[tinpanalley]

Ok, I'm gonna save you some time here...
You will never - get - a unanimous - response - to this question.
The problem is, hockey has changed so much on and off the ice since NHL93 that it depends what marketing of games was trying to sell, what trends were popular, how the game itself reflected those trends... this is a very very complex question. Also, games out of the box are sometimes nowhere near as good as they are with slider tweaks and sometimes they're worse with slider tweaks. But I think, ironically, the number one thing affecting the proper answering of that question is the fact that very few people agree on what "most realistic" means. I interpret it as 'looks most like a television broadcast' since after all that is where most people take in hockey. Others will say, what most feels like being at the stadium and will swear on turning off all sound that isn't ice related.


NHL series - typically more arcade-y. 2K was typically more realism focused. That being said, when NHL was more realism focused, it has outweighed 2K because the best 2K games suffer heavily from bad animations or presentation. And both of those things kill immersion no matter how "realistic" they are. Play 2K8 (in my opinion one of the best representations of hockey in a game) and see how many games you can last before the moaning zombies in the audience become unbearable. You need to ask yourself what realism means to you so you can weed through the games available. The reason other sports like American Football, Baseball, College Sports, and NBA have specific games that are considered the top is because those properties had teams behind them that genuinely cared about producing amazing games. I genuinely do not believe the NHL has ever had that. (And then there's the fact that I have strong reservations about many of the games considered "best ever"). Most people like NCAA 04 and 06 for properly recreating the College experience of drafting and playing a team of youngsters and dealing with the realities of the sport. But I'm sorry, there is nothing in either title on the field that is not vastly surpassed in NCAA Football 14 or 13. Nothing.


So I'd give you my opinion, but it would only be my opinion and pointless. This is a long process. I did it once just to reacquaint myself with hockey video games. Decide if you want to play with modern day rosters because if you do, your options are limited right from the start. Avoid "best 5 NHL games of all time" videos. They are useless. They are one person's opinion and usually based on nothing more than the same cliches you find in forums. You can tell me a million times NHL04, NBA2K12, and Madden 08 are the best games in their sports and I will always disagree with you. So what's the point of hearing that? Go back and read reviews, watch video reviews from the time, to learn what was thought of the BASE game. Not the online connectivity, not the number of franchise features, the game. Good luck. Few reviews actually review the animated sport itself. But use that and then go watch un-doctored gameplay footage of the games in question. Literally search "NHL 09 PC gameplay" on youtube. And do that with every title that interests you.


I'm saving you time, believe it or not. You'll literally take longer getting this answer by researching every game that gets mentioned in this thread. And few people will tell you exactly why they choose what they choose. And you'll still be left wondering what the others are like that nobody mentioned.

Hope that helps.