EA Sports giving fans opportunity to vote for NHL 13 cover athlete

For over 20 years the EA Sports NHL series has dominated the hockey video game world with its realistic and fun gameplay coupled with year-by-year innovation.

The annual announcement of who will be that year's cover boy for the game has always been a fun debate for fans as NHL enters its 22nd season. For NHL 13, EA Sports is changing the way its cover athlete is chosen. Instead of being selected in-house, fans will have the opportunity to decide who gets the honor.

Beginning today and ending June 4, puckheads will be able to vote from a list of 60 players leading up to the announcement of the cover winner on June 20 during the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas.

Here's how the three rounds of voting will break down:

• March 29 — April 11: Round of 60: Two players from each team have been chosen and will go head-to-head to determine one representative from all 30 clubs. Two wild cards*, plus the 30 winners will advance. (*wild card selections made by EA)

• April 12 — April 22: Round of 32: Of the 32 survivors, voting will go leaderboard style with the top 16 overall vote getters moving on.

• April 24 — June 4: Round of 16: Here we move into a round-by-round bracket-style tournament until two remain and the winner is announced at the NHL Awards show.

Voting will take place at NHL.com/CoverVote and fans can do so an unlimited number of times. A Twitter hashtag, #NHL13Cover, will also track the cover athlete tournament discussion. Updates and other content will also show up on the EA SPORTS NHL Facebook page.

So which 60 players made the cut? Join us after the jump.

Here are the Eastern Conference matchups:

Eric Staal and Steven Stamkos are the only ones in the East that have already appeared on a cover in North America.

Here now are the matchups in the Western Conference:

Lots of youth in the West. Who's up for a Pavel Datsyuk campaign?

Looking at the 60 players, one of them will end up as the NHL 13 cover boy. Who do you think will end up with the winning vote?

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy