With NHL 20 right around the corner, the NHL development team gave us some news today on the upcoming game. The NHL 20 team released a trailer today highlighting some of the new features that will be coming to Franchise Mode.

Franchise Mode for NHL 20

Last year, the NHL team introduced a new scouting system to Franchise Mode, where players can hire and fire scouts, as well as scout individual players. In NHL 20, the developers have expanded the mode even more, as coaches have now been introduced.

Each NHL and AHL team will get a head coach, as well as assistant head coaches. Every coach has a series of attributes, and these attributes include offense, defense, power play, and teaching. These attributes will have an effect on the sim of the game, as teams that have good coaches with high attributes will sim better than coaches with poor attributes.

In addition to their attributes, each coach will have a teaching specialty. These specialties, in addition to a coach’s attributes, will also have an effect on a gamer’s team. For instance, the “Generalist” specialty will help develop and grow the players on a person’s team. Also, each coach will have a morale, which can effect the other assistant coaches, as well as the team.

Users can also have conversations with coaches in NHL 20. Coaches can ask users for upgrades to the team, such as adding a top-six forward or a veteran presence on the blueline. Users can either agree, disagree, or persuade the coach to look for something else. If a user agrees to acquire a player for a coach, it becomes a promise to that coach. And, if you don’t follow through on that, it can have a negative effect on your team.

The NHL team has added interviews to the mode as well. Users can interview coaches, as well as players, to unlock attributes. When interviewing coaches, a user will also be able to see what environment a coach prefers to be in, as well as their scheme.

A coach’s scheme will be very important for the players on your team. The reason is that users will want to acquire players who fit the scheme, in order to increase the chemistry of the line, which is new to NHL 20, and to increase the overalls of those players during the sim. If there are players who don’t fit certain lines or the scheme, it can have a negative effect on your squad.

The scouting system in NHL 20 will also see a few tweaks. Two new scouting reports have been added for both pro and amateur scouts in the mode. Pro scouts will now be able to inform users what schemes other teams deploy, as well as evaluate whether a player will fit the team’s scheme. Amateur scouts will also evaluate whether a prospect fits your scheme, as well as give a NHL ETA for that player.

The NHL team has also added a trade finder to Franchise Mode. Users can select players, as well as draft picks, and the game will find you trading partners. This addition should help speed up the process of trying to make trades, as a user can just use this option to move a player, rather than scroll through all the team and doing it manually. In addition, the NHL team has added exempted contracts, contracts where players are signed but do not count towards the 50 player limit because those players would be in the junior league.

Lastly, the team has added more depth to the mode. Part of this includes adding logic that would cause players who have add great seasons ask for more money in their next contracts. And, if players have poor seasons, those players won’t be asking for more money. Also, players who haven’t played in the NHL, but have high overalls, won’t ask for big contracts, as these contracts will be influenced by their NHL performance.

Some other added features include:

• Tuning down the number of elite and franchise goalies in the NHL Draft
• Adding the ability to dump bad contracts by giving up prized assets (i.e. future 1st round pick)
• Icon integration – can add legends to teams
• Can see where teams moved up or down in NHL Draft Lottery
• Medium top-six and medium elite overall players will be more “hit-or-miss”

You can check out the full video from the NHL team down below. Be sure to keep checking out the SGO site for more news on the NHL franchise.

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