Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras and Team Canada forward Sarah Nurse are the cover athletes for NHL 23, EA Sports announced Wednesday, noting that Nurse is the first hockey player to grace the cover of its NHL video game.
“It’s something I never thought was in the realm of possibility,” Nurse, who starred in Canada’s dominant gold medal win at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, told ESPN. “I never dreamed of being there, so I think it’s huge and I think it just speaks to where women’s hockey is right now, the visibility and the value that people see in women’s hockey. “
Clem Kwong, lead producer of the EA Sports NHL series, said there had been discussions in recent years about featuring a female hockey star on the cover. The timing for this edition was right after EA Sports added the women’s national team rosters from the IIHF World Championships to NHL 22 late last year, marking the first time women’s players could be selected for the game.
“When we started going through the process and looking at the short list of athletes, we looked for athletes who were on the biggest stage. She’s also a pioneer in inclusion and diversity within sport,” Kwong said of Nurse.
Zegras made a star debut with the Ducks in 2021-22 thanks to multiple highlight reel goals. The boldest saw Zegras use his racquet to lift the puck behind the Buffalo Sabers’ net and pass it over the goal cage to teammate Sonny Milano for a goal.
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Gamers attempted to recreate this move in NHL 22, dubbed The Zegras.
“I’ve seen a lot of videos of kids trying to make it,” Zegras, who came second in last season’s Rookie of the Year poll, told ESPN. “Almost like hitting the puck over the net, which was pretty cool to watch.”
Programmers created a way for players to perform this over-the-net pass in-game, making The Zegras an official part of the franchise.
Mike Inglehart, creative director at EA Sports, sees Zegras as the face of a generation of players pulling off “video game moves” in the NHL.
“They do things where you say, ‘This should be in a video game first and then in the NHL,'” Inglehart said. “Who knows where it will lead? There’s probably something that lands in NHL 24 that we’re not even thinking about right now.”
NHL 23 will be released on October 14th on all platforms. More information on new features will be announced later this week.