************************. NHL 16 Wikipedia:. NHL 16 is an ice hockey video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It is the 25th installment of the NHL series and was released on September 15, 2015 in North America and September 17 and 18 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The game was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a separate release for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 titled NHL: Legacy Edition. Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks is the official cover athlete, marking his second appearance on an NHL cover, following NHL 11. Upon release, NHL 16 received positive reviews and was declared an improvement over NHL 15 by critics. NHL 16 contains several game modes, including Be a GM, a mode where you control the general manager of a team of your choice, Be a Pro, a mode where you control your own custom player and progress his career, Hockey Ultimate Team, a mode where you collect cards of real-life players, build a team, and then take on either players online or A.I. teams, and EA Sports Hockey League, abbreviated as EASHL, a multiplayer-only mode where you can use your own custom player to join other teams, also with custom players controlled by other people, and take on other teams. The EASHL returns after being dropped from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of NHL 15. It features some changes in its progression system to address balance issues, including a switch to a class-based progression model similar to Be a Pro mode, and the removal of attributes and boosts. A beta for the EASHL mode was available for NHL 15 owners from July 30 to August 10.