In any sports game player career mode, having the ability to request a transfer to a different team is an important feature. The NHL franchise is no different, so you can request a trade if you want to switch teams.
However, there are several factors that must come into play if you hope to have your request granted. Some of it is down to chance, and you have no control over which team you’re traded to.
In this guide, I’ve detailed how to request a trade in NHL 23 Be A Pro (BAP) mode, and how to improve your chances of success with the request.
Get Drafted
When you start a new BAP game in NHL 23, the first thing you’re going to have to play through is the whole player-building and drafting process.
There’s a neat guide on how to be the number one draft pick in NHL 23 if you’re interested in that. It should improve your chances of getting selected by a strong team.
If you’re not particularly bothered about your position in the draft, but you’re not satisfied with the team that drafted you, then things become a bit trickier.
Play Pre-Season Games
After the draft, you cannot immediately request a trade. The only way to do so would be to speak to the General Manager (GM) about it, and the option to do that is not available until you have played all the pre-season games.
There are only a handful of pre-season games to play through, so it is not too much of a hassle really. However, if you can’t be bothered to put yourself through the process, you may just simulate those games.
Just before the first game of the regular season, the option to speak to the GM will be available for selection.
Save Game
At this point, it is important to manually save your game.
I recommend this because the chances of having a successful conversation with the GM are incredibly low if you’re requesting a trade at the beginning of your career with the team.
That unsuccessful conversation will cost you 300 management likeability and 150 teammate likability points, and you may decide that the attempt was not worth it.
The result of the conversation also affects your primary line score, so if you care about being in the first line, you should be doing all you can to keep the management happy.
If you save the game before you made the request, you can simply quit the game and reload. Your likeability points should be back to where they were before and you can just pretend the conversation never happened.
Speak to the GM
As I said, speaking to the GM about a trade at the beginning of your career with his team is unlikely to work. You can see how my conversation went in the attached image. However, you may give it a go yourself – just don’t forget to save.
The first indicator that your conversation is unlikely to go well is right there in the conversation options where you only have the option to “Persuade” the GM. You can even see in the top right area that persuasion in this context is deemed to be “very risky”.
Improve Your Chances
There are a couple of ways to improve your chances of having your request for a trade accepted by the General Manager. These tips are discussed below:
Dialogue Skills
As you progress in the game, you will be given skill points to invest in various aspects of the player’s growth.
If you use these skill points to improve your conversational skills, it will improve your chances of success in situations where you have to use persuasion, such as requesting a trade. The “Dialogue” section can be found at the tail end of your skill tree page.
It is very unlikely that you will be able to invest enough points in this area at the beginning of your first regular season, or even at the end of that season. However, over time, that skill development should serve you well when you eventually make the move.
Timing
Timing is key. In my experience, the best time to make your first attempt to request a trade in NHL 23 Be A Pro is after the expiry of your entry-level contract.
The management has much less leverage to keep you on the team, and other teams in the league will also be sniffing around the opportunity to pick up a free agent. There is a favorable shift in negotiation power, and you should be able to take full advantage of it.
However, you still have little to no control over which team shows interest in acquiring your services.
Player Growth
Focus on yourself.
If you get your head down, play through the season and grow your skill tree as quickly as possible by investing skill points, the speed of your growth might be enough to get other teams to sit up and take notice.
This makes it important to invest your skill points wisely.
You want to make sure that you’re prioritizing areas that have a major impact on your growth based on your position on the ice and your player’s archetype because those areas make the biggest difference to your overall score.
On that note, it might be worth familiarizing yourself with the best archetypes in NHL 23 Be A Pro mode.
You may not even need to request a trade before the management considers the opportunity.
Final Words
As I’ve managed to show, finding the option to request a trade in NHL 23 Be A Pro mode is easy enough, but the processes involved in getting that request accepted is a different ball game.
Whatever you do, don’t get discouraged by a failed attempt. Just like in real life, these things are often not straightforward. Best of luck!
