher than 35.
The prior season was similar, with 14 teams above 35 shots/game and the leaders at 40+. Even more glaring is at the bottom end of those stats: Prior to the switch, most teams no matter how bad they were managed to get 30+ shots on net. This season there are 8 teams well below that average.

However, despite the drop in shots generated, and the drop in powerplay scoring, there hasn't been a huge change in overall goals/game. Currently teams are scoring at a 7.75 goals/game rate leaguewide (that's both teams btw). This is a bit lower than the general average of around 8 goals/game, but that is a trend that has been dropping overall for the last few seasons.
But if shots are down but goals are generally the same, what does that mean? Well, it means player shooting accuracy is wayyyy up. Looking at the stats, there are currently 33 players shooting at a 20% rate or higher, and 11 of those are above 24%. If we look at prior seasons, in S81 the shot leader was 22.37% and only 2 players had higher than 20. In S80, there were 6 players at 20+%, and the leader was 23.93. S79 was a little better with the leader at 25% and a total of 9 players above 20%, but still nowhere close the rates this season.

So the bad news is, this increase in shot% leads inversely to the goalie save% getting slammed. As an example, this season there are currently 0 goalies with a SV% above 90 (a few are close, but still under). If you look at the previous seasons, every year the top 10 goalies were all above .900. So, sad to say but goalies didn't get much love in this switch.

My last observation I can't really back up with stats but it does seem that the strength of the defense corps does seem to be more important. It's not just about forwards any more. The top teams in the league generally have a very deep defensive group with a couple of high end studs.

What do you all think? Seeing any other areas which are a lot different? Are we generally happy with the switch?

Popol · 05-11-2025, 06:14 PM

No goalies above 900... Kind of ridiculous

***RAmenAmen*** · 05-11-2025, 06:23 PM

Hug your goalies, we need it

***boom*** · 05-11-2025, 08:32 PM

My personal theory for the save percentage thing is because many teams are running strats emphasizing shot quality over quantity, but the goals/game slider still needs to roughly be obeyed, the game compensates with the only other thing in its control which is yanking save percentages down.

***luke*** · 05-11-2025, 09:05 PM

Code:
One of the things I do find very interesting was the addition of the 'lines advisor' section when setting up your tactics. The thing I find curious is that very few teams seem to actually care about adopting lines/tactics which have a better 'fit' for more players. Realistically, there hasn't been any change to the meta.

Most teams are running the same tactics, and utilizing the same roles as before. (by meta, I mean high offense, high tempo, high shooting strats and the predominant usage of the Gretzky's Office/Dangler/Power Forward roles). So I would have to say this feature hasn't really changed how most teams are approaching the game

Feel that deep to my core. During pre-season was trying to get it to strats that played more towards the players strengths. And then we sucked, so I just switched back to what we ran last season lmao. The thing is that the underlying engine did not change. So we can just switch back to old tactics. Especially with no test simming, for GMs we have to play it safe. Or else we would be like 1st half of Montreal.

***CampinKiller*** · 05-11-2025, 09:36 PM

Yeah the lines advisor is ass and I don't recommend anyone agree with anything it says

***aleks*** · 05-12-2025, 01:00 AM

05-11-2025, 09:05 PMluke Wrote:
Code:
One of the things I do find very interesting was the addition of the 'lines advisor' section when setting up your tactics. The thing I find curious is that very few teams seem to actually care about adopting lines/tactics which have a better 'fit' for more players. Realistically, there hasn't been any change to the meta. Most teams are running the same tactics, and utilizing the same roles as before. (by meta, I mean high offense, high tempo, high shooting strats and the predominant usage of the Gretzky's Office/Dangler/Power Forward roles). So I would have to say this feature hasn't really changed how most teams are approaching the game

Feel that deep to my core. During pre-season was trying to get it to strats that played more towards the players strengths. And then we sucked, so I just switched back to what we ran last season lmao. The thing is that the underlying engine did not change. So we can just switch back to old tactics. Especially with no test simming, for GMs we have to play it safe. Or else we would be like 1st half of Montreal.

those fellas cant even afford to change the engine much less the ui i dunno what anyone else expected lol

trella · 05-12-2025, 03:18 PM

Until archetypes are brought back there will be no creativity or variety in player building and team tactics

Thanks to @karey and @JSS for the sigs!

Former USA Fed Head, Carolina Kraken Co-GM, Tampa Bay Barracuda GM

***RAmenAmen*** · 05-12-2025, 03:29 PM

05-12-2025, 03:18 PMtrella Wrote: Until archetypes are brought back there will be no creativity or variety in player building and team tactics

I don't think archetypes are necessary for it, but player tactics are. If I can tell hitters to hit and shooters to shoot, those builds can actually be rewarded. Global tactics are why we have such stale builds.

icewindoo · 05-12-2025, 03:55 PM

05-11-2025, 09:05 PMluke Wrote:
Code:
One of the things I do find very interesting was the addition of the 'lines advisor' section when setting up your tactics. The thing I find curious is that very few teams seem to actually care about adopting lines/tactics which have a better 'fit' for more players. Realistically, there hasn't been any change to the meta. Most teams are running the same tactics, and utilizing the same roles as before. (by meta, I mean high offense, high tempo, high shooting strats and the predominant usage of the Gretzky's Office/Dangler/Power Forward roles). So I would have to say this feature hasn't really changed how most teams are approaching the game

Feel that deep to my core. During pre-season was trying to get it to strats that played more towards the players strengths. And then we sucked, so I just switched back to what we ran last season lmao. The thing is that the underlying engine did not change. So we can just switch back to old tactics. Especially with no test simming, for GMs we have to play it safe. Or else we would be like 1st half of Montreal.

Do we use the classic engine for sims? This is the "underlying engine" that didn't change? (Looks like plenty of refinements were made to the 2D engine.)

***luke*** · 05-12-2025, 04:05 PM

05-12-2025, 03:55 PMicewindoo Wrote: Do we use the classic engine for sims? This is the "underlying engine" that didn't change? (Looks like plenty of refinements were made to the 2D engine.)

From my understanding we use the classic engine yeah

*slothfacekilla* · 05-12-2025, 04:51 PM

05-11-2025, 06:14 PMPopol Wrote: No goalies above 900... Kind of ridiculous

[Image: giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952hxgme1o9xftvypnlmd...y.gif&ct=g]

trella · 05-12-2025, 06:48 PM

05-12-2025, 03:29 PMRAmenAmen Wrote: I don't think archetypes are necessary for it, but player tactics are. If I can tell hitters to hit and shooters to shoot, those builds can actually be rewarded. Global tactics are why we have such stale builds.

That would be a good step for sure, but i think a meta would develop regardless and most teams would run the same sliders and eventually player builds would become uniform too

Thanks to @karey and @JSS for the sigs!

Former USA Fed Head, Carolina Kraken Co-GM, Tampa Bay Barracuda GM

Popol · 05-13-2025, 02:51 AM

05-12-2025, 04:05 PMluke Wrote: From my understanding we use the classic engine yeah

I hope you are wrong because if we do, that means that the engine is different from when we live sim a game in 2D from when we simply click "sim"

***RAmenAmen*** · 05-13-2025, 10:33 AM

05-13-2025, 02:51 AMPopol Wrote: I hope you are wrong because if we do, that means that the engine is different from when we live sim a game in 2D from when we simply click "sim"

The file settings indicate we're using the 2D engine for both, and have been since the introduction of the 2D engine in FHM8

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