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Connected Franchise, the mode players have wanted back for over a decade, waits for an August deep dive. And for once we’re not left guessing on the sore points: EA answered our questions on L2 abuse, glitch goals, and more. Launch is September 11 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with Deluxe Early Access starting September 4. When EA announced Macklin Celebrini as the cover athlete of NHL 27 earlier this week, that was only a fraction of what Lead Producer Andy Beaudoin and Senior Game Design Director Mike Inglehart showed us that day. Now we can finally share the rest. EA also took some time to answer our questions, the uncomfortable ones included: L2 abuse, glitch goals, X-Factors, spectator mode. Those answers close this piece. The ambition, as they put it to us, is that every team gets its own soul. All 32 NHL arenas have been rebuilt around what makes each building itself, and the crowd inside them is new outright: new models, far more variety in who’s sitting in the seats, and reactions driven by the game instead of canned loops, so a building tenses up when the home team protects a one-goal lead and erupts when momentum flips. The goal songs are each building’s own, hype tracks are licensed music, pregame introductions are new, and the lighting sells the rest: rigs follow the arena’s music beat for beat, while jumbotrons and ring boards now cast real light into the stands, so whatever plays on the screens washes over the whole bowl. Image: This Vegas Knights arena shot is probably our favorite screenshot from the game we've seen so far. The rebuild kept the buildings’ signatures. The showcase in the presentation was Vegas, whose castle-and-dragon pregame show becomes the game’s backdrop. When asked about arena updates during the press Q&A, EA listed the Kraken’s boat balcony in Seattle, the iconic organ in Buffalo, and ducks flying around Honda Center before puck drop, plus animation content pulled from the real venues onto the in-game jumbotrons. The staging around all of it is handled by a new system EA calls the cinematic orchestrator, which decides how moments are presented: how the atmosphere builds before a penalty shot, how a penalty call plays out, which replay you see, when the camera finds the crowd. The voices change too. John Buccigross and Darren Pang take over the booth, replacing James Cybulski, the series’ play-by-play voice since NHL 20, and Cheryl Pounder, its analyst for the past three editions. Buccigross has been at ESPN since 1996 and its hockey voice for most of that run; Pang is a former Blackhawks goalie with a long second career as a TV analyst, and the pairing is a reunion, since Pang sat at the analyst desk of Buccigross’s NHL 2Night two decades ago. They arrive inside a fully redone broadcast package with new graphics, new camera work, and more context before puck drop and between whistles. And this is no one-year rental; Pang confirmed on Leafs Morning Take that the agreement with EA runs multiple years. Image: The new presentation package pays homage to the roots of the EA Sports NHL series with brand new crisp high resolution overlays. On the ice, the headline change is where team behavior comes from. The series has run for years on three global playbooks shared by every club; NHL 27 replaces them with 32, one per team, built from the data provided by NHL EDGE, the league’s own puck and player tracking system. A playbook covers how a team breaks out, what it does in the neutral zone, how it forechecks, and how its special teams operate. This time, the game shows you all of it: new playbook screens map each team’s positioning phase by phase, while strategies are drawn on the ice, making the structure something you can see rather than guess at. The playbooks are yours across modes too: study one, equip another, experiment. The AI got work of its own, described to us as creating more cohesion between players so the playbooks hold up on the ice. The example given was dump-and-chase teams, which only work if the winger knows to hit the gas the moment the puck is launched into the corner, so that behavior went in. Teammates now react to each other in real time and hold structure instead of drifting, and teams read the scoreboard, pressing when they need a goal and tightening up when they protect a lead. Hockey Ultimate Team ties into the same idea with real NHL coaches, whose line-combination chemistry follows their actual coaching history. The biggest tease stays Connected Franchise. EA calls it one of the most requested features in franchise history, and the request has a name: GM Connected, the online league mode from NHL 13 and 14 that didn’t survive the series’ 2014 jump to PS4 and Xbox One, and which the community has been asking about ever since. The NHL 27 version lets a group create its own league and play a full online season with up to 32 human-controlled teams, on top of flexible scheduling, roster management, and commissioner tools; you can also sub in any offline team, European clubs included, which EA confirmed to us directly. GM Connected died mostly of slowness, with menus that crawled and reviews of the era clocking ten minutes just to simulate two weeks of a season, so it says something that EA frames the new one as “the first step in a mode built to grow with the community.” The specifics are being held for a dedicated deep dive in August. Image: GM Connected...ahem.. Connected Franchise is here! Play NHL 27 before launch Can’t wait for the August deep dive? SportsGamer is collaborating with EA to get our community into the next NHL Community Playtest — Connected Franchise included. Remote, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, for players in Europe and North America. Here’s how to sign up. World of Chel inherits most of the atmosphere work. The new broadcast graphics run across the mode, player focus wipes put your created skater front and center, indoor venues get the orchestrator’s camera work and the new crowd, and clubs can adopt any of the authentic NHL goal songs as their own from day one. What stays exclusive to the NHL venues: the beat-matched lighting, team-specific music, and the arena props themselves. We asked, EA answered Our questions are condensed; EA’s written answers are quoted in full. Have the long-abused exploits — L2 abuse and the red-line glitch goals — been addressed? “As we do every year, we spend time looking at issues with gameplay in an effort to make the on-ice quality as high as possible. Here are some of the key changes we have tackled throughout NHL 27: L2 Tuning changes - Tuned the player[’s] follow-through on the action [so players are] not able to override it midway through with stickhandling - Vision skating is slower at more extreme speed[s] and angles Hitting Tuning - Reverse hit relative size tuning - Hip check and general interference calls on players not near the puck - Balanced high end checking by adding more stumbles and fewer big hits Stick checking improvements - Easier to create a loose puck from poke checks - Stick lift targeting and effectiveness Goalie Improvements - Goalie improvements against the stride deke - Goalie improvements on shots from the neutral zone that were getting lobbed into the net” Anything happening with X-Factors? “Depending on the mode this is being asked from, there will be season meta tuning changing to the WOC live program season-to-season as we did last year. Gameplay wise we have not made many significant changes to the X-Factor system nor have we added any new X-Factors for NHL 27.” Will private matches get a spectator mode? “We do not have this feature for NHL 27 but we understand the value for players that have been asking for this and much like many of the changes we have made this year against community requests we will continue to look at ways to deliver more requests as the franchise moves ahead.” Image: The Buffalo Sabres skating through the illuminated swords is an example of the new additions to unique atmosphere of the NHL arenas. NHL 27 launches September 11 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; there is still no PC version. Pre-orders open today alongside the reveal trailer, and EA confirmed there will be no microtransactions in offline modes. Localization covers English, French, German, Finnish, Swedish, and Czech. NHL 27 at a glance PlatformsPlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S Standard EditionSeptember 11, $69.99 / €79.99 / £69.99 Deluxe EditionEarly Access from September 4, $99.99 / €109.99 / £99.99 Age ratingPEGI 12, ESRB E10+ Pre-order bonus (Standard)HUT NHL Player Pack, 500 NHL Points, 2x WOC Double XP Tokens Pre-order bonus (Deluxe)7 days of Early Access, Macklin Celebrini WOC Limited Loadout, HUT New Wave Celebrini Pack Included with Deluxe4,600 NHL Points, four HUT packs (Icon Choice, Heroes Choice, NHL Player, Fan Choice), 2x WOC Double XP Tokens Reveal trailerWatch on YouTube

:root{ --ink:#12194d; /* dark blue */ --body:#2b3160; --navy:#14205c; /* dark blue border */ --blue:#3f6fff; /* light blue accent */ --dim:#6d7398; --hair:#e6e9f4; --surface:#f4f7fd; --measure:44rem; } *{box-sizing:border-box;} html{-webkit-text-size-adjust:100%;} body{ margin:0;background:#fff;color:var(--body); font-family:"Barlow",system-ui,sans-serif; font-size:18.5px;line-height:1.72;font-weight:400; -webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased; } ::selection{background:var(--blue);color:#fff;} .wrap{max-width:var(--measure);margin:0 auto;padding:52px 24px 64px;} .eyebrow{ font-weight:600;font-size:12px;letter-spacing:.2em;text-transform:uppercase; color:var(--blue);margin:0 0 18px; } h1{ font-family:"Barlow Condensed",sans-serif;font-weight:700; font-size:clamp(2.4rem,5.6vw,3.9rem);line-height:1.03; color:var(--ink);margin:0 0 20px;max-width:18ch; } .dek{ font-size:clamp(1.1rem,2vw,1.3rem);line-height:1.5;color:var(--ink); margin:0 0 30px;max-width:52ch;font-weight:400; padding-bottom:26px;border-bottom:1px solid var(--hair); } .body p{margin:0 0 24px;color:var(--body);} .body a{color:var(--ink);text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1.5px solid var(--blue);padding-bottom:1px;} .body a:hover{color:var(--blue);} .stat{margin:32px 0;padding:20px 22px;background:var(--surface);border-left:3px solid var(--navy);border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;} .stat .lbl{font-size:11px;font-weight:600;letter-spacing:.16em;text-transform:uppercase;color:var(--dim);margin-bottom:12px;} .stat ul{list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;} .stat li{display:flex;align-items:baseline;justify-content:space-between;gap:14px;padding:9px 0;border-bottom:1px solid var(--hair);} .stat li:last-child{border-bottom:none;} .stat .nm{font-family:"Barlow Condensed",sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.3rem;color:var(--ink);} .stat .yr{font-size:12px;font-weight:600;letter-spacing:.04em;color:var(--dim);} .stat li.here .nm{color:var(--blue);} .stat li.here .yr{color:var(--blue);} .tease{margin:32px 0 0;padding:22px 24px;background:var(--surface);border-left:3px solid var(--navy);border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;} .tease .mk{font-size:11px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.2em;text-transform:uppercase;color:var(--blue);margin-bottom:10px;} .tease p{margin:0;color:var(--ink);font-size:1.08rem;line-height:1.55;font-weight:400;} @media (max-width:600px){ body{font-size:17.5px;} .wrap{padding:36px 20px 48px;} .stat .nm{font-size:1.18rem;} } NHL 27 Cover Reveal Twenty-five years later, the Sharks are back on the cover Macklin Celebrini is the cover athlete of NHL 27 and for once, the pick needs no defending. The San Jose Sharks have waited twenty-five years to see one of their own on the cover of an NHL game. The last was Owen Nolan on NHL 2001, back when multiplayer mostly meant inviting a buddy over with a second controller. The wait ends now: Macklin Celebrini is the cover athlete of NHL 27, as Lead Producer Andy Beaudoin and Senior Game Design Director Mike Inglehart announced during the game's press presentation. For once, the cover pick needs no defending. Chel veterans already know him. In NHL 26, Celebrini was your mentor in Be A Pro mode, fully voiced by the man himself, walking your created rookie through the first steps of a pro career. Twelve months later, the tutorial guy got promoted to the box art. The real-world résumé backs it up. Celebrini put up 30 points in his team's first 20 games this past season a feat matched in NHL history by exactly two players. Above: NHL 27 Cover Above: NHL 27 Delux Edition Cover 30 points in a season's first 20 games Wayne Gretzky1980–81 Sidney Crosby2006–07 Macklin Celebrini2025–26 More this week Beaudoin and Inglehart showed us plenty more than the cover. We'll have the full picture on NHL 27 later this week. The official NHL 27 reveal trailer premieres July 16. Watch it here when it goes live.

Cityboys are the ECL ’26: Spring – Lite champions after completing an impressive playoff run and defeating HC Punishers 4–2 in the finals. A Complete Championship Run Cityboys entered the playoffs as the second seed and had to battle through a demanding bracket on their way to the title. Their run started with a 4–1 series win against Bladerunners HC, before they survived back-to-back seven-game series against Sampo and Pasilan SKA, winning both 4–3. In the semifinals, Cityboys delivered one of their strongest series of the playoffs, defeating vNexs Vipers 4–1 to book their place in the Lite final. There, they faced top-seeded HC Punishers, who had reached the final after beating Hungry Bears, Hockeyholics, Refuse Too Lose and Supernatural. The final became a hard-fought battle, but Cityboys showed their resilience and ability to respond under pressure. Cityboys opened the series with 4–2 and 5–2 wins before HC Punishers answered with a 4–1 victory in Game 3. Cityboys took Game 4 by the same 4–2 score, but it was tighter than it looks: with the game tied 2–2, J0K1N3Nx scored twice in the final two minutes to cap a four-goal performance. Punishers then kept the series alive with a 2–1 overtime victory in Game 5. Game 6 became the defining moment of the final. HC Punishers led 3–1 in the third period, but Cityboys refused to fold. J0K1N3Nx brought them within one, before ttskede tied the game with less than a minute remaining. In overtime, ttskede struck again at 62:18, scoring the championship-winning goal and sealing a 4–3 OT victory. ttskede led Cityboys offensively throughout the playoffs with 79 points in 30 games, including 37 goals and 42 assists. J0K1N3Nx was another major force with 67 points, while Veljenpoika69 added 52 points from the blue line. ARUR88 contributed strong two-way play with 39 points, while xMaltseviii and Lolsell also played important roles during the run. In net, The-Tankki235 carried most of the workload, finishing the playoffs with 18 wins, an 80.43% save percentage, a 2.42 goals-against average and 4 shutouts. With two seven-game series wins, a victory over the top seed in the final and several clutch moments under pressure, Cityboys proved themselves worthy ECL ’26: Spring – Lite champions. Cityboys’ championship roster: @ttskede @J0K1N3Nx @Veljenpoika69 @ARUR88 @Maltseviii @lolsell @The-Tankki235 @joku_johonki In the playoffs, the core of ttskede, J0K1N3Nx, Veljenpoika69, ARUR88, xMaltseviii and The-Tankki235 led the way as Cityboys claimed the ECL ’26: Spring – Lite title.

Starstrucked Crowned ECL ’26: Spring – Pro Champions Starstrucked are the ECL ’26: Spring – Pro champions after completing a dominant playoff run with a 4–0 finals sweep against NOSTREETSPORTS. A Complete Championship Run Starstrucked’s road to the title started with a 4–1 series win against Brynäs IF Esport, followed by their toughest test of the playoffs against Reality Check HC, where they came through with a 4–2 victory. In the semifinals, they swept HC Lugano eSports 4–0 to reach the final with strong momentum. In the championship series, Starstrucked delivered their most dominant performance of the playoffs, sweeping NOSTREETSPORTS 4–0. They opened with convincing 8–1 and 9–0 wins, edged out a tight 1–0 victory in Game 3, and then sealed the title with a 5–2 comeback win in Game 4 after scoring four straight goals. Across the final, Starstrucked outscored NOSTREETSPORTS 23–3. Hassegamer_480 led the playoff run with 62 points in 19 games, including 8 game-winning goals, while wpaananen added 50 points and vilppijoona produced 42. From the back end, Miseee96 and Kibeeex contributed strong two-way play, and in net, Lakritsipiippu provided stability with 16 wins, an 84.88% save percentage, a 1.63 goals-against average and 4 shutouts. With a dominant final, elite offensive production and a solid defensive structure, Starstrucked proved themselves worthy ECL ’26: Spring – Pro champions.   The Winning Roster Starstrucked’s championship roster: @Wpaanane— Wade Paananen @vilppijoona  — Joona Havana @Hassegamer_480 — Johannes Häggqvist @Miseee96 — Mico Pulli @Kibeeex  — Tommi Lehtimäki @MajuriJamal — Jamal Jamal @Lakritsipiippu — Kristian Laakso In the playoffs, the core of Häggqvist, Paananen, Havana, Pulli, Lehtimäki and Laakso led the way as Starstrucked claimed the ECL ’26: Spring – Pro title.