August 20^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Atlanta Thrashers all-star right winger Dany Heatley has reached an agreement with Electronic Arts to be the cover athlete and spokesman for its EA SPORTS NHL 2004 game. Heatley’s image will be featured on NHL 2004 packaging and merchandising.

"Being named a cover athlete for an EA SPORTS game is quickly becoming one of the biggest honors in sports today, and I’m thrilled to be working with EA on NHL 2004," Heatley said. "I’ve been a fan of EA SPORTS’ NHL series for years, and couldn’t be more excited about being part of the team behind the #1 selling pro hockey video game franchise."

Dany Heatley is one of the fastest-rising young stars in the NHL and was named the 2001-2002 Rookie of the Year. At 22 years old, Heatley beat Wayne Gretzky’s record as the youngest player to score a hat trick in an All-Star game. He finished the 2002-2003 season as Atlanta’s all-time leading scorer with 155 points, and was named the 2003 All Star Game MVP.

NHL 2004 is the 12th installment of the best-selling EA SPORTS NHL hockey franchise, and is being developed by EA Canada. NHL 2004 will be available on the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, the Nintendo GameCube and PC in September. The official home page for NHL 2004 is www.nhl2004.com.