NHL 27 Is Out Now; EA’s Biggest Bet Is a 32-Team Online Franchise

NHL 27 is out today on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and EA Sports is putting more weight on how players experience the league than on another round of incremental gameplay changes.

“Connected Franchise lets you create and run your own online league with up to 32 human-controlled teams, complete with customizable rules, flexible scheduling, roster management, and powerful commissioner tools,” EA says in its NHL 27 FAQ.

The mode lets players manage their own clubs while sharing a league with other people, complete with commissioner tools, flexible scheduling, roster management, trades and free agency. It addresses a community request that EA says has been building for roughly a decade.

That makes Connected Franchise different from simply adding another online multiplayer option. A traditional franchise mode can give one player control of an entire league, but this mode is built around multiple people running their own teams over the course of a shared season.

“Connected Franchise is making its debut in NHL 27,” EA says, describing the mode as being built for “long-running communities where groups of friends can compete head-to-head.”

“Experience Authentic Atmospheres across all 32 NHL arenas with real-world goal songs, a new broadcast package, and updated crowds,” EA says. The company also confirms John Buccigross and Darren Pang as the new commentary team.

The cover athlete gives that presentation overhaul a recognizable face. San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini, 20, is the youngest player ever to appear on the NHL game’s cover and the first Sharks player to do so since Owen Nolan on NHL 2001. Celebrini said seeing his arena recreated in the game “feels exactly like being out there for a real game.”

On the ice, EA says NHL 27 uses real-world NHL EDGE tracking data and team-specific playbooks to make teams behave differently. The idea is to move away from generalized AI tendencies so that playing against one NHL team does not feel exactly like playing against another.

World of Chel has also received a free Season Pass, revised player progression and rebalanced costs for X-Factor abilities. Those changes give returning players more to explore, but they remain secondary to the structural change introduced by Connected Franchise.

Day-One Patch Fixes What Early Testers Broke

There is also a small but important difference between buying NHL 27 today and playing the earliest version of the game.

“Update 1 includes fixes and improvements across gameplay, Connected Franchise, HUT, presentation, commentary, and stability, with several changes directly addressing issues players have raised since launch,” EA said in its September 11 update report.

EA said the changes came from feedback collected from Deluxe Edition and EA Play early-access players through its forums, Feedback Portal and social channels. So the version available today already reflects problems and complaints identified during early access.

That is particularly relevant for Connected Franchise. A bug in a conventional single-player mode can affect one person’s save; a problem in a shared online league can affect an entire group of players. The first weeks after launch should provide a better indication of whether EA’s new mode can support the long-running leagues it is designed to create.

NHL 27: A New League Mode, Same Old Refinements

“NHL 27 does a good job of refining what we got last year and making the overall package better, but don’t expect much change in this yearly release,” Cinelinx wrote in its review. The review specifically describes Connected Franchise as the year’s major addition to Franchise mode.

Players who have wanted a persistent league with other human-controlled teams, NHL 27 adds something the previous games did not offer. The arena work, new commentary team and team-specific AI then reinforce that broader focus on making the league feel more like a collection of distinct teams.

The remaining changes are largely refinements to systems that already existed, and the annual difference between one NHL release and the next can be difficult to justify on presentation and roster changes alone.

Connected Franchise will ultimately determine how much of that gap matters. If players use it to build active 32-team leagues that survive an entire season, NHL 27 has introduced a different way to play the series. If those leagues struggle to retain players or the mode proves too fragile for long-term use, the game’s most significant addition becomes much less consequential, leaving the presentation and gameplay refinements to carry the upgrade.