I looked at other posts around this topic, and I love franchise mode (like 200+ hours across platforms alone in NHL24) so I kinda wanted to throw in some of my own. I understand EA's budget for NHL isn't gigantic seeing how small the game is with respect to other games, but I feel like most of these "quality of life" changes are small but the small things matter to me.
1. More Control over a Franchise
I like how I am able to relocate things, set prices, all that stuff, and I really like how if I'm not interested in doing so, the game provides me the option to just skip it entirely and automatically assign/dismiss alerts (I for one, do not care about my scouts or scouting, even though I should). However, I think having some more control over the franchise would be ideal and it'd make the game slightly more fun.
- Retiring numbers. I like to play as the Canadiens a lot, I would love to be able to retire numbers like 31 for Price or 79 for Markov. I think this change is pretty simple to make but gives me more control to make my franchise special. Eventually I'd like to throw 14 Suzuki and 22 Caufield into the rafters too.
- Ability to change things like goal songs, especially since majority of the teams do not have their authentic one. Being able to select one of the many goal songs in the game would be a nice touch.
- I can't think of other things off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are a lot of other small things that would be nice to customize or control for players.
2.Slight rework of Coaches and Chemistry, if no redevelopment of this system is already planned.
I don't know if EA is planning to rework this system entirely since many users seem to dislike how the system is implemented, but assuming EA won't rework the system it would be nice for some changes to be made.
- Coach development, fluidity and flexibility with line strategies. It would be nice if coaches would be a bit more flexible with line strategies, I hate having a -1 or a +1 as "line chemistry" solely based on the coach. I think there are a lot of other factors that influence line chemistry, and the natural talents of a player impact a coach's strategy anyways, so having it set in stone and non-changing is a bit annoying.
- Building off the last point, maybe add some sort of boost for lines that stick together for a while. For example, a line with -1 chemistry that plays together for a month or two may go up to 0 or +1 line chemistry for a "consistency" boost. Maybe the coach could develop some flexibility and the strategy for that line could slightly change to reduce the penalty or grant a benefit for that line.
- Ability to edit team strategies for specialty teams like the penalty kill and powerplay, so we can have better control over line fit for these lines. I don't like how stars can "fit" every line, but players in the 82-86 range who are known as powerplay specialists or penalty kill specialists for some reason don't fit in the line.
- More realistic salaries, or a higher salary cap in general for coaches. I don't like how my head coach is taking over 50-60% of my budget, and if I fire one guy his budget still remains as spent, so I have very little flexibility and often if I fire someone, I need to wait a while before I have the room to hire someone else. I continuously find myself having to pull money from other aspects just to try and find a coach whoMIGHT be a fit for me. I see this as an unnecessary obstacle, if we could have a bit more flexibility with the coach costs/contracts or allow the contract to be paid in full externally when a coach is dismissed so I can hire a new coach, that'd be fantastic.
3. Making the activity feed more useful.
It looks like it's trying to replicate twitter which is okay, but I would honestly prefer if it just got straight to the point and told me relevant information that I would care about. Things like:
X was traded from Team 1 to Team 2!
X has been injured and is expected to be out until datehere.
This team has clinched x position (playoff/division/conference title).
This team has been eliminated from playoff contention.
4. Calendar/Stats Improvements
It would be nice if the calendar or statistics could display more useful information to help me determine changes I need to make without having to check game by game.
- Stats per game, for the season. If I click on a game already played, it would be nice if it showed me the stats (that we see at the end of a game we play) so I can see who scored, who had a -1 rating, save percentages, etc. I like to take franchise mode slow and like to look at this data.
- Maybe the ability to set a timeframe for statistics, like stats within the last 7 or 30 days, so I can evaluate whether or not changes I made (adjusted PK/PP/lines) are having an impact on my team's performance.
These two suggestions are bigger in nature, and would probably be difficult to implement, however I think they would be huge (especially since I play Madden and love these features from that game)
5. Coach Challenges & Timeouts
It would be nice for plays to go either way at the blue line, sometimes things get missed, and have the option to challenge if we think something is offside or onside. We could use the two replays we get to determine if we need to challenge the play, and losing the challenge yields a delay of game call. Goaltender interference needs a bit of reworking, but it would also be nice to challenge that as well, since sometimes (once in shootout) a goal would be saved, but then a player would slam his stick into the goalie and it counts as a goal, even though it would fall under goaltender interference. Challenging things like high sticks on deflections would also be fun. I think this feature isn't huge in nature to implement (in comparison to things like zone pressure and whatnot) but it would add a cool new feature to the mode.
- Timeouts need a hotkey, especially with online. If I need to swap goalies, I also need to use my timeout else I lose it. Having the ability to call a timeout without having to enter the menus would be fantastic.
6. Replay Improvements
Sometimes the replays provided are utter garbage and do not allow for us to see what's going on. If the slow-mo replay could slow the game by a factor equivalent to the shot speed, I think it would allow us to track the puck a bit better. Also, half the replays are covered by players, sticks, etc. If this could be reworked so replays are more useful and we get the best angles, that would be amazing.
Thanks for reading my suggestions for Franchise Mode for NHL25! I hope other things like improved AI (learning, less fluke goals), more fluidity in skating and controls, a few changes to controls to make them simpler, but above all else Franchise Mode is my favourite. Despite the train of hate EA gets, I really like the game and am excited to see what NHL 25 brings!
