Search the Community

Hi there NHLGamers, The release of EA Sports NHL 19 is nigh and us gamers are slowly returning from the wild outside and sunny beaches towards the familiar comfort of our gaming stations and consoles. Today we're bringing you some news about the new title, this time in the form of some reworks and additions for the Hockey Ultimate Team mode. In NHL 18, one of the major problems with HUT was the quick inflation of the market caused by a few various factors. Most notably, the lower overalls and bigger gap between low and high rated players went out the door very fast as a wide variety of special player items were released early on. The fact that the market was flooded early on also diminished the incentive for several players to chase higher rated players, as similar items were so easily available. Another problem encountered in HUT games were gamers position-locking themselves, the mere possibility of doing so received heavy criticism as it steps back on the competitiveness and overall fairness of the game. It also defeats the purpose of PvP-play. EA announced that they are going to try their best to address these problems in the new release, which is only 16 days away (13 for early release). This leads us into discussing some of the changes made from previous years iteration. Changes to NHL 19 HUT Rebalancing the economy is going to be one of the main priorities in making HUT fun for the gamers. The development team has a few answers for achieving a better market balance and avoiding the inflation we saw in NHL 18. First off, overalls have been lowered even more than last year. In NHL 19 HUT base item overalls will range from 55-85 at launch, with a few exceptions being Alumni and Legend items. The lower overalls will allow for more stat growth to happen throughout the year. Secondly, the player item class/rarity division has been revamped. In NHL 18 the class/rarity ranging from bronze to gold directly reflected the league the player played in. All CHL players were bronze items, all NHL players were gold items. This didn't allow for effective leveraging of the entire player catalogue. In NHL 19 we will see a change, where the item class/rarity reflects the overall of the player in question, not the league the player plays in. Here is how the class/rarity system works in NHL 19: 50-55 OVR Bronze Common 56-61 OVR Bronze Rare 62-67 OVR Silver Common 68-73 OVR Silver Rare 74-79 OVR Gold Common 80+ OVR Gold Rare A new class/rarity division will allow for a more effective way of sorting players and it will also make higher rated players harder to obtain, regardless of the league they play in. In addition to these two courses of action, the weekly live items are being changed. As the release frequency during NHL 18 was very high with four live items being released each week. NHL 19 will not feature Flashback player weekly items anymore, making for less new player items hitting the market. Trade-in sets have been renewed a bit too in order to make unwanted and lower rarity cards more valuable to the gamer. At launch, NHL 19 will feature six different player trade-in sets: 5 Bronze Common Players -> 1 Bronze Rare Player (6 hour cool down) 5 Bronze Rare Players -> 1 Silver Common Player (6 hour cool down) 5 Silver Common Players -> 1 Silver Rare Player (6 hour cool down) 5 Silver Rare Players -> 1 Gold Common Player (6 hour cool down) 5 Gold Common Players -> 1 Untradeable Gold Rare Player (8 hour cool down) Gold Rare Re-Roll (2 Gold Rare Players -> 1 Untradeable Gold Rare Player) (8 hour cool down) NHL 19 will also feature a trade-in set, which will allow trading five gold rare players for a gold rare collectible. This trade-in set will have a 24 hour cooldown. Other than having less player items flooding the market, NHL 19 will have position lock from HUT removed. New additions to NHL 19 HUT Well, right off the bat one of the new additions will be the much advertised 200+ alumni and legend items available for HUT gamers. According to EA, the legends and alumni will range all the way from all-time greats to local legends and fan favourites. 30 alumni player items will be available all year from the HUT store, and the rest will be released in weekly waves, with availability being time limited. Gamers will have four main ways of obtaining legend player items. 32 legends will be available in sets at launch. Some will be released as monthly collectibles available for gamers who have completed daily objectives, which is another new addition we will discuss in a bit. Seven legend items can be obtained by completing various in-game milestone tasks, such as scoring goals, completing sets or taking shots on goal. On top of these three ways, there will be legend packs in the HUT store. Legend packs will be available for a limited time and contain a guaranteed legend item from a pre-selected pool. Objectives are a new addition that might resemble daily challenges for all our Fortnite players out there. EA promises to introduce various types of objectives in NHL 19, as there will be daily tasks, but also progression objectives and special event objectives in HUT. Objectives reward the gamer with HUT items of various types. Milestones aren't a new term, but they will be introduced in a whole new way in NHL 19. They are long-term goals with impressive rewards as you go about your progression in HUT. Some milestones could be goals scored, challenge stars earned or objectives completed. Milestones will have higher rewards than objectives. Loan Players might be familiar to FIFA gamers, who have played a bit of FUT (FIFA Ultimate Team). This addition brings you the opportunity to try out star players in your line-up for a limited time before heading to the auction house to spend your hard-earned coins. Loan items can be earned in many ways, such as through completing objectives or surpassing milestones to name a few. So there you have it, it seems like a bunch of needed changes have been done to HUT for NHL 19. Is it a hit or a miss - what do you think? Let us know in the comments! Source: https://www.easports.com/nhl/news/2018/hut-deep-dive

Well, well, well... There's been lots of talk about how the NHL series lacks the "Weekend League" game mode the FIFA series is blessed with. As of today, your prayers appears to have been answered with the brand-new introduction of HUT Champions. HUT Champions will be a high-stakes, high-rewards mode for those looking to play HUT on a whole different competitive level. What? HUT Champions is the NHL equivalent of FIFA Weekend League. It is esentially a "hardcore mode", where you play the best opponents in a tight timeframe. The objective is to accumulate as many wins as possible within the given time frame and restrictions. Wins earn the player points which in turn will lead to higher rankings. Rewards are given at the end of the season based on the leaderboard standings. When? The first season of HUT Champions will go live today, February 16th at 2:00 PM PT. The week will hold three qualifiers on February 16th, 20th and 22nd. The champions weekend itself will take place on February 23rd 2:00 PM PT until February 25th 2:00 PM PT. Results will be processed by February 27th. How? Qualification for this special league requires possessing a HUT Champions Season 1 Qualification Collectible, which can be obtained by earning a Div 1 title in online seasons between Friday February 16 2:00 PM PT and Friday February 23 2:00 PM PT. The other option is placing within the top 1250 in one of the HUT Champions Season 1 Qualifiers. Rewards Rank 1: 99 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 250,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 2: 98 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 200,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 3: 97 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 150,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 4: 96 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 100,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Rank 5: 96 OVR Pavel Bure, 5 Ultimate Packs, 50,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 6-10: Choice Pack with a choice of 2 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 4 Ultimate Packs, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 11-20: Choice Pack with a choice of 2 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 3 Ultimate Packs, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 21-50: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 2 Ultimate Packs, 1 Rare Players Plus Pack, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 51-100: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 2 Ultimate Packs, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 101-250: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 1 Ultimate Pack, 25,000 Coins, Qualification Collectible for HUT Champions Season 2 Ranks 251-500: Choice Pack with a choice of 1 of 10 Random 90+ EVO Players, 1 Ultimate Pack Ranks 501+: 1 Ultimate Pack HUT has been the topic of some controversy this year in regards to the card market and such, but this is certainly a welcome addition. HUT Champions adds a new level of competitiveness to the game. It remains to be seen how the mode will be welcomed in the NHL community. On the FIFA side of things, Eurogamer.net have previously reported on the brutality of the Weekend League, as players were grinding out 40 games a weekend, meaning closer to 20 hours of gameplay in a single weekend. In HUT Champions, the minimum amount of games to receive a rank is 5, which is a relief, for those familiar with the 20 game minimum in FIFA. The maximum will be 40, just like in the FIFA Weekend League. The first qualification round is only a few hours away at the moment of writing this. What do you think about this new way to play HUT? Will you be participating? Let us know in the comments below.

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

Exciting news NHL Gamers! The NHL 17 Beta codes have (at least partially) been sent out now and players around the world are downloading the beta as we speak! If you haven't received your code yet - despite applying for it - don't worry. It seems that those that are subscribing to the NHL Insider newsletter got it first. The rest will probably get it on Thursday the 28th, as announced earlier. We are currently waiting for the beta to download, but according to the information in the email, the modes featured in the beta are "Online Versus, EA SPORTS Hockey League, Creation Zone, and Hockey Ultimate Team™". Below is an image of what the email looks like for a PS4 user that gets a beta code. Good news - they are supplying you with two codes for your friends as well! If you didn't sign up on time for the beta (you could do it here, but it says it's closed for now), you should get in touch with your buddies and ask them if they can share a code with you. The beta size on the Xbox One is 17,93 GB and it's roughly the same on PS4. So let's all lace up those skates - I'll see you on the ice!

Hey NHL Gamers, The NHL 17 news keep coming out faster than you can say tic-tac-toe and today we're being served with an interesting piece on the new and improved Hockey Ultimate Team! You can view the trailer below: I think we can all agree that the trailer is cool, but so is the batch of information released alongside it. Loaded with new features, such as HUT Synergy, Dynamic Sets, Trading Posts and other cool improvements, the improved HUT seems like a very welcoming experience for both new and experienced players. Based on the footage we have so far, the new menus and the appearance of the cards themselves are a very welcomed improvement - superficial or not, it looks amazing! The below info is from the official website: Source: https://www.easports.com/nhl/news/2016/nhl-17-gameplay-series-hut

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!