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Good day NHLGamers, It’s been a busy few weeks for us here at NHLGamer, as is to be expected in the month leading up to the release of any new EA SPORTS NHL title. Amongst other things, we had the opportunity to visit the NHL 18 Producers Tour both in Stockholm and Helsinki all the while wrapping up our Summer Cup, Xbox ECL and planning for the launch of ECL 5. These are truly exhilarating times to be a part of this project as the momentum we carry from one day to the next continues to propel us forward. However, as our ambitions for NHLGamer continue to grow, so does the workload. One of the things we continually receive feedback about from the community is the amount of “in-league” articles we produce and that you would appreciate seeing us do more analysis, deep dives and opinion pieces on NHL gaming in general. Let the personality of NHLGamer show, as it were. Bearing this feedback in mind and with the understanding that the coming months will give the current staff plenty of work (and challenges!) to go around, we here at NHLGamer are opening up the floor for any and all content contributors who are interested in helping out. Where is this going? What will essentially happen is that we open up a virtual “Writers Room” for NHLGamer. If this is the first time you have ever heard the term, Wiktionary.org offers the following; “The room in which the showrunner and the writers of a television series collaborate on the plot and develop the script.” Now, NHLGamer is not running a television series by any stretch of the imagination but what we are running is one of the most exciting websites out there when it comes to competitive sports gaming. For a project that looks to have 100+ teams in its next league tournament and on top of that is involved in some other cool things coming up, we could sure use the help. How would this work? The writer’s room will consist of NHLGamer members who feel like they have something to contribute to the website. Whether that means a weekly column similar to the “Who’s hot and who’s not”-feature I developed over a year ago, or an in-depth exploration of what goes into the building of an EASHL franchise (or HUT team for that matter) doesnt matter – we want to see it all! Basically, we are interested in any content that is related to sports gaming, be it specifically ECL or something completely different. The members of the NHLGamer writer’s room will pitch their own ideas and articles to myself and @gzell60 (who have acted as NHLGamers “lead writers” over the past year and a half) to which we would give feedback and/or our edits before we release on the website. If something interesting pops up that is related to NHLGamer and merits an article, we might throw out a feeler to see if anyone in the writers room would be interested to tackle it. This does not mean you are put under any obligation to contribute a specific amount of articles per month or anything like that. We will ask you to estimate how much you are able to contribute though, so we know how to optimally allocate the tasks. It also doesn’t mean that the regular staff will completely stop writing articles. The NHLGamer writer’s room is simply a way to produce more content, involve all of the community and together pull on the same rope to make NHLGamer.com as cool of an experience as possible. If you have ever silently clenched your fist and gone “I could do that better” or if you’ve simply felt we weren’t doing enough in terms of content, this is your chance to be a part of the project and get your writing out there to an audience of thousands. If you are interested, simply send a PM on the community side where you include me (@The_Alpha_Furyan) and Max (@gzell60). Label it “Writers room” to make the messages easier to sort through. We hope to hear from you soon. Later skaters, @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com

Evening NHLGamers, Yesterday (September 5th) turned out to be a big day for fans of the game mode Hockey Ultimate Team, HUT. As one of the core game modes in EA SPORTS' series of NHL games, HUT usually draws a heavy interest from fans in the weeks leading up to release. What then could be better than suddenly finding out who all the new "HUT Heroes" are for NHL 18? Maybe getting to experience over 15 minutes of exclusive gameplay from the new edition of HUT? Here at NHLGamer we say: why not both? Before we get to the gameplay, lets start off with the announcement of all the new HUT Heroes. Yesterday, EA SPORTS released this article presenting all 30 NHL 18 HUT Heroes: https://www.easports.com/nhl/hockey-ultimate-team/hut-heroes To break it down for us and provide a proper NHLGamer analysis, we enlisted one of our resident HUT experts and hardcore gamers: @esdor . Take it away Adam! NHL 18 HUT Heroes - Analysis Gamers, I have been asked to give you my thoughts on the new HUT Heroes for NHL 18 so, here we go! In total there are seven new HUT Heroes that differ from the roster we had in NHL 17. As a first impression, I must say that I was hoping for a few more new Heroes. Three of the "new" ones were actually already in the game for 17 but only obtainable from packs as "legends". These players are Cam Neely (Boston), Jeremy Roenick (Chicago) and Wendel Clark (Toronto). Personally, the card I am looking forward the most to trying in the new game is new San Jose Sharks hero Owen Nolan. Those who have seen me play HUT know that I am a big fan of strong righties in the vein of Ovechkin. Sadly this means the previous hero from San Jose (Doug Wilson) is out. He will be sorely missed seeing as he was one of my favorite defenders that I used all year in 17. Another missed hero for me is going to be Red Wings hero Brendan Shanahan that I used a lot in the begining of NHL 17. It will be very interesting to see how good Rick Nash (Columbus) will be as a HUT Hero. The last two HUT Heroes that are new this year are Shane Doan (Arizona) and Tampa Bay defender Dan Boyle. In the start of the game I believe that the Heroes will be very effective cards even though their overall got reduced from 94 to 90. I would actually say that a few of the new Heroes will be used the entire game, like in NHL 17 with Heroes Ron Hextall and Olaf Kolzig. In my opinion, both those goalies were among the best goalies in HUT throughout NHL 17 and might continue to be in 18. Last but not least I want to really praise EA for the design on the cards in HUT, they have done a great job on making the new cards look fresh and exciting. Exclusive NHL 18 HUT Gameplay Footage Lets pick this up by thanking esdor for an excellent breakdown of all the new HUT Heroes. When he is not contributing content for NHLGamer, you can find him at https://www.twitch.tv/esdor. Finally, as I hinted at in the beginning of this article, yesterday also saw the release of over 15 minutes of exclusive HUT gameplay footage on the NHLGamer YouTube Channel. This content was captured during NHLGamers recent visit to the NHL 18 Producers Tour in Helsinki and was then edited and produced by our very own @Kenu - just like the NHLGamer On The Road video from Helsinki. It is with great pride and joy we can say that this video has been watched almost 5.000 times since it was released less than 24 hours ago. Wow! Without further ado, here it is: That is all for now. Until next time, later skaters. @The_Alpha_Furyan, @Kenu and @esdor for NHLGamer.com

Afternoon Gamers, In the last few months NHLGamer.com has seen an incredible growth. Not only when it comes to our membership totals on the webpage (about to hit 2500 at the time of writing this) but also when it comes to the ways in which you, our members, choose to interact with us. Our social media channels has grown exponentially and the level of overall commentary and discussion across all platforms is the highest its ever been. As we stand on the verge of new and exciting projects that could potentially propel the NHLGamer brand even higher, it is important to remember where we came from. That, coupled with our desire to introduce our many new members to what it is we actually do around here, led to the creation of an article titled: What is the ECL? Well, the ECL (or European Championship League) is, quite simply, the biggest and most competitive EASHL championship on the European continent. It has long been the "flagship" project for NHLGamer.com and continues to be one of its highest priorities as the project moves forward. All games in the ECL are always played 6v6 (= 6 human-controlled skaters on both sides, including the goaltender) in the EASHL game mode on EA SPORTS' latest iteration of the NHL franchise. When the ECL first saw the light of day almost two years ago (2015) it did so with a healthy amount of hype. The European EASHL community, having previously been divided between Xbox and Playstation, had all decided to come together on one platform (it ended up being the PS4) in anticipation of the championship. Thus it came to be that the ECL, right from the very start, hosted the most competitive enviroment anyone had ever seen... and from there it grew. While the number of teams who competed in ECL's 1, 2 & 3 stayed relatively even, around 50, and the summer tournament hosted on NHLGamer (Summer Cup; previously a part of the ECL but now edited to be its own franchise) was a success - we still felt like there were more European teams and players out there who either hadn't discovered us yet or hadn't gotten around to signing up. With a game-changing innovation introduced ahead of ECL 4, we were about to be proven right... Divisions The idea behind creating separate, skill-based divisions had been rattling around the NHLGamer community ever since before the first ECL, but it wasn't until after ECL 3 that a formal concept was announced. The community was then given a chance to present their feedback and suggestions for improvements before the Staff announced the final version. When faced with the opportunity to play an entire season against teams of an even skill level, the number of sign-ups soared. The ECL went from having about 60 sign-ups with 45-50 teams finishing the season, to having 80 sign-ups with 78 finishing the season - a 97.5% completion rate. We attribute this success partly to the divisions evening out the competition amongst teams, but also to the enhanced structure a system like this offers. ECL Elite always houses 16 teams, meaning the regular season is always 30 games long. ECL Pro always houses 32 teams, meaning two "conferences" of 16 teams and a regular season 30 games long. ECL Lite is flexible so that we can always accommodate however many new teams choose to sign up. ECL 5 Our next ECL season starts in the middle of October while sign-ups will start as early as September. We expect to once again beat our sign-up records to host the biggest championship yet. Can you afford to miss out on the experience? Keep an eye out for more information, news and hype concerning ECL 5 (including when sign-ups open) in our social media channels; Facebook (NHLGamer) Twitter (NHLGamerCOM) YouTube (NHLGamer Official) Instagram (NHLGamerOfficial) Twitch (NHLGamerTwitch) See you on the ice! @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com

Good evening, Gamers The long-awaited third episode of ECL Talk is here! Exciting times lie ahead as we try our hand at recording the podcast through a Skype call instead of the PS4 party platform. The title of the episode is Dominating the Beta, something that is reflected in the episodes' content as we review the NHL 18 Beta leaderboards and find the NHLGamer community well represented... Here's a more detailed rundown of whats happening in Episode #3 of ECL Talk (synopsis from YouTube page): "In the third episode of ECL Talk, hosts vSilenttio and The_Alpha_Furyan take a look at the final NHL 18 Beta Leaderboards (team rankings as well as player rankings) and find quite a few familiar names. The bulk of the episode is made up of this "review", with every skater position from Goalie to Center getting their time in the spotlight. Once past the Beta leaderboards, the discussion turns towards how the vacant divisional spots should be filled for ECL 5. Finally, we hint at what is coming up in the future for NHLGamer.com" Bonus material While recording the podcast, we had a "cheat sheet" of sorts in the form of screenshots taken on the last day of the Beta (midnight to be specific). As we mention in the podcast, we decided to share this material with the community as a form of "bonus content". To make the screenshots more visually appealing and show how dominant the NHLGamer community actually was in the Beta, @Kenu enhanced the images with some ECL art. Enjoy! Teams All Skaters Centers (featuring @ADETIKKI, @Joonas Paatiala, @Erkki, @xDoumi, @otto aaltonen, @Tzon93, @Norpee and @Migo_boo) Left Wingers (featuring @SadaPoika, @xMaick82x, @Bugimir, @plee999, @Rimpe, @pajenc, @mir02k1 and @hpkfani) Right Wingers (featuring @FlyerKungen, @imosi, @jumalpeku, @vatalisti, @Pelle3000 and @epelis) Defensemen (featuring @vSilenttio, @Slaivone, @Janikka, @The_Alpha_Furyan, @Ilmari_30, @Rullstolskalas, @kikiukko and @Gustafsson7) Goaltenders (featuring @FinKonna, @Casper, @Tauri, @s_w1ld_rus, @Jiihooo86, @Hullued, @Zande95, @jaakko katiska, @Ylijumala and @MajLeN-Gaming) As always, stay tuned for more ECL Talk and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and like the video if you want to see more content like this in the future. See you then! @vSilenttio and @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com

Good afternoon, Gamers The second episode of ECL Talk is here and so are our sound problems! Yes, we know what you're thinking: good job @vSilenttio and @The_Alpha_Furyan - and we thank you for that. So, to poke some fun at ourselves and to honor the late Chester Bennington, we've named the episode after a Linkin Park song; Lost In The Echo. Be sure to note how confident we sound in the beginning of the episode that we did indeed fix our issue... Anyway, here's whats going down today (synopsis from YouTube page): "In this second episode of ECL Talk, our hosts The_Alpha_Furyan and vSilenttio turn their attention to reviewing the NHL 18 Beta. The episodes main focus is on our hosts providing their own impressions of the game, while also discussing which ECL franchises seems to have figured out the game and done well for themselves in this short span of time. Furthermore, ECL Talk #2 touches down in the Free Agents thread – looking at some of the remaining “big dogs” out there. Lastly, the Summer Cup is discussed briefly with the champions being crowned no more than a week ago." Stay tuned for more ECL Talk and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and like the video if you want to see more content like this in the future. PS: A final apology for the once again poor audio quality – for Episode 3 we will be recording in a different manner to make sure the quality is crisp. See you then! @vSilenttio and @The_Alpha_Furyan for NHLGamer.com