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Gobbles · 12-05-2018, 01:28 PM

Author: Gobbles
Word Count: 1945
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Fixing the Enforcer:

A Meta-analysis of the SHL’s Least Favourite Archetype

Intro:
Hello! In today’s article, I wanted to give some analysis on an archetype that seems to be available but severely underrepresented in the SHL, the enforcer. When I first joined the site, I had learned about the SHL from my roommate, who had used the site before. He helped me get to know the terms and navigate the site, and when we talked about me creating a player, I hovered over the enforcer and said, “that might be cool!” My roommate said that it probably would not be a good choice, citing common grievances like “GM’s might not want you if you are a penalty-generating machine. That just loses you sims.” In addition, and most importantly, he stated, “It’s just not that fun to build either. You have to do one thing, so you’ll basically build the same as every other enforcer before you, and not really have a lot of choice with your player’s build and progression.”

Whether his comments were accurate or not, it dissuaded me from enforcers, and combined with the fact that a little digging revealed very few enforcers across the site, eventually persuaded me into picking a power forward for my first player. Doing some digging on a possible build for my new power-forward player, I found out that power forwards had this problem before as well - a restrictive build path that forced some unpopular build choices, and as such, power forwards were very few and far between until the template changes (I'll get to my point on the power forward changes further down).

While scouring the SHL rosters for my last article, I noticed there were virtually no enforcers available, despite the build being offered to defensmen and forwards. While there aren’t usually many enforcers per team by default, it appears that the enforcer just doesn't offer much incentive to be viable to play in the SHL, either by statistical efficiency and identity. While some players in the SHL don’t necessarily want to have the statistically “best” player efficiency-wise, this usually means they want to make their own player. This doesn’t appear to mesh with the enforcer well either, as there is no uniqueness to the enforcer’s build at all .

While this following bit is entirely my opinion, I wanted to share my observations about the enforcer build with you all, and see if any of my comments resonate with you as well.

So What's The Problem?
Looking at the build templates, enforcers have the same starting setup as the other roles (pre-initial TPE allocation), with one major difference: their fighting stat and discipline stat are swapped. All other templates have 25 fighting and 62 discipline, while these scored are reversed with the enforcer, owning a punishing 62 fighting score right off the bat, and a minuscule 25 discipline. The enforcer’s strengths must be the trio of Checking, Strength, and fighting, no exceptions. Similarly, scoring must be the weakness, with no other choices offered. In comparison, defensive defenseman must also choose scoring as a weakness, but then unlike the enforcer, they have a fair bit more flexibility on their strengths, only needing to choose defense, 1 of checking/strength, and then any other attribute (other than scoring). You may as well pick a defensive defenseman and crank up his fighting stat if you want a brawler rather than pick an enforcer, as this offers far more options and versatility to the player’s build.

So, what can we do to fix this? For inspiration, I checked out the post about the changes to power forwards. These changes to the build can be found here, back at the beginning of the year 2018 and at the end of S38:
http://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=82641

So what changed with the power forward, and why were these changes made? Essentially, before the changes, power forwards had to pick checking and strength as two of their strengths, then one attribute of their choice. One of scoring/passing/puck handling/skating had to be their weakness. This was seen as too restricting to the power forwards build, having to pick both checking and strength. The changes made it so that power forwards had to pick at least one of checking/strength, then two attributes of their choice. The weaknesses remained with the same 4 options.

The power forward build was unpopular before this time, because the choices were seen as too few and restricting for the player to feel effective. Yet enforcers have even fewer choices at this point, not allowing for the user to have any variety in their strengths or weakness. So the bulk of the enforcer’s issues lie with the strengths and weaknesses. The swapped discipline and fighting are what leads to enforcers racking up the PIMs, and honestly, is what makes them the most unique compared to other skaters. No other build for skaters alters the starting stats like that, and basically is what the core of the enforcer’s identity is. I don’t think this should be changed at all, as it is thematic, interesting, and unique. The choices for strengths/weaknesses (or complete lack thereof) is what really seems to stifle interest in the enforcer. Those who plan on sticking through their builds will see their player look exactly like every other enforcer out there - which just isn’t the case nowadays.

The Evolving Enforcer, More Than Just Kelly Buchbergers
While the 80’s and 90’s produced the archetype of the knuckle-dragging neanderthal on skates (like the Stu Grimsons and Gino Odjicks of yore), the typical enforcer has many different looks in the 2010s. While enforcer does imply the former stereotypes that leave little flexibility to the build, I propose we look to other “enforcers” of today to inspire new possibilities for the SHL. While in today’s NHL you won’t find the true enforcers of yesteryear, there are some new sub-types and evolutions that the SHL’s Enforcer build could branch to.

First off is “the Pest/Agitator”. Think of Brendan Gallagher and Antoine Roussel. Not huge guys, but give off lots of energy and scraps with any opponent. Willing to stick up for a teammate and sometimes pulls dirty moves and still racks up the PIMs, but hardly a knuckle-dragging pugilist on skates.

“The Grinder”. Maybe Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Jamie Oleksiak, Steve (Mr. top % in faceoffs” Ott, or Nick Seeler. Not the most offensively gifted, but throw their big bodies around, provide utility wherever they can, and may drop the gloves if needed for the team.

“The Juggernaut” Big Buff comes best to mind here, but really anyone who blasts their way through people and might score the odd goal. They might do this by parking themselves in front of the net or by possessing a booming shot, which might make up for other deficiencies.

Spitballing Here
While I certainly don’t want to propose we make 3 new templates/options, some tweaks can be made to accommodate some flexibility in the existing enforcer build, which is one of the most damaging things to the appeal of the current template. What I propose to change is this:

ENFORCER:
Before:
Strengths: Checking, Fighting, Strength
Weakness: Scoring

After:
Strengths: one of Fighting/checking/strength, one of fighting/checking/strength, and one of any attribute (except passing/scoring/skating).
Weaknesses: one of passing/scoring

The proposed changes still make the enforcer choose at least two of the three skills they had to pick before, but provide some extra versatility to the build by opening up the third option. Want to be more of a pest/agitator? Take Checking, strength and puck handling. Want to build Steve Ott? Maybe fighting, strength, and faceoffs. Still want to be Dave Semenko? The trio of Fighting, Checking, Strength is still available to you.
Another change is the choice of passing or scoring to be a weakness, as opposed to just scoring. This allows you to build a player like Dustin Byfuglien, with either a cannon of a shot or just parks on a goalie’s lap and gets those sweet sweet rebounds (and occasionally a goaltender interference penalty), and not have to take scoring as a weakness (it still can’t be a strength though!). In exchange, your passing becomes a weakness, due to a low hockey IQ or simply a bad first pass, either way the enforcer will never be racking up the points, as was intended with the original build.

Overall, the main benefit of a change like this is versatility. It makes the player have more choices about where they could take the build, and makes it just plain more fun to use. It still keeps the enforcer’s high fighting/low discipline identity, keeping it unique and different from other play type builds, but giving players a little more autonomy over what they can end up with.

All in all, I just wanted to talk to you all about enforcers, and open up the potential for change to what could one day be an exciting build to use. Why do you think so few are played? Should we try and open up the possibility of some more enforcers? What other changes might work? I’d love to hear your ideas/discussion!

Nereus · 12-05-2018, 01:31 PM

Had a friend recreate with an enforcer and it was death from day one. So sad. Ended up going inactive after that.

**.bojo** · 12-05-2018, 01:33 PM

protip: don't force the text to be black. i can't read anytjing in dark mode lol

SlashACM · 12-05-2018, 02:11 PM

I think this stems from a bigger shl problem where there isn't much build variety to begin with. The reason you see so many forwards with checking weakness is that's you make a player that produces in sim. Get scoring, defense, passing, skating and maybe puck handling up there and you're golden. Might just be the nature of the sim but it gets old after a while

Weretarantula · 12-05-2018, 02:13 PM

Nice article mate

ml002 · 12-05-2018, 02:30 PM

12-05-2018, 02:11 PMSlashACM Wrote: I think this stems from a bigger shl problem where there isn't much build variety to begin with. The reason you see so many forwards with checking weakness is that's you make a player that produces in sim. Get scoring, defense, passing, skating and maybe puck handling up there and you're golden. Might just be the nature of the sim but it gets old after a while

Doesn't help that fighting really isn't all that useful for getting fights. Since everyone has 25-30 fighting, players simply aren't likely to fight, which will just kinda kill what little enjoyment someone is looking to get out of the enforcer build

Credit to Copenhagen, Wasty, FlappyGiraffe, InciteHysteria, and caltroit_red_flames
[Image: MM4nqx6.png]

***hhh81*** · 12-05-2018, 02:31 PM

Great article! I like your work a lot. Glad to have you on the site!

Gobbles · 12-05-2018, 03:10 PM

Quote: protip: don't force the text to be black. i can't read anytjing in dark mode lol

Ah! my bad, I use a regular white background and didn't stop to consider! I usually type my articles on google docs and then copy/paste. Any tips on how I can modify it to be legible across all backgrounds in the site?

Edit: Also, thank you all for the positive replies/feedback!

What do you guys think about the proposed build change? Is it something feasible, or does it need more tweaking?

**.bojo** · 12-05-2018, 03:23 PM

12-05-2018, 03:10 PMGobbles Wrote:
Quote: protip: don't force the text to be black. i can't read anytjing in dark mode lol

Ah! my bad, I use a regular white background and didn't stop to consider! I usually type my articles on google docs and then copy/paste. Any tips on how I can modify it to be legible across all backgrounds in the site?

oh interesting i didn't know that could happen. hmm i'm not really sure without being able to edit the post myself. not a huge deal, but maybe @DrunkenTeddy could look into it?

***luke*** · 12-05-2018, 03:31 PM

12-05-2018, 03:10 PMGobbles Wrote:
Quote: protip: don't force the text to be black. i can't read anytjing in dark mode lol

Ah! my bad, I use a regular white background and didn't stop to consider! I usually type my articles on google docs and then copy/paste. Any tips on how I can modify it to be legible across all backgrounds in the site?

Edit: Also, thank you all for the positive replies/feedback!

What do you guys think about the proposed build change? Is it something feasible, or does it need more tweaking?

I got this one. I type my articles on google docs once I transfer, I click the color box at the top, and click the far bottom right color of Black. The fixes the problem. If teddy finds a way to fix that’s, it would be be great

Gobbles · 12-05-2018, 03:36 PM

12-05-2018, 03:31 PMluketd Wrote:
12-05-2018, 03:10 PMGobbles Wrote: Ah! my bad, I use a regular white background and didn't stop to consider! I usually type my articles on google docs and then copy/paste. Any tips on how I can modify it to be legible across all backgrounds in the site?

Edit: Also, thank you all for the positive replies/feedback!

What do you guys think about the proposed build change? Is it something feasible, or does it need more tweaking?

I got this one. I type my articles on google docs once I transfer, I click the color box at the top, and click the far bottom right color of Black. The fixes the problem. If teddy finds a way to fix that’s, it would be be great

Re-pasted the whole things after changing the text colours. Hopefully it looks good on both now, let me know! Smile

SlashACM · 12-05-2018, 03:47 PM

@Gobbles ya looks good, idk why Google docs is anus for this site

***DrunkenTeddy*** · 12-05-2018, 04:06 PM

12-05-2018, 03:23 PM.bojo Wrote:
12-05-2018, 03:10 PMGobbles Wrote: Ah! my bad, I use a regular white background and didn't stop to consider! I usually type my articles on google docs and then copy/paste. Any tips on how I can modify it to be legible across all backgrounds in the site?

oh interesting i didn't know that could happen. hmm i'm not really sure without being able to edit the post myself. not a huge deal, but maybe @DrunkenTeddy could look into it?

Fixed..

Copy/paste with formatting can cause some issues, it looks nice, but it brings color with it. You have to edit out the color tags after.

|

caltroit_red_flames · 12-05-2018, 04:07 PM

12-05-2018, 02:11 PMSlashACM Wrote: I think this stems from a bigger shl problem where there isn't much build variety to begin with. The reason you see so many forwards with checking weakness is that's you make a player that produces in sim. Get scoring, defense, passing, skating and maybe puck handling up there and you're golden. Might just be the nature of the sim but it gets old after a while

How do we fix that? Ninja

FHM coming to a sim league near you January 2019 Ninja

Justice · 12-05-2018, 05:34 PM

currently in the SHL the enforcer is looked at as a mostly... symbolic job

[Image: b3394b7e129b8cfdde81192b609f571a.png]

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