EA has revealed EA Sports NHL 26, which will once again not be coming to PC, and will only arrive on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S when it launches on September 12, 2025.
This year's cover athletes also follows suit from last year's family focus, though instead of the Hughes brothers, it's the Tkachuk family who are being featured this year, with Matthew Tkachuk sharing the cover with brother Brady Tkachuk and their father Keith Tkachuk, who in his 18-year-long NHL career played for the St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, Atlanta Thrashers and the Phoenix Coyotes.
Unlike the reveal trailer for EA Sports FC 26, the reveal for NHL 26 features no direct gameplay, and makes no promising boasts that this year's entry will "make gameplay better." It's instead more of what you'd expect from an annualized sports series, a flashy trailer that is chalk-full of sparks and sizzle but little substance as to what this year's entry will look like.
As far as what is supposedly different in this year's entry, the 'Be A Pro' mode has been "revamped" according to a press release, and is getting its "biggest" update since NHL 21, according to EA Sports creative director, Mike Inglehart. Inglehart also claims that EA Sports NHL 26 "is the most true-to-life experience we've ever built."
A new Goalie Crease Control System is also being introduced this year, aiming to make goalies "more responsive, with smarter positioning and quicker, more natural saves."
Regarding this year's new cover athletes, now back-to-back Stanley Cup champion and Florida Panther forward, Matthew Tkachuk, adds "My dad, Brady and I are all unique and play the way we want to. Sharing the cover of NHL 26 is an extension of that. I've always tried to bring my own style to the ice, and seeing that captured in NHL 26 makes it feel like it is really me out there."
Keith Tkachuk, who is gracing the cover of an NHL game more than a decade after he retired from the league, said that he is "proud to be sharing the cover" with his sons. Brady Tkachuk, brother to Matthew and captain of the Ottawa Senators, said "it's an honor to be featured on the cover, and having him standing alongside us makes the whole thing even better."
While it's nice for the Tkachuk brothers to share the milestone of making the cover of an NHL game with their father, fans of the series (myself included) can't help but feel a bit underwhelmed by this reveal. The Be A Pro mode has been the exact same since NHL 21, and even the changes brought in that year's edition of the annualized series didn't exactly shake the hockey world to its core.
EA can talk about how it's been updated and "revamped" all it wants, but we'll need to see the changes before they can be believed.
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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