NHL (video game series)

NHL (colloquially referred to as Chel) 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.

Installments 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. Game modes added in NHL 95 were exhibition, training, shootout and the possibility to edit and trade 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.

Title Year Platforms Standard edition cover athletes, worldwide Cover athletes, specific regions and editions NHL Hockey 1991 GEN – NHLPA Hockey '93 1992 GEN, SNES – NHL '94 1993 DOS, SCD, GEN, SNES – NHL 95 1994 DOS, GB, GG, GEN, SNES – NHL 96 1995 DOS, GB, GEN, SNES – NHL 97 1996 DOS, PS1, SAT, GEN, SNES, WIN John Vanbiesbrouck (Florida) – NHL 98 1997 PS1, SAT, GEN, SNES, WIN Peter Forsberg (Colorado) – NHL 99 1998 N64, PS1, WIN Eric Lindros (Philadelphia) – NHL 2000 1999 GBC, PS1, WIN Chris Pronger (St. Louis) NHL 2001 2000 PS1, PS2, WIN Owen Nolan (San Jose) NHL 2002 2001 GBA, PS2, WIN, Xbox Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh) – NHL 2003 2002 GCN, PS2, WIN, Xbox Jarome Iginla (Calgary) NHL 2004 2003 – NHL 2005 2004 Markus Näslund (Vancouver) Olli Jokinen (Florida) NHL 06 2005 Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay) Tuomo Ruutu (Chicago) NHL 07 2006 X360, PS2, PSP, WIN, Xbox Alexander Ovechkin (Washington) NHL 08 2007 PS3, X360, PS2, WIN Eric Staal (Carolina) NHL 09 2008 Dion Phaneuf (Calgary)Dion Phaneuf named worldwide cover athlete of EA's NHL 09 [press release]. Redwood City: Electronic Arts Inc.; 2008-06-09 [cited 2010-06-15]. 3 on 3 NHL Arcade 2009 PS3, X360 None – NHL 10 Patrick Kane (Chicago) 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 Jonathan Toews (Chicago)EA Sports. Stanley Cup Champion Jonathan Toews the New Face of EA SPORTS NHL 11 [press release]. 21 June 2010 [cited 21 June 2010]. NHL Slapshot Wii Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton) – NHL 12 2011 PS3, X360 Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay) NHL 13 2012 Claude Giroux (Philadelphia) NHL 14 2013 Martin Brodeur (New Jersey) NHL 15 2014 PS4, XBO, PS3, X360 Patrice Bergeron (Boston) NHL 16 2015 PS4, XBO Jonathan Toews (Chicago) Nino Niederreiter (Minnesota Wild) NHL: Legacy Edition PS3, X360 None (Stanley Cup pictured instead) – NHL 17 2016 PS4, XBO Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis) Nino Niederreiter NHL 182017Connor McDavid (Edmonton) Roman Josi (Nashville) (downloadable) NHL 19 2018 P. K. Subban (Nashville) Patrik Laine (Winnipeg) William Nylander (Toronto) Ultimate edition: Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton) NHL 20 2019 Auston Matthews (Toronto) Patrik Laine (Winnipeg) Elias Pettersson (Vancouver) NHL 21 2020 Alexander Ovechkin (Washington) –NHL 222021PS4, XBO, PS5, XSX/SAuston Matthews (Toronto)–NHL 232022Trevor Zegras (Anaheim) and Sarah Nurse (Canada)–NHL 242023Cale Makar (Colorado)–NHL 252024PS5, XSX/SQuinn Hughes (Vancouver) Jack Hughes (New Jersey) Deluxe edition: Luke Hughes (New Jersey) along with his brothers Quinn and Jack. This version wasn't released in a physical format. NHL 262025Matthew Tkachuk (Florida)Deluxe edition: Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa) and Keith Tkachuk (St. Louis) along with Matthew.NHL 272026Macklin Celebrini (San Jose) –

Leagues

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.

Game covers

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 Final 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. 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. 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. On August 4, 2025, EA announced that Matthew Tkachuk would be the cover athlete for NHL 26 where he is seen hoisting the Stanley Cup. This is the first time since NHL 16 where a defending Stanley Cup champion, as well as the Stanley Cup itself is on the cover.

Commentary

In NHLPA '93 and NHL '94, Emmy award-winning 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. 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). James Cybulski provided the play-by-play commentary and Ferraro made the jump from ice-level analyst to full color commentator in NHL 20 (NHL 20–23). Ferraro was replaced by Cheryl Pounder as color commentator in NHL 24 (NHL 24-26). Cybulski was replaced by ESPN play-by-play commentator John Buccigross and Pounder was replaced by former NHL goaltender Darren Pang on color commentary in NHL 27.

+Commentary TeamGamesCommentary TeamNHL 97Jim HughsonNHL 98Jim Hughson, Daryl ReaughNHL 99Jim Hughson, Daryl Reaugh and Bill ClementNHL 2000Jim Hughson, Bill ClementNHL 2001NHL 2002Jim Hughson, Don TaylorNHL 2003NHL 2004Jim Hughson, Craig SimpsonNHL 2005NHL 06NHL 07Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson (WIN, PS2) Gary Thorne, Bill Clement (PS3, X360)NHL 08NHL 09NHL 10Gary Thorne, Bill ClementNHL SlapshotNHL 11NHL 12NHL 13NHL 14NHL 15Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray FerraroNHL: Legacy EditionNHL 16NHL 17NHL 18NHL 19NHL 20James Cybulski, Ray FerraroNHL 21NHL 22NHL 23NHL 24James Cybulski, Cheryl PounderNHL 25NHL 26NHL 27John Buccigross, Darren Pang

Soundtracks 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.

NHL (video game series)

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