Handshake line / team photo suggestion
I only play franchise mode so this suggestion is for that mode... Let us show the full handshake line in playoffs, it's a 5 second scene now. Also for the team photo, save it for every cup win so you can go back to look at that in a menu somewhere with the player names signed on the picture. Also, please fix the audio glitch. Arena music cuts off for that annoying crowd clap/chant on xbox. (It never cuts off on full pressure music, only the regular songs.) I also want to thank the devs for all the visual options you added this year so we can turn off things for extra realism.
Suggestions for Career and Franchise Mode Improvements in NHL 26
The Career mode in NHL 25 lacks several key elements to make the experience more immersive and realistic. It would be beneficial to add richer interactions between the player, the coach, the managers, and the team. Currently, the training sessions are too limited and could be much more realistic and impactful on player development. Additionally, allowing players to start very young, at age 14, in summer camps or junior leagues, would add a deeper dimension to a player's career. Furthermore, the Franchise mode could be improved by allowing players to start in any league, including those not currently available in the game. This would provide more diversity and strategic choices, allowing players to build a career at their own pace and create new dynamics for each team. These improvements would greatly enrich the overall experience of the game, offering more flexibility and opportunities to shape the player's journey. While it may be too late for NHL 25, these suggestions could be considered for NHL 26 if the developers are open to them. I hope a dev will answer my message or not :D
details for swedish teams in custom franchise.
I've noticed some things in NHL 25 when i play with swedish teams in custom franchise mode. I understand that the devs got other stuff to focus on, but small stuff like this can be a bit boring to notice when I enjoy to play all my games and not sim them. Most of the teams from hockeyallsvenskan get Anaheim ducks center ice logo when they play as the home team in custom franchise. Some minor details on team equipment such as wrong colour on team gloves or wrong colour on captains letters. (Frölundas gloves and Skellefteås C/A letter on top of my mind) Not related to teams, but right handed goaliesticks (Bauer is the most noticeable imo) doesn't mirror properly, so the bauer logo isn't visible. been like this since NHL 23 at least. Some players got the wrong height and weight, but this isn't that bad. You used to be able to edit stuff like that yourself back in the older NHL games. How come that got taken away from the games? Love custom franchise mode! Being able to play more than 1 season with my hometown team from SHL and edit the player ratings to match the real world SHL has been great since NHL 24 :)
Goalie masks and equipment in franchise
I can’t be the only one bothered by this… Any Goalie drafted in franchise seems to default the Anaheim Ducks mask, No matter what team you are. That’s annoying enough but when you fix it in “edit player” the goalie equipment goes Matte Black every single time. Been like this for months… small(ish) detail but mad annoying.
Bad points counting in franchise mode
I'm playing an expansion draft in franchise mode and the game very often miscounts Canadian player points. Example: during a game I score a hat trick and two assists with Hischier, but the scoreboard in the menu only adds one point. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (I think it forgets to record the 2nd assist most of the time). Could you tell us if you plan to fix this or are you just ignoring it? I'm just wondering if I should still hope that you'll fix it someday or if I can give up and focus on other things.Hyper agressive UI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear EA, Can one of the developers please explain one thing to me? Where have you seen hockey where an average of 30 hits per third (or even 90 hits per game) were scored by an AI-controlled team? Don't get mad at me... maybe I'm being a little harsher now, but getting this game to a state where it's practically unplayable is really the pinnacle. I understand and I'm used to you laughing at us customers and players every year with a supposedly "new" game with "new" features and improvements and ignoring old problems that most of the community points out and still being able to charge full price for a defacto roster update + a few new problems.... as I say, I'm used to you making us idiots. But for you to be able to make me (us) hate playing hockey like this by constantly being chased by AI players the entire game, who have only one goal and that is to destroy me, is really the pinnacle. Does anyone test the game before releasing it, or before you patch it? Do you even take into account the feedback of fans and therefore customers or do you just ignore it? (I think I can answer that myself...). As someone pointed out here, adjusting the aggression sliders to 0, I repeat to 0, doesn't solve anything, maybe it reduces it a little, but it's still unrealistic and frustrating. The funny thing is that you still force us to balance the game ourselves by adjusting the sliders, as if it's not your problem :D :D. I think I'll speak for most of us offline players, that we don't care if we can create a hockey player in excessive detail, adjust the colors of the jerseys, etc. The most important thing for us is that the game is balanced and, above all, playable. I recently came across a similar post in the community that is 6 months old and one of you replied that it's being worked on.... 6 months and nothing, are you serious? Are you kidding me? In case you didn't understand what I'm talking about, I'll write down here in points the main problem that makes the game an unplayable battle (I won't mention the other problems that the game has and are no less frustrating, because as I wrote, you're screwed if these mistakes are still the same for several years) Hyper aggressive AI - the only intention of the AI is to take down those players. It's common that when I have the puck, three AI players are able to chase me all over the field until they just completely take me down... Even on my own half, when I want to give my teammates a moment to offer themselves well for a pass, I'm constantly being chased by an AI opponent who simply wants to "kill" me. But we don't stop there... the AI is hyper-aggressive even towards my teammates who don't hold the puck at all... in other words, if I want to create something and lock the opponent in his third, and try to create a chance to shoot and score with passes, I defacto have no chance, because within a few seconds the AI opponent will pointlessly take down all my teammates and finally the only player who is still standing is me with the puck (not for long, because in a while the whole AI five will come after me again to take me down too). Since I don't expect to get an explanation, it is quite possible that you will delete this post, but I would like to at least return to my original question, which you could perhaps answer, which is: "Where have you seen such hyper-aggressive hockey?" Aren't you really stupid to release a game in such a state and not even fix it after more than half a year? Don't you have any conscience or self-preservation instinct? Probably not... especially since sheep buy the game every year and the rest is not our problem. Maybe the fault is ours and when developing the game you are inspired by some matches that we ordinary fans don't watch... suffice it to say... in the end the fault is ours. But I've never seen a hockey match like that before.
Franchise Mode Issues
There are a tone of great updates but I have already found a couple of issues that should be patched. Maybe before official release? 1. If you start a Franchise mode with Owner Mode off, sometimes you do not get the option to discuss things with the head coach. 2. The AI of CPU General managers was said to be improved and they are supposed to target players based on team needs. However, I have experience several occasions league-wide, where teams are just dropping their prospects (even though they have tons of roster reserve spots left). Starting a new Franchise mode with a custom roster also does the same thing. If they do not have contract, it is very possible the prospect (created or not) will be dropped regardless of reserve counts. 3. Season Goals and X-Factor goals for players are extremely limited with only a few different X-factors offered and no variety for stats. Maybe this should depend on player type or attributes? Even if it was RNG, it would provide more variation. 4. The trade value of prospects is crazy. I get offered 4th Round picks for my top 6F prospects constantly. Is it not possible to get these values to be reciprocated properly? 5. The Franchise Hub is fun. But some instances of easy information just isn't there. Such as playoff series counter not seen anywhere during playoffs for your present series. Rather than (last 10 games) wouldn't the current series counter be more relevant? Curious on EA's thoughts here and if these kinds of fixes are patchable?
Haven’t found my scoring groove
Haven’t found the right groove yet !!! Franchise mode player here, ( I play all games on PRO ! ) I don’t know about anyone else but just haven’t found my groove with this version yet. Still fiddling with sliders to get a right balance going. For the life of me scoring is like a whole different level, yet the ai can go down do the exact same shot and score on the Swiss cheese goalie 😛 Defiantly a lot different to 24 in a good way, just going to take some time to adjust. Getting the right balance for me. Overall so much better than 24 anyone else having trouble scoring. I don’t want to alter too much because don’t want to lose the ai difficulty and have games where’s the shots are like 50-20
