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A new game calls for new features and one of the announced additions to NHL 18 is that of HUT ROOKIES. In accordance with the direction EA has decided to go - the special focus on the young stars of today in both marketing and developement – these player cards puts the spotlight on the brightest shining youngsters in each of the 31(!) NHL teams. Having taking some liberties with the term ”Rookies”, the players in this set of special cards range from 3+ years pros like Matt Dumba, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alexander Barkov, to players like Patrik Laine, Jimmy Vesey and Zack Werenski who made their debut last year. Having a set of cards like this, with a chosen player for every team is nothing new in this game mode that everybody loves to hate, but still play anyway. Last year it was called HUT Heroes and revolved around the legends of yesterday. What is different this time around though is the availability of the cards and the ratings they got. While HUT Heroes could only be unlocked through collecting an entire team of cards (players, jerseys, arena etc.), HUT Rookies seems to be dealt out for free when first starting your team. The team you choose as your favorite at the start of the game – the young star of that team will be added to your roster. Anyone thinking about choosing Toronto just to get that shiny special edition Austen Matthews to dangle around your opponents with? Not so fast! While HUT Heroes pushed the limits on how good a rating could reach (all of the cards boasted at least 93+) – these cards seems to be nerfed down versions of the players in question, since all of the cards have a rating of 85 (with player specific variations on the sub categories). With HUT ROOKIES including players like Draisaitl, Laine and Calvin Pickard – it is not hard to assume that the base cards of said players have different values (reasonable thinking places Draisaitl and Laine with a way higher overall than Calvin Pickard). For anyone familiar with the game mode a 85 overall does not impress – players of that calibre goes for 500-1000 coins on the open market, and usually leaves the line up after less than 50 games. That being said, EA recently announced that they are doing a big overhaul on the ratings system – meaning that 85 overall could have a bigger impact on your lineup than previous years. This would be a thankful change from 17 where the amount of 99 rated cards reached inflation levels making everything below 90 less than useless. Only time will tell how big of an impact this new feature will have on the HUT gameplay – but we can sure agree that them cards are lookin’ shiney! Which card will you be snagging up? Let us know in the comments! Follow this link for a list of all of the players: https://www.easports.com/nhl/news/2017/nhl-18-hut-rookies