It’s been 19 years since a Penguins player has graced the cover of an EA Sports NHL video game when Mario Lemieux was chosen for the cover of NHL 2002. Every year Penguins fans hope this will be the year that one of their hometown superstars will be selected, but each and every time they are left disappointed.
For the past few years, EA Sports used the NHL Awards ceremony to reveal the cover athlete for the latest installment of the company’s long running NHL simulation game series that releases annually. Generally, the Awards ceremony is held on the third Thursday in June (which would be June 18th), but for obvious reasons, there will be no ceremony this season, meaning EA will have to announce its NHL 21 cover athlete on its own.