The EA Sports NHL franchise is a big part of hockey culture. Whether people still buy the annual edition of the game or not, it is synonymous with real-life NHL fans. People care about the teams, the game modes, and most importantly, their favorite players.
Player ratings are based on what EA believes is going on in real life, so everyone argues over the results as if they are rankings. The better teams have more highly ranked players, and the lousy teams lack the depth, just like in the actual NHL.
For the Chicago Blackhawks, it isn’t pretty in the upcoming installment, NHL 26. That is to be expected for a team that has been drafting in the top five for several years in a row now.
Connor Bedard leads the way with an 88 rating. For reference, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers is the highest-rated player in the game with a 97. Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche), and Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning) are tied for second with 96.
Bedard will likely be in the low-mid 90s one day with the other superstars in the league, but he has a lot of work to do in his development to get there. Once you get into the 89s and 90s, you start to see the perennial all-stars around the league.
Alex Vlasic, Ryan Donato, and Teuvo Teravainen are all tied for second with an 84 overall. Connor Murphy and Spencer Knight are tied for 5th with an 83. Then you have Frank Nazar, Jason Dickinson, Nick Foligno, and Tyler Bertuzzi rounding out the top ten with 82 overall.
Like Bedard, all of Alex Vlasic, Frank Nazar, and Spencer Knight have plenty of runway to improve their stock as the years go along. Everyone else is likely to plateau or take a dip.
Once the prospects like Sam Rinzel, Artyom Levshunov, and Anton Frondell, amongst others, get in and start leveling up, the Blackhawks will look like a much better team again.
You can preorder NHL 26 today before its September 5th release.
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