Best thing to do is don't buy the game. They use their internal feedback from God knows where that tells them everyone is giving positive feedback on every years game, except when you scour these forums and Reddit, it's clearly the opposite.
They don't care about GM connected because it can't be monetized, they don't care about EASHL, because the community has already pushed back on monetization for this mode. They give be a pro and offline modes updates every 5 years.
Ever notice the long list of updates and upgrades to HUT EVERY year? Yeah, there you go. The old EA NHL game is gone, and we're never getting it back.
Just stop buying the game...