HLM26 Feature Reveal

Now that the daily feature reveal is over, it’s time to announce the complete list of new features coming to HLM26.

HLM26 will be released on September 6th 2025. You can pre-order right now on:

• Android
• iOS
• Steam

Patreon subscriber have access the beta starting August 21th

Primary Feature

League Control

• Every top-level league (leagues without a parent league) can now have a draft lottery.
• You can choose if a league has a draft, and you can also choose the number of rounds.
• The prospect page can now show draft-eligible prospects for each league with a draft.
• Players can now be drafted in other leagues (junior leagues when they are 16, for example).
• Other leagues will now have a trade deadline and make trades during the season.
• Players have different trade values depending on the league.
• Added a new inbox mail that lets you know when players are getting too old for a league with a maximum age.
• Added a new inbox mail that lets you know when one of your players has been drafted to the major league.
• During your career, you can switch to control any top-level league.
• Added a setting (per league) that allows you to choose the maximum number of contracts allowed.
• Added a setting (per league) that lets you choose if player contracts are required.
• Added a new setting (per league) that allows you to choose which rounds of draft picks are untradeable.
• Added a new setting (per league) that allows you to decide how many years a player is eligible for the draft.
• You can choose to disallow trades for a league.
• Added a mail for when a team loans a player to your team.

Import Draft

• Added an import draft when playing in a league outside of the major league.
• The import draft takes place on October 11.
• The draft contains players that have been assigned from the major league to that league.
• In previous games, when sending a player to a junior (or other) league where he was not assigned, the player would join a random team. Now the player must pass through the import draft to be assigned to a team.
• As a result, players cannot be sent to a league after October 10 unless a team in that league already owns their rights.

Career Mode

• Added a reputation attribute to your manager profile.
• Your reputation determines which teams are interested in hiring you.
• Reputation fluctuates based on your team’s results and your ability to reach owner objectives.
• Trading away a player you recently signed will lower your reputation.
• Added board satisfaction tracking.
• If board satisfaction gets too low, you may be fired. Satisfaction is influenced by the same factors as reputation but on a different scale.
• You now have a contract as general manager.
• You can resign from your position, but doing so will lower your reputation.
• You can track your total career earnings.
• Once your contract expires or you get fired, you can join other teams or leagues if your reputation is high enough.
• If your reputation is high enough, you may also get the chance to manage a national team in tournaments.
• You can start in lower leagues and build up your reputation to eventually join the major league.
• You can set your preferred nationality in the settings.
• Career Mode is an optional game mode.
• The My Career page now shows results season by season instead of grouping them by team.
• The My Career page also displays your playoff stats.
• Added a new Jobs page where you can view all available general manager positions.
• Objectives must be completed before free agency.
• Added a new email in Career Mode that informs you of your season objective.
• Added a new email at the end of the season showing the results of your objectives.

Tryouts

• You can now offer tryouts to free agents during the preseason.
• You can release a player on a tryout at any point during the preseason.
• Other teams can send contract offers to your players on tryouts.
• Tryouts can be added from the roster editor.
• Added a contract type filter to the search page (Standard vs. Tryout).

Player Specialties

• Players can have a maximum of 3 active specialties.
• Specialties can be added from the roster editor.
• Specialties can be turned off.
• Specialties increase a player’s value.
  • Brute: Boosts the player’s physicality, intimidating opponents and protecting teammates with hard hits and tough play.
  • Clearing Crew: Improves the player’s ability to shut down power plays, block shots, and clear pucks.
  • Draw King: Increases the player’s ability to win faceoffs.
  • Iron Man: Greatly reduces injury risk and ensures consistent lineup presence.
  • Playoffs Performer: Elevates the player’s performance in the playoffs, making game-changing plays and scoring when it matters most.
  • Power Surge: Enhances the player’s effectiveness on the power play, creating scoring chances and increasing offensive opportunities..
  • Puck Magnet: Improves the player’s ability to recover loose pucks and deke through defenders, creates more scoring chances and maintains puck control.
  • Shield: Enhances the player’s ability to block shots, disrupt passes, and break up plays.
  • Shockwave: Boosts the player’s hits, almost always knocking their target off their feet.
  • Shot Stopper: Improves the player’s ability to block shots, disrupt opponents’ offense, and protect the net in high-pressure situations.
  • Snipe: Increases the player’s ability to find the back of the net with accuracy and create scoring opportunities.
  • Torment: Frustrates opponents with relentless play, getting under their skin and drawing penalties while disrupting their game with constant pressure.
  • Visionary: Boosts the player’s passing accuracy, leading to higher assists and better team playmaking.
  • Save Machine: Boosts the goalie’s ability to make game-changing, highlight-reel saves, keeping the team in the game with incredible stops.

Promotions & Relegations

• Added the ability to set promotions and relegations between leagues.
• Promotions and relegations are only available between leagues without a parent league.
• Added an email notifying the user of promotions and relegations for their league at the end of the season.
• You can choose how many teams are promoted or relegated per season.
• Promoted teams are shown in green on the standings page.
• Relegated teams are shown in red on the standings page.

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Secondary Feature

History Mode

• Added the 1970 season.
• Added the 2024 season.
• When a team relocates but remains the same franchise, its trade history will transfer to the new team.

Stars of the Week/Month

• Added an email for the 3 Stars of the Week and 3 Stars of the Month.
• The 3 Stars of the Month also include the Rookie of the Month.
• Stars of the Week and Month are visible on the Awards page, where you can view the full season history.

Tournaments

• You can now manage any tournaments during the season, not just the World Cup.
• Changed the World Cup format: 12 teams (3 groups of 4) in the first division, and 8 teams (2 groups of 4) in the second division.
• The World Cup will now be played in February, with no other games scheduled during the tournament.
• Removed extra days between games; tournaments now last 2 weeks instead of a month.
• Added a relegation game.
• Added a third division composed of Hungary, South Korea, Romania, Japan, and Lithuania.

Records

• Added a league leaderboard for all leagues.
• Records for the major league will be pre-populated.

Women’s League

• Added the ability to create a women’s league.

Overalls

• Player types are now included in the overall rating calculation; for example, a Sniper and a Two-way Forward will no longer have the same overall for identical attributes.

Trade AI

• When trading a waiver-eligible player to a team that does not have roster space for them, the player’s trade value will be significantly lower. For example: trading a 79 overall goaltender to a team with better goalies in the major league (both over 80 overall) will result in a lower value, as the team risks losing the player to waivers.
• Teams will no longer propose trades that put them over the salary cap when using the “Find Trade” feature.
• Players with contract clauses on rebuilding teams are more willing to lift their clause to join contending teams.
• Teams will be more patient before attempting to acquire a goaltender when their starting goalie is injured.

Settings

• Added a setting to change the overall ranges for each potential.
• Added 52 games as an option.
• You can now choose to hide goaltender stats individually.
• Added higher and lower draft class quality settings.
• Added a setting to prevent AI teams from declining trade offers based on their needs.
• Added a weekly autosave option.
• Added 2 new values for the Salary Increase setting.
• You can now set the regression age per position.
• Added a preset button on the Settings page to choose between Default or Auto Simulation.
• The Auto Simulation preset turns off all notifications and allows the AI to manage your team automatically.

Schedule

• The schedule is now more realistic.

Contracts

• A message will now be shown when a player rejects a contract offer due to insufficient contract slots or salary cap limits.
• Added an option to release unsigned players, sending them directly to free agency.
• Replaced the salary slider with a salary text field during contract negotiations.
• Unified the contracts pages on larger devices.
• Added a negotiation view to the contract list page, allowing you to see the player’s requested contracts.
• Added a footer to the contract list showing projected cap spending for upcoming seasons.
• Added a buyout indicator for when the buyout period is open.

Staff

• Scouts will no longer scout Tier 5 players when using the auto-assign feature.
• Reduced staff experience gain rate.

Commissioner Mode

• You will now receive injury, training, and monthly progression notifications for every managed team.
• Teams with AI turned off will no longer manage their staff.
• Commissioner Mode now supports expansion drafts.

Roster Editor

• You can now set a player’s draft history for each league.
• Trades can now be made between all main leagues (leagues without a minor league).
• You can change the league when viewing the list of players to edit.
• Added the ability to add players directly to a team while editing the team.
• Added a search bar to the player editor list.
• You can choose a player’s starting league and set their contract in that league, if contracts are allowed.
• When editing a player, the team’s per-league section now depends on the selected History Mode season.
• When editing or creating a league, you can choose which awards are active in that league.
• You can now create players with a rating as low as 1 overall.
• You can now create retired staff members.
• You can create leagues with up to 80 teams.
• Added a Semi-Pro III league strength.
• The location is now optional when creating a league.
• Added the ability to edit goalies’ Goals Saved Average in the stats editor.
• Minor and junior stats are now included in the default roster.
• Added a randomize attributes button when creating a new player.
• When converting a roster from HLM25 or earlier, minor, junior, and all 2024/2025 stats will be added to the roster.

Fantasy Draft

• Added the option to start a Fantasy Draft in History Mode.

Watchlist

• You can now add staff members to the watchlist.

Community Rosters

• Uploaded community rosters now use the same name as shown on the download page.

Miscellaneous

• Teams will take into consideration their organizational depth chart before making a draft selection
• Expansion teams will now be slotted 4th overall in the draft lottery
• The new contractual season now starts right before the draft instead of after
  • This will prevent teams from buying out expiring players
  • It will also increase your cap space during draft day
• Fixed a bug where teams were going over the contract limit
• Salary cap will have bigger increases
• Increased the staff salary cap from $7.000M to $8.000M
• Increased the salary ask of players over 90 overall
• Faceoff attribute will have more impact in deciding who is the center on a line
• Improved the points distributions
• Updated the generated prospects heights distribution
• Increased the amount of blocked shots
• Decreased the amount of hits
• Added the top 10 free agents to the free agency mail
• Added a watchlist filter to the free agency page
• Added a team filter to the news page
• Added quick access to saving and settings on the lateral navigation page on smaller devices
• Added quick access keyboard shortcuts for F1 to F10 keys
• Added the ability to set your minor team captains
• Added the ability to edit your own team retired numbers
• Added a mail that shows players in the entire organization that won an award
• Fixed a bug where some retired players would disappear
• Available in French

Navigation

• Merged Roster Moves, Depth Chart, Numbers, and Injury Reserve into a single page called Roster Management.
• Merged Tutorial and About into a single page.

Country Page
The new Country Page now displays the following information:

• Number of championships
• Number of Hall of Fame players
• Global rank
• Global rank history by year
• Scoring leaders per league
• Top prospects per league
• Tournament history
• A list of all teams in the country
• A list of all players from the country
• A list of all Hall of Fame players from the country
• Countries can now be searched using the search bar

League Page
The new League Page now displays the following information:

• General information: number of teams, number of games, and the salary cap.
• Current player leaders for key stats: Goals, Assists, Points, Wins, Save Percentage, Goals Against Average.
• Current team leaders for selected categories: Points, Power Play %, Penalty Kill %, Goal Differential, Best Win Streak.
• Last 5 league champions.
• Recent trades in the league.
• A button to view all winning banners.
• Current playoffs bracket.

This page now merges features from the old league page, which included:

• Records
• Milestones
• Rankings
• Draft history

Additional updates:

• Added coach games and wins to the records page.
• Added games started record for goaltenders.
• Leagues can now be searched using the search bar.

Calendar Page

• Updated the calendar page visuals.
• Added the option to view the calendar as a full year or month-by-month.
• Added a button to return the focus to today’s date.
• Tablet and Desktop:
  • Updated the sidebar visuals.
  • On days with games, the sidebar shows:
    • Both teams’ logos, record, and position
    • The city where the game will be played
    • Standings, player stats, and injuries for both teams
    • Game results if the game has already been played
  • The month-by-month view is navigable with keyboard arrows.
  • Selecting a date no longer opens the simulation popup; it now shows actions in the sidebar.
  • Added the sidebar to the schedule page.

Waivers Page

• Converted the page to a list.
• Added filters for position and player types.

Draft History Page

• The draft history details page now shows player nationality and drafted round.
• Added all career stats instead of only points.
• Added a country filter to the draft history page.
• The page can now show draft histories for each league with a draft.
• Draft histories can now be searched using the search bar.
• Draft histories now include retired players.

Ranking Page

• Added average age to the Trade Power ranking.
• Added the best player to the Trade Power ranking.
• Added the number of contracts per team to the Team ranking.
• Added nationality and draft year to the Prospect ranking.

Playoffs Page

• Redesigned the page.
• Added the bracket directly on the page.
• Added scoring leaders.

Team Standing Page

• The Team Standing page now shows the user team’s division/conference first.

Team Page

• Added a Players tab showing a list of all players on the team with their current stats.
• Added a Contracts tab showing a list of all players in the organization along with their contract information.
• Added a Staffs tab showing a list of all staff members in the organization.
• Added the team country flag on the team profile page.

Lineup Page

• Combined both lineup pages into one redesigned page.
• Added more detailed error messages when the lineup is invalid.
• Added the ability to set the starting goalie rotation percentage as low as 15%.

Play-by-Play

• Updated the interface.
• Added improved goal animations.
• You can filter the pre-game player leaders section by season, last 10 games, or last 5 games.
• Added last 10 games record and results for each team.
• Added line charts for shots, blocked shots, hits, penalty minutes, and goals during play-by-play.
• Added a small pause before starting the next period.
• Added Game Score in the stats tab during play-by-play simulation.
• Added a setting to automatically pause the simulation at the end of periods.

Draft Page

• Updated design for larger devices.
• Added height and weight to prospects on the scouting and draft pages.
• Added a search bar to the prospect and draft pages.
• The game will autosave after the draft when autosave is enabled.

Player Page

• Added retirements to the player history section.
• The award row in the history section is now clickable and redirects to the trophy page.
• Added the league logo next to the player award section in their profile.
• Added the ability to send contract offers to free agents directly from their profile page.
• Changed the last 5 games view to the last 10 games.
• Players now show their overall history from seasons prior to the start of the career.

Prospect Page

• Now displays awards, jerseys, milestones, and injury history.

Search Page

• Added a league dropdown.
• Added a waiver filter.
• Added a trade status filter (On the Block, Interested in Trading).
• Added a birthplace dropdown.

Trade Page

• Long-pressing on a team opens the team profile page.
• Added the original owner logo for draft picks in the trade selection page.
• You can now select multiple assets at once when trading.
• Added a search bar to search players by name on the Trade and Free Agency pages.
• Added a button to clear the current trade offer.
• Added a setting to save your trade proposal progress so you can return later with your offer preserved.

Staff Page

• Added a search bar to the staff list.
• Added a match filter to the staff list.

Season Recap Page

• Added the 3 biggest trades of the season.
• Added the 10 biggest signings of the season.
• Added goaltending stats.
• Added the playoffs bracket.

Roster Moves Page

• Added a development trend indicator to the roster moves player list.

Hall of Fame Page

• The inducted player list now shows each player’s country flag.

Steam

• Added a search bar to dropdown menus.
• Added a “Last 10 Games” tooltip when hovering over a game-played value on the Team Standing and Office pages.
• Added a player preview tooltip on trade offers and on the draft page.