Something has to change
I can break this game down into subsections if i want, but it would come to the same conclusion, if you like hockey, play this game.
My problem however lies with the horrendous money grabbing system games seem to be a part of nowadays.
They should simply do 1 of 2 things in this situation, because shelling out 70 dollars every year for 'slight improvements' isn't right.
1. Release games bi-yearly, as rosters can and are updated automatically anyway, there should be no reason why a new NHL game MUST come out yearly. Just because a year passes does not mean you should release a new game, release them when the last one is NEED of a serious upgrade.
2. Release yearly, but cut the price. There is no reason why this game would deserve a 70 dollar price. The core is NHL 09, thus the actual development cost could not have been that high, secondly, perhaps offer the game for download at a further cut price, even 5-10 dollars would be nice, as production is bypassed that way.
The point is, you have a great game, but you had a great game last year too. Stop screwing your consumers, stop ruining the video game industry, and stop financially raping fans of hockey, and your games.