It's sports video game season! Sports video game franchises have been rolling out their cover athletes and trailers in anticipation of the their new games that will be released later in the year.
Wednesday night, it's NHL's turn as the cover athlete, trailer, new features, release date, and much more for NHL 19 will be revealed at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas.
In anticipation of the announcement of who will be on the cover, we decided to give you 8 players we feel deserve consideration while keeping in mind that EA announced the cover athlete is someone who has never been on the cover before.
(Format: 2 goalies, 2 defenceman, 4 forwards)
Goalies
Braden Holtby
Holtby's season wasn't spectacular, but when his number was called in the playoffs, he delivered every single time en route to winning the Stanley Cup.
Marc-Andre Fleury
The other goalie we think is most deserving is Fleury, who went from the Penguins to the Golden Knights and led them to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season in the NHL.
Unfortunately for him and Holtby, only one goalie since NHL 98 has been on the cover and that was Martin Brodeur (NHL 14).
Defenceman
Drew Doughty
The Los Angeles Kings' defenceman was a plus 23 this season and recorded a career-high 60 points, 7th most among defenceman, while averaging the most time-on-ice for d-men.
P.K. Subban
Subban finished one point behind Doughty (59), but scored 16 goals which was tied for second-most among defenceman.
Forwards
Nathan MacKinnon
The Hart Trophy nominee recorded a career-high 97 points (39 goals) in just 74 games and led the Avalanche to the playoffs where he added another 6 points in 6 games.
Taylor Hall
Hall is another Hart Trophy Nominee and finished 6th in the league in scoring (behind MacKinnon) with a career-high 93 points.
In his first playoff run, Hall also produced with 6 points in 5 games.
Nikita Kucherov
The leading scorer for much of the year finished second behind Connor McDavid with a career-high 100 points.
Sidney Crosby
We say the same thing every single year for Crosby, the fact that he hasn't been on a cover yet is ridiculous, so just put him in the cover already.
If you're not into these suggestions, you might like these custom covers better.
