Gretzky, Bourque, Chelios Enter NHL 12′s Legendary Roster
EA Sports revealed recently that NHL 12 will feature more than just hockey’s biggest stars of today, reaching back in time to tickle the memories of older fans with “Legends” of the game. The first the legends have been revealed via a new trailer: Wayne Gretzky, Chris Chelios, and Ray Bourque.
Chelios is best known for his days playing defense for the Chicago Blackhawks and before that, the Montreal Canadiens. Late in his career he also helped the Detroit Red Wings to two more Stanley Cup victories. He is widely regarded as one of the all-time greatest hockey players from the United States.
Like Chelios, Ray Bourque was also a d-man, having spent 21 seasons on Boston’s blue line. Boston is the current defending Stanley Cup champion, but Bourque never brought a cup to the city himself. With a heavy heart, he left Boston and sought the Colorado Avalanche in his final NHL season, miraculously living his dream of winning it all.
Wayne Gretzky really needs no introduction, but here’s one anyway. Dubbed “The Great One” and labeled by most as the single most outstanding player in the history of the game, Wayne helped the popularity of hockey take off in the US when the Los Angeles Kings sent several players and a dump truck full of money up to Edmonton in a trade that the Canadian version of ESPN (TSN) still talks about every single year on its anniversary. Watch the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary “A King’s Ransom” for more on that.
Here’s the new trailer unveiling the three legends officially. There will reportedly be six more unmasked in the future, at least one of them being a goalkeeper, if those silhouettes are any indication.
As a new announcement, the details are not yet completely clear, as EA is staggering its details to keep gamers on the edges of their seats until release time, a popular marketing tactic. As of now, we know that these studs of yesteryear will be on cards in Hockey Ultimate Team and will be playable in at least some game modes. Which ones, however, are not yet known. It would certainly be interesting for Oilers fans to see Gretzky skating alongside Taylor Hall in franchise mode though. Perhaps players could even recreate the waves of the Gretzky deal that was labeled “the trade of the century” 23 years ago? We’ll see. The new NHL game is due out in September, as usual.
9 Responses to “Gretzky, Bourque, Chelios Enter NHL 12′s Legendary Roster”
Mario Lemieux is pretty much a lock, but the others? Hmmm
If there’s only 1 goalie, it’ll probably be Patrick Roy, but I’d say the Dominator Hasek would be the better choice myself. Pfft. His exact style would be hard to put in a video game though, as other game versions never came close.
I’d want to say Messier, but I wonder if they’d go the route of having teammates like that. Same with Ron Francis.
I’d also think Gordie Howe, but it depends just how FAR back they’re reaching with these.
So they’re hard to predict, but if I could PICK the remaining 6 legends, I’d go with…
Mario Lemieux
Brett Hull
Pavel Bure
Joe Sakic
Patrick Roy
Dominick Hasek
Wish I could afford the game, haha. ^^;; I probably won’t be playing it till I can snag a used copy next year or something. Aw well.
That’s hilarious… If they put in Hasek and made his style realistic it would the biggest joke this series has ever seen. The goalie AI already has trouble handling dekes, imagine him flopping onto his face instead of just being out of position.
I mean, everybody shoots high and a stand-up goalie isn’t even the most effective for some reason. I question if you even play this game if you think hasek’s build would be even close to a cool thing to try.
I had to to respond to this. Hasek would be a better choice than the greatest goalie ever (some can argue and I would listen to them if they say Terry Sawchuck)??
1989, 1990, and 1992 Roy won the Vezina Trophy. He won the Jennings Trophy (fewest goals allowed) in 1987, 1988, 1989 , 1992, and 2002. Was named a First Team All-Star four times, a Second Team All-Star twice, and played in eleven All-Star games. He has also won a record three Conn Smythe Trophies as NHL Playoff MVP (1986, 1993, and 2001).NHL records Roy holds are career playoff games played (247), and career playoff wins (151)Most NHL playoff shutouts (23) First NHL goalie to play 1,000 NHL games. Won the Stanley Cup — with Montreal Canadiens in 1986, 1993, with Colorado Avalanche in 1996, 2001.
If there ever was a definition of a “money goalie” Roy was definately it. Hasek , i will tip my hat to had a pretty good career too, but come on…Roy all the way.
One thing to note about this too, Roy was already in the game as a legend on the centennial Canadiens. He was rated at 96 along with Ken Dryden, and there’s no way Hasek deserves 96. So judging by that, the EA team probably has a few goalies ahead of Hasek.
Id also drop Bure and put in Mike Bossy.
Terry Sawchuck and Mike Bossy would be great additions; one of the best pure scorers ever and a lot of these younger kids don’t even know his name, and like you said, the most decorated goalie in the NHL.
Like I said about Howe though I guess it depends just how far back they’re going with the legends. I wonder if they’ll be stretching back that far?
If they will, then hey, I’m right there with you man. No need for all the question marks ^_^
One more thing…that gum ad is really getting annoying lol. Sometimes it wont leave even when you close it and when you try to click on an article it takes you to the facebook page for voretx gum.
Ya your right, it depends on how far back they go…it would be hard to narrow it down to just a few. Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito, some other guy, cant remember his name, oh ya Bobby Orr lol.
Gretzky said Bossy was the best goal scorer he ever saw. That means something coming from him.