Last entry we got how the training work, how to manage your team and how to set you up for the game.

How to Build your team

1- Getting player :

The only way to get new players is through the Waiver Market.
The waiver market is where you can bid credits for players. If you bid a amount that you have and that you are the highest bidders, the player will be added to your team roster and have the amount of credits that were bid will be deducted from your account.

Not that you have to have a player that have been place on the waiver market so the new player will take is place. If you don’t have any player that are place on the market, you wont get any player even if you win the bid.

Remember only way to be a winning bidders is to have the highest bid and to have the credits your their account. There is no cost to place a bid.

What happens to the player that I put on waivers?

He go in the minor and you pays half is salary… no wait that the nhl. In order to bid on a player, you have to make room for him on your roster by putting a player on waivers. When a new player join he replace the player on the waivers and that player is then gone … forever.

In player management click on the player you want to put on the market. In the player information screen you can place him on the waiver market by clicking on the exit sign that say Put on waiver market.

if you change your mind, You can take the player off waivers, by clicking the TAKE OFF WAIVER MARKET button.
A player that is replaced by a winning bid is retired from the game. The manager receives 0 Credits for the player! You are buying a new player from the Waiver Market.

How many players should I put on waivers?
Place as many as you like. It probably better to start slow, putting one or 2 player on the market. The player are replaced when you win a bid, since there no limit to bid you might end up wining a lot of them. So what I did in the past is to put on the market a group of the same player (2-3 defence or winger) and bid only on the type of player I want to replace.

The players that you bid on may be with your team for 6 seasons or longer, so make sure that they are a good fit for your team.

When does the bidding process take place?
All bids are processed in the morning a 3h00 am GMT. Players immediately join their new teams and replace the player(s) on waivers. Any players on waivers who were not replaced remain with their teams.

How much should I bid?
I tend to bid really low and somehow tend to still get decent player. If you want a star player you need to be more aggressive but I noticed that if your team is in a lower division you seem to get player even if you have low bid.

Check the number of bidder near the player you want, 23 probably mean the minimum wont get it but sometime you’ll be surprise there might 22 that all bid 500 credit and you can go and bid 750 and win.

Let take this example, today there to player that are interesting and you really like to get them on the team.
So if you want them both you need at least two of you players on the waivers. If both bid are successful you will get both if only one win the first player in you list will be replaced (the one with the lowest roster no). So, if the waived players Roster Numbers are 3 and 6, the number 3 slot will be the first one filled.
Remember, a winning bid is a new player. If you waive a goalie and a center, and have 5 bids out on goalies and 3 bids out on center, if you win 2 bids on the goalies, then you will get 2 goalies added to your roster. CAUTION: When trying to acquire players at different positions with more than 1 bid per position, you can get more players at a position than you really wanted.

How are bids resolved? (from the shl forum)
Bids are resolved by position: goalies, defensemen, wingers, centers respectively. All goalie bids are resolved, then defensemen, then wingers and finally centers. Within each position, your highest bid of the highest overall rated player is considered first. Tie bids go to the manager with the lowest manager rating number. Recommendation: don’t try to bid on 2 players at different positions unless you only place 1 bid on each of those players. You’re probably going to have to pay a premium to get them, too. It’s better to place several lower bids on players at one position to get the best deal. Don’t forget to check Waiver Market History the next day if you didn’t win a bid, to see what the player went for. You can also check to see what team acquired the player by clicking on his name; this will let you know who is active in the market.

How much should I bid for one of these Star players? (from the shl forum)
When a star player is available, usually there are many more bidders that are interested and the player will go for the maximum possible bid. Since this means there will be several tie bidders, the manager with the lowest manager ranking will be awarded the player. The auction process becomes a kind of lottery. The question is, is this player worth the 10,000 credit price? If a manager is patient, he can usually acquire a very good player for even the minimum bid of 500 credits. Training a team for one season costs approximately 1500 credits. That’s 75 credits per player per season. Over the course of 6 seasons, that’s 450 credits in training per player. So, for 950 credits you will have an almost star player for several seasons. Is it really worth 9,000 more credits to have that “star” player right now? To some managers, the answer is yes. But if you’re just starting to build a team, probably not.

How should I build my team?
Plan for the future. Start with a good goaler, then go for a defenseman, and a scoring forward or a center. Remember, like we said before, players attributes will decline in their 7th season with a team. For some reason even training won’t help these veteran players, no matter what their age is. Taking that in consideration it’s probably better to split acquisitions over the course of several seasons, so after 6 seasons, you don’t have to replace all 20 players in one shot. And during any given year, each position has some veterans and some rookies. Bid only on the best players available. Players that are second or third rate will not catch up to the others, even with training. Many managers only have 2 goalers on their roster, it’s probably better that way since they don’t tend to get injured. After that it’s more up to you, I still recommend defence over offence at first but if you have 4 strong Def and 2 good line you can do pretty well specially in most division.

Is there a better time during the season to bid on players?
At the start of each season, winning managers get credits from SLH, so there are many managers bidding on players. At the end of the season, the bidding seems to fall off. If you can wait, the best the deals are probably to be had at the end of a season.

How to know if a player is good does the overall is enough ?

When buying players do not go by their Overall rating. Like we say before, this isn’t worth shit.

You need to check the other Players Attributes to decide on the best buy, these are different between position.

Here what attribute is the best to look at :
Goalkeepers – Goaltending, Puck Control, Speed, Passing
Defender – Hitting, Strength, Stamina, Puck Control
Wingers – Speed, Passing, Shooting, Puck Control
Centers – Shooting, Speed, Passing, Puck Control
Stamina is an attribute that you should look at before every player bid. Try to always bid on players with a minimum of 70 stamina.

Other things to check when bidding
Don’t forget to check how many bids the Player has. If it is lots then you may have to put a good bid in but if it is only one or two then you may be able to get a bargain. Not that defensemen tend to have a lot of bid, it’s because computer controlled players will bid on these but put in minimum bids the defensemen.
If a bid is tied then the team with the lowest manager rating gets the Player. If you don’t get the player then go into waiver Market History and look at your unsuccessful bids. Here you can see how much he cost and then click on him to see where he went.

Note that new need credit to bid so here how to get credits.
Top ten way to get money in shl

Extra information :

Players Age
Should I just bid on younger players? I did notice major difference between young player than older player. Some say that younger players progress faster during training. But other say they can be a little irresponsible and tend to have more AWOL. Older players can be more reliable, but they may not respond to training like a young talented player would. Then again, some older players respond very well to training because they have never had a good manager before.

Promotion and Relegation/ Changing Divisions

If your team is really shit and your division is to strong, it can be a good idea to switch for a lower division and build a team from the lower end by wining playoff and division title. You have the option to switch during the first 5 game weeks to Join a Division. If you select that option, it costs 500 credits and the Manager leaves his old team and players and takes over a new team, in the Division chosen, with players that are already on the new team’s roster.

That all for the guide hope you’ve enjoyed it.