1. Play low-rated National teams

After opening the starter pack, you're going to have a mediocre goaltender and only one decent line on offense and defense, so you'll want to begin your HUT career by playing a few “Solo” games against the computer to build up your puck balance. Beating terrible National teams like Great Britain, France, Italy, et al. on “Superstar” difficulty will guarantee around 1,000 to 1,200 pucks per win.

Users who are skilled enough to consistently beat the computer on “Superstar” should consider building an all-bronze lineup of castaways to continue earning pucks from exhibition games without wasting any contracts on important NHL players.

2. Sign a head coach

Your first purchase in Ultimate Team should be a head coach, since he will enhance the ratings for every skater in your lineup. There are only two worthwhile coaches in NHL 15, D. Samuels and I. Skuin. Samuels is the best choice for your team during its developmental stages, as he provides a +2 boost to every attribute. Later on, once you've strengthened your defensive pairings, Skuin's +3 Skating, +3 Shooting, and +2 Defense can be an enticing trade-off for his 0 Hands and -2 Checking.

3. Buy a “big” but not “big-time” goaltender

Height and weight are still the most important attributes for CPU-controlled goalies in NHL 15, so try targeting a large netminder like Dallas' Anders Lindbäck (6'6”) or Ottawa's Robin Lehner (6'4"). A good offense will always beat even the highest-rated goalies in NHL 15, so don't make the mistake of wasting too many coins on a goaltender.

You can buy several +5 All training cards and one 15-Game Duration for about 2,500 coins to get an inexpensive goalie like Lindbäck (600 coins) up to a 98 overall rating without going broke.

4. Obtain 20 gold NHL players

Putting NHL players at every spot in your lineup should become your next objective, as it will elevate all of your forward lines to at least 80 chemistry, and make your team a capable competitor in the Online Seasons "Amateur" division.

Limit yourself to buying "non-rare" NHL players for 300 coins (these cards have dull, gold backgrounds) and "rare" NHL players for 600 coins (these cards have shiny, gold backgrounds). At those prices, you'll still be turning a profit when getting rid of these beginner cards after they run out of contracts or become injured.

5. Sell hurt players instead of healing them

With its chaotic 12-man collisions, injuries seem to occur more often in NHL 15 than they did in NHL 14. What's worse is that, this year, you can't simply heal a player by scratching him from your lineup. Since "fixing" players now requires a consumable "heal injury" card, which can cost anywhere from 1,250 to 4,500 coins, you're actually better off selling injured skaters and buying a replacement from the marketplace. Make sure to sell any healing cards that you come across, since they will return several thousand coins.

To avoid injurious situations during gameplay, do everything you can to stay away from the boards, and make a habit of carrying the puck through traffic in a controlled glide by letting go of the left joystick -- this will give you more agility and make it easier to skate by any defenders who come charging at you for a body check.

6. Build offense first, defense second

Due to NHL 15's poor AI and underpowered stick checking, even highly rated defenders and goaltenders are going to look silly at times against skilled offenses. As such, try to stockpile offensive players first, and then build up your defensive core later on. There are tons of interchangeable defenders going for 600 coins or less, but not nearly as many impactful offensive talents for that price.

7. Consider handedness

Contrary to what coaches do in real life, playing left-handed players on the right side of the ice and right-handed players on the left side of the ice is actually a smart strategy in NHL 15. Reason being, your players will have an easier time triggering the game's most powerful one-timer animations if their positions are reversed from what they would be at a real hockey rink. For offensive zone face-offs, "flipped" forwards and defensemen will also be in better position to take one stride to the middle of the ice and fire off a quick slapper or wrister on their forehand.

Make sure to buy "position-change" cards, too, so that your players don't suffer a chemistry penalty from being used outside their natural position.

8. Set your team strategies

Team settings can have a huge impact on in-game performance, so be sure to change your forecheck, defensive style, defensive pressure, powerplay, penalty kill, and individual line strategies before hitting the ice. You only have to set these up once, as they'll save automatically once you exit the menu. But you'll still need to change your face-off formation manually every game by bringing up your forward line-change screen and pressing the Triangle button.

Poor slot/crease coverage is one of NHL 15's largest shortcomings, and it's something that you can improve slightly (but not fix entirely) by setting your defensive strategies to “collapsing” and “protect net.”

Other smart changes include setting your forwards to "carry puck" to keep them from going offside, and telling your top lines to "conserve energy" until your team reaches the point that it can roll out four lines of equal quality.

9. Know your players' face-off ratings

Face-off ratings aren't listed on HUT cards, but you can view them by backing out to the main menu and looking up your players in the roster database. A face-off rating of 80 or better will usually suffice in most situations, but having at least one designated face-off expert like Paul Gaustad (90) can be a huge advantage in winning key defensive zone draws. Also note that some wingers like Michael Cammalleri (80), Patrick Marleau (80) and Andrew Cogliano (78) have reasonable face-off ratings, and can be moved to center if needed.

If you're unfamiliar with how NHL 15's face-offs work, check out Operation Sports' face-off guide. The only change to the face-off system since that guide was published is that it's now much harder to win draws with a forward deke.

10. Create line chemistry

For NHL 15, forward chemistry has been altered so that each player's position and professional team are the only aspects that affect a line's chemistry. It's unclear whether this is a bug or an intentional design, since defensive pairings do still factor in each players' style type when determining chemistry. To achieve maximum chemistry on defense, you'll still want to pair an offensive defenseman with a defensive defenseman, or put any two-way defenders together.

11. Assign three captains

Once you start replacing your gold scrubs with long-term players, you should select one primary and two alternate captains to further increase those three players' ratings. Forwards on your first two lines usually make the best captains, since they will touch the puck the most during gameplay.

12. Don't chase after item collections

Now that collections only reward untradeable card packs instead of in-game currency, there's not much reason to complete NHL 15's various sets. Your coins will be much safer if you invest them in marketplace items, since those can be sold/traded once EA's Team of the Week and Player of the Game promotions start up, and the gold card market consequently tanks.