Juste because it's not the same revolutionnary step we had last year doesn't mean it's a not perfect
I never realised how many option there are in NHL before a new friend who never played a hockey game, came to play with me. You must admit that Be A pro, Be a Gm, season, cup, Online play, etc. are all fully functionnal games and many company would probably sales that kind of game as two or three seperate games and one version every three or four years. So having a new game each years with such a big array of gameplay is astonishing.
Be a Pro is, maybe, the least changed of all the gameplay. The added feature of being able to equip your player with bonus equipement is great idea and brings a role play elements to the game but it is too basic and much simplier to buy everything with real money in order to be able to compete.
Be a GM on the other hand as seen a very much needed lift up. The reputation systems and objectives driven gameplay is nice. No more buying a free agent and then giving him up for a recruit or a draft right after. The recruit match is also a nice touch and being able to make trade between draft rounds brings a bit of a tension to the draft. I just find that having to complete task in order to get GM point is hard because you don't necessarly need to do these task. Mind you, there are a LOT of task to do so...
Sure there are some weird things like unrealistic trade, an abnormal number of deflection goals, etc. But even if you are not please with the way the game plays, there are all the slides you may want to tweek the gameplay to your taste or level.
For me NHL 10 is still the NUMBER 1 sport game out there.