Gonna add to this:
There needs to be an ability to select the type of career you will have, like College Football. Examples:
Star player: drafted picks 1-10, will have an immediate impact
Top 6/top 9: Will be picked in the mid 1st to mid 2nd, will take some development.
Late round pick: Will have to carve your way through the system to prove your worth
Undrafted: Get signed at 22-24 years of age out of Europe/CHL and have to make a name for yourself almost immediately.
The same story line of a guy that gets drafted in the first round and has to be an immediate star is boring. Sometimes, I want to be a later round pick/undrafted player that proves my worth.
Teams should also draft you based on positional needs. If I'm a LW'er, Carolina shouldn't be looking at me because of their LW depth.
NHL teams DO draft the BPA, but some swings are also made at drafts.
Penalties for poor play also need a re-work. If I'm a winger fully covering my defenseman in the D zone, and the AI defensemen collapse for a goal against, that's not my fault. I was doing my job.
I love your comments about playstyles. Why am I, a defensive dman, getting penalized for not scoring the game tying goal? If I'm a grinder, my role should be to get pucks in deep, wreak havoc in the corners, and throw the body while playing a defensive shut down game It'd be awesome if you were a grinder and your coach puts your 3rd line against MacKinnon or Eichel with the objective to shut them down. I don't always want to be the next Gretzky, like you said.
Also, I think we need to scrap the current player builds with more dynamic builds. For example, NBA 2K has a system where you can directly edit your build before you start, choosing which attributes your player will have. It also shows the MAX overall that build can reach. It then shows what 3 players that build shows shades of.
I don't want to be a DFD stuck with bad skating and offensive skills. What If I want to do prime Ryan Suter build, a DFD with good offensive capabilities good for 40-50 points a season?
I hate being locked into a build, then having to spend what little skill tree points I get to make my sniper have better passing. It sucks so bad.
All that being said, it feels like the new BAP mode was just them painting a pile of **bleep** with gold paint. The core issues a lot of us had with the mode still exist.