NHL 26 Wishlist

[blaziruku]

1. Menu lag. It's just unacceptable at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a pro enhanced next year that somehow still lags. Even with all the good changes it's pointless when you have to do so much waiting and essentially playing like you are on high ping in an online game.

2. Generated prospect photos, they have it in BAP, why not in game?

3. Generated prospects actually using different skating/goalie stances. Why have (I think 60?) goalie stances if they all default to 1? It's so obvious but for some reason they didn't bother doing that when generating them.

4. Better staff. It's just kind of tedious to do, with nonsensical contract negotiations. Also, VERY few players retire into coaching. It should be a bit more common so we can actually get some new faces rather than the.. I think 7-8 faces coaches all share. In like 10 years I think only like 6-7 people become coaches. And this isn't just NHLers. Entirely too. I feel like I've only seen people who've played in the NHL become coaches. If they are other leagues, too bad.

5. Less stops. Should be a toggle or option to turn it off so you don't get hit with the same message you see year after year. Like "oh it's dec 1, blah blah contracts". We know. Or the AI changing your trading block... again. Stop. Why is there 1 in FA and then one in pre season? I've removed it, stop making it remove it twice. Plus, it's bugged too. You can only set 3, but the ai will often set like 4-5 so when you do delete the 3 surplus/wants, it shows another 1-2 lol.

6. Again, better trade logic. 1st overalls are still all too easy to trade for, and **** teams should know obviously their pick is worth more, ESPECIALLY during the draft when there's a "clear" franchise forward. But no, they treat it like normal and bam, easy pickings. Of course you can ignore it yourself, but it's just a general game issue where the AI is just really bad at trades. They will take bad contracts all too often too. What are they, Jim Benning?

7. PWHL would be cool, and it'd be nice for more variety of gameplay personally to me if they could be edited and allowed into franchise mode should people choose to. Before someone inevitably goes "muh realism", I don't care. I just want more player variety when I do a new save, it's a game after all and it'd be neat mixing those line ups like you can do in HUT which is a lot more interesting.

8. Goalie improvements. It's gotten better, but there are still so many issues with their general save pattern. While they go down less into the awful desperation mode, they still do and aren't remotely close to realistic goalies. Why do goalies spread eagle making a simple pad save? A slow puck moving towards them they don't glove either, they just... pad save it aggressively so theres' a ****ty rebound to easily score. There's also a pad save that is FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN. Like, it DOESN'T WORK. The goalie angles their pad stupidly so the rebounds angle IN towards the net instead of away... AND it leaves a giant gap between the arm that always results in a goal because the animation LITERALLY can't save anything. Unless it's perfectly shot to the pad, free goal if it's inbetween the blocker/chest.

8B. In addition to those, the way goalies turn towards the puck is still not good enough. It's also a big reason why dekes can just leave a wide open net even if a goalie is positioned well, because they just... turn to face the puck leaving half the net open. They really need to fix it better so they take into account where the net is, not literally only the puck. It's tiring seeing someone deke right and a goalie who would have their pad/blocker there just turn to the right also, and leave the entire side open....

9. Skaters need to be nerfed in how they shoot. It's incredibly dumb how you can shoot from basically anywhere. It's like the old NHLs where when you do a slapshot, the puck just MAGNETIZES to you. They kind of "fixed" that, but it's still in the game where you the puck "soft" magnetizes to you if you try to slapshot from stupid or almost impossible angles. But wrist shots? They are just broken. I can't count the amount of shots my players have taken where they 360 BREAK THEIR SPINE and shoot because I shot. That shouldn't be possible. If you try to shoot when you PHYSICALLY CAN'T, it should be delayed until your player is positioned properly. But no, in the name of making is "more fun", you get the wildest and most unrealistic goals as players twist and turn (and again, magnetize the puck to their stick) just so a shot can go off.

It reminds me of how they kind of slowed down stick handling, but certain puck grabbing animations will just ZIP the puck at mach10 to your strong side so goalies just leave a wide open net.

[JBlaze78]

Real Faceoffs. Surprised its not a MUST for hockey fans. The fact faceoffs still are not even close to correct blows my mind. Yet here we are begging for crumbs at this point.

The coach patch is gross imo.... You cant edit them. All forward coaches only roll 3 lines, and are the only coaches that will have a forcheck preference which is essentially what every team uses. Generalist coaches are basically defensive coaches with more varied line strategies. Defensive coaches use basic bish offensive strategies, usually all lines overload, all pairings balanced. Never use Vet coaches so dont know.

Custom league options are weak and of course they didnt expand on it. 33rd team expansion makes 0 sense. You can never have another team added to your franchise after any amount of time.

The only thing good about this game the last 8 years or so, is that I dont have to listen to the 'if its in the game, its in the game' bull****e. Again Faceoffs are a joke. But were in the game 10 years ago.

Pre game presentation, Post game presentation, All Star break Game and Skills Comp, 80-84 rated goalies not being the best Sim goalies in the game. Rating differentiations so players like McDavids speed feels different than Jani Hakanpaa on a rush.

Be a Pro with multiple seasons. Let me actually BE A PRO... If I want to take over McDavid let me, start as Bedard let me, start as some kid at 15 in the CHL and play 3 seasons, if I want to create myself let me.

Unlock editing in offline modes AFTER the mode has started. Options keep getting removed, its ridiculous. Its an OFFLINE mode I should be able to make Logan Stankhoven 7 foot tall. I should be able to veto trades or override trades.

And to mention editing, why is it so freaking tedious. In NBA 2k I can mass edit every single player on my team AT THE SAME TIME. Or individually and quickly with menus that dont stick and take literally seconds. Game feels like its on dial up at times.

Menus that dont totally suck. Literally I have no comparison for this. Its ridiculous as it seems to get worse. Not sure how as now we have PS5 PRO and its marginally better. Its not the hardware, its the SOFTWARE.

GM Connected. Keeps getting postponed because of that sweet sweet HUT money. Essentially the same game mode yet you cant rip off people for packs that dont rollover year to year.

Most of the above is just fixing the Red Headed Stepchild that is NHL as most was already in the game at some point but somehow is no longer.

ERAs would be Amazing! Anyone who has played 2k knows what I am talking about. Not even a basketball fan and that game is light years ahead of EA sports in nearly ever way.

Sorry if any of this has been discussed, been away for a while. Truly just want a better game, that is enjoyable to play again.