World Juniors and other International improvements.. 2026 version of this post

Going to leave the last version of this post below because I don't see any improvements to tournament modes this year. Which is especially sad because it's an Olympic year and coming off all the fun hockey fans had with the Four Nations Tournament last year.

But did want to call out that rosters for the world juniors are being release earlier than usual by the different countries this year so there is a hope that the rosters can at least be updated prior to the tournament starting...

Sadly another World Junior tournament has come and gone with little improvement to the World Jr. Tournament mode in NHL 25. Not only the World Junior mode but International modes altogether. So I thought I'd call out some opportunities for improvements in future releases. 

Of course, having a up to date World Jr roster in the game before the real tournament begins would be welcomed but we have to understand a release over Christmas is asking a lot of the NHL team as they certainly deserve time off during the holidays like everyone else. But a more robust update post holidays would be appreciated.

Items to be included in annual updates:

• Updated rosters
• Updated uniforms
  • The January Roster update did not include correct uniforms for Canada, USA, Czechia or Kazakhstan
• Updated equipment
  • The January Roster updated did not include the correct equipments sponsors (Gloves/Helmets) for USA (now CCM), Finalnd (now CCM) and Slovakia (now Bauer). Also would make more sense for stick and skate defaults to follow team equipment sponsor for each country.
• Updated Arena/Host City Branding
  • Use appropriate sized arenas or actual arena if already in game. This year could have used the Canadian Tire Centre as the arena for the World Junior tournament
  • Multiple arenas would also be nice when host cities have more than one location used for each pool in the group. This year Group A used a NHL sized arena and Group B used a CHL sized arena.

Items to be added that would not require annual updates:

• The ability to chose different ice sizes and the default to reflect the current tournament
  • This is an absolute must have. Most World Junior tournaments are played on North American sized ice.
• National anthem played at end of game for winning team, not before the game country that is the home team
• Enhanced ice and board branding. It's very basic compared to other modes
• More intense atmosphere for all games of host country, regardless if they are home or away team for that specific game.
• More intense atmosphere for medal round games
• Medal presentations
• A playable Bronze Medal Game
• The ability to create your own international tournament (call it EA Cup or whatever) and ability to choose tournament participant size, amount of round robin games, include whatever countries (or teams) you would like to including any created teams