Franchise mode in NHL 26 can be a lot of fun. Winning the Stanley Cup in the game is as close as my Minnesota Wild are coming to it anytime soon. But it can get stale after a while if you don’t change things up. Thankfully, there are many different approaches you can take to playing NHL 26 Franchise that keep the mode fun.
Tear It Down
Have a fire sale in a way that only stingy baseball owners can compete with. In the process, go young and focus on building prospects. It’s a situation where you will be measuring success year-over-year instead of game by game. With a lot of young, cheap players, you should have room to pounce on some deals and signings when the youngsters take that next step in Year 2 or 3.
But here’s the catch: don’t game the NHL 26 trade logic system. This is less challenging if you load up your roster with Celebrini, Bedard, Schafer, and other star youngsters. Sure, you might have one player of that caliber. But Bedard didn’t begin to shine until Frank Nazar elevated his game. So develop a bunch of Frank Nazars to complement your megastar.
In this scenario, you can also choose a definite strategy for building a roster. Do you want your strength to be on the blue line? If so, young players like Matthew Schafer, Cale Makar, or even Zeev Buium are good options to build around. At forward, you can choose to build through an elite center like Celebrini or Bedard, or develop elite wingers. In goal, the best young player options appear to be San Jose’s Yaroslav Askarov or Minnesota’s Jesper Wallstedt. They’re both having incredible seasons between the pipes.
In the end, your goal is to have a roster that looks a lot like Utah’s, Anaheim’s, or San Jose’s. They’ll be inconsistent, but you get to see the team grow year over year.
A Complete Reset
I choose this approach to Franchise once every couple of years. In this option, you blow up the entire league and have an NHL 26 fantasy draft to select teams. Here, you’ll choose everything, from which top-end player to build around to what type of role players you want.
If given the chance, would you build around an established superstar like Connor McDavid? Or would you take the younger (and cheaper) route by building around Celebrini or Bedard? Either way, they’ll need a great supporting cast. After all, McDavid has Draisaitl, Bedard has Nazar, and Celebrini has Smith.
There’s a lot of head canon you can create with this approach. Pretend you’re the GM for a team with a penny-pinching owner. Can you build a competitive roster on 80% of the salary cap? Do you load up to the cap from the beginning, or leave some room for when the young players get raises, or even room to add at the deadline?
The draft alone here is a lot of fun. Depending on where your pick falls, it can affect the entire strategy you bring. If you’re picking first, you’re going to get a superstar. But even then, the challenge of which one to take can be excruciating. From there, you have to determine what your team’s identity will be. Do you want gritty players like the Tkachuks? Maybe a more creative skill like Kaprizov or Zegras is your style. Once you make a decision, stick to it. Chemistry is important, and you’ll want players who complement each other instead of just the best names out there.
The OGWAC Approach
It’s a rite of spring. Every year at playoff time, you’ll find stories about them. The Old-Guys-Without-A-Cup, or OGWACs. Not everybody can be Pat Maroon, after all. In this approach, you’ll find ways to load up your roster with older players who have never won a Stanley Cup to give them a shot at finally hoisting the hardware.
This includes players like Brent Burns, Claude Giroux, and Jamie Benn. Even Ryan Suter is a guy who has been great for a long time but has never won it all. If you can do it successfully, you’ll give these guys a moment like Ray Borque had in the past — finally lifting Lord Stanley’s cup above their head after the final game of the season.
Of course, it helps if your squad is a contender that can add some of these guys for depth. Kind of like the Colorado Avalanche, which is exactly the team Brent Burns is taking a shot with this year as a 40-year-old. The good news, however, is that OGWACs almost always come pretty cheap. Last year, Zach Parise was a great example. He played in Colorado for just $825,000 in 2024-25.
Do you have an approach to NHL 26 Franchise that’s different and fun? Which of these is your favorite? Let us know in the comments, and have fun changing things up!
