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imo just golden traits would make game feel more creative and overall better to get reward for good plays on a better percentage, sure goalies dont have abilities to compensate it but either way its gonna be forcefest+turtle D for most teams but to be fair shouldve made a poll for captains atleast to get more opinions.🤠

No abilities is fine My problem is the powerforward and dfd meta, makes no sense and dont know why ea did it this way for this nhl but a 183 88kg winger has 97 speed while a 183 72,5kg defender has 96 speed and cant skate faster than them? NA has banned these builds and i agree with the reasoning behind and why the have done it, it makes it more fun and enjoyable to play. Atm feels like everyone has truc when we are playing games and that for me is no fun.

Survey would have been nice? Only gold abilities maybe?

So, we have now lack of creativity because we dont have abilities? Abilities mysteriously grow our hockey iq from Mackinnon (low) level to Mcdavid (very high) level? Pretty clear someones are going to pretend that this is something new that almost every team is playing with same builds. Then there is that turtle defence thing. Last ~10 years about 95% of teams have played that turtle defence all the time.

Not sure about the decision (I don't really have enough data on zero-ability games yet), but thanks for getting it out early as we all hoped.

Nice comments but never forget Matti is a winner too like Foppatofflan and Patzlaf. And you only remember winners. Never losers.

I appreciate your belief in me Alex but calling us top tier Elite players in 2026 might be a tad generous. I will absolutely take all the credit for those 4 shutouts in the final though, Knight, Komir and Cal couldn't have done it without our moral support. GGs though!

Would it not be prudent to let the current ruleset - e.g. no traits - settle for a few weeks and see how things shake out before calling for additional changes or the reversal of previously made changes? Personally, I was fine with the previously banned set of abilities. I am fine with the current edition of no abilities. I'd be fine with just gold abilities. It's just: we're about one week removed from this decision. If we call for the reversal of any decision made within one week based on how a couple sessions for a few teams went in the span of that week, nothing will ever stick. We already saw this with the rollback of a previous decision made by LA with the banning and unbanning of the new traits. I'm not saying everyone should just swallow any and all decisions made here. But the #BanThemAll-movement has been ongoing for at least a year (or more?) now. And now that the decision has been made, we're immediately back to "Well, acktually...". I mean, hell... there are probably multiple teams out there across all divisions who haven't even TRIED this new ruleset yet because they've been on post-ECL breaks 😅

Good goalies who can read the game will also make saves on high danger chances. Just like in real hockey. And this is without abilities. We could flip it around and let the skaters play with some kind of gold or blue ability, while goalies play without any. Then every player out there would sometimes be able to pull off crazy shots that result in insane goals. Just like in real hockey. But this makes no sense? Play without abilities on every position. That creates fewer random outcomes. I do not understand at all why goalies should have some kind of superpower that kicks in sometimes even when the goalie made a mistake? It is completely unreasonable. I played all evening yesterday without abilities, and good goalies are still good without them. It is the skaters who are struggling right now because they have been far too dependent on certain abilities that have been doing the offensive work for them

Ever heard of Elite sponge? What about Elite post to post? Goalies with abilities is the best i've seen in years, so get your facts straight before saying stupid things

TLDR; Game is shit and stupid

Democracy is slow and very good at making shitty compromises in situations like this.

So much for democracy

Lol its only 2 players good work on wining title - well deserved. this team worked their way up there. and their goalie and defense looks realy solid.

You do have an excellent point, but the problem is the animations. You can only unlock certain animations with abilities, and you cannot do anything about it even if you have a sniper with over 90 wrist shots. It wasn't like that in NHL 25, for example if I remember right. It has been 8 days now and I've been playing quite much. The meta has clearly changed and it's boring. Think it this way.. let's say for an example like CS2 when certain weapons or movement or headshot mechanics are gated behind skins. Just like in CS2, where some players feel restricted because they don’t have the “right” loadout or gear, in NHL 26 you’re limited by abilities, not skill. Like Savi said, there are plenty of people who thought the previously banned set of abilities was just fine, even in the Elite Division. Almost everyone I've been talking to are saying something different and would be just fine even with only golden abilities. I know that the elite players especially wanted to get rid of the elite sponge but for the rest I really don't know. So I’m really curious..who are these people or this “majority”? It makes absolutely no sense.

Yeah game is "playable" but not that fun anymore because of the lack of creativity and horrible shots. No matter how much points you are adding your build shots, they are just bad because shots are also builded around abilities. I personally do care much about abilities, at least gold ones. There has been many good points from people who i have talked with. Game tempo has went down a lot and many teams are just playing that famous turtle defence because its the most effective way to play defence atm without abilities because there is not any threat from far shots so why not. Every game feels the same force and turtle hockey, no matter which team you are playing against. Funniest thing is that like when there is no need to take care of far shots that much and team is defending tight, then some people are doing motivation carpets, just standing with a puck etc during the game because opponent is not coming to give pressure. Abilities (at least golden ones) would bring much more creativity and threats to gameplay and it forces teams to play defence much more active way than now. Im still curious to know like who is that "majority of community who wanted this awfull decision. There is plenty of people who has said like there should be at least gold abilites, even in elite division.

I think gold perks only would be a better experience for everyone. One of the problems x-factors introduced to the game is the fact that some animations/mechanics are locked behind them. This applies to both skaters and goalies. E.g. gold (or any level) one tee enables more than one passing option for perfect one timers.

I don't really care either way but you absolutely easily can by just limiting it to the stretch passes that are literally impossible to do manually, they are the ones people have issues with anyway.

I believe this is mainly about Hockey IQ. Too many goalies today, even if they have played the position for five to ten years, do not move on long one timers. At the same time, they expect the game to bail them out with an ability and make the save for them. (Which it does today) I cannot even begin to count how many times I have been frustrated because a goalie fails to read a one timer that we skaters can see developing seconds in advance, from far away, and that should be an easy save. I do not have many games in net, but I am the defenseman who has blocked the most shots of all time on sportsgamer. And I honestly believe it is not that difficult to read the shooter’s lane. You just have to be in position before the shot is taken. In my opinion, you allow one timers as a goalie if you do not react before the puck is struck. If you stand still and your goalie freezes, then you have failed to read the play and your reaction time is too slow.If you have played goalie for about a year, this is something you should have learned by then. But what do I know, I am not a goalie. In the end, it is about getting your body behind the puck. Look at Stammer and Sere in the Elite final. It is chest to puck all the time. And when they failed, sponge was there, or it ended up as a goal.

Best decision ever, now will see nothing but actual skilled players/goalie and not ppl that need perks to play 💪

you are doing it every game, nothing new even more with stupid abilities, what makes goalie let in everything from 1m around

Finaly, hopefully it will be always like that, good decision. i just a bit afraid of goalies, because seems like goalies without abilities is realy unbalanced and will let in more stupid shots, because core game of goalies is broken and abilities is helping them keep out of water and drowning.

Best experience by far has been without perks in different leagues. This is of course only my opinion 🍌

Fantastic decision admins! 😍 Looking forward to get back into the ECL next season! 🍌

Interesting take for a team that also had ex elite and pro players. But hey good season 👍

Jag håller med 👍🏻🪩

I've said tve same thing for a long time (without playing in ECL, but still affects me when playing with mainly Nightbot). Only allow one of each build in the lineup. IE: only one PFW, one Sniper etc. That would open up the game and make it way more creative and tactical, instead of now all forwards using the exact same PFW build (which somehow is as fast as a tiny sniper playmaker) and, and previous years the puck-moving defenceman. Games would be a lot more fun to both watch AND play. Everyone would have their own role, instead of just a bunch of clones with the exact same builds and stats. Just my two cents.

When the game is shit u need to make it as playable as possible tbf

There is already build bans Builds are a thing that breaks the game when u can be 88 kg and be faster than a 72,5 kg guy it makes 0 sense U have played a lot of NHL and ecl's during the years so u know how absolutely stupid it is Atleast if u are a sniper 170 72 kg with 97 speed u give up your ability to help the team defensively, as a powerforward or defensive defensman u dont give up anything in this current meta

But... there are already build bans? I don't know if you've missed it or not, but wingers can't use PMD etc, that's a banned build

Yea this i agree with, so i wouldn't say that the game is slow, i would say the gameplay at this moment is really really boring. We wanted to bring out the most skill from the players, but using a 88kg build with 97 speed is not that skilled. Just position yourself in front of the net and wait for the puck to bounce a couple of times before you have an open net.

Maybe “slow” is the wrong term to use, but I agree 100% with Savi. Right now it’s about waiting for the opponent to make a mistake while sitting in a turtle defense because you dont need to cover all the areas you had to before, then going full speed and crashing the net off the counterattack. When you don’t forecheck, the opponent are making motivation carpets Allowing the golden abilities would at least bring something to the gameplay and it would also add more tactical plays and creativity.

When abilities were in the game, you at least saw some people using smaller players and different player types. Now the gameplay feels so slow that you almost have to use big players and just crash the net to score. Overall, the gameplay feels much slower. It also feels like you score more often by simply crashing the net with big players than by taking a shot from a well-played situation. I think the gameplay would be much more enjoyable with golden abilities. All the tactical plays are now gone as you really don't need to defend shots from far away. Now its like "madden": hitting people, getting pressure, spinning in the corners and then forcing. It's still playable, but it's not that fun anymore. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if fewer teams attend the next ECL. It was fun for the first couple of days, but now it just feels like the same shit every night.

Whatever decision will be made, there always will be guys for it and against it. So really no traits is a most universal thing to do in current situation. As from goalie perspective - i can say that if you have shitty defence, you can have all elite traits and still suck. Dont really care that much about traits tbh. Seams that bot is more stable without them on animations. Still fair game if skaters dont have traits then why goalies should have them? Let it be skill on skill.

Having played a whole session without abilities now, I would say I prefer it over having the abilities. There are certain things you need to relearn because everyone is used to the abilities boosting the players in various situations. For example, now you need to pay more attention to your player's orientation when taking a shot to avoid a long pickup animation. Defenders need to be more deliberate with the R1. I feel like removing the abilities brought back the need to consider more of these little details, which is nice. Everything also feels more consistent overall, both on offense and defense. Sure, there are fewer "clean" goals from ability-boosted shots and more forced pass attempts in situations where players would previously spam the shooting abilities. But I think there is also more room for other type of goals now that the boosts are gone. Besides the usual passing plays to break through the tight slot area or create a decent chance from the outside, you need to utilize tip-ins (we conceded two tip-in goals last night now that I guess people are going for them again), rebounds, and just shooting the puck while having your guys crash the net.

I genuinely think there were some great ideas on how to make this decision in a much better way, whatever the outcome would have been. Perhaps this is the best for the game. It’s impossible to say yet. Maybe we will actually like it much more, we’ll have to see. BUT the way this was handled, like it seems with all the other decisions, was quite poor. We are all paying for this, so I would have at least hoped that the teams/captains had actually been asked what they really wanted, instead of making dictatorship-like decisions. This was first announced too early (in the middle of the season) and then deleted after the reactions. “We have come to this decision based on community feedback.” I’m sorry, but this feels like total nonsense. Where did you get this feedback from? Not here. From what I read and understand in the comments, it’s more like 50-50.

Good decision! From goalie perspective: Imo elite sponge and other save related abilities just gives you way too many unrealistic saves when you're out of position or just too late to one tees etc. Reason for funny looking goals against are weird animations, which have nothing to do with the abilities. And I think that is sadly just part of the game at this point. Rng just throws it at you when the code tells it's time for scoring😄 What I've tested without abilities, I had more balanced gameplay and more solid animations between the pipes.

Just out of curiosity, have you ever watched a hockey game irl?

But now it is purely skill versus skill, with no other handicaps involved. I do not understand what people are complaining about. Except for the fact that some players have started building their careers with the help of abilities that cover up their weaknesses, for example being able to execute a perfectly timed poke. Or other players who revived their careers because X factors compensated for their flaws. If you combine that with something like hybrid controls, where the game basically gives you perfect timing, then I understand why some players think this is terrible. Because now all the training wheels are gone. You schould not get help to be a better player with abilities in my opinion.

Thanks for proving my point, sounds like a ''you'' problem 👍

yeah, just all core mechanics is bended to the skater side a lot, and core mechanics for goalies sucks, i dont know how it will end for goalies without abilities, need to test, but if we take in considiration hockey ultimate team and 1v1 versus matches, it will suck bad. Goalies is animation based, and EA made goalies designed to be played with abilities, to counter all the bs what skaters have, and with sponge, showstopper we actualy can save something, what we should save anyday. you talking about goalies skill issues, where you saw that goalie let in frontal shot without screen? like maybe on 10 shots 1 not like 50/50. i dont care about abilities, i just a bit worried about how goalies will act without abilities because ea sport dont wanted to make them core default good..

Well it goes both ways, players will need to adapt and rebuild their skaters to be more deadly in scoring scenarios. The same goes around for goalies, now you have to be better positioned to actually make a flashy save etc. So no matter what you have to say about ''goalies will have a tougher time now'', it is the EXACT same thing for skaters, and this will bring out the most skilled players and goalies out there. If you feel like you need your Elite abilities in net, sorry but then it sounds like a ''you'' problem.

Now you have to play by yourself and not behind traits 😊.

A Team with foppatoflan and martindale winning Lite, oh what a surprise

🏆⚫️🔴🏆

Yes that's hockey

Question. If all abilities are banned (in a video game built on abilities), then why are icon passes still allowed. Those exploit the mechanics more than 90% of the abilities - and it's basically just pressing a button with no skills involved. And it's 1000 times more effective than the two banned passing abilities.