Overview
- Connor McDavid was listed at 99 overall by EA Sports in announcements on Monday after he led the NHL with 48 goals and 90 assists for 138 points in 2025–26.
- EA introduced a new '99 Club' to make 99 the top possible overall and described it as the ceiling for players who show near‑complete mastery of speed, vision and puck control in the game.
- On Tuesday EA published forward position rankings that place Nikita Kucherov as the top right winger at 97 and Kirill Kaprizov as the top left winger at 94 while also listing the top 10 centers led by McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon at 97.
- Fans and historians pushed back on EA’s description of McDavid as the franchise’s 'first‑ever' 99, citing older NHL game editions that assigned 99 or 100 ratings and highlighting a distinction between those earlier titles and the modern console-era series.
- EA said it will release defenseman and full overall ratings in the coming days as part of a staged marketing rollout ahead of NHL 27’s Deluxe early access on Sept. 4 and full launch on Sept. 11, a cadence that will shape pre-release player discussion and promotional plans.