SCOUTING & CHEMISTRY

Great tips for building team chemistry: https://www.reddit.com/r/EANHLfranchise/comments/1af4xtn/best_way_to_increase_chemistry_and_maximize/

1. Acquire Locker Room Leaders
Team chemistry and player morale are heavily influenced by a player's hidden personality traits.
  • Target Specific Traits: Scout and sign players listed as Leader, Presence, or Consummate Professional. These players naturally boost the overall morale of the team.
  • Assign Captains: Promoting your high-morale "Leader" players to team Captain and Alternate Captains provides tangible boosts to locker room chemistry.
  • Avoid Toxic Traits: Players tagged with Lacks Loyalty or frequent Disgruntled statuses will steadily drag down the team’s locker room rating.
2. Match Coaching Schemes
Chemistry is strongly tied to whether your roster fits the head coach's systems and play styles.
  • Scheme Fits: When signing free agents or drafting players, check their Scheme Fit to ensure it aligns with your coach's preferred tactics (e.g., Cycle vs. Shoot, Pinch/Cycle defensive preferences).
  • Conversations: You can attempt to convince players to change their scheme fits via "Player Discussions," although this is not always successful on the first try. 
3. Optimize Lines and Ice Time
In-game line combinations and individual player expectations directly govern on-ice and locker room chemistry.
  • Role Satisfaction: Ensure players are getting the ice time they expect. A player forced onto the 4th line when they demand Top 6 minutes will quickly become disgruntled and lower overall team chemistry.
  • Proper Line Construction: Build lines using complementary player types (e.g., matching a Scorer with a Playmaker and a Two-Way forward).
4. Use Team Bonding and Win
  • Preseason Goals: During the preseason phase, the coach will ask you for a team bonding goal. Committing to this can grant a significant, immediate boost to your team's morale and locker room chemistry at the start of the year.
  • Winning Streaks: Ultimately, the most foolproof method to maintain positive chemistry is winning games. Conversely, losing streaks will rapidly cause team chemistry to plummet.

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THINGS TO EXPLORE IN DECEMBER, 2026

One of the OWNER GOALS was to improve at TOP 4 DEF. I am assuming this goal could be achieved by adding a TOP 4 DEF and trading away a TOP 6 DEF. I have $6.9M CAP SPACE. Also, if it's a good trade, it could improve LOCKER ROOM CHEMISTRY to over 73 which is another OWNER GOAL.

Consider acquiring more DRAFT PICKS through TRADE, and later packaging them into a Trade Package + player with HIGH SALARY. Pending Unrestricted Free Agents:

  • RW/LW Niederreiter, 34, TWF, 83 OVR, $4.00 salary - Currently at RW on 2nd Line, perfect fit.
  • LW/C Namestnikov, 33, TWF, 82 OVR, $3.00M salary - Currently at LW on 2nd Line3/5 line fit.
  • C Toews, 38, TWF, 82 OVR, $1.05M salary - Currently 4th Line

In the System

We are overstocked with CENTERS, not enough RIGHT WINGERS, and can use another DEFENSEMAN

Trade Offers

Take screenshot of all Trade Offers. Revisit at Trade Deadline or before

 

DECEMBER 1, 2026

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

Signed rookie defenseman Quentin Yewy to a 3-year entry level contract. The reason is because the minor league roster was not carrying a defensive scratch/backup. Yewy, 18, was drafted in 2026 (6th Round).

OPERATIONS INVESTMENTS

Began the upgrade of Parking Lot (from level 1 to 2) at the cost of $600,000. This was an Owner’s Goal. The funds were deducted from the Arena Operation Budget which was dropped to $2.064M remaining.

Note: the cost to repair goes up each month (presumably because of degradation over time). So, maybe test by repairing one item early and track degradation speed against unrepaired arena items.

Began REPAIRS to the Team Store (repairs should be completed in 4 days). The cost was $113,000 and was deducted from the Arena Operations Budget which dropped to $1.951M.

REVENUE FROM NOVEMBER

We had 6 home games in November.