Minnesota Wild: NHL 16 Profile

EA Sports’ NHL 16 dropped in stores on September 16th, making this the second year the NHL franchise is available on next generation consoles. (XBOX One, PS4) Grabbing the game last night, I decided to give you an in depth look at the Minnesota Wild in NHL 16.

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To start, teams are given an overall attribute ranking on offense, defense, and goaltending. The Wild accumulated a 91 overall rating on both offense and defense, while obtaining an 88 overall rating in net.

The jersey selection is the same as NHL 15′ with you being able to play with the Wild’s home, away, and alternate jersey. You are also able to play with the 2012-13 white away jersey, while all the home, away, and alternate jerseys from the 2006-07 season are available as well. Ryan Suter will model the jerseys for you, being the highest rated overall player on the Wild’s roster.

That being said, here is the entire Minnesota Wild roster and what attribute level they received.

[table id=45 /]

Suter, as mentioned earlier, is the highest rated skater and defensemen with an 93 overall ranking. Zach Parise comes in as the team’s highest rated forward ranking at 90 overall. Captain, Mikko Koivu, is rated at 86 overall.

With the team achieving an 88 overall rating at the goaltending position, here is a look at the team’s goaltenders and how they were rated.

[table id=46 /]

Dubnyk achieves the status of starter in the game, while Kuemper is listed as a fringe starter, and Backstrom is listed as the AHL starter.

There are no rookies listed in the initial NHL 16 roster, even players such as Conor McDavid and Jack Eichel are not with their respected teams. So, players like Mike Reilly will not debut in the game until a roster update, which may come after training camp.

Looking at the Xcel Energy Center, one of the things EA Sports wanted to improve on was the look and feel of each individual arena. The franchise also wanted to improve on the goal horns of each team to make them as authentic as possible. The Wild’s horn in NHL 15 was accurate but the recording of the pitch was bad.

Here is a look at the goal horn and the Xcel Energy Center for the Minnesota Wild in NHL 16:

As you can see, the goal horn is still a little unclear but not worth complaining about. Crowd Chant, by Joe Satriani, plays after you score as well which adds a cool feature being so authentic. With what I have seen from around the league in terms of goal horns, EA Sports did mess some up pretty bad, so the Wild got pretty lucky in that regard.

I am nowhere near a game reviewer, but do want to say that NHL 16 is a must have for any gamer/NHL fan. The graphics looked incredible, and there are some added features on the game this year that last years version did not have in terms of game play.

I did want to give Wild fans a look on where each and every player was rated while throwing in some of the newer cool features.

From a Wild perspective, you would not be disappointed in purchasing NHL 16, which will be even cooler when they add the rookie roster update.

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