Changes for NHL 26 you want to see

I know this is probably wouldn’t be a big priority for most considering what it would probably take to become part of the game but I would love to see something a long the lines of certain players having abilities beyond their classes. For example, say you have Brad Marchand who’s a two way forward but also has an extra ability called “the rat” where if you accomplish certain ratty objectives during a game like, getting away with a slash, hip checking, late hit, running the goalie, (licking someone’s face) lol, it would eventually goad an opposing player into taking a penalty. Another could be “clutch” or “showtime” if you take x amount of shots, hit the post, x amount of dekes you’d get attribute boosts during crucial times in the game. Little game within the game stuff and fulfilling players roles on the team that help get momentum in other ways besides scoring a goal would feel authentic cuz after all the oilers have an entire roster that contributes to wins while not having the skill set of McDavid. 

Online franchise mode is definitely at the top of my list plz add it

It would probably be helpful for them if you said what bugs have been in the game since NHL 16. Give them details and specifics so they can actually look into the problems you are having. Maybe suggest solutions too?

It is way easier for developers ti fix things when they know exactly what the problem is. 

For example: instead of saying “wait times are too long”, I’d say “the queue timer counts up to 3 minutes for almost every game I search for in EASHL Club 3s, even though every time it tells me average search times are usually around 20 seconds. Then after the 3 minutes it just stops trying to find a game with nothing telling me it failed or why it failed. Some things that could be nice is a more accurate search time estimate so it isn’t as frustrating to see the time I’m waiting being 5 times longer than the average. Or if the game told me why it failed, or if it just kept searching regardless of the queue time would be nice improvements. If wait times can’t be reduced, it would be nice to give us something to do while we wait, like practicing drills or plays with my team.”

This is a reminder that they still have the same bugs in the game as NHL 16. Let’s relax with the wish lists and demand that they release an optimized, functioning product that doesn’t have people playing dressing room simulator for 40 minutes before even being able to play. 

They need to figure out their games lifespan, though. NHL games die down around December, come alive for a month or two after the new years sale, then the player base drops off a cliff. There’s 0 excuse for it, they have 0 competition. It makes no sense. 

During the playoffs in season or playoff mode, there should be views of the fans at the tailgate party outside the arena reacting to the goals, wins or losses.

EA Sports. It’s in the game! (Unless of course it’s too expensive and time consuming for us to add it to the game 🤑)

Half joking, I get the NHL team might not have the financial and staffing resources and support some of the other titles get. That’s not the team’s fault, hockey just isn’t as big a universe and finances go towards making Madden worse (half kidding, I actually really liked last year’s Madden) and College Football (deservingly so, that team killed it. That game is what all sports fans want of their sport game title.) 

I’ve been playing NHL since the very first version way back in the day. I think we just need you guys to combine all of the best from previous versions and improve the gameplay a lot. I’ll break it down for you:

Starting with the simple stuff. Graphics are good but feel like there’s still lots of room for improvement here. Players look odd, no real discrepancy in size amongst most of them. And players faces look terrible on a ton of players. I’m sure this has everything to do with budget limitations and time and the sheer number of players there are. Bring on the AI and speed it up! 

Gameplay: Game is fun right now. I actually do enjoy it. I’m more of a franchise player now but used to play online a lot. You guys destroyed that mode. Go back to building guys how you want. I’ll spend $10 on boost packs again hahaha. I just loved being able to build a fast tank of a player with a monster shot who was great at faceoffs. And I still think it would be awesome to have teams with more than 5 and they could change lines themselves. Nobody needs to get left out in this scenario if your club has a lot of players.

Got off track, gameplay, every single game feels exactly the same. Every team you play is almost feels exactly the same. Some of the star guys feel faster and that’s fine, but a lot of games just aren’t different (not a unique experience for sports titles honestly a lot of other sports games struggle with this IMO, college football being the exception). And the game plays way too arcade like. There’s no battles in the corners. There’s no chippiness that defines hockey and rivalries. Whistle blows, you might get one tie up and that’s that. That sucks. Watch a hockey game and see players battling in corners. Guys taking shots at others, scrums after whistles. Adding that stuff to the game would be amazing and fans would eat that sh*t up in a trailer! 

Playoff games don’t feel any different than preseason games. That’s so sad. I’m playing through a franchise now and I’m in the ECF and there’s like zero energy to it. Seriously?

Skating kind of stinks and the control stick and all the special moves feel broken anymore. Players don’t really glide, they sort of just stop dead in their tracks. Whatever you did, go back a few years and restore that stick control system. 

Change up the fighting again. Need something fresh and different. Bring back blood!! Let’s see Gretzky's bleed again. 

Some ways of scoring feel a little glitchy. You probably already know this so I’ll leave it at that.

 Goalies kind of blow. Make it tougher to score for both the human and computer. I feel like the computer team doesn’t shoot enough and when they actually do, they score. I’m constantly playing games (on superstar with AI tuned up to 6/6), and they get like 1-2 shots per period sometimes. I mean I play decent defense but it seems too easy at times. There’s brief times or certain games where it feels difficult, like the computer just takes over no matter what and while frustrating because it feels like predetermined sometimes, it’s realistic. You’re not going to steamroll every team every game. I feel like as the life cycle of the game went on and patches came out, it got easier? 

Checking is not that good. Too arcade like. Too many big hits each game. I get big games or rivalry games or games between teams that play a physical style can be filled with big hits, but it seems like every game is insane with the total number of hits and big hits. Guys should be avoiding these most of the time. It’s pretty rare an NHL player gets blindsided. They’re pretty aware of what’s going on. Not to say it doesn’t happen but I feel like I’m seeing multiple Scott Steven’s murders each game. Make players more aware and able to avoid these, add a hit avoid button for humans and make the AI smart enough not to just stand there and take a bone shattering hit.

And bring back X as shield the puck! Make square reverse hit on offense. I hate the press down on R3 because that’s the stick control button and I have a tendency to push those is automatically while I play any game. 

Realness, being back real goalie masks. You used to have authentic masks in the game. I’m old enough remember. That was awesome. If you can’t because of licensing, add a feature for custom mask creation and allow sharing within the community. Watch how fast people create a roster of accurate masks. It’ll be cool and add to the realism. 

Real authentic stadium goal songs. Again, another really great feature you guys took out. As sports games are trying to get closer and closer to authentic presentation for their fans, you guys are heading in the opposite direction. 

Add back the training mode that helped show you and tested your ability to pull off the controls and dekes and faceoffs. Why take that out in the first place?? Dumb move.

The All Star game. Make it cool in a franchise mode. Do something special, cut scenes or something. Add in the skills competition!! How fun would that be to play those mini games? I don’t think it was EA, it might have been 2K that had them in their version, if they could do it years ago, you can do it now. 

Player entrances! What happened to them!? I used to love the old versions when you’d show the special team entrances. The Sharks coming through the Shark mouth, the octopus in Detroit. Imagine how cool to see the spectacle of a Vegas game before a game there. The short thing you do now is a nice try but come on, you guys can do better. I’m watching VTech enter through a light show to Enter Sandman in CFB26. Let’s get NHL that level of love. 

I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff but baby steps 😂.

Again I know it’s about budget and profitability of this franchise. But as the famous saying goes, “If you build it, they will come”.

Make a truly great hockey game (even if it means taking a year or two off, letting fans know that, and just patching at a discount over the next two years while you work on overhauling and making the best **bleep** hockey game ever) and more and more people will buy it. 

Hope somebody reads this 🤣

What i want to see change in NHL 26 is adding AHL Rules and ECHL Rules also i want to see change is adding different goalie helmets for AHL and ECHL as well plus I want to see Winter Classic Added to the game. I would love to see Goalie presentations to see who is there starting goalies to the game also would be pretty cool to see in the game showing presentations of after the game is all over with having the hockey players come out for 3 stars of the game. AHL Goal Horns and ECHL Goal Horns. Last thing is bring back NHL 94 Control make it back into the new NHL 26 Video Game. I would also like to see in the game is Be a pro is start from ECHL, AHL work your way up to the NHL if your not ready for the NHL the GM can send you back down to the Minor Leagues.

Bring back the old EASHL store from NHL 23, end the one time indicator and pressure meter and bring back the old controls such as A to protect the puck and RB and RS to dump the puck automatically (I’m an Xbox Gamer). Also, better intros. 

Is it possible to had Kevin Bieksa in HUT 26  , I ask for him every year he is a fan Favorite in vancouver!  PLEASE

How about some new skating moves such as ambuscading freeforming skate styles? It would make quick and explosive maneuvers on the ice for both speed and accuracy.