How EA Sports brought the Professional Women’s Hockey League to NHL 25

EA Sports is adding the Professional Women’s Hockey League in an NHL 25 update slated for December, the company announced Wednesday. Though NHL 25 lets players create female players in its Be a Pro mode and play as women who compete in International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments, it launched without the PWHL, which completed its first season in 2024. It was a notable absence, due to the historic nature of the league’s first season — but NHL 25 won’t be PWHL-less for much longer.

The PWHL’s second season begins later this month, and the NHL 25 update will launch days later, on Dec. 5, with all six PWHL teams: the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montréal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres. Part of the reason NHL 25 didn’t launch with the women’s league is because the teams only recently announced their new names and jerseys; they played their first season using just city names. When the PWHL is added to NHL 25, the experience will be complete with the authentic uniforms, a full season, and the Walter Cup finals.

“We did have some of the women join us onsite [at the NHL 25 community day] and they were super excited to be part of it, kind of relaying the stories about them playing and now having their likeness represented in-game is definitely something that they’re incredibly excited to see, as we are,” EA NHL franchise senior producer Chris Haluke told Polygon. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction for us too in terms of inclusiveness, authenticity, and just bringing that representation to life.”

Minnesota Frost forward and inaugural season playoff MVP Taylor Heise said in a statement to Polygon that the PWHL’s inclusion in NHL 25 is “an important moment for women’s hockey.” She continued: “This sort of representation in hockey culture really matters. It makes me all the more optimistic about the future of our sport, thinking about all the young girls who might give hockey a shot after seeing other women represented in such a popular video game.”

Because the PWHL season begins later than the National Hockey League’s, it means PWHL teams are still finalizing their rosters, so not all players will have their likenesses scanned into the game when the update launches. (Training camps for the PWHL began this week, but not all players have been signed just yet.) But NHL 25 senior design director Mike Inglehart told Polygon that EA Sports will be doing scans of all the players “in the near future,” so the models are as close to the women as possible. But until then, there are other techniques to use — like using high-quality photos to create likenesses. “We’re already doing amazing justice by them with what we’re doing right now,” Inglehart said. “The scans just take it to another level once we get access to them and [are] able to capture those images.”

For now, the PWHL integration will be a single season to play with a realistic schedule, managing rosters into the Walter Cup finals — the league’s equivalent of the Stanley Cup finals. For now, the PWHL won’t be implemented into other NHL 25 modes because there are a bunch of differences in the leagues, rules-wise. One big one is how season-wide points are scored; in the NHL, teams get two points for a regulation win or an overtime win and one point for an overtime loss. (No points for losing in regulation.) The PWHL gives regulation wins three points; overtime wins get two points, overtime losses get one point, and regulation losses still get no points. Winning in regulation becomes a lot more important than even a win in overtime. There are different rules for shootouts and penalties, too: One big one is that a PWHL team on the penalty kill can end the penalty by scoring a short-handed goal, something that doesn’t matter for penalty time in the NHL. It’s also a much, much smaller league than the NHL, with six teams to the NHL’s 32.

“Over time, as we continue working with [the PWHL], depending on how it expands, there could be opportunities to potentially move it into other modes down the road, but it’ll be in season now,” Inglehart said.

Like the new NHL Arcade, a more casual offering in World of Chel, the PWHL implementation is a potential way to bring a more diverse player base into the game, which is not known for being newbie-friendly. And it just makes sense as interest in hockey continues to grow. “Let’s invite people in,” Inglehart said. “Hockey is bigger than a one-gender sport. Hopefully we can invite more people into NHL, to play our game, because we’re providing a new outlet, a new connection to a part of the sport that should be celebrated.”