EA’s NHL 22 will finally get playable women’s teams in 2022. EA continues to add more incentives for hockey fans to play their latest sports offering. Before the game’s release, EA delivered an NHL 22 reveal trailer, spotlighting the Frostbite engine. The game’s recent 1.3.0 December Patch made the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Tournament available, along with IIHF playoff OT rules and an updated International ruleset to reflect the new IIHF changes. Other new features include a revamped World of Chel Hub and Social Widget, AR Broadcast, and overhauled stick physics.
Today also marks the first day that owners of NHL 22 will have access to exclusive IIHF content until January 31, 2022. The content includes a Matthews Team USA Hockey Ultimate Team item, an IIHF Ultimate Team uniform pack, and an IIHF World of Chel uniform bag. Adding to existing features like NHL 22’s X-Factor game mode, EA has also made the men’s and world’s junior teams available today with all federations, logos, and uniforms included in the Ultimate Team and World of Chel modes. At the time of this writing, cross-platform play is still not supported in the game, but a one-time Hockey Ultimate Team migration is permissible for PS4 and Xbox players who have not started Hockey Ultimate Teams on the next-gen consoles.
Soon to add to the growing list of the game’s features, NHL 22 will finally include playable women’s teams in January 2022. All ten IIHF women’s national teams will be available in the game, including the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship winners, Team Canada. The championship game will also be included in the game, allowing players to relive Team Canada’s 3-2 win over Team USA. A trailer for the update, uploaded to the EA SPORTS NHL YouTube channel, shows the significance of this update, and reveals the character models of some of the new competitors.
Watch the trailer on YouTube here.
Superstar team captain and forward Marie-Philip Poulin was responsible for scoring the goal shot during the first overtime period of the championship game. Poulin’s game-winning goal gave Team Canada its first gold medal since 2012. Now the two-time Olympic and two-time World champion will be digitally immortalized in NHL 22, along with her teammates who affectionately call Poulin “Captain Clutch.” Adding the women’s national teams to the videogame will be a positive representation of women in sports, similar to EA Sports PGA Tour’s partnership with the LPGA for next year’s installment in the series.
Sean Ramjagsingh, VP and GM for EA Sports, has commented on IIHF’s official website that he recognizes that the inclusion of the women’s national teams to NHL 22 is “an important moment for the franchise in its continued effort to reflect the diversity of the hockey community.” Team Canada fans were unable to purchase tickets to attend the 2021 championship game due to Hockey Canada’s and the local Host Organizing Committee’s pandemic concerns. Along with NHL 22 recognizing the diversity of the hockey community, this update will also allow the fans to bring their favorite players to their home consoles with the hopes of seeing them in person at next year’s IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship.
Source: NHL 22, EA SPORTS NHL/YouTube, IIHF