Wishlist for 2023

[misterflugietime]

Here are some of my thoughts on what needs to happen/improve/change for NHL 2023:

• Bring the game to PC
• Add connected franchise with a decent amount of customization options but at the very minimum custom season lengths. 
• If no connected franchise - add some sort of a league franchise creation with a lot of customizations within HUT. 
• Make poke checks and stick lifts drain a significant amount of players energy, absolute nonsense how overused these are with virtually no consequences. 
• Make body checks drain a ton of energy and have lingering effects for the rest of the game. Far too often I see people willing to let their player get absolutely destroyed just to make a pass up the boards with the hope of a breakaway. Let there be some consequences for making this decision.
• Another EA cash grab that is probably never going to change but get rid of the damn grinding and/or opening of your wallets just to have a shot at competing in HUT. The idea of HUT is great but isn't fun for those who have a wife, kids and a full time job that can't devote playing for 20+ hours a week or have no interest in paying extra money for a game they already paid for.
• Change the maximum of squad battles from 30+ down to 5 a week and make your points for each game based upon a lot of things such as passing percentage, goals scored, hits, time of possession, shots versus the other teams shots, shut outs and so on. Going back to the previous point - get rid of this garbage grinding aspect of the game which we all know is in hopes of making people buy packs to cut through the line of grinding. 
• This game was amazing in HUT for the first several weeks, you actual had people playing some legit hockey and I think I only had a couple of games that were not competitive from when I started playing until a few weeks later. Then suddenly it was back to old 21 arcade hockey nonsense, now I am not sure if it is because of the higher overalls of player cards being released or a patch or some combination of the two but it was such a disgusting step in the wrong direction. Before hand your passes would go wayward like they would in real life if you just chucked a blind behind the back pass to a guy you have no clue where he would be if you were the player. Now? They are pinpoint passes or sometimes might be a bit off but quite frankly I rarely see passes missing like I used to see when the game was first released. I miss those days. Go back to the more simulation style hockey that it was when 22 was first released.
• Cross crease was being defended so well to start with in the first few weeks and then suddenly defenders forgot what the hell they were doing. This is what makes me think something in the patches changed things in all the wrong ways. 
• Add way more options and customization options for offensive/defensive strategies and the possibility to create your own strategies. This game hasn't changed anything in regards to strategies for way too long and finally needs to be looked at. 
• How switching players works - if I push my thumbstick in a specific direction and press whatever button I have assigned to switch players, it should go to that player I am aiming the thumbstick at. Currently it seems like the game is randomly deciding who it should switch to and in the vast majority of cases it is completely the wrong choice and has led to more goals than I could ever count. One of the most frustrating parts of gameplay is this garbage.
• Completely revamp Be a Pro Mode - it is so clunky and quite frankly isn't fun when you get penalized because of poor AI play and the fact your coach thinks it is YOUR fault that the AI center didn't cover his assigned area. A real coach isn't going to blame the left defensemen because the center got lost but it happens all the time in this mode. Just get rid of the challenges and base how your player did on the specific plays he made in the game. Not only that - no matter how good or bad I play leading up to the draft I am always the best player in the world and get drafted #1. 
• Must improve the AI in pretty much every faucet of the game but especially defensive AI as terrible decisions by them that make no hockey sense lead to so many issues for the user and ultimately ends up with getting scored against. 

[Mustarddwarf315]

Im really really  hoping the add the sphl League to the game 

I'm wondering why they haven't the sphl is right below echl sphl  Loans players to the echl all the time . Soo  please can you add sphl to nhl23 soo I can play as my official home town team my nhl hometown team is Chicago Blackhawk 

[johum2886]

EA can barely handle the leagues they currently have, but I do agree that they need to add more leagues. SPHL probably shouldn't be above some other leagues however

[SvenArne123]

No helmet option for created players offline

Vintage goalie masks for created goalies offline

Custom season mode where we could change number of teams, games etc

If these three things were added I'd be set for life

[Atishksingh]

@SvenArne123 I like all that. Plus a proper playoff mode that includes injuries and is set up like the Season Modes playoffs.

And personally I want more props for created players; glasses, black eyes, missing teeth. How fun would that be?.

I'd also want a better home ice Hat Trick animation. Being able to break the glass with HUGE hits and being able to hit players into the bench like NHL 12-14 would be so much fun.

[OmarOL15]

Get KHL teams in the game

Let images upload for better team creations and more arena templates

[MATTDALOR1AN]

"

• Make body checks drain a ton of energy and have lingering effects for the rest of the game. Far too often I see people willing to let their player get absolutely destroyed just to make a pass up the boards with the hope of a breakaway. Let there be some consequences for making this decision."

There should also be some consequences for laying the body check if the checker makes that decision to get out of position and make that play; the person being checked should be able to use that as a strategy and take the hit to set up a play like a pass for a 2-1 or 2-0.  Sounds like you should just defensively play for the poke/pass rather than the body and/or less aggressive on the forecheck/backcheck so you have more bodies coming back on the rush.

[Follisimo]

 Things like that won't really ever matter because it just promotes you to go around hitting people like crazy knowing you weaken them. Checking is effective when you use it in the right times.  So no to the checking idea.

As for the only wishlist features i care about.

1.) 120fps mode 1080 or whatever

2.)  Crossplay PS5 to XS and PS4 to XB!

3.)  PC version (which would require Crossplay to be a thing)

[TTZ_Dipsy]

In my opinion, we need to consolodate modes and leagues, not add more - The base game has been in dire need of ground-up changes for years now.

Hitting absolutely needs an overhaul - In its current state, you can totally smash and a guy and they'll still pick the puck back up. People who only know how to hit are easy to play against since they are normally slow and predictible - Make the risk/reward worth it for both players attempting to out maneuver the other.

If the team doesn't want to ditch last gen, we aboslutley need cross generational play in addition to console crossplay. I highly doubt we'll see a PC version but if, by chance, it happens, I would prefer if there was an option to turn crossplay with them off so I don't need to worry about any mods/glitches.

Does the game even run at 60fps? I'd assume they'd need to completely overhaul the animations to accomodate up to 120 - If you're going that far, might as well opt for 1440p resolution because everyone and their dog apparently has to have that with their new competitive monitors.

[booher04]

Hitting needs revamped.  You can destroy someone and they still get the puck like what was mentioned earlier in the thread.  Id like to see hitting into the bench or even through the glass again like the old NHL days.  Also why are you allowed to go fight someone on a clean check?  I see it happen all the time.. clean check to cause a breakaway and the team hits the fight so there is no breakaway now.  If thats the case the person should get an instigator penalty. 

remove the crazy flashing loading screens.. also remove the banner scoreboard at the bottom and put it back up in corner.  Atleast give the option to do that and not just completely remove it. 

allow clubs with less than 5 skaters to pick the player type of their ai skaters/dmen.  Let me choose the play styles of the ai that will work with my play style. maybe a pool of different ai players to put into the positions you need.