Hockey may not have the same fan following as baseball, football, or soccer, but its ardent supporters believe that it is a very unique sport. It’s the feel of your skate moving smoothly across the ice, the weight of the puck against your stick, and the chilly arena air. To their credit, EA Vancouver’s devs appear to understand all of that, which has helped them produce a fun NHL simulation with a devoted following. However, given the series hasn’t really advanced in any significant way in recent years, that commitment has been put to the test more and more.
This dynamic is maintained in EA Sports NHL 26, a game that masterfully captures the majority of what makes hockey unique, but it never feels like a major improvement over previous iterations that could make purchasing yet another version thrilling rather than required. If you’ve played any of the EA hockey games in recent years, you’ll know what to anticipate from NHL 26. Franchise mode, which lets you lead the team of your choice on a season-long mission to win the Stanley Cup, is the series’ main feature.
It’s essentially the default setting, displaying the series’s most well-known elements, and it still accomplishes it quite effectively. The controls are simple, individual games are quick, and EA Vancouver has spent years perfecting a system that largely works. Since there aren’t many other hockey games out there at the moment, and the ones that do contain the real NHL players and clubs, it’s possible that the lack of competition is what makes the producers play it safe and leave a lot of things the same from year to year. To be honest, it’s difficult to hold them too accountable for failing to fix something that isn’t wrong.
However, this circumstance has led to a regrettable tendency for the series, whereby each year’s edition feels like a baby step, and NHL 26 still prioritizes little adjustments over significant alterations. Because of this, it’s simple to overlook moves that go beyond simply replicating the major roster shifts that have occurred during the offseason, like Matt Dumba joining the Penguins after leaving Dallas and Mitch Marner joining the Golden Knights after leaving the Leafs.
After a season under the temporary “Utah Hockey Club” moniker, EA Vancouver appears to have done a rather excellent job of updating everything as of this writing, including depicting the Utah Mammoth with their new name, uniforms, and venue. Finally, the two new women’s league teams from the 2025–2026 season have been added to PWHL, but other than that, the mode seems entirely unaltered.
It’s simple to overlook modifications that go beyond simply replicating significant roster changes.
Despite the fact that Franchise mode appears to be the most popular single-player mode in EA’s annual NHL games, I truly like the customizing choices and overall perspective on the sport that the Be a Pro game offers. As someone who played hockey as a child, I can attest that concentrating on managing a single player seems quite genuine. Line modifications, playing in position, and configuring CPU-controlled characters are all more important to take into account.
Although I was happy to see that some of the more significant changes this year could be found here, I have discovered that not all of them are good. Eliminating things that haven’t worked can lead to some of the biggest improvements: The much-maligned and often-repeated opening image from “pricey pond hockey,” which was featured in several games, has finally been removed from NHL 26. The recurring cinematic scene where an agent describes how you’re playing pond pick-up with a group of kids because you’re so passionate about hockey is no longer there. Rather, you are immediately thrust into the player maker. Thankfully, EA has also reduced the frequency of coach meetings from the previous Be a Pro versions. The hitch is that press conferences may be used in their stead, which may be even more boring.
Participating in a press conference is actually a pretty cool notion, and the first questions help to mold your on-ice identity. Your approach to free agency is one of the things the hockey press will ask you. Selecting one option will increase your likability with teammates, while selecting the other one will benefit your brand. However, after participating in multiple consecutive ones, the execution quickly becomes monotonous. That could be a bit too realistic: I’ve been to actual NHL press conferences, and sometimes the questions from sports reporters are just as depressing as they are here. How does losing the division make me feel? What do you think?
Furthermore, it frequently seems unfair how player metrics are affected by press conference answers. I was given a variety of possibilities when I was asked at a press conference if I would base my career on a particular athlete. Apparently, I made the incorrect choice, and my brand stat dropped right away. Even worse, NHL 26 doesn’t always make it obvious which responses would harm your company’s reputation or management’s sentiments, so an apparently innocent response could have unanticipated repercussions.
However, a clever modification has made the NHL’s most frightening mode more accessible to me. It takes a lot of time and work to assemble a Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) team composed of NHL greats. Although you are given daily freebies that can help you build a respectable team without paying more, it can also accept some real money. Though sometimes you want to play without the strain of competing against actual people, I still don’t necessarily want to put my squad up against the dedicated players who dominate online with a combination of ability and big budgets.
EA’s decision to replace last year’s HUT Squad Battles with a new offline Cup Chase mode for NHL 26 is a welcome shift, as it allows players to assemble a team and test them out in a comprehensive single-player campaign with a variety of difficulty settings. I was thankful for the opportunity to start games with my own team without worrying about being outclassed by players who were fervently defending their online rankings. And just like they would in HUT, anyone who wants to can take that team online.
However, the NHL is feeling more and more behind the yearly sports game pack in terms of graphics, whether online or off. This is in spite of the fact that NHL 25 was the first game in the franchise to abandon the PS4 and Xbox One and concentrate on the current platforms last year. However, NHL 26 still doesn’t seem to be making the most of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Although there are many amazing features, such as surface wear as a game progresses, and the ice itself jumps on the screen well, almost everything else is disappointing.
In comparison to other contemporary sporting events, the character models are rough, with players, coaches, and spectators frequently appearing somewhat unattractive. Additionally, several odd decisions and omissions date back to previous games, such as team logos being removed from certain screens. With uncomfortable celebrations that would be perfectly at home on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii, crowd reactions likewise seem to be trapped in the past.
Fortunately, I like the audio far more. This year’s menus have some fantastic new songs, including songs by artists like The Hives and Wet Leg. “Catch These Fists” is definitely a good fit for hockey, even though I never would have considered it as such. With organ noises and cheers unique to each team, EA Vancouver maintains the authenticity of each rink’s acoustics in the games themselves. Additionally, the commentary is quite accurate to the current NHL viewing experience; it provides the same lively play-by-play that you would anticipate hearing on TNT and has the sense of a nationally televised game. Nevertheless, I appreciated that I could turn it off when it became monotonous.
Verdict
Even though NHL 26 doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from previous years or other sports games, it is still a respectable addition to the EA Vancouver franchise. Even after all these years, there’s still something thrilling about setting up the ideal pass or banking a goal in, and it still plays decently. Despite how familiar the gameplay was, I rarely felt dissatisfied with it. In addition to these previously successful features, there are a few minor enhancements that are appreciated, such as the ability to enjoy our offline Ultimate Team player collections.
In addition, the series’s aesthetics have stagnated, with gorgeous hockey rinks juxtaposed with somewhat unattractive players and spectators. There is fun to be had, but I can’t help but hope they start the season better next year. NHL 26 has made me feel like I’ve just witnessed a 6-5 overtime victory in April when my club has already been eliminated from postseason contention.
