Every year for the EA NHL game series is always the same. They introduce some new features that often intrigue us consumers yet eventually leave us often unfulfilled as the gameplay and graphics are untouched from years previous. Frequently, I do not even feel the need to buy the next installment of the game (of course Ovechkin is the cover athlete of this year's version, that is a different story). My favorite game mode has always been the Franchise Mode as it allows for long-term customization of a team and a roster. While it has some very strong features, it defiantly has some areas that need vast improvement. One of the biggest areas of improvement is the computer-generated minor-league rosters and the ability to "grow" prospects ratings. In each NHL game, the only way to improve a prospect's rating is to get them game time and ice time. Over the course of games in a season, they gain confidence and chemistry. It works well. The problem is that there is a limited amount of roster spots for these players, which leads to career AHL players bumping out weaker, younger prospects. The way that the EA can solve this is by adding the ECHL into the framework of the Franchise Mode.
In part due to the limitations of the game and the NHL, you are only allowed to have so many prospects and players signed to NHL deals. This is what is used to fill out your NHL team and AHL team. Any player can be sent to any club and play. If you have a prospect that is under the age of 20, they get sent to their junior team automatically. It usually leaves you with enough players to field two teams completely with some spares. The problem is that the game allows you to have AHL contracted players on your minor league team, which is a nice feature if it was done properly. Unfortunately, it's a mess. If you have a player that is AHL contracted on your team, you have no ability to remove them from your team, even after the year has ended. These players often automatically bump recently pro-level prospects into not playing rolls. If the ECHL was a playable league in the franchise game mode, you could theoretically send some of your weaker prospects to the ECHL to continue to play while still fielding a decent AHL team. You see this principle played out in real life, especially with Toronto and their connection with the Newfoundland Growlers.
To fix the issue of not being able to customize your AHL players though, EA would have to update the game to have various types of contracts. This would be of additional help to the majority of the ECHL roster that would need to be filled with ECHL contracted players. This could add a completely workable and fresh feature to the game where you can offer contracts to players for NHL deals, NHL two-way deals, AHL-only deals, or AHL/ECHL deals. This way, you have complete control over your franchise from top to bottom, year in and out. There could be the same game mechanics that pretty much deter 75 overall players from being interested in an ECHL deal. EA could also implement a feature where you can only have so many NHL contract prospects on the ECHL team, in a way to promote the overall prospect development in the AHL hand in hand with the ECHL. There is a ton of options to make this work, it is just actually putting it all together for EA that would be the issue.
Now the question is, "why would EA even begin to think about this?" Firstly, it enhances the overall experience of the franchise model, creating a more in-depth experience where more players would find a niche game style and generating more game hours played. It is the reason the World of Chel was added to the game when a perfectly capable online mode had already existed. Secondly, it promotes the game of hockey more comprehensively. Since the addition of the AHL teams to the franchise, the AHL has discovered brand-new discoverability that has helped to promote its league as well as the game of hockey to more fans. With an increase in worldwide fans, product sales for EA games are sure to go up. Since the ECHL is starting to add more and more teams every year to become the fully-fledged 3rd tier in the NHL development path, it only stands to reason that increased discoverability would help all involved.
While knowing EA Sports' inability to have fundamental change within one of its biggest games, this change would offer a fresh, creative way to introduce new features that provide immense fun while also broadening brand identity for the NHL, EA Sports, and the ECHL. Adding the addition to the Franchise mode while also modifying the ability to offer different types of contracts to improve each team individually would allow the game mode to grow for the first time substantially since the removal of GM Connected (which they should bring back?). While a dream at this point, this potentially could be one way in which EA Sports decides to grow one of its franchise brands.
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