NHL 16, a video game simulator of Ice hockey, was released last year in September, and it was declared an improvement over NHL 15. EA has confirmed the existence of NHL 17, which means that it should be coming this year. Will the game be an improvement of NHL 16? This is what we know about NHL 17 Release Date, Rumors, News, and Cover.
Gotta Be Mobile states that last year the development team hosted a lengthy Q&A with fans and even offered a beta of the Hockey League so that the developers can bring the best game to the fans as possible.
As far as the cover is concerned, players get the chance to vote on who will be on it. More information can be found on the voting here using Twitter hashtags, and there will be three rounds. The first round ends on May 2, followed by round 2 from May 3 to May 9, and then the final round is May 10 to 16. There are eight players in the running that include:
- Team Canada, Dallas Stars, Jamie Benn, #NHL17Benn
- Team USA, San Jose Sharks, Joe Pavelski, #NHL17Pavelski
- Team Czech Republic, Philadelphia Flyers, Jakub Voracek, #NHL17Voracek
- Team Sweden, Tampa Bay Lightning, Victor Hedman, #NHL17Hedman
- Team Russia, St. Louis Blues, Vladimir Tarasenko, #NHL17Tarasenko
- Team Finland, Florida Panthers, Aleksander Barkov, #NHL17Barkov
- Team North America, Edmonton Oilers, Connor McDavid, #NHL17McDavid
- Team Europe, Los Angeles Kings, Anze Kopitar, #NHL17Kopitar
The cover winner will be announced at that NHL Awards in Las Vegas on June 22, and there will be more information about NHL 17 revealed then. There will be more information revealed about NHL 17 revealed this summer, specifically at the E3 2016 video game convention, which occurs before the NHL Awards. This year, EA won't be at the convention, but will have an EA Play location outside of it so they can focus on their games.
As far as improvements to NHL 17, there will be clutch saves, battling for space in clutch second, and a focus to make gameplay better with "deeper and more customizable experiences". That's about all the information that has been given about the latest version of the hockey game.
Considering that NHL 16 was released in September of 2015, it stands to reason that NHL 17 will have its release date in September 2016, shortly after other popular sports games like Madden 17 and FIFA 17. Projections are that NHL 17 could have its release date on either September 6 or September 13.
For those who have the EA Access available on Xbox One, you should be able to play early for about 10 hours, five days before the official NHL 17 release date. Since there is no EA Access for the PS4, you might not get that deal. It is not known if there will be an NHL: Legacy Edition for the PS3 and Xbox 360 like there was before with NHL 16, but it doesn't seem too likely.
So far, there are no NHL 17 pre-orders available, but there should be more information revealed soon. It is possible to sign up on the NHL Newsletter, and perhaps you might get more details and news faster.
