In recent reveals, the team behind NHL 22 has spoken a lot about the superstar X-Factors that will make this year’s iteration play and feel unique. By giving the National Hockey League’s fifty best players special abilities that mimic their real-life exceptionalities, the developers hope that they’ve created a more lifelike version of interactive hockey.
Today, we have a list of the players who’ve received these X-Factors, all of which are separated into categories relating to shooting, skating, passing, hockey IQ, defending and goaltending.
The list is as follows:
Shooters
Auston Matthews, Toronto – Shock and Awe
Artemi Panarin, NY Rangers – Make It Snappy
Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay – Make It Snappy
Jake Guentzel, Pittsburgh – Shnipe
Alexander Ovechkin, Washington – One Tee
John Carlson, Washington – Thunderclap
Alex Debrincat, Chicago – Make It Snappy
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh – Beautiful Backhand
Shea Theodore, Vegas – Heatseeker
Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg – Shnipe
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay – One Tee
Jack Eichel, Buffalo (for now) – Make It Snappy
Dougie Hamilton, New Jersey – Heatseeker
David Pastrnak, Boston – Shnipe
Brad Marchand, Boston – Make It Snappy
Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary – It’s Tricky
Kyle Connor, Winnipeg – Thunderclap
Skaters
Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado – Ankle Breaker
Matt Barzal, NY Islanders – Elite Edges
Connor McDavid, Edmonton – Wheels
Cale Makar, Colorado – Elite Edges
Brayden Point, Tampa Bay – Wheels
Kris Letang, Pittsburgh – In Reverse
Elias Pettersson, Vancouver – Third Eye
Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota – Tape to Tape
Mika Zibanejad, NY Rangers – Magnetic
Hockey IQ
Patrick Kane, Chicago – Puck on a String
Seth Jones, Chicago Quick Pick
Aleksander Barkov, Florida – All Alone
Joe Pavelski, Dallas – Big Tipper
Ryan O’Reilly, St. Louis – Quick Draw
Gabriel Landeskog, Colorado – Crease Crasher
Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles – Quick Pick
Passers
Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton – Tape to Tape
Mikko Rantanen, Colorado – Tape to Tape
Sebastian Aho, Carolina – Third Eye
Mitch Marner, Toronto – Third Eye
Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida Tape to Tape
Elias Pettersson, Vancouver – Third Eye
Roman Josi, Nashville – Send It
Defenders
Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay – Stick ‘Em Up
Sean Couturier, Philadelphia – Stick ‘Em Up
Alex Pietrangelo, Vegas – Shutdown
Jaccob Slavin, Carolina – Shutdown
Adam Fox, NY Rangers – Tape to Tape
Patrice Bergeron, Boston – Yoink!
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay – Contortionist
Carey Price, Montreal – Post to Post
Marc-Andre Fleury, Chicago – All Or Nothing
Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg – Dialed In
NHL 22 will drop its digital puck on October 15th, and will do so on both next and last-gen consoles.