Should you buy NHL’26 for BAP?

If you want the short answer, the short answer is no. As it is right now the answer is no. This game has potential, but at the current state before the patches and improvements, NO, just wait until Jan or Feb because after that, EA wont update the game any more because no doubt they are working on NHL’27 already. But first a quick rant. This game is frustrating. It doesn’t suck, but it’s frustrating. 

I too saw the BAP deep dive video and went okay, a new re-fresh, new scenes and we are looking pretty good. What we got is a new paint job on our 1989 Ford Escort. But before the Devs get mad, I will tell you why I say dont buy (as it currently is). I wont criticize without explaining. Now, mind you I play BAP goalie only and cant speak for the forward or D-man. Those that do, maybe you can chime in. Okay let’s go. 

What I do like is that you can start in the World Jrs, then you play in either the CHL or Euro Tourney, then go thru the draft while you use your new ranking up system to get your 68 rated player to about a 75 before your first pre-season game. What I don’t like is that you cant do this and use the current NHL roster. You cant go thru the list and play with Marner in Vegas, he is still with Toronto, You cant play with Ehlers in Carolina or Dobson in Montreal because it will use the default rosters. If you want to use the current roster, then you must choose the option to play in the NHL and start off at a 68. Lame. 

The new ranking up system is definitely different. But not without its flaws. You only get 6 “energy” points to use and you can only have a max of 12 at a time. When you are in the offseason, the system works well and progression I feel is slower than previous years, but the Achilles heel is that when you play 2 or 3 games a week, you must use half of your “energy” points just to maintain a decent energy level. That leaves you with 3 points you can use to rank up your player. How is a player supposed to rank up their player? Good idea, but needs to be adjusted. Increase the number of points or lower the energy needed to level up. I miss the days I could use my XP to decide what I want. 

A new system is the interviews. I do like this idea. I like that you can go thru the interview process with the media instead of 2 or 3 individual teams and in the end you can pick the team you want to play for anyways or have the option of letting fate decide. BUT the downside is. You cant play with the current roster. It’s an either/or choice. Lame. 

Now let’s get to the BAP dash board. If you decide to get drafted. You cant see your lines, you cant see who your teammates are. Your offseason choices are extremely limited. In the deep dive video at 1:38 You see the word “Calendar” in the BAP dashboard. That doesn’t exist in this current version. You cant sim to a particular day, you cant sim to a game, you cant see when the trade deadline is. This was in previous years titles, but its missing here. Will it make a comeback? I dont know. Oh, you also cant see stats from the AHL or NHL respectively. Gone are the days that if you are in the NHL, you cant see the stats of anyone in the AHL or even the standings. A feature that was in NHL’25. Lame

What I would like to see and what the community has been asking if not begging for. The ability to see transactions, the ability to see the injury list and how long will a player on your team or other teams will be out. The ability to see other teams lines, the ability to negotiate contracts. 

Presentation wise, other than the new cut scenes you see, you’ve seen them all. EA blew its load when it came to the new opening presentations. They didn’t re-imagine these since it has been in previous years titles. No first NHL solo skate around the ice. Heck even Celebrini said he remembers his first solo skate and its not in this version. The opening scenes are still 10 seconds long when other games like EA NFL is about 60 seconds long. When you win a playoff series the over the top celebrations are still the same. I cant speak for the Stanley Cup yet since I haven’t reached that part yet. 

The same mistakes are still in this version. The home town crowd still cheers for the other side, your controller settings still doesn’t save which has been reported in 2023. Then you have other issues, like my goalie uses the glove hand as a blocker instead of a glove and tries to deflect shots with his elbows. The new goalie animations look terrible, the limbs of the goalie are disjointed and again, the glove hand looks and acts more like a claw as a glove. (If you want pics of video of this, I got you, let me know). The name bar was kinda fixed but it’s not 100% fixed. My goalie faces the wrong way at times when the puck is behind the net, when he hugs the post it looks ugly. But the limbs look unnatural and extremely disproportionate. Will it be fixed? Probably not. Not holding my breath so I have to look at my goalie uses his elbow deflect the pucks instead of catching them. Lame. 

Now this is just part of a wish list for the BAP goalie: Update the freaking Masks!!! You still have the Ducks Old web feet logo on two of the three masks. Why cant we design our own mask for BAP? Give us a template and let us use logos, shapes, numbers, designs? You already have the rights to use the logo, and no one owns the rights to numbers, or letters, fonts, colors, or shapes like circles, squares, triangles, pentagon, and so on.

Then there is the new “form score” system, I think it works fine for the goalie, but for other positions, it’s frustrating. I see and read that you are a 4th liner for life.. But there was a new patch for that. Just other little annoyances are still there (for me at least). The menu sound when you select something is still annoying and cant be muted or adjusted and now they have added the “form score” micro ticks that is super annoying and cant be muted or adjusted.

Game play is frustrating and problems still exist. Own goals are still there. I dont know how many goals my own goalie has kicked in by himself. They have fixed the defensemen swiping the puck into your own net, so that’s a plus. Sliders are still frustrating, Difficulty sliders are too little or too much, and penalties seems to be an issue. I have the sliders up to 95/100 on just about everything just to get 4 penalties per game.

This game is far from perfect. It frustrating at best because they could have done so much more. There are so many issues I have to ask “did they not play this before hand? Did they not test this? How can they not see this?” Some issues are so obvious that a tester should have seen these things right away. But this is the BAP that EA will have for the next 4-5 years before we see a refresh. I might skip the next few years unless they give what the community wants.