This video shows the additions of goalkeeper Patrick Roy and Jeremy Roenick. Patrick Roy was a prototype for the modern butterfly goaltender and no matter what team he was playing against, he gave his Canadians and later, Avalanche, a chance to win. Roy ended up a rare instance of a goalkeeper being named Playoff MVP in 1986; he did this as a rookie. Jeremy Roenick’s most celebrated playing days were in Chicago, helping the Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup finals appearance in 1992. He’d go on to make an impact on any team he played for, eventually becoming only the third American hockey player to score 500 NHL goals.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And EA’s last video of the bunch shows “Super” Mario Lemiuex and “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe. Howe served as an idol for that one guy, what was his name…oh yeah, Wayne Gretzky. A talented scorer who took no crap from anybody, he is immortalized for the “Gordie Howe Hat-Trick,” which is when a hockey player scores a goal, records an assist, and gets into a fight all in the same game; hail Howe. Mario Lemiuex powered the Pittsburgh Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in the early 90′s. Named the game’s most outstanding individual talent of all time by The Hockey News, Mario’s health sadly kept him from playing very many full seasons. Plagued by Hodgkin’s Disease and a disc herniation, among other chronic injuries, he retired early, but would return four years later.

Packed with these legends of the past as well as guys who will surely be in the “Legends” lineup in some hockey game 15 years from now, NHL 12 will be shipped to North American stores on September 9th and European ones on the 13th.

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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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

© Knifefight for PlayStation LifeStyle, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us