NHL 26 Be a Pro wishlist/suggestions

I wanna start by saying I have been playing NHL games since nhl11 and I have been an active be a pro player since NHL 17. As someone who’s favorite mode is be a pro I feel there are some much needed changed and improvements that aren’t far fetched that can turn this mode great.

More hockey options before the nhl: not everyone wants to play a lot before the nhl but that’s because there is no depth too it, and when you start before the draft and don’t pick your team you don’t get other rookies into the sim. Firstly, put rookies drafted in into the draft pool so they are incorporated into the be a pro world. Secondly, allow me to start at 17/18 headed to the draft or 15/16. If I choose to start at 15/16 let me choose to go to college, with around 10-15 of the top tier teams in college hockey, or the Chl/european league like you have now. Allow me to frequently check my draft stock in a “top prospects list” and give me actions and interviews that allow me to either purposefully drop my stock or boost it based on what I say. Make the years before the nhl more immersive and mean something beyond just the #1 pick. This will also allow players to get their rating up before they get into the nhl. Not everyone wants to be a 70 overall, if I perform well in junior hockey, allow me to get upgrade points, which should be given on a more frequent basis in general similar to how MLB 25 has made their player upgrade system this year.

Increase depth and immersion once drafted:  Rookie season in Be a pro is decently immersive. You get interviews about different things every now and then and you want to grind to get on the first line. But after you do everything 1 time it gets boring and repetitive. It’s easy to win every trophy as I play on all star and scored 200+ points my first season, giving me nothing to grind for after. There are no trophy cutscenes, interviews die down after rookie season and the same questions are asked again and again. A simple awards presentation and Stanley cup parade would go a long way to making people want to grind more. People want to see their player doing things more often. Allow my player to go to practice, allow me to do the warm up skate before games, maybe even toss pucks to fans to increase my fan rating. Simple things like this make the game more immersive and replay able. Allow me to walk around the locker room before the game. Make the mode immersive, people wanna feel like nhl players, that’s why they play the mode. Make the mode like 2k’s my career ( WHILE YOU ARE IN THE AREANA NOT THE DUMB OUTSIDES CUTSCENES AND QUESTS)

Revamp Contract resigning: I shouldn’t only see contract offers one time and have to make a decision right then. Allow me through my final contract season to have ongoing negotiations with the gm, you already have an office for him might as well put it to use. Even if that doesn’t happen allow offers to build up over the offseason with different perks and attribute boosts that make signing with other teams worth it. Grinding for a new contract is the only reason I play after playing my rookie season in be a pro but that gets dry because although you can buy things with your money, you never see them, you never see your player arrive to the rink in his car, you never see your house or apartment or a social media post of your vacation. Besides the small attribute boosts you get there is no point in the money in your contract.

Fix the graphics:  Please make the faces look better, the graphics on players, coaches and fans look terrible for 2025 standards. Other EA games like madden and EAFC do a way better job at player likeness. Along with that upgrade the hairstyle options even though it is under the helmet a lot of the time why have the hair in the game if it looks terrible. Besides about 6 hairstyles, all of the others are not optimized for current generation, they are all stiff and look like garbage.