The Ducks and EA Sports announced today that center Trevor Zegras and Canadian professional hockey and women's national team member Sarah Nurse as the two cover athletes for EA SPORTS NHL 23. Zegras becomes the first Anaheim Duck player to feature on the cover of NHL.
The cover announcement, in addition to the release of the Official Reveal trailer , represents an exciting new generation of hockey talent, with Nurse the first woman to grace the cover of EA SPORTS NHL.
NHL 23 will include a new feature within the game based on the viral moment created by Zegras on Dec. 7 at Buffalo. Zegras assisted on Sonny Milano's goal with a lacrosse-style "alley-oop" pass, lifting the puck onto his stick and flipping it over the net, with Milano batting the puck out of mid-air to score. It is one the only instance in NHL history a goal has been scored with a lacrosse-style pass from behind the net. The Zegras- Milano "alley-oop" goal was viewed more than 50 million times over a 48-hour span across various social and digital media platforms from Dec. 7-9.
"As someone who has played EA SPORTS NHL since I was kid, it is a dream come true to be on the cover this year with Sarah," said Trevor Zegras . "I can't wait to play this year's version with my friends and teammates, and I am equally excited to see fans unleash my Michigan flip pass, which the team at EA SPORTS has managed to get into the game."
In 2021-22, Zegras was named a finalist for the 2021-22 Calder Trophy by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA), awarded "to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition." He was the third Ducks player in franchise history to be named a Calder Trophy finalist. Zegras recorded 23-38=61 points in 75 games with the Ducks last season. He led all NHL rookies in points per game (.81, minimum 40 points), power-play goals (9), co-led in game-winning goals (5), while ranking second in points, tied for second in goals and third in assists. He also led all NHL skaters with six shootout goals.
Zegras scored two lacrosse-style goals, Apr. 1 at Arizona and Jan. 27, 2022 at Montreal, one of two players in NHL history to score two such goals (also Carolina's Andrei Svechnikov: Oct. 29, 2019 vs. Calgary and Dec. 19, 2019 at Colorado). His goal Apr. 1 marked the fifth lacrosse-style goal all-time in the NHL, with Zegras (twice), Svechnikov (twice) and Nashville's Filip Forsberg (Jan. 14, 2020 vs. Columbus) the only three NHL players to pull off "The Michigan" goal.
Recent cover athletes for NHL include Auston Matthews (2021), Ovechkin (2021), Matthews (2020), P.K. Subban (2019) and Connor McDavid (2018).
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