Bure injured, Courtnall Traded - Update on my OOTP Season

As I mentioned last week, I bought OOTP Hockey Manager to help with the withdrawal of sports during this very hard time.

This is a simulation computer game where you are the armchair GM of a NHL franchise and has the flexibility to start in any year.

I took over the Canucks on September 18th, 1993and here is an update on how my season is going.

Firstly, Peter Nedved is still a Canuck. He has a new five year 635,000 dollar deal per year. He is surprisingly, my best player on my team with 17 G, and 19 Assists.

My season has been pretty bumpy from the start. 1-5-1 became 5-12-2 pretty fast and I was knocking on the door of a bottom three finish in the NHL. Fortunately, there are only 12 teams in the Western Conference this year, the Mighty Ducks are an expansion team and San Jose are fairly new as well.

Assuming that those two teams miss the playoffs, that would mean there are 10 teams fighting for the 8 playoff spots.

Since my slow start, my team is on a tear. I am 9-3-2 in my last 14 games and currently hold the 8th spot in the Western Conference with a 14-15-4 record.

In the middle of my 14 game stretch,  I pulled off a trade that sent Geoff Courtnall to Quebec in exchange for Adam Foote. Bert Robertsson and a second round pick also went to Quebec.

There are two key factors that led to me needing a young defenseman  at this time.

1. Pavel Bure is out for 2-3 months
With the injury, my focus quickly became on how I can get younger without taking a step back. Nedved, Linden and Bure is the core of my hockey and their all young. I have a supporting cast of Ronning and Greg Adams which led me to believe I had the freedom to trade Courtnall.

2. Lack of Defenseman in Next Years Draft

#	Player	Nationality	NHL Team	College/Junior/Club Team
1	Ed Jovanovski (D)	Canada	Florida Panthers	Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
2	Oleg Tverdovsky (D)	Russia	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	Krylya Sovetov (Russia)
3	Radek Bonk (C)	Czech Republic	Ottawa Senators	Las Vegas Thunder (IHL)
4	Jason Bonsignore (C)	United States	Edmonton Oilers (from Winnipeg)	Niagara Falls Thunder (OHL)
5	Jeff O'Neill (C)	Canada	Hartford Whalers	Guelph Storm (OHL)
6	Ryan Smyth (LW)	Canada	Edmonton Oilers	Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL)
7	Jamie Storr (G)	Canada	Los Angeles Kings	Owen Sound Platers (OHL)
8	Jason Wiemer (C)	Canada	Tampa Bay Lightning	Portland Winter Hawks (WHL)
9	Brett Lindros (RW)	Canada	New York Islanders (from Quebec)	Kingston Frontenacs (OHL)
10	Nolan Baumgartner (D)	Canada	Washington Capitals (from Philadelphia via Quebec and Toronto)	Kamloops Blazers (WHL)
11	Jeff Friesen (LW)	Canada	San Jose Sharks	Regina Pats (WHL)
12	Wade Belak (RW)	Canada	Quebec Nordiques (from NY Islanders)	Saskatoon Blades (WHL)
13	Mattias Ohlund (D)	Sweden	Vancouver Canucks	Lulea HF (Sweden)

In the first 13 picks in 1994, their were only four defenseman and three of them had stints with the Vancouver Canucks in real life. Jovo and Ohlund are great but neither of them can change a franchise like Chris Pronger could the previous year.

For me, Foote is a cornerstone D-man that every team would love to have and I don't think that the price was too steep.

Two positives come out of this for me and it's a win-win deal for me. One, I stay in the playoff race until Bure gets back and if I don't, I don't have to second guess myself if I draft a forward in the Top 10.

Before the trade, I didn't see my Defense as being a strong part of my team. I only had two D-man I was comfortable with.