The Ultimate EASHL Player Class Guide (Updated!)

The purpose of this guide is to help you choose the EASHL player class that best suits your play style in NHL 18 and most importantly you have more than 45 seconds to compare them 🙂

UPDATE: Check out our new NHL 19 World of Chel and EASHL Player Class Guide!

I sometimes see people ask “what is the best player class?”. There is no “best” class per se, but there likely is a best class for you so keep your on-ice tendencies in mind as we go through the attributes and each player types pros, cons, and tips.

Don’t forget, the best team is a balanced one where each player class works to their strengths. A team of all snipers may sound pretty great in theory but playing in a 6v6 game against any balanced team, that actually knows what they are doing, you will most likely get crushed(literally and figuratively).

First, we’ll cover what makes up each player class and then we’ll list out the pros/cons/tips for each one individually.

Attributes

To anyone familiar with hockey you likely already have a general understanding of what each attribute is referring to; however, with new players always entering the series I’ll cover each one and what micro-attributes are associated with them based on the actual player info for official players in the game. If you want to jump past this to the next section just click here: Jump to Forwards

Height & Weight: Not exactly classified as an “attribute” in the game; however, both do act as modifiers on attributes such as speed and body checking. You will notice that all players have the same “skating” rating, but the smaller lighter players are faster and the bigger heavier players generally have better stability and hitting – as you would expect.

Shooting: Your shooting power and accuracy for both wrist shots and slap shots.

Skating: Acceleration, speed, agility, balance, and endurance which are said to be the same across the board but again referring back to the height & weight – you will notice differences between the player types.

Passing: The accuracy of your passes and likelihood of them getting through traffic.

Hands: Deking, hand-eye, and puck control. Many may think this is just your deking skills but it also contributes to the likelihood of you deflecting a puck, intercepting a pass, and losing the puck.

Defense: Shot blocking, stick checking, defensive awareness, and faceoffs. How quickly you get back up after going down for a shot block as well as Poke check and stick left effectiveness.

*Faceoffs: It’s important to note that the faceoff stat is confirmed to be equal across ALL forward classes. This means as a center you aren’t limited to certain classes. source

You may also want to check out my NHL 18 Faceoff Guide as well.

Physical: Aggressiveness, body checking, strength, durability, and fighting skill. Fairly self explanatory – how hard you hit, how easy you are to knock down, how easily your player gets injured, and the damage your punches do/damage punches do against you.

Including a screenshot of an actual players info just to illustrate where the above “micro-attributes” came from.

There are a few left out in my breakdown above as the “senses” attribute category doesn’t exist in the EASHL list but those three micro-attributes were most likely just grouped into other categories.

Forwards

Below is the table with a breakdown of each EASHL forwards attribute ratings. You can sort by attribute by clicking the attribute name header.

The following pros and cons for each player class have been taken from the game itself as that way it is all factual. These are our best hints at which micro-attributes are favoured for each class.

Since there are so many micro-attributes making up those general attribute category totals it’s difficult to make accurate guesses beyond what they list in the pros and cons for each player class. For example, a player with “50” shooting could have an equally below average slap shot and wrist shot OR they might have a far below average slap shot and an above average wrist shot or vise versa. Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure – if anyone has a credible link/source for facts around that then please do leave it in a comment or send it over to me and I’ll include it here 🙂

Two-way Forward

Strengths

• Excellent defensive stick
• Best deployed in balanced attack strategy
• Great at causing turnovers and in the transition

Weaknesses

• Offensive skills are average across the board
• Lacks physical strength
• Needs to keep offense simple

Play Style Tips: Use speed and defensive stick to force a turnover and/or get yourself into passing lanes so you can intercept passes and start the transition.

Two Way Dangler

Strengths

• Very good defensive and deking skills
• Quick first step

Weakness

• Lacks physical strength

Play Style Tips: Similar to the Two-Way Forward but sacrificing further physical attributes in favor of dangling.

Playmaker

Strengths

• Excellent passing accuracy
• Good puck skills
• Quick first step

Weaknesses

• Lacks physical strength
• Average defensive skills
• Average shot accuracy

Play Style Tips: Use your speed, passing, and deking skills to get into the offensive zone and once there don’t hold onto the puck for very long. You will usually have defenders closing in on you quickly and when that happens pass it off and then find open ice to make yourself an option for the pass back. Get a cycle going until you see a scoring opportunity.

Jumbo Playmaker

Strengths

• Very good passing accuracy
• Above average puck skills
• Very good balance and strength

Weaknesses

• Average defensive skills
• Weak at hitting

Play Style Tips: You can hold onto the puck longer as opposed to the regular playmaker since you are much more difficult to knock down, but you do sacrifice some passing/puck skills and quite a bit of acceleration/agility due to the bigger size. So Playmaker vs Jumbo Playmker depends whether you are someone who likes to hold onto the puck and play it slow or use your speed and dangles to make a play quickly.

Sniper

Strengths

• Excellent all around shooter
• Quick first step

Weaknesses

• Lacks physical strength
• Relies on teammates to create space and scoring chances
• Below average defensive skills

Play Style Tips: Being a Sniper is not just about shooting the puck. When you don’t have the puck always be moving around to find open ice, especially in the offensive zone where you are most effective. Don’t make a teammate force a pass through traffic as it will almost always get picked off. Being very familiar with the skating system will be a big benefit, vision control is a MUST.

Hitting Sniper

Strengths

• Very good all around shooter
• Average hitting skills

Weakness

• Below average defensive skills

Play Style Tips: Versus the regular sniper you will have sacrificed some acceleration and shooting skills for increase body checking, size, and strength. You will be able to hold onto the puck longer and get yourself into good scoring areas but chances of going bardown while in those areas is decreased. If you are playing against a bigger team(Power Forwards, Grinders, etc.) then sacrificing a little bit of shooting accuracy/power may be worth it to not get pushed around quite as easily.

Dangler

Strengths

• Excellent deking
• Great hands
• Quick first step

Weaknesses

• Lacks physical strength
• Below average defense

Play Style Tips: You may think that shooting attribute at only 50 isn’t even worth using the Dangler but the whole idea here is that you use your excellent deking to get in close to the net so that you don’t even really need a great shot – just need to be able to deke the goalie or pass it off to your teammate after you’ve drawn all the defenders towards you. The light build means you will have quick acceleration too.

Enforcer

Strengths

• Helps team regain energy by winning fights
• Imposing physical force

Weaknesses

• Poor offensive skills
• Poor shot accuracy
• Average defensive abilities

Play Style Tips: Use Power Forward instead. In all seriousness though, if you do use the Enforcer then play defensively. Based on the pros and cons that probably goes without saying. Although, I know it doesn’t really matter what I say here because you are just going to go out and head hunt every player you can.

Power Forward

Strengths

• Excellent balance, strong on the puck
• Physical play. Uses body to create space for teammates
• Heavy slap shot

Weaknesses

• Average shot accuracy
• Average puck skills

Play Style Tips: The second strongest forward next to the enforcer. Use that size and balance to your advantage. Very few players will be able to knock you down which means they will often opt for poke check spamming. This can quickly lead to a lot of power plays if you are good at protecting the puck and keeping your back to the defender.

Grinder

Strengths

• Likes to engage in the physical side of the game
• Deflections and rebounds

Weaknesses

• Lacks offensive tools
• Below average shot accuracy

Play Style Tips: Fastest forward that can still hit hard. It’s difficult to knock down a grinder so you can usually hold onto the puck long enough for one of your other forwards to get into a scoring position. Your shot won’t be accurate from distance but if you can grind your way in close to the net then shot accuracy won’t matter as much. Your slap shot is more effective than your wrist shot(based on experience). Great at deflections! Park yourself in front for some tip-ins.

Fastest Forwards:

If we assume every player classes speed and acceleration attributes are still the same as EA Sports has said in the past then here are the top 3 fastest EASHL forwards, in order:

1. Sniper
2. Dangler
3. Playmaker/Two-Way Dangler

*Sniper and Dangler are both equal

This also aligns with my experience using those player classes versus others.

Strongest Hitting Forwards:

Based on experience and attributes the strongest hitting forwards in order are:

1. Enforcer
2. Power Forward
3. Grinder

Defense

Defensive Defensemen

Strengths

• Excellent defensive stick
• Shuts down opposing skaters with strong physical play
• Heavy point shot

Weaknesses

• Average passer
• Weak offensive skills
• Poor shot accuracy

Play Style Tips: The ultimate defensive machine. Stay between your net and the puck. Don’t let it get past you.

Offensive Defensemen

Strengths

• Above average passing
• Great all around shooting

Weaknesses

• Lacks physical strength
• Average defensive stick

Play Style Tips: If I had one tip here it is to remember that you are still a DEFENSEman – I see some players feel it is more of a forward/defense hybrid or sometimes just a forward. Let your winger know when you are jumping up into the play as they will need to drop back and cover you.

Enforcer Defenseman

Strengths

• Helps team regain energy by winning fights
• Imposing physical force

Weaknesses

• Poor offensive skills
• Poor shot accuracy
• Average defensive abilities

Play Style Tips: Much like the Enforcer forward class, the enforcing defenseman is also great at fighting, hitting, and that is about it. You can help get your team pumped up from big hits and winning fights. Essentially just a worse version of the Defensive Defenseman, in my opinion.

Two-Way Defenseman

Strengths

• Excellent defensive stick
• Great at causing turnovers

Weaknesses

• Offensive skills are average across the board
• Average puck control

Play Style Tips: For the player that likes to switch from lock down D to scoring D man mid-game, a very good balance between both. Big enough to still be able to hit most other classes, but small enough that the speed and acceleration is still decent.

Puck Moving Defenseman

Strengths

• Excellent passing
• Very good hands
• Quick first step

Weaknesses

• Lacks physical strength
• Below average shooting

Play Style Tips: Think along the lines of a defensive playmaker. You will be fairly easy to knock down and/or off the puck; however, your deking and passing is very good so if you’re the type of defenseman that likes to do some dangling to create space then you may like the puck moving defenseman.

Fastest Defenseman:

1. Offensive
2. Puck Moving
3. Two-Way

Strongest Hitting Defenseman:

1. Enforcer
2. Defensive
3. Two-Way

Compare All Players

Here are both the above forward and defense player class tables combined for those who want to compare all players alongside each other:

Goalies

I was originally going to do this for only players; however, decided to just add in the goalie attribute table and pros/cons. I play goalie once in awhile but nowhere near experienced enough to be providing tips for it. If you’re interested in playing goalie and not sure where to start then check out the below Basic Tips and Tricks video from YouTube channel “Between The Pipes” – I consider it a MUST WATCH. Way more helpful than anything I could say here.

He has some other really helpful videos as well you can check out on his channel. definitely worth a subscribe if you are or plan to be a goalie in the EASHL – Between The Pipes Channel.

Stand-Up Goalie

Strengths

• Speed & Agility
• Vision
• Passing

Weaknesses

• Low Coverage
• Rebound Control
• Shot Recovery

Hybrid Goalie

Strengths

• Blocker Side
• Shot Recovery
• Poke Check

Weaknesses

• Skills are mid-range

Butterfly Goalie

Strengths

• Good Positionally
• Low Coverage
• Rebound Control

Weaknesses

• Speed
• Agility
• Vision

Closing Comments

Hopefully you’ve found this helpful and now have a good idea of which player type best fits your play style OR what you might need to focus on to better serve your team. If you have any further tips/comments to share based on your experience then please do post them in the comments. I wanted to keep the above info as factual as possible so tried to leave out anecdotal information; I’ll add a comment for those interested in my own thoughts/experiences and what players I prefer to use.

See ya on the ice!