NHL 22 excitement finally steps into high gear

NHL 22 has a hype train gaining momentum as the upcoming season starts to approach.

With little made official thus far, here’s what we know about NHL 22 as of now, including a potential beta leak.

Latest – No-show despite multiple chances

EA Sports has remained relatively silent on the topic of NHL 22 in recent months, with not a single mention, reveal, or announcement despite multiple opportunities.

The Stanley Cup, Summer Games Fest, E3 2021, EA Play Live, and most recently the NHL Draft have all come and gone without even confirmation that NHL 22 is on the horizon.

While we did recently get a crumb due to a potential leak of the NHL 22 beta, which you can find more details on here, that’s pretty much it as of late.

With the NHL season now just a few months away from starting, we’ll hopefully learn more very soon about NHL 22.

NHL 22 Release Date

While the NHL 22 release date is to be determined, we can assume the game will be coming around September or October if it keeps on track with other releases from the series.

That gives us plenty of time to enjoy NHL 21, but also plenty of time to get excited about what changes EA has in store.

If you’re wondering whether NHL 21 is worth buying to play until NHL 22 arrives, check out our NHL 21 review here.

NHL 22 beta code-named Water Buffalo leaks

After things have been very quiet for some time, we’ve finally got our first big piece of news about NHL 22, and it looks like a beta is on the way.

According to this tweet by @PlaystationSize, the PS4 beta has been spotted for NHL 22 and it’s apparently code-named Water Buffalo.

In a separate tweet, they’ve apparently spotted a PS5 beta for NHL 2 dubbed “Ackee Beta,” though further details past the file size of each are currently unknown.

NHL 22 Gameplay Expectations

NHL 21 was an experience that carried over the next gen consoles but didn’t offer a next gen version.

We expect NHL 22 will be optimized for next gen consoles.

Along with this, we expect NHL 22 will give some attention to game modes that NHL 21 didn’t innovate as much as others, which would include Franchise Mode, World of Chel, and more.

Trailer

The first thing we can expect to see about NHL 22 during its development is an Announcement or Reveal Trailer.

This would hopefully give players an NHL 22 release date, and maybe even reveal its cover star!

This should come a couple months before release, so we’d expect this to start around July or August.

HUT 21 is still keeping things fun in NHL 21 until the next installment arrives, so check out all the details on NHL 21 Ultimate Team here.

Cover Star

There are plenty of talented young prospects in hockey, and veterans that are showing up big time and time again.

And while NHL series games have regional cover stars that let fans celebrate their local heroes, one player still receives most of the cover glory (with NHL 21 picking Alexander Ovechkin).

This means the NHL 22 cover star will be a product of spirited debate until his reveal.

Some names that fans want to see as NHL 22 cover star include Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Leon Draisaitl.

Source: https://www.realsport101.com/nhl/nhl-22-release-date-trailer-cover-star-pre-order-xbox-series-x-ps5-demo/