For his second time, this athlete graces the NHL 22 cover

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NHL 22 is set to release later this year and the time has come that fans are finally seeing their cover athlete for this year.

We found out during a slew of reveals that occurred this week, including the reveal trailer for NHL 22 along with the official release date.

Here's a look at the NHL 22 cover and the reveal trailer for the next installment of the EA NHL franchise!

LATEST - NHL 22 Cover revealed

After a lot of speculation, the cover athlete and the NHL 22 covers have finally been revealed. The players we thought would make the cover weren't selected.

However, the cover athlete from NHL 20 was selected to make it his second cover appearance in only a few years. Check out Auston Matthews on the cover of NHL 22!

Auston Matthews on the cover of NHL 22
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REPEAT: Auston Matthews is now a two-time cover athlete for NHL 22

You'll likely notice that there are two different covers there, each cover represents a different edition of the game. We now know that there are two editions for NHL 22, the Standard Edition and the X-Factor Edition.

To learn more on the editions and more that was revealed in the NHL 22 trailer, follow this link!

NHL 22 Reveal Trailer

The reveal trailer debuted on Thursday, August 19th, 2021, and the game looks just as exciting as we thought it would be.

The trailer showcases a lot of different scenes from the game, but there isn't any gameplay that we can go off of. Considering it's only a reveal trailer, we'll get much more in the future.

The game looks amazing based off this trailer and as more information is released, we should see some next gen features included.

If you're just as excited as we are for this year's game, head here and learn more about what we picked up on during the reveal.

Release Date

We now have the official release date for NHL 22, the game will launch on October 15, 2021. The great news is with a pre order on the X-Factor Edition, you'll get three days Early Access.

Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers sends the puck past an opponent in NHL 22
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WIN BIG: Get ready to place your pre order on NHL 22 which releases in October

The game's release landed around the same time as the previous year, we expect this is due to EA putting extra effort into the game on next gen consoles.

For a detailed look at what to expect on next gen consoles, head here for PS5, and here for Xbox Series X|S.

Pre Order NHL 22

Not only did we get a reveal trailer and a look at the NHL 22 cover athlete, we got the release date and the ability to pre order.

We were thinking that it would be some time before pre orders were available but it's a welcome surprise that pre orders are now live.

A view of the Boston Bruins stadium in NHL 22
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PRE ORDER: Reserve your copy today of NHL 22!

Here's some links to help you secure your copy, some of them have discount codes for EA Play members, so keep that in mind.

Microsoft Store

Amazon

NHL 21 Cover Athlete

Even though NHL series games have regional cover stars that allow fans to celebrate their local heroes, one player always receives the most cover glory.

Ovechkin follows through on a slap shot in NHL 22.
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LAST YEAR: Alex Ovechkin was announced as the cover athlete for NHL 21 last August.

Alex Ovechkin was selected as the cover athlete for NHL 21, which was his second time being chosen as he also appeared on the cover of NHL 07.

EA has never had multiple main cover athletes for their NHL game. However, with next gen platforms continuing to grow, it’s possible there’s a different athlete for different generation consoles.

Nevertheless, it’s more likely NHL 22 follows the pattern of the series and has just one main cover athlete.