EA Sports Offers First Look At Ovechkin In NHL 23 & It’s… Interesting

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has been a staple of NHL video games since he went first overall in 2004, and over the years, the captain has seen several different looks between EA Sports and 2K Sports installments. And looking ahead to EA Sports NHL 23, the first look at him is an interesting one.

The gaming company’s Twitter account posted a promo for its upcoming official gameplay trailer, which launches on Tuesday along with the closed technical test. And featured in the photo was the Great 8, with a look that we haven’t seen since… well, his rookie year.

In the photo, Ovechkin is wearing a mirrored visor and sporting his trademark CCM gear. He wears the CCM Vector V8 helmet and JetSpeed FT1 gloves, and he uses the RibCor Trigger. Ovechkin has been wearing the CCM Super Tacks AS3 Pro skates but did wear the JetSpeed FT4 Pro skates for a portion of last season.

Hey @G20YT good news 👀 #NHL23

Watch the official Gameplay Trailer live tomorrow @ 11am ET 📺
➡️ https://t.co/wfFaCCmGQx pic.twitter.com/jH0ONE1KqI

— EA SPORTS NHL (@EASPORTSNHL) August 29, 2022

Ovechkin was on the NHL 21 cover, and last year, his look got more refined as the release of the Xbox Series X and PS5 led to the franchise finally switching to the Frostbite engine, which led to a major upgrade in graphics and gameplay.

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However, the mirrored visor is going a bit retro for Ovechkin. He currently wears a tinted visor and yellow laces, which were revealed last season to be a tribute to Theo Fleury.

Ovechkin was a fan of his mirrored visor, which took the NHL by storm as the rookie sensation lit up the league. However, several players, including goaltender Martin Brodeur, complained about the visor and said it gave Ovechkin an unfair advantage as a goal scorer since it hid his eyes. NHL GMs ultimately voted to ban the visors, 29-1. However, there’s nothing in the NHL rulebook making it official. So, technically, players could still wear them, though, given the vote, no one does anymore. The IIHF does have a rule banning mirrored visors, though.

NHL 23 comes out on Oct. 14, 2022. The gameplay trailer can be viewed here on Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET. Trevor Zegras and Sarah Nurse are the cover athletes.