App: Franchise Hockey Manager 9
Developer: Out of the Park Developments
Genres: Games, Sports, Simulation, Sports

It's time for some World Class Hockey!

The Franchise Hockey Manager series returns for the 2022-23 season with plenty of new additions to the deepest, most authentic hockey strategy gaming experience you can find. 

Choose one of dozens of leagues around the world and select a team to guide to glory, including a chance at the ultimate prize: FHM 9 is licensed by the NHL®, allowing you to take the reins of your favorite franchise to capture the Stanley Cup®.    Take control of a national team and try for international supremacy.  Choose a historical game, where you can begin in any year in  NHL® history right back to the beginning in 1917, or play in a legendary international tournament.   Or if you'd like to create your own customized league, you can do that as well!  Or if you've been playing FHM8 and can't bear to part with your team, import the save into FHM9 and carry on with the addition of FHM9's new features.

However you choose to play, you have control of your team and can oversee finances, select strategies, hire your staff, make trades, sign free agents, and draft the newest generation of stars as you try to build a championship team - and then make it into a dynasty!

All new for Franchise Hockey Manager 9:

College hockey is here!  American college teams are now playable, allowing you to run one of over 60 Division I teams.  Since college hockey has some unique challenges, we've added a number of special mechanics to college team management, including a unique player recruitment system, details like managing scholarships and academic eligibility, qualification for the postseason tournament, and more.

]Injury Deferral: you can now choose to defer injury treatment for some types of injuries until after the season ends.  That will let you keep the injured player in the lineup with reduced performance and a risk of making the injury worse.  That will allow you to keep the player in the lineup for key games at the end of the year or in the playoffs, but you'll need to balance that against the possibility of getting the player healthy as soon as possible.

The team harmony system has been completely redesigned: "problem" players will now potentially create many more headaches for their General Manager, who'll have to keep a careful eye on their team as off-ice incidents can lead to player conflicts and the formation of divisive factions that can send player morale plummeting.

International play in historical mode has been expanded with the addition of the World Junior Championships tournaments, allowing you to replay all the historical tournaments going back to 1974.

2D mode has received some improvements, including the addition of some set-play mechanics, particularly on the power plays, so you can see your offensive tactics unfolding as you intended.  We've also introduced some new internal mechanics to make player movement look a little more smooth and natural.

The Tactics screen will now provide much better feedback on whether or not the players in your lineup (or individual lines) are a good fit for your chosen tactics.

Trading now includes a "Make this Work" option that will instantly tell you which player(s) you can add to a deal to get the opposing general manager to accept it.

Players with No Trade and No Movement clauses now have individualized lists, displayed with their contract data, of which teams they're willing to waive their clause for, allowing them to be traded.

Traded draft picks can now be given Protected status, which will defer the pick to the following season if it's higher than a specified level - so you can trade away your first rounder but be secure in the knowledge that you won't have thrown away the #1 overall pick if your season ends in disaster. 

In addition to all of that, there are the usual large variety of smaller and internal changes, tweaks, database changes,  and interface improvements!

Release notes:
A few bug fixes. Please visit our forum for a detailed list.