NHL (video game series)
NHL 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, which enables the use of the league's team names, arenas and colors in the game, and the National Hockey League Players' Association, which enables the use of the league's player names and likenesses.
Legend
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. 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 | – |
| NHL 98 | 1997 | PS1, SAT, GEN, SNES, WIN | Peter Forsberg | – |
| NHL 99 | 1998 | N64, PS1, WIN | Eric Lindros | – |
| NHL 2000 | 1999 | GBC, PS1, WIN | Chris Pronger | |
| NHL 2001 | 2000 | PS1, PS2, WIN | Owen Nolan | |
| NHL 2002 | 2001 | GBA, PS2, WIN, XBOX | Mario Lemieux | – |
| NHL 2003 | 2002 | GCN, PS2, WIN, XBOX | Jarome Iginla | |
| NHL 2004 | 2003 | GCN, PS2, WIN, XBOX | – | |
| NHL 2005 | 2004 | GCN, PS2, WIN, XBOX | Markus Näslund | Olli Jokinen |
| NHL 06 | 2005 | GCN, PS2, WIN, XBOX | Vincent Lecavalier | Tuomo Ruutu |
| NHL 07 | 2006 | X360, PS2, PSP, WIN, XBOX | Alexander Ovechkin | |
| NHL 08 | 2007 | PS3, X360, PS2, WIN | Eric Staal | |
| NHL 09 | 2008 | PS3, X360, PS2, WIN | Dion Phaneuf | |
| 3 on 3 NHL Arcade | 2009 | PS3, X360 | - | – |
| NHL 10 | 2009 | PS3, X360 | Patrick Kane | 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 | PS3, X360 | Jonathan Toews | |
| NHL Slapshot | 2010 | Wii | Wayne Gretzky | – |
| NHL 12 | 2011 | PS3, X360 | Steven Stamkos | |
| NHL 13 | 2012 | PS3, X360 | Claude Giroux | |
| NHL 14 | 2013 | PS3, X360 | Martin Brodeur | |
| NHL 15 | 2014 | PS4, XOne, PS3, X360 | Patrice Bergeron | |
| NHL 16 | 2015 | PS4, XOne | Jonathan Toews | Nino Niederreiter |
| NHL: Legacy Edition | 2015 | PS3, X360 | None | – |
| NHL 17 | 2016 | PS4, XOne | Vladimir Tarasenko | Nino Niederreiter |
| NHL 18 | 2017 | PS4, XOne | Connor McDavid | Roman Josi |
| NHL 19 | 2018 | PS4, XOne | P. K. Subban | Patrik Laine William Nylander Ultimate edition: Wayne Gretzky |
| NHL 20 | 2019 | PS4, XOne | Auston Matthews | Patrik Laine Elias Pettersson |
| NHL 21 | 2020 | PS4, XOne | Alexander Ovechkin | – |
| NHL 22 | 2021 | PS4, XOne, PS5, XSX/S | Auston Matthews | – |
| NHL 23 | 2022 | PS4, XOne, PS5, XSX/S | Trevor Zegras and Sarah Nurse | – |
| NHL 24 | 2023 | PS4, XOne, PS5, XSX/S | Cale Makar | – |
| NHL 25 | 2024 | PS5, XSX/S | Quinn Hughes | Jack Hughes Deluxe edition: Luke Hughes along with his brothers Quinn and Jack. This version wasn't released in a physical format. |
| NHL 26 | 2025 | PS5, XSX/S | Matthew Tkachuk | Deluxe edition: Brady Tkachuk and Keith Tkachuk along with Matthew. |
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. This photo is surrounded by eight small portraits of players. This changed with NHL 94, which featured a goal situation for Tomas Sandstrom against Andy Moog. NHL 95 featured an in-goal camera during a goal scored by Alexei Kovalev of the New York Rangers during the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals 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 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. James Cybulski is the current play-by-play commentator, starting with NHL 20. 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, Bill Clement, Don Taylor, Craig Simpson, Eddie Olczyk. Ferraro made the jump from ice-level analyst to full color commentator in NHL 20. Ferraro was replaced by Cheryl Pounder as color commentator in NHL 24.| Games | Commentary Team |
| NHL 97 | Jim Hughson |
| NHL 98 | Jim Hughson, Daryl Reaugh |
| NHL 99 | Jim Hughson, Daryl Reaugh and Bill Clement |
| NHL 2000 | Jim Hughson, Bill Clement |
| NHL 2001 | Jim Hughson, Bill Clement |
| NHL 2002 | Jim Hughson, Don Taylor |
| NHL 2003 | Jim Hughson, Don Taylor |
| NHL 2004 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson |
| NHL 2005 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson |
| NHL 06 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson |
| NHL 07 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 08 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 09 | Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 10 | Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL Slapshot | Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 11 | Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 12 | Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 13 | Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 14 | Gary Thorne, Bill Clement |
| NHL 15 | Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray Ferraro |
| NHL: Legacy Edition | Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 16 | Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 17 | Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 18 | Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 19 | Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 20 | James Cybulski, Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 21 | James Cybulski, Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 22 | James Cybulski, Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 23 | James Cybulski, Ray Ferraro |
| NHL 24 | James Cybulski, Cheryl Pounder |
| NHL 25 | James Cybulski, Cheryl Pounder |
| - | James Cybulski, Cheryl Pounder |
| - | James Cybulski, Cheryl Pounder |