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Hey NHLGamers, today we're bringing you a boatload of additional news on EASHL for NHL 17 through EA's own Gameplay Series. Tip of the hat to @vSilenttio for bringing this to our attention! Here are the main talking points (in EA:s own words); EASHL Team Editor Use the all-new team customization tool in Creation Zone to make your team into a brand by editing your team’s uniform, pants, socks, shoulder patches and logos to build your unique EASHL team identity. With thousands of different possible combinations, this is your chance to make your team stand out from the rest of the hockey world. EASHL Arena Progression As you play games in EASHL you will level up your club to earn more arena customization options. When you first create your team, you’ll have access to two brand new community rinks which are only available in EASHL. From there you can unlock larger arenas as well as customize options like scoreboards, goal songs, LED stanchions, horns and more. As your team gains more experience and unlocks more customizable options, your team arena can evolve from a low-tech community rink to the latest NHL-caliber arena. *You will be able to use the Create Team/Create Arena feature outside of EASHL and that will not need you to unlock said content. EASHL Arena Types Small Community Rink: A practice-sized rink without bleachers or seats. This rink is truly grass-roots and does not allow for any customization. Large Community Rink: This rink can hold a small set of hometown fans and allows for a moderate amount of customization, such as branding your team logo at center ice and having goal horns and songs play after goals. Junior Arena: Large enough to seat several thousand fans and allows for a significant amount of customization such as entry props and LED stanchion effects. Semi-Pro Stadium: Here is when you start to feel like a professional hockey team. A semi-pro stadium allows for a larger capacity crowd and even more customization options. Pro Stadium: There are 10 different pro stadiums to unlock and these allow for the biggest crowds and the most amount of customization options such as scoreboards and signature effects. Player Classes Returning to EA SPORTS Hockey League in NHL 17 is the ability to choose specialized player classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. A good team should have a mix of these player classes, with each contributing to a team's success in different ways. This class system helps deliver a balanced competitive experience on the ice, where player skill and your ability to play as a team now determines who wins and loses hockey games. We will be using the NHL 17 Beta to tune both earlier and new player classes, so make sure to give feedback during the beta. Forward Player Classes Sniper Forward Power Forward Playmaker Forward Grinder Forward Enforcer Forward Two Way Forward Dangler Hitting Sniper *NEW Jumbo Playmaker *NEW Two Way Dangler *NEW Defensive Player Classes Offensive Defenseman Defensive Defenseman Two Way Defenseman Enforcer Defenseman Puck Moving Defenseman *NEW Goalie Classes Butterfly Goalie Stand-Up Goalie Hybrid Goalie Anti-Griefing Improvements To make our EASHL online experience as fun and accessible as possible, we’ve listened to community feedback from our social channels and forums and will be implementing the following anti-grieving features for NHL 17. Goalies Quitting - In EASHL Club games, any game started with two (2) human goalies requires those goalies to finish the game otherwise their team is given a loss. For Drop-in games, any team that has their goalie leave is then replaced with a backup goalie who is smaller and has a lower skill rating to level the playing field. Improving Team Play - For drop-in games, our Coach Feedback System will keep tabs on your team play grade for skaters and goalies. If you aren't being a good team player and are intentionally creating a poor playing environment for other players the coach may boot you from the game. Examples of creating a poor playing environment are: going intentionally offside, continuously icing the puck, removing goalies from the net, etc. Reduced Number of Pauses - We have reduced pauses to one (1) per team regardless of mode or the number of players on the team. Each team will have one (1) 30 second pause. This will not consume your regular timeout that refreshes your lines. We have also surfaced the visual settings option in the limited pause menu so you don’t have to use your full pause to make those last-minute camera adjustments. We recommend you make those settings changes in the EASHL HUB so they are active for every EASHL game you play. Reduced Grace Period Before the Game Counts – Once the puck drops the game is officially on! Any teams that quit as this point earns a loss, while the team still playing earns the win. General EASHL Improvements Drop-In Games Improved Matchmaking - New to NHL 17, select the general position you would like to play before starting your matchmaking search. This will help bring players together and allow them to play their desired position. Matchmaking will also factor in your Competitive Gaming Rating to help find the best balance of skill and experience for both teams. Group Matchmaking - Introducing the new Drop-in Dressing Room that now allows you to invite up to five (5) other friends to join your team for a cooperative yet competitive experience against other drop-in players. Persistent Game Sessions - Players from the same team will stay in a Dressing Room after the end of each EASHL Drop-In game, to help improve consistency and chemistry between players. Online Connection Connection Quality Bar - Connection quality bar will now be highlighted in the pre-game matchup screen. Real Time Connection Quality - A real-time connection graph will now be highlighted in the pause menu and will show your connection quality from the last two minutes of game time. Game Server Selection - We will automatically find which game server is best for your entire team based on their ping times to each game server. Club Invitations Club GMs can now invite players to join their club by manually entering their friend’s profile names or by selecting a profile name in different in-game locations such as leaderboards or the Drop-in Dressing Room. Club GMs can effectively use Drop-in to scout players and recruit them to join their team. Viewing Club Rosters You can now select to view another club’s roster from within our Leaderboards screens and Recent Games screens. Source: https://www.easports.com/nhl/news/2016/nhl-17-gameplay-series-eashl // NHLGamer Staff

NHLGamer Summer Cup Weekly: Who’s hot and Who’s not [Edition 2] Fellow NHLGamers, Continuing every Sunday – we at NHLGamer.com are presenting a weekly column for as long as the Summer Cup is in action. This column will feature a list of which Forward, Defenseman and Goalie have performed well enough on the ice to have earned the honor of being named to this weeks ”Hot”-list. In the interest of fairness, it will also feature one representative of each position who hasn’t performed as well, resulting in a spot on the ”Not”-list. Moving on, the list will work like a Power Ranking and not like a ”3 Stars of the Week” (like on the NHL website). A power ranking means that it’s not exclusively what a specific player has done in just the past week that matters, but instead what that player has delivered in total throughout the tournament when the list is published, that does. Say for example if Kenu scores 20 points in 2 games in Week 1, landing him on the ”Hot”-list for that week, he can still be on the ”Hot”-list for Week 2 even if he only scores 10 points in 4 games that week – because his total will still be 30 points in 6 games which, presumably, will still be at the top of the rankings. Do you catch my drift? Good! Then let’s get started. (Before you continue to rip me to shreds for being dead wrong on all my selections, I’ll remind everyone that this is a column of opinion and a playful, tounge-in-cheek way to celebrate what a success this Summer Cup has been. However, a comment of ”You’re an idiot Alpha, that’s just wrong” is always better than no comment so remember – share your opinions!) NEW THIS WEEK (Week 2): Okay, so after Week 1 I'm adding a little something to this weekly column. First, let me just say that ALL your feedback has been appreciated! Even though it didn't take place as much in the official comment section as I would've hoped (seriously - drop some comment bombs!), it's still fun to know that what is being written is also being read and better yet - that it's making people FEEL something, whether that's anger, joy or hate! Anyway, as I said, new addition. It might seem small, but I've decided to add "runner-ups" for all categories. These runner-ups will feature who else was in my mind when I made my decision. These runner-ups will just get a short paragraph to explain why they are there but regardless, just having them in the column will hopefully let you guys in on what my thought process was for makings these selections! Okay, lets do this. WHO’S HOT (Week 2): FORWARD: #68, Jaromir Jagr ( @vilperi90), Los Dominos, 8GP 8G 10A = 18P, -2, 4 PIM, 30 Hits While Plee and Patzlaf continues their destruction of the Summer Cup (52 points combined) they will have to step aside this week for vilperi-90. What a comeback story! After being featured on the defenseman "Not"-list for Week 1, vilperi-90 shifted from defense to forward and started to tear the league up. Having scored 0 points in 2 games on defense, he absolutely exploded for 8 goals and 10 assists in 6 games as a forward, landing him 5th overall in the scoring race. Very impressive and certainly worthy of a spot on the "Hot"-list. Runner-ups: PleeMaker & Patzlaf - Club Kannunkulma [By far the best 1-2 punch in the tournament so far, leading points scorers, unstoppable?] BiggestEight - Mighty 8 Balls [This captain is leading his team by example, the top point getter after Plee&Patz] DEFENDER: #17, Junior Jaihicovic ( @JaikenK ), Club Kannunkulma, 10GP 2G 10A = 12P, +18, 10 PIM, 21 Hits No longer the leading scorer amongst defenders, Jaiken is still a strong 2nd with 2 goals and 10 assists. Furthermore, Jaiken is currently the only defender (with Haldeem) to play in 10 out of 10 games, suggesting how highly valued he is by his team. He also sports the very best +/- among all defenders (+18) all the while having a GWG and 21 hits to his name. All in all, the top defender on what is very likely one of the best teams in the tournament. Runner-ups: The_Alpha_Furyan - Mighty 8 Balls [Top point scorer among all defenders, needs more hits and better +/-] FIN_Potilas - Hupimunat [Strong in points and powerplay goals, although sometimes plays center] Haldeem - Ullas Pojkar [Solid point production, most hits among defenders, plays every game for his team] GOALIE: #30, Mr Juizki ( @Juizki), Team Juizki, 6GP 4W 2L 0TL, 85.29%, 1.66 GAA, 2 shutouts Still the reigning champion, Juizki remains at the very top of all goalie stats (#1 in save percentage, tied for #3 in wins, #5 in total saves, #3 in GAA, tied for #1 in shutouts). However, just like Jaiken among the defenders, Juizki is getting tougher competition - from several goalies - every week and he will have to continue playing at the highest level to remain at the top of this list in the future. Runner-ups: FINSeRe - Mirage [Close to Juizki in both save percentage and shutouts, needs more games] frenchplayer92 - Everyday I'm Byfuglien [Solid save %, solid GAA, solid goalie - on the rise!] MonkeyHead_AF - Latvian Army For Hire [Acrobatic goalie with the most saves and best save % out of all goalies with 8 GP] WHO’S NOT (Week 2): FORWARD: #84, - Bonn ( @Bjono), Latvian Army For Hire, 6GP 1G 5A = 6P, +5, 10 PIM, 26 Hits Perhaps being a high draft pick means being unfairly held to a higher standard than other players. However fair, the fact remains that this is another first round pick to end up on this list. An experienced ECL veteran - Bonn hasn't gotten everything going points-wise with his new team yet, although credible inside sources tell me he's been a leader and calming presence on the ice. With just a single goal to his name so far and a playoff position for his team in jeopardy, expect him to come out firing the last weeks of the regular season. Runner-ups: Billy44205 - Team Billy44205 [Will have to start leading his team out of the hole they've dug themselves as the team with the lowest point total so far] joukki13 - TEAM PELTIKII [Another first round pick with just 1 goal, in just 3 games played - where is joukki?] Pelle3000 - Los Dominos [4+1 in 5 games and a -3, has more in him!] DEFENDER: #53, Shayne Gostisbehere ( @vSilenttio ), Thats the Spirit, 6GP 0G 6A = 6P, -5, 4 PIM, 20 Hits Speaking of unfair, it is a known fact that when a team is struggling as a unit, the captain sometimes has to shoulder a disproportionate amount of the responsibility. Like Ovechkin when the Caps are struggling or Subban when Montreal (was) struggling. Which leads us to this defender... vSilenttio is a leader and one of the better two-way defenders in the tournament with loads of offensive skill, so with 0+6 in 6 games and his team on the verge of falling behind the pack and missing the playoffs - he will have to step up even more. Runner-ups: Nikge_89 - Thats the Spirit [Like his D partner, Nikge will have to step up the rest of the regular season for their team to make the playoffs] |tokFan| - Hupimunat [0 goals and 3 assists in 7 GP with just 3 shots on goal, on one of the highest scoring teams in the league] vatalisti - Team Billy44205 [Is leading his team in scoring so is most likely doing all he possibly can, but as a #2 overall pick - more is expected than a league-worst -7] GOALIE: #20, Antti Miettinen ( @JOHTAJAVIRTANEN), Ullas Pojkar, 6GP 5W 1L 0TL, 55.17%, 2.16 GAA, 0 shutout Just like last week, I am "attacking" a goaltender who is part of a winning team but isn't producing as good stats as can be expected of such a team enviroment. Miettinen does have a solid Goals Against Average with 2.16 and is actually helping his team win with a 5-1-0 record. Perhaps it is his team that is putting him in tough situations and maybe he is making the tougher breakaway saves, but with a league-worst 55.17% in save percentage, Miettinen is on this list for now. Runner-ups: poliskontroll - Thats the Spirit [Is struggling to help his team win games as he's gone 2-4-0 with 65.51% and 3.33 GAA - probably hungry to bounce back] Siickan - Team Billy44205 [will need to step up together with his teammates to help Team Billy make the playoffs] Now, bring your chainsaws to the comment section and let me have it! Did I make the wrong selections? The right ones? Were there any factual errors? Who's happy? Who's upset? Who's secretly plotting to murder me? Later skaters // Alpha Furyan