A Thread About EA's Game Generated Prospects

As we know, there are a lot of issues with the generated prospects that we come across in Franchise Mode and Be A Pro. I decided to take a bit of a deeper dive into the prospects that we see, looking at their names and what country they come from. Using data collected by @Red-Star-1946 (which looks at nationality of NHL draftees since 2010), I came to some relatively unsurprising conclusions about the prospect generation. The ‘Power 8’ hockey nations (CAN, USA, SWE, RUS, FIN, CZE, SWI, SLK) account for 97% of NHL draftees since 2010, with 15 nations making up the other 3%.

EDIT: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-Suggestions/FRANCHISE-Prospect-Nations/m-p/11151970#M998

Using the most recent EA Roster Update from December 8th, the 2022 Draft produced a percentage of draftees from the ‘Power 8’ (I really could not think of a better name for this) nations of 81.7%. The draft also included 5 draftees from Poland and Ukraine; 4 from Estonia; 1 from Bulgaria, Lithuania, South Korea, and Romania – none of which have been represented in the draft in the past decade (with the exception of Ukraine which has seen 1 draftee). Canada and the USA have combined for just above half of all draftees since 2010, a number that was somewhat successfully translated to EA’s draft; however, both nations were sitting well below average in terms of players drafted: Canada 5.77% below; and the USA 8.68% below average. Sweden, like Canada and the USA, were below average in draftees – a respectable 2.18% lower than expected, and this percentage was almost added to the Finnish total. Russia was just 1% under expected, while Switzerland and the Czech Republic were within a percentage point of their respective averages. The Slovakian total, however, was 1.1% below their expected total, as there were ZERO total draftees.

The short way of saying it, there were not enough draftees from the ‘Power 8’ nations of the hockey world, as the average of draftees from the 2022 Draft was 16% lower than expected. There were FAR too many players from nations that we don't often – or ever – see in the draft.

The 2023 NHL Draft was not much of a better story, in fact, I would say it was worse. Canada, who consistently produces around 40% of all draftees from year-to-year, only saw 20.5% of draftees in this one. The American percentage rebounded nicely, jumping to 29% from the previous 16%. Sweden was bang on the 12% mark, with Russia and Finland coming in over the expectation - 8% for Russia (like Sweden, bang on the mark), and 9.4% for Finland (+1.8% from the average). The remaining ‘Power 8’ nations (Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Slovakia) combine for an average of 5.7%, most of whom are Czech players. In the 2023 Draft, they combined for 5.45% of draftees, which there is no problem with, however, there was only 1 Slovak player drafted, which can, again, certainly be improved on. The ‘Power 8’ produced 83.46%, which is again well below the 97% that they have covered since 2010. Like the previous season, there were many nations represented in this draft that were not represented in the past, and this is where I think the issue lies. EA has programmed the ‘outlier’ draft picks, which is very good because it is an essential part of the game, however it is apparent they have over-programmed their appearance, as they have taken over 15% of each NHL Draft that has been analyzed to this point.

The 2024 Draft was produced the exact same percentage of draftees from the ‘Power 8,’ 81.7%. Sweden and Russia were both below average in draftees, 7% and 3% respectively. Switzerland produced 1 draftee, which is below the average of 3, while Slovakia was a much more prominent nation in this generation with 4 draftees. Again, like the previous drafts, nations that have not been recently represented in the NHL Draft were in abundance: Estonia; Croatia; Poland; Lithuania; Ukraine; producing over 18% of draftees.

The final draft class I chose to look at was the 2025 NHL Draft. Canada, for the first time, came in above average at 43.8%, and the Americans slightly below at 20.1%. Sweden and Russia were again below their expected totals, along with the Slovakians. The ‘Power 8’ produced 85.7% of draftees, 12% below the previous decade of actual NHL drafts. The same issue persists from uncommonly drafted nations, Norway and Poland combining for 12 draftees, Ukraine with 4, and an Italian named Fred. Speaking of prospects names that seem very out of place;

Another problem that EA has had with their generated prospects is the naming of prospects from countries that are not often seen in the NHL Draft. I came across multiple examples of horrifically named prospects, discovered trends with names for some European players, and a common theme throughout all generated players. For starters, many countries have their players named in the completely wrong language, which is unsurprising given the state of the offline side EA’s NHL, but nonetheless completely unacceptable for a “AAA” game. The following names are just some examples that I discovered while looking at the top 400 draft eligible players within the first four years of simulation and prospect generation:

• Manny McNeely – France
• Stu Doherty, Jeffery Cameron, Landen Westgarth, Isaac Lovejoy – Poland
• Reginald Butler, Dillon Liles, Julius Shields, Javon Rammer – Denmark
• Dakota Cavallo – South Korea
• Pierce Harrison, Kent West – Belgium
• Ed Li, Tiny Zinger – Hungary
• Travis Tootoo, Reed Palin, Cory Horton, William Rutter – Austria
• Elias Backes, Devon McLean, AJ Rodriguez, Jaydon Amonte – Norway
• Joshua Bates – Romania
• Eli Stoll – Croatia

If I wanted to, there could have been triple the names on this list.

Seeing this, I must ask those at EA: do you care about the culture of these nations? Surprisingly enough, they are not Canadian, nor are they English speaking countries. I know this question is an overreaction, but I have run out of ways to receive an answer from EA Sports NHL.

A commonality that I discovered for nations who have at the very least semi-believable names are that they are all commonly seen as Russian names. The countries Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, and Lithuania all seem to have this, and remain the only nations I have seen to this point having this. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly Russian names in these regions (especially Ukraine and Belarus), but most of these nations highly common names are getting completely ignored in the generation of prospects – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania the most prominent. Why is this? It really cannot be that hard to do the bare minimum of research for a AAA priced game. I’d argue this assumption of regional naming is more of a cultural violation than not programming any names for a nation, as seen above. This simply cannot happen, especially given that hockey is supposed to be for everyone; however, with this kind of laziness, I put that into question.

The biggest commonality I saw throughout the names that are correctly generated, however, is the over-usage of last names that were previously seen, or currently are in the NHL. An Ovechkin here and there, a Khabibulin there, three Pomminville’s being drafted consecutively – not a great look, and certainly takes the story out of Franchise Mode given that the same names are constantly circling within the league. This can simply be corrected – just add more names to the naming pool. This issue is seen with the following countries: Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. First names can also be a slight inconvenience. I doubt that many Ernests, Neil’s, or Alan’s are going to find their ways into the NHL Draft, simply because those names are not as common as they once were. First names are also often left to their full versions, instead of the shortened and modernized versions (ex. Joshua, Timothy, Quincy, Frederick, Gregory, etc.). I will applaud that EA has programmed for some variations in spelling, seeing Zackary and Jaydon in the draft list is nice, as they are not the common spellings of those names.

For an organization that has claimed to have “the most realistic hockey simulation,” as EA has done many times before, this is not close to realistic, and is something that does not appear to be an overly hard thing to correct. I expect this to be done properly in NHL 23: nations being proportionally represented and not having multiple prospects from Poland and Estonia every year. Names are also something that need to be addressed immediately. How hard is it to program a pool of proper first and last names from these countries and let the generation engine pick? Time and time again, EA has consistently failed at the little things when producing their NHL games, I’m not sure if it’s because they thought we would not notice, or if it is because they do not care about them, but the time for change has come.

If you read all of this, congratulations. If you did not read it all, and you work for EA NHL - kindly, in the most respectful way possible, quit immediately.