NHL 2012, by EA Sports, is a game that many hockey fans, including the ones on this site, tend to enjoy. The newest copy comes out on September 13th, and the new ratings have been released. Before I go into how badly EA messed up our roster, I want to start out with how bad they messed up the goalies.

Luongo, Miller, and Fleury are the three best goalies in the game, all at 91 or better. Ward, Rinne, Lundqvist, and Vokoun (Yes, he of 1/50th the money of Bryz) are all 90 overall. Thomas (Yes there are seven goalies better than the Conn Smyth and Vezina winner) and Price are at 89, Kiprusoff and Halak at 88, and Lehtonen, Howard, and Backstrom are tied with our beloved Ilya Bryzgalov at 87. These are all accurate as far as the default roster goes. The guy we blew up our team for, one of the best goalies in the league, is worse than eleven and tied with four, good for average among starting goalies. Luongo, Miller, Fleury, Thomas---I’ll give you those four every time. Two cups, Olympic gold and silver, two cup runner ups, Olympics MVP, a first overall. Cam Ward? Pikka Rinne? Thomas Vokoun? Carey Price? Halak? Kipper? Jimmy Howard? Am I the only one who thinks that EA did a very poor job with goalie ratings? We just signed a guy for 9 years at 5+ per, and he gets an 87. The Caps signed Vokoun for peanuts and he’s a 90? On the positive side, Bobrovsky landed an 84, with Hiller, Crawford, Quick, Brodeur, and Niemi getting 85’s, and Rask, Varlamov, Mason, Dipetro, and Pavelec tied with Bob at 84 as well. Boosh got a 81, Nitty and Emery 82, and Biron 83 to round out the rest of the former Flyer goalies.

On to the roster, forwards first: (Name, Overall Rating, Potential, My Rating)

Briere, 87, C- 87

Giroux, 87, B- 88

Voracek, 84, B- 84

Hartnell, 84, C 83

JVR, 84, B 84

Simmonds, 83, B- 82

Jagr, 83, C 85

Zherdev, 82, C 82

Talbot, 81, C 80

Nodl, 80, B- 79

Betts, 79, C 81 (Betts is our best PK guy until Talbot proves otherwise)

Lappy, 78, D N/A

Shelley, 77, C- 75

Schenn, 75, B- 79A-/B

Everything here seems pretty standard with the exception of Jagr and Schenn. I think that Jagr should be at least as good as Hartnell, JVR (who could deserve a higher rating, but his B potential means he will progress), and Voracek. As far as Schenn, it’s not the grade I’m upset about, it’s his B- potential. Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin both still have A- potential and JVR has B potential---there is no reason that the top prospect in hockey shouldn’t have at least a B. Nodl is an 80 B- and Simmonds is an 83 B- so there is no reason Schenn shouldn’t be better than them.

Defense:

Pronger, 90, C- 89

Coburn, 85, C 84

Timonen, 84, C- 86

Carle, 83, C 85 (When you lead the NHL in even strength points for defenders, you are better than an 83)

Meszaros, 82, C 83 (Won team’s best defender award last year and is our fifth best guy, 8 points below Pronger?)

Lilja, 78, C

Pronger as a 90 as the best player on the team is fine with me, but Timonen not being better than Coburn is just plain wrong. It should be Timonen with at least an 85, Carle with the 85, and Mez and Coburn with 83/4’s. Lilja’s 78 is expected but it is unknown still how good Gustafsson, Marshall, Bourdon, and the rest of the prospects are.

Here are my estimations for what I think the game will make the prospects:

Couturier, 73, B

Wellwood, 78, B-

Ranford, 71, B-

Akeson, 72, B-

Rinaldo, 74, B-

Sestito, 74, C

Read, 74, B-

Testwuide, 73, B-

Gustafsson, 75, B-

Marshall, 78, B-/C

Bourdon, 76, B-/C

Hovinan, 74, B-

Kovar, 76, B-/C

What do you guys think?