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Observations of the Draft First of all, a big thank you to all the captains for their patience and effort while overcoming the obstacles we had during the draft. The last 3 rounds were done afterwards as per captain's request on a looser schedule. The remaining players were allocated randomly in a short bonus 11th round. Overall, it was a great event and the stream peaked at over 350 viewers. Thank you! The draft itself did not bring huge surprises. Quite expectedly the first round of the draft was dominated by centremen, totaling 14/30 of overall first-round picks. Goalies were, just like in last years Summer Cup, not at a premium until Rounds 2 & 3. This led to some really nice late pickups for the captains who seemed well prepared for this scenario.There was an interesting split between the drafting philosophies of picking the best player available, and drafting by need (picking players for the positions the team was lacking in). Regardless, following the draft through all its twist and turns was a genuine pleasure. One that we hope to repeat next year together with all of you. Let's have a closer look at the Top 10 picks of the Summer Cup 2 Draft: Top 10 picks 1. Dominointi, NG Cheap Shot MVP of ECL 4 Elite and one of the very best versus players in the game, Dominointi was an expected #1 pick. A centreman who manipulates the flow of the game extremely well. Timing and positioning are the keys to his game. We are used to seeing him as a captain, and it will be interesting to see how Dominointi adapts to a new team dynamic. 2. tbnantti, NG Blackout A flashy centreman with a long and impressive track record. Strong in the faceoff circle. Formed a lethal duo with PleeMaker in previous two ECLs. Will we see a new duo in the SC? I expect xDoumi to have had good hunch on it to happen; this pick was probably decided well in advance, as tbnantti and xDoumi had been playing together between ECL4 and SC2. 3. Patzlaf, NG Ultras The highest pick from players that played in Pro division last season, Patzlaf is a guaranteed performer. Very traditional type of a center, who sees the ice well and is strong full length and width of the ice, with or without the puck. Can play any skater position on a high level. 4. Penatski, NG Oispa Taitoo Undoubtedly one of the best puck handlers in the game; the puck is the wheel of a stick-jojo in Penatski’s hands. Excellent at drawing penalties. The question is whether the team will find chemistry in time to make use of the resulting time and space. 5. Rullstolskalas_, NG Goose Egg The highest-picked defenseman, Rullstolskalas, will find himself in a very nice spot, pairing the D with his team mate Floor17 from Northern Stars. Under pressure, Rullstolskalas is calm like a frozen pond. To round off his defensive awareness and positioning, he also has a great knack for getting pucks to the net through traffic. Expect a solid pts/G. 6. Foppatofflan, NG European Union The first winger to be picked in the draft, Foppatofflan could be the most dangerous player on the counter-attack. Superb passing ability and vision. Last year’s SC champion needs at least a few players around him who think the game fast enough, to be able to play the way he’d like. 7. TehhAhola, NG 50 Shades of Blades The centreman for ECL 4 Elite runner-up’s, TehhAhola is a consistent points producer, poised with the patience of a severed lama when equipped with the puck. Expect him to finish around his draft position in the scoring tables at the end of the regular season. 8. ADETIKKI, NG Trashers Green and brown is the new black, and NG Thrashers will be eagerly waiting ADETIKKI to come back. Crisu_Rottis was ready to take a chance and this talented offensive stinger will join the team fully in a few weeks’ time, after completing his civil services. 9. janbonator (by The_Alpha_Furyan), NG International Army A pure student of the game, janbonator can adapt to any type of situation or forward position you put in front of him. Known for maintaining a steady point production while never forgetting about his defensive responsibilites, he is a solid pick to build your team around - especially as he will most likely spend most of his games at the center position with NOS mainstay Mullweiser riding shotgun on the wing. 10. JaromirSniper68 (by The_Alpha_Furyan), NG Terror Squad One of the highest scoring Swedish players in ECL history, JaromirSniper68 excels when the game is played at a fast pace. Being picked by longtime linemate (and sometime rival) TerrorsenkoI91I may have come as a surprise to many watching the draft, but should this C-RW duo re-kindle the chemistry they've had in previous editions of the game, look out. Leading the Pack At about mid-point of the regular season, the battle for playoff spots is as furious as ever. Each group has at least 7-8 teams with a very good chance of clinching a spot in the sun. Current front-runners looked strong before the tournament, and have duly delivered thus far. NG KELAMIEHET, NG 50 Shades of Blades, NG Parolan Visa, NG Blackout, NG Ultras and NG Kannunkulma are the leaders of their groups and boast an impressive average of 1.5+ pts/G. Individually it’s been NG Kannunkulma’s captain, PleeMaker, who has been topping the stat sheets since the start. 21 goals and 11 assists in just 8 games, adding up to a phenomenal 4 points per game average. Can he keep it up?

Hey NHL Gamers! Today marks one of those very special days in the short history of the website we have all been waiting for. In the past few weeks - alongside the ECL 4 Playoffs and our coverage of the IS Cup - interesting and highly promising connections have come together. Thanks to our Staff member Hampus (@The_Alpha_Furyan), who acted as the leading negotiator throughout this process, we are finally able to reveal the first official sponsorship for NHLGamer.com: Summer Cup Season 2, Presented by Webhallen! We could not be more proud of this partnership with one of the leading retailers for consumer electronics, hardware and software in Sweden - running a total of 26 stores scattered across the country. We believe this partner is a perfect match for a populated and innovative eSports platform like NHLGamer. Webhallen can be found here: Online Shop Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Twitch THE DEAL Webhallen will be accompanying us throughout the duration of Summer Cup Season 2, leading up to the announcement of NHL 18 during E3 in Los Angeles which takes place on June 13-15. While everyone is going to be excited about EA SPORTS NHL 18 feature announcements, trailers and other types of content; Webhallen will act as NHLGamer's recommended retail source for purchasing the game, due to release in September 2017 (estimate). Finally, to honor the best Summer Cup Season 2 teams, Webhallen will be offering the following prizes for Summer Cup Season 2: Summer Cup winners receive one physical copy of NHL 18 (PS4) per player, arriving at launch Members of the 2nd place team receive runner-up prizes, which are to be announced in due time OUTLOOK Last year around 150 players took part in this draft-type league, which was aimed at experienced players as well as community greenhorns. The stated goal of the tournament was to improve networking between our players and to open up ways for prospects to make their way into EASHL's best teams out there. This is the same promise we are going to deliver on with Season 2, only even better. Based on this, there will be a few tweaks to the following aspects of Summer Cup: Team building: No more than 2 players from a single ECL 4 team are allowed to play in the same Summer Cup team. This rule applies to the final rosters, after transfers and free agents. Team names: Due to our new API reporting tool, the Summer Cup will be played in dedicated EASHL teams which will have "NG" as a prefix - for example "NG Golden Knights". Sign-ups: To rule out unfortunate circumstances when it comes to player positioning, holidays and other aspects, the sign-ups will follow a clearer structure, allowing captains to recognize fitting players more easily. Draft procedure: We are working on improving our draft pick tool and simplifying communication towards and between team captains to reduce idling, allowing us to increase the speed in which draft picks are made. LEAGUE DETAILS Summer Cup Season 2 will take place on PS4 - if you are looking for Xbox action, we would love to see your team sign up for Xbox ECL! Last day to sign up is Wednesday, May 24th. Players instead of teams sign up using the registration tool linked at the bottom of the post. All signed up players are aimed to be seeded into teams with a size of 10 players (may vary). Out of all registrations, NHL Gamer Staff will elect an according number of team captains from the players that offered to take on a captaincy rule in their sign-up post - anyone is allowed to apply for it. Team captains will receive a draft sheet on May 26th, containing all signed up players and relevant information in a structured form. Team captains will be taking part in a live draft event on May 28th, picking their roster until all players are seeded. All games are played 6vs6 using dedicated EASHL teams. The leagues are set to start on the week of May 29th and aimed to be finished in July. Full rules will be released after registration is over. HOW TO PARTICIPATE To participate, make sure you are logged in or create an account first, visit the sign-up page and fill in all fields of the registration form like below - make sure the player positions in your Player Card are up-to-date so captains know who they are drafting! You can update your Player Card on the "Edit Player" page. Sign-up page: Click here! That's all you need to do... sounds easy eh? Let's take this opportunity - together with our new partner Webhallen - to finish NHL 17 with a bang: Sending shockwaves through the community and setting up NHLGamer.com's ambitious goals for NHL 18. @gzell60 for NHLGamer.com

DRAFT REVIEW – by The_Alpha_Furyan When I first started discussing with the NHLGamer staff about contributing to the site, I knew I wanted to write and I also knew this was exactly the kind of texts I wanted to produce. I've always been a self-proclaimed stats- and prospects buff, with a fascination for everything from scouting reports to the drafting process to discussing different stats to gaining an interest in the modern "advanced stats". Combine that with my interest in writing and I knew we could be on to something! Anyway, without further ado, here is my first contribution to NHLGamera as a very loose member of the talented website staff. I'm going to start off this draft review by looking backwards, to the Mock Draft I posted in the days leading up to the draft. Let's take a look at those rankings (you can view that topic in the forums here: http://nhlgamer.com/community/topic/309-mock-1st-round-for-summer-cup-draft/) : 1. Dominointi (Forward) 2. Joukki13 (Forward) 3. OxTreeLAT (Goalie) 4. imosi1 (Forward) 5. poliskontroll (Goalie) 6. bjono (Forward) 7. Egyptologen (Defenseman) 8. FinKonna (Goalie) 9. Hanssoni (Forward) 10. plee999 (Forward) 11. tbantti (Forward) 12. SadaPoika (Forward) 13. Pelle3000 (Forward) 14. Chafak (Forward) In total I predicted 10 Forwards, 3 Goalies and 1 Defenseman for the first round. Now, lets compare that with how the actual first round turned out: 1. imosi1 (Forward) 2. vatalisti (Defenseman) 3. Dominointi (Forward) 4. joukki13 (Forward) 5. Foppatofflan (Forward) 6. bjono (Forward) 7. plee999 (Forward) 8. Chafak (Forward) 9. SadaPoika (Forward) 10. OxTreeLAT (Goalie) 11. tbnantti (Forward) 12. TehhAhola (Forward) 13. Tapparfan- (Forward) 14. wickedtah69 (Forward) For those keeping score at home, that is a total of 12 Forwards, 1 Goalie and 1 Defenseman - suggesting the team captains prioritized getting those high-scoring forwards as soon as possible. Now, while I had counted on this being a factor in the first round, I also thought goalies would be a higher priority than they were. Interesting how that turns out sometimes! Finally, the results of the mock draft had 9 out of the 14 players I predicted actually being picked in the first round with bjono at #6 an tbnantti at #11 being perfect matches. The remaining 5 were all picked in the first three rounds so all in all, I consider the mock draft a success and encourage others to join me in the mock drafting for the next Summer Cup! Moving on, let's take a look at the players that were picked: #1 Overall - imosi1 # in mock draft - 4 Pick made by - vSilenttio Previous Teams - SIKA, Finnish Roosters ECL Stats - Regular season: 32GP, 31G 38A = 69P. Playoffs: 31GP, 15G 26A = 41P. Scouting - When I suggested imosi1 might go as early as #4 he wanted to know if I had consumed mushrooms. Turns out he was right to doubt me as he ended up going first overall. Captain vSilenttio probably knows full well what imosi1 brings to a team seeing as they've played together quite a lot through the years. For those of you who don't know imosi1 I can tell you that this #1 pick brings a high level of skill and two-way responsibility to his team. If asked to perform as the teams sniper, he does. If asked to shut down the oppositions top forwards, he does. If asked to create plays, he does. As someone in the draft sheet said - "this guy does it all!". #2 Overall - vatalisti # in mock draft - N/A Pick made by - Billy44205 Previous Teams - Carlsberg HC, Victorious Secrets HC ECL Stats - Regular season: 29GP, 7G 48A = 55P. Playoffs: 52GP, 14G 48A = 62P. Scouting - The only defenseman picked in the first round, vatalisti should provide a solid base for Billy44205 to organize his team around. A solid two-way, pass first defenseman (who can also play center), vatalisti has proven his worth in the two previous ECL tournaments with Carlsberg and VSH. Look no further than the fact that this defender has 29 games in the regular season to 55 in the playoffs to know that he is a proven playoff warrior who will be looking to take his team to a third straight appearance in the finals. #3 Overall - Dominointi # in mock draft - 1 Pick made by - mir021k Previous Teams - Nordic Blizzard ECL Stats - Regular season: 26GP, 41G 42A = 83P. Playoffs: 26GP, 31G 41A = 72P. Scouting - The first overall pick in the mock draft fell to 3rd here but it was still an expected early pick for Dominointi. This number one center for the one-time ECL champions Nordic Blizzard is an incredibly skilled point-producing center who besides putting up goals and assists in droves, still finds the time to be ranked #1 in the world in Online Vs. for NHL 16. If one were to describe this players style, it would be "dominant" - not unlike the name he has chosen for himself. Look for mir021k's team to lean heavily on Dominointi to gain success in this tournament. #4 Overall - joukki13 # in mock draft - 2 Pick made by - debi_85 Previous Teams - Carlsberg HC, Victorious Secrets HC ECL Stats - Regular season: 31GP, 71G 55A = 126P. Playoffs: 50GP, 57G 62A = 119P. Scouting - In my opinion, the best and purest sniper in this draft. joukki13 has, just like vatalisti, been a part of two straight ECL finals without yet having a trophy to his name - something that has to be frustrating for this goal-scoring LW. His skill in scoring goals is only matched by his undying love for The Walking Dead character Rick Grimes. Look for joukki to once again be in the top-10 for goal scoring when the Summer Cup is over and who knows? Maybe another final is in the cards for mr. Grimes... #5 Overall - Foppatofflan # in mock draft - N/A Pick made by - pelimies80 Previous Teams - Bombers Hockey ECL Stats - Regular season: 21GP, 20G 24A = 48P. Playoffs: 5GP, 0G 6A = 6P. Scouting - Looking at his ECL stats, taking Foppatofflan as the #5 overall pick seems like a misstep. For those who are aware of what this creative forward has accomplished in the past, it's not as much of a surprise. However absent from ECL Season 2, Foppatofflan is still a known commodity in what used to be the Xbox360 community. Famous for his unorthodox playing style where no one can ever predict if he will pull a triple deke, go for the behind-the-back pass or simply take the puck to the net and deke the goalie out of his jock. For those who didn't know him before, I suspect he will open a lot of eyes this Summer Cup. #6 Overall - |bjono| # in mock draft - 6 Pick made by - LastMandalorian Previous Teams - Sjukstugan ECL Stats - Regular season: 34GP, 38G 50A = 88P. Playoffs: 27GP, 21G 28A = 49P. Scouting - Exactly as predicted, bjono went as #6! All kidding aside, this is a very solid pick to build a team around. Having been around as the captain and leader of Sjukstugan for as long as I can remember, this forward is a consistent point producer who besides never missing a game is also defensively responsible and, just like all of Sjukstugans players, a talented hitter. Will probably be paired up with regular teammate pnordetun in what is looking like one of the tournaments strongest forward corps. #7 Overall - PleeMaker # in mock draft - 10 Pick made by - Patzlaf Previous Teams - Carlsberg HC, Northern Stars, Finnish Roosters ECL Stats - Regular season: 25GP, 44G 41A = 85P. Playoffs: 35GP, 34G 24A = 58P. Scouting - A controversial figure in the community, much can be said about PleeMaker. However, what cannot be denied is his skill on the ice. Having racked up over a goal per game in both the ECL regular seasons and playoffs, PleeMaker is seemingly most comfortable on one of the wings where he can use his feared one-timer to terrorize goalies. Combining his talent for goal scoring and point producing with high-skilled center (and captain) Patzlaf seems like a receipe for success. Don't be surprised if one, or both, of these players end up high on the Summer Cup stat charts for goals and points. #8 Overall - Chafak # in mock draft - 14 Pick made by - Basstian223 Previous Teams - Aapon Taikasauva ECL Stats - Regular season: 34GP, 53G 45A = 98P. Playoffs: 25GP, 32G 24A = 56P. Scouting - Chafak is somewhat of a new aquaintance for me but his stat line suggests a solid point producer who's been a consistent force to be reckoned with for home team Aapon Taikasauva. Playing exclusively on LW, this point producing winger will fit right in with captain Basstian223 who exclusively makes his home on RW. Regardless of who will be playing C between these two gentlemen, expect that C to enjoy two talented wingers who will score goals and rack up assists like no tomorrow. Chafak has also been at the top of the point rankings for both ECL seasons - suggesting consistency is one of his strengths. #9 Overall - SadaPoika # in mock draft - 12 Pick made by - KingOfApes_ Previous Teams - The Unstoppable Warriors, Victorious Secrets HC ECL Stats - Regular season: 29GP, 38G 31A = 69P. Playoffs: 30GP, 16G 20A = 36P. Scouting - Another new aquaintance for me, SadaPoikas stats dont lie. He seems to favor goal scoring just as much as passing judging by his point totals. Having started his ECL career with TUW and falling short in the playoffs, he moved to VSH where he - together with joukki13 and draft captain KingOfApes - took his team all the way to the finals. Seemingly a big fan of NHL'er Steven Stamkos, look for SadaPoika to try and deliver some thunder and Lightning together with old teammate KingOfApes in this newly created team. #10 Overall - OxtreeLAT # in mock draft - 3 Pick made by - selänne8 Previous Teams - Silver Sword Griffins ECL Stats - Season 1: 11-6-2, 76.07 %, 2.63 GAA, 1 shutout. Season 2: 9-4-2, 86.06%, 1.13 GAA, 7 shutouts. Scouting - The first and only goalie to be picked in the first round, OxtreeLAT was my first goalie pick in the mock draft as well. Having delivered solid stats in ECL 1, he absolutely exploded in ECL 2 - putting up staggering numbers bested by no other goalie. Some would say playing behind the defensively oriented SSG squad might have boosted his stats, but for anyone who has faced OxtreeLAT (or seen him play) they know he's as much a factor in that teams defensive prowess as their skaters. Overall one of the best goaltenders in the EASHL community and will look to lead his team to the promised land for this Summer Cup. #11 Overall - tbnantti # in mock draft - 11 Pick made by - FINSeRe Previous Teams - Kattiautomatti ECL Stats - Regular season: 24GP, 37G 40A = 77P. Playoffs: 31GP, 33G 33A = 66P. Scouting - Another one of my patented "Perfect Picks", tbnantti went #11 as predicted. This is a very solid pick for a team to build their offense around and a remarkably consistant point producer in both the regular season and the playoffs. One peek at tbnanttis stats and you are instantly struck by how evenly distributed his point totals are between goals and assists. Mostly a center from what I've seen, tbnantti has been around in the community for a long time and his team Kattiautomatti (seriously tough to spell and I probably still got it wrong) was previously known as Budcats and Blades of Steel. #12 Overall - TehhAhola # in mock draft - N/A Pick made by - Juizki Previous Teams - Finnish Roosters ECL Stats - Regular season: 18GP, 14G 34A = 48P. Playoffs: 8GP, 3G 11A = 66P. Scouting - As we get into the later picks for round 1, my knowledge decreases. I admit to not knowing very much by TehhAhola (he wasn't on my radar when I put together the mock draft) except that his stats for ECL 1 - he did not participate in ECL 2 - were very impressive, particularly during the regular season. Being back in the community now and having been honored with the #12 overall pick, you can bet that TehhAhola will be hungry to prove Juizki right in picking him this early. #13 Overall - Tapparafan- # in mock draft - N/A Pick made by - DieCutterMC Previous Teams - Nordic Stars ECL Stats - Regular season: 32GP, 51G 37A = 88P. Playoffs: 11GP, 14G 5A = 19P. Scouting - I struggled for a long time with putting Tapparafan- in my predicted first round and he got cut just at the last minute. One look at the goal scoring skill of this LW/C and you can see why I struggled with my selection. Having been a leading presence on Nordic Stars, Tapparafan- will be expected to shoulder a heavy offensive burden for DieCutterMCs team as well - a challenge he will probably be more than up for. A very solid late first round pick that will pay dividends for his team in this tournament. #14 Overall - wickedtah69 # in mock draft - N/A Pick made by - juha96 Previous Teams - Infinity ECL Stats - Regular season: 10GP, 12G 10A = 22P. Playoffs: N/A. Scouting - One of the biggest surprises this draft, wickedtah69 rounds out this preview of the first 14 picks. Having solid stats for Infinity in the 10 ECL games he has played, he is somewhat of a mystery to me. Has he played together frequently with juha96? Is he, like Foppatofflan, another "legend" from previous PS3/Xbox360 community that just hasn't had the time to play many games in the previous ECL tournaments? An exciting mystery that will have to prove himself in this Summer Cup! Finally, I'd like to conclude this draft review by listing my biggest surprises of the draft: - Goalies not being picked sooner. I thought for sure the captains would go for goalies in the first two rounds. - wickedtah69 going in the first round. Prove me wrong, mystery man! - ProMinx24 not being picked until the 4th round. Mr. Darzins is an insanely talented player who would've been a solid second round pick! Please leave your thoughts and voice your agreements/disagreements (or point out factual errors) to the post in the comment section so we can get some discussion going - that's what makes it all worth it. Later skaters // The_Alpha_Furyan

Hey Everyone and thank you on my and the staff's behalf for joining our draft stream last night in such great numbers! We have now randomized the groups using the same algorithm as in the first two ECL seasons and the groups are now done and official: Group 1:Team Billy44205Team DieCutterMCTeam juha96Team JuizkiTeam mir021kTeam pelimies80Team selänne8Group 2:Team Basstian23Team debi_85Team FINSeReTeam LastMandalorianTeam PatzlafTeam Tuukka.RTeam vSilenttio The schedule has also now been created and posted. You can find it here: http://nhlgamer.com/schedule.php?leagueID=16. As announced earlier in the rules, four games (two opponents) are expected to be played during each game week. We have scheduled them for Monday and Wednesday, but those days are there just for scheduling purposes and teams may agree to play any day they want (within the rules). We have left the week of the NHL 17 Beta without games and the last week of games is scheduled on the 8th of August. That being said, the teams can decide to play at a quicker pace and if all teams do that, we can start the playoffs earlier. On behalf of the NHL Gamer staff,

NHLGamer welcomes you to the Draft ECL (Summer Cup) '16! Hey NHL Gamers, ECL Season 2 on PS4 is history, and thanks to your discussion about a Summer Cup we decided to start one last tournament for NHL 16. This time it is not part of our regular ECL series, as we want to refocus on two aspects: Open schedules and a chance to get together. The Summer Cup is based on the draft idea which was brought up by @vSilenttio and @Billy44205 during the discussion. Let's go into the details: League details: Last day to sign up is Wednesday, June 29th. This time, PLAYERS instead of TEAMS sign up for the tournament. All signed up players will be seeded into teams with a size of 8 players (if it adds up). Out of all registrations, NHL Gamer Staff will elect an according number of team captains (if 160 players sign up, 20 teams and 20 captains are needed). Team captains will be taking part in a live draft event (between July 9th and 10th), picking their roster until all players are seeded. All games are played 6vs6 using private drop-in games - no exceptions! There will be default game weeks instead of default game days -> more freedom The leagues are set to start on the week of July 11th and aimed to be finished in mid-August. Full rules will be released after registration is over. How to join? Register to the forums. Read this post entirely before registering. Follow the link to the ECL for your preferred platform: In the above thread, create a post and use the following format in the post itself: PSN/XBL Name: xxx Tell us about you: Here you can tell us about your NHL career and mention any accomplishments or specific reasons why you should be considered as a team captain. These comments will also be added to the draft sheet, which will be handed out to all team captains once they were chosen, so they are able to get an impression about your person. We look forward to seeing you on the ice! On behalf of the NHLGamer staff,