Recent Discussions
Suggestions to improve the EASHL experience in NHL 26 +
Hello EA Sports, I'm a Product Development Director with over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, and an expert in UX/UI. I'm also a passionate player of the NHL series, especially in EASHL mode, which I regularly enjoy with my 3 friends player team. I'd like to offer a few concrete suggestions that could significantly enhance the overall experience for your player base. Here are a few ideas that could bring high value to the community: 1. Smart reconnection via session token Currently, if a player is disconnected (network drop, crash, etc.), they are permanently removed from the match, which puts their team at a major disadvantage. Suggestion: generate a reconnection token at the beginning of the game that remains valid until the match ends. This would allow any disconnected player to rejoin the same match automatically upon relaunching the game. You could even add a notification like: “Patrick has rejoined the game!” 2. Ability to change loadout mid-match Sometimes players enter a match with the wrong build or need to adapt mid-game to the opponents' strategy. Suggestion: allow loadout changes between periods, just like a coach adjusting tactics. 3. Unique customization per loadout At the moment, all loadouts share the same name, number, helmet, and visual setup. Suggestion: let players assign individual visual customization to each loadout. This would let a player visually represent different roles (e.g. a flashy loadout for a sniper, a rugged look for a grinder, etc.). 4. Configurable AI teammate styles When playing with small teams (e.g. 2 or 3 players), the remaining teammates and goalie are controlled by AI and can sometimes behave unpredictably. Suggestion: allow players to configure the AI teammate playstyle, such as: Goalie type (butterfly, hybrid, acrobatic…) Forward or defenseman profile (offensive, playmaker, physical…) Level of aggressiveness or caution This would add a layer of strategy and control while reducing frustration caused by rigid AI behavior. Final thoughts These suggestions aim to enhance the experience for serious and engaged players, bringing more flexibility, depth, and reliability to the EASHL mode. Thank you for considering this feedback Kind regardsBe a pro NHL 26
Hey EA Sports NHL Team, I wanted to share a list of community-driven suggestions for the Be a Pro mode in NHL 26. This mode has great potential, but currently feels underdeveloped compared to career modes in other sports games. Here’s how it can be taken to the next level: 🧠 1. Dynamic Storylines with Real Choices Dialogue and media responses should impact team chemistry, fan reactions, and player progression. Make agent and coach feedback matter – reward performance, punish poor play. Add real scenarios: being benched, sent to AHL, trade rumors, locker room tension, etc. 🧑💼 2. Life Off the Ice (Crucial New Feature) Introduce off-ice decisions: what you do in your free time (train, party, rest) should affect performance. Lifestyle choices: buy apartments, cars, investments, endorsements – all affecting fame, money, and reputation. Interactions with fans, teammates, family, and the media should shape your personality and brand. 💪 3. Personality & Role Development Let players shape a unique identity (e.g., humble leader, flashy superstar, gritty grinder) that actually affects career progression. Training and lifestyle decisions should influence attribute growth and physical condition over time. Add short-term boosts or setbacks depending on how the player prepares. 🏒 4. Realistic Career Path Start in junior leagues, college, or AHL – don’t jump into the NHL 1st line instantly. Earning your ice time should feel rewarding – different roles like PK specialist, depth player, or powerplay QB. Have real-time feedback from coaches and reactive changes in lineups or playtime. 🏆 5. Career Legacy & Endgame Include full career arcs with long-term goals: Stanley Cups, All-Star games, awards, even Hall of Fame potential. Multiple career endings: legend, bust, journeyman, etc. Add an epilogue – coaching, front-office roles, or media careers post-retirement. ⚙️ 6. Polished UI and Smarter AI Smoother menus and loading times – less clunky navigation. Improve AI awareness so linemates actually play smart hockey. 📌 Summary Be a Pro could be the best mode in NHL 26 if it adds more immersion, life outside the rink, and meaningful career choices. Right now it’s too on-rails. Fans don’t just want to play hockey — we want to live the journey of becoming a pro. Thanks for reading — we hope you’ll consider pushing Be a Pro to its full potential!Ideas for Create A Team and Be A GM Custom League in NHL 26 and future
Hey! I'm a long time hockey and NHL franchice fan from Europe. Since I was a kid I have loved creating my own teams on NHL games, and I was very happy when Custom League feature came on NHL23. It's actually latest game in franchice which I bought, because I had been waiting for it for years, and I felt very content after getting it. But now as time has passed, I have been thinking for a few features in Create A team and Custom League that I think would make games much more immersive and enjoyable for creative players like myself. I understand that some of them might be a bit difficult to program, but it doesn't hurt ask for them. Turning on/off team and player records from Custom League I think this is quite simple thing really, but I think it would be nice if players could turn off the existing NHL records from custom leagues. Sometimes when I create smaller leagues with less games in a season, breaking records becomes pretty much impossible. That's why I think it would feel more realistic if the records would start from beginning and players could create new kind of fantasy hockey history, or simply turn them off and not see them. Small thing, but would feel nice to see records of my league, not real NHL, when it's not in a sense same league. Custom League with name and trophies of its own This might be a bit trickier thing, but I'd really like my custom league to be REALLY custom leagues. A new league, with new name, new trophy, new records (already explained this one), and so on. Maybe the game could feature a few choices for the name, or the commentary could always refer to the new league simply as "the league". I think it would make playing a bit more fun, when you have clean canvas, where to start reating hockey history of your own. Same with championship trophy. Having ability to name all trophies, like individual awards, is quite far fetched, but being able to choose name for main goal and trophy would be cool. Games already feature names of many countries, people and other things on commentary names for teams and players, and I think choosing name from these options would work well, like "The Canada Cup", "The Crosby Cup" etc. Retired numbers Many players have been asking for ability to retire numbers in game. I think it would be cool too, but I know it would a bit difficult and it'd had to have some restrictions like max. 30 retired numbers per team etc. Having jersey retirement ceremonies and cutscenes would be cool, but what I really want would be having option to choose retired numbers in Create A Team, and have these numbers appear at custom arenas rafters already in creation mode. I don't necessarily need the retirement ceremony, but I think it would cool have retired numbers and banners hanging in the arena. It would create a feeling that the team actually has some history and so on. Assigned goalie masks for the team I think this one is also quite simple thing, but I have wanted for a long time to be able to assign mask styles for my custom times. It's really exhausting to change masks for the goaltenders on all teams to match their colors etc. and I think it would be great if players could choose from already existing designs and assign it to their team and the goalies would then automatically wear them, like they to do with real teams in the game. All game logos in Create A Team This one might have trouble with legal rights and creator rights, but I think having AHL and European team logos as options for teams would be great. No offense for any of the developers of the game, but sometimes you mess up some team jersey designs in programming, and it would be cool to create them myself with real logos and such. The list became a bit longer than I figured, but maybe they can give you some ideas for the future. Can't wait for new hockey seasons to start. I hope you all very good summer😎Never get to play in Power Plays
I will draw the penalty from the other team, or just when ever there's a power play in general I'm ALWAYS TAKEN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT TO PLAY IN A POWER PLAY! THIS GAME IS GARBAGE. That's just 1 of probably 30 other complaints I don't even feel like naming because you won't fix them. I know this because I see other reviews and their complaints are the same as mine. The AI even on your team is against you. They steal your goals, block your shots, intentionally miss passes or delay their pass to you. Like seriously, I'm starting to think you just pump games out and never actually play them. Because if you did you'd see how frustrating and STUPID your AI is. It's 2025 AI can make movies...what are y'all doing over there at EA?
Bring NHL Games to Nintendo Switch 2
EA, you've missed out on reaching the largest console gaming audience for eight years. Please do not make the same mistake on the highly capable Nintendo Switch 2. If this new console is getting Madden, with 22 moving players, it can certainly handle 12 moving players in NHL. NHL is my all-time favorite game, going back to the original on Sega Genesis. Don't make me continue to buy PlayStations only for NHL games. Thank you!
NHL 19 Franchise mode crashing
NHL 19 crashes when I try to play or sim a playoff game during franchise mode. It first happened during the 21-22 season somewhere on the second round and I wasn't able play or sim these games. Sure I could advance the days but that's the only thing I could do as prior games would also be broken. I "fixed" it by loading another save that was at an earlier date in the same timeline. Fast forward to the 22-23 season, the one I'm playing right now, the bug happened once again, this time on the third round. Did the same fix and made the finals only for it to appear once again. I play on the PS4 and I tried some other things that did not work like rebuilding the database or making a copy of the save, which ends up copying the bug. I even tried reinstalling the game. Is there any way to prevent or fix this as I don't want to have to save the game after every game and loading an earlier save just breaks progress and immersion I have during my run. Plus I don't have any guarantee that it would turn out to be an unbroken save. One weird thing is that it only happens for NHL games, my AHL team is fine and capable to play/simulate. The other weird thing I noticed is that during a cpu vs cpu game at my third time encountering the bug (for context, during elimination games, I do cpu vs cpu when theres like 10 minutes left during the third period. Also I manage the Avalanche which has Mackinnon on it.), I somehow had 2 Mackinnon on the ice. Obviously I had the one that was supposed to be here, but somehow, I had the Mackinnon of my year 1 as a GM, replacing one of my defensemen on my first pairing, who wasn't injured. We won and made it to the Final where the game broke once again. Do with that as you will with that information because I don't know if this was responsible for it, since I don't remember it happening for the prior 2 times I encountered this bug, because I didn't notice like this time. Like I said earlier, I want some kind of actual solution to this since I wasn't able to find one other than my "band-aid" one. I want to know if you ever encountered this bug and managed to fix it and how did you do it. Pretty sure I have the same problem as this one: https://forums.ea.com/discussions/nhl-franchise-discussion-en/nhl-19-playoff-simulation-issue/9580572NHL Suggestion
To the NHL Development Team at EA Sports (EA Vancouver) Hello, I would like to send this letter to the developing team EA Sport but I couldn't find any point of contact or e-mail so I am using this forum hoping it's reaching someone inside the developing team who can make the difference. I’m reaching out as a long-time fan of the NHL video game series, and for the past few years, I’ve been meaning to share some ideas that I believe could help enhance the NHL experience. I’m currently 46 years old and have been playing since NHL 1991 on the Sega Genesis. I’ve followed the series year after year, and first off, I want to thank you for the tremendous progress the game has made. The gameplay now feels incredibly realistic, and while passing is more challenging compared to the 2010–2020 versions, I genuinely enjoy the new mechanics. That said, I’d like to offer a few suggestions -mainly focused on Franchise Mode, which is my favorite. My goal is to help bring the experience even closer to what it feels like to be a real NHL player, both visually and statistically. 1- In-Game Stats -Show Key Offensive Numbers Currently, when a player scores a goal, the game sometimes displays their total body checks or other less relevant stats, rather than showing updated goals, assists, and points. These core offensive stats should be prioritized during goals or assists to make the moment feel more meaningful and immersive. 2. Trophy Ceremony at Season’s End Previous NHL titles included an end-of-season awards presentation, which many longtime fans like myself appreciated. Bringing back a more polished trophy ceremony with today’s visuals—featuring awards like the Maurice Richard, Hart, Calder, and Vezina—would make player stats feel more rewarding and impactful. 3. Matchday Atmosphere and Presentation As someone who never got to play in the NHL myself, I’ve always dreamed of living that experience through the game. Here are a few ideas to increase immersion: - Reintroduce scenes of players walking from the locker room and skating warm-up laps. - Use authentic team entrance music and crowd build-up before puck drop. - Add “players to watch” and goalie stat graphics during pre-game. - The national anthem was a great feature to bring back—thank you! - The return of a post-game 3 Stars presentation on the ice would give matches a more satisfying and realistic conclusion. - Bring back aerial shots of the arena and city skyline during pre-game presentation. These “fly-by” views of each team’s home city not only help set the atmosphere but also give players a sense of geography and culture—it even sparks the desire to travel and visit these arenas in real life. Player face models are outstanding, but coaches still look generic and unrealistic. Improving coach visuals behind the bench would greatly enhance the presentation quality. 4. More Goalie Replay Highlights Goalies are often game-changers, and I’d love to see more highlight replays featuring big saves and key stops throughout the game—especially in clutch moments. 5. Online Play with Real Teams and Rosters While I respect the Ultimate Team fanbase, it’s not for me personally. I would love to be able to play online using real NHL teams and up-to-date rosters, and ideally even have access to a full-season or online Franchise mode where players could manage rosters, track stats, and make trades or draft picks. That would be a dream come true for simulation-focused fans like me. 6. Be a Pro – More Narrative and Immersion Be a Pro is already a fun mode, but I believe it could be greatly improved by introducing a deeper, more interactive story mode, similar to what we've seen in Madden 2025. Starting a career in the minors and working our way up to the NHL- while managing relationships with an agent, coach, GM, friends, and family—would make the journey far more immersive. I also enjoyed how Madden added special side events, such as charity games or sponsored events (e.g., Nike weekend challenges). Features like these would add flavor and realism to the player’s career. Additionally, coach feedback becomes very repetitive over time. Adding more dialogue variety, context-sensitive conversations, and dynamic storylines would bring this mode to life in a whole new way. Once again, thank you to the entire team for your hard work and dedication. As someone who’s grown up with this series for over 30 years, I truly appreciate everything you’ve created. I hope my suggestions can contribute to making the next NHL games even more immersive and rewarding for players like myself. With great respect and enthusiasm, A dedicated hockey fan since 1991 Jeff
be a pro overhaul seriously needed after franchise mode got a revamp
Now to be honest i dont know why the be a pro game mode hasnt gotten a new cut scene more immersion in some way better contract offers from multiple teams and the fact that you cant play 3 full years in the chl europe etc to give your be a pro the best opportunity to be the higest overall possible gain as many x factor abilities as possible and be the true deseving first pick not the memorial cup bsNHL API for League
Hey everyone I know it was done years ago but does anyone know anything about API for a discord league? I’m Lg and LMSHL has done this but everytime I reach out I’ve been told figure out not our problem so I’m looking to get actual help not just people being **bleep**. If anyone knows please reach out it would really help for our league to organize everything
Bring NHL back to PC – Crossplay potential
Hello EA Sports NHL Team, I have been a loyal NHL fan since NHL 07 on PC. After that, I played every NHL game on PS3, PS4, and PS5, buying each new release. But now that I’ve switched to PC, I can’t play NHL anymore, and I really miss it.I truly believe NHL on PC has great potential, especially with crossplay. Many PC players want to play with their friends on consoles, both together in online clubs and against each other. If crossplay works in FIFA and NBA, why not in NHL? Eventually, it will have to happen, so why not now?By not releasing NHL on PC, you are losing dedicated fans who have simply moved to a better platform for graphics and performance. It’s frustrating that I can no longer enjoy NHL with my friends like before. My friend and I used to create an online club—me as a Center, him as a Goalie—and we had so much fun playing together. Now, I have no way to experience that, and I know I’m not the only one in this situation. I don’t want to buy a console just for NHL, and I don’t want to be forced to just watch others play while I sit out simply because I chose to game on PC. Please consider bringing NHL back to PC with full crossplay support. There is a demand for it, and many fans would love to see it happen. Thank you for your time.
Franchise mode suggestions
Things I would like to be able to see in franchise mode, Being able to be owner of the franchise, instead of just GM. This would be the true definition of franchise to own not just run. This would also allow you to play as one franchise for as long as you choose. Being able to change settings in custom franchise, like being able to offer expansion to a custom league. Also players from teams not chosen for the league become available under free agents. As for gameplay, a better AI Penalty engine, penalties are way to one sided without changing all the rules. Better AI management in general, as I don't know why the defense are always out near the point when they should be down in front of the net when not being controlled. Better response time from controlled player, shouldn't have to hit buttons multiple times before player responds, ( extremely frustrating) Ability to save strategies, no having to redo every game or when lineups get changed. Ability to add custom players to draft or free agents Ability to challenge offside and goals Equipment malfunction, broken skate blades. Echl teams added to franchise roster
Nhl 24 be a pro playoffs one game series
played through a whole season of be a pro, made the playoffs, the playoffs were only 1 game series, so i won the first game and then immediately moved on to the second round of the playoffs, Is there a way to make it a best of 7 series like irl? Been looking for answers on this for months
Toty trade in sets
Hi. Just want to give some honest feedback on Nhl25toty. The Community in general is disappointed in the fact 84s and 86s don't hold fair value for trade in sets. As a longtime customer of your games I can honestly say this is the first time I feel EA has cheated their customers. Toty is an event the we all look forward to and would hope that EA would work with the customer base rather than giving them a hard time. I really enjoy playing the game but mismanaged events like this is pretty disheartening.
Ea your NHL 25 goalies are trash save world of chel please
I hate woc goalies they are garbage the let in little muffins from the blue line as a goalie myself these goalies are the worst thing I have ever seen make them at least ok cus the are trash horrible stinky trash I can’t even play the game without my goalie letting in five goals from the blue line on 5 shots please fix them it would make the game so much better also the refs are blind the are horrible they have missed like 10 kicking motions and 25 goalie interferences no ref in the world is that bad please fix the game
