EA has released details on NHL 21 franchise mode today, as they introduce an all-new trade deadline feature, allowing users to try and replicate the wild and crazy yearly experience.
Your experience within the trade deadline will be shaped by the decision on whether you are a seller, conservative seller, conservative buyer or buyer. Choosing one of those 4 options will influence the type of trade offers you will receive.
Once you enter the Trade Deadline you are officially on the clock! Starting at 6AM(PST) you’ll have until 12PM(PST) to shore up any deals heading into the final stretch of the season. You’ll immediately notice that you’ll be presented with the top players on the trade block. You’ll also be able to see important information about each player like their contract status, trade value, and what the team is looking for in return.
Whenever a trade is made, you’ll be notified via the ticker at the bottom of the screen that will deliver details on every move on trade deadline day.
Just like the real trade deadline, the market value of players will fluctuate as the day goes on and you may see players go on or off the block based on prior trades a team has made.
Players will be able to sort by available players and view each team’s moveable assets, top 10 players still available, “off the market” players and traded players.
The NHL 21 team has also added a record book feature, allowing players to sort through all-time NHL career stats, all-time NHL season stats, all-time NHL rookie stats and franchise leaders. They have also added multiple positions for some players to help with lineup generation.
This year, you can control draft class quality. If set to the high setting, you will see stronger draft classes more often. Additionally, a new generated prospect quality setting has been added. When this is set to a high setting, you will see more top end prospects generated.
The CPU controlled teams will stop placing draft picks on the trade block early in the season and wait until later in the season to see how good or bad they are doing, before deciding to let go of them or not.
You’ll notice a greater separation in trade value from player to player. Players like McDavid will have high value and be much harder to acquire. We’ve also adjusted the value of certain positions, centers and defenders will see an increase in overall value while goalies and wingers will have slightly less overall value than previous years.
Unfortunately, there is no mention of NHL 21 roster share, so it looks like another year will go by without the heavily requested option. Maybe they are holding it for next-gen…
NHL 21 launches worldwide October 16th, pre-order NHL 21 Great Eight Edition and get it 3 days earlier, on October 13. It includes the following:
- Up to 10 HUT Diamond Player Choice Packs (2 per month for 5 months)
- HUT Synergy Veteran Choice Pack (Choice 1 of 10; +1 OVR per month until August 2021)
- HUT Cover Athlete Choice Pack (Choice of: Ovechkin, Matthews, McDavid, Pettersson, Laine, Subban)
- 3 Days Early Access
- Be A Pro XP Boost and Bonus Trait and Specialization Points
- 5 Unlocked World of Chel Hockey Bags
As for next-gen consoles, there won’t be a true PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X version, only forward compatibility.
