NHL 21 (Special Editions & Differences)

Andrew
By Andrew
NHL 21 Box Art

This game was released on October 16, 2020 and is no longer available to pre-order. Any incentives that were offered are listed below.

NHL 21 is an upcoming installment in EA Sports’ ice hockey simulation franchise. The company promises smarter and faster gameplay, a new Be A Pro experience that allows everyone to live the life of an NHL player, and updated World of CHEL online mode with ranked seasons. The cover star of NHL 21 is Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

As with other EA Sports games, you have several editions to choose from with varying amounts of extra content. Let’s look at them in detail.

Pre-Order Bonuses

NHL 21 - NHL 94 Rewind

Pre-order NHL 21 to receive a free playable NHL ’94 Rewind game when it launches on October 30. Inspired by the original NHL ’94 for Sega Genesis, the game combines modern teams and rosters with classic interface and 16-bit graphics of yesteryear.

Further bonuses are available from the following retailers (if you make a purchase through the links below, we may get a share of the sale):

  • GameStop: an exclusive Happy Gilmore Pop! Figure:

NHL 21 - Happy Gilmore Pop! Figure

Veteran Bonus

In addition to the pre-order incentives, longtime players of the series will receive a Veteran Bonus of up to 10 HUT loyalty reward packs based on their ownership of the past three EA Sports NHL installments.

Standard Edition ($59.99)

NHL 21 - Standard Edition

Pre-order the Standard Edition of NHL 21 to receive the following:

  • Up to 2 HUT Diamond Player Choice Packs (1 per month for 2 months)
  • Be A Pro XP Boost and Bonus Trait and Specialization Points
  • 1 Unlocked World of Chel Hockey Bag

The Standard Edition is priced $59.99, but EA Access members can get it for $53.99.

Deluxe Edition ($79.99)

NHL 21 - Deluxe Edition

The digital Deluxe Edition (also called Champions Edition in some promotional material) comes with the following extras:

  • 3 Days Early Access (with pre-order)
  • Up to 5 HUT Diamond Player Choice Packs (1 per month for 5 months)
  • HUT Synergy Veteran Choice Pack (Choice 1 of 10; +1 OVR per month until August 2021)
  • HUT Cover Athlete Choice Pack (Choice of: Ovechkin, Matthews, McDavid, Pettersson, Laine, or Subban)
  • Be A Pro XP Boost and Bonus Trait and Specialization Points
  • 2 Unlocked World of Chel Hockey Bags

The Deluxe Edition is available with EA Access discounted to $71.99.

Great Eight Edition ($99.99)

NHL 21 - Great Eight Edition

Last is the Great Eight Edition, previously called Ultimate Edition, that is available both physically and digitally for $99.99 (digitally for $89.99 with EA Access). For this hefty price you get the following:

  • 3 Days Early Access
  • Up to 10 HUT Diamond Player Choice Packs (2 per month for 5 months)
  • HUT Synergy Veteran Choice Pack (Choice 1 of 10; +1 OVR per month until August 2021)
  • HUT Cover Athlete Choice Pack (Choice of: Ovechkin, Matthews, McDavid, Pettersson, Laine, Subban)
  • Be A Pro XP Boost and Bonus Trait and Specialization Points
  • 5 Unlocked World of Chel Hockey Bags

Get it at:

NHL 21 is slated to launch on October 16, 2020 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with owners of Deluxe and Ultimate editions getting to play early on October 13. Notably, the game will not have a next-gen version, although it will be playable on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X via backward compatibility.

Check out our other upcoming sports games and upcoming playstation 4 games.