A list of players who have ever appeared on the cover of an NHL game. Who will it be this year?

With the start of another NHL season, players and hockey fans can look forward to a new edition of Electronic Arts’ popular NHL series. Every year, people also ask who will be on the cover of their favorite game? The creators of the series announced a few days ago that Canadian defenseman Cale Makar will be on the cover of NHL 24 this time. But remember which players have received this honor in the past?

The boxed versions of video games are slowly fading into history, with the physical disc being largely coveted by collectors.

The same is true of Electronic Arts’ NHL sports title. However, even those fans who purchase or download the game digitally will be watching the protagonist of the current title on their monitors or TV screens all year round.

Among the handful of information released by the gaming company EA, it is the main face of the year for the 2023/2024 season that stands out.

It will be Canadian defenseman Cale Makar, who currently plays for the Colorado Avalanche. After Filip Forsberg in 1998, he is only the second player to wear a Colorado jersey in the team’s thirty-two-year history.

In the early years, however, the photos were not focused on specific individuals. Developers used photos from games featuring two or even three players until the ’96 NHL season. That changed with the advent of NHL 97, when Florida goalie John Vanbiesbrouck appeared on the game’s cover.

The trend of individuals continued until NHL 23, when Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras was joined by Canadian Sarah Nurse. This was mainly due to the fact that for the first time, women also appeared in the game. A complete list of all the game’s covers was recently offered by USA Today.

Other highlights:

• The cover photo of EA SPORTS’ NHL never featured a Czech player in the official version.

• The three players who appeared twice on the game’s cover were Alexander Ovechkin, Auston Matthews and Jonathan Toews. In the case of the Russian forward, the seasons were NHL 07 and NHL 21. Toews appeared on the cover of the game in 2011 and 2016. Matthews then even twice in three years – in the NHL 20 and NHL 22 seasons.

• The Chicago Blackhawks were the only NHL team to have two players on the cover, two years in a row. In 2010, it was Patrick Kane, and in NHL 11 it was Toews.
• The first European to be on the cover was Alexei Kovalev of Russia.

• The only woman to receive the honor of being the face of the game was Canadian Sarah Nurse. It was in the last edition of NHL 23.

• Never has arguably the best player in the history of the league, Wayne Gretzky, appeared on an EA NHL cover. It wasn’t even in the seasons when he was setting indelible franchise records, nor was it around 1999, the year he ended his great career. At the time, he held an impressive 61 official NHL records.

For a complete list of all the players on the cover of the NHL game:

NHL Hockey (1991) – Glenn Healy
NHLPA Hockey ’93 – Rod Brind’Amour, Mike Richter and Randy Moller
NHL ’94 – Thomas Sandstrom and Andy Moog
NHL ’95 – Alexei Kovalev and Kirk McLean
NHL ’96 – Scott Stevens and Steve Yzerman
NHL ’97 – John Vanbiesbrouck
NHL 98 – Peter Forsberg
NHL 99 – Eric Lindros
NHL 2000 – Chris Pronger
NHL 2001 – Owen Nolan
NHL 2002 – Mario Lemieux
NHL 2003 – Jarome Iginla
NHL 2004 – Dany Heatley
NHL 2005 – Markus Naslund
NHL 06 – Vincent Lecavalier
NHL 07 – Alexander Ovechkin
NHL 08 – Eric Staal
NHL 09 – Dion Phaneuf
NHL 10 – Patrick Kane
NHL 11 – Jonathan Toews
NHL 12 – Steven Stamkos
NHL 13 – Claude Giroux
NHL 14 – Martin Brodeur
NHL 15 – Patrice Bergeon
NHL 16 – Jonathan Toews
NHL 17 – Vladimir Tarasenko
NHL 18 – Connor McDavid
NHL 19 – P.K. Subban
NHL 20 – Auston Matthews
NHL 21 – Alexander Ovechkin
NHL 22 – Auston Matthews
NHL 23 – Trevor Zegras and Sarah Nurse
NHL 24 – Cale Makar

Sources: Electronic Arts, USA Today