1) Setup your team's strategies

Team strategy settings have a huge impact on in-game performance, so be sure to make all your tactical adjustments before hitting the ice. You'll only have to setup most of these options once, as they'll automatically save once you exit the team settings menu. But you'll still need to change your breakout style and preferred faceoff formation at the start of every game by pressing the d-pad up (for breakouts) and the circle/B button (for faceoffs) during the pregame introduction.

2) Sign the right 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 16: 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 category. 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) Complete an offline season

After opening your 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 games against the computer to build up your coin balance and get accustomed to how HUT plays compared to NHL 16's other game modes (it's a bit faster and easier to score). Wins on All-Star and Superstar difficulty will pay about 1,000 coins, plus an additional grand if you can capture the division title.

4) Finish the Prospects collection ASAP, but be patient with the other NHL collections

You can earn two free gold packs -- each containing eight gold cards and four rare cards -- just by completing the NHL Prospects collections for about 5,000 coins per set. After finishing the Prospects, make sure to resell those cards immediately to make most of your coins back. Don't worry about rushing ahead to fill out all the other NHL team collections right now, as the prices of gold cards are massively inflated during HUT's opening week, and they will naturally decrease over time as EA releases new flashback, team of the week, and legend items. You'll want to wait until gold card prices become more reasonable, as the NHL sets are definitely worth completing, since they'll provide lots of serviceable 84 overall and 85 overall players, plus some sick 86-and-over pulls on occasion. The various European and minor leagues aren't worth collecting at all, however, since they'll mostly just reward low-rated silver and bronze players.


5) Obtain 20 gold NHL players

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

Limit yourself to buying non-rare NHL players for 300 coins (these cards have dull, gold backgrounds) and rare NHL players for 650 coins (these cards have shiny, gold backgrounds). At those prices, you'll still be turning a profit when getting rid of these beginner cards once they've run out of contracts or gotten injured.

6) Don't waste contracts or healing cards on expendable players

Contracts and healing cards are valuable commodities in NHL 16 that can quickly add up in costs if you're forced to buy them through the marketplace instead of getting them from free collection packs. Save those precious items for your superstars, and don't waste them on a mediocre player who probably won't be good enough to make your lineup after week or two of team building.


7) Build offense first, defense second

All modes in NHL 16 still suffer from extremely dumb defensive AI, so even highly rated defenders are going to act silly all game long if you aren't manually controlling them. As such, try to stockpile offensive talents first, and then build up your defensive unit later on. There are tons of interchangeable defenders going for 650 coins or less, but not nearly as many impactful offensive players for that price.

8) Don't purchase a high-priced goaltender

There's absolutely no reason to pay for an elite goaltender like Cory Schneider or Jonathan Quick when your opponent can simply skate up and snipe top shelf using scrubs like Borna Rendulić (84 power, 74 accuracy) and William Bower (80 power, 64 accuracy). It really doesn't matter who's guarding your net in NHL 16, as long as your goalie is at least rated in the mid-80s. Manually defending the slot and crease areas will keep your goals against low, and is much more important to shutting down your opponents than any netminder that you could possibly buy.

9) Put all of your players on their off-wing

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 16. 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 faceoffs, flipping around your forwards and defensemen will also put them in better position to take one stride to the middle of the ice and fire off a quick slapper or wrister on their forehand.


10) Know your players' faceoff ratings

Faceoff 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 faceoff rating of 80 or better will usually suffice in most situations, but having at least one or two designated faceoff experts like Paul Gaustad (90) or Boyd Gordon (90) can give your team a huge advantage whenever you need to win a key defensive zone draw. Also note that some wingers like Steve Ott (88) and Luke Glendening (87) have high faceoff ratings, and can be moved to center if needed.

If you're unfamiliar with how NHL 16's faceoffs work, check out Operation Sports' faceoff guide. The only change to the faceoff system since that guide was published is that it's now much harder to win draws with the deke forward move.

11) Assign three captains

Once you start replacing your gold temps 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) Start creating line chemistry

On offense, your players' styles (playmaker, sniper, etc.) will not affect line chemistry in NHL 16. But to achieve maximum chemistry on defense, you'll have to pair an offensive defenseman with a defensive defenseman, or put any two-way defenders together. Your goalie will also need to be wearing the same team uniform as all of your defensemen, or their chemistry will take a small hit. Mismatched jerseys can also bring down your offense's performance, so make sure that every player on your team is wearing the same sweater. You can switch a player's assigned team by purchasing a "team change" card from the marketplace. Buy any necessary "position change" cards, too, so that your players don't suffer a chemistry penalty for being used outside their card's listed position.