Each NHL team has a wide range of talent, but the most successful teams are chalk full of lines that have good chemistry. By chemistry, I’m talking about players who have skills and tendencies that complement each other on the ice. A good example of strong chemistry would be the Sedins and Burrows on the Canucks or Keith and Seabrook on the Blackhawks. To build the greatest fantasy team in Hockey Ultimate Team mode, it’s important that your team has strong chemistry.

Caption: The area in red shows a ‘Team Chemistry’ rating of 72 & ‘Line Chemistry’ rating of 77.

How Does Chemistry Affect your Hockey Ultimate Team?

By collecting items and assembling a team that has strong chemistry in Hockey Ultimate Team, a chemistry ‘boost’ will be applied to all attributes, raising your players’ overall ratings. On the other hand, if your team has poor chemistry, it will actually lower your players’ overall ratings.

Simply put, having strong chemistry is like placing a permanent training item on each one of your players.  

How is Chemistry Determined?

Chemistry is determined by three factors: familiarity; positioning; and line mix –

Caption: The areas in red show that the ‘Familiarity’ rating for the offense is excellent as all three players are from the New York Rangers.

Familiarity – Players from the same league or team have greater chemistry when they are on the ice at the same time. To reach the max ‘FAMILIARITY’ rating, ensure that your players are from the same team. For example, the chemistry link will flash green if you place Claude Giroux between Hartnell and Briere. Similarily, if you replace Giroux with Stamkos, the chemistry links between the two wingers and the center position will flash yellow. The ‘FAMILIARITY’ rating is lowered but there’s still a chemistry boost because they all play in the NHL. Replace Stamkos with an AHL center and the ‘FAMILIARITY’ boost hits zero.

Caption: The areas in red show that the ‘Position/Hand’ rating for both the offense and defense are excellent.

Positioning – Positioning is a big part of building a line with top chemistry. Players need to play in their correct position to achieve the max ‘POSITION/HAND’ ratings boost. If you have a player that you really want on your top line but they’re playing in the wrong position, you will need to apply a ‘Position Change’ training item in order to switch them to a new position. Players will still receive a ratings boost if they are out of position, as long as the player is playing on the appropriate side of the ice (determined by their handedness). You just won’t get the max boost. You can see the difference it makes on line chemistry by looking at your ‘Line Chemistry’ meter.

Caption: The areas in red show that the ‘Line Mix’ rating for the defense is excellent as there is an Offensive & Defensive defenseman.

Line Mix – ‘LINE MIX’ is arguably the most exciting part of building excellent line chemistry. There are many combinations to try out and finding the one that best suits the role of a particular line can be challenging. Some players complement each others skill set more so than others, so you’re going to have to experiment with the ones that work best for you.

Here are some ‘LINE MIX’ examples that will lead to strong chemistry:

Defense:

·         TWD - TWD

·         DEF – OFD*

Forwards:

·         TWF – TWF – TWF

·         GRN – GRN – GRN

·         GRN – PLY – SNP

·         PLY – PLY – SNP*

*Note: In the examples above, the players could change positions and it would not affect their line mix rating. That being said, it may affect their “position/hand” rating.