NHL 23: Custom Leagues are coming to Franchise Mode

EA Sports provided a deep dive into the game modes of NHL 23. Among the new features this year is the support of Custom Leagues in Franchise mode.

As commissioner of a Custom League you’ll set the structure. From the number of teams (6 to 48) to the number of divisions (2 to 8) to the number of conferences, you can customize leagues to the rosters that you’ve wanted to create or share with others.

In addition to the general team and division setup, you’ll have the ability to change the minimum and maximum salary cap. There’s also dynamic scheduling which lets you set the number of total games, division games, interdivision games, etc. You can also change the points for wins and losses.

When it comes to the playoffs, you can set the format in which they are played, including the qualification type. Do you want a Wild Card? What about a new Wild Card round which allows you to have a play-in round similar to the NHL Bubble from 2020?

Depending on the rounds you’ve selected for the playoffs, you’ll be able to change the number of games played in each of those rounds. There’s support for one game, three games, five games or seven games as well as a two game aggregate.

Point being, there are a ton of options you can choose from, giving you complete control over your Custom League. This is an incredible new feature that’ll open up all sorts of fun options.

One of the coolest things about Custom Leagues is how it interacts with Custom Rosters. Let’s say a player created a 48 team custom roster. You can now download that roster file and set up a custom league to sub in all the teams that player created into franchise mode. Then you can recreate the league whichever way you want to with those 48 teams.

NHL 23 launches on October 14, 2022.