What A Modern Day GM Connected Would Look Like

GM Connected is a hot topic amongst the Chel community and one you should caution yourself on before stating an opinion. The last time the community had any sort of connected franchise mode was in NHL 14, almost ten years ago. While other sports games such as Madden have enjoyed connected franchises for some time, the NHL community has been empty-handed. The good news for Chel fans is that we won't be empty-handed for long.

In a video posted across EASPORTSNHL's social platforms, developer Mike Inglehart openly admitted that a mode as big as GM Connected is one that would likely be very hard to implement in a single year. He said, "It won't be in 24, but we're gonna continue talking about it. This is opening the conversation, and we'll continue talking about this topic as we continue going forward." This confirmed that the developers are looking to bring the game mode back, which is great news for fans, but it will need some time to develop and be worked on. Since we haven't had a connected franchise mode in over 10 years however, it raises the questions of what changes a near future connected franchise would have over the most recent one. 

With NHL 24 having a much better Cross-Play system, one change we can expect to see is the ability to have a cross-console Connected Franchise mode. You'll be able to play with friends on same generation consoles, allowing for a more realistic "connected" experience. No longer would there need to be the need for console specific GM Connected leagues from the NHL 14 days.

With X-Factors being a recent addition to NHL, we can expect those to carry over into a Connected Franchise mode. Obviously these would be a factor in actual simulation play and gameplay, but they also give us another unique option. One unique idea put out on social media would be if general managers of each team were able to "vote" on award winners for each season similar to how voting is done for the real NHL awards, and each award winner would receive an X-Factor or Superstar ability boost. 

With a near future Connected Franchise game mode, we might have the options to do some new things that would make the game mode a blast to play in. Adding the option to add a third team in a trade is one element that would make trading that much more intense. Another possibility would be creating leagues from past seasons thanks to the implementation of roster sharing. Imagine recreating the 2003-2004 season with your friends, and watching everyone attempt to tank as hard as possible to win the first overall pick to draft Alex Ovechkin. 

While we're not sure when Connected Franchise will actually come out, it's promising to see that EA is actively working on implementing it into a near future NHL game. Combined with the amount of changes to the game since NHL 14, we can expect that when this Connected Franchise mode launches, it'll be one drastically different from the GM Connected of old.