Feedback + Wishlist

I think this is the best version of NHL in several years!  Here are a couple of suggestions for make NHL 22 even better:

EASHL

This mode is what introduced me to the game, and I've been playing it weekly with a couple of friends from across the country since around 2013.  Here's how we'd like to see it improved in NHL 22:

• I'm in a 3 player squad, and something that happens to us all the time is that a computer player will hold on to the puck way too long even though we're open, so we finally call for the pass...and at that very moment the computer decides to pass it so as soon as we get it we just send it flying.  So frustrating, and happens so often, regardless of line strategy ☹️  Please tweak that algorithm so that we don't end up passing when we're just trying to call for a pass.
• Give us more flexibility in what gets unlocked.  My team has a favorite logo (the traffic safety cone), and some years we unlock it in the first couple of months, while other years it doesn't become available until we've been grinding for 10 months and we only even get to see it for a little while.  We enjoy the advancement aspect, especially with the stadiums, but Instead of random hockey bags I wish winning games and other achievements gave us points we could spend in a marketplace or something along those lines, to have more control instead of just getting a new font or another sock.
• I wish there was a way to realistically practice EASHL offline.  This year I started using the offline modes of HUT for that purpose, but since there's no way to position-lock in HUT it's not really the same as EASHL play.  I used to use Be A Pro for this purpose but it is so much slower than EASHL that it doesn't suit the purpose.

Hockey Ultimate Team

This is my first year playing HUT. I'm an offline, free-to-play player, I enjoyed it very much and am looking forward to starting right at the beginning of the next release.

•  My understanding is that this is also the first year for HUT Rush.  I love HUT Rush.  Please keep it!  Despite all the years playing EASHL, the fact is that I'm not very good at this game, and the HUT Rush challenges (i.e. score 25 wrist shot goals, score 10 goals with a defenseman, score with one-handed tuck) really improved my gameplay, as well as my hockey IQ.  I've seen some people crap on HUT Rush...I loved the challenges, the bite-sized nature of it so I could fit into my schedule, and the substantial HUT rewards.
• I wish the auction menu was always the same.  Sometimes when I'm looking at a player, the only choice is "Auction."  Other times I also get "Search Auction House."  Other times I also get "compare prices".  I'd love to have all the choices available all the time.
• Speaking of the auction house, it would be amazing to be able to see some kind of high/low/average/most recent-type of statistics on items in the auction house, too
• As a first-year HUT player, it was awesome to occasionally get HUT rewards from playing EASHL.  More of that kind of inter-mode stuff, please!
• As noted above, I wish there was some mode in HUT where you could position-lock, to provide offline practice for EASHL while getting rewarded.  That probably doesn't fit HUT, since all HUT gameplay involves switching positions, but hey...that's why this is a wishlist, right?

Be A Pro

Be A Pro used to be how I'd practice and improve offline between sessions of EASHL, but once I started playing HUT it filled that role and took up all my former Be A Pro time.  That said:

• While greatly improved from NHL 19 and NHL 20, Be A Pro still feels slow.  The HUT modes and NHL threes show that there's plenty of horsepower to have all the AIs fly around the ice, so it's always been a mystery to me why Be A Pro doesn't operate at that same pace.  I hope that can improve.  Again, pace vastly improved from recent years, but could be even better.  Now that I've discovered HUT I probably won't go back to Be A Pro.

Practice Modes

I was really glad to see the practice stuff introduced a year or two ago, hope it continues and is expanded (i.e. maybe to all dekes?).  Appreciated the ability to practice as a team in EASHL.  Only used it a couple of times but it was really nice that it was there.

Next-Gen consoles (edited to add)

I'm assuming NHL 22 will be available natively on PS5 and XBox:X.  Please please make it so that we can still play alongside our teammates (i.e. in EASHL) even when there's a mix of current- and previous-gen consoles.  

Thanks for the chance to chime in, @EA_Blueberry , and see you in NHL 2022!