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Ranking The Blues' NHL 17 Counterparts

Some of the Blues decided to grade their video game selves; now it's our turn for the whole team.

By hildymac
  • Ryan Reaves? This is supposed to be Ryan Reaves, I guess. How can I tell? Because he's the only black guy on the team. It could be EA's version of LeVar Burton for all I know. Do better, guys.
  • Colton Parayko Hi, generic hockey player!
  • Parayko and Robby Fabbri They did get Parayko's size right. Seeing these two guys next to each other on the bench really brings that home.
  • David Perron Somewhere underneath that visor is Perron. Considering they got him right in past NHL games, I'm not sure what's going on here.
  • Perron Again Yeah, even from this angle I'm not seeing anything that even looks like Perron.
  • Kyle Brodziak Yeah, that looks like him.
  • Joel Edmundson He looks like Brodziak's twin here. He does not in real life.
  • Paul Stastny Not sure - there's something off about the face. He's leaning closer to DiCaprio than Stastny.
  • Carl Gunnarsson Gunny was right in the NHL.com piece - they captured his lack of eyebrows perfectly.
  • Alexander Steen Steener's had that thing on his face since the NHL series came to the PS3. He might want to get that looked at.
  • Jori Lehtera Apologies on the awkward screen grab timing.
  • Vladimir Tarasenko Does this look like Vladdy? Yes. Does it look like Vladdy from five years ago? Yes.
  • Jaden Schwartz Doesn't look nearly enough like Prince William, but still a good likeness.
  • Patrik Berglund Bergie consistently has been one of the best rendered Blues throughout EA's NHL games. This isn't any different.
  • Alex Pietrangelo Despite the fact that they made his face too round, it still looks like the Blues' new captain.
  • Kevin Shattenkirk They got the Andy Kaufman-ness in there while managing to give him the look of a far-away dreamer.
  • Robby Fabbri Fabbri's the best-rendered out of all of the Blues, hands down. The likeness is as close as you're going to get for a video game.
  • Fabbri Celebrating Even if you can't see his numbers, you can still tell it's him.
  • Fabbri/Jaskin Celebration Accurate.
  • Bonus: Chris Pronger He was drafted during one of the all-star draft mode selections. They did get his nose right for a fairly good likeness.
  • Bonus: Brett Hull Another draftee, Hullie looks good from some angles, and doesn't look like himself from others. So, basically, he's Brett Hull.

The Blues' official website published a fun piece Thursday in which they showed some of the members of the Blues their NHL 17 doppelgangers and asked them to rate the video game characters for accuracy. As we all know, every year some of the guys look more like the real life versions than others.

Some of the guys were less than pleased (Berglund: "I don't think it does me any justice. I think I'm way hotter in real life. I'm an absolute 10, but that guy - I'm going to be humble and say he's a 5. But in real life, I'm a 10."), others were just kind of happy to be included (Shattenkirk: "Wow! That looks pretty good. That's probably the closest I've ever seen it get in a video game.")

Here at Game Time, we're ranking them on accuracy. We've left out Jake Allen, because I'm sorry, you can't see his face. These are the lines that I have set up in my game, so Dmitrij Jaskin is in over Magnus Paajarvi, who was placed in the game by default to start the season.

Some of these are good (Robby Fabbri is uncanny). Some of these are not good (you'll know them when you see them). But, as Alex Pietrangelo put it, "Technology today!" It's come a long way since NHL 94.