Bingo.
460k sales is nothing
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/117548/nhl-17/
When a game sells under 3million its a bomb.
Sales this low means its a budget title made by a team of juniors with borrowed code from any other feature frankensteined from anythinh they can grab from any other EA game.
There's more money put into crappy children's movie tie ins.
That's just PS4 totals. Same site also has another 0.56 for the XB1 version for over a million sold which is actually a good amount for a sports game.
Now compare to MLB The Show last year which sold 1.04 million copies they're almost dead equal. Then compare the effort put into the games and MLB absolutely blows them out of the water. Features, online modes, updates, rosters, GM connected, individual player styles past and present etc etc.
They are YEARS ahead with a smaller studio and sales. People buy the NHL has a limited budget excuse way too easily, they are doing great they love that people make this excuse for them. It allows them to put in minimal effort and maximize the pennies they can squeeze out of people.
MLB does more in their weekly roster updates than NHL does in an entire year. There is no excuse