Hey NHL Gamers,

the results of this year's Cover Vote were revealed last night during the NHL Awards, and Vladimir Tarasenko was presented as the new Cover Athlete for NHL 17:

Are you happy with the fan's choice?

Tell us how you like the cover design in the comments below!

Hey NHL Gamers,

alongside of the NHL 17 Feature Reveal earlier today, EA Sports have also answered the first batch of questions on Ask NHL. If you want to submit your own question, you can do it on the Ask NHL website. Below is a summary of today's answers:

General

• First trailer will be released on June 22nd
• No PC version
• As opposed to FIFA 17, NHL 17 will not be using the Frostbite engine

Gameplay

• Defensive AI was improved to tighten up coverage against players parked in the front of the net or on the weak side
• No coach challenges
• No defensive skill stick: EA was discussing this, but did not implement it in fear of taking away control of other mechanics
• On top of goalie animations, their AI was tweaked to make more use of their body
• Net battles and extended stick lifts allow to lock up a player in front of the net, making deflections less likely
• Skating has been improved in regards to momentum, agility and facing angles
• Authentic jerseys for all national teams

Game Modes

• No GM Connected
• No mid-season negotations with players in Franchise Mode
• 15+ locations for the new relocation feature
• "Large library" of horns and songs for EASHL, but no chants
• Create a Team is included

So far there don't seem to be any surprises, but we will keep you up to date when new answers drop!

- gzell60

Hey NHL Gamers!

EA Sports just published their official NHL 17 feature reveal website with lots of information about the upcoming title, releasing in September 2016. Here is our summary:

General

• More authentic goalies: Improved end-to-end control featuring positional awareness and "Reactionary Save Intelligence" thanks to updated motion capturing, allowing you to use your body to block instead of only making reactionary saves.
• New net battles in offensive and defensive zones
• New goal celebrations: "Dozens" of all-new celebrations
• Improved tape-to-tape passing, puck pickups and pivots
• Enhanced hit mechanics: Choose whether you close someone off at the boards, push them off the puck, or deliver a devastating body-check.
• ECHL: The ECHL makes its debut in NHL 17, featuring all 27 authentic teams, jerseys, and rosters.

EA Sports Hockey League

• New Player Rank System: Ability to earn badges and unlock customizations items for players and teams.
• Arena Progression: Arena size will adjust according to your team's progress - from a small community's rink to state-of-the-art arenas.
• Arena Creator: Customize every detail from the ice surface, to the goal light, to the scoreboard and even the goal songs and FX that light up.
• Team Editor: Edit your team’s entire uniform including patterns, colors, patches and logos.

World Cup of Hockey

• Official World Cup of Hockey teams, players and uniforms

Draft Champions Mode

• Introduces the thrill of the fantasy draft with fast rounds of superstar picks
• Each round challenges managers to choose the best players to build a balanced team.
• Immediately following your draft, take to the ice and fulfill your team’s potential by winning the Draft Championship

Hockey Ultimate Team

• HUT Synergy: New team building system which requires you to pair player strengths together.
• HUT Dynamic Sets: Collect sets to unlock rewards, including new thematic sets, to constantly build and improve your team.

Franchise Mode

• Evolution of Be a GM
• Added features: Make game-changing decisions from player personnel, ticket prices, marketing, arena upgrades, and even relocation.

Use the comments below and tell us what you are looking forward to!

- gzell60

Hey NHL Gamers,

the final of this year's Cover Vote has begun! Joe Pavelski and Vladimir Tarasenko are up for choice, so use the opportunity and make your favourite win his cover spot by casting a vote now on this page.

The winner will be revealed at the NHL Awards, taking place in Las Vegas on June 22nd.

- gzell60

Hey NHL Gamers,

round 1 of the NHL 17 Cover Vote just came to an end, with the following results:

Joe Pavelski vs. Anze Kopitar
Aleksander Barkov vs. Jamie Benn
Connor McDavid vs. Jakub Voracek
Vladimir Tarasenko vs. Victor Hedman

The San José Sharks, the Dallas Stars, the Edmonton Oilers as well as the St. Louis Blues made it into the semi-finals, and these are the new match-ups:

Visit this page to support your favourite player!

- gzell60

Hey NHL Gamers,

As you may have noticed from our previous news article, EA Sports released a trailer for NHL 17 today. In case you missed it, we've embedded it below for you!

We have already taken apart the first 'Vision' trailer for the upcoming NHL 17, and we made a few interesting findings - which we want to share with you! Please note: You can click on each screenshot to see them in full size!

1) Custom EASHL logos and jerseys are back

The screenshot above shows an unknown team logo, which suggests it is a self-made one for EASHL. As it does not make sense to use custom logos with existing jerseys (licensing etc.), we highly expect custom jerseys to be back, too.

2) Customizable arenas

Above screenshots show different arena designs with the same fantasy logo on the right hand side, which makes us believe that EASHL teams will be able to customize their own arenas to some extent. At a quick glance the screenshots may look like they are the same one over and over again, but when you look closely, you can see a difference in seat colors.

3) Tie-ups could return

The trailer includes a longer snippet of 2 players motion-capturing tie-ups in front of the net. Considering they have been scratched in the PS4 and Xbox One versions of NHL 15 and 16, they could finally return for NHL 17.

4) New 'Trade in' feature for Hockey Ultimate Team

The above screenshot shows a menu screen of Hockey Ultimate Team, titled 'Gold Coach Trade In'. The description says: "Complete this set by turning in any 10 Gold Coach items for a Gold Trophy Pack, which contains at least 1 Gold Trophy."

We believe that EA created a new trade-in system that allows you to trade existing cards, which you draw from packs or bought off the auction house, for new packs of the same class. However, we are unsure what Gold Trophies are or allow you to do.

5) World Cup of Hockey is included

We were hoping and expecting it would be in the game, but here is the confirmation - NHL 17 features the new World Cup of Hockey!

6) New celebrations

The trailer concludes with several snippets of new goal celebrations, which means they replaced / updated some of the old ones or also added a few new ones.

6) New menus

The game menu has received what we'd consider a major facelift. It looks very sleek, clean and what could hopefully result in a more smooth user experience; as we all know, the previous iterations of the menus have been quite sluggish to use.

Apart from new animations or updated training arenas for EASHL, this is all we were able to catch. We will keep you updated with future developments about NHL 17, and expect major news to drop during the next E3 which takes places in Los Angeles from June 14 to June 16!

What did you think about the trailer? Did you notice something we didn't? Please let us know in the comments below!

Hey NHL Gamers,

after releasing the first trailer for NHL 17, EA also kicked off their yearly Cover Vote again. This is the schedule:

Round 1: April 26th at 12:00 pm EST – May 2nd at 3:00 pm EST.
Round 2: May 3rd at 12:00 pm EST – May 9th at 3:00 pm EST.
Round 3: May 10th at 12:00 pm EST – May 16th at 3:00 pm EST.

The winner will be announced at the NHL Awards on June 22nd. To leave your vote, visit this page.

Below you can find the match-ups for Round 1:

Hey NHL Gamers,

EA Sports just released their first trailer for NHL 17, called "The Vision". You can find it below:

We will be back with a trailer analysis shortly!

Exciting news NHL Gamers!

EA Sports has released a teaser for their upcoming NHL 17 title. While the short clip is as much a teaser as it can be and doesn't really reveal anything about the game, you'll be excited to learn that we should be seeing the first bits of information about the game early next week; Tuesday the 26th of April, to be exact.

We will keep you up to date on the subject, but note that EA also wants you to become an NHL Insider and sign up for their newsletter.

Get ready for your first look at #NHL17.
Become an NHL Insider: https://t.co/fevUqnF7qj pic.twitter.com/PwsEHhNupv

— EA SPORTS NHL (@EASPORTSNHL) April 22, 2016

I hope you are as excited as we are! Tuesday can't come soon enough!