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NHL (colloquially referred to as Chel[1]) is a series of professional ice hockey simulation video games developed by EA Vancouver and published yearly by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports brand. The game is developed under license from the National Hockey League (NHL), which enables the use of the league's team names, arenas and colors in the game, and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA), which enables the use of the league's player names and likenesses.
| NHL | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre(s) | Sports (ice hockey) |
| Developer(s) |
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| Publisher(s) | EA Sports |
| Platform(s) | Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, Sega CD, MS-DOS, Game Boy, Saturn, Windows, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Gear, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S |
| First release | NHL Hockey 1991 |
| Latest release | NHL 25 October 4, 2024 |
In NHL Hockey from 1991, the game modes were season and playoff, and due to the license, the game was called EA Hockey in Europe and featured 22 national teams instead. NHLPA Hockey '93 was without the NHL license, so instead of NHL team names and logos, there were only cities. In NHL 95 were added game modes exhibition, training, shootout and the possibility to change individual players in teams. On PC, NHL 96 was in 3D with 2D player textures, fights are back (most recently in the first two games). NHL 97 was the first full 3D installment, the national teams of Canada, USA and Russia have been added, the other two teams contain a compilation of the best European players. In NHL 98, 18 national teams were already included. In NHL 99, the career mode was added and in NHL 2000, the tournament mode.
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| Title | Year | Platforms | Standard edition cover athletes, worldwide | Cover athletes, specific regions and editions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NHL Hockey | 1991 | SMD | – | |
| NHLPA Hockey '93 | 1992 | SMD, SNES | – | |
| NHL '94 | 1993 | DOS†, SCD, SMD, SNES | – | |
| NHL 95 | 1994 | DOS, GB, GG†, SMD, SNES | – | |
| NHL 96 | 1995 | DOS, GB, SMD, SNES | – | |
| NHL 97 | 1996 | DOS, PS1, Sat, SMD, SNES, Win | John Vanbiesbrouck (Florida)[2] | – |
| NHL 98 | 1997 | PS1, Sat, SMD, SNES, Win | Peter Forsberg (Colorado)[2] | – |
| NHL 99 | 1998 | N64, PS1, Win | Eric Lindros (Philadelphia)[2] | – |
| NHL 2000 | 1999 | GBC, PS1, Win | Chris Pronger (St. Louis)[2] | |
| NHL 2001 | 2000 | PS1, PS2, Win | Owen Nolan (San Jose)[2] | |
| NHL 2002 | 2001 | GBA, PS2, Win, Xbox | Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh)[2] | – |
| NHL 2003 | 2002 | GCN, PS2, Win, Xbox | Jarome Iginla (Calgary)[2] | |
| NHL 2004 | 2003 | GCN, PS2, Win, Xbox | – | |
| NHL 2005 | 2004 | GCN, PS2, Win, Xbox | Markus Naslund (Vancouver)[2][4] | EU Olli Jokinen (Florida)[3] |
| NHL 06 | 2005 | GCN, PS2, Win, Xbox | Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay)[2] | EU Tuomo Ruutu (Chicago)[3] |
| NHL 07 | 2006 | X360, PS2, PSP, Win, Xbox | Alexander Ovechkin (Washington)[2] | |
| NHL 08 | 2007 | PS3, X360, PS2, Win | Eric Staal (Carolina)[2] | |
| NHL 09 | 2008 | PS3, X360, PS2, Win | Dion Phaneuf (Calgary)[2][5] | |
| 3 on 3 NHL Arcade | 2009 | PS3, X360 | None | – |
| NHL 10 | 2009 | PS3, X360 | Patrick Kane (Chicago)[2][6] | In Switzerland, special slip covers were made featuring a player from each team in the Swiss National League. These were sold through each team's online storefront and limited to 400 copies per team. |
| NHL 11 | 2010 | PS3, X360 | Jonathan Toews (Chicago)[7] |
|
| NHL Slapshot | 2010 | Wii | Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton) | – |
| NHL 12 | 2011 | PS3, X360 | Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay) | |
| NHL 13 | 2012 | PS3, X360 | Claude Giroux (Philadelphia) |
|
| NHL 14 | 2013 | PS3, X360 | Martin Brodeur (New Jersey) |
|
| NHL 15 | 2014 | PS4, XBO, PS3, X360 | Patrice Bergeron (Boston) |
|
| NHL 16 | 2015 | PS4, XBO | Jonathan Toews (Chicago)‡ | SUI Nino Niederreiter (Minnesota Wild) |
| NHL: Legacy Edition | 2015 | PS3, X360 | None (Stanley Cup pictured instead) | – |
| NHL 17 | 2016 | PS4, XBO | Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis) | SUI Nino Niederreiter (Minnesota)[18] |
| NHL 18 | 2017 | PS4, XBO | Connor McDavid (Edmonton) | SUI Roman Josi (Nashville) (The Josi cover was officially released as a downloadable cover by EA Sports, but the McDavid cover was sold at retail in Switzerland)[19] |
| NHL 19 | 2018 | PS4, XBO | P. K. Subban (Nashville) | FIN Patrik Laine (Winnipeg)[20] SWE William Nylander (Toronto)[20] Ultimate edition: Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton) |
| NHL 20 | 2019 | PS4, XBO | Auston Matthews (Toronto) | FIN Patrik Laine (Winnipeg) SWE Elias Pettersson (Vancouver) |
| NHL 21 | 2020 | PS4, XBO | Alexander Ovechkin (Washington) | – |
| NHL 22 | 2021 | PS4, XBO, PS5, XSX/S | Auston Matthews (Toronto) | – |
| NHL 23 | 2022 | PS4, XBO, PS5, XSX/S | Trevor Zegras (Anaheim) and Sarah Nurse (Canada) | – |
| NHL 24 | 2023 | PS4, XBO, PS5, XSX/S | Cale Makar (Colorado) | – |
| NHL 25 | 2024 | PS5, XSX/S | Quinn Hughes (Vancouver)[21] | US Jack Hughes (New Jersey)[21]
Deluxe edition: Luke Hughes (New Jersey) along with his brothers Quinn and Jack. This version wasn't released in a physical format. |
- ^† as NHL Hockey
- ^‡ Joe Thornton was originally chosen, but EA switched to Dany Heatley after Thornton was accused of assaulting two police officers. Thornton's cover was never produced. After the 2003–04 season had begun, Heatley was involved in a car crash that killed teammate Dan Snyder, prompting EA to switch covers to one featuring Joe Sakic.[3]
- ^‡ ‡ Patrick Kane was originally slated to share the cover with teammate Jonathan Toews, however, following sexual assault claims made against Kane, he was dropped from the cover.[22]
- ^EU in Europe; ^DEN in
Denmark; ^FIN in 
Finland; ^RUS in 
Russia; ^SWE in 
Sweden; ^SUI in 
Switzerland; ^CZE in 
Czech Republic; ^US in 
United States
In addition to the NHL itself, the different installments of the game include development leagues like the American Hockey League and ECHL, major junior leagues like the member leagues of the Canadian Hockey League, European national leagues from Russia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Czech Republic, and the European Champions Hockey League.
As is traditional with EA Sports, the NHL series boxes feature live action photos instead of drawings. As it lacked the NHLPA license, the early titles staged photos without real players. NHLPA Hockey 93, on the other hand, had the rights to use player images, but not of the teams. On this cover, the main action photo features the New York Rangers' Randy Moller checking the Philadelphia Flyers' Rod Brind'Amour while Rangers goaltender Mike Richter makes a save (in this photo there is the logo of the New York Rangers located on the bottom right of the goaltender's pants). This photo is surrounded by eight small portraits of players (Steve Yzerman, Andy Moog, Pat LaFontaine, Brian Leetch, Ray Bourque, Patrick Roy, Jeremy Roenick, and Rick Tocchet). This changed with NHL 94, which featured a goal situation for Tomas Sandstrom (Los Angeles Kings) against Andy Moog (Boston Bruins). NHL 95 featured an in-goal camera during a goal scored by Alexei Kovalev of the New York Rangers during the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals against Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks. NHL 96 featured New Jersey's Scott Stevens and Detroit's Steve Yzerman. More recently, Claude Giroux was featured on the cover of NHL 13 and Martin Brodeur was on the cover of NHL 14. On June 24, 2014, EA Sports announced at the 2014 NHL Awards in Las Vegas that Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins would be the official cover athlete for NHL 15. In 2015, during the NHL awards, it was announced that the cover of NHL 16 would feature Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane carrying the Stanley Cup together. However, on August 12, 2015, EA announced that Kane would not be appearing on the cover or participating in any promotional activities for the game in light of a criminal investigation he was involved in. Instead, the cover featured Toews alone. At the 2016 NHL Awards, it was announced that Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues was to appear on the cover of NHL 17.[23] On June 21, 2017, during the 2017 NHL Awards, EA announced that Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers would be the cover athlete on NHL 18.[24] On August 22, 2024, EA announced that Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks would be the Canadian and international cover athlete, and Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils would be the US regional cover athlete on NHL 25. And on the deluxe edition cover of NHL 25, all three Hughes brothers (including Luke Hughes of the New Jersey Devils) are the cover athletes together, which is for the first time in video game history that three siblings are on a video game cover art together.[21]
In NHLPA '93 and NHL '94, Emmy award-winning[25] sportscaster Ron Barr gives a pre-game scouting report prior to each game. In the Genesis version of NHL 95, KNBR radio sportscaster John Shrader replaced Ron Barr in that duty. Live play-by-play commentary was introduced in the PC version of NHL 97. Jim Hughson, former play-by-play man for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and also one of Canada's best-known hockey announcers, provided the play-by-play for much of the series. The last games in which he is one of the announcers are the PC and PS2 versions of NHL 09. Bill Clement was the sole commentator in the Nintendo 64 version of NHL 99. Gary Thorne provided the play-by-play commentary in all Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions from NHL 07 through NHL 14. NBC Sports commentator Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk provided the play-by-play and color commentary on all platforms, with their first appearance together being in NHL 15 and last in NHL 19. James Cybulski is the current play-by-play commentator, starting with NHL 20. NHL 15 was also the first game to introduce an ice level analyst, with TSN analyst Ray Ferraro appearing in the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. Color commentary has been provided by Daryl Reaugh (NHL 98–99), Bill Clement (NHL 2000–2001, and NHL 07–14 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), Don Taylor (NHL 2002–2003), Craig Simpson (NHL 2004–09), Eddie Olczyk (NHL 15–19). Ferraro made the jump from ice-level analyst to full color commentator in NHL 20 (NHL 20–present).
| Games | Commentary Team |
|---|---|
| NHL 97 | Jim Hughson |
| NHL 98 | Jim Hughson, Daryl Reaugh |
| NHL 99 | Jim Hughson, Daryl Reaugh and Bill Clement |
| NHL 2000 | Jim Hughson, Bill Clement |
| NHL 2001 | |
| NHL 2002 | Jim Hughson, Don Taylor |
| NHL 2003 | |
| NHL 2004 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson |
| NHL 2005 | |
| NHL 06 | |
| NHL 07 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson (PC, PS2)
Gary Thorne, Bill Clement (PS3, Xbox 360) |
| NHL 08 | |
| NHL 09 | |
| NHL 10 | Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL Slapshot | |
| NHL 11 | |
| NHL 12 | |
| NHL 13 | |
| NHL 14 | |
| NHL 15 | Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray Ferraro |
| NHL: Legacy Edition | |
| NHL 16 | |
| NHL 17 | |
| NHL 18 | |
| NHL 19 | |
| NHL 20 | James Cybulski, Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 21 | |
| NHL 22 | |
| NHL 23 | |
| NHL 24 | James Cybulski, Cheryl Pounder |
| NHL 25 |
 | This section possibly contains original research. (April 2022) |
One idea that has been widely discussed over many years within the fan community is a purported automatic built-in gameplay mechanism called ”ice tilt”, which modifies skaters' and/or goalies' and/or the referee's penalty-decision-making behavior irrationally to favor a worse player, a player on a losing streak or a player who is down by multiple goals. EA Sports has openly denied the existence of any such mechanism, instead saying that winning is a product of skill and the quality of the team's roster. However, EA once published a document about a feature called "Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment", which was interpreted by some as confirming the existence of ice tilt. EA has not denied this. In fact, they patented the software for it. [26]
NHL 99 was the first game in the series to feature fully licensed music from David Bowie for the intro video. Since then, each game has had soundtracks of licensed music known as EA Sports Trax, with selections of punk, alternative, and rock music. Electronic and hip hop music was later added to the mix in later games. NHL 15 and NHL 16 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One use an original orchestral score instead for the menus, while the soundtrack continues playing in the arenas. NHL 17 returned to the traditional EA Trax feature and also allowed the option to switch back to the original score from NHL 15.
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