Mike Parilla

Wanted to do a quick write up of NHL 24 and what I’m looking forward to in NHL 25. This isn’t meant to be a review but more of a look back at where I spent my time.

Historically, I’ve been an offline player with Franchise Mode and Be A Pro, but this year was the second year I dabbled more in Hockey Ultimate Team than any other mode. Inspired by NoSleeve’s No Money Spent series, I set out to make a HUT team with no money spent on packs in game. While I caught the tail end of Packpocalypse, here is where that team landed by year’s end

Next year for HUT, I think I will prioritize current and former Hawks on my roster as opposed to chasing the meta. Doing so was somewhat exhausting and made it much less fun. Having Chelios on my roster all year was awesome since it showed how far I had come, and being able to just keep and upgrade his card as I progressed was awesome.

As for NHL 25, I’m writing this now ahead of any deep dives to see how much of what I’m looking forward to ends up making it in game. From what the community is speculating (and what EA is advertising) I’m most excited about the changes coming to Franchise Mode and the new HUT Wildcard and unified online progression.

For Franchise Mode, outside of the streamlined hub they alluded to, I’m really, really hoping they do away with the headless player portraits in lieu of generated headshots for players like they have for your generated player in Be A Pro, Coaches in Franchise Mode, or the players in Dynasty Mode in EA’s recent game, College Football 25. In terms of immersion, it makes the world of difference to see players faces in year 15 of a Franchise as opposed to the nothing which is currently there. Small thing but would make a world of difference.

Unifying progression into one track like MLB the Show does will also be a welcomed change. That way playing the game where you want gets you rewards, as opposed to being forced to play HUT Rush, Rivals or Squad Battles. It’ll make grinding out the game feel less like another job, which is a nice quality of life change.

Lastly, I’m looking forward to October Chel, nothing is quite like the early grind of the game where everyone is getting acquainted with the new meta / balance / systems back dropped against a new NHL season where every team has aspirations of greatness. Will the Blackhawks be good this year? Probably not, I still anticipate them as a bottom five team in the league. But hope abounds and I’m hopeful for another installment in the EA NHL franchise