NHL 27 Wishlist

So I throw this out there every year, and sometimes maybe someone reads it and an update gets made (I was throwing out the idea of ‘Who They Pass the Cup To Next’ for years, and they finally added it! I know, it wasn’t me, but it felt like a win)

First Off, Things They've Added That I Love: (short list, but still) Getting to pick who the Captain hands the Cup to. Hugely significant in real life, and now you get to see lifelong favorite players virtually hoist the Cup. Secondly, post-goal leader boards updated mid-game. A fun add-on I didn't even know I wanted until it was there. Thirdly, showing the names engraved on the Cup. Was literally 'wowed' the first time I saw it, looks authentic down tot he old-timey font.

Next, Things They Need to Get Rid Of (That They Added And No One Asked For):

Grudge Matches. Okay. Fun little intro showing everyone squaring off like Monday night wrestling, and then...done? Nope. Every two goals you score, they show the opposition coach 'reacting.' And you can't click through it, you actually have to pause, then resume (and risk crashing, on my dinky little Xbox S…don’t get me started on that), just to avoid watching the 10 seconds of animated theatrics from a coach you couldn't care less about. They finally got rid of this in Madden, let's do the same in NHL (or at least let us click through it like we can with goal celebrations).

Then there's this new 'D-Man dragging the line' when the puck drops back to him in the O-Zone. The game taking over a player I should have control of? No thanks! Oh, you MUST want this player to go right along the blue line, or why else would you have-...I'll take it from here, EA! That's why I give you ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS every year. Make it so.

And enough with the posts. I counted my players hitting the post 4 times in 5 minutes, then watched my sad-sack Flyers 'irl' hit the post once in a full period. All this so the 'announce team' can scream unrealistically (and that's why I mute them).

And I thought me setting the game to Manual Line Changes meant I would, you know, manually ‘change the lines,’ only to have the game be like, “They look tired, here, let me-” No thanks, I got it. They make millions of (virtual) dollars, they can suck it up and get back to work. I have to force an offsides just to get the guys I want back out there.

And finally, the Wishlist:

Player Editing: We should be able to edit CPU-created players in Franchise Mode. Especially now that they've blocked being able to change Player Roles or Position. In Madden (apples and oranges, I know), you can edit names, faces, potential, even ages. Complete Control, should you want it. In NHL, you luck out with a draft pick who's a Medium-Elite at 18, but his potential is an Elite 'Grinder'? What even is that? And too often they have these goofy hairdos or are 19 and grey already, or you wind up with three draft prospects that have the same default face. Oh, but you can change his skate-lace color? And if a player is a First Position LW, and you move him to the RW for a game, when you win the face-off, he skates all the way across the ice to get back on the LW (who does that?). We should at least have the same edit access that we do at the Main Menu level (add a Second Position, change a Playmaker to a Two-Way as they age).

The Draft: I still don’t get why we can’t just see players’ ratings like you can in the Main Menu’s Rosters section. So before you start a Mode, you can see that a Junior player is a 62 Medium-Top 6, but on Draft Day it’s a bunch of question marks or a “Possible” Top 6? Then as soon as you select him, he's a Low-Top 9, rated 58 Overall. Thanks. You can see exact ratings in Free Agency, why not on draft day? I turn off Fog of War for this reason, it should extend to draft picks.

I love that we got Career Totals back, and that they added Team Abbreviations as to where they played, but can't that be added for AHL stats as well? I know they keep track of them, as they show when they’re on the bench after milestones, so why not a running total? I'll get 10 years into Franchise Mode and some career AHLers will retire and nothing. You play 1,000 AHL Games…that’s something.

Ability to decide awards: Too often, in Franchise Mode, if you’re playing your best players to pad stats, you’ll win the Hart or Norris every year, even though another player would be the obvious choice. It would be great to decide winners so that the highest scoring defenseman doesn’t win the Norris every year, or the Hart going hand-in-hand with the Art Ross more often than not, or Connor McDavid winning the Selke based on whatever algorithm they’re using.

Franchise (Owner) Mode used to have a screen that displayed your team’s seasons, so you could see your history: 103 Points, Third Round; 98 Points, Lost Final; etc. I’d like to see that back.

Winter Classic: I miss the Winter Classic venue they created a few years back. You could only play a single game, but wouldn't it be awesome if the team you select in Franchise Mode got to play the Winter Classic every year? Just make it the first game you play in January and you get that outdoor setting with weather selections like they have in Madden, or just default cloudy skies with flurries. They used to have the All-Star Game jammed in there, so can't they just use that same approach for the Classic?

When you're simming between games and it alerts you that an injured player is available, you have the option to skip for the moment and not address the lineup. But when its 'multiple' players returning, there's no skip and you're forced to go into Edit Roster. Sometimes there's still 3-4 days left before the next game and a chance for other players to return. You should be able to skip that as well and address it when you want.

Anyway, maybe the CEO will read this and realize all my genius suggestions, but most likely we’ll just get NHL 27 with different Main Menu colors.