Why can we not have a way to play a franchise online?!

[Jimmy_Jammers_34]

Look, I understand that EA Sports has come out and said that GM Connected didn't have the numbers to support the dedicated servers it had for GM Connected — and I'd counter-argue that a lot of that had to do with the inability to change a season's length from 82 games to 50 or 25 like other sports games have, namely MLB the Show for example. That said, I just spent the weekend out of town with old college buddies who I used to play franchises with together when we were roommates. Now, living 5-plus hours apart, we have no way to do it. GM Connected was great for that. ... So if GM Connected isn't coming back, could we at the very least get the opportunity to while in an offline franchise mode, before the game starts, have the option to invite friends online to play the franchise game? We want to play together and win Cups together. Please give us back an option to somehow play a franchise together with friends online. Based on social media posts and message boards, I know I'm not alone here on this topic. Thank you for your time and consideration. 

[TTZ_Dipsy]

That would still involve having some type of server infrastructure to utilize and I don't see them doing it for the same reason they gave before - numbers (plus we're already super taxed as is).

Unfortunately, all I can really suggest is making an EASHL team or inviting your buddy to play HUT - At least then you can make either a dream team or have a static squad that you can really make your own

[Jimmy_Jammers_34]

We have an EASHL team. I have a HUT team. It's nowhere close to the same thing. Playing a few games to win a division title, and do a playoff run once a month (if we all happen to be home and on during that brief window) is not the same. Building a franchise and playing a REAL NHL season over a couple-game schedule against people from around the world who just glitch goal 90 percent of the time is not as fun. If other sports game franchises can figure it out, why can't NHL? It's baffling.

[TTZ_Dipsy]

It's all a numbers game - FIFA, Madden, MLB etc. all have much larger player bases to warrant adding server capacity. Unless they start adding MTX back into EASHL, I doubt that mode will get much better too