If this isn't allowed I apologize.

Pretty certain the cover athlete will be a Ranger. My guess is Panarin, but an argument could be made for Fox. Above are some Rangers I can see making the cover. Let me know who you guys think will be the face of the NHL franchise for the next year.

gonna say it'll be auston matthews and everyone is going to be mad about it

I'm glad I'll get to see a Leafs logo everytime I boot up the game

I’m just waiting for the cover curse to comeback

Am I the only one who thinks matthews made 0 sense? Sure he had 41 goals in 52 games. But mcdavid had 105 pts in 56 games. I’d rather see them give it to mcdavid again over matthews. I’d even argue pat maroon should’ve gotten the cover for 3 cups in a row over matthews. I hate reusing the same athletes, but If you’re going to, do it with the guy who’s putting up Gretzky numbers in the modern era of the NHL.

My answer

In all seriousness EA did it for money reasons nothing more nothing less. Expect Mcdavid on 2023 cover

Connor McDavid has a pretty dull personality whereas Matthews is very popular and is very well known on social media. EA is doing their best to grab more attention from the main target audience which is mostly teens.

Good take on this. There are four people in the NHL with name notoriety outside the general fanbases: McDavid, Crosby, Ovechkin, Matthews. 4 of the last 5 covers have had one of these guys on it, with the exception being PK Subban who was the height of his notoriety.

People whine about EA's sports games all the time so I don't know why people are shocked that a very popular player from a popular market is on the cover again. These games exist to sell copies and get kids to buy HUT cards. This was one of the reasons why the games had different covers in certain countries.

Matthews being the most marketable. More so than McDavid and Crosby don't want to be on the cover. Plus people love goals and Matthews is the rocket winner.

Im a goalie lover so I would of loved to see vasy but happy with Matthews

I guess they’re doing their job considering I’ve been talking about the game and the cover all day lol. Maybe I just overthink the value of the cover athlete. Makes sense to use the most marketable player. I just thought maybe they’d want to keep it fresh, cause they typically don’t use the same athlete twice. Vasy or Flower could’ve been great cover athletes.

Flower as a cover athlete in a different jersey than the team he just won the Vezina on would be kind of weird. Vasy would be cool but right now it’s all about the profit