EA Sports Leaks Jonathan Toews As NHL 11 Cover Athlete

Whether EA Sports actually wants you to know about it or not, the cover boy for the next installment of the company's NHL series will be Chicago Blackhawks captain and 2010 Conn Smythe recipient, Jonathan Toews. They inadvertently leaked the news on a no-longer-accessible page on the EA Sports Web site with an image of Toews associated with the NHL 11 video game. The fine folks at OperationSports.com have maintained the image for all to see.

While Toews is a worthy candidate for the honor of being sported on the most celebrated hockey video game on the market, it's an interesting call for EA Sports to select two players from the same team in consecutive years. Patrick Kane was on the cover of NHL 10. Unlike the Madden curse, appearing on a cover in the NHL series worked out pretty well for Kane. Maybe Toews can bring that level of luck next season for a second straight Stanley Cup.

Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy has enlightened us on some of the new features for NHL 11:

What EA did officially release Monday was the trailer for "NHL 11" that promises not only refined game physics, but also user-controlled goal celebrations, disallowed goals (interesting), and a new faceoff engine.

A few weeks ago, EA Sports also announced that NHL 11 will be the first game in the franchise to include teams in the Canadian Hockey League. The teams and legitimate rosters of those in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Western Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League will all be represented in the game. A full list of features as a result of this four-year agreement between EA and the CHL include:

• Ability to play with all 60 teams that make up the CHL
• Names and Likenesses of players that are on the rosters of a CHL team
• Mastercard Memorial Cup
• CHL new RBK Edge Jersey design in NHL 11
• WHL, OHL and QMJHL logos and league structures

The CHL teams and players will also have usability within several of the game's modes, including Season Mode, Be A Pro, Be A GM, Tournament Mode and Playoff Mode.

A release date for NHL 11 has not been officially announced. However, Amazon.com has the game up for pre-order with an expected release date of September 7.