Photo credit: Bob Frid – USA TODAY Sports
A big announcement was made regarding Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes ahead of the release of EA Sports NHL 26, which is set to come out early next month.
Every fall, as hockey fans are awaiting for the new season to begin, EA Sports releases their latest edition of the NHL video game series and this time around, it’ll be a bit earlier than recent years, with the Deluxe Version out on September 5th and Standard Version on September 12th.
Last year, Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes graced the cover of the game alongside his brothers, Jack and Luke of the New Jersey Devils, calling it a pretty cool opportunity and that it’s “a special thing.”
“I mean, there’s a lot of great players in the NHL and for them to want to have us three and base the game off of us is a special thing and I hope kids or whoever is playing around the world, enjoys it.” Hughes said.
With just over a week until the Deluxe Version launches, EA Sports has decided to release their player rankings for the game, starting with defensemen on Monday.
Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes lands very high rating in NHL 26
When releasing their ratings for the upcoming release of NHL 26, EA Sports announced that not only does Quinn Hughes have the highest overall among left-shot defenseman, he’s tied for first with Cale Makar among all blueliners in the game.
Hughes’ overall for NHL 26 is 95 overall, one higher than NHL 25 and five higher than NHL 24, which was the first time he had a 90 or higher rating from EA Sports.
“Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks has been crowned as the most stalwart defender with 95 OVR, boasting fantastic mobility and speed to boot. On top of being the highest-rated player of his position, the American is among the top five highest-rated athletes in the entire game.” Marco Wutz of ESPN said.
The 25-year-old made his first appearance in the series was NHL 20, when he was rated 80 overall and ever since then, he’s seen a meteoric rise, climbing six overall to 86 between his debut in the game and the following installment, NHL 21.
NHL 20 – 80 overall.
NHL 21 – 86 overall.
NHL 22 – 86 overall.
NHL 23 – 87 overall.
NHL 24 – 90 overall.
NHL 25 – 94 overall.
NHL 26 – 95 overall.
The rest of Vancouver’s ratings, along with those from all 31 other franchises are expected to be announced over the next week to ten days leading up to the game’s launch on XBOX Series X|S and PS5.
Previously on CanucksDaily