Features

Franchise Hockey Manager 4 (FHM 4) is the deepest, most immersive, and most customizable hockey management game in the world. If you’ve ever thought you could do a better job than your favorite team’s head coach or general manager, this is the game for you. You can choose to play in one of 27 leagues and select a team to guide to glory. The game features thousands of realistically rated real players. Your job will be to sign free agents, trade players, draft the next crop of superstars, set your tactics and your lines in order to guide your team to a championship!

The development team analyzed game data from many different levels of play to build an accurate statistical model of all the small events that come together to create a hockey game, from battles in the corners and faceoffs to breakaways and fights. Combined with the information in our player database, this data let us create a match engine that produces accurate statistical results at all levels of play, from junior hockey to the highest professional level.

Because the engine measures everything so precisely, game situations and coaching decisions will have a much more apparent effect on play. If you’ve got a group of big, physical forwards, you can order them to dump the puck deep into their opponent’s zone and follow up with aggressive forechecking, relying on their strength to win the ensuing battles for the puck. Or, if your squad is built with speed in mind, skate the puck in and try to catch the defenders flatfooted.

This is as close as you’ll get to sitting in a general manager’s office without drawing a paycheck from a team. In Franchise Hockey Manager 4 you can oversee team finances, keep an eye on the salary cap, check on your assistant coaches and scouts, watch the waiver wire, put together trade packages, make contract offers to free agents, and much more.

What’s your long-term plan for the team? Will your owner give you enough budget room to sign a few high-profile free agents? Would you rather trade away top talent and focus on the draft? Be careful, because you could get fired if you don’t live up to the owner’s expectations!

If you want to edit basic rules and settings in your league, simply turn on commissioner mode and change player ratings, modify financial parameters and more.  If you don’t want to handle certain aspects of the game, you can always turn it over to your assistants too and focus simply on what you want.  If you like to focus more on the coaching sides of things, the tactics system is for you.  Your tactics can be modified throughout the season, or tailored in specific ways to match up in the best way possible against specific opponents.

When you start a new game, your league will come alive with news articles, messages from other GMs and players, announcements of upcoming milestones (a player’s 500th career goal, for example), and more. You’ll read about hat tricks, thrilling come-from-behind victories, key trades, devastating injuries, and other important happenings.

Players also have their own personalities, and their attitudes can affect their performance. A veteran may become disgruntled if his contract will expire soon and you haven’t offered him an extension. A young phenom will be thrilled with a generous contract offer. Your goalie could grow irritated if you bench him in favor of his backup.