The folks up at EA Canada are nearing their goal as NHL 09 skates towards its September release. They are undoubtedly working very hard since they have a hard act to follow considering how well NHL 08 was received by most gamers. Also, with such high expectations, it's no surprise that the OS community has tons of questions when it comes to NHL 09. Due to this fact, we here at Operation Sports felt it was important to get the NHL developers to answer some questions from the Operation Sports community. So every Friday, until NHL 09 releases, OS will be running five-question-Q&A sessions with NHL 09 developers. This is the second Q&A session we have had thus far.  Enjoy!

SaintPatrick33: In Dynasty mode is there any way to control all rosters/teams transactions? And how many teams can the user control in the Dynasty mode?

Andy Agostini: You cannot control all the rosters/teams transactions in dynasty mode but we do have the ability to turn off trades and waivers as well as having the option for Dynasty Mode to last varying amounts of seasons starting with 1 season, which allows a user to play a season mode with the rosters changing as little or as much as they want depending on which options they have turned on or off.

Currently you can only play with 1 user in dynasty but we will be looking at multi user dynasty in the future as well we have the ability to play in online leagues with up to 32 users and this year we have added stat tracking, trades and playoffs to leagues. The NHL teams vision is to get to an online dynasty with 30 users.

Jonesey: During Dynasty mode, will you be able to make trades involving AHL players or do the roster limits still get in the way?

AA: We have increased the roster limit for the AHL and this will make the trading of AHL players much easier.

Qb: Was any attention given to the simulated stats engine? Particularly the specialty teams stats as the PP/PK percentages were rather unrealistic, with most teams being at 10% or under for the PP and 90% or over for the PK.

AA: The sim engine was worked on and you will see improvements in who are the scoring leaders and goals for and against for the teams in the engine this year. This should also make the PP/PK percentages more realistic.

ucas005: Will there be more variety when it comes to drafting rookies in Dynasty mode? Seemed like last year most drafted rookies were 6+ feet with a scar under their eye.

AA: The rookie generation has been looked at and the scar under their eye issue should be resolved. You will also see a better mix of heights and weights for the draft class players in the game this year. We also focused on a players development and you should see an improvement in how a player grows as he has different growth patterns in 3 areas. The areas are Offensive attributes, Defensive attributes and Athletic attributes for players and Puck Control, Reflexes and Athletic attributes for goalies. Each player can grow at different rates in these areas. Some players will grow in their offensive attributes but not the other attributes potentially making him one dimensional. We believe the player growth changes has made the development of players more like the real life NHL as you will have to decide on when you should give up on a player or move him up to your NHL team.

Ninjoid: During Dynasty mode can you select any game from any side's schedule and watch it as a CPU vs. CPU game?

AA: We do not have this functionality in our game currently but I will write that down as something to look into for next year.