Maybe I should just port my review on NHL 06 on this one as well. Gamespot didn't even bother to review this one. Ha!
This year, every single aspect of the game is the same except they have added the "Be the pro" mode. Since this new mode is the only change that is worth mentioning, I will only be talking about this new mode. You can just assume everything else is the exactly same as 08, which was just like 07, and so on.
This is how it works. If you have chosen "NHL Be a pro", you get to pick a team, and then any skater from the team you have selected. If you have chosen "NHL Create a pro", you get to create a player and then assign him to a team you would like him to play for. Your player will receive a set of goals every season he needs to try to achieve. Also, your player will gain experience and level as he plays and his overall will start to increase. Well, they were all great. I even got to enjoy about first 20 games or so. Then the negatives started to show themselves.
You actually have to play the players you haven't selected. For instance, if you chose to create a right wing, you will have to play other right wings from other lines. Same goes with defensemen. Also, you cannot be traded, and you cannot trade any player to make your team to be better. You cannot draft any new player, and you're stuck with the original players forever. Season schedule is fixed just like the dynasty mode which just rotates about 3 sets of season schedule year after year.
The set of goals you receive is somewhat a bust as well, because some of them are quite hard to get and some of them are too easy to get. For instance, I created a new defenseman, and I was told to make 40 hits this season. 40 hits a season in NHL 09 is just way too easy, because I got about 200 hits by the time I got to play 20 games. Plus, it doesn't really matter if you achieve all the goals or not because it doesn't do anything for you anyway. Also, the new player's a rookie, which means your overall starts quite low. Yet, you get to play with the top pairing defenseman regardless of the team you play with. You're a rookie but you get to play with Lidstrom. Yay?
Line ups and back numbers are all incorrect as usual. Commentating has been recycled to death at this point, and I even got to memorize some of them.
My conclusion. Like I said, I did enjoy Be a Pro mode for about 20 games. I don't know if that's enough for you to pay for this game. Because in the end, this is just exactly like its previous versions with a feature that lets you play only one position instead of the entire team.