I'm a broken record on this:
the easiest catch-all solution to all their non-gameplay bugs (many of which they've had in previous games, so it's not just Covid) is maximum customization.
Allow us to not only edit position in Franchise mode, but also roles... even names, faces, nationality, ratings, potential. Allow us to force trades and make CPU-CPU trades; allow us to block CPU-CPU trades (that way we could have CPU trades turned on, thus allowing some realism, while merely vetoing the most outlandish trades; I'd honestly not do that, I'd just spend several hours going over rosters at the start of the preseason, then again at the deadline, and make several targeted trades. It'd be less realistic, but more satisfying for me, and that's more important, honestly. But I absolutely think other players should have that option even though I, personally, wouldn't choose it.) Allow us to veto retirements, or force retirements.
Being able to edit those would solve problems with positions being wrong (like right-handed defenders being listed as LD, or defenders with the now-outdated "D" and no secondary position, or goalies with secondary positions), it'd allow us to fix those infuriating bad names (like the Polish-born Greg Liston and Marvin Jones not having traditionally Polish names)... we could just jump into a Franchise mode without having to spend hours fixing their inaccurate roster ratings; we could just fix a couple players' ratings/potential here and there as we notice them, in between games. We could fix ratings to reflect what their development was to counter-act the buggy decline. We could fix positions for players that've spent several years at RW; it's dumb that one year at LW in juniors means you're a LW even if you spend over a decade in the NHL as a RW. Sometimes forwards get moved to defense, and vice versa, yet EA thinks that we shouldn't be allowed to do that. ("If it's in the game" * you, I guess. Because we don't want to allow you full control, because you may, *gasp*, "cheat" and have a good time. I mean... I'd do it largely to make the game *more* realistic, but even if I cheated in every possible way... so what? It's a video game, the point is to have fun, right? If that's fun for somebody, then why does EA feel compelled to police how they enjoy it?)
And again, we should even be allowed to edit stats. I just want it 99% because I create a player that I draft in year 2 or 3, and I want his juniors stats to be what my Be A Pro got, rather than the underwhelming simmed stats... but also: at the moment both Sami Vatanen and Ryan Suter have a combined 0 goals and 2 GWGs in my Franchise, and uh... I guess that's an impressive ratio. That needs to be fixed. And even if EA fixes it *moving forward*, there's no way they'll be able to retroactively fix GWGs. But you know how it *could* be fixed? Maximum customization.
It wouldn't solve *every* problem, but it would solve *so many* of them, and in the easiest way possible for them and the most satisfying way possible for us (because we'd be able to choose which solution works best for us).
