EA has showcased our first real look at gameplay for EA Sports NHL 26, after first revealing the new entry and its cover athletes last week.
While it was good to get a look at gameplay for this year's entry in EA's annual hockey sim, what was more interesting is what's behind the gameplay. The big feature of the showcase was EA's new partnership with the NHL to use the league's data collected through NHL Edge to improve the positioning of the AI-controlled players on the ice and to improve how certain star players react when you take control of them with the puck.
The new data from NHL Edge behind EA's ICE 2.0 makes it look like players will be able to setup plays better than ever, because the computer-controlled players will know where to be, and when to be there, like having Alexander Ovechkin in his office at the top of the circle on the power play. It sounds great, but we'll see if it actually works how EA claims it'll work when the game arrives next month on September 12, 2025.
An accompanying article on the EA website diving into NHL 26's gameplay also highlighted goalie movement, and how more than 80 save animations have been added this year to help make goalies more responsive and look more like their real-life counterparts. It also dug into how X-Factors have been reworked "from the ground up" to give them "more strategic weight and make their impact more visible and consistent."
It all sounds like solid improvements, but as is the case every year with EA's annual sports series, players won't believe the improvements are real until they feel them for themselves.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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