The wait for NHL 26 is finally over, and now that it’s available for the masses to play, it’s time to start getting familiar with the systems that let you excel. The X-Factors in NHL 26 are special abilities that allow the game to better represent the real-world talents of elite players in ways the simple attribute system cannot. Understanding the X-Factors on your team and your opponents and how they impact the game can be critical to having a successful time on the ice.
Here are all the X-Factors available for your players and what each does, as well as the top players with each, to better understand how they can be helpful.
Top 5 Impactful X-Factors
While X-Factors are broken down into four categories, Offensive, Defensive, Goalie and Playmaker, the folks at EA have called special attention to these five X-Factors as particularly valuable:
- Post to Post: Players can cover from post to post with enhanced efficiency, receiving a boost to speed and save accuracy when moving laterally in the crease. Players may also unlock special windmill reaction animations when saving against one-timer shots and do not suffer a reaction penalty against Perfect One Timers. (Top Players: Igor Shesterkin, Thatcher Demko, Juuse Saros)
- Quick Release: Players can get shots off with elite speed for quicker shots on goal. Opposing goalies suffer a penalty to readiness on snap shots and wrist shots to increase the chance of beating them on fast shots. (Top Player: Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov)
- Rocket: Players have a booming slap shot that is hard for opposing goalies to contain. Players receive a boost to both slap shot accuracy and power, while shots that hit goalies high can trigger reactions to make them more susceptible to a quick score on the rebound. (Top Players: Gustav Forsling, Evan Bouchard, John Carlson)
- Second Wind: Players are indefatigable, receiving an instant boost to energy when reaching exhaustion. The X-Factor remains on cooldown after use until the player rests enough to restore energy to full. (Top Players: Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Rasmus Dahlin)
- Spark Plug: Players use their physical nature to rally their teammates, generating enhanced pressure when landing body checks. After hitting an opponent, the player also has a boost to speed and acceleration to trigger a counter-reaction, chase the loose puck, or find the next target. (Top Players: Matthew Tkachuk, J.T. Miller, Travis Konecny)
Defensive X-Factors
Defense wins championships, and players with defensive X-Factors make for strong defenses. These special abilities make your players more effective at shutting down opposing teams, winning the puck back and generally making other teams suffer:
- Born Leader: Players are a motivating force for teammates, generating increased energy for the team when blocking shots, checking opponents, or taking a shot on goal. (Top Players: Matthew Tkachuk, Dylan Larkin, Brady Tkachuk)
- Hipster: Players excel at hipchecking opponents, receiving a boost to hit power as well as inflicting a penalty on opponents in the form of increased stamina loss and a lingering effect lowering the hit player’s speed. Lining an opponent up perfectly for a hip check will separate him from his stick. (Top Players: Dmitry Orlov, Alexander Romanov, Radko Gudas)
- No Contest: Players are strong in the upper body, letting them be more effective in physical duels with increased stick and arm strength. Players also leave a won contest with increased speed and acceleration to get away with the puck. (Sam Reinhart, Brayden Point, Mark Scheifele)
- Quick Pick: Players specialize in shutting down opposing passing lanes with both their stick and body. A boost to range enhances the area defended, while successful interceptions net a boost to stick handling to make off with it effectively. Players may unlock additional boosts to pickup and interception range, as well as unique defensive animations for deflecting and intercepting the puck. (Top Players: Aleksander Barkov, Auston Matthews, Victor Hedman)
- Stick Em Up: Players are masters of disruption with their stick, gaining a boost to pike check accuracy, recovery, and stick speed with defensive skills to help take the puck off opposing players’ sticks. (Top Players: Victor Hedman, Jaccob Slavin, Josh Morissey)
- Truculence: Players are units, capable of delivering punishing shoulder checks. Hit power on body checks is increased, while opposing players on the receiving end suffer increased stamina loss and a temporary loss of speed after a big hit. Perfectly lined-up shoulder checks send opposing sticks flying. (Top Players: Charlie McAvoy, Brady Tkachuk, Moritz Seider)
- Warrior: Players can take damage more effectively, suffering smaller stamina penalties from being checked or blocking shots, and negating slowing effects from players with hitting X-Factors. Players are also resistant to losing their stick, immune to minor injuries, and may unlock special shot blocking animations. (Top Players: Jaccob Slavin, Brandon Hagel, Charlie McAvoy)
Goalie X-Factors
Nothing is more valuable in the playoffs than a goalie capable of shutting opposing offenses down and stealing games you were otherwise outplayed in. These special X-Factor abilities can turn a good goalie into a great one, and a great one into a Vezina contender:
- Dialed In: Players become more and more difficult to score on the more consecutive saves they make, with improved save accuracy and reaction time for each save made. The bonus continues to accumulate until the goalie concedes a goal, resetting the bonus to zero. (Top Players: Connor Hellebuyck, Dustin Wolf)
- Recharge: Players are more capable of handling high-pressure offenses with decreases to pressure meter gain and fatigue suffered from opposing shots, and increasing the rate of recovery when the puck is out of the defensive zone. (Top Players: Ilya Sorokin, Jordan Binnington, Logan Thompson)
- Show Stopper: Players make eye-catching saves, with increased save accuracy and readiness for both reflex saves and consecutive saves in a series. Net-front presences for the offense are minimized with increased ability to see around screens and stop deflected shots. (Top Players: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Sergei Bobrovsky, Jacob Markstrom)
- Sponge: Players reduce rebound opportunities for opponents to reduce opposing scoring chances with both increased ability to retain pucks during saves and increased pace to jump on pucks and cover them. Players may also access unique windmill reactions and are immune to negative reactions when hit high with a shot. (Top Players: Jake Oettinger, Linus Ullmark, Mackenzie Blackwood)
Offensive X-Factors
Defense and shutouts are fun, but to win, you need to put the puck in the net. These X-Factors will allow you to make special things happen on offense to tickle the twine with the puck as often as possible.
- Backhand Beauty: Players specialize in making plays on the backhand, increasing their effectiveness. Shots receive a boost to both power and accuracy when taken on the backhand, while passes made with the backhand do not receive a penalty compared to forehand passes. (Top Players: Leon Draisaitl, Alexander Barkov, Sidney Crosby)
- Big Rig: Players are physical forces, with increased strength, agility, and balance when driving to the net and increased power and accuracy when taking shots with only one hand. Players also gain access to unique animations that allow them to maintain control of the puck in more extreme circumstances. (Top Players: Brayden Point, William Nylander, Mark Scheifele)
- Big Tipper: Players are a menace in front of opposing goalmouths, decreasing opposition goalies’ readiness when facing shots. Increased accuracy on redirections and special animations make for more diverse opportunities to tip shots from the point and score with redirections, while also allowing the ability to unlock deflections from further out from the goal. (Top Players: Sidney Crosby, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart)
- One T: Players excel at ripping shots as one-timers, either off loose pucks or feeds from teammates, gaining a boost to both power and accuracy, and the ability to serve as a target for skill-based one-timer passes. (Top Players: David Pastrnak, Mikko Rantanen, Alex Ovechkin)
- Pressure+: Players can put opposing teams under the gun by generating extra momentum with each shot of theirs saved, to increase the chances of creating a goal in the short term. (Top Players: Nikita Kucherov, Auston Matthews, Zach Werenski)
Playmaker X-Factors
Hockey is unique among sports that track assists by the way it does up to two on each goal, and this is logical for the way quick passing and team play is often so critical in the best goals scored. These playmaker X-Factors help players create opportunities for themselves and for teammates to put opposing teams under pressure:
- Ankle Breaker: Players receive a short boost of speed to make it easier to beat defenders with stick-handling. Successfully deking an opponent may also trigger more severe panic reactions in defenders. (Top Players: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov)
- Elite Edges: Players have enhanced agility and acceleration during quick direction changes and tight turns, allowing you to outmaneuver opposing players with less skating skill. (Top Players: Connor McDavid, Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar)
- Quick Draw: Players are face-off whizzes, with faster pull times, the ability to hit skill-based one-time attacks from the drop, and the ability to tie up more strongly to get more wins at the circle and generate valuable defensive and offensive zone victories. (Top Players: Dylan Larkin, Vincent Trocheck, Anze Kopitar)
- Send It: Players are experts at feeding teammates on dangerous breakouts. When sending a pass to a teammate, the recipient receives a temporary acceleration burst to help them find separation and pursue a leadout pass. Players may also unlock automatic saucer passes. (Top Players: Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, Roman Josi)
- Tape to Tape: Players have increased passing power and accuracy across both saucer passes and traditional passing to better create opportunities for teammates, even with tight windows. Players may also unlock automatic saucer passes. (Top Players: Leon Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov, Jack Eichel)
- Unstoppable: Players are capable of turning opposing aggression back on the checker, with increased reverse checking power and the ability to resist push checks more effectively due to a boost to strength and balance. (Top Players: Sidney Crosby, Jack Eichel, Alex Ovechkin)
- Wheels: Players are lightning quick on the ice, with both increased speed and acceleration to make it difficult for opposing players to keep up and effectively defend the offensive player. (Top Players: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Kirill Kaprizov)
X-Factors are game changers, and with the knowledge of what they are and how to get the most out of them, you’re ready to take the ice and chase the Cup!
