NHL 98

NHL 98 took the NHL series ahead by introducing full national teams, although EA could not get the Nagano Olympic Tournament license due to lack of IIHF license, which Gremlin Interactive acquired. The Olympic hockey license itself was acquired by Midway Home Entertainment. Jim Hughson returns for play-by-play, this time joined by Daryl Reaugh, who provided color commentary. EA Sports also introduces 3Dfx Glide support for the first time in the NHL series.

Despite his career ending injury, Vladimir Konstantinov was featured in the game. The Sega Saturn version also has Mario Lemieux in it. He retired at the end of the 1996–97 NHL season, yet was still included in the game.

During the planning stages of development, EA Sports consulted with Marc Crawford (then coach of the Stanley Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche) on how to improve the realism and strategy of the gameplay.

The Saturn version was developed by MBL Research.

In the United States, the game's Windows version sold 134,714 copies during 1997.

The PlayStation version met with resoundingly positive reviews, with critics hailing it as a return to dominance for the NHL series after the '96 PlayStation edition was cancelled and the '97 edition was average. John Ricciardi of Electronic Gaming Monthly went so far as to call it "the greatest hockey game ever made." While IGN and GamePro both cautioned that NHL 98 could not be called the best hockey of the year until NHL FaceOff 98 was complete, they assessed it as "[EA Sports'] best hockey title since its 16-bit glory days" and "a board-battering good time", respectively. Next Generation stated that "NHL '98 is a very good game and just that much better than the rest of the competition."