Two cover athletes made it into circulation: Dany Heatley and Joe Sakic. Heatley was the original but after his involvement with the car accident that ended his teammate Dan Snyder's life, EA replaced Heatley with Sakic but this was after a number of units were already sold. Joe Thornton was the original choice for the cover but he was brought up on assault charges that made EA remove and replace him with Heatley.
This was Mario Lemieux's final appearance in an NHL video game as an active player as he announced his retirement two years after the game's release however he makes a return in NHL 12 as a legend