I find them to be awful, sadly. Passing is one of the most fun aspects in hockey, to me. I pride myself on my vision and creativeness, both in real life on the ice and in this NHL series, and this game doesn't let you replicate true passing at all.
I play 90% of my games online and cannot alter sliders, but even offline with adjustments it just isn't there this year. They (EA) haven't said much on anything, let alone passing issues. I am assuming it just wasn't possible with the new puck physics, or something, to get true manual passing into the game. And with everything else on their plate I would doubt that it gets addressed in NHL 15.
I accidentally pass back out of the attacking zone about 3 times a game now. Trying to hit my point man from the wall with a pass while I am in the attacking zone is a crap shoot. Cycling the puck is cumbersome. Going d-to-do is not awful, but could use work. And breaking out and using the boards for a bank pass is non existent in NHL 15 for next gen.
I can't see how it could be said that the gameplay is so great in this game when one of the major facets of that is pretty much broken in manual passing. I guess I hope that it is fixed for next year, but I am sure most people will settle for it just being back to the way it was in NHL 14. Eventually this list of "needs-to-be fixed" will heavily outweigh the "have time to address" or "are competently staffed" that is needed and the fear I have is that a good chunk of what plagues this game will not be touched or improved upon. I mean they are already playing catch-up with the game just to get it fully featured, that doesn't allow for a whole lot of refinement or new improvements. At some point you dig yourself too great a hole to climb out of, right?