NHL 22 Women’s national team update adds first playable female teams

The NHL 22 Women's national team update adds in the first ever playable female teams.

Craig Robinson

Share this article...

• Follow us

EA Sports has announced that the upcoming NHL 22 patch will feature the first-ever playable women’s teams in an NHL game. The new NHL 22 patch notes feature a whole list of named female teams from the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation), featuring female stars like Team Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Natalie Spooner; Team USA’s Hilary Knight and Kendall Coyne-Schofield, among others in the NHL 22 Women’s national team update.

While it is no secret that female teams and players wee coming to NHL 22, it is still a symbolic moment. The news was broke back in Novemebr 2021 but is only now coming to play in the latest NHL 22 patch. 

With the announcement, Marie-Philip Poulin offered a quote in a statement to the press, stating: “It has been such a privilege to lace up my digital skates for the very first time in NHL 22, and to get to do so while playing for my country makes it all the more surreal. Representation matters, and I’m thrilled that every young girl who picks up a controller to play NHL 22 can feel like hockey is a sport for her, too.”

In addition, the new NHL 22 Patch notes also feature an IIHF World Championship mode that players can play. Moreso, Sixteen international Men’s teams and 10 Female teams are added to the game, which is accessible in the World Championship mode. Meanwhile, you can use these new teams in the Play Now, Online, Threes Now Shootout and other NHL 22 game modes.

For those wanting to know what teams, EA Sports provided us with a list of the 26 new teams in the game:

Female

1. Canada
2. Czech Republic (Czechia)
3. Denmark
4. Finland
5. Germany
6. Hungary
7. Japan
8. Russia
9. Switzerland
10. USA

Male

1. Belarus
2. Canada
3. Czech Republic
4. Denmark
5. Finland
6. Germany
7. Great Britain
8. Italy
9. Kazakhstan
10. Latvia
11. Norway
12. ROC – Russia’s Olympic name since the doping issue.
13. Slovakia
14. Sweden
15. Switzerland
16. United States

The new update for NHL 22 is another example of a series of diversity efforts in the NHL. The new NHL 22 patch notes with female teams sit alongside the recent EA Sports and UNINTERRUPTED documentary featuring the subject in video form.

For more information on the game-changing NHL 22 patch notes, you can click here and see the full list of changes.