NHL Joins Madden With a Cover Vote

NHL 13 now has a cover vote in much the same way that it's NFL cousin, Madden, as enjoyed for a while now.

From now until June, fans can log onto NHL.com/covervote and log their pick for the cover athlete for the 2013 edition of EA's NHL franchise.

Sponsored by Blackberry and hosted by the NHL itself, the vote consists of a pair of preliminary rounds (that'll pit teammates against one another) followed by a 16 player bracket. All that'll whittle a full field of 60 players down to a sole man who'll get the nod as the cover boy.

The whole sordid affair will look a little something like this:

• March 29 – April 11: Round of 60: one representative from each team plus two wild card selections advance* 
• April 12 – April 22: 32-Player Leaderboard: fans vote for their favorite 16 candidates; top 16 vote-getters advance 
• April 24 – June 4: Round of 16: single-elimination playoff bracket decides NHL 13 cover athlete

The first round of voting ends on the first day of the Stanley Cup finals- that's April 11th for those not 'in the know'. So the point is, you might want to make with the clicking.