Subject: USA U-18 Team

The top 2 players at each position made the team this season. This list is subject to change by next season based on the relative progress of players.

Centers:
1) Val Taylor - Momentum (II.3)
2) Angel Berry - Bulls4ever Club (II.2)
3) Marion Cederberg - Smuggling Grapes (II.2)
4) Larry O'Brien - Bouncing Pucks (I.1)

Left Wingers:
1) Austin Blankenship - Bombsville Atomics (II.4)
2) Alex Baumgarten - Bombsville Atomics (II.4) - UW
3) Charles Calvert - Bombsville Atomics (II.4) - UW
4) Charlie Kidd - Smuggling Grapes (II.2)

Right Wingers:
1) Hyrum Hammond - Psychos (I.1) - UW
2) Joseph Fuentes - Montana Miners (I.1)
3) Randall Edmonds - Psychos (I.1)
4) Mark Gionta - Smart People (I.1)

Left Defensemen:
1) Lon Chalk - Westchester Red Wings (I.1)
2) Jim Spear - Salt Lake Karma Police (I.1)
3) Brad Castaneda - Boilermakers (I.1)
4) Ed Butler - Smuggling Grapes (II.2)

Right Defensemen:
1) Ronnie Brennan - Razorback Thugs (I.1)
2) Curtis Wheatley - Razorback Thugs (I.1)
3) Gene Mayfield - Adazu vilko (Latvia II.4)(originally STL Saints - I.1)
4) Harley Shackleford - Dooshnozzles (II.1)

Goaltenders:
1) Percy Cosby - Bombsville Atomics (II.4)
2) Danny St. John - Boilermakers (I.1)
3) Sedrick Vail - Bombsville Atomics (II.4)

I won't post the list of 16 year olds until I get the rest of the scouting information. Even so, the team looks extremely promising in two seasons with 3 players with great OR and nearly perfect qualities; there are also 2 others with great OR, very good qualities, and great experience.

This list will include players that almost made the team and could still make the team if there are injuries or they pass the 5th string players. Some of these players are 17 year olds that already made the team as one of the top 2 17 year olds at a position.

Centers:
1) Val Taylor - Momentum (II.3)
2) Carter Roosevelt - Miami Revenants (II.3)
3) Stan Martinez - Buffalo Lasers (II.4)
4) Harold Schumacher - Salt Lake Karma Police (I.1)
5) Angel Berry - Bulls4ever Club (II.2)

Left Wingers:
1) Jan Newman - Smuggling Grapes (II.2) - UW
2) Otto Dillon - Bouncing Pucks (I.1)
3) Boris Cartwright - Montana Miners (I.1)
4) Hyrum Hammond - Psychos (I.1) - UW
5) Ward Simpkins - Dinamo 1983 (II.1)

Right Wingers:
1) Jan Newman - Smuggling Grapes (II.2) - UW
2) Bryon Deluca - Momentum (II.3)
3) Hyrum Hammond - Psychos (I.1) - UW
4) Joseph Fuentes - Montana Miners (I.1)
5) Alex Baumgarten - Bombsville Atomics (II.4) - UW

Left Defensemen:
1) Kendall Fisher - Westchester Red Wings (I.1)
2) Bryan Peterson - HCD Crackers (I.1)
3) Donny Kincaid - Smart People (I.1) - UD
4) Darin Bartlett - Westchester Red Wings (I.1)
5) Todd Horne - Michalovce Wild Hogs (II.1)


Right Defensemen:
1) Lucas Rae - Miami Revenants (II.3)
2) Curtis Wheatley - Razorback Thugs (I.1)
3) Gene Mayfield - Adazu vilko (Latvia II.4)(originally STL Saints - I.1)
4) Donny Kincaid - Smart People (I.1) - UD
5) Emery Payton - Momentum (II.3)

Goaltenders:
1) Steven Stimson - Momentum (II.3)
2) Melvin Pena - Sierra Stars (II.1)
3) Wayne Tolliver - Sticky Toads (II.2)

Bumped

Hello I would be interested to become an assistant coach for the national team ..
-Juha

I disagree on the 5th string center (the one i have a player)
I have not scouted Adam Combs but i suspect he does not have experience.
Angel Berry has 50 experience and should have 70 when championship starts. Based on current OR, would put him at the same OR as Combs but a year younger.

And also have your own player who you are giving him experience as well.

In short, I think 5th string players should be 17yo. Not like they will play much (if any at all), but if opportunity arrives they should be given priority (better chemistry for next season when they would be starters). that is my opinion anyways.

If I multiply the experience of both players by 150%, Combs is still better at the end of the season. A strong case can actually be made for Roosevelt as well; it just depends on how he will be trained. There are also 2 players that I didn't list in the top 5 who are at least as good as Combs in OR but don't have perfect training ratios.

With that said, since the bench role doesn't get chemistry, I will ultimately be able to re-evaluate the players before the World Championships. The top 4 are significantly better and should remain the top 4 centers if they progress as expected.

In addition, I always play the best 17 year old at each position on the bench during the exhibitions. I only potentially switch to an 18 year old for the World Championships. The 17 year olds will get preference if they are sufficiently close - that's why I've decided to make Brennan a starter this season. In addition, when players in the lineup reach 100 chemistry (one player is already there), I will replace them with 17 year olds for most of the remaining exhibitions. Unfortunately, this will not likely help Berry/Taylor.

Berry should ultimately be the top center for the U20 team if he continues gaining experience at the same rate, but it will still be close between Taylor and Berry next season, I actually have Cederberg ranked above Berry this season, but I expect Berry to pass Cederberg by the end of this season.

well, that is why i said the 5th string (would not think any 17 would be good to be starter) but when they are going to be pretty close while being a year younger, i think earning chemistry will give you an advantage to next season. Granted if that happens, it wont be often.

i also mentioned center cause i dont have players scouted so i cant even think about other positions just give as an example of what i think 5th string should/could be

Angel has 50% more today. when world starts it will be more like 70-h75%. and that is going to be a close tie.

for friendlies .. if you want to play a 17yo cause the 18yo is already at 100%, do like i do on my own lol: play out of position (friendly only)

next season both taylor and angel will be starters. how much chemistry they will start will depend on hoe many games they play this season. if i were you, id play either as injury replacement instead of combs

Berry actually should catch up to Martinez and Schumacher, so he should probably be at least third on that list. If you scout Roosevelt at some point, you'll see why I might give extra consideration to him and also why I am hesitant to place him in front of Combs.

If Berry or Taylor catch up sufficiently, I will continue to give them the 5th spot into the World Championships.

I actually do use 17 year olds as the injury replacements - I forgot to mention that in my last post and couldn't edit it fast enough.

I think I might give the exhibition bench spot to Berry, if only because he should pass Taylor by the time he is 19 if not necessarily 18.

Berry is not getting an experience bonus for the OR not related to being a center by the way.

yeah of course. OR is just a quick comparison. but as OR gets higher, non related attribute gets less impact on total OR. and again, i didnt have the other scouted so i could only base on total OR and experience.

anyways, my post was not advocating for Angel but rather advocating for 17yo to be used as injury replacement (5th string) when difference is not too high and you already pointed you do that.

I do that for the exhibitions at least. I am giving more consideration to using the sufficiently better player as the 5th string for the world championships since the team will be competing in the top division against teams that have much more depth to work with, so the United States is starting out as an underdog. I don't want to throw away any potential non-trivial team strength.

I think the non-positional OR be responsible for the difference in how we are comparing Berry and Combs. Based off of total OR, I would probably favor Taylor/Berry. Right now, I have Combs ahead of Berry by about 60 positional points with experience considered. By the end of the season, I think that number could shrink to 30 points (assuming equal OR gains), which is very close to the borderline of where I might give a bonus to a 17 year old, but not necessarily close enough. Berry has slightly better qualities, but Combs has better facilities and staff, so I think Combs should improve at least as well as Berry before accounting for relative experience gains. Basically, I'll have to re-evaluate at the end of the season. Roosevelt is also a wildcard who will need special consideration.

I have Taylor 30 positional points ahead of Berry. Berry is gaining more experience, but Taylor is still good for at least half as much experience gain by the end of the season (since he is my 4th line center) and has better qualities and facilities.

well i guess it depends on goals ... I see the goal of a U17/18 is to prepare players for senior NT

have not paid attention on last season lineup, but assuming this season 5th string played no matches, than 30 points is nothing considering he would only play a few matches this season and could have his national career ended

that is major reason why i built the nt database: to make it easier for all 3 managers to interact and make plans.

if the 5th string player will not make the U20 (an certainly not the senior) than playing younger and more talented players may be better.


now if the goal is to win now (as it seems yours are) than 30 points may make a difference on win or lose a game.

That's the reason I only take the 5 best players at each position instead of the 9 best players like I did my first season; I now also take the next best future 17 year olds (2) and 16 year olds (1) onto the team. The 6th string player is very unlikely to play any games and won't matter in the future. Only most of the first line players, sometimes a second line player, ever really have a chance to make the senior team.

The 5th string World Championships player will ultimately be expected to play 0-1 more games out of 6 on average, gain 1 experience, and gain 3 OR. That's not enough to risk a probability of losing.

If there is an injury before the tournament, then even if Combs takes the starting spot, Berry/Taylor could likely take over the 5th string spot and gain those benefits, only missing out on ~3 more experience. If the number falls to 20 points or so, I will probably play one of the 17 year olds. In addition, if there are enough injuries, the extra chemistry they would get during exhibitions would push them ahead of Combs (this happened last season). Taylor is only 30 points back, with better qualities and experience gain than Combs, so I think he could very well end up as the 5th center for the tournament.

Honestly, 30 is also pretty close that I would consider the younger player depending on all the circumstances, but I think 30 is the best case scenario for Berry. 60 is definitely enough that I would favor the older player.

Hello. I would like to make a formal introduction so that you guys get to know who I am.

My name is Captain97G, I am 20 years old, and I am from San Jose California. I started playing PPM about a few months ago when I was looking to find a manager style game for hockey after finding some soccer sites I liked. I came here named my team Tigers and have not stopped there. Right now I am improving my team and arena and the players and staff and hopefully in a season or two I can move up to the second level of US league. As I am sure you can guess from where I am from I am a San Jose Sharks fan and hopefully they will win a Stanley cup within my lifetime(through I may have signed up for a lifetime of disappointment). So after last season I came into this season with the goal to improve my team but I also became interested in the USA National team. I remember in Cory Martin's election speech in which he talked about the future of USA hockey and I thought how if I wanted to help make a difference in the USA I need to start to learn about the squad and what makes it tick. While I am still a young manager in PPM I have the drive to want to learn and hopefully I can learn as much as possible. I am a long ways away from managing my own team but I would like to become the assistant of the U18 USA team. I have already talked to capsaicin about the chance to become the assistant but I wanted to introduce myself to other people so you guys could get to know me and who I am. You guys can ask me any questions that you want and I will answer them. Otherwise it would be a pleasure to get to know other members of the PPM Hockey community.