An online beta was announced for NHL 17 tonight at the 2016 NHL Awards. Additionally, we saw the announcement of St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko as this year's cover star--see the box art at the bottom of this article.

All you have to do to get into the online beta is sign up on EA Sports' website by July 7. At some point after signing up, you'll receive a code that gives you access to NHL 17's Online Versus, HUT, and EASHL modes from July 28 to August 4.

The beta and this year's cover athlete was announced alongside the first gameplay trailer, which you can see for yourself in the video at the top of this article.

NHL 17 releases for PS4 and Xbox One on September 13.

You can see everything we know about NHL 17 here. This year's game introduces The World Cup of Hockey to the series and evolves Be a GM into a new Franchise mode, where you'll have complete control over things like players, ticket prices, marketing, and even relocation.

Additionally, NHL 17 brings a new mode called Draft Champions, which sounds similar to Madden's mode of the same name. You go through rounds of drafting players before taking them into games. You can read more here.